Thursday, November 21, 2019

All in a Disney Afternoon Chapter 5: Darkwing Duck


It's fall of 1991 and The Disney Afternoon has officially passed on year on the air. The block has proven a massive success with the initial four shows, three of which finish their runs and the newest of the bunch TaleSpin runs through its entire series. As we enter the new season, things begin to shift. Gummi Bears is officially finished and makes its exit from the block with DuckTales, Rescue Rangers and TaleSpin shifting down. Which leaves the last part of the block to be occupied by Disney's latest animated series. It's the terror that flaps in the night. The review article that takes longer to get finished because of other projects. It's Darkwing Duck!


So, how did Darkwing come to be? After Rescue Rangers wrapped up, Tad Stones began work on the next Disney animated series. However, it wasn't initially Darkwing Duck. It was a reboot of The Rocky and Bullwinkle show. You see, Tad and his crew thought that Disney had the rights to the series and began work on a new animated series based on the moose and squirrel, only to soon discover that Disney had the rights to distribute the show on home video, not the rights to create new products. So next was plan B.


Remember the DuckTales episode "Double-O-Duck" where Launchpad became a secret agent for S.H.U.S.H and took on the evil Foul? Well, Stones initially intended to adapt that episode into its own series. However, eventually Launchpad was given the backseat and a new character would be given the role instead. One that wore a very familiar looking hat and cape. Eventually the concept had also adapted much of the "Masked Mallard" episode idea as well. Everything looked to be going in the right directions, until the Ian Fleming estate stepped in with a cease and desist of the use of "Double-O" as it was exclusive to James Bond. So, eventually things got tweaked a bit more until we got a character that was less a take on James Bond and more a version of The Shadow, complete with a penchant for the self-monologue.


It didn't hurt matters that Darkwing was released a couple years after the 1989 Batman movie, which revitalized interest in the Superhero genre.  But Darkwing wasn't intended to be a straight laced serious caped crime fighter affair. It was going to be more of a tongue in cheek take on the genre, with heavier focus on comedy and adventure than brooding and darkness. What Darkwing did with the genre would be something refined with The Tick later on. Much like the previous shows, Darkwing started with an early preview on The Disney Channel before its official release on September 8th, 1991. The show ran 91 episodes. The standard 65 for syndication and The Disney Afternoon block, and 26 episodes for two separate seasons on ABC.

The show is set in St. Canard, a metropolis filled with some of the craziest criminal scum there is. The only cure for this plague of perilous perpetrators? Darkwing Duck, of course! Along with his sidekick Launchpad McQuack, his adopted daughter Gosalyn and her friend Honker Muddlefoot, they stop some the wicked scum of the city like Megavolt, Bushroot, Liquidator, Quackerjack and even Darkwing's own twisted doppleganger Negaduck. Not only does Darkwing have to deal with the life of a superhero, but also has to deal with his second life of being Drake Mallard, father of Gosalyn.


Darkwing Duck/Drake Mallard is the protagonist of the series. We get bits and pieces of Drake's past. As a kid he ended up working for a crime gang until Darkwing and Gosalyn from the future helped him become a crimefighter. Ah good old convoluted cartoon writing. Darkwing is a very interesting superhero. He's extremely altruistic, and always fights for the side of good, but, to put it kindly... he's also a massive egotist. Usually believing himself to often be better than others, deserving of the love and respect of the people, and constantly monologuing to himself. Despite those flaws, Drake is still a good father to Gosalyn and a good friend to others. He uses a variety of weapons in his fight against evil, including a gas gun, his motorcycle the Ratcatcher and his plane the Thunderquack. Jim Cummings once again returns to another Disney show as the voice of Darkwing.


Launchpad McQuack is back once again. No real big explanation as to how he ended up in St. Canard (although it's also believed that this is technically different canon, so yeah). The real answer is he's a remnant of the Double-O-Duck era, but the in-series excuse that Scrooge eventually let him go (probably for crashing too many planes). He's Darkwing's biggest fan in the pilot episode and quickly becomes his sidekick. He also serves as Darkwing's pilot as he was the one who actually built the Thunderquack, the crime plane that Darkwing uses to fight crime. Terry McGovern reprises his role as Launchpad.


Gosalyn Mallard (Formerly Waddlemeyer) starts the series as a nine year old orphan, the granddaughter of the genius professor Waddlemeyer. After saving her from the evil Taurus Bulba, Darkwing soon adopts her. She's extremely spunky and energetic, often saying her catchphrase "Keen Gear", and always trying to get in on the action, despite Darkwing's adventures being way too dangerous for her. But she almost always ends up getting herself deep into trouble, though more often than not being capable enough to get herself out of it. Heck, on more than one occasion she serves as the voice of reason for Darkwing. Her best friend is Honker Muddlefoot, who she usually ends up dragging into said danger. Gosalyn also ends up having some superhero alter egos of her own, including an archer named Quiverwing Quack. Christine Cavanaugh provided Gosalyn's voice. Her voice is also easily recognizable as the voice of Chuckie Finster on Rugrats.


Honker Muddlefoot is the youngest son of the Muddlefoot family, the next door neighbors to Darkwing and Gosalyn. He's a genius mind, but is also super shy and worried about getting into trouble. He usually tries to stop Gosalyn from getting into trouble, but of course it never works. He's more or less your bog standard nerd archetype. Katie Leigh provided his voice.


Speaking of the Muddlefoots, father Herb is a quackerware salesman. While well meaning, he's usually loud, dumb and ignorant to the world around him. Mother Binkie is your standard 1950s housewife archetype, usually focused on keeping the house clean. We do get to see her superhero side when a blow to the head brings out her alter ego the Canardian Guardian.


While there is some goodness to the Muddlefoots, it's Thank that's the real hellion of the family. A total bully that is  always quick to antagonize anyone. Jim Cummings voiced Herb, Susan Stolsky voiced Binkie and Dana Hill voiced Tank. We'll be talking a bit more on Dana Hill in the next review.


Final notable character is Morgana Macawber. A sorceress from Transylvania, she initially starts the series as a villain, heading a monstrous organization seeking pizza toppins. But after encountering Darkwing, the two hit it off and Morgana becomes a romantic interest for ol' D.W. Morgana, while being adept at magic, can still be a bit clumsy with it at times, usually causing Darkwing to be turned into everything from a yak to a pile of pudding. Kath Soucie provides Morgana's voice. Soucie's voice would be more familiar to 90s kids as the voice of Princess Sally in Sonic SatAM, Phil and Lil in Rugrats (another connection to that show), Fifi La Fume in Tiny Toon Adventures and the original voice of Lola Bunny just to name a few.


Finally on the good guy side is S.H.U.S.H (acronym never actually explained), the secret agent organization that Darkwing works for (not as an actual S.H.U.S.H agent mind you, but still aids them in their fight against F.O.W.L.)


Run by J. Gander Hooter (whose design is drastically changed from the DuckTales episode), with his second in command being the always angry Gryzlikoff. Hooter has the utmost faith in Darkwing and his more unorthodox methods at crimefighting. Danny Mann provided his voice.


Vladimir Gryzlikoff on the other hand is usually ready to tear Darkwing limb from limb. Mainly due to not being a fan of Darkwing going against S.H.U.S.H protocol when handling crimefighting. Ron Feinberg provides the voice of Gryzlikoff.


There's also Doctor Sara Bellum, the inventor for S.H.U.S.H, who creates everything from a time travelling golf cart to pie bazookas. Jodi Carlisle provided her voice. And that's just a sampling of the recurring cast on the good guy side. I neglected characters like Stegmutt, Neptunia, Comet Guy, and even another DuckTales character who makes a few appearances, Gizmoduck.


Of course any superhero show needs a strong rogues gallery. And Darkwing Duck provides in droves. Easily the largest array of villains in any of the shows we've covered so far. Most being inspired by other comic book supervillains. Starting with the fearsome five. First up is Megavolt (Inspiration: Electro) . Born Elmo Sputterspark, Megavolt is a thief who uses electricity to aid in his larceny. Much like most of the villains, he's extremely demented, and seems to have a romantic attraction to all things electric. Dan Castellaneta provides the voice of Megavolt. And if that name sounds familiar, it should as he is also the voice of Homer Simpson, Krusty the Clown and many other classic Simpsons characters.


Dr. Reginald Bushroot (Inspiraton: Poison Ivy) was a brilliant botanist who, after his funding was being taken away, experimented on himself. The result turned him into a half-duck, half-plant creature. This gave him the power to control all forms of flora. Of the villains in the series, Bushroot is easily the more sympathetic as he's often the more lonely of the bunch, often creating companions that, save for his pet plant Spike, have turned on him more often than not. He's even aided Darkwing in the past. Tino Insana provided the voice of Bushroot. Insana's voice is best recognized for characters like Uncle Ted in Bobby's World and Pig in Barnyard.


Quackerjack (Inspiration: The Joker/Toyman) was a toy maker, however all of his creations were considered too dangerous, and he was put out of business. Blaming his failure on the success of the Whiffle Boy video game, it caused him to snap and use his toys as weapons to commit felonies. His mental state such a wreck that he takes orders from his inanimate doll Mr. Banana Brain. Michael Bell provided the voice of Quackerjack. Bell's voice is perhaps best remembered for Bumblebee in the original Transformers and Drew Pickles in Rugrats.


Liquidator (Inspiration: Hydro-Man/Sandman) started the series as Bud Flud, a crooked salesman of Sparkling Crystal Pure Water, which he also owned the bottling plant. After contaminating his competitors water, he eventually gets caught by Darkwing. The ensuing encounter caused Flud to fall into a vat of chemicals (where have I heard that origin before). The result turning Flud's body completely liquid. Now under the name Liquidator, he uses his liquid properties to commit many crimes, all while still speaking like he's constantly trying to hock horrid wares. Jack Angel voiced Liquidator. Angel has provided voice work for everything from G.I Joe to Clarence.


And rounding out the fearsome five is the most deadly of Darkwing's villains, his own doppleganger Negaduck (Inspiration: Reverse Flash/Bizarro). There are two versions of Negaduck that have appeared in the series. The original version (also referred to as Negatron) was the result of Darkwing's personality being split in two, creating a manifestation of the evil side of Darkwing. The other and more popular version of Negaduck comes from an alternate dimension called the Negaverse, where that world's Darkwing is actually a villain. Negaduck is easily the most cruel and sadistic villain in the entire series, and that's saying something. Jim Cummings provides his voice.


Other major villains in the series includes Steelbeak (inspiration: Jaws from James Bond) a head agent of F.O.W.L (Fiendish Organization for World Larceny). He's usually seen as smug and self-centered, very rarely angered (unless Darkwing spoils his plans of course). Rob Paulsen returns to Disney animation as the voice of Steelbeak.


Taurus Bulba is the villain of the pilot episode. A powerful crime boss that, despite still being in prison, manages to continue with his fiendish plan to control the powerful Waddlemeyer Ramrod. After the ensuing battle leads to an explosion that seemed to have killed him, it's later revealed that F.O.W.L revived him and turned him into the half bull/half machine Steerminator. Tim Curry provided the voice of Taurus Bulba. Other recurring villains in the show included Tuskernini, Moliarty, Amonia Pine, Jambalaya Jake and more. Like I said, Darkwing was a show with a massive amount of recurring villains, so giving them all coverage like this would make this article longer than it already is.



Now that we've gone past the long list of recurring characters, it's that time again to talk about the intro theme. And of all the themes I've covered so far, I think this is my all time favorite. The energetic funk compliments the lyrics that play up how Darkwing is a daring duck of mystery and a champion of right. Intro footage itself is, much like most of the intros, just a lot of footage from the show with only minor original animation, but it still works wonders. There were actually two versions of this theme. The one that aired in its syndicated and ABC release, and the original intro from the Disney Channel preview.


While not bad, I still prefer the later version, which really sells you on Darkwing much better. At least in my opinion.


FAVORITE EPISODES

We have another large order this time around. 91 episodes. So, while I'll try to cover some of the show's strongest episodes, I'll try not to overstuff this one.


-Darkly Dawns The Duck Two Parter: We get only two episodes for our pilot story, but in this case it works with far less treakle. In the pilot, Darkwing finds himself having to stop the devious Taurus Bulba who is out to capture the Waddlemeyer Ramrod, a powerful laser (yes, another laser in a pilot story) that makes matter float. In the process, Darkwing meets up with his biggest fan Launchpad McQuack, and tries to save the late professor Waddlemeyer's granddaughter Gosalyn, who may be the only one who knows the code to activate the Ramrod. While I think I love TaleSpin's pilot more, I still feel that this is one of the best premiere stories for any of the Disney shows.



Case in point the opening for the special version of this episode (removed in later releases including the DVD).



-Beauty And The Beet:  In the origin story of Bushroot, the bullied and meek Dr. Reginald Bushroot, after having his funding removed for his plant experiments, experiments on himself, becoming a plant man with the power to control all flora. Now gone insane with flower power, he tries to kidnap Dr. Rhoda Dendron, a fellow scientist he fell for. Only Darkwing can stop Bushroot before he brings his plan in to full fruit fruition.



-Duck Blind: After a fight with Megavolt leaves him blind, Darkwing tries to continue his life as a crimefighter despite his handicap. However, despite his attempts to continue while blind, he almost puts Gosalyn, Launchpad and Honker's lives in danger, forcing him to (briefly) retire as a superhero. While this episode still provides a lot of the great comedic qualities that the show possesses, it's also a great character episode  as we see Darkwing's pride wind up shattered and him needing to regain the confidence to be a hero. I'd say the resolution is super rushed, but it still works out to a great early episode.


-Comic Book Capers: After being unimpressed with how he's being portrayed in his comic book, Darkwing takes matters into his own hands to write it his way. However, everyone keeps butting in and the script continues to get flipped. In a sharp contrast to the previous episode I talked about, this one embraces the more silly side of the show, allowing for a lot more insanity and meta humor. Especially in the third act where all hell breaks loose.


-Trading Faces: It's the stock body swap episode. An accident causes Darwking to switch bodies with Gosalyn and Honker to switch with Launchpad. While they have to deal with the burdens of their switched ages, Steelbeak steals a rocket that he uses to keep the planet from spinning, causing perpetual sun on one side and a frozen darkness on the other. This was definitely one I remembered from when I was younger. It's not the meatiest episode, but there is some great comedy throughout and a great third act.


-Just Us Justice Ducks Two-Parter: The Fearsome Five, five of Darkwing's greatest enemies, join forces and block St. Canard from the rest of the world. Meanwhile, all of Darkwing's former allies join forces, intent on stopping them. But Darkwing's ego makes him unwilling to work with anyone but himself. Eventually the Justice Ducks come together and save the day. This is a really good two parter that feels like the culmination of a lot of the show's lore and continuity. The problem is that these episodes aired very early in the syndicated run, meaning episodes focused on debuting most of this cast never saw air on the syndicated Disney Afternoon slot and were ABC episodes. And if you're watching from the DVD sets, you don't get the ABC seasons since they didn't even finish the Syndicated episodes. But don't let this mess take away from two of the show's finest episodes.


-Negaduck: After being zapped by Megavolt's tron splitter, Darkwing splits into two versions of himself, his kindhearted side and his malevolent evil side. When the evil side runs amok, intent on destroying the splitter, Gosalyn, Launchpad and the good Darkwing have to stop him. So, as previously mentioned, this isn't the same Negaduck that appears in the episodes that follow, but the "Negatron" version. Regardless, it's a great first look into what an evil Darkwing would be capable of.


-Fungus Amongous: A bizarre string of pizza topping robberies leads Darkwing to Macawber Mansion, where he comes across a monstrous head of a mushroom company led by Morgana Macawber. Darkwing becomes love struck with Morgana, despite her evil intentions. But it's soon revealed that Morgana isn't as evil as she seems. Also worth checking out is the follow-up episode "Ghoul of My Dreams".



-The Secret Origins of Darkwing Duck: In the future, a pair of kids named Gosaloid and Honkulon learn from a mysterious janitor about the supposed origins of Darkwing, as well as the origins of Negaduck... again. This episode of course isn't a real look at their origins, but goes on to parody everything from Superman to Kung Fu. Overall, a fun little meta episode.



-Life, The Negaverse and Everything: When the other members of the Fearsome Five accidentally lure Darkwing to Negaduck's secret hideout, he ends up thrown into the Negaverse, the evil alternate dimension where every good guy is bad and every bad guy is good. It's up to Darkwing to help this universe's "Friendly Five" to stop Negaduck, protect this world's Gosalyn, and find his way back home.


-Tiff of the Titans: When Steelbeak attempts to steal a powerful military vehicle, Gizmoduck attempts to put a stop to him. But with both Darkwing and Gizmoduck to deal with, Steelbeak tricks the gullible Gizmoduck into thinking Darkwing's the real villain. The episode is a minor retread of The Masked Mallard from DuckTales, but still manages to feel fresh and fun enough. Plus, there's literally a gag in this about a Gilligan's Island horror movie where Gilligan (or Pelican in this) murders the castaways. That earns it points by proxy. Plus, even if the latter seasons of DuckTales didn't wow me, it is good to see Fenton again.


-Dry Hard: In the origin story of Liquidator, after Bud Flud tries to taint the other water companies in St. Canard, an encounter with Darkwing causes him to fall into a vat of chemicals and become the Liquidator. With full control over all liquid, he turns the town's water supply into hard water in an attempt to extort the town for his own supply.


-It's A Wonderful Leaf: Disillusioned with Christmas after dealing with the manic shopping crowds, Bushroot controls an army of Christmas trees to aid him in causing some holiday chaos and it's up to Darkwing to stop him.



-Twitching Channels: When Megavolt transmits himself through the TV waves, Darkwing follows him inside. However, through their channel surfing, they accidentally wind up in the "real world" where Darkwing is a famous cartoon character. This is a fun episode that plays well to the show's use of more meta comedy. Hell, Darkwing's creator is named "Thaddeus Rockwell", which is a play on Tad Stones, the series creator. Now that's clever writing. Even the ending features a clever nod to Tad's other Disney Afternoon show. If you want an episode as a primer for the show's writing, you need look no further.


-Twin Beaks: After Bushroot and the Muddlefoots mysteriously vanish, Darkwing and the gang head to Twin Beaks to get answers, while Darkwing also has to deal with Launchpad's sudden psychic powers. The episode, obviously is a Twin Peaks parody spliced in with a Body Snatchers storyline. As someone who mainly knows about Twin Peaks through many of the well known references, I still enjoyed this one, but I definitely think it plays stronger to those fans with plenty of gags from the show itself. From Launchpad listening to a log to the body of Bushroot being wrapped in plastic. So it probably got lost to the demographic, but was definitely one the parents would get more of a kick out of.


-Time And Punishment: After Gosalyn accidentally travels through time with Quackerjack and Megavolt, she arrives in a future where Darkwing has become a Frank Miller-esque vigilante named Darkwarrior Duck, an anti-hero more focused on arresting anyone who breaks any minor law. This feels like the show's jab on the edgy superhero trend that was becoming prevalent in the comics industry at the time, and it's handled quite well. Of the several time travel episodes of the series, this is definitely the best of the bunch.


-The Haunting of Mr. Banana Brain: Gosalyn retells the story of a haunted jack-in-the-box. After her pranks catch the eye of the evil demon Paddywhack, the ghoul possesses Quackerjack's favorite doll. Eventually, Paddywhack intends to make Gosalyn his new partner in comedic crime. This was a really fun episode. I like the structure of having this be a story told by a character, and Paddywhack makes for a great villain, played brilliantly by Phil Hartman.


-A Star is Scorned: Another super meta episode. When E. Thaddeus Rockwell looks to replace Darkwing with Bushroot as the star of the show, Darkwing tries to fight back for his job as the lead. This episode devolves into full chaos, and it's hard to really bring up much of this episode in a simple paragraph, but for a pseudo sequel to "Twitching Channels" it works.


-The Quiverwing Quack: Gosalyn outshines Darkwing when her archery skills prove good enough to best Negaduck, which leads to Darkwing having issues, especially when Gosalyn creates her own alter ego, The Quiverwing Quack, along with Honker as her sidekick, The Arrow Kid. Meanwhile, Negaduck causes chaos in St. Canard in a bid to once again be public enemy #1.



-A Brush With Oblivion: When Honker sees the evil artist Splatter Phoenix stealing art and jumping into paintings, he's at first branded a liar, until Darkwing and Launchpad have to save Gosalyn and the smile of Mona Lisa. This  is easily one of the best episodes, especially on a visual level. Plenty of references to famous works of art, along with enough unique changes in designs for the characters. Splatter Phoenix makes a great late in the series villain, being what I'd imagine most twitter artists would be if they ended up taking a life of crime.



-Steerminator: F.O.W.L brings Taurus Bulba back to life, but it proves a disaster as the now robotic Bulba is only focused on getting revenge on Darkwing, who has also unfortunately broken both legs in a skiing accident. This is a great sequel to the pilot story, with Tim Curry returning once again and being as awesome as ever. This is one that balances the action and story well, even if it does devolve into another episode where Darkwing doesn't have any faith in Gosalyn, which is an unfortunate running trend in most episodes. This episode also unfortunately ends on a sorta cliffhanger saying Bulba will be back, but that's not the case in the show. He does return in the later comic series.


-Hot Spells: While visiting Morgana's old spell school, Gosalyn tries her hand at some magic. However, she ends up gaining magic powers from the devil himself. This episode is infamous as it's the banned episode of this show. However, unlike banned episodes for the other shows, this one has remained banned due to the plot involving Gosalyn being a pawn for Beelzebub as well as having a depiction of Hell. Yes, the Pearl Harbor allegory episode of TaleSpin is fine to put back in circulation, but not this. It isn't even in the Disney+ rotation either. That aside, this is still a pretty good episode worth checking out however you can find it.


-Clash Reunion: Darkwing and Megavolt attend their high school reunion and relive the events of their first forays as their heroic and villainous personas. This episode serves as a great double origin story. Darkwing's first battle and Megavolt's first night as a villain. The episode also takes a turn by the end of the second act with Darkwing being revealed as Drake Mallard to not only Megavolt, but to the pair's former school bullies. I will say this gets bogged down with Darkwing suffering from more confidence issues, but it's still a strong episode regardless.


-Paint Misbehavin': In a double return, we not only get the return of Gosalyn's superhero persona Quiverwing Quack, but Splatter Phoenix returns, using her powerful paintbrush to bring whatever she wants to life to cause a crime spree. For a sequel episode to both these characters, it's a fine one. I think I prefer the first Splatter Phoenix episode as I think there was more creativity in the art style, but this works well, especially Andrea Martin taking over the role.

HONORABLE MENTIONS:

-Paraducks: Darkwing and Gosalyn travel back in time and help a young Drake Mallard.

-Aduckyphobia: A bite from a radioactive spider gives Darkwing some extra limbs.

-Disguise The Limit: After being zapped by a ray gun, Darkwing constantly transforms into other people.

-Up, Up and Awry: Darkwing and Gizmoduck have a hard time working together to stop Steelbeak's latest caper.

-Planet Of The Capes: Comet Guy brings Darkwing to his planet in hopes of finding the missing Ordinary Guy.

-Darkwing Doubloon: The show travels to the age of pirates as Darkwing and Negaduck do battle on the high seas.

-My Valentine Ghoul: After Darkwing still denies Morgana's help, Negaduck tries to use this to his advantage.

-Quack of Ages: Quackerjack tries to stop the invention of the yo-yo by travelling back in time.

-Inside Binkie's Brain: An arrant bowling ball to the head turns Binkie Muddlefoot into the safety obsessed superhero The Canardian Guardian.

-Slime Okay, You're Okay: After being exposed to a serum made by Bushroot, Gosalyn starts turning into a slime creature.

-Monsters R Us: Darkwing, Gosalyn and Launchpad meet Morgana's creepy family and wind up turned into monsters themselves.


LEAST FAVORITE EPISODE


-Smarter Than a Speeding Bullet: A superhero named Comet Guy arrives to Earth to seek Darkwing's help, but Steelbeak manages to manipulate Comet Guy into aiding him. This episode is probably my least favorite as it does come off as annoying, not just in Comet Guy and his quick to get dull power of dancing uncontrollably when he hears a whistle, but Darkwing is in more jerk mode than normal. It's definitely not as bad as some episodes I disliked in other shows, and the sequel episode "Planet of the Capes" is much better, but this still counts.

LEGACY

So, much like most of the others, there wasn't much else for Darkwing after his show finished up. There were comics and video games, including another great NES game from Capcom and one of the worst Turbografix-16 games of all time. Then in 2011, Boom Studios and later Joe Books would publish a new Darkwing comic series that would last until 2016. Aside from nostalgic mentions here and there, that was pretty much it for D.W...


That is until Ducktales 2017. It had been revealed for a while that Darkwing would be returning to Disney television, and still voiced by Jim Cummings. And on May 11th, 2018, Darkwing Duck would make his long awaited return... as a character of Launchpad's favorite cartoon as a kid. Okay, so for some it's not the most dynamic way to bring him back, but it also makes sense that in this world, Darkwing was Launchpad's childhood hero. He grew up with Darkwing, much like a lot of the 90s kids did with the actual show. Not only that, but the second season of DuckTales expanded on this, not only giving us a real Drake Mallard to be the real Darkwing Duck, but the original actor goes insane and becomes Negaduck, giving more of an actual origin for Negaduck than the original show did.

FINAL THOUGHTS


Darkwing Duck is different from all of the other shows I've covered for this blog, and that's definitely a good thing. Its strength isn't from more compelling stories, but with the comedy, both meta and slapstick. Granted, this means that when Darkwing can get blown up, run over or fall off high buildings and survive, it takes away tension from many ad breaks, but the show's strong writing and great characters never make that issue feel like a detriment. Although a lot of episodes just seem to end as the resolution is usually in the final minute. Animation is a bit scattershot, as there were definitely more studios involved, but some look fine. Others look kinda off like Kennedy Cartoons, but nothing that really hurts the show. Though there are some episodes with glaring animation errors. Watch the first few minutes of "Cleanliness is next to Badliness" and you'll see what I mean. As for favorite characters, Darkwing, Launchpad, Gosalyn, Honker, Megavolt, Negaduck, Morgana, Splatter Phoenix and Steelbeak are the most notable.

Since I took longer than planned finally sitting down to marathon a cartoon again for this blog, I think I ended up enjoying the show a lot more this time than I thought. It's still one of the strongest of the Afternoon block, despite being the most chaotic in terms of writing. With that said though, it is now our #1 ranking, beating out TaleSpin. It's one of Disney's best and with Disney+ now being a thing, you owe it to yourself to give it another run. It's a show that's worth getting dangerous.

FINAL RATING: A

OFFICIAL SHOW RANKING: 

#1. Darkwing Duck
#2. TaleSpin
#3. Disney's DuckTales
#4. Chip 'N Dale: Rescue Rangers
#5. Disney's Adventures of the Gummi Bears


That wraps things up for our Darkwing Duck recap, but here's what coming up next on All in a Disney Afternoon...


Disney finally lets itself go Goofy. But does this goof up mean more greatness? Find out next time with Goof Troop.

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