DuckTales! Knows How to Celebrate Halloween!

DuckTales Season 3, Episode 10 Review

Ahh, Halloween. Next to Christmas, it’s the holiday that people in America get into the most, especially when it comes to TV shows. With Halloween specials all but an unspoken tradition, it was only a matter of time before the reboot of DuckTales! did one themselves. And while it won’t make into my list of memorable Halloween episodes, it was still plenty entertaining. But hey, that’s DuckTales!

On Halloween night, Huey is determined to make sure his brothers and Webby can get most scares and sweets out of the night. However, those plans get derailed because Louie wants to go into this haunted that’s said to have mountains of candy from missing children. And since it’s Halloween, the house turns to actually be haunted!

Most shows would treat going inside a haunted house filled with actual monsters as a big deal. Given that this is DuckTales! and that happens every week, the shock gets lessened. A lot, if you ask me.

Don’t get me wrong. I loved how this episode was a love-letter to many horror icons and the classic “haunted house” setup of Halloween episodes. However, I felt like it was lessened by the fact that it wasn’t that scary. Honestly, the scariest thing I saw Disney XD do for a Halloween episode was “Hungry Larry” on Star vs. the Forces of Evil a few years ago. I’m not joking; that episode creeped me out.

Of course, the real meat of the episode came in the b-plot involving Donald, Della, and Launchpad.

How Has Launchpad Never Heard of Halloween?

Since Scrooge shuts down the Manor to get candy for himself (and I love that he does that,) Donald and Della go to Launchpad’s place. Only to find that not does he not know about Halloween, but has been under the belief that the whole night’s the result of a curse he put on Duckburg as a kid.

At first, I thought this premise was beyond idiotic. Everyone knows about Halloween; not even Launchpad can be dumb enough to not know about that! But after I got some time to think it over, I realized just that: Launchpad was dumb enough to not know about Halloween. I don’t know how to word it, but the fact that he’s freaked out by something everyone knows about but him is hilarious! Fortunately, it also winds up saving the day at the haunted house. Then everyone just buys candy from Scrooge and Dewey’s 24/7 candy store.

So, this isn’t going to be one of the best Halloween episodes that I’ve ever seen. However, the fact that the writers of the show were able to make references to multiple horror movies in the span of half an hour is a feat unto itself. Props to the people who worked on this episode, especially with Launchpad’s story!

I Give “The Trickening” a 4/5

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