Ducktales 2017

[Pan Maciej]

Jeeves is like a mix of Oddjob (general apperance) and Jaws (the theeth). 

BTW for those who haven't seen the episode yet and are curious about Rockerduck's voice Disney released this clip : 

[deb]

May 8, 2019 13:39:11 GMT Baar Baar Jinx said:

(and, come on, writers, "Uncle" Gladstone? After you got it right last time?). 

Why start getting anything right now when they can just name-drop Carl Barks and Don Rosa stories and have everyone insist that this show is true to them despite getting 99% of it wrong?  

[Scrooge MacDuck]

May 8, 2019 19:23:34 GMT deb said:

May 8, 2019 13:39:11 GMT Baar Baar Jinx said:

(and, come on, writers, "Uncle" Gladstone? After you got it right last time?). 

Why start getting anything right now when they can just name-drop Carl Barks and Don Rosa stories and have everyone insist that this show is true to them despite getting 99% of it wrong?  

Oi, don't be so bitter. I do get your complaint, but I really don't think you can call up “Uncle Gladstone” as evidence of their getting stuff fundamentally wrong. There are a lot of examples in the comics of the kids calling cousins of their uncles "uncles", or, indeed, even good friends thereof (i.e. "Unca Mickey"). While we're playing that game, in fact, HDL's calling Scrooge "unca Scrooge" and Elvira "Grandma" would be "getting stuff wrong", as would Fanny Coot signing her letter to Donad "Aunt Fanny" in Donald's Cousin Gus if we're following Rosa genealogy. 

[Pan Maciej]

For me Uncle Gladstone made a lot of sence in the context of his debut episode since Donald was rivaling with Gladstone over Louie's affection, so it made it stronger that kid see Gladstone as their "cool Uncle' to frustrate Donald more.

[Baar Baar Jinx]

I liked this version of Rockerduck. The voice suited him, he behaved a lot like the comics version (what little I've seen of that Rockerduck), the design was fine, and his acrimonious interaction with Scrooge was reminiscent of "Boat Buster". Of course, he's a villain from Scrooge's past and seems not to be active in the "present" of DuckTales '17, but I still think it's a clever use for him (although there is a "Rockerduck Estates" in Duckburg-17 ... so maybe he's still around? He could be younger than Scrooge even in this universe, so it's possible, although, of course, age means nothing on this show). Then again, I grew up with the American comics where Rockerduck is hardly a presence; maybe I would feel differently if I were more familiar with the Italian stories where he's a major everyday rival to Scrooge.

As to why Scrooge doesn't recognize Gyro in the present ... it's possible his memory faded after all those decades. He only interacted with Gyro for a brief period, never learned Gyro's name, and didn't witness his departure via the Time Tub. In fact, it would be more unbelievable if he *did" remember Gyro. 

[deb]

May 8, 2019 19:46:54 GMT Scrooge MacDuck said:

May 8, 2019 19:23:34 GMT deb said:

Why start getting anything right now when they can just name-drop Carl Barks and Don Rosa stories and have everyone insist that this show is true to them despite getting 99% of it wrong?  

Oi, don't be so bitter. I do get your complaint, but I really don't think you can call up “Uncle Gladstone” as evidence of their getting stuff fundamentally wrong. There are a lot of examples in the comics of the kids calling cousins of their uncles "uncles", or, indeed, even good friends thereof (i.e. "Unca Mickey"). While we're playing that game, in fact, HDL's calling Scrooge "unca Scrooge" and Elvira "Grandma" would be "getting stuff wrong", as would Fanny Coot signing her letter to Donad "Aunt Fanny" in Donald's Cousin Gus if we're following Rosa genealogy. 

“Uncle Gladstone” is admittedly a minor quibble. The whole tone and personality of the series just gets to me sometimes. That said, I like their portrayals of Donald Duck and the other two Caballeros. Maybe I’m just too much of a fan of the comic book ducks to enjoy this show without complaining.

[pollux]

May 8, 2019 21:41:25 GMT Baar Baar Jinx said:

I liked this version of Rockerduck. The voice suited him, he behaved a lot like the comics version (what little I've seen of that Rockerduck), the design was fine, and his acrimonious interaction with Scrooge was reminiscent of "Boat Buster". Of course, he's a villain from Scrooge's past and seems not to be active in the "present" of DuckTales '17, but I still think it's a clever use for him (although there is a "Rockerduck Estates" in Duckburg-17 ... so maybe he's still around? He could be younger than Scrooge even in this universe, so it's possible, although, of course, age means nothing on this show). Then again, I grew up with the American comics where Rockerduck is hardly a presence; maybe I would feel differently if I were more familiar with the Italian stories where he's a major everyday rival to Scrooge.

As to why Scrooge doesn't recognize Gyro in the present ... it's possible his memory faded after all those decades. He only interacted with Gyro for a brief period, never learned Gyro's name, and didn't witness his departure via the Time Tub. In fact, it would be more unbelievable if he *did" remember Gyro. 

I really hope they'll re-use Rockerduck, but it doesn't seem like this except if he got magical life extension like Scrooge and Goldie.

And things like the time tub incident are weekly events for Scrooge, so of course he doesn't remember every details. Do ye remember what ye've eaten for dinner at 14th May 2005?

[muggyruglugg]

I still think the life-extension stuff was an awful thing to put in. Like seriously, why would they make that a thing? It asks more questions than it answers and just messes everything up, like Goldie's character.

[pollux]

May 8, 2019 22:13:34 GMT muggyruglugg said:

I still think the life-extension stuff was an awful thing to put in. Like seriously, why would they make that a thing? It asks more questions than it answers and just messes everything up, like Goldie's character.

Without it, they had only two choices regarding Scrooge, main protagonist of the show:

1. Set the show in the past. Don Rosa did his, his stories are set in the 1950s, when Barks had his peak, though Rosa created his in an' around the 1990s. This could easily have been done for DT17, but the creators didn't do that, likely to make it easier for contemporary audiences to identify with the show. Like Rosa, who got told by his editor to not put any references to the 50s into his stories to not confuse younger readers.

2. Make the characters younger. That is what most superhero comicbooks do. The timeline gets updated regularily. In the original continuity Iron Man got his suit during the Vietnam War, in the MCU it was in Afghanistan. Yet that creates problems for some characters, who's identities are linked to certain events, like Scrooge participating in the Klondike Gold Rush, or Captain America fighting in World War II...

...so, life extension kicks in. Those two characters were both stucken in ice where they didn't age. 

It appears like the creators of NewDuckTales went for Option 2 at the beginning, because in the Mount Neverest episode, Scrooge says the incident with the Neverest Ninny happened 75 years ago and that was when he just made his first million, he also looked very young in the flashback. Conservatively, this put his age into his 90s, being born in the 1910s or '20s then. Well, until the Klondike episode came, which contradicted the Neverest episode in that point.

[Scroogerello]

Or they could have just not drawn attention to it and left it up to "cartoon logic". Look at the comics; they also take (and have always taken) place in the present (or whatever the "present" was at the time a story was printed), and yet they never felt the need to come up with a convoluted explanation as to how 70-something-year-old Scrooge could have participated in the 1897 Yukon gold rush. Same goes for the old DuckTales. It's supposed to be FUN when cartoon stuff is impossible/inexplicable in real life. But I'm afraid that that the writers of this show, who can only think in superhero and (lousy) sitcom tropes, don't get that.

And if Scrooge's age really bothered fans that much, and they HAD to put it into a realistic contemporary "timeline" per se (which itself would be outdated before you know it, but whatever), they could have just removed the Klondike business form Scrooge's backstory, and said that Scrooge was a prospector during a more recent era. No need to give Scrooge superpowers.

[Baar Baar Jinx]

I agree that the supernatural aspects, particularly life extension and the immortality of Scrooge's parents, are the hardest part of the show to accept, since they are so alien to the comics universe on which this show is based. I understand the need to ground the universe in the present to keep young audiences engaged and allow modern elements like smartphones, social media and technology to exist, but the "cartoon logic" approach, where the longevity of characters like Scrooge and Goldie is glossed over, would probably have been my chosen means of tackling it. There was a scene in a prior episode where Scrooge is describing his experiences in the Klondike, and one of the nephews interrupts with, "Wait, how old *are* you?"; Scrooge's only response is to glare at him. That little exchange, acknowledging the impossibility of the timeline and yet indicating that we should simply ignore it, would encapsulate it all perfectly (sort of like the joke in a Van Horn story where Scrooge offhandedly mentions the fact that he's almost 150 years old).

[Scrooge MacDuck]

May 9, 2019 1:48:53 GMT Baar Baar Jinx said:

There was a scene in a prior episode where Scrooge is describing his experiences in the Klondike,

Actually, unless memory fails, that was also in Golden Lagoon.

[pollux]

Some fans prefer to think of the Duck an' Mice universe as being set in the 1950s, like Rosa did. This was when Barks was at his prime and Duck comics where the most popular comicbooks in the world. Others prefer to split time periods. Like, they can see and accept Mickey trying to catch Natzy spies in a story from the 1940s AND browsing the internet on his smartphone when investigating in a story from 2010s, but they don't see the Mickey from each story as the same incarnation of that character.

[Baar Baar Jinx]

May 9, 2019 8:47:32 GMT Scrooge MacDuck said:

May 9, 2019 1:48:53 GMT Baar Baar Jinx said:

There was a scene in a prior episode where Scrooge is describing his experiences in the Klondike,

Actually, unless memory fails, that was also in Golden Lagoon.

That's actually the one I was thinking about, I believe. Although fans have speculated as such, the episode didn't explicitly say that Scrooge and Goldie's life extension was due to being trapped in the ice, did it?

[Scrooge MacDuck]

May 9, 2019 12:03:56 GMT Baar Baar Jinx said:

That's actually the one I was thinking about, I believe. Although fans have speculated as such, the episode didn't explicitly say that Scrooge and Goldie's life extension was due to being trapped in the ice, did it?

Nnno, it said it was due to Goldie having found the Fountain of Youth in Ronguay while Scrooge spent a few years trapped in the timeless demon dimension of Demogorgana.