While a large part of the delay has been real-world stuff, it's hard to think with a phone going off every few minutes, the other reason for the delay has been to try and include the opening of Season 3 into the review as well. Unfortunately, that hasn't happened, so if you're wondering what my thoughts are on those episodes, you won't find them here. Around September 2017, I did a review of the opening few episodes of the reboot to Ducktales, something that I was really impressed with as it looked to encompass the feeling of the original show, while also modernizing it with some slice of life elements, a making some needed improvements to the cast (but to be fair, anything is an improvement over Scrooge, Launchpad, the red one, the blue one, the green one, the girl one, and the old lady). With the allure of the mystery of Della Duck, the promise of Magika DeSpell, and more including a third season that is taking as much of the Disney Afternoon as it can possibly fit (and didn't already use), this review is more of an addendum to the first. Did it keep up the momentum? Is it worth the watch now that more episodes are out and we're all killing time while we wait for the world to return to something resembling what it used to be?
As mentioned, Ducktales 2017 is a mix of adventure, and slice of life, but not in the same way as other shows that tend to mix the genres up by having some episodes in on style, and some in another. A lot of the episodes tend to blend the two together to encourage character development. Be it playing golf on a course run by Kelpies (I think that's how you spell it...), looking for clues to Della by visiting the greek gods, having a season-long contest to earn the most money, only to have it all taken away by Louie where he accidentally releases an ancient curse that passes from one rich duck to another, saving the planet from an alien tyrant (of sorts) who wants to try and make the Earth rotate around the Moon, just to name a few. It's consistently inconsistent, which made it a lot of fun to watch, thanks to the cast being put into these interesting situations. While yes, a lot of the characters are drastically different compared to what they were in the original cartoon, but I honestly think thee new personalities for characters like Huey, Dewey, Louie, and especially Webby and Mrs Beakly help the show a lot and makes the show feel more alive.
Not all characters have received major changes, Scrooge is mostly the same, just a bit more three dimensional due to not being as greedy, something that helps make Glomgold stand out more. Launchpad is basically the same as well, along with Gizmo Duck. I love what they did in the first season though for Magika DeSpell. I love hammy, scene-chewing villains and in her shadow form, Magika was everything I like in that kind of villain, with the animation going into the shadow making it even better. I kind of wish she didn't get her body back just because of this, but the season 1 finale did make up for that, as in her physical form, she always came off as "I can do whatever I want because of who I am". It's these changes that make me really excited to see what they do to the other characters joining in from the Disney Afternoon.
One other thing this show has going for it is passion. It's clear that the people working on it are fans of the source material, and everything tied to it. From surprise cameos, in-jokes in the backgrounds, to even turning the Moon theme from the original game (a really nice song for the record), into a lovely lullaby. You can just feel the passion that went into this series in every episode, and that's not something I can say about a lot of media I see. While yes, making this media, be it movies, shows, games, and more, needs a lot of passion to get it made, projects like this don't often get the passion that you see here. It's an absolute delight to watch, and one that I recommend watching when you just need a laugh.
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