"Quack Pack!" is the fifty-first episode of DuckTales. It premiered on April 4, 2020 and is the second episode of the third season.[1]
Summary
The family is not quite themselves as they discover the planned family photoshoot might just be a part of a bigger “wish” gone wrong.[2]
Plot
In an unusual change to the DuckTales set up, the characters appear to be in a sitcom titled Quack Pack (created by Gene C. Baba), where all their situations are "normal". Huey acts as a straight man, while Donald is his understanding uncle, who talks with his modified voice from "The Shadow War!". Dewey is the cool brother, Louie is the one who makes get-rich-quick schemes, Webby is the adorable friend who does weird things, Scrooge is the typical money grubbing uncle, Launchpad is the funny friend with a band called The Crash-Happies, Della is the fun mom who explains her actions with "Back on the moon..." and Mrs. Beakley is the maid who constantly utters "I am not a spy!" despite her actions depicting the contrary.
The family is preparing for a family photo and in typical sitcom fashion, nothing is going right. The study, which is where the photo is to take place, is in ruins leaving Scrooge, Louie and Della to try and fix it, while Webby is convinced that the photographer they hired, Knux Quackington, is a spy and captures him. While all this is going on, Huey begins to notice that something is not right. He begins to hear the laugh track at various moments and his Junior Woodchucks guidebook is full of blank pages. Huey begins to panic, especially when the show actually cuts to commercial. He tries telling Dewey and Donald, but they tell him to go help fix the study. Meanwhile, Webby tries interrogating Quackington who seems relieved that she thinks he is a spy. She has Launchpad look out for him and upon hearing that he is an "agent" gets his band to come in and play for him.
Huey finally confronts Scrooge, Louie and Della with the fact that they are on a TV show as there is not any pipes in the walls, his book is a prop and the most glaring of all, there is not a fourth wall in the room, but instead a bigger room with shadowy people watching them. As they attempt to dig their way out of the room after being trapped, Donald is forced to hire his neighbor Goofy (whose entrance is met with excited applause) to fill in as their photographer, though Donald has to lead him to realize this.
Everyone eventually makes their way to the garage where Huey tries to get everyone to remember how they ended up in this situation, though Donald seems hesitant to participate. Using the power of creating a flashback, it is revealed that they were on an adventure trying to recover the magic lamp of Calibaba when Donald inadvertently wished on it to have "normal family problems", creating the reality they are in. Quackington, is actually Gene the Genie who made Donald's wish come true. He is unable to release them unless Donald wishes for it. However, Donald refuses as he does not want to have anymore dangerous adventures and leaves in a huff with Goofy.
As everyone argues to leave the reality, the audience reveals themselves as laughing humans who proceed to chase them in the shattering reality. As they fight them off, Donald continues to prepare for his photo. Goofy gives him words of encouragement, admitting that the best photos are the ones that are not perfect and that every family has their own definition of normal. Donald returns to help fight off the humans and find the lamp; using his second wish to undo the previous one.
Everyone finds themselves back to before the wish and with everything back to normal.Goofy is revealed to be real because according to Gene "Magic's got nothing over a big name guest star." He offers one final wish for Donald and after a moment decides on one: a perfect family photo depicting them all battling the humans.
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
- Tony Anselmo as Donald Duck
- Don Cheadle as Donald Duck (alternate reality)
- Beck Bennett as Launchpad McQuack
- Toks Olagundoye as Mrs. Beakley
- Bill Farmer as Goofy
- Jaleel White as Gene the Genie[3]
- Laura Bailey as Launchpad's Girlfriends
- Abby Ryder Fortson as Little Girl Audience Member
- Noah Baird as Little Boy Audience Member
- Kari Wahlgren as Audience Members
Trivia
- The title is a reference to the television series of the same name.
- This is the only DuckTales episode to involve humans but as enemies.
- There are several references from the original DuckTales.
- Scrooge, Launchpad, and Mrs. Beakley's original outfits come from the classic version of the show.
- Gene states that he has been trapped in the lamp since 1990. This is a nod to DuckTales the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp which was released during that same year, and which was also Gene's debut in the original series, which also ended on that year. Gene briefly wears his "real boy" outfit during the reveal of the year.
- Donald briefly wears his blue sailor suit and hat and has his new voice again.
- This episode aired on the same day as the "Challenge of the Senior Junior Woodchucks!"
- One of the artifacts in the background of the manor's garage set is a smaller version of the giant golden sun coins from The Treasure of the Golden Suns - Part 5: Too Much of a Gold Thing, the others are a painting of a bull-like creature and an dog-ified Easter Island head.
- Goofy is depicted in this episode as being a photographer, a reference to the start of A Goofy Movie, where he was shown working as a photographer.
- Goofy also wears his outfit from Goof Troop.
- Max, P.J. and Roxanne make cameos in the photographs that Goofy shows Donald.
- This marks Max's first animated appearance since Mickey's Twice Upon a Christmas back in 2004. Although he has yet to appear in person, several skateboarding Maxes (and stars) twirl around above a passed-out Goofy in the end, akin to how imagined cartoon birds sometimes do in other media.
- This is also marks the first time P.J. and Roxanne have been seen since An Extremely Goofy Movie and House of Mouse, respectively.
- Gene makes several allusions to Jaleel White when he jokes about several segments and conventions from ABC's TGIF block that White constructed.
- The scorpions resemble the one in the theme song.
- Both Jaleel White and Ben Schwartz portrayed Sonic the Hedgehog in two different incarnations. White voiced Sonic in the 90s DIC Entertainment cartoons, while Schwartz voiced Sonic in the 2020 film adaptation.
- Coincidentally, two of White's incarnations of Sonic appeared on the same station but at different points of its life. While the channel was still Toon Disney, he appeared in Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, and during the earlier years of Disney XD, the channel's next incarnation, he appeared in Sonic Underground.
- The idea of a sitcom reality breaking down and becoming violent is similar to the Adult Swim short Too Many Cooks.
- When Gene mentions a dark and gritty reboot, he holds up a poster that is clearly meant to be a lampoon of Riverdale, which is a dark and gritty reboot of the mainline Archie Comics stories.
Gallery
References
- ↑ "DTVA News Post". Twitter (March 9, 2020).
- ↑ "Disney+ UK Launch Details; April Programming Highlights". Animation Magazine (March 19, 2020).
- ↑ https://www.etonline.com/ducktales-watch-goofy-make-his-first-appearance-in-90s-themed-premiere-exclusive-143912