The Show – The Goofy Caped Hero
Darkwing Duck, I soon discovered upon watching the first few episodes of this set, is a very goofy and, well, stupid you might even say, hero. That in itself is a big part of the humor. He gets help solving crimes and cases from his daughter and ole Launchpad McQuack, who I remember fondly from the Ducktales cartoons. This DVD set covers another twenty-seven full length episodes that takes the total offering out on DVD now across both volumes to 54, more than half of the complete series. These volume contains episodes including “Planet of the Capes,” “Heavy Mental,” and “The Secret Origins of Darkwing Duck.”
I haven’t watched quite every episode in this set yet at the time of this writing, but what I have seen has been surprisingly entertaining for an old Disney cartoon. So many of the cartoons of my youth have not stood the test of time, like G.I. Joe and Scooby Doo, so it’s always refreshing to see a cartoon from my childhood still be entertaining today.
There is also little reason to think this show wouldn’t appeal to the younger generation of today either, so it’s really exactly what Disney shoots for – entertainment for the whole family.
Presentation – Sufficient
This DVD doesn’t, as far as I can tell, seek to increase the technical quality of the video or the audio, but it’s not really all that necessary anyway. Animation transfers usually hold up very well on DVD, and this is the case here. In terms of direction and video quality of the show itself, I thought it was great; smooth, appropriately detailed animations with a catchy theme song and very good sound effects and voiceovers.
Extras – Nothing To See Here
Darkwing Duck Volume 2 contains absolutely no extra features, unless you count the French audio track, but I’m not. You get exactly what the product description says; twenty-seven full length episodes and nothing more.
Overall – A Good Cartoon Comes Home Again
I’m new to the Darkwing Duck series as of this review. It’s a show I always meant to watch when I was younger but for one reason or another never did. Having seen most of this second volume now, which encompasses roughly the middle half of the series’ 91 total episodes, I can understand the appeal of this show to the many fans out there. Great animation and sound, clever stories with funny characters and humor for all ages, makes Darkwing Duck a great cartoon for the entire family. Give it a rental first, but I think you will be impressed.