Welp. I'm not gonna lie to you people:
for whatever reason, I just found this more boring than anything
else. I mean, there's nothing egregiously bad about it, but eh,
whatever.
Gladstone's fine, I guess. On the
whole not as insufferable as in Barks, but...it's not a bad
portrayal. I'm a fan of Paul F Tompkins, and I was worried before
watching it that his voice would be overly distracting, but it was
actually less of a problem than I feared. It's good casting. I
won't deny it.
Um...what else? So is the idea that
Gladstone was ever actually a casino owner, or was he a slave right
from the start? 'Cause I'm definitely not buying that the former is
something he would ever be. WAY too much work.
Also, what the heck is the deal with
Donald repeatedly shouting TWENTY-SEVEN when trying to guess how many
fingers the guy was holding up? How dumb is he meant to BE, anyway?
Shit, I wish I felt I had more to say
about this episode, but I'm afraid I don't. Okay: I guess Louie's
inspirational speech to Donald in the end about his endless
persistence was pretty good, as was Gladstone's flash of
self-awareness at the end. But really. No one's done anything
wrong; I'm not mad at them. I'm just...blah.
From what I got from the episode Gladstone was just a guest at the Casino, not a owner (they never say that).
ReplyDeleteI personally love the heck out of this episode, especialy since it's the first time in animation we see a "Donald vs. Gladstone" story (or any interaction between the two for that matter) and I think they taken full advantage of the potential - in 20 minutes format - and the idea that Donald is trying to win the boys over was a nice idea to make the conflict between the two even more personal (It's remove any selfish element from Donald as in the comics he often only motivated by envy of Gladstones luck) as well I think it was suspencfull that after building up entire episode that Donald can't beat Gladstone no matter what he do, they have to clash in a life or death scenario. I dunno, I found the idea pretty epic, and I love that when push come to shove, it was Donald's determination and love for his family that proven to be more powerfull then Gladstone's luck when he puts his heart to it (even if it manifests in a "Hulk Smash" rage attack) Plus I enjoyed Gladstone walking slowly for the entire race while lucky thing happen to him. It was actually tad creepy (in a good way) and even Aesop'ian, especialy the part when he stop to pick up the 20 dollar bill.
I found it histerical when Gladstone is wining all the cars by acident (I wish they would play a tad more with the idea that he can't loose, even when he wants) But I have to admit his dialog will be hard to translate in other language version (same word-play for example won't work in Polish)
The only thing that annoyed me was Dewey talking and the fountain's during Donald/Gladstone race on the end. I didn't found his obssesion that funny to beging with.
Well in Polish you could play it otherwise; "trzymam(I'm holding)" as "trzy(three)mam(I have)"
DeleteOh, I know we have some clever translators who will handle the world-play... I also know we have few terrible, terrible ones who screw-up similar jokes in the past royal.
DeleteAs we say in our country - We live, we see ;)
This was my favourite episode yet. It was, for my tastes, the one that felt closest to a Duck comics story (albeit not necessarily a Barks story). The depictions of Gladstone, Scrooge and Donald were solid and the locale was interesting. And the ending gag was hilariousæ
ReplyDeleteYeah, I'm pretty sure Gladstone never owned the casino and that wasn't the implication they were going for. Admittedly, that did confuse me slightly at the beginning. It would be odd for Scrooge to consider Gladstone a layabout if he owned his own lucrative business.
I think it's interesting to contrast this with the old show in how they handle the adaptation of certain characters. The old show had a problem where it would often significantly soften up characters - like Gladstone, Scrooge and Donald - who were supposed to have a mean edge to them. This show has the opposite problem: It nails characters who are supposed to be a bit mean or aggressive, like the aforementioned three, but it can't resist the urge to make characters who are SUPPOSED to be nice - like Gyro, Quackfaster, Beakley and even Doofus judging by some leaked images - much meaner and more aggressive. I wonder what it says about the tone of modern children's animation compared to the eighties.
And that's so weird when characters like Gyro are dangerous to begin with. Gyro is the nicest guy around and also one of the most dangerous because of the things he invents and just gives to kids or leaves laying around...
DeleteBut then you have a problem like Glomgold being turned into an ineffectual one-note joke villain...
Sure he supposedly tries to kill the heroes but if the heroes are gonna be fine and everyone knows they're gonna be fine, and especially scrooge doesn't actually even feel threatened because he's just too cool, it's...
I also was underwhelmed by this episode. I was surprised to see on Feathery that some people really liked it, so it's interesting to see longer comments here explaining why. For me, it was like an OK-but-unmemorable ten-pager...with the exception of the Dewey thing, which was annoying. There was no reason for him to be entranced by the Aqua-show that I could discern, except to show that Dewey likes things that are uncool and that bore the others.
ReplyDeletePardon! It was Huey, not Dewey. My mistake...
ReplyDeleteThey screwed up Huey so far didn't they? Everyone who isn't crazy/asshole/idiot isn't much respected (unless you are female). Lets, just make abridged parody of this show like Team Four Star did to Dragon Ball and fix it, shall we?
DeleteAside from this episode, I don't mind Huey so far. Technicaly he is the closes to the personality of the oryginal nephew, even if so far he's least develope out of three. "Smart one = nerd one" is also something I'm not a fan of.
DeleteAm utterly surprised you said nothing about the "off-screen grand Launchpad adventure in Macaw" thing. I was utterly flabberghasted by it, I have no idea what this is, it's just — blargh — what?
ReplyDeleteOn other notes, one thing I was happy with in this episode is the use of anthropomorphic toads. There are literally none in the comics but DuckTales Classic introduced them (for instance with Ribbit, the Porker Hogg equivalent in Once Upon a Dime), and it's a nice nod for this show to use it too.
And no, Gladstone never did own the casino — it was entirely a pre-release misconception based on the title.
Yeah--to be the Launchpad thing felt like, oh, they're flying somewhere so naturally he has to be there, but we don't really want him in the main body of the episode. What to do? Let's dismiss him with this feeble, confusing gag! If you've ever played Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, it's like the running joke where Luigi is constantly telling you about his elaborate, off-screen adventures that you never see. That's a lot better-developed than this is, though.
DeleteIf indeed this becomes a running gag (Launchpad having his own mysterious, off-screen adventure while the others are carrying the plot), you will get the spotter's prize.
DeleteI found it funny but other shows actually play with it much better sometimes making it even part of the plot.
DeleteI think it's a Ok joke, It's just something I've seen done before many times in something like "The Simspons".
Delete