DuckTales lasted for a total of 100 episodes. 65 in its first season, 10 in its second,18 in its third and 7 in its final fourth season (which aired in time for the debuting Disney Afternoon). The issue with the second season was instead of a planned thirty episodes to air at the time, the only ten episodes that did make air for the season were two five part episodes aired in a similar vein to "Treasure of the Golden Suns". The first was "Time is Money" where Scrooge and the gang travel back in time and meet Bubba the Caveduck.
I notice a lot of people seem to hate on Bubba, and while I can see how he can be annoying, I've never had any issues with him.
The other special was "Super DuckTales" which premiered on March 26th, 1989 on NBC's "Magical World of Disney". This special would earn the show its first Emmy award (for children's programming an hour or more in length), despite being nominated prior and not winning. This will be the special that we take a look at. No disrespect to Bubba, but if we're covering any other episodes of DuckTales this month, it's easily going to be ones based on one of my favorite superhero characters ever, Gizmoduck.
Our first part "Liquid Assets" sees the Beagle Boys planning for Ma Beagle's birthday. They plan to give her a "nest egg for her retirement". And that involves Scrooge's money bin. Speaking of the money bin, Scrooge wakes up to discover the city is planning to build a super highway through the money bin, and despite his attempts to change the mayor's mind, this change is going to happen despite his complaints. Now racked with the concern of having to move all his money, Scrooge decides that it's time to hire an accountant.
We then cut to a bean factory where we meet Fenton Crackshell, a genius at counting, but kind of a dope at everything else. Feeling bored of bean counting and tired of being unappreciated by the world, Fenton quits his job and takes up Scrooge's accounting job in hopes that it will finally give him the recognition he feels he deserves (not to mention impress his crush Gandra Dee). Through a good amount of annoyance, Scrooge reaches the point of wanting to straight up murder Fenton, but when he reveals his incredible counting speed, Scrooge hires him.
Back to the Beagle Boys who are putting their plan in motion. That plan is pretending to be a realtor so they can move the money bin to a specific area. Scrooge isn't convinced, but once the skinflint realizes that it's a bargain deal, he's more than willing to accept their deal to place the bin above a mountain in the forest.
The time comes for Scrooge to move his money bin, and despite Fenton suggesting other ways to handle the money within, Scrooge tells him that he likes to keep his assets liquid. Fenton takes this literally and dumps Scrooge's money in a lake. To ensure the money's safe, Scrooge and Fenton decide to camp out at the lake, and the nephews join in. Meanwhile, Launchpad makes it to the mountain with the money bin barely intact (and about half of Duckburg destroyed).
The Beagle Boys blow the mountain up, sending the money bin to Ma Beagle's backyard. She's appreciative, until she realizes that the bin is empty and sends them out to get the cash.
Scrooge tries to play a game of "turnabout is fair play" by pretending to be a tax assessor. He taxes the Beagle Boys for their recent addition of a money bin to their property. With the Beagle Boys distracted, Scrooge sends Launchpad to move the bin to another mountain. Meanwhile, Scrooge has to deal with an idiotic Fenton and his money lake being revealed by the Beagle Boys. They try to destroy the dam.
With Fenton being as useful as you'd expect.
They hold back the Beagle Boys briefly, with Scrooge warning Fenton that if the Beagle Boys get the money, he'll hold Fenton responsible. Which of course means that Fenton easily falls for the Beagle Boys pretending to be bug inspectors. Fearing termites in the dam, Fenton uses wood weevils to deal with them. Of course this turns out to be super termites, which just ends up destroying the bridge at a faster rate. And Fenton, being surprisingly more stupid than you'd think to this point, tries to counter the termite issue with woodpeckers.
And so we end part one with Scrooge's fortune literally going up the river.
In part two of our story "Frozen Assets", we open right were we left off with the money flowing right to Ma Beagle's home, with Fenton in tow. Scrooge is back in his worry room, making a bigger hole into the ground. The Dripping Dunderhead then tries to protect his job by telling Scrooge to now freeze his assets, which he actually thinks is freezing the lake. Scrooge thinks it's a smart enough idea to give a try.
The Beagle Boys are enjoying their golden years with their stolen liquid loot until Scrooge begins freezing them out with giant dry ice fans. He also ends Launchpad and a fleet of helicopters to snag the cold hard cash. So with the money saved for now, Fenton keeps his job... For now. Which of course that thought process is nearly already killed off as Fenton stupidly spends Scrooge's number one dime on a phone call. So yeah, Fenton's had one good idea so far compounded between several clunkers.
But Scrooge is also concerned about money bin security now that the bin's been moved. He goes to Gyro for help in building a robot to defend it. Meanwhile Fenton's attempt to save the dime is halted when the Beagle Boys rob the bank it's been deposited at. Gyro's first robot (G.I.C.U.2) ends up going completely E.D-209 on them and goes on the attack. Scrooge tells Gyro that he should build a robot with a brain next time.
Fenton's next attempt to get the dime back ends up with him getting a bad case of knuckle sandwiches from the Beagle Boys. And thus we get a montage of Fenton's attempts constantly failing. From long lost "Bermuda Beagle" to a phony vending machine, to a terrible Tooth Fairy disguise. When Fenton discovers Gyro's new invention, a super outfit called "Gizmo Duck". A knuckle-proof invention that can be activated by the word "Blatherskite", which is conveniently part of Fenton's catchphrase.
And thus by uttering "Blathering Blatherskite!" the suit attaches to Fenton, turning him into Gizmoduck. And with his new attire, he is more than ready to face off with the Beagle Boys. He turns out to be strong enough to endure the damage they put on him, so they make their escape with Gizmoduck in tow. After a battle down a very long hotel hallway, he almost manages to stop them,
But thanks to Burger Beagle's gluttony, he manages to recover the dime. He gives the dime back to Scrooge, and decides to keep his identity a secret. And thus we end the episode with Gizmoduck still unable to stop Gyro's earlier robot to get the dime back into the money bin.
We open "Full Metal Duck" with Gizmoduck ready to face off with G.I.C.U.2, but without his instruction manual, he's having a hard time. When nothing works, he just decides to do what any self respecting superhero would dom and that's just using every superpower he has. He succeeds with defeating the robot and getting the dime back to the money bin.
Fenton shows his new powers to his lazy mother who isn't all that impressed, which seems par for the couse, considering that Fenton has failed at almost everything. But there's a bigger issue with Fenton being unable to remove the suit, to the point that he's kicked out of the house. But even if he hasn't earned his mother's respect, he has earned the respect of Huey, Dewy and Louie with his heroics.
The stuck suit situation is eventually fixed via the use of a remote, which comes at a terrible time considering the Beagle Boys have created a hostage situation in Duckburg's version of the Statue of Liberty. Fenton eventually realizes his catchphrase of Blathering Blatherskite can restore the suit. Granted thanks to his mother saying it. Fenton gets the suit back on and comes to the rescue of the hostages by turning the statue's torch into ice cream, which again causes Burger Beagle to lead to the downfall of the Beagle Boys. Gizmoduck becomes the town hero, despite still not getting the attention of Gandra Dee.
Meanwhile, Ma Beagle discovers Gizmoduck's manual, and sends an escape pie to the smartest Beagle Boy, Megabyte Beagle (I guess they couldn't come up with a decent B pun). She recruits him to find a way to reprogram the Gizmoduck suit. Meanwhile, Fenton is finally starting to appreciate being a somebody. He shows off his powers in an interview, but Megabyte Beagle begins to cause malfunctions. Ma Beagle then has Gizmoduck go on a robbing spree.
Particularly causing a bigger rift with him and Gandra as he literally steals her car. Now a public menace, Gizmoduck is now forced to get one last thing, that being Scrooge's Money Bin. And so we end part three with Ma Beagle finally getting the motherload.
Up next is "The Billionaire Beagle Boys Club", our fourth of this five parter. Ma Beagle still has control of Gizmoduck, who hands her the now-filled money bin. The problem now is that they need to hide the bin from Scrooge. So they just hide it in a disguised bakery, much to Burger Beagle's dismay. Ma Beagle goes on a spending spree all over Duckburg, now filthy rich while Scrooge is now dirty poor. Scrooge is forced to sell his mansion.
Conveniently to Ma Beagle. So, her plan was to hide the money bin and her earnings from Scrooge, but then decides to flaunt her newfound "earnings" in front of him? Makes sense to me. Ma Beagle kicks Scrooge out as she holds a party in her new mansion. But Scrooge intends to crash it. But his attempts to crash goes about as well as Fenton when he tried to take the dimes.
The high society isn't fond of the Beagle Boys, but Ma Beagle is now the richest woman in Duckburg, and so she intends to keep them all in line. She's taking over the social circle by force. The nephews have had enough of being forced out and intend to sneak into the mansion to get evidence about the burgled bun. They discover Gizmoduck under the control of Megabyte Beagle. They manage to escape the Beagle Boys momentarily, with some cash in tow, which Scrooge can recognize. With it being his own cash, Scrooge believes this is his chance to put Ma Beagle back behind bars.
But the tables end up turned as Scrooge is the one carted off to jail due to break and enter (and Ma Beagle's influence). It also ends up a kangaroo court with the Beagle Boys in control of the court. So, the nephews and Mrs. Beakley stoop to the Beagle Boys level by trying to break him out with
explosive pastries.
It goes about how you'd expect. Should have tried the tuning fork idea from the pilot.
The boys manage to steal back Gizmoduck's remote, finally freeing from the grip of the Beagle Boys. But when Gizmoduck says he can't stand to face Scrooge, the boys decide to force him by control to free Scrooge and Beakley from jail. Gizmoduck breaks Scrooge free, despite the miser not being too happy with his savior. The boys finally tell Scrooge the truth and all is forgiven. Since Gizmoduck knows where the money bin is stashed, they go to rescue it.
But the Beagle Boys choose instead to get away with the money bin, causing a lot of destruction throughout Duckburg. Gizmoduck tries to stop them, but ends up sending the Money Bin sinking into the ocean. Now with the concern of the money being "finders keepers", Scrooge needs to save his money pronto.
This brings us to the final part "Money to Burn". With the money bin in the ocean, everyone's on the search for the dough first, including the Beagle Boys. With Launchpad and Gizmoduck in tow, Scrooge sets out via submarine to seek it out.
And then suddenly we have aliens involved as a mysterious spaceship makes its way to Duckburg seeking precious metal. Scrooge and the gang find the money bin. But before they can recover it, they get snagged by the Beagles. But the spaceship shows up to snag the bin before either group can claim it. Scooge is undeterred, so he chooses to chase the bin snatchers into space with Launchpad and Gizmoduck. With leaking money to follow, the crew make their way to a mysterious planet filled with metal.
It turns out to be a planet of robots. Since Gizmoduck is metal enough, he talks to the natives to learn that the money is due to be melted down. They try to stop the planned melting, but the robots show up to attack them. Scrooge sends Gizmoduck out to fight them, which doesn't turn out so well since the robots are far better armed. Scrooge and Gizmoduck end up being captured and brought to the leader known as Master Electronic Leader (or MEL). He tells them that the money is being used to make more robots, much to Scrooge's dismay.
Gizmoduck tries to fight with MEL, only to be instantly revealed as Fenton. With Scrooge and Fenton's fate to become axel grease, and Launchpad captured as well, Scrooge completely gives up hope, since he hasn't had any faith in Fenton before. Fenton manages to escape in hopes to prove to Scrooge that he can be useful, but Scrooge is still in a depressed state. Fenton tries to challenge Mel in what Fenton knows best and that's a counting contest. Fenton turns out to be faster than MEL in counting, which causes MEL to overload.
Once again as Gizmoduck, Fenton manages to save Scrooge and Launchpad in time, finally earning Scrooge's respect. Gizmoduck sends Scrooge and Launchpad back to the ship while he goes to rescue the money bin (much to Scrooge's reservations). But upon their escape, they see the planet explode. And thus, it appears that both the money bin and Gizmoduck are done for. And what's worse is it appears that the robots have captured them.
But it turns out that Gizmoduck managed to defeat the robots and reclaim the money bin, like he promised. So, it seems that everything is finally safe and sound...
Or it would have been if Launchpad didn't accidentally jetison the money bin out of the ship. Boy, that bin's really been through hell these past five episodes, hasn't it? Fearing his fortune finally vanishing, Scrooge opts to ride the bin through the Earth's atmosphere. The money bin ends up crashing right into the freeway where it was moved from in the first place. The resulting tremor sending the freeway crashing into Ma Beagle's house, giving them their comeuppance.
And finally Scrooge and his money bin are reunited. Fenton keeps his double jobs (and his secret identity retained). Despite that, his mother is still not respecting him. He finally snaps and tells her to shape up. He even finally gets the chance to talk to Gandra Dee. And so we end this with Fenton finally getting what he wanted from the start. A chance to be a somebody.
Next time on DuckMonth (Woo Hoo!), it's time to emback on Scrooge's 8-bit adventures as we review both DuckTales games on the NES. See you next week!
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