Early in this blog's history I wrote some articles on the Disney Afternoon and One Saturday Morning. They will not be finished because well these shows deserve more than a paragraph I gave them in those articles. The articles feel incredibly lazy now. If I can write enough words to choke an elephant on things like RadioActive and Goldie Gold and Action Jack. Two shows I never watched as a kid (one because it was bad and one because it was a short lived show made before I was born and no channel in Canada was gonna get an American show to rerun when it had like 13 episodes) The Disney Afternoon and One Saturday Morning deserve better than those articles. Even the shows that weren't very good like Quack Pack or The Mighty Ducks. I'll probably talk about each one of those shows in some manner because well they were cool and good and should get something I put at least a half assed amount of attention too. Except The Wuzzles because fuck The Wuzzles.
DuckTales was the third Disney cartoon made for TV, behind The Wuzzles (stupid assholes) and The Adventures of Gummi Bears (anything with Lorenzo Music in it is automatically good). It was based around the comic book stories of Carl Barks made between the 1940s and the 1960s. Those comics are hilarious, incredibly well drawn and full of creativity. The only things that hamper them is that they have some outdated stuff in them because well everything ends up outdating itself really. I still recommend the hell out of those comics and think they are really great, especially if you enjoyed DuckTales. I know there are some purists out there who probably can't stand this but I realize that not a single adaptation will ever be the same. I'm sorry people in Norway and Sweden (where the comics are super popular) I like Glomgold being a Scottish dude instead of some dude from Africa. We wouldn't get him voiced by that drunken guy from The Andy Griffith Show if they went with the comics!
The show and comics were about the richest duck in the world, Scrooge McDuck (voiced by Wilbur from Mister Ed. this show is filled with 60s sitcom stars!) and his nephews Huey Dewey and Louie. Sometimes Donald Duck would show up (one thing I gotta say I don't like is that he seems to show up in like two episodes. You give me more Donald content than that you jerks!) They would go on adventures go get more money for Scrooge. Scrooge already owns like seven quadrillion dollars and wants to make more. I think Scrooge is really funny which is why I like him more than any real billionaire. Like Jeff Bezos, who should really go fuck himself right in the asshole. Damn asshole.
My memories of DuckTales don't actually come from the Disney Afternoon. I don't know if I actually watched any of the shows on the Disney Afternoon block, just on different channels. I don't think YTV ever showed any of these shows, DuckTales would be shown on reruns on channels that we didn't get except for like some free weeks or weekends during my childhood in the 1990s. The channels were TBS and the Family Channel, which was like the Disney Channel just for Canada. I'm sure the actual Disney Channel is now in Canada but in my day we didn't seem to be so lax on Canadian Content, which is something all channels in Canada needed to post some Canadian shows, most of which are awful, awful shows. I don't remember the third channel but I know that I would never forget to check out those channels to see if they showed up. They would end up becoming a part of basic cable and I couldn't be happier on that day. I was a very sad child.
The Final Episode of DuckTales came out on November 27th and November 28th. Yep! It's a two parter. I honestly believe that shows should be a two parter. The adventure should be grander for the fans. If any plots are unfinished do them in the finale, unless it's totally not possible. The Final Episode should be a little bigger than just your usual episode, even if it's a good story. The story feels like Season 1 of Duck Tales to me. No mentions of GizmoDuck or Bubba, two characters that were brought in for earlier episodes. The only characters that don't appear in the original comics are Launchpad and the two dog guys (named Dijon and Poupon) Yes, they are named after mustards. Dijon is a hilarious character voiced by the guy who played Fletch's boss in the Fletch films.
The Final Episode was entitled The Golden Goose and was well about a Golden Goose with the power to turn things into gold. You only have to touch its nose on something and say GOLD. Dijon meets up with Poupon after trying to run away from Scrooge after trying to steal stuff. He is brought into the Brotherhood of the Goose who are individuals who dedicate their lives to making sure the Goose is kept on a fountain. Dijon is shown what the Goose can do and escapes with it in an amusing scene with the Beagle Boys (who are also after it for Flintheart Glomgold.). He ends up dropping it into a case being put in Scrooge's airplane which ends up going to Duckberg. Flintheart tries to get the Goose which makes Scrooge realize it's worth something and he finds out about the GOLD changing ablilities. He ends up going nuts over it until the Beagle Boys go into his house and turn Huey Dewey and Louie into gold statues.
Dijon and Poupon show up and Poupon tells Scrooge about the transformations of the Goose. One transformation has it becoming real and will just start turning things into gold, and the second one will cause the Goose to shed its golden shell which will end up turning everything on the earth into gold. They end up missing the first transformation due to Dijon not being able to not steal stuff and Flintheart is turned into a gold statue. They catch the goose but before they can put some of the mystical fountain water on the Goose, the Beagle Boys show up and one of them shoots the fucking bottle with a damn gun. You ain't seein no guns in todays cartoons made for babies! This doesn't work out for them as the second transformation happens and everything is turning into gold, including them. Launchpad, Scrooge and Poupon get to the plane but Launchpad forgot about the thingamajigs that hold the Planes in place. I know less about planes than Launchpad does. They remove them and the plane takes off. Scrooge catches up with it but Poupon gets turned into gold. They find Dijon who found the Goose and get him on the plane. They get to the fountain and the spell is reversed, every one goes back to normal again! The show ends with Scrooge chasing after Dijon who has stolen stuff from him, yet again.
FINAL VERDICT: This is definitely one of the best episodes of the show. A really big threat for the characters to overcome. A lot of fun comedy. A weird mention of the Ducks eating Golden Fried Chicken...Weird. All the good stuff that you want to see in a Final Episode. The only way it could have been better is if they somehow put in GizmoDuck and Magical De Spell, but I guess that would have made the series finale more episodes. Anyway this is high up on the list of Great DuckTales episodes and Great Final Episodes overall.
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This is a rare final episode where I can comment on the episode because I watched the entire series run of Ducktales last year. The show holds up. Some episodes are better than others, some episodes are definitely animated better than others but there is a baseline of quality here. It was good to see they got sick of Bubba faster than I did and mostly focused on Gizmoduck episodes (out of the two).
ReplyDeleteBefore I talk about the final episode, I have to talk about 2017 Ducktales. It's fine. I watched a few episodes and Disney modernizes it but that's not necessarily a good thing. The original had zero character development. None. Now they are almost required to do it in the name of "higher quality TV" or some other bullshit. But did Ducktales really need character development? No. There is absolutely nothing wrong with this. It's a fucking kids cartoon. I also don't like the FAMOUS VOICES they used. Did they really need to do hire the fat guy from Bro Rape or Jean Ralphio to be one of the nephews? No. The original nephews were all voiced by one WOMAN. (How's that for woke in the 80s). Speaking of which, there was no reason to turn Webby into a GRRL. Having a 6 year old, 1987 Webby acts EXACTLY like my daughter. What a fucking concept. Just some dumb changes but it's not bad per se. However, turning aside the original Launchpad voice actor for some SNL faggot is criminal.
Anyway, the final episode of 1987 Ducktales. It really is a solid episode. 2 parter, always good. World ending stakes, also good. Having the Beagle Boys and Glomgold, also good. Since, as mentioned, there is no character development or progressive story, this is the way for a final episode. Go out with a bang. The only negative is Dijon, really. He's just too sniveling. However, he moves the plot and having a brother named Poupon makes up for it. ALSO FUN FACT: Ducktales 2017 renamed Faris D'Jinn so he sounded more arabic. IT'S A FUCKING CARTOON. CALL HIM DIJON, JESUS FUCKING CHRIST. DO YOU HAVE A PROBLEM WITH THE NEPHEWS NAMES RHYMING? WHY NOT CALL THEM HEWARD, DEWIAN AND LOUIS?
Where was I? Oh right, the episode. The whole goose thing is utterly ridiculous but so are Terrafermians and a literal witch in Magicka. In the end, it works. For once you are not wrong in saying this is one of the best final episodes, especially in the syndication arena.