Well. I suppose, given what this show
is and what it wants to do, this was probably about the best version
of what it is that it could be. Whether that version of that thing
was ever something I was going to appreciate...unclear.
The insightful comments on the last
episode kind of clarified, for me, the issues with this show, I
think: the whole thing is so concerned with playing off and
modernizing classic duck characters and tropes that it's neglected
the important task of creating any sort of identity for itself
outside these references; any compelling reason why, as its own
specific thing, it should work. The Della thing, I think, is the
apex of this: wait, WHY are we supposed to care about--IT'S BEEN A HUGE
MYSTERY FOR MANY YEARS YOU MUST CARE ABOUT IT. Well, but the thing
is, we kinda DON'T, or at least not with the weight that you want us
to, and it feels like you're sorta misunderstanding fandom if
you--YOU WILL CARE. Okay, but in that case, you need to work to give
us some REASON to--THIS IS A THING YOU CARE ABOUT. IT IS DECREED.
"The loss of Della was the hardest thing he'd EVER faced!"
Yeah? Well, maybe you should've made some effort to actually let us
feel this ourselves if you were going to do it at all? Otherwise, it
just doesn't work. "You can't fool me, Scroogie," Magica
says. "I am the one who fools." I just think that if you
would put less effort into incongruous Breaking Bad references and
more into these very basic story issues, you'd be doing a lot better.
They don't even really understand the
stuff they're trying to riff off, so it would be better for them to
try to forge their own identity than do...what they're doing. The
"Barksian modulator," that gives Donald a "normal"
voice: it also, apparently gives him a new personality. Now, this
might be at least sort of interesting as a commentary on the fact
that comics-Donald and cartoon-Donald are really completely different
people. Are they consciously going for that? Extremely difficult to
say. But if so, it's rather undermined by the fact that his new
personality--hyper-competent tough guy--doesn't have anything to do
with Barks either. And if it DOESN'T, it just seems like equally
defective storytelling in its own way.
OKAY. Unmoved as I am by this whole
familial conflict, I found all the stuff with the characters dicking
around on the houseboat pretty tedious. The kids hurling artifacts
into the bay has no emotional weight. Not that I'm a huge fan of the
Scrooge stuff either, but at least it's...something. The way
Shadow-Magica "drips" out of Lena's eye sockets is
genuinely creepy. Also, I do like Real-Magica's character design,
even if the psychotic kill-em-all stuff (she wants to "destroy
everything Scrooge has ever loved") has no resemblance to any
Magica I know or--perhaps more to the point--anything notably
interesting.
Wuff...what else can I say? The final
showdown thing with Magica in the bin was, okay, reasonably well-done
for what it was. And, dammit, I find myself still at least somewhat
invested in the Lena stuff. And I do not have any pithy closing
words.
My commentary :
ReplyDelete- I found Magica pretending to be a little girl hilarious.
- Nice use of Fenton who once agian proves his worth with no-Gizmo-suit to help him.
- I woudn't be all that shock if they simply got idea to have Donald talk with normal voice and the joke that this makes character realise he is a badass and the idea to use term "Barksian" was easter eggs they thrown in the last second for the fans, rather then other way around.
- The action-pack climax was cool and I enjoy it a lot.
- I like Huey and Louie using their "talents" to distract Magica.
- Yes, I was creep out by eye-shadow thing as well.
- Some fans find Magica being inside the dime all this time creepy as well... the more I think about it - yhe, it is disturbing,.
- This Magica is far from the comics but I think at least she is an fun villian in her own right. They didn't go to much into her backstory which leads me to belive that in future season they will get more into it and tie her to the dime agian.
- Launchpad's final "sorry to crash the party" and "AH! Don't drink this water!" (After trying to swim in Scrooge's money) - Super funny!
I think it's overall very strong episode(s) I just wish they would established/develop some things more in previews episodes so it would have more emotional impact here.
What do you think about the twist that Lena was Magica's shadow?
I was honestly moved by her plot-line, especialy the ending and as far I know it's the first time any version of Duck Tales actualy KILLED-OFF one of the main good characters. I find Lena's last shot as more of the mathaphor thad at least she died happy to know she actually has one person who care about her consider family/fired, something she never got from Magica.
Did we actually learn anything new here about the Lena/Magica relationship? In any event, I would be willing to bet you a very substantial amount of money that Lena will be back next season with little delay.
DeleteTrue I woudn't be all that shock if they did even if I would find it much more stronger if Lena was gone forever (despite my love for the character)
DeleteAs fo Magica/Lena relationship... Well, Magica do rant to Webby how Lena was never real, we get this exchange :
Lena - Get away from my best friend aunt Magica!
Magica - "Aunt"? (...) You are not my family! You are nothing!
And Lena talk to Scrooge in the cage she calls Magica "her family" and that she envies Scrooge that he has one that actualy loves each other...
I don't know, this episode left me with impression Lena actualy use to conisder Magica her family but got nothing but abuse from her, while to Magica Lena was nothig but a pawn. This is all stuff we could figure out from previews episodes but still.
Yes, this episode does explain the origin of Lena as a Magica-made-shadow-thingy (into which Magica projected her own spirit as a hitchhiker?). It does not explain it very well. My biggest complaint about this episode is that the Lena/Magica backstory and the Magica/Scrooge backstory are not made clear. Here's part of my comment from Feathery Society:
DeleteI think the biggest problem with the episode is the fact that it’s difficult to follow the backstory and the current reality of Magica, Lena and Scrooge, as it comes out in bits and pieces, including the poem in Lena’s journal. Some of the obscurity is due to the fact that there is backstory that they presumably will reveal later, e.g. about the longstanding feud between Magica and the McDucks. But some of it is just lack of clarity in the storytelling. I understand that they don’t want to do an infodump—and Lena’s journal was one attempt to fill in some stuff without being too infodumpy. Nonetheless, they could have been clearer about how Magica ended up in the dime, whether Lena is or became real, etc. I don't enjoy watching an episode and constantly going, Wait, what? and having to go back to try to figure out what was said. (end quotation)
Scrooge MacDuck then explained some of the Lena/Magica stuff as he understood it, but he agreed that the script could have made this clearer.
According to the poem from Lena's diary, Lena was created (as a teenager, who hasn't aged?) by Magica as a shadow-thingy. Since then, she has apparently gained some independence of thought and character, especially through her nascent friendship with Webby. The fact that she has called Magica "Aunt Magica" is theoretically a sign of her own need for family connection, though why she would grant Magica familial status when she's never been nurturing that we know of is a mystery. Actually, I suspect she called Magica "Aunt Magica" to mislead the viewer through the first season. (And maybe because her origin is partially inspired by the Michael Gilbert DuckTales story in which Magica used her MG-created niece Minima to get the dime from Webby.) Magica has been trapped in the dime, only part of her has ridden along with Lena, argh.
I am one of those who is disturbed by the thought that Magica has been trapped inside the dime which Scrooge has been treasuring and wearing on a necklace.
My overall reaction on the Lena front: the Lena/Webby relationship and the Lena/Magica interaction was the main thread that kept me interested in this show. I am Not Happy to find out that Lena wasn't an actual human being (Duck-human, you know what I mean), just a magical construct who developed some personhood. I wanted Webby to have a real live friend. The fact that the boys tell her "we're your friends" does not help much. (If one of them, presumably Dewey, had said, "I'm your friend," that would have been slightly better.) And what about the future? If Lena comes back, that diminishes the power of her self-sacrifice, and makes this feel even more like a superhero franchise, and anyway she still won't be an actual human friend. If she doesn't come back, there goes the only relationship in which I had any emotional investment.
Maybe (*IF* Lena return) they will make some plotline about her wanting to be an actual person ("Real boy... err.. girl") and then we get some leason that it's not who you are is important but what is inside etc.
DeleteMaybe, and I agree Lena could become more of an actual person. But for me, I guess, it really does matter whether you were born as a baby and dependent on caring or uncaring adults, and whether you are mortal (cf. Scrooge, Goldie and Scrooge's parents). That's all essential to being human. I read sci-fi and I'm willing to allow for non-human people, but I want my Ducks to be human, dammit.
DeleteGotta say, the fact that y'all think there's even the *tiniest* doubt about Lena's return is a little surprising to me. I took it as such a given that I never even considered the alternate possibility until you mentioned it, and I still don't think it's a real one. If I had to guess, I'd say that a fair chunk of next season will be devoted to her coming back.
DeleteTo be fair Lena design was shown among some other characters they shown during a presentation for season 2 so your propably right.
DeleteStill the impresion she is dead is what I taken away from this episode.
Nghh the family stuff and how everything resolved made me quite mad.
ReplyDeleteAs did Donald's voice. I grew up with the comics and never considered that Donald has a duck voice. IDK if they didn't want to use the duck voice for him but it does kinda come across that way but-
Donald's duck voice, as it is portrayed in this show, is a speech impediment. It has to be. No other duck has the voice it's not a species thing. It's just him. So the show then to handle it the way it did, well it leaves a bad taste in my mouth. It'd be different if a different voice gave Donald self-confidence but the way it was written it was very 'Donald with a funny voice can't be taken seriously'... He didn't say anything that required a non-duck voice! When I heard about this I assumed he'd have some plot-relevant revelations that required clear speech but it's literally just 'we want the audience to take Donald seriously and the only way we can think of doing that is by getting rid of the duck voice'
This show just feels so afraid and insecure it would come across as silly it doesn't let itself be genuine except in a very 'and now we'll have Drama' kinda way.
This show's treatment of Donald baffles me. I absolutely hate what they did with Flinty but I can get why they did it at least. Donald is so underutilized idk... it feels weird.
True, he is in this more than in DT87 but it feels like the narrative here is really really screaming for more Donald...
Della is his sister, there is just way too little Donald in this mystery plot. Same for the whole Donald/Scrooge conflict which just kinda disappeared I guess?
I expected the show to go with a 'Scrooge is reckless and Donald is over protective and by the end the kids have influences from both so it's balanced out' but it was just... Not there? I was sure the focus would be on the kids but I thought the donald/scrooge conflict would be on the background instead of... not.
Did you notice, the end credits in this ep credited HDL with the last name McDuck instead of Duck? (I really hope it's a mistake because... ngh)
Maybe it, like lot of things in this show, is the result of it trying to be too many things. Scrooge was the main caretaker in DT87 so he kinda is here too? I guess? But now Donald is there and he is HDL's father but he's just... sidelined.
ANYWAY, on a slightly more positive note-
ReplyDeleteWhat ended up being, in hindsight, your favourite episode?
For me it ended up being The house of lucky gander.
I didn't think much of it at the time but in hindsight it is more enjoyable for me. (Apart from the cricket thing which is dumb and annoys me)
The Scrooge&Donald stuff is like a promise of a better show for me... If that only resolved in a satisfying manner... Donald having good character interaction with the kids, Louie being tolerable. Flawed but in a way that worked...
Gladstone being pretty close to his comics incarnation... The Donald vs Gladstone conflict felt like the kind of modernization/adaptation of Duck story tropes I think the show is going for but mostly fails at for me...
For lot of people the first episode was the best because of all the promise but I was kinda bummed out by its treatment of Flinty so the writing was for me on the wall there.
I do enjoy Webby and Lena as characters but lot of the episodes they're in kinda more made me just wish they were in a different kinda show.
My favorite is still "The Missing Links of Moorshire." I liked the artistic design of the stone circle and the fantasy land, the way the script kept all the balls in the air, the use of an unfamiliar aspect of Celtic folklore, the music. I found My Little Kelpies very amusing. I liked the Huey/Launchpad thread (except for the very stupid final moment of it) and the Scrooge/Dewey interaction. The weakest part was the Glomgold/Louie bit, but I'm bound to dislike this Louie. At least Glomgold wasn't Wile E. Glomgold in this one.
DeleteAside from the "Pilot" and "Shadow Wars" I would have to go with "House of Lucky Gander" as my favorite as well. All the Gladstone/Donald stuff is great, I love Scrooge in this episode who show of his inteligence and it was the first one to 100% feel like a proper DuckTales adventure. Plus almost all jokes work for me in this episode.
DeleteAll the Lena stuff and all the Gizmoduck stuff are my second favorite.
It sort of boggles the mind that you said nothing about the Lena plot twist, but otherwise, good review (if, as usual, on the negative side).
ReplyDeleteLena bleeding/vomiting Magica out of her eyes was indeed an extremely disturbing image.
ReplyDeleteLieju, I agree with pretty much across the board in your assessment of this show. "It doesn't let itself be genuine except in a very 'and now we'll have Drama' kinda way." Exactly. The irony, the above-it-all coolness, and the incongruous Breaking Bad references, all that stuff undercuts any genuine emotion such as joy in adventure or familial love. Then suddenly we're presented with a familial break-up and we're expected to care deeply. Huh? The boys throw the artifacts into the water, but we haven't ever seen/heard them treasure the artifacts before, so....it's just an occasion to make another "Louie cares about monetary value more than anything" joke, ick. And speaking of Louie, I was truly put off by his "take my brothers first" comment. That's the sort of joke that doesn't work for me at all, in any Duckworld.
As I said last post, I'm intellectually curious to see what they'll do with Della. Will she come back, which will presumably radically realign the family? Or we she not come back? But it's intellectual curiosity, not emotional investment, since they haven't made me care about these McDuck/Duck family relationships.