"The Money Vanishes" is the sixteenth episode of DuckTales.
Synopsis[]
One evening, Scrooge is pleasantly tending to his money at the Money Bin. Everything is going fine for him.
That night at the local jail, Beagle Boys Big Time, Burger, Bouncer, and Baggy are in their cell, pulling their “We gotta get outta here!” stint. According to Big Time, the boys are expecting a cake from their mother any moment now, and it just so happens that at that moment, Officer Parolski brings the boys the cake, which contains a shovel that’s been poorly hidden within. Big Time is the only Beagle of the bunch who can comprehend what to do with the shovel, and declares that they will dig out of jail overnight. Of course, Big Time makes his brothers do all the digging. After digging out of the prison, the Beagle Boys get spotted by the police at two different points, and have to dig alternate paths. After coming out of another hole back in their own cell, they eventually dig a tunnel that leads them near Gyro's house.
In need of their own hideout, the Beagles witness a refrigerator materializing right in front of them. It turns out to be the result of Gyro’s newest invention, the Furniture Mover Ray, which is intended to teleport furniture so that people don’t have to strain themselves moving furniture anymore. Gyro demonstrates how it works to Little Bulb by first spraying a TV with a special preparation spray. Next, Gyro shoots the TV with the ray, which sends it into subspace. Then, Gyro programs the ray to make the TV reappear wherever he wants it to; outside, next to the Beagle Boys.
Big Time suggests that they ought to steal the ray, so that they can transport all of Scrooge’s money out of the Money Bin and into their pockets. The Beagles pose as Door-to-Door Doctors, and pretend to give Gyro a check-up. They manage to convince Gyro that he is suffering from "inventoritis", and that he needs exercise, so they send him jogging. With Gyro gone, the Beagles tie up Little Bulb and steal the ray and preparation spray. Big Time sprays Burger with the spray, then zaps him and transports him to a supermarket. Burger grabs a cake in the supermarket bakery and helps himself to it, but then finds himself back at Gyro's workshop. Burger asks what happened to the cake he was holding and Bigtime explains that it was not transported back with him because it was not sprayed.
At McDuck Manor, Huey, Dewey, and Louie are watching a horror flick while Scrooge is at work in his study. During a commercial break, Scrooge and the boys see an ad (really a cheap looking scam featuring Big Time as a salesman and Burger in a moth costume) about Money Moths, insects that eat money, and that they can be repelled by spraying money with a product called Cash Guard. Convinced that he needs Cash Guard, Scrooge calls the 555-number on the screen, and right away the doorbell rings. Duckworth lets in Big Time, still disguised as the salesman, who offers to sell the spray to Scrooge. Scrooge haggles with Big Time to drop the price from five dollars to one, and buys the spray. Scrooge gets ready to head for the money bin, but the nephews are rather suspicious about the salesman. They figure if he was warning about a flock of money moths, how come the salesman did not protect his earnings by spraying the dollar Uncle Scrooge paid him with?
The nephews accompany Scrooge to the money bin, where Scrooge is hurriedly spraying all the money in the vault. Meanwhile, the Beagle Boys, who are at their hideout, a rundown old building, are biding their time. Big Time fires a continuous beam at the Money Bin, but Scrooge and the nephews are in for a shock when a good portion of money suddenly vanishes. Scrooge fears that money moths have already gotten to his money, so he sprays the rest of it, which disappears, save for a few odd coins and bills. Huey sprays a few coins, and they too disappear right before his eyes. Dewey then sprays Scrooge’s hat, which also disappears. Wanting to find out where the money actually went, Dewey sprays Huey, Louie, and himself.
Big Time, who figures that he’s zapped the Money Bin long enough, programs the money to reappear in the hideout, and it does, to their delight. But the Beagles are in for a surprise when Scrooge’s hat and the nephews, along with the spray, reappear with the money as well. Big Time threatens to use the ray to make the nephews disappear for good. Dewey drops the preparation spray, which Bouncer steps on, releasing a large, pink cloud of the spray. The cloud briefly blinds the Beagles, allowing the nephews to make their getaway. The Beagle Boys follow them outside, but so does the cloud.
As they run through the streets of Duckburg, Big Time attempts to zap the nephews to Australia, but he falls down an open manhole. He orders Burger to help him out, although the chubby Beagle gets stuck in the manhole, while Bouncer and Baggy take the ray and pursue the nephews. The nephews run past a pair of roller-skaters, which the cloud also passes. Not knowing how the ray works, Baggy misses the nephews, shoots the roller-skaters, and makes them reappear atop some telephone wires. The nephews head for the zoo, where there are more mishaps with the ray. A lion gets transported to a hair salon, an elephant gets sent to a hotel, while a gorilla gets sent to the middle seat of a car where two lovers unexpectedly kiss him.
The nephews flee from the zoo, and hide amongst the runners of the Duckburg Marathon. The cloud passes by Gyro, who’s entered the marathon and meets up with the nephews. Baggy ends up shooting Gyro, only to transport him right in front of the finish line. Gyro then wins the marathon, much to the announcer’s surprise. The nephews then pass by Burger again, who is still trying to get Big Time out of the manhole. Just as Burger gets himself and Big Time out of the hole, Baggy and Bouncer crash into him, causing the ray to go flying and into Dewey’s hands. Now the tides have turned, with Dewey threatening to zap the Beagle Boys. The Beagle Boys try to hide from the nephews, and pretend to pose as mannequins at a clothing store. The nephews spot them, and since the cloud passes through the clothing store, Dewey zaps them, transporting them (and the real mannequins) straight to jail, much to Officer Parolski’s delight.
After sending all the animals back to the zoo, the nephews head back to the Beagle Boys’ hideout, where Dewey zaps all the money, his brothers, and himself with the ray, and transports them back to the Money Bin. Scrooge is so very upset over the loss of his money, but is startled when all of his money and his nephews reappear back in the vault. Scrooge is grateful to the boys for recovering his money, and is interrupted by Gyro, who wants to show off his first place trophy from the marathon. The nephews tell Gyro what had happened with the ray, and how the Beagle Boys misused it. Gyro decides to terminate his experiments with the Furniture Mover Ray and explains that it would be easier to move furniture with a Furniture-Flotation Ray. This gives Scrooge a frightening vision of money bags floating out of his Money Bin and all over Duckburg, so Scrooge chases Gyro around the vault, demanding that Gyro never use his brain again for the rest of the year. The nephews comment about how Gyro is in good shape because of all the jogging he did, and how Scrooge won’t be able to catch him so easily.
Trivia[]
- Dewey's line "Go ahead, Beagle Boys, take my ray!" was a play to Clint Eastwood's famous line "Go ahead, make my day!" from Sudden Impact (1983).
Video releases[]
VHS
- DuckTales: Daredevil Ducks
Laserdisc
- DuckTales: Daredevil Ducks / High-Flying Hero
DVD
- DuckTales: Volume 1
Gallery[]
External links[]
