It takes a literal monster for Louie to learn humility on shrugworthy, penultimate DuckTales
TV Reviews Recap
Let’s just go ahead and state the obvious: like Louie’s whole approach to acquiring an enormous amount of wealth, there is just something weirdly lazy in utilizing a monstrous behemoth to goad Louie into accepting the fact that he not ready or worthy in being the richest duck in the world. It’s just a bit insincere that he ends up having to accept his limitations at the risk of being killed. It’s a fine, strong lesson, and it’s great to see Louie finally work hard at a thing (shining shoes), but that he learns it at the risk of life and limb takes away any really personal insight or re-evaluation of what he wanted most in the world. Also, does this mean that Louie will no longer hone his gifts for manipulations, which, morals aside, does have its benefits, especially in the cutthroat, adventurous world these ducks live in? And I guess we are done with any more explorations of the tricky, walking-on-eggshells conflict between Della and Louie?
It isn’t that this episode is bad, per se. But of all the narrative and thematic options that were available to portray the folly and dilemma that would arise from the concept of “greedy, self-centered child with sudden access to wealth and resources realizes he’s over his head, can’t handle responsibilities, and needs to humble himself,” this is best the show could offer? And why is it that no one else seems at least somewhat concerned about this? Not even Della? It’s admittedly just a baffling direction for this narrative to take, this late in the season. “The Richest Duck In The World!” itself is entertaining on its own, with Louie cutting the magical defenses budget so he can fund the Ottoman Empire reunion, but inadvertently freeing this Bombie monster, a cursed being that chases the richest person in the world unless they learn humility. But it’s hard not to wonder about all those other potential ideas as this episode unfolds.
Louie, Launchpad, and Owlson head to Falcon Island upon hearing about an emergency, only to be chased around by the creature for good couple of minutes. It’s odd that the bulk of this episode takes place there, since it feels like Bombie would still be an isolated issue had they not bothered to go. (Bombie hitches a ride on the plan to get most of the way back, which is how they get Bombie back to the city, otherwise it would be wandering the ocean floor for years.) The episode does perks up during two parts: once, when Owlson absolutely gives up on working for an assortment of child-brained, scheming, reckless characters, striking off to do her own thing. It’s a funny bit of self-awareness (and relatable, to be honest). The second is the third act, in which both Louie and Scrooge end up battling the beast, only to both learn that they need to humble themselves. It’s an endearing moment but it lacks weight, since the episode, nor the season really, put much emphasis on either Scrooge’s haughtiness or any juxtaposition between him and Louie. The episode, in its broadest, most hokiest terms, just says rich people need to be responsible and modest. Well, yeah.
The B-story isn’t much either, but it at least offers a bit of insight into Della’s time on the moon, and a bit of a teaser into tomorrow’s season finale. Della tries to get touch with Penumbra and the Moonlanders, recruiting Dewey, Huey, and Webby to help. They do all this on Dewey’s fake show, which is cute and has a couple of solid gags (the raccoon runner in particular), but this mostly done so Della can somewhat work through the abject loneliness she felt on the moon. Early in the episode she mentions how she looked in the mirror for three straight weeks for some sort of companionship, to the point she actually can’t see her reflection as just a reflection anymore. This does explains why she may have taken to Penumbra so quickly–the poor woman was desperate for a friend, for someone to talk to. It’s a small but rewarding moment, something to pull from the midst of everything else.
The Louie side of things, however, really just kills all the momentum this season was building up. It feels so arbitrary, so random, and it makes the final episode less exciting to look forward to. There’s a chance that “Moonvasion!” could tie it all together, that it could pull some kind of trick and produce a stellar, shocking episode that blows us out of the water. But I’m struggling to see how, really, especially since the Moonlander stuff isn’t all that interesting either. Here’s to seeing if this season can pull a bang out of this whimper.
Stray observations
- The Bombie is a monster from the old Scrooge McDuck comics, which has a bit of a dated, sordid flavor. I do like he’s more of an old school zombie, which were not the undead come alive, but more wandering, possessed humans under the control of some warlock or magical being.
- I originally liked Owlson as a competent foil to Glomgold, and to be clear, I still like her a lot, but there’s a chance she may be too sobering, self-aware of a character if she just ends up being rich and… normal.
- How was the other richest person in the world surviving the Bombie before Scrooge became the richest? The answer is, because cartoons, but it shouldn’t that have been addressed somehow? I feel like a large amount of this episode was… ill-thought-out.
- This episode never really laid bare any comparisons between Louie and Doofus either, which is an idea that never really clicked, despite that being something the creators strived for. I won’t say more about it unless people in the comments are curious.
20 Comments
It would have been funnier if the Bombie chasing Louie worked for the IRS.
So, Gavin is just as much of a jerk as ever.
Yep still scamming and stealing.
Yea, the Louie stuff was just flat completely. The fact that we cut to the next day after Louie gets rich instead of picking up right where the last episode left off was the first warning sign. The Della stuff was fine, but I just want Donald back with the family, even though it won’t matter since the writers are seemingly incapable of working around Donald’s voice, so I’m sure he’ll only be in, like, 1/3 of the episodes of Season 3.I will say I DID like the opening bit where Scrooge just kinda laughed off Louie. That was great.Overall, it seems like this season was spinning its wheels because it wanted Della coming back to Earth to be the midpoint, then had to cram in all their story ideas because they only had a half season to do them in.
“I just want Donald back with the family, even though it won’t matter
since the writers are seemingly incapable of working around Donald’s
voice, so I’m sure he’ll only be in, like, 1/3 of the episodes of Season
3.” Yeah. *sigh* Hopefully he’ll at least get to make a big rescue when all seems lost at some point tomorrow, and have a nice reunion scene with Della.
I certainly liked the episode more than you and Kevin. That said I agree that Scrooge laughing off Louie was a highlight.
I can’t tell what Bombie is. I know he’s a zombie, and he’s the (living?) embodiment of the curse upon the richest duck (and/or person) in the world. But also, he looks like a DuckTales-version Solomon Grundy. And he looks like he used to be something before he became a zombie. He looks like he used to be a minotaur, maybe, because of the nose ring, but he doesn’t have horns or remnants of horns, right? I think we’re supposed to connect with him on a personal level, seeing as Louie poignantly remarks that the curse has affected Bombie as much as it has his victims since Bombie is compelled to relentlessly pursue them and thus cannot live his own life. Honestly, I don’t know. I feel like Bombie was a bit undercooked as an idea here.
You you mentioned Solomon Grundy. Someone else pointed this out, but the voice actor has voiced Solomon Grundy and the Hulk.
As I watched the episode I kept thinking the Bombie was taking a few design cues from DC’s Solomon Grundy, and – hey, he’s voiced by Fred Tatasciore! If you need someone who does good ‘grunt’ work…Generally enjoyable episode. If the Louie/Della dynamic will ever be revisited, it seems the writers are at least closing this plot thread of Louie Inc. before moving on to something new. The bit with the vultures explaining “that money has to come from somewhere” hits a bit too close to home for my day job :POne thing I cannot unsee is how strangely empty the streets are once the Bombie attacks. No cops, no news choppers, no other random pedestrians. I know it’s a kids show and animation budget and time etc etc, it’s just something you get a better sense of in actual superhero shows where this kind of stuff happens regularly.
Louie changes the sign from Scrooge’s dollar to the pound symbol, presumably because it looks like an “L.” Flintheart Glomgold has a pound symbol instead of a dollar sign in the comics.
I almost thought Scrooge’s laughter at the beginning was because he knew the creature would get Louie at some point.
I couldn’t tell how much it was the curse or accurately predicting Louie couldn’t handle the responsibility.
Ok, half commenting so we can justify future reviews. Yeah, I would have liked to have seen a bit more of Louie dealing with being the richest Duck in the world. Maybe other people trying to take his money, but he defeated everyone last episode, and he would enjoy getting to outthink other people’s scemes. But I’m glad we got to focus on Louie this season, even if we didn’t get as deep as we would want with Louie and Della. But I like that Louie has a nemesis. Dewey has one in Don Carnage. Who is Huey’s nemesis?
Given that Dewey was the focus last season and Louie the focus this season, Huey will probably get his nemesis next season.
I was about to say Gandra Dee (punk tech girl) is Huey’s nemesis, but that is Fenton’s rival. Um…is it Beeks?
It’s pretty funny that Louie does something wrong and is easily forgiven, when a previous episode literally just called this out.I agree with the grade. Louie with money behaved exactly how I expected Louie with money to behave, so I got a kick out of that, at least. But if they really wanted to explore this in a meaningful way, it probably should have been a mini-arc over a few episodes.
I also would have liked Scrooge- the adult who is smarter with more experience- to have had a cleverer way to regain his money and teach the kid a lesson, rather than just Louie giving it back. Scrooge came off too helpless and under-prepared, when surely this is the sort of thing he’d have to anticipate at any time from his rivals.
I actually liked Scrooge just sitting back knowing that Louie wouldn’t be able to handle it.
I didn’t dislike, I found it good. But compared to the final couple of episodes of season one, this batch of episodes sort of fall short. I feel so bad for Owlsley for getting fucked over by people with too much money and not enough sense.
Though on the subject, it sort of feels odd that this show punishes billionaires for pulling crazy shit while Big Hero Six sort of basically lets them do whatever and doesn’t criticize them for it?
”The Richest Duck In The World!” is the rare installment that utterly squanders its premise. The Bombie is supposed to be a curse showing that money can’t solve
every problem, yet Scrooge contained it for decades by paying for
magical protection. (It’s also an ineffective metaphor if he represents
the anger of the poor.) If the company could afford that magic even when
he was searching for Della, why is it a financial burden when its funds
have doubled? With a monopoly on the city’s top three companies plus
ill-gotten gain, one exorbitant Ottoman should barely register in the
ledger. The Bombie is just very strong (& a dead ringer for Solomon Grundy), which also makes it
uninteresting obstacle. Seeing more of how Louie’s family reacts to the new status quo would’ve been more satisfying.
Oh man, I really liked this episode. I totally accept that Louie would release a curse on his 1st day. I’ll concede the point on wondering how the guy at Mozambeak dealt with the curse.Though I’ll point out some other things. When Louie was talking about furniture for feet I knew what was coming.So Scrooge’s one shoe shine “customer” was the big foot.