Donald Duck, Where Are You?

Ducktales, “Whatever Happened to Donald Duck?!” Review and Recap

Right before summer came around, Ducktales made a pretty big splash on Disney Channel, dishing out two weeks of new episodes. Aside from the return of a certain superhero, though, the most important thing that happened was Della Duck’s return to Earth. This was something the show had been building since the beginning, so it was a pretty big moment. Unfortunately, said moments soured by the fact that now Donald’s the one stranded on the Moon, with a population convinced Earth’s trying to invade. With Ducktales set for two more weeks of new episodes, that important storyline finally picks up again.

Recap

After crash landing on the Moon, Donald’s ramen prisoner by General Lunaris and used to further encourage them to invade Earth. Fortunately, he’s freed by Captain Penumbra, who’s guilty about Lunaris’ lies and wants to stop his plans for war. While trying to help Donald escape, the two discover that Lunaris has planned this invasion for years. Worse, he’s smart enough to know to go after Scrooge McDuck and his family first. Despite the General’s best efforts though, Donald escapes on a prototype bullet ship.

Back on Earth, Dewey and Webby are getting desperate for their next big mystery now that Della’s back. They end up trying to find out why their postcards to Donald keep getting returned, and that leads them to a man they think’s blackmailing him. He’s not: he’s just his anger management counselor.

Review

I won’t lie, I liked the storyline about Donald Duck in this episode. The sub-plot on Earth with Dewey and Webby, though, felt pointless and detracted from the main action. The only purpose that Dewey and Webby’s misadventures served was to explain why Donald’s so angry, and even that seems unnecessary.

Donald’s counselor explains that his rage comes from the fact that he’s a butt-monkey and that no one can understand what he’s saying. So he learned to channel that anger into protective instincts towards his family. In other words, threatening Donald’s family will turn him into an unstoppable engine of fury. We already knew this, though, because we’ve seen it on the show before.

On the other hand, the episode shows that Lunaris is a cut above the rest of the show’s villains. He’s smart enough to know that instead of going after Scrooge first, he has to take out the kids to break his spirits. This means he’ll be a tough opponent to defeat, and I look forward to seeing it. This episode wasn’t that entertaining for me, but at least it gave us some classic Donald slapstick and sets up to something big.

By the way, we all know Donald’s going to survive that bullet ride. He’s too stubborn to die from that.

I Give “Whatever Happened to Donald Duck?!” a 2.5/5. Less story, more Donald

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