Dwelling on Ducks

This weekend’s two-episode season premiere of DuckTales 2017 was superb. “Challenge of the Senior Junior Woodchucks!” is one of the best Junior Woodchucks stories ever and does what this reboot has proven itself brilliant at doing: taking long-established aspects of Duck lore and deconstructing them in order to better understand them. I’ve also grown pretty keen on the idea of having just one of the nephews as a Woodchuck. Violet might be my favorite of the new characters created for this show (characters I’m hoping will be added to the “regular” comics someday). 

There is so much to say about “Quack Pack!” it’s impossible to know where to begin. “DuckTales The Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp” is one of my favorite animated films of all time, and “Quack Pack” is one of those TV series I enjoyed, but often found baffling. (Why no Scrooge? Why is Duckburg suddenly filled with humans? Why is Donald out of the Navy, but it seems like DuckTales never happened?) This episode made me want to run out into the street and shout “Shabooey!” over and over and over again. Then I remembered I’m a 38-year-old dude, the governor and mayor have ordered us to stay inside, and “Shabooey!” doesn’t translate well through a face mask.

Finally, both episodes went a long way in establishing Huey as the nephew on whom the season will be focused. I recently finished rewatching Season 1 and was impressed with how much Dewey grew over the course of those 26 episodes. I’m looking forward to revisiting Season 2 and tracking Louie’s growth as well. Huey is the one character who eludes me in this series, so I’m eager to see his psyche unpacked. I certainly relate to the oldest-child syndrome he has and the need to always be the best (while somehow, always falling short/always self-sabotaging my efforts). 

Amazing cover...

"You are amazing, Unca Scrooge!"

From 1955.

...heavily borrowed (without compensation from Disney, of course) from Don Rosa.

Story and Art by Carl Barks