DuckTales

DuckTales is an American animated television series produced by Disney Television Animation. It premiered on September 18, 1987 and ended on November 28, 1990 with a total of three seasons and 100 episodes. An animated theatrical spin-off film based on the series, DuckTales the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp, was released widely in the United States on August 3, 1990. The voice cast from the series reprised their roles for the film, and its an made-for-TV animated film from sequels to prequel, DuckTales: Treasure of the Gloden Suns, DuckTales: Time is Money and Super DuckTales.

DuckTales is based on Uncle Scrooge and other Duck universe comic books, created by Carl Barks. The viewer follows the adventures of Scrooge McDuck and his three grandnephews, Huey, Dewey, and Louie. Important secondary characters, that often take part in the adventures, include Donald Duck, Scrooge's pilot Launchpad McQuack and butler Duckworth, the inventor Gyro Gearloose, and the nanny Mrs. Beakley and her granddaughter Webby. The most notable antagonists in the series are the Beagle Boys, the witch Magica De Spell, and the industrialist Flintheart Glomgold. In a typical story, the villains are after McDuck's fortune or his Number One Dime; another common theme is a race after some sort of treasure. 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. The series is known for its many references to popular culture, including Shakespeare, Jack the Ripper, Greek mythology, James Bond, Indiana Jones, and Sherlock Holmes.

Premise
The show features the adventures of Scrooge McDuck and his great-nephews. The nephews, who were originally living with their uncle Donald, are left in Scrooge's care when Donald joins the Navy.

Though Scrooge is the richest duck in the world, he constantly tries to find ways to increase his wealth. Many episodes involve protecting his wealth from villains who want to rob Scrooge of all his money. The prominent recurring antagonists in the show include the Beagle Boys and Magica De Spell who are always finding ways to rob and swindle Scrooge and his nephews. Scrooge's nemesis in the show is Flintheart Glomgold, the second-richest duck in the world, who always tries to devise plans to unseat Scrooge McDuck from his "Richest Duck in the World" title. A few of the stories also surround Scrooge's "Number One Dime", the first money Scrooge ever earned, which Scrooge considers to be the source of his good luck and wealth. Scrooge keeps the dime in a glass jar in his money vault, and constantly protects it from the villains on the show.

The show's second season saw the addition of characters Fenton Crackshell and Bubba Duck. Along with them came stories that generally shifted away from the globetrotting plots of the first season, and revolved primarily in the contemporary setting of Duckburg. Episodes would feature either Bubba or Fenton but rarely both.

Although Scrooge and his nephews were the show's main characters, some episodes focused on other characters like Launchpad or Gyro. Some members of Scrooge's extended family (The Duck Universe), like Gladstone Gander who had extremely good luck, were also seen in the series. Characters like Gladstone were often seen in the early Carl Barks comic book stories.

Production
The series is notable for being the first Disney cartoon to be produced for syndication, and paving the way for future Disney cartoons, such as Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers, TaleSpin, and Darkwing Duck, the latter of which is considered to be a spinoff of DuckTales.

A world broadcast premiere television movie (entitled "The Treasures of the Golden Suns") first aired during the weekend of September 18–20, 1987 (date and time varied by market). Since then, it has been shown in the series' regular rotation as a five-part serial. A feature-length movie was released in theatres on August 3, 1990. The hundredth episode (which was also the series finale) aired on November 28, 1990.

The 1987–88 season of DuckTales consisted of 65 episodes (the standard length for a Disney TV show, as well as the standard length of many 1st season of 1990s TV shows). Two more five-part serials – "Time Is Money" and "Super DuckTales" – premiered as television movie specials in November 1988 and March 1989, respectively. The rest of the second season (fall 1989 – winter 1989) included an additional 18 episodes. In the second season, Bubba the Caveduck and his pet triceratops, Tootsie, and Fenton Crackshell and his alter ego Gizmo Duck appeared. DuckTales the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp was released in August 1990. Seven final episodes premiered in the fall of 1990 (including three produced for season two but held back for airing, and four produced explicitly for season three), bringing the total to 100 episodes—making DuckTales one of the longest-running Disney shows in terms of number of episodes.

Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers was paired with DuckTales in an hour-long syndicated block during the 1989–90 television season. In the 1990–91 season, Disney expanded the idea even further, creating The Disney Afternoon, a two-hour long syndicated block of half-hour cartoons. DuckTales was one of the early flagship cartoons in the series. The show ran in the Disney Afternoon until 1992.

On October 2, 1995, DuckTales began reruns on The Disney Channel as part of a two-hour programming block called "Block Party" which aired on weekdays in the late-afternoon/early-evening and which also included Darkwing Duck, TaleSpin, and Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers.

Huey, Dewey, and Louie all appeared in the drug prevention video Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue. Scrooge and Launchpad appeared in Disney's short-lived animated series Raw Toonage (originally aired on CBS in 1992 and 1993).

The show was the most successful of Disney's early attempts to create high-quality animation for a TV animated series (earlier shows included The Wuzzles and Disney's Adventures of the Gummi Bears in 1985). Disney invested a far greater amount of money into the TV series than had previously been spent on animated shows of the time. This was considered a risky move, because animated TV series were generally considered low-budget investments for most of the history of TV cartoons up through the 1980s. Most of the DuckTales episodes were animated in Asia by companies such as Cuckoo's Nest Studios, Wang Film Productions of Taiwan, and Tokyo Movie Shinsha of Japan.

Many critics say that Disney's own animation studio had lost most of its luster during the period from Walt Disney's passing through the 1980s. However, the studio took a number of risks that paid off handsomely, and DuckTales was one of those risks that won big. The studio gambled on the idea that a larger investment into quality animation could be made back through syndication — a concept that worked well with live-action TV reruns, but which had only been used with inexpensive cartoon series that either recycled theatrical shorts from decades past or only featured limited, low-budget animation.

The show was successful enough to spawn a feature film, DuckTales the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp, and a spinoff series: Darkwing Duck.

Characters
The main characters of the series, who appear in almost every episode, are Scrooge McDuck and his grandnephews Huey, Dewey, and Louie. Scrooge McDuck is a serious businessduck, the richest duck in the world, a tightwad who accumulated a fortune by being "smarter than the smarties, and tougher than the toughies". Despite his harsh business ethics, Scrooge is caring to his family. Huey, Dewey, and Louie are Scrooge's great-nephews, who are left in his care during the entire length of the series. Although fairly hyperactive, the nephews are also clever and intelligent.

The series also features a mix of established characters carried over from the comics, as well as new ones created for the show. Scrooge's household also consists of his butler, Duckworth; Mrs. Beakley, a nanny hired to look after Huey, Dewey, and Louie; and Webby Vanderquack, the granddaughter of Mrs. Beakley.

Initially, recurring characters included the absent-minded inventor Gyro Gearloose, the heroic but not too bright pilot Launchpad McQuack and the loyal but somewhat foolish Doofus Drake. During the second season, Bubba, a caveduck from the past, and an accountant, Fenton Crackshell, who had the dual identity of Gizmoduck, were added to the cast.

The show's primary villains consist of characters Magica De Spell, Flintheart Glomgold and the Beagle Boys. Although they are all financial threats to Scrooge in one way or another, they each have different motives: Magica wants Scrooge's Number One Dime to complete her magic spell, which will enable her to take over the world; Glomgold wants to replace Scrooge as the "Richest duck in the world"; and the Beagle Boys want to rob Scrooge of his fortune. While the comics originally depicted Glomgold as a native of South Africa, his origin was changed to Scottish descent just like Scrooge. New villains created for the show include Ma Beagle, mother of the Beagle Boys, and Poe De Spell, Magica's brother who has been transformed into a raven.

Other minor, but notable characters include Donald Duck, who left Huey, Dewey, and Louie in Scrooge's care at the start of the series; Gladstone Gander, Scrooge's inexplicably lucky nephew; Scrooge's old flame, Glittering Goldie; Merlock, a powerful magician who served as the movie's main villain; and Dijon, a thief who worked either on his own or for Merlock.

VHS releases
Ten VHS cassettes containing 20 episodes of the series were released in the United States.

UK, Australia and New Zealand releases
Ten VHS cassettes containing 21 episodes of the series were released in the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand.

US (Region 1)
Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment has released some of the series on DVD; three volumes have been released in Region 1 thus far featuring the first 75 episodes of the series. The first was released on November 8, 2005 (containing episodes 1–27), the second on November 14, 2006 (containing episodes 28–51) and the third volume on November 13, 2007 (containing episodes 52–75). The sets were packaged in a box containing 3 slipcases, one for each disc. There is currently no word on a fourth and final DVD release containing the final 25 episodes.

The episodes are in the order that they originally aired (except for the five-part serial "Treasure of the Golden Suns," placed at the beginning of Volume 2). None of the DVD sets contain any special features.

International (Region 2)
In the United Kingdom, Disney released one Region 2 volume in 2007, titled DuckTales First Collection. Despite the set being similar to the US version, the DVD contained only 20 episodes, while having 5 language tracks: English, French, German, Spanish and Italian. Other regional versions were distributed to international countries, but only going up to episode #20. On November 12, 2012, the UK received two further releases of Collection 2 and Collection 3, being a Region version of the 2nd and 3rd volumes from the US. Unlike the first release, these 3-disc sets include a Fastplay mode, and only four language tracks: English, Dutch, German and French, but subtitles have not been added.

There are currently no plans to release the rest of the series, or the seven episodes missing between the first two sets.

Video On Demand
Season One of DuckTales was released on Amazon Instant Video in 2013 and is free for Amazon Prime members. As of February 28, 2014 Ducktales Season 1 is no longer accessible through Amazon Instant Video or Amazon Prime accounts.

Music
The series theme song was written by Mark Mueller, an ASCAP award-winning pop music songwriter who also wrote the theme song to Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers. Episode musical scores were written by Ron Jones. In contrast to how other composers were creating a "patronizing" and "cute" score for the show, Jones says he composed the music with regard to the audience and its intelligence. "I would not play the score like a kid's show at all. If they went on an adventure I would play it serious like Raiders of the Lost Ark."

The DuckTales Theme was sung by Jeff Pescetto. There are four different versions of the theme song. The original version, serving as the show's opening theme, contained one verse, chorus, bridge, and then chorus. A shorter version of the opening theme was used in The Disney Afternoon lineup with the line, "Everyday they're out there making Duck Tales, woo-ooh," taken out.

A full-length version of the theme song was released on the Disney Afternoon soundtrack, the third volume (which was released in a set with the other two volumes) in The Music of Disney: a Legacy in Song along with the full TaleSpin theme and in the November 2013 release of the Disney Classics collection. In addition, it is heard in the end credits of DuckTales: Remastered and is also released on its official soundtrack.

The full version contains a second verse, and it includes a guitar solo, which is performed with a wah-wah pedal to make it sound like duck-like noises. It also has a fadeout ending, unlike the other versions. There is also a rare extended version that was used in the read along cassettes in 1987. It has a sequence order of verse-chorus-bridge-chorus-instrumental break-chorus.

DuckTales the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp
DuckTales the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp was released nationwide in the United States on August 3, 1990 by Walt Disney Pictures. The film follows Scrooge McDuck and his nephews as they try to defeat the evil warlock Merlock from taking over the legendary magic lamp.

DuckTales: Treasure of the Golden Suns
DuckTales: Treasure of the Golden Suns is crossover episodes of an Disney made-for-TV animated film released on September 18, 1987 produced by Disney Television Animation, sequel to 1990 Walt Disney Pictures theatrical animated film DuckTales the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp.

DuckTales: Time is Money
DuckTales: Time is Money is crossover episodes of an Disney made-for-TV animated film released on November 24, 1998 produced by Disney Television Animation based on TV series DuckTales, The film follows Donald Duck, Daisy Duck events of DuckTales the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp.

Super DuckTales
Super DuckTales is crossover episodes produced by Disney Television Animation released on March 26, 1989 then of 8 days Donald Duck and Daisy Duck based on TV series DuckTales, made-for-TV animated film based on 1990 Disney animated film DuckTales the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp.

Reception
In January 2009, IGN listed Ducktales as the 18th best show in the Top 100 Best Animated TV Shows.

Awards and nominations

 * Daytime Emmy Awards
 * 1988 – Outstanding Animated Programming (nominated)
 * 1989 – Outstanding Animated Programming (nominated)
 * 1989 – Outstanding Animated Programming (for Programming One Hour or More) – "Super DuckTales" (won)
 * 1990 – Outstanding Film Sound Editing – Rich Harrison, Charlie King and Rick Hinson (won)

Video and computer games
A DuckTales video game was developed by Capcom and released for the Nintendo Entertainment System and Game Boy in 1989. A sequel to the game, DuckTales 2, was released for NES and Game Boy in 1993. A Disney's Ducktales hand-held LCD game from Tiger Electronics was also released in 1990.

A different platform game, DuckTales: The Quest for Gold, was released by Incredible Technologies for computers in 1990. DuckTales: Remastered, an HD remake of Capcom's original game, developed by WayForward Technologies, was released by Disney Interactive for PlayStation Network, Nintendo eShop and Steam on August 13, 2013. It was also released on September 11, 2013 for Xbox Live Arcade. A retail copy for Playstation 3 was released on August 20, 2013 with a code to download the game and a DuckTales collector pin.

Various properties of DuckTales appear in the Toy Box for the Disney Infinity game such as the Money Bin and Scrooge himself. There is also a power disc called "Scrooge's Lucky Dime" that was also released for use in the game. The Money Bin is expected to reappear in the game's sequel, Disney Infiniy: 2.0.

An app was released by Disney in the late summer/early fall of 2013 called "DuckTales: Scrooge's Loot" where the player tries to get Scrooge back his money that was stolen by Flintheart Glomgold, Magica de Spell, and the Beagle Boys.

Ducktales
DuckTales had two series of comic books. The first series was published by Gladstone Publishing and ran for 13 issues from 1988 to 1990, and the second series was published by Disney Comics and ran for 18 issues from 1990 to 1991. Disney also published a children's magazine based on the show, which also featured comic stories, one of which was the only story written by Don Rosa without any illustrations by him. Subsequent comic stories were also printed in the magazine Disney Adventures from 1990 to 1996.

On August 29, 2007, Disney released a trade paperback of Scrooge's Quest and later The Gold Odyssey.

Carl Bark's Greatest DuckTales Stories
On May 24 and July 19, 2006, Gemstone published a two-volume trade paperback, Carl Barks's Greatest DuckTales Stories. The trades contain reprints of stories written by Carl Barks which were specifically adapted into television episodes of DuckTales.

Both volumes start out with an introduction and compare the original comic story with its DuckTales episode counterpart. Volume 1 also includes a two-page article delving into details on the adapting the show from the comic series.

2011 revival
On February 17, 2011, BOOM! Studios announced that a new DuckTales comic series would begin May 2011. The series was written by Warren Spector (author of the Epic Mickey videogame). It lasted for 6 issues, with the final two crossing over with Darkwing Duck.

Uncle Scrooge #392–399
Issues 392–399 of the Uncle Scrooge comic book published by BOOM Kids (later called Kaboom!) featured DuckTales comic book stories never before seen in the US, and were collected into two trade paperback volumes, "Uncle Scrooge in DuckTales: Like a Hurricane" on 2011-01-12 and "Uncle Scrooge in DuckTales: Messes Become Successes" on 2011-05-25.

Crossover
A 4-Part Crossover story with Darkwing Duck, titled "Dangerous Currency", was also released with parts 1 and 3 for DuckTales #5 and #6, and parts 2 and 4 for Darkwing Duck #17 and #18.

International
The success of DuckTales led to the translation of the show into many languages. Featured together with Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers in a Sunday morning program titled Walt Disney Presents, the show premiered in the former Soviet Union in 1991, the first American cartoon shown in the region after the Cold War. One year later, the DuckTales spin-off Darkwing Duck was also added to this lineup.

However, the show's theme song (written by Mark Mueller and originally sung by Jeff Pescetto) remained in English for a number of episodes. The first Russian version of the song was replaced mid-way through the series with an alternate rendition that contained completely different lyrics. The series aired in India on Doordarshan, dubbed in Hindi. The title track was sung in Hindi by Chetan Shasital. The features were dubbed and the episodes has voice cast of Chetan Shasital, Javed Jaffery, Rakshanda Khan and others. In many countries, the DuckTales song was performed by well-known singers (like in Finland, where it was sung by Pave Maijanen, or in Germany, where it was sung by Thomas Anders).

In Latin America, the series was called Patoaventuras (Duckadventures). Scrooge McDuck is called "Rico McPato" and the nephews were translated as Hugo, Paco, and Luis, keeping the names of the translated old cartoons and comic books. In Spain, while the Latin American dub was used for the first broadcast, a high-quality local dub was produced afterwards, keeping the local "Gilito/Juanito/Jaimito/Jorgito" names for the characters.

In Hungary, the term "DuckTales generation" (Kacsamesék generáció) refers to the people who were born in the early to mid-1980s, because the death of József Antall, the first democratically-elected Prime Minister of Hungary, was announced during a DuckTales episode in 1993. This was the generation's first encounter with politics.

This show is currently airing on Disney XD in the Netherlands.

Cameos

 * Darkwing Duck (1991–92): Scrooge's face appears in the episode "Tiff of the Titans". Flintheart Glomgold, The Beagle Boys, and Magica De Spell the episode "In Like Blunt".
 * Goof Troop (1992–93): In one episode, the Beagle Boys appear.
 * Raw Toonage (1992): Scrooge was guest star.
 * Bonkers (1993–94): In the episode "The 29th Page", the Beagle Boys appear.
 * Aladdin (1994–95): In the episode "The Day The Bird Stood Still", the Genie transformed into Scrooge.
 * Quack Pack (1996): In the episode, the Beagle Boys appear.