After three seasons of action-packed adventures, the Ducktales reboot series has now wrapped up with “The Last Adventure!” From 2017’s first “Woo-oo!” to this last installment in the TV series, this show has been a wonderful, beautiful, heart-warming ride to the last. The cast and crew of Ducktales clearly have so much love for these characters and their stories and it’s been amazing to watch this family’s story unfold.
Where it all started
There will be spoilers for the series finale later on, but before we dive into that let’s talk about what’s led up to this final episode of Ducktales 2017… and a bit about why you should watch this show if you haven’t already! I’ll also be talking about what drew me to the show and why I stuck around.
On December 16, 2016, Disney announced the revival and reboot of Ducktales with a video of the brand-new cast singing the show’s theme song. The nephews Huey, Dewey, and Louie Duck would be played by Danny Pudi, Ben Schwartz, and Bobby Moynihan respectively. Joining them would be Kate Micucci as Webby Vanderquack, Toks Olagundoye as Mrs. Beakley, and Beck Bennett as Launchpad McQuack. And then the casting that got my attention: David Tennant as Scrooge McDuck.
I will watch (almost) anything with David Tennant. So, when the 24-hour loop of the pilot episode “Woo-oo!” was running on Disney XD on August 12, 2017, I decided to check it out. And I am so glad that I did.
Last Time On Ducktales…
The premise that Ducktales starts with is simple enough: Donald Duck (Tony Anselmo) is struggling to find a job to support himself and his nephews. When the triplets’ babysitter doesn’t show up in time for his interview and they nearly get away with stealing the houseboat to take a trip to another city, Donald has to find someone to look after them. So he informs his nephews that they will be spending the afternoon with Scrooge McDuck. In their excitement about spending a few hours with the richest and most famous duck in the world, none of them think to question why Scrooge may “owe” their uncle anything. Not until they arrive at McDuck Mansion and Donald utters the words “Uncle Scrooge,” anyways!
What was supposed to be only a few hours turns into the rest of the day as the boys- and Scrooge’s housekeeper’s granddaughter Webby- get themselves into some trouble. No thanks to a few mystical items that their great-uncle has stored away in his garage! With a renewed sense of adventure, Scrooge decides to take them on a trip to the lost city of Atlantis to find a missing jewel. After finding said jewel and defeating Glomgold, Scrooge, the nephews, and Donald return home. And though Donald is hesitant to return to his old adventuring life with his 10-year-old nephews in tow, he and the boys move in with Scrooge.
From there, adventure calls. New friends are made. Secrets are uncovered. Mysteries are solved. And family is at the center of it all-in-all its possible shapes and sizes. Each season of Ducktales tells a specific story. Of course, as a children’s animated TV show these episodes are generally pretty stand-alone. However, there are also arcs to follow throughout.
Season One
In season one, we see Huey, Dewey, and Louie discovering more about the family they didn’t know they had. In between trying to solve the mystery of their Mom’s disappearance, the triplets also make new friends like Gyro Gearloose (Jim Rash), Lena (Kimiko Glenn), and Fenton Crackshell-Cabrera (Lin-Manuel Miranda). They also discover just how many enemies their great-uncle has made over the years such as Flintheart Glomgold (Keith Ferguson), Ma Beagle (Margo Martindale), and Magica DeSpell (Catherine Tate). They eventually uncover the truth about their Mom’s disappearance and it nearly rips the family apart again. But in the usual McDuck family fashion, they are brought back together when Magica DeSpell returns to take her revenge on him and his family.
Season Two
In season two, the effects of being an adventuring family are explored more closely- both for the family themselves and on how it affects those around them, too. We also learn more about the triplet’s Mom, Della Duck (Paget Brewster). Though she was feared lost when she took the rocketship that Scrooge designed and built for her, it turns out that she’s been stuck on the Moon for ten years! And though she thought she was alone save for one very persistent Moon Mite, she later discovers that there is an entire alien race just out of sight living there, too! At first, the Moonlanders help Della. With an apparent overabundance of gold on the Moon, she’s able to fix her ship and return home. However, the Moonlanders’ leader Lunaris (Lance Reddick) then reveals his distrust of “Earthers” and tricks the rest of the population into believing that Della has returned home only to get help to come back and conquer them. Under this ruse, they attack first. But as Donald says, “These ducks don’t back down.” So rallying together both their family and the friends they’ve made along the way, Lunaris is brought down and the rest of the Moonlanders find a home on Earth. But a more sinister threat lurks in the shadows…
Season Three
Season three focuses on legacy, looking even more at the future of the McDuck family. This season follows them as they search for the “Missing Mysteries” of Isabella Finch. Unknown to them at the start of the season, F.O.W.L (the Fiendish Organization for World Larceny) is watching their every move. Headed by Scrooge’s company’s chairman Bradford Buzzard (Marc Evan Jackson), the band of villains is intent on ending Scrooge McDuck’s life of adventuring and taking the Missing Mysteries for themselves. Or at least that appears to be the plan. But with his family back together after ten years, the nephews even more confident in their own abilities as explorers, and an ever-growing group of allies, surely they can defeat F.O.W.L.! Right…?
The Last Adventure!
To start, I adored this final episode of Ducktales. I have a lot of thoughts about the things I loved, but first: A rundown of the events of the finale. Spoilers follow!
After a raid on F.O.W.L.’s headquarters underneath Funso’s Fun-Zone, the McDucks are just a touch too late to capture Bradford and his associates. But they are left with a brand-new mystery. F.O.W.L. has cloned… Webby? Confused and unable to reconcile this new discovery with what they’d pieced together before, the group returns to the McDuck Mansion with the clones- May and June (Riki Lindhome and Noël Wells).
Curious and wanting to help her clones, Webby frees May and June. The plan is to work together so they can learn why she was chosen to be cloned. Though she wants to believe that they are good, May and June soon turn on Webby. They wind up stealing the Missing Mysteries recovered by the McDucks and take Webby hostage. As they board a plane to bring her and the artifacts back to F.O.W.L., Huey sees them leaving. He follows after, determined to help his friend. Though Webby is taking care of herself just fine- having switched places with June before boarding the plane so she can find out more about her own past.
When the family arrives to save Webby and Huey, things start to become even more complicated. Though Bradford tried to persuade Huey that he was simply finishing his grandmother Isabella Finch’s work and cataloging the Missing Mysteries and other items, it soon becomes clear that he has much darker motivations. A captured (and still alive!) Ludwig Von Drake (Corey Burton) reveals that Bradford intends to erase all of the artifacts he’s collected and Scrooge’s family by throwing them all into a modified Solego Vortex.
Meanwhile, Webby is doing some investigating of her own. Still disguised as June, she accesses F.O.W.L. records and discovers a folder called “April.” Though she finds a video of Mrs. Beakley- her grandmother- blowing up and then fleeing an old F.O.W.L. base with something in her arms, she’s interrupted before she can get further. Beakley, Scrooge, Donald, and Della have been captured and Black Heron wants “June” to question Beakley. Thinking that Webby is June, Beakley details how Webby came to be her “granddaughter.” When fighting against F.O.W.L., she found a small child abandoned in a glass container. Not wanting her to be injured or to become a pawn in an evil scheme, Beakley rescued her. She retired from her spy career, sought out Scrooge, and became his housekeeper. This way she could maintain a deep cover and keep Webby safe.
Feeling betrayed and hurt by Beakley’s lies, Webby falls prey to Bradford’s promise of telling her exactly why she was created… if she helps him find the remaining Missing Mystery. With no further explanation, he leads Webby to a box. Here, a piece of papyrus appears with glowing writing on it. Before she can read what it says, the writing disappears from the paper. Bradford snatches the paper and the clones knock Webby out.
Soon it becomes even clearer what Bradford’s plan is. Though he continues to insist that he’s not a “villain”, he lays out his plan for Scrooge. Bradford has come to the conclusion that Scrooge is directly connected to nearly all of the chaos in the past century. In order to reign in this chaos, he wants Scrooge to stop going on adventures. He also wants to be rid of any dangerous items or unpredictable people. To achieve this, he’s written out a contract that will be legally and “mystically” binding as Scrooge’s signature will go on the paper that Webby recovered- The Papyrus of Binding. If he doesn’t sign, Bradford will erase Scrooge’s family from existence. And to prove that he’s not messing around, Bradford even pushes his own agents and Black Heron in. Could this be Scrooge’s final adventure?
But as his captured family watches on, Huey remembers something important. There was a story that Della told him and his brothers about the Papyrus. To keep F.O.W.L. from finding and using the artifact and to protect a young Donald and Della from Black Heron, Scrooge instructed the paper to hide and only reveal itself to his heir. So why did it appear to Webby…? Turns out, she was made from Scrooge’s DNA by F.O.W.L. in an attempt to find the Papyrus! The only thing that had kept them from it all this time was Beakley taking Webby in and protecting her.
Back at the Solego Vortex, Scrooge tries to stall but Bradford has had enough. If Scrooge doesn’t sign immediately, Donald Duck will be erased from existence. Not wanting to take that risk, Scrooge signs. Now bound and trapped in place, he can only watch as Bradford decides to drop Donald into the Vortex anyways! Everything seems lost until Donald hits the bottom… with an “Ow”?
Having convinced May and June to help her- and their- family, Webby and the others have arrived just in time. They’re able to switch off the Solego Vortex to save Donald. However, an enraged Bradford with his true villainy amplified by the Sword of Swanstantine (another Missing Mysteries) goes to strike Scrooge down once and for all. But Webby swoops in, defending her Dad.
While Scrooge’s family bands together to protect him, Louie reads through the contract to see if he can find a loophole to break the Papyrus’ spell. Even to him it seems airtight- either Scrooge gets to continue on his adventures or he gets his family. But then the kids remember something that has been said and proven true time and time again in this show:
Family is the greatest adventure of all.
Bradford scoffs, declaring that statement ridiculous. But it works. The Papyrus of Binding disintegrates and Scrooge is freed. Trying to grab the pieces of the Papyrus, Bradford drops the Sword and his amplified powers leave him. “No! I will not lose to Scrooge!” he yells. But Scrooge replies: “You didn’t lose to me. You lost to my family. All of them!”
Thoughts on the finale
As I said before, I adore this finale. As much as I wish that Ducktales could’ve gotten a fourth (and so on) season, this was the perfect way to wrap up the TV series. All the loose ends were wrapped up and the call-backs to earlier episodes were perfect. Not to mention that the potential for more stories remains. Every character got their time to shine, too. And that’s something that can be tricky once you reach a cast of this size! I also loved the little nods at the start of the episode to things that would happen later. Such as Launchpad theorizing that F.O.W.L. was putting people in boxes (yep!) or the running gag of the “Ottoman Empire” show doing an early tease of Scrooge being Webby’s dad.
I didn’t talk about it much in my summary of the episode, but I greatly enjoyed the parts of the episode with the other supporting characters. The reveal of Manny the Headless Man Horse being some sort of doomsday-bringing creature was wild and unexpected. But I loved it! I loved the banter between Darkwing and Gizmoduck. And Launchpad’s seizing of the moment and becoming his own superhero by donning the Gizmoduck armor was amazing to see. I loved that he finally saw how much he inspires others!
But let’s talk about Webby and that reveal.
Because I do love “The Last Adventure!” so much, I have been hesitant to look at too many other fan reactions to the episode. What I have seen, though, does seem overwhelmingly positive and loving. One critique that I’ve seen and something I did wonder about myself is this: Does Webby being Scrooge’s daughter invalidate the show’s themes of found family?
Short answer: No.
Why? Well, for starters the only people who ever cared about Webby’s blood relationship to Scrooge were Bradford and Black Heron (who created her and the other two clones). Webby being Scrooge’s daughter changes little, if anything, about their relationship. Scrooge has considered Webby part of his family for a long time now- regardless of if they’re “really” related or not. True he didn’t know much about her until Donald and the nephews moved in and she joined them on their adventures. But as the series progressed he clearly came to think of her as family, too. It just happens to turn out that she shares his DNA. But she’s been part of the McDuck family well before they discover that fact.
There’s a quote from Webby in this episode that I think sums this up nicely.
“Heron made me, but she’s not my family. Family are the people who stick by you, fight for you, blindly invade a sinister villain’s secret stronghold for you!… Family would do anything to keep you safe and sacrifice everything to love you, no matter who or what you are. Like Scrooge. Like… my Granny.”
Webby’s family did all of that for her well before they discovered any sort of blood relationship. It doesn’t matter if she’s really Huey, Dewey, and Louie’s cousin or Scrooge’s daughter. They already love her and considered her family and would do anything for her, just like she’d do anything for them. And despite the lies that Beakley told her, she still very much considers her Granny. Webby even stopped Beakley from walking away after they defeated Bradford and the truth of her parentage came out. Beakley raised Webby. She rescued her without knowing who Webby was or why she was created. Beakley only knew that she saw a small child who needed help and protection. She will always be her Granny regardless of who Webby is really related to.
And even outside of Webby, there are so many other examples of non-blood-related or even just non-traditional families in this show. Donald raised his three nephews by himself after his sister disappeared and nothing has ever been made about who the boys’ father is. Donald and Della themselves were mostly raised by their Uncle Scrooge. Lena’s aunt is Magica DeSpell, but she found another family with the McDucks and the Saberwings. She considers herself, Webby, and Violet’s sisters. Even one of Glomgold’s schemes involves putting together a “family” of villains to match Scrooge’s own family. B.O.Y.D. is adopted by the Drakes but is also considered family to his creator, Gyro Gearloose, and brother to one of Gyro’s other creations, L’il Bulb. Gosalyn finds a family with Drake Mallard/Darkwing Duck after her grandfather goes missing.
Family is central to Ducktales. Be that blood, lost, made, or family that someone didn’t even know they had but were right there all along. To borrow that line again, “Family is the greatest adventure of all.” And “The Last Adventure!” captured that perfectly and beautifully.
The future of Ducktales…?
Despite this being the last episode of the TV series, this isn’t the last we’ll see of these characters. There are at least two officially confirmed projects and another rumored one.
To start with, Disney announced that starting on March 29th there will be a scripted, in-universe Ducktales podcast called This Duckburg Life. The seven-part podcast will be released weekly and it’s hosted by Huey Duck- as still played by Danny Pudi! From the press release, it looks as if the vast majority of the cast will return. The only name that I noticed missing is Della Duck/Paget Brewster. Though I wish that this was an animated continuation of the show, I’ll be excited to at least hear more from these characters!
We’ll also see the continuation of (or perhaps the expansion of, depending on timelines) the show in Epcot! Disney announced back in late 2019 that Ducktales would be replacing Perry the Platypus in the interactive scavenger hunt around the World Showcase area of the park. The original timelines suggested that it would open in summer 2020, but given the pandemic, that was not to be. Some (myself included) wondered if the show’s cancellation would also mean this project’s cancellation as well. However, Attractions Magazine was able to confirm with a Disney spokesperson that the attraction will still be coming to Epcot- just at a later time than originally planned.
Looking at the timelines, it does seem likely that the project was announced sometime after the crew was made aware of the show’s cancellation. However, I haven’t found anything confirming that. Disney also removed all of the figures and the small “recruiting” area for the former Phineas and Ferb-themed iteration of the attraction back in March 2020. Hopefully, the new Ducktales version will be live soon!
As for rumors, Variety reported in November 2020 that there is a Darkwing Duck reboot in the works for Disney+ with Seth Rogen as one of the executive producers. Variety did run this story only citing “sources” and Disney declined to comment on their report. To be honest, I would not be overly excited if Disney took Darkwing away from the Ducktales 2017 team. It’d be a huge mistake in my opinion. They’ve already done an amazing pilot for a Darkwing reboot in the form of the episode “Let’s Get Dangerous!” and I think it’d be silly for Disney to ignore a group of creatives that so clearly love the show, characters, and have proven they can tell amazing stories in this universe. I suppose we’ll have to wait and see how this rumor pans out.
Outside of confirmed projects and rumors, I just hope that Disney keeps these versions of these characters (and this incredibly talented and amazing voice cast) around for the long-term. Huey, Dewey, and Louie’s personalities in the reboot have been so much fun to watch. Especially when it came to how they found their place in their family’s legacy! Della Duck is an amazing addition to the Duck family and deserves so much more love). And Webby… Well, she does have that doll that looks a lot like her counterpart in the original show stuck to the wall with a knife. So uh. You know! Fenton, Gyro, Darkwing, Launchpad, Lena, Violet, May, June… I just hope we see or hear more of them one day.
Even though I admittedly only started Ducktales because David Tennant was involved, I’m so glad I checked it out and stuck with the show. There are so many amazing characters to look up to and be inspired by for all ages and types of people. The story and writing have been consistently amazing, heart-breaking in the best possible ways, and uplifting and inspiring, too. Thank you to everyone involved in making this show. It’s been great getting to go along on this little animated fictional duck family’s adventures. I can’t wait to find out what they get up to next.
Woo-oo!
(PS: Disney just announced that Ducktales season 3 will be coming to Disney+ on April 30th! I highly recommend checking out the show if you haven’t already!)
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