fumanstan

The theme sounds fine to me. The original is better, but I can see why they wouldn't reuse it.

Mike86

The singer sounds like she doesn't even care. Like: "oh, I have to do this song for a Disney kids show, I'm just going to phone it in". The original has a great catchy beat and the singer sounds into it like the show is packed with adventure and fun and can honestly get stuck in my head for hours (I actually have it downloaded it from iTunes and love when it comes up on a shuffle playlist).

fujishig

The first episode/movie premieres in like half an hour. But don't worry it's playing over and over and over all day tomorrow on Disney Xd. Literally, that's all they have on the schedule.

Mike86

Thanks for the reminder. Set up a recording just in case.

whotony

The animation is awful.

Maybe it's the artistic style of the drawings.

Very flat no dimension.
Minimalistic art.

All the little ducks have square heads.

I don't like it.

Mike86

I actually liked it quite a bit. The animation didn't bother me for the most part. I still wish the boys sounded more like ducks rather than just normal, although I honestly found Donald a bit too hard to understand at times. I do like that Donald will seemingly be a bigger part of this series and I like what they did with Webby. Scrooge seems like his classic self so there's that too. Same goes for Launchpad pretty much. The boys are somewhat of a mixed bag. I don't mind Huey and Louie but feel like the Dewey character could get annoying. Mrs. Beakley I'm unsure of at this point. She wasn't in a ton of this premiere but I don't care for her design and overall the character isn't my favorite.

Overall though its a pretty fun show for what it is. The original is still better to me but this is a harmless little show and not a bad watch. I've got my DVR set for a series recording

PhantomStranger

I'm deeply wedded to the original voices from the 80s and 90s, so this reboot holds little interest for me. Anyone else think that voice acting for kids' shows is worse than ever? There were so many iconic, memorable performances before the 2000s in children's television. It was always the same, small handful of versatile industry vets.

fujishig

I dunno I usually find the Disney stuff well cast. I mean they got the original voice actors back for Tangled.

It does seem like they get a lot more TV actors to do roles in kids shows now, maybe it's the ABC connection?

Mike86

I thought the voice cast was decent for the most part. David Tennant is decent as Scrooge and while I wish the boys had more duck sounding voices they sorta grew on me as I was watching. The guy playing Donald was good, although like I said before sometimes I couldn't understand him (I know that's part of how Donald is but I could usually understand him in other cartoons). I actually kind of thought the guy playing Launchpad sounds similar in ways to the original actor.

Michael Corvin

Okay, watched tonight with the kiddos. It was a mixed bag for all of us. Disclaimer, DuckTales is probably my favorite kids show from my childhood. As such, I've shown my kiddos the original on DVD from a young age. So all three of us are a bit biased towards the original, so it's hard to review this without comparing. Sorry if this is too long.

Story: Overall, the story was decent but pretty small scale and rushed for tackling something like Atlantis right out of the gate. On top of that it felt extremely small scale compared to the 5-part Treasure of the Golden Suns. It was nice seeing the Golden Sun coin in Scrooge's garage. It was lacking in the humor department though. The original was lighthearted and fun. You felt like you were a part of the adventure. This felt like it was going through the motions.

Animation: I'm not a fan of the minimalist YouTube generation of 2D animation, especially when the original was lauded for it's animation. It raised the bar for all other animated shows at the time. So this is definitely a letdown. You would think they'd try and push the envelope once again and come up with something truly unique.

The adult duck designs work for the most part, however Scrooge & Donald's legs are too long. Their legs have always had a bent design to them dating back to Walt's designs. Tall and skinny is a weird look. The kids' square noggins and tiny beaks don't work for me.

Overall, all the character designs are too angular. It almost feels like it's designed to make them feel 'edgy.' It's not pleasing to the eye. The original designs, again dating back to Walt's original designs are more rounded and warm feeling. It's pleasing to look at.



compared to:


Characters/Voice Cast:

• Scrooge: Tennant was solid but I'm not sure of Disney's long term goal here as I don't see him portraying him outside of this show for any extended period of time. So it seems odd to cast a big name actor for what could be a lifelong voice gig. At any rate, he did capture the essence and feel of Scrooge.
  
• Donald Duck: No complaints here. This is Donald through and through. I wasn't a fan of the black Navy uniform though.
  
• Huey/Dewy/Louie: I liked that the boys had unique voices and personalities. That was always kind of harder to determine in the original. I also liked that they kinda dressed slightly different. Louie in a hoodie was a sign of the times and I liked it. There's definitely room to grow each character with these three. I also agree about them not sounding 'duck-like.'
  
• Webby: Kate Miccuci is inspired casting. I liked it.
  
• Launchpad: Launchpad was good but I'm torn. Voice-wise he felt like a poor-man's Patrick Warburton. Not bad, but it makes him feel like a 'dumb' character. To me Launchpad was never outright 'dumb' he just made questionable choices. Outside of Donald, he definitely felt closest to his original's counterpart.
  
• Mrs. Beakley: I'm torn on this one. I liked the original but this one was good as well. She was more of a warm natured mother figure that was a good counter balance to the other adult characters. This one seemed just as stuffy as Scrooge and Donald in regards to parenting the boys. Need to see more though.
  
• Flinheart Glomgold: Again, this one falls short. "Flinty" was always Scrooge's smartest adversary(Other than always hiring the Beagle Boys ). I didn't see that in this version. The new design was okay. Overthinking it, but I can't picture treasure hunters like Scrooge/Glomgold who are running all over the globe as overweight.
  
• Duckworth: Suspiciously absent. It was kind of odd to see Launchpad as Scrooge's driver. I wonder what the reasoning was to abandon him(rich people don't have butlers anymore? lol). He probably won't be missed but like Mrs. Beakley, we was always a good natured character when around the boys.
  

That's good since he's been voicing him since the mid-80's and even on the original show.

Mike86

Ah I guess I didn't even realize. I figured it might be someone new since basically everyone else is a new voice actor.

I agree with some of your criticisms but overall I felt pretty satisfied. It's not the original but it didn't fall flat on it's face and disgrace the original either. I feel like there's room to grow and for a pilot it was good.

fujishig

Finally watched this with the kids. They liked it, which is what matters.

The animation was a little jarring at first, though I had seen the shorts before so knew what to expect. Got used to it over the course of the two parter, though.

I like that Donald seems to be more involved here, and the history with Scrooge and . That at least is tackling new territory. Webby being the fan girl is cool, kinda reminiscent of Mabel in Gravity Falls. Also really cool that they differentiate the three brothers.

My wife commented that the kids seemed more like teenagers in this show compared to the original, but that may just be us getting old...

I'll miss the classic designs if only because the original show did such a great job of adapting the classic Barks comics. I'm not sure if they're going to that well again but there's a wealth of Rosa stories they could do as well.

bluetoast

Here's a nice article on the origins of the theme song:

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.van...heme-music/amp

Michael Corvin

Great article.

Noonan

Really enjoyed the animation style. Lauchpad's voice sounded off. I remember him being more of a bafoon than a dumb surfer dude, which is what he sounds like now.

PhantomStranger

Animation and character designs today are all heavily minimized to save money and shorten production times. The age of quality animation on television is over from American companies. You still occasionally get dynamic animation designs from France or Japan. It's why Cartoon Network's entire daily schedule looks dreadful.

They won't even give Bruce Timm the needed budget for new animation anymore.

cleaver

faust69

Loved the new version. Loved the old version too. There's enough differences here to make things interesting instead of the same old, same old. If I wanted the same thing, I'll rewatch the original episodes. This is a fun updating made by folks who sound like they're having fun and love the original too. I'm definitely onboard with this.

fujishig

I honestly don't mind the look of this cartoon and Tangled, or stuff like Justice League Action, Steven Universe, or Star v. The forces of evil, or hybrid cgi stuff like Sophia and whatever. The new Voltron looks great. I actually liked when BTAS started a trend of simpler designs because the animation was for the most part a lot cleaner and on point. I mean people love the 80s XMen cartoon but man those more sophisticated designs had terrible animation.

Now this trend of 10 to 15 minute short episodes isn't something I can get behind.

TheBigDave

The first episode is FREE on Amazon Video:

https://www.amazon.com/Woo-oo/dp/B074R6Z8Z5

And at Google Play:

https://play.google.com/store/tv/sho...bcpKs6byGy2Whg

faust69

Youtube too:

fumanstan

The YouTube one was posted just a few posts above yours

Watched the first 20 minutes this morning before work, so far I dig it. I don't remember Donald being that hard to understand before. I like the different personalities of the nephews, didn't care for Webby so much at first.

Mike86

I thought it might just be me not understanding Donald but I've heard others mention it too. That's probably why I thought it was a different actor because I swear in past cartoons or whatever he's appeared in he hasn't been that hard to understand.

Michael Corvin

Yeah, he could just be overplaying it.

fujishig

So they're bringing in the other Disney Afternoon characters!
https://ew.com/comic-con/2019/07/19/...gers-talespin/