DuckTales (2017 TV series)

DuckTales is an American animated television series, developed by Matt Youngberg and Francisco Angones, and produced by Disney Television Animation. The series is a reboot of the original 1987 series of the same name, itself an adaptation of Uncle Scrooge and other Duck universe comic books created by Carl Barks, which focused on the lives of Scrooge McDuck and his family as they engaged in a variety of adventures around the world, as well as in the fictional city of Duckburg. The reboot itself focuses on newer elements and deeper character stories, including a greater involvement of Donald Duck.

The series premiered on August 12, 2017, with a 44-minute long pilot episode on Disney XD, before the first season was green-lit for broadcast from September 23 that year on Disney XD. From May 2018 to September 2019, the series was moved to Disney Channel for the previously not broadcast part of the first season and all of the second season. DuckTales was then moved back to Disney XD for its third season, and concluded with a 67-minute finale on March 15, 2021. Since its release, the reboot has generated positive reviews from critics and audiences, as well as a comic book series, a scripted podcast, and several online shorts.

Premise

File:DuckTales 2017 Scrooge Donald Huey Dewey Louie.jpg

Left to right: Dewey, Huey, Donald Duck, Louie, and Scrooge McDuck, as they appear in the series.

After not speaking to each other for ten years, Donald Duck reunites with his estranged uncle, business mogul and former adventurer Scrooge McDuck, when he asks him to babysit his triplet nephews, Huey, Dewey, and Louie, for the day. Shortly after accidentally releasing and defeating a few ancient evils, Scrooge regains his sense of adventure and invites Donald and the boys to live at McDuck Manor with him, along with his housekeeper Mrs. Beakley and her granddaughter Webby Vanderquack. Together, along with Scrooge's chauffeur and pilot Launchpad McQuack, the Ducks go on many new treasure-hunting expeditions and globetrotting adventures while contending with villains like Flintheart Glomgold, Ma Beagle and the Beagle Boys, and Mark Beaks.

In the first season, Dewey and Webby search for the truth about Scrooge and Donald's strained relationship and the unexplained disappearance of the boys' mother and Donald's twin sister Della Duck while the sorceress Magica De Spell manipulates events to facilitate her return and exact revenge on Scrooge for imprisoning her in his Number One Dime.

In the second season, Scrooge and Glomgold compete to become the richest duck in the world by the end of the year, Louie tries to start up his own multi-million dollar business in hopes of following in Scrooge's footsteps, and Della reunites with her family following her escape from the Moon and adapts to her newfound motherhood, unaware that the Moonlanders, led by General Lunaris, are planning to invade Earth.

In the third and final season, the Ducks set out to find several lost artifacts detailed in the journal of the legendary explorer Isabella Finch, while the criminal organization F.O.W.L. plan to eliminate Scrooge and his family and obtain the artifacts first in order to rid the world of adventuring.

Episodes

Template:Main List of DuckTales (2017 TV series) episodes Note: Each colour represents which one of the triplets gets the main focus.

Voice cast

Template:Main The show's main voice cast includes:

• David Tennant as Scrooge McDuck
• Danny Pudi as Huey Duck
• Ben Schwartz as Dewey Duck
• Bobby Moynihan as Louie Duck
• Kate Micucci as Webby Vanderquack
• Beck Bennett as Launchpad McQuack
• Toks Olagundoye as Mrs. Beakley
• Tony Anselmo as Donald Duck
• Paget Brewster as Della Duck

Production

Matt Youngberg and Francisco Angones grew up watching the original series and had always wanted to develop an updated version for a newer generation. Youngberg said, "We're hoping that in thirty years, the kids who watch our show will then be bringing back the next version of DuckTales because they loved what we did so much."

In May 2015, Terry McGovern, the original voice of Launchpad McQuack, stated in an interview that the entire voice cast from the original series would not be returning for the reboot, which made him "heartsick" at the news. The new voice cast for the series was revealed on December 16, 2016, in a video where they sing an a cappella version of the original theme song in promotion of the news. The following May, Lin-Manuel Miranda was announced as the voice of Fenton Crackshell-Cabrera / Gizmoduck. The character was changed to being Latino due to Lin-Manuel's heritage and because Angones felt that there were not enough positive Latino superheroes. In June, more cast members, including Tony Anselmo reprising his role as Donald Duck, were announced, and during the 2017 San Diego Comic-Con, Disney announced that Darkwing Duck would also make an appearance in the TV series. At the 2019 San Diego Comic-Con, several characters from other Disney Television Animation cartoons were revealed to appear in the show's third season: Chip 'n Dale and the Rescue Rangers from Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers; Kit Cloudkicker and Molly Cunningham from TaleSpin; Rhinokey and Butterbear from The Wuzzles; and Gosalyn Mallard and Taurus Bulba from Darkwing Duck; as well as Goofy (based on his Goof Troop incarnation), and Daisy Duck.

The art style of the show is heavily influenced not just by Carl Barks' original Uncle Scrooge comics, but also some of Barks' paintings. The theme song, written by Mark Mueller for the 1987 series, was re-recorded for the 2017 reboot. It was arranged by Michael "Smidi" Smithand and TJ Stafford and sung by Felicia Barton.

Donald Duck has a larger role in this version compared to the 1980s version, as the earlier version had been restricted by an edict from The Walt Disney Company – stating that the television studio could not use Donald or any of the other stars from Disney's Golden Age shorts, only allowing Donald to make short cameos to set up storylines; this restriction was lifted shortly after the original version of DuckTales ended.

Theme song

The popular theme song, written by pop songwriter Mark Mueller (both words and music), was the subject of a Vanity Fair magazine article in 2017, which called the song "History's Catchiest Single Minute of Music". The actual song is sung by Felicia Barton, a notable children's singer.

Release

Broadcast

The 44-minute pilot, titled Woo-oo!, premiered on August 12, 2017, at midnight and was repeated consecutively for the next 24 hours. Two days later on August 14, 2017, the pilot was also released on YouTube, though it has since been set to private. The pilot also aired on Disney Channel on September 17, 2017. The series officially premiered on September 23, 2017, coinciding with the original show's 30th anniversary. On May 1, 2018, the show moved to the Disney Channel, with new episodes airing on Fridays beginning May 4, 2018. With season three, the series returned to Disney XD.

On October 20, 2020, "Let's Get Dangerous!", the 44-minute Darkwing Duck-themed episode from season 3, was made available for free on Disney XD's YouTube channel. Between September 26 and October 6, 2022, the entirety of season 1 was uploaded as well.

In Canada, the pilot premiered on Disney XD on August 12 and the full series started on September 23, 2017. In Australia and New Zealand, the show premiered on Disney Channel on October 13, 2017. In the United Kingdom and Ireland, the pilot premiered on Disney Channel on November 4, 2017. The full series debuted on March 1, 2018, on Disney XD.

Marketing

On December 7, 2016, a teaser trailer was released for the series. The first season was announced to consist of 21 half-hour episodes and two hour-long specials. On March 10, 2017, a trailer for the series aired on Disney Channel during the premiere of Tangled: Before Ever After, and on June 14, 2017, the title sequence for the series, featuring a re-recording of the theme song written by Mark Mueller, performed by Felicia Barton and animated by Golden Wolf, was released.

Home media

A DVD titled Woo-oo! was released on December 19, 2017, in the US and on July 9, 2018, in the UK and Ireland. The DVD contains the pilot episode and all 6 Welcome to Duckburg shorts. A second DVD titled Destination Adventure! was released on June 5, 2018. It contains the episodes The Beagle Birthday Massacre!, The Living Mummies of Toth-Ra!, The Impossible Summit of Mt. Neverrest!, The Spear of Selene!, The Missing Links of Moorshire!, and Beware the B.U.D.D.Y. System!, as well as 2 episodes of the original 1987 series previously unreleased on DVD (New Gizmo Kids on the Block and Ducky Mountain High).

DVD releases

Region	Set title	Seasons	Aspect ratio	Episode count	Release date
1 & 2	Woo-oo!	1	1.78:1	1	December 19, 2017 (Region 1) July 9, 2018 (Region 2)
1	Destination Adventure!		1.78:1, 1.33:1 (classic series)	6	June 5, 2018

Video on demand

In the United States, iTunes and Amazon Prime Video offer the first and second seasons, split into four volumes.

The first and second seasons have been released on Disney+ since its launch, but users have noted episodes being out of order. The series had its episodes arranged in the proper order on June 26, 2020. The entire third season was released on Disney+ on April 30, 2021.

Reception

Critical reception

The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reports an approval rating of 100% based on 12 reviews, with an average rating of 9/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Highly energetic, distinctively designed, and attuned to its nostalgia, this update to a Disney animated classic is far bolder than its predecessor."

IGNTemplate:'s Chris Hayner gave the series premiere, "Woo-oo!", a score of 8.5 out of 10, stating that the reboot "may be aimed at modern young audiences but there's no denying the heart and adventurous spirit it gets from the original series." IndieWire complimented the series premiere, claiming that "the reboot of the series keeps all of those important original hallmarks. American Idol alum Felicia Barton re-recorded the signature theme song but keeps its sense of fun and excitement intact." Collider rated the last season 5 out of 5, indicating that "Season 3 is really where the new vision of the fan-favorite series takes off." Den of Geek reviewed the last episode of the show positively, stating, "DuckTales has power; it'll keep having power. Now that the show's ended I have no doubt more people will check it out on Disney+ and realize how special it was. How great it was. How even if it still had more stories to tell it still gave all it had." ComicsBeat praised the series, saying, "With an unimpeachable cast, a clever sense of humor, and a commitment to the underlying thematic concerns of the story, these three seasons represent the best-case scenario for the reboot of a beloved TV show: a sensationally self-aware series that takes its characters seriously while still delivering side-splitting slapstick." CinemaBlend.com gave a positive review of the series, praising the humour of the show, alongside the performance of the voice actors.

Disney comics creator Don Rosa, primarily known for his Uncle Scrooge comic sub-series The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck, has stated that the DuckTales reboot series bears "virtually no similarity whatsoever" to Barks' original comics.

Accolades

Year	Award	Category	Recipient(s)	Result	Ref.
2018	Daytime Emmy Award	Outstanding Special Class Animated Program	Matt Youngberg, Francisco Angones, Suzanna Olson (for "Woo-oo!")	Template:Nom
	Behind the Voice Actors Awards	People's Choice Voice Acting Award in the Best Vocal Ensemble in a New Television Series category	Ducktales cast	Template:Won
	Davey Awards	Silver Award for Mobile Features-Integrated Mobile Experience	Walt Disney Studios (for "Ducktales: Treasure Hunt live!")	Template:Won
2019	Daytime Emmy Award	Outstanding Special Class Animated Program category	Matt Youngberg, Francisco Angones, Suzanna Olson (for "The Shadow War!")	Template:Nom
	Daytime Emmy Award	Outstanding Casting for an Animated Series or Special	Aaron Drown, Julia Pleasants	Template:Nom
	Imagen Awards	Best Actor – Television	Lin-Manuel Miranda	Template:Nom
		Best Children's Programming	Ducktales	Template:Nom
2020	Daytime Emmy Award	Outstanding Writing for an Animated Program	Francisco Angones, Colleen Evanson, Madison Bateman, Christian Magalhaes, Robert Snow, Suzanna Olson, Matt Youngberg	Template:Nom
		Outstanding Editing for an Animated Program	Jasmine Bocz, Mike Williamson, Barbara Ann Duffy, Susan Odjakjian	Template:Nom
		Outstanding Sound Editing for an Animated Program	Jeff Shiffman, Ian Howard, Katie Jackson, Carol Ma	Template:Nom
		Outstanding Performer in an Animated Program	Paget Brewster (for playing: "Della Duck")	Template:Nom
	GLAAD Media Award	Outstanding Children's Programming	Ducktales	Template:Nom
2021	GLAAD Media Award	Outstanding Children's Programming	Ducktales	Template:Nom
	Daytime Emmy Award	Outstanding Casting for an Animated Program	David Wright, Aaron Drown, and Julia Pleasants	Template:Nom

Printed media

Prose books

In 2018, Disney Press published "DuckTales: Solving Mysteries and Rewriting History!", a companion book covering the majority of season one, as seen from the perspective of Scrooge, Huey, Dewey, Louie, and Webby. It is written by Rob Renzetti and show writer Rachel Vine.

Art book

In 2022, Ken Plume revealed he was working on a DuckTales art book. Titled "The Art of DuckTales", the book was published by Dark Horse Comics and released on October 24, 2022.

Comics

An ongoing comic book series based on the show is being published by IDW Publishing, with Joe Caramagna, Joey Cavalieri and Steve Behling sharing writing duties, and Luca Usai, Gianfranco Florio and others providing the art. Ducktales #0 was released on July 19, 2017, and #1 of the monthly series followed on September 27.

The individual issues are also collected in trade paperbacks:

• "Treasure Trove" (Template:Isbn), collecting issues #0-2
• "Mysteries and Mallards" (Template:Isbn), collecting issues #3-5
• "Quests and Quacks" (Template:Isbn), collecting issues #6-8
• "Fowl Play" (Template:Isbn), collecting issues #9-11
• "Monsters and Mayhem" (Template:Isbn), collecting issues #12-14
• "Mischief and Miscreants" (Template:Isbn), collecting issues #15-17
• "Imposters and Interns" (Template:Isbn), collecting issues #18-20

List of comic book stories

Story code	US publication	Title	Written by	Artist(s)	Short summary
XPW DTP CP 1-1	DuckTales #1	The Chilling Secret of the Lighthouse!	Joe Caramagna	Luca Usai	After Donald is hired to work in a lighthouse, Huey, Dewey and Louie decide to explore it.
XPW DTP CP 1-2	DuckTales #0	The Repeating Revenge of the Screaming Duck!	Joe Caramagna	Gianfranco Florio	Huey, Dewey and Louie make a horror movie.
XPW DTP CP 1-3		Big Trouble at Little Lake!	Joe Caramagna	Andrea Greppi, Paolo Campinoti, Roberta Zanotta	Donald is stranded on an island with a tour group.
XPW DTP CP 1-4	DuckTales #1	The Great Experiment of the Washing Machine!	Joe Caramagna	Gianfranco Florio	The nephews masquerade as researchers and manage to turn a washing machine into a potentially harmful electromagnet.
XPW DTP CP 2-1	DuckTales #2	A Viking at My Door!	Joey Cavalieri	Andrea Greppi, Antonello Dalena, Roberta Zanotta	Scrooge, Donald and Della go in search of a Viking artifact.
XPW DTP CP 2-2		Old Monteplumage Had a Chicken!	Joey Cavalieri	Gianfranco Florio	Scrooge, Donald, and Della go to an Aztec ruin.
XPW DTP CP 2-3	DuckTales #3	Cheating Like Nostradogmus!	Joey Cavalieri	Luca Usai	Scrooge goes looking for the time-travel jelly beans of Nostradogmus.
XPW DTP CP 2-4		Beware of the Phenomenal Pumpkin People!	Joey Cavalieri	Andrea Greppi, Graziano Barbaro, Roberta Zanotta	After crash-landing in the Amazon, Scrooge and crew encounter pygmy pandas being terrorized by monsters for their pumpkin groves.
XPW DTT CP 1-1	DuckTales #5	A Series of Unfortunate Substitutions!	Joe Caramagna	Antonello Dalena, Gianfranco Florio, Manuela Razzi, Roberta Zanotta	Scrooge hires a new pilot.
XPW DTT CP 1-2	DuckTales #4	Fight!	Joe Caramagna	Gianfranco Florio	Dewey holds a garage sale.
XPW DTT CP 1-3	DuckTales #5	Go, Go Golden Years!	Joey Cavalieri	Andrea Greppi, Cristina Stella, Emilio Urbano, Michela Frare	Scrooge takes youth serum.
XPW DTT CP 1-4	DuckTales #4	Happy, Happy Valley!	Joey Cavalieri	Luca Usai	Scrooge lands on an island where everyone is always happy.
XPW DTT CP 2-1	DuckTales #6	The Giant Butterfly of Duckburg!	Joe Caramagna	Graziano Barbaro, Marco Ghiglione, Michela Frare	Scrooge goes on a Junior Woodchucks outing.
XPW DTT CP 2-2	DuckTales #7	There Is No Place Like a Ghost Town!	Joe Caramagna	Luca Usai	Scrooge buys an old western ghost town with the intent of building a resort.
XPW DTT CP 2-3	DuckTales #6	Welcome to Beagle Island!	Joey Cavalieri	Gianfranco Florio	The Beagle Boys lay a trap for Scrooge.
XPW DTT CP 2-4	DuckTales #7	The Stone of Truth!	Joe Caramagna	Andrea Greppi, Antonello Dalena, Gianfranco Florio, Michela Frare	The mansion is hit with a surprise inspection by an insurance company while Scrooge is away.
XPW DTT CP 3-1	DuckTales #8	Sleep (Walk) of Doom!	Steve Behling	Gianfranco Florio	Dewey uses Scrooge's mystical coin.
XPW DTT CP 3-2		The Beast in the Board Room!	Joe Caramagna	Luca Usai	Scrooge's stooge begins to take control of his company.
XPW DTT CP 3-3	Unpublished in the US	Spies Like Us!	Joe Caramagna	Andrea Greppi, Danilo Loizedda, Emilio Urbano, Manuela Razzi, Cristina Stella	Template:N/a
XPW DTT CP 3-4	DuckTales #9	The Frightful Family Fishing Trip!	Alessandro Ferrari, Steve Behling	Ciro Cangialosi, Cristina Stella	Donald and Scrooge go on a fishing trip.
XPW DTT CP 4-1		The Risk McDuck Refused!	Joey Cavalieri	Gianfranco Florio	Scrooge travels back in time so he can experience the Klondike.
XPW DTT CP 4-2	DuckTales #10	The Twisted Tale of the Two-Headed Horse!	Joe Caramagna	Emilio Urbano, Luca Usai	The nephews accompany Scrooge and Donald on a quest for a bust of a Two-Headed Horse.
XPW DTT CP 4-3		The Hedge Enigma!	Steve Behling	Ciro Cangialosi, Cristina Giorgill	Hedges of wealthy people are being vandalized.
XPW DTT CP 4-4	Unpublished in the US	On the Tail of the Run-Amok Raven!	Joey Cavalieri	Andrea Greppi, Gianfranco Florio, Michela Frare	Template:N/a
XPW DTT CP 5-1	DuckTales #12	When Luck Ran Out!	Steve Behling	Gianfranco Florio	Gladstone accompanies Scrooge on one of his adventures.
XPW DTT CP 5-2	DuckTales #11	Nightmare on Bear Mountain!	Steve Behling	Antonello Dalena, Danilo Loizedda, Cristina Stella	Scrooge pushes his family away to protect them from an ancient evil.
XPW DTT CP 5-3		Horror in the Highlands!	Joey Cavalieri	Luca Usai	Scrooge attempts to build a museum in his hometown.
XPW DTT CP 5-4	DuckTales #12	The Greatest Adventure, the Greatest Price!	Joey Cavalieri	Andrea Greppi, Emilio Urbano, Cristina Stella	Scrooge meets a duck claiming to be his unknown cousin.
XPW DTT CP 6-1	DuckTales #13	Countdown to Termination!	Joey Cavalieri	Andrea Greppi, Ciro Cangialosi, Cristina Stella	The board of directors for McDuck Enterprises gives Gyro a challenge: invent something useful in 24 hours or lose his job.
XPW DTT CP 6-2		The Mighty Ducks of Duckburg!	Joe Caramagna	Luca Usai	Webby joins the nephews' hockey team.
XPW DTT CP 6-3	DuckTales #14	The Monsters Are Due at McDuck Manor! Part 1	Steve Behling	Gianfranco Florio	The nephews and Webby use Gyro's new 4-D camera and end up trapping themselves in the television.
XPW DTT CP 6-4		The Monsters Are Due at McDuck Manor! Part 2	Steve Behling	Gianfranco Florio
XPW DTT CP 7-1	DuckTales #16	The Incredible Shrinking Webby! Part 1	Steve Behling	Gianfranco Florio	Dewey accidentally shrinks Webby.
XPW DTT CP 7-2		The Incredible Shrinking Webby! Part 2	Steve Behling	Gianfranco Florio
XPW DTT CP 7-3	DuckTales #15	The Greatest Invention He's Never Had! Part 1	Joe Caramagna	Ciro Cangialosi, Danilo Loizedda, Cristina Stella	One of Gyro's inventions gains sentience and rebels on a television show.
XPW DTT CP 7-4		The Greatest Invention He's Never Had! Part 2	Joe Caramagna	Luca Usai
XPW DTT CP 8-1	DuckTales #17	Marooned in Mystery Mansion! Part 1	Joe Caramagna	Emilio Urbano, Gianfranco Florio	Mrs. Beakley relates a story to Scrooge that had been wiped from his memory by government forces.
XPW DTT CP 8-2		Marooned in Mystery Mansion! Part 2	Joe Caramagna	Emilio Urbano, Gianfranco Florio
XPW DTT CP 8-3	DuckTales #18	Money Grubbing Hooligans from the Deep! Part 1	Joe Caramagna	Emilio Urbano, Gianfranco Florio	A gigantic tsunami threatens to wipe out the Money Bin.
XPW DTT CP 8-4		Money Grubbing Hooligans from the Deep! Part 2	Joe Caramagna	Emilio Urbano, Gianfranco Florio
XPW DTT CP 9-1	DuckTales #19	Flintheart... McDuck?!? Part 1	Steve Behling	Emilio Urbano, Gianfranco Florio	Flintheart has Scrooge abducted.
XPW DTT CP 9-2		Flintheart... McDuck?!? Part 2	Steve Behling	Emilio Urbano, Gianfranco Florio
XPW DTT CP 9-3	DuckTales #20	Saga of the Super-Intern! Part 1	Joe Caramagna	Luca Usai	Gyro makes adjustments to one of Fenton's projects.
XPW DTT CP 9-4		Saga of the Super-Intern! Part 2	Joe Caramagna	Ciro Cangialosi, Danilo Loizedda, Cristina Stella

• Template:Note label

Podcast

On March 10, 2021, it was announced that a seven-episode scripted podcast spinoff of the series would be launching via the Disney XD YouTube channel on March 29, two weeks after the series finale. The podcast is called This Duckburg Life (a parody of the popular public radio program/podcast This American Life) and is hosted by Huey Duck for "Duckburg Public Radio" and focuses on slice of life occurrences in Duckburg. Many of the cast from the series reprise their roles, including Tennant, Pudi, Schwartz, Moynihan, Micucci, Bennett, Olagundoye, Rash, Brener, Martindale, and Anselmo.

External links

• Template:Official website
• Template:IMDb title