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 webpage 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's. 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.
The Last Leprechaun
Reviewed: 09/17/2008
Uncle Scrooge must be rolling his grave right now!
I have been dreading this one like Double Darkwings on a stick so to speak. Let's get this one over with shall we...?!
This episode is written by David Wise. The story was edited by Bryce Malek and supervised by Tad Stones. David Wise is well known for writing the original He-Man series, Transformers, Jem, Batman The Animated Series and was the producer of the television movie Beastmaster III. He also appeared on the game show I've Got A Secret as a contestant. The animation was done by Wang Films/Cuckoo's Nest Studios which is only the fourth episode not done by WD-Japan.
We begin this one in the sky with the moving clouds in which is really fog as the Ranger plane (or is that the Ranger Wing? MAKE UP YOUR MIND GUYS AND GALS!) flies through it. Normally; this would be a stupid idea; but with Gadget flying I chalk it up to Gadget being a sadist once again. There is no where to land because the fog won't let them see land see. Monty then reveals why they are in England; to find his mystery haunts. So once again; we have a Monty focused episode which really grates my nerves now. And Dale is scared of haunted places of course which is fine but since he's no longer the focus; the episode is going to suck. And of course the fog wrecks so much havoc that the Ranger Plane (as named in this episode) crashes into the tree (twice in fact on two different camera shots. Nice visual confusion there Wang) and the Rangers bump out of the plane. Boy; the Rangers are drunk today since they didn't wear their seatbelts on that one. At least it made sense because if they pulled a DIC Sailor Moon on us; we would be in big trouble. Dale hangs on to the tree as they do the rodent ladder spot; but the branch snaps right on cue; and it was only a short trip as they fall onto the ground with a pretty good bump. Take one guess which Ranger isn't hurt. Hint: It's NOT the obvious one. Dale calls that a short trip which is silly since if they were two feet taller then the spot would have made sense. The Rangers recover and they walk away stage right to find some cloth and wood to repair the Ranger Plane. Well; all but Dale who is goofing off again calling for someone inside the hole of a large tree.
We get the echo of doom spot which has been done to death; but with Dale around this wouldn't be too crappy so to speak. Of course the voice screws up the repeat spot and Dale is SHOCKED for that to occur. We then cut to Monty and the gang walking and Monty finds a shamrock which indicates that they are in Ireland. And then we see a horse wearing a blue bonnet galloping slowly towards them; blowing them off for being in her way. Just what this episode needs: A female version of Ed The Talking Horse. She's got the Irish stereotype accent which indicates which episode the Dragon Quest IV DS translators were watching to get pointers from. The horse is trying to get away (along with her animal friends) because witchcraft is in the air and Dale gets spooked big time. She heard a crash in the trees and Dale gets even more spooked. I betcha Chip bonks him on the head after that one. I check the DVD...Damn; I'm good. The female horse calls it the banshee; Chip calls it them crashing into a tree. Until I have proper evidence; Chip wins this battle of logic here as the female horse gallops away stage left with a warning to watch out for the little people. Because they are known to hold talent down; right Poppa Bear?! I'm beginning to see Dan Dawson's quote on Baloo a lot differently now and for Kit Cloudkicker; it isn't in a good way. Monty of course proclaims that it is really leprechauns.
Dale thinks Monty's story is BS as he jumps over the log and gets his tail pulled by the stray branch. See; make the joke and then pay it off. This is the third straight episode where Dale is making an effort not to let this episode suck. Monty does the old stereotype of catching a leprechaun and winning a pot of gold. And he doesn't mean a box of chocolates; although that's really bad news for Dale if you catch my drift. Dale still likes the prospect of winning gold as we get the scene changer as we go deeper into the forest and head to the ground where a stereotypical leprechaun is pushing a pot of go....I mean...that MONEY, MONEY, YEAH, YEAH into a hallow tree stump. Yeah; that's a good hiding spot, snicker, snicker. This guy is the worst leprechaun in the whole wide world since he wants to share the pot of that MONEY, MONEY, YEAH, YEAH. Tycoon needs to sit this guy down and tell him the story of his money tree and how it got destroyed when he tried to share it with the GANG OF WUZ. He jumps down and does the dog digging spot to get the stray coins into the tree stump (nice CONTINUITY there Wang) and then hears some sawing noises. He drops his gold coin down next to somewhere which I'm sure will become a factor in the finish later on and walks stage right as we logically see Gadget and company pulling off bark for the wings of the Ranger Plane. So why did she say “Cloth” earlier?! Logic break #1 for the episode. You would THINK that the writers would have gone over the script again to pick up the obvious mistake; but since they confuse Ranger Plane and Ranger Wing a lot; I guess this is to be expected.
Zipper and Monty are sawing a stick with the steak knife as Monty blows off Dale for loafing off again. Nice to see Monty actually LEARNING something from a previous episode even though working isn't a big problem with him. Dale is looking under rocks and trees because he wants that MONEY, MONEY, YEAH, YEAH. The leprechaun hides behind the trees and swears in DUBBED ANIME STYLE (Saints be praised which is funny since Saint is usually something Nintendo used to edit out during their NES days.) as Chip and Monty blow off Dale because there is no such thing as a leprechaun. Thank you for playing Dale like a fool there you heartless fiends! Monty and Chip laugh it up stage right as Dale sulks. And then the leprechauns uses the POWER OF LEZARD (Warp without the pentagrams of course since pentagrams are a no-no on DTVA) to show up to mock Dale. Dale turns around and sees him and feels giddy. Dale tries to grab him but the power of luck warps him away from Dale's greedy grasp. Dale tries to grab the tree; but misses and the leprechaun grabs him and rides horsey. Memo to leprechaun: Molly Cunningham just called and she's better at that spot than you. The leprechaun then spins Dales and throws him into the air before warping out and Dale lands on his belly on the ground. Funny how wussy that one was compared to Baloo's version in Polly where Baloo literally landed on his head. The leprechaun laughs beside the bushes and proclaims that he'll never be lonely again. He can only be so lucky. Me; I can only be so unlucky huh?!
Dale of course breaks all logic and reason by magically sneaking up from behind and grabbing him. Logic break #2 for the episode and a really bad one at that...Dale runs with leprechaun in tow as he proclaims to the working Rangers that he caught a leprechaun. Chip tells them to ignore him; but they turn around and see that Dale has captured Darby Spree who is the king of the leprechauns. I would trust that as much as I can throw Rosanne Barr as Dale wants that pot of gold now. Darby states he will in good time which should indicate that he's lying and even Monty is catching on to his sneakiness. Darby blows him off of course because he wants Dale to see the grand hall of the leprechauns. Yeap; he is stalling for time and since Dale is the dumbest of the Rangers and it's clear that he's the focus character in this one; he'll sell it all hook, line and sinker. Dale grabs him by the arm and runs off stage left as Chip admits that he was wrong after all. Time to fix that deduction compass you use Chip; I see that it's broken..
So we get another scene changer of doom which leads to inside the foggy forest (only deeper) as we see Darby and the Rangers walk towards a jagged rock which Darby declares is his home for the grand hall of the leprechauns. Dale asks how they are going to get in and Darby blows him off and uses the SPELL OF SATAN IRISH to push the jagged rock aside which exposes a large hole. Yeah; like I'm buying any of this since they could have easily pushed the rock away. Darby hops in and then uses the magic golden ring to tie the Rangers up and make them fit into the hole in one fell swoop. That was kind of pointless since they could have gone in one at a time. I'm not impressed with this Darby character at all. We then get the pitch black scene (which shows that Mr. Hardcore is full of himself more so than Drake Mallard on acid) and uses the lamp of doom to reveal his secret cave of goodies. And we get a crown which contains a golden Christian Cross on the pan shot which 4Kids would have edited out in anime. Darby hops onto a rock as Dale is growing more impatient by the second because he wants that MONEY, MONEY, YEAH, YEAH. Darby tells him to keep his shirt on (and drops a few more Irish names) which is pretty pointless since we have seen Dale naked on the classic shorts. So he uses his magic to bring out the instruments which are clearly bigger then the rodents body weight by a long shot.
Thankfully; they don't know how to play and Darby doesn't mind because his magic makes them play on them own as we get an Irish music jig. Which one; I don't know and I don't care. Darby dances to the jig and Dale tries to join him; but Chip bonks him on the head. What a spoil sport this Chip fellow is since that tune was pretty impressive in a really dull episode thus far. The instruments play as we get a light shot of the exiting tree stump and then outside as we pan to the right and see the SHADOW OF THE BANSHEE~! Oh great; now that officially turns Darby Spree babyface. I HATE it when that happens seriously. The Banshee of Doom floats stage left looking for something which sounds like that MONEY, MONEY, YEAH, YEAH to me. She blows away the hallow tree stump (after finding the stray gold coin which is pointless since the light of the tree stump gave away the pot of gold in advance.) and grabs the pot of gold. We return to Darby's place as he continues to dance the jig as we see Chip climb down for no reason saying that he looked around and saw no one but Darby and themselves. So; Chip asks where they are and all the musical instruments fall down as he admits that he's all alone and brought the Rangers over for special company since he hasn't had some for hundreds of years. Yeah; he's officially babyface now which means this episode is going to suck badly. Dale just wants his gold which makes him the best character in the episode by default. Which is fine since Dale has really put on an effort the last three episodes or so.
Sadly; Darby turns into a sad heel (which is even worse) because the Rangers can never leave once they enter the lair of the little folk. The Rangers try to leave; but the door slams on them magically of course and now Dale is mad at Darby. Darby isn't trying to be a heel even though he's simply acting like one and it's more music playing and dancing to ignore Dale pleads. Dale then blames the whole thing on Monty even though it was Dale who was dumb enough to believe him. Monty takes a seat on the Blarney Stone so to speak as Darby's instruments stop playing again. Darby's magic goes haywire and we know this because Darby's fingers are twitching. Darby flies up into the hole exit because his pot of gold is in danger. Yeah; he's REALLY STUPID now. Chip finds the needle and sees the only way out which was the only way out to begin with. Darby is SO STUPID as Gadget gets the black thread just to show how dumb Darby really is as we cut over to the tree stump which Darby realizes that Druella O'Midas the devil woman stole his pot of gold. So now Darby is sexist to boot?! This episode just gets uglier and uglier by the second. Saint it isn't as Darby then blames the Rescue Rangers for screwing with him which is actually the first time he made remote sense in this episode. I mean; Dale wants the pot of gold; so he sent Druella to steal it for him according to Darby's logic.
So we head back to the saintly cave as Zipper grabs the needle threaded with black thread and salutes Chip. He flies up and places the needle onto the hole. The Rangers attempt to climb up; but the saintly beam cuts the thread and the Rangers free fall and takes some wussy bumps right in front of Darby. Even Darby's magic can make Rangers do wussy bumps; who knew. Darby of course accuses them of being in league with Druella (isn't that a bad pun on a much more over heel Cruella Deville?!) and even his POINTY FINGER OF DEATH sucks like crap. The Rangers try to reason with him; but Darby is so deluded that they cannot even get two words in before he continues on his rant. He then invokes the squeezing ring and it engulfs the Rangers as he torments them until they confess to their wicked crimes. That is really dumb Darby. Why not tickle them because anyone who has seen; oh...two episodes of DTVA knows that everyone gives up two minutes afterward and never lasts past that. The Rangers get the SQUEEZE PLAY OF DOOM (which Bushroot would then recycle for the terrible episode: Easy Comes, Easy Grows; and this episode is actually slightly better than that one at this point.) as the segment ends nine minutes in exactly.
After the commercial break; Darby continues his dumb squeeze play on the Rangers as Chip just blows him off because he has no idea what he is talking about. Darby proclaims that no one escapes his magic; so the squeezing ring simply dies on him which is the third real funny spot of the episode. Darby is SHOCKED and WHINING that his magic is gone. The Rangers go to the magical door; which isn't sealed at all as Chip bumps it and it opens easily. The Rangers run away as Chip blows off Darby for flying off the handle for no reason. Darby uses his magical ears and realizes that they didn't help Druella steal her gold and then runs after them outside which Wang Films badly animates which is the first sequence blown in this episode. We then head to the top shot of the forest as the fog has lifted for some strange reason. We then see Druella flying through the forest and then lands inside her castle and then we find out that she is a human witch with white hair. You wish you were like Cruella Ms. O'Midas. You need to make fur coats out of the chipmunks if you wish to get her type of heel heat. Druella puts the pot of gold onto the table as she proclaims victory for stealing Dale's pot of gold (since it was Dale who caught the leprechaun in the first place). She then hears a bell ring and goes to the gold wall and pushes a yellow button to open the panel to reveal some golden scales and about eight pounds of gold which she weighs. She is mad because the rodents aren't working hard enough which should give away what happened to the leprechauns well in advance. So we cut back into the forest as the Rangers run towards the Ranger Plane thinking that Darby is gone; but Darby catches up to them easily. He really butters them up because he's sorry that he thought of them as thieves and Dale deserves the pot of gold anyway see.
Dale no sells (Huh?) and the Rangers walk away; so Darby uses the MAGIC OF SATAN to create a brick wall; which the Rangers go through easily because his magic sucks without his pot of gold see. Dale gives him a well deserved raspberry on the rebound. Darby then grabs onto Dale and they wrestle to the floor with Darby on bottom just to get Dale to buy into his plan. Darby has no sense of shame or apology here because the later would have actually...you know...convinced Dale to HELP HIM. The Rangers no sell; so Darby pleads some more as he admits that he tricked them. Oh TAG Darby; just say that Druella stole his gold and that you're sorry that you accused THEM of HELPING HER. It's NOT that hard Darby. And finally the trick is enough to make Dale sell as he grabs Darby and exits stage right much to the groaning of Chip. I don't know who's more dumb in this episode: Dale for selling that spot, Darby for thinking that it would work, Chip for thinking that it didn't, or David Wise who thinks the audience is buying into this episode?! So we head to the castle as Darby and the Ranger make it to the castle walls. Chip swears in DUBBED ANIME STYLE (heck) wondering why they are here. Darby answers that one for me as he wants his gold back and Dale is more than happy to do so as he runs into the hole inside the castle much to the protestations of Chip and the Rangers all run in ignoring the warnings of Darby who proclaims Druella is a crafty one. Yeah; sure Darby. If this wasn't Eisner's world then he would be right.
So we head inside the castle as it looks like a pretty clean and uninspired design; but it's inoffensive so I'll let it slide. I've seen worse things in this episode than the castle design. And there is a gold sparkle which probably gives away where the gold is in advance as we pan over to the small hole on the left side of the room (which is just over a really nicely drawn painting of a female woman (she's dressed fully; so there's nothing to see you sick freaks!) as Dale runs onto the carpet (over a shiny floor which is pretty impressive) and is in awe because the place is filled with gold. I guess the gold plated trim gave that away as Dale sees the pot of that MONEY, MONEY, YEAH, YEAH on the table as Darby magically appears to point out the obvious. Since he is magical; his logical context to do that makes sense. Dale climbs up the table like he has Gold Fever on the head again and tries to pull the pot of gold away; but no dice. Yeah; like a ¼ pound chipmunk is going to life 20 pounds of gold. He'll need to ask Zipper where Larson and Gary are to get the roid rage needed to pull that iron pot. The other Rangers and Darby get onto the table and Chip blows him off right on cue. Memo to Chip: Dale isn't a jerk; he's merely being dumb. Dale blows him off in kind; but Druella spots them right away and invokes the SHADOW OF THE BASHEE~! Which is a whirlwind spot which makes her look like a cross between a dragon and a bat. Okay; that looks really ugly but the white hair and golden rings ruin the effect somewhat.
She flies into the air and does the Dead Scream which causes our heroes to bail and it destroys the table in the process. Sadly; it sucks since no eardrums were pierced while that spot took place. She wishes she was Miss Cunningham. Magically; the pot of gold takes a wussy bump on the floor which is fitting since the gold stays in one place easily. The Rangers hide behind the pot of gold as Chip asks for notes and Darby proclaims that she is the Queen of the Banshees and her scream will tear you to pieces. Yeah; right Darby. The scream hit perfectly and I didn't even come close to see the Rangers turned into hamburger; so I think you should rethink that line a bit since BS&P is around. Druella invokes the scream (helpfully shown with neon lime green circles I should note) and the pot of gold is pushed aside; but it doesn't break. What a lame attack that is if it cannot go through metal at all. Darby is such a lying little person. No wonder Dan Dawson was so awesome as a heel. The Rangers bail as Druella proclaims that Darby isn't getting away that easily. Well; I actually agree with her since Darby is such a crappy character overall. Darby hides behind a curtain as Druella wants Darby Spree now because he's the last of the leprechauns which the writers try to tease that she killed his kind; but the gold weighing spot negates the suspense completely.
Sadly; Darby's black boot show up easily so Druella invokes the scream and it tears the curtain apart; forcing Darby to bail. Nice animation from Wang on that destruction sequence by the way. Darby hides behind the iron table as Druella admits that she captured his kind one by one which shows that they have been enslaved and thus I call it about three minutes ago. Darby call her the ugliest. I love real comments that aren't supposed to be real comments; although the Soul Stealer from Romancing Saga 2 might have something to say about that. Darby wags the finger and Druella is SHOCKED and APPALLED by the accusation. So much so that she coughs and does the golden spray of alum to further annoy me and waste more time. So we pan down in front of a stone pillar with a close eye profile of a stone woman statue as Chip and Dale gather their bearings. Dale sees this as an opening to get the pot of gold and tries to run towards it; but Chip stops him because his neck is more important. Oh yeah; let's just make the episode even more unfunny than it always is since you won't LET Gadget carry an episode Chip. Druella uses the scream to destroy the statue of course and the Rangers bail quickly. But the stone pillar doesn't crack which shows just how lame that attack really is. Druella proclaims that Darby cannot hide forever. She may be right; but with that lame scream Darby can hide for as long as he needs to find a way to defeat you. So I wouldn't put much stock into your heel routine there sister.
Darby blows him off; so Durella punishes a perfectly innocent vase on a cloth table with her lame scream attack. Darby is exposed and he bails. For goodness sakes Durella; just GRAB him. His magic is waning; just grab him. The scream sucks and blows goats; just FREAKING GRAB HIM! Dale and Darby have a meeting of the minds and it wasn't at the pot of go...oh; forget it; it was, my mistake. Dale still wants the carry his gold; so Darby uses the whirlwind spot and now Dale becomes a leprechaun basically turning Darby heel. Well; at least this will be a lot more interesting than sad heel Darby that's for sure. So Druella grabs Dale (who is apparently the King of The Leprechauns which actually makes more sense now that I think about it) and magically opens the carpet below to reveal the trapdoor leading straight to hell. The trapdoor opens and Druella throws Dale into the cave from hell to end the segment nearly fourteen and a half minutes in. As much as that previous sequence breaks all logic and reason; I still like full heel Darby rather than sad heel Darby even if it was as contrived as hell.
After the commercial break; we get a shot of the trapdoor leading to hell closing up and the Rangers are SHOCKED at these turn of events. The shadow of the banshee changes to her ugly human form proclaiming victory over the leprechauns before walking down the hallway out of sight. Chip is PISSED off and the Ranger blitz Darby (now wearing Dale's Hawaiian T-Shirt which changed places during the magic spell Darby cast) and they push him against the wall. I'm sorry Chip; but after seeing Rebecca do that to Jack Cases (who honestly wasn't a bad heel; just a misguided tweener.) no one can top that spot but her. Darby tries to cast the spell; but nothing happens because he gave the magical powers to Dale. BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Darby is REALLY STUPID which shows why he sucks as both a sad heel and a real heel. He's merely a bad character with no sense of irony or hypocrisy. Darby admits that he used Dale so the Banshee wouldn't catch him see and Chip blows him off calling him a little creep. I cannot argue with that overwhelming logic as Darby proclaims that he deserved it for being a little jerk; but Monty grabs him because Darby lied to him and used him. And Monty's voice is terrible which indicates Jim Cummings wasn't doing his voice this episode...or it's more voice switching in between scenes. It's harder to tell compared to Alan Roberts and R.J. Williams since both are kids and have one voice which is a child's voice.
Oh; and I fully agree with Monty on this one which is a special moment for me since I cannot stand that Aussie stereotype 99.9% of the time. Darby admits that he is screwed as they exchange notes on the pot of gold and the DA RULE (FAIRY GODPARENTS! How I yearn to get that spot in somehow?!) is that if it doesn't return to a safe spot by sunrise; Dale/Darby's magical powers are gone for good. Chip doesn't care but since Dale must be saved; Darby is pretty much getting those powers back. Darby mocks the Rangers ability to help him and Gadget finally claims that it's improbable which Monty wrongfully thinks that it's impossible which Gadget thankfully corrects him. So while we ponder what the Rangers are going to do we take another shot at the trapdoor to hell as there are pick axes clanging as we head into hell as Dale is lying there recovering from his fall and since he's a leprechaun; it doesn't do much damage to him. A piece of gold falls on his head and he picks it up. He is gleeful at first; but then he grows a brain and realizes that he cannot get out so he throws it behind his shoulder whining how it messed him up in the first place. It's a little depressing seeing that spot since Kit would steal that spot in Plunder and Lightning and we started driving it into his character in fanfic to the ground so much that he turns into a fragile emotional EMO which is somewhat against his character.
One of the leprechaun's (the one with glasses on) wants Dale to come up the hill and put the stray gold into the box and Dale sells and puts it in which is completely against his goofy character. The two exchange notes as we get a shot at the leprechaun salves digging and getting gold for Durella the Banshee. Dale's idea of escape is to have Duerlla open up the trapdoor and grab her; but the leprechaun grabs him and tells him to save his strength because once it opens the lame wailing will render them helpless. They are really a bunch of wusses if that lame scream can disable them so easily. Dale proclaims that he doesn't give up because he's a Rescue Ranger which the leprechaun blows off because power on earth can stop that echo. And they call DQ IV DS's accents half-assed?! I smell psychological projection in a lame attempt to deflect criticism for them accepting that Party Talk was the greatest thing since sliced bread (when it disrupts the flow of the game in reality) and that this is revenge for Himoshima which is the most absurd case of ad hominem labelus I have heard out of Mr. Hardcore since the Lurcent Fischer interview (where he rightfully proclaimed that only geeks and otakus were complaining about Wii's storage issues. Although that will change in a year or two when the gamers get more into Wii; mark my words, then it will become a problem for everyone.). Seriously; is Mr. Hardcore really THAT dense?! And there is my opinion on the whole Dragon Quest IV DS debacle in a nutshell. Dale says echo and then he gets the LIGHTBULB OF BLOODY CLAIRTY. Dale?! Grows a Brain?! What universe am I in again?! He wants the leprechaun to bang the soft gold into sheets as the leprechaun agrees to do it despite not getting what Dale's MIMI JOKE ZONE PLAN is. Dale then yells at the rest of them to bring the gold to the elevator and they sell which logically leads to....
....outside the castle as the Rangers make it to a window to the storage barn outside where they do the clean dirt spot to further annoy me. Chip opens the glass window after the pan shot inside which looks cleaner than my room much to my surprise, and everyone goes inside as Gadget tells them to split up. Chip finds a hand lawn mower; but Gadget refuses since the rusty thing is too heavy to move. Monty and Zipper decide to focus on the closed cabinet which sits above some can of paints. I smell a contrived spot coming at six o'clock as Monty and Zipper climb on the edge of the paint cans trying to get the shelf door open; but no dice. Zipper finds the latch on the cupboard door and with some effort gets the latch unstuck which opens the door allowing Monty to be bowled over with the ROCKETS RED GLARE. Gadget tells Monty to be careful as I suspect Toon Disney is readying the scissors for this spot as we speak. Sadly; Monty doesn't spill any paint which is Logic break #3 for the episode as I'm SHOCKED that Gadget hasn't said golly ONCE throughout this episode. Although she hasn't been given much dialog to begin with so it's apporos. Monty hits the jackpot; Chip blows him off as Wang Films makes a huge color mistake on Chip's hand which look female and don't match his fur at all. I'm amazed that I have only seen like five mistakes from the visual/writing side despite the bad effort overall.
Gadget likes Monty's discovery despite Monty wanting them for celebrations and tells them to bring the rocket over to the shovel. Monty would call this one bonzer of a party. I wonder if there are any Aussie accents in DQ IV DS. Well; only one way to find out which is to buy the title. So; we head back into the hellish gold mine as the leprechauns are building a golden cloth shield and then Dale is happy to see it done and tells the leprechauns to roll it and that happens a bit before we cut back to the door as we pan over and see the pot of gold being hoisted by the Rangers with the greatest of difficulty onto a pair of skis containing rockets on them. Okay; this plan makes some sense as Gadget answers Monty's second doubts on the plan. Darby wants to help speed up the process (while acting like a jerk to boot) as he has the match (I smell Toon Disney cut commencing) and wants to start blasting. So we cut over to Dale and the leprechauns putting the gold cloth into the elevator and they pull on the rope to ring the bell as the elevator moves up. I think both plans are about to get screwed as we cut to the wall where the golden scales are as the bell rings and Druella moves towards the wall which is the distraction needed as Monty rides shotgun on the pot of gold as the match is struck and it lights the fuse on the rockets as we see that the sun is starting to rise (see the blue sky and yellow sun arising.). I guess the sun must finally be in it's ultimate position which is silly because that means they have about another four or five hours to make it and there's only three minutes left in the episode.
We cut back to the wall as Druella opens the elevators and sees the leprechauns (and Dale) holding the golden horn. Druella is angry as hell and turns into the SHADOW OF THE BANSHEE~! She uses the ultra lame dead scream; which goes through the big hole of the horn and then goes back towards her from the smaller hole of the horn and she takes a MAN-SIZED bump off-screen into the wall and slides down causing some damage to the wooden walls. HOLY CRAP?! Dale's plan worked after all. It's a MIRACLE!! Dale finally has a brain! Pass the Kleenex......Yeah..... She then hears the sound of the rocket and then is forced to focus on that as she flies towards the pot of gold; but the rockets finally catch fire and the pot of gold rockets right out of the house. Well; that is that and now Chip, Gadget and Darby have to deal with Miss Lame Screamer. She proclaims that they have sealed their doom which is a mark of a bad heel for life since you can say death in a DTVA cartoon. We head outside as Monty is riding around the castle on the rocket as it is still pretty dark outside and the sunlight isn't as rising as I thought. Just plain odd there; but not really a logic break or animation mistake; just plain odd.
The gold rocket races down the pathway and goes off the conveniently placed launchpad and zooms up and crashes into the trees once again. Monty and Zipper recover to look around and then they notice the magically repaired tree stump glowing which is Logic Break #4 for the episode as we return to inside the castle as Durella proclaims that the devils will mean their doom. Okay; that's a pretty funny way of psychologically projecting yourself there Durella. Even funnier; she can use devil, but doesn't use death. And busting through the green curtain (oh, the irony!) is Dale and his gang of leprechauns as he calls her a big mouth. Yeah; that really works on heels; just ask Kit after he nearly got his airfoil destroyed and a black eye for calling a Street Pirate that. Durella likes this because she can get rid of all of them at once. Darby joins in as he orders his men to get ready to zap her to hell so to speak. However; he panics because he's hoping Monty can get the pot back safely so we cut back to Monty and Zipper push and pull the pot of gold correctly to position it correctly as we cut back to Darby using the magic zap which doesn't work. However; logic breaks again since he shouldn't be able to use magic dust unless he switches role with Dale again. Really bad writing there David Wise.
So before it can get really ugly we cut back to Monty and Zipper as they give one last good push and the pot of gold falls right into the hallow tree stump perfectly. Monty goes into the pot of gold and the magic starts as the RAINBOW OF MR. HARDCORE'S WORST NIGHTMARE COME TRUE beckons. I can sense Mr. Hardcore running for cover as we speak as it hits the castle and then the logic really gets out of whack as Darby is casting magic (when he should be since he GAVE Dale his powers to begin with and Dale does nothing on the spot) to repel the scream which I didn't know she did which pushes her back. Got that?! I sure didn't as she gets right into position underneath the golden chandelier which is conveniently placed underneath the carpet and the trapdoor to hell. Nice to see the writers were on the ball there eh?! Gadget then sees the golden tray which contains a butter knife (to further the silly BS&P decision) as the leprechauns pull the carpet away and open the trapdoor (nice sound effect there guys) as Gadget runs the golden tray down the hallway and cuts the rope connecting the golden chandelier and it falls right on top of Durella which BS&P wouldn't let her actually get hit (because she's female see) and the rope conveniently attaches to her body and she falls straight to her death as Darby closes the trapdoor with his magic that he SHOULDN'T HAVE. Logic break #5 for the episode and what a stupid finish that was. No wonder I cannot stand David Wise's writing.
The leprechaun celebrate with the Rangers on one of the most contrived finishes I have ever seen since ranting on Darkwing Duck episodes. Darby and the glasses wearing leprechaun (who sounds hyper for some odd reason) hug and we get the contrived shamrock image spot which Spongebob SquarePants stole and turned into a rainbow as a contrived way to get the good moral message across about using your imagination. And now he switches back with Dale which is stupid since he should have no magical powers to begin with before doing that spot. Plus; it would have been neat to see Dale try to switch back just for a laugh or three; but David Wise seemly wrote this one on short notice. So we wrap this one up with a shot of all the leprechauns dancing in Darby's house cave and celebrating into the wee hours of the morning as we look up to outside where the Rangers look on happy. Chip then turns around and sees that the Ranger Plane is all fixed up complete with a green shamrock bow. Oh; how nice of Darby to redeem himself even though they had to break all logic to do so and thus turn him face which I DIDN'T want to see.
Chip grabs the tag from the Ranger Plane and Darby writes to them declaring them friends. Well; that is good to know as Monty finally accepts him so we logically cut to in the air as the clouds die off and the Ranger Plane flies slowly in the west. Gadget is glad that Dale got over his gold bug and Dale accepts that gold is nothing but trouble and Chip is glad that Dale sees things his way. I smell a Dale screwing Chip spot commencing as Dale proclaims that he wants silver (a tribute to the Hallmark Christmas Special Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer) because he can do anything with silver and that gets Chip flustered. Told ya he would find a way to screw you Chip. Chip grabs the green bow and wraps it around Dale's mouth to shut up that bug. Go figure as the Ranger Plane flies faster towards more white cloud to finally end the episode at 21:09. Not as bad as I thought it would be; but bad villain, bad magical beings, really bad finish and only Dale putting an effort into the entire episode makes this one suck. * ¾ (35%).
THE REVIEW LINE
I was dreading this one from the very start and while this one was really terrible; it could have been a lot worse if it wasn't for Dale putting on an effort not to suck and actually growing a brain with a devious plan to get back at Durella. Durella was a really poor character who had a lame attack that really didn't do much damage; it was so lame even Rebecca's WRAITH OF BECKEY could easily beat it without any trouble. She did look cool in her banshee form; but the white hair negated the coolness a little bit. Darby was even worse as he was just plain annoying and kept changing from heel to sad heel to heel (on Dale which was his best character since I already felt that he was irredeemable as a character) before going full babyface which got no sympathy heat from me. He didn't do much to redeem himself and then David Wise really pushed the bounds of logic and reason by writing an ultra contrived sequence of having Darby get magic for no reason at all since he lost his magic powers when he switched roles with Dale to trick him into Durella catching Dale instead which was contrived; but I was willing to accept that one in order for Darby to become a full heel which was rendered pointless in the end when they turned him babyface for good. Dale should have been the one casting magic and then trying to do the switch himself for a few laughs at Darby's expense; but it never happened.
Oh; and the leprechauns are wusses; what more can I say?! Gadget was persona non grata until David Wise wrote the Rangers working together at the end to stop Druella. And of course Druella takes a huge bump into the wall with her face; but BS&P won't let her get hit with a stray chandelier even though it's a female causing her demise when Gadget uses the butter knife to cut the rope holding the chandelier in place. The sequence wasn't bad; but the rope attaching to Druella to force her down into the fire pit was a really silly BS&P decision if I ever saw one. There are a few mistakes from Wang Films and a couple of logic breaks; but they were minor (well except for the huge logic break in the finish) compared to the overall story which was messed up completely by Darby's inability to get over as some alignment regardless if it was babyface or heel. This was a badly written episode by David Wise and I hope this is not a sign of things to come from him as a whole. On the other hand; Dale's performance could have been terrible; and we would have our first DTVA DUD right there. Still; it's a......
Thumbs down for this episode and I'll see you next time with Weather Or Not.