Look. I tried to go into this episode
with open heart and mind. To appreciate it for what it is. To
evaluate it as unburdened by preconceptions as possible. But it
didn't work, dammit. I really hated pretty much
everything about it.
Let's start with the depiction of
Magica, which certainly isn't new to this episode, but which we see
in a more prolonged way than ever. Now, comics-Magica is, of course,
pretty variable, in terms of just how evil or quasi-sympathetic she
is. But...this version of her is wholly unlike anything we've seen before, and I hate it. I must grant, on
this particular point, that my opinion here is obviously highly
colored by my background, and someone without it might appreciate her
more for what she is. Still, I think it's a fair complaint:
including all this annoying fan-service for comics fans doesn't
really mean anything if you then proceed to alter familiar character
beyond recognition. Really, now.
I have certainly said that the
Lena/Webby business was my favorite thing in the series, but I am not
sure how long and to what extent I will be able to keep that up. I
mean, it may still be my "favorite" for lack of anything
else, and I must grant, I guess, that Lena's dreamcatcher-induced
vision is the best thing in the episode, if there has to be a "best
thing." But it's wearing pretty thin for me, and the depiction
of Webby and her ever-more deranged obsession with Scrooge is...well:
"Definitely not collecting drool samples when he sleeps!"
I mean...seriously? How is this appealing? Who is this appealing to? Why are you doing this to the character?
Of course, all of the above is focused
on the A plot, which at least features some level
of drama and, you know, human interest. I really cannot say the same
for the wholly discrete, and very mean-spirited, B plot, in which the
nephews have a yeti hidden in the house and Scrooge, for very
dubiously-justified reasons, is stalking around with a rifle-crossbow
thing (possibly just so, apropos of nothing, he can make a lame Jurassic Park reference?). Look, you're going to do your own thing with the nephews, and
that's just the way it is. I know it, and I know I can't do anything
about it. But FOR FUCK'S SAKE, are you trying to
make them as repellent as possible? Why? What is this? Louie has a
fake charity? His brothers blackmail him into silence? None of this
shit is even a tiny bit acceptable, and I'm coming closer and closer
to agreeing with the people who opine that, occasional sparks of
interest notwithstanding, this show is basically irredeemable
garbage.
And if you think that's too negative,
well, hopefully it's nonetheless preferable to my apathetic non-opinions
regarding the previous episode.
Louie having a fake charity and using it to steal money from his own parent...that's a new low. This is on the level of Goldie giving reasons why she would steal from a child. Who thinks these things are funny? Or that the viewer would find the character who says/does this engaging? Sheesh.
ReplyDeleteThis Magica has no more to do with comics-Magica than New Gyro has to do with comics-Gyro. Consequently, I couldn't care less about her. She's just a well-animated generic sadistic villain, at least until she gets a backstory. I still sorta care about Lena and Webby, though.
My favorite thing about this episode was actually the moment when Webby was turned into an Original DuckTales Webby doll. And that moment was much better for me because I had last November seen Pan's eerily predictive fan art of New DuckTales Lena holding an Original DuckTales Webby doll. Can you post it here, Pan?
I think GeoX knows if from my Facebook ;)
DeleteStill, Irocnially I put it on twitter agian a day befor episode aired :
https://twitter.com/MaciejMaik/status/1019903540960088065
I personaly realy loved this episode do to all the Webby-Lena-Magica stuff, which in my opinion was just great and I love how dark the dream sequence got (especialy since you aren't aware it was a dream at first It has a very strong impact)
I prefer more human Magica from Italian comcis, where when she isnt obssesive over Scrooge's dime she is shown to have a (more or less) normal life - hanging out with her witch friends and some stories center around non dime-related maners, like Magica dealing with turists on Mt. Vesuvius or having problem buying components for her spells.
It's not like when Magica isn't after the dime she clames to be "The mistress of all evil" or something...
This Magica on other hand is full-evil and sadistic and... I somehow appriciate her for what she is. Unlike Glomgold who they made goofy and usless, she is shown to be an dangerous villian and a competent one - which is something this show was missing.
In fact it's something Disney felt missing in general. Disney use to be know for all these cool villians (Jafar, Ursula, Scar, Cruella De Vil) Yet in recent years every movie has to have this - I'm sorry, that's my honest opinion - stupid twist villian, that dosen't appear until the last act after entire movie of pretending to be a good guy. It was interesting when "Frozen" did it but now every movie fells obligated to do this and the characters fells more like a gimick then actal villians. Even "Incredible 2" - a movie which I enjoyed a lot - did it, but to be fair at least it works a bit better in a superhero story where usualy heroes face mask villians with hero not being aware who he is (Green Gobblin from Spider-man etc.) so at least that movie has a villian from the start, we just don't lern who he is until the last act.
Long story short I just nice to have them a villian who is actualy shown doing villanus things and we spent a lot of time playing with her and she never becomes pathethic like Glomogld or Beaks. If they going to have a character that's pure evil I prefer it this way (seriously if I was a kid watching this episode I would freak out when she turn Webby into the doll or what she did to Lena at the end... but in a good way, same way it's fun to be scared of Wicked witch in Snow White or Urusla in The Little Mermaid) At least she is now set as a great challange for the heroes to overcome.
Ironicaly, this episode gave me some DeJa Vu's from another of my personal projects, in this case an animated short I did few years ago (sorry It's in Polish) which also center on word of living shadows Watch from 04:04 :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZdwUz5LoM3I&t=379s
P.S.
I did like the Bigfoot subplot for how silly it got. I know it's more The Simpsons then Duck Tales, but all the charity jokes and the over the top sappy reactions to Tenderfoot going back to the woods made me laugh.
I'm not entirely convinced this Magica is that out-there. She's pretty far removed from anything Barksian, but she doesn't seem too different from Original DuckTales's Magica; the Magica of Duck to the Future, for instance, doesn't seem like she'd act much different if she were indeed turned into a living shadow clinging to half-life.
ReplyDeleteThat "living shadow clinging to half-life" business might be part of the problem, really. There's just no way that isn't going to come across as massively more sinister than the character ever could in duck form.
DeleteI think they do some cool/inventive stuff with the shadow form... I just hope they won't down grade her the moment she reviel her real form.
DeleteHey, the next episode is pretty fun, at least.
ReplyDeleteEstablished villains in Scrooge stories just have a hard time being Barksian in anything that's not Barks, that's just kind of how it is. The Beagle Boys become really incompetent and goofy because hey, that's their characters, right? Glomgold turns straight up evil (even Rosa gets this wrong). Magica tends to get to be a proper magical witch rather than the DIY I-bought-a-weird-wand-in-a-street-alley witch with poof bombs from Barks. It is how it is.
In that sense, Magica is honestly one of the least offensive changed characters in this series. She actually feels like a proper, powerful villain - unlike Glomgold, unlike the Beagle Boys, hell, even unlike Mark Beaks, who feels like a good concept wasted on meme jokes.
I think you can give new Ducktales some shit for referencing so many comics and not sticking to them, but... isn't that kind of the point? They're doing their own, new thing. It doesn't always work (it mostly doesn't) but being aware of your history doesn't mean you have to straight up have the same characters again. The only time it annoys me is when they pull something like in the Goldie episode, where they make lame jokes about how old Scrooge is. Really? You're going to shatter your own suspension of disbelief?
Glomgold isn't really straight-up evil in the late 70's/80's Danish comics (I mean his first appearance in those is Scrooge trying to scam him) and at most I'd say he's Money Champ level of evil. TBH in his early Italian appearances he's not evil either...
DeleteHow he's written and comes across depends on how Scrooge comes across though... I'd be fine with him being a useless dumbass if Scrooge is too but this show wants to glorify Scrooge both is Don Rosaish ways and just kinda bizarre ones (Scrooge being good at party games??)
I'd argue evil Magica could fit with Barks she didn't have that much stuff going for her in Barks comics... I love her in those but I'd argue she only became the Magica who is one of my favourite characters when we started to see more of her civilian life. Not just in Barks but also in stuff like those comics where she hung out with mim.
"Even Rosa gets it wrong" - To be fair even Barks went this way with his final use of Glomgold, so you can't say murdering Glomgold isn't Barksian.
DeleteAt the same time one can argue that turning Glomgold evil was just the way Barks evolve the characters personality and the fact some fans prefer to only see his first Glomgold stories as "real Gomolgd" and his third apperance a let down is totaly subjective. I get why fans like the "Glomgold's is Scrooges moral equal" thing but that was only in the first story. In the second story Glomold already is presented as much more cheating and dishonest version of Scrooge... yhe, he has that one line about his mother but other then that there is no question he is the villain of the story.
Plus I sort of accept that this is how post-Barks writers evolved the characters over the years. Heck In Magica's case I prefer the post Barks version, who as I mention above the Italian writers and artists evolve into much more human character, while the one in Barks stories felt much more insane (I would even dare to say what they with Magica is reverse of Glomgold - turning a deranged character into much more lovable and easy to reason when she and Scrooge have a comon foe or problem)
Hmm I can definitely see Barks Glomgold having an arc but I think his villainy should be something Scrooge could slip into as well (which, to be fair Don Rosa did, just too bad he never got into Glomgold's side of things, sigh)
DeleteEven in so far and no safari you can see them as being the same in a way though.
Scrooge does seem to consider the whole murder business as just, well, business. 'That guy up there is just a bit ruder than most' It's not treated as serious tbh. And the story ends with a panel of them side-by-side at the auction, just being the same. Their competition is as meaningless as ever, and the story really ends on HDL.
TBH murdeous Glomgold is difficult to pull off too. My favourite of that is Artibani's writing of him in Last adventure where there was some weight on him being so cruel (in that it was the thing that isolated him and separated him from Johnny)
Almost always his murderous qualities are treated as a joke. Which is fine, but... Can't say it's all that interesting for me most of the time.
And if it's paired with Scrooge just not even caring? No.
The way you're describing it, it really sounds like the show's Gravity Falls influence is rearing its ugly head. Gravity Falls is a fine show in many ways, but this show very much suffers from how much its creators evidently wanted to make a third season of Gravity Falls and decided to just use classic Duck characters as window dressing to disguise that fact.
ReplyDeleteThat's part of the problem. This show is NOT doing its "own, new thing", it's just mindlessly following clichés of other 2010s cartoons. When it throws around these surface-level references to the comics, it comes off as the writers trying to claim plausible deniability. "There you go, we remembered that Goldie's last name O'Gilt! Now get off our case for making her character completely unrecognizable in every way!"
When "Legend of the Three Caballeros" pays tribute to past comics and cartoons, the references feel like they come from a place of love. Here, the references feel like they come from a place of contempt, like the writers think that just making clear that they know the comics exist is going to exempt them from criticism for not following the comics in any way.
YES! I couldn't agree with you more. Mindlessly following other modern cartoon cliches and using Ducks as window dressing is exactly what this abomination of a show does. All it does is rip off other animated series like Gravity Falls, Batman, the Simpsons, etc. (or other pop-culture franchises like Harry Potter) and repackage its borrowings as alleged Duck adventures, counting on the endless, gratuitous Easter eggs to hoodwink fans into believing that Angones and his crew actually "care" about their purported source material and are deeply familiar with it.
DeleteBTW, the last episode "The last clash of sunchaser" is realy, realy great with some deep emotions.
ReplyDelete