DuckMonth: Ducktales The Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp

Disney had started to see its fortunes change by 1990. After a rough decade for their film division, the year 1989 proved to be profitable, thanks mainly to The Little Mermaid becoming a box office smash, and one that would spearhead what many feel to be the best era for the company's animated film lineup. And on television, Disney was still succeeding. DuckTales was still a big hit, and the newest series at the time, Chip 'N Dale: Rescue Rangers, was also continuing Disney's successful hold on syndication. Disney had high hopes for their shows, especially DuckTales, to break out of the television medium and into movies. And their first (and only) attempt came with 1990's DuckTales: The Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp.

DuckTales: The Movie was released on August 3rd, 1990 to theatres. Disney's hopes for the film was to be the starting point to a DuckTales film series, and possibly adapting other Disney television properties to film as well. There was even a television special that hyped the movie (though it was more just a clip show of old episodes). I even remember this being my first time going to the theatres to see a movie (though I barely remember it). So, with DuckTales still having the hype train behind it, it was sure to be a success at the box office, right? Well...

Unfortunately, despite the abundance of them in the 80s, movies based on animated television shows often under performed at the box office, and sadly DuckTales: The Movie was the same, only making back its budget at 18 million dollars. But the movie still found an audience through home video and airings on television, so it has earned somewhat of a cult classic status. And with the preamble out of the way, let's dive in to DuckTales: The Movie and see if  it holds up.

We open our movie in the desert of nondescript middle east as Scrooge and the gang are once again on another treasure hunt, made no better thanks to Launchpad's shaky flying, as usual. The hunt is for the treasure of Collie Baba and the forty thieves. Scrooge finds a treasure chest found by several characters who, let's say, haven't aged well...

Including Dijon, who serves as the lackey for the main villain of the movie...

The sorcerer Merlock, voiced by Christopher Lloyd. He seeks one particular piece of treasure hidden by Collie Baba. After Scrooge finds a treasure map inside the chest, Merlock sends Dijon to accompany Scrooge as a guide to steal the treasure.

The group trek into the desert, where they find a pyramid, hidden underneath the sand, all while Merlock (disquised as a vulture) stalks them. I'll make it a point here to talk about just how great the animation for the movie looks. A definite upgrade in quality from the television show, and considering the show was one of the better looking shows for syndicated television at the time, the shift  in animation quality is very noticeable. Makes you really wish they had a chance to do more movies like this with other Disney TV properties... Well, other than A Goofy Movie I guess. Maybe I should do a Goof Troop month just to get an excuse to review those movies.

After traversing several traps within the pyramid, the group find themselves further within the depth, and closer to the treasure across a rickety drawbridge. Among the treasures within is a golden lamp, the object that Dijon needs to steal for Merlock. But since Webby wants it, and Scrooge sees no value, he just gives it to her instead.

So, it all looks like smooth sailing for our gang, but Dijon and Merlock steal the treasure, and trap them in the treasure room, with giant scorpions beneath them. They manage to escape, using the treasure basket to escape through the river. Scrooge is, as usual, upset about losing his treasure, but he promises to recover it. Meanwhile, Merlock and Dijon discover that the lamp wasn't with the treasure, which is of course bad news for Dijon especially.

Back in Duckburg, Webby rubs the magic lamp, which causes it to release the genie inside (voiced by Rip Taylor). A Disney genie voiced by a comedian, two years before Aladdin. That feels kinda coincidental somehow. Granted this Genis is far less about being an impressionist, and more just suffering from future shock and shouting his catchphrase of "Shabooie".  The group remind him that, since he's a genie, he owes them wishes. Much like the Aladdin Genie, he also has his own wish rules, like no wishing for a million wishes, and world peace is pretty much impossible to wish for. Also that the bigger the wish, the bigger the problem.  Case in point, when they wish for an elephant, which causes a mess. They use up a wish to retcon the elephant away, which makes Mrs. Beakley look even more hysterical than usual.

To hide Genie from Scrooge, he disguises himself as a kid named "Gene", which allows for them to keep using their wishes for more toys and nonsense like a giant sundae. They even use a wish to keep Scrooge from punishing them for staying out late. We've gone from basic manipulation to full on mind control. Yikes. We also learn about how Merlock, who was Genie's first master, and defintiely the most evil one. How is he still alive? Immortality wish, of course. Also, despite the whole "don't wish for a million wishes" thing, since Merlock has a magic talisman, he can somehow bypass that rule, which allowed him to wish for disasters like Pompeii and the sinking of Atlantis. So yeah, pretty bad dude.

Speaking of Merlock, he sneaks into the McDuck mansion, while Scrooge is arguing about not going to the archaeologist ball, due to botching the Collie Baba hunt.

Merlock's "Ratspionage" goes about as well as you'd expect with a full on rat buster like Mrs. Beakley. Meanwhile, Webby kinda forgets about that whole "big wishes = bad" idea, by having her toys all come to life, which also leads to mayhem. And since that was Webby's last wish, this makes things even more chaotic. This ensuing insanity finally leads to Scrooge discovering about Genie and the wishes.

And of course, once Scrooge has his hands on the lamp, his focus is of course on greed. He wishes for the treasure of Collie Baba so he can finally prove his success to the archaeological society. With Scrooge now in possession of the lamp, Merlock and Dijon continue to stalk them at the ball. Genie discovers Merlock at the party and tries to warn Scrooge, But since Scrooge is far from level-headed, he tries to face him on his own, much to Genie's concern. And since Scrooge is greedy, he refuses to wish them to safefy. So, Genie just teleports them into the lamp instead.

It's here where we get Genie's obvious want, which somewhat similar to Aladdin's Genie is to one day be free from the lamp and live the life like a normal child. A normal child that's a few centuries old, but you know, "you're only as young as you feel" and whatnot. But Scrooge remains unchanged as he sends him back into the lamp. But as fate would have it, Scrooge crashes into a table and takes the wrong lamp, which leads to Dijon finally nabbing the lamp. Genie manages to play to the greed of Dijon to try and double cross Merlock.

And put the screws to Scrooge as well, as he wishes for Scrooge's fortune. And for the second time in this month of reviews, we see someone steal Scrooge's money bin and have the old miser arrested. Seems a running theme in DuckTales.  He's quickly bailed out, and after realizing the only way to get Genie back is to go through the money bin, the group set out on a daring rescue mission. All while Merlock sneaks into the bin with them.

After a great scene involving entering the booby trapped bin (complete with lasers and rising elevators), Scrooge makes his way to Dijon. But before he can get the lamp back, Merlock gets it back first, and attaches the talisman to the lamp. He gets revenge on Dijon by turning him into a pig, then transforms the money bin into a deadly fortress and sends it back to his home. Scrooge has had about enough and challenges Merlock. Merlock wishes to cast Scrooge out of the fortress via a powerul gust of wind. As Scrooge hands on for dear life, the nephews and Webby get the lamp away from Merlock.

He manages to get it back, but not without a fight by Scrooge. Scrooge manages to get rid of the talisman and retrieve the lamp. Scrooge wishes for everything to go back to normal (Well except for pig Dijon), while Merlock falls to his doom.

With one wish remaining, Scrooge almost wishes the lamp in the center of the earth, but eventually Scrooge makes the decision to turn Genie into a real boy instead. With no genie, the lamp disintegrates, and Dijon goes back to normal as well. So, we get our happy ending for everyone...

Right down to Scrooge chasing Dijon, who hasn't learned any lessons. Wah-wah.

DuckTales: The Movie is a fun sit. I wouldn't call it the most meaty story ever, but it does contain some fun adventure set pieces and as far as an adaptation to a show like DuckTales goes, it definitely feels like it would fit in just fine as a series of episodes. The main cast, as usual are fun to watch in the film, especially Mrs. Beakley, whose random acts of hysteria never ceased to make me laugh. In terms of the new cast members, Rip Taylor's Genie is a fine enough character. I remembered him being a lot more annoying, but honestly for Rip Taylor, it's pretty toned down. Christopher Lloyd was great as the villain Merlock, but I do wish we got a lot more of that classic Christopher Lloyd charisma, but he still played a great menacing villain, who surprisingly took a few beatings in this film. And then there's Dijon, who while yes, definitely being a horrible "greedy Arab" stereotype, was still a fun character in certain points and worked well as the henchman character in this story.

I will say there are a lot of things in this movie that do feel similar to what Aladdin did in 1992. From a wisecracking genie, to an evil magician wanting the lamp for evil reasons, to ultimately the genie being granted his freedom by the end. You definitely can't unsee them if you want this film after watching Aladdin. But while I feel Aladdin did all of this much better, what we get in the DuckTales movie is still well done enough that you can't suddenly go and yell that Aladdin ripped this movie off and became a success while DuckTales flopped. Would I recommend DuckTales: The Movie to watch now? Yes. It's a solid adaptation of the show that holds up well, runs quickly at a brisk seventy minutes, and you'll get some enjoyment out of the adventure and humor. Not everything is polished perfectly, but what you get is still a fun little film. One that I wish was the start of a series of movies. But you can't always get what you want I guess.

And thus ends DuckMonth (Woo Hoo!). This was a fun few weeks looking back at several pieces of DuckTales lore as we approach the August premiere of the 2017 DuckTales series. From Sports Goofy to the treasure of the golden suns, to Gizmoduck, to DuckTales on NES and finally the treasure of the lost lamp, the lore of this classic cartoon still holds up as it reaches its 30th anniversary. With 100 episodes under its belt and plenty of classic episodes I never got to talk about, there is definitely some meat for a possible return to this topic somewhere down the line, but we'll see. 

And speaking of the new DuckTales series, so much more new stuff has popped up since I started this month long retrospective, including the new theme song, some looks at the updated characters and more. And the more I see, the more faith I have that this show looks to be a wonderful mixture of the Barks comics, the DuckTales series from the 80s, while also being its own thing. With a star studded cast and a real sense that it's made from people who care about doing the source material justice, it has me more excited than ever. I'm not going to be one of those people who scream about their childhood being ruined with this. I'm glad to see this exist to give kids their own take on something so iconic. And I may also give the pilot episode a review when it airs this August on Disney XD. But that wraps things up here for DuckMonth (Woo Hoo)! I hope you enjoyed these reviews, and this will be far from the last theme month for this blog. But until then, thank you for reading as always.