Return to 50 Webs
Disclaimer#1: All images, characters and material is (C) 1990/1991 Walt Disney Company and is being used without permission. The web master has made sure that no money was made in the creation of this web page and that all material used here is used with the up most affection and respect to the Walt Disney Company and the Tale Spin Team.
Disclaimer#2: The views expressed here are solely the views of the web master and no one else. The web master has no intentions to change anyone's minds about a particular subject and respects the views of the viewers. Comments about this and other editorial can be E-Mail at mailto:gweagle@eastlink.ca or signing the Cloudkicker guest book.
The Duck Who Knew Too Much
Reviewed: 03/14/2012
Knew Too Much Vanity?!
It's hard to believe that we are down to just five episodes left in the television version of Ducktales. And there are just three episodes left featuring Gizmo Duck (if you don't include his cameo appearances in Darkwing Duck. This episode is Fenton being on vacation and discovering a conspiracy against Scrooge. Zounds!! So what is this conspiracy you ask? So let's rant on shall we..?!
This episode is written by Doug Hutchinson and the story is done by Ken Koonce and David Weimers.
We begin this one with a skyline shot of a tower emitting circular waves of energy. The waves hit a bird and force the white bird to fly away. We pan down to KWAK radio station and head into the studio as the crowd is watching a game show with Fenton as one of the contestants. The show is called Let's Make A Mess; which combines You Cannot Do That On Television with Funhouse. Oh wait; that would be Funhouse. Damn. The host is a male dogsperson wearing a navy blue suit and the grand prize is in a vat of green molten jello. There is a female aide wearing a green dress and looks like Kitten Kaboodle without the heat or creditability to be sexy. Fenton has ten seconds to find it and the clock begins now. Fenton dives in and splashes green goo all over everyone including the audience and Gandra Dee who cheers for Fenton winning or Fenton's death. It's hard to tell. Mrs. Crackshell watches on from her trailer of course and she's not too thrilled. Fenton pops up and grabs the red plastic stick within one second of the time limit and has won the grand prize, DUH! Fenton has a swizzle stick and he's won a trip to Swizzleland which is the home of skiing, lodges, hot chocolate with white tree design cups and swizzle sticks of course. The host (Alan Oppenheimer) explains the whole vacation as he will board an airplane on Swiss Air to the country and then go skiing at a lodge via a train. Fenton seems to care more about the sticks than the actual vacation. HA! Fenton gets hugged by Gandra while the picture of that lodge looks like something out of a Quack Pack episode. Ducks By Nature in fact. Gandra kisses him and Fenton does a really cute spot of going flat on the stage. HAHA! Fenton of course has to get Scrooge's approval for this trip and Gandra is concerned about this. Fenton is confident of getting the trip...
...and we segue to Scrooge pounding on his desk and basically no selling the deal. Geez; what a shock that is? Scrooge of course won't let him because nothing will ever get done. Ho hum. Fenton bails out of the office getting the message and shuts the door. Scrooge checks his papers blowing off Fenton and then realizes that a bank in Swizzleland is getting a shipment of gold and he needs someone trustworthy to keep an eye on it. Oh; that isn't obvious in anyway, no siree Scroogie. So Fenton gets the job and the airfare is already paid. Well; go figure. So we head to the trailer park as we see Mrs. Crackshell sitting on her couch doing her contracted usual stuff and Fenton sulks beside her blowing off Scrooge. There is a convenient light bulb fixture on the ceiling and it turns on the instant Fenton has a Krackpotkin Plan. Fenton asks for the medical book of doom and Mrs. Crackshell gives him a bunch of books and Fenton starting using a paintbrush and then we scene change to Fenton painting purple spots on himself and Mrs. Crackshell warning him that if he fakes this and Scrooge knows it; he'll be back to bean counting. Fenton doesn't seem to care at all. Which is fitting because he's a full of himself, really stupid mallard. He's vain basically. Mrs. Crackshell bails to get the door and in comes Scrooge as Fenton groans like an idiot. See; he has the purple spotted beak pox. Well; it's a fake virus so it's not offensive like him getting himself chicken pox from an infected person. Scrooge is wondering if it has anything to do with the vacation he asked for. Fenton then proclaims that he'll return to work even if he risks infecting everyone for a week. Scrooge recoils and bails out telling him to stay in bed. I shouldn't be surprised that he fell for it since he has had Airhead Syndrome before. Fenton doesn't even wait for Scrooge to go out of sight before declaring that he feels better already, thus proving that Scrooge has the syndrome today. Not that it mattered since Scrooge was going to have him be in Swizzleland anyway. But that pointlessness is the price you pay for doing comedy on Disney I suppose.
So Fenton goes to his room and returns with his suitcases packed and apparently; Mrs. Crackshell is all packed up and ready to go because she wants to see the in flight movie. Ooookkkaaayyy. So the phone rings and Fenton answers it. It's Gandra proclaiming that she's ready to go. Fenton claims that she'll see her in a few minutes because apparently someone else thinks she's going with him and Gandra instantly blows him off as a cad and being with another woman. I love real comments that aren't supposed to be real comments. Another example of why it's not always a good idea to be living with your mother. Mrs. Crackshell's rubber hat is completely absurd with earring like tuna fish. She has committed 12 violations of the FASHION POLICE OF LAW. At least. Fenton comes over and wants to talk about something; probably the fact that she is not coming along to the airport which is our next segue. And there are Red Baron WW1 planes landing here too for some reason. So we go into the jet plane as Fenton puts his carry on bags underneath the seat and then sits down next to Gandra. Gandra does not look amused for some reason that I cannot put my Crackshell thumb on. Gandra blows him off and wants to change the subject after Fenton tries to sweet talk her. Memo to Fenton: You could tell her that your mother tried to steal the vacation from her. Anyhow; Gandra then notices that Scrooge is aboard and he uses the motion to a female dogperson in an airline uniform asking for cheaper seats. Do we really need to jackhammer the fact that Scrooge is super-super cheap here guys? I mean come on now. He even offers to ride with the luggage. How sweet of him; only a bum would ever accept that deal in real life.
So we cut back to Fenton as he puts on the snow tunic, red scarf and goggles on as a disguise. Umm; yeah, he lied to Scrooge, what is your point Gandra? Fenton claims that he is getting into the spirit of the trip and giggle in such a fake way that Gandra is taken aback. Heh. So we finally head to Swizzleland which appears to be somewhere in the middle of the United States in real life. It's the train station with a legit steam/coal powered locomotive train. So we zoom into the red train station as Gandra comes out telling Fenton to hurry up because he might miss the train as Fenton carries about three times his body weight in luggage. Since he's the comedy guy of this show; it's perfectly all right, unlike in TaleSpin when Kit got the spot as punishment for being such a dramatic character and being a BS&P nightmare in general. Gandra seemly disappears for no reason and Fenton takes a MAN-SIZED bump into a blond female in a red dress and she speaks French. Okay writers; if you are going to do an episode in Switzerland; you have the heel speak German; not French. Although to be fair; 20% of the country is French. But still; it's a cheap short cut. It's not like English speaking children in America can understand French anyway; so why not go with German and see if you can freshen up the heel ranks a bit...Oh wait; never mind.
Needless to say; Fenton blows her off at first but then sees her eyes and he has black heart sonar sounding eyes on her. Fenton of course cannot speak French to save his life and even offers a doctor and CPR via the beaks. Now there's a scene Disney isn't going to allow; but I without a doubt want to see. The French lady seduces him and then walks off to allow Fenton to drop his face down while trying to kiss. HAHA! The girl walks away as Fenton has hearts coming out of him and in comes Gandra (via the glorified legs shot) blowing him off for being in love with another woman. See; I think telling her the truth about Mrs. Crackshell would have been great because here it would make Fenton look like such a full of himself liar. And you know she's mad because she has the Gruffi pose on full blast. Fenton then grabs the luggage in rapid fire and lies through his teeth claiming that he never saw her in his life. Okay; it's not a complete bald face lie; but it's close enough to be one. So we head inside the train as Fenton packs the luggage up in the upper shelves and sits down with Gandra. Gandra's comment about European trains is clear that she has watched way too many spy movies as Fenton blows off the suggestion that the train is filled with spies. We cut to outside the train hallway as a female dogperson wearing purple trim, a trench coat and cowboy hat is carrying a briefcase. She has an exchange with a male trench coat wearing spy with glasses on. I see Launchpad has yet to whisper Double O Duck into Fenton's ear.
Apparently; spies give Gandra chills down her spine. Fenton laughs it off and looks out the window to notice that Scrooge is boarding the train. Fenton takes the white curtains and closes them as Gandra wants to know why he is doing that. Fenton does the usual end-around answer to avoid asking the question. Fenton calls it suggestive as the train leaves the station. Okay; that sounded more disturbing than I had intended. So we head into the dining room car as Gandra and Fenton are at the table and Fenton is wearing another disguise (this time adding shades and a beard). Gandra questions Fenton's reasoning for being like a freak on vacation. You have never met Scrooge's boss Gandra, unless you are an Airhead like Foxglove can be at times. Fenton asks who is weird as he looks from the shades and rips the blue menu like paper (Damn; this train company is even cheaper than I thought. No wonder Scrooge boarded this train) as we see Scrooge walking in and Fenton panics. Fenton hides underneath the table; which would have alerted Scrooge and blew Fenton's cover in any other universe, but Scrooge just walks by without a care in the world. Gandra looks under the table and sees Fenton shaking like a leaf. Gandra asks why he is under the table. Fenton of course lies that he lost a contact lens and Gandra rightfully blows him off because he doesn't wear contact lenses. Fenton then sezs something I cannot make out and then bails from the table; pulls on a locked double door which is the wrong room, and then busts into his cabin, pulls the curtains down and then hides above the shelves which contain no luggage whatsoever. Logic break #1 for the episode seven minutes in.
So Fenton shakes like a leaf and we hear the French female duck calling Agent X (!!!) as we discover that she is known as Goldfeather (makes sense considering the blond hair), we then cut to a sky shot of a cabin as Goldfeather is twirling a pistol (!!) while talking to a clam shell device. She is heading for the Sizzle Stick factory and is accessible via a secret code known as Uppenheimer. Even Agent X is not amused and at times he sounds like Maurice LaMarche aka the Brain. Goldfeather is here to steal Scrooge's gold as Fenton gasps in horror and the shelf breaks and he falls down right in front of Goldfeather. Okay; this is stupid logic because Fenton went into the same cabin as her and she DIDN'T EVEN NOTICE?! Not even the obvious pulling down the curtains?! How contrived and stupid can KKDW be not to notice that problem?! So Goldfeather sticks the pistol in Fenton's face (WARNING! Toon Disney cut might be commencing here) and Fenton does the Peter Piper tongue twister to confuse her and he tries to bail stage left. But Goldfeather teleports in front of him and sticks the pistol in his face. I'm almost happy if Toon Disney cuts this scene actually. Almost. Anyhow; Goldfeather opens the window claiming that Fenton knows too much. She has such low standards if she's saying that to FENTON CRACKSHELL. So we cut to the hallway as Gandra is searching for Fenton and then she screams at the horror of Goldfeather cornering Fenton. Sadly; it's not because she has a freakin gun since the door obscures the gun; but because Fenton is smitten by another woman. Gandra cries and runs off weeping stage right as apparently; this relationship is dead on arrival. No surprise since this is the last appearance of Gandra in this series.
So Goldfeather orders Fenton to jump out of the window and Fenton teases a no sell (because he wants to reduce his intake of jumping from trains; and really who doesn't?); before Goldfeather points the tip of the gun to Fenton's chest and Fenton decides to perch himself on the window sill. Lucky for him; the train goes into a tunnel and no one can see (which is a really stupid contrived logic break because in real life; they would use a battery to allow the train to have lights. Well; the modern trains anyway, so I'll let this break slide); and once the train goes out of the tunnel; Fenton is under the seats and Goldfeather walks out assuming that the foolish duck is dead. Only in your bubbly little world there madam. Fenton gleefully blows her off for calling him a fool. HA! You just cannot handle the truth Fenton Crackshell. Get over yourself. So we scene change to the hallway as Fenton is tiptoeing into the dining room car and then panics and bails the moment he sees Scrooge at the table being served dinner by a waiter. Fenton then gets a brainstorm (Oh boy...!) and bails to a bunch of travel maps and writes a message on it. See; if he informs Scrooge that Goldfeather is stealing his money; he's off the hook. Riiiiiiiggggghhhhhhtttttt Fenton. Maybe you should ask Donald Duck what happened in the comics with Scrooge. The results are usually not pretty.
So Fenton create a paper airplane and throws it towards Scrooge and it comes in like a rocket without any spiral whatsoever and splashes into Scrooge's split eye pea soup splashing a lot on Scroogie. HAHA! Scrooge calls for the waiter claiming that there is an airplane in his soup. Not really; but you are close. Scrooge takes out the plane and sees the paper. He can read the part where spies want something; but the pig French waiter with the mustache tries to translate it as Glump. HAHA! Fenton is pissed; so he writes Gold on the second paper; crumbles it up and throw it right between Scrooge's eyes. HA! Scrooge uncrumbles the paper and he translates it as Goid. HAHA! Scrooge is confused and Fenton is flustered. Memo to Fenton: Scrooge apparently cannot read today. Fenton storms off stage left and then sees Miss Congeneaility (aka Goldfeather) coming his way so he bails into the seat in the foreground...which somehow allows Fenton to climb the underbelly of the actual train OUTSIDE. WHAT THE HELL?! Fenton proclaims to the kids to never try this at home. I agree with him; but he's omitting the most important part: Writers and animators should never try this as a cartoon spot unless you make it clear that Fenton exit the train via the window. Fenton climbs away and that ends the segment ten minutes in. Man; this could have been a great episode if the animators and writers didn't make things look so contrived and rushed through.
After the commercial break; we then head to the Swizzleland Lodge of Doom as we see Fenton riding a snow mobile with Gandra on board. WHAT THE BLOODY HELL?! I don't see any cuts here so...WHAT?! How did Fenton find Gandra and how did Gandra manage to reconcile with Fenton? Oh please; don't turn to Bubba's Big Brainstorm level now; please don't?! Anyhow; we go inside as Gandra hopes Fenton has gotten over his weirdfulness. I'm more concerned with the randomness of the writers and animators here than Fenton's well being at this point. And then Fenton drops the luggage as Gandra wants to go skiing. Sadly; here comes Scrooge conveniently out of the elevator. Fenton bails into the conveniently placed fern plant as Gandra wonders why. Fenton claims that he has jet lag and train lag all wrapped up in one. He also has a series case of "lie lag" too. AHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! And he suffers from slave lag too. So Scrooge walks forward as Goldfeather makes it to the desk and talks to the dogsperson with the glass eye who might be related to one of the guys in The Status Seekers. Goldfeather requests a taxi for 6 o'clock because she has a serious meeting to go to. Fenton overhears this as he proclaims that he need to go to the Swizzle Stick Factory soon; which makes Gandra wonder if he is getting worse and needs some rest. Fenton agrees to it as they decide to go to check in with Fenton bouncing himself inside the fern pot plant.
So we head to the hallway as Gandra and Fenton wave to each other and take separate rooms. Ah; so this hotel doesn't have double occupancy. Sounds like a sweet deal to me. Gandra is wearing a pink sweater and she states that she will take a tour of the town or something while Fenton recovers from Weirdness Syndrome. Fenton nods and both close their doors as Fenton runs to the conveniently placed phone on a pillar and dispatches a call to his Gizmo Duck suit; which might be the smartest move Fenton has done in this short. So we cut to the closet where the Gizmo Duck suit is and it doesn't sell as Fenton proclaims that he forgot to turn on the answering machine of the suit. D'OH! So Fenton redials and we see Mrs. Crackshell listening to her usual soap operas as the phone on a pillow on the couch rings off the hook. Mrs. Crackshells smothers the phone and proclaims that Drake shouldn't get married because he's a cad and a weak will gizzard. I love real comments that aren't supposed to be real comments. And Darkwing Duck doesn't exist for another year or so. So Fenton slams the door and proclaims that he doesn't need the suit. He'll save Scrooge's money using his wits; and then breaks the fourth wall by telling us not to talk about taking on quack that are unarmed brain wise.
So we finally head to the Swizzle Stick Factory of Doom which is on a snowy hill in Swizzleland. And there is a huge door below the mountain by the way which will probably be used by the end of this episode. So the taxi pulls up in front of the building as Fenton comes out wearing a news reporter disguise. He walks into the factory area as we get some of the stiffest crushing in history on the conveyer belt and then see a dogsperson in a gray suit and having a brown mustache come out and Fenton tries to speak French; but the accent is just silly. Fizzle Fenton has arrived to do a secret inspection of the factory as per by Scrooge and he shows his DMV to prove himself. Department of Motor Vanity? AHHAHAHAHAHAHA! Fizzle Fenton wants to interview the workers and he goes over to the conveyer belt as the manager walks back to the office proclaiming that he'll be in his office if he needs any assistance. So he goes to a female pig furry doing something at the conveyer belt (she has white hair) as Fizzle Fenton has his clipboard and wants her to answer the following questions in a True or False answer. Oh; this should be fun to mock. First question: Spying is a good idea. The worker is as confused as everyone else in this episode as we head to the manager's SWANK office as Scrooge walks in with the manager at his desk. We discover that the guy's name is Doghousen (BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!) as Dog stands up to fluttered paper and pulls his bow tie to greet Scrooge.
Scrooge proclaims that he's here on business and a secret inspection of the swizzle stick factory. Dog proclaims that this would be a surprise to the inspector who is doing the secret inspection right now. Scrooge is surprised of this happening as Dog claims that Scrooge sent Fizzle Fenton to do a surprise inspection. So we cut back to Fizzle Fenton asking more questions to the pig furry as the second question involves school education. Apparently; there is a school for electronic espionage. Fenton thinks highly of that comment too as he turns around and panics as he bails behind the conveyer belt and pops up in a workers disguise. Geez; he has the MAGIC CLOSET OF DOOM hidden in that suit too. We then see Scrooge and Dog walking in the foreground as Dog wants to show Scrooge the state of the art stamping machine. We see the stamping machine in a far view as Worker Fenton fiddles with swizzle sticks and then in comes a tour guide with some tourists which includes Gandra Dee who comes in last. Apparently; the Swizzle Stick machine can do 66,000 sticks in 60 seconds. And yes; the "Say that three times fast" is a motif for the episode, which is why I ignore it for the most part. The pig fury (who looks like that furry from somewhere I cannot remember at the moment) wants Worker Fenton to demonstrate since he's behind the control panel now trying to escape.
Worker Fenton grins and pulls the levers (WRONG LEVERS!) and we get chaos and mayhem. Did I mention that the stamping machine looks like a bunch of robotic legs?! So the robot leg stamper stamps on Worker Fenton and Fenton is forced to rip his disguise and he bumps into the side of the machine blowing his cover right in front of Gandra. Fenton tries to act like an idiot; but Gandra is not buying it and you know she's serious when she addresses Fenton with his full name. Fenton whisper yells that he's going to explain why he is here; but grabs Gandra and they run into the storage room with a No Swizzle sign on it. Why is there a sign? I don't know; I don't they will ever explain it. Fenton tells the truth and Gandra mocks him as Fenton bumps into the wall which opens the secret passage just as Gandra is blowing him off about them and takes a wussy bump off-screen. Sigh. So we head back to in front of the building as Scrooge enters the taxi and Dog asks when Scrooge is coming back. Scrooge just giggles and Dog gets it as a secret as the taxi races off. Come to think of it; Dog is wearing a stereotypical spy suit so I'm guessing that he is Agent X. More evidence supports that theory as he has a device which is beeping and he claims that someone is in the secret room of doom. Yeap; he's Agent X for sure now. The fact that it took until now for me to see it is good writing; so I cannot complain about this.
So we go to black as Fenton wants a light switch. I'm sure Gandra would like a brain switch in order to make Fenton not act like a adulterer. So Fenton falls down the steps and bangs into something. I know this because Gandra turns on the light switch and there is a flight of steps when we have light. Gandra rushes down the steps like lightening and we see Fenton against a column recovering as we turn around and see a robot mantis ant. I am NOT making this one up. In comes Dog with a pistol as he blows off Fenton for thinking that this was the welcome wagon. Fenton then guesses that it's Agent X which we all knew about a minute ago. X asks how he knew and Fenton claims that Upperheimer told him. Then Agent X finally states that he thought Goldfeather was a woman (Guess again X; GF is a lady); and so Fenton pushes Gandra in front of him claiming that she's Goldfeather. Gandra is confused. If I were Gandra; I would be punching him in the face for using you as a human shield. Gandra plays along (what a shock?!) and X points the pistol up claiming he spoke to her in a French accent. Fenton claims that she was calling from a phone in France and in France phones have a French accent feature. I'm SHOCKED Quebec hasn't considered an automatic English to French translation voice for their phones because that would make Bill 101 much easier to enforce. Or not.
So Agent X demands the remote control device which is to use on the Mantis Ant robot which is designed to steal Scrooge's fortune. Gandra's French is awesome here as X does the Gruffi pose in response..and still has his pistol set to profits. Fenton claims that he left it at the hotel and tries to bail with Gandra to get it; but X cuts him off and goes to the robot mantis ant and pushes a button on it to have the ant spit out a ladder. See; Fenton and Gandra must operate the robot manually; thus rendering the device as a McGruffin by proxy. That is the definition of a throwaway spot. Fenton and Gandra climb into the mouth of the mantis ant (Fenton almost blows Gandra's cover as Goldfeather) and go to the front where the manual controls are and they are trapped inside. Gandra sits down and admits that Fenton is right; but what can they do now. Fenton notices the conveniently placed phone and claims he has a Krackpotkin plan and dials the number again as we cut back to inside Fenton's trailer as we see Mrs. Crackshell taking a bubble bath and scrubbing herself; thus making her one step above the normal dork in the basement. That's awfully nice to know too. She scrubs her foot too in cute fashion as we cut back to Fenton cutting his OH MY GOD promo while slamming the phone down and blowing off his mother. Heh.
So Fenton dials the phone and we discover that the motel desk man is known as the Italian Snub (6.5% of the people in Switzerland speak Italian so there better be someone German and Romanian or I am going to be disappointed.) as Fenton informs the guy that he has an important message to Scrooge that the Swizzle Stick Factory is a cover for a plot to steal his gold signed a friend. Fenton hangs up the phone and we see Scrooge heading to the desk just in time for Mr. Snub. Scrooge grabs the paper and of course he is referring to the Snub to see if it's gold or glump. Yeap; Scrooge is in full airhead mode today. So we cut back to Fenton hanging up the phone and Gandra has figured out the controls (!!) and pushes a lever (WRONG LEVER!) and some green button to use the metal pincers to grab X and open a hatch on it's back and X is deposited inside. X is sealed inside and Fenton calls Gandra a genius. Gandra claims that she was taking night classes as moonlighting. However; the nail polishing class was full; so she took a class in electric espionage robotics. HAHA! She is enlightened. Now; this should be the end of the episode right here in any other universe; but we are a year away from CDS and have five minutes to go; so let's get the silliness over and done with.
So we get the mantis ant to spit out a ladder as Fenton climbs down and finds the conveniently placed oil can and smears oil on it to disguise himself as Agent X to run interference because the real Goldfeather is coming to play. So we cut to behind the Swizzle Stick Factory of Doom as Scrooge walks over to the door and brings out his iron key. However; the door opens instantly and Scrooge blows off the bad security stating that he is amazed that the place was not robbed blind. So Goldfeather grabs Scrooge and pins him down onto the floor and calls him an old timer. So we cut back to Fenton with greasy oil and we see Goldfeather marching Scrooge down the steps with the pistol set to kill; and Scrooge realizes it's Fenton right away. Yeah; airheadness has a selective memory today. Fenton and Scrooge bail as Gandra works the controls on the mantis ant to grab Goldfeather; but GF dodges all. GF uses the GOLDEN WATCH OF DOOM as we discover that this is the remote control device and thus it overrides the manual device meaning that it's not a MacGruffin. Sigh. The mantis ant hatch opens; Gandra gets rejected and Fenton tries to catch her; but Scrooge is such an airhead that he freezes in the one spot needed to provide a perfect cushion for Gandra to break her fall. HAHA! Well Fenton; Scrooge has no one but himself to blame for that one. Somehow; the yellow waves also override the hatch because somehow X is teleported beside GF as the babyfaces all bail out of the factory through the door and hide behind the Swizzle Stick truck. Yeah; I'm capitalizing Swizzle and Stick together today; so sue me. There's freezing rain out there so I cannot make it to the office today either. Scrooge demands answers to this outrage and out from the main steel door comes the mantis ant rampaging into town smashing homes and whatnot in it's path. Fenton gleefully answers that one for me as the metal mantis ant stomps into town and that ends the segment nearly eighteen minutes in. Wow; that segment was almost eight minutes long.
After the commercial break; Scrooge whines about being a poor man with a mantis ant robbing him blind. Maybe in Europe Scroogie; but even the FCC Navy can handle this grasshopper. AHHAHAHAHAHAHA! POW! OUCH! Ummmm....Thanks Geox; you are a lifesaver. Anyhow; we see a cheese colored car driving with X and Goldfeather in it. It drives away as Fenton notices a conveniently placed pay phone booth in the wilderness. Geez; what a shock that is?! Fenton asks for a quarter and Scrooge whines about being minutes away from being poor. Oh TAG! Gandra gives Fenton the quarter and Fenton runs to the phone and dials for someone to send him a telegram. So we head back to the trailer park as a fat dogsperson who looks like Pilot Jack (with a red cherry nose) knocks on the door and the door opens to reveal Mrs. Crackshell. The post dog gives her the telegram and she's giddy because she thinks she's won a prize; but it's Fenton so she groans on cue. HAHA! She walks back in and closes the door reading the telegram as Fenton is in big trouble. Stop. Needs Gizmo Duck suit. Stop. Get a move on. Stop. Pretty direct. Stop. POW! OUCH! Ummmmm...
So Ma goes to the closet and instead of doing the sensible thing which is to turn on the answering machine so Fenton can access it; she cuts the OH MY GOD promo and the suit attaches to her. I realize that this pays off the whole "Ma wants to save Fenton for a change" plot that they have been building up to; but the New Gizmo Kids On The Block is the last episode in production featuring Gizmo Duck; so why waste it now; when you can waste it on THAT episode? And considering that I have seen the finish of NGKOTB well in advance; I pretty much see why now. So Gizmo Mom fiddles with the control and finds the Go Go Gadget rocket mode and rockets into the air. So we head to a cliff as the heel's car is looking on from the cliff as a safe truck is racing up the difficult mountain road. This has to be the truck carrying Scrooge's gold. And apparently; there are about a dozen of the same cars as a pig truck driver sees the legs of the mantis ant and all of them have to stop on a dime and manage to not crash into each other. We cut to an FPS shot of Goldfeather turning on the watch. Then we get a long sequence of the any grabbing the truck by the pincers and invoking a yellow laser to blast open the truck and then dumping the money into the hatch and then dropping the truck down a hill. In any other universe; that pig furry is dead; but he's all right in this sequence with no injuries whatsoever.
Scrooge calls the thing unstoppable and wants to go after the device on GF's wrist. However; Fenton wants to shortcut as we pan over to a pole containing the conveniently placed glass box. Fenton runs to it and sees the glass box and reads it for no reason over than to waste a few seconds of time. So Fenton takes a rock and breaks the glass which somehow causes the box to spark. Huh? Then Fenton climbs the power pole with a grappling hook and cuts the power line; allowing the power line to sag onto the mantis ant and it goes out of control. Oooookkkkaaaayyyy; that was out of nowhere. Goldfeather uses the watch to regain control and orders the metal mantis ant to kill him. And yes; she does say kill, even if it was a French accent. Fenton is so screwed now as the ant shoots the laser on the power pole and Fenton free falls and takes a wussy bump onto the ground. Sigh. The shadow overwhelms Fenton as he bails away and almost slips on the edge of the cliff. Rocks crumble down the hill as Fenton closes his eyes and invokes the LEGAL HAND OF GOD which shows how REALLY STUPID Fenton is.
Then we hear Gizmo Mom as the mantis ant notices her and even Gandra and Scrooge are confused of this Gizmo Mom goes over and tells Fenton to take the suit; but Fenton no sells because Gandra will see him as Gizmo Duck. GF orders the mantis ant to destroy and recycle Gizmo Mom as Fenton tells Gizmo Mom to fire the midriff rockets. Now there's a spot I want to see; except Ma cannot figure out how those work. So she presses the wrong button and turns into a tornado and does the whirlwind spot because this is exactly what this episode needs - more windbags! The mantis ant gets spun; but it does nothing and Gizmo Mom is dizzy thinking she won a game show. HEE HEE! If only Ma Crackshell. So the robot grabs Gizmo Mom by the wheel and hangs her upside down so Fenton yells at her to press all the button. Ma claims Fenton tells him that it hurts and Fenton tells her that motherhood is about suffering. And that's why a lot of females DO NOT want to have children jackass. There is an alternative: it's Chikara Pro. Yeah; I WENT there. So Gizmo Mom pushes all the buttons at once and she sparks and blows up into a balloon. The ant lets go and she is look a balloon leaking air as she flies around for a bit; causing a mountain climber to slide down a mountain while climbing and we go to the far shot and Gizmo Ma takes a MAN-SIZED bump into the metal mantis ant and explodes right on contact.
The dust clears and we see Gizmo Mom on the ground with a flat tire as the metal mantis ant is disabled for good. X and GF are SHOCKED, APPALLED and soon going to be arrested as Scrooge gets behind X and puts his finger under his coat and threatens them to surrender or he shoots. Oh; that is a BS&P decision if I ever saw one. Even more so when Scrooge has a blunderbuss in a few of the episode. Very tacky BS&P; very tacky. X and GF of course surrender on cue and raise their arms up. Gandra cannot believe Scrooge has a gun and Scrooge claims that this is his little secret. Fenton goes over to Gizmo Mom to console her as Gizmo Mom blows him off and proclaims that he'll never forget this. Yeah; he won't for another two episodes anyway. So we head back to the lodge and inside the room as we see Mrs. Crackshell watching television on a better screen. She hears a door bell and tells whoever to come in. Scrooge walks in and wants to talk to Fenton. Mrs. Crackshell tells him that he's in his room. Scrooge enters the room as Gandra is feeding Fenton soup in bed. Yes; I mean...in bed. Scrooge informs Fenton that for his heroics in saving his gold; he is getting a week paid vacation. Fenton has the purple spots on and we discover that indeed, he is the purple spotted beak pox for real. HAHA! Karma indeed strikes back. Scrooge leaves telling him to come back early next week as Gandra puts the thermometer in his mouth and the bulb explodes right at the top as the red gushes out. Fenton does a Grade S groan in response and that ends the episode at 21:16. This was a fun episode; even though it felt rushed in places and some of the animation wasn't clear logic wise. Still; Fenton was always fun to mock so I cannot complain. *** 1/2 (70%).
THE REVIEW LINE
Not much to say about this episode other than it's a weaker version of Double O Duck; without a death scene and with a few places where I couldn't tell what was going on. I thought Fenton bailed to the seats; but he really bailed out the window. Then after he crawls underneath the train; we scene change to the lodge with Fenton being with Gandra for no reason whatsoever. I thought Gandra crying earlier was to make sure Fenton had to beg forgiveness back to Gandra; and yet she seemly took him back almost carte blanche. There were also a few other decision that puzzled me and while having Mrs. Crackshell wearing the suit made sense; I would have thought that they could have saved that for the final episode that they were going to air featuring Gizmo Duck originally; but they didn't. So while Fenton was funny and the screw job was cute along with Gandra's mantis ant driving skills; it came off as somewhat low rent in places. Otherwise; it was a good Ducktales love in and not much more. Next up is The New Gizmo Kids On The Block as it's the nephews and Webby's turn with the suit as Ma Beagle has her official final appearance. So.....
Thumbs in the middle for this episode and I'll see you next time.