Along with
Gummi Bears,
Rescue Rangers, and
Tale Spin, Ducktales was part of the original
Disney Afternoon. It involved the very
wealthy Scrooge McDuck (cousin of
Donald Duck) and his
wacky adventures to get more money. He was usually accompanied by his
pilot LaunchPad McQuack and his nephews
Huey,
Dewey, and
Louie. Other recurring characters included the maid
Mrs. Beakley, her niece
Webby, the robotic
GizmoDuck, and
caveman Bubba Duck. The main villain was
goth chick/
duck Magica de Spell who was always after
Scrooge's
lucky number one dime. Other recurring vilains included the
Beagle Boys and rival wealthy
mallard Flintheart Glomgold. The show was very
Indiana Jones-esque. It ran from 1987-1990 can often be caught in
reruns even today.
The show also spun off into a movie, called
DuckTales: The Movie - Treasure of the Lost Lamp. As the title implies, the movie was concerned the search for a magical
genie lamp which could
grant wishes. It was mildy successfull
grossing 18
million in the
US box office.
DuckTales the cartoon also spawned DuckTales the
videogame for the original
8-bit NES. The game is generally considered one of the greatest platformers of the 8-bit era. It was
above and beyond what was expected from a Disney licensed
platform game. You played as Scrooge scouring the world for even more
money. The levels included
Transylvania,
African mines,
the moon,
Aztec ruins, and a few others. Scrooge could wield his
walking cane as a
golf club or
bounce on it for a
pogo stick. Along the way all the Ducktales regulars showed up to provide help. GizmoDuck could
blow up a
wall, Mrs. Beakley would give you
cake, LaunchPad could fly you around, and Hewey Dewey and Louie would provide gameplay hints. It all culminated in a battle with Magica DeSpell and a race to a giant diamond with Glomgold. What made the game so replayable was that it kept track of how much money you made and it was actually
fun to go back and try to get more. The videogame was followed by a
sequel, which was just more of the same. Not that that's
a bad thing.