"You're an actor and a Launchpad!"
I've rewatched the latest DWD-related DuckTales-episode, aptly titled "Let's get dangerous!" now and that was truly necessary to digest all that happens in such a short time. Well... to cut a long story short: I liked it, really. Not as much as the whole "The Duck Knight Returns"-concept, because that was absolutely gorgeous and original, but it was solid. Perhaps doing it the way I did it last time with TDKR would be best, as there are so many little details I noticed and found important. Without further ado, here are the good and (again, I'm perfectly diplomatic) not so good parts of "Let's Get Dangerous!":
The voice actors: Chris Diamantopoulos as Drake/Darkwing has won me over. Need to mention this first, as the original Drake is my all-time favourite cartoon duck and to have someone replacing Jim Cummings stung first. But he's doing a brilliant job with portraying the emotional, comedic as well as iconic (even imitating Jim's style at times) sides of DW's voice, all the while still doing his own thing. Stephanie Beatriz as Gosalyn was much better in the entirety of the episode than just in the snippet we got to see beforehand. The character voice was consistent and had the slightest hint of Gosalyn's exceptional original voice every now and then. Nope, didn't expect her to imitate the late Christine Cavanaugh. But it felt good to hear her in these moments through the new voice. Does that make sense? Don't know. It does for me. Beck Bennett's Launchpad also grew on me. He's such a big, sweet guy, and I swear, I was Launchpad throughout this episode, ugly crying in the background included. I was happy to hear Michael Bell as Quackerjack again, such a wonderful treat. I would have give a lot to also have Dan Castellaneta as Megavolt at least once more, but let's not be too greedy. I knew that wouldn't happen.
I've always found it terribly sad that Taurus Bulba was so dreadfully squandered in the original show, he had a huge potential that was left untouched because he only returned once. Now we get to see more of him than ever before and he deserves that, being both likeable and menacing. The new voice actor, James Monroe Iglehart, has a booming, winning, charming voice that I completely fell for and that works really well for Bulba, even though I miss a bit the wicked accent Tim Curry used for him. ;)
Scrooge (David Tennant, you sly genius), the boys and Fenton didn't feel foreign in the context of this episode, but were well integrated (yeah, I know, it's DuckTales not Darkwing Duck, but this was essentially a Darkwing Duck-story, so...). Dewey in particular was wonderful, his interactions with Gosalyn absolutely endearing (I had always thought they'd make a cute duo), especially when he explained his "deweying" to Gos.
The nerdiness of it all. I know this whole thing was basically directed at people like me who grew up with the original and would recognise the references (Those little numbers on the super villain trading cards representing their introduction episodes in the series? Nice touch.) and get a kick out of finding them all. Drake and Launchpad's nerdy talk. And then again, I'm overly giddy with pleasure to see that so many new fans are now drawn to the old show just because of DW's return on DuckTales. We have come full circle. <3
The whole episode actually felt like Darkwing Duck. It was fun, it was zany and they uttered "Let's get dangerous!" more often than ever before in any other Darkwing Duck episode. Also, how many entrances did DW have... four? Five? Amazing. Poor Darkwing was battered and bruised creatively throughout the 1-hour-long episode, all the while displaying his most loveable quirks.
The first sight of DW's new lair at Audubon Bay Bridge gave me goosebumps.
Drake's incredibly well aimed upper cut and the following fight scene with Bulba. I can only agree with Gosalyn here: That was pretty cool.
The "orchestral" soundtrack was once more perfect.
The reference to the lullaby. Lovely.
I slowly get used to the redesigns, including DW's costume and Gosalyn's teen outfit. Dark but acceptable. In DW's case, it nicely shows off his newly toned body. Gone is the dad bod! I'll still miss it.
What on earth happened to Reggie Bushroot? Nevermind, he was cool, in an extremely grotesque way. The scene in the room with his vines set as traps was intense (and could have been even more so if Dewey hadn't been so ludicrous).
"You're an actor and a Launchpad." – I want this phrase on a T-shirt. XD
Thaddeus Waddlemeyer. I like the sound of that. And still, I feel extremely bad for wanting poor old grandpa Waddlemeyer dead, so Drake can adopt his little girl. You know, I really like Professor Waddlemeyer. Always have. He's just... in the way. It's nothing personal. ;P
And now, what bothered me...
First things first, and the most important matter on top: I was slightly bothered by the changed relationship between Drake and Gos. It felt more like an older brother/younger sister-thing for me, particularly due to two facts: The first one is that this Drake is younger and Gosalyn older, which means she's savvy, snarky and knows her way around and isn't the lost girl nobody wants. Secondly, she states repeatedly that she doesn't need a new family as she has already got one with which she's perfectly happy. True, Professor Waddlemeyer is still alive for all we know and remains so even when the episode is over. At least theoretically in another dimension. Or he may be dead. So the professor has turned into Schrödinger's cat now. XD Anyway, given the circumstances, it's not a surprise there is no adoption in the end. And I'm okay with that. However, what I'm not okay with is that this Drake offers Gos a job as his "crime-fighting-partner". I beg your pardon? I mean, come on! She's a child! Even my parent-senses are tingling here! Drake's supposed to be a sensible grown-up. Original Drake would have done everything in his might to keep this girl from harm (a lot of episodes even revolved around whether or not Gosalyn should join a case). Gosalyn might have tagged along every now and then, sometimes with Drake's consent, sometimes without. But in general, it was quite clear that she's still too young for the danger (and sometimes she had to pay the price for following her dad around... Darkwarrior, anyone?). One of the most touching scenes depicting their relationship in Darkwing Duck is when Drake reprimands Gosalyn after her reckless stunt as Quiverwing Quack in the episode of the same name (and boy, is he right!) and sends her to her room. Gosalyn, however, counters "Go to my room? See? You never treated me like a hero! You just treat me like your baby girl!" and Drake goes, very softly and out of earshot for Gosalyn, "Because you are.". Man, all those emotions bubbling to the surface here. I'm well aware of the fact that their emotional bond isn't like that in LGD (yet), but still... I don't want to write a treatise on this topic, yet it touches me so much that I just had to get that off my chest.
The theme song would have been a nice touch... somewhere.
The extended eye-hole for Quackerjack's mask was an odd design choice. I didn't get it.
I somehow failed to follow Bulba's evil scheme. What precisely was his oh-so-ingenius idea? I didn't get it.
Where was the gas gun? Where was Darkwing's helmet?!?
I was a bit unhappy about the fact that Drake's identity is – basically – known to everyone. It often leads to some amusing situations, of course. Yet the mystery isn't there. So when he stood before Gosalyn without his mask and costume at the end of the episode, it was rather underwhelming. Gosalyn's reaction was also too lame and vacuous for my taste. There are so many wonderful things to do with such a scene and all of them didn't happen. But I guess that's also partially owing to the new dynamic between these two.
The whole episode... was trying a bit too hard to include everything. I think what suffered most from this ambitious task were the Fearsome Four. Their presence was of course not unwanted from my side, but they simply didn't have a real chance to shine. Usually DW would quarrel with just one of them for a whole episode to give them some limelight, or they would team up and still have some nonsensical banter or hysterical bickering between them that would give them a whole lot of character. I missed that. They all remained rather flat (Bushroot excluded).
But, as I already hinted at right at the beginning of these reflections: The episode is a gift. So whatever I might not like about it is actually minor, compared to the happiness I get from watching my favourite duck grace the big screen again. With or without the dad bod. He deserves it.