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Quack Pack is a short-lived 1996 Disney afternoon show featuring Donald Duck, his now-grown nephews, Huey, Dewey, and Louie, and his girlfriend Daisy. The three nephews are now portrayed as teenagers, and much less interchangeable than in previous depictions: as might be expected by the rules of Chromatic Arrangement, Huey is depicted as the leader, Dewey is depicted as the tech-whiz, and Louie is depicted as a bit of a nerd as well as the jock-type.

Seemed almost designed to inspire cries of They Changed It, Now It Sucks! from Disney purists, fans of the earlier DuckTales (1987), and fans of the classic comics, the inhabitants of Duckburg are now (save Donald, Daisy and the nephews) largely human, the nephews speak with still duck-like voices, but far less "Donald Duck" speech (as opposed to the really "Donald Duck in a higher pitch" voices of DuckTales (1987)), the costumes have been redesigned to be Totally Radical (and to include pants), and Daisy and Donald now work as a reporter and cameraman for a TV show entitled What in the World. Save for the occasional visit by Ludwig Von Drake (and in one episode, a cameo by Pluto), no other character of the Duck Universe appears. Some fans argue that the producers intentionally filled the world with humans in order to separate the show's universe from that of DuckTales (1987) and Darkwing Duck, which did not share Quack Pack's over-the-top wacky tone.

As the show focuses on Donald and Co., rather than Scrooge, the tone is a bit more slapstick in nature, though the stories presented are generally of the Carl Barks and Don Rosa-type adventures the characters are known for (and, of course, a good dash of Disney Nightmare Fuel).

Lasted for a single season of 39 episodes, most of which weren't seen until the show was rebroadcast on Toon Disney. Apparently has fallen into Canon Discontinuity, as depictions of Huey, Dewey and Louie have reverted to their classic form in future Disney productions (unlike the aging of Max Goof). However, the teen depictions of the trio from this series did make a cameo in the short comic story "Whatever Happened to Uncle Scrooge?", and they were also used in House of Mouse.

The third season of DuckTales (2017) featured an homage to Quack Pack, with an episode featuring versions of the Quack Pack era triplets and Donald alongside Webby Vanderquack, Scrooge McDuck, and Mrs. Beakley (the three of whom weren't transplanted to the original show), and Della Duck (who hadn't appeared in any cartoon at the time Quack Pack aired).


Quack Pack provides examples of:

  • Abhorrent Admirer: Donald Duck ends up getting unwanted affections from an alligator named Antoinette in "Gator Aid".
  • Accidental Hero: Happens to Donald constantly. Among other things, he's defeated a rampaging dragon and halted an invasion of Earth by an alien armada. In both cases, the people involved thought him a great warrior, while in reality Donald was usually not even aware of what happened.
  • Accidental Truth: Happens in "Hero Today, Don Tomorrow", when Donald attempts to impress his nephews by claiming to know Flint Steele when they were younger. At the end of the episode, it turns out that Flint Steele actually did meet Donald when they were younger (Steele used to be a skinny child that Donald played practical jokes on, and it was Donald's pranks that motivated Steele to become the athletic celebrity that he is today).
  • Actually Pretty Funny: Daisy has this reaction in "Shrunken Heroes" to Donald's prank of filling Kent Powers' bug sprayer with syrup so that he attracts bugs instead of making them go away. She first says "You didn't" in a somewhat disapproving tone, but very quickly starts laughing hysterically at Donald's prank.
  • A.I. Is a Crapshoot: The video game Donald uploads into the navy supercomputer in "All Hands on Duck" ends up going haywire and hijacks the ships jets, ala WarGames.
  • Ain't Too Proud to Beg: At the end of "Pride Goeth Before the Fall Guy", Donald has a potentially career-making tape of his pursuit of Nigel Nightshade, but as Kent fired him earlier in the episode, Daisy and the triplets point out that Donald could happily sell the tape to the highest bidder and permanently end Kent's TV career unless he is re-hired. In a Call-Back to an Imagine Spot from earlier in the episode, Donald refuses to come back unless Kent begs him. Kent resists - for all of three seconds:
    Kent: My beautiful face, not on TV!? I gotta have that tape! [makes a grab for it, but Donald pulls it away]
    Donald: Ah-ah-ah! [chuckles] Beg me.
    Kent: Kent Powers beg? Never! [but he immediately falls to his knees in front of Donald, sobbing theatrically] Donald, please forgive me! I made a horrible mistake. Pleeeease come back to me Donny, [grabs Donald's ankles] oh please, oh please, oh please...note 
    Donald: [beaming] How sweet it is! [laughs; Iris Out]
  • And I Must Scream: This would have been Donald's fate in "Koi Story" if Gil had his way. He saw Donald was trying to catch his giant fish, and decided the appropriate response was to put him in a metal diving suit with oxygen and turn him into a new ornament for the koi's aquarium. Fortunately, the triplets saw the situation and helped free Donald, while said koi rescued him and got him to the surface.
  • Animation Bump: As the whole series were animated on hand-painted cels, the main title sequence used digital ink and paint. At least one episode, however, "Pride Goeth Before the Fall Guy", used the digital method.
  • Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking:
    • Subverted in "Return of the T-Squad". After distracting Captain Muscle (Louie) with a meteor and The Really Incredibly Fast Guy (Huey) with a tidal wave, the disaster the Zalcrovian Overlord uses to keep Brain Boy (Dewey) from saving Donald is said to be "bad clams", but it turns out to refer to an airplane pilot eating bad clams and becoming comatose mid-flight, causing the plane to crash.
    • In the same episode, upon arriving to Zalcrovia, the Zalcrovians speculate about Donald's supposed greatness, from "It is said that Donald Duck has the strength of ten spudnavs" to "It is said that he eats forty Zalcrovians for breakfast", and finally to "It is said that he lip-syncs all his concerts".
  • Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: A few, such as the Tasty Paste Monster or the time Knuckles was hit by a growth ray and went on a Not Zilla rampage.
  • Bad "Bad Acting": In "Pride Goeth Before the Fall Guy", Donald and his nephews lay the bait to expose Nigel Nightshade as a criminal mastermind by having a loud conversation about the treasure the key he has stolen supposedly unlocks. However, Donald is feeding the boys their lines with cue cards, and as he has only written a few words on each card, the resulting vocal inflections are all over the place. Nigel falls for it anyway (despite looking out of his window at the boys and seeing them looking in the same direction rather than at each other).
    Huey: Oh no! I don't be-lieve it! You'd think a smart guy like Nigel would know what that key opens.
    Louie: Oh! You mean theenote  chest back on theenote  ship?
    Dewey: Yeah... the one that holds the trea-sure of... [squints] Tral-fa-ma-dor.
    Huey: Oh well, I guess Nigel's not the greatest thief, in the world, after all.
  • Bad Is Good and Good Is Bad: Used in "The Boy Who Cried Ghost", when the triplets figure out that since monsters are hideous, they would find cute things to be scary.
  • Bald of Evil:
    • The villain of "Island of the Not-so-Nice" and Nestor Nocturno from "None Like It Hot" are both bald.
    • Moltoch is revealed to be one in his second appearance "Hit the Road, Backwater Jack" when he removes his hat to show that he is balding.
  • Barefoot Cartoon Animal: Shoes are the only clothes Huey, Dewey and Louie do not wear.
  • The Bet: In "Stunt Double or Nothing", Kent bristles at the press attention Daisy gets for her daring pieces to Donald's camera while he, out of a combination of vanity and cowardice, sticks to safe yet dull material. He bets Daisy that he can perform an episode that requires white water rafting without oars, hang-gliding into an active volcano, and getting up close and personal with a pride of lions; if he wins, Daisy and Donald will quit their jobs, while if he loses, they will get his luxury tent and everything in it. Kent wins... at first; when Donald and Daisy discover he manipulated Bobo the gorilla into being his stunt double, they join with the triplets to subject Kent to a Humiliation Conga live on camera.
  • Birthday Episode: The episode "Ducky Dearest" involves the triplets attempting to hold a surprise birthday party for their Uncle Donald, but the way they act causes Donald to mistake them for doing illegal things behind his back, so he buys self-help tapes from Dr. Chuck Homer, who turns out to be a con man manipulating overly concerned parents into giving him their dough.
  • Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Helga Needlehopper in "Take My Duck, Please!", who enjoys doing chores, but unfortunately also has a massive fondness for playing violent and destructive games.
  • Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick: When mentioning the presents the evil prince gave her in "Leader of the Quack", the dragon first lists normal items that one would give to one's significant other, but then ends the list with live sheep.
  • Butt Biter: In "Pardon My Molecules", Dewey pranks Huey by tricking him into sitting on a lizard, which bites him on his rear.
  • Calvin Ball: Gladismorkia's version of baseball involves goats, cabbage instead of baseballs, and a loads of rules that make no sense.
  • The Cameo:
    • In the episode "Pride Goeth Before the Fall Guy", the boys get a packet of famous villain cards. The villain on the box is The Great Mouse Detective's Professor Ratigan.
    • Pluto in the first episode.
    • Scuttle from The Little Mermaid (1989) makes a brief appearance in "Phoniest Home Video".
    • The Genie from Aladdin appears on television for a few seconds in "Ducks by Nature".
    • One of the lions in "Cat & Louse" is Lambert the Sheepish Lion from the eponymous short.
  • Camp Straight: Rocky "The Rocket" Throttle in "Need 4 Speed", who is extremely flamboyant, but actually flirts with Daisy and attempts to steal her from Donald.
  • Canon Discontinuity: Some would argue it was this from the start, since previous animated duck universe shows had no humans in them (and in fact, when Darkwing Duck was transported to another dimension and saw humans for the first time, he was horrified, referring to them as "hideous, beakless mutants"). It's possibly an Alternate Universe from the main line.
  • Cant Get Away With Nothing: Claw reveals that his Start of Darkness was lying once.
  • Character Exaggeration: For Huey, Dewey and Louie. Traditionally they have looked and behaved identically, but in DuckTales (1987) they still looked alike but started to have hints of individual personalities (Huey as the leader, Dewey as The Smart Guy and Louie as the tagalong). Here, these personalities have been strengthened and made clearer, for the first time making the boys clearly distinct characters.
  • Chekhov's Gag: In "Can't Take a Yolk", the age-regressed Donald turns the tables on his nephews by subjecting them to a barrage of practical jokes, including forcing Huey to sit on a whoopee cushion and making Louie sneeze with pepper, while he knocks out their bully/rival Slab with a spring-loaded boxing glove in a heart-shaped box of chocolates. In the climax, Donald has been reduced to an egg and is about to be smashed by an unaware Gwumpki, so Huey and Dewey use the spring-loaded boxing glove to knock a pepper shaker into the ceiling fan over Gwumpki, who sneezes and sends the egg flying through the air to land on a whoopee cushion deployed by Huey.
  • Chekhov's Gun:
    • Louie's instant lava in "The Germinator", which is first used as part of a gag and later is utilized to defeat Dr. Tovar's germs.
    • Happens again in "The Boy Who Cried Ghost", when the cute animal costumes the triplets got from Donald are later used to scare the monsters that are trying to scare them.
    • Louie's habit of playing the violin in "None Like It Hot" is yet another example. His brothers are annoyed by it in the beginning of the episode, but later proves to be the key to thwarting Nestor Nocturno's plan.
  • Chromatic Arrangement: As always, Huey, Dewey, and Louie wear clothes that are red, blue, and green respectively.
  • Comedic Underwear Exposure: In the episode "Unusual Suspects" Commander Buck Burpelson has his clothes blown off, leaving him only in his red and white striped boxer shorts.
  • Conjoined Twins: Huey and Dewey get molecularly conjoined in "Pardon My Molecules".
  • Continuity Nod:
    • One episode has Donald forced to serve one more day in the Navy (which he had been part of during DuckTales (1987)). Donald was lying to make his nephews proud. Here, he does the same for Daisy. Though she never gets wise. But in both episodes, Donald does save the day.
    • "Return of the T-Squad" is one for both "The Late Donald Duck" and "The Really Mighty Ducks". The Zalcrovian Overlord from "The Late Donald Duck" appears and even mentions how Donald managed to accidentally thwart his plan to invade Earth. The callback to "The Really Mighty Ducks" is that it has the triplets become their superhero personae again and Louie shows reluctance by pointing out that the last time they became superheroes, the whole universe was destroyed.
  • Cool and Unusual Punishment: At the end of "Ducky Dearest", when Donald and the boys have incapacitated crooked PSA frontman Chuck Homer at his re-education camp, Huey asks if they're going to call the police. A chuckling Donald says, "In a minute..." Cut to Homer tied up while the camp's theme song - "WE'RE HAPPY! WE'RE HAPPY! WE'RE OH-SO-VERY HAPPY!" - blares all around him. He screams to be let go, offering to refund Donald's money (which he's already re-claimed anyway), anything, as long as they stop playing the song. Donald and the boys simply bid him goodbye and drive off.
  • Cool Plane: "The Mega Death-wing of Doom!"
  • Cordon Bleugh Chef: Averted in one episode; Gwumpki invents something called "Tasty Paste", a gooey, slightly chunky paste that looks questionable (like slime), but tastes fantastic. The boys buy the recipe and the rights to sell it from Gwumpki, turning it into a massive corporate empire until an industrial accident turns the stuff into a giant kaiju. Then the boys wake up. Just when they think it was All Just a Dream, Gwumpki offers them a taste of his latest creation: Tasty Paste!
  • Crazy-Prepared: Nigel Nightshade - greatest thief in the world - who has a plan, backup plan, con, or escape for pretty much every situation he finds himself in. Case in point, after he steals a valuable artifact and the heroes bust in on him gloating at his home, he reveals what looked like the artifact was actually made of chocolate, just on the off chance someone walked in while he was holding it.
    Huey: [as he, his brothers, and Donald burst through Nigel's front door] Hold it right there, Nigel!
    Nigel: [sarcastically] Oh dear, oh dear, you have caught me red-handed with the evidence. Guess I'll have to... eat it! [he peels back the foil and begins wolfing down the key]
    Donald: What the...!?
    Nigel: [finishes off the key] It's chocolate, duck. Did you think I'd be foolish enough to have the real key lying around?
    Huey: [sheepishly] Eh... uh, kind of hoped you would, yeah.
  • Crossover Punchline: In the episode "The Real Mighty Ducks". "Quick! To Pluto!"
  • Deadpan Snarker: Pretty much all of the regular characters trade off on this, even Donald, though Daisy has it most consistently. Most episodes have at least one of the nephews (usually Louie) be more levelheaded than the rest and spend the episode being snarky about things. Often combined with Aside Glance, with the characters turning to the camera and flatly snarking about what's going on.
  • Denser and Wackier: Compared to the understated Duck Tales and Goof Troop, Quack Pack revels on being outlandish. Aside from the aliens and monsters, items such as earthquake machines, bags of condensed lava and brain-controlling braces can be found.
  • Depending on the Artist: Donald, his nephews, and Daisy alternate between having teeth and just having toothless beaks depending on the episode.
  • Destructive Savior:
    • In "Gator Aid", Daisy's effort to stop the gold depository from being raided result in it being destroyed instead. Lampshaded by Daisy herself "We saved the depository!" (pull back to show the crumbling remains of the building) "...Well... some of it."
    • The boys as the T-Squad, where with superpowers they tend to cause massive destruction for the sake of minor saves, and sometimes don't even get the job done at all. The first time, they ended up blowing up everything but - conveniently - Ludwig von Drake's laboratory. Lampshaded several times by Louie the second time they were forced to do it:
      "This is a bad idea, guys! The last time we became superheroes, the whole universe got destroyed!"
  • Distracted by the Sexy: Leads to Huey mistakenly going into an evil scientist's lab when he meant to go see the dentist.
  • Dogfaces: In "All Hands on Duck", some of the soldiers are dogs. Anthropomorphic dogs.
  • Dogs Love Fire Hydrants:
    • In "The Germinator", in order to make it possible for the shrunk Huey, Dewey, Louie and Dr. Tovar to leave Donald's body, Daisy makes Donald cry by reading him a parody of Old Yeller. The last line she reads mentions the dog going to the old fire hydrant in the sky.
    • Donald at one point disguises himself as a fire hydrant in "Nosy Neighbors". His disguise backfires when a dog starts chasing him.
  • Dressing as the Enemy: Though a strange example... while Huey, Dewey, and Louie indeed manage to get the guards' uniforms... the Big Bad does not seem to notice that the guards are now ducks.
  • Earth-Shattering Kaboom: In the first episode, but time travel fixed that.
  • Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion: Donald manages to accidentally defeat a fleet of alien invaders in "The Late Donald Duck".
  • Elvis Has Left the Planet: One of the newspaper headlines about Tasty Paste's success in "Tasty Paste" mentions a two-headed Elvis alien liking the paste.
  • Era-Specific Personality: When hit with a De-Aging Lotion, Donald reverts to his practical jokester original incarnation, complete with looking straight out of "The Wise Little Hen".
  • Even Evil Has Standards: The Colonel from "Gator Aid" has some of this. When he tells Daisy to finish off Donald (he has mistaken them both for specialists he has hired), Daisy incorrectly guesses that the Colonel has ordered her to kill him. The Colonel's response to Daisy's conclusion is to say in a disgusted tone "Ew! You really are tough!"
  • Exactly What It Says on the Tin: When the boys become the T-Squad, while Dewey and Louie term themselves "Brainboy" and "Captain Muscle", Huey's codename is "The Really Incredibly Fast Guy", which he claims is just until he thinks of something better, even though he never actually does.
  • Expy:
    • Donald's cousin Mel appears in one episode and looks, sounds, and acts like Herb Muddlefoot.
    • A minor recurring character is Gustav Goose, who has a few similarities with Donald's cousin Gus Goose, mainly in that both have similar names and are overweight.
    • The salesman from "Can't Take a Yolk" is Leslie J. Clark from the Donald short "Duck Pimples" with a different name.
    • Nelly the dragon from "Leader of the Quack" is basically The Reluctant Dragon as a woman.
  • Eye Pop: Huey invokes this in "Heavy Dental," when he sees Agent X in her human disguise.
  • Fake Ultimate Hero: The titular character of "Hit the Road, Backwater Jack" is an alleged adventurer hero who has written many books on his exploits and is idolized by Dewey. It later turns out that Backwater Jack is actually a coward who made up all his adventures, but he ends up becoming a hero for real in the end by helping the Ducks in their current escapade. Huey and Louie even show Backwater Jack their respect by keeping Dewey in the dark about his hero's true cowardly nature.
  • Falling into Jail: In "Huey Duck, P.I.", Tre Winds Troy drops a criminal and lets him fall into prison.
  • "Fantastic Voyage" Plot: "The Germinator", where Huey, Dewey, and Louie have to shrink down to microscopic size and get inside Donald to thwart the plans of Dr. Tovar to use Donald to infect everyone at Duckburg Stadium and make germs thrive indefinitely.
  • Framed for Heroism: "Leader of the Quack" shows that a nation in Medieval Stasis idolizes Donald because the last time he got there, he accidentally caused the defeat of a rampaging dragon (namely, he backed his car onto a trebuchet, and the thrown stone broke a nearby dam, putting out the fires while washing the dragon away).
  • Fountain of Youth: "Can't Take a Yolk" has the nephews buying a de-aging lotion to make an intrusive tree into a small sprout again. When Donald accidentally bathes with it, he reverts to a prankster teen (who looks like his original version in "The Wise Little Hen"), a small child, a baby, and eventually an egg.
  • Freudian Excuse: In "None Like It Hot", the villain Nestor Nocturno wants to use a rocket with a large lens to cause the sun to burn everyone on Earth because he was laughed at in a school play where he was forced to play the sun.
  • Funny Foreigner: Gwumpki, Donald's Wacky Neighbor.
  • Furry Confusion: Not only do anthropomorphic animals coexist with non-anthropomorphic animals, but non-anthropomorphic animals occasionally speak.
  • Getting Smilies Painted on Your Soul: In the third act of "Ducky Dearest", Donald, terrified that his nephews are falling into a life of crime, drags them to Camp Happy, the decoration for which can best be described as a nightmarish version of the usual idyllic Disney woodland; the animals are wooden cutouts with deranged smiles, and the park is filled with speakers blasting the tuneless chant "WE'RE HAPPY! WE'RE HAPPY! WE'RE OH-SO-VERY HAPPY!". When the boys try to make a run for it, a huge wall topped with barbed wire rises out of the ground in front of them, and as the wooden cutout animals surround them, the lyrics shift to the more sinister "THERE'S NO ESCAPE FROM HAPPY!"
  • Going Commando:
    • In "Koi Story", when an earthquake occurs after Gil presses a button on a remote to separate a large, rocky wall to show a giant fish bowl, the shaky earth causes Daisy (wearing her light pink sweater and dark pink short skirt with matching high heels), to lose her balance and bounce a few times. As she does this, she involuntarily flashes the camera and audience, revealing she's not wearing any undies underneath her skirt (let alone tights or even spandex pants). When the quake stops, she's in spread eagle position before turned around (probably modestly) and getting up while looking at the bowl. Her upskirt can be seen from behind as well during this, in another location and she's upskirted when she and Gil are on a wooden platform. These were done probably for humor, like with Minnie perpetually flashing her panties.
    • She's seen to go bottomless under her skirt again in "Transmission: Impossible". In a blink-and-miss moment, this occurs when she quickly dives behind some gold bars for safety as a soldier fires a bazooka and the shot hits Donald.
  • Gory Discretion Shot: Used in "Cat and Louse" when Huey shuts the door on Andre Demouche when his lions and tigers attack him. Huey even hangs a lampshade on the trope by telling the audience that they don't really need to see what is happening to the villain.
  • Green Around the Gills:
    • In "Can't Take a Yolk", Huey, Dewey and Louie's faces turn green after getting motion sickness from an amusement park ride.
    • In "The Really Mighty Ducks", a pilot turns green not only in the face, but his hands are seen green as well, from airsickness.
  • Green-Eyed Monster: Donald's jealousy is manifested into a tall green eyed wolf in "Snow Place to Hide".
  • Half-Dressed Cartoon Animal: Averted: The nephews actually wear PANTS in this series. Donald still remains half-dressed, though (although he has traded in his sailor suit for a Hawaiian shirt.)
  • Heel–Face Turn: The Claw is rehabilitated in his second appearance and becomes an almost saccharine level of nice guy. However...
  • Heel–Face Revolving Door: Part of his rehabilitation was mental conditioning that worked fine, except that if he sees gold, he will revert to his original vicious personality and only the sound of a bell can bring him back. Since this episode is set in a gold mine, Claw undergoes this at least a dozen times in 22 minutes.
  • Here We Go Again!:
    • "Koi Story" ends with Gil letting his fish Winston go in order for him to be happy, but then he takes in a caterpillar as his new pet, who looks just as depressed as Winston was when he was Gil's pet.
    • "Tasty Paste" ends with everything turning out to be a dream and the triplets refusing Gwumpki's offer after seeing themselves become Corrupt Corporate Executives in their shared dream and instead Daisy strikes up the deal after tasting some, implying the whole thing is going to happen again, except for real and Daisy is in charge of the company in addition to becoming obese.
  • Humiliation Conga: Kent Powers suffers a very satisfying one at the end of "Stunt Double or Nothing", where Donald, Daisy, and the triplets get back at Kent for cheating to win his bet by having him dress like a clown and be tricked into doing degrading things while being filmed live.
  • Hypocritical Heartwarming: Nobody hurts the triplets' beloved Uncle D but them. This can even make them stop from plotting something nasty of their own should they be angry at him.
  • Hypocritical Humor:
    • "Pride Goeth Before the Fall Guy" has two examples. When Kent Powers criticizes Donald for never planning ahead, he then bumps into a wall because he wasn't looking where he was going. After that, Donald claims to know a thief when he sees one and then gullibly gives his keys to a burglar who claims to be a parking valet.
    • Another example occurs in "The Late Donald Duck", when Kent Powers accuses Donald of being self-centered, when he himself is rather egotistical.
  • Hulk Speak: CLAW SMASH AND MASH!
  • Impact Silhouette:
    • Agent X leaves a hole shaped like her when she's forced through the wall by a blast of water in "Heavy Dental".
    • The gag of crashing through a wall and leaving a hole shaped like oneself happens twice in "Ducky Dearest", first with Donald (who crashes through a wall after trying to use explosives to open the locked attic door) and the second time with Huey, Dewey and Louie (who run through the wall of a van after finding out Donald has sent them to Camp Happy).
  • Instant Gravestone: Donald's Imagine Spot of things ending badly for his nephews if he should get them a car in "Need 4 Speed" ends with the triplets being blown to Kingdom Come and three tombstones reading "Huey", "Dewey" and "Louie" being all that's left of them.
  • Interspecies Romance: The boys are often shown being attracted to human girls. And of course, there's the Antoinette/Donald incident mentioned above...
  • Intrepid Reporter: Daisy is a news reporter in this series and she often ends up getting involved with the events she reports.
  • It Runs on Nonsensoleum: "The Island of the Not-So-Nice" involves a devolution ray that runs on protein being powered by mass quantities of peanut butter. It's deduced from this by Dewey that the cure to the transformation, besides a second dose from the day, must be fruit jelly, because "jelly is the natural opposite of peanut butter".
  • I Take Offense to That Last One: In "Phoniest Home Video", Daisy calls Kent Powers a bucket-headed old peabrain. Kent is only upset about being called old.
  • Karma Houdini: The guy who sold the Triplets an elixir to shrink a tree into a bud (to avoid cutting down said tree which is apparently indestructible) scams them by the fact everything that becomes younger turns back eventually, as well as grows 100 ft taller than it was before. This guy is never caught, or even seen again, though he does seem to be The Little Shop That Wasn't There Yesterday of the Travelling Salesman variety.
  • Karmic Death: Andre Demouche, the villain of the episode "Cat and Louse", abuses the lions and tigers he trains and ends up mauled to death by them off-screen.
  • Lampshade Hanging: Several, usually of the kind with characters pointing out how over the top things have gotten, though one episode they have a more direct one. The nephews have developed superpowers thanks to one of Ludwig Von Drake's inventions. Things get severely out of hand when Donald becomes a supervillain, and he ends up destroying EVERYTHING IN THE ENTIRE UNIVERSE, with one exception: Von Drake's lab. Naturally, he's invented a way to fix everything. Huey is quick to point out how incredibly convenient this is.
  • Latex Perfection: The villain of the episode "Pardon My Molecules" was a scientist who suffered a molecular accident that resulted in him looking like an abstract painting. Before his secret is revealed, he covers this up by wearing a mask to look like a normal man.
  • Lions and Tigers and Humans... Oh, My!: Humans and anthropomorphic animals coexist in this cartoon.
  • Look Behind You: In "Heavy Dental", Huey successfully distracts Agent X by telling her that there is a mug of motor oil nearby. Agent X then complains that it's the third time this week that she's been deceived by that kind of trick.
  • Lustful Melt: Following the aforementioned Eye Pop, Huey melts into a puddle of steaming water after getting a good look at Agent X.
  • Marilyn Maneuver:
    • Daisy in "Koi Story". After Gil dashes so fast he's a blur and carries her to where the giant fish bowl is, and places her down, his motion causes Daisy's skirt to lift somewhat and she does the one-leg-lift pose.
    • In "Can't Take a Yolk", this occurs with the Mergancer twins, Alexandra and Cassandra. When the Whirl-N-Hurl ride they're in is sped up, both their hair and skirts rise. One of them has another when she leaps for joy as the teenage Donald admits he was the one who caused the ride to go faster.
  • Mattress-Tag Gag: While fearing the repercussions of not following Dr. Homer's parental advice in "Ducky Dearest", Donald imagines being at a trial with Dr. Homer as a judge. Dr. Homer makes a rapid list of bad deeds Donald's nephews have done, one of the crimes mentioned being removing tags from mattresses.
  • Medieval Stasis: An isolated tiny European country that Donald was made king over after he accidentally defeated a rampaging dragon without him even noticing is still stuck in the middle ages. It is aware of the outside world, it just doesn't seem to be interested in catching up.
  • "Metaphor" Is My Middle Name: "Island of the Not-So-Nice" has Huey, Dewey and Louie say that responsible is their middle name in response to Daisy expressing her concern over trusting them with her pet iguana Knuckles.
  • Midair Collision: Happens near the end of the episode where Donald Duck is forced to go back into the navy and accidentally tampers with the computer controlling the airplanes on the aircraft carrier.
  • Minion with an F in Evil: Cooden in "None Like It Hot", who spends most of his time reading a Mantis Boy comic and is easily deceived by Huey, Dewey, and Louie.
  • Monster Mash: "The Boy Who Cried Ghost" features a vampire, a werewolf, a Frankenstein's Monster Valkyrie, and a ghost.
  • Monster of the Week: Nearly every episode has a one-shot antagonist. The only villains to appear more than once were the Claw and Moltoch. Dr. Letreck also appears twice, but only in "Island of the Not-So-Nice" he's the main villain.
  • Ms. Fanservice: This has occurred with several female characters like Daisy in certain episodes.
    • The girl scout in "Pardon My Molecules".
    • The cheerleaders in "Heavy Dental".
    • Alexandra and Cassandra in "Can't Take a Yolk".
  • Murphy's Bed: Used on the Green Eyed Monster of "Snow Place to Hyde".
  • Mustache Vandalism: In "Ready, Aim...Duck!", Donald taunts the Claw while he's in his cell by drawing glasses and facial hair on the Claw's wanted poster.
  • My God, What Have I Done?: Gil becomes quite ashamed in "Koi Story" when Daisy points out to him that his pet fish Winston is not really happy. Plus, he nearly drowned her boyfriend, which was also not cool.
  • Mythology Gag:
  • Negative Continuity: Sometimes, within the same episode: "Return of the T-Squad" has Captain Muscle accidentally shattering the moon, which proceeds to cut Earth in half, but things are just fine by the next scene.
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: While masquerading as a specialist hired to help raid not-Fort-Knox, Daisy butts in as the villain is explaining his plan, guessing the rest of it. Turns out his plan was something else entirely, that by his own realization "never woulda worked!", and he decides to go with her plan instead. Cue Face Palm and mumbling to herself, "Smooth move, Daisy."
  • No Celebrities Were Harmed: The villain of "Nosy Neighbors" is essentially Elvis Presley with a mustache.
  • No Challenge Equals No Satisfaction: The episode "Heavy Dental" has Huey accidentally get a mind control device surgically attached to his head, which he subsequently uses to win any contest, order anyone around, and eventually take over the world. However, he becomes unsatisfied once he is king of the world, knowing that no one truly respects him and he's being honored only because of the device on his head.
  • Non-Mammal Mammaries: Daisy Duck has a noticeable bust in this series.
  • Noodle Incident: In "Heavy Dental", Dewey and Louie comment that Huey is in another of his world domination phases. Later, after Huey pulls a Look Behind You on her, the robotic Agent X complains about it being the third time this week she fell for that kind of trick.
  • The Not-So-Harmless Punishment: Aliens threaten Donald with sixty lashes with a "wet noodle." He laughs it off and boldly tells them to make it seventy. Turns out the "noodle" is a giant, living, carnivorous worm.
  • No Waterproofing Inthe Future: Agent X has her steel robotic body rusting quickly after being splashed with water from an out-of-control pipe.
  • Not Zilla: "Island of the Not-So-Nice" has Knuckles turning into a giant lizard, who proceeds to have a Godzilla-like rampage.
  • Old-Timey Cinema Countdown: The intro has such a countdown show up on Donald Duck's projector before he's interrupted by his nephews.
  • Paper-Thin Disguise: In "Phoniest Home Videos", the producer of the show tricks Donald into thinking that his nephews caused the oven he was using to bake a cake explode by showing him a photo of what is obviously the producer's assistant dressed as Huey. Donald falls for it.
  • Portrait Painting Peephole: Used by the vampire and his ghost nephew in "The Boy Who Cried Ghost".
  • Power Trio: The triplets, naturally. They hit several types: though exactly which roles each brother plays depends on the episode, in general Huey is The Hero, Dewey is The Lancer / The Smart Guy and Louie is The Heart, but there's also:
    • Freudian Trio: Dewey as typically the impulsive one (the Id, atypically for a character who is also The Smart Guy), Louie generally being the reasonable - if softhearted - one (Superego) and Huey usually as the one who can be both (or neither) - all depending on the episode.
    • Fighter, Mage, Thief: When they turned into superheroes - Louie became a Flying Brick, Dewey became a telekinetic with an enormous brain and Huey essentially became The Flash.
    • Speed, Smarts and Strength: When Huey, Dewey, and Louie get superpowers in the first episode they become The Really Incredibly Fast Guy (Super-Speed), Brain-Boy (super intelligence and psychic powers), and Captain Muscle (Super-Strength) respectively. Invoked in their theme song The T-Squad has 'muscles, brains, and speed to spare'
  • The Pig-Pen: Dr. Tovar in "The Germinator", who loves germs and cares about their survival to the point that he detests cleanliness.
  • Pluto Is Expendable: "The Really Mighty Ducks" actually had Donald becoming planet-sized and smashing Pluto to pieces because that's where his nephews (all pretending to be superheroes) are hiding. The episode also had a brief cameo of the "other" Pluto.
  • Preemptive "Shut Up": In "Need 4 Speed", Donald hollers "No!" to every argument his nephews give against his insistence to not buy them a car. While Huey and Dewey get to say some words before Donald interrupts them, Louie doesn't utter a word and only raises a finger and opens his beak before Donald yells "No!" at him.
  • Primal Fear: "Koi Story" has Donald trapped at the bottom of Winston's new fishbowl, in a metal suit where he can't move, and with a limited supply of oxygen. He's understandably terrified and screaming though no one can hear him through the suit when he's underwater.
  • Pun-Based Title: Most episodes. The very first is The "Really Mighty Ducks".
  • Punny Name: Beef Jerky from "Ducks by Nature".
  • Red Right Hand: The aptly named Claw has a metallic right hand with sharp claws on it. For some odd reason, he's had it since he was a baby, and his kindly grandmother has one as well.
  • Reset Button: "The Really Mighty Ducks" ends with the T-Squad forced to basically use this to stop 'the Duck of Doom' by working with Ludwig von Drake to use his machine to basically turn back time to the moment before they got their powers.
  • Robosexual: Louie is implied to be one in "Heavy Dental" when he refers to the robotic Agent X as "foxy".
  • Shaking the Rump: In "Hit the Road, Backwater Jack", Donald taunts a beetle that can't sting him because of his protective suit by shaking his behind at him. This ends up backfiring when the pants of the suit start sagging and the beetle retaliates by flying inside Donald's suit to sting him.
  • Shaped Like Itself: A lot of the Zalcrovian Overlord's dialogue is this, saying things like "wrath-like wrath" and "punishing punishment" (Dewey observes that he should get a thesaurus to expand his dialogue).
  • Shout-Out:
    • When Donald is de-aged to his teenage years, his appearance is based on his design from his original appearance in The Wise Little Hen.
    • In "Long Arm Of The Claw", the scene where Claw is raging on top of a cliff only to revert to his nice persona when he hears a church bell is based on the Night On Bald Mountain segment from Fantasia.
    • Huey, Dewey, and Louie's escape montage in "Phoniest Home Videos" is a nod to The Great Escape.
    • "Koi Story" is a play on the title of Toy Story, which had come out the previous year; to reinforce the connection, the title card uses the same font as the film.
    • The reveal of Huey's braces in "Heavy Dental" is preceded by him doing a blatant parody of The Phantom of the Opera, even playing an Ominous Pipe Organ.
  • Show Within a Show: What in the World, the news-show that Daisy, Donald and Kent all work for.
  • Small Name, Big Ego: Kent Powers. The foppish blowhard anchorman whose arrogance, selfishness and vanity is much a subject of comic fodder.
  • Something We Forgot: Done intentionally in "Leader of the Quack". The duck cast managed to escape some hostile country, then one of the nephews asks if they had forgotten something. Realizing Kent Powers had accidentally been left behind, they all smirk and feign ignorance. Cut to Kent getting pounded into the ground by a knight with a mace.
  • Spinning Paper: In "Tasty Paste", spinning newspapers with headlines describing the success of Tasty Paste are shown.
  • Superhero Episode: "The Really Mighty Ducks" and its Sequel Episode "Return of the T-Squad" both have the triplets becoming superheroes.
  • Supreme Chef: Gwumpki, despite running a greasy spoon, is an excellent chef of some renown in his homeland.
  • Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Captain Dreadnought from "All Hands on Duck" is one for Admiral Grimitz from DuckTales (1987). Both are Donald's superior in the Navy, both are a Dogface, and both are constantly annoyed by Donald's antics.
  • Tastes Better Than It Looks: The Tasty Paste from the episode of the same name, which looks like green slop, but is so delicious that Huey, Dewey and Louie are able to use it to become billionaires.
  • A Taste of Their Own Medicine: Much of "Can't Take a Yolk" sees the triplets being on the receiving end of the kind of pranks and shenanigans they typically dish out. Bonus points for it being Donald (made more youthful by an elixir) that's doing it to them.
  • Temporary Bulk Change: In "Tasty Paste," Daisy gains a large amount of weight after getting addicted to eating the eponymous product. Because it was All Just a Dream, she's back to normal by the end.
  • That Poor Cat: In a garbage chute.
  • This Is Unforgivable!: After the ducks found out Kent abused Bobo, the gorilla, by making him do all his stunts, they're completely dead-set on humiliating Kent.
  • Through a Face Full of Fur: Sometimes with Donald, he gets red-faced with anger, such as in "Can't Take a Yolk", after he finds out that Huey, Dewey, and Louie filled his bathtub with gelatin, which gets stuck to his body, as a prank, and they laugh at him.
  • Totally Radical: The whole show.
  • Totem Pole Trench: In "Stunt Double or Nothing", after the triplets accidentally erase the tape of Kent (seemingly) performing daredevil stunts after he has threatened to fire Donald and Daisy if the triplets touch his stuff again, Huey decides they can re-create the footage with a giant Kent Powers costume topped with a bust of the genuine article; Huey balances on Dewey's shoulders and operates the costume's arms with cranks, Dewey balances on Louie's shoulders, and Louie acts as the costume's feet.
  • Tickle Torture: Kent in one episode is trying to show Daisy how to do a "genuine" laugh for an interview but her attempts are less than stellar so he tickles her ribs from behind, eliciting a real laugh. Turns out she's quite ticklish.
  • Title Card: Unusually for a Disney series during this time, the episodes actually had title cards with a short ditty playing over them. Most Disney series at the time just superimposed the episode title over the action.
  • Toothy Bird: Most blatantly in "Heavy Dental", where Huey goes to the dentist, only to end up in a mad scientist who puts him with mind-controlling Braces of Orthodontic Overkill.
  • Unreliable Narrator: Donald's excuse for being late in "The Late Donald Duck", where he claims to be a selfless hero, but the flashbacks show him only helping people out for personal gain and being a coward in the face of danger.
  • Vapor Wear: Daisy in a couple of episodes. See Going Commando above.
  • Villain Song:
    • The Mad Scientist in "Island of the Not-so-Nice" has a brief one where he sings about how he plans to de-evolve the world so that he can easily conquer it.
    • Nestor Nocturno from "None Like It Hot" has an even briefer one where he joyfully describes what will happen when his rocket makes it to the sun.
  • Visual Pun: "Pride Goeth Before the Fall Guy" has Donald Duck's head get bigger when he happily signs an autograph for Nigel Nightshade.
  • Went to the Great X in the Sky: Used in "The Germinator" when Daisy makes Donald cry by reading him a parody of Old Yeller. The last line Daisy reads mentions the dog going to the old fire hydrant in the sky.
  • Wild Take: The two scientists', the street crowd's, and the girl scout's reaction to Dr. Crocker's abstract art-styled head and face transformation in "Pardon My Molecules".

 
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Mind-Controlled Cheerleaders

Never give a prepubescent teenage boy mind-control powers, or THIS could happen.

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