Right, so this is the one where Lena plants a jewel in the Money Bin that turns into a bigass money shark named Tiffany and starts eating everyone right and left, and we finally hear Magica talk (did we hear her before? Probably, but this is the first extended interaction), and it’s designed to get the dime, but ultimately Lena decides that Friendship Is Magic and Magica’s plot is foiled. But Lena must obey her if she wants her freedom! OMFuckingG!
It certainly seems to be the case that Lena livens these episodes the hell up. This was definitely the best one in a while, even if the subplot about Scrooge’s PR effort is a bit weak. The shark is basically impressive and cool-looking and creative. End of story.
“Lena conflicted” is probably the best part of the show as a whole because it feels like a serious thing with serious stakes. And I like it; I really do. I will say, though, that it’s not clear how long they can actually keep stringing this plotline along before it just starts getting HELLA repetitive.
There’s a more serious problem, though: I’m not a fan of the idea that Lena’s being *coerced* into working for Magica because, to repeat myself, she wants her FREEDOM. If it’s not actually because of an internal conflict between good and evil that she’s having, her conflictedness feels a lot less resonant and interesting. Seems like the show kinda pulling its punches in terms of moral ambiguity. Which, perhaps, is inevitable for a kids’ show, but still…eh. I’m having a premonition that this may not end up resolved in a way that I find notably satisfying, but we’ll see.
Also: Treasures of the Last Lamp reference: the spellbook Webby pulls out is called the “Grimoire du Merlock.” So that’s…a thing.
Magica had few lines in "Terror of the Terra-firmians!"
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVhTenWe4Ps
This episode so far felt like closes to the comics. Magica's plot was very classic De Spell skim (In fact she tries a very similiar plan in the story https://inducks.org/story.php?c=D+2007-376 only there it wasn't a shark but more humanoidal creature), we get plenty of great Scrooge moments that felt very true to his character... even the Beagle Boys cameo felt like out of "Terror of the Beagle Boys" (heck I did enjoy Glomgold apperance for once) and overall it was a fun classic adventure and the Scrooge's PR subplot was good thing to tie with "Scrooge's money literally harm Duckburg".
As for Lena's conflict - I don't know. I think that "I can do somethng wicked and help myself OR I will put my needs aside in order to help my friend" it's a strong conflict in it's own right.
Since we are learning more about Lena/Magica story as the season progres with every episode I woudn't be suprise there is more to the entire thing then just Lena's FREEDOM. Magica DO mention she will grand hers "heart's desire". It would be interesting if their would up the stake in future episodes like let's say we learn that Lena's parents are dead/gone/abonded her, and Magica promise she will bring them back to be with her forever if she will get the dime. That not only would be pararel to Dewey's Della story arc (both try to find their parents) but Lena would have a beliveble reason to betray Webby agian and chosing between people she loves and friendship is much more stronger conflict way beyond "Shit, it suck to be a slave to an evil shadow".
More of episode like this and "Beware The B.U.D.D.Y. Syte" pelase.
Also as for scenes Scrooge with the reporter - I said this once and I said this agian, If Scrooge existed in the real world I asure you every news comentator would do make a living out of tearing him apart.
ReplyDelete"Tonight on John Oliver - McDuck's Money Bin! The great place to burrow through like a gopher and the reson why children of Shacktown wen't to school without breakfast agian. We like to take this moment thank our new sponsors the Glomgold & Rockerduck fundation..."
Pan Milus: Thanks for the reference to the "My Money, My Enemy" story--interesting connection.
ReplyDeleteIf I judge this episode on the basis of DT '17's own character-definitions and goals, it's quite good. It was enjoyable to watch. I like the beanstalk visual jokes, Webby's enthusiasm & confident optimism, Lena's struggle, Launchpad's "Dewey's brothers" line.
What are we meant to think about the functioning of the friendship spell? The first time Webby tries it, and Lena starts changing color, what is happening? Would Webby's childish magic rhyme have done anything without Lena's magic? or did it work because Lena has magic running in her veins?
Also, I wonder what would have happened to the swallowed folks had Friendship Magic not intervened. Maybe the point is that No One Knows, since even Magica didn't anticipate exactly how Tiffany would behave.
Nice to have a female-focused story. With Lena, Magica, Webby and Beakley in their current personalities--plus Goldie and possibly Della--this DT may do a lot better than original DT at approaching gender balance. Also, a lot better than the comics generally.
I belive Webby's spell work as it was combination of being an actuall spell from Merlock book and the fact that Lena is magical or at least has the talisman. It only work becose she was holding hand of magical person but Webby thinks it's the "magic of friendship" thing...
DeleteI was in France on animation festival few days ago and Disney had panel for the new 101 Dalmation cartoon (which looks fun btw) and they talk how they are trying to put as many representation in their shows and they want them to feel as gender neutral as possible. They actualy did some tests of their main female character on that show and boys respond to her as possitive as girls (which begs the Question why they didn't do the same test with main male character and girls but whatever) Long story short - If there is one field they are trying I'm glad it is this one.
So yhe, we get something like "Beware the B.U.D.D.Y. System" which is "guy's story line" but then we get an episode like this when it focus on the famale storylines and works just as good.
Honestly the only interesting female characters in old DT where Magica De Spell and maybe Ma Beagle (both villians). Mrs. Crackshell didn't appear until very late in the game, Goldie's apperance was rare and Webby and Mrs. Beakley where stereotypes/token character and less i say about Gandra Dee the better. I also think new show has some fun episodic female characters like the reporter in this episode or Glomgold's goon in the pilot - heck I would love to see more of her in the future.
Can't say I like the evil/cruel Magica with a generations-long bloodfeud with the McDucks, though, any more than I like New Louie or New Gyro. Magica is more interesting to me as a regular person who through tremendous dedication has gained magical powers, which she wastes in the service of a crazy obsessional goal. There's a bit of the gambler about her: she can't ever admit defeat, because she's invested too much already. Cognitive consistency demands that she double down after every failure. Still, she interacts with family members or students or peers in relatively normal ways. You can identify with her in her pride in her schemes and her inevitable frustration.
ReplyDeleteThat's more interesting to me than an Evil Witch™ who is willing to throw her niece to the monster.
Yes, I agree with this, and should have said something about it.
DeleteAs much I also prefer comic book Magica I somehow don't mind interpretation of the character. Maybe becose unlike Gyro they actualy doing cool stuff with this concept and at - agian whhile I prefer the oryginal version - at least she is an actual threatening villian, unlike Glomgold who get's just more buffoonish with every episode.
DeletePicking between making her more pathethic and more dangerus I'm glad they went with the later, especialy since the other main badguy is already been reduce (and for the record if you would ask me about the comics then the Glomgold is the more evil, rutless one and Magica is more human, resonable one... but I guess they wen't this way since it's more easy to make cool visual stuff with magic and creat threats for the character)
That's an interesting analysis. Yes, comics-Glomgold is the ruthless one: Scrooge without the ameliorating effects of family. And I can see why it might be good for the series to have one truly threatening villain. And spooky magic does make for great visuals.
DeleteI guess I'm just generally less interested in characters who are "fairy-tale EVIL." It's a curious question, what sort of antagonists work for me in different fictional worlds. There's real, human, often unbearable cruelty in realistic fiction, perpetrated by complicated humans like you and me. There are Disney-comics villains, who are out to get money or power but who will not torture children or kill people to get it. They are real and satisfying within the Disney-comics fictional world, where there is a limit on how bad things can get. I don't know whether EVIL villains in fantasy books, comics or animated stories ever work for me. EVIL villains will torture children and kill people, but they have no recognizable human mix of motivations. The reader/viewer can't identity with any part of them. They are archetypes, not characters.
We'll see what they try to do with this Magica to develop her character. But just a revenge motive or whatever won't be enough to lift her out of archetype status in my book.
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DeleteYou know, when I was a kid my favorite villian of ALL TIME was Penguin/Oswald Copelpott from Tim Burton's "Batman Returns" movie.
DeleteThe guy was born deform and his rich snoby family ashamed of him thrown him into a sewer when he was found and raised by Circques freak show. He want's to get revange on the society by kidnaping all the children in the city and drawning them, but at the same time as a little kid I understood when then anger was comming from. Yes he's evil and dark but you can't stop feel sorry for him (the guy literally had to spent his Christmas in the sewers) and he had some amusing moments that made him more human and as a kid I totaly that facinating : You don't wan't him to win but you also feel bad for him.
In fact all of Batman villians in the 90's media (movies, animated series) where this way - Two-Face had a childhood trauma take over, the Mad Hatter had women he love rejected him, Mr. Freeze lost the chance to cure his wife... They evil but not cose it's fun but cose something relatable (yet extreme) push them to be this way. In real life people mostly result to crime from desperation [Heck, there is an episode when Batman out loud say about group of rich kids who where strealing for fun that he consider them "worse then the Joker" as "at least has insanity as motivation"]
At the same it's harder to have villians like that in a Disney show/movie especialy with character who never needed that like Magica or Glomogld.
Some Disney movies try - Syndrom from the first "Incredebles" movie (Gah!!!! I have to wait few more weeks to get the Sequel in Poland) was rejected and - by acident - humiliated by the man he worship. Oh, he's a totall jerk but you sort of can feel sorry for the fact he would be a hero if not for one bad day when Mr. Incredeble treat him to harsh.
Another good example of that is the bad guy from "Big Hero Six", I don't get into Spoilers if you didn't see it but yhe, the guy while not most interesting bad guy still have a back story that make you genuinely feel sorry for and understand WHY he's angry and got pushed into doing evil stuff.
I guess it's more easy to do that stuff in super hero stories... but then agian "Sofia the First" - which a Disney show for little kids suprisingly manage to have some moraly ambiguity with the villian Christa, who while wan't to change entire world into Christals... I mean holy smoke just listen to her sing about her evil plan :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAcxhTqe8tE
She dosen't see herself as evil. She actualy think of herself as a good person and just wan't to be happy. Heck, she can be quite plesant.
I kind of enjoy this type of "Don Kichoty" villians who THINK they are good people and don't realise they are doing harm.
There was a British cartoon Count Duckula (so many great Duck Cartoons...) that had a great recuring villian Doctor Van Gooswing. Van Gooswing wanted to kill Duckula thinking he's a mance, while Dackula was a vegetarian vampire (100% harmles) yet Van Goosewing refuse to belive such notion. He's plot to kill Duckula backfired ala Magica trying to get #1 dime or Gargamel to get the Smurfs but heres the thing - Van Goosewing was actualy a very plesant and helpfull character when Duckula wasn't around, who actualy belive he is helping the world by killing the last living vampire.
So yhe, I think you can get away with moraly complex bad guys in a kids show and not have them be the "BUHAHAHA-I'm evil for the sake of being evil villians" and it's not that hard.
(Actualy Rosa's Arpin Lusene is a good example. Yes he's a bad guy no question but he's also a good sport and actualy shows his respects to Scrooge every time he looses and that's something quite likeable about him)
Yes, it's partly a matter of whether the villain is given recognizably human qualities or motivations. Though again, merely having a tragic backstory or a relatable wish for revenge is not enough in my book. That sort of motivation often feels cardboard to me. Too simplistic--like the Hollywood view of therapy, where Everything Is Solved once you figure out the One Formative Trauma. I want the character to have a mix of qualities. I agree that Doctor Van Goosewing is nice example of an antagonist in a kids' cartoon who is a serious threat to the hero without being EVIL.
DeleteIn comics, the Beagle Boys and Magica were already human and quasi-likeable in Barks, and have both been further humanized in stories that show them interacting with other characters, with family, etc. The Beagles even got to do something purely good in "Being Good for Goodness' Sake." You could say that the only truly irredeemable bad guys in Barks are the lawyers!
There's a reason why Barks didn't really want to write the Christmas story with the Evil Witch; that kind of simplistic character doesn't really fit into his fictional world.
Mind, I think he should just have actually complexified Grimhilde. She wasn't exactly cookie-cutter in the original film, even if the comics had a tendency to simplify her; he should have gone back to that, I think.
DeleteWait... So she was MENT to be the actual witch/Queen from "Snow White"? Draaaaat, I asume she was only ment to be a look-a-like/inspired by.
DeleteHere's what Donald reads in the newspaper on p. 1 of "The Golden Christmas Tree": "Many people claim to have seen strange hag somewhat like witch who poisoned Snow White!" When the nice old lady who gives the boys directions drops her disguise, the narration box says: "Yes, this nice old lady is the witch!"--that is, the witch everyone has been seeing and talking about. So, she's an evil witch who looks like the witch in Snow White (Grimhilde in her hag form). Whether it's the same individual is arguable. The Evil Queen/Witch Grimhilde in Snow White dies at the end of the movie (a fact which was confirmed in a pre-release novelization of the film)... though I remember reading a commenter online saying that in a very early comic-book story where she appears, some explanation was given for her survival, is that right? It's never made sense to me to have Grimhilde in other stories permanently in her witch-form, since the hag appearance was just her disguise.
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DeleteI always asume that the newspaper was refering to Snow White as a movie/fairy tale, as in -
Delete"An evil witch who looks like that famous fictional character"
not
"An witch who poisoned our beloved Snow White, the historical figure/local celebrity/important political figure ruling The Kingdom"
I guess is me just being naive by asuming Barks universe was above all the "Lady and the Tramp meets Captain Hook" odd crosovers going on at the time (yes, yes, I know he did Grandmaduck meets Dumbo meets that Fox from "Song of the South" story but you get my point...) Even if it all was by pluishers request. I still try to stay by my belive she wasn't ment to be the literal character from Snow White - which would make her super old/imortal at this point, seeing that the character was in her... what? Early 40's? When the transformation took form.
P.S.
Seeing how Grimhilde is obssesed with murdering Snow White it sort-of-more-or-less(well, less) make sence she would stay in the Hag form until her goal is done - then she can enjoy being fairest in the land and not second-faires like some beauty pageant Glomgold. To be fair I find her more efectivei in the Queen form but it's the hag that gives the childreen nightmares.
@Matilda: Grimhilde having survived and living as a witch in a cottage in the Forest (along with the Dwarfs) was a steadily established element in Western comics. There are literally dozens of stories (many by Vic Lockman) which use "the Wicked Witch" (and she goes unnamed, but she's the same-looking old witch antagonizing the Dwarfs, so hey) as an established element of the setting.
DeleteThe story which finally explained how she survived the movie and why she's stuck as the witch with no way to regain her beauty and Queensly status actually came much later, in the 1980's. Up until then the question was just swept under the rug like why Bambi & Co. are all still kids whenever they appear.
I love Floyd Gottfredson story about her shrinking the Dwars. I love art on her in the story, she looks very scary there.
DeleteI always wondered, if the Evil Queen was so jealous of Snow White being prettier than her, why didn't she just give Snow White the Grimhilde potion?
DeleteHa ha, Christopher, very good point! That's so clearly a better choice than trying to murder the girl that the narrative really should have come up with some explanation for why it wasn't an option: e.g., that the potion doesn't work on someone with a Pure Heart.
DeleteBuilding on that, I suggest that rather than the tacky Pure Heart idea, it's simply that it has to be taken willingly, by someone who genuinely wants to transform. Or alternatively, that it is only effective on the one who brewed it.
DeleteI suppose Lena exists for people who thought the episodes with Magica in the old series lacked "an arc" - that annoying chestnut often mentioned by annoying YouTube bloggers. It's POSSIBLE that "Lena" might actually be a construct of Magica working on her behalf - a new twist on the shadow construct from "Magica's Shadow War".
ReplyDeleteAt one point Lena said something to the effect of "next time, let's sleep over at MY house," and I wondered what she could possibly be referring to.
DeleteAnother thing that annoyed people about the old show is that in very first Magica episode she mention her Raven Poe is her brother who got turn into a bird... and they never bring it up agian. Maybe Lena is his ofspring?
DeleteMy guess is that the show would not be that cruel to Webby--depriving her of her first-ever possible friend. Female friend, that is--she is teaming up with Dewey in his search for info about Della. And Lena is a good potential friend for Webby--her own out-of-the-ordinary background helps her take Webby's weirdness in stride and see past it to her loyalty and good-heartedness.
DeleteI think it's likely that they wanted an additional solid female character in the continuing cast.
And to the writers credit Lena is connected to a classic character (Magica) and possibly inspired by Mimima de Spell, so they are not forcing a new character for the sake of pleasing a demographic (like Dickie was) but there is an idea and bigger purpose behind her.
DeletePlus even if Lena will turn good for good and runs from Magica she will still had a lot of bagage to deal with, from strugling with her iner-witch, Scrooge not trusting her do to being a DeSpell, geting trash from people of Duckburg every time Magica attacks... there are some story possibilites there.
DeleteAnd - agian after Lena would turn to the good side - it would be interesting to put into question how much she actualy likes Webby. I mean, yhe, she clrealy cares for ber but the two are such opposites I wonder how much of Lena being nice to Webby's oddities is actualy enyoing them and how much she is just tolerant/being nice to not ruin her cover.
DeleteI kind of think it's an interesting take on Magica that they can have her usual plans to get the dime but to give it a fresh spin they are from point of view of a person working on the inside.
Apparently, the creators said somewhere (I imagine Twitter) that Lena is Minima, more or less, but they decided to change her name at some point during production so as to preserve the surprise.
DeleteThanks Achille :) I just even found this :
Deletehttps://suspendersofdisbelief.tumblr.com/post/165916982576/was-lena-inspired-by-magicas-niece-minima-de
BTW - In France I got "Achille Talon" integral book. Can't wait to explore that character :D
Angones says there Lena is "a new character for our story purposes," and I'd underline that. The only thing she has in common with Minima, in my view, is being Magica's niece. Though it's true, in her first appearance, Magica was trying to use Minima to get the dime through Webby. But in personality and (presumed) background, the two are not at all alike.
DeleteSo, I'm glad they refrained from calling the character Minima in order to preserve the surprise. If they had called her Minima, that would have been just one more character where I would have had to tell myself, "It's a completely different character who just happens to have the same name."
Plus, "Minima" is a cute name, and Minima herself is a cute character, in appearance and personality. The name wouldn't fit the Lena character.
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ReplyDeleteQuestion. If it ever finds its meandering way to U.S. shores, will you give the Legend of the Three Caballeros series a look? It has Clinton Coot and April, May and June in animated form, can't disappoint a comic-fan with that sort of pedigree, and you've mentioned being appreciative of the original Three Caballeros and its Don Rosa spiritual-sequels. Wouldn't hurt to have a look at some classic ducks if you grow too tired of their rebooted counterparts.
ReplyDeleteHello? GeoX? The preceding comment was a question, of the sort that should elicit an answer, however succinct or vague.
ReplyDeleteI think Geox awnser you just now in his very next post ;)
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