Duck Tales

Duck Tales

Duck Tales came at a time when Disney was just about finding its feet again, in something of an animation lull before the studios great resurgence in the mid-1990s. While that renaissance became known for its clever writing and fun characters, the early stages of that are clearly visible in Duck Tales.

Surprisingly enough, the show was actually a comic book adaptation, with Scrooge McDuck first finding an audience in his own comics in the 1950s. The show didn’t just borrow the book’s characters, but also several of the original plots were translated completely over to the TV series.

The show, for a start, was great to look at, looking every bit the part of its more illustrious cinematic brethren with its bold designs and bright colours never looking cheap.

Where the show went to though was something totally odd, as it mainly became a family friendly, duck based form of Indiana Jones, with Scrooge and the boys often jetting off to some foreign location to find a priceless artefact. This was all while stopping the shows various villains from either ruining Scrooge or swiping the treasure for themselves.

It was this ingenuity that kept the show fresh and fun throughout its 100 episode run and has, to this day, made it a favourite amongst a generation, with IGN even naming it their 18th best animated show of all time back in 2009.

Despite being a tight fisted miser, Scrooge is still a likeable lead due to his uncompromising decency. Never one to either mince his words or play a dirty trick, he’s a paragon of honesty that serves as the moral compass of all of Disney’s animations.

The show’s eclectic mix of characters were great too, from the accident prone pilot Launchpad McQuack to the no-nonsense butler Duckworth all helping to make the show a great comic experiment.

Duck Tales was an absolute smash hit; becoming the first syndicated Disney animated series and being sent all across the globe and even had two spin-off shows of its own; Darkwing Duck and Quack Pack and a feature film adaptation.

The show’s even been used as the term for an entire generation in Hungary, after the show was interrupted by the news of the death of the nation’s then president József Antall.

From its horrifically catchy theme tune (which will be now stuck in your head all day) to its loveable miser at the centre of it all, Duck Tales is still a memorable show for all the right reasons.

 

FemaleFirst Cameron Smith

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