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SplatterPhoenix

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"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!":


  1. 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.

  2. 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. ;)

  3. 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.

  4. 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

  5. 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.

  6. The first sight of DW's new lair at Audubon Bay Bridge gave me goosebumps.

  7. 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.

  8. The "orchestral" soundtrack was once more perfect.

  9. The reference to the lullaby. Lovely.

  10. 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.

  11. 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).

  12. "You're an actor and a Launchpad." – I want this phrase on a T-shirt. XD

  13. 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...


  1. 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.

  2. The theme song would have been a nice touch... somewhere.

  3. The extended eye-hole for Quackerjack's mask was an odd design choice. I didn't get it.

  4. I somehow failed to follow Bulba's evil scheme. What precisely was his oh-so-ingenius idea? I didn't get it.

  5. Where was the gas gun? Where was Darkwing's helmet?!?

  6. 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.

  7. 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.

The gosling has landed
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A closer look at "The Duck Knight Returns!"

Duck Tales, Season 2, Episode 16


(In case you're interested and haven't read it yet, my first reaction to the episode can be found in my penultimate journal entry.)

After sleeping over the impressions of last week's Duck Tales-episode and rewatching it I still have to say that it was really, really good. It was made with love - this sounds cheesy, I know, but that's just the way it is - and it shone through every second of this episode. You could tell that the people working on this were devoted fans not only of the Duck Tales- but also of the Darkwing Duck-franchise. There were so many nods to the "old" fans (Yes guys, we're the old fans now!) in the form of easter eggs, quotes or facial expressions that you could only get if you had at least a small preliminary knowledge of the original cartoon. Still, as I now had some time to think about it, there are a few things that weren't 100% perfect. Without further ado, here are some of the positive and not so positive parts of the episode that I feel like sharing with you. I'm curious to hear what you think!

The positive bits!

  1. Scrooge with 3D-glasses made my day. Yes, I'm a Whovian and with David Tennant being my favourite Doctor this was too good to be true. On a related note: David Tennant saying "Darkwing Duck" was heavenly.
  2. Didn't we always wonder what Drake Mallard did for a living before he became Darkwing? Now we know. He was an actor. And what a good choice of job this is for him, it fits his character perfectly and I'm truly happy with this.
  3. This episode brilliantly explains why Drake always forces himself to get back up and not cave in when there's trouble ahead. He became that resilient because of his past as a bullying victim (We already knew that he had a hard time at school, but this was somehow touching to witness anyway.). It brings a new depth to his personality and I didn't expect it would touch me this way.
  4. I loved that Drake had an old school-gaming console in his trailer. A game of Whiffle Boy, anyone? :giggle:
  5. Drake had me at "They beat me up much harder.". :aww:
  6. Launchpad's constant fainting spells when he saw Jim Starling made me laugh so hard. :XD:
  7. That crazy feeling I had when I found I was still rooting for Jim Starling's Darkwing because he was voiced by Jim Cummings, even though he was truly mean and cruel. And then realisation hit me: We've got ourselves a new Negaduck here. And then... total exhilaration! :la:
  8. Haute Couture (or is she spelled Hot Couture here?) was a villain I would definitely have liked to see on the original show. She would have fit in perfectly!
  9. Drake and Launchpad being total Darkwing Duck-fanboys was cute. That's the right word for it, I suppose. I don't ship these two, but I'm all for fanboy-bromance. :brofist: 
  10. They at least tried to give Drake facial expressions, which is a real challenge with the static animation style of the new Duck Tales, I admit. Yet there were allusions to some of his best goofy faces from the cartoon, e.g. in the "I'm incredibly strong and resilient"-scene during the fight with Jim Starling, such as Drake spitting out piano keys, sticking out his tongue while lying flat on the floor and finally... he got his beak tweaked! I really laughed out loud then and virtually had Preena Lott's voice in my head.  :laugh: 
  11. The music was really good. I mean... just listen to it. 
  12. Drake's beak is slightly rounder at the edges than Jim Starling's. Which is a neat design choice, as it looks much better than the beaks they usually draw on Duck Tales and it's obviously a bit closer to the original. Why do I mention this? Right, because beaks are important. ;P
  13. It was great to see the purple wash off Negaduck's suit and see how that revealed the complementary colour, yellow. That was just perfect.
  14. Did I mention the widescreen-switch during the final battle? I already did in my last journal entry, didn't I? But it was that impressive to me that I had to mention it twice it seems. Laugh 
So that's it for the list of positive aspects and now we come to...

The problematic bits!

(See? I'm not calling them negative... that's a good sign.)

  1. The drawing and animation style of the new Duck Tales. I know, I've mentioned a couple of times that I'm not overly fond of this style we find in a lot of cartoons nowadays and the Duck Tales-reboot is not an exception. It simply doesn't work as well as the hand-drawn animation of past days for me. It's too perfect and thus too sterile, a bit lifeless, unmoving. It robs the characters of an important part of their personality and this becomes more than obvious in the animation and overall design of the new Drake Mallard. He's of course younger than the one we met in the original cartoon, but there the cartoonists dared to make him ugly every now and then. Scrunch up his face. Give him loads of wrinkles. Bags under his eyes when he was out of coffee. You get the picture. Even when the new Drake was battered and down, the animation still couldn't get to that range of expressions the original achieved. I know that might be not very important, but as I'm someone who especially adored Drake's imperfections, this had to be mentioned.
  2. The new costume is... okay. But not really good. I can see why they'd want to give him a new outfit, but honestly, the old one looked simply better. I'm happy they kept the cape with the pink lining though. ;P It's so 90s. :ohyeahs: 
  3. I might be a nitpicker here, but I have to go back to a point I already made when the new Darkwing first appeared in "Beware the B.U.D.D.Y. System!": What does he need that stupid belt for? ;P I thought I got used to it by now, but this new episode raised the question again why the old DW had to have it. He obviously didn't wear it in the comic parts shown, so why did Jim Starling have it? It served no purpose and the rest of the costume stayed exactly the same. :facepalm: It's a mystery.
  4. The Darkwing Dance Crew... I hated it. ;) But that's okay, I hated the Darkwing Squad in the original show as well. :lel:
  5. I feel that whoever is not happy with how Darkwing is portayed here has not thought of how all the poor Megavolt-fans might feel. :lol: The Megavolt in this episode was an absolute joke. Don't worry, next time he'll surely look better again. C: Nod.    
And here we are. That's it for now. Have you really read the whole tirade above? :woah: Please keep in mind that this is just my subjective opinion and it's not to be seen as real criticism, as I only mentioned what bothered my die-hard inner fangirl in this episode. Besides, you can see how the positive aspects clearly outweigh the negative ones here. I would never complain, because what we got with "The Duck Knight Returns!" is so much better than we could have hoped for. Those people who have been following me here for the past decade and more know that Drake is my favourite cartoon character ever and I was touchy when I learnt that he was going to resurge in Duck Tales. Well, I'm happy. Really. He's younger here, he still has to learn. But I like the spirit he has. Just keep one thing in mind: if you really don't like this reboot of the Darkwing Duckverse there's always the original show to go back to. This is not Star Wars, there won't be a George Lucas to take that away from us. ;P
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*Spoilers* Don't say I didn't warn you... ;P

Oh my God, did you guys watch Duck Tales today? Did you see that episode? Did you see that EPISODE?!? Gosh, it was amazing. At least it feels like it right now. That might change once I've slept on it. :giggle:

So... Jim Cummings is back voicing Darkwing/Jim Starling and he does a fabulous job as always. By the way, I saw that major plot twist coming all the way and was extremely opposed to it at first, going "Meh, surely the young guy is supposed to replace Jim as Darkwing at some point... I hate that.". At some point, however, a voice inside my head went "That young actor... he never told his name. I bet that's supposed to be Drake Mallard.". And I literally jumped off my sofa when I saw him sign the poster for Launchpad while screaming at the screen "Yeah, told you so!".

And somehow... that was okay for me. It's Drake after all. A new voice actor, yes, but it's a sweet origin story for him becoming Darkwing Duck and if that's what a new generation of fans get, I'm happy as one of those old-timers who watched the show as a child (thus belonging to the original target audience).

What I didn't expect in this episode were Launchpad's great portrayal (It was so heart-warmingly sweet when he stood amidst the mayhem Jim and Drake had left and recited the theme song... I almost cried. :XD:), the animation choices and overall design of this episode (Did you notice how the screen format changed to widescreen during the showdown between Starling and Drake for a while?) and, of course, the insanely cool appearance of Negaduck (What an origin story, eh?) at the end of the episode. Man, so good. I was never happier to see that chainsaw-wielding madman. :D

There's just one more thing: You better adopt that little girl blue soon, Drake Mallard. She's waiting for you. :aww:

Darker Darkwing by SplatterPhoenix
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I've been sharing my Instagram-account already here, I know, but since I changed the Instagram handle some time ago and since a bit of shameless self-promotion can never be amiss, here it is again:


I'm updating that page more frequently than this one and you'll be able to take a peek at works in progress, doodles I usually wouldn't post here, original art and the materials I use to work with. Drop by, say hello, leave a comment or message, sift through my art, feel free too look around! See you there!
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I'm thinking about getting myself a new graphics tablet for digital art. Some of you might know that I've been using my ancient WACOM-tablet for ages - it's still the first I ever got in 2005 - and the pen is slowly falling apart. The tablet is rather small and when I'm drawing, I have to look at the monitor all the time, which is something I got used to over the years, but which is still not really comfortable for colouring and lineart. As I have no experience with any current products I just wanted to ask you what you think I should get. Could any of you fellow deviants out there recommend a good new alternative? What do you use? And what can you tell me from your experience of working with your tablet?
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