I'll tell you why it took me so long to
get around to this one: because the title and premise filled me with
apathy, that's why. Blah blah mummies, blah. Blah! Makes me think
of Original Ducktales in a nonspecific but kind of boring way.
Anyway, now I've seen it, and...I'm
STILL kinda filled with apathy. I mean, I guess it's not awful, as
these things go, but it kinda feels like an
Original Ducktales episode. The character stuff with Webby and Louie
is fine, I guess, and the whole set up is at least potentially
interesting, but the reality is a bunch of lame jokes about burritos.
And then the mummy's real for no reason except that we need to have
some kind of climax to all this nonsense? Bah. Seriously.
Generally, the whole thing's pitched a little too dumb, the writers
are a little too willing to sacrifice character in the name of lame jokes, and
I really hope the next one is better. Otherwise, I may lose faith. Do we know when the show's returning?
It's quite interesting to see some people don't quite like it because it feels like the original Ducktales, while others are not satisfied with it because it does not feel like the original Ducktales enough.
ReplyDeleteThe show will return in december!
ReplyDeleteHmm as someone who was never familiar with the original series of DT I thought it was fine (and Webby continues to be adorable) but... There was no emotional weight it needed somehow.
ReplyDeleteFor all of the mentions of death and killing it sure feels stakeless. And I blame this Scrooge... Who keeps feeling like not-Scrooge to me. Maybe they are building him up as the superduper hero so the fall from grace will feel like more of a shock but if you keep being uninteresting so you get to make the latter interesting stuff fell like something more...
Why would I keep watching?
I disliked the burrito joke like you, but I'd argue it was one of the few clever things that episode did to actually bring the Mummy back to life. Genre-savvy viewers suspect from Toth-Ra's first appearance that there's a Scooby Doo hoax thing going on, and it's a real surprise that the monster turns out to actually awaken after the standard Scooby Doo plot has been wrapped up.
ReplyDeleteEssentially, I would have really liked this episode if not for the burrito thing (Complex!Launchpad, what happened to you?), as I do like the whole treasure-hunting-with-living-Egyptian-mummies mythos more than you seem to.
Also, if you're "losing faith" in this one… which of DuckTales Classic or DuckTales 2017 would you say you like best, as things stand?
Yhe, I'm with Achille on the mummy comming to life. It was nice twist on what you would expect - even if technicaly this means that the guy was using CORPSES as a puppet... um.
DeleteI didn't found the burrito thing funny as well, I think they could found many much, much more amusing things insted.
The concept of civilization hidden in a Piramid for centuries is an interesting one and it did felt more like a plot of the oryginal DuckTales which I like, I just wish they would explore it more.
The villain guy felt very underdevelop as well.
Episode did got dull'ish at moment and they could had more epic fun with Ancient Egypt set-up but it was ok. Nice to see them actualy do some promised Treasure Hunting on this show...
So I'm the only one on this case as... I F*cking hate this episode. Everything is f*cking joke! Burrito, laser eyes... the actual tension was ruined because writers decided to made Dewey into moron and asshole, forget the fact villain is underdeveloped as creators has no intention to make us care about plot. Whole "freedom" speech is the worst offender here. There is no difference between what that lady said and what Scrooge said... but this dumb dialogue was written just for f*cking burrito joke... which is forshadowing for destroying ancient evil with giant burrito. This one episode made me hate new Ducktales!!!
DeleteI agree with Pan Milus across the board on this one. Pan has said on Feathery that "Sphinx for the Memories" is one of his favorite original DT episodes, and that's true for me, too. One of my top five, in fact. So in some ways this episode suffers by comparison just because it is so reminiscent of such a fine episode. OK, cute, but major missed opportunities, annoying burrito jokes, and Launchpad is now definitely established as an idiot. I'm OK with the mummy coming to life. Also kinda liked the Wizard of Oz vibe (pay no attention....).
ReplyDeleteThis episode was hurt by what I consider to be this show's most persistent issue: It's detatched, sarcastic approach to adventures and the supernatural. It's an approach that really robs the adventure of any sense of wonder and discovery and instead just makes it seem trite and insincere. Like, if you think adventure stories are so quaint and old-fashioned as you clearly do, why even bother telling these kinds of stories? Covering the plot with a layer of jokey sarcasm doesn't inherently make it better. That's a lesson you really should have learned from Quack Pack. And any given early 2000s DreamWorks movie.
ReplyDeleteThat said, on some level I found myself wondering how this is different from the approach of any given comic story. The best Duck adventure stories usually do mix in a fair amount of silliness with the good old-fashioned adventuring. When I asked myself about whether the burrito gag would have been in a comic, I found myself thinking about the superficially similar ice cream soda subplot in Don Rosa's "Return to Plain Awful" -- though that was more developed and less calculated to make that story's isolated civilization seem incredibly dumb. Still, I'd say the burrito gag isn't INHERENTLY out of place given that context, it's more the delivery that kills it. The fact that it's tossed out there for no other reason than to be zany.
I have to admit I liked the mummy actually coming alive, if only for providing the episode's best line:
Louie: Tell me what I can do for you!
Toth-Ra: DIE!
I think the show's supposed to return in December. Until then, I'd highly encourage you to take a look at the short "Sport Goofy in Soccermania" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggmVm2ljDuw) if you want to write about something on the cartoon blog. It's billed as a Goofy cartoon but it's basically a dry run for DuckTales, with HDL, Scrooge and the Beagle Boys in supporting roles.
You are correct but what confuses me is that Gravity Falls had no such problem. Paranormal element of the show supported character interactions + mystery of the show. Here all those elements are here but they sabbotage themselfs. Character interactions hurt overall story and mystery is well... not even a secret. I do not question what happend to Della Duck anymore, I mostly question why would Scrooge build hidden room for Della in Money Bin and THEN tell about it to Ms Quackfast.
DeleteStiiilllll waiting for the Mount Neverest review.
ReplyDeleteHelllooooo?
ReplyDeleteDid anyone else get the feel that the pyramid society was a heavy handed ham fisted allegory for North Korea? The divine leader, the starving population and the "Western" burrito as a "cure". Some of the speeches in this episode felt more like they were talking about NK than the society we actually saw in the episode.
ReplyDelete