New DuckTales Animated Series

Not to mention that the interesting plot threads relating to new Beakley are sparsely explored.

Like her spy background. (One episode.)

Or Webby's parents.

Or being a good (grand)parental figure to Lena. (Violet's cool, but Lena moving in with her — offscreen, no less — goes against what was built up between Lena and Beakley in the Terrafirmians episode.)

Yeah, I think Beakley adopting Lena would have made a lot more sense narratively. That was where the characters were moving to before.

I think at least one bit of the problem is that Beakley took Duckworth's role in OG Ducktales as being Scrooge's most loyal employee/friend who stuck with him over the decades (especially since the reboot incorporated Don Rosa's Scrooge becoming alienated/cut-off from his family although with a different background to it) who happens to be British with associated snark.

Thing is, they also established her as an Hypercompetent Sidekick who's an apparently retired secret agent combined with keeping her as Webby's grandmother. So they ended up introducing implied or confirmed tangents to Beakley's character (and by extension, Webby) that so far they haven't explored all they could. We may hear more about Beakley's past next season I admit.

Edited by Maljen on Oct 17th 2019 at 11:12:29 AM

"Who's Rhys Darby and why would he be subversive?"

He's a (funny IMO) comedian from New Zealand who has a fairly high pitched voice who's enjoyed some voice roles as of late, most notably as Coran on Voltron.

Casting him for traditionally menacing villains like Bulba or Merlock would be like casting Weird Al Yankovic as Darkseid, which they did on Teen Titans Go.

I'm totally with you on the "stop lampooning classic menacing villains" boat.

If Merlin or Bulba were to suck like that, bringing them into the show would so not be worth it.

x2 Could be interesting to see someone who is known for comedy play a villain. I've known a few works where it turns out comedians can be very effective villains. Pan's Labyrinth and Insomnia come to mind.

Can you imagine Mister Mom as Batman? Tim Burton's gonna make the 60s TV show look like a courtroom drama.

John Goodman was also surprisingly scary in Film/21CloverfieldLane. And he was pretty comedy-oriented before.

Apparently "Weird Al" Yankovic also voiced a serial killer in Batman vs. Robin? I suppose the lesson here is that "Comedians can make pretty decent villains."

"I've kind of stopped wanting them to bring in classic villains, since all they've done so far is lampoon or deconstruct them."

I haven't watched much of the original DuckTales, but were the original villains really so much better that the new versions are totally disrespectful to them? Sure, the new Glomgold is Evil Is Hammy Up To Eleven, and constantly switching between Harmless Villain and Not-So-Harmless Villain, but he's a lot of fun to watch. And Magica in Season 1 is scary and funny at the same time. And as far as I recall, the Beagle Boys are bumbling villains in almost any incarnation. I agree though that Don Karnage in this show is kind of bland compared to the bombastic TaleSpin version.

Eh, I still prefer Glomgold to be on even footing with Scrooge. I'm not saying he can't be fun, but I'd like to be able to consistently take him seriously. Even with the whole subplot dedicated to him this season, he still gained no legitimate credibility as a villain.

And no, Magica got her tail handed to her when push came to shove in Season 1. She was a letdown as a threatening Knight of Cerebus villain, and she became worse during Season 2.

Is that based on how they were portrayed in the 1987 show (in which case I understand where the "disrespect towards the original villains" sentiment comes from), or simply based on your personal preference for more competent villains?

It's definitely more based on preference. Magica and Glomgold weren't Knights of Cerebus at all. The Beagle Boys were also always bumbling villains with the rare moment of competence.

The only villain that could be truly "ruined" for now, is Taurus Bulba, who is a big Knight of Cerebus in the original Darkwing show. But given what they did with Negaduck, it's likely they'll change a few details about him, but keep him mostly the same otherwise. That or F.O.W.L.

The Beagle Boys have had massive villain decay even before the Original Ducktales, though. With Barks and Rosa, they were truly dangerous and always a big threat. But with other comics, they became more and more of a joke.

I have started to call them the Weak Boys a long time ago because of this (the Dutch translation is Zware Jongens, "heavy guys" as in heavy criminals, hence the pun of being "slap" or weak).

Still have my doubts they'll handle Negaduck like the OG Darkwing Duck did. I'm not sure he'll be portrayed as the crime lord/dictator like he was in the old show.

One thing that has me curious, in the art they showed of Bulba, he was in a lab coat. I don't remember the original being scientifically savvy, hence the whole reason he had to get the Ramrod arming codes instead of resetting them or hacking around them.

Also I'd fully support casting Rhys Darby as Bushroot. That's a much better fit.

The show hasn't really done any deconstructing of the villains at all, unless you use the internet definition that isn't close to what actual deconstruction is. The show doesn't really take the tropes used by the villains apart to examine them and better understand their relevance and meaning in real life.

Negaduck was never portrayed as a dictator. The dictator was Darkwarrior Duck, who wasn't Negaduck but rather an alternate version of Darkwing that became a Knight Templar. And Negaduck wasn't a crimelord either, he occasionally employed the Fearsome Five as his lackeys but otherwise worked alone.

Edited by VengefulBale on Oct 18th 2019 at 11:12:26 AM

Negaduck can be terrifying in the original Darkwing Duck but there were plenty of moments where he was just as much of a Butt-Monkey as his Good Counterpart. Remember how he fell off a building and Darkwing gets to play a game of anvils on the head and subverting the landing into a garbage truck gag?

A comedian can play a villain, as long as they remember that they are supposed to be a villain, and not just comic relief. John de Lancie is an excellent example of a comedic actor playing dramatic villains like Q and Discord, who can be genuinely threatening yet still be funny.

Negaduck was constantly getting humiliated, yeah. Some episodes of the original series - mostly the one on one episoes between him and Darkwing - even played him up as the same "too clever by half" character that Darkwing had, making him the universe's chew toy in a similar way to his counterpart.

I guess it's just a matter of animation adapting how the Beagle Boys are in recent decades. Almost every cartoon portrays them as heavily comical lackeys. Though again, it's what non-comic readers (ie most fans of the classic characters) are familiar with.

Yes he was. See the episode introducing where he came from (Negaverse).

Yes he was. He's shown commanding minions in both the Negaverse episode and in the one where Drake tries to improve his image. He's also shown commanding all of the other villains in the super-prison arc in the Boom! comic.

Also, no one denied Negaduck didn't have his own points of silliness. As I already pointed out some time ago, he never had the point where he became like Reboot Glomgold or the Beagles where he's a nuisance or some weird playmate/frenemy that the hero deals with as a hobby/game instead of a serious threat to himself/his family.

Edited by Maljen on Oct 18th 2019 at 10:10:49 AM

Negaduck was technically a "dictator", but we never saw the Negaverse outside of that two parter and Negaduck was basically treated as a Posiverse citizen.

Honestly, Negaduck'll probably be the same, just without the fearsome four to berate.

As long as they properly balance him being menacing with him suddenly having a bus dropped on him, it'll be fine.

Edited by Blueace on Oct 18th 2019 at 2:45:00 PM