Duck Tales, Woo-oo!
Disney’s favourite feathered family is returning to the small screen
Disney’s most famous duck family is preparing for a highly anticipated comeback.
The animated series Duck Tales ran from 1987 to 1990, starring Scrooge McDuck and his young triplet nephews Huey, Dewey and Louie; Mrs. Beakley and her granddaughter Webby Vander quack; and flight plan-challenged pilot Launchpad Mc Quack. It now returns in an all-new TV movie debuting Aug. 12, and an animated series debuting on Sept. 23. Both will air on Disney XD.
A new Duck Tales comic book series is also on the way from IDW, with issue No. 0 debuting recently and the first official issue of the monthly series arriving in print and digitally in September.
Duck Tales’ executive producer Matt Youngberg and co-producer story editor Francisco Angones were tasked with taking a classic cartoon they both loved and making it fresh for a new generation, while also appealing to older fans who made the original series a hit.
“The challenge is to recreate the feeling you had as a child when you watched it, but to do it using modern storytelling techniques,” Youngberg says. “Kids today have all of their entertainment at their fingertips, so they subconsciously expect more from storytelling than we did.”
In the new animated adventures, Donald Duck (no stranger to duck fame himself ) takes his nephews Huey, Dewey and Louie to meet their wealthy great-uncle, Scrooge McDuck. Uncle Scrooge has been retired from his famous globetrotting tales for a long time, so the triplets aren’t really sure he lives up to the hype and don’t even know they ’re related to him, which leads to the first of many adventures.
“That idea allowed us to put modern viewers in the shoes of the nephews as they’re introduced to this amazingly weird, wonderful world,” Angones says.
Both producers were frequently asked during production about the DuckTales theme song, a part of the original show that is just as beloved as any episode. Youngberg and Angones credit music producer Michael (Smidi) Smith, composer Dom Lewis and singer Felicia Barton with creating a new song that felt new but channelled the original.
“The theme song was something we knew we had to do right,” Youngberg says. “The real sense of relief came from playing it for Mark Mueller, who had composed the original song. Seeing him smile and tell us he was relieved by how it sounded was the sign-off we were looking for.”
The series includes a talented cast of voice actors: former Doctor Who star David Tennant as Uncle Scrooge, Danny Pudi of Community as Huey, Ben Schwartz of Parks and Recreation as Dewey, Saturday Night Live alumnus Bobby Moynihan as Louie, Kate Micucci of Garfunkel and Oates as Webby and Hamilton star Lin-Manuel Miranda as Fenton Crack shell Cab re ra/Giz mo duck, a mechanical armoured hero.
Angones says the heart of the new DuckTales will be Huey, Dewey, Louie and Webby.
“We wanted to make Huey, Dewey and Louie’s personalities more distinct to give us more opportunities for character relationships,” he says.
“We have based their personalities off of their birth order: As the oldest by three seconds, Huey is the responsible, type A. Dewey is the classic middle child, throwing himself into danger because he’s eager to find some way to stand out in this big family. And sly youngest child Louie enjoys living under the radar because it allows him to get away with anything.”
They’ve given more prominence to Webby, previously a “tagalong character,” Angones says. “She’s now a capable adventurer in her own right and a longtime Scrooge McDuck fangirl. The boys were born into the family legacy of adventure; Webby earned her place into it.”
Over at IDW, writer Joe Caramagna says some elements of stories appearing in the comic book could actually appear in later episodes of the cartoon, though issue No. 0 serves as a prequel to the television première.
“If you want the full Duck Tales experience, you’ll want to follow both the comic and TV show,” says Caramagna.
The challenge is to recreate the feeling you had as a child when you watched it, but to do it using modern storytelling techniques.