DuckTales Review!

 Alright! Today I will be reviewing the 2017 DuckTales reboot, which, when first announced, I vehemently opposed and derided, basically because it was different than the 90s DuckTales TV show I grew up on via DVDs (Not original airings. I'm not 40). I have.. matured and accepted the difference, and honestly, this reboot is even better than the original. 

Yes, I said it. The original is a classic, but this one beats the OG in terms of characterization, humor, and plot. It's a far more enjoyable show. And it was canceled after three seasons! They were never able to jump the shark like the 90s one did! 

But, let's go over some basics. The animation is, thankfully, not the terrible post-2010 animation that looks awful. I'm talking Teen Titans Go! and Star vs. The Forces of Evil. None of that terrible "Noodle arm" animation. The animation is animated in a way to emulate hand-drawn, with the same sort of dot shading that reminded me of Into the Spider-Verse. It's very well done and a sight to behold. 

Second, the voice cast here is phenomenal. We've got fairly high-profile actors like David Tennant, Danny Pudi, Ben Schwartz, Bobby Moynihan, Kate Micucci, Catherine Tate, Jim Rash, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Marc Evan Jackson, and Paget Brewster (Doctor Who, Community, Parks and Rec, SNL, Scooby-Doo, The Office, Community, Hamilton, The Good Place, and Community, respectively) lending their voices... like, what? Why does this one show have such a randomly stacked cast? And one so experienced in the "quirky" sitcom genre?

The series does a wonderful job making all of the triplets distinct. I never realized how every triplet was copied and pasted in the original, but here they each have personalities and quirks. Huey is analytical and the only one to do Junior Woodchucks, Dewey wants to be an explorer, and Louie wants to run a billion-dollar corporation like Scrooge before him. I appreciated the increased emphasis on characterization.

I was also a huge fan of Webby here. OG Webby was.. very stereotypical "The only main girl character in a show for young boys." She's, like, four, likes dolls, switches Rs with Ws, has animal friends, gets in trouble for caring too much... she's just the worst. Here, she's an adventurer in her own right. She's older, cooler, and vaguely reminiscent of a violent Leslie Knope. It's an improvement to be sure.

My favorite character by far and away here was Glomgold. Glomgold in this iteration doesn't even steal the show, he demolishes it. It may very well be possible to die of laughter during Glombold-centric episodes. Other standouts were Launchpad and Darkwing Duck, but Glomgold was something else. His only other rival was Storkules. 

The only change I didn't like was Alfred and Doofus. They killed Alfred off before the series began and made him come back as a snobby ghost, so his appearances were admittedly limited. Doofus was completely revamped for the 2010s, and not for the better. Gone is the innocent "Little buddy," replaced only by a frankly terrifying child. Reboot Doofus is going to haunt me for a while. 

Donald and Storkules were, like, the highlights of the show.

One of my favorite aspects of the show was how Donald was given a larger role. Whenever I was a kid watching the original cartoon, I was always sad that Donald Duck never had a large role, so for him to be a major player in this show instantly wins my approval. And let's just say that Don Cheadle Duck was hilarious, especially during the production video.

And the decision to make Mrs. Beakley a jacked former operative was kind of hilarious. Very different than the original, that's for sure. I eventually appreciated the change, even if I wasn't completely on board at first. 

Scrooge's biggest change was that his jacket changed from blue to red
(And by the way, I appreciated all the nods to the original show's designs. I caught several).

And a lot of the new characters were great as well! I really like Lena, Webby's best friend and niece/creation of Magica De Spell. Her character was an excellent contrast to the relatively altruistic McDuck gang. 

Speaking on the plot, I am happy to report that the show was able to successfully adapt to the season-long stories without a severe drop in quality. We have entire season-long arcs about finding Della Duck and F.O.W.L. while still having fun, episodic, classic DuckTales adventures. 

Della Duck was an amazing addition to the cast.

Actually, the overall plot and tone of the show kind of reminded me of Gravity Falls... a group of siblings meet a mysterious uncle and go on magical adventures with him. Both of the shows even contain large encyclopedias full of the weird stuff going on! And Webby is basically just a more violent Mabel. Asides from them being ducks, the biggest difference might be that Gravity Falls was about twins while DuckTales was about triplets.

No, wait, better comparison: DuckTales is Community on crack for kids. That's it. That's what this show is. 

Something that stood out to me during my rewatch of the show was how great the music is - some scenes in particular have randomly amazing scores. And some of the emotion! I'm not going to lie, I teared up several times during the course of the show. 

My one complaint about the show was that I thought it stalled during season three. Seasons one and two were obviously building up to finding Della Duck, and so that's the entire emotional weight of the series. But then it's resolved, so it's just... DuckTales for the sake of DuckTales... it's not necessarily a bad thing, just a bit less laser-focused and with a shakily balanced ensemble. 

Overall, I give DuckTales a 10/10. "Although a DuckTales reboot may seem ill-advised, the 2017 DuckTales is randomly amazing - and even better than the original." 

I'm gonna miss this show.