You can’t read that title without singing the song. Good luck.
Official Synopsis
From defying danger to solving mysteries, chart a course for action-packed thrills with DuckTales “Woo-oo!”
The high-flying fun begins when Donald Duck reluctantly takes his mischief-making nephews Huey, Dewey and Louie to McDuck Manor, stately home of their rich, reclusive, great-uncle Scrooge McDuck. Enthralled by the exploits of their once-legendary great-uncle, the triplets and their fearless new friend Webby unwittingly unleash secret totems from Scrooge’s epic past, launching the entire family on a daring, deep-sea quest for the Lost City of Atlantis.
So this is what a childhood reboot feels like? I’m okay with it, especially when you add David Tennant into the mix as the scrooge himself. You can never go wrong with one of the best Doctors on Doctor Who and one of the best brief villains from the Harry Potter series (and that one role in Jessica Jones). Anyway, the reboot of Duck Tales is a brief masterpiece that shows there is still life and humor packed into an idea that has long since past its prime. There’s a lot to love about Duck Tales: Woo-oo! And the show is just getting started.
The jollies of this initial release, might as well consider it a pilot, start with how the development of the characters go. Instead of Scrooge McDuck being a rich grumpy guy that is known only for his money, the show shapes McDuck into a lonely rich guy that is pining for the times where he can have adventures and discover/uncover mysteries across the world, like he did in the past. Beyond McDuck, there is also some established failed past between him and Donald, as well as some well-developed character shaping for the nephews, who drive the adventures. From the get-go the show is already deeper and better than the original, though the character development isn’t the only thing going on in this reboot.
The humor embedded in the writing seems to have also gone up a notch from the original show. While the slapstick that drove the original is still there, along with the simple childhood humor that rears its head once in a while in the writing to remind us of its demo, the majority of the humor is very much methodically developed/delivered and doesn’t seem to waste an opportunity when it opens. That’s a rarity to find in a cartoon like this, but a welcomed one that intends on creating its own path with an old IP.
As far as the flow of the initial story of Duck Tales: Woo-ooo! it is easy to see how a standard three-act structure is established. The show starts with introducing the players, mainly the three nephews (Huey, Dewie and Louie), and how they’re bored, yet intelligent troublemakers that are driving their keeper, Donald Duck, nuts. In frustration, they’re sent to their Uncle Scrooge, who sees them as nothing more than annoyances, especially once they get into his garage and unleash bad things, but then soon finds their adventurous personalities might be the spark he needs to get back to the life he loves of being a world traveler. Their follies lead the unexpected band of misfits to the Lost City of Atlantis, where they find trouble, yet good adventure and ultimately a purpose for Scrooge McDuck to take his nephews under his wings (no pun intended) to help jumpstart a new chapter in his life as an adventurer. That doesn’t mean he isn’t still grumpy, though.
