La Bande à Picsou

Ducktales reminds me what I want my life to be like, adventure and family! It's fun, and my whole family adores it. We always tune in for new episodes.

The new and modern adventures of Donald's nephews and Uncle Scrooge.

I enjoyed the original series but rarely got to watch it. I finally took the time to watch the new series and was thoroughly impressed! The animation, story beats, and comedy are all great! The first season is generally more episodic while the latter seasons become more serialized. The earlier seasons are stronger in terms of character development, but the latter seasons are stronger in terms of villain and story development. The show is witty, fun, and simply by good time had by all. It's sad that it only lasted three seasons, but it does seem they took these characters as far as they could go.

When my kids were little, there were some really good cartoons that I enjoyed watching with them, such as "Pinky and the Brain", "Animaniacs" and "Freakazoid". Watching these cartoons with them wasn't a chore like it was when they watched the likes of "Muppet Babies" (uggh!!) and many of the more insipid cartoons. Why do I mention this? Because I see the reboot of "DuckTales" to be similar...a cartoon that adults AND kids can both enjoy. This is because the show is exquisitely well written--with many clever references to various Disney shows and some very intelligently written plots. I particularly love seeing the Glomgold episodes...especially the one where he took over the show (complete with his own theme song). Overall, a clever and fun show...and one you should try to get your kids interested in seeing, as otherwise you might have to watch it alone.

I went into yesterday waiting for the DuckTales reboot skeptical. Many times when something is relaunched, it's not nearly as good as expected. However, I must say that the new DuckTales is quite good, perhaps, dare I say, even better than the original. There are some things I like better off the bat. The animation is much higher quality now than it was in the 80s. It's fluid, it's clean and it has a comic book feel to it that gives a nice nod to Carl Barks and his original creation. Also, I like that Huey, Dewey and Louie are given actual individual personalities. In the original, they were pretty much interchangeable. This one, each has a unique appearance and demeanor. Webby is also much better in this one. The writing is strong. A great mix of humor, adventure and character development. Having Donald Duck as a main character is great and adds new dimensions to the show. The only thing early on that really bugged me was the new voice of Scrooge. I know that Alan Young has passed away, but it's going to take some time to get used to this new voice. In defense, I do like the characterization of Scrooge, so once I get used to the voice, it shouldn't be bad either. The other voice actors are great. You can tell they hired some big names to help with this show. This reboot is high quality and has a ton of potential. I look forward to seeing how it unfolds once it goes on the regular schedule. Bravo Disney!

What I saw: Debut episode

Personal history of series: Didn't grow up with the original series, but did grow up with the movie. The original series has been on my "to watch" list for a very long time. The theme song has been a permanent resident on my ipod for a decade.

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Having never seen the original Ducktales series, I went into the first two episodes with an almost blank slate. I do really enjoy the 1990 movie, and something like that was what I was hoping for with this new series.

So far it is very, very promising. They've given Webby a personality outside of "a girl", they have defined the triplets a little more as opposed to them essentially being one character, and I think they've done very well with the voice actors as none of them felt out of place or stale.

A good bunch of the jokes landed, especially anything with Launchpad, I got some giggles out of it, so I'm satisfied on that front. Their first adventure was good, I'm just interested in how they're going to continue worldbuilding this as clearly magic continues to be canon.

The most interesting aspect that stuck out to me the most, however, was the family drama and relationships between the Duck family, in particular the mystery behind what happened to the triplets' mother, and what she was like.

The animation? Of course I'm a little put out that it is flash animation and not looking anywhere as nice as Gravity Falls or Star vs the Forces of Evil, but it's a high quality flash animation and I don't think it impairs the overall quality of the show too much.

The people behind this new series clearly like the franchise and want to do a good job. I've given it a 7/10 so far, but it is looking very likely that the score will shuffle up higher and higher. It is very well done and I look forward to more!