The Shadow War!

"The Shadow War!" is the two-part season one finale of the animated series DuckTales. It premiered on August 18, 2018.

Synopsis
With Magica De Spell close to exacting revenge on Scrooge, the family races against time to plan a dangerous rescue mission to save Scrooge and the city.

Plot
At Duckburg harbor, Donald Duck, Huey, Dewey, and Louie are moving back into the houseboat with Webby Vanderquack helping them. Though Webby is ecstatic with living at the harbor, the triplets, still mad at Scrooge, are resigning themselves to the mundane ocean-faring lives they had before Scrooge.

Meanwhile, Magica De Spell, still in control of Lena's body ever since taking it for her own, prepares for the coming of the eclipse when she comes across the gates of McDuck Manor. Lena resurfaces briefly to wrestle her body back from Magica, trying to stop Magica from hurting Scrooge, but Magica's powers force her back into submission. Just then, Launchpad McQuack drives up to check on Scrooge who has secluded himself due to the family breaking up in the last episode but Scrooge turns him down. Observing the mansion has been abandoned, Magica has to pretend to be Lena and baits Scrooge into letting her in by reminding him of the triplet's broken impressions of him. With her opportunity to get the Number One Dime and have revenge on Scrooge now in progress, Magica comes right to the front door and is greeted by a sloven, disheveled Scrooge recovering from his fallout.

Launchpad then goes to visit the family at Duckburg harbor and notices the boys are throwing away the items they acquired on their past adventures to remove any reminder of Scrooge. Donald tries to cheer up by announcing to the triplets they will be moving to Cape Suzette the next day. Overhearing this, Webby and Launchpad panic losing the family so they decide to set up a secret farewell party to get the family and Scrooge back together.

Back at the manor, Magica is disappointed towards Scrooge's regression and comes to the conclusion that Scrooge's funk is all a trick, thus she decides to get the Dime when Scrooge is out cold.

Webby and Launchpad then commence their plan for the party. After getting the triplets to join, Launchpad calls Scrooge to invite him, unaware of Magica, mimicking Scrooge's voice, answering the call to accept the invitation and ruin this for Scrooge. Unfortunately, Bentina Beakley finds out about it, scaring Webby knowing Beakley could find out about their ulterior motive. During the dinner party, Beakley catches onto Webby and Launchpad but agrees to help them, wanting to also help the family and Scrooge back together.

Masquerading as Lena, Magica tries to drug Scrooge, but Scrooge gets nostalgic and bitter towards the thought of his family that he accidentally drops the drugged tea to Magica's chagrin. As the eclipse draws closer, Magica realizes Scrooge really has fallen into a depression so she talks him into to return to his original solo style. Scrooge does get excited to start fresh and discards his belongings except for the Dime, which Magica becomes insistent over. When her attempts fail, she assaults the elderly duck for the Dime. Scrooge and Lena/Magica fight for the Dime before Magica finally procures it just as the eclipse appears, bestowing upon her magic to free herself from the Dime. Alive and powerful once more, Magica traps Scrooge and Lena.

Back at the houseboat, Beakley fills the triplets in on how Scrooge nearly went bankrupt looking for Della Duck and scolds them for making him feel more miserable for Della's loss.

While trapped, Lena complains about how terrible Magica is as family and her wish to be in one like Scrooge's. Scrooge sympathizes with Lena and agrees to welcome her into his if she helps him stop Magica. However, Magica cuts them off to absorb Lena into her shadow and trap Scrooge inside the Dime.

The dinner party soon concludes although the triplets, having caught onto the party's intention, still want to leave Scrooge behind, but Donald has second thoughts after Beakley's speech and declares their family has been apart for too long. The sentiment shared, the family finds it in their hearts to forgive Scrooge and set out to reunite with him.

At that moment, the group witnesses Magica's shadow magic erupting from McDuck Manor. Magica then uses her magic to bring forth a cascade of shadow monsters from everyone's shadow and amass over the Money Bin as Magica's new fortress. Among the shadows, the one belonging to Fenton Crackshell-Cabrera takes the Gizmosuit for its own before Fenton can stop it.

Both Webby and Beakley fearfully identify Magica as the source. Webby explains that Magica was Scrooge's bitterest rival who met her defeat by Scrooge fifteen years ago in a battle for the Dime on Mount Vesuvius. The family is then joined by Gyro Gearloose, Manny the Headless Man-Horse, and Lil Bulb, having escaped the destruction on the Money Bin.

Donald takes the lead of the situation, although his incomprehensible voice makes it difficult for the others to understand him, so an impatient Gyro forces Donald to swallow a device that gives Donald an intelligible voice. Donald, now coherent, inspires everyone towards the Money Bin to save Scrooge. Donald coordinates Gyro's group to the bridge to distract Magica's shadows and Launchpad to crash into the shadow mass while he and Beakley sneak behind the Bin. However, he still has the kids stay at the harbor to keep them safe from Magica, though the kids still set off to the Bin, starting with searching for Lena to help them.

At the amphitheater, the kids discover Lena's room underneath the stage. Finding her journal, the kids read an excerpt detailing Magica's defeat by Scrooge years ago and how Scrooge imprisoned her inside the Dime, which forced Magica's shadow to find refuge inside her staff (the talisman Lena wore) and spawned Lena from it. Webby is heartbroken of the truth, but the others find a secret message detailing Magica's plan and learn they must free Scrooge from the Dime.

Magica then sees the family's attack on her and launches her counterattack. The others take care of the shadows as the kids swim under to enter the Money Bin. Launchpad tries to crash the Sun Chaser into the shadow mass on the Money Bin but gets swatted by it. When Donald's houseboat breaks down, Beakley fights off the shadows for Donald to swim the rest of the way to the Bin.

The kids manage to enter the Money Bin, but Magica's power creates more shadow duplicates in response to the intruders, so Louie cuts off the power to keep the lights off. Finding their way to Scrooge's office, the kids are confronted by shadow duplicates of the McDucks and Scrooge's enemies before Donald bursts in and takes them all down. Donald admits he purposefully told the kids to stay put so they would come and has them continue towards the Bin as he handles the other shadows.

Magica catches sight of the kids and blasts at them. To get the Dime, the kids act in strategic distraction to hold her off. Meanwhile, Donald's voicebox malfunctions as he faces the Gizmoduck shadow. Fenton joins Manny and Lil Bulb in their battle, soon joined by Beakley after sinking the houseboat. Launchpad steps out of the aeroplane to take the shadows head-on.

During the battle against Magica, Webby personally engages Magica in honor of Lena before she and Dewey are tossed down and about to be destroyed by the sorceress. However, Lena's residual magic draws enough strength from Webby's friendship bracelet to magically protect Webby from the blast and Lena briefly revives herself from Magica's shadow only for Magica to destroy her instead. An angered Webby fights Magica head-on, causing her to drop the Dime that Dewey catches. Magica blasts magic at Dewey but unwittingly aims for the Dime instead, freeing Scrooge and returning him the Dime. Scrooge then confronts and taunts Magica where she loses grip on her staff, which falls onto Donald's head and cracks, causing Magica to lose her magic and shadow army. Magica bemoans her loss right when Launchpad falls from above and crashes on top of her, forcing Magica to make a hasty escape.

Though the day is won, Webby mourns for the fallen Lena, although the triplets comfort her and state Lena will always be with her, not noticing the remnants of Lena now residing inside Webby's shadow. The kids then happily reunite with Scrooge, when at that moment, Donald's voicebox then breaks and has his old voice returned. In celebration, the family then swims inside the gold.

Meanwhile, on the moon, a rugged Della is shown using salvaged spacecraft parts to watch the news report on the family saving Duckburg, and the sight of her sons surprises her.

Cast

 * David Tennant as Scrooge McDuck
 * Danny Pudi as Huey Duck
 * Ben Schwartz as Dewey Duck
 * Bobby Moynihan as Louie Duck
 * Kate Micucci as Webby Vanderquack
 * Tony Anselmo as Donald Duck
 * Don Cheadle as Donald Duck (artificial voicebox)
 * Beck Bennett as Launchpad McQuack
 * Toks Olagundoye as Bentina Beakley
 * Jim Rash as Gyro Gearloose
 * Lin-Manuel Miranda as Fenton Crackshell-Cabrera
 * Kimiko Glenn as Lena
 * Catherine Tate as Magica De Spell
 * Keith Ferguson as Flintheart Glomgold
 * Paul F. Tompkins as Gladstone Gander
 * Kari Wahlgren as Roxanne Featherly
 * Jim Cummings as Darkwing Duck bobblehead
 * Paget Brewster as Della Duck

Trivia

 * The title is based on the episode "Magica's Shadow War" from the original DuckTales.
 * The individual episodes are titled "The Night of De Spell!" and "Day of the Ducks!" for episode reruns.
 * The items that the boys get rid of are the Druid's cup from "The Missing Links of Moorshire!", the "I Survived Mount Neverrest" shirt from "The Impossible Summit of Mt. Neverrest!", and Toth-Ra's khopesh from "The Living Mummies of Toth-Ra!".
 * The letter style for the Cape Suzette brochure is the same font that is used for the TaleSpin logo.
 * The brochure also features a picture of the Sea Duck.
 * Gyro's voice-altering invention is called the "Barksian modulator", a reference to Carl Barks and the fact that Donald's dialogue is perfectly intelligible within comics and printed format. It's also a reference to  the theatrical short "Donald's Dream Voice", in which Donald takes special pills that give him a normal voice.
 * At the end of her episode, Magica's feathers return to their white color she has in the comics. Her battle with Scrooge also has a recreation of their classic struggle pose featured on DuckTales.
 * This episode marks Della Duck's first speaking appearance in animation.
 * As the camera pans up to the moon to reveal the season cliffhanger of Della Duck still being alive on it the first notes of the Moon Stage Theme from the beloved DuckTales NES game by Capcom is played.