Credit: www.amazon.com
Directors
David Block
Steve Clark
Fred Wolf
Alan Zaslove
The Cast
Alan Young……….Scrooge McDuck (voice)
Tony Anselmo……….Donald Duck (voice)
Corey Burton……….Ludwig Von Drake (voice)
Hamilton Camp……….Fenton Crackshell a.k.a. Gizmoduck (voice)
Peter Cullen………Bankjob Beagle/Admiral Grimmace (voice)
Brian Cummings……….Doofus Drake/Bebop Beagle (voice)
Miriam Flynn……….Gandra Dee (voice)
June Foray……….Mrs. Featherby/Ma Beagle/Magica De Spell (voice)
Kathleen Freeman……….Mrs. Crackshell (voice)
Joan Gerber……….Betina Beakley/Glittering Goldie (voice)
Chuck McCann……….Duckworth/Burger Beagle/Bouncer Beagle (voice)
Terence McGovern……….Launchpad McQuack/Babyface Beagle (voice)
Hal Smith……….Gyro Gearloose/Flintheart Glomgold (voice)
Russi Taylor……….Huey Duck/Dewey Duck/Louie Duck/Webbigail Vanderquack (voice)
The Show
Ducktales is one of those rare children’s show that is as entertaining today as it was the fifteen years ago when first released on television. Ducktales is a spin off of the popular Donald Duck characters focusing largely on Donald’s nephews Huey, Louie, and Dewey and rich old Scrooge McDuck himself. Donald Duck joins the Navy leaving his nephews with Scrooge as they’ll be much safer there. The show focuses largely on their adventures in discovering treasure, fighting the Beagle Boys, or dealing with the latest plot to steal Uncle Scrooge’s infamous Money Bin or worse still, his number one dime.
What makes the first volume of Ducktales so great is that there are a large variety of plots that come between each episode. Every episode features a wide variety of villains, plot lines, and locations. The boys and Scrooge’s personal pilot Launchpad get sent into outer space in one episode while the boys and Scrooge face a killer mummy in Egypt in the next. The episodes set in Scrooge’s home city of Duckberg also have a great deal of variety considering that he has all sorts of villains to deal with from the ever lovable Beagle Boys to Magica DeSpell to the rich Scotish counterpart of Scrooge, Glomgold. While these characters start to get a bit old and repetitive later on, they don’t have a chance to do much in these 27 episodes besides growing on you.
There are a few problems with this set though. The first five episodes (originally a two hour movie) are not included in this set. It is unknown if the five part Treasure of the Golden Suns will ever be released on a future set, but in short, the origin story of Ducktales is not. There is really no rational behind this unless Disney plans on boxing the other two specials with this and the Ducktales movie for release at a future date.
While this is a major gripe for some, this really is only a minor gripe for me. 27 episodes of a truly great cartoon are included here. This is a nice amount of episodes for an animated series, and the episodes themselves provide quite a bit of variety. The high amount of production values that go into pretty any Disney production in the late 80s/early 90s are present here. It is without question that Ducktales was the start to the second golden age of Disney animation, an age that gave us The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Darkwing Duck, Talespin, and Beauty and the Beast.
Score: 9 out of 10
The Video
Ducktales is presented in its original full screen format. Disney did a nice job of keeping the video in pristine condition. There is no bleeding of colors or any of the other common video errors present here. It’s a great video presentation.
The Audio
Ducktales is presented in a Dolby Digital 2.0 mono format. The classic Ducktales theme sounds great as does all of the conversation. Ducktales sounds as good as it ever has.
The Extras
Zilcharootskie beyond our lovable Disney trailers. I’m majorly disappointed.
1 out of 10
