"Whirled History" is the seventy-first episode of Darkwing Duck, and the seventy-first episode to air on The Disney Afternoon.
Synopsis[]
Gosalyn is watching AstroDuck at the Muddlefoots' house while Honker does HER homework. When Drake arrives to pick her up, she complains that her assignment is boring. He tells her that history is "The Fountain of Knowledge". Later that night she falls asleep while studying. And in her dream, her history book grows larger and starts to fly, and she meets AstroDuck (who resembles Honker). First they travel to Greenland when Leif Erikkson (Darkwing) and his sidekick (Launchpad) first discovers it, looking for "The Fountain of Knowledge", Christopher Columbus (also Darkwing) arrives, believing he's in India. The native Americans (Herb & Binkie) tell them that an old legend says it's in Ancient China.
In the real world, Gosalyn walks out her window and starts walking the streets. Darkwing Duck, seeing that she's sleep-walking again, rush off to rescue her. As she walks past a truck, with DW getting hit not her, then to a construction site (where again she walks safely as Darkwing gets injured), and onto a moving truck. While following Gos, Darkwing wakes up Megavolt.
Back in dreamland, AstroDuck and Gosalyn arrive in Ancient China where the emperor (Herb again) and Marco Polo (again Darkwing) start to trade. Then the Cosmic Overlord (Megavolt), traps them all in the basement. Gosalyn uses the fireworks she has and they escape and trap the Cosmic Overlord in the basement. Gos then asks the emperor where the fountain is. He tells them it's in Africa. Then she and AstroDuck travel to Africa next.
Back in the real world, Gosalyn walks onto a train. She almost fall off when Darkwing saves her, Megavolt (who followed DW) throws him off the train, captures Gosalyn and plans to use her as bait to lure Darkwing into a trap.
Back in dreamland, AstroDuck and Gos arrive and meet two more famous explorers (Darkwing & Launchpad again) in Africa. They then meet Dr. Livingstone (Herb), who tells them the fountain is beyond "the land of ice", meaning the North Pole. Then they go there; unfortunately, the Cosmic Overlord disguises himself as Santa Claus and tricks Gos and Astro into walking right in a cage.
Back in the real world, Megavolt has taken Gosalyn to an old junkyard where he sets her down and she nearly walks into a car crashing system. Luckily, Darkwing and Launchpad save her in time. DW tells her to wait, but Megavolt tells them not to worry about her, because she's not the one whose gonna be crushed. The heroes escape this trap and continue following Gosalyn.
Back in dreamland, the Overlord took Astro and Gosalyn to the moon. Gosalyn asks why she came with AstroDuck on this adventure, and he tells her because she's lazy and wanted to avoid studying and that she'll never learn anything that way. She states that she did learn from all the explorers she met, then she finally finds the fountain of knowledge. As AstroDuck and the Cosmic Overlord battle, Gosalyn learns that the fountain is really just a prop for the TV show and that the characters aren't real. She then asks them how she can get home, they tell her she must wake up.
Back in the real world, it's Launchpad who's waking Gosalyn up while Megavolt fights Darkwing. To help, Gos tries to throw her history book at Megavolt but accidentally hits Darkwing instead. Darkwing pushes Megavolt into the fountain, thus short circuiting him.
Voice Cast[]
- Dan Castellaneta - Megavolt, Astro Duck
- Christine Cavanaugh - Gosalyn
- Jim Cummings - Darkwing Duck/Drake Mallard, Herb Muddlefoot, Cosmic Overlord
- Katie Leigh - Honker
- Terry McGovern - Launchpad
- Susan Tolsky - Binkie Muddlefoot
Trivia[]
- AstroDuck is a parody of the anime, Astro Boy.
- This is one of the many cartoons that, at the time, inaccurately made the claim that Christopher Columbus landed in America. While the episode does note that Leif Erikkson found America before Columbus’s supposed claim, it incorrectly says that Erikkson named America. That honor goes to often overlooked Amerigo Vespucci.
