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 webmaster 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 webmaster and no one else. The webmaster 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 gweagle@eastlink.ca or signing the Cloudkicker guest book.


Mighty Ducks: The Animated Series - Microducks

Reviewed: 06/22/2014

Another Day To Get Antsy!


(Note From The Future: I'm a total idiot because I have been ranting and raving about the NHL not being six on six. I was wrong and the writers GOT THIS RIGHT! In the NHL; the game is played six on six! Still doesn't change the stupidity of the reckless plot device; but it does make my last rant look stupid in hindsight. I'm sorry that I made such an easy error that should have been easily noticed by me.)

Well; after a semi-random draw, I have picked episode #10 of this show as we have the gang dealing with a heel that is not Dragonous. He is an android who likes talking to himself and is a mad genius in more way than one. Also; it's another shrinking plot story complete with Nosedive being "reckless". YAY! So; can the good doctor be better than Dragonous (and with such low standards....)?! Let's rant on shall we...?!

This episode is written and story edited by David Wise. The animation is pre-done by Studio B with actual animation done by Sunwoo Animation.


We begin this one with a pan shot under a bridge somewhere in Anaheim and then to a factory which is not abandoned; just almost fully automated. We has two workers in construction gear at the control booth as the thin one and the fat one (who is dark skinned) are talking about the factory while the thin one pushes a yellow button. We see the conveyer belt as apparently; this factory machines hot rod engines. Then we cut over to a main doorway as it is blasted open and in comes an android wearing a purple cape and spotted a hilariously bad orange hairstyle. The android (who has a glass right eye in his visor) proclaims that he is going to kill them and replace the factory with machine before his shoulder pads open to reveal yellow lasers as they fire on the hapless workers. It took me a while to figure out who this guy is; but this I do believe is the first appearance of Doctor Droid (Charles Adler) and maybe the first episode for rant purposes, not to feature Dragonous and his heels. So he destroys everything as stuff falls down onto the floor. The two workers fall on their asses and then bail out as one of them sezs: "To heck with this job; I'm going back to driving under my truck!" I swear to god these people who worked on this show have an apatheic story editor (since David is the story editor of this episode too). So Droid pushes blue buttons on the console as he is trying to reprogram everything as he brings out the wire fork key out to link to the system. He then proclaims that he'll create the ultimate machine and wipe out the baterica of humans; which is actually a great threat in a science context, but a "who gives a damn?" to everyone else. Then the wall blows up and we see the Migrator arrives in front of the wall. Out come the babyfaces with musical overtones. Doctor Droid -- whose right eye is not made of glass on one shot; but has green whites -- mocks the ducks as a lame attempt to stop him; and none of the babyfaces are amused by this as Nosedive calls him robot snot; which is BS&P for "robot sh**", so at least Nosedive is trying not to be Mikey, but he is such a poor man version of it, his license should be revoked.

Wildwing blows off Droid for stealing property and this begs the question: Why are you then destroying it with inpunity? I realize Droid is doing the same thing here; but he is supposed to be the monster heel here. Droid brings out his name and his shoulder pad laser guns. He shoots at the babyfaces; the babyface bail behind stuff. Wildwing wants to take this thing carefully; so Nosedive runs in with his puck gun like a moron, which is great because he is supposed to be the reckless one of the team anyway. Droid shoots the puck gun away from Nosedive and ND runs into the conveniently placed demonstration engine parts rack like a moron, which looked goofy to boot. Droid fires a heat seeking rocket straight at Nosedive; but that is caught and crushed by Grin out of nowhere. This missile was so non-threatening that it didn't even explode in spite of the fact that Grin crushed it. So Droid bails out and he's gone as the babyface run outside. So the Mallory blames the whole getaway on Nosedive because Nosedive was being a hot dog. Earth to Mallory: Nosedive could have obeyed Wildwing to the letter and Droid would have still escaped because Droid had won in keeping you babyfaces at bay during this. In fact; Nosedive had the best chance of actually capturing Droid, but his puck gun was shot off. Wildwing then notices a signal as Nosedive feels bad for this escape as the wrist communicator is beeping with a red dot. He calls this a disturbance and thinks it's Droid; which there is a 2:1 chance that it is not. So we scene change to the Migrator driving downtown and stopping in front of an apartment building. Wildwing is pissed off because he wants to fight Dragonous instead of the Anaheim nutballs. So they go onto the roof as we see a man wearing a brain for a hat with a red unitard, purple cape, neon green pin in the front, yellow leggings and purple rimmed glasses working on a tank with a glass container filled with neon green liquid as he wants to turn Anaheim into holiday sauce with a thermal. He addressed himself as the Mind Bender and this guy has bended my mind, only not for the reasons that the Mind Bender thinks they are.

So the babyfaces get on the roof; and it just occured to me that Wildwing and company have a transformance sequence (as Wildwing had in Take Me To Your Leader) because they are out of their armor and Wildwing doesn't even have the mask on. This heel is NOTHING to them! Nosedive calls him a goofy guy in a clown suit as he sounds exactly like Rob Paulsen. Wait a minute...Is Disney using stock voice tracks from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles?! Either Steve Mackall is really talented in mimicking Rob Paulsen; or DTVA is a really pathetic copyright infringer. I'm going with the later knowing Disney's practices in IP. Even more silly was discovering that Cavin in Gummi Bears was originally going to be voiced by Michael Mish; who would have been 35 years old when the show began, before switching to a actual child in Christian Jacobs. Amazing! The babyfaces all have Gruffi poses and do not care about this; meaning that the Mind Bender is simply a costume goof version of the guard from Gargoyles. With that said; at least it's not a cream pie gun. Wildwing simply tells Grin to nail him and Grin walks in and punches MB in the face off-screen (compare that to the scene with Baloo punching at least three people with two of them not shown but we still saw Baloo throwing the punch; while in Jumping The Guns, Baloo was shown punching an Air Pirate in the face.) as MB is decked. Then Wildwing uses the gun rope to tie up MB; and the babyfaces turn around and leave him without even calling Klegghorn. MB protests this outrage; so Mallory blows him off because he's lucky that they have a game to play. So we head to the Arrowhead Pond for the "sell the hockey game to children" moment as we hear Roy Firestone literally tripping over his promo like an idiot. It's intentional by the way as we discover that there are TWO Detroit teams in the NHL. Again; if the whole point was to sell the NHL to kids, why not license the actual team names and logos to Disney so this would make sense and sell the game properly?!

So we do the faceoff of doom as apparently the game has just started (actually; it was the final faceoff of the game) because Roy explains that the Ducks are leading Detroit by one point in the standings. One problem: Roy is selling this like it's a rivalry even though the two teams are in different divisions of the same conference. That doesn't make a lot of sense! So Wildwing makes the pad stop on the first shot with ease; and then the Detroit What's That Name grab the puck as they are in red jerseys. Nosedive wants to steal the puck; but then bumps into Duke which causes all the babyfaces to trip; leaving Wildwing in net on a five on one. Why yes; in this world, hockey is played six on six? Do the execs care about that? No. So we get the slapshot from someone and Wildwing does this picture perfect save as time expires for the 1-0 win. Now that was great in spite of the screwed up logic; but, if they wanted to put heat on Nosedive for screwing up; Wildwing should have not make the save on the goal with two seconds left in the game; and tie the score up. That would make more sense and put heat on Nosedive for being a hot dog. Instead; Nosedive screwed up; and the Ducks still won anyway because of Wildwing. So there is no heat on Nosedive at all. Idiots! So we scene change to underneath the Arrowhead Pond as Tanya is at the computer digging up dirt on Doctor Droid while Wildwing is pissed off for some reason. We discover that Doctor Droid is a mad scientist named Otto Mason who is so mad that he invested in cybergenetics and made a droid of himself. Now we are channeling Spider-Man 1995; which is fine since this show is basically BS&P'ed like Spider-Man was during this period. Wildwing is more concerned about a cloaking shield; which we never saw, but it doesn't matter because Tanya claims that he called their hotline which is carny talk for "I hacked into the Mighty Duck's super computer." Wow; some expert Tanya is! So we hear Doctor Droid on voice mail as he is going to rob the Natural History Museum while calling them baterica; so I have deduced that baterica is the BS&P word for scum. Droid dares them to stop him as I expected.

So Wildwing proclaims that it's a date and Tanya points out that this is clearly walking into a trap. Yes folks; Wildwing is the one who is recklessly running into an obvious trap after two segments where NOSEDIVE was the reckless one. Like little brother; like big brother eh?! Wildwing doesn't care as all the babyfaces run out of headquarters which segues into the CGI launch sequence, only they use the Migrator instead of the Aerowing. They drive out of the entrance which is under a billboard that reads "Duck Dogs" with an image of a boy having way too much enjoyment for it to be healthy. Yeah. So we head to the museum of natural history; which looks like a goofy museum of ancient history. Man; no one in this shows knows what they are doing if they are screwing up something this simple to figure out. We head inside and it's clear that it's a museum of ancient history because if it were a natural history musuem; it would be a garden instead. Anyhow; one of the glass cases is already shattered on the FPS as Droid removes a blue crystal like rock which is called the Crystal of Atlantis; also known as the Fourth Crystal in Teddy Ruxpin. No amount of oxygen is going to revive this series back to decent at this point. Actually; it almost looks like the Seventh Crystal, and I sure would like to use it to wipe out the memories of watching that PSA I did for Easter Sadism a few months back. So he puts the 7th crystal in his laser weapon and proclaims that he'll get rid of his duck problem and take over the factory without distraction. That was simple and to the point plus evil laugh to accent it: Doctor Droid is a perfectly fine heel. So we head outside as the ducks make it to the museum of "natural history" which now has a destroyed wall, for no reason. Wildwing and Nosedive enter with guns as Wildwing is pissed off of Droid beating them to the punch as the rest of the babyfaces enter. Duke comments on the decor and then Droid comes out with the laser gun and proclaims that he doesn't need finease when he has power and Wildwing yells duck (how ironic eh?!) and we get a closeup shot of the laser gun firing a green laser into the hard camera to end the segment eight minutes in. This was fine.

After the commercial break; we see Droid firing the gun and apparently it hit every babyface including Wildwing. Nosedive panics for a while thinking he's done for; and then the neon green aura goes away, and he's perfectly fine. Wildwing gets up; rushes in and shoulder tackles Droid down to the ground as the laser gun goes flying and it shoots a short neon green laser which hits Tanya in the belly on-screen, and she takes the stuntwoman bump to the floor. Then the gun hits the floor; the crystal pops out and a segment of it breaks off. Why do I get the feeling the writers saw The Adventures Of Teddy Ruxpin and figured: "We never found out how the 7th Crystal got cracked; so we'll explain it in a show that Disney doesn't even OWN!"?! If that was the reason; then more power to them I guess. So Wildwing and Droid do the Greco-Roman Knucklelock of Doom for fun; which Droid invokes the CHEST PUSHER OF DEATH to cause Wildwing to do the stuntman bump onto his back. Wow; Wildwing got tamed...AGAIN! Droid then shoots a rocket with a neon green flame in the back as it destroys the support of a scaffold which brings down a box and a bucket of brown liquid on the babyface. BS&P RULEZ~! Droid escapes as Wildwing gets up and asks how the babyfaces are doing, as Duke claims that only his diginity was hurt. I love real comments that aren't supposed to be real comments. Tanya is concerned about the ray gun hitting them and wants to go back to headquarters. One more note: When Droid bailed; he took the crystal with him; but a piece of it was left on the floor. I don't think the babyfaces noticed it though because we head to the Arrowhead Pond in the morning and then we see Phil Palmfeather pacing around outside the entrance to the super computer; whining about the babyfaces being sick. I discover that they are inside a giant lab room that has three golden ring like CAT Scans like devices circularing a lied down Nosedive, Tanya and Grin.

Nosedive is whining; so Tanya blows him off, while Grin seems to be enjoying this because he's a calm zen like person. So Wildwing is using the device to scan them and they are losing size by the minute; indicating that we have the shrink ray plot device rearing it's ugly head again. Which is fitting because the way they got shot is lifted completely from Take A Good Look. I love how they say that they are losing size by the minute and yet, we clearly see that they haven't changed in height since getting shot at. And it's morning; so it has been hours since that time. Bad logic break there guys. Worse; I could have sworn that everyone got nailed by the beam. I can understand Tanya since in a technical sense; she got shot TWICE! I can see Nosedive (it's clear now that they have abandoned the "reckless plot device" for Nosedive in this episode) logically, and even Grin, but shouldn't all the babyfaces be shrinking except for Phil who clearly wasn't shot (which is too bad; because Phil as a fly would be a symbolic riot of an angle at least)?! Because the storyline is that Mallory, Duke and Wildwing didn't get shot; but the animation seems to show everyone including Wildwing getting shot. This is way too confusing to me! Anyhow; Mallory asks what to do and Tanya deduces that they need to get Droid's ray gun and see if it can reverse the process. Nosedive wants to rock as he punches his fist into his hand; but he's clamped to the device along with the rest of the babyfaces; so Wildwing tells the three to stay put where they get the device because they do not know how far they will shrink before they return. So three of the babyfaces leave which causes Phil to whine and then he doubles it because half of the team is shrinking, because there is no money in kids underwear. Okay; I laugh everytime Phil whines, mainly because Phil is supposed to be a whiny lawyer with delluisons of granger. So we get the CGI Aerowing launch sequence of death to waste time; and if they were going to do the reckless plot device which they have clearly abandoned now: Shouldn't Wildwing be the one shrinking instead of Nosedive, so it puts heat on him for being reckless at least?!

And then it is suddenly AFTER HAPPY HOUR (after dark) for no reason; implying that they took hours to get into the Aerowing to launch. What a stupid logic break that is?! Seriously; it was morning when the Arrowhead Pond was shown in the last scene, and now it's nighttime which is a good 6-12 hours after they were scanned. If the babyfaces were losing size by the minute; they would be atoms for real instead of being just a theory Tanya had in her head. GOD!! So then we head back to the exact same factory they were in at the beginning of the episode; and it is completely spotless in a matter of a few days tops. So we see Droid at the control panel pushing a purple square like button and going on about having the factory back. And apparently; the control panel is still damaged anyway in a lame attempt to show that the animators thought they had plugged up the continuity hole. It failed badly. So he goes on and on about killing human baterica (BS&P: human scum) while we play How It's Made for a while as we see giant white hands and legs being machined and made. He also cuts a promo about talking to himself which did make me chuckle because he was the only one in the factory. Who else are you going to talk to?! So we head back to headquarters in front of the computer as Nosedive and Grin have shrank to about Molly Cunningham's size; which makes Nosedive whine and complain. Grin of course is calm as zen; because he thinks he's a cross between Casey Jones and Master Splinter. Only without chrisma of Master Splinter and intensity of Casey Jones. Nosedive is impatient about doing nothing and Grin proclaims that it works for him. What a slacker this Grin fellow is?! Might as well call him Baloo Von Bruinwald XIII. Tanya then takes Nosedive's side of things because she doesn't know if the gun has a simple reverse switch, so she wants to return to the musuem to see what Droid stole and do it quickly before they are too small to operate the Migrator. Ironically; they are too small to operate the Migrator NORMALLY as you'll see after the next scene...

Speaking of the next scene; we head into the air with the Aerowing as Mallory asks if the criminals return to the scene of the crime which Duke blows off as them being stupid criminals. Like Mind Bender right?! I hope the Mind Bender was a running gag; because if done right, this scene can be paid off. Wildwing (with mask on) states that he's a robot with a one track mind; so officially he returned to the scene of the crime so he can finish what he started see. So then we cut to the streets with the Migrator as Tanya is flooring it with the pedals while Grin is driving the thing with a cloth wrapped around the steering wheel. Nosedive is the back seat driver of course because he's a reckless moron as he asks about Grin's driving skills; and Grin's answer makes Nosedive panic as they crash into a mailbox for fun and my amusement. Then Grin gives Nosedive eye contact violence for no good reason at all. Hey; you are the one who crashed the Migrator into the mailbox; so stop passing the buck onto Nosedive. They have already abandoned the reckless Nosedive plotline already; so let's move onto the shrinking babyfaces (and not just their physical size) sliding down the Migrator paint job in a cute spot; and then we head into the museum as Nosedive wonders why in the world would Droid be interested in Atlantis junk; which Grin replies that the people of Atlantis are a spiritually enlightened race. BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! I beg to differ Grin because I watched the Final Faceoff of this series and they are not enlightened and they are dumber than a box of DTVA authority figures. Nosedive's retort was absolutely LAME-O because not having cable means that they are savages. Or something like that. So we cut to Tanya climbing up the pillar which was holding the crystal under glass (the artwork is wonky because I swear that only the top of the glass was cut off instead of almost all of the glass being shattered). as she has to go from the side instead of the front where the label is shown. Idiots! Anyway; Tanya sezs nothing of note as she is flustered because they don't have anything to help them.

Then we get a logic break: earlier in the scene we saw a crystal chunk which was broken off laid on the floor and there was nothing close to it. Now; the chunk is lying on the floor next to some cart. What makes this logic break sting is that, the reason this even happened is so that they can telegraph to all the audience that this is the signal for the large black cat to arrive and growl at the babyfaces. The shrinking babyfaces panic and bail stage left behind a pipe like wall. Tanya then orders the males to run interference while she get the chunk of the crystal, which suits me just fine thank you. So Tanya runs in and grabs the crystal chunk without incident. As this is happening, Nosedive comes out with his puck gun and shoots a puck right in the kisser of the cat. Yes; it's a serious no-no to shoot a bullet in the head or come close to it; but shooting a puck in the face of a cat is perfectly fine. It's even worse in hindsight now knowing the extreme damage a puck can do. The cat actually no sells the shot and Nosedive panics and bails. Then Grin comes in from behind and does the Super Mario 64 Tail Spin Of Doom on the cat's tail and throws him away. Let me remind people that Super Mario 64 was released a few months before this; and people are complaining about a Star Fox 64 reference (the "Do A Barrell Roll" which is a 1990's pop culture reference which is less stale than a 1980's reference since Family Guy uses them to death!) in Breadwinners?! Also; the twerk dance's problem is not that it's sexually suggestive and thus dirty and not suitable for children. It's not suitable for kids because (a) it's been around long before Miley Cyrus brought it out (maybe even before she was born to boot) of the mothballs thinking that she could one up Seth McFarlane in doing crappy 1980's pop culture references so it's old and stale and (b) it's a racist and sexist dance since it has gender and racial overtones. By the way; I'm much more offended by Buhduece and Sway Sway (the former name is actually good; but the later one clearly give it away that the show is a Fanboy & Chum Chum clone) bouncing their asses into the hard camera more than the twerk dance. There you go; a pointless rant from me.

Where was I?! Oh; yes, the cat came back so Nosedive tells everyone to cover their eyes as he throws a puck at the cat's feet and it explodes causing smoke to rise and make the cat cough before the cat runs away stage right. Why didn't he just do that at the very start and then it comes back; Nosedive shoot a puck in the face and Grin does the SM64 Spin of Doom?! Because in that case; it makes Grin look great and Nosedive look reckless; which was supposed to be the whole point of the episode which they did in TWO segments at the beginning of the episode! So that is that and a dumb segment overall. So we head in the sky after dark with the Aerowing and we head inside the cockpit with Mallory proclaiming that the factory is dead ahead; which is fitting considering this show is already heading there (and this is episode #11 by the way), which prompt Droid to appear on the monitor taunting the three babyfaces who should also be shrinking but are not. Wildwing blows him off and demands Droid give him the ray gun of doom; but Droid no sells because giving them the ray would take hours to shrink them down; plus, he used it on his robot which catches the Aerowing. He looks similar to the robot in Quack Pack in an episode that escapes me at the moment namewise; but I do notice that it has a similar color scheme to the Detroit team they defeated earlier in the episode. That is a nice touch in detail there guys! So Droid has one Devastator Robot despite the fact that the place made at least three dozen hands and one leg. The Aerowing does manage to wiggle free after a considerate effort by Wildwing, his mask and his lame grunting skills. Then the red robot shoots a neon green laser out of his chest; it hits the back of the Aerowing and the thing takes a nosedive (this would have been perfect irony if NOSEDIVE was driving the damn thing and Wildwing was the one shrinking with Tanya and Grin. STUPID!) and they go to an off-screen shot of the Aerowing actually going KA-BOOM. If they didn't make the finish to The First Faceoff look wussy; they sure as hell done it now! So the babyface climb out of the carnage unhurt and the Aerowing isn't all that damaged.

So we cut to Tanya putting a sample of a crystal chunk into a disk and then putting it into her wrist communicator which is roughly like putting a 3DS game card into a Nintendo 3DS, natch; and uses the communicator to analyze the chunk. What happens next is a classic Mighty Ducks moment (and not in a good way I might add): Tanya is horrified because she has bad news as she radios into Wildwing (I should note that I didn't go in order of events here in terms of the babyfaces in the Aerowing because they were still in the Aerowing when this news was radioed in; so it's not a logic break) informing them that the crystal cannot enlarge items. There is just one problem with this: Doctor Droid outright said before the Aerowing was caught by the robot that he used the gun on the robot! So...WHAT THE HELL?! Tanya claims that there is no way to return the ducks to normal size; but Droid not only said it was possible; he enlarged the robot which grabbed the Aerowing. NONE OF THIS MAKES ANY SENSE! This is F*** LOGIC at it's dumbest! So we cut to Mallory, Wildwing and Duke on the sidewalk near the chain link fence with their puck guns as Wildwing tells Duke to pull of the heist of his life; thus implying that Duke was a criminal in the past. I would be fine with this if I didn't realize that Kit Cloudkicker was part of a terrorist group for a full year, which is more horrible than Duke's past. More on that in a later rant. So Wildwing and Mallory shoot pucks at the robot to run interference while suddenly we jump to Duke hanging on from a roof top for no reason at all. He is supposed to be stealing Droid's ray gun of doom see. He uses the cheese colored laser flame arc of doom to open the vent and then jumps in with ease. So we then cut to a far shot of the city and then for no reason; we cut to a sidewalk with Nosedive, Grin and Tanya running on the sidewalk trying to dodge humans and their legs. Nosedive whines as usual; because he is a whiny slacker. That is NO buys! So they jump down as Nosedive thinks there is a 12 midnight curfew and they get stuck in a spiderweb. Ducktales, Microducks From Outer Space; just saying guys. All that was missing was Tanya saying "This action is going to ruin my dress!" as the black spider comes down and that ends the segment 16 and a half minutes in. Once again; they had a fine eight minutes and now the cliff has come only without the grace of Goaltender Phil Palmfeather to save it.

After the commercial break; we see the spider crawling towards Grin and his back as Tanya tries to get to her Omni Tool device and failing. Grin just sits there mediating which earns a blowoff from Nosedive. So Grin twists his back and punches the spider right in the kisser and the spider took the stunt animal bump and lands on it's legs on the pavement. Yeah; we put the ducks in a semi-threatening position and then kill all the suspense in one punch from Grin. Amazing! So the babyfaces get free and bail; while the spider teases going after them; but bails in another direction. Whatever guys; let's move on to the normal sized babyfaces running away from the giant robot and around the corner in clearly the wrong part of town since a lot of the places are boarded up. I'm fine with this because every city has this issue, so it's not like this is a BS&P decision or anything. So they bash through a boarded door inside the abandoned building; which is a dumb move with a giant robot around; and then the robot arm destroys the ceiling of the building prompting Mallory to blow off Wildwing in kind. So then we go to the street and pan over to a red mailbox with the shrunken babyface arriving and Nosedive marking out on how big the robot is. Then Tanya somehow notices that on the side of the left foot of the robot is a tiny hole big enough for them to climb in. Umnmm; yeah. So the babyfaces all run in while Mallory and Wildwing run away from the building as it is destroyed by the robot and the robot throws chunks of it towards the two normal sized babyfaces. Okay. So we head inside some room as the ray gun is in a display case surrounding by neon green laser; which is a dead giveaway of the security (or lack of it). There is a conveniently placed vent which is opened and out pops Duke who blows off the security system as he uses a grappling hook and grabs the ray gun just like that without tripping up the laser; because he is not a small time thief. Judging by the animation; he should have tripped the system at least a half dozen times when grabbing the gun. I shake my head in disbelief because they had a MI spot and then abandoned it five seconds later for no good reason.

So we head outside as the giant red robot is ripping out chimney pipes as Mallory and Wildwing bail. Tanya, Grin and Nosedive enter the foot of the robot as we get a shot of the inside of it; and it looked similar to the inside of Dragonous' ship; only it looked even more bland than usual. Nosedive proclaims that it's time to teach the rustbucket robot some new tricks. Wildwing and Mallory notice Duke sliding down from a grappling hook with the gun; but there is no crystal as we see Doctor Droid come out as he shows the real gun with the crystal lodged in the gun. Oh; that was in fact a cunning move on Droid's part; rendering him the best heel of the show by leaps and bounds. Sadly; he only lasts as long as Moltoc did in Quack Pack. So then he gets shot by his own robot as he blows off the robot for betraying him, even though it's clear that the shrunken babyfaces are inside the robot with Nosedive leading. So if you were going to have Nosedive redeem himself (which this does in a sense); then why did you abandon the entire reckless plot device too early. Not to mention completely screwing it up in the process. Needless to say; there wasn't a lot of heat for this as Droid gets hit and the ray gun drops to the ground. Droid bails stage left as Nosedive is having fun, prompting Wildwing to go on the wrist communicator to blow him off because the ray gun is his only hope to return to normal. Earth to Wildwing: The ray gun is right on the ground; so the "reckless" device; which David Wise revived in this episode, is screwed up AGAIN! And people wonder why David Wise doesn't write cartoon stories anymore since Mighty Ducks? Nosedive proclaims that he did it for the team; which is a great promo, but it means nothing now because they abandoned the "reckless" plot from the start; so there isn't any heat to make it work. Tanya cuts the wires from inside the robot which renders it as a red robot statue and nothing more; so that's that.

Wildwing grabs the real ray gun which does have the crystal in it as he scans for damage. Wildwing informs Tanya that only a few wires are snapped; but no damage otherwise. So Tanya tells him to connect some wires and cross certain color wires as she comes down with Nosedive and Grin. Nosedive questions this as Tanya explains that it will make them grow to normal size; or they will be blown to bit. Nosedive panics; but that proves to have no heat because Wildwing clearly did it right since when the gun is fired, Nosedive and company return to normal size and that's that. So apparently; the chuck of crystal that broke off has absolutely no adverse effect on the ray gun either. So there goes the heat of the plot device right there. So we head back inside the factory with Droid pushing more buttons going on about making a whole army of robots while basically saying that when it comes to talking to himself; we're not the boss of him. And he's right; because no one cares about someone talking to himself in a room with NO ONE else in it! So we cut to a ground vent with Wildwing and Mallory looking on as Wildwing proclaims that they need to stop this; and then looks at the robot and getting a brain storm. Oh sure; why not?! It is a slight improvement from the Take Me To Your Leader finish which was really horrible! So they basically shoot pucks and have Mallory doing Chun-Li style moves to tip the robot over so it can crash right into the factory and destroy the factory and Droid's evil plans. Yeah; because apparently, it's okay for the Mighty Ducks to destroy peoples' properties with impunity; while it's bloody murder to do it in Johnny Ass...ERRRR...I mean Johnny Test. Sure; they have to stop the evil android, but COME ON! Can't they do this in an open field which has no one around to get killed?! To top off the arrogrance of this spot; the final shot came with Tanya flicks the back of the foot of the robot like she didn't give a damn. With that said; this is a much better finish than the last rant I did, so I'm fine with this. So Droid gets crushed in the debris along with all the marching robots who somehow couldn't get out of the factory at all. Yeah.

So we scene change as the babyfaces walk around the destroyed building (that they destroyed with impunity mind you); and Mallory cannot find him. Wildwing doesn't want to quit and then Duke finds Doctor Droid and we get a shot of the robot in such a position that would hide his head so they can avoid showing that Doctor Droid was beheaded in the process. Only; they made mention of his head being cut off during this. Yeah; you cannot show a human getting beheaded in Gundam Victory even in the original anime series; but it's perfectly fine to show a half human/ half android with no head. Also; Toon Disney cut out a beheading sequence in Gargoyles and that was a full robot. So yeah; BS&P is laughable, is your mind blown?! And I'm sure that we will NEVER see him again! WINK! WINK! NUDGE! NUDGE! So we head into the skies as we see the head of Doctor Droid flying around like a rocket and blowing off the babyface. Never see him again indeed. HEE HEE! He proclaims that you can never destroy a machine for real and laughs where flying away from the hard camera out of sight to end the episode at 21:10 approx. Doctor Droid is a good heel in a crappy story. This episode was bad; but the finish was much better than the last one, so call it ** (40%).


THE REVIEW LINE

Okay I'll keep this short and sweet: This was a bad episode with a decent heel in Doctor Droid and a finish that wasn't insulting nor horrible. Phil was Phil of course. It seems that they were building the episode towards a plot of Nosedive being reckless and costing the team victories both in hockey games and in combat. The problem is that in the case of combat; it was booked in such a way that it didn't matter what Nosedive did because Doctor Droid bailed successfully anyway. In the hockey game; it was booked to have Nosedive screwing all his team mates and having a 5 on 1 on Wildwing (which is impossible since the game is supposed to be five players per team including the goaltender; not five aside not including the goaltender); but it means nothing because Wildwing still made the easy save with a second remaining. They won the game anyway. If they wanted to put heat on Nosedive; then Wildwing should have not saved the puck and have the final goal count as an overtime loss. That would have put heat on Nosedive because he cost the team the win. Then they completely abandoned the plotline and then they had Nosedive redeem himself anyway as if the plot device was still on going; even though there was no heat for it. Stupid! The rest of this was the basic dumb stuff that made David Wise look like a rookie writer; effectively destroying his prospects for furture writing projects. The animation was fine; but a lot of BS&P decision made half of the spots look stupid in hindsight. Overall; this was a below average episode and I feel bad for Doctor Droid because he is now the #1 heel of the show (he managed to keep the babyfaces at bay by himself with only using one giant robot compared to Dragonous having three henchmen and only one of them is any good (Siege); and one of them is amusing if nothing else (Chameleon); and he was in a crappy show. We'll see him again a few episodes for now; but since I'm doing the episodes at random, it could take longer. So....

Thumbs down for this episode and I'll see you all next time.

 

Back to The Mighty Ducks Rants Index!

Return to the Rant Shack!

Return to the Unofficial Kit Cloudkicker Homepage