Ducktales 2017: Did it Work?

So when it was announced that the show was coming being rebooted for 2017 I was....... skeptical at best. Nostalgia aside I've always been careful of reboots and old shows returning, not only do they risk not working but even if they do I always feel that networks should be moving forward not back. There was no reason for the show to be rebooted other than the idea of bringing a classic series to the forefront and Ducktales had proven to be a successful brand for Disney and it's one of the few that didn't have much promotion going into the 2000s. You didn't see Ducktales merchandise in the parks but you could see Donald, Goofy, Max, Chip, Dale, and Baloo though maybe not in the way you would know them as in their shows. Those characters had their original works to carry them. 

           Regardless of why it is back, it is here and honestly I was very pleased with what I saw for the most part. Out of the two part movie I found the first part to be brilliant as it used both elements from the comics and show to tell something new where I found the second to be good but maybe a bit too much on the new and lacking a bit of the spirit of the original. Honestly, the whole thing felt like a reboot of Doctor Who, like a really really good way to pick the series up again. And this isn't because David Tennant is voicing Scrooge and he played the Doctor but jst in how it is set up. Imagine the Doctor having quit to teach or whatever, a former companion had a falling out with him and leaves his kids with the Doctor to watch and they bring him out of his funk and takes them on adventures. 

Here, I won't be going over every aspect of the episodes but just over the parts that I think really worked or didn't. And I also thought I would have a microphone by now to actually make a video review but I don't think I will before the show comes back on.

Same Software, Different Face

Scrooge Mcduck is possibly my all time favorite character since I was five so I was always going to put my most critical lens on him and honestly he's great. Scrooge here is sort of a fusion of the cartoon and the Don Rosa comics, he's much more of an adventurer who likes to be active but at the same time isn't too fond of interacting with his family. His design is akin to the comics with the red coat but the animation allows him to show off exactly how capable and adventurer he is. Fans of the original will and should admit that the animation did not allow for the same quick action sequences. The movement was a bit restricted at times and looked a bit to rubbery in the later seasons. 

         As a character he has a bit more of the dry wit he had in the cartoon series but he's also just as grouchy. In the Don Rosa comic he had retired totally from business as well as adventuring and it seemed his lack of activity affected his health and he didn't think he would be capable of having a family or going on adventures again. He's tired and bitter with a great deal of cynicism about people and world and knows he's lacking in family and that it's his own doing Here it just seems that something made him stop adventuring (possibly the Spear of Seline), especially with Donald and he's bored just running his businesses. Like the comic, it is the boys (and this time Webby) that get Scrooge back into the game of adventuring. If anything I would have to say that verbal comedy is bit too much which is a criticism I have of the show as a whole, it doesn't leave a lot of time to show off anything other than dialogue but that'll come up later.

You Can Have a Favorite Now and it Will Mean Something

Going back to the early days, it was hard to really tell the nephews apart with the exception of the color of their clothes. This was especially true in the comics where they often had black shirts and you couldn't always see their hats to know who was who. I'd argue that at least in the original Ducktales you could attribute very base traits to them (Huey leads, Dewey often goes the guidbook, and Louie was funny) but they weren't always consistent and this pattern could also be attributed to other triplets like Alvin and the Chipmunks. Now we have triplets with different style clothing and distinct personalities. Huey is more of the Junior Woodchuck, Dewey is the trouble maker and Louie is more of rogue. Dewey was the standout most of this episode/movie and honestly, it worked in the first half. Dewey came off as someone who I think wants the most to be like Scrooge (something the boys argued about in the original) so he interacted with him the most. In the first half he is th eone who hears Scrooge say family is nothing but trouble and throws it in his face and in the second half is the one who tells him to stop lumping them together. The problem with this is that the story didn't give Scrooge time to show us that he lumped them together and Dewey spent more time legitimately getting in the way than letting Scrooge teach or show anything. On the positive though it is really great that we may be getting episodes that just focus on one nephew at a time to flesh them out.

Maybe a Bit Too Far

So Webby's new direction was very much inspired by Mabel from Gravity Falls and I think she may be a bit too much Mabel on the surface. I personally liked Webby in the originals because she was played up to be a bit more innocent and obviously younger than the boys. This new direction turns her into a super capable female character that is capable of defeating full grown martial artists and I think that's a problem. If Webby and everyone is super capable then where is the sense of danger. Luckily we do see that Webby is a bit socially awkward due to her grandmother sheltering her (though is ok with her going on adventures with Scrooge) and I hope that gets explained too. She, like Dewey adores Scrooge but also Donald as the two are legendary adventurers and she knows a multitude of things and facts about them and their family. She kind of reminds me of Ellie from UP in that light. I'm hoping we get more of a feeling for not only who she is but also more restrictions of what she can and can't do, there is a difference between a strong female character and a bland character.

Everything Wrong With the Reboot

I like Glomgold a certain way and here he's kind of on the far opposite of that. This isn't to say I didn't enjoy him at all, I found him hilarious in most of the episode but there was a certain lack of.......... I want to say "dignity" is the best word. A lot of Scrooge's enemies are a bit a funny in their own way (Magica getting carried away at times, the Beagles being idiots) but they always feel like they can be very serious at times. Glomgold here just comes off as a joke and maybe it just wasn't communicated properly. Scrooge implied that he (Glomgold) hired Donald knowing he was Scrooge's nephew so the whole thing was a trap so that I think works but needed to be focused on more I think.

      There is a bit of subtlety that I feel is missing from Glomgold and in this new series. Glomgold in a lot of ways is the ultimate foil to Scrooge in that he is just as smart and capable but on the other end of morality. He's willing to cross those lines that Scrooge won't because it isn't about the adventure or the journey with him, it's the profit. Out of all of Scrooge's enemies, he doesn't want anything Scrooge has so much as he just wants to see Scrooge ruined. This is touched upon more in the Life and Times series where we see the two of them meet for the first time. In terms of design, I was really hoping for less Scotsman and more on the fact that Glomgold is from Africa but instead they upped the Scottish aspect to him. Is it a bad thing? No and I admit I may be a bit too hard on the claim "everything wrong with the reboot". The big problem is that I never believed anything was an actual threat in that second part with Atlantis. Like Glomgold, there is more comedy than anything else but that could change and I did like it.

Strong and Weak in Different Ways

My only real problem with the series so far in the whole two episodes I saw is that it doesn't really feel like it wants to build on the settings and atmosphere. An example would be the episode "Raiders of the Lost Harp" which had Scrooge and company find the lost city of Troy and there was a good scene of them just exploring and there are episodes just like that. I want the adventures and discoveries to feel smart, and unique, and I don't want to keep hearing people talk every five seconds. At the same time though I do love that we are getting plenty of character from the cast. I like the designs, I like how energetic the movements are and I love all the Easter Eggs (seriously the paintings in the mansion alone are enough to make fans go crazy). I like how Donald and Scrooge's relationship speaks of a shared family history and how it is the boys that brings them together again. I like how Webby and the boys feel like they all have something to say that is unique to them AND interesting. I like that I can say Dewey may be my least favorite nephew because now I have something to go on. We are already getting bold new discoveries, not just in finding out what happened to Donald's sister but also we are getting episodes from the original cartoon remade. That means stories like "Earthquack" could be remade to be more like the original "Land Beneath the Ground". All in all I enjoyed the adventure and I look forward to seeing more of it.