I'll tell you one thing: I'm glad
that--so early, yet!--they're willing to do an episode where Scrooge
plays almost no role. That seems to bode well for the show's future.
You know, I have to admit, in many
ways, this is really...good. But it's always something, innit? So
let me get this out of the way first: HOLY EVERLOVING FUCK do I hate
what they've done with Louie. This whole fucking hustler thing is an
ABOMINATION BEFORE GOD AND MAN. You FUCKING people. Jeez. You may
have noticed my blog posts lately are a little bit toned down (not
from any intention; it's just something that gradually happened) and
I'm a bit less likely to say "fuck" than I once was and
NOTICE HOW MANY TIMES I'M SAYING FUCK IN THIS PARAGRAPH. WHAT A FUCKING DISASTROUS MISCALCULATION. Dammit.
Fuckit.
Ahem. Well, I guess that's not the
main point of the episode. It's all about Webby, pretty much, and
it's smartly done, too. The idea is that she's always all cool and
hypercompetent, but in the context of being totally sheltered and
unequipped to deal with the outside world. With a character like
her, you sort of run into the problem that when pitted against HDL,
she's kind of always going to win, and you can't exactly complain
about it, but the deck does seem a bit stacked. So I think it's good
if her character is tempered by naivete--it evens things out a bit.
So anyway, it's off to a place that may
or may not be called Funco's Funzone, depending on whether I wrote
the name down right or not, and Webby is amusingly clueless until the
time comes for her to, inevitably, shine. And there's also Beagles!
Um...whatever. I mean, you know what I think of the DT Beagles. I
guess these are okay for what they are; I did kinda like their
voices. Why do they just have B's on their chest instead of numbers?
It's an abiding mystery, but they're so far away from the classix
anyway that it doesn't much matter to me. Ma Beagle, on the other
hand, somehow makes little impact; I was not impressed. I kinda
liked her brassiness in the original.
And there's also a subplot where Donald
and Mrs Beakley are at loggerheads but then they have to team up to
rescue the captured children, which is pretty good. I like Donald's
berserker rage at the idea of his nephews being captured. It fits
the character as we like to see it--although I STILL can't be having
with Donald's voice. Even when I CAN understand it, it just requires
more effort than I feel ought to be necessary. Anyway, in the end,
Beakley jokes that "I'm a spy," and everyone laughs
uproariously and it's obvious that they're setting something up.
Which is fine with me.
Also, a kid drowns in the ball pit while
his mother idly messes around with her phone. Or so I choose to
believe.
If I reimagine this episode minus hustler-Louie I like it quite a bit. So much do I hate said depiction, though, that I found myself wishing that the Webby of "Rightful Owners" would turn up and lecture Louie about honesty. I hope you appreciate what that means in terms of just how MUCH I hate this depiction of Louie.
ReplyDeleteI liked the interaction between Webby and the boys, though. I thought the episode did a good job of establishing their characters (LOUIE EXCEPTED) and feelings towards each other, and of bonding them as a foursome. And I find I don't mind the adult male actors' voices of HDL as I anticipated I would. They did come across as kids.
Donald's voice, though. I was glad I was watching it on iTunes and could go back and replay his lines, since I usually had to do that to figure them out, and even then I didn't get it all. Sometimes I figured out what he must have said by back-formation, working back from what Beakley said in response to him. Ack. I kept wishing I could turn on the English subtitles.
About Louie. You got the point but it is still much better presented here than in very next episode where ...spoilers.
ReplyDeleteOh man! If Louie's characterization invokes this intense of a F-bombs' fallout, you're gonna be *deeeeliiighted* with Gyro come next episode.
ReplyDeleteSticking to the discussion at hand, I've got no issue at all with Louie's portrayal...or any of the nephews' for that matter. From the start we knew that this reboot would give the triplets individual personalities; with such a radical divergence from our accustomed canon made explicit from second one, I'm more interested on the change being entertaining in its own right, and less so on the degrees of sacrilege it commits just by existing. (I may be a complete hypocrite in this when it comes to Gyro...But more on that in the upcoming post!)
So far it's delivering! For my money this is the most hilarious of the episodes aired so far. Kids playing hopscotch in a crime scene, Webby sticking The Art of War in her backpack, seriously considering stabbing the guy at Funzone before being told not to by Louie, the Beakly/Donald subplot...among many other winning gags.
Speaking of Donald, in the previous post you made your distate for his duckish vocal chords crystal clear; I can see where you're coming from, even if it doesn't bother me much (and yet I do need to look up subtitles here and there).
However, voice aside, how do you like his portrayal so far? The pilot specifically. I feel this is a HUGE step forward for Donald's characterization in animated media. From Quack Pack to Mickey Mouse Works to House of Mouse, for a painfully long time it seemed Disney writers had no idea how to imbue even an iota of depth to his character on screen. The newest Mickey cartoons have done a good job at finally tapping on his potential, but this series' premiere may just be the closest we've been to Comic Book Donald on our TVs.
Take the elaborate dialogue for a change. Then his tension with Scrooge. Then the snark, the emphasized parental behavior, clever thinking in the Glomgold segment, bravery and competence when saving Dewey, self awareness on his over-protectiveness...I couldn't stop smiling at how they fleshed him out more in a single hour than most of Disney's past efforts managed for entire decades. It's exciting, it's amazing, it does my duck-loving heart so much good.
Could the voice be more intelligible? Sure. But I have a world's appreciation toward this staff for actually treating him seriously. It's already reaping rewards, too; I'm seeing plenty of of love toward Don in the fandom, much of it from people who never imagined the duck could be more than a hot tempered slapstick magnet. (Just you wait until they convert to the comics, ohoho)
[The preceding paragraphs are stone hard confirmation that Mr. Richie shouldn't post comments past midnight, he knows]
Yes, they're doing a fine job on the characterization of Donald. Though again, the elaborate dialogue is kind of a wash if we can't understand it. Hey wait, are you saying it's possible to turn on subtitles on iTunes (or wherever you're watching this)? If so, I need to know how!
DeleteYep, I liked the kids playing hopscotch in the chalk outline. Clever blend of the two most common symbolic uses of chalk on pavement.
Sticking to the discussion at hand, I've got no issue at all with Louie's portrayal...or any of the nephews' for that matter. From the start we knew that this reboot would give the triplets individual personalities; with such a radical divergence from our accustomed canon made explicit from second one, I'm more interested on the change being entertaining in its own right, and less so on the degrees of sacrilege it commits just by existing.
ReplyDeleteI hear what you're saying, but here's my thinking: yeah, this was always going to be a radical change. BUT, especially given the extent to which they're trying to woo comics fans, I think it's reasonable to suggest that such changes feel like they could conceivably be reasonable extrapolations from the original characters, and to me, this fails miserably in that regard (though also note that I'm pretty sure I'd find this distinctly unamusing even if it WEREN'T fucking with classic characters, so ymmv).
Well, you made me google word "extrapolation" so I guess, that's count for something. Thank you new DuckTales! ^_^
DeleteWow. I just can't agree with you here. Except on the case of Webby, who's definitely a lot more fun here than she was in the old Ducktales.
ReplyDeleteLouie's, like, my favourite of the triplets in this incarnation. What can I say... there's just something about that sheer unashamed jerkishness that amuses me. Granted, he is the only triplet who goes farthest away from the classic characterisation of HD&L, but I do see all three boys as each being an exaggeration of one of the original boys' character traits:
Huey's the upstanding, moral smart guy and dedicated Junior Woodchuck; he's definitely closest to the boys' characterisation from the Junior Woodchucks comics and Don Rosa's works. He's been exaggerated a little and seems a little more geekish than the classic Nephews, but all in all he's pretty close to the original portrayal.
Dewey is the impatient and enthusiastic adrenaline junkie, the one who's always jumping into new adventures much like the boys would in the earlier Carl Barks adventure stories pre-Junior Woodchucks. He almost completely lacks the common sense that would temper the boys' immaturity in those stories, but he has the same enthusiasm and go-getter attitude.
And Louie's an evil little brat, like the boys would all too often be in the classic cartoons and the Taliaferro comic strip, and the old Barks "Donald VS Nephews" short stories. Now, Louie is the triplet furthest away from the classic; his brattiness is different from the classic HD&L in that he's more a "brat of the new millennium."
Classic HD&L, as they were in their earliest appearances, were unabashed pranksters and terrors who delighted in tormenting, humiliating and inflicting pain on their "Unca Donald" (who, to be fair, usually gave as good as he got and then some). Their main tactic for getting their way was to throw tantrums and cry until Donald gave in. This tended to be how classic Disney portrayed children in general -- remember Morty and Ferdie, or the orphans from the "Orphans' Benefit" and "Orphans' Picnic" cartoons? (MAN, I hated those orphans. At least HD&L, even in their earliest appearances would occasionally show some semblance of a conscience.)
But society has changed and so has Disney's portrayal of problem children. Evil pranksters who throw temper tantrums and cry to get their way might not go down as well with a modern audiencce. So the new Louie is more the "bad kid" as seen with a millennial's eyes: He's lazy, greedy, cynical and just wants to mooch off of everyone else's hard work.
It's a different direction to go in, but I don't think it's COMPLETELY taken out of thin air.
And, it has to be said: I love Donald's voice. I don't agree that it needs to change; he just wouldn't be Donald without the quacky voice. (I suffered through the original Norwegian dub of "Mickey's Christmas Carol," and... noooooo, Donald does not work with another voice!!!!!)
OK, I must ask - Is it odd, that English isn't my first language as I'm from some European country... and I have so far zero problem of understanding Donald? O_o
ReplyDeleteMe neither... I understand him perfectly 99% of the time, and English isn't MY first language either! @_@
DeleteSame thing here! Perhaps being a Funny Foreigner actually helps? :-p
DeleteIt's Funzo's Funzone, you must have reread your notes wrong.
ReplyDeleteAnyways — I actually sort of like the new Louie (within the "they really shouldn't be giving HDL separate personality but as long as they are how entertaining are the results?" frame of mind). I could do without the "seducing the barmaid" thing — even assuming he's something like 14 rather than 11, it's a bit… awkward. But otherwise he's amusing.
The new Beagles are… well, they… how to put this? They feel like they should be fun on paper but I think the episode just doesn't make them work. For instance, the silent, thin guy? That's actually the rebooted Burger. How clever is that. I miss the old Maw Beagle a bit too, but the new version seems fine, just badly showcased in this episode.
The Mrs Beakley "I'm a spy" thing has been hinted on Frank Angones's super-useful blog [1] to set up a connection to SHUSH (from Double-O-Duck and Darkwing Duck). Her color scheme in this new series actually supports this, as one fan noted [2].
——Footnotes:——
[1] That blog is found at https://suspendersofdisbelief.tumblr.com and it is extremely informative and amusing. You can ask the man all sorts of questions about the show, and he answers all of them (though in cases where the answer would be spoilery for future episodes he'll likely just give you a humorous non-answer). I encourage you to check out his in-depth answer about the rebooting of Gyro Gearloose, to read immediately after watching Episode 3 — just to calm you down a notch.
[2] Oh yes, there's a big Duck fandom on tumblr. It's veered more towards international comics, and is the home of Fethry-lovers and Gladstone/Magica shippers innumerable — but also to a lot of hardcore fans you won't find on the Forum, and pretty dang talented fan-artists too.
After watching this episode twice, it hit me...Louie is now Bart Simpson. Or an unreasonable facsimile thereof). And why do the Beagle Boys talk like rednecks now? And since when is Scrooge McDuck as laid back as he is in most of this episode? Hopefully we'll start seeing more of Scrooge in future episodes. The Donald and Beakley story was good. "I answer to NO ONE!!!" was perfect! So far, it's a mixed bag, although overall, I enjoyed it. I just wish the staff on this series would stop telling us how they're big fans of Barks and then go and make shows that seem more like they're big Simpsons fans.
ReplyDeleteAs for Beagle Boy lack of number it's quite simple - it make it more easy for the animators. It's hard keep track of every combination.
ReplyDeleteI just watch new episode which (aside from being much better then episodes 2 and 3) did a bit a much better job with the Beagles... at least now the feel more like a threat and less like bunch of bumbling bugrlars.