DuckTales 2017: Re-Writing History (In a Good Way)

I promised you more about the new DuckTales cartoon, and, by Scrooge, when I duck-promise, I duck-deliver!

I’m a fan of the old Uncle Scrooge comics with stories by the likes of Carl Barks, William Van Horn, and Don Rosa. For me, these comics evolved into the 1990-1991 DuckTales comics and the original DuckTales show in the late eighties. And of course, I watched the heck out of the 1990 flick DuckTales the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp.

That’s what made me sceptical of the new series. Oh, I loved the updated theme teaser as much as anyone, but I wasn’t sure they’d capture the DuckTales I loved.

And of course, they didn’t. Because they changed some parts and made them better.

They changed some parts and made them worse too, but overall, the better outweighs the worse.

Here are some of the major changes I noticed.

The nephews have distinct, flawed personalities.

This was the most immediately obvious change. Up until this version of DuckTales, Huey, Dewey, and Louie have been palette-swaps. I remember reading the comics and trying to keep track of which nephew wore which colour and then giving up because even the illustrators didn’t keep it consistent. They were one character in three bodies, which sometimes helped create conflict if they all wanted the same thing, but generally just allowed them to be three kids dynamically interacting instead of one kid on his own.

DuckTales 2017 gives each nephew not only a distinct personality but also a unique character design and separate voice actor. The boys have different haircuts and different clothing styles, though each sticks to his signature colour. You’d never mistake one for the others, even if they swapped outfits.

That’s not necessarily good in and of itself. What makes it work is how each nephew embodies a canonical aspect of the former “nephews unit,” who, although they were identical to each other, sometimes varied wildly in personality between stories depending on the author and artist.

Huey gets to be the knowledge-hungry honourable Junior Woodchuck. Dewey is the physically capable and ambitious hero. Louie gets to be the clever, lazy one who also draws from the cartoon shorts where the nephews are conniving but winning brats who always get the better of Donald and other adults.

This also leaves room for each nephew to face challenges and grow as a character: Junior Woodchuck Huey would never run ahead impulsively, but without that characteristic prudence checking his own personality, dashing Dewey might. I thought that shift from plot-focus to character-focus might ruin the DuckTales feel, but, actually, it’s kinda great. Almost, you know, like that’s a key part of an engaging Western-culture story…

This Duckburg has room for more types of people.

The Uncle Scrooge and DuckTales comics always had gender and race problems. I don’t think DuckTales 2017 solves any of those problems, but it moves significantly in the right direction.

First, Disney comics and the old DuckTales have major issues with the way they portray other races and cultures. They were by white, Western creators for a white, Western audience. Visually, the show does much better at avoiding racial stereotypes and at including Duckburg citizens whose designs seem coded to suggest diverse racial characteristics–different eye and face shapes, “skin” (feather) tones, no groups of animal-people whose design seems deliberately chosen to “other” them.

Plot-wise, I haven’t encountered many episodes set in non-Western (or Western-based imaginary) cultures, so I can’t say for sure. Uncle Scrooge comics have some pretty nasty depictions of Indigenous peoples and non-white cultures all over the world, and so far I haven’t seen them surface here. The fact that the voice cast includes artists of colour is hopeful, but the default for this show and its characters still feels like whiteness.

Gender-wise, well, in the DuckTales world, you’re not going to encounter anyone who doesn’t fall neatly into the conventional gender binary*, so what we’re looking at is a difference in the portrayal of women/girls and men/boys.

Again, I have to applaud the steps the show’s taken so far. DuckTales OG was a very male affair: pretty much the only recurring female character who had a personality other than “worry ineffectively”, “damsel in distress”, or “love interest” was Magica DeSpell, the wacky, witchy villainess.

In this version, Webby, her grandmother Mrs. Beakley, Ma Beagle, Mrs. Quackfaster, and even the boys’ mysteriously absent mother Della all have distinct and dynamic personalities. Webby is as much a part of the gang as the nephews, and she and Mrs. Beakley have become super-competent spy-ninja-machines instead of helpless.

Similarly, some of the male characters have been allowed to step outside of the bounds of traditional masculinity. Donald is a devoted and loving parent to his nephews, not just in “accepted” masculine ways (e.g. putting himself in physical danger for them) but also in emotionally open ways (e.g. telling other people how much he loves and misses the kids).

However, there’s still more work to do: although the women and girls are dynamic, they’re often dynamic in specifically female-coded ways. For example, Webby is hyper-competent and gung-ho in the same way as Hermione Granger, Wyldstyle, and all the other extremely competent female sidekicks whose enthusiasm is mocked and subordinated to the male protagonists’ Special Personal Journeys. Personally, I’m getting tired of the cartoon-y version of girls having to be twice as skilled as boys to be thought half as good. YMMV.

All the recurring characters have been updated to more modern archetypes.

Characters like Launchpad, Gyro, Glomgold, and Fethry were always built on archetypes (the brawny doofus, the genius inventor, the rival, etc.). However, the exact ways those archetypes play out depends on what different actions mean in the contemporary culture. So, many of these characters still play off the same archetypes–it’s just that the way those archetypes play out has changed.

For instance, Launchpad is still a lovable lunkhead, but this version of DuckTales makes him more of a kind-hearted but dim-witted “bro”–an archetype easily recognizable in 2019. Sometimes, the episode will humorously imply that he goes off on his own adventures that follow the pattern of 80s action movies and returns at the end of the Duck family’s main adventure.

The updates that make the most difference are those to the archetypes whose overall meaning has changed. Gyro, for example, use to be naïve and generous. This Gyro leans more toward hubristic mad scientist–all his inventions turn evil, and he considers himself to be the smartest and therefore best person in any room. Scientific benevolence is out; scientific arrogance is in.

I’m still iffy on the changes like those that necessitate a major shift in tone, but overall I think the updates get at the intentions of the original more effectively.

There’s an overarching plot mixed in with the episodic stories.

Over the course of Season 1, the ducklings uncover some old family secrets, and the series slowly introduces the best series antagonist’s scheme. Not every episode furthers either of these overarching stories, and each contains its own mini-stories.

The 90s DuckTales comics did tell one story serially, although every issue had its own wrapped-up mini-story that was directly related to the main plot. (For example: the gang tracks kidnapped Webby to a remote village where Magicka DeSpell has leveraged an ancient prophecy against the villagers. The nephews and Scrooge save the village, but Magicka escapes yet again with Webby.) The other two story predecessors, Uncle Scrooge comics and the old DuckTales show, were strictly episodic.

IMO, the new DuckTales gets the best of both worlds. The overarching plot is actually a plot, not just “whoops, the villain got away again!” in the old-school Carmen-Sandiego style. It gives the characters room to react and carry their emotions from episode to episode. However, the individual stories in each episode are engaging on their own, and because they aren’t tied to the big story questions, they’re more open to explore whatever possibilities work best.

Overall, I can’t resist that first beat and syncopation–I’ve set my PVR to record indiscriminately and haven’t looked back. If you liked Uncle Scrooge comics, DuckTales comics, or the original cartoon, try out the new version. It might surprise you too.

* “But it’s a kids’ show!” 1. Kids outside the gender binary don’t count? 2. Please. Steven Universe makes it look easy.