DuckTales wants to say something about the struggle of making connections, but it feels like a con
TV Reviews Recap
At the very end of “Happy Birthday, Doofus Drake!”, Scrooge says to a distraught Louie, “When you spend all your time looking for an angle, it’s hard to see what’s in front of your face.” It’s an appropriate summary for an episode that seems to spend a lot of time looking for comedic, forced angles within its plot–in which Goldie teams up with Louie to con their way into Doofus’ birthday party and make off with all the gold-and-jewels-filled gift bags–but never bothers to ask or explore the question that’s staring them right in the face: why does Louie feel he needs to find a connection with Goldie when his actual mother is finally back in their lives? This is particularly baffling since the B-story involves Della and Huey forging a (sort of) connection within a videogame.
There’s a very specific disconnect that’s palpable between Louie and Della; it’s almost as if the green triplet doesn’t believe she’s real and can’t accept she’s really back. That he would reach out to Goldie instead of his mom for mentorship feels like something this episode should have, at the very least, noted. But it doesn’t. Instead, the episode jumps right into pairing off Goldie and Louie, and sending them on their way, which, on paper, is a fine idea. Two characters known for cons and manipulations working together/against each other is rich with potential. Placing them in the midst of Doofus’s myopic, sociopathic orbit, however, is a misstep. OG Doofus was far from a great character, sure, but this version of Doofus is too much, an absolute broken child that both Louie and Goldie should have recognized was too deranged to even bother to try and fleece.
“Happy Birthday, Doofus Drake!” is structured primarily to ring laughs at the sheer strangeness of Doofus and his behavior, which, personally, I could take or leave. The triplets teaming up to take him down in his first appearance at least allowed the three nephews to enjoyably work together; here, it’s an assortment of mediocre villains (Mark Beaks, Glomgold, the Beagle Boys for a hot second) also trying to run off with the riches. Goldie and Louie manipulate Glomgold and Beaks easily, so there’s no pleasure in watching those cons unfold. The jokes are fine, but they never escalate to wring out maximum comic potential. It’s the same kind of jokes we got from Doofus before. There’s a disturbing moment where Beaks’ fake robot son gains sentience and self-destructs in front of everyone, which then gets co-opted into a murderous robot when Doofus starts to figure things out. Goldie and Louie almost screw each other over, but they do save each other, and while Goldie ultimately ends up with all the gift bags, despite Louie’s pain, there’s hints of a certain layer of respect between the two that lingers. Goldie is the kind of person that breaks your heart but not your spirit, which Scrooge is all but used to. Seeing Louie lose that connection is sad, but Goldie just doesn’t have the history with Louie that she does with Scrooge, and, as mentioned before, what about Della?
Well, back at the mansion, Della and Huey forge their own connection when playing Legends of LegendQuest: Dereznaroth, an Elders Scrolls-like game where all Huey wants to do is farm (valid, honestly). Della wants Huey to be more adventurous within the game, but the sweet part is that she doesn’t force him to. Seeing all her cool adventures outside the dome inspires the red triplet to venture forth, and while that leaves his farm vulnerable and eventually destroyed, seeing his mom in danger compels him to level up all his experience points. He becomes superpowered (cue the cringy “his power level is over 9000!” bit) and saves his mom, but he goes overboard, leaving Della desperately dragging his son away from the game itself. It’s a cute, low-stakes story, providing a few subtle degrees of sweetness to elevate it: the game was something Della played herself, and the encouragement of trying something outside of one’s comfort zone in the safety of a game allows the episode to dabble in its adventurous spirit without pushing Huey too far.
“Happy Birthday, Doofus Drake!” wants to explore the unique, off-kilter ways connections can be forged, whether through the “don’t get too close” nature of grifting, the digital space of videogames, or even the baffling implementation of a robot brother for someone like Doofus. The fact that these connections don’t work out is part of the point: connections are hard to solidify, to pin down, to make work the way we want. Still, the episode struggles to explore something deeper about these points. For Doofus, sure, there’s nothing there, and it’s good to see him lose half is wealth, but maybe there is something worthwhile in giving him a mechanical sibling/playmate? Huey and Della is certainly a relationship worth looking at, but is gaming the platform through which these two can forge something deeper? And, primarily, the episode seeks to a place Louie and Goldie on the same level of mutual understanding, but it’s difficult to tell if they’re condemning or condoning this (although I don’t think this really matters). But the bigger question is why is Louie choosing Goldie as opposed to his actual mom that has been missing all his life?
Stray observation
- I didn’t find many of the gags all that funny, which also contributed to the low grade. DuckTales can be hilarious when it wants to be, but the humor here didn’t really click. I think that Doofus is too far gone as a character, so a lot of the jokes are based on how specifically weird he is, which doesn’t have a lot of legs. But if you found this episode funny, I’m genuinely glad you did!
- Louie and Scrooge wonder why Goldie would bother to save him. Scrooge thinks its because she indeed managed to forge some kind of connection with the triplet (which is indicated by her placing Louie’s photo in her wallet). I personally think it’s because she didn’t want to see a child bashed to death with a baseball bat.
- Even though using the game to push Huey into more adventurous things is very wholesome, it’s not as if Huey is completely adverse to adventure in general. He usually gets too caught up in rules/details/preparation. That doesn’t mean he’s afraid of danger or taking risks. DuckTales is still struggling with this character. (I did kind of like the line-less arts tyle for the game.)
29 Comments
And this episode’s 90s Disney In-Joke: Mark and Boyd have a self at Lester’s Possum Park from A Goofy Movie.
I love the references that get thrown in here and there in this show. It reminds me of Futurama in that respect. And cringy? Della’s eyepiece/half visor breaking while Huey is powering up is fantastic.
Seriously the DBZ homage was great.
Glomgold went full Arnold Wesker/Arthur Penn.
Goldie has to be unquestionably my most hated character in the entire show. I can’t even think of anything redeeming about her. She just shows up and steals something and is willing to manipulate anyone to get what she wants including her partners. She’s not like other antihero thief characters where they usually have some moral compass or line they won’t cross, it’s always about her and nobody else.
I think this episode gives her line she won’t cross as letting Louie get seriously injured / potentially killed. So, she’s got a tiny bit of basic human (read: duck) decency, maybe?
Irene Adler outsmarting you and getting away with the loot is the entire point
I don’t care that Louie wants to hang with Goldie more than with Della. It makes total sense. Louie wants to learn the fine art of grifting / getting rich quickly from a pro like Goldie. Della knows about adventuring and flying planes but not about grifting.
I found the Glomgold gags to be the most enjoyable ones from the party. This version of Doofus does nothing for me, and Mark Beaks wasn’t exactly bringing his A game, either.
This episode suffered from an awesome pre-intro scene wherein Scrooge sensed a disturbance in The Force; Webby, Lena, and Violet fought a bear; Mrs. Beakley and Dewey faced a tempest in a teapot; Scrooge got in a gag about Della and Huey’s nerd love of the Dereznaroth game; and Goldie (and through Goldie, Louie) surprised Scrooge as the disturbance in The Force. I mean, could the episode have gotten back to those heights? Probably not.
So at first I didn’t even remember who Doofus Drake was, and then when I did I was none too pleased that he was getting another spotlight episode. For whatever reason, however, the “Isn’t this weird/uncomfortable?”-based humor worked for me this time, particularly Glomgold and his “son”.Huey and Della’s storyline was cute, too, and helped by only stating the moral quickly at the beginning. Last we see of them, Della is still trying to get a power-mad Huey under control.
I too had similar experience on Doofus Drake. A “Who?” and “Oh no not him” followed being pleasantly surprised.
A few thoughts on this episode:
I agree with the grade, though I thought that this episode actually knew what to do with Glomgold, and that at least was something. His absurd little storyline was great, especially with him losing his grip and falling down the hole was as a result of his commitment to a bit after said bit had been exposed. THAT was funny, clever and a bit unexpected.Also, by having this back to back with yesterdays episode shows just how much of Donald is in Huey, which I don’t think was unintentional. That said, I still think they are building to something this season, and I think some of these episodes may improve once we get there.
I loved the entire interaction between Glomgold and his ‘son’. Commitment is right! I didn’t catch the puppet’s name though – shark something?
Sharkbomb.
I don’t quite understand your argument that Louie should have been learning from his mother rather than Goldie. He’s trying to get rich quick. That’s not something Della would help him with. I just don’t see the connection at all between him wanting to learn from Goldie and Della being back.
A few people made this comment!If there was a more business-like approach to the mentorship, something akin to Dirty Rotten Scoundrels or maybe Maverick, I think it would have played better. But the episode strongly implies that Louie was, at some level, pinning for something deeper. I think the episode tried to play it both ways, but it couldn’t capture the appeal of a series of ridiculous cons, nor quite capture the sense of a burgeoning relationship of sorts between Goldie and Louie.
I think the way they played it, as some combination of business and personal, makes sense when you consider how Louie has been shown to have the most anxiety of the triplets about Della’s return. It’s a little hard to tell, since we haven’t really gotten any extended interaction between the two of them yet, but I would venture to guess a lot of it stems from the fact that he doesn’t see himself in his mom the way his brothers do. Goldie, on the other hand, he sees as something of a kindred spirit, with the added bonus of there being a lot less at stake emotionally if their relationship doesn’t work out. He’s essentially hedging his bets, or maybe a subconscious dry-run in having a mom, before tackling the real thing.
Fully agreed. Some are excusing it away as Louie projecting his true feelings about his mom, but without the episode acknowledging that (and let’s face it, when the show wants to tell us something, they are usually forthright about it), it’s just fan conjecture. The show jumped into an idea without fully working out the math.
I personally loved the “it’s over 9000″ joke. Totally caught me off guard.
The visor even broke.
“cue the cringy “his power level is over 9000!” bit”?
How could that be cringy? Super Sayan Huey!
louie has trouble connecting with della and is reaching out to goldie!! they beat you over the head with it!!!! louie is the least accepting of his mom’s return and the episodes after the reunion (including this one!!!) have shown us that della isnt protective in the way the boys obviously need, and it worries them!!!! louie is emphasized to have issues with his place in his family which is why he reaches put to goldie, who he relates to more!!! im sorry to yell but jesus, watch the show.
Its an ok episode, but Glomgold’s stuff was the best part to me. Also, Boyd is the most adorable character on the show now, I wanna hug him so much.
I sort of wish that Louie and Goldie’s plot would take a turn where he accidentally calls Goldie mom, since he’s not really close to Della and its probably messing up his mind a bit. It also would’ve gained another sad level to Goldie leaving him in the end since she’s unable and unwilling to commit to personal connections and for Louie, he views his uncle’s rival as his ideal mother who then abandons him.
I think we might need a bit more setup for Louie to call Goldie mom.
So that robot boy just straight up hacked into the banking system, stole half of Doofuses money, and everyone accepted that it was going to be that way now. That was exceptionally easy, and maybe a slightly problematic thing to have exist in the future.
Della, what does the Scouter say about his power level?
To beat a dead horse, I think you might be reading too much in to Louie choosing Goldie.Also I really liked the DBZ reference.The Tues. episode I found to be more fun, but this one more heartwarming.
“But I’ve never hunted the most dangerous pinata: Man.”…Louie’s a duck. They’re all animals. This line makes no sense.
A couple of neat twists and turns, but overall, I think I hated this episode?
I just couldn’t get over the premise of Louie running off with Goldie when his mom is right there. They’re trying to sell us on the ‘con artist kindred spirit’ thing, but 1) Louie isn’t that type of con artist. 2) whatever we think of Louie’s obsession with money, it was a reflection of Scrooge’s ambition- not greed for greed’s sake. In fact, the show has already framed Louie’s traits as things that have come from both Scrooge AND his mother Della, and are seen as admirable, so 3) to make it fit, the show basically re-contextualizes his personality, 4) essentially making him a shittier person, 5) because when before, Louie has been more business-oriented in his schemes, now-regardless of how we feel about Doofus- we’re talking about straight up stealing! This is not an episode were I was “rooting” for Louie to succeed.But it wasn’t just that. The subplot was awful too. Not only do they not do anything fun with the videogame premise, (seriously, not a single creative idea here) but Huey being afraid to take risks makes ZERO sense on a show where he routinely goes on dangerous adventures. I get that they want to show his OCD is holding him back, but it runs counter to everything the series has already displayed. He’s PROUD of being a Junior Woodchuck because his book knowledge gives him the confidence he needs to venture out. Nothing about this episode worked for me, except the ending.