DuckTales is an American animated television series produced by Walt Disney Television Animation. The broadcast began in syndication on September 18, 1987, spanning 100 episodes across 4 seasons, with the final episode airing on November 28, 1990.
Based on Uncle Scrooge and other Duck universe comic books created by Carl Barks, the show follows Scrooge McDuck, his three grandnephews Huey, Dewey, and Louie, and close friends of the group. Most episodes involve various adventures, most of which either involve seeking out treasure or thwarting the efforts of villains seeking to steal Scrooge's fortune or his Number One Dime.
DuckTales has inspired video games, merchandise, and comic books, along with an animated theatrical spin-off film entitled DuckTales the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp, that was released to theaters across the United States on August 3, 1990. It is the first Disney cartoon to be produced for weekday syndication, with its success paving the way for future Disney cartoons, such as Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers and TaleSpin, creating the syndication block The Disney Afternoon. The show's popular theme song was written by Mark Mueller. Launchpad McQuack, a side character, later returns to appear in another Disney animated series, becoming a main character in Darkwing Duck.
In February 2015, Disney XD announced the revival of the show, with the intention of rebooting the series. The rebooted series premiered on August 12, 2017, and concluded on March 15, 2021.
Premise When Donald Duck decides to join the US Navy, he enlists his uncle Scrooge McDuck to look after his nephews, Huey, Dewey, and Louie. Although he is reluctant to do so due to their hyperactivity, along with his continual pursuit of increasing his wealth and maintaining harsh business ethics, he takes them into his manor. Eventually, he warms up to them upon them proving their skills and brings them on several adventures. Scrooge McDuck is well known for his characteristic Scottish accent, spats, and top hat. We later learn in the series his family comes from Castle McDuck, a large but mysterious castle. He came to America when he was young by creating shoe-shining machines, learning how to "work smarter not harder". In addition to them, the show features frequent appearances by Gyro Gearloose, an established comic book character, as well as guest appearances by Donald in the first season – this was either a full appearance, or in a cameo scene when Scrooge and his nephews read letters he sends to them, and a few minor appearances by Scrooge's old flame, Glittering Goldie, whose character was adapted from the comic books. The show introduced new characters to the Duck universe; while some were minor including the nanny Mrs. Beakley, whom Scrooge hires to babysit the nephews; Mrs. Beakley's granddaughter Webby; Scrooge's pilot Launchpad McQuack; Doofus Drake, an admirer of Launchpad and a close friend of the nephews; and the McDuck Manor butler, Duckworth. The second season later introduced three new additional characters as part of the show's stories: "caveduck" Bubba Duck and his pet triceratops Tootsie; and Fenton Crackshell, Scrooge's personal accountant who secretly works as a superhero named Gizmoduck.
The show's primary villains consist of those from the comics: Flintheart Glomgold, who seeks to replace Scrooge as the "richest duck in the world"; the Beagle Boys, who seek to rob Scrooge of his fortune and often target his money bin; and Magica De Spell, who seeks to steal his Number One Dime. A few changes were made to these villains – unlike the comics, Flintheart is of Scottish descent and wears a couple of pieces of Scottish attire, including a kilt; Magica, who is Italian in the comics, has an Eastern European accent, always saying "darling" (which shocks Scrooge in an episode when Magica changes into the form of Mrs. Beakly). She has a brother named Poe, who was transformed into a raven; the Beagle Boys have individual personalities and are headed by their mother, Ma Beagle, who sometimes springs them from jail to conduct schemes with her, but always avoids being caught by the police. The animated series also featured a list of minor villains, most of whom sought to either claim Scrooge's wealth or beat him to treasure.
Most of the stories used in the show revolve around one of three common themes – the first focuses on the group's efforts to thwart attempts by various villains to steal Scrooge's fortune or his Number One Dime; the second focuses on a race for treasure; the third focused on specific characters within the show. Although some stories are original or based on Barks' comic book series, others are pastiches on classical stories or legends, including characters based on either fictional or historical persons. DuckTales is well noted for its many references to popular culture, including Shakespeare, Jack the Ripper, Greek mythology, Ancient Egypt, James Bond, Indiana Jones, Frankenstein's monster, Dracula, Dinosaurs, Sherlock Holmes and others. After its first season, the show moved away from globe-trotting stories, with adventures focused mainly within Duckburg the city in which it is set.
Cast
Alan Young as Scrooge McDuck Russi Taylor as Huey, Dewey, and Louie Duck and Webby Vanderquack Chuck McCann as Duckworth the Butler, Burger Beagle, and Bouncer Beagle Terry McGovern as Launchpad McQuack (entire series) and Babyface Beagle (season 1) Frank Welker as Bigtime Beagle (entire series), Baggy Beagle (entire series), Poe (season 1), and Bubba (seasons 2–4) Hal Smith as Gyro Gearloose and Flintheart Glomgold Joan Gerber as Mrs. Bentina Beakley, Glittering Goldie and Additional voices Hamilton Camp as Fenton Crackshell/Gizmoduck (seasons 2–4). Additional voices in season 1 June Foray as Ma Beagle and Magica De Spell Peter Cullen as Bankjob Beagle and Admiral Grimitz (season 1) Brian Cummings as Doofus Drake and Bugle Beagle (season 1). Additional voices in season 3 Tony Anselmo as Donald Duck (season 1)
The show also featured a range of additional voice actors who voiced several minor characters, most frequently including the following:
Susan Blu Corey Burton Jim Cummings Miriam Flynn Kathleen Freeman Linda Gary
Richard Libertini Tress MacNeille Howard Morris Alan Oppenheimer Rob Paulsen Will Ryan
History Production
Walt Disney Television Animation began production on DuckTales in 1986, intending to have it ready for a premiere in 1987, and its episodes airing within a 4–6 p.m. placement, at a time when more children would be watching television, rather than within a morning timeslot. Seeking to create a cartoon with high quality animation, in comparison with other 1980s cartoons which had much lower budgets, the animation was handled by Wang Film Productions (some 1987 and 1989–1990 episodes only), Cuckoo's Nest Studio, Tokyo Movie Shinsha (season 1 only), and Burbank Films (1 episode only) having previously been used on two other Disney cartoons in 1985 – The Wuzzles and Disney's Adventures of the Gummi Bears – both of which had demonstrated better quality cartoons on TV than in previous years. Although the Japanese provided them with more available artists for the cartoon, this also increased production costs, due to the currency exchange rates between the yen and the dollar, though Disney intended to invest heavily in its DuckTaless production, with plans to recuperate its money by having it syndicated via its syndication unit, Buena Vista Television, with a 2.5/3.5 syndicator/station ad split. While this was a concept that worked well with live-action TV reruns, it had only ever been used with inexpensive cartoon series in the past that either recycled theatrical shorts from decades past or only featured limited, low-budget animation, and thus had never been attempted with a high quality animated series, with the heavy investment considered a risky move.
Broadcast The cartoon premiered worldwide between 18 and 20 September 1987 (the time and date varying between markets), with a television movie special entitled The Treasure of the Golden Suns, which was later split up into a five-part serial in future reruns. The first season, aired between 1987 and 1988, consisted of 65 episodes, the "magic number" requirement needed for a show to have weekday syndication (five days a week for thirteen weeks). Disney then commissioned three more seasons – the second season (aired between 1988 and 1989) consisted of two television specials entitled "Time Is Money" and "Super DuckTales", with future reruns splitting them into two five-part serials; the third season (aired between 1989 and 1990) consisted of 18 episodes, with it forming an hour-long syndicated block alongside Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers; and the fourth season (aired during late 1990) consisted of seven episodes (including three unaired episodes meant for the previous season), which was used to form a two-hour-long syndicated block called The Disney Afternoon, consisting of DuckTales and three other half-hour cartoons.
The cartoon continued running within The Disney Afternoon until 1992. Following its departure from the Disney Afternoon, DuckTales reruns remained in syndication until 1995. On April 19, 1997, reruns began airing on ABC's "American Broadcasting Company" Saturday Morning block, up until August 30, 1997. Two days later, on September 1, 1997, Ducktales began reairing again in a new syndication run. Reruns continued on the Disney Channel from October 1995 to 2000, where it was at first part of a new two-hour programming block called "Block Party" that aired on weekday late afternoons,"Block Party: Four Disney Animated Series". The Disney Channel Magazine, Vol. 13, no. 5, October/November 1995: p. 36. with it returning to syndication between 1997 and 1999. Reruns were later shown on Toon Disney between 1999 and late 2004.
Legacy The show proved an immense success for Disney, who decided to commission other cartoons with a similar level of quality, which included Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers, Darkwing Duck, and TaleSpin. In addition, DuckTales also spawned its own feature-length movie, entitled DuckTales the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp, which was released to theaters on August 3, 1990, along with a franchise of merchandising, including toys, comic books and video games, a spin-off series, and eventually a revival in 2017, that rebooted the series. In 1990, the same year the original show ended, Russi Taylor-the voice of regular DuckTales characters Huey, Dewey, Louie, and Webby- obtained more voiceover work outside of Disney when she began providing the voices of some recurring characters on The Simpsons.
Episodes
Home media VHS releases 10 VHS cassettes, containing two episodes each, were released in the United States. VHS title Episode(s) Release date "Fearless Fortune Hunter" 'Earth Quack''Master of the Djinni' May 31, 1988 "Daredevil Ducks" 'The Money Vanishes''Home Sweet Homer' "High-Flying Hero" 'Hero for Hire''Launchpad's Civil War' "Masked Marauders" 'Send in the Clones''Time Teasers' October 4, 1988 "Lost World Wanderers" 'Dinosaur Ducks''The Curse of Castle McDuck' May 9, 1989 "Duck to the Future" 'Duck to the Future''Sir Gyro de Gearloose' "Accidental Adventurers" 'Jungle Duck''Maid of the Myth' September 28, 1989 "Seafaring Sailors" 'Sphinx for the Memories''All Ducks on Deck' "Raiders of the Lost Harp" 'Raiders of the Lost Harp''The Pearl of Wisdom' August 14, 1990 "Space Invaders" 'Where No Duck Has Gone Before''Micro Ducks from Outer Space'
Also, the episode "Ducky Horror Picture Show" was released with the Goof Troop episode "FrankenGoof" on a VHS cassette entitled Monster Bash in 1993.
UK, Australia and New Zealand VHS releases 10 VHS cassettes, each containing two or three episodes, were released in the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand.