"The Phantom and the Sorceress!" is the fifty-seventh episode of DuckTales. It premiered on September 21, 2020 and is the eighth episode of the third season.
Plot[]
Scrooge McDuck enters the living room to read his newspaper when he is interrupted by the arrival of the kids escaping their video game along with a monster. With Scrooge's quick thinking, he zaps the monster and rescues the kids. Lena had been trying to hone her magic with her amulet, but only succeeding in making another mess. Della enters to tell Scrooge that there is a floating goat in his closet, meaning that the land of Goatool is under attack and needs his help. Huey, Dewey, and Louie excitedly follow Scrooge on a new adventure, but Lena does not want to cause any more trouble, forcing Webby and Violet to stay behind with her.
In the middle of the night, the girls hear a strange noise out front and head down to answer the door to find a nervous and fear stricken Gladstone Gander bumbling his way through the door. He tells the girls that he suddenly got hit with a string of bad luck as if someone stole it from him and needs to look for Scrooge to help him fix it. The group hear another noise and head upstairs to see a dark hooded figure with a large gauntlet draining magic from Scrooge's closet. The figure attempts to drain Lena's magic, but Webby tosses an ax at the glove damaging it and the figure flees. Violet identifies the figure as the Phantom Blot who despises magic and wants to destroy it. With no other option, they decide to seek out Magica De Spell.
Webby, Lena, Violet, and Gladstone end up in a swamp and find Magica's hideout. Still wanting the amulet back from Lena, they qualm her when they mention the Phantom Blot. Magica, tells them that years ago, she once ruled over a village and forced its citizens to bring her gifts. When she grew bored with them, she destroyed the village. One villager however, survived and came back to hunt her. No matter how many times she faced him, this person, the Phantom Blot, came back stronger and stronger. Lena reluctantly agrees to train with Magica so that she can face the Phantom Blot again.
During her training, Lena discovers that her magic is blue, as opposed to purple like before. Magica tells her that the color of their magic depends on their personality and source. Magica's is purple because of her evil nature and Lena's is blue due to her friendship with Webby and Violet. Magica has Violet take hold of the amulet and blast Lena with it so that she can learn to use her magic properly. She explains that her magic is internal and the amulet only focuses her energy. The Phantom Blot arrives and the girls work together to try and defeat him. During the confrontation, Gladstone manages to get the amulet, but blasts himself and turns into Donald Duck, causing him to flee in terror.
The Phantom Blot gets the amulet and tries to drain its power, causing Lena to weaken (she is made of magic). Realizing that she can summon more magic from her friendship bracelet, Lena becomes powerful and dons a new appearance to take on Phantom Blot. She destroys the gauntlet and Gladstone gets his luck back while snakes begin to attack the Phantom Blot (Webby had previously "communicated" with some snakes for assistance). Magica reclaims the amulet and gets her powers back, but Lena blasts her back, causing her to lose her staff.
Lena uses her new abilities to fly herself, Webby and Violet out of the swamp and back to McDuck Manor. As they return, Scrooge, Huey, Dewey, and Louie come back from their adventure with numerous treasures and artifacts as well as armor. They ask the girls what happened while they were away, and they respond "Eh, not much."
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
- Paget Brewster as Della Duck
- Kimiko Glenn as Lena Sabrewing
- Libe Barer as Violet Sabrewing
- Catherine Tate as Magica De Spell
- Paul F. Tompkins as Gladstone Gander
- Giancarlo Esposito as Phantom Blot
- Amy Sedaris as Pepper
Trivia[]
- This was Gladstone's first experience of bad luck, as it was revealed that his good luck is actually the result of magic.
- It seems he was born naturally unlucky and somehow acquired magical good fortune.
- Without his luck, Gladstone is shown to be very self-centered and uncaring of anything else that getting his luck back. He follows Webby, Violet and Lena despite the fact they don't care about his luck; meaning he'll bother anyone who he thinks will help him.
- Apparently Gladstone has ridiculously weak legs; given he tired going up to the second floor of the mansion, which Scrooge and Beakley (elderly) deal with every day.
- Violet sleeps with garlic and stakes in case she is attacked by vampires. This implies that she has sanguivoriphobia, the fear of vampires. Violet defends this saying they're "due" for one to show up with all the magic mayhem happening.
- Lena gets new clothes from her magic.
- Magica gets her magic back.
- Magica is allergic to garlic, but she eats some without any reactions.
- By the end of the episode, Webby, Lena, and Violet's clothing are all now the watered-down color versions of Huey, Dewey, and Louie's colors. Webby has pink, Lena has light blue, and Violet has mint green.
- As a minor gag, though Donald, himself, does not appear in this episode, Gladstone is briefly transformed into him.
- Lena's flashback scenes in this episode uses clips from the previous episodes of "The Beagle Birthday Massacre!", "JAW$!", "The Other Bin of Scrooge McDuck!", "The Shadow War!", "Friendship Hates Magic!", and "A Nightmare on Killmotor Hill!".
- The magic-draining gauntlet which Phantom Blot wears bears a resemblance to the Infinity Gauntlet worn by Marvel Comics supervillain Thanos.
- The scene where Webby, Lena, Magica, and Violet try to remove the gauntlet from the Phantom Blot is similar to the battle sequence on Titan at the end of Avengers: Infinity War.
- During the part of her fight against Phantom Blot without the amulet, Lena's attack two-handed magical projectile launch from her palms uses the same position that was first used in the 1970's anime Space Battleship Yamato and has been parodied in various sources since, including the Hadouken (or Hadoken) from the Street Fighter series, which like the video games from the classic DuckTales was also produced by Capcom.
- Magica's house has pizza boxes implying she hit her lowest point in life this is a reference to when Scrooge was depressed in season 1.
- The Phantom Blot is voiced by Giancarlo Esposito, who previously play Sidney Glass/Magic Mirror in Once Upon a Time.
- The blot views magic like Henry Mills did in "Only You" and is attempting to destroy it despite the consequences it would have on others.
- He took Gladstone's luck, despite him not being a threat.
- He nearly killed Lena by draining Magica's amulet.
- He nearly trapped the McDucks in another dimension by sucking up the mystic portal.
- The blot views magic like Henry Mills did in "Only You" and is attempting to destroy it despite the consequences it would have on others.
- The bad luck Gladstone went through in this episode would be things regular people would take for granted. Paying for meals, money not flying into open wallets, facilities closing, getting the exact money as requested, long walks, and falling flat without cushions are something that regular people experience.
- The fact that Gladstone loses his luck with Magica is similar to the episode from the original DuckTales, "Dime Enough for Luck".
International premieres[]
- January 23, 2021 (Japan)
- March 19, 2021 (United Kingdom) (Premiere on Disney+)
- October 13, 2021 (Italy) (Premiere on Disney+)
- January 4, 2022 (Portugal)
Gallery[]
