I went to a driving range once. It was
in Jakarta. I went with another teacher and a student, and boy, it
was an extremely quick realization that regular
golf is not remotely like miniature golf. I basically hated it. But
that's neither here nor there! In this episode, the fellas play
golf, and then they play golf in a fantasy world because reasons and
that's that, plotwise!
Actually, there was a lot to like in
this one. The business with Scrooge feeling threatened by Dewey's
prowess was a very good character thing, and and Huey's and Launchpad's
commentary was pretty darned delightful. Mind you, Glomgold was as
useless a character as ever, and the Ponies Who Dream Only Of Murder
were more amusing in theory than in practice (I guess they were
voiced by actual My Little Pony actresses? DON'T TELL ME I DON'T
WANT TO KNOW). But hey! It's all good. It was light and frivolous,
and as you can tell from the length of this entry, I have almost
nothing to say about it, and that is OKAY. Um. The end.
You may think your reach your goal Geox! But the McMystery at McDuck McManor still awaits!
ReplyDelete(laughs, notices there is no mist this time, hides behin a tree)
McMystery hasn't been released yet on iTunes, which is how I am watching this series...
DeleteIt’s there, under vol. 2. Appearently, they split season one into two volumes, so that’s 30 more bucks to spend.
DeleteI actually contacted Apple customer service about that (it’s called SEASON pass for a reason) and they did refund me (but also removed vol. 1 from my library).
Thanks! I had been warned that the "season" I bought on iTunes might turn out to be half a season, so I'm not surprised. But I kinda thought Apple would manage to send me an ad for "season 1, volume 2" if that was the case, and they didn't! Anyway, it's only 20 bucks if one is content with standard definition, so that's not so bad.
DeleteThis is my favorite episode so far--modulo money-grubbing Louie, of course. I can cope better with nerdy Huey and adventurous Dewey, since both their personalities are believably derived from Comics HDL, but Louie is another matter. Why couldn't they have made Louie, say, a prankster? And had all three of them be Junior Woodchucks? I would feel a whole lot more positive about the series if that were the case.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, back to Moorshire. I personally *loved* My Little Kelpies™, based as they are on a real Celtic mythological creature. I was glad that Webby identified them, and I thought that they were kept amusing throughout the show by varying their approach (e.g. the Webby voice). I haven't myself watched the My Little Ponies show, so I didn't recognize particular voices, just the general parody. I found them funny and memorable, far more so than the Greek gods of "Spear of Selene."
I also enjoyed the Scrooge/Dewey interaction. While I liked the Huey/Launchpad commentary throughout, I disliked the last bit where Launchpad articulates the moral of the Scrooge/Dewey subplot, Huey acts surprised that he says something so wise, and then Launchpad does something clownishly idiotic. But on the whole, I liked the writing aside from Louie's personality. I thought the script did a good job of keeping all the balls in the air: Scrooge and Dewey, Launchpad and Huey, Glomgold and Louie, Webby and the murder ponies. The weakest part was Glomgold and Louie, both because Glomgold wasn't developed enough and because Louie was his obnoxious one-note DuckTales self. But the script wove all those threads together well throughout.
I also really liked the artistic design. I thought the stone circle was cool and mysterious--reminded me of one of the best elements of Brave, the artistic design of the three historical layers of Celtic culture. And I liked the look of the mystic otherworld, its shapes and colors. This was the most visually impressive place in the series so far. (Think of the disappointing Atlantis, or the vanilla Ithaquack.)
True, the mystic golf game had no clear explanation. Also, I kinda feel bad for all those previously petrified players who are stone forever. In Narnia, our characters' victory would have set them all free! Nonetheless, I'm pretty sure this episode will stick in my mind much longer than the rest I've seen so far.
Yeah, the conclusion to the Huey/Launchpad plot was bad bad bad. And bad in such an utterly predictable way, too. If you're going to be bad, at least be surprisingly bad.
DeleteOne more thought: I appreciated the stone circle, the vaguely Celtic/Druidic mythos and the kelpies because there hasn't been much exploration of Celtic mythology in connection with Scrooge's Scottish heritage. Mostly, the Scottish element has been restricted to medieval Scottish referents and several versions of Nessie. I'm sure there are comics stories I haven't read that explore other features of Scottish history/Celtic mythology. But still, this is one reason why I was pleased to see the Ducks encounter kelpies. Now, I want selkies! Have there ever been selkies in Duck stories? I only remember mermaids/mermen.
ReplyDeleteI think I mention this on the forum but I more-or-less did like Glomgold in this one. In "Mark Beaks" and "McDuck McMystery" (sorry Matilda, small spoiler) he is presented as being obssesed in making death traps for Scrooge or who ever he hates at the moment (all which back-fire in cartoonish way) and is overall prestented as cartoonish super villian from Kim Possible
ReplyDeleteHere while prestented as overlly stupid he is only obssesed with beating Scrooge at golf but dosen't do anything villianus (the closes thing is that Huey mention Glomgold swich the coin druing the toss) As Geox like to put it "he is presented as Scrooge moral equal here".
Of the two I prefer this version.
Oh, definitely, better to have Glomgold as a generic not-so-smart rival than as a cartoonish super-villain unsuccessfully planning death traps. Sorry to hear that in McMystery he is back to being Wile E. Glomgold.
DeleteAnd in the pilot he's super-villanish but at least he's treatening, cunning and shown to known Scrooge all to well. More of that guy please.
DeleteMy view is that Flinty and Scrooge should always be on the same level of dumbassery and get under each other's skin.
DeleteOne of them should not be playing the straight man to the other
The my little Pony parody ends with Kelpies looking more-or-less like the Ponies from the show and having the same voice actresses only the one who usualy voices the Pink Pony is the Purple one now and vice versa (AHA! Now you know Geox! You walk into my trap!)
ReplyDeleteI think that Celtic folclor did wokr better then Greek Mythology ad the leter is very over used in pop-culture so people all ready have some expectation and know what refrence to expect. Celtic on other han isn't as used so it was more fresh and suprising - I mean how many kids will learn "what the heck Kelpies" are from this episode?
Plus this episode had some awsome music and I did enjoyed colors of the backgrounds a lot. Nice atmosphere.