The DuckTales the movie

[enemy1]

www.imdb.com/title/tt0099472/


Anyone remember seeing this movie? Is this the reason why we didn't have any other Disney animated movies based on the Disney Afternoon? 

[Minotaur]

Possibly. I watched it before and it's hard to say it's great. I heard the movie did not meet expectations.

[drleevezan]

I've seen it. I think it's pretty good, actually, but many people don't like it all that much.

[gadgetphile]

Jun 19, 2018 4:33:00 GMT enemy1 said:

www.imdb.com/title/tt0099472/


Anyone remember seeing this movie? Is this the reason why we didn't have any other Disney animated movies based on the Disney Afternoon? 

That is correct. It performed well below expectations, so they scrapped the planned CDRR movie. Personally, I don't have anything against it.

[Matilda]

IMO, if you ranked the movie along with the original DuckTales episodes, it would be among the better ones but definitely not among the best.

[muggyruglugg]

I think the animation in it is really good.

[Baar Baar Jinx]

Jun 29, 2018 17:07:54 GMT muggyruglugg said:

I think the animation in it is really good.

The animation was stellar, but the story, from what I can see, was nothing special.

[Scrooge MacDuck]

Jun 29, 2018 17:23:55 GMT Baar Baar Jinx said:

Jun 29, 2018 17:07:54 GMT muggyruglugg said:

I think the animation in it is really good.

The animation was stellar, but the story, from what I can see, was nothing special.

Stellar isn't how I'd put it. It has its moments, to be sure, far more than the TV series could, but at other time the character animation is just kind of… bland, compared to what DisneyToon Studios later proved capable of in more ambitious projects (like the Disney sequels Return to Neverland and King of Thieves). 

[Hyaroo]

I saw this in theaters! Wow, that was a long time ago.

It was... good.

I mean, it wasn't great.

Usually Disney movies stick with me for far longer after I've seen them... this movie, I sort of forgot most of it almost immediately after I'd seen it. There were only four small parts that really stuck with meand that I actually recalled: The part where Webby wishes for a baby elephant, the part where Huey makes huge scoops of ice cream fall from the sky, the part where Scrooge finds out his entire fortune is now owned by the villain and one of the Nephews says something like "he hasn't found out yet"... and the very ending where Scrooge turns the genie into a real boy. For some reason, those four scenes were the only ones that stuck with me. I couldn't remember anything else... not the villain, not the plot, not the animation, not... anything.

But I do remember that I was entertained enough while I watched the movie. I mean, I was never bored or anything. But I've never felt the need to watch the entire movie again. I've seen a few clips of it and... it really isn't the best-looking DisneyToon movie, is it? A Goofy Movie looked a lot better... and, come to think of it, was a far more successful movie overall. 

[Scrooge MacDuck]

Jul 10, 2018 11:04:08 GMT Hyaroo said:

I've seen a few clips of it and... it really isn't the best-looking DisneyToon movie, is it? A Goofy Movie looked a lot better... and, come to think of it, was a far more successful movie overall. 

Well, it was their first movie; so far they'd only done TV series and pilots. By the time of the likes of A Goofy Movie or Three Musketeers or Return to Neverland, they had had a lot more practice. 

[Hyaroo]

Yeah, I suppose you're right. I was just kind of really surprised at how unimpressive the movie looked compared to what I was used to from DisneyToon. ^_^*

[edge]

Watched it recently and it wasn't as bad as I remembered it to be.

Having said that, one of the bigger problems I can remember as a kid is that the movie's premise just wasn't as interesting as more than a few of the episodes.

Then you factor in that there were already four different multi-part episodes that either felt like movies, or originally aired as television movies, and you had a film that just didn't feel epic.

The other challenge is that the movie fell into the same trap that some of the later seasons of Ducktales fell into --- shifting the focus away from the original, main cast. I always felt that the further the plots drifted from the immediate "family", the less interesting they inherently were. Some Gizmoduck episodes were the exception to the rule, but Treasure of the Lost Lamp fell a little closer to Bubba territory.

[duckman87]

Aug 9, 2018 18:57:33 GMT edge said:

Watched it recently and it wasn't as bad as I remembered it to be.

Having said that, one of the bigger problems I can remember as a kid is that the movie's premise just wasn't as interesting as more than a few of the episodes.

Then you factor in that there were already four different multi-part episodes that either felt like movies, or originally aired as television movies, and you had a film that just didn't feel epic.

  I think you got it right.

  I have a special History with Treasure of the Lost Lamp. Growing up, I wasn't always interested in Disney comics; my parents used to buy those for me along with the Monica's Gang comics (they're kind of the Brazilian Little Lulu or Charlie Brown) which were much more of my interest, and while I'd occasionally Mickey and Donald, I still wasn't that into them. Then I got Treasure of the Lost Lamp in my birthday; I'd never watched the series, I didn't even know the name Ducktales, but watching it had a huge impact in me. Maybe it was watching Uncle Scrooge in animation for the first time, or his adventure dynamic in a way I hadn't experienced yet in the comics, or having watched it countless times as a kid, but after that, I grew invested in the comics, I met Carl Barks stories (before I even knew they inspired Ducktales) and got to watch the 1987 series when it aired on TV and loved it. I became a Duck fan thanks to that movie! 

So I was a little surprised when I found out this wasn't a particularly memorable film for most fans, either as a great film or as a "terrible piece of animation they should never have made". And I think it's because this movie doesn't particularly stand out. The first part is exciting, and probably what caught me up most; the family crashes on Egypt in the search for a treasure, there's a villain who goes in their pursuit to get back the ponymous lamp. Then they run through a pyramid filled with death traps, escape from giant scorpions, most everything in that part is awesome! The rest of the film in Duckburg is considerably less exciting, because it feels more like an urban comedic story and lacks the epicness in the first part; it's mostly what one could see in Duckburg-based episodes. 

There's little more than what could be found in the show, apart from introducing three new characters, but two of them were never used again (Merlock the villain only reappeared in the videogame Goin' Qu@ckers and Gene only ever had a small cameo in Dangerous Currency) and Dijon... well, he's still funny when one ignores that he's an over-the-top Middle-Eastern caricature. Merlock's design is cool, ditto for Christopher Lloyd's performance, though he doesn't entirely live up to his setup; this is supposed to be the man who caused the ruin of two civilizations, and yet when he finally acts, the threat's not that grand. And while the late Rip Taylor does a good job as Gene, I think he's much more succesfull in the comedic moments than he is in the dramatic moments; then again much of what made Gene work for me when I watched the film was the late Cleonir dos Santos' voice work in the Brazilian dub, who was brilliant in both: when he reveals the things Merlock forced him to do when he had the lamp and when Merlock gets it back and Gene begs him to stop, it was genuinely moving. I wish he'd been added to the series, so as to there be some connection on the canon and make the movie a little more meaningful. But of course, it's not like they could have interfered on the status quo back then.

Maybe the main reason it worked for me (apart form having watched it as a kid) is that I saw it before the show, so I wasn't expecting the movie of the series; in that case, I'd expect something more grand: a grand finale, a plot that couldn't have made in the show. Take, shall we say, Hey Arnold The Movie: it's not the most memorable film ever, but it did explore a bigger plot in a scale they couldn't have done in the series. Though one thing both films had in common is that despite being made-for-TV standard, they got a theatrical release, and big surprise, the made poorly in box office. As a result, all plans for future movies of Ducktales were abandoned and we had to wait a decade to see "Welcome to The Jungle" be released and conclude Arnold's story... 

The movie has its qualities, though: the plot is simple, but well-executed, the animation is nice, if a bit iffy, the entire cast is as good as usual (even to this day I can't un-hear the voices in Portuguese whenever I read the comics)... the soundtrack is marvellous! David Newmann owes nothing to Ron Jones, I'd say he overcomes the series sometimes, and that's saying something. I wonder if things would have been different had  they released this movie direct to Home Video; maybe it'd have been more successfull and maybe we'd get more Ducktales movies, this time exploring different, better plots... 

As it is, it's far from what it could have been as "Ducktales: The Movie". As far as I'm concerned, "Treasure of the Golden Suns" is the best Ducktales "film" yet.

[tvh]

Jun 19, 2018 4:33:00 GMT enemy1 said:

www.imdb.com/title/tt0099472/


Anyone remember seeing this movie? Is this the reason why we didn't have any other Disney animated movies based on the Disney Afternoon? 

I've seen the movie many times, and more recently acquired two leica reels made during different stages of production. At the moment I'm comparing and editing the sequences to get a precise sense of what was cut in the final release.

DuckTales: The Movie wasn't a big hit when it was released in theaters, and the reason is quite simple: marketing.

When the film was released, Disney just re-released Jungle Book to cross market it with the upcoming release of The Disney Afternoon, and more precisely,Tale Spin.

The parks and the studios were full of posters and banners for the Jungle Book re-release, and most of the television commercial spots were hogged by The Disney Afternoon. One of the executives even wrote a memo to complain about the lack of marketing for the film. It did great in VHS sales afterwards, though.

As for your question if this was the reason for the lack of other Disney Afternoon movies.

No, not really. The Movietoons brand was envisioned to produce films based on fairy tales and other properties. When the DuckTales movie was released, only three other projects were being actively developed: Darkwing Duck: The Movie (which was eventually turned into the double episode Darkly Dawns the Duck), Puss in Boots, and The Fisherman and the Flute.

At that point other Disney Afternoon properties were considered for movies. Tale Spin, Goofy and Max (which would turn into A Goofy Movie), and Quarks, a shelved idea for a series.

Source: a presentation slide for a corporate seminar held on September 12, 1990.

Jun 19, 2018 22:55:37 GMT gadgetphile said:

Jun 19, 2018 4:33:00 GMT enemy1 said:

www.imdb.com/title/tt0099472/


Anyone remember seeing this movie? Is this the reason why we didn't have any other Disney animated movies based on the Disney Afternoon? 

That is correct. It performed well below expectations, so they scrapped the planned CDRR movie. Personally, I don't have anything against it.

I'm sorry to say that there never was a Chip 'n' Dale: Rescue Rangers movie planned. When the makers refer to it, they refer to the "To The Rescue" story arc. Press and fans used to mistake this for a possible theatrical release, but none of the creators, story editors or executives can confirm that it ever was.

[Mesterius]

Aug 8, 2020 0:36:28 GMT duckman87 said:

Maybe the main reason it worked for me (apart form having watched it as a kid) is that I saw it before the show, so I wasn't expecting the movie of the series; in that case, I'd expect something more grand: a grand finale, a plot that couldn't have made in the show. Take, shall we say, Hey Arnold The Movie: it's not the most memorable film ever, but it did explore a bigger plot in a scale they couldn't have done in the series. Though one thing both films had in common is that despite being made-for-TV standard, they got a theatrical release, and big surprise, the made poorly in box office. As a result, all plans for future movies of Ducktales were abandoned and we had to wait a decade to see "Welcome to The Jungle" be released and conclude Arnold's story...

But the difference here is that "DuckTales The Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp" was always designed and intended as a theatrical release. Whereas the film that got released as "Hey Arnold! The Movie" actually was intended for direct-to-video from the get-go, and only got bumped up to theatrical in the last minute because Nickelodeon saw a chance to earn some extra dough.