Redmess
"So many father figures"? Donald and Scrooge, sure (though Donald was barely in the original). Launchpad? On the old show to some extent (usually in focus episodes), but definitely not on this show. Duckworth didn't really interact with the boys in the old show, beyond mostly generic butler/kid shenanigans, and even less so on this show. Gyro? Well, aside from maybe one or two ODT episodes, but otherwise, no. So who are those "too many", then? It sounds like a bit of a made up excuse to focus more on females, which seems a bit unnecesary.
It's great that they have more freedom, but working so far ahead means they can't really play into audience reaction and feedback very quickly.
Optimism is a duty.
If we're going by the state of mind they were hypothetically in way back when the series was in the planning stages, they could have also included Darkwing as a potential father figure - even if they didn't ultimately end up using him in that way when the series was actually plotted out. Given how the team are really vocal about being Darkwing enthusiasts, I'd almost be certain of it.
Edited by KnownUnknown on Jan 2nd 2019 at 3:14:21 AM
"The difference between reality and fiction is that fiction has to make sense." - Tom Clancy, paraphrasing Mark Twain.
How a Ducktales episode is made:
I can at least focus on the writing. We are the rare animated show that breaks out an entire episode together as a writers room, and it’s tremendously collaborative. A writer (or pair of writers) will be assigned/pitch a story on a Tuesday, then all of us together will spend the week figuring out every beat of the story, new characters, jokes, etc. This is why we give every writer who worked on the story break a “Story By” credit. We all had a hand in creating new characters/voices, stories, gags, etc. The voice of the show truly is the voice of the room, much like it would be on a live action comedy show.
Along the way, we’re in constant communication to get approval/input from Matt (EVERYTHING on the whole show gets approved by Matt, and he is an INCREDIBLE showrunner, always eager to hear you out and always putting in more work himself than he would ever expect anyone else to do), along with the episode’s director, and our Art Director. We often develop new beats/scenes, streamlining ideas, etc. Then we put a loose outline of the whole thing on notecards on a bulletin board, which the writer then uses (along with the pages and pages of room notes taken down over the course of the week) to write an outline for approval from Matt and the studio. I then collaborate with the writer across multiple drafts of the script to get it in fighting shape for approval to try to record the actors before storyboards start so the board artists have tracks to board to.
Another thing unique to our process (partially born out of Matt and my collaboration) is that we work hard not to silo the writing and story departments. On a lot of scripted shows, there’s not much communication between the writers and the artists. On Duck Tales, the directors are involved from the earliest days of a story, the writers work hard to learn the strengths of each of the board artists and try to write to them, and we have constant check-ins with the Art Director and Director throughout the writing. And even once the final draft is approved, the writers are available to the directors and board artists to make any changes they may want to make.
(SIDE NOTE: Our board artists and directors ALWAYS plus our scripts to the nines, making them funnier, more nuanced, more action-packed, and more heartfelt. EVERY ANIMATION WRITER SHOULD MEET AND KNOW THEIR DIRECTORS/BOARD ARTISTS).
Ultimately, it sounds like a lot of work up front, but we all put in the extra effort up top to build a solid foundation so that everyone who touches an episode, from the board artists to the actors to the designers to the directors to the animators to the editors can hopefully have fun plussing and adding to a story instead of wasting a lot of time fixing something we didn’t figure out. Through a lot of constant communication and collaboration, we end up with a show where everyone who worked on a given episode can feel a sense of ownership for their contributions.
Redmess
A live action comedy, huh? That explains a lot. 
It feels like he's implying Della is going to be back pretty soon, but they might just be talking about it in the capacity of flashbacks or the like.
Redmess
I assume he means they will pick up the Della plot soon.
Optimism is a duty.
I have no idea how I managed to stumble across this, but apparently Donald Duck did an interview with Carl Barks for his 60th birthday.
Edited by megaeliz on Jan 23rd 2019 at 5:39:37 AM
Saw this on Frank's Blog, and thought it was worth putting here.
That sounds hilarious. Too bad it was Vetoed by the higher ups.
Edited by megaeliz on Feb 6th 2019 at 10:41:42 AM
Redmess
Mickey as an ersatz George Lucas would be brilliant.
Optimism is a duty.
lol yeah a Mickey short did a clothing swap where Mickey had Donald's outfit and discovered he got the worst luck in the world! :) I would love it if Mickey appeared in this show.
I think the most interesting thing is that Frank and/or the crew are interested in bringing in Mickey, but haven't found the right pitch for him yet.
"The difference between reality and fiction is that fiction has to make sense." - Tom Clancy, paraphrasing Mark Twain.
Redmess
I think something like movie director would be a fun role. Has that ever been done before?
As long as it isn't House Dad Mickey, I'm satisfied.
If they were looking at Rudish shorts' Mickey for inspiration, then they probably want him as an irepressively cheerful and optimistic but very naive goofball who things always work out for: the opposite of Donald.
And yeah, I can see how Storkules came out of that version of Mickey.
"The difference between reality and fiction is that fiction has to make sense." - Tom Clancy, paraphrasing Mark Twain.
Redmess
How about detective Mickey? That was always a good role for him, and provided for some of his best adventure stories.
Optimism is a duty.
I would pay far more money than strictly wise for a Detective Mickey show.
Hell, Disney's been trying for ages to cook up a good Mickey feature film, but I think simply adapting one of his detective comics into a film would be perfect.
"The difference between reality and fiction is that fiction has to make sense." - Tom Clancy, paraphrasing Mark Twain.
.... so .... Detective Pikachu.
Redmess
What about it?
Optimism is a duty.
Disasturbator
Wrong topic I imagine
New theme music also a box
I assume they meant Detective Pikachu in relation to Detective Mickey.
Both being Mice Detectives. Yup. Can totally see media trying to turn it into Detective Mickey following trends.
Every accusation by the GOP is ALWAYS a confession.
Redmess
But Detective Pikachu is not an official version of the character, right?
Optimism is a duty.
Its a different pikachu yes.
Every accusation by the GOP is ALWAYS a confession.
Does that actually matter?
Snow Ghost
Yes! Apparently.
YO. Rules of the Internet 45. Rule 45 is a lie.
From the kind of things he says on the tumblr, it looks like Disney them are pretty wide stretch of freedom and resources, which is refreshing.
Speaking of the tumblr, here's another interesting, relatively recent post of his about Della and her inclusion in the series:
There was a document floating around the studio years ago that had a section labeled “The Girl Problem with Duck Tales,” essentially talking about how there weren’t enough strong female characters in the property, talking about changing certain character’s genders to compensate, introducing new ones, etc. Our attitude was that there was TREMENDOUS potential for the female characters we already had based on the story we were working on. “Whatever happened to Della Duck?” was the question hiding in plain sight, and seemed like a great family mystery with emotional juice to carry us through the start of our series.
Also, frankly, these kids have SO many father figures. We wanted to introduce a Disney Mom that was an actual, three-dimensional character, who could be awesome and flawed and funny and three-dimensional. She’s a daring adventurer, but she’s also Donald Duck’s twin, with all the frustrations that come with that. Who gets stuck with all the bad luck? Donald and Della Duck.
We are SO excited for you all to get to know her. I expect I’ll have a lot more to say about Della once a few more episodes have aired.
On a funny note, this isn't the last time he implies that Della also has bad luck like Donald, but just gets it in a different way.
Which does makes sense: Donald goes through painful accidents and embarrassing failures hourly, but raised a trio of good boys and has a fairly happy, comfortable life so it balances out. Della lived a charmed life of adventuring without evidently the constant pratfalls Donald suffers from, but ended up stuck on the moon for a decade, which I guess balances out too.
Edited by KnownUnknown on Jan 2nd 2019 at 2:09:56 AM
"The difference between reality and fiction is that fiction has to make sense." - Tom Clancy, paraphrasing Mark Twain.