Launchpad, who felicitously resembles an enemy secret agent working for FOWL (Foreign Organization for World Larceny), therefore takes on the task of impersonating him for the Duckburg Intelligence Agency, in order to uncover the villainous Dr. Nogood.
Allow me to confess here, the following: I have never seen a James Bond movie in its entirety. There's no particular reason for this; I just…didn't for a long time, and then it became sort of a "principle," albeit not a particularly serious one (I HAVE played a fair bit of N64 Goldeneye, though). The tropes of the genre are sufficiently familiar that actually being familiar with the source material to "get" parodies thereof is unnecessary, however.
Thing about this episode is, it may well be the best episode yet. The show is really firing on all cylinders here. The elements of Bond-pastiche--international jetsetting, nonsensical spy-inventions by Gyro ("G"), the dangerous femme fatale, the invincible evil sidekick, the heavy with a sinister pet cat--aren't exactly blindingly original, but they're executed with a great deal of panache and energy, and Launchpad proves more than capable of holding his own in a starring turn--his bumbling persistence carries the episode forward with a lot of momentum while not feeling at all rushed--pretty much everything that needs to be covered is covered. It's no wonder this one spawned a spin-off.
Stray Observations
-I find "Foreign Organization for World Larceny" quite hilarious. Darned generic "foreigners!"
-"Feathers Galore" is surprisingly sexually aggressive!
-…and speaking of things you're sort of surprised are able to be depicted in a Ducktales episode, Nogood ends up dying(!) in quite a gruesome fashion.
-Okay, I'll grant you, the ending--in which Launchpad and Feathers are conveniently separated by means of him quoting the ending of Casablanca--is a bit on the clumsy side.
-Really great, nearly wordless introductory sequence in which Bruno (the guy Launchpad's impersonating) evades DIA agents. If the rest of the episode's gonna be that good, you reflect, it's gonna be a damned good episode. And whaddaya know--it is.
On Darkwing Duck, F.O.W.L. suddenly stands for FIENDISH Organization for World Larceny. Did those darned foreigners infiltrate America sufficiently so that the name had to be changed?
ReplyDeleteOh, and the "New Deli/New Delhi" mix-up cracks me up.