Reviews

Woo-oo: DuckTales Ep. 1(2017) - Double-length TV Pilot

Quick Summary: Woo-oo, the pilot episode of Disney's new DuckTales reboot is fun and fast and not at all what I expected. There are Carl Barks references! There are Darkwing Duck, Goof Troop, and Tale Spin references! There is Fun! There is Adventure! . . . So, um, why isn't Flintheard Glomgold South African?!

Title: Woo-oo: DuckTales Ep. 1

Release: 2017

Story Editor: Francisco Angones

Starring:

David Tennant (Scrooge McDuck ... look, I'm not going to spell it "$crooge" for this whole, long review, so get the idea out of your head right now! Er, if this is a review and not an essay . . . I'm not really sure ...)

Danny Pudi (Huey)

Ben Schwartz (Dewey)

Bobby Moynihan (Louie)

Kate Micucci (Webby)

Tony Anselmo (Donald Duck)

Now, before you go any further, listen to the catchy theme song. It'll put you in the right mood.

You all know I have trouble reviewing things I love - and I'm a duck fan from way back. As a child, I loved the original 80's incarnation of DuckTales, and I've always enjoyed Donald Duck's theatrical shorts. But what really turned me into a fan was discovering the comics, particularly Don Rosa's magnum opus, The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck (including the 'companion' volume). Being a fan of Don Rosa, I naturally had to seek out his source material, the comics of Carl Barks. Carl Barks is the man who invented Scrooge McDuck, as well as most of Donald's other relatives. Barks in turn lead me to a wider world, with scores of different writers and artists from dozens of countries. At the end of the day, though, I'm a Rosa sort of girl - I love Rosa's flawed, sometimes dark, but honourable and oddly kind take on Uncle Scrooge with all the depths of my soul.

When I heard that Disney was planning to reboot DuckTales in a closer-to-the-comics version, I was delighted. When the pilot aired last week, I searched it out immediately. After several rewatchings, I can conclude that what we've ended up with is really enjoyable - but not at all what I expected.

Woo-oo starts with Donald Duck on his way to a job interview. When his nephews' usual babysitter fails to show up, Donald has to beg his Uncle Scrooge, the richest duck in the world, for help. There's some unexplained tension between Scrooge and Donald, but in the end, Scrooge agrees to keep an eye on Huey, Dewey, and Louie. The three boys soon befriend Webby Vanderquack, the housekeeper's granddaughter, and the four children explore McDuck Manor - accidentally awakening several ancient, supernatural evils, which Scrooge has to put to rest. Finding the children's mischief delightful, Scrooge offers to take them on a treasure-hunting expedition to Atlantis - and we find out that Donald's new job is with Scrooge's arch-rival, Flintheart Glomgold. The rest of the episode deals with the implications of these two developments. This Atlantis-Glomgold plotline is a lot of fun, with adventure aplenty, and I did end the show feeling basically satisfied, even though it wasn't at all what I expected.

See, this isn't Rosa's Scrooge, and this isn't Barks' Scrooge either, at least not quite. This take on Scrooge is annoyed by his relations, yes, but not absolutely estranged from them, and is a crabby, but not bitter, old man. Compare that to the first appearance of Scrooge in Carl Barks' Christmas on Bear Mountain: