One of my most vivid childhood memories is this: I have chickenpox and I’m spending all of my convalescence on the couch watching repeatedly Ducktales episodes. The gang that kept us company in the Nineties (in sickness and in health) is now back with a brand new series debuting in Italy, on Disney Channel, Sunday Novembre 26th. And, we assure you, the ducks adventures are still a blast!
If you lived under a rock for the last decades, here’s a summary: Ducktales follows the adventures of Uncle Scrooge and the nephews around the world, chasing treasures and mysteries to solve. The new series rewinds the tape at the beginning of the story. Donald Duck, before leaving to work on a boat, leaves the nephews to Scrooge McDuck, the richest duck in the world and retired adventurer: the meeting with Huey, Dewey and Louie is the spark that rekindles in their old uncle the thrill of the adventure. Is it all the same as before? Not really: this time, Donald stays in Duckburg and takes part on the adventures.
All right, let’s just get this over with: the new character design is something you love it or hate it. The drawings are very different from what we are used to and we admit we’ve been skeptical at first. The doubts however lasted just 5 minutes: the story and the animations are so good that the “odd” character design immediately goes into the background. We are now definitely among the group of people who love the “new” ducks.
One of the things we liked most of the new Ducktales is the characterization. Don’t worry, Uncle Scrooge is still the same old duck. Who changes a lot are Huey, Dewey and Louie, until now distinguishable only for the colours of their clothes. Finally, they have a personality as well: Huey (the red one) is the prissy older brother, Dewey (blue) is the turbulent one and Louie (green) is the more relaxed one and, according to the other two, the evil twin. Donald as well has new shades: he’s always unlucky, but maybe a bit more disillusioned and deeply fond of his nephews.
Disney experts and Carl Barks fans will find a lot of references to his stories (keep an eye to the paintings of McDuck Mansion). All the others will have a lot of fun catching jokes and pop culture references and finding out little by little the “new faces” of the characters we know from a lifetime: from the Beagle Boys to ingenious Gyro Gearloose, from the always lucky Gladstone Gander to the witch Amelia. And maybe we will finally know also a member of the McDuck family we only heard about until now. The original English version also has a stellar voice cast, starting from David Tennant (Doctor Who) as a perfect and very Scottish Uncle Scrooge.
If you grew up with the ducks adventures and you love the world of Disney, you must watch the new Ducktales series. If you live in the US, you can watch it on Saturdays on DisneyXD. If you are in Italy, you can watch it starting with a special episode from Sunday, November 26th at 7:45 pm on Disney Channel: it’s one of the funniest tv series you’ll watch this year. Cherry on top: the opening theme – both in English and Italian versions – is still the same (except for the music arrangement). We can still sing it out loud in front of the tv: whoo-oo!