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Negaduck
Reviewed: 07/22/2012
Origin Story? What Origin Story?
So we skip Film Flam for a while (because of what I said on Livejournal) and focus on an episode that will fool some people. Some people might see this and think this is the origin story of NegaDuck. I can confirm that this is NOT Negaduck's origin story since his origin was Life, The Negaverse & Everything. This story has Megavolt in it and it shows how much of a mess this series was continuity wise. How does it hold up?! So; let's rant on shall we...
The episode is written by Steve Roberts and story edited by Duane Capizzi. The animation is done by Walt Disney Animation Japan with additional services done by Atelier Bwca, Studio Jack, Tama Pro and Jade.
We begin this one inside a bank where we see a shot of a vault door. We zoom out to see Megavolt setting up a tripod containing a camera like device. Megavolt pulls the lever (WRONG LEVER!) on the device as we separate the PositivTrons from the NegaTrons. Wait; so this is a rib on the Tron movie?! Sparky seriously needs to get a better source for his names; it's almost as bad as the Erototoxins used by Juilith Reisman. We spray the vault door and it splits into two different vault doors. Sparky then walks into the beam which he is immune to and runs back with about a dozen sacks of that MONEY, MONEY, YEAH, YEAH. Wow; how desperate must Sparky be to lose heat just for money?! Sparky returns the two vault doors to normal and then looks into the sack and it's ball bearings much to his surprise. Yes; he has been setup. Can you guess who set him up? Yeah; he's cutting his promo about letting cats out of the bag since he's in a bag and apparently he forgot the dangers of carbon monoxide and smoke that he's coughing and bouncing in the bag requiring a knife to cut him free. Drake is REALLY STUPID; what a surprise?! Drake goes over to the Tronsplitter (his words, not mine) and mocks it. So Sparky zaps him with the lightning finger and steals the device back. Sadly; the animation screws up because the lightning part of the shadow jumped up about a full second before the actual body sold the shock. Then Sparky tries to go out of the window; but he notices the street and does the WB spot before climbing back into the building through the same window. What a wuss this Sparky fellow is? Like a 90 floor fall is going to stop Drake Mallard. Drake talks about getting the credit and brings out the gas gun to make Sparky suck gas. Sparky brings out his laser gun and wants him to eat wrecking ball as he zaps the ball bearings and it turns into a makeshift wrecking ball. Okay; that is a neat way to use something that is utterly useless otherwise. Drake ducks, mocks Sparky because Sparky eats wrecking ball; dives over the window and somehow manages to zap Drake with the Tron splitter (I'm guessing the wrecking ball must have thrown... THE SWITCH!!) and then free falls into the open manhole cover; splashes in water off-screen and fries. Oh; and Drake does shoot off his gas gun and we get orange gas splattered about. Drake suddenly because modest and wants to take up something safer than crime fighting like embroidery. He leaves through the left door. We cut to the orange smoke and we see Evil Drake Mallard (who looks like Negaduck in Disguise The Limit when disguised like Drake) wanting to shake up Girl Scouts for their cookies. Well; considering the Boy Scouts and their bigoted ways; it might turn Evil Drake into a defacto babyface today. Or not.
Anyhow; we go into Drake's living room as Gosalyn is playing baseball in the living room with Launchpad who is using a bowling ball as a ball. Doesn't that seem counter productive? I mean if you was intentionally going to break a glass window; why would use a ball that is so heavy that it would break the stick and drop on Gosalyn's foot when the ball makes contact with the wooden stick. And of course the whole purpose of this was for Gosalyn to swing and miss (sort of) and break a statue of Darkwing Duck. HAHA! See; make the joke and then pay it off (bowling ball as a wrecking ball is the hint of the joke here). Launchpad and Gosalyn are very concerned about the statue; a lot more concerned than the fact that there is a bowling ball in the wall. Then again; Drake was full of himself. The key phrase is _was_. So we see the flipping chairs and in comes Drake in normal street clothes for no reason proclaiming that he's home. Gosalyn and LP panic and we super glue the statue into something out of Gusto's playbook. Sadly; this is meaningless since Drake clearly sees the statue and LP begs for mercy. Drake doesn't care and not only does he not ground Gosalyn; he raises her allowance. HAHA! Good Drake is a dozen times better than Normal Drake. Sadly; he is much harder to mock though. Apparently; Drake has no beef with the statue at all. Gosalyn accuses Drake of reverse psychology. Ummm; Gos, Normal Drake is REALLY STUPID; he wouldn't dream of using such a thing. Drake pets Gosalyn on the head and walks upstairs to take a nice bubble bath. Gosalyn claims that Drake got zapped one time too many. So the flipping chair flips and we have Evil Drake blowing off Gosalyn for talking behind his back. Gosalyn is glad that she has come to his senses; so Evil Drake wants to ground her into hamburger and she'll spend the rest of her life paying for that statue. And then Steve Roberts decides that this whole "Gosalyn is stupid" thing and brings Good Drake out of nowhere which is the first logic break of the episode almost five minutes in since Good Drake went upstairs.
Gosalyn and Launchpad are in shock as Good Drake asks if they have met and apologizes. Evil Drake pulls on the back and wants his face back. Gosalyn runs in and asks for dad as we mirror the shot for no reason as Launchpad walks in and claims that he has a brother. Gosalyn blows it off because one of them is an imposter. Ummm; no Gosalyn, they are both legit as the door bell rings and the Muddlefoots rudely barge in anyway with Binkie and Herb walking in greeting the family. Tank comes in as we see that it was Honker behind the door. Why he was there is something I cannot explain. I don't think the writers will either. Gosalyn panics and Good Drake doesn't seem to mind; but Evil Drake gets pushed into the next room as he wants his shotgun. And yes; that is exactly what he said. BS&P?! What BS&P?! Herb and Binkie sit down as Gosalyn decides to have her hand to stop the Muddlefoots (confused feet for those you don't get the joke) by blocking the television as Chip & Dale are on the screen (and in their classic Disney shorts form too). See; for no reason whatsoever, the Muddlefoots barge into the house just to watch Pelican's Island Reunion. You would think that Herb saying that Tank played baseball with the television "by accident" would at least make sense; but no, they did NOTHING. Gosalyn claims that he has the plague (second time they used that excuse in this series) as Good Drake walks in and we meet and greet for a while. Honker gets to sit down on the couch while Tank gets the love seat and he shows no love by wanting to punch Drake's lights out. Sadly; Good Drake is pushed by Gosalyn before the punch could connect even though Tank had no chance of connecting even if Drake wasn't moved. Tank falls on his face as Gosalyn pushes him into the kitchen and out comes Launchpad who gets his neck crushed between the double doors as Evil Drake whacks him with the burger flipper. So Evil Drake calls them the Muddleheads. HAHA! I love real comments that aren't supposed to be real comments as Evil Drake gets into his face and blows off Herb's fashion sense. Geez; he paid top dollar for that shirt despite looking like he pirated it from Dale. So Gosalyn pushes Evil Drake into the kitchen which makes no sense since Gosalyn went into the kitchen with Good Drake.
The doors open and we see Drake coming out with a tray of goodies for the Muddlefoots to have. Herb loves the pickled herring fish which looks like your average trout. Gosalyn grabs him and drags him back into the kitchen as Evil Drake comes out. Here's an idea Gosalyn: How about keeping Drake outside and Evil Drake inside? Since when have the Muddlefoots have the two clicks in the making of a clue anyway?! He gets on Herb's case for freeloading on his food and calling him a Fattie. Oooooooo. Then Tank rises up and asks Herb if he can kill Drake. Seriously; he wants to kill Drake; but Evil Drake dares him by grabbing the red shirt and bouncing him off the love seat. Irony is so damn ironic sometimes. So Gosalyn runs in and stuffs a waste basket on his head and drags him into the kitchen. So we have the door moving as Gosalyn holds on and tells the Muddlefoots that they can have the television and the food as long as they go home. The Muddlefoots walk out with the tray of food and the television as Herb doesn't have to miss Wheel of Torture either. The tradeoff is that Gosalyn gets Honker because we have a problem. I'll say...We discover that the goofs and Evil Drake are NO WHERE near the door when Evil Drake is fighting LP; while LP is on his back pleading for help. Gosalyn and Honker walk in as Good Drake tries to tell Evil Drake that violence never solved anything. Yeah; tell that to the Japanese after the atomic bomb got dropped. It sure solve World War II and ended it so that is a pack of lies. Evil Drake claims that violence puts him in a good mood though. Gosalyn tells everyone to tie up both Drake until they realize what they are up against; but Evil Drake brings out the gas gun while Good Drake brings out the frying. Ah; I can see which Drake has the full of himself, really stupid genes. Because he fires the gas gun; the gas bullet deflects off of the frying pan and clonks Evil Drake in the head and knocks him silly. Good Drake takes out a gag and gags himself offering to tie himself up.
So we head to Drake's hideout and the lab as we look under the microscope of a feather which has angel ducks. HAHA! With halos to boot. So Good Drake has positive electrons as Honker asks for Evil Drake's feather and Launchpad plucks it from Evil Drake's forehead. Yes folks; the evil one is the one who assures that Normal Drake does not shut up. Honker places the feather under the microscope (Kit? Why are you looking so...white?) and we see red, and devil ducks which are negative electrons. I guess it's okay to have devils as long as you don't sell your soul to one. Honker accuses Gosalyn of pulling them apart as Gosalyn claims she didn't do anything and we get the shock and panic spot from the opening as Gosalyn realizes that they were zapped with the TronSplitter. See; people are made up of Good Electrons and Evil Electrons. Ooookkkkaaayyyyy. She learned that in school; which is the school of BS&P natch. So we continue on as Gosalyn doesn't want to be hasty because Good Drake increased her allowance; but Launchpad states that Good Drake doesn't want to do crime fighting anymore and thus Gosalyn gives in. So the plan is to untie Good Drake and find Megavolt. Sadly; they have no idea who it is. Yeah; the struggling from Evil Drake, black eye brows of Evil Drake are NOT ENOUGH for them to notice. Sigh. They unite Evil Drake and he teases killing Good Drake (second kill reference in the episode); but recoils as he wants him someplace safe so he doesn't do any more harm. Gosalyn blows off Good Drake anyway as Evil Drake wants him Clickinheimer. Yeah; that doesn't give away the fact that he's a liar too as Gosalyn and Launchpad walk into a closet and Evil Drake slams the door just after they realize that they are stupid enough to fall for something that obvious. Evil Drake barricades the door with an iron safe and tells them to get a life. I see this side also psychologically projects too.
Good Drake manages to untie himself; but he gets blown off and tied up like a mummy by Evil Drake in that order. Good Drake has clearly been watching Teddy Ruxpin too much because even Teddy F'N Ruxpin can get pissed off sometimes. Evil Drake puts sticks of dynamite into the rope and hangs him from the ceiling; remembering to light them beforehand. Good Drake panics as we cut to another mirrored shot of the door as Gosalyn and Launchpad are yelling and banging the door. Evil Drake puts on his DARKWING...DUCK costume and is going to do some crimes to frame Good Drake, Normal Drake and for crap and giggles. I think we have covered the basics here. He rides off in the Rat Catcher as Launchpad realizes that this is not the Good Drake they untied. NO?! REALLY?! Good Drake hangs around as there is only one stick of dynamite lit. Ah! It's the shrapnel effect. This ends the segment ten minutes in. Pretty good episode thus far; but man, enough with the Double Darkwings nonsense. Although to be fair; it is a lot more convincing than Double Darkwings.
After the commercial break; we head to a movie theater which is playing "The Cute Little Lost Bunnie Movie". I'm guessing this is a favorite among Ruby & Max (or Max & Ruby. I never got that show straight.) as we see Evil Drake drive into the entrance and destroy the entire concession counter in the process. Evil Drake is standing in popcorn as he wants some bonbons (candy encased with chocolate); as then we see him walking into the theater and it's a full house and...Do my eyes play tricks on me?! One of the denizen appears to be a cross between Neputina and Webwa Walters. Evil Drake steps on people's head and props his big ass feet onto a chair and sits down eating popcorn and having a soda. Wait; what about the bonbons?! Evil Drake burps to annoy everyone and the curtains open and we start the movie in a forest with two bunnies who wish that they were Thumper. Evil Drake is pissed off because he wanted to see car wrecks and violence. Apparently; Evil Drake is so stupid not to see the obvious here. Also; this is clearly an interactive movie because the right bunny rabbit is blowing off Evil Drake because this is a sweet cuddle movie. And really; it's no worse than Santa Claus & The Ice Cream Bunny; and it might be better since it's decently animated and interactive to boot. Evil Drake has had enough and brings out his shotgun. Oh goody! Even the bunnies know this and bail like everyone else as we shoot to kill. Ummm..wait a second...uh oh...
F*********************************************************************************************************************************************************************KKK!
I picked this damn episode BEFORE Film Flam to get away from what happened to Colorado a few days ago; and now THIS HAPPENS! UUGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! DAMMIT!
Okay; let's get this episode over with as the denizen throw food on him; and he runs into the screen and somehow is in the screen. Wow; just wow. I owe the new Disney an apology for my rant on Box Office Blitz after seeing this crap. Then we bring out the green tank as the bunnies bail and the tank goes through the movie screen. Whatever guys. How can anyone diss the new Disney after seeing this kind of stupidity?! So Evil Drake shoots a shell out of the movie theater just as the denizens bail and we head back to the hideout as Good Drake is trying to blow out the fuse; but no dice. So we see LP and Gosalyn unscrew the door hinges which would be smart in any other universe to open a locked door; but the safe blocks the way allowing for more suspense for Good Drake as he swings from side to side and bumps into the vaulted ceiling which eliminates the lit dynamite and rolls underneath the safe and it explodes driving the safe up. Speaking of logic breaks; somehow Drake get nailed in the exact same spot where the vaulted ceiling was; even though the safe was at least 100 feet away from Drake. So dumb guys. He then crashes through the glass ceiling backwards and drops onto the ground. Sigh. Good Drake sells as if he is punch drunk; although he does this after looking sober because he hopes the blast didn't annoy anyone since it's 10 o'clock. So Gosalyn and Launchpad drag Drake to the Thunder Quack (which he didn't destroy. Yeap; REALLY STUPID.) and we scene change to the skies of Saint Carnard AFTER HAPPY HOUR (After dark) as the Thunder Quack takes a nose dive and crashes into the ground. Huh? Launchpad finally getting his fatalism back? Nah...BS&P muzzled that a long time ago. Launchpad opens the pod and Good Drake praises his driving skills. Gosalyn notices the destruction of Evil Drake as Evil Drake appears from the top of the building and jumps down in front of Good Drake.
It looks like Evil Drake is about to murder Good Drake; but the denizens who are selling various injuries arise from the buildings and they want to rip both of them apart. Evil Drake bails; Good Drake gets murdered complete with the FCC FRIENDLY CLOUDDUST FIGHT OF DEATH. Maybe this is the evil mob of that unspeakable former lawyer. I cannot say; it's unspeakable. Gosalyn and Launchpad hop into the cloud; and then get rejected before the denizens leave to fight themselves as Drake's face has a bent crowbar. Gosalyn wonders where to find Megavolt and Drake claims that he's at his old haunting spot which is a bar; which Good Drake doesn't want Gosalyn to go there. So Gosalyn drags Drake away as we scene change to just outside Saint Carnard as Evil Drake is also looking for Megavolt because he wants to cover all his bases and smash the Tronsplitter in case Good Drake is still alive. So we go to the bar as there is gambling, WE KNOW IT'S ALCOHOL BUT WE AREN'T TELLING ANYONE, and Megavolt at the bar counter sulking. Did I mention that one of the thugs in the bar has a shotgun? Did I mention that Sparky is using a car battery to recharge himself while threatening Drake? And yes; we have the saloon bar doors which fling open and whack two thugs away in opposite direction (and this is where I noticed the shotgun too) as here comes Evil Drake. Sparky is enjoying this as we jump cut to the denizens in shock and then to Sparky walking towards Evil Drake. Methinks something was cut by Toon Disney (which would explain the music jump and the shot of the denizens nicely) as we get the showdown as Sparky pumps himself up to grab his laser. So Evil Drake gets a mug of water and throws the water on Sparky and he fries. Damn; Evil Drake just had to learn what to do in these situations. Problem with this is that water does not conduct electricity well without something else to conduct like certain metals.
Sparky hits the floor; and the thugs bail out of the saloon. What a shock?! Lobster courage; all of them!! Sparky wakes up as Evil Drake declares himself Drake's evil counterpart created by Sparky's machine. Sparky kisses Evil Drake and sits him on the stool (NOT THAT ONE!). He offers to be his partner in crime doing crimes. Evil Drake actually agrees with him and they bail out of the saloon together as Evil Drake wants to know where the Tronsplitter is. So after they leave; Gosalyn and Launchpad appear in thug gear and apparently; Gosalyn is wearing a bone in her hair and an eye patch. She looks like the pirate version of Pebbles in kid form. So they are about to step in as Drake screams. See; they were about to step on a poor defenseless beetle. HA! Gosalyn tells Good Drake to stay in the TQ as we head to the saloon as Gosalyn opens the doors and then gets whacked in the face with them. What was the point of that? That doesn't involve proving that female kids can get that spot too? So Thug Gosalyn Pebbles goes over to the big ass dog thug playing pool and slaps his back as the pool cue rips up the green carpet on the pool table and misses the balls completely. Dog thug is pissed off (and has those pissed off eyes to boot) as Gosalyn calls him out and demands answers. Dog thug no sells even if she's called Pretty Poison. How fitting eh?! So Launchpad comes in and Dog thug throws him into the ceiling and then backs up Pretty Poison. PP stammers and then we see Good Drake at the gumball machine and wants a nickel from her. Everyone panics (wait; didn't they all bail from the saloon when Evil Drake left? I didn't see no scene changer either) and throws nickels at him entombing him. The dog thug dwindles down to Pilot Jack and offers information on Sparky; then Gosalyn invokes MOLLY VIOLENCE on Dog thug. I can just hear Gosalyn now...
Gosalyn: Well; someone has to do that spot since Michael Eisner (or Gary Krisel) buried Molly Cunningham and everyone else in TaleSpin a year ago! Bunch of idiots!
So we do the scene changer and head for Sparky's apartment building as Sparky is polishing the Tronsplitter and talking to it like it was a human being. Evil Drake asks for the SLEDGEHAMMER OF PLOT and Sparky tells him where it is. Ummm; Sparky? There is a good reason why it's called the SLEDGEHAMMER OF PLOT as Evil Drake has it in his hands while Sparky talks about what we knew from the beginning of the episode. So Evil Drake blitzes and tries to murder the Tronsplitter; but Sparky grabs it and bails because it's his baby. Then Sparky shoots the Tronsplitter into Evil Drake as we cut to outside with the babyfaces in shock and appalled. We head back inside as Evil Drake has gone two tone and has electric powers now. He voices his VOICEOVER OF DOOM at 15:20 approx:
Evil Darkwing: I am the most fiendish terror that flaps in the darkest night. I am the skunk that pollutes your air. I am NegaDuck.
Sadly; Tad Stones had no idea what he was doing here. See; The first Negaduck adventure wasn't planned until at least Just Us Justice Ducks since this episode was #25 on the animation paper and the actual NegaDuck didn't appear till much later. Plus; when that NegaDuck appeared; he was like Darkwing Duck; only in black and yellow which shows how little effort was made on his character. To make matters worse; he comes out of nowhere; or more accurate another world despite the fact that every child who watched ABC saw NegaDuck was defeated and that side returned to Drake Mallard. If this dark side was intended for the new NegaDuck; then how did they both split again? And what does the Negaverse have to do with this? This to me is a tell tale sign of the amount of care put into this series which is not as much as they should have. I have a couple of ways to fix this massive problem in continuity and the first one is simple as hell and it's not like Disney hasn't done this before: Simply change this NegaDuck's name. Change it to Evil Duck, or Devil Duck, or Demon Duck, or Opposite Duck. Sure; it might not match the mouth flaps; but hey, that didn't stop Clementine's infamous "taking a bath" line in Citizen Khan. I mean; if you want to make it complex; there are other ways to do it. But this is the simplest one. I'll wait until the Review Line to make some more suggestions; because Evil Duck (I refuse to call him NegaDuck; even if he's BETTER than NegaDuck.) is being so evil and powerful as we end the segment 16 and a half minutes in. And now we have the real fun of this episode...
After the commercial break; we see Sparkly realize that he cannot split negative atoms so Evil Duck's galvanized. Why not Galvain Duck then?! It's the PERFECT name for his dark side; and no one in story editing NOTICED THAT?! So just to annoy the writer and story editor; I'm going to refer to Evil Drake as Galvain from now on. So Sparky hugs his new "friend" and then gets zapped and thrown into the wall by Galvain. Galvain wants to engage in mindless wanton destruction as he breaks down doors and walks out of the apartment complex. Sparky blows him off because he's no son of his. Of course not Sparky; he's a cartoon duck. Gosalyn sees Galvain and tries to grab him while Gal is uprooting wooden fences for fun; but she gets shocked and slammed into Launchpad's lap. Sparky comes down with the Tronsplitter and drags Drake away as Gosalyn and LP run with him asking why he would help them. Sparky gleefully counters that question for me as we continue the wanton destruction of the city. By just moving. AWESOME! He has storm clouds around him as the babyfaces plus Sparky chase him around the bend. Now that I have a calmer mind from the theater incident; I just realized something...WHERE THE HELL IS HONKER MUDDLEFOOT?! The last time we saw him he was still inside Drake's hideout; so where did he go? I have new found respect for Feminine Air after they wrote Kit out after the first act of that episode. What a stupid logic break this is? Drake isn't playing ball here while Sparky sets up his Tronsplitter; so Gosalyn tells him that Galvain is stepping on a bug.
So Drake runs in and Gosalyn and Launchpad slap skin because she lied like Max Goof...and me. So Drake gets in between Galvain and tackles him down; but Galvain's energy blast destroy city hall. GOOD FOR HIM! I hate that piece of stock imagery. Drake blows him off for destroying city hall because it's not nice. For people who thought the DiC made Teddy Ruxpin out of character; imagine if he was Good Drake and try to justify it? He wouldn't last three episodes in that state. Drake barely lasts one at this point. And lying is also not nice at all. So Galvain fries Drake and throws him into the air (with Wii energy blasts) and he lands splat in front of Sparky. Sparky blows him off; but Gosalyn states that he'll die at this rate; so Sparky ponders it over. Then he's got a plan: Since Good Drake has positive electrons; he'll just galvanize him. As if being the Teddy Ruxpin people claim he is in the books is a good idea. Gosalyn wants him to kick Galvain's ass and Drake just wants to clean up his mess. Drake proclaims that it's time to get considerate and Sparky zaps him and gives him a glowing rainbow aura and Drake does one of the most nightmarish things I have ever seen. Remember all those segments like "Sailor Moon Says", "Sonic Says", G.I. Safety Segments, etc.?! Well; imagine Drake in the prayer position telling us all the cliche moral lines and you get the exact picture. Thanks a lot Sparky; you just made Drake give the BS&P sections of this world an idea. If this was intended as a rib; the Moral Guardians outsmarted you. You should have just been honest and quit while you were ahead.
So BS&P Drake floats in like he's walking on air as Galvain wants to destroy a local hospital (which is totally evil I might add). BS&P ignores him and restores city hall to normal. DAMN YOU BS&P DRAKE!! Galvain is PISSED off and that makes him the ECW babyface by proxy. So BS&P Drake brings out the OUT OF NOWHERE helium red heart shaped balloon and floats it into the air. Galvain zaps it and it pops making magic sparkles and those sparkles turn all the destruction Galvain caused back to normal. Great spot ensues as Gosalyn is on a crack while watching and gets zapped by the rainbow spark causing her to jump about as high as Huey in Send In The Clones. So we see BS&P Drake with the out of nowhere animals (?) as he continues his cliche moral lines as Galvain decides to MURDER Drake with the blue thunder hands; and BS&P Drake oversells in cartoonish fashion... For about three seconds as he becomes a balloon and no sells completely. BS&P Drake claims that there is no such thing as a bad boy. I think Kit Cloudkicker would like to have a word with you BS&P Drake; if he wasn't in the BS&P coffin Michael Eisner put him in. So BS&P Drake counters with the GOODNESS HANDS OF DOOM and ties up Galvain with the pink laser light. Galvain claims nice guys finish last as he counters and we have a standoff as they push towards each other. Which is perfect because it allows Sparky to work the machine as they are at each other and Galvain grabs BS&P Drake and wants to murder him as he shows off his Popeye Sunday Punch; but Sparky shoots the Tronsplitter and the yellow beam zaps both guys and we have just Drake pushing himself in the face on-screen with no impact stars whatsoever. Kiss my ass BS&P Drake! Now this would be the finish; but Sparky has other ideas as he pushes the button (which we don't see until now) on the front of the Tronsplitter and it has a zoom in lens. He shoots and nails Drake square as Gosalyn jumps onto the Tronsplitter and we play tug of war on the lever (WRONG LEVER!). Well; if you are going to CDS this episode; this is the best way to do it.
So we get Double Grubby, Archnoduckya with the legs instead of the arms, six Darkwings doing the Russian dance of doom, Launchpad wondering around for no reason. Oh wait; I betcha he's wondering where Honker is in this whole thing. Gosalyn cries for help and Launchpad finally snaps out of it and then trips on his own two feet and bangs into the Tronsplitter and it turns around and shoots the final laser into Sparky's face as Sparky now has two torsos sharing one body. They blow off each other and struggle to bail while blowing each other off some more. Gosalyn and Launchpad run in to console Drake and Drake gets up and cuts a full of himself promo. Gosalyn gleefully sums up Drake Mallard for me and then proclaims that it has to be normal Drake. Drake then blows off Gosalyn for tagging along and docks her allowance for a week. Gosalyn doesn't care about her allowance and hugs him. You better be careful of that; Drake is known to take such stuff literally. Drake just shrugs to end the episode at 21:05 aired. Yeah; that is how this episode ends. Don't get me wrong; it was a really good episode; but the logic breaks really hurt this episode including the write out of Honker for no reason whatsoever. Plus; they have created confusion from everyone who isn't infected with CDS on NegaDuck. Call it *** 3/4 (75%).
THE REVIEW LINE
Well; I thought I could get away with this episode to avoid doing Film Flam; but then I got an actual shooting in a theater from Evil Drake. Oh joy! I pretty much said my peace about the problems of this episode and given one way to fix it. It's a really easy fix. Sure; change the episode title. Call it Splitting Mallards; that would have worked perfectly. Evil Duck would have been fine; but none of it was done. If you are going to have a character named NegaDuck as a lead heel; then you shouldn't use NegaDuck's name as a one shot character. I realize that Oscar was used twice in TaleSpin; but they both had LAST names which were completely different so it was easy to notice who is who. When NegaDuck appeared later on in yellow and black; most people would have gone "WHAT?". I thought Nega Duck was Drake's dark half; not this opposite out of nowhere character from the Negaverse? It only created confusion and showed how lazy the story editors are. This is what I mean by Cartoon Duck Syndrome: The writers don't think their stuff through with long term planning (I don't know how TaleSpin avoided this problems so much with the time crunch they were on. I really don't.) and story editors should pick this obvious problem up. A simple name change and episode title change would have made this episode work better. Okay; so forgive me if I think the supervisors did a major screw up.
As for the episode itself; it wasn't all that bad. It was funny; and many of the spots were awesome. The animation was fine and the overall story line was great along with the premise of what would happen if Drake had a split personality. However; there were some logic breaks; including a major one which shows how lazy the writers are: Honker was in Drake's hideout checking out the feathers in the microscope. Once that was done and they went to untie Evil Drake; Honker is gone and never came back. He was written out by teleport. La Purrfect Crime was bad at the finish; but this worse because it's a lead babyface. Why was he written out? I have no idea. At least in Feminine Air; Kit was written out at a good time. He probably left before the race was supposed to start when act 2 started; so it makes more sense. A shame in one respect; but still made more sense than the previous two examples. It's a damn shame because this had ***** written all over it; and Steve Roberts blew it badly. I don't know why other than it was something that should have been easy to fix. Next up is Film Flam and despite the movie theater stuff; it should not have a shooting inside. I hope. So....
Thumbs in the middle; pointing up for this episode and I'll see you all next time!