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Ducktales Returns: The Impossible Summit Of Mount Neverrest!
Reviewed: 07/17/2018
...And The Possible Thing About Wormholes!
Well; I decided to take a detour from the main plot storyline and review the filler episodes first, because they can be watched from anytime, anywhere and no one would care. It's Teddy Ruxpin all over again; except I have a lot more confidence in Ducktales 2017 at least maintaining shot continuity and making scene throughout. So; today's episode features Scrooge trying to climb Mount Neverrest, Huey trying to chart Mount Neverrest, Dewey and Webby trying to sled down Mount Neverrest, Launchpad not knowing anything about Mount Neverrest and Louie trying to quit Mount Neverrest. Lots of stuff going on here. So, how does this episode fare? Let's rant on shall we..?!
The Impossible Summit Of Mount Neverrest's story is written and edited by Francisco Angones who also co-produced the show (also did teleplay) and directed by Tom Owens and Matt Youngberg (also did additional story). Additional story was provided by Colleen Evanson, Madison Bateman, Bob Snow, Noelle Stevenson (also did teleplay) and Christian Maglhaes. Animation is done by Snipple Animation.
Episode opens with a shot of the summit of Mount Neverrest in a book as Scrooge basically explains that the mountain is claimed to be unclimbable; but he's going to climb it and no one is going to say no. Scrooge closes the book as Louie (in full body mountain gear) is blowing this off because he wanted to spend Christmas (and yes, this is marketed as a Christmas episode. Why? I don't know.) waiting for Santa; which Scrooge claims is not invited and then blames Santa for it. What a heel, eh?! Which one? Does it matter? Louie calls this trip Mount Certain Doom. Just doom? I thought the word death was in fact allowed in DTVA. Thankfully; Huey calls Mount Neverrest three times deadlier than Mount Certain Doom. Huey's hat is goofy by the way as he shows off a globe badge, because he wants to earn his Junior Woodchuck Cartography Badge. So, this show is following modern wrestling logic here: touching the badge before winning/earning the badge. Huey shows off his modern technology because the world has been mostly mapped, you see. However; Scrooge shows off his tripod used for surveying and Huey is charmed by the rusty wisdom of experience. Scrooge claims that he'll be the first to step foot on it while Huey will be the first to draw a picture of it; even though the show has already done that. Launchpad wipes the back door of the cockpit to inform everyone that he has crashed...ERRR...I mean, landed at their destination and the doors are opened. Which we jump cut to Launchpad being forced to open them. HAHA! Everyone gets out as Launchpad's coat is aqua green. Ironically; Louie is the only kid in the group who has the common sense of covering his legs. It's winter in these parts and Louie is the one who sees that! Scrooge talks about how deadly (death reference #2) and bottomless Neverrest is. Of course, the mountain is referred as a woman, instead of "it", which makes more sense. Scrooge calls the area untrod by man; and then we see the horror of how wrong Scrooge is: There is a giant resort village at the bowels of the mountain, including a giant motel in the middle with vendor stands and a lot of glass at the front. BWHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Webby loves churros (A churro is a fried-dough pastry—predominantly choux—based snack. Churros are traditional in Spain and Portugal - from where they originate - as well as the Philippines and Ibero-America.) and runs forward, much to the horror of Scrooge and WE HIT THE OPENING~! So, it seems that this village is an osais; since of them are dressed up as if it's late spring/early summer and others are clearly dressing for winter. The babyfaces all come in as Huey is not amused by this at all as he grabs a map and calls the map all wrong since mountain goats are not native to this region and the sun is wearing sunglasses. Scrooge tells Huey to ignore this because they are all cheese puffs and tchotchkes (Jewish for trinket, but used to describe a pretty woman. So yeah; sexism everyone...); as Huey recalls a jaboroni named George Mallardy who is the greatest mountain climber in the 20th century. And who says this show doesn't praise the past? We get a close up of a poster and I swear that George looks like Benzino Gasollini; only with much more class and actual mountain climbing skills. The guy hanging from the rope appears to clearly be Scrooge McDuck; because the story of this episode appears to be that something happened to George and Scrooge is responsible for it. Just like the incident with the Spear of Selene. Some things never change. Apparently; Scrooge is also known as the Neverrest Ninny and was a horrible climber. Louie: George Mallardy: He died as he lived...freezing. I love real comments that aren't supposed to be real comments. Scrooge calls this a load of nonsense just to sell merch; which would be Louie's gimmick by the way. Scrooge calls Mallardy a quitter; which is basically admitting that he sucks at mountain climbing. Louie of all ducks points out that there is a difference between quitting and dying (fourth death reference in the episode) and Scrooge don't care. So, Webby is looking around and then notices a sled in the window of the shop and gets inspired, complete with heavenly music in the background. Okay; this needs to happen everytime Webby gets inspired, because it's always amusing.
So, Dewey is looking for trinkets and none of the keychain have Dewey's name on it. Because Dewey is the least common word among the three nephews. Webby apparently bought the sled and she's ready to tame the untamed snow hill behind her. The sled only goes down about ten feet in slow motion and Webby simply says "boo" and flops off the sled on her right side. HAHA! Webby is a wee bit disappointed; but doesn't care and checks it off her out of nowhere notebook, aka the bucket list. Oh; and penticles are allowed; so, Magica better have pentagrams, or I'm going to be very disappointed when she debuts in full bloom, instead of the shadow of Magica we got right now. Dewey calls this form all wrong because to get the maximum performance, you need the maximum moment. This sounds straight out of a Goof Troop commercial. Dewey shows off Mount Neverrest as Dewey wants to sled down Mount Neverrest, or die trying (Death reference #5) as they cheer. They are so happy that they want to die, much more psycho than Kit and Molly combined now. Since Donald Duck isn't in this episode; the bad luck/being so stupid segments now fall to Launchpad by proxy. Stupidity du jour: Being unable to remove a metal clip from his zipper after testing it out. A dognose wearing sandals, a black robe, yellow pants underneath robe, and a red winter cap that looks like a fez hat with a yellow pom-pom on top. So goofy. Carlos Alazraqui voiced him and pretty much everyone not the main babyfaces, which is the definition of a filler episode. By the way; George Mallardy is a parody on Mount Everest climber; the late George Mallory; right down to the story of his death; which is a nice touch. The salesmen is scummy and a con dognose; because Launchpad is the dumbest. To be fair; Launchpad in Ducktales was not smart either. So, we exchange notes as the salesman cuts the ropes to let Launchpad free and we discuss "ice fever". Which is not a legit medical fever, but a pinball game from 1985, when DTVA first got started. Death reference #6 ensues. So, the scummy salesman (but I repeat myself) gives Launchpad various items that cost a lot of money.
Death reference #7 ensues (first kill word of the episode) as the gloves have an ice fever rating of eight....out of seven. Launchpad loves this and buys everything off-screen. Jump cut to Scrooge and the kids looking at the giant sign referencing the village from Mount Neverrest. Louie is not amused at all by this as Launchpad comes in and he's completely overloaded, natch. Scrooge continues to cut promos as Louie thinks this will be all worth it because there is treasure in that mountain, am I right?
Scrooge: You are wrong, Mr. Weagle.
Louie:
(channeling Homer Simpson) That's it; I'm outta here!
Yup; Louie drops his equipment and bails to a coffee shop. Of course! Scrooge has that look with the blinking eyes (at least this time; they only had one blink sound) of "should have seen that one coming a mile away". Huey calls Mount Neverrest the roof of the world. The roof of the world is the sky, you stupid idiot! Dewey wants to roll off the roof of the world, and there's something even Kit Cloudkicker wouldn't have thought of. So, the rest of the babyfaces are ready to go and we hike up the trail for a long while as Launchpad is reading the most quacked up brochure I have ever witnessed, as death reference #8 ensues. If TaleSpin gets rebooted; there will be an average of 15 death references per episode instead of being the DTVA record. We also discover that Louie stole...ERRR...borrowed Scrooge's credit card and gave it to Launchpad to use. That's scummy enough; but Launchpad implied that Louie lied to him that it was Louie's corporate credit card. Pan west to Huey using Scrooge's old tools (NOT THOSE ONES!) to check out the lay of the land as Webby and Dewey look over a cliff. The hill looks dangerous enough; but Dewey blows it off because they have ONE SHOT at this and there is no coming back. I shudder to think what a rebooted Kit Cloudkicker would be like. He would make Dewey look reasonable in comparison, and that's a good thing. Not a good thing: Denying Webby's chance to snowseld just because maximum moments are awesome and sledding whereever you want is not. Webby of course accepts it; but she doesn't like it one bit. So we make it to the wall with the gate of no return because certain death awaits (death reference #9 and #10) as Dewey and Webby cheer at certain death. There is also a direction for cocoa; but no one cares about that.
Scrooge and the kids go through the gate; but since Donald Duck is not around; Launchpad has to do all the Donald Duck spots as he cannot go through the gate. So, Launchpad springs back and slides right back into the village like a stupid idiot. Scrooge is not amused; and you cannot blame him because he wanted his climbing spats...and that was half of the equipment, natch. So, Launchpad tumbles into the sauna/hot tub area of the resort as night has fallen for no reason. So, Launchpad goes snowblind and pervert all at the same time; although everyone in the sauna is wearing towels. Launchpad bails and screams off-screen as the kids and Scrooge are like "Why did we hire him?". Scrooge then claims that he chickened out to have cocoa with Louie; but the rest of the kids aren't quitting on this expedition. Then he clearly say "Neverrest Ninnies" and Dewey actually calls him out on it! Good; I'm tired of character talking at normal volume for the sake of someone hearing what he said; when it makes the guy look stupid. Scrooge end arounds this by saying that just because it's a myth; doesn't mean it's true. In this world; that makes sense. In the real world; makes no sense. Which one of the nephews tries to point out; but Scrooge cuts him off and cuts another promo as Dewey nearly loses his footing and needs to be helped up by Scrooge as they climb up some more to end the segment almost nine and a half minutes in. Just a bunch of something and not much more so far...
After the commercial break; we head back to the mountain for more walking as we get the first murder word of the episode; followed by death reference #12 as Huey goes through several booking names; including one for the most scariest bunny rock structure ever; which Huey still has dibs on it. More walking for a while as they make it to an ice wall and a dead end. Scrooge does his swear in DUBBED SCOTTISH STYLE as Huey is sad that his dreams of winning that Junior Woodchuck Badge might be dashed for good as we get a lot of non-verbal cues with Webby and Dewey looking down at the next possible place to sled down Mount Neverrest and Dewey is teasing that they would have to sled in moderation now; which is the gimmick of real life. Which Dewey doesn't like by the way. Scrooge then screws Webby over by simply climbing the ice up; proving that he didn't need the climbing spats after all. The boys cheer and Webby teases booing; but then cheers of course. As much as this segment was boring; it also meant that we didn't have to see Launchpad snowblind walk through the hot springs; which is exactly what happens in the next scene. Death reference #13 ensues and they are just two death references away from Bearly Alive's record now. Launchpad bumps into the hot spring denizens like a pervert and singsongs for a while. This is just getting stupider and stupider by the second. Launchpad almost drowns and then pops up and gets over to a pig furry lying in a lawn chair and pats him. Launchpad thinks it's a yeti and panics; end segment. Remember the time when Launchpad was doing the Russian dance with women and I laughed so hard that I almost threw up. I almost threw up here and I didn't laugh once. It's ironic that it's WEBBY who is funny, even though she is not the comedy act of this show. So, Scrooge, Huey, Dewey and Webby are hanging on from the rope below an ice cliff as Scrooge is dumping all of their equipment like a toxic macho man; including the canteen of water. Anyone get the feeling now that Scrooge is the guy responsible for George's death now? Scrooge and company climb up and everyone cheers for victory...
BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Oh boy! BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Yup; they are back at Bunny Hill for no reason whatsoever. Believe it or not; this actually ties into the storyline of this episode. There is also a big snowstorm commencing and Huey wants to backtrack to see where they went wrong. Even Scrooge thinks that it's stupid and it really is storyline wise. Scrooge cuts Huey off...AGAIN as he wants to set up camp and proclaims that there is a cave five hundred meters ahead. Wait; how did he know about this? So the babyfaces walk around some more and walk into the cave Scrooge is talking about. Huey is questionning this as Webby finds some cracked goggles as Huey brings out the neon glow stick (the self proclaimed favorite colors of all kids, by the way. Of course; they are using neon glow sticks because BS&P will not let them handle anything with an actual flame) and we see on the cave walls beheaded bodies and beheaded heads; although the holes in the exact position of their necks, implies that they were not beheaded. Death reference #14 ensues as Huey tries to go back to the entrance; but the entrance is gone. Not just blocked; gone. Huey panics and so does Dewey as he found the remains of George wearing a "I didn't survive Mount Neverrest" t-shirt. Oh, TAG! It's supposed to say "I survived Mount Neverrest" because that would be ironic. Before he died; he clearly wrote on the ice wall near him a message; cursing McDuck. Sadly; this time, it's not some heinous criminal framing Scrooge McDuck of a crime like someone on Forsenic Files. Yeah; Scrooge left him for dead and the kids know it. Scrooge's response ties Bearly Alive's record at 15 and claims that if he had a nickel for everytime someone said that, he'd be twice as rich. So, Huey invokes Junior Woodchuck Rule #1118; which is to be honest with the crew. So, Scrooge is a Junior Woodchuck leader?! Since when? Scrooge decides to come clean that he's the Neverrest Ninny. Also; this took place 75 years ago, which means Scrooge is at least 90 years old, and maybe in triple digits.
The reason the writers did this was to draw attention to George Mallory's 75 year disappearance on Mount Everest; but failed to take into account that Scrooge would have to be extremely young in order to pull it off. This is what happens when you care more about comedy than writing a script that makes sense. Okay; so Scrooge hired George to climb a mountain after he made his first million and wanted to mark celebration by climbing Mount Neverrest. Of course, Scrooge was more incompentent (judging by the amount of stuff) than even Launchpad (at least Launchpad was taken in by a professional scumbag; there's no indication George is like that) and George was rightfully mocking him for it; because George had expertise and Scrooge has not. So we get to the famous scene where George was ordering him to lighten the load; but Scrooge no sold because he brought his emergency supplies and a huge money belt. George cuts him loose with the knife and unlike Kit; I have zero degrees of sympathy for Scrooge here. Kit was cut loose by Dan Dawson because Kit was taken in by a professional criminal who was a sociopath with borderline pedophile tendencies. Here; Scrooge has zero expertise and was being an asshole. Sadly; despite all the expertise he has now; still is being an asshole as he walks past a bone leg and declares George the second fartest as the kids are shocked and appalled by this behaviour. Scrooge calls George a backstabbing baggart and breaks Bearly Alive's all time record of death references with #16. Now let's see if this episode is better than Bearly Alive and that shouldn't be hard to do considering how close to a thumbs down Bearly Alive was. Huey thinks the mountain got the revenge; which is true. Scrooge don't care because it's time to chart the unknown and get revenge on the mountain. Huey is annoyed by this as Webby bails stage left; and gets praised by Scrooge and then comes back from the east. Thankfully; Webby found a snowy opening and everyone climbs out, only to be at the Bunny Rock...AGAIN! Scrooge is pissed off by this; although, considering it was only 500 meters away; this made sense in storyline without caveats.
Still; Webby is still great here...sadly, Launchpad is not and we have to go back to it. I betcha Donald Duck knew this and left; he was above this and I don't blame him. If I wanted to watch Donald Duck make an ass monkey out of himself in every scene, I would watch the classic 1950's Donald Duck episode; or even Ducktales 1987. Donald Duck is the smartest duck in the world. Somehow; Launchpad is in a wooden hot tub panicking and thinking that he's cold when he's in a freaking hot tub! Thankfully; Louie comes in wearing a towel on his waist; despite the fact that the ducks don't wear anything on their waists anyway; except maybe Webby. Louie is also drinking soda pop (which makes him more like Baloo now) and Louie tries to take some stuff off; but Launchpad then proceeds to jump out and cover him with a warm blanket because ICE FEVER~! By the way; when scumbag Louie is the fair and honest one here; this shows how stupid Launchpad is. That scumbag salesman had it easy, dood! Louie deduces that it's double snake oil and he is going to seek revenge on the salesman, not because he conned Launchpad; but because no one cons his family, but him! How lovely?! At least now; this unfunny bit is going to have a decent payoff and make Louie look good. Scene change back as the rest of the babyfaces...and Scrooge... make it to just below the summit of Mount Neverrest. Scrooge is loving this of course; because he just wants revenge on George for mocking him; even though Scrooge had zero expertise at the time. Scrooge is so happy about this that it made a chunk of rock fall drop and slide down the mountain. Scrooge squeaks and Huey has had enough; because this violate the Junior Woodchuck Guide Book bylaws. I'm all for making a scene here because Scrooge has won. Even if he never makes it to the summit; he already surpassed George Mallardy. There is no reason to continue this; other than to be a toxic macho man. Which is something Scrooge can never be because he's at least 90 years old. No one is going to take him seriously as a macho man, real or otherwise.
That being said; if there was one time where whisper yelling would be perfectly okay; this is it. You can be angry and frustrated; but yelling outright is going to cause an avalanche. I suspect death reference #17 was said; but it doesn't matter anymore because this episode has broken Bearly Alive's record. Huey, thankfully; brings up what I was going to say as Dewey and Webby are climbing up; so technically, they get the credit for being the highest. More yelling and shouting and finally the mountain crumbles even more and a chuck of rock flies off sending Webby and Dewey down the mountain with their sled to end the segment 16 and a half minutes in. At least this isn't Quack Pack where the main segment is worse than the filler segment; but otherwise, this is just there. I'm just not feeling it; and Launchpad wishes he was Donald Duck circa 1987.
After the commercial break; we return as Scrooge and Huey panic; and then suddenly, Webby and Dewey are on a cliff edge confused as hell. Join the club! Huey then throws a snowball at the general area and a flash of light shows up and the snowball disappears and reappears to hit Dewey in the back of the head with. HAHA! Huey deduces that there are wormholes and portal surrounding Mount Neverrest to prevent them from reaching the top. In plugging in the logic holes; they created a deus ex machinia moment. To be fair though; they had a sword with a similar name; so they know what they are doing here. So Dewey is unintentionally testing the portals in an effort to find a sled we cannot see. Scrooge is loving this because Neverrest finally found a way out of him conquering the summit. So, this portal chasing of Dewey and Webby goes on for a long ass whomping time because they are becoming sick (as is me because the payoff is so lame) and this is done to set up the icefall to become more and more unstable. Of course; they aren't going to allow the kids to be blamed for this because that is punching down and they have zero expertise in mountain climbing anyway. So, Scrooge has to do the job and he runs and jumps into the wormhole after some deduction, much to the panic of Huey. Scrooge lands on top of the summit and finds Dewey's sled. Scrooge sees the peak at least and tries at least seven times to jump; but the wormhole keeps screwing him and remains on the same platform as previously. Huey yells at him to give up; because the mountain has won and Scrooge will never be accused of being a ninny because they have never used it in 75 years...even though they have said this word in 2018 multiple times. I always hated the "said no one ever" line; because it's a lie. Someone said it and sometimes the consensus can be wrong, especially if the consensus has an axe to grind. Huey invokes rule #727 and proclaims that the bravest thing an explorer can do is to walk away and Huey does, throwing the badge through the wormhole and Scrooge grabs it. Scrooge ponders this over and decides to walk away.
The best thing about this is; in storyline, Scrooge should know about this rule because he once walked away from adventure due to the Spear Of Selene incident; the same incident that turned Donald Duck into a concerned parent. This all makes sense. Scrooge dislodges the sled and we begin the avalanche scene as Scrooge, Webby and Dewey are going to sled down the hill to fetch a pail of Insano Nuts. POW! OUCH! Ummm...Huey is running because he has to be punished for bravely quitting. So it's basically an avalanche scene with wormholes and panicking. Huey grabs Dewey's hand and gets onboard the sled during this. The demon head Bunny Hill stone marker goes along for the ride of course. This ends with the babyfaces with sled on top of the stone demon head and a lot of screaming. The wormholes didn't add much to the scene though; outside of the end. So, we head back to the motel area and the shop as Scumways Pete (that's my name for the scummy salesman and I'm sticking to it!) is conning customers as Louie comes in (full gear) pissed off demanding answers to this outrage. Scumways Pete is confused as Louie accuses him of selling equipment that created Ice Fever; not protect him. Death reference #18 ensues. Launchpad flops onto his back and is calling to be buried in the clouds. I'm fine with this; you broke the record, so avoiding the word isn't going to change that. Then Scumways Pete makes the fatal error all no-scruple people always do: Tell the truth. Because when someone with no scruples tells the truth; he suffers the consequences of getting his ass kicked by three ducks who are stronger and bigger than him. Even Louie is groaning in sympathy pain because he's scummy as well. Scumways Pete bails to inside his office; I don't know why, that looks like a logic break. The customers follow as Launchpad's goggles are off and despite the truth being said, Launchpad credits Louie for saving him and Louie accepts. Well; Louie did save him from embarrassment; but not from getting back his money. Not yet anyway.
Launchpad is so happy about conquering the mountain; so the snow gets it's revenge as the rest of the babyfaces arrive to entomb the entire area with snow and ice. Launchpad puts his goggles on as the motel sign is really badly drawn here during this sequence. By the way; when the babyface pop from the carnage; the shirt George was wearing is being sold at a gift shop. Someone clearly planted that on him. Webby decides that sledding is just there to suck as Huey apologizes for failing and Scrooge forgives them because, hey; he got his revenge on George and was the closest to the top. Sociopathy never gets you anywhere; unless you are President Trump or one of his supporters. Scrooge then takes the shirt; crosses the "didn't" part and adds a D to the shirt as Dewey puts the map back in the stand. I guess the wormhole sent it back to him; because I recall him losing it during the episode and I'm not going to rewind this episode. Scrooge and company bail to find the hot cocoa stand as the map flies into the wind (with Huey was here) and the wormhole appears to take the map and it lands right on the summit of Mount Neverrest to end the episode at 21:07. This was completely average and nothing was really exciting or anything; with a lot of wormholes and empty spaces. Oh; and Launchpad wishes he's Donald Duck, too. ** 1/2 (50%).
THE REVIEW LINE
I don't have much to say about this episode because there wasn't much to it. It was a typical filler episode and it shows: No real new characters to speak of (the scummy salesman didn't even have a name); a filler segment that outside of Louie of all scumbags, schooling the scumbag salesman for selling snake oil to Launchpad; who was doing Donald Duck spots with no heat and no sympathy towards him, and Scrooge McDuck being an asshole, which at least fits the character, goes a bit overboard with it, acting vindictive of George Mallardy, who at least had mountain climbing expertise and had every right to hate Scrooge for screwing him due to Scoorge's lack of expertise. Webby was funny, Huey was good, but nothing he said or did was outstanding; outside of the "walk away sometimes" promo. Dewey was Dewey. The animation was all right, but nothing special. Overall; it was just average and only notable for breaking TaleSpin's record of 15 death references in a 22 minute episode; now sitting at 18. Something to cheer for this show, am I right?! Yeah; this was just there. Glad I did this episode first then. So next up will be Scrooge taking on Flintheart Glomgold in the most absurd golf game in history; because Flintheart thinks all Scotsman play really good at golf and he needs Scot cred, or something. So...
Thumbs in the middle for this episode and I'll see you next time.