Did you read my first article about DuckTales where I jumped into Scrooge McDuck’s Money Bin? That’s when I let it slip that I had seen the first DuckTales episode of the new reboot! Do you have theme song playing in your head on a loop!
“DuckTales” will premiere in a one-hour television movie to be presented for 24 consecutive hours, SATURDAY, AUGUST 12 (beginning at midnight, EDT/PDT) on Disney XD. Then, the series will debut with two new episodes SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 23 (7:00 a.m., 11:00 a.m., 2:00 p.m., 5:00 p.m., 8:00 p.m., 10:30 p.m., EDT/PDT). Each will also be available on the Disney XD app and Disney XD VOD on these same dates.
Based on the Emmy Award-winning series treasured by a generation of viewers, Disney XD’s animated comedy-adventure series “DuckTales” chronicles the high-flying adventures of Duckburg’s most famous trillionaire Scrooge McDuck, his mischief-making triplet grandnephews, Huey, Dewey and Louie, temperamental nephew Donald Duck and the trusted McDuck Manor team: big-hearted, fearless chauffer/pilot Launchpad McQuack, no-nonsense housekeeper Mrs. Beakley and Mrs. Beakley’s granddaughter, Webby Vanderquack, resident adventurer and the triplet’s newfound fierce friend.
We sat down with the Creators of this Duck Tales reboot, Co-Producer / Story Editor Francisco Angones and Executive Producer Matt Youngberg, and our first question was, why? They said they loved the show growing up and wanted to introduce it to their kids! And, since they have five daughters between them, they also wanted to introduce a strong character that girls would identify with, so meet Webby Vanderquack, the boys new “fierce” friend. Now you know this is going to be a strong female lead for girls to identify with!
Their main priority in bringing DuckTales back, was to make it as good as the first DuckTales, so a whole new generation could enjoy it as much as they had when growing up! We discussed future episodes as well, and found out that like all things Disney, it’s all about authenticity, and the audience appreciates that. “When our Ducks travel to different lands, voice actors from those countries will be used. And a lot of research will go into the product!”
Also, this is an updated DuckTales, so you will see Donald Duck with a cellphone, and if Louie is trying to break into a room, he is going to do the same research everyone does, he is going to check a youtube video! Our kids will relate to this updated DuckTales because it will be representative of what is in their live and of course while Uncle Scrooge’s phone is gold, he hasn’t bought a new one in 20 years, hence he is still using a flip-phone! I love this!
Our new friends shared how they wanted the animation to have the feel of a newspaper comic which is what DuckTales is based on. They thought that CGI would be “artificial.” And, if you play close attention to the show, “one of the things we said is that DuckTales is all pulp adventure stories. And one of the cool things that Matt and our art director Sean Jimenez did, is they wanted to actually put pulp in it. So, if you pause and look very closely, everything has this layer of actual newspaper pulp underneath it…”
My favorite part of the conversation had to do with families. The gang in DuckTales are one big blended family. Granduncle, uncle, nephews, housekeeper, granddaughter. This is always important to me as we have always told our son that all families are different (not just ours), and any time this is represented in a show, it is important to us personally, and also a reflection of the changes in our culture.
And here is a huge spoiler for thse who don’t yet know, “Lin-Manuel Miranda is playing Fenton Crackshell-Cabrera slash Gizmoduck in our show.”
Lastly, my big question for Matt and Francisco was, why David Tennant? You may know David Tennant as one of the best portrayers of BBC’s Doctor Who, or the evil character in Jessica Jones, or even as the incredible detective on “Broadhchurch.” Their response was :
I mean, David Tennant, well, seemed to be the, the natural choice for this. We really wanted to find somebody who was legitimately Scottish. We thought that was really important in this iteration. Uh. But someone who had the, the character to bring this, this, icon alive. And David is an amazing actor. He’s morphed into this role in, in an incredible way. Because, when you think David Tennant, you think young and kind of, and vibrant and all of these things, and Scrooge you think of as old and miserly.
I suspect having David in this role will expand the DuckTales universe!
And then I met the new voice of Scrooge McDuck, David Tennant!
And, I found out how David got inspiration for his character!
So set your devices and get the kids ready to see the new DuckTales! Woo-oo! And spoiler alert, here are two never before seen clips from the new season!
Disclosure: Disney invited me on this press trip and paid all of my expenses. No other compensation was received. All opinions are always 100% my own and honest.
And no trip is complete without the full blogger contingent and our interview guests!
DUCKTALES (premieres Saturday, August 12th on Disney XD)
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