The Scrooge McDuck/ Ducktales appreciation thread

[minor muppetz]

Until about a year ago I thought Gyro Gearloose was the true identity of Gizmoduck. I knew he invented the suit but I also thought it was he who wore it.

After reading more about the show on wikipedia and watching some episodes on YouTube, I noticed there are some important characters who I don't remember from when I was a child, like Fenton Crackshell (again, Ithought Gyro was Gizmoduck), Bubba, and Doofus.

Recently I watched the five-part-episode versions of the movies "Time and Money" and "Super DuckTales". Reading wikipedia, it's interesting how those five-part episodes made up the entire second season. It's interesting how both of them involved Scrooge being in danger of losing all his money to the Beagle Boys.

Also interesting how both those movies introduced a new character: Bubba and Gizmoduck. And I read at wikipedia that there was only one episode featuring both characters, and otherwise the first several episodes in season 3 featured one or the other. That seems kind of strange... Could they have produced several Bubba episodes before Super DuckTales and then decided to drop him (it's also strange as those other episodes would have come AFTER that season)?

Also, after watching a number of episodes, it seems like Webby isn't used as much as I remembered. I could just be watching the wrong episodes, but I haven't caught her in very many. I know there are episodes without Huey, Duey, and Louie (Double-O-Duck, Hero for Hire), and there are episodes without Scrooge (Launchpad's Civil War, Super-Doo).

Also, was Doofus eventually phased out of the series? He seemed to be used quite a bit early on (at least in episodes starrign Launchpad McQuack), but in the second season he only makes a brief cameo in one of the "Super DuckTales" episodes, a sceen that might as well have used a generic duck.

I read that the made-for-TV movies were always intended on being five-part episodes, edited into two-hour movies. I wonder if Disney ever considered releasing the movie versions on DVD. It would be interesting to see how they were edited. In the case of "Time and Money" I'm willing to bet that most if not all of part 2 was cut from the movie version, as it really stands out on it's own and has the least to do with the rest of the five-part episode (and I don't think they mention the events of part 2 afterwards).

Finally, I must say, it's interesting how in Super DuckTales, Gyro invents the Gizmoduck suit, but after Fenton becomes Gizmoduck, we never see Gyro again for the rest of the movie.

 

[Drtooth]

Ducktales was basically Gyro's time to shine. He was never given a major cartoon role before or after that, only having a Will Ryan voiced cameo in the short "Sport Goofy" pre-Ducktales... and his last appearance in an animated medium was in the Donald Duck game Goin' Quackers. Ludwig VonDrake manages to appear evewry so often (he was in ONE episode of Ducktales as Launchpad's Psychiatrist, a couple Bonkers episodes, some Quack Pack episodes... but he got a more major role in Mouseworks, House of Mouse, and even Mickey Mouse Clubhouse), but Gyro sits in relative obscurity with years of old comics and his Ducktales role.

That said, I'm surprised ANYONE would have though Gizmoduck to be Gyro, when he's not even a duck at ALL. He has been characterized as a chicken. Fenton DID appear once on Darkwing Duck, Tiff of the Titans (the episode that supposedly introduced Gizmo to the Darkwing series), crashing at Drake's house (Launchpad let him) and driving Drake up the wall, while Gizmo was driving Darkwing mad. He even states (approximately), "I have as much patience for this Gizmoduck as I do for your friend Fenton."

That said, much as I LOVE Ducktales, I really encourage everyone to read Scrooge and other Disney Duck comics as well. They're where this show comes from, after all, and there's a lot of great Duck Family characters you don't see (or rarely see) in Disney animated media. Gladstone Gander only appeared a couple times in Ducktales, only having a major role once (Dime Enough for Luck). And a lot of the others weren't even mentioned.

 

[minor muppetz]

Fenton DID appear once on Darkwing Duck, Tiff of the Titans (the episode that supposedly introduced Gizmo to the Darkwing series), crashing at Drake's house (Launchpad let him) and driving Drake up the wall, while Gizmo was driving Darkwing mad.

Fenton also appeared in Darkwing Doubloom, as both his true identity and as a different-looking robot (it seems he was part of the main crew in both his true identity and as a hero... I wonder if the other characters noticed that).

 

[Gonzo's Hobbit]

I never read the comic books but Mickey's Christmas Carol was always a family tradition at my house. I thought the movie "Legend of the Lost Lamp" totally rocked and the cartoon was always fun. I love the guy who plays Scrooge. He's got a great voice over voice and he's in my favorite radio drama series.

As for why they don't show it anymore I can't say anything about that but I'm not seeing any of the classic cartoons anymore. I don't even think ToonDisney exists anymore. It's been changed to Disney XD.

 

[bazooka_beak]

Scrooge McDuck is my favorite Disney character ever, hands down. I grew up watching Ducktales and the show holds a warm place in my heart. However, until recently, I didn't even know he had a comic series! I purchased "The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck" to make up for it, and I find his family tree fascinating. I didn't even know Donald had a sister!

I don't think Ducktales used Webby enough, though. And they should really acknowledge her more. I've yet to see her in any of the comics, save for like one.

 

[Drtooth]

As for why they don't show it anymore I can't say anything about that but I'm not seeing any of the classic cartoons anymore. I don't even think ToonDisney exists anymore. It's been changed to Disney XD.

Toon Disney was pretty much turning into XD the last few years. Things are bound to be wrong when you start airing Warner Bros cartoons on a Disney owned network (especially since Disney couldn't WAIT to get the Bugs and Tweety show off ABC after the purchase in the 90's). XD is pretty much Disney Boy when the Disney channel took a sharp Disney Girl turn. While it sounded good at first, I hear it's just a dumping ground for non-stop Suite Life reruns... though, I guess they also have Marvel cartoons on the network since..well... they OWN them in more ways than one (even before the Marvel buyout, they fell butt backwards into owning in Saban properties... I WISH Saban got everything he used to have when he bought Power Rangers).

And their DVD releases were pretty half... well, I can't say the word, but you get the point. That's the one thing I really still dislike about Disney. They're absolutely SITTING on all these shows, ones they produce and ones they came across owning (including insane international rights... which is why Hakushon Daimio was taken out of Tatsunoko Vs Capcom, and Samurai Pizza Cats didn't go into the American edition) and they're not doing anything WITH them. no reruns, the DVD releases weren't "profitable" enough... I'm not even going into how the Youtube uploads are vanishing- not even FROM Disney, but from record companies and international channels that THINK they own them for long forgotten CD releases and crap like that.

I say, you got Lionsgate to release your HORRIBLE sitcoms from the 2000 era, why not go halfsies with them on the rest of the Disney Afternoon. Sure, they'll block the crap out of every video now, but at LEAST they'd finish off collections.

 

[RedPiggy]

Now, we almost never had cable, so watching Disney was pretty much like watching HBO. Only on vacations. I loved me some Ducktales, though. I was always under the impression that compared to Uncle Scrooge and the nephew trio (what kind of fertility stuff do all the "siblings" of these characters take?), the Big Three (Mickey, Donald, Goofy) were kinda one-note. Given my exposure to them, of course, I can see how I might be mistaken. That, and House of Mouse and Kingdom Hearts gave me a LOT more appreciation (kinda bummed that Uncle Scrooge and the nephew trio kinda get the short end of the story stick there, though) of them. Still, to me, Uncle Scrooge was way more interesting than his incomprehensible nephew with anger-management issues.

And, yeah, I wanted a money pool too, LOL.

 

[Yorick]

check this out!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hwk1MBRNUz0
Scrooge McDuck & Money from 1967!
Features the nephews as well...same color hats on all three though...red

 

[Drtooth]

I love Donald, but to fully appreciate the character, again we must turn to the comics. The character is a LOT more complex (they were going to water down Scrooge's personality for a series of cartoons in the 50's that were never made, what does that tell you?). In Scrooge McDuck comics, he plays a role similar to Launchpad, the other adult who's not quite as mature as the kids surprisingly were. As for his solo adventures, he was a lot more calculated in his mayhem, though he still always lost in the end.

And that's not even mentioning what Italy did.

I'm disappointed that Boom stopped publishing these stories (possibly for the time being, possibly forever, I dunno)... but there are 2 varient adventures that came out of reader complaints about how much of a loser Donald was treated like in his comics. So in 1969 (and we've just gotten a small taste of this right now) they came up with Paperinik (Donald's Italian name is something like Paperino, we know him as Duck Avenger)... originally he was a vengeful soul... his origin story has him donning a costume, stealing a priceless Faberge egg from Scrooge and planting it on Gladstone. Shortly after he became a full on Batman style hero (Gyro designed his gadgets). We got a short storyline featuring Duck Avenger teaming up with other Disney characters turned Super Heroes (With Super Goof, which we had comics of in the US). italy had a long running dark series of comics featuring him fighting intergalactic menaces... I wish Boom would get a hold of some of those... Then there's the Double Duck series where Donald Duck is a sleeper agent for a secret agency (from what I heard, it's revealed Scrooge actually owns it).

I still say Disney should get off its butt and make DTV animated movies of these things. They did it with Tinkerbelle (her movies are based off of similar Italian comics).

 

[minor muppetz]

Things are bound to be wrong when you start airing Warner Bros cartoons on a Disney owned network (especially since Disney couldn't WAIT to get the Bugs and Tweety show off ABC after the purchase in the 90's).

That's news to me. I thought Warner Bros. let it's contract with ABC run out in 2000. Maybe I'm wrong, but I thought that when Warner and Turner merged that Warner Bros. wanted Cartoon Network to have the broadcast rights to every WB short (Nickelodeon had stopped airing Looney Tunes a year earlier, and around that time TNT and TBS stopped airing the shorts and Kids WB started to phase Looney Tunes out of the schedule).