#i'm also making a cardboard cutout of him and various other characters. will definitely post here when it's complete

[chilchucktimbs]

life update: i have been considering developing an army of chilchucks. this is a stupendously bad idea and will not benefit me in the slightest

[fly-pow-bye]

DuckTales 2017 - The Shorts!

Finally, I decided to talk about these.

PPG 2016 isn't the only reboot to have net-exclusive shorts, as Disney's YouTube channel had several DuckTales shorts across its first season.

Welcome to Duckberg!

A few months before the premiere of DuckTales 2017, Disney released these shorts to introduce everyone to the citizens of Duckberg. Namely, it focuses on the inhabits of the McDuck Manor. Most of these are just one joke premises, which is fitting because they aren't even a minute long.

For example, here's one where Webby is sneaking around in a dark place, aiming for some sort of ancient artifact with her various gadgets. This was online before the very first episode, so this is actually our first look at the new Webby. No longer is she just the "little girl" of the group; she seems to be a spy in training with her night vision goggles, her glowstick, and her grappling hook!

This ancient artifact turns out to be a cookie jar, and the only cookie left is one of the common yuck cookies: oatmeal raisin. Hey, I'd eat it. Dewey shows up specifically to tell Webby that he's eating the last chocolate chip. That's kind of mean.

Then this happens. Yeah, that doesn't look like anger, it looks more like demonic possession. There's a similar short with the new Mrs. Beakley, where she easily takes care of a ghost that the boys were struggling with. It makes sense, as these characters have huge changes from the classic DuckTales. They might as well show them off.

There's a Huey short, featuring a character that looks a lot like the Tenderfeet. Thankfully, he doesn't talk or do any "devil in plain sight" gags, he's just here to show off that Huey is the one that reads that Junior Woodchuck Guidebook the most. Definitely his best performance, but that isn't saying a lot.

There's no real Dewey-focused short beyond his appearance in the Webby short. There is kind of a Louie short, involving a "time machine" that, oddly enough, works exactly like the time machine in that one episode of the other reboot. Thankfully, this reboot only made it a minute long short, and it works okay.

The biggest highlight is this short with Launchpad McQuack, and it's completely fitting of his character. I don't even want to talk about it; it would ruin the magic of watching the actual short.

There's also one for Donald Duck's years-not-shown birthday, which oddly wasn't included in the compilation. This is a shame, because it's a decent joke. Again, it's just the one, and it's not as good as the Launchpad one. Then again, very few things are.

The next series of shorts is a lot more interesting, as they all fit together into one short, released in minute-long chunks throughout a month. Fittingly enough, it happens to be called...

The World’s Longest Deathtrap!

The episode begins with Webby landing in the titular deathtrap, with Dewey. I guess they felt sorry that he didn't get a short of his own, since we get a lot more Dewey here.

Unfortunately, due to Dewey not being too bright, he presses a button that causes the deathtrap to activate, causing the walls to very slowly close in on them. Webby theorizes that this deathtrap has aged very poorly over the centuries it existed.

When I saw these pop up on YouTube, I was thinking this was just a joke video with nothing really happening. This couldn't be further from the truth. One part is pretty much entirely "Launchpad doesn't know how to rescue people from a hole", and it's absolutely hilarious.

Eventually, everyone except for Scrooge, who is absent entirely from these series of shorts, ends up in the deathtrap. They keep unintentionally activating even more traps, before Huey drops in and tries to use his Junior Woodchuck Guidebook to help out. In a way, it worked. How? Watch to find out.

I would not be surprised if this short started out as either a scene in an episode or a whole episode in itself, but they either felt it was too throwaway, or that they ran out of ideas. It's a good watch.

Dewey Dew-Night!

Aw, yeah. The talk show introduced in Day of the Only Child gets its first big expansion here. The main plot is that Dewey wants his talk show to become popular on the internet, so he tries his best to get the best guests, the best sketches, and the best Dewey he can muster to get those sweet sweet thumbs ups. It's just as funny as it was in Day of the Only Child, though I do wish those cardboard cutouts returned.

The first short focuses on Webby. It's sort of funny in that everything is just awkward, as if he's making this all up as he goes along. Fitting!

They're still trying to make Manny the Headless Horse a thing. Maybe there's some people who really like him, but I found him more of an "eh" character. Dewey doesn't seem to like him either; his original guest was supposed to be Scrooge McDuck. Unfortunately, he decided Dewey Dew-Night was well below him, much to Dewey's derision. Whether it was unfortunate for Dewey or Scrooge is pretty obvious.

He even tries to do segments, like "Will It Crash?", an parody of "Will It Blend?" Dewey apparently never realized that ship has sailed almost a decade ago, even if Launchpad is the highlight of all of these shorts. That is an accomplishment, actually, this series and the deathtrap one could work as B-plots.

Unfortunately, none of this seems to get him the audience he so desperately craves. He even keeps pointing towards his likes and dislikes, which eventually skews slightly towards the latter. He seems to blame his audience for this, but he understands. He decides to try to go on a unicycle and jump over a cat. A real cat, by the way; I can’t help but notice when they use non-anthropomorphic animals.

Unfortunately, any attempt to actually finish this stunt was ruined because the rest of the boys were tired. There is a hidden joke here, where Dewey thinks that because it's a late night talk show, it's supposed to be filmed at night, too. If only he knew.

Oh, and there's this really good running gag with Glomgold throughout this entire series of shorts.

Dewey: Apologies to Flintheart Glomgold, who had to be bumped.

Glomgold: (off-screen) WHAT?!

I like how it is implied that Glomgold successfully infiltrated the McDuck Mansion, but just can't wait to be on this completely legitimate talk show. Best of all, it has an actual payoff. All in all, a great way to use the format.

There are a few other shorts, but there's not much to say about them. There's Webby Reacts, a series where Webby Vanderquack does an in-character reaction to various Disney Channel programs. It did remind me of the very short lived revival of Beavis and Butt-Head, where they had segments where they talked over MTV's other programming.

The other is DuckFAILS, which is just the nephews, the honorary niece, and Launchpad failing to do things in glorious stop motion. I guess Scrooge McDuck had a "no failing" clause. I can't insult the amount of time it would take to make these, and this seems like something that would be fun to see between shows.

I'm sad that they didn't do anything like this to tide us over during this current hiatus...but I guess that's what I'm doing, at least.

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