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, which focused on the lives of Scrooge McDuck and his family as they engaged on a variety of adventures around the world and 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; between May 2018 to September 2019, the series was moved to Disney Channel for the second half of the first season and the duration of the second season.
Since its release, the reboot has generated positive reviews from critics and audiences, as well as a comic book series and several online episodes.

Premise

After not speaking to each other for ten years, Scrooge McDuck reunites with his estranged nephew Donald Duck when he asks him to babysit his three triplet nephews Huey, Dewey, and Louie for the day. The boys restore Scrooge's sense of adventure, and he invites them and Donald to live at McDuck Manor with him, along with his housekeeper Mrs. Beakley and her granddaughter Webby Vanderquack. Together, along with Scrooge's limo driver and crash-prone pilot Launchpad McQuack as their means of transport, the Ducks go on many new treasure-hunting expeditions and globe-trotting adventures while contending with villains like Flintheart Glomgold, the Beagle Boys, and Mark Beaks.
In season one, Dewey and Webby set out to find 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 get revenge on Scrooge for imprisoning her in his Number One Dime for fifteen years.
In season two, Scrooge and Glomgold compete to become the richest duck in the world by the end of the year while Louie tries to start up his own multi-million dollar business in hopes of following in Scrooge's footsteps. Della reunites with her family after she escapes from the Moon and adapts to her newfound motherhood, unaware that Donald is being held prisoner there and the Moonlanders are planning to invade Earth.
In season three, the criminal organization F.O.W.L. plot to eliminate the Ducks following the Moonlander invasion. After the Ducks discover the journal of legendary explorer Isabella Finch, leading to several lost treasures that F.O.W.L.'s after, the two forces race to find them first.

Voice cast

The show's main voice cast includes:
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; the Rescue Rangers from ; 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 Chip 'n Dale, Goofy, 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. 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.

Episodes

Release

Broadcast

The 44 minute pilot, titled Woo-oo!, premiered on August 12 at 12:00 AM and was repeated consecutively for the next 24 hours. Two days later on August 14, 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 will once again air on Disney XD.
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 , and on June 14, 2017, the title sequence for the series, featuring a re-recording of the theme song written by Mark Mueller and performed by Felicia Barton, 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.
RegionSet titleSeasonsAspect ratioEpisode countRelease date
1 & 2Woo-oo!11.78:11December 19, 2017
July 9, 2018
1Destination Adventure!1.78:1, 1.33:1 6June 5, 2018-

Video on demand

iTunes and Amazon Prime Video in the United States offer the first and second season, split into four volumes.
The first and second season 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.

Critical reception

The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reports an approval rating of 100% based on 10 reviews, with an average rating of 9.0/10. 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." IGN'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."
In 2018, the pilot episode was nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award in the Outstanding Special Class Animated Program category, but lost to A StoryBots Christmas. The following year saw the season one finale, "The Shadow War", nominated in the same category, but lost to Watership Down. In 2019, DuckTales was also nominated for a Daytime Emmy in the Outstanding Casting for an Animated Series or Special category, but lost to fellow Disney series Elena of Avalor.
In 2018, at the Behind the Voice Actors Awards Ceremony, the cast was awarded the People's Choice Voice Acting Award in the Best Vocal Ensemble in a New Television Series category. Individual cast members David Tennant, Kate Micucci, Keith Ferguson, Kimiko Glenn and Margo Martindale were all nominated, but none of the nominations resulted in any award.
In 2019, the episode "Who is Gizmoduck?" was nominated for two Imagen Awards.
Disney comics creator Don Rosa, primarily known for his Uncle Scrooge comic sub-series The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck, has criticized the DuckTales reboot series, claiming that it bears "virtually no resemblance whatsoever" to Barks' original comics.

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.

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