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Long Arm Of The Claw
Reviewed: 02/16/2013
...And The Claw Won.
Well; we have reached the last dirty dozen episodes of this show and it's time to bring back THE CLAW~! Yeah; he's back, he's reformed and Donald doesn't like it one bit. This will be fun; although my fun will be based on how little the nephews are involved. So; let's rant on and find out shall we...?!
This episode is written by Bill Motz and Bob Roth and story editing is done by Gary Sperling. There are no animation studio credits known at this time.
Opening Moment #1: Today's title card features Donald with a golden bell trying to ring it to stop the shadow claw against a red background. So The Claw is now Pablo's Claw?! Okay.
So we begin this episode at Donald's house as the lawn seriously needs to be mowed. So we zoom into the driveway as we discover that the lawn has grown about six feet as Donald drives in with his roofless car and he's pissed. Never send a boy to do a man's job. Or in this case; never send your nephews to do A job. They'll just push the crappy button like they did on Donald here. So we head into the living room as the nephews are watching television and it looks like they have watched for eight hours straight. I've heard of checking your brain at the door; but your body and soul too?! And there is a mess on the floor which looks more believable than Donald's front lawn is now. They are watching a show about a cucumber sucking sand slug whatever as Donald storms in as only he can and steps on the skateboard and we ride in the living room in a figure eight around the television. This is a great spot; but the nephews don't even bother to sell it. Geez; what a shock that is?! So Donald crashes into the pile of garbage bags which has garbage in them which is three times the weight and a zillion times the heat of the nephews as Donald gets buried. One note: the bag have the recycling symbol on them for goodness knows what reason. Donald has a bucket on his right foot as he goes to the television and then goes to the couch and grabs the remote control ready to blow off these nephews good; but the female news reporter (complete with brown hair, red blouse and a blue ribbon like earring) with his male reporter talking about THE CLAW~! Donald drops the remote and it shatters. Ah; I see that he's still getting them from the dollar stores. Oh and the reporter can clearly hear Donald as we get B&W footage of the Claw holding the bars in prison and breaking them. Donald is stammering and panicking at the same time as the Claw has been granted parole and manages to get his body into the yellow taxi at the airport. According to the reporter he's headed to Duckberg as we see in the background; Duckberg's city space is shaped like a rubber duckie. Ernie must have been the city planner as a side job. AHHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Donald squishes his face to the television set as the female and male reporter (who is addressed as Dirk and wears a blue suit) mock Donald just to remove all subtly from this which indicates that they sprung Claw from prison just to get ratings. I mean; the acting of this makes it almost crystal clear that they want Donald to die because it equals ratings. Their faux concern for Donald even more so. Their "we'll be there to cover it" most so. Donald's teeth chatter like crazy. The female reporter is probably Kath Soucie while the male reporter is either Bill Farmer or Michael Laskin. And there are additional voices which were done by Michael Laskin and he started with Norman Nurdelpick's Suspension: A Tribute to Alfred Hitchcock in 1973 as Alferd Hitchcock. He also appeared in Satan's Touch, The Personals, Maxie, Perfect, The Seventh Sign, 21 Jump Street as Mayor Davis, L.A. Law as Judge Mark London, Disclosure and Bounce. He also appeared on Project: ALF and was Junior Gorg in Fraggle Rock. Darkwing Duck is his DTVA debut and only other appearance. In fact they seem to be his only animated appearances. He has 95 credits to his resume. Chicanery as Mel Sobel and Go For Sister as AA Leader are his most recent credits. So Donald looks panicky as he heads outside and notices that a moving van has arrived on the driveway of the right house next to Donald's. Donald hides in the weeds as the truck backs up allowing to see "The Claw" driving it. Which means that it's not The Claw and it's not as a fat man wearing green comes out which is a cute spot. He's addressed as Mr. Mover as we see a grandmother with white hair, blue dress, purple scarf and a ball of purple yarn and knitting needles. She's also wearing white fingerless gloves too. She's voiced by the returning Mary Jo Cattlet who was Cookie Blurf in Ducktales. And yes; you are welcome. Donald breathes a sigh of relief until grandma reveals that it's for her and her son which has shows a glove that looks like THE CLAW~! These two have been watching Inspector Gadget one too many times. So we hear thumping and out of the house comes THE CLAW in...in...
BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Oh boy! BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Yeah; he's looks like one of those old fashion formal children. The green sweater mover is horrified so much that he drives away and all the stuff inside flies out and drops straight down onto the ground. Half of it gets destroyed of course as Donald panics like mad and runs like the roadrunner. BEEP! BEEP! He runs into the house and barricades the front door with as many international objects as possible. Because somehow; the locksmith in these cartoons have crappy craftsmanship. And the fish gets involved of course as Donald pants. We then discover that he also used the couch with the nephews sitting in it. And they sound like smugasses 3 and a half minutes in; a new record for them. And it breaks logic since they were as shocked and concerned about the the Claw getting parole as much as Donald was. So the house is rumbling and it gets uprooted as the Claw is here and he grabs Donald who somehow goes through the international objects. Donald is hung upside down by the Claw as he looks ready to MURDER Donald; but Grandma is ordering him to put Donald down as she taps her foot. Ummm; that is NOT the best use of words madam. Claw apologizes and drops Donald as he claims that he has turned over a new leaf. Well; wearing that ultra cute outfit and having curly hair is certainly turning over something, that I can be sure of. Granny thinks he's completely reformed and I cannot help that she looks like a midget version of Granny from Looney Tunes. Then again Ilana Ruxpin looks the same way too. Oh and his name is Clawford by the way as she wants him to put the house down. Claw obeys and slams the house down with Donald in front of it. Claw leaves as Donald blows him off and then realizes that his foot is squashed into the doorway. We get the most awkward shot of Claw and Granny heading into the house as Donald screams loudly. The background doesn't match with the scene at all. That looked poopy.
So we scene change to the house as the nephews are finally doing the work they were supposed to do as they mow the lawn. Huey is trimming the hedge and cuts the duck's head off blowing off these chores. They complain about wasting their time as children. Well; at least they haven't gone to Godwinning Donald yet. So they hear Claw as they manage to climb up and hide in the tree in the most contrived and forced way I have ever seen. We see Claw tying a rope to a tree as he tries to get the rope across another tree; but the rope is way too short. So we get a long sequence of Claw making the nephews cringe by uprooting the tree and somehow moving the hole closer. Then he plants the tree and ties the rope around it. Now that was great; but even better, he's hanging clothes and enjoying it! HAHA! The nephews cannot believe this is happening. Well; he IS an adult; so enjoying the job comes much easier for them than it does for children. Huey is stunned and then he has a Krackpotkin plan because these nephews are not hard workers at all. So Claw skips to his lou as he pets the flowers on the front of the house and Louie ruins the moment by yelling as the flower petals rip off. Louie is calling for a good citizen to help him start the lawnmower despite the fact that the lawnmower was working fine earlier. Louie's acting sucks too as Claw buys it hook, line and sinker as he jumps in and causes a hole in the ground which uproots a tree and destroys a wooden fence. Huey pops up from the fence tomb (as despite the fact that they are in suburbia the background thinks they are near a mountain range. Huey wants him to fix the fence which is fair since it was Claw who destroyed it despite the fact that it was Louie's lying that started it. Claw apologizes as the nephews give him all the fixing tools that Claw can carry and Claw simply smiles with Mr. T tiled teeth. So we scene change to the front of the house as Daisy has arrived ringing the doorbell. She taps her foot and she doesn't look amused.
She opens the door and goes inside calling for Donald since work is involved. We discover that Donald is hiding behind and inside the bag of golf clubs. Donald is hiding from THE CLAW~! Daisy no sells that and thinks Donald is afraid of him. Donald then lies about not being afraid of him which is so downright laughable since he's inside a caddie's golf club bag. He's totally brave yes sire! Daisy notices that the house is perfectly clean and wonders about his nephews doing their chores. Donald then is shocked and then he gets that evil look. As in: "I am so not buying this crap" look. So he goes into the backyard as we see the nephews relaxing in their lawn chairs with shades and comic books. Donald asks about the chores and the nephews push the shades down in that look that annoys me to no end and in a moment of really contrived acting (as in not convincing) that they love doing chores. And Claw thankfully proves what lying bastards the nephews are by painting the back garage with pink paint and a tree he uses as a brush. HAHA! Donald hides behind Daisy on cue who somehow has teleported to the front door despite being at the back. Claw makes Donald do strange logic breaking stuff and then Claw bursts into tears. I don't blame him; no one is going to like him for finally breaking a rigid gender role that was so toxic that he went to prison. And sadly; Donald is not helping the situation at all. He runs to the fence and cries pointing out that Donald doesn't trust Claw at all as he blows his nose with the hanky. Daisy blows him off for hurting his feelings as Claw is sucking his thumb while Daisy is consoling him. Okay; that was great as Daisy is offering Claw a real job to work for What In The World. Oh; this will be fun. Donald runs in as Daisy shakes Claw's hand and Donald hopes that she is kidding him. She's not Donald, she's not. The nephews protest because he works for them. Oh sod off you degenerate versions of Ducktales! No one cares about you parasites anyway. Daisy offers Claw to be Donald's assistant. HAHA! Donald panics like crazy...
...and WE HIT THE DREAM SEQUENCE~! We head to a cliff with a long northern pan shot as Donald sets the tripod with the camera and asks Claw for the cable. Claw goes to the RV and hops in and then returns ripping off the suit to his gear from Ready! Aim! Duck! He claims that he fooled everyone and goes over to Donald and slams the wooden cable wrapper around Donald's body and then proclaims that he'll mash Donald and it's no more Mr. Nice Claw! Then he uses Donald as a yo-yo. Too funny as we return to reality (no, not really) and if Donald doesn't become a yo-yo by the end of this episode; then these writers have lost their minds. Kind of like Daisy is now that I think about it. Daisy asks Donald to come as Donald backs up behind a tree and does some contrived acting of his own to show how to sound somewhat convincing as he comes out selling a broken leg injury. Daisy should notice this because this is exactly what Donald did in "The Late Donald Duck" only with more amusing injuries. And this one is more fake than that one ever was. Daisy no sells; but decides to leave with Claw to cover the goldmine story as the nephews' eyes light up and they run into the house following her. What a shock?! We then cut to Donald looking out the window as the RV drives away. Donald breathes a sigh of relief and then notices a bronze claw and runs up to the ceiling light after Rebecca saw fishing worms in A Spy In The Ointment. It's only Granny as we discover that she has a VHS tape. We see her put the tape in the VCR and she tells us that this is footage from Claw's rehabilitation. Donald doesn't want to come down; but Granny grabs him by the ankle and flings him onto the loveseat which is light blue today. So we see some footage of Claw as a baby with a prison like crib which he breaks out. And we complain about Fanboy & Chum Chum's lack of subtly?! Okay; that is a bad example. Spongebob Squarepants. That's better! So we get Claw in little league destroying a glove with his claw hand.
Now that I really think about it; how did Claw get that hand? He must have done something stupid to get his hand amputated to get that hand; and apparently it's the same thing Granny has too. Also; I would love to hear the story of how Claw got parole. However; that one at least I have a theory: The reporters convinced a judge that Donald is to blame since he lied to the cops in Ready! Aim! Duck!; and they lied that it was in the best interests of Claw when they wanted ratings. So Donald yawns and tries to leave; but Granny grabs him and thrusts him down on the love seat.
Narrator: Two hours later...
Donald is almost getting sleepy as Granny talks about Claw returning to prison again as we see color footage of Claw strapped to a table and he looks like the opening to Robot Chicken in many ways. See; they are trying a new experimental therapy on Claw which forces him to be happy. It involves hypnosis with a golden pocket watch as they drop the ANVIL OF NEIDHART on his head in a sick bump. They try forcing dynamite in his mouth and lighting the fuse as the thing explodes. He also tickles him and Claw is no selling all; including the clown sprayer of laughs. Did I mention that the doctor has a golden tooth in his mouth? Granny then points out the one tiny flaw in this therapy as Claw wakes up and seems happy. Then he notices the doctor's golden tooth and he breaks free and kills everyone off screen with the FCC FRIENDLY FIGHT OF DEATH. Donald wakes up on the gold part and swears in DUBBED ANIME STYLE like Bea from Fish Hooks. Donald is shocked and appalled as we head to the sky shot of a gold mine in the desert (for the third straight rant; we are in the desert. Lovely!) as we see various humans in mining gear shoving mine carts filled with gold. We pan west as the RV arrives and we cut to inside the cockpit with Daisy driving and Claw in the passenger side looking his sweet self. A mining human comes in and HOLY CRAP! It's Shorty Hallow of all people! Now if Juan F. Lara's take that IOU A UFO aired third is true; then this is a huge gaping logic break. Otherwise (IOU is #28, LAOTC is #20 on the order paper so sezs Wikipedia); it's merely lazy character designs; only more obvious than in Rescue Rangers. Shorty proclaims that there is gold in those hills (he seems to be voiced by Bill Farmer) and Claw gets the CHILD CORRUPTING BALLOON OF DEATH and sees that doctor with the golden tooth in it. If this was Saban; it would not be blaming the gold, nor the flaws of Claw's treatment; they would blame the image of the doctor in the children balloon spot for corrupting him see. Claw looks evil and that ends the segment 11 minutes in. A pretty good episode thus far...
After the commercial break we see the nephews are Daisy's grips for this job (Louie gets the microphone grip, Dewey gets the zombie look tape recorder grip and Huey needs to get a grip; but has rope to hang himself instead. Seriously; Louie and Dewey look so wide-eyed; you think they are Freddy Joe Floyd and Bradstreet. Daisy tells the nephews to set up the equipment while she exits stage left to find someone to interview. 2:1 odds say it's Shorty Hallow. The nephews wait until she's gone and then they bail and return with mining helmets, pick axes and shovels. Because this is 1996; not 1987 and subtly is for old farts! So we see Claw carrying stuff from the RV which may or may not be bigger than his own body weight as the nephews call him over. Claw dumps the stuff and tells them that he refuses to come along because he works for Daisy and he's a good citizen. Good for him; except that he already got evil at the end of the first act. It doesn't make any sense for him to turn around since they already started the heel turn. And Claw didn't sound contrived nor forced to indicate such a thing. While I complain about contrived spots a lot; there is a place for them and this was evidence #1. So the nephews stammer like idiots and then bail stage right as their mining equipment floats in mid-air. They go behind the RV and you can see the smugness oozing out of them as Dewey mocks Claw for being a good citizen and naive. This absolutely munches so many mouths! Just complete jackasses; the three of you. Something tells me Toby was watching Ducktales 1989 on purpose just to screw with everyone's mind. And yes; they did the Mission Impossible promo which sucks. So we head back to a street in quiet suburbia as there is a traffic lineup because Granny drives slightly faster than Ron Stoppable old scooter, YIP! YIP! HAHA! That gag never gets old. Donald is not amused as Granny explains that there is one thing that will stop his murderous rampage which is a white bell. So he is now known as Pablo Clawford. Now that is a neat booking name and I'm sadden that they never used that.
Donald grabs the bell and wants Granny to go faster; so Granny guns it good and we rocket so fast that she burns the cars in the back to ashes. HAHA! They rocket drive out of town (Sign: Buckle Up in red letters) over the bridge as we return back to the desert as we see Claw setting up the grip equipment as Shorty shows up and tips his hat to show a golden nugget on top. This is not amusing guys! I cannot believe that they are booking this just to take the heat off the nephews. So Claw destroys everything and smashes everything while we cut back to the nephews who don't suspect a thing as they blow off Claw as useless as Claw comes up from behind the RV and lifts the RV. The nephews think he doesn't care about money which is stupid because he didn't care about money when he was a CRIMINAL. So Claw is about to kill the nephews (which I'm totally fine with) and we see an out of nowhere camp cook at the stew pot on a fire ringing the triangle like a bell and Claw stops and magically reverts back to his formal gear uniform and puts the RV down; but it doesn't murder the nephews, sadly. Claw then walks stage left and throws purple flowers which I don't why; but it was funny. So he notices the destruction of the equipment as we now get one of those annoying sequences where Claw goes into ABYSS MODE when he sees Shorty again with gold; and then back to JOSEPH PARK ESQUIRE MODE with the pizza delivery boy. All of this comes out of nowhere and it goes the same place. I get that you need to tease the heel turn; but we already know what triggers it and there little or no subtly in this. Seeing Claw dressed like a hippie is cute; but there's no heat in this thing. Oh and the ballerina spot gets involved of course thus reducing Claw to Comet Dumb Guy status. Not the best way to get heel heat. Oh and let's throw subtly completely the window while we are at it as the miners simply bury Claw in a gold tomb. Claw pops out and jumps high onto a mountain top and is about to bring hellfire and brimstone...
...but the out of nowhere church rings the bells and Claw is back to normal. And sadly; no crosses are in evidence. I guess that church got steeple-jacked; literally. So Claw walks and the only reason for this whole tease was to fall down and do about four bumps in shadow onto the ground. Whatever. So we return to the RV as the nephews exchange notes on Claw. Dewey makes faces. I make the UGH face in return. So they make a kitten reference and Huey's Krackpotkin plan is to involve catnip. Even in 1996; the nephews are getting over protected. So we cut back to Claw fixing the equipment with super glue. HAHA! So Louie and Dewey come in and the contrived acting is on again as Louie proclaims that Claw is right about waiting for Daisy. So Huey is behind the CACTUS JACK OF DOOM meowing which is more convincing then any of their acting which is enough for Claw to buy it and he and the nephews run into the mine after the imagined kitty cat. Now this is actually apporos because the trigger has a cause and effect. The nephews greed is leading them to slaughter for instance. The problem is that the writers have blown their load on Claw doing the heel turn and babyface turn multiple times; and that turns him into nothing but a crappy tweener who has no heat. Again; there are better ways to pad the running time than this crap. How about more Donald/Granny? That is funnier than this anyway. Huey of course talks about Claw being a good citizen before running into the mine right in front of Daisy and Shorty. I win $2 from myself. So we head inside the mine as Claw wonders around with the nephews walking behind him. Dewey grabs Huey and asks him about Claw digging the gold because the nephews are even worse than Baloo when it comes to doing a job themselves. So we get more Huey meowing and it just occurred to me that Cat & Louise aired AFTER this and thus Huey meowing seems to contradict his fear of cats. Oh well; Quack Pack made less sense than the shows that makes no sense. So Claw buys it and he starts punching and clawing right through the wall and making decent progress. He really is naive and I liked him better when he was in ABYSS MODE~!
So we head outside as Daisy is interviewing a blind old miner with white hair and a busted shoe which has to be against regulations even in 1996! He's also wearing green overalls and a cowboy hat. He takes off the shoe and shoves the stinky foot right into Daisy's face. And the foot looks straight out of Ren & Stimpy. Wow; just wow. Mr. Mufflin stole that spot from this show. That's uber horrifying as the foot is sweating. Then Grannny's car drives in as Donald hops out looking very panicky as he asks where Claw is and Daisy points to the mine looking confused. Donald runs into the mine as we get more meowing inside from Huey and Claw punches and claws through the wall as the long sequence ends with sparkling GOLD~! The nephews slap skin as the gold shines and there is so much gold that Claw goes into HELL ABYSS MODE complete with ultra roided muscles; like he went to Larson & Gary and got a million does of the stuff. Now that is some big ass water sacks in those shoulders pal! The nephews back up and the lighting is awesome in this as Donald runs in saying that he has something to tell them; and the nephews tell him that he's a little late. I disagree with them. Donald is still too early because the nephews have not been mashed into squished peas. Donald turns around and the Claw growls to end the segment 16 minutes in. Brutal first half partially saved by a really good build up in the second half. Although I could do without the stinky foot spot shoved in Daisy's face; that was really sexist in my view.
After the commercial break; we see the nephews hide behind a rock as Donald has to stand his ground against the Claw. Donald waves hello as Claw wants to smash ducks. Well go ahead; it's not like this show and Mighty Ducks didn't smash their creditability on their own. We get the closeup of Donald's pupil as Granny speaks that one thing will calm him and that's the bell. So Donald brings out the bell and rings it which forces Claw into JOSEPH PARK ESQUIRE MODE~! Yeah; they did the finish less than 17 minutes into this thing. Why? Because Donald has to explain how he calmed him down and has a gold brick which comes OUT OF NOWHERE. DAMMIT! Well; there goes any hope for a second thumbs up episode. Why do this? Because the writers have Cartoon Duck Syndrome again since Donald is now taunting Claw with the soften gold bar. We play ABYSS/JP MODE and then we make funny faces and whack Claw with the SLEDGEHAMMER OF PLOT off-screen. The nephews are stunned. Yeap; the writers are pushing the crappy button before they do. That's Ducks of Nature horrifying. WARNING: THIS EPISODE IS GOING DOWN FASTER THAN MY SEX LIFE! So we flash golden teeth, juggle with gold on a unicycle and the CUCKOO CLOCK OF DOOM gets involved. Oh lord; help me, my Donald Duck has gone banana! And yes; CLAW changes about 12 times between ABYSS/JP MODE and Donald tumbles onto his back laughing his ass. He then brings out the bell and it shatters. This is so dumb that even Donald finally snaps out of it. Did Richard Stanley somehow switch scripts on Gary at the last moment? So Donald wiggles the bell; no go. He gathers the pieces to reassemble the bell; no dice. We back away and instead of running out of the mine where there are bells outside to stop this stupidity; we have Donald and the nephews bail stage left into a mine cart which conveniently has oars. IDIOTS!!
Claw follows with a ceiling stone spike and we row mine carts deeper into the mine. We bounce around for a long ass whomping time until Claw finally gets into position and uses the belly to bounce the "babyfaces" out of the mine cart and onto the ground. And no; you missed nothing during that mining sequence. At least the animation closeup spots didn't look like cardboard this time. So the nephews are screwed as Donald tries to bail stage left and motions to the boys; but somehow trips and crashes off-screen. Claw stalks the boys and is ready to murder them as Donald has a bucket on his head and he walks blind into more ceiling stone spikes which make bell sounds somehow and Claw goes back into JOSEPH PARK ESQUIRE MODE~! Donald bounces off more spikes as Claw calls himself a good citizen. Donald and the nephews walk over as Claw teases another heel turn looking at the nephews because he forgot something. Everyone gulps and then Claw skips away because he needs to save a helpless kitten. Donald realizes this and invokes eye contact violence on the nephews as the nephews have that "I'm busted" look on their faces. So we get more rumbling and the cave completely caves in; in another long sequence as the entrance is blocked. Daisy panics for Donald and the nephews; Granny panics for Pablo Clawford. So we head inside as Louie points to the exit which is useless because it's already blocked. Dewey and Huey point out that the Claw is stage left. So the nephews have one of those moments that is way too late for them as they run back to The Claw who is looking for the cat. The nephews grab onto him trying to point out that the exit is to the right; but Claw no sells. So the nephews finally admit that there is no real cat and they made it up. Donald hears this and looks pissed off. Claw then teases going into ABYSS MODE because they lied to him; but he grabs them and hugs them for telling the truth. Poor deluded soul.
So Claw bounces around punching a wall which sadly makes him somehow teleport to the blocked cave entrance because we get a lot of rumbling and that causes the rocks of the cave to be blown away. Everyone comes out punch drunk much to the horror of Daisy and Granny. If it's for the obvious teleport logic break; I don't blame them. That sucked! So we head back to Duckberg as we see the mayor of Duckberg (a human with the porno mustache and fat belly; he looks like a fat version of George Jettson's boss.) praise Claw on stage as the Claw is standing on stage with the nephews, Daisy, Granny and Donald to a packed crowd. So the mayor then presents Claw with the gold medal of bravery for saving the Duck Family which is a golden cross. The ducks all panic as Claw sees the gold and he goes into ABYSS CRAZY HAIR MODE~! Donald runs off stage and runs away as Claw chases him and we circle fade out to end the episode at 20:55 aired. That was a good ending and the only one I could accept actually. The first 11 minutes were great; along with the second half of the second act when the nephews' plan backfires on them; but the rest of it was just brutal Cartoon Duck Syndrome. Killing the subtly of this episode was the main problem here as by the time the Claw turned heel for real; he had no heat because the writers kept teasing the heel turn in more contrived and forced ways. And once Donald rang the bell the first time; the CDS was in full effect as Donald went into Goofy Mode which he sucks at causing a mine sequence that went nowhere and the actual finish ended with a gaping logic break. Not to mention the reuse of Shorty. Call this ** 1/4 (45%). I'm not in a giving mood after this crap went down since they had a ****+ episode and they blew it big time. What a way to bury The Claw after all the entertaining stuff in Ready! Aim! Duck?! And they snipped another seven seconds so I'm guessing that it was for guns since the TNT lighting spot was kept.
THE REVIEW LINE
Wow; what a plummet for this episode?! I mean despite the nephews efforts to crap up the episode; the first act was pretty well written and build up nicely. Granny was great (loved the slow car spot and the videos; those were good), Donald was good, Daisy was there and the Claw was awesome. Yeah; I know he broke logic from the very start; but I'm not counting that one because we aren't suppose to know the trigger until Granny tells us anyway. Now there was the problem with the lazy reuse of Shorty Hallow as a cameo but that pales in comparison to the start of the second act as the writers proceed to piss away all the good build up to this show with contrived and forced teases of heel turns with the bell turning him face. Look; I have no problem with teasing the heel turn (something that should have happened in Just A Tad Smarter; but didn't); but the way the writers did it was so in your face that it was like they were daring Claw to turn heel. Evidence #1: They throw gold at him and buried him in gold. How can it not be contrived and forced?! This killed all the heat this angle had. If you want to tease heel turns; have them wear necklaces, and other stuff that makes it not look so obvious; and throw out the stupid gold burial spot. Now the second half of the second act was much better as the nephews' plan of greed backfires in their faces like it should have; but by that time, there was no heat and I didn't care because the writers blew their load on gags that didn't catch. So then we got the third act and once Donald rang the bell; this episode was in the crapper. The Cartoon Duck Syndrome of Darkwing Duck reared it's ugly head yet again as Donald mocked Claw turning into Goofy; leading to the nonsense climax, a finish that would have been fine if Claw was walking over and punching the blocked entrance instead of a wall; and an ending that was fine, but it was too late to salvage it. The Claw has been buried for good and this time the fault is on the writers and not the nephews this time. Overall; this episode had a great first half and then dove down a bit; went up a bit and then went 90 degrees straight down before flattening out at the ending. Like I said; what a plummet?! I like Claw/Donald and it looked great until the writers started acting like morons hoping kids would still laugh at it. They didn't; otherwise; this show would have lasted 65 episodes instead of 39. So next up is Cannot Take A Yolk and I'm not liking this one now. So........
Thumbs down for this episode and I'll see you next time.