The First Episodes For The New Ducktales Show Feel Rushed But Also Have A Sense Of Fun To Them

We're only a few years into this recent trend of bringing back popular TV shows from years past (Full House, Mystery Science Theater 3000, the upcoming Will & Grace continuation) and yet I'm still shocked it took Disney this long to get a reboot of Ducktales going. The companies so focused on enhancing and continuing their brand names, you'd think something with an ardent fan base that stars some of the companies most popular characters would have gotten a rejiggering eons ago. Well, here we are anyway, with a new version of Ducktales that looks to captivate new generations of kiddos just as the original Ducktales became a perennial staple of my generation's childhood.


The one-hour special that kicks off the new Ducktales cartoon, entitled Woo-ooo!, is kind of place-setting endeavor of sorts, one that makes sure to establish the personalities of the primary characters of the tv show and establish the status quo for what's to come. In this reboot, triplets Huey (Danny Pudi), Dewey (Ben Schwartz) and Louie (Bobby Moynihan) are being watched over by their distant and extremely wealthy great-uncle Scrooge McDuck (David Tennant) while their uncle Donald Duck (Tony Anselmo) goes to a job interview. Scrooge doesn't want to have anything to do with the young boys, especially in the cranky mood he's in regarding how he feels he's become a "has-been" in the world.

Longing for the days of when he was a great adventurer, Scrooge McDuck soons finds himself thrust into danger once again as the triplets, along with Webby (Kate Micucci), accidentally unleash some nefarious evil stored in antiques and trinkets from Scrooge's past adventures. The thrill of taking down evil with these youngsters rejuvenates Scrooge and he soon takes the four kids on a journey to the lost city of Atlantis, a location Scrooge's long-time rival, Flinthart Glomgold (Keith Ferguson), is also heading towards in hope of finding lost treasure. Plenty of adventure escapades ensue as the triplets begin to grow closer to Scrooge along the way.

I'm a big fan of the original Ducktales but I'll freely admit to not having watched it in many years and upon recollection of it as an adult, I can easily see a number of ways in which it can be improved. The new Ducktales isn't exactly the polished perfect version of the original concept at the heart of Ducktales but it is a solid show that I think kids will like a whole lot and adults won't find painful to sit through, especially since the new show (thankfully) eschews a lot of the comedic hallmarks of a lot of animated kids show wherein gags primarily rely on loud noises, hyperactivity and bathroom room. For those thinking this is some kind of Fairly Oddparents cacophony of noise in place of wit, you're in luck.

The humor instead revolves around dialogue-oriented gags, none of which are hugely funny but I got a handful of chuckles out of them, especially since the voice cast has a good sense of comedic timing more often than not. Speaking of the voice cast, there's a decently stacked array of talent here, though thankfully experienced voice actors like Keith Ferguson and Tony Anselmo still get major roles to play. To my surprise, though the concept of stand-up non-voice actor dudes in their late thirties playing kids sounds like a bad idea, the trio assigned to Huey, Duey and Louie work well in their roles while Kate Micucci is actually a lot of fun as a revamped version of Webby. David Tennant as Scrooge can't hold a candle to Alan Young (who can?) but he's doing decent stuff right now even if I wish he sounded a tad older since Scrooge is supposed to be an older guy.

So the humor and voice acting are solid, so why wasn't I more enamored with this debut episode of Ducktales? Honestly, I think it was just the story, which felt like they rushed through a lot of polot points that needed more breathing room to work properly. Jokes and adventure are the order of the day here for sure, but for a TV special whose entire purpose is to establish character dynamics for the TV series ahead, I found myself wanting more time spent on establishing Huey, Dewey and Louie as distinct personalities even in just broad terms (Dewey's the only one who gets any real characterization since he's stuck with Scrooge for an extended period of time in the Atlantis journey).The trio have been interchangeable individuals for a lot of their life, except for stuff like (shudder) Quack Pack, but isn't the point of a reboot to do things you haven't done with past incarnations of a certain property?

There's a similar rushed quality to handling certain other character details too, namely what exactly happened with Scrooge McDuck that left his company and his own personality in such disarray for so long. I'd imagine further episodes will illuminate on the matter but these episodes are supposed to stand out on their own, especially a TV special airing a whole month prior to the shows proper premiere. Even with such notable storytelling wrinkles to iron out though, the new version of Ducktales isn't exactly "making history" with its level of quality but I'd be lying if I said it didn't keep me mostly diverted for 40-ish minutes or so.