#except when huey shows up that's the one time it's like oh there's a dynamic here | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

popculturebuffet · 4 years

Text

Donald Duck Birthday Special!: 12 Donald Shorts!

Happy Birthday to my faviorite duck! As you can probably guess from my previous Ducktales reviews Donald Duck is my faviorite of the classic disney gang. As an angry but well meaning, sometimes lazy sometimes hardoworing and always out of his depth guy really spoke to me for obvious reasons and my love of him made me check out life and times and well you know the rest. But weirdly, until last month i’d hardly seen any of his theatrical shorts. I grew up as a “Tom and Jerry” and “Looney Tunes” kid, and with Disney never playing them on disney channel for whatever reason (even with the ones they really CAN’T play there’s dozens they sure as hell can), I just never had any real intrest. But then Louie’s Eleven happened , I was starved for Donsy content and thus rewatched Mr.Duck Steps out, and most of her filmography, skipping the ones where she’s the miserable wife from every sitcom... more on that later, and with one exception. So I wanted to review them.. but quickly reailzed that with 6 minutes for most shorts there’s not a ton to dig into, so I decided after finding out his birthday was next month to take a handful and pile them in here, review them and see what makes my boy so great, what dosen’t, and look at the good the bad and the holy shit did he just point a shot gun at that poor defensless animal of Donald Fauntleroy Duck. We get this party started under the cut.

For funsies since, unlike most things I cover, every episode has a gif on here i’m going to use the gif keyboard to look up an image for the cartoon.. and if not well.. whatever’s there will have to do.

1. The Wise Little Hen (1934) A charming little short that I rewatched today to get on the docket, and i’m glad I did. The plot is very simple: A Hen and her 8 chicks are planting, then harvesting corn. For each task they ask Peter Pig, Local dick and the Rusty Spokes of 1934, and Donald Duck, our boy looking very diffrent, for help. Peter just says who me then runs off while Donald fakes a bellyache. Both get their compuance when the Hen and her 8 chicks make a ton of goodies from the corn and decide to eat it all themselves, while donald and peter give themselves an ass kicking.

I genuinely wish this is how life worked: Your bad, take advantage of people and your reward is not taking their beinfits and snickering but having to kick each other in the tuckuss on loop.. you know instead of the Peter Pigs of the world blaming people for getting maced in the face by stormtroopers. Sigh. That aside it’s just a fun, charming short with great animation, and a great look for Donald. I do genuinely love his first look, even if it’d later be eased down to perfection. And there’s plenty of fun gags and great music. Overal a solid A short.

2. Moving Day (1936) As you can see from the GIF this one isn’t strictly donald, we’re still one away from a starring role. After annoying the shit out of Mickey in the classic’s “The Orphans Benefit” and “The Band Concert” , Donald soon became his regular sidekick alongside Goofy. Both would quickly breakout and this short is apparent why as Mickey is a side character in his own labeled short. The setup is somehow, after 84 years, STILL relevant to modern day. Basically Mickey and Donald are tennants who haven’t for whatever reason, paid their rent and are 6 months behind. And sure they could just be obnoxious squatters doing it onlyf or their art who shriek like banshees the moment their asked to actually pay rent, but thankfully this isn’t RENT, or else I would’ve jumped out of a window by now. No given this is the depression, their likely trying to hold onto their house and meager posessions for as long as they can while work is incredibly scarce... not like.. now.. ha .. ha. ha.... I may take the window up on it’s offer after all. Anyways, our valiant heroes decide to try and cram everything they can into their friend Goofy’s milk truck while Pete’s busy putting up signs to advertise him trying to sell their shit to make up his back rent. WHich translates to a bit of mickey doing that and most of the short being spent with donald fighting a rug and Goofy being outsmarted by a piano. Both are utterly hilarious and prove why these two became far more popular, and overall the short’s a damn good timea nd our heroes win by still getting a pile of possesions out while their antics destroy the rest so pete gets nothing! Horay! They can sleep at goofy’s place! Now moving on from crushing reality, it’s animal cruelty!

3. Don Donald (1937) I wasn’t kidding. Yeahhh this was donald’s first full, not attached to Pluto for some reason or an adorable chicken family or his mousy overlord short. Don Donald. Donald’s in mexico, for some reason and wooing a lady, in this case Daisy prototype, Donna Duck as seen in the header image. I like her, they have a diffrent dynamic, both being kind of tempramental and flirty instead of that being just ONE of donald and daisy’s dynamics. Others being muttually supportive and adorable (Ducktales and Quack Pack) or daisy being the wife from according to jim, or last man standing, or my wife and kids, or king of queens, or the george lopez show, or everybody loves raymond, or ... you know what i’m depressed enough from the last two shorts you get it. But you know without Donald being an obnoxious asshole who views every guy his daughter dates like a horny degernate who just wants to get in there and overreacts to everything involving them and makes me pray for death but death wont come.... I may not like classic daisy very much. Moving on. That being said as you can tell from the donkey abuse donald.. ihs a fucking asshole in this one.. and not the loveable asshole he is in the band concert mind you I mean he’s less brent sienna and more tucker carleson. He laughs at his girlfriends misforutunes and hit shis burro and then tries to trade it in for a car.. which he does. He gets his commupance and all but yeah.. it’s deeply uncomfortable to watch him abuse this animal for half the runtime. Trading it in is one thing, but he’s still an utter dick to it.A short that COULD’VE been fun that instead is just uncomfortable, even given the time it takes place in.

4. Donald’s Ostrich (1937) Donald works at a distant train station taking care of various cargo that comes in and ends up having to care for an adorable ostrich named hortense. Hyjinks, especially once she swallows Donald’s Radio, insue. This short.. is a MASSIVE step up from don donald. INstead of uncomfortable animal abuse donald just gets frustrated with an ostrich and battered round a bit, and tries to cure her hiccups. My faviorite bit is when hortense arrive, and stands up with a box on her,a nd donald goes under her gives a greatly delivered by Clarence Nash “what’s going on around here” before hortense sits on him. Really funny. And yes Hortsense is a regular ostrich. And yes that paradox has been around this long. But this one’s way funnier, way more charming and really damn adorable and dosen’t remind me of the crushing horrors of real life so yeah. A+. There’s only one short I like as much and it’s coming up.

5. Modern Inventions (1937) Another one from his first year and another classic. Basically donald deals with various inventions in a “house of the future” type attractions, gets ruffled by them and the robot butler seen above steals his hat with a dry brtiish “your hat sir” while donald adorably pulls one out of thin air in increasingly creative ways. Again plotwise these shorts are simple but by now they figured out what made donald work: getting frustrated sure but with him being a relatable every man and sometimes trickster as seen here with the hats and him pulling that old coin on a string trick.

He also dresses up like a baby at one point and i’ts weird but oddly funny... but yeah donald is in peak form here and this one is another clear A+, if for the running robot gag alone as donald keeps puttingon new hats and the robot has a truly spectacular design.

6. Donald’s Better Self (1938)

Now for a weird one.. not the most surreal thing on our list, despite you know a devil version of donald popping out of his mailbox, but it’s damn close because you know, Donald as Satan popping out of his mailbox. In short Donald is cast as a school aged child.... you know what’s coming.

And you may say “Well jake they were just experimenting and his age was vauge at first” and to that I say, with no joke Huey Dewey and Louie debuted THIS SAME YEAR. Even given how adaptable older cartoon characters are, and they are it’s part of the charm, and tha’ts fine.. this is a bit over the line. Oh and it gets weirder as donald has the standard cartoon angel and devil arguging over his actions things.. only here the Angel and Devil are donald sized, and again fighting over the soul of a chid in the body of a 30 year old man, literally in some cases, ending with said devil encouraging donald to smoke before he and the angel get into a fistfight. While not an especially GOOD short, you have to admit.. it’s unique.. batshit but unique and worth at least one watch.

7. Donald’s Penguin (1938)

The second in our trilogy within a series of “Donald gets a pet” shorts, this one start’s out fine, Donald gets an adorable penguin named Tootsie from “Colonel bird” and does cute things like immitate it’s walk or what not while Tootsie is a grumpus. Fun stuff. Then tootsie apparenlty eats Donald’s fish, and donald spanks the poor bird. Now this pissed off some people on Letterboxd but me, while it’s slightly distressing, it was 1938: while spanking was NEVER a great thing, it was acceptable back then and as far as Donald knew Toottsie knew not to eat the fish, Donald had told him no adorably, and did it anyway. So donald goes to get an apology trout, which he just.. has for some reason out of the ice box and uh.. things take a turn from “it was accpetable at the time” to “HOLY SHIT”... Tootsie decides fuck it and eats the fish and uh... Donald.. how do I put this calmly.. ahemahem okay... DONALD GRABS A FUCKING SHOT GUN AND CHASES HIM AROUND, THEN ONLY BACKS OUT AT THE LAST SECOND, A SHORT FIRES, AND HE MOURNS WHAT HE THINKS IS HIS DEAD PENGUIN. We then get a cute shot at the end but holy shit.While Elmer fudd is one thing since he’s A) the bad guy and B) is indeed trying to kill a wild animal he has a lisence for instead of his fucking pet whose a protected species if those existed back then, this is just... like the donkey abuse, deeply uncomfortable. It’s one thing to spank a pet, even up to the 90′s that was acceptale and still is in some circles, but it’s another to try and murder it over a slight infraction. Just.. jesus christ. I want Tootsie back too, this was objectivley terrifying. Let’s move on.

8. Mr Duck Steps Out (1940)

Ahhhh yes the short about dancing that brought me to the dance. This one is, without a shred of second guessing, which for my anxious self is a miracle, my faviorite both of this batch and in general. The short is about Donald trying to go on a date with Daisy at her house, and his nephews inviting themselves along and trying to ruin there uncle’s every attempt at getting romantic with wacky hyjinks. That’s.. basically the plot.. as you can tell these things are very light on plot but here that’s all you need. A few things to note. 1) The boys are VERY much in their early characterization, i.e., their all assholes instead of “All huey 2k17 but dialed down a notch” or “karmic tricksters working against their uncle’s ego”, though they’d ocassionally dip into this in the 80′s ducktales depending on the episode, especially if webby was around, and shove their face into it and inhale deeply like me with the hidden mountain of cocaine hidden under my basement. The second is that Daisy has a duck voice, much like Donna did for this short and only this one. It’s not too distracting given she barely speaks, though she has more than enough body language to make up for it, it’s just.. odd.. especailly since it means Clarence Nash, donald’s voice actor, is voicing EVERYONE in the short and doing a terrific job of it. Even weirder is Disney would later redub a shortned version for Disney Channel in the 2010′s that had their modern voice actors (Donald Aselmo, Tress Macneil and Russi Taylor, god rest her soul) re-dub it and it just feels all kinds of wrong despite the three being excellent va’s. I dunno the cleaner modern audio just feels wonky coming out of the old 40′s short. But despite it’s oddities the short really has fun, from the iconic little dance donald does at the start...

Serioulsy I freaking love that dance and his outfit. To the little laughs donald gives when telling daisy “HA, I brought my nephews ha” like a 40′s tommy wiseau, to him roaring in a lion skin to the ending which is just pure adorable and nice because Donald actually GETS to win, especially because half of all donald shorts or comics where he’s sympathetic end up with Donald miserable and beaten up and me like this.

Instead Daisy kisses him all over and over again, until the night goes dancing.

Overal a fun, fast paced short about Donald trying to get laid and the gold standard of Donald Duck shorts. Two more things before I move on. This was co-written by disney comics legend Carl Barks, and it shows, and i’d be remiss if Id idn’t mention this bit of Daisy, after playfully shoving donald away when he coyly asks for a kiss, giving him a come hither signal with her butt.. which is somehow hot. Don’t ask me how.

And with that mental image we move on. What do we got next?

9. The Spirit of 43 (1943)

Ah yes propaganda! and the first one I couldn’t find a gif for. I watched this one because it’s another Barks one, he worked on several of these and was also the one who suggested not having HDL be assholes all the time as he felt, rightly, it’d get old after a while, and because it has protypes for scrooge and gladstone, and is thus one of the only shorts Scrooge is in and the only classic one... And like Donald’s Better Self it’s fucking weird. It’s all propganda no joke as ONCE AGAIN, yes AGAIN, two figures battle for Donald’s soul, this time a scottish man encouraging him to save and donate and a sleezy huckster encouraging him to spend for himself.. even though spending in bars and what not helps the economy and gives the bartender money to stay open during such trying times, but whatever. Also the huckster aka proto gladstone turns into hitler.. yes really.. and Donald then punches him through a swastika captain america style because donald duck is hardcore. Trust me this is somehow NOT a cocaine induced fever dream I had. Not a great one but like Donald’s Better Self worth at least one watch, in this case in additiont o the insantiy for the historical value of seeing two prototypes for Carl Barks most iconic characters.

10. Sleepy Time Donald (1947)

As you can tell this one’s way more wholesome and way less of a drug trip. Donald goes sleepwalking and Daisy, realizing it, plays along so he dosen’t wake up and goes thorugh the motions of one of their dates. Very simple, ending with Donald thinking he’s the sleepwalker before she conks him out, and very adorable as while Donald isn’t concious, and has a boot on his head, we see what a standard date for them is like when Daisy is being written well as they strut around the park, he proposes, it’s all really damn cute and if you like these two together, you’ll really enjoy this one. Not much else to say other than it’s really precious and really funny and creative. Kinda hard to follow up Donald duck punching out hitler.

11. Daddy Donald (1948)

Another quick one and the end of the “donald gets an animal” trilogy. First off, while I only got one gif from this short, I DID get this lovely image under “Daddy Donald” in Tumblr’s gif search thing

Awwwww. Anyways, Donald adopts a kangaroo like it was a baby, it’s kind of weird, not as weird as the above. He and Joey slowly bond, while he gets directions on what to do from the lady at the adoption place over the phone and hyjinks insue. Kind of cute but not quite reaching the heights of “Donald’s ostrich or the first hal fof “Donald’s Penguin” and not being quite as surreal as Double LIfe or Donald Punches Hitler.. which is what Spirit of 43 should’ve been named. I mean at least “De Fuherer’s Face” had a memorable name. But yeah not one of hte more notable ones and I mostly included it to round out the trilogy. Speaking of trilogy’s to close out this celebration of Donald, one of the last shorts and the last one featuring Daisy, and the inspriation fo rher Ducktales outfit. Donald’s Diary.

12. Donald’s Diary (1954) Well.. this is basically one half of a good short ending in a lot of misogny. I could end it there but there is a lot to this short. It basically has donald, weridly in a clearly voiced narration talking about his courtship with Daisy as she first tries to get his attention and he’s oblivious.

Then she uses a rope trap and we get this iconic image which is concentrated awwwww.

Then they date, Daisy’s implied to have dated a bunch of guys which was a bad thing in the 50′s but is perfectly resonable in 2020, and he meets her brothers, basically huey dewey and louie standins and her.. parents. Yes apparnetly donald’s parents have to be implicitly dead by present day, but Daisy’s can be alive. Weird ain’t it? It’s pretty adorable, has some great gags and we even get him proposing and them marrying! And then the shoe drops.. yeah the rest of the short is how she expects him to GASP work all day , fair enough but then GASP do all the chores.. which is bad but the short implies it’s because he’s the man and she’s the woman and she should do housework. It’s actually bad because marriage is an equal partnership and while asking him to do a chore or too after working all day is fine just fine, asking him to do EVERYTHING while you do nothing is abusive and terrible and i’ve seen it actually happen in my friend’s previous marriage. So yeah this message can fuck off. And I knokw standards of the time, penguins having shotguns pointed at them etc but there’s not having aged well but being able to ignore it and there’s this. And then she procedes to spousally abuse him and work him to the bone, and then he wakes up, and assuming ALL marraige sare like this dosen’t end up proposing leaving the poor girl wondering what the fuck she did to upset him. Real fucking cute guys. Seriously just.. part of the reason this part bothers me so much is MANY people think this is what marriage is like, like a fucking terrible sitcom. Life isn ot like home improvment or according to jim, or my wife and kids or king of queens or family guy, or you get my point again and yes I reused some their that bad.. even now we get stuff like man with a plan. It annoys me because 70+ years later and while it’s getting better this same lazy comedy still happens! and much like king of queens wasted the late great jerry stiller, this short wastes great animation and a great first half to tell a terrible story. It just leaves a bad taste in my mouth and is a bleh note to end on. Watch the first half because it’s adorable, end it at the wedding. IN conclusion Donald’s shorts are a mixed bag but as you could tell some are truly spectacular and some are worth the spectacle and all have terrific animation and effort put in, evne when they didn’t deserve it and as such I couldn’t think of a better way to honor donald’s birthday than with these animators hard, well worth it efforts. Even when it wasn’t great, it was still somewhat fun. So happy birthday old friend and here’s to many more. Later Days.

38 notes · View notes

aurafanfiction · 5 years

Text

Life is Hard (One Shots) Part 4: Family Dynamics

Edit: Thank you so much to everyone who has liked and comment and reblogged this part of my one shot series. It's far and away my most popular one yet and I'm glad to be able to give you some enjoyment through my writing. There's lots more to come, I feel really inspired to create when all of you wonderful readers are telling me you enjoy it and want more. I love all of you! Now back to your regularly scheduled story...

Louie laid in his bed and let out a deep breath. The last week had been extremely overwhelming, first he almost destroyed the world and made his mom angry with him, and then the next thing he knew he was helping to save it from a moon invasion of all things. It was too much, he hadn’t realized how exhausted all these events had made him.

He thought about how nice it would be to just lay in bed for a little while, and let things calm down. It had only been a few hours since Lunaris’s plan to destroy the Earth had backfired and most of the town, as well as the remaining Moonlanders were helping clean things up.

Everything should go back to normal now, he thought to himself, back to when things weren’t so complicated. Or at least that was how it was supposed to be, so why couldn’t he shake this sickening feeling that something wasn’t back to normal at all. It was like his insides were all twisted, but he couldn’t put his finger on why.

“It’s nothing, stop freaking out over nothing.” He said aloud to himself hoping it would somehow convince him that was the truth.

It didn’t feel like the truth…

Huey suddenly opened the door, though Louie only half paid attention to him, too lost in his thoughts to listen.

“Hey Louie, Mom’s gonna take us all out for ice cream to celebrate us saving the world…”

“Uh-huh yeah, that’s cool…”

Huey raised an eyebrow. “You okay? You seem distracted.”

Louie rolled over lazily to face his older brother, snapping out of his daze. “I dunno, I’ve got a weird feeling that won’t go away, like something isn’t quite right.”

“What couldn’t be right, Lunaris is gone Louie, we saved the world. It’s time to celebrate!” Huey yelled, punching a fist into the air.

Typical, no one really cares if something’s bothering me, Louie thought. They all ask, but they don’t really listen.

“Whatever, ice cream sounds okay I guess.”

“Awesome, meet us downstairs, Uncle Donald is coming too!” Huey said excitedly as he bounced out of the room.

Suddenly Louie was struck with realization. “Uncle Donald.” He whispered to himself. Mom hadn’t been back a month yet and Huey had stopped calling him Dad… That was this weird feeling he had inside. He didn’t want Donald to go back to being their Uncle, it was too late for that, he was their Dad in every sense of the word.

But they had Mom now too, their biological parent, and he didn’t want that to change either. They’d had their ups and downs so far, but she loved them, and he felt like he loved her too. He wanted to call both of them his parents. He hadn’t even thought about what the dynamic would be once their Dad returned, what if they get in a fight about who gets to raise us from now on.

Louie started to panic a little, he hated change, normality was safe… change was just scary. A million scenarios played through his head, including a few that were so bad they ended up with him and his brothers getting separated from each other, in different households.

Before he knew what was happening, tears spilled from his eyes. They just saved the whole world, it should be a happy day. Now it was filled with anxiety and worry.

He heard footsteps coming up the stairs towards his room. Quickly he tried to wipe his tears away, and put on a fake smile.

It was his Mom.

“Honey, what’s taking so long, don’t you want a delicious triple decker sundae supreme…” Her words stopped short when she saw her youngest crying. He may have been trying to conceal it, but nothing got past her, not when it came to her babies being hurt.

She took a seat next to her son on the bed and place her hand gently upon his shoulder. He always looked so fragile, and so far she figured she’d seen him crying more than not. He was very much like her brother when Donald was young.

“What’s the matter Louie, I know when you’re upset, and you can’t hide it from me it’s one of my numerous Mom powers.”

“I’m fine, let’s just go get ice cream okay?”

Della shook her head. “You tell me what’s going on with you first.”

Louie folded his arms and looked away from his mom. He wasn’t sure what the right words were for this situation, the last thing he needed was for more people to be mad at him again. Finally he gathered the courage to speak what was on his mind.

“What’s gonna happen with Uncle Donald now that you’re back?”

“What do you mean sweetie?”

Louie took a deep breath in. “Well I mean, he’s our Dad and everything, well not our real Dad but, ughh, you know what I mean. He sang to us when we were scared, helped us with school, fed us and played with us for our whole lives. He’s earned that title. And you, you’re our real Mom, but you weren’t there for us like one.”

Della recoiled a little, she wished they wouldn’t keep reminding her. Louie saw her pull back and then he said something that brought her smile back.

“Don’t get me wrong, I mean you were gone from our lives for a long time… But I want you in it now, I want you as my Mom and I know Huey and Dewey want that too.”

“I guess I’m not seeing why you’re upset honey, you have both of us and we’re not going anywhere.” Della assured him. Running a hand through his hair. “I’m not going to force Donald out of your lives, or make him stop parenting you. Three kids is a lot to handle and your Uncle has the experience dealing with you all, trust me I’m going to need him here.”

“So you’re not gonna argue over who gets to keep us and split the family up?” Louie asked her, unsure of the whole situation. Suddenly he found himself being pulled into Della’s embrace.

“No Louie we’re not, Donald and I haven’t had much time to talk about it, but we’d like to parent you boys together. I know that’s not exactly a normal family dynamic, but I think we can make it work. What do you say?”

“Well can we still call him Dad?” Louie asked breaking the hug.

“Of course sweetheart, like you said, he earned that title by taking care of you for eleven years, I won’t take that away from him. Nothing has to change Louie, other than now I get to be a part of your lives as well.”

“I guess that makes sense, so I was worried for nothing then?”

“Of course, we’re gonna be one happy family together, the way it should have been all along.”

Louie nodded. As they sat there a moment, together, he suddenly had another thought pop into his head, and he figured now was a good a time as any to ask about it.

“If you don’t mind talking about it.” Louie started, nervously. “Uncle Donald will always be our Dad, but we’ve all kinda wondered… whatever did happen to our biological Dad?”

Della couldn’t help but look away at the floor when her son asked that.

“I mean, you don’t have to if it’s too sad or something?” Louie quickly added.

“No, no, it’s not that. It actually makes me mad to think about him. You don’t need to know anything about him except that the only thing good that came from being with him was you boys. He didn’t want to accept the responsibility of being your father when he found out I was having three of you, he couldn’t handle it so he left.”

“Oh…”

“Trust me, don’t give him another thought, Donald is a better father to you kids than that man could have ever been, no mystery there.” Della assured him.

Louie nodded before wrapping his arms around his Mom’s neck. “Thanks Mom, you really did make me feel a lot better. I just wasn’t sure how you’d both fit into our lives now.”

The two of them stayed like that for what seemed like an eternity, and Della could have kept holding him forever if that’s how long Louie needed. Finally she pulled Louie away and planted a kiss on his cheek.

“Eww, Mom Germs!” Louie whined.

“I love you Louie, I always will, and I know Donald would say the same. So if you’re feeling up to it now, let’s go get some ice cream huh? All this world saving and family problems has been too heavy. You need to be a kid and eat ice cream until you’re sick!”

Louie wiped his cheek off on the sleeve of his hoodie. He secretly liked the affection, even if he would never say that out loud. “Okay, I guess I could go for one of those supreme sundae thingies you were talking about!” He said, trying to play cool, but he couldn’t hide his smirk.

“What could possibly be taking so long?!” Donald asked as he peered into the boy’s bedroom. “Della, I sent you in here to get Louie to come down, you’ve been up here for fifteen minutes.”

Louie and Della exchanged looks. “Sorry Don, we just needed to have a little mother son time first, we’re ready to get our triple decker sundae supreme now!”

“Oh, no. No way are the boys eating that much sugar, they can each get one small cone!”

Della got up and put on her best serious look before saying in a low tone. “Donald, my boys just got back from saving the world, they’ll have any delicious ice cream treat they want…”

Louie closed one eye, barely able to look and expecting a fight to ensue, just as he’d thought. But to his surprise his Mom and Dad started laughing. Man this family dynamic was gonna be weird, but at least he and his brother’s had both of them now. A complete family.

The three of them headed for the door.

“Alright, but you get to wrangle Huey when he starts bouncing off the walls, he does not handle sugar well!” Donald laughed.

“Wait what?” Della asked. She guessed she still had a lot to learn about her kids, and she couldn’t wait to learn it all, with her brother’s help.

A/N: Thank you for reading another drabble of mine. I can't wait until next season when we actually get to see some of this family dynamic unfold. The show just gets better and better. As always please leave your comments if you have time, I love hearing from you all and I try to respond to them all. Have a beautiful day, let the hopefully not painful wait for season 3 commence!

~ Aura

#ducktales #ducktales fanfiction #Louie Duck #della duck #donald duck #Huey Duck #dad donald #hurt/comfort

130 notes · View notes

spongeguyandlelouchvibridankia · 5 years

Text

Ranking Every Ducktales S2 Episode!: 24. “The Depths of Cousin Fethry!”

Hey-o! This is SpongeGuy!

Ducktales is an incredible show, and I’m sort of fixated right now, so I thought that for the next 24 days, I could entertain the fandom by ranking and reviewing every episode! Hope you guys enjoy this!

Now, before we continue, I must say something: I like or LOVE every episode this seasons.

Every.

Single.

One!

So before fans of this episode (and other episodes) attack me, understand: This is only last be, like, default.

Ok, now that that’s out of the way, let’s talk about this episode in stages! Starting with:

SUMMERY

Huey (who I must admit is so far my least favorite triplet, though I still like him!) and Dewey, bored out of their minds, jump at the chance of an adventure when they hear of their eccentric Cousin Fethry and his underwater lab. Hijinks ensue, and Huey learns to appreciate his oddness. Also, Launchpad has a mermaid gf. So there’s that.

Let’s dissect this episode in 4 sections, starting with:

ADVENTURE

When it comes to Ducktales, there are two parts to a story: The Adventure and The Journey, if you will. The Adventure in this episode is all about underwater hijinks and discovering giant krill. On the one hand, this is such a different sort of quest in this series, that it has a very unique and fresh feel. The lab and ocean are visually interesting, and the discovery is pretty cool! HOWEVER, I must point out a big problem with this adventure (and no, it is not the fact that most of it is sort of a waste of time): It’s kind of slow. Like, really slow.

Now, of course not every adventure has to be some sort of madcap journey! But the slow pace hurts the episode a tad. It takes a long time for almost anything to happen, and while the stretches are filled with the utter fun of Cousin Fethry (Tom Kenny is such a win, and this is no exception!), the episode suffers for it. Maybe if it had a few more interesting obstacles, I wouldn’t be so harsh.

HUMOR

While admittedly this is one of the... Less joke heavy episodes, it is made up for by, you guessed it, Cousin Fethry himself! Tom Kenny brings a quirky and lovable energy to a role that could have been forgettable. His constant “Is he evil?” moments, his singing, and his fast paced taking add to the episode a ton!

Unfortunately, he’s the only funny character. Dewey is a bit dry in this one (a rarity), Huey could have used some better jokes, and Launchpad is unfortunately missing, so even his few good gags (and they ARE GOOD!) aren’t enough. A funny performance in an otherwise dry episode. Pun shockingly not intended.

CHARACTERS

As said before, Fethry is this episodes saving grace. Whilst I do not love him like some fans in the fandom, I do appreciate what he brings to the table! He’s fully realized, likable, and just the right amount of odd! Tom Kenny’s vocal performance sells the concept, and by the end, you can’t help but feel good that he’s finally fulfilling his weirdness! Also, it’s oddly endearing to see him call Huey and Dewey “Little Donalds”, and sing to Krill.

Unfortunately, a big reason why this episode goes last in the ranking are Huey and Dewey’s roles:

It’s not that they’re bad persay, but Dewey very much feels like a spectator, mostly there to be a foil or to help Huey learn to be himself. And while that’ s not bad, he kind of feels empty, just whining most of the time.

Huey too could use a bit more... Proactivity. I like some of his stuff here, he has some good jokes, and his arc is interesting, no doubt! But... I don’t know, maybe it’s just me, but I feel like he still isn’t dynamic enough to lead an episode. Of course, this is MY OPINION. I do not state this as law, so if you disagree, please do! I wish I could love Huey in this like some do, so please, if it makes you happy, be happy! This is just my silly opinion. You can totally ignore it. Just remember that it is valid.

JOURNEY

Finally, we reach the main theme: Why did we do this?

Well, to be fair, it is a great lesson! Huey accepting his eccentricities allows for some development to his character (about time) and Fethry manages to provide a good outlet to said message. It’s a positive message, and is the reason I like this episode (alongside Fethry, of course!).

In conclusion, “The Depths of Cousin Fethry” suffers from a lack of humor and pacing, not to mention a VERY BORING Dewey, but a good piece of character development for Huey, interesting visuals, and COUSIN FETHRY make sure this episodes swims instead of sink!

...Wow, that pun sucked.

Anyhow, see you next time! Oh, just one more thing: To the best of my ability, I will choose a song for each episode! Today:

youtube

#ducktales #ducktales review #huey duck #dewey duck #cousin fethry #the depths of cousin fethry #ducktales season 2

2 notes · View notes

erictmason · 7 years

Note

Re: the Disney list, any thoughts/opinions/rants about the "Ducktales" reboot?

As a matter of fact, yes! And those thoughts are basically all some variation of “I LOVE IT!”.

But since “I LOVE IT!” over and over again would be a pretty boring answer, I can try and get more specific:

JUST TO BE SAFE, SPOILER WARNING HERE!

SPOILER WARNING!

For starters, the new voice cast is exceptional. I do understand some of the concerns that the nephews sound a bit too obviously like adults now, but I also feel like Bobby Moynihan as Louie, Daniel Pudi as Huey, and Ben Schwartz as Dewey all give strong performances that not only invest each character with more individual personality than other incarnations (something the show as a whole does pretty effectively, to my mind), but also work together to create an enjoyable, believable dynamic between the three that is every bit the original’s equal, even as it’s a very different take. Kate Micucci’s Webby, meanwhile, is really interesting; there’s a touch of Kristen Schaal’s iconic Mabel performance in there, to be sure, but Micucci infuses it with her own particular kind of energy, and while I do have some niggling concerns about how Webby’s been re-conceived (there’s a slight hint of the old “Not Like Other Girls” trope to it I’m not super into, and I feel like it dismisses some of the finer points of the original version along the way), Micucci smooths over basically all of them with her fantastic comic timing, her genuine and endearing enthusiasm, and her awkward, guileless forwardness in basically every interaction she has (and for that matter, taken on its own merits, I think the new Webby is pretty good overall; the choice to make her an enthused fan of Scrooge’s family especially feels like a smart choice in particular). Neither Beck Bennett’s Launchpad nor Toks Olagundoye’s Mrs. Beakley get that much to do in the only two full episodes we’ve seen thus far, but both acquit themselves admirably (and I am all about the new Beakley; the fact that she is maybe half-a-second away from kicking Scrooge’s ass at any point is just delightful to watch, and Olagundoye invests her with a fantastic balance of stoicisim and warmth I really appreciate), and at this point Tony Anselmo’s been playing Donald for so long I don’t imagine there’s that much new to say about him, but I do appreciate how well he handles the choice to play up Donald’s protectiveness toward his boys. The big one, though, is obviously David Tennant as Scrooge; he’s got big shoes to fill given how iconic Alan Young’s take on the character is, and to my mind he really does ace it; there’s enough of Young’s spirit in the performance that you can still feel this is the same character (especially when it comes to his affectionate musings about his beloved money bin), but Tennant carves his own mark equally effectively, and I really appreciate the slightly-more-puckish attitude he brings to the table, especially given the greater emphasis this version places on Scrooge as an Adventurer rather than simply a quadzillionaire businessduck.

In terms of the animation, I admit there are times where the flatter overall directing style in comparison to the original is a little hard for me to accept; the lack of much shading or lighting effects, the generally simplistic composition of scenes, that sort of thing. That said, as a whole I’d call myself a fan of the new art style; the comic book-esque touches to the color scheme (never mind the brilliant intro’s literal comic-book-pages conceit and various references to classic “Uncle Scrooge” paintings, you can see those classic four-color pigment dots all over the place if you’re looking for them, and the way ALL the colors pop so brightly is simply delightful) definitely all work, as do the newer, more angular character designs. As I said above, the choice to more individualize the nephews really works, and I’m especially fond of how simple but striking the visual element of that is, while giving Scrooge and Donald their iconic comic book color schemes (red coat with black trim for Scrooge, black-and-white sailor suit for Donald) likewise feels like a good choice, even as I’ll always miss both of their respective more blue-heavy versions. For that matter, I appreciate how many more variations of birds the animators are using this time around; Launchpad himself is rather more clearly a pelican this time, for example (in the original he seemed more like a duck with a big chin XD), and Gabby McStabberson (a wonderful new character I hope we see again soon, for the record) looks to be an osprey given her small, sharp beak. And the big set-pieces, in particular Scrooge riding the golden dragon through the city and Dewey crossing the booby-trapped bridge (with an unknown assist from Donald) do demonstrate a good sense of visual creativity and energy.

But the big thing for me is the writing. Honing in on the idea of Family as the center of the show is a great choice, not only allowing the characters to remain at the heart of the story no matter how wild the action gets but also allowing the new show to feel of a piece with the original, which definitely valued the peculiar structure of Scrooge’s family unit but only rarely made it the core of any given episode, while also allowing it an opportunity to make its own path. And the individual characters are all wonderfully handled; again, the nephews all have nice, new personalities (and for that matter, I appreciate that of the three it’s Dewey who gets to take center stage for the first two-part episode with his conflicted attitude towards Scrooge), Webby’s awkward stabs at socializing are adorable and endearing, as is the clear and obvious trust and affection she shares with Granny Beakley (even as we only get a brief glimpse of it, it comes through so clearly), and Launchpad works well as comic relief, especially given the effective choice to turn his history as a pilot into a minor running gag in the first episode before leading to maybe my favorite single joke of the whole thing thus far (”Aww, family truly is the greatest adventure ofohnotheground!!!”); more to the point, they strike the same balance for him here as in the original, allowing him to be comic and occasionally foolish without ever being buffoonish or unlikable. But maybe my personal favorites are Scrooge and Glomgold. Recasting Glomgold’s overt Scottishness-accent, kilt, cap-as an attempt on his part to apply the same philosophy he uses in his business-take someone else’s idea, do it cheaper, then claim it as your own-to his business rival, i.e. he’s a cartoon Scotsman because he sees that as Being Like Scrooge But More So, is a stroke of genius, and one the episode communicates surprisingly subtly (Glomgold only makes one overt reference to it in dialogue, so the audience has to infer it from combining that reference with the employee training video we see which outlines his business ideals to understand the idea) but no less effectively. Scrooge himself, meanwhile, is simply great; I was a bit nervous that the show’s choice to emphasize his adventuring over his philanthropy would sand too much of the edge off his character, and while this is perhaps a less-shielded Scrooge than previous versions, I can happily report that’s not the case; the zealous drive, the rough handling of personal relationships, the gruff attitude...it’s all still there, but channeled in a slightly new direction, and quite nicely at that. Plus, there’s lots of great little touches to this version I simply adore (the way we see him gently playing with some of his coins during a dull business meeting in particular). And on top of all that, the show seeds a longer overall story thread into things with a pretty nice cliffhanger; even as, at present, the answer to the question it poses would seem obvious (something happened to the nephews’ mom, and Scrooge and Donald each blame the other for it), I’m eager to learn more even so, especially because the show has already done a good job making the world it inhabits feel full of endless possibilities, so GETTING to that answer will all but certainly be sufficiently exciting.

“Ducktales” 2017 feels very much like the ideal way to restart this series, in other words. It’s fun, it’s funny, it’s charming, and it does a good job modernizing the best elements of the original while still honoring them. I’ve very much enjoyed the first two episodes all four times I’ve watched them, and I’m exceptionally eager for the full series to start in the coming weeks.

Oh, and yes, it still has one humdinger of a theme song.

#disney #ducktales #ducktales 2017 #jlongwrites #ericthemason #answer #jllongwrites

40 notes · View notes

popculturebuffet · 4 years

Text

Ducktales Reviews!: The Split Sword of Swanstatine! or Sometimes You Just Have to Punch Your Problems Away

The race for the missing mysteries takes Scrooge, the kids and a sorta hyjacked Lena and Violet to a mystical market to hunt down the pieces of the mythical sword of the warrior king swanstanine. Naturally a split artifact leads to a vignette episode as the kids pair up to find the pieces while Scrooge and Heron face off. Dewey and Webby face blindness, Louie and Violet face Louie’s reputation as an underworld kingpin, and Huey and Lena face Huey’s Feral Side. The race is on with full recap and spoilers under the cut.

Not a lot of background here.. I was excited enough for this one as Steelbeak and Rockerduck came back, but I went from “This will be pretty good and oh look Flula Borg” to HOLY SHIT LENA AND VIOLET ARE BACK LET’S GO ALREADY. So yeah, there’s not a lot to get started here that can’t be done as we go, let’s get out there and talk about some ducktales. We open in a vast marketplace whose name i’ve already forgotten.. it’s almost 4 in the morning here and I have terrible memory with name sometimes, I make no apologizes. Naturally given the big declaration at the end of the last episode the family is on the hunt for a missing mystery.. and Dewey is on the hunt for Street Meat, though Scrooge denies him any till they get the job done... I mean they can eat and go treasure hunting. They can do two things. Let him have some lamb dammit, spiced lamb is fucking delcious you monster! Or whatever that is the point is it’s larged, well seasoned and makes me hungry! But starving his grandchildren aside, Scrooge has no doubt they can acomplish this as a family.. and then notices his future in laws are also there and his whole big speech game is thrown off by the question of why. To me it’s because we need more of them, quit old man your already 0-2 this episode, but turns out the explination is one of the funniest jokes of the season.. and this is a season that’s include “There now your susceptible to vampires”, “Yipiee Kai Yay Mr. Falcon!”, Darkwing’s Cookbook, Gene’s Soda Commerical, Gladstone having a mental breakdown over having to be a normal person, and Della trying to deflect the blame for traumatizing children. This bit is on par with that. Violet explains that Scrooge told everyone to get on the plane. I assume Donald and Della are with their signifigant others, Beakly was getting some much needed therapy and Launchpad.. was flying the plane.. and also had Drake and Gosalyn with him because he double booked and had to take them with him to assist whatever ex of his is in trouble this week. Point is that bit’s freaking hilarious and Scrooge simply asks if they enjoy history and the answers are a predictable “Not really” from Lena, which given her own personal history is vast, terrible, and traumatizing up until the last year and her adoption by two gay men, relationship with a charming young lady, and gaining a beloved nerdy sister, that tracks. Violet of courser says it’s her life. Scrooge takes it: He’s used to having half his adventuring party either not caring about culture and history, the Saberwings just keep the average up. So Webby does the natural thing and tackle hugs her girlfriend and future sister in law while Scrooge smiles because why wouldn’t you.

And I was happy about this: not just hte tackle hug, because that was precious, but Scrooge eagerly accepting them along for the ride. I was worried for half a second that as good as the gag was that’d be the episodes big underlying issue.. but nope, his confusion was more “Wait why are the extra children here”, than questions of worth and given their previous appearance had him willingly inviting them along, and Lena and Violet only opting out due to fears about her magic getting them all killed and to support her sister, it woudln’t of made any character sense for him not to, doubly so since their up against a shadowy organization of ruthless thugs. Granted Beakly likely sighed after returning from her midnight therapy and called the Saberwing parents by Ty and Indy are probably used to their daughter’s friends elderly Uncle taking them to strange places in the middle of the night by this point. I mean one of their daughters can turn bluper sayain now, the ship on normal behavior kind of sailed over a cliff a while ago.

But Scrooge soon detects what he thinks is heron but is actually a woman who justifiably punches him. Turns out Heron was actually hiding in a stall though, and brought all her friends with her.. except Blot.. and while at first I was going to make a joke I realized they probably don’t want the guy who drains the magic out of everything near a magic artifact he’d probably destroy despite the consequences. So Bradford probably just sent him to murder the lucky charms leprechaun... he DOES have a life outside of trying to Murder scrooge... he can want to murder cereal mascots too. He’s a renascence evil mastermind. A sword fight ensues, with Scrooge telling the kids to pair up and go find the pieces while he keeps Heron busy.

Cue Credits and cue the episode itself being split into three vignettes. I do love vignette episodes, episodes of half hour shows that split into 3 different stories taking place at the same time and break from the formula, with two of the best I can think of being the Avatar classic “Tales from Ba Sing Sei”, most famous for the really gutpunching bit with Iroh singing at his dead son’s grave.. jesus I teared up, not a joke or an exaggeration literally teared up, just thinking about it. On the opposite end we have the season 12 Simpson’s episode Trilogy of Error, which while during when the rot started to set in for the series is easily a classic on the sam tier as the first 10 seasons. It alfeatured an at the time young Daniel Radcliff as Lisa’s love interest, Marge getting accused of attempted murder after accidently chopping homer’s finger off, Bart and Milhouse turning informant ont he mob and the tragic life of Linguo. It’s a classic.

youtube

But yeah three pieces, three teams of two, and three story segments. So like last week I can easily divide the stories up and unlike last week I won’t be frontloading or forgetting anything since their divided up much more evenly and are played back to back to back rather than intercutting. So with that in mind...

Dewey and Webby: The Hidden Truths of Temporary Blindness and the Albino Snakes We Mistook for Cats Along the Way

The Dynamic Duo Returns! Seriously I did the legowork, I.e. went to google and despite the two’s dynamic being a sizeable part of season 1 and a plot point at the start of season 2, which also put the final nail in my shiping them coffin as it was very clear they were basically siblings in all but blood at this point and I wisely jumped off the ship and nuked it from orbit. But outside of Webby’s subplot with Dewey and Louie in “The Town Where Everyone Was Nice!”, it just.. hasn’t come up again. They’ve just had other dynamics to explore with the show and thus the two really haven’t interacted as much for the rest of the series thus far. They still interact, it’s just not really as a major part of any episodes plot till now. So while not a pairing I was expecting it was nice to have it back. For about ten seconds. Yeah cards on the table this is the weakest of the three segements. While the other two have intresting settings, setups, and character dynamics we genuinely haven’t seen this one has.. a weird version of a dynamic we’ve seen done better, and an antagonist who feels oddly flat this go round. It’s just not THAT intresting despite some intresting moments but it’s best to just get into it to explain why.

The basic setup is Webby is hoping to use bold de-ducktion to figure things out while flying under the radar while Dewey’s solution is naturally to ask everyone they meet, and then shout at Gandra when they do find the piece. This naturally gets a flashbang thrown at them, though we do get one great bit where Gandra asses their threat levels with Webby’s being high and Dewey’s being Eh, which tracks. And the thing that stings here is.. Gandra COULD’VE been an intresting opponent for Webby. While Huey and Violet, being fellow genuises as well as Huey’s personal stake in it for her hurting Fenton last year/season would be a better match, pitting Webby against someone just as focused and thought out in fighting, but who rather than use strength uses cybernetics and various gadgets would be really intresting, especially since the other two villian matchups are equally perfect. But instead.. it just feels like Gandra could’ve been replaced with a random fowl soldier. She just uses a flash grenade and some pakour, no real unique skills of hers or insight into her character or anything remotley intresting on her first Fenton-less outing just... “eh I use tech stuff because i’m the tech girl bleh”. The show can do better, and Jameela is given nothing to work with to the point I genuinely worried she’d been replaced.. she hadn’t, but it’s NEVER a good sign when you give an actor so little to do character wise I can wonder that. Also it’s a bit of a nitpick but it genuinely bothers me that Flula Borg, John Hodgman and Jason Mantzokus all got guest star credits.. but April Winchel and Jameela Jamil got nothing. And you could say April’s a long standing voice actor and all that.. but Tress Macneile also got a guest starring credit for next week’s episode solicit, so it’s clearly not that, and just comes off unintetionally sexist and obnoxious and has bothered me since the episode summaries came out.

That out of the way the basic conflict is our heroes are flying blind, literally, with Dewey able to easily amble along, while Webby struggles as she can’t analize blind.. which comes off as bullshit to me. I HIGHLY doubt Beakly, paraoid mess she is, would not train her granddaughter to be able to fight without seeing. It’s one of the most basic training techniques in media. There’s a reason it pops up Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles a lot. To fight on instinct and with your other senses. And the instinct part is the lesson and insn’t a bad idea, it’s just the tool they use for it means they have to make Webby entirely helpless in a way that’s nonsensical to her character to make the plot work and it drags the bit down, thoguh we do get an utterly hilarious bit where Dewey mistakes a coiled white snake for a kitten. But our heroes make it through, Webby eventually saves Dewey with a leap of faith and Dewey has Webby hit a flash grenade back at Gandra which works somehow and blinds her optics despite you know.. someone who uses this kind of tech probably being smart enough to protect her own cybernetic eyes from flashbangs. But the kids have the piece.. and a snake now even if it terrifies them. I wish one of them had taken it home a snake fits either of them and Webby’s dealt with worse.. which is the whole problem with this segment. That being said getting to see Dewey pull a hank venture and turn his normal near-suicidal reckleness into a strength was great I just with it was framed in a way that wasn’t “plannig and knowing things is stupid USE IMPULSE”. Thankfully we can move on. Louie and Violet: The Silver Tongued Viper and The Violet Blade versus the Billion Dollar Man

Next up is Violet and Louie, a team up I didn’t expect at all but works well, and is a much better contrast. Webby and Dewey are similar enough, despite his rampant stupidity, that having a “one side teaches the other how to use something else and tap into their inner self”lesson didn’t work> Here it works perfectly: Someone who speaks frankly and seeks the truth through reason and research paired with someone whose greatest and most cherished talent is the ablility to lie and swindle. It’s a good contrast. Their headed for the underworld since, as I forgot to mention, each of the clues is framed as coming from the heavens (the first piece being on top of a statue), the underworld and the heart of the earth.

Violet, and understandbly given her sister is magic and the general nonsense the duck family runs into, takes the underworld part literally taking an axe and some coins to pay the ferryman with her. Louie however figures it’s usually just a flowry way of putting a con.. and while he’s wrong about mythology given the ducks have met gods and the ENTIRE next episode (which likely features selene since i’ts now established they leave out guest stars if there’s more than three apparently) is about the gods they met... his instincts are not wrong and it is nice they aren’t. Sure some myths are real but sometimes a clue isn’t literal, and it’s clever that hte underworld here is the criminal underworld.

Turns out center piece for the sword is an underground den for the criminal underworld focused around spice eating and general no goodnik shenanigans and Louie’s come prepared. In a bit of character stuff I REALLY love, Louie’s built up a rep as “The Silver Tounged Serpent”, with him bluffing that violet is his companion, having simply used a web of lies and word of mouth to build him up as the worst and most vile criminal imaginable. It’s not a bad plan and while Violet rightly points out he’ll have to live up to it eventually, and Louie naturally deflects that as “Future Louie’s” problem, not realizing in this case Future Louie is about 2 minutes from being present Louie, it’s not a bad scheme. Sure it’s risky as hell and he picked the worst place to use it.. but having an alias he can use to sneak into places like this where Scrooge would be made in an instant, and can easily come up with lies for the rest of his family minus Huey, whose useless not for being easily detectable but because he can’t lie to save his life and this very episode cements it. Most of his family is certified grade a badass, and can easily help him bluff or back up his claims or make him look like one. it’s just this time he happened to get Violet instead whose brutally honest and while badass, isn’t great at running con games nor pleased about any of this. That and Louie’s biggest weakness is forthought: While his brothers either don’t plan at all or overplan, Louie underplans: He has good ideas and good schemes and scams.. it’s just he has no real endgame for any of them and Violet sees right through that. Still meeting the Spice Baron, played by Flula Borg who I mostly know from this song he did with Ninja Sex Party, though I also forgot he was in PItch Perfect 2...

youtube

Your welcome. But while he’d like to give our fake arch criminal his prize, someone else already offered him a literal, not figurative ton of cocaine.. I mean Gold. Got the wrong show there for a second. Unsurprisingly it’s Rockerduck whose done this and unlike the wasted opprotunity above this battle of wits is between the perfect opponents. Rockerduck is easily what Louie would become without his family: A shifty conman with a flair for lying, contacts in the criminal underworld and aversion to doing the hard work himself. He’s such a perfect opponent for Louie I don’t know why I never considered the two going head to head before, but it’s utterly fantastic. John Hodgman is also far and away the MVP of the episode guest villain wise, with some of the best lines too, my favorite being, after making a spice pun, demanding the assorted roughnecks “Laugh, LAUGH AT MY SPICE PUN”.. just the way he demands it with a mixture of karen and a whiny teenager is inspiried. But yeah, Rockerduck knowing who he’s dealing with challenges Louie to a spice duel, basically eating the hottest spices imaginable till one folds, winner takes all. Naturally Louie’s ep included being a champion at this, and naturally his first instincts are to bail and when that fails, keep lying while Violet encourages him not to. I mean he’s ignored the pink and red angels on his shoulder telling him not to do bad things, why would the new purple one be any different. But Rockerduck has the edge as his taste buds were burned off in cryo.. though in another great line he laments he can never enjoy hard boiled eggs again. Which fair enough but.. you know two geniuses.. one of them can simulate taste buds. Regardless, Louie’s in trouble and his attempt to simply cheat his way out fails and the baron dosen’t tolerate Cheaters.. or Cheetahs.. or Cheating Cheetahs as seen in a great sight gag with a cheetah which requires the Baron to clarify it’s both. Point is Louie is screwed.. but Violet then downs all three, without a bead of sweat for reasons the episode explains at the end of this segment, but works since we don’t know violet well and the mystery of how she did it is a compelling question for a second. Our heroes have won but Rockerduck plays his trump card: that they aren’t who their saying they are.. but turns out the truth is even better than the lies Louie has, as Violet quickly spins Louie’s legend with the outright acomplishments he’s had, including defeating the bombie and defeating Scrooge’s entire Rogue’s gallery with a pen stroke.. both true. And unlike the last segement this bit of true strength feels earned: Louie’s other ablility besides lying is seeing all the angles.. and thus like Violet.. he sees the truth. He can see what a person feels, know them better than they may know themselves or the lies they might tell themselves simply through a keen eye. He can pick apart a million dollar defense system simply with a few glances as seen last episode. Louie’s lies may be useful.. but his biggest strength is inddeed his ablility to see the truth. Louie backs violet up as conquerer of the shadow realm (techincally true) and scourge of magica de spell (not even remotely true as Magica has the same problem with face blindess scrooge has with Darkwing and just Darkwing but with everyone). Rockerduck tries to complain but the crowd turns on him, our heroes escape, and Louie compliments violet. As for how she did it meditation, which fits her pefectly so I easily accept it, and a spice of the month club.. which is oddly specific but eh, this bit was really fun so i’ll give it to her. Plus her usualy steely demanor means she likely has a great poker face.. as seen by the fact sh’es soon guling a nearbye trough of water and screaming. Great. As you can tell I liked this segment better, as it’s a clever duel that uses wit instead of strength ilke the others this episode, and forces Louie to find his real strength as his usual one backfires and really helps define Violet even more giving her a strong sense of truth, which fits her like a glove, and a nice dynamic with Louie. It was an odd pairing, but it worked wonders and brought the episode back to life after the last segment killed some of the momentum. And thankfully that momentum keeps rolling into the best segement:

Huey and Lena: Harnessing Your Inner Feral Goblin Child for the Greater Good

As you’d expect, our heroes are doing what they do best: Lena is trying to reign in a quirky nerd, and Huey is overthinking everything by trying to triangulate where the blade of the sword is. Naturally Lena just finds it as it’s embeeded in a compasss pattern on the earth, hence being part of the earth. Unsurprisingly Lena’s solution.. is to wack it free with a mallet... you know there’s a reson she’s one of my favorites and it’s nice to see two of my faviorites who haven’t interacted hardly at all have some time together. Naturally Huey objects to destroying the thing they came for and figures out how to remove it using the clues. Unfortunately for him, but happily for me, Steelbeak is back!

I missed this feral asshole, and Jason while not getting a ton of lines sadly, does make the best of what he has, and is used less as himself on purpose. Also while he’s still kind of a moron, as I mentioned in my Tiff of the Titans review, this version is still CLEVER. He may not be book smart, but he can think on his feet and come up with plans and here.. his plan was the best of the three we’ve seen: Just wait for the ducks to come by and solve it for him and then beat them up and take it or as he puts it “Not the first time a nerd did my homework for me. “ Dumb dosen’t always mean incompetent, and he still has his classic self’s easy sense of planning. Had Lena not been there he would’ve won his piece and been the ONLY member of his group to do so. But Lena is there and now fully trained, so she stops steelbeak by freezing time, Za Warudo! style. Though unlike DIO she can’t manipulate anything, or go get a steam roller though given her powers she can probably make something into one, so tha’ts still on the table. She instead enters someone’s mindscape and uses that to freeze time for a bit.. how .. I have no idea, but it’s an interesting concept and the white look of the void their in now is neat, with only steelbeak himself present in a black and white negative of himself. Huey takes this as time to plan indeiftely till he finds one that works, shooting down actually fighting Steelbeak as “a cowardly brute’s way out”. We then get a great montage as Huey tries everything, from reasoning, to barganing, to crying, to a TON of hilarious and obviously ineffectual disgusies, to lying.. which as you’d expect is simply holding the massive sword blade behind his back and going “what sword.” It’s a really great montage that shows off two things: Danny Pudi’s talent, and that Huey.. can’t reason or trick his way out of this. He can’t plan his way out. And that’s why Steelbeak is the perfect foe to put him up against: Unlike Webby who faced something she could understand and Louie, who simply faced his evil counterpart, Huey faces his exact oppsotie: Huey thrives on logic and as we soon learns bury’s his emotions and impulses and dosen’t fight unless he HAS TO and even then it’s usually in a group. Steelbeak.. is a dumb, impulsive, thug who thinks out his plans on the fly, if at all, laughs at logic, and thinks the best solution to everything is punch it or blow it up. He can’t be reasoned with, Huey isn’t good enough at deception to trick him, and outrunning him was the first thing Huey tried and failed miserably. Steelbeak is made of huey’s blind spot, his inablaity to act without thinking. And he can’t fight it.

While Lena’s humored him despite her annoyance with Huey’s stubborness, she finally breaks and tries to force him to admit he has to brute force his way out, with Huey refusing.. but his refusal brings out a door to “the duke of making a mess”. Naturally something this ominous and personal, and the fact they have no other options and she wants to prove a point, is catnip to Lena who lets the king out.. who turns out to be what you’d get if Bart Simpson’s evil deformed twin Hugo and the messed up Dipper Clone from Gravity Falls did a fusion dance. While also in a nice nod looking VERY similar, with his broad fangs and red eyes, to the evil version of mickey from runaway brain. It’s also somehow the SECOND TIME i’ve seen a child supress his negative emotions to the point they manifested into a person shoved deep inside our hero’s head. Lena naturally loves this feral goblin who Huey explains as all his impulses and emotoins, his spur of the moemnt ones anyway, funneled into one being so he can use logic and only logic. So basically.. Huey is bruce banner.. get.. this kid.. some therapy.

Point is Huey dosen’t want to embrace his wild side, while Lena points out he needs to, and that sh’es learned from experince being a part of ones self someone ignored entirely as Magica’s shadow he can’t just ignore this and hope it goes away. And given Bruce Banner eventually got several more split personalities which turn into hulking rage monsters, which are a sadist with a good core, a raging child and a las vega leg breaker, and that KO repressing TKO just lead to his other half killing everything he loved and only getting that snapped back thanks to god himself... yeah maybe Lena’s right. And this really brilliantly plays into Lena’s development: Her past two episodes have been entirely about her solving a problem, her nightmares and her wondering magic, that she’s been running from by facing it. She’s learned by now you can’t just ignore something and expect it to go away. Again, that’s how you get Hulks. You have to face your sometimes literal demons and yourself to get better and make things better. And now she’s learned that, it’s Huey’s turn. His entire problem has been that he functions entirely on reason and when reason can’t work, he falls apart. It’s something I honed in on last week and has come up again. The point Lena, and the episode, is making with this bit is that sometimes you just have to trust yourself and go with your gut. Huey, reluctnatly lets the duke out who goes Donald on Steelbeak... seriously while the big team shot of the cousins and triplets at the end of season 2 showed Huey as Fethry.. he’s easily the most Donald of the group. He’s considerate, romantic, seriously the date he set up for Fenton really was sweet and Violet is in for some very nice evenings.. but also stubborn, prone to mental breakdowns, badly needs therapy (which donald IS getting so there’s hope), and when angry is a demon sent straight from hell. I REALLY hope this gets pointed out at some point. However without focus the Duke is useless so Lena convinces Huey that he needs to not fight the duke as some evil demonic part of him but accept him: USE his rationality and strategy with his more violent and angry impulses. The two reunite with a hand shake, seriously i’m getting so many KO and TKO vibes this episode what the actual hell, and thei rmerged self easily beats steelbeak witha wedgie and tied shoelaces. It’s beautiful to see and Lena is brought to tears. Before we get to the finale, this was EASILY the best segment, using Lena’s character growth to faciltiate Huey’s that’s been going on all season: making him see he needs to step out of his comfort zone of logic and accept his own inner strenght, his complete self, to really function. It’s good well done stuff and the setting is really intresting. THE FINALE: You are my Inner Strength

So naturally all the parts come together as Scrooge and Heron’s fight lands near Huey and Lena with Webby, Dewey, Violet and Louie all showing up soon after. Scrooge in a really nice moment is utterly proud of the kids, having had the utmost faith in them to get the pieces, and having his faith validated. He may be a cynical, sometimes assholish, old man.. but he loves and believes in his kids and future kids in law, he trusts them more than himself and he’s come far enough to not doubt them when he needs them most. FOWL however has regrouped, and Scrooge.. just gives them the assembled sword. Unsurprisingly, if still awesomely this is a ploy: Heron tries using the sword.. but it flies out of her hand and into Scrooges. He out gambited them. Also getting JoJo’s Bizzare Adventure vibes this episode with all the planning and counter planning and I am loving it. As he explains the sword reponds to true inner strength, while heron is all surface level: All malice and schemes and nothing beneath her character, as are the others. There 3 dimensional characters.. but their all pretty open with who they are and not really open to introspection, where as our heroes are and thus grew.. and Scrooge already knows his inner strength: The kids. THey helped him become a better person, all of them except violet and she just joined the family give her time. They’ve all helped him let his walls down and let people in again after the tragedy of della destroyed him emotionally and put the walls up thick, with Lena being the one to finally get him to destroy them for good. They’ve all helped him be better and he’s helped them all be better in turn, giving them a live of adventure where there their best selves and becoming great kids who will become incredible adults. Their love for one another is what drives them. And thus activates the sword. FOWL seemingly decides to just book and our heroes have won. Scrooge rewards his kids, new additons included, with some street meat cut byt he sword, and we get nice little shots of the lessons having sunk in with Huey knawing into his like a rabid wolf and Dewey and Webby sharing theirs blindly i’ts a sweet conclusion to a fun episode. But given we’re in the thick of the story arc now, FOWL naturally didn’t just book it for no reason.. this was all a setup. Heron calls back to Bradford with a mission accomplished and a lock of scrooge’s feathers.

It’s genuinely impressive as there’s no way F.O.W.L. can loose here: They win the sword.. and they have both the feathers for whatever nightmare they have planned for the Ducks, and another Missing Mystery for their grand scheme. They loose.. and they likely already have a plan to get any mysteries the ducks gather, just like last time, and they still get what they want. Either way Scrooge and the audience are unaware of the real plan, and FOWL is still ahead.

Dew-abolical!

Final Thoughts for the Episode as a Whole:

While a bit weaker than the last two weeks, and almost entirely thanks to the first segment, this episode is still a fun ride and a great way to kick things off now the ducks and F.O.W.L. are both on the offensive. It was also a great way to bring the Saberwing Sisters back and give them some fresh dynamics outside of Webby for a change, bring back some old faviorite vilians and in general pack a fun, Barks and Rosa style adventure story into the myth arc while still dripping with the character progression and dynamics this show lives for. One dark spot aside this really is a great episode, and the other two segements are clever and fun enough to easily ignore that. This season continues to be the show at it’s absolute peak doing what it’s always done best: taking the past and making something fantastic with it. Next Week: The kids, sadly minus my girls, audition to replace Zeus! Horay! Finally Zeus got MeTooed! It took long enough.. I mean they wrote entire sonets about his sex crimes. This isn’t a Bill Cosby situation where it suprised the general public, no one liked him since greek times to begin with. Also DAISY RETURNS! Horay! And so does the incredible storkules, MASTER OF COCKBLOCKING! Also Horay! Seriously unlike the last two blocks of episodes there’s not a one i’m not excited about in the bunch. Until then you can check my blogs for more reviews, and I plan to do the first episode this month and adjust my patreon rewards accordingly. You can follow said patreon at pateron dot com/popculturebuffet, comission reviews of other ducktales or cartoon episodes for 5 dollars an episode by shooting me an ask or message on here, and get out and vote tomorrow.. that’s not related to me but given how crucial this election is. Do it get out and vote. Until we meet again it’s been a pleasure.

#ducktales #the split sword of swanstaintine #ducktales spoilers #scrooge mcduck #webby vanderquack #dewey duck #lena saberwing #violet saberwing #huey duck #louie duck #john d rockerduck #gandra dee #steelbeak #black heron #f.o.w.l.#weblena #huelet

3 notes · View notes