The relaunch show was made for a slightly older audience, and while I miss the brighter palate of the original series, and the modern animation has a flatter affect, there’s a lot to love about the new style: The nuances are just as subtle, the character designs more innovative. That’s why the fresh edition doesn’t feel like an empty rehashing, or nostalgic flattery. The new DuckTales is like watching a legendary cover band who also happen to be groundbreaking artists at the same time. This reboot was made by people who loved the original. And Twin Peaks-style success stories are far and few between. So, when I saw that Disney was relaunching the franchise, I was ambivalent. The future of televised animation belonged to satire, and satire alone. Then the 1990s saw the corporate board yoink the ducks and lean back over to conventional programming. Disney was going to purvey complex, consistent storytelling through the venerable funny animal genre to the great unwashed masses. The arrival of DuckTales and its strangely compelling idea (crusty trillionaire is dragooned into bringing his family along on adventures), the international ear-worming of its striking (and possibly immortal) theme music, and the blue-ribbon production values of Disney Television Animation circa 1987, seemed to signal a new dawn. And frankly, the Tales of Duckburg were much better than anything Disney TV did for years afterwards. The original series marked the rebirth of no-kidding serious TV animated programming: The original DuckTales premiered on September 18, 1987, and the first Simpsons episode launched on December 17, 1989. Forget for a second all of the conventions that came with the original show: the canned background music, the tendency towards filler, the overabundance of unnecessary explanation. The late-1980s animated series was so lovable and memorable that it’s remained a trophy object for many of us who grew up in the Age of Bush I. Even then, it would not be the end of my adoration for them ducks. Somewhere in the back of my head, there is a part of me that could sit in a comfy chair and watch DuckTales, and read Carl Barks comics, until the sun bloats red and dies and rolls over on its back like an overdosing possum. I have loved DuckTales most of my life, for reasons that I am not entirely able to fathom, but I’m confident the world’s best therapists could take a crack at it. The new 2017 DuckTales has everything that made the original series great, and then some. How could I have prepared my body for more of these outrageous ducks? Their power to not fool around scares me, and I am convinced racecars, lasers and airplanes will follow soon. You’ve heard of pimping my ride? Well, they pimped my expectations, and yo dawg I hear you like DuckTales, so we put even more DuckTales in your DuckTales. It’s intimidating, almost insulting, how much they refuse to fool around. Disney’s new DuckTales relaunch is absolutely 100-percent, uncut, not-fooling-around tales of Duckburg.
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