I honestly don’t understand how the heck Ducktales does what it does…. how it takes a beloved cartoon from the 1980’s and not only makes it better, but continually makes the better product that it created even better, not only for fans who grew up watching 80’s Ducktales, but also for people who have no idea what Ducktales even is.
Take “Louie’s Eleven,” for example. This amazing parody of not only Ocean’s Eleven, but also The Devil Wears Prada and Die Hard of all things not only brings in the laughs, but also takes full advantage of Ducktales‘ gargantuan cast of lovable characters and actually adds more… and they’re great!
First of all… Daisy Duck. How is it after all these years of both old and new Ducktales, I’ve never even questioned the absence of Daisy in the equation?
No, wait… I know this. It’s because she sucks. At least, she did until now.
Daisy Duck has somewhat of a Webby problem in that she was always a nondescript girl version of Donald and had no real personality and, just like Ducktales did with Webby, the new and improved Daisy is a magnificent improvement. Now, she is capable, ambitious, and full of heart… with a temper to boot. It would have been easy to turn Daisy into a an ambitious and angry modern female as many reboots tend to do, but to give her a heart and allow her to see the inner beauty of Donald in the sequence where he sings to her was, in no uncertain terms, the most heartwarming and wonderful thing I have seen this series do. How is it that Daisy has been existing for 80 years and never got a palpable individual personality until Ducktales got ahold of her for only 30 minutes?
I loved her design, I loved her personality, I loved her humor and heart… I loved everything about her. Rather than Daisy being the nostalgia baiting character I was afraid she would be, I got a character I loved and want to see again.
The same can be said for Glamora who, while nowhere near as developed, provides such a wonderful foil for the gang and actually explains a lot about Mark Beaks’ eternal search for clicks, fame, and acceptance. How awesome is it that Ducktales introduces a fun character that develops another fun character we already knew?
As for the episode itself, my goodness… it was just a complete pantsload of fun. Everything from the reappearance of The Three Caballeros to the on-point parody of three amazing movies, to the simple lesson about the value of listening to someone else… all of it worked together so perfectly. With a cast of characters so vast and varied, Ducktales certainly knows how to best exploit the residents and friends of Duckberg in each and every story that you don’t even notice the characters you love who aren’t even there.
“Yippie Ki-Yay, Mister Falcon!” instantly turned this episode into a winner… as well as everything else.
There’s no reason this show should be this good, but the writers and creators keep upping their game every single episode. If this keeps up, 80’s Ducktales will end up being the footnote when we talk about Ducktales in the future.
Jason Gaston 