DuckTales - Neues aus Entenhausen

"DuckTales" was Disney's crown jewel in the 80's and 90's, a series that Carl Barks would be proud of. It represents everything that was cool about cartoons in that glorious period: quirky characters, awesome voice acting, animation that actually looks like it was drawn at one time, and an AWESOME theme song. All these years later, I still find myself humming the theme often.

The show centers around Scrooge McDuck, the richest duck in the world. Most of the time, he declares he only loves money, but frequent viewers know that he does indeed have a heart and a soft spot for his nephews and his faithful pilot Launchpad. Scrooge, Launchpad, and the nephews Huey, Dewey, and Louie travel around the world having all sorts of adventures and battling classic enemies like the Beagle Boys or Magica De Spell.

"DuckTales" is just plain fun. Even today, in our cynical age, it still possesses the charm that made it such a favorite. Long live "DuckTales"!

There seems to be a rapid decline in the quality of cartoons today. Watching Cartoon Network and Toon Disney proves that kids today are being subject to shows that can be labeled as mediocre at best. Despite their current popularity, Spongebob and the Powerpuff Girls lack the charm and longevity of the great cartoons of a few years ago. Warner Brother's newest Batman offering pales in comparison to "Batman the Animated Series," and Animaniacs and Tiny Toons seem to have vanished forever.

Just a few years back cartoons were well developed and exciting. They sparked kids imagination, and parents could sit down and watch these films with their kids and not worry about the content. The crown of all of these great cartoons was Ducktales.

Ducktales told the adventures (or misadventures if you will) of Scrooge McDuck and his nephews Huey, Dewey, and Louie. The quadrillionaire would go to great lengths to find rare treasures, much to the delight of school kids around the world. Ducktales took cues from the Carl Barks comics that Disney produced, and kept the spirit alive with newer characters to play off of the original team. Launchpad McQuack could take Scrooge anywhere for a cheap price, landing safely was another story. Webby provided a girls point of view to the many situations, much to the chagrin of Scrooge's nephews.

Even in later years Bubba Duck and Fenton Crackshell/Gizmoduck provided stories that could encourage kids to shoot for the stars. I remember running home from school so that I wouldn't miss Ducktales.

Now that I'm older, I spot the sloppy animation and Lip Synch. I notice the continuity errors and painting mistakes; however, it doesn't matter. I still enjoy Ducktales for what it is, and I want to be able to pass along this great series to the children in my family. Even with the errors, Ducktales still stands as the ruler for which I measure all other animated series.

Perhaps one of the reasons I like Ducktales so much is because of it's silliness and goofiness. But of course the characters are what made the show. Each one had a distinctive set of personalities, Scrooge the capitalist tycoon, his 3 nephews who are always getting into and somehow out of trouble. They're always somehow getting mixed up in silly adventures. The attitudes are perfectly balanced though, it's not necessarily what a character does that's funny, it's how they carry theirself and how they react to things. The contrasting personalities for each character makes this a great, fun show to watch anytime you're bored and need a smile on your face.

Ducktales stands as one of my all-time favorites of Disney`s tv-series. I just love this series to bits. There are many cool episodes that I remember from the time it was broadcasted over here in the early 1990`s. Some of the episodes were a bit scary too, but my favorite episode is the episode where Uncle Scrooge and his nephews go to Alaska to dig for gold. But I must also mention that some of the episodes could be a little cheesy and silly. The voices are also neat and it makes you laugh many times because it can be a bit over the top. None of Disney`s newer tv-series manage to entertain in the way that Ducktales did. A classic that I`ll never forget.

I am a great fan of the DuckTales cartoon series, and I think that it is a real classic! As a child, I have seen almost all of the series in the evening when they were shown in Germany (every Saturday evening) and I was always looking forward to it. I think that most of the plots were interesting and exiting, and the drawings are made very well. Most of the cartoons which you can watch today, like a "modern" Donald Duck series, I think it's named "Uncle Donald and the boys", are of a much worse quality. Sometimes the plots of DuckTales also refer to classic themes, like to a Shakespeare play ("Much to do about nothing"), to Helen of Troy or to Homer, just to mention a few, or to historical events, like the first flight of the Hindenburg. I just loved to see how Magica de Spell screamed out loud "Next time lucky dime will be mine" or how Scrooge and Flintheart Glomgold talked with their "typical Scottish accent". There are only little things which could be better: I think that the 2nd edition is not as good as the first one; I loved to see adventures with the "classical stuff" like the Beagle Boys, Magica de Spell or Flintheart Glomgold, but I didn't like the new guys which were introduced during the 2nd part like Bubba and Gizmo Duck so much; in my opinion they did not really fit with the classical Disney characters. But nevertheless DuckTales is a real classic which I highly recommend to all people who like cartoons in general! I give it ten points as it's really my favourite cartoon!!