DuckTales (1987)/Headscratchers


 * Was there a particular reason for the writers to put Donald Duck on a bus as soon as possible?
 * Probably because of Donald's popularity and seniority in the animation department. If he was a regular character he might have upstaged Scrooge.
 * He's also The Unintelligible, a problem that doesn't exist in the comics. Note that some of the comic book stories were adapted into episodes, and instead of bringing him back for those (he did make occasional guest appearances) his role was filled by Launchpad or Fenton.
 * Another possible reason is that Clarence Nash, the man who had provided the distinctive voice of Donald since his first animated short, had died in 1985. Ducktales was the first time Nash's successor, Tony Anselmo, voiced Donald. Maybe the people at Disney weren't yet sure whether Anselmo could carry the role when Ducktales went into production, and thus minimized Donald's part in case Anselmo sounded "wrong"?
 * Why does reading this site give me the image that Duck Tales is more well known than the comics that spawned it?
 * Because that's probably the case?
 * Then that bugs me. A lot.
 * Not a unique case.
 * I might as well explain why this amazes me so much: Here in Finland every kid from ages three to ten reads Duck comics. Everyone. I don't know anyone here who hasn't read them as a child. The idea of people seeing DuckTales as something else than an adaptation, especially in the country of origin of all those characters, is simply alien as hell to me.
 * The Comics have been out of print in America for quite awhile.
 * Not quite -- bigger comic shops have new issues of Uncle Scrooge and Donald Duck and Friends that seem to contain brand-new stories.
 * That spunky, upstart, up-and-comer, Television, has been really giving that financial juggernaut and media colossus, comic books, a run for its money lately eh? Also, don't confuse "the world" with "where insert this troper lives."
 * Actually it is a lot more widespread than just "where insert this troper lives." Most of Europe, as well as several South American countries, has highly popular monthly or even weekly comics of the ducks. Reading duck comics is part of growing up for most children in these countries.
 * There's actually a good, if convoluted reason for this. The original stories the episodes were based on were published in America decades before the show aired. When the show was a success, the holder of the rights to publish Disney comics, Gemstone, had, for some inscrutable reason, decided to try and corner the collector's market, resulting in higher prices making the books unavailable to kids. A few years ago, Gemstone lost the license, Boom!Studios picked it up, and began undoing some of the damage.
 * If they live in a city called Duckberg, why are most residents dogs? I mean you will only see another duck person if they are important.
 * The founder was a duck, as seen in the comics...
 * If Scrooge hates spending money, then why does he live in a house that's got to be worth a few million dollars?
 * Perhaps he's keeping it and maintaining it as a real estate investment?
 * This is actually explained in Don Rosa's The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck (if it was mentioned in the Carl Barks comics, I can't remember). For most of Scrooge's life, even as he kept raking in the dough, he lived very, very frugally. Then Scrooge had a sort of mid(late?)life crisis when he got back home from all his treasure hunting and business building; he had grown old and bitter, had shut out his family, and had lapsed into a deep depression. At that point he chose to buy himself a fancy mansion because Scrooge felt that there was nothing left to do but wallow in his memories, sit in the dark, grow old, and die there. This is of course when Donald and the nephews enter his life and turn him completely around, making him interested in adventuring and being the world's biggest tightwad again. Scrooge still manages to avoid his mansion even with all the treasures inside - he spends a lot more time in his Money Bin which is considerably less furnished.
 * After Barks' creation of the money bin, all Barks and Rosa comics show Scrooge living at the money bin, which is also an office building that contains a library and trophy room -- in other words, plenty of room for all treasures besides his coins. This is confirmed at the 12th and final chapter of Life and Times, when Scrooge decides to sell the mansion and begin personally running his empire again from the money bin. Rosa's story "The Beagle Boys vs. the Money Bin" shows Scrooge's private living quarters as being on the top (12th) floor. DuckTales illogically (given his -- somewhat understandable -- obsession with security and guarding his money) shows him living in a mansion separate from the money bin.
 * I suspect the difference is that in DuckTales Scrooge hired Duckworth to take care of the mansion, and as strained as their relationship is he was Scrooge's closest thing he had to friends or family for years and if he sold the mansion, he'd have to fire Duckworth.
 * Maybe when he stayed at the Money Bin, Scrooge would get up every five minutes during the night and go to check on his cash to make sure it was okay, and thus wasn't getting any sleep and going crazy. It's possible that, despite his security consciousness, he decided to buy the mansion and put a long drive between himself and the bin when he was trying to sleep just so that he could convince himself just to actually lay down and get some rest.
 * Why is Scrooge's butler Duckworth a dog?
 * Must be a duck in the family tree.
 * Why shouldn't he be a dog?
 * Could be worse, he could be...human...
 * It gets worse in Duckman of Aquatraz, which has dog prison guards who have guarddogs on leashes.
 * This show CONSTANTLY keeps referring to the main characters as being humans. You'd think that working on a show called DuckTales, the writers would remember that their characters are ducks......
 * There are plenty of species other than ducks in the world. "Human" is probably just their term for "anything that stands upright, wears clothes, and talks".
 * In the episode "Duck to the Future", Scrooge ends up getting sent 40 years into the future by Magica De Spell. Magica has taken over his company and his No. 1 Dime. He manages to confront Magica and, in a sequence that would make any Jerkass Genie proud, ends up jumping through time with her until they return to the present. The Fridge Logic here, if he came back from the future with Magica and his dime, wouldn't that mean that there are now two No. 1 Dimes and two Magicas (albeit, one 40 years older than the other)?
 * In the end of the treausre hunt of the first episodes, the ancient city with enormous gold deposits is buried underground, so the heroes just leave. Uhm, why? The insane El Capitano attempting to dig out the gold with his bare hands was played for laughs, but he oly got the tools wrong, not the idea. The modern world offers some much more efficient means to excavate things, and certainly Scroodge can afford them, especially with such a payoff in the prospect. The end of the episode showed he wasn't rid of his avarice, so...?
 * I have two problems with "Duck To The Future": 1.) How and why in the love of f*ck did Webby have to end up ? 2.) Isn't it really possible that the future could be changed so that Webby wouldn't end up  ? Both these inconsistencies beg an explanation.
 * If you know your Time Travel (Back to The Future, Chrono Trigger, Sliders (though that's sideways in time, not forward and backward)), you'd know that that was only one of an infinite number of possible futures. In THAT future, events conspired in such a way that Webby ended up marrying Doofus. Keep in mind that individuals change, sometimes drastically, with age. Possibly, at some point, Doofus changed in a way that Webby became attracted to him. Another point, Webby is a female character and since the number one desire and destiny of all women both real and fictional is to marry someone and start a family, she got paired up with the only prominent male age-appropriate character that existed at the time who was both easily and quickly recognizable to the audience and not Huey, Dewey and/or Louie.
 * Why is Donald the only duck to have a type of speech that makes him The Unintelligible, yet Scrooge, The Nephews, Professor Ludwig Von Drake, Drake Mallard (despite being in the spin-off) Magica Despell, and Glomgold do not have this problem? What is up with that? Did something happen to Donald's vocal chords that make him sound like this and not like the other ducks?
 * Some people have speech impediments, some don't. Same goes for duck people.