Ducktales (Woo-hooo!) Reboot Thread

Big Steve

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Since nobody started one I figured I'd do so.

A number of us likely grew up with the original 1987 show (and the 1990 movie that was in theaters). And European members may be fans of the ongoing comics about the Duck family. Both may find things to like in the reboot.

The 2017 reboot takes aspects of both versions, old show and comic, mixes them with new material, and makes awesome out of it. It's got all the fun bits of modern story-telling with story and character arcs, it's got humor and heart, and it's got excellent voice-acting, with David Tennant stepping up to succede the late Alan Young as the voice of Scrooge McDuck himself. The triplets are all more individual characters now with their own voice actors (instead of the old days of Russi Taylor doing the same voice for all three - she did invoke that voice when voicing a young teen Donald Duck in one episode howevver), and each season has had a focus on one triplet (Dewey had an arc in Season 1 and Louie's was Season 2 - Season 3 will presumably be Huey).

They're also hitting the Disney Afternoon nostalgia button, along with other Disney stuff. From the first episode other Disney Afternoon locales such as Spoonerville, St. Canard, and Cape Suzette were mentioned. Darkwing Duck has come up (initially in a fashion that disappointed fans until the episode "The Duck Knight Returns!" aired in May). One Season 1 episode directly referenced the Gummi Bears and centered around an attempt by a FOWL agent to recreate Gummiberry Juice. We had Panchito and Jose show up for a Three Caballeros episode in Season 2. And at Comic-Con in San Diego this year, a promo poster has shown all the characters we're due to see in Season 3, including Daisy Duck, Goofy, and characters from other Disney Afternoon shows who will be showing up.


Having covered all of this, I'd just like to say that this show is fun. Its got heart, its got character, and it's not afraid to do new things with old material (their take on Webby prompted Doug Walker, aka Nostalgia Critic, to make comparisons to Mabel from Gravity Falls). Consider it heartily recommended.

And do enjoy the season-ending bits. Season 1 ended with a bit revealing important information about the triplets' mother, Donald's twin sister Della (whose absence plays an arc role in S1), and Season 2 ended with something... more ominous.

*whispers into ear* Hail FOWL
 

Lanmandragon

Well-known member
Awesome I was worried Disney would destroy more of my childhood with woke crap. I'm seriously pleased that's not the case. Guess tommorow I'll binge the series.
 

LTR

Don't Look Back In Anger
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Before my time for the most part.

I was exposed to Darkwing Duck however. That probably had ramifications for some of my later development. :p
 
D

Deleted member

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Nah. Gadget was a great character.

The only wrong thing is that one of her most awesome episodes was the Cola Cult episode.... and now I have that damned Cola song in my head again!


Truly, I finally have revengeance for all of the times you've had a bright idea in writing collaborative fiction.

 

Big Steve

For the Republic!
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The San Diego ComicCon promotional poster, for everyone's enjoyment.

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LTR

Don't Look Back In Anger
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How about tale spin?

I loved Tale Spin. I loved the piston engined planes and the giant cliffs and air pirates and cloud surfing and showing communism finally working in a country. "You will be given a fair trial, then shot."

But they execute in style. With a televised memorial service and using tanks!

Shere Khan was okay.... bit too tryhard. The Panther Air Force (Panthers flown by Panthers!?!?!) was pretty cool though. They worked 100% of the time... 60% of the time. :sneaky:
 

S'task

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The show has good voice acting, good writing, and overall good design.

I feel it had some hiccups early on that still haunt it for me personally (Though I religiously watch the show and my daughter absolutely adores it and well... the theme song is still catchy as ever). That misstep wasn't really on the show's creators though, rather, executive meddling caused the first season to be aired out of the intended viewing order, which meant the first half of the season was VERY Webby heavy and ended up pushing the Triplet's major character episodes to later in the season, which meant for the first half they had this really distinct character with Webby who was hyper competent and overshadowed Huey, Dewy, and Louie while those three were just a generic blob.

Had the show been broadcast in the original order, I don't think it would have been as big a deal, but it still screwed with character development pacing (oh, and it also meant that then Webby was almost completely sidelined in the second half of the first season with all the Triplet's focus episodes coming up).

The second season doesn't appear to have been subject to such issues, and so instead of the Webby burnout I was kinda feeling at the midway point of the first season, I'm more looking forward to her episodes... and feel like the person getting an inordinate amount of screentime is Louie... But then, I'm as about as annoyed with Scrooge at his antics and wish he'd show a spec more of maturity and. On the flip side, I feel Huey's gotten the short end of the stick with appearances and barely as much screentime as his two brothers.

That said, enjoy the show and look forward to the next season.
 

Big Steve

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Had the show been broadcast in the original order, I don't think it would have been as big a deal, but it still screwed with character development pacing (oh, and it also meant that then Webby was almost completely sidelined in the second half of the first season with all the Triplet's focus episodes coming up).

The second season doesn't appear to have been subject to such issues, and so instead of the Webby burnout I was kinda feeling at the midway point of the first season, I'm more looking forward to her episodes... and feel like the person getting an inordinate amount of screentime is Louie... But then, I'm as about as annoyed with Scrooge at his antics and wish he'd show a spec more of maturity and. On the flip side, I feel Huey's gotten the short end of the stick with appearances and barely as much screentime as his two brothers.

That said, enjoy the show and look forward to the next season.

That's probably because of the "each triplet gets a season" approach they're doing, and Huey seems to have not quite had so many episodes where he could be the sole focus. He is the main triplet or only one in a few episodes (including two of the major Gizmoduck episodes so far).
 

Big Steve

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I loved Tale Spin. I loved the piston engined planes and the giant cliffs and air pirates and cloud surfing and showing communism finally working in a country. "You will be given a fair trial, then shot."

But they execute in style. With a televised memorial service and using tanks!

That whole episode, with the execution, was heavily based on a Ducktales (87) episode, with the same gimmick: characters attempting a massive gaslight to trick the person in charge of their allowance/paycheck into paying them a day early, just to have an unintentional consequence result in said person (Scrooge in Ducktales, Becky Cunningham in Talespin) facing a firing squad (although Scrooge's was a normal squad from a Banana Republic tyrant, not nearly as impressive as the Thembrian tanks) that is only saved because an eclipse/comet proves what day it really is.

Although for being a copy of another show's episode, it was still pretty fun.

Shere Khan was okay.... bit too tryhard. The Panther Air Force (Panthers flown by Panthers!?!?!) was pretty cool though. They worked 100% of the time... 60% of the time. :sneaky:

Shere Khan was the best. And voiced by the late, great Tony Jay.
 
D

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It’s interesting to contrast these precious shows with the nameless and forgettable cartoons that have dominated since the late 90s. Even children are being subjected to an elimination of culture.
 

S'task

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It’s interesting to contrast these precious shows with the nameless and forgettable cartoons that have dominated since the late 90s. Even children are being subjected to an elimination of culture.
If you think that's the case you're... well, not paying attention to late Millennial Nostalgia Culture. To give you a few shows that are very well remembered by later Millennials who grew up with them:
Codename: Kids Next Door (2001 - 2007)
Ed, Edd, and Eddy (1999 - 2009)
Rugrats (1991 - 2004)
Transformers: Beast Wars (1996 - 1999)

Let's not forget, the vast majority of the DC Animated Universe was late 90s - 00s with:
Superman: The Animated Series (1996 - 2000)
Batman Beyond (1999 - 2001)
Justice League (2001 - 2004)
Justice League Unlimited (2004 - 2006)

Oh and then there was the Anime Invasion of the late 90s:
Pokemon (1997 - Present)
Digimon (1999 - 2007)
Yu-Gi-Oh! (2000 - 2004)

I think your premise is actually quite flawed and actually more reflective of just good old fashioned nostalgia and no longer being in the target demographic for children's television cartoons. And note, I'm focusing this list on the shows that were made from the late 90s to early 00s. There's been numerous high quality shows made since that period, with special mentions probably going out to Avatar: the Last Airbender (2005 - 2008) as one of the best examples of fantasy worldbuilding and storytelling in visual media, oh, and one of the best TV shows made to sell toys in the history of ever My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic (2010 - 2019) (which blows just about every other Toy based series away with the exceptions of the aforementioned Transformers Beast Wars and... well that's about it).

Any kids who grew up watching these will well remember them, and some of the topics dealt with in these shows were all well beyond anything that the old Ducktales and Talespin cartoons dealt with. Neither of those shows dealt with the complex morality of a villain turned traitor to his people and later redeemed to save the helpless via heroic self sacrifice, but all I have to say to anyone who saw Beast Wars is "Remember Dinobot" and there's a damn good chance they'll get misty eyed (there's a damn good reason Chuck of SF opened his review of "Code of a Hero" the way he did).

Don't get me wrong, I have fond memories of the Disney shows too, but to say children have had a dearth of culturally enriching childrens cartoons since the late 90s is just... wrong.
 

Big Steve

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TBH I don't think she's seen many of them, and there's also been quite a lot of mass-produced, low-standard animation churned out for cable. (For a newer example, "Teen Titans Go!", I'm looking at you!). And I'm not sure I'd count the anime invasion as entirely a plus either. Sadly not everything has been as good as Avatar: TLA, Legend of Korra, Gravity Falls, and Steven Universe (fight me!).

The Ducktales reboot is a fusion of modern day storytelling and Disney Afternoon nostalgia, so it'll have a cross-generational appeal.
 
D

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I admit I am weird because while I am vaguely conversant in Duck Tales and all, the series I mainly remember as magical, fascinating and inspirational when I was a child was Mysterious Cities of Gold. As Steve can attest it's influenced everything I've thought about since.
 

Big Steve

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I admit I am weird because while I am vaguely conversant in Duck Tales and all, the series I mainly remember as magical, fascinating and inspirational when I was a child was Mysterious Cities of Gold. As Steve can attest it's influenced everything I've thought about since.

Yes, you've said so before. :) I've still to finish that, too...
 

S'task

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TBH I don't think she's seen many of them, and there's also been quite a lot of mass-produced, low-standard animation churned out for cable. (For a newer example, "Teen Titans Go!", I'm looking at you!). And I'm not sure I'd count the anime invasion as entirely a plus either. Sadly not everything has been as good as Avatar: TLA, Legend of Korra, Gravity Falls, and Steven Universe (fight me!).

The Ducktales reboot is a fusion of modern day storytelling and Disney Afternoon nostalgia, so it'll have a cross-generational appeal.
Well sure but... well.

The 80s had all that sort of mass produced low effort junk too. Some of it may not have been as mass produced as modern stuff like TTG, but that has to do with changes to the industry in many respects (computer aided animation greatly reducing the cost of work and the internet allowing offshoring of animation production to Japan and S. Korea with quick turnaround time and greater producer involvement). I mean, look at this list and bear in mind that the majority of it isn't fondly remembered and was just junk shoveled out to sell toys.

The Disney Afternoon shows and the other "classic 80s cartoons" are just that, the classics, the ones that stood the test of time for us to become nostalgic for. Likewise shows like Avatar: TLA and the other ones you mention are likely to withstand the test as well (though I have my doubts on SU, but that's another thread), but again, they are the really good shows among a sea of drek, just like usual.

It's like the question of "why was music in the past so much better than modern songs?" It wasn't, it's just that the music that survives from previous decades usually is the really good stuff that people keep going back to because it was really good, while the junk stuff is left by the wayside and forgotten. This happens with all media, and has been happening since we first started recording media in a form that allowed redistribution.
 

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