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Woo-oo!

DuckTales is the series that jumpstarted the trend of Disney television cartoons.note  Inspired by… Carl Barks's classic comics (and loosely adapting a few of his stories), the series centers on Scrooge McDuck, the billionaire uncle of famous Disney rage-a-holic Donald Duck and Donald's triplet nephews: Huey, Dewey, and Louie. The series ran from September 18, 1987 to November 28, 1990.

As the series begins, Donald ships out to sea as he has enlisted in the Navy, explaining away his absence for most of the shownote ), and Scrooge comes into the guardianship of the mischievous triplet nephews and gains the one thing he could never buy with his amazing wealth: family.

The show was considered a great risk at a time when big budgets simply were not devoted to made-for-TV animation, but it paid off. It's considered a breakthrough in the industry, paving the way for the higher-quality, higher-budgeted shows in western animation. With 100 or 85 episodes (the four serials are sometimes counted together) over four seasons, DuckTales was notably one of the longest-lived of Disney's television cartoons (its predecessor, Adventures of the Gummi Bears, lasted for twice as many seasons, but only 65 episodes total).

It success lead to a media franchise that is still around today. It spun off a theatrical film in 1990, titled DuckTales the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp, however its lackluster reception contributed to the show's eventual cancelation. There were also two licensed video game adaptation on the Nintendo Entertainment System developed by Capcom. A remake of the original was developed by WayForward Games and released in 2013.

Speaking of comics, Boom! Kids — the same studio that brought back Darkwing Duck and Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangersalso brought back DuckTales, with Warren Spector as the writer. Between Executive Meddling by the people at Boom to rush it out and the Disney licenses going to Marvel, however, the ambitious globe-trotting plot that could have lasted as a Myth Arc was compressed to four issues and rushed as hell; at the very least, though, the brief series went out in a blaze of glory, as it crossed over with Darkwing for the first time since The Legend of the Chaos God.

The series is animated by three different studios: Wang, Taiwan (54 episodes), TMS, Japan (45 episodes) and Burbank, Australia (1 episode).

A Continuity Reboot, DuckTales (2017), began running on Disney XD 30 years later.

Oh yeah, one more thing: the theme song will never leave your head.


DuckTales (woo-oo) provides examples of:

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    Tropes A-D 
  • Abhorrent Admirer:
    • In "The Golden Fleecing", a harpy falls in love with Launchpad. He doesn't return the sentiments.
    • Likewise, in "The Lost Crown of Genghis Khan", the yeti starts crushing on him, much to his dismay. Luckily for him, the yeti then crushes on the villain of the week at the end, where Scrooge pokes fun at Launchpad for getting dumped.
  • Absent Animal Companion: Magica's raven Poe appears even less than she does and Tootsie the triceratops stops appearing before Bubba does.
  • Absent-Minded Professor: Gyro Gearloose had his moments of this. One of the most notable cases is in Duck to the Future, where he has become a bit senile in his old age and forgets about everything Scrooge asks him.
  • Absurdly-Spacious Sewer: In "A Drain In the Economy", Scrooge's money washes into the (storm) sewer, explicitly referred to as a "storm drain" by Big Time Beagle. Huey, Dewey and Louie pursue it through the storm sewer system. The drain ends up going into the Duckburg reservoir and directly into the city water supply.
  • Accidental Astronaut: In the episode "The Right Duck," Launchpad was supposed to board a simulator, but accidentally ends up in a rocket containing a space probe headed to Mars, and when Doofus tries to warn him, they're both sent to Mars.
  • Accidental Misnaming: A Running Gag in "The Duck Who Would Be King" is that after hearing Bubba everybody calls Scrooge "Skooge" and answers "Whatever." when Scrooge corrects them. In the end Scrooge himself says "Whatever", seeing it's no use.
  • Actor/Role Confusion: In "Where No Duck Has Gone Before", the boys don't seem to recognize that Major Courage is a TV character and the actor's stunts on the show are no less fake than the scenery. They get a hard lesson on this when they get a chance to see "Major Courage" in action, and he's nothing like the heroic character he portrays.
  • Adaptational Alternate Ending: DuckTales adapted more than one of Carl Barks' stories about Scrooge's adventures, but for some reason (possibly thanks in some cases to its more family-oriented nature), some of the endings got changed.
    • "The Status Seekers": In the original comic, Scrooge keeps the Candy-Striped Ruby as the gains of another successful treasure-hunting expedition. The ending of the episode has Scrooge throw away the mask that substituted for the ruby, and he quits the Association of Status Seekers to remain true to himself and his lower-class but loyal friends and family.
    • "The Golden Fleecing": For unknown reasons, the writers changed the way Scrooge tries to obtain the fleece from judging a cooking contest to having Launchpad act as "the big deipno"note  and get the fleece's location out of the harpies so Scrooge and the boys can find it. As a result, the ending is changed from Scrooge giving up the fleece in a different way to giving it up to save Launchpad from being roasted or eaten alive by the fleece's guardian.
    • The adaptation of "Tralla La" also has a changed ending, but in this case is because of Gizmoduck's presence: instead of the ducks being sent back to civilization as persona non grata to stop the rain of bottlecaps, Gizmoduck cleans the bottlecaps from Tralla La and the ducks part in better terms.
  • Adaptation Name Change: Scrooge McDuck's secretary Miss Quackfaster is called Miss Featherby.
  • Added Alliterative Appeal: This line from "A DuckTales Valentine" contains a lot of similar sounds.
    Scrooge: Now, keep your peepers peeled for priceless plunder.
    Launchpad: Personally, I'd prefer to protect my posterior from predators.
  • Adipose Rex: In the episode "Status Seekers", the protagonists visit a remote island where the king is fat precisely because in their culture the fattest person is made king. Various attempts to bribe him with Worthless Yellow Rocks fail, and then Mrs. Beakley thinks of trying to bribe him with fattening processed foods instead.
  • Adopted to the House:
    • Discussed but ultimately averted in the episode "Down and Out in Duckburg", in which Scrooge has lost his fortune. The nephews suggest asking Launchpad or Gyro for lodging, but Scrooge shoots down that idea, saying that, "Now that [he's] poor, they'll treat [him] like [he] treat[s] poor people."
    • One season later in "Super DuckTales" Scrooge loses everything again, this time to the Beagle Boys after they use a remote to take over Gizmoduck's suit and make him their unwilling slave. It's played straight here, as Launchpad is more than happy to let everyone stay at his home during their difficult time.
  • Adventurer Outfit: Launchpad wears standard pilot regalia, which adds to his heroic image.
  • Adventure Towns: Many episodes feature globe-trotting exploits and visits to various Adventure Towns. One example lands the ducks in a disneyfied version of Dallas.
  • Affectionate Nickname: Some of the characters have friendly nicknames for the others:
    • Scrooge McDuck: "boys/lads" (the triplets), "my darling Webbigail" (Webby), "lad/Launchpad m'boy" (Launchpad).
    • Launchpad McQuack: "little buddy/little buddies" (the triplets and Doofus Drake) and "Mr. McDee" (Scrooge).
  • A.I. Is a Crapshoot:
    • Scrooge hired Gyro to invent a security robot for his money bin that was so adamant about its job, it wouldn't even let Scrooge near it. This failure prompted Gyro to create the GizmoDuck suit for a person instead (since Scrooge wanted a security robot with "a brain").
    • In the episode "Armstrong", Armstrong (one of Gyro Gearloose's creations) malfunctions and starts stealing Scrooge's money.
    • Another episode has Gyro make a robot maid. She quickly turns into a Stalker with a Crush on Gizmoduck. She does not react well to his lack of interest and goes ballistic once she, correctly, starts to suspect that there is another woman.
  • Air-Vent Passageway: In DuckTales the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp, Webby goes through the ventilation of the Money Bin in order to rescue the boys.
  • All Animals Are Dogs:
    • Bubba's pet triceratops Tootsie acted much more like a dog than a dinosaur.
    • The animals that Webby tames either act like dogs or are silently humanlike in behavior.
  • Alliterative Family: Nearly every single one of the Beagle Boys has a name beginning with the letter B.
  • All Part of the Show: In "Maid of the Myth", Scrooge McDuck mistakenly thinks the Vikings who raid the opera house and kidnap Mrs. Beakley (who was dressed as a female Viking) are part of the charity show in which Mrs. Beakley is starring.
  • All Witches Have Cats: The witch in "Home Sweet Homer' has a black cat.
  • Alternative Foreign Theme Song:
  • Always Know a Pilot: Scrooge keeps Launchpad around because he will fly him anywhere, whether on a treasure hunt or a business trip, for the insanely low price of one cent per mile. Launchpad also has Improbable Piloting Skills — he can fly anything, from a live bird to a spacecraft. The inconvenient thing is that, per Rule of Funny, Launchpad seldom lands without crashing.
  • Always Second Best: Flintheart Glomgold always plays second fiddle to Scrooge. As you can imagine, he's none too happy about it.
  • Always Someone Better: A rare subversion in that the Someone Better was the protagonist. Flintheart Glomgold is the one who's fanatically obsessed with beating Scrooge in the wealth game and becoming the World's Richest Duck.
  • And a Diet Coke: When Burger Beagle orders a (rather large) meal from Gizmo Duck (he's pretending to be the drive-thru robot speaker), he orders a diet cola as well.
  • And I'm the Queen of Sheba: In the fourth part of the five-part episode "Time is Money", Scrooge McDuck ends up in jail because of the Beagle Boys convinced all the banks in Duckburg that Scrooge was an imposter. When Scrooge protests that he isn't an impersonator and the real Scrooge McDuck, a prison guard retorts with "Sure, and I'm Frankie Onasis".
  • And I Must Scream: The Golden Death in "The Golden Goose". Victims of it are turned into immobile statues of gold.
  • And You Thought It Was a Game: In "Where No Duck Has Gone Before", it takes "Major Courage" most of the episode to realize that he's really in outer space with real aliens instead of on a set.
  • Anger Born of Worry: in "Hero for Hire", Scrooge's joy that Launchpad was only Faking the Dead soon becomes rage.
    Scrooge: Launchpad, you're alive! I'm going to kill you!
  • Animation Bump: Two main studios were responsible for the show's animation; TMS Entertainment did most of the first season, while Wang Film Productions took over for a lot of the later episodes. Fans generally agree that the TMS episodes are way better animated than the Wang episodes, though the later episodes are still pretty decent. It's also noticeable that the later Wang-animated episodes (as well as the scenes in the intro not taken from the show itself) are far looser and cartoonier than Season 1, with a much higher framerate and use of cartoon smears as well, as was their style at the time.
    • On top of that, there were two Stateside production teams as well; one headed up by Fred Wolf and Alan Zaslove, which worked on all the seasons, and one led by Bob Hathcock (who later directed The Movie), which also started working on the show in the second season after Wolf got involved with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987). The differences between the two American teams are less pronounced, though many feel that the Wolf/Zaslove team did a better job with action sequences, while Hathcock's episodes were visually richer and had more of a "Disney-esque" feel.
    • Also present within the episodes themselves (both TMS and Wang's). With certain scenes being better animated than others.
  • Animesque: Present in several of the TMS animated episodes.
  • Anti-Advice: In one episode, Scrooge teams up with Gladstone Gander, whose luck has been supernaturally cursed. Scrooge exploits this by asking Gladstone which direction to go, then heading the opposite way.
  • Anti-Villain: The Beagle Babes from "The Good Muddahs" are slightly more sympathetic than their male cousins the Beagle Boys, mainly in that they had a soft spot for Webby and were even horrified when she convinced them that she was being influenced into turning to a life of crime.
  • Are You Sure You Can Drive This Thing?: In "Duckworth's Revolt", the boys grab an alien vehicle. At one point, one of them asks the other, "Do you know how to drive this thing?" The other replies that he thought someone else was driving.
  • A Round of Drinks for the House: After being totally humiliated in a bar, Scrooge McDuck subverts this trope:
    Scrooge: And to show you there are not hard feelings, I want to pay for a drink to everyone... who didn’t laugh at me!
  • Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking:
    • Played with in the second episode when Flintheart Glomgold and El Capitan set off the homemade alarm and wake everyone up:
      Scrooge: [startled out of his sleep] Robbers! Thieves! Politicians!
    • In "The Billionaire Beagle Boys Club" (Part 4 of the "Super DuckTales" saga), when Scrooge is arrested by the Chief of Police (thanks to the fact that Ma Beagle has him under her thumb) he's brought up on the charges of trespassing, theft, and interrupting a game of Bridge.
  • Artifact of Doom: The Golden Goose, which crosses over into Animalistic Abomination. It comes in the form of a small statue of a goose that can turn anything into gold, but when away from its fountain for too long, it comes to life and can turn anything to gold at will. Eventually, everything around it will involuntarily turn to gold, causing The End of the World as We Know It.
  • Artistic License – Economics: Generally averted, but there are at least three examples:
    • A fairly minor one, but in one episode Scrooge criticizes his nephews when he finds out that they spent more starting their lemonade stand than they'd made. He fails to consider that their one-time start-up costs were likely a factor in this (ie the wood and nails for the stand, and the cost of the glasses, all of which could be reused).
    • A larger one, but playing on the Rule of Funny. When the boys accidentally lose Scrooge's fortune to bad investments, they use a loophole that they weren't allowed to make the investments in the first place to literally undo all of the losses. In real life, even if you could reverse all the deals, a significant portion of the money would have been lost to manufacturing and other non-reversible services.
    • In "Launchpad's First Crash", Launchpad agrees to be Scrooge's pilot, and charges him a paltry rate of one cent per mile. Realistically, Scrooge would have to pay Launchpad minimum wage or offer him some other form of compensation. Scrooge could pay Launchpad under the table, but he isn't the kind of guy who would commit tax fraud.
  • Artistic License – Geography: Mount Vesuvius, Magica de Spell's lair, is represented like a solitary volcano amidst the sea - it is more similar to the volcanic islands north of Sicily, like Stromboli, than to the real Vesuvius, which lies on the southwestern coast of Italy. Since DuckTales usually uses fantasy landmarks, it is pretty jarring, especially if you are Italian.
  • Artistic License – Law: Launchpad regularly crashes planes. Crashing a plane (especially if you're the one at fault) would most certainly get your pilot's license suspended at the very least.
    • One episode involves a complete stranger claiming Scrooge's entire forture because (to simplify a bit) Scrooge's ancestor owed his ancestor an unpaid debt. In real life the man might have been able to hold the ancestor's estate liable if the debt wasn't old enough to be uncollectible, but Scrooge himself had nothing to do with the debt, and the estate was long since been settled.
  • Artistic License – Physics: Not only is swimming in a giant mass of gold coins impossible in and of itself, but diving headfirst into it certainly wouldn't have any pleasant results.
  • Artistic License – Space: This applies to every time space exploration was in the episode. Notably, "Where No Duck Has Gone Before" has Launchpad survive being in space without protection from a spacesuit.
  • Artistic Title: The opening features clips from the show - as well as clips that never made it into the show (i.e. an alien stealing a dollar bill from Scrooge, a tiger hugging Huey, Dewey and Louie, and Webby kissing a shark)
  • Art Shift: Scrooge's nightmare at the start of "The Unbreakable Bin".
    • The intro animation also makes it clear which clips come from the show and which were animated for the intro itself with the latter's rougher outlines and occasional use of motion smears.
  • Assurance Backfire: In "The Golden Fleecing", one of the triplets tells Scrooge that "Launchpad taught us everything he knows about flying." Scrooge retorts, "Now I'm worried."
  • Asteroid Thicket: In "Where No Duck Has Gone Before", Launchpad, the only person aware that a field of asteroids is real and deadly, has an absolutely terrifying time trying to keep the Phoenix from running into them. Ultimately, he brings it "right through without a scratch", but the toll the experience took on him is clear as he staggers upstairs to inform the others.
  • Atlantis: The fabled sunken city appears in "Aquaducks" and "Working for Scales."
  • Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: "Attack of the 50-Foot Webby" had Webby become gigantic.
  • Auction: Scrooge attends one in "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. McDuck", where he ends up bidding for a cologne that makes him aggressively generous.
  • Author Tract: Some episodes dealt with themes such as capitalism vs organized labor (showing the importance of responsible management, without totally demonizing, when Uncle Scrooge lost his memory).
  • Ax-Crazy: Admiral Grimitz, who "loves it when things go Kablooie".
  • Back for the Finale:
    • "Til Nephews Do Us Part" was the last episode of the first season of Duck Tales. Pratically everybody who appeared up to that point on the show arrive as guests at the Scrooge McDuck and Millionaira Vanderbucks wedding - such disparate persons as the members of the Explorers Club ("The Lost Crown Of Genghis Khan"), Launchpad's family ("Top Duck") and . Donald Duck made his last appearance with his cameo as Best Man. Even Scrooge's enemies like Flintheart Glomgold, Magica Despell and Ma Beagle and the Beagle Boys were on hand . . . albeit, in Ma Beagle's case, she and her boys and only come to rob the bank where the wedding was being held. And, of course, who could forget Glittering Goldie's surprise appearance . . . .
    • To a much lesser extent, the "Golden Goose" two-parter Grand Finale. All the major characters of the first season of the show are on hand, including Scrooge's entire household, Launchpad and Gyro Gearloose.
  • Back from the Dead: Merlock, the villain of DuckTales the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp, somehow survived his fall from the stratosphere and went on to antagonize Donald Duck on one of his video games. Then again, His first wish was immortality.
  • Badass Boast: Played with with Launchpad: "If it's got wings, I can crash it".
  • Badass Family: The McDuck/Duck family. Uncle Scrooge, Donald, Huey, Dewey, and Louie are all pretty badass in their own way (yes, even Donald can be badass when the chips are down...well in the episodes where he's present at least).
  • Bad Future: "Duck to the Future" has Magica take over and the triplets become Corrupt Corporate Executives.
  • Bad to the Last Drop: In ''Aqua Ducks", Gryo Gearloose invented a new type of health drink that, in Launchpad's words, tasted like "old tires." It turns out vulcanized rubber was a major ingredient.
  • The Bad Guy Wins:
    • In the end of "Till Nephews Do Us Part", the beagle boys actually succeed in robbing the bank.note 
    • Subverted with Glomgold. Whenever he enters a bet against Scrooge, he either loses at the last second, ir ends in a stalemate (thus preventing Glomgold from being richer then Scrooge) or his ill-gotten victory ultimately benefits Scrooge in the end.
  • Bail Equals Freedom: In "Bubbeo and Juliet", Scrooge is jailed a few times for disturbing the police in his escalating feud with the Blurffs. Scrooge complains about the increasing cost of being bailed out of jail. In effect Scrooge is simply being fined; once Scrooge pays the charges appear to be dropped.
  • Bag of Kidnapping: In the episode "My Mother The Psychic" the Beagle Boys kidnap Fenton Crackshell's mother this way after learning from Flintheart Glomgold that she's using her new gained ability to look into the future to make Scrooge's financial decisions which is making him a lot of money.
  • Bait-and-Switch: There's a sneaky double example of this at the beginning of Dough Ray Me. When Huey, Dewey and Louie decide to ask Uncle Scrooge to raise their allowance so they can keep playing a coin-operated arcade game, the camera zooms in on its marquee, which depicts an irate Scrooge. Cut to the real deal, irately saying no... to his accountant, Fenton (who'd asked for a raise), saying he'll just end up homeless and destitute if he gets money for nothing. They Huey, Dewey and Louie show up and ask for a bigger allowance, to which Scrooge responds gently... with the same thing, at one point word for word.
  • Balloon-Bursting Bird: The episode "The Big Flub" revolves around an invention called Flubble Gum, which is a bubble gum allowing bubble blowers to fly. When Fenton Crackshell is floating around in the air, Scrooge McDuck mounts an improbable rescue scheme. Scrooge throws lots of Flubble Gum into a trash compactor along with water, mixes it up, and uses an air pump to blow a giant-sized bubble, causing Fenton's trailer to float into the sky. The rescue is successful, but a passing bird pecks at the bubble, bursting it and sending the trailer crashing to the ground.
  • Banana Republic: The "Banana Republic" in "Allowance Day". It's a tropical island dictatorship shaped like a banana.
  • Bank Robbery: Happens often; kind of justified, since bank-robbing is pretty much the Beagle Boys' hat, at least when they're not after Scrooge's money bin (which of course is itself a form of bank robbery). Special mention goes to "Hero for Hire", when the Beagle Boys trick Launchpad into unwittingly robbing banks in guise as the "Webbed Wonder".
  • Bankruptcy Barrel: Vacation Vanhonk is seen wearing one in "Sir Gyro de Gearloose". Not because he's broke, but because the automatic dressing machine Gyro built for his only dresses itself . . . and presumably won't let Vanhonk wear any of his clothes either!
  • Beatnik: Bugle Beagle. His most notable appearances are in "Hero for Hire", "Time Teasers" and "Scroogerello".
  • Be Careful What You Wish For: "Master of the Djinni" and DuckTales the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp, respectively, both showed examples of this. In the former, Glomgold wishes for Scrooge to be stranded on a desert island and then ends up there as well after thoughtlessly wishing that he could see the look on his rival's face. In the latter, Webby wishes for a pet elephant without realizing how difficult it would be to control and later wishes for her toys to come to life, only for them to cause trouble.
  • Benevolent Boss: Although jokes about Scrooge McDuck's underpaid employees are just as widespread in this show as in the comics, no one can deny that Scrooge's employees all like working for him. Launchpad once accepts a job from Flintheart Glomgold, only to get fired after a few minutes for crashing the plane; Launchpad muses how Mr. McD "never fired him that fast" and is eager to go back to presumably the one boss in the world patient enough and tough enough to hire such a pilot. When the boys accidentally get Scrooge's butler Duckworth fired, they apologize and tell him they'll miss him but still think any job "is better than being Uncle Scrooge's slave"; Duckworth says indignantly, "I love serving Mr. McDuck!" And when Scrooge goes looking for three cargo ships of his that have disappeared, he finds his crews being held prisoner (along with many others) on a bizarre seaweed island. Scrooge's captain tells him how hearing that he had arrived made them all feel hope for the first time in years, and they all had faith that, with him leading the way, they could escape (Scrooge doesn't let them down). Employees of McDuck Enterprises all seem to consider their boss benevolent, even if Good Is Not Nice.
  • The Bermuda Triangle: When many of Scrooge McDuck's ships were disappearing in the Triangle, He sets out to locate his fleet and finally finds it, along with other ships, trapped in a huge mass of seaweed.
  • Berserk Button:
    • Never try to steal Scrooge's number one dime under any circumstances.
    • The same goes for his money bin, or money in general. He didn't get this rich by giving up without a fight.
    • And don't even try to take his ice cream either.
    • And while Scrooge respects and seeks wealth, he hates those who don't make their riches square or use their wealth to bully others. In one notable example he is transported to an ancient kingdom and marvels at palace's treasure trove - similar to his own - only to be furious when he finds out an Evil Chancellor amassed it by outright stealing from his citizens, take over the operation and gives every penny back. While he is forced to work with unscrupulous people every once in a while, it tends to be very begrudging and he has little issue with stacking such deals against them to deliver their just desserts.
    • Being called 'gadget man' becomes this for Gyro during "Sir Gyro de Gearloose" after he gets so thoroughly sick of Duckburg's residents over-relying on him for his mechanical skills. He gets over it.
  • Better to Die than Be Killed: Played with in "Hero for Hire". Launchpad yells to the cops that "you'll never take me alive!", but he's really setting up a fake death so they'll stop chasing him.
  • Beware the Nice Ones: Many characters qualify, but Scrooge's nephews and Webby especially stand out here. They may be sweet little children, but time and time again, they won't let anything prevent them from standing up for Uncle Scrooge or any of their friends.
  • Beware the Silly Ones:
    • Fenton Crackshell is a henpecked Momma's Boy who tends to get the worst of it in most of his appearances...until he puts his surprising cleverness, determination, and the Gizmosuit to work, at which point it becomes evident why he gets called an expy of Robocop.
    • Launchpad McQuack could sometimes be dismissed as a Cloudcuckoolander and a ditz, but under pressure (such as when the boys are threatened), he reveals himself as more clever than is immediately apparent and capable and courageous enough to be genuinely heroic.
  • Beyond the Impossible:
    • The first plot arc featured a dog(?) who had been looking for the city of gold for centuries. When asked how he stayed alive that long, all he said was "Sheer willpower!"
    • "Top Duck": The story opens with Launchpad attempting a stunt that Huey claims no pilot has ever survived. Not only does Launchpad survive the botched attempt, but also he goes on to perform the stunt to save Scrooge from falling out of the sky during an aerial battle with the Beagle Boys.
  • Big Damn Heroes:
    • A double example from "Back Out in the Outback": Launchpad and the boys swoop in with a load of boomerangs just in time to prevent Dashing Duke from attacking Scrooge and Sundowner, and then Webby arrives, having teamed up with several of the Australian animals to come to Scrooge's rescue, and interrupts him and his men before he can resume the attack with the heavy-duty boomerang he has left.
    • In "Back to the Klondike", Goldie turns up astride her pet bear, Blackjack, just as Dangerous Dan and his mooks have gotten the upper hand on Scrooge and the boys.
    • In "Till Nephews Do Us Part", Goldie interrupts the wedding between Scrooge and Millionara Vanderbucks at the last minute.
    • In "A DuckTales Valentine", Launchpad swoops in and hits Vulcan in the face with the missile just before he can fry Scrooge with a lightning ball. His defense doesn't last long, but it does help Scrooge survive.
  • Big Eater: Doofus and Burger Beagle eat more than any of the others.
  • Bigger Stick: In "Catch as Cash Can", when the Beagle Boys try to break into Scrooge's Money Bin, Big Time wears a suit of armor and makes it as far as the vault, only to face off with Scrooge driving a tank:
    Scrooge: Make my day.
    Big Time Beagle: You don't scare me, McDuck. This armored assault suit can stop a sixty-mm shell!
    Scrooge: Ach, too bad. This tank uses sixty-one-mm shells.
    Big Time Beagle: (counts on his fingers, then) Whoa! That's one millimeter too many!
  • Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Millionara Vanderbucks, a Gold Digger who nearly got Scrooge to marry her, hiding her Evil Gloating from him. That is until the end when she reveals her true intentions.
  • Blame Game: In "Nothing to Fear", when confronted by a nightmare version of their teacher Mrs. Quackenbush who demands to know where their homework is, Huey, Dewey, and Louie get into an argument over whose fault it is that they haven't done their homework.
  • Blazing Inferno Hellfire Sauce:
    • Scrooge's chili, in "Ducks of the West". It turns everybody who eats it (aside from Scrooge) into a Fire-Breathing Diner. Scrooge's unintentional victims then head to a nearby horse trough to cool out their mouths.
      Scrooge: I may be a city slicker, but we'll have a hot time in the old town tonight!
    • Ma Beagle's homemade chili in "The Masked Mallard". The Beagles use it to melt glass and (attempt) to steal a diamond.
      Big Time Beagle: Ma's homemade chili. The most corrosive substance known to man.
  • Bluff Worked Too Well: In "Allowance Day", Huey, Dewey and Louie trick Scrooge into believing Friday is really Saturday, so they can get their allowance early and buy a scooter that's on sale. Unfortunately, during Scrooge's morning conference call, the yes-men who run Scrooge's accept that it's really Saturday. The lie spreads to all of Scrooge's business interests, and from there to the entire world. By the time Huey, Dewey and Louie are let out of school (because their teacher informs them that it's really Saturday) to go to the department store, the sales' ended. And that's just the beginning of their troubles . . . .
  • Brave Scot: Scrooge McDuck — Scottish Adventurer Archaeologist and Cool Old Guy.
  • Break Out the Museum Piece:
    • In "Armstrong", Launchpad flies the nephews to confront the rogue robot in his "joyrider" (a single-prop biplane) since Armstrong can take control of any vehicle with electronics. This proves to be doubly useful in the final confrontation, when Launchpad defeats the robot by dumping the plane's load of water (ordinarily used in fighting forest fires) on its head.
    • On a bet with Glomgold, Scrooge defiantly restores the "Uncrashable Hindentanic", a mothballed zeppelin, and launches it as a luxury liner.
  • Breakfast in Bed: An offscreen incident crosses the trope with Nurse with Good Intentions; after the boys and Webby cause chaos after giving Scrooge a pet lemming, he tells them that sometimes even well-meant gestures go poorly. Launchpad chimes in with a story about a time he brought Scrooge breakfast in bed while he was sick and accidentally spilled it on him.
  • Breakout Character: Launchpad McQuack proved to be popular enough that he became a secondary protagonist in Darkwing Duck.
  • Brick Joke: In "Scrooge's Pet", after the kids' fishing trip has turned up nothing but footwear, one of the triplets says Scrooge could open a shoe store if he had come along. Later, after Lucky has run off with the combination to the vault, Louie says that they should have given him the footwear they caught.
  • Broken Ace: Scrooge is the richest duck in the world and has more adventures in a year than most people have in a lifetime — despite the fact that he's getting on in years. However, he's also quite insecure about his relationships with his friends and family, secretly fearing for at least part of the series that they're really interested in his money, not him.
  • Broke Episode: Even the Richest Duck in the World can't buy his way out of an episode where he loses all his money. In "Down and Out in Duckburg", Scrooge McDuck loses all his possessions on a technicality, leaving him and his family to eke out a living on the streets. Scrooge even has a nightmare about a Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous parody covering his dire straits. Fortunately, Scrooge manages to get his assets back by the end of the episode by fulfilling the contract that had cost him his fortune.
  • Broken Pedestal: Huey, Dewey, Louie, and Doofus idol worship Major Courage, hero of the TV show "Courage of the Cosmos." The boys go on the show and are blind to the fact that their hero is just a vain, egotistical actor. When they realize that they have really been launched into outer space and real aliens have captured them, Courage panics, and the boys see what a coward he really is ("real heroes just do their jobs!").
  • Bullying a Dragon: In general, Scrooge doesn't care how powerful his adversaries are, but "A DuckTales Valentine" especially falls under this trope. Given that the episode's conflict involves Scrooge ending up with something that belongs to an Olympian, it's a given that much of the cast found themselves getting into fights with extremely powerful beings.
    • Scrooge refuses to return Aphroducky's arrows pushes her out of his office and shuts the door. He doesn't change his mind about giving the arrows back even after Aphroducky has blasted the door in with her magic. Aphroducky easily outpowers him.
    • Webby sticks Aphroducky with one of the arrows to make her stop messing with Scrooge. Later, she and the boys attempt to replicate it to undo the spell (and succeed at the end).
    • Launchpad shoots Vulcan in the face with a missile when he arrives at McDuck mansion to kill Scrooge for planning to marry Aphroducky. Thankfully, Vulcan only grabs and throws his plane away, resulting in Launchpad crashing but ending up unharmed.
  • Bungling Inventor: Gyro is a genius inventor, but quite often problems arise because he doesn't think things through and often follows Scrooge's instructions in the literal sense.
  • Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Quirky but talented individuals seem to be a running theme in the McDuck workplace.
    • Fenton Crackshell is a Mama's Boy with a bad habit of taking things too literally and a tendency to overdo or underthink plans which sometimes creates or exacerbates the problem of the week. However, his determination and mad counting skills are unquestionable. During Fenton's job interview, Scrooge tried to dismiss him and fired a gun to scare him away when he persisted. When Fenton reeled off the entire number of bullets (and the change Scrooge tossed into the air as a second test), he hired him on the spot.
    • Gyro Gearloose, despite his extreme intelligence, shares Fenton's tendency for literal interpretations and has never yet learned to secure his inventions properly against criminals who would put them to bad use. That said, his scientific prowess ranks years ahead of its time; the guy can invent sapient robots, time machines, and levitation-capable bubble gum without breaking a sweat.
    • Launchpad McQuack has a goofy personality and loves to crash any vehicle he can get his hands on. However, under pressure, he shows tons of courage and a fair amount of resourcefulness, and he can control any method of transportation (one episode had him driving an alien spacecraft, and another a Humongous Mecha, both without practice). Scrooge blatantly declares at one point that Launchpad is the only pilot he knows capable of consistently pulling off the impossible things necessary in his adventures.
  • Butt-Monkey:
    • Dijon tends to be subjected to slapstick injuries every time he shows up.
    • As far as the regular cast goes, Launchpad usually tends to get the worst of whatever painful or embarrassing things happen on McDuck expeditions anywhere.
  • By the Power of Grayskull!: Fenton Crackshell activates his Gizmoduck armor by saying "Blathering blatherskite!" As it later turns out, though, this isn't limited to Fenton, so anyone else who says the words will also end up wearing the armor.
  • Canada, Eh?: Parodied in "Ducky Mountain High". The Canadian Beagle Boys that Glomgold recruits embody pretty much every Canadian stereotype.
  • Cane Fu: Scrooge sometimes uses his cane as a weapon.
  • Canine Confusion: The Beagle Boys and Ma Beagle look nothing like actual beagles; they have peach-colored fur that fair-skinned humans may have and their ears are very small. Real beagles have brown, white, and black fur and longer ears.
  • Canon Immigrant: Dijon, an Arabian thief from The Movie gets to team up with Flintheart and the Beagle Boys for a two-parter in the series.
  • Can't Live with Them, Can't Live Without Them: Scrooge originally started working with Launchpad because he needed a (cheap) pilot, and he frequently gets irritated with him. However, he clearly missed him after firing him in "Hero for Hire", and has protected him in dangerous situations, even at great cost. Launchpad's relationship to Scrooge is not an example, as he is much more easygoing and rarely does more than some slight snarking at his boss/friend.
  • Can't Kill You, Still Need You: Glomgold and the old captain attempt to kill Scrooge and his nephews to keep them from reaching the lost ship first. Then they discover their map being eaten by their donkey and hastily undo their attempt on Scrooge's life.
  • Captain Crash: Launchpad tends to crash every flying vehicle he pilots, to the point of needing to be the picture of this trope.
  • Captain Ersatz:
    • Launchpad for Donald, presumably to keep Donald from stealing Scrooge's spotlight — and because of Donald's voice.
    • One-shot character Major Courage was a copy of William Shatner's Kirk.
    • Ping the Pitiless from the episode "The Right Duck" is a spoof of Flash Gordon villain Ming the Merciless.
  • Captain Space, Defender of Earth!: In a Show Within a Show.
  • Cardboard Box Home: An Imagine Spot that happens during an episode where, long story short, Uncle Scrooge was broke, he imagines a parody of 'Lifestyles of the Rich And Famous' which focused on him living on the street and his cardboard house, which his butler tried to maintain spick-span (and an Overly Long Gag of him continuously answering to the reporter, in a somewhat-exasperated tone, that there was nothing else but cardboard involved in the house's construction).
  • Cardboard Prison: Try to keep the Beagle Boys in jail. Just try. (Though no longer allowing them cake deliveries would be a fine start.)
  • Card-Carrying Villain:
    • The Beagle Boys really like being criminals, and aren't shy about saying so.
      "As long as it's illegal, we'll be happy Beagles!"
    • Even when they aren't guilty of anything, they still wear their prison jumpsuits and ID tags. They are also never seen without their burglar masks.
      • This is even true in the comics though they didn't have names.
  • Caught in a Snare: In "Dinosaur Ducks", Huey, Dewey and Louie get caught in a snare they themselves set to catch a baby dinosaur.
  • Character Catchphrase: Quite a few actually.
    • Scrooge: "Blow me bagpipes!" and "Curse me kilts!"
    • Huey, Dewey, and Louie: "Quackeroony!"
    • Launchpad: "No problem, Mr. Mc D!", "If it has wings, I can crash it", and "Don't worry, I'm okay!"
    • Fenton: "Blatherin' Blatherskite!"
    • Admiral Grimitz: "I love it when things go kablooie!"
    • In the episode "All Ducks on Deck", the villain the Phantom Blot constantly declares "I'm mean!"
  • Chased Off into the Sunset:
    • Done after Launchpad McQuack crashes a spaceship right into Scrooge McDuck's swimming pool.
    • It happens to Launchpad again in the episode "The Golden Fleecing". At the end of the adventure, Launchpad is pursued by one of the lovestruck Harpies.
  • Chase Scene: Too many to count. Here are just a few examples:
    • "Don't Give Up The Ship": The Beagles chase the nephews into Scrooge's candy factory, trying to get the eponymous to a vessel.
    • "Wrong Way In Ronguay": Scrooge and the nephews chase Glomgold and El Capital after the latter pair set off a Junior Woodchuck burglar alarm.
    • "Back to the Klondike": Goldie's bear chases after Scrooge.
    • "Scrooge's Pet": Scrooge chases after a lemming.
    • "The Money Vanishes": The Beagle Boys chase after the nephews with Gyro's furniture moving ray. Then the ray falls into the nephews' hands, and they chase after the Beagles.
    • "Til Nephews Do Us Part" ends with Goldie chasing after "unfaithful" Scrooge with a double-barrelled shotgun.
    • "The Good Muddahs": The Beagle Babes, the nephews, Webby and Bubba, are chased by two rookie cops.
    • "New Gizmo Kids on the Block": The police chase Ma Beagle and the Beagle Boys.
    • "Dinosaur Ducks": The nephews are chased by a T-Rex.
    • "Master of The Djinni": Scrooge and Glomgold are chased by Arabs.
    • "The Golden Goose": Speaking of Arabs, the shameless Arab thief Dijon is chased by the Beagle Boys, after betraying his brother, a monk.
  • Cheerful Child: Webby is often cheerful and naive, frequently making friends and proving that some of the antagonistic characters have a soft side.
  • Chest of Medals: The president of the Banana Republic in "Allowance Day".
  • Chick Magnet:
    • Scrooge got the attention of Glittering Goldie, Millionara Vanderbucks, Magica De Spell, Mrs. Crackshell, and Ma Beagle. Even if he is the richest duck in the world, that's still quite an accomplishment.
    • Also Launchpad was pretty popular with the ladies considering he attracted Feathers Galore, Sensen, and many other girls along the way.
  • Child Hater: Millionara Vanderbucks in "Till Nephews Do Us Part''. Upon marrying Scrooge, she intends to send Huey, Dewey and Louie to military school and Webby to finishing school.
    Millionara: [upon first meeting Webby and the nephews] Children! How ghastly! ...Er, how charming!
  • Chocolate of Romance:
    • In "Ducky Mountain High", Scrooge buys Goldie a box of chocolate silver dollars.
    • In "Metal Attraction", Fenton Crackshell hires the "Singing Chocolates" for Gandra Dee. They're a troupe of singers dressed in giant valentine's chocolate boxes. Presumably Gandra gets to keep all the chocolates they bring:
      Singing Chocolates:
      Oh, we're the singing chocolates,
      As sweet as we can be,
      Fenton gives his love,
      To his sugar Gandra Dee!
      Gandra: Oh, Fenton, you shouldn't have done it!
      Fenton: I knew I should have hired the Acrobatic Assorted Nuts instead!
  • Chromatic Arrangement: Huey, Dewey, and Louie wear red, blue, and green respectively.
  • Chronically Crashed Car: The team's pilot would crash whatever he was provided with Once an Episode — including a living condor and a gadget plane that accidentally folded into a suitcase mid-flight.
  • Chubby Chef:
    • Mrs. Beakley, victim of the occasional fat or weight joke through the series (In "Too Much of a Gold Thing", she dislodges one of the giant two-ton sun-coins when she steps atop it!). Although she's officially the nanny, she shares cooking duties with butler Duckworth. In "Scrooge's Last Adventure", Scrooge asks her if he had ever complimented her on her cooking:
    Mrs. Beakley: Not exactly. You said the way I look I must enjoy my cooking!
    • To a lesser degree, Ma Beagle, who is certainly not svelte. However, her culinary skills are mainly dedicated to the art of the Jail Bake.
  • Chuck Cunningham Syndrome:
    • Bubba the caveduck was introduced with much fanfare at the start of season two, only to vanish without a trace after a dozen or so episodes, mostly due to his unpopularity with the writers. He's never mentioned again. In fact, the episode "Metal Attraction" is the only episode to have appearances by both Bubba and Gizmoduck.
    • Donald isn't seen or mentioned again after Season 1.
  • Circle of Standing Stones: In one episode, some druids were found to have a bone to pick with the McDuck clan, since one of Scrooge's ancestors had built his castle on their land. Why? Because there was a ring of large stone pillars already there, which made building it faster...and cheaper. It runs in the family.
  • Classical Mythology: Because sometimes it went beyond mere Homage.
  • Clear Their Name: The nephews have to do this for Scrooge in the episode where Glomgold frames him for burglary.
    • Also the plot of "The Curse of Castle McDuck, where Scrooge's entire clan is accused of putting a curse on his hometown. It turns out the "curse" was in fact set up by a tribe of Druids as a Secret Test of Character for the McDucks.
  • Clock Tampering: In "Allowance Day", the nephews trick Scrooge into thinking it's one day later so he can give them their allowances early, with global consequences.
  • Cloudcuckoolander: Donald Duck and Launchpad both tend to have very bizarre interpretations of how the world works, most commonly being oblivious of the danger that surrounds them.
    • This is especially dangerous for Donald as he is in the navy and could cause an explosion.
  • Cold Cash: Gyro Gearloose once did this to an invention by accident. The Beagle Boys crack his safe to find his lunch, then conclude that since he's absent-minded, the invention must be in his refrigerator. They are correct.
  • Comic-Book Adaptation: Yes, there's a Comic-Book Adaptation of a cartoon based on a comic book based on a cartoon. Just go with it.
    • Also includes a Shout-Out to Darkwing Duck, generally considered a Spin-Off to the series. In one comic where Scrooge's moon rock cufflinks lead to the group stranded on the moon and out of fuel for the rocket (long story), Launchpad mentions that the cufflinks, actually a cheaply synthesized artificial gem, can be picked up for a nickel in St. Canard. He then adds that he knows this "screwy duck and his daughter" over there.
  • Company Cross References: In the first episode, Scrooge McDuck tells a worker "there'll be no whistling while you work!"
  • Computer Equals Tapedrive: Glomgold's computer in "Wrong way to Ronguay" is of this type.
  • Continuity Nod: In "Robot Robbers", Scrooge is outraged that Gyro built more giant robots, reminding him that his last robot nearly killed them all, which was the plot of the previous episode, "Armstrong".
    • The robots were built for Glomgold's construction company but were stolen by The Beagle Boys.
      • Eventually it was up to Scrooge, Glomgold, and the boys to stop the Beagle Boys from wrecking Duckburg and stealing his money. Don't worry Glomgold paid for all the damages.
  • Continuity Snarl: In Season 1, Gyro creates a time machine known as the Time Tub, which shows up in a few episodes. Come "Time is Money" in Season 2, Scrooge is amazed to find out that Gyro has discovered time travel, and it's as though the Time Tub had never been built. Interestingly enough, a key plot point in "Time is Money" is that Gyro's "new" time machine, the Millenium Shortcut, requires a rare element known as bombastium in order to work, something that presumably was not an issue for the Time Tub.
  • Conspicuously Light Patch: Happens all over the place, most notably when Scrooge dives in his Money Bin. The coins that fly around him are notably distinguishable from the rest of the coins in the bin.
  • Cool and Unusual Punishment: When Glomgold gets caught framing Scrooge, the judge orders him to keep a portrait of the world's richest duck in his house for fifteen years. Thus, Glomgold has to put up with Scrooge grinning down at him constantly.
  • Cool Big Sis: The Beagle Babes become this to Webby in "The Good Muddahs". They are in fact so nice to her that when Webby tricks them into believing that she has gone bad, they are downright horrified.
  • Cool Old Guy:
    • Scrooge McDuck — he's done it all, and isn't afraid to be called to prove that he's done it.
    • Also El Capitan from the five episode pilot due to the fact that he's over 400 years old and has stayed alive solely on willpower and determination to find more treasure. Less cool is his psychotic obsession with the Treasure Of the Golden Suns.
  • Cool Old Lady:
    • Mrs. Beakley earns some points for being able to keep Huey, Dewey, and Louie in line, not to mention the things she's done when she's come along on (or been dragged into) an adventure.
    • Glittering Goldie will end whoever tries to get between her and Scrooge, and even in her old age still keeps busy doing difficult jobs like gold mining.
    • Ma Beagle, unlike her sons, actually manages to evade the police most times she commits a crime.
  • Cooperation Gambit:
    • In "Beaglemania", Scrooge cooperates with Ma Beagle to destroy the Beagle Boys' musical career.
    • In "Magica's Shadow War", Scrooge teams up with Magica to stop her magically animated shadow, and ''its'' shadows, from taking over the world.
    • In "Robot Robbers" Scrooge and Flintheart Glomgold cooperate to halt Ma Beagle and the Beagle Boys, who'd stolen Glomgold's giant construction robots and were running amok across the city.
    • In "Time Teasers", Scrooge cooperates with the Beagles to escape pirates and get Back to the Future.
  • Coordinated Clothes: In "Duck in the Iron Mask", Dewey intentionally breaks up the habit that he and his brothers have of dressing alike after becoming annoyed that people can't tell them apart.
  • Corrupt Corporate Executive:
    • Flintheart Glomgold is insanely jealous of Scrooge's status as the World's Richest Duck, and is willing to pull any kind of dirty trick he can think of to undermine his rival. That, and he's a conniving, thieving bastard in general.
    • Millionara Vanderbucks is also rather unpleasant, namely in that she tried to marry Scrooge for his money and was also rather nasty to Huey, Dewey, Louie, and Webby.
  • Cousin Oliver: Most fans felt Bubba was an unnecessary addition to the series. Even the writers didn't know what to do with him most of the time so Bubba spent most episodes tagging along with Huey, Dewey and Louie and doing whatever they did (much like Bean from Muppet Babies (1984)).
  • Counting Bullets: Fenton does this. He has the ability to instantly count anything he sees. His first appearance includes counting how much buckshot Scrooge has shot into the ceiling.
  • Cowboy Episode: Ducks of the West. Scrooge's oil wells go dry, and he heads out to Texas with Huey, Dewey and Louie in tow.
  • Crisis Makes Perfect: In "Top Duck", Launchpad (unsurprisingly) crashes spectacularly the first time he attempts the "Treetop Bebop Tuck and Roll". At the episode's end, he manages it to save Scrooge and the Money Bin.
  • Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass:
    • Launchpad, in spite of being an incompetent pilot, proves himself to be a capable hero on more than one occasion. One of the most notable examples is in "Where No Duck has Gone Before", where he shows the cowardly Major Courage what being a real hero is all about.
    • Fenton Crackshell not only proves himself to be a reasonably competent crimefighter as Gizmoduck, but he sometimes manages to save the day without the Gizmoduck suit, such as outsmarting the Master Electronic Leader at the end of his introductory arc by asking him how many bolts are in a jar and then revealing that the jar actually contains nuts.
  • Cub Cues Protective Parent: In "Back Out in the Outback", Webby picks up a baby warthog and finds herself chased by its parents.
  • Curse Cut Short
    • Through the course of the series, Huey, Dewey and Louie say "What the..." a few times, before being inevitably interrupted. What the what? It's unclear.
    • In "Where No Duck Has Gone Before", Doofus refers to Launchpad dismissal of T.V. star Major Courage:
      Doofus: Launchpad says Major Courage wouldn't known an asteroid from an...
      Huey, Dewey and Louie: Shh! [as Courage of the Cosmos begins]
  • Cutting the Knot: In "Raiders of the Lost Harp", Magica goes to her safe and uses her magic to turn the combination lock to open it. When it doesn't open, she gets annoyed and just breaks open the safe with a sledgehammer.
  • Daddy's Girl: More like Grandpa's Girl, to describe the relationship between Uncle Scrooge and "my darlin' Webbigail." Even though they aren't really related, Scrooge lets Webby call him her uncle, and she is shown to care about him very much.
  • Damsel out of Distress: In "Scroogerello", "Princess" Goldie beats on the Beagle Boys while they're abducting her in their carriage. She doesn't initially escape, but she brings a lot of pain on them. When Glomgold and the Beagles lock Goldie in a tower, she rescues herself by karate-chopping down the door. Realizing her "golden stranger" (Scrooge) is in the castle to rescue her, she locks herself back up so she can play the part of damsel-in-distress. Unfortunately, Scrooge and the nephews run past, being chased by Glomgold and the Beagle Boys.
  • Darker and Edgier: Duck Tales was mostly a light-hearted kids show, but it had a few dark episodes. The nephews were once turned into gold statues, and there also were several episodes, where a character nearly dies.
    • "Too Much of a Gold Thing" has Scrooge, Mrs. Beakley, the nephews and Webby almost boiled alive by molten gold. While El Capitan is saved from the boiling gold, the mad conquistador's fate seems to be to spend the rest of his unnaturally prolonged life futilely digging for the treasure through a mountain of dirt.
    • The alien robots in the episode "Money to Burn" not only stole Scrooge's money bin, so they could melt down the coins to make new robots. But they also were really close to melting Scrooge and Launchpad into grease. Not to mention the Fridge Horror that these robots had probably killed off the alien race who had created them in the first place...
    • The mites in "The Attack of the Metal Mites" were played very seriously, despite the fact that they were tiny insects. After all, they were designed to eat metal! So they caused plenty of damage all over the city, and they even devoured Fenton's otherwise indestructible Gizmoduck suit.
    • Additionally there are two episodes where one-shot characters are killed, albeit off-screen. In "The Right Duck", Ping the Pitiless feeds two Martians to his pet "Spot". Similarly, in "Double-O-Duck", Dr. Nogood falls into a vat of vanishing fluid. He doesn't rise up, the picture give a closeup of the ominous boiling liquid.
  • Dartboard of Hate:
    • Glomgold is shown to have one of Scrooge in his office in "Ducks On the Lam". He even throws a tomahawk at it!
    • In "Down and Out in Duckburg", Fritter O'Way at one point throws darts at one of Scrooge's portraits.
  • Deadpan Snarker:
    • Scrooge has a tendency to make remarks about Launchpad and Fenton's ditziness.
    • Duckworth also tends to make remarks about situations, like when Huey, Dewey, and Louie tied him up and he stated that his condition would definitely delay dinner.
  • Death by Materialism:
    • Nearly El Capitan in "Treasure of the Golden Suns" when he desperately tried to get his gold back when the temple collapsed. Since it's a Disney production and the good guys can't leave him to die, Scrooge saves him from falling into a lake of molten gold.
    • This is also a Running Gag for Scrooge himself; on at least two occasions (including "Super DuckTales" and DuckTales the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp), a character asks him point-blank "what's worth more: a fortune, or your life?". Scrooge has a hard time giving a straight answer to this question.
  • Death by Transceiver: Subverted in "Where No Duck Has Gone Before". Scrooge is angrily watching Courage over the "radio" when the Kronk ship goes chasing after him and eventually catches the Phoenix, which disrupts the transmission again. However, given that it's Launchpad driving the Kronk ship, Courage doesn't get anything more than a bad scare.
  • Debut Queue: The Five-Episode Pilot has a new character introduced in nearly every episode.
  • Decomposite Character: Donald Duck is Demoted to Extra in the series and the main focus was centered on Scrooge and the Three Nephews. But aspects of his traditional role in the Comics were distributed to other characters, who eventually evolved their own personality.
    • Launchpad McQuack ends up being The Ditz and Butt-Monkey accompanying Scrooge and the nephews on the adventures.
    • Fenton Quackshell is more or less just like Donald. Poor middle-class scrapper, a suitor to Gandra Dee (a Daisy Expy), butting heads with Scrooge while also being irreplaceable, and finally a civilian alter-ego to the Superhero Gizmoduck (much like Donald and Paperinik).
    • The Spin-Off series has Darkwing Duck who unlike Launchpad and Fenton, has Donald's distinct hot-head Small Name, Big Ego personality from the comics and likewise resembles Paperinik.
  • Descriptiveville: A series about anthropomorphic ducks takes place in a city called Duckburg. Although oddly, its populace is primarily dogs..
  • Demoted to Extra:
    • Donald was a major player in the original comics, but is just an occasional guest star in the show during the first season. Within the show itself, Launchpad and Doofus had drastically-reduced roles in the second season (Doofus only getting a non-speaking cameo in one episode).
    • Launchpad notably had reduced screentime, but wasn't almost entirely gone from the series. He was just more Out of Focus than anything else. On the other hand, this definitely counts for Magica (who was a recurring villain in season 1 but just appeared in one episode of season 2) and any Beagle Boy who wasn't Ma, Bouncer, Big-Time, Burger, or Baggy (never seen again outside of cameos during Super Ducktales)
    • Bubba, rather hilariously straight after he was introduced as a new main character.
  • Depending on the Artist:
    • There were a few episodes in the first season where the hats of the nephews had black, instead of the commonly used darker colors.
    • As noted in the Animation Bump entry, Wang's episodes had a more cartoony look compared to TMS's episodes.
    • "Down And Out in Duckburg" has a different style compared to the other episodes. This unsurprisingly also meant that the episode's animators, Burbank Animation, was not called upon for any other episodes.
  • Descending Ceiling: Seen in "Dime Enough For Luck". One of Magica's death traps involves a descending ceiling, threatening to crush Scrooge and the temporarily-unlucky Gladstone Gander.
  • Determinator: Scrooge and the Beagle Boys qualified for this and also El Capitan who refuses to die until he finds more treasure.
  • The Dinnermobile: "Scroogerello" has Scrooge dreaming he's in a Cinderella story. He goes to Princess Goldie's ball in a car the Fairy Webby makes from Junior Woodchuck cookies.
  • Dirty Coward: Major Courage.
  • Disaster Movie: Parodied in "The Uncrashable Hindentanic". Scrooge has to win a bet on whether he can't make money off the Hindentanic by transporting several people onto it without the trip ending in a disaster. During the episode, pretty much every disaster movie cliche creeps in, from a medical emergency (one of the passengers has to go to London to get a beak transplant done before lunch) to a loose swarm of bees.
  • Disproportionate Retribution: Many, many times.
    • In "Three Ducks of the Condor", "Marching Slowly" tries to kill Scrooge, Launchpad and Donald for merely visiting his mountain fortress.
    • In Sphinx for the Memories", the Garbled One sentences Scrooge and the nephews to be "tied down in the desert sun and let the vultures pick their bones for merely intruding on the lost city of Garbabble. Scrooge talks him into lessening the sentence into merely having him and the nephews enslaved for life building a pyramid.
      • It's noteworthy that the Garbled one eschews the traditional punishment, being thrown alive in the jackal pit! Moreover, their Garbabble desert guide had tried to get them crushed to death in a death trap en route!
    • In "Luck O' The Ducks", trespassing in the Leprechaun kings' castle merits being thrown into the snake pit for a hundred years.
    • In "Scroogerello", Scrooge's dream had Flintheart Glomgold:
      • imprison his childhood servant for life when said servant gave Flintheart Cod Liver Oil for a cold.
      • imprison Huey, Dewey and Louie for life after their Junior Woodchuck Cookies gave Burger Beagle heartburn.
    • "Jungle Duck" sees Scrooge and party almost thrown into a pit of boiling oil by hostile natives. Just for showing up in the native's territory.
    • "The Duck In The Iron Mask"
      • The Count of Monte Dumas' evil twin brother locks him in an iron mask, because said evil twin brother was lost in a childhood game of hide and seek.
      • Scrooge, Launchpad and Huey, Dewey and Louie are sentenced for life imprisonment after Scrooge angrily tears up the fines he's been issued by Captain Pietro.
    • "Aqua Ducks" sees Scrooge, Launchpad, Doofus and Gyro sentenced to 400 years imprisonment for "littering" (Part of the "Catch as Cash Can" four-parter, Scrooge's entire fortune had been sunk into the domain of a group of angry fish folk).
    • Similarly, "The Land of Tralala" sees the High Mucky Duck of Tralala sentence Scrooge, Fenton, Huey, Dewey and Louie to death for "the high crime of littering."
    • Allowance Day sees Scrooge and Fenton sentenced to death, again. Scrooge had angrily shaken General Chiquita, the dictator of The Banana Republic, by the coat.
    • The theme of trespassers will be murdered, yet again appears in the episode "Bubba's Big Brain Storm". Scrooge, his nephews and Bubba's are shot down by the dimwitted descendants of the Ancient Thinkas. The dimwitted natives lock Scrooge and company in a pyramid to starve to death.
  • Distracted by the Luxury: "The Lost Crown of Genghis Khan" features a female yeti who loves valuables and keeps a room full of expensive treasures.
  • Do-Anything Robot: Gizmo Duck, whose suit is supposed to be able to do anything, but he didn't have time to read the instruction manual. This is played for laughs later, when he's more familiar with the suit, with him being prepared for more trivial and minor things (such as having a satellite dish so his mother can watch TV on his display panel) than for the more important things.
  • Down L.A. Drain: In "New Gizmo Kids on the Block", the police chase Ma Beagle and the Beagle Boys along a Los Angeles River lookalike.
  • Dropped Glasses: In "Take Me Out of the Ballgame", while up at bat, Doofus' glasses fall off. The Beagle Brat back catcher steps on the lenses, smashing them. Doofus still goes on to hit a homerun and win the game.
  • Drunk with Power: In one episode, Fenton Crackshell is obliged to impersonate Scrooge, who has gone missing, and soon starts acting like a caricature of Scrooge, with all his negative personality traits at full blast and none of the mitigating positive ones, even when he's alone with people who know about the impersonation.
  • Dumb Muscle: Bubba is very strong, but is shown in "Bubba's Big Brainstorm" to do rather poorly in school. Justified due to him being a prehistoric cave duck relying on primitive instincts.
  • Dunce Cap: In "Bubba's Big Brainstorm", Bubba Duck is wearing a dunce cap when he shows his report card to Scrooge McDuck. Later, when his intelligence has been increased by Gyro's thinking cap and he demonstrates his intellect by explaining a complex equation to his class, the teacher Mrs. Quackenbush responds by putting on a dunce cap and packing her bags to go back to college.
  • Dunking the Bomb: In one episode, Doofus looks up in the Junior Woodchuck Guidebook how to disarm a Martian bomb inside of a rocket. The solution given is to douse it with water. Launchpad crashes in Scrooge's pool.
  • Durable Death Trap: Several over the course of the series. However, the most famous is the one from the Valley Of The Suns in "Too Much of A Gold Thing". In a temple made of solid gold, a gold rotating dial activates when the doors to all three treasure vaults are opened at the same time. Scrooge, in the throws of "gold fever", sets off the booby trap. First the doors shut (and the exit). Then the floor collapses. Then the giant sun coins on the valley sides reflect the sunlight into the valley, causing the temple to melt into the lake of solid gold beneath.

    Tropes E-I 
  • Early Installment Character-Design Difference: The show's precursor Sport Goofy in Soccermania shows some of the characters to have different character designs.
    • Huey, Dewey, and Louie all wear red.
    • The Beagle Boys don't wear prison numbers on their shirts. They also wear orange and all look alike, making them appear closer to their comic counterparts (except for the missing numbers).
    • Gyro's brief appearance also has him look closer to his comic incarnation than the thinner design the TV show gave him.
  • Early-Installment Weirdness:
    • The TV special, Sport Goofy in Soccermania, which served as a precursor to the series:
      • Scrooge is voiced by Will Ryan, rather than Alan Young.
      • Instead of Duckworth, Scrooge has a younger dogface butler named Jeeves.
      • No Webby, Mrs. Beakley, or Launchpad.
    • In the show itself, in earlier episodes the Beagle Boys' relationship with Glomgold was a lot different, as they were enemies to him as much as Scrooge which force them into an Enemy Mine position in "Robot Robbers". This is a far cry from all later season one and season two episodes where the Beagle Boys are essentially thugs for hire for Glomgold.
    • In "Robot Robbers", Burger Beagle for some reason speaks with Bouncer Beagle's voice. This is interesting to note because they are both voiced by the same actor.
  • Elmuh Fudd Syndwome: Recurring character Webra Walters has this speech impediment, though at least one episode has her speak without pronouncing R's as W's.
  • Embarrassingly Dresslike Outfit: In "Once Upon a Dime," Scrooge, at this point a poor Scottish immigrant, draws the attention of a policeman, who objects to his wearing a skirt in public. ("It's a kilt!") However, when Scrooge's case goes to trial, it turns out that the judge is Scottish (and is also wearing a kilt). Offended, he sentences the policeman to wear an actual skirt for thirty days.
  • Emotional Bruiser: Launchpad is the tallest and strongest member of the cast and (Depending on the Artist) the most muscular. He also expresses affection and grief unabashedly when they're called for.
  • Enemy Eats Your Lunch: In "Hero for Hire", the Beagle Boys torment Doofus by eating his pancakes.
  • Enemy Mine: There are times when Scrooge and/or his nephews are forced to work together with their enemies.
    • First when they and the Beagle Boys wind up getting transported into the past due to a mishap with Gyro's time-stopper device, they had to work together to return to their own time.
    • After that, Scrooge and Glomgold had to work together to stop the Beagle Boys and Ma from destroying the city with the giant construction robots.
    • When Magica's shadow gains sentience and ejects her, she and Scrooge were forced to work together to stop the shadow as it was even more sinister than its host as it plotted to cover the world in eternal shadow.
    • When the Beagle Boys abandon Ma Beagle after discovering stardom, she resorts to working with Scrooge to get them bombed and thus return back to her.
    • Slightly lesser extent with Glomgold in "Til Nephews Do Us Part", when Millionaira after her wedding to Scrooge failed, she immediately tries to hook up with Glomgold since he's the 2nd richest duck in the world. He immediately runs, following Scrooge's lead to get away from her.
      Millionaira: Is there a Mrs. Second Richest Duck in the World?
      Glomgold: Uh... well I... uh... WAIT FOR ME, MCDUCK!
  • Emergency Impersonation: In "Blue Collar Scrooge", Fenton Crackshell impersonates Scrooge McDuck so his deal with Mr. Trumpcard won't fall through.
  • Establishing Character Moment: As would be expected for a pilot episode, "Treasure of the Golden Suns" gives some early indication of the characters' personalities.
    • Scrooge taking a plateful of free samples and his exchange with a collector from the first episode establishes how stingy he is.
      Collector: Penny for the poor?
      Scrooge: They're not worth it!
    • The moment when Launchpad crashes spectacularly into the ground and then walks over to Scrooge and Gyro, completely unfazed, sums up the mixture of Action Hero stunts and Cloud Cuckoolander antics that define him for the rest of the series.
  • Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas:
    • The Beagle Boys were tough as nails, but would do anything Ma Beagle asked without a second thought.
    • Averted with Ping the Pitiless from "The Right Duck", who imprisoned his own mother for jaywalking.
  • Even Evil Has Standards:
    • In the episode "Till Nephews Do Us Part", after Flintheart comforts Millionara, she starts flirting with him when she learns that he's the second richest duck in the world, and he immediately runs away for the sake of protecting his money.
    • In "The Good Muddahs" when the Beagle Babes think their criminal influence has rubbed off on sweet, innocent Webby they feel terrible.
    • In "My Mother the Psychic", Burger Beagle finds the idea of Fenton never visiting his mother again to be very vile.
  • Everyone Loves Blondes:
    • Fenton's love interest is a blonde woman named Gandra Dee.
    • In "Duck to the Future", Doofus's future counterpart is shown to be married to Webby, who has blonde hair as an adult.
    • Bubba falls for a blonde pig girl named Julie in the episode "Bubbeo And Juliet".
  • Everything's Louder with Bagpipes: The Beagle Boys have Burger Beagle "torture" some hostages with bagpipes in the episode "Full Metal Duck".
  • Evil Counterpart: Scrooge is a tough, hard-beaked businessduck, but he's genuinely honest. His archnemesis Flintheart Glomgold has all of Scrooge's ambition and determination, but none of his morals or ethics.
  • Evil Debt Collector: Even Scrooge McDuck isn't immune to this trope. One episode had the protagonists suffering from their worst nightmares. Scrooge's worst fear is debt collectors taking away everything he owns, even to the point of trying to take away Huey, Dewey and Louie.
  • Evil Sorcerer:
    • As in the Disney Ducks Comic Universe, Magica De Spell uses her magic to try and steal Scrooge's dime.
    • "Home Sweet Homer" features the sorceress Circe from Greek mythology, who not only turns people into pigs, but is ironically an anthropomorphic pig herself.
    • DuckTales the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp has an evil wizard named Merlock as the main antagonist, who used the genie to make wishes that caused horrible events and wishes to reclaim the lamp so he can resume doing that. He also wears an amulet that enables him to turn into animals and other beasts.
  • Exact Words:
    • In "Robot Robbers", Gyro employs exact words to explain to Scrooge why he made the titular robots.
      Scrooge: Gyro, I thought I told you never to build another robot!
      Gyro: You said never to build another robot for you. So I built these for Mr. Glomgold.
    • In the episode "Liquid Assets", Gyro is told by Scrooge to build a robot that won't let anyone near his money bin. Gyro creates a security robot for his money bin that was so adamant about its job, it wouldn't even let Scrooge near it.
    • Later on, during that same story arc, Gyro (boy, Gyro sure loves this trope) is constructing the Gizmoduck suit. When he asks Scrooge for a activation password, Scrooge replies that "any nonsense will do". Gyro goes to a thesaurus and discovers "blatherskite" as a synonym for "nonsense".
    • In "Where No Duck Has Gone Before", Scrooge tells Gyro to build a spaceship that would look as "real as possible" for a struggling science fiction/ adventure program being filmed at Duckburg studios. Gyro builds a real spaceship.
      Scrooge: Gyro, sometimes you're too efficient!
      Gyro: Thanks!
  • Exploding Closet: Huey, Dewey and Louie's closet - when Scrooge opens it in "Raiders of the Lost Harp". The nephews had been told to clean their room. Clean their room they did, but they stuffed everything in their closet. It was too bad they didn't deflate their rubber life raft first!
  • Expy:
    • Webby is a condensed version of Daisy's nieces April, May, and June.
    • Launchpad was designed as an expy of Donald. In stories directly adapted from the comics, he often fills the role Donald played in the original story. Interestingly, while Launchpad takes over Donald's role, they're pretty much opposites in personality — Donald's defining characteristic is his temper, while Launchpad hardly ever gets angry or complains about what he's told to do.
    • Fenton is a definite stand-in for Donald. In the second season, whenever the plot is based on a Carl Barks comic, Fenton (at least when he's not Gizmoduck) fulfills Donald's role the way Launchpad did in the first season.
  • Extra-Long Episode: "The Treasure of the Golden Suns", "Catch as Cash Can", "Time is Money" and "Super DuckTales" were multi-part episodes ("Catch as Cash Can being a four-parter and the others being five-parters) that were originally broadcast as two-hour movies before being split into multiple episodes.
  • F--: "Bubba's Big Brainstorm" begins with Bubba Duck returning home with a report card that is all Z's.
  • Fainting: "Lost Crown of Genghis Khan" has a downplayed version of the exhausted faint. When Scrooge's behavior towards the yeti causes her to run off, Webby runs after her. Scrooge tries to follow, but is still recovering from having been frozen solid and falls backwards into the triplets' arms. Launchpad offers to follow the two instead.
  • Fair Weather Friends: "Down and Out in Duckburg". After the group walks out of the mansion, fed up with Fritter O'Way, the triplets propose that they should ask Launchpad or Gyro if they can stay with them. Scrooge refuses, saying that Launchpad and Gyro will treat him like he treated the regular citizens of Duckburg when he was wealthy. Naturally, given either's personalities, this is never demonstrated to have any basis in fact.
  • Face Your Fears: "Nothing to Fear" ends with the real Scrooge, HD&L band together to face their evil-magic versions. The nephews sling mud at Magica's "Scrooge" to turn him into a penny which vanishes, while Scrooge embraces the nephews. He then tells the "evil versions" of HD&L:
    Scrooge: And as for you little kilt-nippers, my boys love me, therefore you're not my boys!!
    • Which cause the evil nephews to shrink and vanish.
  • Faked Rip Van Winkle: In the episode "Allowance Day", Huey, Dewey, and Louie pull an elaborate prank to try and fool Scrooge into thinking it is Saturday so that they can get their allowance early.
  • Faking the Dead: In "The Bride Wore Stripes", Scrooge McDuck pretends to drown in his Money Bin in order to make Ma Beagle confess that she lied about being married to Scrooge, knowing that faking his death would convince everyone who believed Ma Beagle truly was married to Scrooge that she murdered Scrooge in order to have his fortune all to herself.
  • Family Theme Naming: Huey, Louie and Dewey's names all rhyme.
  • Fat Idiot:
    • Burger Beagle often ruins his brothers' schemes because of his voracious appetite.
    • Doofus is also pudgy and rather bumbling, but at least has more common sense than Burger.
  • Fate Worse than Death: The Golden Death from "The Golden Goose". You get turned into a golden statue of yourself and are unable to move.
  • Fattening the Victim: Double Subverted. "The Golden Fleecing". When the harpies kidnap Launchpad, he thinks that they're planning to eat him. They respond that, no, they just want him to stay for dinner. However, they didn't tell him that they were feeding him so a dragon could eat him.
  • Feather Fingers: The show taking place in a world of Funny Animals, all the ducks (and everybody else, for that matter) have arms and hands.
  • Fiction 500: Scrooge has such a vast fortune that he is seen in the trope picture. While his Money Bin contains quite a lot of cash, that's just the money he earned himself when he started out as penniless. The money he earns from his various businesses, on the other hand....
  • Financial Test of Friendship: Repeated several times, with many episodes occurring where Scrooge temporarily loses all his money. His staff (Duckworth, Mrs Beakley and Launchpad) all remain loyal to Scrooge despite him being unable to pay for their employment and often help him solve the dilemma needed to regain his fortune.
  • Fiery Redhead:
    • Robotica from "Metal Attraction" happened to have red hair and went absolutely ballistic when Gizmoduck didn't return her affections.
    • Launchpad, one of the show's redheaded regular characters, is actually an aversion. He will get angry if you press the right buttons, but generally he's very laid-back.
  • Fire-Breathing Diner:
    • Stay away from Scrooge's chili! In "Ducks of the West", Scrooge cooks up a potful. It turns everybody who eats it (aside from Scrooge) into a Fire-Breathing Diner. Scrooge's unintentional victims then head to a nearby horse trough to cool out their mouths.
      Scrooge: I may be a city slicker, but we'll have a hot time in the old town tonight!
    • Ma Beagle's homemade chili in "The Masked Mallard". The Beagles use it to melt glass and (attempt) to steal a diamond.
      Big Time Beagle: Ma's homemade chili. The most corrosive substance known to man.
  • Fire-Forged Friends: Launchpad and Donald in "Treasure of the Golden Suns". They initially do not get along very well, but that changes during the course of the adventure. By the end of the episode, they're on pretty friendly terms. Launchpad even sticks up for Donald when his superior criticizes the frazzled sailor for not immediately saluting.
  • First Girl Wins: No matter what happens, Scrooge will always love his first girlfriend Goldie more than any other girl.
  • Fish People: "Aqua Ducks" features a race of them who are angered by pollution and "The Ducky Horror Picture Show" features an Expy of the Creature from the Black Lagoon to go with the Monster Mash theme.
  • Five-Finger Discount: Dijon and the Beagle Boys tend to just steal whatever they can get their hands on.
  • "Flowers for Algernon" Syndrome:
    • In the episode "Bubba's Big Brainstorm", Bubba Duck becomes intelligent, civilized, and utterly ruthless and incapable of compassion, something indicated to be directly connected to his new intelligence. He becomes dumb and barbaric again when his brute strength is needed to pound a monster threatening his friends.
    • In an earlier episode, Scrooge is racing against a villain to gain the magical Pearl of Wisdom, which grants infinite wisdom for a moment in the morning. Huey, Duey, and Louie are surprised that the islanders seem unconcerned about the prospect of having their pearl stolen by the villain or Scrooge. The reason soon becomes clear: Scrooge and the villain both get their wisdom moment simultaneously, and in that instant realize that stealing the pearl would be wrong and put it back where they found it. The chief chuckles and says the same thing happens all the time. (It helps that the Pearl only activates on the shore of the island.)
    • In the episode "Superdoo!" Doofus finds an energy crystal from outer space that gives him super-abilities. Through his new powers he becomes the all-time Junior Woodchuck merit-badge-earning champion, but others dislike him even more than old laughable, clumsy and slow Doofus. He throws away the crystal, gives back his merit badges and later saves the camp without any superpowers, winning respect of others. Everyone is happy to have the old Doofus back, including Doofus himself.
  • Food Eats You: In "Nothing to Fear", a giant banana monster threatens to eat Doofus Drake. It Makes Sense in Context.
  • Forced Transformation: A Time Travel episode included a meeting with Circe, who, of course, turned Scrooge into a pig.
  • Forgot the Call: Happened to Scrooge where a whack on the noggin causes him to lose his accent, start working at his own plant as a menial laborer, organize a labor strike protesting the unfair business practices he himself imposed, and begin a relationship with Fenton Crackshell's mother.
  • For the Evulz: Presumably the reason Glomgold framed Mad Dog in "Duckman of Aquatraz", as there is no sensible reason that ruining the man's life would have benefited Glomgold.
  • For Your Own Good: In the episode "Dough Ray Me", this is Scrooge's rationale for not advancing Huey, Dewey or Louie their allowance - or giving Fenton Crackshell a raise. Scrooge claims that, if he gives them more money, they'll take money for granted, spend it foolishly, and end up homeless and begging on the street corner!
  • Foul Waterfowl:
    • Magica DeSpell is a duck, and she's a stubborn sorceress who will stoop to any low to snatch Scrooge's Number One Dime.
    • Flintheart Glomgold is a duck and he's a dishonest Corrupt Corporate Executive.
  • French Cuisine Is Haughty: Scrooge Mcduck suffers this trope when he lunches at a French restaurant in "The Status Seekers".
  • The Friend Nobody Likes: Doofus Drake. Scrooge and the kids let him hang around, but they don't really seem to enjoy his company, being rather quick to insult his ditziness, klutziness, and large appetite. The only person who seems to openly like him is Launchpad.
  • Friend-or-Idol Decision: In "The Golden Fleecing", Scrooge twice has to make a decision between saving Launchpad and successfully taking the fleece. The first time, he ditches his friend in an attempt to escape with the treasure, but ultimately he can't sit by and watch Launchpad be killed.
  • Friend to All Children: The nephews, Webby, and Doofus Drake all have a positive relationship with Launchpad. This may be because, in spite of his imposing stature, he is rarely anything but gentle and friendly with the kids, and would put his life on the line rather than let anyone or anything harm them.
  • Friend to All Living Things: Webby is able to befriend just about every non-sapient animal she comes across.
  • Furry Confusion: This is especially interesting in the episode "Back Out In The Outback" where Webby says "Animals Are My Favorite People".
    • Even weirder is "Home Sweet Homer". Circe is a pig, who turns people into non-anthropomorphic pigs, and in a fit of Laser-Guided Karma is turned into a non-anthro pig herself.
  • The Generalissimo: General Chiquita, President of "The Banana Republic" in "Allowance Day".
  • Genie in a Bottle: Twice. "Master of the Djinni" and DuckTales the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp. The former turned out to be rather hedonistic and sent Scrooge and Glomgold back in time to try and prevent them from winning their bet so that he would remain free and not have to grant either of their wishes. The latter was actually a nice genie and in the end was wished to become a normal child by Scrooge.
  • Genius Ditz:
    • Launchpad is a great pilot, but will crash almost every time he flies.
    • Launchpad's little sister Loopy also qualifies. Despite her initial ditzy qualities, is a pretty capable pilot and mechanic.
  • Genius Serum: An episode featured Neander-duck Bubba, upset that his lack of intelligence made him do stupid things, ask for Gyro Gearloose's help. This resulted in a helmet that turned him genius enough to challenge the mind games of the ancient Thinca Empire, as well as an Aesop about being happy with one's self.
  • Gentle Giant:
    • Launchpad McQuack is much bigger than the other characters, but also very friendly.
    • Subverted with Fenton Crackshell's Gizmoduck persona. He's friendly enough, but not very large — he only appears taller because of the armor.
  • Glacier Waif: Bubba and Tootsie. They may be small, but both are very strong.
  • Glamour Failure: Magica's spell that turns the Beagle Boys into copies of Scrooge's nephews in "Send in the Clones". While they looked like Huey, Dewey, and Louie, their reflections in mirrors revealed their true selves. They also still kept their original voices, which was even pointed out by Scrooge when Magica disguised herself as Mrs. Beakley and he asked her why she now talked with an accent.
  • Glass-Shattering Sound:
    • A bird in "The Unbreakable Bin" is capable of breaking all glass within a several-mile radius. This leads to problems for all the valuables that Scrooge stores in glass cases.
    • A variation with ice in "Maid of the Myth", Mrs. Beakley uses her opera singing to bring down an avalanche, letting her racing team cross a crevasse.
      Mrs. Beakley: If the sound of a horn can do that, what would a C above high C do?
  • Glowing Eyes of Doom: The eponymous robot's eyes shine in the episode "Armstrong", when it becomes clear that he's turned on Scrooge.
    Armstrong: I... AM... ARMSTRONG. I... AM... YOUR... FRIEND.
  • Glowing Mechanical Eyes: Again, the epoynymous robot in "Armstrong", when he turns on Scrooge.
    'Armstrong: I ... AM... Armstrong. I... AM... YOUR... ''FRIEND''.
  • Godzilla Threshold: In the episode "The Uncrashable Hindentanic" revolves around Uncle Scrooge and his new airship. His sidekick and perennial crasher of aircraft Launchpad desperately wants to fly it but is told that Scrooge actually wants to keep the airship in one piece. When the events of the episode conspire against this Scrooge eventually relents and tells Launchpad to take the wheel. They crash, but Launchpad accidentally takes out the opposition while saving the passengers.
    Scrooge: If we are going to crash anyway, we may as well crash with style.
  • Goggles Do Nothing: Launchpad almost always wears his goggles atop his head.
  • Going Down with the Ship: Subverted, barely, in "Wronguay in Ronguay". Fighting over a cannon, Glomgold and El Capitan sink their ancient treasure ship. It seems as if El Capitan goes to the bottom with his ship. However, he resurfaces at the end of the episode holding onto some flotsam.
  • Gold Digger:
    • Millionara Vanderbucks. The nephews invite a guest to prevent her from marrying Scrooge: Glittering Goldie. Millionara then meets Flintheart, who quickly realizes she nearly gave him the same fate Scrooge avoided.
    • Also Ma Beagle when she fakes a marriage to Scrooge so she could be legally entitled to half of his fortune if he divorced her.
  • Gold Fever:
    • The Five-Episode Pilot revolves around Scrooge McDuck and his nephews finding an ancient treasure trove. Gold Fever, identified by name, rears its ugly head in the last part, causing Scrooge to unwittingly trip a Secret Test of Character trap. The lure of the gold and its sheer abundance is so great that even Hewey, Louie and Dewey fall for it shortly after Scrooge. It falls on Webbigail and Mrs. Beakley to keep a level head and figure out the deathtrap. Scrooge breaks out of his Gold Fever when his life is sufficiently threatened; the Big Bad doesn't.
    • Also a plot point in "The Golden Fleecing. Scrooge has wished he could somehow find the Golden Fleece since he heard about it as a child, and when he realizes that it may actually be real, he immediately goes after it. Unfortunately, his lust for the fleece blinds him to all else, despite his nephews' calling out over stealing the Fleece and abandoning Launchpad. He gets better.
  • Gold Makes Everything Shiny: All gold depicted on the show is luminous.
  • Gone Horribly Wrong: In "Duck to the Future," Scrooge gives the nephews advice on cutting costs so they can get better at making a profit. After being sent by Magica DeSpell to the Bad Future where they're grown up, he discovers that their idea of cutting costs was to cheat their customers and rip their own employees off for everything they're worth. As you can expect, he was not happy with the results.
  • Gone Horribly Right: Pretty much anytime Gyro Gearloose decides to follow Scrooge's instructions to a tee. For example, in "Where No Duck has Gone Before", he is told to make the new spaceship set for "Courage of the Cosmos" be as realistic as possible, and his response is to make it an actually functional spaceship, which results in Major Courage, Launchpad, the nephews, and Doofus encountering real aliens that are quite antagonistic.
  • Good Capitalism, Evil Capitalism: McDuck Enterprises was built after years of exploration and treasure hunting, as well as inspiration from a humble shoe-shining business. Rival company, Glomgold Industries, has been known to attempt to cheat Scrooge for doing most of the work, as well as underhanded tactics. He also focuses on what he doesn't have rather than what he does. As greedy as Scrooge can be, he is very prideful in the idea of a hard day's work.
  • Good Is Not Nice: Scrooge is a decent person for the most part, but he is also very cheap and doesn't take kindly to anyone who doesn't make their money square, even if the reason is because they won the lottery as in "Bubbeo and Juliet".
  • Gory Discretion Shot: Happens in "Launchpad's First Crash" when the Amazons kill the giant crab.
  • Grand Finale: "The Golden Goose" was the last episode ever made of the series and wrapped the show up with one final adventure of having to get the titular artifact back to its proper resting place before the whole world turned into gold.
  • Grand Romantic Gesture: "Full Metal Attraction" is full of them, as Fenton Crackshell's over the top grand romantic gestures drive Gandra Dee to distraction:
    • He fills her house with bouquets of roses. Unfortunately, Gandra Dee is allergic to roses.
    • He buys lunch for her at work, in the blue collar Duckburg Bean Factory. The lunch is a candlelit gourmet meal, complete with a mariachi band for musical accompaniment.
    • He hires the "Singing Chocolates" to give Gandra Dee an enormous amount of candy:
      Singing Chocolates:
      Oh, we're the singing chocolates,
      As sweet as we can be,
      Fenton gives his love,
      To his sugar Gandra Dee!
      Gandra: Oh, Fenton, you shouldn't have done it!
      Fenton: I knew I should have hired the Acrobatic Assorted Nuts instead!
    • Fenton later buys Gandra Dee a two-story cake "with chocolate frosting, marshmallow topping and aluminum siding."
    • Fenton isn't the only one in the episode with grand romantic gestures. To declare her love for Gizmoduck, Robotica first paints R Loves G on Scrooge's money bin. Later, she attempts to destroy the money bin (and kill Gandra Dee) in an anguished declaration of love.
  • G-Rated Sex: This was attempted by Feathers Galore with Launchpad in the episode "Double-O-Duck". They kiss and hug, but are interrupted before things get too saucy.
  • Great Big Book of Everything: The Junior Woodchuck guidebook. Includes topics on building remote controlled shark fins, homing devices to be mounted on drone planes, bicycle-propelled helicopters, Martian rockets, and magical thunderstorms (though that last onenote  is debatable).
  • Haggis Is Horrible: But loved by Scrooge. In "Bubbeo and Juliet", Duckworth brings Scrooge his favourite lunch . . . Haggis. Scrooge is pleased by the meal (though his enjoyment of the meal is interrupted by the smell of the Blurff's barbecue next door), Duckworth looks queasy.
  • Half-Dressed Cartoon Animal: The ducks usually don't wear clothes on their lower halves. However, there are some notable aversions:
    • Scrooge, being Scottish, sometimes wears a kilt on his lower half.
    • Duckworth, in keeping with his character as a proper butler, always wears a full formal outfit.
    • Mrs. Beakley always wears a dress, which covers everything.
    • Launchpad usually wears a jacket and pants, which may be because of his very humanlike build.
  • Happiness in Minimum Wage: Scrooge McDuck's employees never get paid very much (Mrs. Beakley is explicitly stated to work for room and board), but none of them seem to mind. Part of this is probably because of their Undying Loyalty to Scrooge and his family; they just want to stay near them.
  • Hates Rich People: In the episode "Duckman Of Aquatraz" after Scrooge is framed for stealing a artpiece, he is thrown in jail with a burly convict who vocally hates rich ducks. He makes his reasons quite clear.
Mad Dog: Wanna know why I hate rich ducks? Because they're rich, and I'm NOT!
  • Head Desk: Launchpad is upset over crashing during an air show and begins banging his head on his plane, stopping only to lament his mother and father seeing him do it. Then Louie adds that his sister also saw it. Launchpad goes back to head-banging and Dewey gives Louie a Dope Slap.
  • Heat Wave: A Whale of a Bad Time begins with Huey, Dewey and Louie kvetching about hot weather and a broken air conditioner.
  • Hellhound: The hound's disguise in "The Curse Of Castle McDuck", specifically the hunter type.
  • Heel–Face Turn:
    • In, "Duck to the Future", Scrooge's evil adult nephews turn on Magica when they learn that she sent him into the future so she could take over his business.
    • Following his role as a clumsy lackey in the movie, Dijon at least tries to give up stealing and live an honest life—even though he's not very good at it.
  • Heroic Dolphin: In "Aquaducks," dolphins help Scrooge, Launchpad, Gyro and Doofus escape the Lost City of Atlantis.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: Bubba chooses to permanently abandon his prehistoric time and life to be with Scrooge and saves his life in the process.
  • Hidden Depths: Pretty much all the heroes are more complicated than they look at first glance.
    • Scrooge McDuck, a greedy, hard-beaked businessman, is also an affectionate uncle and Benevolent Boss.
    • Huey, Dewey, Louie, and Webby are friendly, (mostly) well-behaved kids, can also handle themselves quite well (at least sometimes) in a dangerous situation.
    • Duckworth, a proper butler, can handle alien abduction and spearhead a revolt with similar stoicism to normal life in the mansion.
    • Mrs. Beakley, a kindly nanny, can bullfight a walrus, chariot-race Vikings, and sing opera.
    • Launchpad McQuack, a goofy Cloud Cuckoolander of a pilot, is capable of some rather Action Hero-esque feats when his friends are threatened.
    • Fenton Crackshell, a bumbling, insecure accountant, becomes a superhero, using brains, number-crunching, and the Gizmo-suit to save the day.
  • Hired Help as Family: Mrs. Beakley is Scrooge's housekeeper and friend but doesn't quite qualify as family. Her granddaughter Webby, on the other hand, does. Scrooge treats her like his surrogate granddaughter or grandniece. He is about as close to her as he is to his own grandnephews Huey, Dewey, and Louie.
  • Hitchhiker's Leg: In a Whole Episode Flashback, a young Scrooge McDuck is shown having trouble hitchhiking after arriving in America, until he lifts his kilt, drawing a young lady's coach over.
  • Homage: Mostly to Greek mythology — stories and characters from the Trojan War, Greek gods, King Midas...
  • Hollywood Prehistory: In the episode "Marking Time", Scrooge travels back to 1 million BC to find a land in which caveducks coexisted with dinosaurs. And yet, this is something of an aversion; after all, dinosaurs did coexist with seabirds. This would therefore imply that the Duck Universe takes place in the Paleocene, which would make sense, since that was a time dominated by six-foot birds.
  • Honorary Uncle: Scrooge lets Webby call him "Uncle Scrooge" even though they're not biologically related.
  • Hot Witch: Magica De Spell and Circe are both sorceresses who happen to be very attractive.
  • Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: Launchpad's parents Ripcord and Birdy fit this description, with Ripcord being tall and burly like his son and Birdy being rather short and gaunt.
  • Huge Rider, Tiny Mount: In "Luck O' The Ducks", Scrooge, the Nephews and Launchpad ride miniature horses. The trope is most noticeable with Launchpad, whose horse tries to buck its heavy load.
  • Humanoid Female Animal: Female ducks are far likelier to have a head of hair or even a human shape, i.e. Magica Despell, Mrs. Beakley, Gandra Dee.
  • Human Snowball: Happens to Launchpad, Huey, Dewey and Louie in "The Duck Who Would Be King."
  • Humiliation Conga: Courage of the Cosmos in "Where No Duck Has Gone Before". He gets curb stomped by an alien while showboating, reveals himself as a Dirty Coward in front of the nephews and Scrooge, and was reduced to a mascot.
  • Hyperspace Holmes Hat: In "A Case of Mistaken Secret Identity" (the title itself is a parody of the Sherlock Holmes story "A Case of Identity"), Huey, Dewey and Louie go into a closet under the stairs, coming out a few seconds later dressed as Sherlock Holmes - each with deerstalker hat, inverness cape and oversized magnifying glass.
  • Hypnotic Eyes: Cinnamon Teal is able to use her gaze to control Donald into stealing the navy's master control for their new submarine.
  • "I Can't Look!" Gesture: In the Five-Episode Pilot, Scrooge and Donald say that they can't look and cover their eyes during one of Launchpad's landings. Launchpad says he can't look either and covers his eyes.
  • Iconic Outfit:
    • Scrooge's blue coat, black top hat and red spats.
    • Launchpad's scarf, goggles, brown coat.
    • Huey's red t-shirt, Dewey's blue t-shirt, and Louie's green t-shirt.
    • Webby's pink dress and pink bow.
    • Mrs. Beakley's purple dress and apron.
    • Duckworth's formal butler suit.
    • The Beagle Boy's red sweatshirts (with prison numbers pasted in front!) and blue pants.
    • Ma Beagle's red coat, dress and "flower" hat.
    • The black masks Ma Beagle and the beagle boys wear.
    • Flintheart Glomgold's pancake hat, dark blue coat and kilt (in the original comics, Glomgold was actually South African not Scottish, thus no kilt!).
    • Gyro's pink shirt, blue pants and yellow strap-on hat.
  • Idiot Ball: Held by Huey, Dewey, and Louie for "A Case of Mistaken Secret Identity." Everything gets kicked off thanks to them being absolutely sure that Launchpad has to be Gizmo Duck's secret identity, claiming that they've never appeared together at the same time. This is in spite of the fact that they had previously seen the two side by side twice in the episodes "Money to Burn" and "Allowance Day." And that doesn't even take into consideration that, y'know, their beaks don't even look remotely the same.
  • Idiot Hero: Launchpad, who in many episodes, saves his friends, or even the whole world while remaining a certified idiot. He's even admitted it on more than one occasion. The smartest he gets is Genius Ditz.
  • Idiot Houdini: Gyro Gearloose in "Where No Duck Has Gone Before". True, Major Courage was kind of obnoxious and he did leave Scrooge's nephews and Launchpad behind on an alien ship, but Gyro, who caused the whole incident because of his Literal-Minded interpretation of Scrooge's orders for a real-looking set, got no comeuppance.
  • Ignored Epiphany: At the conclusion of "Ali Bubba's Cave":
    Big Time: That's what we get for working for jerks like Glomgold!
    Bouncer: Yeah! It's enough to make you wanna go straight.
    (pause)
    Big Time, Bouncer and Burger: Nah...
  • An Immigrant's Tale: Scrooge was inspired to seek his fortune in America when he received a dime, the original Number One Dime, while shining shoes in his native Scotland.
  • Implacable Man:
    • The Minotaur from "Raiders Of The Lost Harp" never stops until the harp is returned to its rightful place.
    • Also Big Time Beagle in a suit of armor is able to bypass all of the traps in Scrooge's money bin, except Scrooge's tank on the inside of the vault.
  • Impossible Hourglass Figure: Boom-Boom Beagle has a thin waist as well as huge breasts and Hartman Hips.
  • Impoverished Patrician:
    • Implied to be the case with the unworldly Grand Khiske of Macaroon, in "A Drain On the Economy". The windows in his palace are boarded up, and the whole building is in a state of disrepair.
    • Also applies to the McDuck Clan as a whole, in Scrooge's youth. They were chased away from McDuck Castle by a ghostly hound ("The Curse of Castle McDuck").
  • Inconvenient Itch: In "Yuppy Ducks", Scrooge gets "loot lice" and finds himself itchy. He uses mounted moose antlers to scratch his back.
  • Incredible Shrinking Man: "Micro Ducks from Outer Space" involved Scrooge, Huey, Dewey, Louie, and Webby being shrunk by a shrink ray Gyro invented.
  • Incredibly Lame Pun: Pretty much all of the characters' names (at least those who were introduced in this show, and even then, some who weren't).
  • Instant Ice: Just Add Cold!: Happens to the Giant Wooly Walrus at the end of "Cold Ducks".
  • Interclass Friendship: A few of the friends Scrooge has also happen to be his employees.
    • Scrooge calls Mrs. Beakley his friend in "The Status Seekers", gives her birthday presents, and chases after a gang of Vikings to get her back. Mrs. Beakley, on her side, is far more loyal to and concerned for her boss than one would expect for a disinterested employee (e.g., she forces him to get the rest he needs rather than trying to work through a fever.)
    • Scrooge is Launchpad's boss and the world's richest duck. However, Launchpad verbally refers to Scrooge as a friend, remains loyal to him whether or not the older duck actually has the ability to pay him, and guards him against all harm as well as he can, and despite Scrooge's vitriolic treatment of his pilot much of the time, he honestly cares about Launchpad, getting a few Pet the Dog moments directed at him and doing some pretty big things to protect him.
  • Intergenerational Friendship:
    • Roy (the eponymous "Duck in the Iron Mask") is many years younger than Scrooge, but the latter shows great respect to his character and talent, and remembers him more fondly than other people from his past adventures.
    • Doofus Drake, the triplets, and Webby are kids and Launchpad is at least in his twenties, but they get along terrifically (although this is somewhat crossed with hero/Hero-Worshipper in Doofus' case).
  • Interrupted Suicide: Subverted in "Hero for Hire". At one point Launchpad rushes to save a suicide jumper. The guy is a window washer, and is not appreciative of Launchpad's efforts to talk him down.
  • Induced Hypochondria: In the episode "The Money Vanishes", the Beagle Boys steal Gyro's latest invention by convincing him he has Inventoritis from being too sedentary, and needs to start jogging... right this instant. He jogs away and they have the run of the laboratory.
  • Indy Escape: Scrooge escapes a giant rolling potato in "Luck o' the Ducks". Fitting, as Raiders of the Lost Ark was inspired by Carl Barks Uncle Scrooge story, "The Seven Cities of Cibola" (see comic books, above).
  • Inside a Computer System: "Scrooge's Last Adventure" had Scrooge entering his computer in an attempt to reclaim his money from it.
  • Instant Awesome: Just Add Mecha!:
    • The Beagle Boys steal some invented by Gyro in "Robot Robbers".
    • Fenton the accountant becomes Gizmo Duck, Duckburg's greatest super hero.
    • Scrooge's nephews and Webby wore the Gizmosuit after it Shrunk in the Wash in "New Gizmo-Kids on the Block".
  • Institutional Apparel:
    • The Beagle Boys always wear their prison number cards. They also have their own personal uniform of black mask, red shirt and blue pants.
    • Scrooge, times he's (wrongfully) imprisoned ("Duckman of Aquatraz", "Ducks on the Lam", and "Billionaire Beagle Boys Club), is placed in prison stripes. In "Ducks on the Lam", he's even given a striped top hat. Averted in DuckTales the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp.
    • Mrs. Beakley, when she's imprisoned in "Billionaire Beagle Boys Club", is given a prison striped dress.
  • Interspecies Romance: Played straight with Bubba who's a duck who falls in love with Julie who's a pig, but subverted by Scrooge who's a duck that's forced to be in a fake wedding with Ma Beagle who's a dog.
  • Irony: In "Where No Duck Has Gone Before", Scrooge gets a studio and is embarrassed by Courage of the Cosmos, a parody of Star Trek, and tries to change it. Years later, Disney bought the rights to Power Rangers and the executives were evidently embarrassed by it.
  • Ironic Echo: In "Where No Duck Has Gone Before", Scrooge obtains ownership of a studio that produces a show that Scrooge dislikes, and the star, Captain Courage, constantly reminds Scrooge that he has a five-year contract, especially after he accidentally blasts off into space with the nephews and upon finding out he really is in space, finds a way out and leaves them behind, refusing to come back for them. At the end, Scrooge turns the studio into a space museum, where Courage is forced to do humiliating work as a mascot, to which Scrooge reminds him of his five-year contract.
  • Ironic Echo Cut: In "Master of the Djinni", Huey, Dewey, and Louie comment that Scrooge could use a dip in the pool after seeing the genie relaxing in it. We then cut to Scrooge in the desert, having to race Glomgold over who becomes the genie's master, saying that he could use a dip in the pool.
  • Ironic Name: In "Scrooge's Pet", the lemming the kids get Scrooge is called "Lucky", but he causes nothing but trouble.
  • Isle of Giant Horrors: In the episode "Raiders of the Lost Harp", when Scrooge discovers the lost city of Troy and the eponymous harp, the Minotaur statue that was guarding it comes to life and follows Scrooge all the way to Duckburg to get it back.
  • I Surrender, Suckers:
    • Scrooge pretends to surrender to the Beagle Boys in the first episode only to later trap them in a flood of chocolate, which holds them until the police arrive to chisel them out.
    • He also does this to Magica's shadows in "Magica's Shadow War" to bait her into a trap.
  • It's All My Fault: Scrooge believes that his firing Launchpad drove him to becoming a bank robber (unaware that Launchpad thought the robberies were part of his "new job" as an actor) and he is devastated when the pilot seemingly crashes and kills himself.
  • I Want My Mommy!: In "Metal Attraction", Gizmoduck solemnly squirms "Mother" when he sees that Robotica is mad at him for dumping her.
  • Loser Friend Puzzles Outsiders: Played with in "The Status Seekers". The status seekers start the episode by saying derogatorily that Scrooge doesn't act rich. After he tries to do more conspicuously high-status things and gets back the mask of Kuthu-lulu, they accept him, even making him the president of the association. When Mrs. Beakley, Launchpad, and the boys turn up to congratulate him, they push him to give them the boot, because rich people don't have friends "like that." Scrooge wavers, but after his friends and family help him during the final battle with the villains (and the status seekers refuse to "get their hands dirty"), he calls out the status seekers and ditches them instead.

    Tropes J-R 
  • Jail Bake:
    • The Beagle Boys often get out of jail thanks to their mother sending them cakes and other baked goods with weapons (construction tools like a chainsaw or dynamite) hidden inside.
    • One time, one of the guards wised up enough to install an X-Ray machine. Unfortunately, Ma Beagle apparently anticipated that and sent a cake that had nothing in it, but when Burger Beagle ate it, it gave him a case of the hiccups so bad, his brothers were able to use him as a jackhammer.
  • Jerkass: Flintheart Glomgold and the Beagle Boys tend to be very unscrupulous, given that Glomgold is basically Scrooge without his redeeming qualities and the Beagle Boys are a family of crooks.
  • Jerkass Genie: Played straight in the episode "Master Of The Djinni", where the genie of the episode tried to prevent Scrooge and Glomgold from winning their bet so he could be free forever, but averted in DuckTales the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp, where the genie is actually a nice person who abhors the wishes that his evil master Merlock forced him to grant.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Scrooge may be greedy and cheap, but it is shown many times that he does care about his family and friends. One good example of this is in "A DuckTales Valentine", where it turned out that his family was what he loved most of all and not his wealth.
  • Job-Stealing Robot: Armstrong. He quickly puts Launchpad and most of Scrooge's other employees out of a job... Until he goes crazy and takes over Scrooge's money bin. However, the triplets bring in Launchpad, and Armstrong is stopped.
  • Judge, Jury, and Executioner: In "Allowance Day", the crooked General Chiquita, President of The "Banana Republic", arrests and sentences Scrooge and Fenton to death by "cannon squad". The General also presides over the (attempted) execution.
  • Jungle Opera: Quite a lot of episodes revolved around Scrooge and his nephews going on adventures in all sorts of unusual places, be it a land where money doesn't exist or even Atlantis.
  • Kangaroos Represent Australia: One of the animals Webby meets in "Back Out in the Outback" is a kangaroo.
  • Karma Houdini: Megabyte Beagle in the "Super DuckTales" serial is a straight example crossed with What Happened to the Mouse?. This guy takes control of the Gizmosuit and makes Gizmoduck the Beagles' unwilling servant, but after Huey, Dewey, and Louie come to Gizmoduck's rescue, switching his remote with that of a toy, Megabyte drops out of the story.
    • One episode featured Flintheart Glomgold framing Scrooge McDuck with art theft and his only punishment was having to keep a portrait of Scrooge over his fireplace for fifteen years. And that's just to mention what's proven against him.
    • Ma Beagle got away with everything except forging evidence of being Scrooge's wife and being arrested with her sons at the end of "New Gizmo Kids on the Block."
    • Gandra Dee, Fenton Crackshell's love interest/girlfriend, only appeared in six episodes. But in two of them, she showed that she could be as ungrateful and cold-hearted towards Fenton as she pleased, and no one would call her out on her attitude.
      • In "Metal Attraction", Fenton goes overboard with paying Gandra too much attention. But not only does she refuse to give him a simple "thank you" for doing all these things for her, she also gets mad at him and pushes him away from her without even explaining what he did wrong. Of course, the episode had to end with him promising to change, while nobody has anything to say about what she did.
      • In "The Big Flub", Fenton has ended up in big trouble and asks for Gandra's help. But she refuses, even after he said "but I need you", claiming that he had ruined her precious reputation. And at the end of the episode, the poor guy still has to apologize to HER!
    • The harpies in "The Golden Fleecing." Yes, they don't really want to feed people to the dragon, but they've been doing it for years and...they get a rest from the dragon's roaring.
    • Scrooge essentially winds up this way as well. While he doesn't get the Fleece, he doesn't really end the episode any worse off than he began it, despite being guilty of (at least) reckless endangerment.
    • In the episode where the cast visits a village in China ("The Land of Trala-la"), the village mayor betrays them, kidnaps the Nephews, and threatens to murder them unless Scrooge convinces Launchpad to stop showering the village in bottlecaps. While his plan is ultimately foiled, not only does he not receive any punishment for attempting to murder children, who had nothing to do with what he blamed Scrooge and Launchpad for, he and Scrooge end up parting on good terms!
    • In "Allowance Day", the crooked dictator of the Banana Republic, General Chiquita, remains in power in spite of trying to cheat Scrooge out of his Banana Bran Flakes factory and execute Scrooge and Fenton by cannon squad to boot. This is a rather glaring example, as crooked rulers who tangle with Scrooge usually get deposed by episode's end (i.e. "Sphinx for the Memories").
  • Karma Houdini Warranty: Major Courage is so confident that he can escape Scrooge's reprisal that he feels safe gloating about the fact that he's safe right after refusing to go back to save Scrooge's nephews. He gets a shocking dose of retribution when Scrooge implements his five-year contract to ensure he has to work five years as a candy vendor at the new space museum.
  • Karmic Death: Discussed by the characters in "The Golden Fleecing". The nephews express relief that Scrooge is all right after they saw him fall from their makeshift helicopter while trying to escape with the fleece, saying they "thought [he] was a goner." Scrooge retorts that it would have served him right for "abandoning a friend over a silly piece of wool."
  • Kids Are Cruel:
    • "We created that magic rain cloud with our Junior Woodchucks chemistry set... JUST TO RUIN YOUR DAY!" This is one of Scrooge's worst fears brought to life. But it is actually Magica De Spell that actually created the cloud in the first place.
    • Some of the triplets' original mischievous behavior does perk up in the series, especially early on. In "Don't Give Up The Ship", they wrap up Duckworth in a carpet!
  • Kissing the Ground: In "A Drain on the Economy", Scrooge kisses a sewer grate after being informed by Huey, Dewey and Louie that his missing money is in the storm sewer beneath. Scrooge quickly starts spitting when he realizes what he had done.
  • I Know What You Fear: In "Nothing to Fear", Magica DeSpell used real-life images of Uncle Scrooge & co.'s worst fears to descend upon them. For Uncle Scrooge, this took the form of being told by Huey, Dewey and Louie that they secretly couldn't stand him and they only wanted his money, for HD&L it was that unca Scrooge never loved them. The same episode also has Scrooge facing the fear of being penniless and having custody of the nephews removed from him as a result.
  • Land Down Under: "Back Out in the Outback" takes place in Australia. Features miniature UFO's, opals. a sheep station, and a variety of marsupials.
  • Lantern Bill of Justice:
    • Launchpad, an Idiot Hero with a prominent chin.
    • Subverted with Courage of the Cosmos. He has a heroic bill, but he's really a Dirty Coward.
  • Laser-Guided Karma: In "Down and Out in Duckburg", Scrooge starts the episode acting far more miserlier than usual - raising a tailor's rent, refusing to give boat-repair money to a sea captain, and refusing to donate to a member of a Salvation Army Expy. Then Fritter O'Way, the Villain of the Week, shows up and claims that Scrooge's fortune now belongs to him, because of a long-forgotten debt involving their ancestors and a delivery of marbles, and he throws Scrooge out of the house. This is where karma steps in for Scrooge - the tailor who's rent he raised earlier can't give him a job, because the money that would have been used to hire help is now going towards paying the rent, and when he decides to try to resolve the debt himself by delivering the marbles, the sea captain's boat (which he borrowed) starts leaking because the captain couldn't afford to repair it. Luckily, Scrooge gets his fortune back, and takes a level in kindness at the same time.
  • Laser Hallway:
    • In the episode "Dime Enough for Luck", Magica De Spell tricks Gladstone Gander into stealing Scrooge's Number One Dime. The money bin is guarded by an impressive set of moving lasers that Gladstone bypasses because he has unusually good luck.
    • DuckTales the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp featured Huey, Dewey, Louie and Webby having to go through one of these in Scrooge's money bin. One difference from other examples: those lasers are lethal.
  • Last-Name Basis: Many people don't know that Mrs. Beakley's first name is Bentina.
  • Layman's Terms: The multi-parter that introduced Gizmoduck has a Beagle Boy named Megabyte Beagle, who describes his plans in technical terms, which would confuse his cellmate and family members to the point that they would then request him to "Say it in Beagle talk!"
  • Leitmotif: Several: the villains' themes are more noticeable than others, however. Notable however is the bagpipe skirl that plays whenever Scrooge is around, during moments where he's particularly vocal about the McDuck family heritage, or when they are actually visiting Scotland.
  • Lighter and Softer: Scrooge is way nicer compared to his original comic counterpart; in the comics Scrooge tended to shift between Jerk with a Heart of Gold who showed mostly his jerkass side and being a genuine Jerkass, who who could just as easily be the villain as the hero of a story. The Scrooge of DuckTales is much more jovial and less irritable, and can even be openly sentimental. Donald as well: in earlier incarnations, he loved cigars and really loved brawling while spitting out the Angrish. No more for DuckTales.
  • Limited Animation: In the very early episodes, some of the character models very noticeably moved 1 to 2 frames per second, to the point they looked like they were in slow motion, in stark contrast with the lavish background and opening animations.
  • Literal Ass-Kicking: "Nothing to Fear" ends with Magica DeSpell being chased off by her fear cloud, which zaps her in the backside with lightning. Scrooge also states how she "got it in the end."
  • Literal-Minded:
    • Fenton Crackshell (Gizmo Duck) is literal-minded. Scrooge wants Fenton to liquidate his assets, except that he puts all of Scrooge's money in the lake.
    • Gyro Gearloose is one as well. In one episode, to increase the budget for a cheap sci-fi show as part of a way of reinventing it, Scrooge has Gyro build a new spaceship that he wants to be as realistic as possible. Gyro's response? Make it an actual working spaceship. He proceeds to do something like this again in the "Super Ducktales" 5-parter: after recovering his money from the above example with Fenton, Scrooge asks Gyro to build a security guard for his money bin that won't let anyone get to the bin. Gyro again takes him too literally and programs it to not let anybody get to the bin, Scrooge included.
  • Living Lie Detector: The magic harp from "Raiders of the Lost Harp." In singsong, "You are fibbing fibbing fibbing!"
  • Living Shadow: "Magica's Shadow War" had Magica cast a spell that brought her shadow to life, which then turned on her and did the same with the rest of the shadows in Duckburg.
  • A Lizard Named "Liz": Many characters who don't have an outright Species Surname (like Donald Duck and his nephews, or the Beagle Boys) often have names that are duck- or bird-related puns. We have Launchpad McQuack, Mrs. Beakley, Webbigail Vanderquack, Fenton Crackshell (a reference to eggshells), etc. Oddly averted with Duckworth, who has a duck-related name despite being a dog.
  • Logic Bomb: Fenton Crackshell defeats the Master Electronic Leader in their counting contest in "Super DuckTales" by asking how many bolts are in a jar. He then drops the bomb on M.E.L.:
    Fenton: Sorry, M.E.L.! These are nuts, not bolts! Trick question! You lose!
    • The computer had earlier boasted to Fenton that it was the smartest one in the universe, and making such a silly mistake was all that was needed to invoke an explosive paradox.
  • Lord Error-Prone: Gizmo Duck has a rather capable mechanical suit of armor and he's a quick thinker. Unfortunately all of his plans are absurd overkill and have drawbacks he never thought of because he went too far.
  • Loud of War: During an escalating feud between Scrooge McDuck and his new neighbors, one of his assaults is to break out his favorite bagpipes and a speaker system. The neighbors' response? Accordion.
  • Lounge Lizard: A literal one in "The Unsinkable Hindentanic", in that he's hired as a singer on the Hindentanic and is an actual lizard.
  • Love Potion: "A DuckTales Valentine." Getting poked with one of Aphroducky's love arrows can make a person fall in love with a being in the vicinity, to the point of overriding species barriers and all but very powerful personality traits.
  • Macguffin Melee: It happens several times, including both the very first and very last episodes.
    • In "Don't Give Up The Ship", Huey, Dewey and Louie and the Beagle Boys fight over the eponymous model ship.
    • In "The Golden Goose Part One" it's a fight between the thieving Dijon and the Beagle Boys.
    • In "The Golden Goose Part Two" it's a scramble at an abandoned automobile factory between Scrooge, Glomgold, Launchpad, the Beagle Boys, Dijon and his monk brother Poupon.
  • Make a Wish: The movie features a magic lamp and a wish-granting genie.
  • Man-Eating Plant: Brigadier Broccoli's guest chair in "Duckworth's Revolt."
  • Man in a Kilt: The Scots judge who presided over the trial in which Scrooge was The Defendant. The offense? Wearing a skirt in public. The judge just happened to be wearing his own kilt.
  • Man in the Iron Mask: "The Duck In The Iron Mask" was pretty much a Whole-Plot Reference to the novel by Alexander Dumas, right down to having the rightful king being imprisoned while his twin brother impersonated him.
  • Manly Tears: The heroes were not above crying if the situation called for it:
    • "Scroogerello": Scroogerello cries after Princess Goldie is kidnapped by his wicked stepfamily. As the tears run down, he promises that he will find her.
    • "Top Duck": A version crossed with Tears of Joy when a few tears run down Launchpad's face after his family finally succeeds in getting across that they're not ashamed of, and are in fact, very proud of him.
    • "Hero for Hire": Scrooge, believing that he drove Launchpad into a life of crime and having just (apparently) watched him die, sobs as he hugs the pilot's Webbed Wonder costume.
    • "The Golden Goose": Scrooge breaks down in tears when he comes downstairs and finds Huey, Dewey,and Louie, who have been turned to gold by the Beagle Boys during a robbery.
  • Married in the Future: Once when Magica deSpell sent Scrooge into the future he encountered a shapely Webbigail and a slimmed down Doofus who tell him they've gotten married. When he gets back to his own time, he tells Doofus to take care of Webby, which causes her to have a disgusted reaction.
  • Marrying the Mark: There was an episode where Ma Beagle faked a marriage with Scrooge for his money. Scrooge fakes his own death by diving into the money vault, and the servant accused the wife of killing Scrooge for the money. She quickly backpedals about being married, with Scrooge confirming the denial a few seconds later.
  • May the Farce Be with You: "Duckworth's Revolt" begins with a parody of the Star Wars opening crawl, "A long time ago, in a garden far, far away . . . ."
  • Meaningful Name: To give some examples, we have an evil witch named Magica De Spell and an inventor named Gyro Gearloose.
  • Meaningless Villain Victory:
    • Glomgold manages to beat Scrooge in a race to gain the wishes of a magic lamp, using the first wish he sends Scrooge to a deserted island and while gloating about his victory, he accidentally uses the second wish when he said he wishes to see the look on Scrooge's face and ends up on the same island. Angered that he's stuck with the person he hates the most, Glomgold shouts that he wished him and Scrooge never found the magic lamp, thus hitting the Reset Button.
    • In another episode, Glomgold succeeds in taking ownership of a mine filled with hundreds of diamonds, and sends Scrooge to take ownership of another mine filled with nothing. Just then, a volcanic eruption occurs that blasts all of the diamonds in Glomgold's mine towards Scrooge's side, leaving Scrooge with all of the diamonds and Glomgold with zero.
  • Military School: In "Til Nephews Do Us Part", Millionaira Vanderbucks plans to ship Huey, Dewey and Louie off to military school after she marries Scrooge. Millionaira also plans to send Webby to finishing school, in spite of her only having moved in when her grandmother Mrs. Beakley was hired as the boy's nanny. Ironically, Millionaira plans to fire Mrs. Beakley.
  • Minion with an F in Evil: The Beagle Babes are not really as evil as their male counterparts, as they end up having a soft spot for Webby and are horrified when Webby tricks them into believing that their criminal lifestyle is rubbing off on her.
  • Miscarriage of Justice: In the episode "Duckman of Aquatraz," Scrooge McDuck is framed for theft by his rival Flintheart Glomgold and put into prison, where, conveniently, it turns out that his cellmate was also framed by Glomgold.
  • Missing Mom:
    • In the first episode ("Don't Give Up The Ship"), Huey, Dewey and Louie's guardianship is passed from their Uncle Donald to their Great Uncle Scrooge. Their mother and father aren't mentioned.
    • In the third episode, ("Three Ducks of the Condor"), Mrs. Beakley and her granddaughter Webbigail Vandequack are introduced. It's never explained what happened to Webby's mother and father.
  • Mistaken for Badass: There was an episode where Launchpad was recruited to fill in for an injured spy.
  • Mistaken for Dying: The "mechanic's report mistaken for doctor's diagnosis" premise was recycled in the episode "Scrooge's Last Adventure". Huey, Duey & Louie took Scrooge McDuck's grandfather clock to a mechanic after they accidentally broke it while playing inside. While at the same time, Scrooge was getting a checkup at the clinic. From there it turned into a parody of TRON.
  • Mistaken for Servant: In "Till Nephews Do Us Part", Scrooge mistakes Millionaira Vanderbucks for a company president's secretary, not realizing that Millionaira is the president of the corporation (and the richest woman in the world to boot).
  • Momma's Boy: All of the Beagle Boys are under the thumb of their fierce mother, Ma Beagle. Fenton Crackshell is also very devoted to his mother, with whom he lives in a trailer park.
  • Money Fetish: Scrooge loves money so much that he swims in it.
  • Monster Mash: "The Ducky Horror Picture Show" featured Count Drake-ula, a hunchback named Quackymodo, Frankenstein's monster, a wolfduck (as in, a duck who becomes a werewolf), a gill-man, and the Glob.
  • Mr. Vice Guy: Scrooge is for the most part a decent person, but is also extremely greedy and is willing to cut costs no matter what the consequences.
  • Mrs. Hypothetical: In a Bad Future where Magica takes over McDuck Enterprises, she renames the company "Magica McDuck Enterprises." Make of that what you will.
  • Murder the Hypotenuse: In "Metal Attraction", Robotica nearly kills Gandra and almost destroys the money bin to make sure Gizmo Duck would be hers alone.
  • My Beloved Smother: Duck Tales features two examples of this trope:
    • Ma Beagle keeps her boys well under thumb. The one time four of her boys rebel against her ("Beaglemania"), she frames them for robbery and ruins their singing career so as to get them back.
    • Mrs. Crackshell, Fenton Crackshell's television-addict mother, is very much the boss of their trailer-home.
  • My Life Flashed Before My Eyes: In "A Case of Mistaken Secret Identity", Scrooge says "My life passed before my eyes . . . backwards." Launchpad had just flown Scrooge cross-country, and crashed, flying backwards. The front landing gear was stuck.
  • Mythology Gag:
    • The episode "Time Teasers" has two. One is that Pete appears in the episode as a peg-legged pirate named Captain Blackheart, which is a nod to the fact that Pete had a peg leg in the older Disney cartoons. The second one is that the birthday song Captain Blackheart sings to himself is sung to the tune of the Unbirthday song from Disney's adaptation of Alice in Wonderland.
    • On a few occasions, Scrooge will claim to have made his fortune by being "tougher than the toughies and smarter than the smarties", which is part of his repeatedly used Badass Boast in the original comics. He actually says his comic boast near word-for-word in one of the pilot episodes.
    • In "Yuppy Ducks", Huey mentions a baseball team called the Calisota Stealers. Calisota is a fictional state created by Carl Barks that is said to be where Duckburg is located in the Disney Ducks Comic Universe.
  • The Napoleon:
    • The ironically named leader of the Beagle Boys, Big Time, is also the shortest. Despite being short in stature, he is big on ideas and plans.
    • In the episode "Status Seekers", the Blueblood Beagles counterpart to him is appropriately named Bonaparte.
  • Necktie Leash: A non-romantic example appears in "Time is Money"; Scrooge grabs Launchpad's scarf and uses it to drag him into the house when he's trying to talk him into watching Bubba.
  • Never Found the Body: In "Hero for Hire", the police only find the Webbed Wonder's costume, not the body, after a supposedly fatal crash. This raises no one's suspicions.
  • Never Mess with Granny:
    • Ma Beagle is certainly the smartest and craftiest of her family of thieves, crooks and robbers. No wonder they loved her so much.
    • Glittering Goldie counts, too. Because if you don't count her, she'll come after you with a shotgun.
    • Mrs. Beakley will not stand idly by if any of the villains threaten Huey, Dewey, and Louie or her granddaughter Webby.
  • New Old Flame: Glittering Goldie was established as being a former lover of Scrooge's in her debut episode even though she wasn't even mentioned beforehand.
  • News Monopoly: Happens in a couple episodes:
    • In A Case of Mistaken Secret Identity, several talk shows are seen speculating on Gizmoduck's true identity.
    • In The Masked Mallard, several networks are covering the Masked Mallard's having turned to crime.
  • Nice Character, Mean Actor: "Where No Duck Has Gone Before." The actor who plays Courage of the Cosmos is an arrogant blowhard and a Dirty Coward.
  • Nightmare Sequence: It happens to Scrooge twice, at the beginning of "Earthquack" and the beginning of "The Unbreakable Bin." Both dreams involve Scrooge in his money bin, being attacked by the Beagle Boys.
  • Nitro Express: In the Framing Story of "Launchpad's First Crash", Scrooge and Launchpad are transporting some dynamite to Scrooge's copper mines. Scrooge is nervous even before the crash, and things only get worse when the dynamite gets scattered around them, meaning it could blow them up if lightning hits it.
  • Nobody's That Dumb: After having tried asking the triplets and Mrs. Beakley to watch Bubba until the time machine is repaired, Scrooge tries to dump him off on Launchpad. The pilot initially refuses, saying that he's dumb but not crazy.
  • No Celebrities Were Harmed: Several minor characters are parodies of Real Life celebrities, including Elvis Presley, Burt Bacharach, William Shatner, Gloria Swanson and John Wayne.
  • No Indoor Voice: El Capitan shouts nearly everything he says.
  • Noodle Incident: The theme song includes clips that Make Just As Much Sense In Context, and are not from any aired episodes, in order:
    • Scrooge underwater with Webby being chased by a shark, which Webby kisses.
    • Scrooge and Huey battling the Beagle Boys with pies in a bakery.
    • The nephews awakening a mummy, which chases theme.
    • Huey, Gyro, and Little Helper in space with Scrooge attempting to catch a dollar, which is taken by an alien, who laughs.
    • A tiger sniffing the nephews and then hugging them.
  • Not Good with Rejection: Gyro invents a robotic maid to help take the strain off Scrooge's housekeepers. His first attempt is so emotionless, it creeps everyone else out. So he dials up the emotions, creating a robo-Yandere who instantly falls in love with Gizmoduck, who unbeknownst to her is just a normal duck in Powered Armor. When he tries to let her down gently by explaining, she interprets it as him having another lover, and literally explodes in a rage.
  • Nothing Can Save Us Now: In "Armstrong", after being captured and stuck in a closet, Scrooge angrily declares that "No tin-plated dictator's going to tell me what to do!", attempts to storm out, and gets shocked by the force field in front of the door. Gyro responds that nobody can stop Armstrong. Shortly thereafter, Launchpad crashes his Joyrider on the roof, and, with the help of some luck, he manages to turn the tables.
  • No Water Proofing In The Future: "Armstrong" involved a robot going on a berserk rampage, and only being stopped by being soaked in water. In "The Giant Robot Robbers," the cast tried to kill the robots using the same method, only for the Bungling Inventor to inform them he had learned from his mistake and waterproofed the new models.
  • #1 Dime: Another Trope Namer. Magica De Spell wants to use Scrooge's dime for her magic because she believes it is the source of his tremendous wealth.
  • Nurse with Good Intentions: In "Scroogerello", Scrooge is sick, and Webby wants to be his nurse. She starts with bringing him something to drink - stumbles, and splashes it all over him.
  • Oh, Crap!:
    • In "Where No Duck Has Gone Before", Launchpad, the boys, and Major Courage all have their own terrified reactions as they realize they're really in space with real aliens.
    • In "Hero for Hire", Launchpad visits Ma Beagle. He saw a picture of her with her children... the Beagle Boys.
    • In " Till Nephews Do Us Part ", after Millionara Vanderbucks loses Scrooge and Flintheart consoles her, he gets this when she asks if there's a "MRS. Second Richest Duck in Duckburg."
  • O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
    • Scrooge got his name for a reason; he seriously loves money. If he reaches the point of not caring if he loses his cash (or a treasure he's been chasing), it's a sign things have gone pretty seriously downhill.
    • Launchpad McQuack and Fenton Crackshell often serve as the Plucky Comic Relief. But if matters get serious enough to require that they take a hand in it, watch out.
  • One-Wheeled Wonder: Gizmoduck. Besides the question of how he stays upright, one wonders where his feet go when he transforms.
  • One-Winged Angel: Merlock turns into a Gryphon for the final battle. But he loses the source of his powers and falls to his Disney Villain Death.
  • Only Known by Their Nickname: During part 2 of Bubba's introductory story arc, everyone in Tupei addresses Scrooge by Bubba's pet name for him, "Scooge". ("That's Scrooge!" "Whatever.")
    • This is a running gag throughout the episode.
  • Origins Episode:
    • The five-part series opener sets up the show's scenario. Known collectively as the "Treasure of the Golden Suns", the individual episodes are as follows; "Don't Give Up The Ship", "Wrongway in Ronguay", "Three Ducks of the Condor", "Cold Ducks" and "Too Much of a Gold Thing".
    • "Launchpad's First Crash" explains how Scrooge and Launchpad met.
    • "Once Upon A Dime" relates much of Scrooge's early life.
  • Overly Long Gag: "A sea monster ate my ice creeeeeeeam!!" To the point of becoming a meme.
  • Papa Wolf:
    • If you thought Scrooge was already tough you have not seen how dangerous he can be when protecting his Nephews, Webby, and innocent children in general.
    • Launchpad may be a ditz, but he will put his own life on the line rather than let anyone harm the kids, and given his reasonable competence as a fighter (and the fact that it's a Disney story), it won't be him who gets the worst of it if a villain chooses to test that determination), as demonstrated in "Where No Duck Has Gone Before" and "Hero for Hire".
  • Paper-Thin Disguise: The Beagle Boys were fond of these.
    • Especially their iconic masks, to the point where they'd probably be stealthier by not wearing them.
    • An especially noteable one was from the episode "Ducks On the Lam" when Bigtime, calling from inside the moneybin after he, Burger and Bouncer have taken over, pretends to be Scrooge while calling around to the various Duckburg banks. Problem is, these are VIDEO phones, and Big Time's disguise consists of a painting of Scrooge that he shoved his arms through and cut eyeholes in. Aside from the fact that the mouth doesn't move when he talks, you can clearly see the picture frame on the screen. Yet, it works perfectly.
  • Parental Abandonment:
    • Huey, Dewey and Louie's parents are nowhere to be seen and they are likely orphans. As if that weren't enough, Uncle Donald joins the Navy in the very first episode and leaves them with their great-uncle Scrooge.
    • Webby's parents are likewise nowhere to be seen. She's raised by her grandmother, Mrs. Beakley.
  • Parent with New Paramour: "Til Nephews Do Us Part" had a Gold Digger named Millionara Vanderbucks attempt to marry Scrooge for his money and get Huey, Dewey, Louie, and Webby out of the way by sending them to boarding schools.
  • Parody Episode: "Scroogerello" isn't only All Just a Dream, it's a parody of Cinderella.
  • Perilous Old Fool: Age has not affected Scrooge's spryness or spirit of adventure. The same can be said for El Capitan, who doesnt let the fact that he's apparently over 400 years old stop him from hunting his precious gold.
  • Personal Rain Cloud: In "Nothing to Fear", Magica De Spell sends a magical rain cloud to harass Scrooge and his nephews. In the end, the spell backfires, and Magica ends up under the weather.
  • Pet the Dog:
    • Scrooge McDuck is a hardbeaked skinflint, but he does have a soft spot for his family and staff, which gets shown much more regularly here than in the comics.
    • Many fans see Gandra as rude and insensitive to her boyfriend, but she actually takes care of Fenton while he is sick in "The Duck Who Knew Too Much",
  • Piggy Bank:
    • In "The Curse of Castle McDuck", Scrooge shows his nephews and Webby his homemade childhood piggy bank.
    • In "Duckman of Aquatraz", Huey, Dewey and Louie break open their piggy bank in an effort to use the money to hire a private eye. Unfortunately, they don't have enough. But the videotape is what saves Scrooge's hide.
  • Police Are Useless: They'd have to be if the villains are able to trick them into arresting Scrooge three times in the show's run. One particularly extreme example is in "The Good Muddahs", where most of Duckburg's police take a vacation after successfully putting all the Beagle Boys in jail, leaving Scrooge having to rely on a pair of rookie cops who are very stupid.
  • Pooled Funds: Scrooge McDuck keeps a lot of his money in a bin so he can swim in it.
  • President Evil: Scrooge faces several President Evils in the course of the series:
    • In "Three Ducks of the Condor", Scrooge argues with and fights the descendant of a conquistador, Joaquin Slowly. Using a coin from the Treasure of the Golden Suns, he masquerades as a high priest and rules the superstitious peasants in and around an isolated plateau high in the Andes. Joaquin Slowly loses his power over the natives when he loses his coin.
    • In "Sphinx for the Memories", Scrooge faces the corrupt High Priest (and ruler) of Garbabble, an ancient civilization in the remote Egyptian desert. The priest - a parody of Peter Lorre, is deposed at the end when his double dealing is brought to light.
    • In "The Duck in the Iron Mask", the greedy Count of Monte Dumas imprisons Scrooge, Launchpad and his nephews. It turns out the Count is really the Evil Twin of Scrooge's old friend, the rightful count and the eponymous Duck in the Iron Mask.
    • In "The Duck Who Would Be King", the corrupt leader of Toupee (yet another high priest!) is deposed by Scrooge and company. The priest throws his lot in with bandits to retake power, but is foiled.
    • Finally, in "Allowance Day", the corrupt leader of "The Banana Republic:", General Chiquita, tries to steal away Scrooge's Banana Bran Flakes factory. The General also tries to execute Scrooge and Fenton Crackshell via cannon squad. While Scrooge wins in the end (and keeps the factory), the General remained in power becoming something of a Karma Houdini. One hopes that the US government took note of the near execution of one of her leading citizens, and deposed of El Presidente soon thereafter!
  • Previously on…:
    • Used in the "Time Is Money" and "Super Ducktales" five-part stories in the second season. Also used for "The Golden Goose", the two-part Grand Finale.
    • Averted in the first season's multipart episodes. The first five episodes, the multipart "Treasure of the Golden Suns" typically has a character give a short bit of exposition as an introduction to the episode's plot. Likewise with the four part "Cash as Catch Can".
  • Priceless Ming Vase: In The Bride Wore Stripes, the Beagle Boys use a Ming Vase as a baseball bat, of course breaking it in the process.
  • Projectile Toast: In Sir Gyro de Gearloose Gyro tries to fix a toaster that's so off-whack it's shooting the toast through the ceiling. He goofs it up and ends up causing the toaster to break through the table and hit the floor.
  • Pun-Based Title: Ducks have "tails", and the series consists of "tales" about the adventures Scrooge and his grandnephews go on.
  • Punk in the Trunk: "The Good Muddahs" features the variant where someone is stuffed in the trunk in order to effect a getaway from the authorities. Specifically, the Nephews, Bubba and Webby stuff the Beagle Babes into their own trunk, and drive away pursued by two stupid rookie cops. Interestingly enough, after suffering the bumpy ride, Boom-Boom Beagle refers to the variant where a dead body is stuffed in the trunk:
    Boom-Boom Beagle: Remind me never to stuff a stiff in the trunk again! It's too cruel!
  • Punny Name:
    • The witch's name is Magica De Spell, or "Magic Spell".
    • The Five-Episode Pilot has a conquestador named Joaquin Slowly ("walkin' slowly").
    • Fenton's girlfriend Gandra Dee, a reference to actress Sandra Dee (of Gidget famenote ). Also a reference to the fact that she's a goose (also known as a "gander").
  • Put on a Bus: Donald Duck gets put on a ship in the opening episode, mostly because unlike in the original comics, animated!Donald is The Unintelligible and it would have been a hassle to keep him around as a major character who speaks frequently.
  • Quicksand Sucks: In "Wrongway in Ronguay", Scrooge sinks into a quicksand pit in the middle of the desert. He escapes by swimming out using a box of scuba gear he had brought with him!
  • Ray Gun: As the theme tune says, racecars, lasers, aeroplanes. Gyro's "Furniture Mover Ray" from "The Money Vanishes", appears in the opening. Huey, Dewey and Louie wield it against the Beagle Boys.
  • Read the Fine Print: In "Dime Enough For Luck", Gladstone Gander unknowingly signs a contract to help rob Scrooge's money bin in front of a disguised Magica.
  • Really Royalty Reveal: In "Jungle Duck", the eponymous Jungle Duck happens to be the long vanished Prince Greydrake.
  • Really 700 Years Old: El Capitan, a Conquistador from four centuries ago whose sheer mania for the gold he stole from South America has kept him alive out of pure willpower to find it once more.
  • Real Men Hate Affection: Zigzagged. Scrooge has his hang-ups with relationships, but it seems to relate less to his being male and more to his troubled past and cynicism. He and Donald (when he appears) have no problem with hugging the boys. Duckworth is very stoic, but, again, one could attribute that to other factors: he's British. Huey, Dewey, and Louie don't seem to have a problem with platonic affection, though, being preteen boys, they sometimes fall into thinking Girls Have Cooties. Launchpad McQuack, Scrooge's muscular, daring (if accident-prone) pilot shows unabashed affection towards everyone.
  • Recognizable by Sound: In "Hero for Hire", Scrooge, hearing the motor of Launchpad's helicopter, exclaims, "I'd know that sound anywhere!"
  • Recurring Extra: Two characters created for the series play this role:
    • Vacation Vanhonk, a duck in a Hawaiian shirt, whose gimmick is that he's always going on vacation. He attends Scrooge's birthday party in "Sweet Duck of Youth", crowds Duckworth and the nephews on the bus bench in "Duckworth's Revolt", and even is an extra in Mrs. Beakley's opera in "Maid of the Myth". Vacation Vanhonk has a couple speaking lines as well, berating Gyro in "Sir Gyro de Gearloose" and struggling with Magica's shadow in "Magica's Shadow War".
    • Quacky McSlant, whose distinguishing feature is that he walks askew, makes one notable appearance at the start of "Home Sweet Homer" when he delivers Scrooge's mail. Other than that, he only appears at Scrooge's birthday party in "Sweet Duck of Youth" and also plays an extra in Mrs. Beakley's "Maid of Myth" opera.
  • Redundant Rescue: In "Scroogerello", Princess Goldie is kidnapped by the Beagle Boys, and manages to beat most of them and rescue herself. However, when she realizes Scrooge is coming to save her, she ups and pretends to still be in danger just for a Rescue Romance. Well...this is Scrooge's fantasy...
  • Refuse to Rescue the Disliked: In the episode "Magica's Shadow War", Magica's raven Poe turns up and begs Scrooge to save her after her Living Shadow locks her in a closet. Given that Magica is one of the most persistent members of his Rogues Gallery, Scrooge refuses, until the nephews tell him they probably need her help catching the shadow.
  • Removable Steering Wheel: In "The Uncrashable Hindentanic", Glomgold tricks kooky captain Farley Foghorn into removing the steering wheel and taking it with him to the zeppelin's dining room.
  • Retool: Most of season 2 had episodes revolving around Duckberg and Scrooge's business ventures rather than more world exploration, they also centered around non-comic characters like Bubba and Gizmoduck.
  • Rescue Romance:
    • Launchpad saves the yeti "Snowy" from falling off a cliff. When he finally manages to haul her up the cliff, she begins making goo-goo eyes at him, much to his dismay (and Webby's amusement).
    Webby: [giggling] You're her hero, Launchpad!
    • In "Double O Duck", Feathers begins to show genuine attraction to Launchpad after he saves her from a death trap, saying that even Bruno hadn't saved her life.
  • Resentful Guardian: Originally, Scrooge was not happy about Donald leaving the triplets with him, but he warms up to them quickly. It comes up again in "Nothing to Fear", where the boys' deepest fear manifests as an illusion of Scrooge who tells them that he's been behind all the things that have been scaring them as he never wanted them there anyway.
  • Reset Button: In "Master of the Djinni", Flintheart Glomgold's lack of care with his wishes got him stranded in a desert island with Scrooge. Forgetting he still had a wish, he unwittingly used it to wish he had never seen the lamp. Because of that wish, the past was altered so the explosion that allowed Scrooge and Flintheart to enter the cave also caused the lamp to fall from its pedestal into a pile of rubble, where it remained unseen by everyone who entered the cave.
    Genie: [still trapped in the lamp] Hello? Anybody out there? Anybody out there?!
  • Ridiculously Alive Undead: Drakeula the vampire from "Ducky Horror Picture Show" survives on apples.
  • Right-Hand Cat: In the James Bond parody episode, "Double-O-Duck", Dr. Nogood has a Right-Hand Persian cat.
  • The Rival: Scrooge's chief rival is the unscrupulous Flintheart Glomgold.
  • Robot Girl: In "Metal Attraction", Gyro invents one named Robotica.
  • Rogues Gallery: Flintheart Glomgold, Magica De Spell, and the Beagle Boys have been tormenting Scrooge for years.
  • Rogues' Gallery Transplant: One episode featured the Phantom Blot as a villain, who originated as an antagonist in old Mickey Mouse comics.
  • Money is Water: Do not attempt to dive into a pile of metal coins in Real Life. Even in the show, Scrooge is the only one with this ability. This fact leads to several villain concussions.
    • Sometimes done inconsistently. There are episodes where the nephews can dive through coins too. Though perhaps Scrooge took the time to show them how.
    • Parodied disturbingly here.
  • Roses Are Red, Violets Are Blue...:
    • Roses is red,
      Violets is blue,
      Misery loves company,
      That's why we're here with you!
      Burger Beagle, "The Bride Wore Stripes"
  • Royals Who Actually Do Something: This show was pretty good about this. King Arty managed to temporarily hold off Lestred's invasion in the episode "Sir Gyro De Gearloose". Then Homer helps Scrooge and his nephews reclaim his kingdom of Ithaquack from Circe in "Home Sweet Homer". Also the true ruler of the kingdom Roy, after the mask is removed was able help Scrooge and his friends save his kingdom in the episode "The Duck In The Iron Mask".
  • Running Gag:
    • There have been a couple of episodes where someone's name has been mispronounced, when they correct the crowd, they reply with "Whatever."
      • From "The Duck That Would Be King":
        Crowd: Hail "Skooge!"
        Scrooge: That's SCROOGE!
        Crowd: Whatever!
      • From the same episode:
        Scrooge: Now get us out of here.
        Mysterious Woman: You got it, Skooge.
        Scrooge: That's SCROOGE.
        Mysterious Woman: Whatever.
      • And from the ending of the episode:
        Crowd: Farewell, Scrooge!
        Scrooge: That's SKOOGE! [double take] ...whatever!
    • Another, from "Scrooge's Last Adventure": First, Huey, Dewey and Louie resort to Plan B when the clockmaker insists that he can't fix the grandfather clock they accidentally broke. Evidently, Plan B is throwing a tantrum until the clockmaker gives in. Later, Fenton Crackshell tries to get Scrooge to let him help in recovering his money from cyberspace. When Scrooge refuses, Fenton resorts to his Plan B, which is also throwing a tantrum until Scrooge gives in. Finally, Scrooge throws a tantrum after learning the ordeal he'd just been through was all for nothing - prompting his grandnephews to ask how he knew about Plan B.
    • Also, a running gag throughout the series is Launchpad and his tendency to crash land every time. In "Launchpad's First Crash" it is revealed that he has crash landed 100 times. Given that he flew Scrooge almost everywhere, it is a miracle that Scrooge, or every other character, are still alive.
    • Scrooge sometimes tells Launchpad that he will never fly for him again. Later, Launchpad is sitting outside of the cockpit and it told by Scrooge to fly the plane despite being told that he would never fly for McDuck enterprises again.

    Tropes S-Z 
  • Saharan Shipwreck: In "Wronguay in Ronguay", the 400 year old Spanish galleon stranded in the desert.
  • Satellite Love Interest: Gandra Dee never got much characterization other than being Fenton Crackshell's Love Interest and girlfriend (except for how she could be really rude and ungrateful to Fenton). She only appeared in six episodes though, but she would seldom be the main focus of the plot even within that limited screen time.
  • Sausage String Silliness: Scrooge McDuck uses sausages on a string to tame a "ghost" dog in The Curse of Castle McDuck. Aided by the fact the Druids had been starving the dog to keep it mean.
  • "Save the World" Climax : The DuckTales Grand Finale, "The Golden Goose", starts out with tussle between Scrooge and Glomgold over the cursed artifact (which can turn anything its beak touches into pure gold, with the right magic word). The story escalates when the Golden Goose sets off the "Golden Death" - and Scrooge must return the goose to its magic fountain, "Before the entire world turns to gold!"
  • Scary Stinging Swarm: In the episode "Till Nephews Do Us Part," Millionara is attacked by bees after the triplets spray her with honey disguised as bug repellent.
  • Schizo Tech: This show has cars straight from The '50s and family relationships work similar to that time, yet technology includes Ray Guns and the Force Field in the opening, while architecture is all over the place.
  • "Scooby-Doo" Hoax: Happened a few times on the program:
    • "The Curse of Castle McDuck": Druids and a painted "ghost hound" scare the McDucks from their ancestral castle.
    • "Hotel Strangeduck": Eccentric Dr. Strangeduck's assistant Bernard plays ghost. Dr. Strangeduck's also playing ghost, for some inexplicable reason.
    • "Much Ado About Scrooge": Descendents of William Drakespeare's actors imitate supernatural characters from Drakespear's plays.
  • Screw the Money, I Have Rules!: Scrooge McDuck in a nutshell. He loves his money to an almost disturbing degree, but: "I made [my money] on the seas, and in the mines, and in the cattle wars of the old frontier! I made it by being tougher than the toughies, and smarter than the smarties! And I made it square!" Additionally, he makes it very clear that as much as he loves his money, he loves his family more.
    • In "Dough Ray Me", Scrooge was against using Gyro's duplicator ray gun to easily double his fortune since he knew the consequences. In his own words, he never trusts a dollar he hasn't earned. His fears were founded when the whole city was literally drowning in millions of silver dollars, which ruins the economy as inflation spiked exponentially.
  • Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: Flintheart Glomgold is essentially Scrooge's complete opposite (see Evil Counterpart above). He's a lying, cheating scoundrel who's more than willing to pull every dirty trick in the book to get what he wants.
    • Also, Magica's evil nightmare version of Scrooge: "I'm rich! I can do anything! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
  • Seahorse Steed: An episode where Scrooge, Gyro, and Doofus visit Atlantis has all of the Atlanteans use seahorses as mounts.
  • Seers: Fenton's mother gained the ability to predict the future in "My Mother the Psychic".
  • Selfless Wish: In "Scroogerello", as the dream begins, Scrooge's wicked stepfamily are planning to attend the ball, hoping Princess Goldie will choose one of them to marry. Scrooge wishes he could save her from this fate, which is so selfless a wish that fairy godmother (and fairy godmother in training) Mrs. Beakley and Webby show up to give him magical assistance.
  • Self-Disposing Villain: Very commonly happens. While Scrooge and the boys aren't incompetent, their foes are often crafty enough to get a Near-Villain Victory, only to ruin it through an act of compulsive pettiness or overconfidence costing them everything. Even the times Scrooge stops them single-handed, it is often by exploiting a Villain Ball.
  • Self-Made Man: Scrooge got his fortune by working hard and smart his entire life.
  • Series Fauxnale: "Til Nephews Do Us Part" ended the first season of sixy-five episodes. All the major characters, and many one-time characters, appear as guests at the wedding of Scrooge and Millionara Vanderbucks. Scrooge finds out at the last minute that Millionara is only marrying him for his money; but that doesn't save him from being chased into the parking lot by his old girlfriend, Goldie, brandishing a shotgun! DuckTales would go on to have an even hundred episodes and a theatrical motion picture. The real Grand Finale was the two-part (save-the-world) episode "The Golden Goose".
  • Servile Snarker: Duckworth is Scrooge's butler, but will sometimes make remarks about his master's greed and stinginess.
  • Sewer Gator: While searching the sewers in the "A Drain On The Economy" episode, the Beagle Boys dress up as a gator to frighten off the nephews. Then the Beagle Boys run into a real sewer gator.
    Louie: Uh, is it true that alligators live in the sewers?
    Huey: Well, according to the Junior Woodchuck Guidebook-Aah!
  • Sharp-Dressed Man: Scrooge, Flintheart, and Gladstone all dress rather nicely.
  • She Cleans Up Nicely:
    • Magica De Spell actually looks pretty attractive when she transforms into "Vanna Flight" in the episode "Dime Enough For Luck".
    • Mrs. Beakley also has some occasions where she dresses nicer than she usually does.
  • Shout-Out: Enough for its own page.
  • Shrunk in the Wash: In one episode, the Gizmo Duck suit gets shrunk in the wash, conveniently ending up just the right size for Huey, Dewey, Louie, and Webby to wear it.
  • Sibling Yin-Yang: Dijon is a sneaky thief while his older brother Poupon is an honest monk.
  • Silver Vixen: Even Scrooge's nephews admitted that Goldie was attractive despite her age.
  • Slap-Slap-Kiss: Scrooge and Goldie both love each other deep down, but also tend to be very aggressive to each other.
  • Sliding Scale of Continuity: Level 3. No matter how many adventures our heroes go on, the main villains Flintheart Glomgold, Magica De Spell, and the Beagle Boys are never defeated for good.
  • Snooping Little Kid: Several episodes see Huey, Dewey, Louie and Webby playing to this trope. Notable examples include "Sir Gyro de Gearloose", "Hotel Strangeduck", "Duckman of Aquatraz", "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. McDuck" and "The Billionaire Beagle Boys Club".

  • Species Surname:
    • Par for the course with Disney character cartoons. Subverted with Duckworth, who appears to be a dog of some kind.
    • In the episode "Ducky Horror Picture Show", he mentions a butler's convention in "Dogburg".
    • "The Uncrashable Hindentanic" has a piano player named Burt Beakarach, who's actually a lizard. Obviously, characters who may have been ducks in pre-production may change species in the final product.
  • Special Effect Failure: In-universe, Courage of the Cosmos in "Where No Duck Has Gone Before". The characters are supposed to be on a futuristic spaceship, but they're sitting on cheap-ass folding chairs, except for Courage, who's sitting on an easy chair. You can see the wires the "spaceships" are dangling from in the exterior shot. The boys don't seem to notice, but when Scrooge takes over the studio, his first order is to create a massively upgraded set, which Gyro unfortunately interprets to mean "build a real, functioning spaceship".
  • Spell Book: Magica De Spell is sometimes seen consulting one. In "Magica's Shadow War" she reads off a spell that backfires on her as well as causing plenty of trouble for Scrooge.
  • Spies In a Van: The Beagle Boys use the "Spies in A Van" technique in "The Bride Wore Stripes" and "My Mother the Psychic".
  • Stalker with a Crush:
    • Robotica, to the case of being a borderline Yandere.
    • Also Bubba from the episode "Bubbeo And Juliet", which actually led to them becoming friends.
  • Steam Never Dies: The most incongruous example is in the episode Armstrong, where Gyro's newly invented robot saves Scrooge's gold train (pulled by a steam locomotive) from a rockslide. The episode later features such modern technology as automatic garage door openers, computers and satellites!
  • Stern Old Judge: Scrooge appears before a judge in "Duckman of Aquatraz" and "The Bride Wore Stripes". His judges are gruff, older, anthropomorphic male characters. To make a long story short, it's fair to say Duckburg, USA has an injustice system, not a justice system.
  • Sticky Fingers: Dijon, while a common thief otherwise, also seems to suffer from kleptomania, unable to resist stealing even when not intending to, including stealing worthless junk like old shoes.
  • Sufficiently Advanced Bamboo Technology: The booby trapped temple in "Too Much of A Gold Thing". By opening the doors to all three treasure vaults at once, Scrooge McDuck sets off a device that, in quick succession: causes the floor to collapse into a lake a molten gold, causes the temple to sink in the lake of molten gold, causes the entire valley to be engulfed in a lake of molten gold, and causes said lake of molten gold to explode in a volcanic eruption.
  • Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Launchpad McQuack and later Fenton Crackshell both acted in the role Donald Duck had from the original Uncle Scrooge comics, namely being the other adult character working with Scrooge and the nephews. The writers of the show were worried that Donald's presence would outshine Scrooge and the nephews, which was why the two other characters were created and so they would serve as the fifth member of the Five-Man Band in the first and second seasons. However, Donald did notably have a minor recurring role in the first season, where he would properly retake his position from the comics in the few episodes he appeared in.
  • Take That!:
  • That Cloud Looks Like...: Played by Burger and Bouncer Beagle in "Working for Scales."
  • Theme Naming:
    • On many occasions. Aside from Huey, Dewey, and Louie's names rhyming and the Beagle Boys all having names beginning with letter B, another example is a one-shot character named Joaquin Slowly (a pun on "walking slowly"), whose ancestor was a Conquistador named Marchin Slowly.
    • Subverted in "Super DuckTales" with a Beagle named Megabyte Beagle who designs a remote control to take over Gizmo Duck's controls.
  • There Are No Good Executives: Averted. Is Scrooge a stern, demanding taskmaster? Sure. Is he a hard bargainer who doesn't suffer fools easily? You bet. Is he always ready to exploit whatever openings an opponent might leave him? Absolutely. Is he dishonest, corrupt, or evil like his Evil Counterpart Flintheart Glomgold? Not a chance.
  • Thief Bag: The Beagle Boys commonly use bags to hold their loot.
  • Time Stands Still: "Time Teasers" had Gyro invent a stopwatch that could freeze time.
  • Time Traveler's Dinosaur: Tootsie the Triceratops who appears due to Time Travel and is a loyal companion of Bubba the Cave Duck.
  • Tin Man: Similar to a villainous version of the Trope Namer, Armstrong seems to have a good grasp of emotions (mostly anger, nasty amusement, and malice) despite being a robot and implicitly denying that he has them.
    Armstrong: If I were human, I might find this amusing. [robotic laugh]
  • Title Montage: As with most The Disney Afternoon series, many of the clips in the opening come from the series itself. There are a few exceptions, though, such as the clip of Gyro rescuing Scrooge in space while the dollar he's trying to grab gets snatched by an alien instead.
  • Title Theme Tune: One of the catchiest of all time.
  • Took a Level in Badass: Fenton Crackshell when he became Gizmo Duck. Also adult Doofus and Webby in the episode "Duck To The Future". Then there's Scrooge when he becomes the "Masked Mallard".
  • Took a Level in Cynic: As shown in "Once Upon a Dime", Scrooge McDuck started his career trusting enough to be scammed more than once. By the start of the series, he's a cynic. One of the points of the story is his friends and family sending him through a level in idealism; while he remains more guarded than some of the other characters, he learns there are some people he can rely on and opens up to them.
  • Took a Level in Dumbass: Launchpad had his moments of this. Especially when he becomes the "Webbed Wonder", and is tricked into robbing banks for the Beagle Boys because they tell him it's for a movie.
  • Took a Level in Jerkass:
    • Scrooge's adult nephews in the episode "Duck To The Future".
    • Also Scrooge himself when it came to dealing with Bubba. This got so bad that his own conscience was ashamed of him.
  • Total Eclipse of the Plot: In "Allowance Day", an eclipse turned out to be the proof needed by the triplets to show that they had pranked Scrooge into thinking it was Saturday so that he could give them their allowances early.
  • Traveling Salesman: Filler Brushbill in "Much Ado About Scrooge." His valise has lots of items he either sells to people he runs into, or can use himself. (When he, Scrooge and the boys are surrounded by living trees, he scares the trees off with chainsaws from the valise. Scrooge then orders two dozen for his own lumber company.)
  • Treasure Is Bigger in Fiction: Complete with the search of huge gemstones.
  • Trigger-Happy: Goldie has a tendency to fire a shotgun whenever she is enraged.
  • Trrrilling Rrrs: Scrrrooge. He is Scottish, after all.
  • A True Hero: In "Where No Duck has Gone Before", the triplets and their friend Doofus are major fans of a sci-fi show called Courage of the Cosmos. Circumstances lead to them meeting the main actor, and they're ecstatic, fawning over and hero-worshipping him despite Launchpad's objections that his derring-do isn't real and that legitimate heroes do their thing without cameras. Then Gyro's revamped sets for the show accidentally send the boys, Courage, and Launchpad on a trip through outer space. "Courage" reveals himself as a coward and Launchpad shows himself a hero in real life, not just in acting.
  • Tsundere:
    • Goldie loves Scrooge, but is rather irked by his greed.
    • Scrooge himself is a platonic example. He's usually relatively gentle with the children and relates to Mrs. Beakley and Duckworth relatively well. Launchpad and Fenton, who are both somewhat ditzy, tend to draw his ire, but the soft side comes out occasionally, such as when they're in trouble.
  • Twin Test: Mrs. Beakley immediately proves her mettle as the triplets' nanny by not only not being put off by their pranks but by quickly determining they'd pulled a Triplet Switch, without ever having met them before or having any logical way to tell one from the other (sure, they wear different colored clothing, but she shouldn't have known which brother favored which color).
  • Unanthropomorphic Transformation: At the end of "Home Sweet Homer", Circe, an anthropomorphic pig who turns people into non-anthropomorphic pigs, gets a taste of her own medicine.
  • Uncle Pennybags: Scrooge himself, naturally. He plays hardball when it comes to business, but he's an old softie when it comes to his family.
  • Undying Loyalty:
    • Several of Scrooge's assistants are very openly loyal to him, even without normal concerns like a paycheck (which says something because the show makes a recurring plotline of Scrooge losing his fortune).
      • By his own declaration, Duckworth "loves serving Mr. McDuck", and he'll continue under him even in cases like "Down and Out in Duckburg", "Super DuckTales", and DuckTales the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp where Scrooge loses his money and hence is not Duckworth's boss anymore.
      • Although Mrs. Beakley originally came to the mansion because she needed work and a home for herself and Webby, she quickly becomes devoted to Scrooge, to the point of continuing with him even when he's lost his money and can't pay her as well as supporting him and helping him in ways (like saving him from drowning in shark-infested waters) that were not in the original contract.
      • Launchpad's loyalty to Scrooge goes above and beyond the call of duty, to the point where he's helped him in some pretty big ways (like letting him and his family "crash" at his house) even when Scrooge has lost his fortune and thus he has no monetary reason for doing so.
    • Doofus tries to help Launchpad and believes in him till the end, even when the whole world is picking on him. In the episode "Merit Time Adventure", he sticks by him even when Launchpad tries to wave him off so that he won't be hurt when Launchpad inevitably loses his tug-of-war with the "sea serpent". Launchpad returns the favor by being a Papa Wolf towards his "little buddy", to the point where he's willing to fight hostile aliens and the Beagle Boys to protect him.
    • Huey, Dewey and Louie might be rambunctious troublemakers at times, but they are infinitely loyal to Scrooge in his adventures. When Scrooge was framed for stealing a priceless painting (with very convincing evidence) neither the boys or any of the above in his employment believed it for a second and took measures to prove his innocence. This has been proven vice versa for Scrooge, as much as he treasures his fortune, it has been revealed his true worst nightmare is losing his nephews.
  • Unified Naming System: The D.I.A. (Duckburg Intelligence Agency) goes up against F.O.W.L. (Foreign Organization for World Larceny).
  • The Unintelligible: In one episode, some of Donald Duck's shipmates (and even his own admiral) panic because they can't understand a word of what he's saying.
  • Universal Driver's License: Launchpad McQuack can intuit how to operate any flying vehicle, from planes and helicopters to alien space ships and whatever invention Gyro Gearloose has cobbled together. But while he can fly anything (kinda), landing is another matter entirely: his personal catchphrase is "If it's got wings, I can crash it."
  • Used to Be a Sweet Kid:
    • Scrooge may be stingy and greedy today, but he was rather naive and cheerful as a child.
    • Also it runs in the family, as Scrooge's nephews join forces with Magica De Spell in the future during one episode.
  • Use Your Head: In "A Whale of a Bad Time," Donald finds the controls to Bluebottle's supersub, the Moby 2 (which was used to steal Scrooge's fortune at sea thanks to Bluebottle hired by Glomgold). When Donald asks what to do, Scrooge tells him this. Needless to say, Donald uses his head to bash in the controls, prompting Scrooge to go, "So that's how he exercises his mind."
  • Valentine's Day Episodes: Two:
    • Back to the Klondike Scrooge goes back to his claim in the Yukon, meeting his old girlfriend, Goldie.
    • A DuckTales Valentine: Having been stuck with a magic arrow, Scrooge falls in love with Aphroducky, the mythological Goddess of Love.
      • A DuckTales Valentine did introduce a great concept. True love doesn't have to mean a romantic partner. To break Aphroducky's spell, the one under it had to acknowledge their true love. Launchpad's true love was not a person at all - it was an activity, and Scrooge's was his nephews and Webby. Plus the episode's hilarity lies in all the awkward, extreme displays of affection.
  • Valley Girl: Launchpad's little sister Loopy talks in this manner, notably with traits such as using "like" in between her words.note 
    Loopy:' Like, totally to the ma-ax!
  • The Vamp: Magica De Spell, Feathers Galore, Cinnamon Teal, Circe, and Boom-Boom Beagle have all attempted to manipulate men by acting seductive at least once.
  • Villain of Another Story: The episode "Superdoo" centers around Doofus, who's just found a crystal that gives him superpowers which he uses to save the day from disasters like a forest fire and a burst dam, and to easily attain Woodchuck badges. When he realizes his new condescending attitude led to the rest of the woodchucks to shun him, Doofus throws away the Crystal. The subplot reveals that the crystal was stolen by two alien criminals who were on the lam from the law when they crash-landed on earth. The disasters Doofus saved everyone from were inadvertently caused by the aliens who were trying to get the crystal back in order to use its power to take over the galaxy.
  • Villain Team-Up: Done several times. It seems a standard plot that many villains in the series would prove effective working together, if not for nearly all of them having a Chronic Backstabbing Disorder and ultimately causing both their downfalls by trying to steal all the profit for themselves.
  • Vine Swing: In the episode "Jungle Duck", the eponymous Nature Hero travels around in the jungle like this. Launchpad and Scrooge also try this form of transportation.
  • Wacky Marriage Proposal: In "Til Nephews Do Us Part", when Scrooge proposes to Millionaira Vanderbucks, he puts his proposal in financial terms. He asks if she'd be interested in a "merger", and she responds hoping that they'd have a "dividend or two". Millionaira immediately drags Scrooge home to meet her accountant.
  • Wacky Wayside Tribe: The second party of the "Time is Money" serial, "The Duck Who Would Be King". On their way back to the future from One Million BC, Scrooge and company accidentally crash-land in the ancient oriental kingdom of Toupee and become involved in its internal politics. While "The Duck Who Would Be King" is considered an entertaining episode in its own right, it has next to no impact on the rest of the five-parter.
  • Waif Prophet: Sensen from the multi-part episode "Time is Money" is very vulnerable, but believes Bubba to be the destined ruler of her people before she is chosen.
  • Wallet Moths: In "Duckworth's Revolt". Duckworth relates his duties of the day to Huey, Dewey and Louie, noting that he was due to dust off Scrooge's credit cards. Duckworth holds up Scrooge's wallet, and the viewer can see several moths fluttering out.
  • The Walls Are Closing In:
    • An episode had Scrooge and his nephews trapped in an Egyptian tomb with a wall with spears closing in on them. They're saved by pressing a hidden button activating a trapdoor.
    • Also one of the rooms in the temple from "Bubba's Big Brainstorm".
  • Watch Out for That Tree!: Launchpad, naturally enough, swings into a tree in "Jungle Duck".
  • We Want Our Idiot Back!: In one episode, Gyro invents a helmet that turns Bubba into a genius. The kids are upset that Bubba is now so smart he no longer wants to play with them, but Scrooge loves that the new Bubba is a financial genius. Later, when Huey, Dewey, and Louie are attacked by a monstrous beast, Scrooge is horrified to find out that as a genius Bubba is incapable of violence, and worse, he doesn't care that his friends are in danger. Scrooge begs Bubba to go back to being a Bruiser with a Soft Center.
  • "Well Done, Son" Guy: In "Top Duck", Launchpad thinks that his parents are ashamed of him for messing up a performance as a teenager and for all the crashing he does. He wants to show them he's a real McQuack. (In fairness, it's easy to be intimidated when your father's a No Celebrities Were Harmed version of John Wayne!) However, he learns that his parents actually couldn't be prouder of him.
  • Went to the Great X in the Sky: In the episode "The Bride Wore Stripes", Scrooge McDuck pretends to drown in his Money Bin in order to make Ma Beagle confess that she lied about them being married. The Beagle Boys were in on the scheme and told their mother that Scrooge had gone to the big bin in the sky.
  • Wham Episode: It happens at the end of part 1 of the Golden Goose 2 parter. The first part of the episode ends when the Beagle Boys turn Huey, Dewey, and Louie into gold statues by the golden goose.
  • "What Do They Fear?" Episode: "Nothing To Fear," which remains one of the most memorable episodes of the series because of the Mood Whiplash. Interestingly, the visions start with fantastic or shallow fears (video games coming to life, the limousine turning into a monster) and become increasingly down-to-earth and personal. The final, worst manifestations are mirror images: Uncle Scrooge sees delinquent versions of his nephews that don't respect him, and the nephews see an abusive version of their uncle who considers them a burden.
  • What Have I Done: In "The Golden Fleecing", Scrooge obsessively ignores all his nephews' protests about his behavior as he tries to get the titular treasure, but when he's confronted up close and personal with the fact that his lust for the Golden Fleece will cost Launchpad his life, he is horrified and immediately repents.
  • What the Hell, Hero?:
    • "Time is Money": The reaction to Scrooge's treatment of Bubba upon returning to the present. While Bubba does cause some misfortune, he is a caveman and a little kid who honestly doesn't know any better.
    • "The Golden Fleecing": Huey, Dewey, and Louie are also shocked when Scrooge steals the Golden Fleece and abandons Launchpad to a dragon to get away with it.
    • "Duck to the Future": After returning to his time, Scrooge calls his nephews out for the corrupt business decisions they made in an attempt to follow Scrooge's advice about finding a way to cut costs.
  • White-Dwarf Starlet: Gloria Swansong in "The Uncrashable Hindentanic", a parody of Norma Desmond and her actress Gloria Swanson in Sunset Boulevard.
  • White Gloves: Duckworth wears white gloves. May be justified, as he's a butler.
  • Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Launchpad parodies it in the Five-Episode Pilot: "Yah, a snake! I hate snakes! No... that's somebody else. I sorta like snakes." Then one nearly eats him: "Now I hate snakes."
  • Wig, Dress, Accent: Happens to Scrooge twice.
    • To get past Magica in "Duck to the Future" he disguises himself as a salesman (and ditches the Scottish accent to complete it).
    • "Blue Collar Scrooge" has him get hit with amnesia, and when he can't remember who he is, he asks "Any why am I talking with this accent?" in the normal voice of his VA, Alan Young. Without his glasses, accent, or even his familiar outfit, Scrooge shows up on Mrs. Crackshell's door, and she takes him in. He gets a job at McDuck Industries as "Pops," and is appalled at the conditions. "Pops" gets the workers to strike, just when Fenton arrives, having to impersonate Scrooge himself after days of Scrooge being missing. Once Scrooge recovers his memory, he also remembers what happened—though when he raises salaries by a dollar an hour, he faints. Mrs. Crackshell catches him, and he admits he's grateful for her helping him, too.
  • Wingding Eyes: Scrooge sometimes gets dollar signs in his eyes.
  • Witch with a Capital "B": This will come to mind every time Scrooge calls Magica "You witch!" or "That witch!" Justified due to the fact that Magica is actually a witch.
  • Work Off the Debt: when Scrooge temporarily loses all of his wealth due to a years-old contract, he and the group (Huey, Dewey, Louie, Webigail, etc.) eat at a high-end restaurant where they were regulars anyway, saying to put the charge on his account. The contract-holder says the account is his as well, and Scrooge says to "Put it on his account." The owner doesn't approve of this and puts them to work in the kitchen washing dishes.
  • World of Funny Animals: Pretty much every character is an anthropomorphic animal.
  • Would Rather Suffer:
  • Yandere: Robotica becomes very angry when Gizmoduck turns her down at least until the end of "Metal Attraction".
  • You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: "Your usefulness is at an end!" Said by El Capitan to Flinheart Glomgold at the end of "Wrongway in Ronguay". It turns into a "No, You Have Outlived Your Usefulness" argument when Glomgold fights back however, leaving both of them thwarted.
  • You Just Had to Say It: During "Sweet Duck of Youth", Louie asks what they're going to do. One of his brothers says, "Follow [the ghost]". Louie comments that he "had to say it."
  • You're Insane!: In "Where No Duck Has Gone Before", Launchpad asks Courage, "Are you crazy?" when he insists on fist-fighting the alien leader. The encounter proves enlightening for Courage.
  • Your Mom:
    • In "Robot Robbers", Scrooge gets the Beagle Boys mad by having Launchpad fly a helicopter with a banner reading "MA BEAGLE HAS FLEAS!"
    • In the episode "Sir Gyro de Gearloose", Lessdred's black knight angers a dragon by saying "King Artie says your mother works for scale" and "King Artie says your father has a soft, white underbelly."
  • You Wouldn't Hit a Guy with Glasses: Gizmoduck tries invoking this (along with Wouldn't Hit a Girl) to stop the GICU2 security robotnote  from attacking him. It doesn't work.

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Fenton misses the point

When Scrooge is informed of Glomgold's profits rising after Fenton's mother went missing, he figures out where she is, but Fenton fails to get it until Scrooge points it out to him.

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