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 - To Catch A Duck
Reviewed: 09/21/2014
...You Sign Them To A DTVA Contract!
Well; we finally hit the end of the "most coolest game on earth" series (Riiiiggggghhhhttttt!); as we have a really interesting plot involving Duke's past as a jewel thief as another traitor from Puckworld is helping Dragonous wipe the minds of the entire human race so he can conquer it. Now Duke must find out why Falcone is involved and it might involve Duke watching Kit Cloudkicker tapes. How does the student do in comparsion to the teacher (who is 3' 9"; weighes 100 pounds soaking wet, 12 years old and is a bearcub)? Let's rant on shall we...?!
I don't know who wrote, animated nor story edited this episode. How fitting that the video source still continues to erase the ED's from the rest of the world. Memo to copyright reform fans: It would help your cause further if the videos that Disney takes down didn't censor out the ending credits of each episode. I'm just saying because this annoys me since I am a completist.
We begin this one with a shot of a pedestal with a red ruby on a pillow sparkling (which is a Sunwoo Animation motif by the way) as they are in some sort of musuem; they meaning Siege and Wraith. Wraith is of course blowing off Siege for tripping every alarm in the musuem despite there being no signs of forced entry nor alarm sirens. Seige blows off Wraith for setting the teleporter in a mud puddle instead of inside the museum. Siege grabs the ruby and calls it legit. So a puck gets shot at him and it's the babyfaces upstairs as they mock the heels latest attempt to steal something as gawky. This show in general is way past gawky at this point. The ruby drops and the ducks mock Duke because apparently these heels are butting in on Duke's past racket. Duke swoops in; nails the heels good, grabs the ruby and puts it into his costume. Siege and Wraith teleport out before the ducks can shoot the puck ropes around them and that is that. Then we see a bunch of jewels in a box on the table out of nowhere; and this prompts Mallory to get mad at Duke, accusing him of trying to steal the ruby. What?! Duke must be asking the same question since he takes the ruby out and gives it to Mallory saying that he was trying to keep it away from Siege; which is in fact true. Mallory blows him off and all I can say is: What? So we head back to headquarters in front of Drake One with the babyfaces exchanging notes; mostly Mallory proclaiming that jewels should not be handled by former jewel thieves. Grin does his typical non-senicial promo which is "we gain, what we leave behind.". The guise of this is that Duke is reformed; but Duke doesn't think Mallory is buying what he is selling. Mallory still has the Gruffi pose on full blast. Nosedive of course does the usual "TMNT promo" crap and tries to bail; but Wildwing grabs him by the arm because they need to know why Dragonous was taking this ruby. Tanya deduces that he's using it as a focal point for a laser; which Wildwing is hot and bothered by. He ponders it off; and we scene change to inside the Raptorous for the Dragonous "you failed again; I'm getting someone else to do plan #667" promo on Wraith and Siege.
Yes; rubies are basically aluminium oxide, so no classic Mighty Ducks moment here. Basically, Dragonous proclaims that he is going to see a dude named Falcone who is apparently a jewel thief and an ally from Puck World; which is the second known traitor to turn on the babyfaces when Dragonous took over. Dragonous calls Wraith and Siege halfwits; which is giving them way too much credit. Scene changer and we go to the sky shot of the Arrowhead Pond for practice. Nosedive shoots the puck and Wildwing manages to stop it; but the puck trickles underneath him for I would think is a goal. Nosedive is about to cheer so I'm guessing he got the better of Wildwing this time, and then his wrist communicator beeps. Nosedive answers it and it's Captain Klegghorn (Weeeeeee!) telling Nosedive that the ruby was stolen successfully this time, causing Nosedive to instantly accuse Siege and Wraith of coming back to the scene of the crime. This actually sounds reasonable as a deduction because they could steal this in broad daylight, and still win unless the ducks are involved. However; Mallory instantly accuses DUKE of the crime. What?! You see; in Mallory's mind, if he was a former jewel thief; in reality he is a jewel thief still. To her; the word "former" is a meaningless waste of space, breath or hand signals. Mallory claims that Duke was out last night; which Duke points out that everyone was out in Anaheim. Wildwing claims that no one is accusing him of anything. Memo to Wildwing: Mallory just did accuse Duke of stealing the ruby. Then Wildwing asks where Duke was and Duke claims that he was out; and then storms off. Wildwing scratches his brainpan over this; and then we head inside the museum as Klegghorn and Wildwing are inspecting the wooden door which was cut with a sword like blade; causing Mallory to invoke eye contact violence on Duke. Duke is not amused by this (what a shock?) and is about to storm off when he discovers a brown feather on the floor; which is clearly NOT the same color as Duke's. So Duke is in fact innocent of this crime as Klegghorn tells us that an emerald was stolen from New York 24 hours earlier.
Wait, what? Why would Klegghorn be concerned about an emerald in NYC in less than 24 hours; when New York is NOWHERE near Anaheim?! If he said that an emerald was stolen in Los Angeles 24 hours earlier, that would make perfect sense and Klegghorn's concern would be much more creditable. Duke shows off the feather and has a good idea who the thief is and it's Falcone, who was part of the mob in Puckworld in which Duke joined many years ago; but then turn on them. Mallory tries to point out that he is in Puckworld; and Duke claims Dragonous is behind this. This actually makes sense because Siege and Wraith tried to steal the ruby earlier in the episode; so that's fine. Nosedive wants to kick ass (one last time); but Duke tells Nosedive to back off because Falcone is not going to talk that easily. Duke ponders over the one way to draw him out; and we head back to headquarters with...Keep in mind: Duke has already provided evidence that Falcone is behind the crimes and not Duke. Almost everyone believes that the evidence is beyond reasonable doubt. So what does Mallory do? She continues to accuse Duke of comitting the crime; claiming that he has been acting strange. Wait; what? Wildwing wants her to give Duke the benefit of the doubt. What doubt Wildwing? The evidence does point to Falcone; it's difficult to give someone the benefit of the doubt, when the doubt has been clearly shown for all to see. Then Duke comes in and the babyfaces wonder why he has burglar tools; even though he is clearly dressing normally. Just who is booking and animating this crap? Seriously; I would like to know. Duke claims that they are hunter tools; as Nosedive and Tanya offer to join him for assistance because in Mighty Ducks; there must always be a buddy system in place. Duke blows them off for accusing him of wanting to steal something; and storms off, in spite of the other babyfaces saying nothing of the sort. Hmmmm; maybe Mallory has a point since Duke is being awfully defensive about something.
So we get the CGI sequence with the Aerowing for one last hurrah as it takes off; and we see Duke piloting the Aerowing with Tanya and Nosedive joining in. Nosedive's pant legs seem to be cut at the knees for some reason. Tanya asks why they are in San Francisco and Duke explains that the common theme of these heists is the largest jewels; and thus the largest diamonds in the world are in San Francisco. So we cut to the shot of sign called Pacific Museum and then the building itself as the Aerowing lands in front. Duke, Tanya and Nosedive head to the door and Duke notices that the box on the left side is cut out, thus Falcone is already here. So Duke opens the door and goes inside alone. Tanya and Nosedive run in after him; but then Duke vanishes. Duke hides in the vents apologizing to Tanya and Nosedive because he has to do this one alone. Tanya and Nosedive look around and here comes Falcone who is basically a falcon furry who could easily be a TaleSpin character welding a blue version of Duke's banana colored blade. We has one arm bandaged up like a mummy, and is wearing a cape. It is also amazing that Tanya and Nosedive instantly figure out it is Falcone despite not seeing him until right now. Falcone is voiced by Reed Diamond and according to IMDB: Diamond was born and raised in New York City. He attended school at UNC-Chapel Hill and then went on to study acting at The Juilliard School in New York. His professional career began in 1990 with his co-starring role in the movie Memphis Belle (1990). Following that, he appeared on Broadway, and in many television movies, and guest-star roles on TV. He is probably best known for playing "Detective Mike Kellerman" on the critically acclaimed NBC television show Homicide: Life on the Street (1993). Diamond most recently guest-starred on television in, "October Road," Ghost Whisperer (2005), Vanished (2006), Without a Trace (2002), Numb3rs (2005), Law & Order (1990), "CSI", Medium (2005), The West Wing (1999), Judging Amy (1999), Crossing Jordan (2001), and The Shield (2002).
Some of his most notable movie credits include Good Night, and Good Luck. (2005), Spider-Man 2 (2004) and S.W.A.T. (2003). Diamond resides in Los Angeles with his wife, actress Marnie McPhail. He began his career in Date Rape as Gary Farrell in 1988. Mighty Ducks is his DTVA debut and only appearance. Bones (FBI Special Agent Hayes Flynn), The Mentalist (CBI Agent Ray Haffner), White Collar (Cole Edwards) and Franklin & Bash (Damien Karp) are his most recent credits. He has 73 acting credits and four Self credits to his resume. Falcone claims that they are astute and part of the autobahn society as his sword cuts through their puck guns. Tanya and Nosedive back away while Falcone talks in such a refined matter. Then we get a moment that only Mighty Ducks would pull off and think it would be great: Tanya and Nosedive are backed into a vault; and Falcone orders them to give them their wrist communicators. This is downright stupid and you would think that the babyfaces would say no. So Nosedive and Tanya give him their communicators anyway; and he tells them that they will die in the vault due to a lack of oxygen; walks out and slams the vault door. It's not like BS&P is going to allow the babyfaces to get sliced and diced, so why bother? Nosedive proclaims that in three hours; they will be permenant fixtures in this museum, and as the segment ends almost seven and a half minutes in, Tanya is shown facepalming herself, as if she hates being in this show and hopes it'll be over soon. That one amused me. This episode is fine for the most part, but it isn't **** so far.
After the commercial break; Nosedive goes on about what to do and Tanya has to correct him because they have two hours and 57 minutes. This prompts Nosedive to once again channel TMNT and saying that they shouldn't have wasted three minutes watching a commercial. Wait; how did they watch commercials? Tanya then brings out her Onmi-Tool; because Falcone had the foresight to order them to take their wrist communicators; but no foresight that Tanya had an Onmi-tool with her and thus could break out. Here's another question: Why is there a computer monitor inside the vault? I can understand the hidden camera, but the monitor? That sounds awfully contrived to me. So Tanya hacks into the monitor (Weeeeee!) and we see on the monitor, Falcone opening the glass case and grabbing the diamond from it. At least in theory; as Duke fires a puck gun at it and the diamond shatters into the ground like glass. Then we see Duke take out the diamond from his pouch and mocking Falcone for not being able to tell the difference between glass and diamonds. So out comes the banana colored blade of death; and we have a sword fight. So they clash swords for a while and jump on a conveniently placed table. Falcone mocks Duke for being soft on being a criminal because Duke's a babyface, implying that Duke turned on Falcone years ago in Puckworld. Then we get a hilarious spot as Falcone slips off the table as his foot manages to do this animation sequence that looks so laughable that someone has a perverted sense of humor. Falcone drops on his back; and before he slipped, he got his sword thrusted out of his hands by Duke. Falcone is on the floor and blows off Duke for mistreating him. Duke tells him not to take it so hard because he might help Falcone with something because Dragonous is getting assistance from Falcone, so Falcone must have a good reason to take the job in the first place. Falcone questions this because Duke is supposed to be a babyface; but Duke insists that they think he's now a heel and getting tired of them accusing him of crimes he did not commit; and wants to be a heel again.
Someone has been watching TaleSpin tapes of Kit Cloudkicker in Plunder and Lightning Part III. I approve of this angle actually as it has been seven years; and Kit is buried under Michael Eisner's property of misfit characters he hates, so it's perfectly fine for Duke to use this anyway. Besides; it's the last episode of the series, so why not? Falcone no sells; but he might sell if Duke helps him steal the Sapphire of Ferdonia. Oh lord; someone is watching TaleSpin and taking it too literally. Duke puts the diamond in his pouch and agrees to do the deed for him for old times. Scene change to the vault where Tanya and Nosedive are watching from the monitor and somehow, they manage to watch footage from the roof as a Dragonous ship takes off. Tanya deduces that Duke has joined with Falcone on the ship; and that Mallory is right all along. Riiiigggggghhhhtttttt. Tanya hacks into the monitor and programs it to make television from a 500 mile radius see them and help them. So we get a number of televisions from the television store showing Tanya asking for help; and no one even sees her nor cares about her. Yes; even the denizens of Anaheim are tired of the babyfaces. Nosedive pushes her aside and wants to show her how show business is done because she sucks at anything but science. I just realized that Tanya dresses up like Gadget Hackwrench half of the time and wishes she was Gadget Hackwrench. So Nosedive tells the story of being stuck in a vault; in which 95% of the story is probably true, and the denizens actually stop over and watch on. In comes the Migrator as we only see Mallory and Wildwing in the front. The Migrator stops and out comes Wildwing with Mallory and Grin as they push aside the denizens and realize that Nosedive is in trouble. Nosedive finishes his spiel and then screams for Help as he finishes by saying that they will be dead soon if they are not helped out of the vault at the Pacific Museum. Yawn. So we head to a spooky castle on the roof as Falcone and Duke run on the roof to the edge. They look down and they notice someone dressed like a red coat guard with the fuzzy black hats; indicating that they are in Great Britian.
So we are now in England; which is far outside the USA; and they are treating the place like it's a fictional place. Whatever guys. So they climb down and Duke jumps on the guard's back and knocks him out. The guard is tied up with ropes (and they even remember to tie the knees up. GREAT!) ; and then they drag him into the castle which is dark, spooky and almost empty. So we see a silver plated safe in the wall; and Falcone orders Duke to step aside because he wants to handle it. Can you smell the double turn coming, or do I have to spell it out for ya? Duke blows him off because he couldn't crack his knuckles without setting off the alarm. Falcone counters and walks to the safe while Duke sits down in a wooden chair relaxing, telling Falcone to call him when he needs him. So we cut back to the Pacific Museum as we go back into the vault as Nosedive and Tanya slump down to the ground as the air is so lacking that Nosedive proclaims that their ratings stink now. Then the vault door gets blasted open and in comes the babyfaces; which causes Tanya and Nosedive to instantly stop selling that there is no air in the vault; to being spring chickens in a normal world. Mallory blows off the lousy production values; and this actually works as a TMNT reference because the whole broadcast in the vault was actually part of the storyline as a shoot; rather than the usual out of nowhere worked promos that break the fourth wall. So that is a win for a change as the babyfaces ask where is Duke and Tanya proclaims that Duke has turned heel and gone with Falcone. This instantly makes Mallory slap her fist into her palm; proclaiming that she knew this all along. So what about the previous 25 episodes Mallory? This is the first episode where you have been accusing Duke of being a heel after all. Wildwing is more concerned about what Duke is up too; and then we get another classic Mighty Ducks moment: The babyfaces all run stage left and in the background, there is a shot of the only doorway inside the vault that was blown down seconds earlier. Every segment of this show has to be stupid; and not in an intentional nor funny way.
So we head back to the safe with Falcone turning the combination lock; proving that he is such a rookie that it's not even funny. So he is picking the combination; and then he tries to open the door thinking he got it, and he cannot get the door open. Duke is sitting down having a fun time watching Falcone fail badly on this. So Falcone brings out his sword; but Duke runs in and grabs it because that will set off every alarm in Ferdonia. So Duke picks the combination lock and then opens the door successfully; making Falcone look like a complete moron. Falcone grabs a mini statue and is pissed off at this as he is about to throw it away; but Duke grabs it. Duke looks at it and notices that it's the key to where the sapphire really is as the statue basically shows off the location as at the clock tower at the 12 o'clock hand inside the clock tower. The thing also has a sun and a crescent moon on both sides of the clock tower; and the thing is shaped like a cross with notches out for the keys. It feels like the weirdst stylization of a Christian cross in history. So it can only be opened at noon or midnight; and the clock reads that this will happen in ten minutes or so on the real clock tower. So Falcone shoots his laser gun at the safe; and the blast causes the alarm to go off. Falcone shoots at the ceiling and drops the chandelier right onto Duke; who is too dumb to dodge it. Duke is helpless as Falcone goes into his pouch and steals the diamond from him, thus we get the double turn. It's hard to take this heel turn seriously; when everyone some it coming. I preferred it when Kit did the double turn on Don Karnage when he took the Sub-Electron Power Ampifiler from Don Karnage a second time and then got caught. Falcone bails up the stairs and tells Duke to enjoy his new life in prison as two British royal guards ruin in and they sound like redneck hicks. Never a good combo as one of them has the handcuffs, and thus Duke is formally arrested ending the segment 14 minutes in. This has been a fine episode thus far outside of the usual stupid moments, but this is not looking good for Mighty Ducks. So; we have eight minutes left in this series. Deep breath...here we go...
After the commercial break; we head back to a far shot of the castle as we head inside a hallway with the two redneck royal guards being a handcuff Duke with them. One of the guards proclaims that they are going to lock him up and throw away the key. We then get a shot of Duke using his hands and a steel rod to pick the lock of the handcuffs (because they are rednecks; they forgot to frisk him for objects, thus they are stupid). Duke proclaims that this is fine because he doesn't need a key and he nails guard #1 and he is knocked out into the wall. Duke twirls around and handcuffs the second guard against a conveniently placed pipe. Why they need a pipe here I do not know. Duke bails away and he was literally arrested for thirty seconds. So we head to the clock tower and this sequence is awfully slow as Falcone enters inside the clock tower which has a lot of gears. Yes; the end of Mighty Ducks is going to take place inside a Castlevania themed clock tower. Death better happen here; our these writers have lost their minds. And I'm not talking about actual dying here. Falcone is looking around for a long ass whomping time as I discover that he is wearing slick black slack pants. I'll give the animators this: They did a decent job in making the tips of the gears look rusted. Sadly; the gears are drawn really bad, so that negates it. So he looks around and notices ladder hooks on the back of the clock face leading up to a a doorway at the 12 o'clock hand. He proclaims that time is on his side as he climbs up; which also takes forever as the clock hands reach 12; revealing the safe. Falcone gets to the top; inserts the key into the lock and opens the door to reveal the giant sapphire of Ferdoria. Is anyone buying this is a fictional country and not really England BS&P'ed? Falcone starts to climb down as Duke arrives and calls him a rat. Falcone calls Duke's competition streak tacky and we get a good sequence of Falcone hanging down a conveniently placed chain; and then swinging like Tarzan, drop kicking Duke in the gut, causing Duke to land inbetween the gears. Duke balances himself and backflips onto the gears before he gets squished; and draws his blade.
Falcone gets on the left gear and draws his blade. I will give the writers this: At least we are going to get an awesome sword fight out of this. So they clash blades on the gears for a long ass whomping time; and then Falcone bails and jumps down onto the floor. Duke jumps onto a chain and heads up and then jumps down in front of the door to cut Falcone off; since Falcone was heading near the door. Falcone keeps taunting Duke for being a poor sport and jealous of him. So Duke bashes the blade of Falcone's out of his hands and Duke points the sword at Falcone and demands answers to this outrage. Falcone actually changes his expressions here as he backs up and admits that Dragonous is creating a ray to wipe out the minds of the denizens on Earth. So yes; the Emerald of Purification was not original after all, and I stole it from a Mighty Ducks episode. Time to hand in my Cool DTVA Fanfics Card; no one cares anymore. Duke is luring Falcone onto a conveyer belt as Falcone claims that he wants to turn on Dragonous and they can raid planets together. Duke blows off this suggestion which causes Falcone to take out his gun and proclaims that Duke thinks way too small. Falcone shoots the floor; and it is weaker than bubble gum as Duke falls through the floor. Now; we get another logic break: When Falcone went to the stairs; it was about seven feet above the floor and there were no gears underneath. Here; there are gears underneath and it's more like 20 feet. Coordination in this show is full of bullcrap in my humble opinion. Duke falls onto one of the gears and is forced to run like a hamster. Falcone climbs down and goes to a trapdoor; then proceeds to shoot at the gears on his right and basically causes the clockworks to be destroyed and collapse onto Duke as Duke tries to flee from the gears. Yeah; that was pointless. Falcone climbs down the ladder and then down the steps. We cut to outside to a sky shot of the ship Falcone was using as Falcone opens the side door and gets into his ship. He teases putting the gems in the holders with the other three jewels; and then proclaims that the wipe ray is his; thus teasing that he really was going to turn on Dragonous. Yeah.
So the Aerowing lands right beside the ship; and then we cut back to inside the clock tower as it's completely rubble as Duke climbs out of the carnage. Duke runs out as we see Falcone ship take off and fly into the sky. Duke calls for Wildwing and Wildwing turns around asking if he had turned heel; and Duke claims that he didn't, but had to make him think that he did in order to find out what Dragonous was up to. Wildwing asks what Dragonous is up to; and Duke explains that Falcone has a mind wipe ray; and we see in the Aerowing that Tanya and Nosedive overheard what Duke said. Tanya and Nosedive fly out with the Aerowing after Falcone. Yeah; they accepted Duke just like that. We cut to the cockpit of Falcone gloating at being the king of thieves; when suddenly in teleports...Dragonous. Can you smell double cross on Falcone? I knew you would; and this makes the second straight Puckworld traitor to be turned on by Dragonous. Falcone stammers like an idiot claiming that he was only testing the ray for him, and Dragonous grabs him and then Falcone admits that he did want to turn on Dragonous; but Duke made him do it. This heel is more of a coward than Ace London is as Dragonous opens the side door, cuts a promo on Falcone and throws him out of the ship, thus making Shere Khan look like a generous man to Martin Torque. So Falcone freefalls; and then Duke uses his grappling hook rope to swing in and save him, causing Falcone to be all apologetic; and Duke basically yells at him to shut the hell up. We have covered all the P&L bases in this episode; including the TaleSpin rope snapping spot. Duke and Falcone freefall and splash down into the moat. The babyface watch on as both Falcone and Duke pop up. So we head into the skies as Dragonous is piloting the ship and proclaims that he go into the upper stratosphere to use the ray to turn the denizens into squash. Why not fire the ray now and get it over it? Because Dragonous has to lose silly. Nosedive is heard on the intercom as the Aerowing arrives right on time to make Dragonous look like a whining idiot once again. Thankfully; this is the last time this will happen, so who cares anymore?
Dragonous screams no; the Aerowing fires pucks at the ship and blows up the engines. Dragonous teleports out as the ship explodes in mid-air with the jewels on board. Yeah. So we head back outside the moat as the royal guard takes Falcone away in handcuffs, and leaves Duke on the edge of the moat wearing a red blanket to keep warm. The babyfaces come in and admit that they all owe Duke an apology; as Mallory looks like she was a jerkass and it finally hit on her that she was. Duke forgives them and he wants a group hug; in which all the babyfaces do; prompting Duke to give an evil stare at no one. So the babyfaces except for Duke all go to the Aerowing; but Mallory stops to check her gear and it's gone. Uh oh! Everyone has the same problem and they all turn around towards Duke and Duke simply drops one of the puck guns indicating that he pickpocketed everyone. BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Duke is such a kidder as he drops the remaining weapons; and allows the babyfaces to pick them up. Mallory blows him off for trying to be comical; but that was legit funny actually. You fell for a group hug from Duke? Shame on you all! Duke heads to the ship proclaiming that he has to keep his skills sharp and that ends the episode and the series at 21:02 aired. This is the best episode of the series and thanks to a great climax, somewhat decent finish and great ending, the writers finally did it. They got their first thumbs up episode of the series...at **** (80%). Too little, too late to save the series though, but it is the thought that counts. I just wish they would do it much more often and much earlier too.
THE REVIEW LINE
They finally did it! They actually wrote an episode that was really great for the first time in the series. It actually involved a actual Mighty Duck; albeit third in the pecking order behind Wildwing and Nosedive, and the storyline made total sense outside of a number of stupid logic breaks and silliness. It's no Plunder and Lightning by any means; but it felt like a well written episode and Duke was really good here. Falcone was a vain, full of himself heel, who wasn't completely stupid. Dragonous was actually fine until the finish; but it was needed anyway, so sucks to be him in this case. It's fine for Dragonous to do the same double cross he did on Lucentia in A Traitor Among Us; only Falcone was already a heel to begin with. The only other nitpicks I had was making the place where the sapphire is a fictional country, when it was clearly from England. No one was buying that it was a fictional country. Some bad artwork didn't help; but overall, I came out happy even though it took the entire third act to turn it around and make it into the first thumbs up of the series. Well done Mr. Wise; for once you showed flashes from Risky Beesness in enough measure to make it worthwhile on paper. So that ends The Mighty Ducks: The Animated Series on a high note. Sadly; there was only one thumbs up in the entire series, with the remaining 25 episodes being thumbs in the middle or worse. Total tally: one thumbs up, eight thumbs in the middle and seventeen thumbs down for this series. Quack Pack: two thumbs up, 14 thumbs in the middle, and 23 thumbs down; but they had 39 episodes and six negative star episodes compared to just two for Mighty Ducks. I think on paper; Quack Pack was the better premise simply because most of the crappy episodes (including the negative star episodes) were simply a case of a toxic environment caused by Toby Shelton and company. I also believe that while Toby was an asshole in this case; I also believe that he did care about getting his premise over; and thus wanted to create a great show. Mighty Ducks on the other hand was an idea strictly designed to sell a sport to kids; and that David Wise simply either hated the idea and tried to sabotage the show; or David simply didn't care because his spirit is broken. Both causes killed the show and David Wise really never got a job outside the majors ever again. Toby Shelton at least did get some great work after this; so this points to Toby Shelton thinking that he could do it and was over his head.
Could Mighty Ducks have been an awesome show? Of course. However; it required a lot of retooling and we're talking about a show that was designed to sell a hockey game. First; it's kind of useless to try it when you already have two kids marketed live action movies of the series which have already gotten over with the kids. Second; if you are going to sell hockey to children; you should at least get licenses and blessing from the NHL. Which means that it must be all about hockey; and that the characters are human beings. You don't have to license the NHLPA; you just have to license the teams. You cannot have alien subplots because then you come off as a low rent TMNT or even worse; WILDCats; which is even more recent. You can have plotlines like Duke with Falcone as long as it stays within the "real world" that you are shooting for. You can even use Klegghorn as a foil if it's booked right. Instead; we got Teenage Mutant Hockey Ducks, in 1996! This show aired around the time TMNT was fleeting as a show. The bloom was off the rose. My idea for this would have been a better bet. Or if you are not selling the hockey game to kids and licensing the ducks; have them stay on Puckworld so we can relate to them when they are in this world. Like in TaleSpin in their own alternative universe. You can even keep the gimmick of Puckworld being an iceball that birds live in (irony!) and they play ice sports like lacrosse and ice hockey. Then you can do "The First Faceoff" as your grand finale; making sure you completely retool it; and then guys like Canard, Drake DuCain, Wildwing, Nosedive and the rest would have characterization and then I can care about them when they have to go to Anaheim to play hockey in the real world. Then if you make it to a second season because the ratings are better; then you can do this goofy stuff, because then people understand that it makes sense for what you are doing. It would also help to hire directors, supervisors and good writers who give a damn unlike David Wise just did with this show.
Listen; I wanted to care about the ducks; but outside of this episode, the best babyface of the bunch was Phil Palmfeather; who is by proxy, a scummy lawyer tweener. The best heel was actually Falcone mostly because he did sort of won against Duke, and wanted to turn on Dragonous; but failed anyway. The worst babyface was actually Klegghorn; but that was to be expected. Wraith was the worst main heel (outside of a great comedy moment with Phil in Phil In The Blank); as Chameleon took the best heel prize. Chameleon might be annoying; but he ended up being the most useful character in the series. Wraith was gone half of the time and useless and Siege was fine until Duck Hard when he got buried competely. Dragonous is better than Moltoc from Quack Pack; but only marginally so even though he had a good 75% of the episode appearance that he was in. Worst guest heel was Daddy O-Cool in Monster Truck; as he came off like a black stereotype most of the time. There are a lot more problems than this (TMNT spots in half of the scenes, fourth wall breaking that made no sense etc.); however, the general apathy I had for the characters was what did the most damage. So there you go; the end of the Disney Afternoon era, it ends with Duke stealing his teams' gear for a laugh. Sure; it was funny, but it is also a really sad way to end a series. Now that Disney has since sold the hockey team to someone else; I doubt that we will ever see the show on DVD due to that. I might be wrong and Disney owns the rights and logos of the series; but really. Quack Pack is an easier show to put on DVD than Mighty Ducks is due to licensing issues and general crapiness. Mighty Ducks in the end turned out to be among the bad traits of the 1990's: Trying way too hard to be cool; and not nearly trying enough to create characters that kids can care about along after the show is canceled. So next weekend; it's the end of Dave The Barbarian, and despite it's problems, I think it's the big winner of the better era prize in this regardless. So....
Thumbs up for this episode and I'll see you all next time with the end of the cleaning barbarian of laughs. You know which one. Cheers!