Ducktales, Season Two, Episode Seven: "Super Ducktales," part two: "Frozen Assets"

"Frozen Assets" is nicely congruent with last episode's title. I wish they could continue this "assets" theme, but alas, 'tis not to be. Not that I really can think of any more "assets" phrases that would be of use...

So our heroes rather quickly get Scrooge's money back from the Beagles by freezing the lake and carting it away. But alas! Fenton brilliantly uses Scrooge's dime to make a phone call! Yeah…again, the kind of excessive dumbness I'm not that fond of. Scrooge orders him to get it back (showing an inordinate amount of trust), but rather than just, oh, I don't know, getting someone to open up the payphone to retrieve it, Fenton chases it around and is about to recover it when it's stolen by the Beagles, along with a whole bag of other dimes, in a bank raid.

It's up to Fenton to get it back, and this is when the character's Warner-Brothers influence really asserts itself…for better or worse (and if there were any doubt, his declaration, after being thrown out of the Beagles' shack, that "of course you know, this means...a skirmish!" should get rid of THAT in a hurry).

Now, Fenton's efforts to get the dime back ARE fairly amusing, especially when he pretends to be "Bermuda Beagle" and tries to infiltrate the family, and Ma Beagle has to flip through the photo album to verify whether or not she has a son named "Bermuda" (again with the lame disguises that work). The problem I have, though, is that...well, Warner Bros cartoons can be highly entertaining, but the characters don't have the emotional range or depth that the best Disney characters do, do they? So if that's the way it's gonna be with Fenton from now on, he's going to be a decidedly limited character.

So anyway, Scrooge wants Gyro to build him a security robot. After the first model (clearly influenced by the enforcement droid in Robocop that malfunctions and kills a guy) proves sub-optimal, Scrooge gets him to build one that'll be under human (or duck) control; hence, Gizmoduck, which Fenton commandeers and uses to kick some Beagle ass, in a somewhat amusing sequence where they drive a car through the upper level of a hotel. Once again, it's not too easy to know what to say about this Gizmoduck business. It's okay, but it doesn't for the time being, seem to present too many story ideas beyond the generic "Comic Mischief." We'll see; we'll see.

Stray Observations

-Seriously, the kids are toting Scrooge's cash back to the bin one coin at a time? Come on, now!

-Actually, it IS funny how Fenton recovers the dime: a Beagle Boy thinks he's a drive-through window and makes an order, to which he responds "that'll be a large bag of dimes, please." Nicely done.