mei's diary

base-breaking subjects in ducktales

(Yes, another DuckTales post, in an attempt to be less serious about my posting.)

Before I finished watching DuckTales, I was going through their TV Tropes pages and found they had their own dedicated Broken Base page, which I thought was funny.

According to the main page, a Broken Base is defined as the following:

A Broken Base is a civil war among fans of a particular franchise. Almost every franchise has at least some internal conflict among its fanbase, but a truly broken base is characterized by a sustained and exceptionally vicious conflict between two or more large, vocal, and entrenched factions with little or no middle ground to be found between them.

Because I like to talk and have lots of opinions, I bookmarked this page for after completing the show, with the intent of giving my thoughts on each point of contention just for fun. So now that that's happened, here I go!

Spoilers below, obviously, but I don't imagine anyone who reads my blog cares that much or even intends to watch DuckTales (2017), even though you should.

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Gif by dragonsareawesome123 on Tumblr, from the final credits.

General

Point of contention: Show is more cynical due to increased angst; trying to be like Adventure Time or Gravity Falls.

Because it's more plotty, and the characters show development over time? Maybe it's because I didn't watch the original or because I'm used to the tone of other story-based cartoons, but I didn't find 2017 particularly harrowing to watch.

I guess I did find myself liking the contained, one-off episodes more, but that's because I generally just like seeing characters I like in shenanigans. The draw for most of my favorite stories is almost always character > plot. But I also feel like shows that are plot-directed (like AT and GF) have a better grasp of their characters and put them in more serious situations, which I like, so I end up liking cartoons with more direction despite favoring the episodic.

Point of contention: Show is more heavily reliant on action and violence.

Eh! I'm not an action girlie myself, so I don't pay too much attention to fight scenes, but I didn't notice it was overbearing. Just standard kids' cartoons action.

Point of contention: The art style.

I think it's cute! The kids sometimes look silly, but I prefer these looks to the old cartoon. I think they're more approachable, stylized, and fun to draw. Their square heads are laughably cute.

Point of contention: Storytelling approach. Some fans want more fun one-shots and rotating protagonists, others want grounded stories and lasting character development.

Ooooh, I see both sides. I said earlier I was more in the former camp, but I also love a grounded story! I like shenanigans specifically because I like learning about the characters through them, so I don't want all silly scenarios – serious, everyday stuff appeals to me more.

I don't know how I feel about focusing hard on character development though. The kids especially could go through a LOT of growth, as kids realistically do. But it might turn into a different show about different people if you put them through that, and I don't know if I'd like that. It makes sense for the show to be either short (to capture a specific time period of character growth) or have lots of fun stuff in between (to stagger the character growth) to prevent so much changing, and I think the show struck a good balance.

Point of contention: Does the show try too hard to appeal to today's kids? Discussion points include Mark Beaks, higher focus on the kids, more comedy, and references to modern tech that will date the show.

I'll go point by point.

Point of contention: Casting, mentioning Gyro Gearloose and Don Karnage specifically.

I didn't see the original so I have no context for Gyro, but I like his 2017 jerk self. I'm also maybe biased because I loved Jim Rash in Community and love him as Gyro as well. I also don't care that they didn't get the original Don Karnage voice actor to be him again – he got another role, and they got to hire a new guy. It was a nice creative departure.

Point of contention: Should the show have an overarching Big Bad?

I mean... each season got their own Big Bad, which I felt was cool! I guess there was a final/true Big Bad, but eh, I thought Bradford was a fun antithesis to Scrooge. Generally I don't really care if the show "should" or "should not" have something, as long as they did well with it. This is one of those complaints that I don't really think should be that big a deal.

Point of contention: Lena should have been adopted by the McDucks!

Um! It's fine! I can't say it would have made a difference to me.

Point of contention: How much crossover there was with The Disney Afternoon.

Ohhh, I kind of get this one. I did not care about Kit Cloudkicker, although I like the lesson from that episode. I was indifferent to the cameos of the other Disney Afternoon characters. I did like Goofy showing up, but I'm also glad he only did so once and in the specific episode he did!

Point of contention: What is Boyd's family name?

Girl I don't care!!! But I do prefer Boyd being with Gyro. I don't hold a grudge against Gyro for their history, and generally just find him more interesting than the Drakes.

Base-breaking characters

Mark Beaks

So funny that he's the first character listed. Again, he sucks. I love him. He's made to be disliked and bad at things, and I'm a sucker for a character like that. He's mostly harmless, and when he's harmful he's easily thwarted, and above all, he's a lazy, unoriginal, attention-seeking manchild with parent issues. So much fun. Awful guy if he were real, but as a cartoon parrot? Yay.

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Stupid idiot bird.

Webby

I agree that she's kind of the main character of the kids, but if she didn't have as much relevancy, people would argue that she should have just been written out. The "protagonist kid" cannot be the triplets, by nature of them being triplets (would be worse if they made one stand out and the other two background characters), so if they were going to give that title to any of the kids, it makes sense it would be Webby.

Although I guess that begs the question of "does there need to be a protagonist kid," which I don't have an answer to. Agree that she ends up being a little Mary Sue-ish in her relation to Scrooge + being the focus character in the Magica arc episodes + good at so many things + usually being written as right/sympathetic. Still, I like her!

Dewey

I do think Dewey's season was a lot more him-focused than Louie's season or Huey's, but I didn't mind that – I just wished the Louie and Huey seasons were similarly focused on them. (Extremely tripletpilled...) I did think he took a major backseat after his season and was overall a little more one-note after they'd explored his thing with Della.

I really liked the episodes that highlighted his relationships with his brothers ("The Infernal Internship of Mark Beaks," "Louie's Eleven"), and wish they did more of that. I think Dewey's middle child syndrome gets explored in his outward personality and choice of actions, but I'd have liked to see more of that in a more interpersonal way, affecting his relationships. This is the kid who, while impersonating Louie, says "you're the glue that holds us together." Come on!

Huey

Huey's point seems to have been written pre-Season 3 (his season). I think they did a good job making Huey a little more textured than just "nice boy Woodchuck" over Seasons 2 and 3, so I disagree that he's a basic boy scout.

HOWEVER, I take issue with Season 3 being "his season" because of how little he appears/how little focus he gets when he does appear. I wish there were more episodes like "Challenge of the Senior Junior Woodchucks!" that spotlight him and his issues (rather than have him be part of a larger thing, like "Astro BOYD" or "Beaks in the Shell").

I knew they were wrapping up, so a lot of S3 is Missing Mystery-slash-F.O.W.L.-focused and used a lot of the larger cast, but man. I pretend not to have a favorite, but gun to my head, Huey is my boy. He didn't even get a moment with Della where she tenderly smooths her hands down the side of his head, like Dewey or Louie! I was waiting for that!!!

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HE DID NOT.

Louie

Louie was my definitive least favorite (It was Dewey = Huey > Louie) in Season 1, but he really grew on me over time. I'm in the camp of appreciating his character development. Love the green hoodie duck.

Launchpad

Launchpad is okay! The "dumb guy who is more intellectually at a child's level, or even below" character trope generally does not interest me very much, so I like him the normal amount. I have no complaints.

Manny the Headless Man-Horse

I've accepted him as a fun guy the showrunners just like to use and don't find his presence bothersome. I like that they had him voiced by Keith David.

Roxanne Featherly

People have debates about her?

Doofus Drake

I hear he's a nice boy in the original, but I think he makes for a funny antagonist, or at least someone who shakes/unsettles Louie. He serves the purpose I want him to serve (AKA put the characters I do like/care about in situations). "Hellowyn, Llewellyn" is really funny to me.

Gyro Gearloose

Talked about him in the casting point above. I think he's fun, but maybe I think that because I didn't know his original personality!

Flintheart Glomgold

He serves the purpose he's supposed to serve! I kind of wish he would succeed a bit more or for longer, to give Scrooge a real threat, but I also like that nothing usually goes his way because he's an idiot. I don't think about him that hard, and so don't really care one way or the other. I did kind of only half-watch his focus episode.

Magica de Spell

Her point on TV Tropes seems like it was written before S3 ended. I wish they resolved her backstory with Poe and we got to see him again, but I get they didn't have much time and it works as something fun for fans to speculate! I liked her more once she was a little less powerful ("Nightmare on Killmotor Hill!", "Glomtales," the episode where she helps Lena).

Della

I think it made sense for Della to discipline Louie like she did in "Timephoon," because she's so unpracticed in being a mom – like, of course she overcorrects! In general, I think they write her well, and she's a solid character, flaws and all. I wish the show had time/episodes to do more with her relationships with each of the core family.

Lena

Um! I actually just like Lena the normal amount. I don't think I'm her target market, but I like her fine and I always got teary about her friendship with Webby.

Reflection (since it feels anticlimactic to end with that)

I was... not as opinionated as I thought I would be, though I'm also unsurprised. I generally don't dislike particular characters or creative decisions, but that's because all my energy goes into caring about the characters I do like. I am easy to please as long as my faves are treated thoughtfully, and in this case, they were!

I'll echo what I said under the "Big Bad" point above, which is that I don't really care if the show "should" or "should not" have something, as long as they executed it well. I'll extend that caveat to include "and/or can justify it (AKA put some thought into it)."

This makes me sound forgiving, but conversely, if I think something is poorly made, I will have a long list of evidence for why it is bad... Normal behavior.

A big thing that might have also contributed to my being fine with a lot of the above is that I didn't watch the original cartoon, so had nothing to compare it to. I can sympathize with fans who were dismayed to see a completely different interpretation of something they specifically really liked in the original.

But I also think that comes with the territory of a reboot + don't think it is ever that serious, so I don't sympathize with people who rage too hard about new versions of things they like. As far as reboots/sequels/reinterpretations1 go, the DuckTales one is different, but its own flavor of good!

That is it for my DuckTales posting on Bear I think (though not it for my obsession, I fear). In other news, I finished my comic last night at six in the morning! Writing this post was my reward to myself.

  1. See reboots/sequels people thought were worse: The Proud Family, Clone High, Megamind, The Incredibles, Wreck-it Ralph.↩

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