New DuckTales Animated Series

Let me see, I’ll expand upon the issue.

On one hand, to be positive, when the show does its own thing, is great. The episode of "Who is Gizmoduck?" is an example. Neat, interesting, funny episode, with a hilarious parody of Ironman, interesting social commentary and something that can only happen in the Ducktales universe. It feels original and tailor-made for the setting.

Now let’s see the episode "The Other Bin of Scrooge McDuck!"; someone finds a mystical creature in the forest and it turns out is different of what people think it is while the deciphering of a treasure hunt is happening to find a Mc Guffin. Come on, that’s almost a script that they didn’t use for Gravity Falls. Or how about the playing of a magical game that was thought to be just a regular game in "The Missing Links of Moorshire!"? Is the same plot that “Dungeons, Dungeons, and More Dungeons” oh yeah with a big difference, it has evil ponies and not evil unicorns.

And I think I already know who Mrs. Beackly remembers me: Uncle Ford; Bad Ass Grandpa with a secret past.

Obviously they are not going to do the exact same character, they are going to add some minor differences, but the role and sometimes the behavior ends feeling the same. However as I said, the show does have potential when stops recycling scripts and ideas and does its own thing. Some episodes are indeed fresh and original and can only connect to this particular setting.

Edited by Luppercus on Nov 6th 2018 at 8:52:03 AM

If anything, Scrooge is significantly more like Ford than Beakley is (or more precisely, Ford is like Scrooge: the character predates Gravity Falls by around eighty years), but doesn't fill the same narrative role Ford does in the series' actual plot (he doesn't fill the same role Stan does either, and is not much like him in any case). Beakley, meanwhile, has very little in common with Ford.

Come to think of it, that's actually a big sticking point. It's definitely possible to compare Donald and Scrooge with Stan and Ford, but the things that make those characters similar have been characteristic of Donald and Scrooge for decades. I wouldn't be surprised if Gravity Falls was inspired by the Duck comics and/or Ducktales itself, at least in part.

Not to sell it short: this show does show a hell of a lot of Gravity Falls influencein turn, but in tone, humor and interactions and such. However, most of the things you're trying to bring up as supposedly identical examples are just superficial at best. Moorshire and the D&D episode, for example, share very little similarities beyond being centered around the characters playing a game that becomes magical (not even the same kind of game, or becoming magical in the same way).

Edited by KnownUnknown on Nov 6th 2018 at 6:21:21 AM

Greetings to all, I'm new to this topic.

First regarding the similarities between DT and GF well, the above troper is not the first in noticing it nor is alone, is already a hot topic in the Internet: Exhibit A, B, C, D, E, F and G.

I personally do feel a strong resemblance with Falls, especially in the humor and plots, but I disagree with the above troper in the matching of the characters which I agree is kind of far-fetched, except for Webby=Mabel (yes they are almost the same character and equally annoying but that's my opinion) and again, other people noticed, I quote: "Reboot Webby is wildly different. I do have to pause for a minute and acknowledge that, as a lot of folks have pointed out, she does share similarities to Mabel from Gravity Falls. Grappling hooks, boundless enthusiasm, that sort of thing. That said, she also has her own characteristics as well: social anxiety, proclivity toward violence, fanatical obsession with the Mc Duck family. In the end, I think she stands on her own, but the comparisons to Gravity Falls are unavoidable, especially since some of the GF staff came to work on the new Ducktales." Drew Hayes Novels review.

That said, I had a different complaint. I do like the series, but I do feel the commonplace of the monsters and supernatural elements subtract a lot from the adventure and mystery setting.

Let me explain: the original Ducktales was based mostly on the Indiana Jones treasure hunt adventures, which at the same time was based on the early 30s movies of the same genre. So, the appearance of monsters and supernatural elements was not expected, if they appeared they were a surprise which the characters had to handle, and the show could even got creepy sometimes. Scrooge was even skeptical sometimes and he even says in one of my favorite episodes "The Ducky Horror Picture Show" that monsters like Dracula did not existed (just to be proven wrong soon enough).

The current show has the supernatural occurrence to be so mundane, so commonplace, that they take away part of the "magic"? sort of speak, the feeling of aw. They already live in a haunted mansion with a ghost Buttler, a moving zombie hand and a headless horse... I mean, that's more like the Addams Family than Indiana Jones. For me, it takes away a lot of what made interesting the first. Is like watching the X Files but with Mulder working alongside a vampire and Skinner being a zombie… somehow the "paranormal investigation" won't be the same isn't?

Even GF made a balance on that, yes they had weird stuffs happening all the time but somehow manage to make each episode's creature of the weak somehow notable even in such place.

That way episodes like the one with the Sky Pirates and with the Beagle Boys are more interesting now, because at least they represent something unexpected to see.

Or is just me?

I for one am incredibly glad that the show no longer heavily involves spelunking through the ruins of real-life exoticised cultures, or thinly veiled parodies thereof. The cultures that received this kind of treatment tend to either be still alive in some form or decimated by colonialism. Your typical Indiana Jones plot was shit in the 30s, is shit now, and deserves to die.

If my options are that nonsense, or the supernatural being treated as commonplace and the main source of plot, I know which one I'm picking.

Edited by Wackd on Nov 6th 2018 at 2:17:19 PM

Still I also place the examples of X Files and Gravity Falls as paranormal shows that do it better and doesn't have the evil colonialist stain behind. Cherry picking?

I mean I'm genuinely not sure how you do a supernatural mystery show like Gravity Falls or X-Files where no one's expecting it to be supernatural.

I think I made my point clear enough already, if you don't get it well... C'est la vie

Edited by Dgon on Nov 7th 2018 at 3:45:20 AM

So, another preview on the next episode. Donald plays the accordion, who knew?

Yeah, I figured that's what the plot would be the moment I saw the fanny pack. Donald thinks he's lost what made him cool when he became surrogate dad, and doesn't think he can measure up to his two much more visibly cool friends any more.

Leading (hopefully) to the same kind of heartwarming punchline as in the comics: Jose and Panchito still think Donald is the coolest thing ever, even though he doesn't think much of himself.

On the topic of Duck Tales being similar to gravity falls. I can't actually agree,because I enjoy the characters DuckTales. There was so much in gravity falls I couldn't get behind, even though I could enjoy the odd episode and Bill is a great villain concept. I feel like the fact that I can be so fond of Duck Tales and so mixed with Gravity falls means something towards the shows being pretty different.

Was anyone reminded of Coco when Panchito strums that guitar and leaves fly past him?

I havn't realized it was already a hot topic on the Internet, thought it was just me.

Not noticing until now you mention it, but is truth.

I disagree with the above quote. Fantastical things being commonplace do not subtract from adventure or mystery settings for me.

https://www.disneyabcpress.com/disneychannel/shows/ducktales/episodes/last-christmas/ "In a nod to “Mickey’s Christmas Carol,” Scrooge avoids the pressures of the holidays by traveling back in time with a trio of fun-loving ghosts to crash history’s greatest Christmas parties instead. Meanwhile, time-lost Dewey teams up with young Donald Duck to find his mom on Christmas." Hortens or della?

Both, probably.

I need to know what this show's conception of "young Donald Duck" is like. The reveal that he went to college and started a garage band is blowing my mind a bit. Even as the first season trained me on the idea that he's a person with a life, wrapping my head around the idea that he's had distinct phases of maturity is hard!

I wish the Ghosts were Jiminy, Willie and Pete, as a super nod to Mickey’s Christmas Carol, but it looks like it’s going to rock regardless.

So we’re back to the “only Dewey gets to have important moments regarding their mother” bit, huh? I thought we were past their tendency to do that at the end of last season.

Edited by KnownUnknown on Nov 8th 2018 at 9:05:34 AM

I wouldn't be surprised if the crew tried to get Jiminy and Pete, only to find that that they're embargoed. Willie was right out unless they made him a dogface or something. If nothing else, Past and Present are clearly taking visual cues from Mickey's Christmas Carol—Past isn't usually an insect, for instance, and Present is wearing Willie's exact coat.

Edited by Wackd on Nov 8th 2018 at 12:12:15 PM

A lot of series already did something like that.

Past being a cricket but not Jiminy reeks of upset storymen complaining that they couldn't get the rights to use Jiminy Cricket.

Before seeing that clip, I thought the snowman with the beak was the Ghost of Christmas Past instead!

At first I thought it was a bee, but now that I get a good look at him, it’s a cricket

Edited by megaeliz on Nov 8th 2018 at 9:39:20 AM

Interesting enough Mickey's Christmas Carol is going to turn 35 years old this year.

Wut? I was a one year old when it premiere?

It makes one wonder if it was a full length feature, instead of a short. I think it would feature more parts of the book.

I was zero years old!

... brethren!