"Let's Get Dangerous!" is the sixty-first and second episode of DuckTales. It premiered on October 19, 2020 and is the twelfth episode of the third season.
Plot[]
The St. Canardian Guardian![]
Scrooge McDuck, Launchpad, Huey, Dewey, and Louie arrive at St. Canard. Scrooge, Huey, and Louie go to see Taurus Bulba about his latest invention: the Ramrod, which has the ability to materialize any object into existence. The jovial Taurus is eager to introduce his work to his visitors, though Huey makes a quick observation over the design for the key that activates the Ramrod and becomes suspicious. Meanwhile, Dewey and Launchpad go to the hideout of their friend Drake Mallard who is the superhero Darkwing Duck. Despite his claim of heroics, St. Canard has had little to no crime recently due to newly elected Mayor Zan Owlson's restructuring. Darkwing also works with Fenton Crackshell-Cabrera, who had given him an A.I. to work with named W.A.N.D.A., and is apparently unaware that he is Gizmoduck.
At the suggestion of Dewey and Launchpad, Darkwing goes out to fight crime, but is unable to find any. They suddenly spot someone breaking into Taurus' building and go in after them, only to find that it is a little girl. The girl escapes and the three are caught, but Taurus praises Darkwing as a hero for preventing the possible sabotage of the Ramrod, and he is given the key to the city by Owlson. Back at the lair, Darkwing, Dewey and Launchpad meet the girl who is Gosalyn Waddlemeyer. She tells them that Taurus was her grandfather Dr. Thaddeus Waddlemeyer's partner who helped build the Ramrod. However, Dr. Waddlemeyer discovered a flaw in the Ramrod and tried to warn Taurus, but has disappeared. Since then, Gosalyn has been trying to find out what happened to him and stop Taurus.
Darkwing is reluctant to help as he does not want to damage his reputation. Dewey sympathizes with Gosalyn over similar issues and Launchpad talks Darkwing into helping her. The group arrive at Taurus' building and break in to try and find the files for the information on the Ramrod. They are forced to hide when Scrooge, Huey and Louie come in asking Taurus to look at the blueprints. He distracts them by giving them a layout of the building that shows them where to find the blueprints. They later find a room full of notes and discover that the Ramrod contains the same insignia as the Solego Circuit. Solego was a mad thinker who believed that everyone's imagination is tied to alternate dimensions; meaning that the Ramrod is not making things from nothing, it is taking them from other alternate worlds parallel to their own.
Darkwing directly confronts Taurus and asks about Dr. Waddlemeyer. Taurus claims that he had resolved all flaws and that Dr. Waddlemeyer was sabotaging his own work believing there was a flaw. Waddle Meyer tried to reprogram the Ramrod, when it backfired and poofed him out of existence. He disknowledged Dr. Waddlemeyer and covered up the incident to prevent people from thinking that he was crazy, and believed that Gosalyn couldn't accept that her grandfather was gone. Angered, Gosalyn attacks him and takes the Ramrod key, soon Launchpad and Dewey join in fighting Taurus. Gosalyn explains the purpose of the Ramrod to Darkwing, adding that her grandfather is most likely in another dimension. Taurus explains that the Ramrod is too unstable to search for Dr. Waddlemeyer. Darkwing picks up on his flub and a fight over the key ensues with Taurus getting his right eye and horn scarred and broken from it.
Gosalyn tries to flee with the key, but Taurus catches up to her. Darkwing fights off Taurus and rescues Gosalyn, but is forced to leave the key behind with Taurus as he, Gosalyn and Launchpad escape. Dewey meets up with Huey, Louie and Scrooge, and they witness Taurus using the Ramrod to bring Darkwing Duck villains Bushroot, Megavolt, Liquidator, and Quackerjack to their dimension. Huey, Dewey and Louie are locked away in a cell while Scrooge is sent to a dimension that resembles the original DuckTales universe.
A Case of Mistaken Reality![]
As St. Canard descends into chaos, Darkwing becomes frightened by the events and begins ignoring Fenton despite his calls for help with saving the city. Launchpad and Gosalyn encourage Darkwing to gear up and head out to fight crime. Meanwhile, Taurus announces his new plan to use the Ramrod to tear down their reality and replace it with a better one. He is confronted by Bradford Buzzard of F.O.W.L. who is upset over Taurus' over the top use for the Ramrod as he wants to keep things discreet with the McDuck family. Taurus has the villains capture him and orders them to make themselves known in the city. Liquidator, who suggests killing Darkwing Duck, is made Taurus' vice president and assigned to find the hero.
Darkwing, Launchpad and Gosalyn run into Quackerjack who chases them through the streets with a giant robot and are then chased away by Liquidator. They come back where Gosalyn accuses Darkwing of not taking his job seriously. As she sulks, Launchpad informs her that Darkwing is doing everything he can to try and help her, with Darkwing trying to speak with Fenton on how to rescue Dr. Waddlemeyer. Gosalyn puts Darkwing to sleep due to all the stress. Huey, Dewey and Louie escape their cell and free Bradford (who was imprisoned as well) whom they immediately become suspicious of due to his presence. After escaping Bushroot, they find the Ramrod and discover where Scrooge is. At this point, the triplets deduce that Bradford is working with F.O.W.L., but he tosses the three into the same dimension as Scrooge.
W.A.N.D.A. informs Darkwing that the Ramrod has one more energy surge in it before it collapses all of reality, and he leaves without Gosalyn and Launchpad. Darkwing heads to Taurus' building where he is confronted by his villains who beat him up and take him inside. Gosalyn and Launchpad witness these events on W.A.N.D.A. and go in after him disguised as "c-list" villains Jambalya Jake and the Bug Master. Launchpad, Gosalyn and Darkwing take on the villains using their abilities with Gosalyn freeing Scrooge and the triplets. Gosalyn tries to frantically search for her grandfather, but she is unable to and (despite Taurus' offer to make a new reality with her grandpa in it) is forced to destroy the Ramrod before it destroys reality. Darkwing defeats Taurus and the rest of the villains are sucked back through the dimensional rift.
Bradford escapes thanks to Black Heron, but everyone spots that he is in a F.O.W.L. helicopter with Scrooge realizing that his greatest enemy has returned. Fenton as Gizmoduck, who had spent the majority of the episode trying to saw away Bushroot's vines from outside St. Canard, is hailed the hero. Afterwards, Darkwing meets with Gosalyn and promises that he will help her find her grandfather and suggests taking her under his wing as his crime fighting partner which she happily accepts. At Dewey's suggestion, Launchpad also joins Darkwing and Gosalyn ("I'll spend my days in Duckburg, nights in St. Canard and I'll sleep on the drive over!"). The three head off into the night for another adventure.
Cast[]
- David Tennant as Scrooge McDuck
- Danny Pudi as Huey Duck
- Ben Schwartz as Dewey Duck
- Bobby Moynihan as Louie Duck
- Beck Bennett as Launchpad McQuack
- Chris Diamantopoulos as Drake Mallard/Darkwing Duck
- Lin-Manuel Miranda as Fenton Crackshell-Cabrera/Gizmoduck
- Stephanie Beatriz as Gosalyn Waddlemeyer
- James Monroe Iglehart as Taurus Bulba
- Jameela Jamil as W.A.N.D.A.
- Natasha Rothwell as Zan Owlson
- Marc Evan Jackson as Bradford Buzzard
- April Winchell as Black Heron
- Keith Ferguson as Megavolt, Liquidator
- Michael Bell as Quackerjack
Trivia[]
- There is no intro song, and the title is colored Darkwing Duck purple.
- When aired as two separate episodes, the second part reuses the same title screen variant as "The Duck Knight Returns!", with the title screen letters colored in the Darkwing Duck purple color, with the only slight difference of Della being seen due to her being added to the opening credits in Season 3.
- When Taurus Bulba says "meddling brat and that ridiculous superhero" is a reference to the Scooby-Doo franchise when the bad guys are captured when they say "And I would have gotten away with it, if it weren't for you meddling kids, and your dumb dog too!"
- To date, this is the last 1-hour special as the next and final extended episode (and the final episode altogether) would be an hour and a half.
- The episode title derives from one of Darkwing Duck's catchphrases.
- This episode is sort of a redo take on "Darkly Dawns the Duck".
- Gosalyn's grandfather is given the first name Thaddeus.
- First canon appearance of the Fearsome Five in the series. This version has Taurus Bulba as the leader instead of Negaduck.
- Contrary to his original counterpart, this Bushroot looks lifeless, dull-colored and does not speak. Likely a nod to his voice actor being deceased.
- Liquidator refers to themselves as the Fearsome Four, however. Since they come from the show-within-a-show version of Darkwing Duck and not the 1990s version, they currently do not have Negaduck to lead them.
- Zan Owlson makes her first appearance since "Moonvasion!" and is now mayor of St. Canard.
- When Dewey throws some smoke bombs, he says Randy's catchphrase "Smokebomb!" from Randy Cunningham: 9th Grade Ninja; both characters are voiced by Ben Schwartz.
- Bonkers D. Bobcat appears in a nonspeaking cameo in this episode, being attacked by each of the four supervillains.
- With Bonkers' appearance in this episode, the only Disney Afternoon show (not counting the Aladdin and Lion King spinoff shows) that have not been covered by this show in one way or another is The Shnookums and Meat Funny Cartoon Show.
- Taurus Bulba's voice actor James Monroe Iglehart previously worked on Tangled: The Series as Lance Strongbow. He also originated the role of Genie in the Broadway adaptation of Aladdin.
- Interestingly, he is the third cast member of Tangled: The Series to guest star in DuckTales, the first being Julie Bowen (Queen Arianna) as Lieutenant Penumbra, the second being Clancy Brown (King Frederic) as Frankenstein's Monster in "The Trickening!".
- During Part Two, Scrooge, Huey, Dewey & Louie get transported into the original DuckTales series, where they reenact the infamous scene from the "Catch as Cash Can" serial, with Scrooge throwing a temper tantrum about how "A sea monster ate [his] ice cream".
- Like with the previous usage of the footage from "The Haunting of Mr. Banana Brain" in the previous episode "Friendship Hates Magic!", the footage here was also redone and a number of elements from the original episode were also removed. For one thing, the nephews weren't wearing their hats in the original scene, and they were joined by Mrs. Beakley and Webby, and Dewey was actually standing up near the booth.
- When Scrooge and the Triplets are rescued, Louie questions what "Quackaroonie" even means. "Quackaroonie" was an expression often used by the triplets, in the original DuckTales series.
- Amongst the realities in which Gosalyn searches for her grandfather is that of the Fluppy Dogs.
- The key to the Ramrod uses a Solego Circuit. Solego was the main villain in The Legend of the Chaos God, a crossover story between DuckTales, Darkwing Duck, TaleSpin, Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers, and Goof Troop, which ran in Disney Adventures magazine in 1994.
- Megavolt's Tronsplitter from the Darkwing Duck episode "Negaduck" can be seen stored in a closet in Darkwing's tower.
- When Darkwing takes a nap, Gosalyn can be heard humming "Little Girl Blue" from the episode "Darkly Dawns the Duck".
- When Launchpad and Gosalyn disguise themselves so they could get back into Bulba's lab, their costumes reference two Darkwing Duck villains Jambalaya Jake (with a fake crocodile as part of the outfit to reference Gumbo) and The Bug Master.
- When fighting the villains, Darkwing and Launchpad reference the episodes "Beauty and the Beet" and "Just Us Justice Ducks" from the original Darkwing Duck series. This also includes using their episode numbers from the actual show (though the numbers they mention for the episodes, 3 and 21 respectively, do not match the actual episode numbers of 4 and 24).
- The way Darkwing defeated Liquidator and Megavolt by using their powers against each other was just like in the Darkwing Duck episode Launchpad and Dewey watched at the beginning of "Beware the B.U.D.D.Y. System!"
- Gosalyn uses a crossbow and trick arrows from Darkwing's arsenal to defend herself. This can be seen as a nod to her superhero identity from the Darkwing Duck series, Quiverwing Quack.
- Among the various suits displayed in DW's lair, there's a gray costume that closely resembles the suit worn by the Gray Ghost from Batman the Animated Series. In addition to referencing a similar display in that series' Batcave, it could also be a reference to how Drake was inspired to become a hero from his favorite cancelled TV series growing up, just like BTAS's Bruce Wayne.
- Bradford Buzzard's connection with F.O.W.L. is finally exposed to the Duck Family, as well as F.O.W.L.'s plan to come after them.
- Due to its popularity, the episode was released for free on Disney XD's YouTube page the day after its premiere (it is however, only available for viewers in the US). This is also the first time since "Woo-oo!" to be a full episode released on Disney XD.
- The episode bears several similarities with Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and seemingly predicted elements for Spider-Man: No Way Home.
- The individual episodes are titled "Part I: The St. Canardian Guardian!" and "Part II: A Case of Mistaken Reality!" for episode reruns.
- First time in any televised program we see a shot of Fenton's face while he's wearing Gizmoduck's helmet.
- In an old draft, Negaduck was planned to return in disguise as Taurus Bulba's assistant, a cow woman named Calfka. Originally, Bulba was meant to get arrested at the end of the first part, while Negaduck unmasks himself and takes over as main antagonist of the second part by being the one to bring the Fearsome Four into their dimension.[1][citation needed]
International premieres[]
- March 19, 2021 (United Kingdom; premiere on Disney+)
- April 17, 2021 (Japan)
- December 8, 2021 (Italy; premiere on Disney+)
- January 10-11, 2022 (Parts 1-2) (Portugal)
Gallery[]
References[]
