DuckTales’ series finale brings the family back together for one last epic adventure
TV Reviews DuckTales
I’ve mentioned this before, but I just can’t, in a million years, understand the “no mine cart chases” mantra that ostensibly has driven DuckTales’ story engine for the past three seasons. It makes sense in the broadest sense–generally, do what you can to avoid overused cliches in typical animated adventure shows–but it always struck me as inherently limiting and, well, strange. It’s an approach that certainly brought some amazing episodes and moments to this reboot: the first season, in particular, had some incredibly exciting, unexpected third acts. But it also hindered the show in a lot of smaller, shakier ways: third acts depending on not a single character noticing a entire town of people having no feet is absurd, even if the episode is otherwise great. (Mine cart chases aren’t even that common, and I’ve watched a ton of cartoons. It also feels like a weird slight against the original show’s best animated sequence, but that’s a discussion for another day.) DuckTales’ inclination to be about adventuring over just engaging in it has been its Achilles’ heel, often distracting it from being the show it could be.
This is not to say that “The Last Adventure!” is bad or anything. In fact, it’s great! It’s beautiful and slick and twisty-turny and emotional in all the ways this iteration of the show has been successful at. In some ways, it’s actually too much, but it’s never quite overwhelming to the point that it’s grating. It’s wonderfully paced (save for perhaps the middle, where it cross-cuts between intense moments of action and revelations in an awkward, “stay tuned for the reveal!” kind of way, but uses a fun page-turning swipe transition throughout) and impressively animated. The fight scenes themselves are worth it alone, and I would argue are worthy of being compared to some of the best fight sequences in animation ever. It also, like showrunners Frank Angones and Matt Youngberg say, weaves in the many threads, characters, and plot points that have been set up across all three seasons. If you are deeply engaged in those details, in the great question of What Is This All Building Towards, then you will be satisfied.
Yet how many people were really asking that question? DuckTales is not really mystery/puzzle box show, and Bradford’s ultimate plan feels like it never quite congeals. It all centers around a multi-year, multi-layered plan to rid the world of chaos and insanity and adventure, and Bradford believes the catalyst of all of it is the McDuck (extended, loose) family, and specifically, Scrooge himself. And to get at him, it all begins with one Webbigail Vanderquack. It makes sense, in a way. Webby has always been the character through which we learn all about this entire family, the girl who never quite fit in but learned to be herself and embrace the sheer scope of her family connections and personalities. In celebrating her birthday, the entire Duck clan (not all of them, as a few of the characters present seem to disappear) stage a surprise spy craft infiltration mission through Funso’s Fun Zone, much to the delight of Webby–a great gag in and of itself. The mission is to take down F.O.W.L. once and for all, but instead, they find a bigger shocker: two young girls floating in test tubes.
If you know your Duck comics and Ducks history, you’d probably recognize them, recognize the issue in their discover, and then put two and two together (I’ll get into the details of this in a bit). But for now, the entire Duck clan returns home with said twins and debate what’s going on and what to do next. This is the first part where things get shaky, as they bring in Huey to deliberate (it was his plan to infiltrate F.O.W.L. after all) but they leave out the other kids. Why? They actively played a part in the initial infiltration, and I get why they may not be engaged in the minutiae of planning, but the implication here is that they’re on a need-to-know basis for safety/protection reasons. It doesn’t make sense to do this so suddenly, and I think the show recognizes this as a bad idea, but it never quite follows through in acknowledging it. (Later in the episode, Louie and the kids easily convince Scrooge to come along on the mission, which, yeah, the kids have proven themselves constantly in death-defying ways. The “sanctity and safety of the kids” thing at this point feels like narrative feet dragging.)
It’s also strange because “The Last Adventure” is forced to be both a Webby story and a Huey story. It’s a Huey story in that the past two seasons ended with a singular focus on a triplet, so it follows that it would (try to) provide Huey with his own spotlight. It’s also a Webby story in that May and June are clones of Webby, and Mrs. Beakley past actions and lies deeply affect Webby’s behavior and understanding of herself. (Between this episode and “Escape From The ImpossiBin!”, in which Beakley almost kills Webby just to prove a point, she’s coming off as a pretty terrible character). Huey is tempted by Bradford, who lies and pretends to be simply cataloguing the artifacts that Isabella Finch was searching for, so Huey can goad Webby to acquiesce for his needs. That all falls apart, and Huey’s story kind of get lost, but it does lead to a nice collective moment with the triplets bonding. Love to see those three together, even if Huey never gets the precise focus he needs. Webby goes through the ringer though. She bonds with May and June only to be betrayed by them, then (in a really great twist) pretends to be one to infiltrate the halls of nu-F.O.W.L./Library of Alexandria to find out what the heck is going on. She finds out Mrs. Beakley was lying about her parents and upbringing. She discovers she’s a clone and therefor a daughter to Scrooge herself. It’s a lot, and a slightly rushed ending doesn’t neglect how great Webby, and by extension, Kate Micucci, manages so many emotional plates.
The full play-by-play of the story is too much to recap. Basically Bradford wants to wipe out the McDuck family (and apparently all the characters within the McDuck orbit) from existence, and planned several years of deviousness to make it happen. He forces Scrooge to sign the Papyrus of Binding to be a regular old person instead of his adventurous self, after a chaotic and crazy set of events. Bradford doesn’t consider himself a villain but a businessman, despite growing into multiple forms of demonic villainy to make this plan work. In the end, he loses the Sword of Swanstantine and reverts back to his regular self, and also fails to make the Binding stick because while the terms forced Scrooge to stop adventures and be a family man, it failed to acknowledge that family is adventure. (Even metaphorically, that’s a stretch, and Bradford even says as much, but it still somehow works.) The episode is one hundred percent committed to the events, being more sincere about the connective power of adventuring and figuring things out as a family–the familial sentiment is uttered so many times that even The Fast and The Furious franchise would tell them to take it down a notch. It’s a better sentiment than being heavily analytical and self-aware about it though, making the episode land right in the sweet spot of the best of series finales.
So, does new DuckTales work as a whole? Yeah, of course. It’s fun, funny, smart, emotional, exciting, well-animated, and filled with sharp, well-considered characters (give or take a Mark Beaks, who notably doesn’t show up anywhere in this episode). Will it be as memorable or significant as the original show? Harder to say. I think this show is a good example of how a “characters over plot” mentality can falter in the long run, and how great characters can’t quite prop up complicated, disparaging storytelling. Characters will be memorialized here, but I can’t say for sure any of the episodes as a whole will be. But issues aside, DuckTales was a fun adventure while it lasted, a grab-bag of self-aware, nostalgic fan service across a wide swarth of comics, movies, cartoons, and shorts. It never quite came together for any length of time, and it solved some great mysteries, but will it rewrite history? I Dew not think so.
Stray observations
- Was Don Karnage revealed to be in F.O.W.L. before? I don’t remember that. In fact, while I think the series finale is a great core send-off for the show, I also think it expects more from its audience than they’re probably willing to give. I forgot basically what all the artifacts do, for example, but they re-explain some of them (The Sword of Swanstantine) better than others (The Stone of What Was).
- There’s a subplot with Della and Donald, in which Donald wants to vacation with Daisy away from the family and all the adventures. The implication is that it’s an extended/permanent vacation. It’s a bit undercooked, especially since Daisy completely disappears from the story, but Donald and Della sell it so well. The two, even in the end, are by far the best characters of this show, and deserve spin-off animated shorts after this. (I was a bit confused why Donald wanted to bring May and June, specifically, with him on his and Daisy’s vacation in the end though. It’s not like they connected in any way.)
- Speaking of which, I don’t know how I feel about the “Webby is actually April” concept, the third triplet of the female set. I think they get away with it because the April, May, and June characters are probably unfamiliar to US audiences, but it also feels a bit like a cop-out. I think it also gets smothered up by the OTHER reveal that Webby is a clone/daughter of Scrooge himself. It’s a lot, and also there’s no time for either Scrooge, Webby, or Mrs. Beakley to stew on this.
- While re-doing Steelbeak as a meathead brawler type who failed upward in the F.O.W.L. ranks works, it’s weird to see him as that good of a fighter. He makes himself smarter during the fight but he doesn’t fight smarter, he just becomes more of a brawler. It seems odd.
- Also, I found it weird that this fight involved Launchpad so heavily. It sort of feels like the episode wanted to provide Launchpad with a Moment, to perhaps fix his lack of uses in the show as a whole? Launchpad was used just enough through out the show though, and I never thought he needed a significant amount of time to come into his own or whatever.
- Phantom Blot’s weapon shatters and Gene, the genie from “Quack Pack!” escapes, and apparently hauls tail. He never shows up again, and it’s unclear how or what he was doing in that weapon in the first place.
- Bradford is ridiculed by the formerly possessed Magica, Glomgold, and Ma Beagle as a (non)villain, although he came closest to stopping Scrooge more than those three ever did. Magica turns him into a crow to keep in revenge for capturing them. (I’m not sure what those cages were made out of that NONE of the various powerful characters could break out of them, but the episode didn’t want you to think about that.)
- I sort of feel like there was a missed opportunity to really mix it up with the various villains and pit them all against Scrooge. I was surprised that Magica, Glomgold, and Ma just… left at the end. Scrooge and the family were at their most vulnerable! Episode was over though.
- (One more thing–the previous episode, “The Life And Crimes Of Scrooge McDuck!”, was frustrating in a lot of ways, particularly during a week of how bad TV is at employing justice, forgiveness, consequences, and accountability.)
- And that’s it for DuckTales! Thank you all for following and reading my recaps and drop-ins! I enjoyed the show for what it was but I don’t think it ever really won me over except for the “Della on the Moon” arc. But it’s a visually exciting show that had a clear point of view, and even if I wasn’t always on board with that point of view, it’s worth respecting. There’s a ton of stuff I missed, so please feel free to bring them up in the comments!
38 Comments
I wasn’t really ever “This show is SOO GREAT!” but it was good for what it was. The last half hour of this might be the best episode of the show and the whole 60-something minutes had the best animation of the entire series.Glad to see Ludwig Von Drake get some time to shine; he’s my favorite character. That was an interesting way to incorporate Daisy’s nieces into the show (by not making them her nieces? Or if she and Donald get married they’re technically her nieces?) Their inclusion in that recent Three Caballeros show is one of the few things I liked about it.
<>They showed Gene being genie-napped by F.O.W.L. at the end of a previous episode (with the other artifacts being taken).
I remember that. I just wasn’t sure why Gene was inside Blot’s gun (he wasn’t inside it when he went up again Magica), nor was it clear where Gene went when the gun broke.
I’m surprised Ducktails is ending already after only three seasons. They spent a lot of time setting up all tht FOWL stuff, then burned though it in 4 or 5 episodes.
I get the feeling the writers planned it to be longer but Disney gave them a heads up that this was the last season and they needed to wrap it up. The showrunner unceremoniously announced the showing ending on Twitter and sort of called Disney out for not letting fans know that this was the last season.
They had a good idea from the start of the season that it would be the end, and so the whole thing was geared toward being a satisfying conclusion.
Disney cancelled all of their current XD shows (this, Big Hero 6: the Series, Marvel’s Spider-Man, and Player Select) at the same time. DuckTales was farther along in production, so they got more episodes to work with.
Finale was pretty good. This was a really solid show, a perfect family show in the sense that adults can get just as much out of the show as kids (the intended audience). The creators, crew and cast should be proud of what they accomplished because this shouldn’t be ended as soon as it did. Disney sort of screwed them over by constantly yanking the schedule around between Disney proper and Disney XD, various time and changes,etc. If they didn’t want to air it on cable, they should have moved the show to Disney+
Bradford trying to manipulate Huey later on in the tv movie would’ve worked much better if it was done as a serialized thread earlier in the season; this season was the promised Huey season, but would you get that impression in hindsight? Compared to Dewey, Louie and Webby the writers never really seem to know what to do with him. Having Bradford as Spider-Man sort of father figure-turned-villain would’ve probably worked wonders.The same thing happens with Webby; Mrs. Beakly hiding a huge secret from Webby comes up in episode four and doesn’t come back in any form for 18 goddamn episodes. And making her a clone of Scrooge isn’t as horrible as Rise of Skywalker, but it still a terrible trend of celebrating found family, but then pulling the rug under us and stating that biological family is the most important. If they still wanted the clone twist, they at least could’ve just made her Beakly’s clone. Also, why the fuck is her name Vanderquack? Does Beakly even have a child or was that more lies?
Do we know if Beakley actually has children? Because I just assumed it was all a lie.
She sure lied a hell of a lot. I’m starting to think she really took a level in jerkass this season, especially with that asshole condescending attitude towards Huey after the FOWL raid. It was almost as bad as Scrooge back in season one and in hindsight, makes Beakley pretty hypocritical and bordering on incompetent when this hefty of information likely would’ve come in handy sooner.
I dont get why everyone keeps calling this the ‘Huey’ Season. People are looking WAY to much into the other seasons. Huey had his episode focus already we didnt need a big season ending one.
Easily the highlight for me was the Gargoyles reference. Hopefully this is a sign that Disney’s ready to dust that particular IP back off after doing it so dirty the first time around.I got a real kick out of David Tennant once again having a female clone.
I was giggling at that reference. I just picture Keith David in the studio saying “Damn it, why did I get sucked back into this again?!”
He actually jumped at the chance to do it, saying “Anything to keep Goliath alive.”
Oh I don’t doubt it, but when Manny said “I swore I’d never do this again.” I pictured Keith David saying that line. I’m glad he did it!
I knew I forgot to mention something – that Gargoyles reference, and bringing in Keith David to voice, was the comic highlight of the finale for sure. I wasn’t a fan of Manny at all but that made it all worth it.
“Hi! I’m Manny! We’ve met!”
I love how they hammered it home with the theme song kicking in. I wonder if an actual crossover episode was ever discussed.
I wasn’t a fan at all of the Webby reveal given that it felt really hap handed. They kept making a huge deal about the found family trope in the past like with Lena. Webby was already like family to Scrooge and the triplets and she didn’t need a blood relationship to prove that she belonged with them. Webby now being Scrooge’s clone/daughter kinda undermines that idea(along with most of the ships). And it doesn’t feel right to drop the biggest earth shattering plot twist of the show during the last 15 minutes with no proper resolution. The finale seriously needed an epilogue.
I don’t have a problem with the “found family” narrative, because we did see it developed with so many other characters. But, yes, making Webby a clone was a plot twist that falls apart if you think about it too much. Clone is not the same as daughter, but if that’s the way they wanted to treat it, May and June are also… what? Scrooge’s daughters? Webby’s sister-daughters (ick)? Either way, it made little sense that Donald and Daisy would effectively adopt them at the end.
So I guess Bradford’s (not a) villain origin is that he’s the Anti-Huey/Dewey where he was traumatized by the adventures his thrill seeking relative took him on instead of being excited and wanting more. His reasoning might have hit home better if he pointed out he was just a kid and had no idea if he was going to survive all of those encounters with monsters.I did love the subtle implication that Bradford was responsible for Duckworth’s death. It was during the slideshow Bradford made for Scrooge showing that Christmas party with Scrooge and Duckworth together before going to the next slide of Scrooge mourning Duckworth’s death and Bradford saying he tried to “isolate” Scrooge.
“… many threads, characters, and plot points that have been set up across all three seasons. If you are deeply engaged in those details, in the great question of What Is This All Building Towards, then you will be satisfied.”Man I really like this show, but it would be a lot easier to stay engaged with that kind of stuff if it didn’t take multiple months-long breaks between batches of episodes. Hopefully Disney+ helps fix whatever issue the Disney TV output has had with scheduling in recent years.
The show took a while to find its footing, but I really found myself enjoying this last season. As others have said, the scheduling was awful. Especially with a season-long arc like this, it’s so easy to lose or forget details when there are no new episodes for months. New characters were getting thrown in right until the very end. Even this finale felt so overstuffed, they probably could have given it more running time. (And, let’s be honest, I wanted considerably more Glomgold).As a reboot, they did such a great job with the casting, blending old & new plot elements (Mark Beaks was great), and incorporating just the right amount of zaniness and surrealism. They also get huge props from me for actually giving the boys a mother and making her a meaningful, cool character. I expect to be re-watching a lot of these episodes on D+ in the future.
This was Endgame-level A LOT-ness.
That was great. Even with an extra 20 minutes I don’t know if it quite lands the scale of the Moon invasion or the dread and despair of Magica’s revenge, but it was a solid season finale and an excellent series finale as a whole. Agreed some of the clone stuff could’ve been seeded a bit better throughout the season, and while I thought the expanded core cast was well utilized, the walk-on roles felt a little jarring (would’ve been interesting if Magica, the Beagles and Glomgold formed a third party together instead of just being goons). But again, small quibbles for what has been a quality series overall. Really hope this iteration of the characters continues on throughout Disney’s various projects.
Mark Beaks was conspicuously absent, to the point where the finale starts with callbacks to “McMystery at McDuck McManor” and ends with the “old foes” criticizing Bradford’s villainy in the same way that they did to Beaks in that episode.Speaking of their criticism of Bradford here, I don’t know why but it felt real good to hear Magica diss him like that. Maybe I just really love Magica.
Darkwing’s obliviousness regarding GizmoDuck will never not be funny to me.
We knew that Don Carnage was working for FOWL when he collected the piece of the Wuzzle artifact for them. But did we know that it could make clones, as opposed to monstrous animal combinations?
“A veritable troop of goofs . . . ” in case you were worried they had forgotten about Goof Troop.
“I was surprised that Magica, Glomgold, and Ma just… left at the end.” I wasn’t. That’s a trope. The good guys and non-FOWL bad guys had a common enemy in FOWL and after defeating said common enemy went their separate ways.I was more surprised that Gene just . . . left. I mean, I would too if I were him, but still.
I did not see that Gargoyles allusion coming, so I was extremely pleasantly surprised.
Respect where it’s due: Bradford knew that even his eraser-from-reality wouldn’t stop Scrooge.(He thought a contract would, though. Hmm. . . )
My only issue was I couldn’t quite figure out what the theme of the episode was supposed to be. If only there was a word they could keep repeating that would remind us…Yea, I’m a lot more mixed on this episode, which I found to be messy, and tried too hard to service too many characters it didn’t need to. And as someone who felt this New DuckTales already focused on Webby too much as it is (to the detriment of other more popular mainstays), centering the entire series finale around her- including making her even MORE related to Scrooge than any one else in the family- is such a Grade A “Fuck you” to viewers like me, that I almost come back around to being impressed by the moxy of it. Anyway, my favorite moment was when whichever clone that was drank the potion and started bouncing 🎶here and there and everywhere 🎶GUMMI BEARS!
the familial sentiment is uttered so many times that even The Fast and The Furious franchise would tell them to take it down a notch.Ha!
The concept of “Vat-grown clone of Scrooge McDuck” feels really weird“Webby is a vat-grown clone of Scrooge McDuck” feels EXTREMELY weird“Webby is part of THREE vat grown clones of Scrooge McDuck which are ACTUALLY April May and June” makes my brain freeze up. Like, I am perplexed that this is a sentence I am able to write. This sounds like fanservice collapsing in on itself. Like, I’m looking at my old stacks of Duck comics thinking “Webby is part of THREE vat grown clones of Scrooge McDuck which are ACTUALLY April May and June” and I can barely comprehend it.
To anyone who doesn’t watch checking into this review idly, this is just such an absolutely fantastic, beautiful, hilarious perfect sitcom/adventure series, and I highly recommend it’s the next show you watch.
I’m gonna miss this rare reboot that lived up to the
original. You know it’s a great series when its worst episodes are
highly
enjoyable on rewatch. I’m glad it ended on a high note, but it also left
me wanting more. I guess Disney could always commission additional
audio-only seasons as they cost effectively cut out the animation
middleman.
https://mattthecatania.wordpress.com/2021/05/22/ducktales-is-done-boo-hoo/