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Dough Ray Me
Reviewed: 01/28/2011
Probably The Only Time Drake & Gizmo's Egos Combined Were Less Inflated...
Okay; so we come to what I call one of the very first “edutainment episodes that do not suck” episodes, or for those who don't know what I'm talking about, see Vowel Play. It's basically a fun episode with a huge lesson in something important in everyday life. Vowel Play was about spelling and this episode was about money. It's also known as the infamous “inflation episode”; and boy does this episode inflate. The question is: does this episode still hold up? So let's rant on shall we..?!
This episode is written by Gordon Bressack. The story is done by Brooks Wachtel. Brooks according to the USIMDB: Brooks Wachtel spent his youth as a "Navy Brat", traveling all over the world. By the time he was a teenager, Brooks knew that he wanted a career in the motion picture field. While attending Hollywood High School and later both USC and UCLA, he produced several student films. One - remarkable for a sixteen year old - was a forty-five minute Sherlock Holmes spoof done in period. Mr. Wachtel is a writer/producer/director who has written and/or produced many documentaries for the History Channel. His most recent project, with his documentary partner Cynthia Harrison, was two episodes of the series, Guarding America: The Air Force/National Guard and The Coast Guard. He has also written for The Great Ships, Search and Rescue, The Royal Navy and Fly Past, which won the coveted Cine Golden Eagle Award.
In addition to documentaries, Wachtel has written over 85 episodes of dramatic television - with shows as diverse as Fox's live-action Young Hercules to such animated hits as PBS' acclaimed series Liberty's Kids as well as top Saturday morning action shows, such as: Heavy Gear, Static, Spider-Man, X-Men, Iron Man, Robo-Cop, Silver Surfer, The Avengers, Mortal Kombat, The Mask, Beast Machines: Transformers, Godzilla, Gargoyles, Wing Commander Academy. For younger viewers, he has penned many episodes of the pre-school hit, Clifford the Big Red Dog. He just completed scripting an animated feature film Sea Wars, an American-Korean underwater Lord of the Rings style epic. He has written several live-action features, including Goddess of Death, which he also directed. He is presently serving on the Steering Committee of the "Animation Writers Caucus" of the Writers Guild of America. Wachtel is also a performing magician member of Hollywood's Magic Castle. As co-creator with Athena Massey of the super-heroine, "Athena: Warrior Eternal" and a life-long fan of comics, Wachtel had no idea that the endless hours he spent reading would someday be considered "research". He began with Ghostbusters in 1986. Ducktales is his DTVA debut and he wrote for Gargoyles: The Goliath Chronicles. He has 50 credits to his resume. Horseland and the Secret Saturdays are his most recent credits.
We begin this one at a street corner in Duckberg and head into the video arcade as the nephews are playing a video game which looks like an obvious mini game nowadays. Apparently; it involves the nephews playing the heels (The Beagle Boys) stealing Scrooge's money bags from the money bin. Sadly; this is when video games had such stigma that the writers made it so the programmers forgot to notice the canon of Ducktales because the pixel Beagle Boys just walk into the vault and walk out with the money. No security; no nothing. Oh wait; an explosion happens and the Beagle Boys are in jail. Dewey lost by the way since he was using the joystick here and Huey gleefully sums it up here. They want to play again; but they are all broke. Louie is both broke and sticky. They run off home because it's the first day of summer vacation and they spent their allowance already. They wonder if Scrooge will raise their allowance. We zoom in on the top of the arcade cabinet of the model Scrooge as the nephews wonder if Scrooge is in a good mood. They segue into Scrooge being pissy and yelling no about seven times. So the answer is no; he's in a bad mood. But it's not the nephews he's blowing off; it's Fenton in a chair in his second office. Fenton wants a raise; so Scrooge shows him the door while doing the old Vinnie Mac routine about taking his job for granted and getting fired. He slams the door in Fenton's face and goes back to his chair. Sadly; Fenton pops from the open window and offers a money making idea which Scrooge has the Gruffi pose on since he's listening. Sadly; Fenton climbs in through the window and he has no idea of a money making idea. Scrooge blows him off as Fenton turns around and sits down on the green loveseat facing the fireplace. So the nephews run in and if you watched Allowance Day already; you should already know where this is going. Fenton does get a witty retort in response to being taken care of as Scrooge suggests the most sensible thing to do to solve this problem: get a freakin job. Considering that I work four times a week and have about 60 days off which is pretty much vacation time for me; color me unimpressed. I will give the old Disney writers this: They don't do continuity errors as often as the new Disney. Of course the new Disney has a lot more contempt for kids in general to follow anything (sure; there are quite a few who are ADD enough for that not to happen) which leads to old farts like me not liking them as much (in my case of course). The nephews walk down the hallway wondering what job they could do and they notice Mrs. Beakly bringing out the vacuum cleaner. Now this episode really sucks. HAHA!
Ron Sparks: It sucks more than Sean Desmond.
So Huey has a Krackpotkin plan in mind (while channeling the powers of Ammonia Pine since he used a cleaning pun here) as they bail and we scene change to Mrs. Beakly in the sky shot vacuuming the rugs and singing badly as usual. We then cut to a side shot as the shadows of death show up and she screams...not as badly as Sally Struthers does. We discover that the nephews are dressed up in alien like suits with vacuum cleaners strapped to their backs. They call themselves the Dirt Busters and we get more cleaning puns. Dave THE CLEANING BARBARIAN OF LAUGHS these nephews are not. Mrs. Beakly does me proud by asking what they know about cleaning and one of the nephews takes Mrs. Beakly's vacuum cleaner and screws around with it much to Mrs. Beakly's pleas to not screw around with it. Here is some advice to Mrs. Beakly: NEVER use a vacuum cleaner that has a super suction because you tend to lose a lot more international objects that way. And the nephews demonstrate that very well as Mrs. Beakly crawls to the wall and unplugs the vacuum cleaner. Hey; it could be worse, at least she didn't buy one from Professor Buzz; then she would NEVER stop that vacuum cleaner. AHHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! The nephews' backs are literally against the wall as they think Mrs. Beakly is going to MURDER them; or something, and she teases them and then gives them a silver dollar on the condition that they don't clean again. The nephews accept this and walk off as Mrs. Beakly breathes a sigh of relief since they cannot screw her anymore...and then the vacuum cleaner explodes allowing her to be coated with lint. Sadly; Wang Films doesn't have the animated ability to coat the entire room with lint as per the logic demands. Sigh. I was hoping that this would make Beakly yell at the nephews and they come back and give her back the silver dollar in shame; but we get the scene changer instead. Double sigh.
So we head to Gyro's residence as the nephews are inside and Gyro doesn't see any harm in this. Of course he sees no harm in building killer robots for Scrooge in spite of Scrooge's threats of “NO MORE F'N ROBOTS” on him. So this is no surprise to me. More cleaning puns ensue from the nephews. I'm sorry; but it doesn't work unless it's someone who uses it for a gimmick, like Ammonia Pine for example. The nephews lean towards Ample Grime in the family. And naturally they screw up and somehow; the gravity gods screw me and they are cleaning the place despite the vacuum cleaner working backwards. Gyro blocks a table filled with ancient inventions as one of the nephews does the tablecloth spot from Cash As Catch Can Part Two (A SEAMONSTER ATE MY ICECREAM~!) and it actually works. Wow; TMS actually got outclassed by a “sweat shop” animator. Gyro panics because the nephews are about to screw with his...his..something duplicator machine. The nephews don't seem to notice and they suck stuff up as the switch on the machine turns around and we get some really silly sound effects as the nephews bail behind a plant. The machine does the yellow circle waves and it creates a copy of the plant. Gyro explains that this is the Multifawner Duplicator Machine which is his latest invention. That is way too complex ace as demonstrated by the nephews confusion over it. Gyro explains all through the fact that he has two of everything including his pal Light Bulb which makes his first cameo in Ducktales in a long while (The Money Vanishes comes to mind). The nephews give Gyro their silver dollar and Gyro uses the duplicator on it as he explains that it redoes the structure of the object via audio manipulation. We get two silver dollars out of it as the nephews are impressed. Gyro proclaims that it could change the world..into creating more litter. Considering the shortage of fuel, food and medicine around; it would perfect for creating more resources. Of course Gyro points out that more studies into it's safety are required though. Hmmmmm....I wonder if that will play a role in this episode...
So we have the nephews (I'm calling them that now because I cannot tell them apart in those outfits they are wearing) in glee as Gyro wants to discuss lunch as he brings out the tv dinners which are broccoli stew. He duplicates them and then pops them into the microwave as the nephews bail out the door. Gyro is confused as he nukes them and then brings them out...and now there are eight of them. He get more confused as he adjusts his glasses on an FPS shot as everything he duplicated already has increased from two to four. Gyro deduces that he needs to redo his calculations. Oh and apparently; he needs the adjust in the glasses because he never sees the fact that in the next scene changer, we see the nephews have stolen his duplicator. Logic break #1 for the episode six and a half minutes in. Now I'm confused. Did the nephews duplicate the stuff behind his back; or is there more to this? Oh never mind; let's move on. The nephews question their stealing; but Huey blows it off because they are testing it for Gyro. “Oh; but officer, I only took it because I was testing it for safety purposes. I wasn't stealing it for evil purposes, honest!”. And watch it go downhill into the slammer from there. So the nephews go to the drawers (NOT THOSE ONES!) and on top is a small box containing all their marbles. Oh man; that was more disturbing than I had intended and bring out the purple “Great Masher” marble from Pearl of Wisdom. They duplicate it and it's funny that they say it's working five seconds BEFORE the marble duplicated. That's just bad timing there guys. The nephews naturally want to duplicate more things. But only a few more things because they don't want to get carried away. So Louie uses the audio machine to duplicate their toys as there are zero sound effects throughout the whole process. This goes on for a while and we scene change to a mountain of toys as the nephews pop from the toy tomb admitting that they got carried away. NO?! REALLY?!
So we head to the front hallway entrance as Fenton paces around trying to come up with a money making scheme. Apparently; instant water is out of the running. He cannot come up with anything of note and sits down in a chair proclaiming that an idea isn't just going to fall into his lap. And of course the nephews trip down the steps (so contrived and forced guys!) and the duplication machine falls into his lap. HA! Screw you Fenton Crackshell! Fenton wants to know what it is and the nephews show him by taking their two silver dollars and using the duplication machine to turn two dollars into four dollars. Fenton is amazed as I believe we all know where this is going. Well; at least the nephews cannot be blamed completely for what is about to transpire. After all; they were testing the machine and Gyro invented it. Fenton wants to steal....ERRR...borrow the thing and the nephews give to him without any questions whatsoever. Although they do tell him to take care of it. Fenton promises to take care of it like he does with a million dollars. Somehow; that line should not infuse confidence in me on him using it. He sneaks behind the wall and proclaims that he is moving uptown tonight with his Ma. How quint Fenton?! So we cut to the hallway with Mrs. Beakly vacuum cleaning the hallways wondering about the Dirt Busters as she opens the room and gets entombed by the toys in the room. Heh. So we head to the ice cream truck stand as the nephews are jumping up and down for no reason whatsoever. The ice cream man asks for three dollars and they give the man three silver dollars as a result. The nephews walk off with the ice cream cones as the ice cream man is shocked to discover that they gave him six silver dollars. Okay; now the logic break makes sense now. The nephews wants to spend the rest at the arcade; and they discover that they have two silver dollars and thus it duplicated by itself. UH OH! That means it's all Gyro's fault now and Fenton was just an victim trying to help Scrooge. So we head to the Money Bin as we see Scrooge coming out of the vault acting all pissy because he was counting money; or something. He opens the door; and it's Fenton dressed up as a magician sans fangs. Oh lord; this guy is just not working as comedy.
He is the “Great Crackshow” and I do not get the point of this. And neither does Scrooge as Fenton calls him a skeptic. He flips his top hat and we see two bunnies on his head. He takes a wooden chair from his hat and Scrooge sits down in it and invokes the Gruffi pose. Fenton calls this the miracle of ages as he asks for a volunteer to give him a sack purse. Scrooge blows him off; but Fenton gets it anyway via the old blue cloth tied together like a rope spot. Fenton puts the purse on the table and brings out the duplicator machine from his cape and Scrooge ponders why he ever hired Fenton. Well; it's because he can count faster than you. That's why Scroogie. He uses the machine (and the audio sequence doesn't sound all that good) and he makes two purses which causes Scrooge to be in shock. And invoke the DOINK sound effect as if he got nailed in the face with a sledgehammer. Fenton proclaims that the device is from Gyro which surprises me since I don't recall the nephews ever informing him that it was from Gyro. Then again; it is an invention so it must have come from Gyro; thus no logic break. Scrooge doesn't like this because it's easy money and he doesn't trust money he hasn't earned. Which is funny considering the questionable antics he has done in this series. And second; the machine has a lot more use than for merely making more money. We get an outside shot of the money bin as the ice cream truck rides by. No reason why the animators did this; nor the writers. Fenton pleads that this would be awesome and the purse doubles into four purses. Scrooge panics and runs out with Fenton as Gyro has done it again. So we head to Gyro's residence as Gyro is using the magnifying lens on three Light Bulbs (wait; three? We clearly saw four of them made. Logic break #1 for the episode for real at ten minutes in); and then Scrooge and Fenton barge in as Gyro deduces that the audio duplication machine (logic break #2: Now there are eight Light Bulbs on the table for no reason whatsoever) causes the stuff to double when bells are used. So yes; there was a reason for the ice cream truck to be shown at the money bin in the previous scene after all.
So Fenton blows it off and the bell rings and everything in the room duplicates and they have to dodge junk piling up and the door opens to reveal the nephews. They call making money fun and easy with the duplication machine. This is basically the same plot line structure they used in Time Teasers at this point. Only without the Beagle Boys in the mix; replaced by Fenton. They bring in a red wagon of silver dollars and Scrooge is flustered with them spending money with duplicated money. I would be more flustered at Gyro since he INVENTED that machine Scroogie. The nephews were only testing his machine; they didn't know it would duplicate by itself. Scrooge points out that this would ruin the economy and both Fenton and the nephews are confused. I see Scrooge never explained to Fenton why giving the Tra-la-la denizens bottle caps in Land Of Tra-la-la was such a bad idea. Yes folks; this is the infamous inflation episode everyone seems to praise for in it's educational value. The problem is that, what Scrooge tells the nephews is too simple. Money is a lot more complex than that; and sometimes inflation does have it's benefits. They treat inflation as evil when it's not (in small does of course). Even worse; if memory serves me, Scrooge and the nephews already had this discussion about money in one of the classic Disney shorts decades BEFORE this episode was made. I realize that the canon for Ducktales is different than the one for the classic shorts; but COME ON guys. The nephews should have some idea of money by now and it contradicts the respect for money by claiming that they are ignorant rather than being careless. Vowel Play was absurd and over the top; but at least the consequences of poor communication and spelling actually worked to some extent, even though the chances of an invasion by a network of gangsters in such a way is almost nil. On the other hand; you cannot say Scrooge didn't learn his lesson from Land Of Tra-la-la; so the writers at least made what Scrooge said make sense in a way. Fenton tells them not to worry; since it couldn't spread that fast. He opens the door and then slams and proclaims to not quote him on that...So we head into the streets as the road is littered with silver dollars as the denizens grab money bags and wheel barrows of silver dollars and that ends the segment right there 11 minutes in.
After the commercial break; we go to a sky shot of a street as a paperboy does his spiel and newspapers cost $200 an issue. And a plow buried him in a money tomb. We get more shot of denizens with money in their pockets as a lady blows them off for bringing too much money in the house again. And a car cannot start as if it was in mud or snow. It's a silver dollar snowstorm! AHHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! So we head to a candy shop as candy is up; bus prices are up and then we cut to a dentist as it's $40,000 per filling now and the guy proclaims that some prices haven't gone up. Riiiigggghhhtttt. The last time I had fillings it was $100 per filling. So this guy is lying and in denial. Now that we got the prerequisite consequence of the silver dollar snow storm; we head to a bicycle heading to the prison as he slingshots a newspaper (Duckberg Tribune in case you didn't notice) and it goes through the bars somehow and whacks Big Time in the face who is sleeping in his bunk bed. He opens the newspaper and tries to read it; but Burger screws up by making noises with a plate. HAHA! Big Time blows him off because it's only ten o'clock in the morning. Wait; I thought Burger was the slacker of the team?! Burger wants pudding for supper; but Big Time wants him for supper if he doesn't shut up. Big Time reads the paper and proclaims that the streets are paved in gold. Which would have worked if Fenton had used the duplication machine on gold coins Scrooge had rather than silver dollars. It should be “paved in silver dollars”. That would have made more sense and got the message in the same way. I see that it's Burger/Baggy/Big Time combination again as Big Time wants to bust out of here; but Burger no sells because he wants his damn pudding. So Big Time grabs him by the ear and informs him that all the silver dollars would be awesome for him to have pudding as every meal of the day. Burger is giddy and runs to the floor and does the old “use the spoon on the ground to dig out” even though they are on the top floor of the prison and they are using dirt. Bad, bad logic break there guys.
Scene changer and we head out into the street as a denizen is shoveling silver dollars like snow. We pan over to discover that they are in front of Scrooge's mansion which inside is clean as a whistle. We hear Fenton cut his “OH MY GOD” promo as apparently the duplicated coins have reached over five trillion now just in the neighbor's yard. So who moved in since Bubbeo & Juliet? We cut to the window as Scrooge feels defeated and the nephews admit that this is trouble since it cost $30 to use a gumball machine. Except for one thing: gumball machines haven't really changed all that much even with higher prices. Again; this makes less sense in the real world since money is a lot more complex than this. Scrooge does his usual melodramatics claiming that his money is worthless due to a part time job. That makes no sense at all. It was due to Gyro's machine, not a part time job. Even a child can figure this one out and assign blame better than Scrooge can here. Fenton proclaims that he'll call Duckworth to give him “Milk Of Amnesia” to make him forget his problems. Sadly; he rings the bell and more silver dollars fly out of the nephews' pockets. Scrooge covers the bell and panics as usual. The nephews realize that stopping the bells will stop the money from doubling. One problem: it only stops the bleeding; but it doesn't eliminate the mess. The nephews run out proclaiming that they'll save his fortune. Scrooge is not confident of this as Fenton proclaims even they cannot stop every bell in Duckberg. Scrooge then ribs him because there is someone who can and Fenton doesn't have the two clicks in the making of a clue; so Scrooge blows him off since it is Gizmo Duck of course. And Fenton is now a blabbering bean counter according to Scrooge. I'm fine with that description.
Fenton runs out and leaves as Mrs. Beakly gets shoved down the steps by the wave of toys in the nephews' room. HEE HEE! So we head to the arena as a wrestling match is going on. And it's against two international stereotypes; one from China and one from Japan. It's the Bucktooth Barbarian against Sweet & Sour Porker (who is a pig) and both have the same style mustache which indicates that the writers know that wrestling is worked and fixed. BB has a Barbarian Half Crab as SSP selling is hilariously bad as the announcer on the podium proclaims that only the bell can save him. Wait; if this is a wrestling match, then you cannot be saved by the bell unless it's a time limit draw. Huey then appears out of nowhere and in mid air as he steals the bell and the mallet to ring the bell MURDERS the announcer. HAHA! It's a knockout according to the announcer (which makes no sense since SSP was going to submit). The nephews run out of the Sports Arena (according to the name on top of the gate which is generic and lame in that order) and we head to the church of Notre Dame which we discover is only a set piece as the nephews plead with the FRENCH DIRECTOR OF DOOM to remove the bells; but the director acts like an elite artist and blows them off because it's madness. It's madness that you have the dumbest French accent in history sir.
Since they aren't from the studio; the director blows them off and we have action as we head to the inside of the bell tower as we see the Hunchback of Notre Dame hopping around and when we see his face; it's Igor Duck from The Ducky Horror Picture Show. How about that? Sadly; he got a change of voice since that episode. It should be noted that this is Don Hills second voice appearance in this cartoon and his last since there is no information beyond that. Not sure if it's this voice though. If I see a bank president in this episode; then it's Don Hills for sure. The nephews run in proclaiming that the bells will duplicate every silver dollar in Duckberg; but they cannot stop them themselves; but Louie notices something in the sky. It's Gizmo Duck in his Go-Go-Gadget Copter sequence and cuts a full of himself promo and he MURDERS himself into the bell of course. HAHA! Gizmo Duck is REALLY STUPID. You can guess what happens next as the silver dollars whoosh out of the windows, bank vaults and people's pockets. The nephews use the human chain ladder spot and go to the payphone and insert a silver dollar into it. Probably the only thing that hasn't risen in prices. They call Gyro and asks if he has had any luck reserving the process. Gyro proclaims that he hasn't; but they must get rid of the silver coins at once. Apparently; the structure of the duplicated coins are unstable and they could explode as the nephews ask him if he's sure and we cut to Gyro as the whole place is ransacked and Light Bulb is sweeping his clothes as Gyro clothes are torn and his hair is somewhat messed up. He proclaims that his calculations are right on the money and that ends the segment sixteen minutes in.
After the commercial break; we head back to the prison as Burger's spoon is crushed and he's crushed. Big Time proclaims that this is no good and one of the guards' arm gives them a present. Burger opens it up as Big Time reads the card which has a flower on it and it's not from Ma Beagle. Well; of course not since Ma was in the same prison as the Beagle Boys in Good Muddahs. Strange since we see Burger eating cheese cake with a chainsaw in it. So they chainsaw through the wall and break logic since it's on the first floor again and not on the top floor. The Beagle Boys run outside and towards the street as there are three trucks gift wrapped for them. Apparently; this is also a gift from a “fiend”...ERRR...I mean “friend”. Is Teddy Ruxpin sending gifts again? Wouldn't surprise me since he helped L.B more than once. Anyhow; they go into the trucks and speed off into the town of coins. We cut to the alleyway as we see that it was Fenton who did all this. Geez; I wonder how much those trucks must have cost? It better play into the ending; or I'm going to be so disappointed. The nephews are with him and...wait a second? The last time we saw the nephews; they were with Gizmo Duck. So did they...? Oh; forget it, would it really matter if they knew Gizmo Duck was Fenton Crackshell? As long as no one else knows? After all; Scrooge knows Fenton is Gizmo Duck anyway; so it wouldn't be all that much of a stretch. Fenton claims that his plan is working perfectly and of course he has no idea what the plan is. HAHA! Then he remembers as the plan is to have the Beagle Boys bust out of prison and steal the money; step 2 is to lead them someplace safe to store the money and step 3 is BOOM! No more coin, no more Beagle Boys. That just sounds so cruel and callous. Huey shakes hands on this and proclaims that Fenton is not as big of a dope as Scrooge claims which surprises Fenton. Really now Fenton? You're a better version of Drake Mallard for crying out loud. Did you expect anything less? Oh wait; he's full of himself, never mind.
So we head to the streets of Duckberg as the Beagle Boys throw money bags into the truck. Baggy of course gets snippy and Big Time MURDERS him with the money bag for good measure. And sezs shut up to him. More garbage collecting as the denizen don't give a crap about the Beagle Boys eliminating the trash of the silver coins. Big Time is confused by this as we continue on as everyone doesn't seem to care and the Big Time has the Gruffi pose on and blows this off. Baggy suggests robbing a bank and Big Time calls it the smartest thing he has ever said as the heels return to the trucks. Baggy isn't so sure because the last time they tried this; they landed in jail. So we head to the bank which is really only there so that Don Hills can get his one or two lines in as bank president. We discover that the vaults in the bank are full and there will be no deposits. So the heels come in (two of them since I believe Burger is stuck in the revolving door as usual) and Big Time has his pistol. The bank president is thrilled to see them as everyone cheers because it's a robbery. I just find it amusing that everyone in Duckberg seems to hate money now. Oh wait; it's Baggy stuck in the door as the heels are confused again. So we scene change (because Wang cannot animate them stealing the money in the vaults and coming out of course) as Big Time still has the pistols set to profits. Big Time threatens no alarms and the bank president assures them that there are none since it disappeared for some reason implying that the nephews stole it earlier, even though we never saw them at the bank. The heels load up the trucks with sacks of money. It should be noted that it's the same bank we stole in Super Ducktales among other episodes as the bank president waves goodbye. Baggy doesn't understand why this is happening.
So we scene change to the full trucks heading to the Beagle Boys Money Bin (thank you vanilla arrow sign) as Burger proclaims that this is too good to be true. We then see Scrooge with the binoculars on the look out checking the streets; and they are clearly all clean as the shot ends at the BB Money Bin. Scrooge calls Fenton a genius and Fenton proclaims that it's a “booming” economy and embraces Scrooge. Oooookkkkaaayyy; we have two and half minutes left in this episode; so I'm going to guess that Fenton used Scrooge's Money Bin with this and they are looking out at Scrooge's mansion. So Gyro walks in and proclaims that they will not explode. Wait a second? WHAT THE HELL? Then what the hell happened to Gyro at the end of the second commercial break? Scrooge gets the cheap heat and is pissed as he blames Fenton for this because he needs Gyro to get rid of the coins. Fenton fends for himself asking if the raise is off. Scrooge demands he get the money back; or he'll raise him to the moon, like Flint almost did in My Mother The Psychic. Fenton bails as we head inside the vault of the BB Money Bin as this episode has lost all logic and reason now. Burger dives off and of course the LAW OF HEAVY METALS applies and Burger is screwed. HAHA! At least Burger still provides entertainment for me as Big Time asks if he's all right. Yes Big Time; he's perfectly all right. I'm more worried about where this episode is going, more than anything else. We hear knocking on the door and it's Fenton demanding to be let in which Big Time blows off as he is about to dive in. Fenton continues to knock; and then stops and rings the door bell. And then we get a massive tornado inside the money bin because that is exactly what this episode needs: more windbags! So the vault gets destroyed completely and Scrooge invokes the LASSO OF BANE TO ALL ACTION CARTOONS EVERYWHERE and ropes Fenton out before he gets sucked up. The sequence is better than the usual Wang Film offerings; so I cannot complain as Scrooge blows off Gyro claiming that it wouldn't explode. Gyro proclaims that it would actually implode on itself back to the original coin. Okay; that makes more sense with the destruction in his lab. Needless to say; there is only a hole in the ground and the Beagle Boys are punch drunk dizzy.
The nephews then run in and steal the silver dollar back before storming off. Big Time cannot believe he lost all that money; but Burger wants to sprint back to jail so he can have his pudding and he runs off as the heels just shrug their shoulders. So we head back to the mansion as we wrap up the moral lesson of not having easy money. Even if it is a raise since money is well earned. Scrooge rings the door bell and we get some rumbling in the mansion as the tornado rips out of the open window leading to what I believe is the nephews' room as the door opens and it's Mrs. Beakly coming out and she is PISSED off as she swears to never clean the nephews' room ever again. And she steals back the silver dollar and demands that they clean up HER room before storming off inside. HAHA! Too bad it wasn't Gyro since Gyro is the one to blame for all this anyway. The nephews sulk as we end the episode at 21:16. Fun episode with a great finish and ending; but if you are looking for a lesson in real life money; read a freakin financial book people! Or watch the classic short: Scrooge McDuck & Money short from 1967; it's half the time of this episode and a lot more effective than this episode as a moral lesson. Still fun to watch mostly due to Fenton and the Beagle Boys being funny. *** ¾ (75%).
THE REVIEW LINE
Well; we got through another infamous episode of Ducktales; and this one was perfectly fine, but it wasn't as epic as Vowel Play was and the whole inflation lesson proved to be shallow at best. Let's face facts; it's a starting point to a dialog on money; but money is much more complex than this. So if you are expecting a lesson to be learned here; prepare to be disappointed when the real world tells you that inflation has some benefits (in certain situations) which Scrooge fails to tell the nephews. It just makes him sound like a greedy bastard trying to protect his fortune more than anything else. The moral lesson of easy money has been hammered to death already in this series; as recent as Allowance Day. There are better ways to learn about money; one that was made in Disney in 1967 with Scrooge & Money short (which also starred the nephews, thus making this episode look worse in that regard).With that said; this was a fun episode because it wasn't about inflation that made it good; it was the fun Fenton, Gizmo Duck and Burger made that make this episode good to watch and not a dull lesson on economics. I also loved the finish because they manage to make it suspenseful because we all thought the coins exploded near the sixteen minute mark; and then Gyro confused everyone and we discover he meant implode which actually makes sense with the room being in the shape that was in. I also loved the ending as Beakly finally paid back the nephews for screwing with her with the Dust Busters gimmick. Overall; it was an episode that started mostly as a Time Teasers redo, with a consequence scene just to pay off the moral, and then it got really fun the longer it went due to the heels and Gizmo Duck making me laugh. I'm beginning to see that Fenton is at his best as Gizmo Duck because as himself; he's hit or miss. Sadly; for this weekend at least, Dough Ray Me was the best episode of the lot. Next up is (beside the dreadful Gym Dandy & Detained for Kick Buttowski) Bubba's Big Brainstorm which might be on track for the worst episode of the entire series right there; and maybe the end of Bubba as a creditable character. This is going to be a disaster; it could be worse than Kick Buttowski this week. So.....
Thumbs in the middle pointing up for this episode and I'll see you next time.