Darkwing Duck
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Darkwing Duck | |
|---|---|
 Darkwing Duck as seen in the show's opening sequence. |
|
| Genre | Animated series |
| Running time | 22 minutes |
| Creator(s) | Tad Stones |
| Starring | Jim Cummings Christine Cavanaugh Terry McGovern |
| Country of origin |  United States |
| Original channel | ABC Syndication |
| Original run | September 8, 1991–December 5, 1992 |
| No. of episodes | 91 |
| IMDb profile | |
| TV.com summary | |
- This article is about the animated series. For the character, see Darkwing Duck (character).
Darkwing Duck is an Emmy-nominated American animated television series produced by The Walt Disney Company that ran from 1991 to 1992 on both the syndicated programming block The Disney Afternoon and Saturday mornings on ABC. It featured an eponymous superhero anthropomorphic duck with the alter ego of Drake Mallard (voiced by Jim Cummings).
This show was moved to Toon Disney in the late 1990's, but it is now off the air as of 2004 due to the addition of JETIX.
Contents |
[edit] Characters
[edit] Premise
The success of DuckTales led to a spin-off series, Darkwing Duck, one year after the show had ended. Darkwing Duck was inspired by two episodes of DuckTales, entitled Double-O-Duck and The Masked Mallard. The original concept had Launchpad McQuack as the star.
While the show establishes its own conventions, it is largely regarded as an affectionate satire on superhero mythos and lore, some obvious, some subtle, and others quite witty. Darkwing's costume, gas gun, and flashy introductions are all direct references to the Crimson Avenger; the fictional city of St. Canard and Darkwing's rogues gallery reflect Batman influences.
The episode Aduckyphobia shows Darkwing being bitten by a mutated spider and ending up growing six arms. While on the surface this is a parody on the origin of Spider-Man, below it, it is a nod to the changes and reinventions all superhero characters go through, as Spider-Man in a notable issue ended up growing six arms.
There were, generally, two kinds of episodes. In the first it was just a straightforward quest to stop the villain, in the other some kind of transformation would happen to one of the main characters, such as Darkwing being turned old, Gosalyn being turned to slime and so on, and they would have to find a cure, while stopping the villain. Meanwhile, the transformation will turn out to be of tremendous use in this particular case.
Darkwing Duck exists in the same continuity as many of the other Disney cartoon series. In addition to Launchpad and GizmoDuck's appearances in the series, Magica DeSpell, Flintheart Glomgold, and the Beagle Boys from DuckTales can be seen in crowd shots during "In Like Blunt." Chip 'N Dale's Rescue Rangers are indirectly referenced in "Twitching Channels", an episode that was originally planned to be a full crossover with Rescue Rangers. In the episode "Film Flam", it is revealed that Darkwing's blue turtle-neck shirt sports the Talespin logo on the front. In an episode of Goof Troop, Max is wearing a Quackerjack watch, and in another episode, Pete is reading a newspaper with Darkwing Duck pictured in the cover story.
The character of Darkwing Duck appeared occasionally in the series Bonkers, and earlier Gosalyn appeared in the series Raw Toonage. In a five-part comic in Disney Adventures, The Legend of the Chaos God, it was shown that Rescue Rangers, Goof Troop, DuckTales, and Darkwing Duck all take place in the same world, with Tale Spin taking place several years before the rest of the aformentioned series. This however causes plotholes within several of the series. A primary plothole being that Rescue Rangers takes place in the human world, thus making it impossible for them to exist in the same world as Talespin, Darkwing Duck, DuckTales and Goof Troop, though the other four series can possibly exist together in a loose timeline. Darkwing Duck and Ducktales are directly connected by two characters crossing over into the world of Darkwing Duck. The first is Launchpad, Darkwing's sidekick, who is a longtime staple of DuckTales, and GizmoDuck, an armored hero who became a popular part of the DuckTales cast during the series' run.
[edit] Episodes
[edit] Broadcast history
The two-part episode Darkly Dawns the Duck originally aired as an hour-length TV special on the Disney Channel on April 6, 1991. The film served as the show's pilot.
Seasons 1 and 2 were aired simultaneously in the Autumn of 1991. Season 1 on syndication as part of The Disney Afternoon block of shows. Seasons 2 and 3 on Saturday mornings on ABC.
All episodes remained in syndicated reruns on The Disney Afternoon until 1994 and then returned to the line up from 1996 to 1997.
The series was last seen in the U.S. on Toon Disney, but due to bad scheduling and the addition of JETIX, it has vanished completely from the network. Along with a number of other shows, it was removed from schedules in November 2004 and has not been seen since, although Toon Disney did air the Christmas episode featuring Bushroot on December 25, 2004. It is unknown if it will ever return, but it does air on Toon Disney in Scandinavia.
[edit] DVD and video
Four VHS tapes, each containing two episodes of Darkwing Duck, were released under the title Darkwing Duck: His Favorite Adventures in the United States on March 23, 1993 – "Darkly Dawns the Duck", "Justice Ducks Unite!", "Comic Book Capers" and "The Birth of Negaduck". However, most countries around the world only received releases of "Darkly Dawns the Duck" and "Justice Ducks Unite!".
Rumors of a DVD release of the series started in early 2006, and in May the rumors were proven true. A 3-disc DVD box set entitled Darkwing Duck: Volume 1 was released on August 29, 2006. It includes 27 episodes, including the 2-part pilot "Darkly Dawns the Duck", which was unfortunately presented in edited form as opposed to the uncut version's release on VHS, it is unknown when or if a Volume 2 will be released.
[edit] Video games
There was a Darkwing Duck video game released by Capcom on the Nintendo Entertainment System and the Game Boy. Another game was also made for the TurboGrafx-16.
[edit] "Let's get dangerous" in other languages
The show was dubbed in several different languages for international distribution. As such, the catchphrase Let's get dangerous! had to be translated into a similarly catchy phrase for the target language. It often did not keep its literal sense, as a direct translation of the phrase was unlikely to hold the same impact.
| Language | Phrase | Literal translation |
|---|---|---|
| Cantonese Chinese | 等我搞破壞! | Wait till I do some destruction! |
| Danish | Lad os så vove fjerene! | Let's risk our feathers! |
| Dutch | Laten we lekker link gaan doen! | Let's be nice 'n risky! |
| Finnish | Ollaan vaarallisia! | Let's be dangerous! |
| French | Ça va craindre un masque/max! | It will fear a mask/maximum |
| German | Zwo, Eins, Risiko! | Two, one, risk! |
| Greek | Ας γίνουμε επικίνδυνοι! | Let's get dangerous! |
| Hindi | Ho Jaye Khatron Se Takkar | Let's tackle danger! |
| Indonesia | Hadang bahaya!! | Charge the danger! |
| Italian | Dagli addosso, Duck! | Go for it, Duck! |
| Korean | 덤벼 보라고! | Go ahead and attack me! |
| Mandarin Chinese | 讓我搞破壞! | Let me do some destruction! |
| Norwegian | La oss bli farlige! | Let's get dangerous! |
| Portuguese(Brasil) | Vamos encarar o perigo! | Let's face danger! |
| Portuguese(Portugal) | Vamos correr perigo! | Let's get dangerous! |
| Russian | Ну-ка, от винта! | Get off the propeller! |
| Spanish | Hay que entrar en acción! | It is necessary to conduct battle! |
| Swedish | Nu blir vi farliga!/(Alternatively: Dags att bli farliga) | Now we're getting dangerous!/Time to get dangerous! |
| Turkish | Haydi, Tehlikeli olalim! | Let's get dangerous! |
[edit] Trivia
- There are five different versions of the Darkwing Duck introduction. The first one was aired on the Disney Channel when Darkwing Duck first premiered and featured alternate animation and a different version of the familiar theme song. A fan is currently looking to restore this version.[1] The second version was used in syndication, and is actually the currently one they use today. The third is the version used on The Disney Afternoon, and is the same as the second version only cut for time. The fourth and fifth introductions were used on the ABC Saturday Morning airings, and contained mostly scenes from those episodes, starting with Darkwing tiptoeing up the Audobon Bay Bridge.
- Many of the episode titles are puns or references to other titles or phrases from pop culture. "In Like Blunt," for example, is a reference to In Like Flint. "Whiffle While You Work" is an inside joke that combines the character of Whiffle Boy with the song "Whistle While You Work" from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. "Life, the Negaverse, and Everything" is an allusion to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, referring to "Life, the universe, and everything."
- Darkwing opens the secret passageway connecting his house to his bridgetop headquarters by hitting the head of a statuette of another Disney animated character – Basil of Baker Street, from the film The Great Mouse Detective. This is also a reference to Batman (TV series), in which Batman opens the head of a bust of William Shakespeare and presses a button inside the bust to enter the Batcave.
- Herb's voice is based on the character actor Andy Devine, who played Jingles, sidekick to Wild Bill Hickock in the 1950s Western TV series.
- DarkWarrior Duck was inspired by Frank Miller's version of Batman in Batman: The Dark Knight Returns graphic novel. Similarly, Gosalyn has certain similarities to Carrie Kelly, the female Robin from that book.
- There is a reference in "Darkly Dawns the Duck" to the Jay Ward character Super Chicken. When Darkwing attempt a risky stunt to capture the villains, Launchpad worries that it is a dangerous move. Darkwing's response: "It's like the chicken said, 'you knew the job was dangerous when you took it,'" a quote from Super Chicken's theme song.
- The name of the orphanage worker where Gosalyn is from, Mrs. Cavanaugh, is an inside joke. Christine Cavanaugh is Gosalyn's voice actress.
- At the end of the episode "Comic Book Capers", Darkwing discusses having his comic book published by Disney - a meta-reference to Disney publishing their own comics, and also perhaps the first time the company name was said in their own cartoons.
- In at least two episodes, Gary Larson and his The Far Side comic are referenced. In "Twin Beaks," a cow character explains that they come from the planet Larson, on the far side of the galaxy. In "Beauty and the Beet," the names of the two lab scientists opposite Dr. Reginald Bushroot are Dr. Gary and Dr. Larson.
- Nearly the entire episode of "Twin Beaks" was a reference to Twin Peaks. The town of Twin Beaks was shown, using the same camera angles, as well as the signature two peaks and the waterfall. The theme music from Twin Peaks was also adapted, with changes in only two notes. The slow movement of everyday objects and actions from the Twin Peaks introduction credits were also parodied. A version of the Red Room was used to advance the plot, as was a version of the phrase "The thing is not what it seems." One of Bushroot's bodies washed ashore in plastic wrapping. The plot also parodies The Invasion of the Body Snatchers with alien duplicates with Gosalyn noting fretfully, "Gee, that plot isn't so cliched when it's happening to you!". These references were perhaps the most lavish at the show's target age range.
- One of the greatest upsets to fans of the series is that one of the last aired episodes, "The Steerminator," featuring the return of Taurus Bulba, finishes at a cliffhanger ending. Originally meant to be resolved in season 4, the series was cancelled before this could happen.
- The original, galvanized Negaduck was staged to return in season 4 as a permanent villain, where he was meant to be separated from Darkwing again and turned into a being of pure negative energy.
- There is an episode of this series that has been banned from television. The episode Hot Spells is about Gosalyn wanting magical powers like Morgana, while visiting the school where some of Morgana's relatives teach. She is unable to attain them at the speed she desires, since it involves studying and understanding the principles behind the spells. Becoming impatient, she is easily maneuvered by the "Devil" in order to access forbidden knowledge to attain this power in order to, unknown to her, force Darkwing to relinquish his soul to save her. However, the "Devil" makes the hasty mistake of simply lying to her that the contents of the Library of Forbidden Spells were replaced with permitted material, which meant Gosalyn honestly believed that she was allowed to use the room. This mistake meant she was actually innocent by a technicality, thus allowing her to save her father. The very fact that a Disney-related show had any reference to Satan, and was even allowed to air a few times, is unusual. The same "Devil" also appeared in the episode "Dead Duck," but most of that episode was evidently a dream sequence.
- While Darkwing Duck often drew from Batman for inspiration and parody, Batman: The Animated Series may have paid homage to the show on two occasions. The episode Blind As A Bat features a very similar plot and outcome to the Darkwing episode Duck Blind, in which the villain leaves the hero blind, the hero tries to use technology to subvert the damage only for the technology to fail in battle, and the villain ranting at the end about being defeated by a "handicapped" person. The second is in the episode Make 'Em Laugh in which Joker turns an overweight female comedian into a villain through mind control- "Mighty Mom" bore resemblane and mannerisms to Ammonia Pine. (It can also easily be explained that Mighty Mom is based on Roseanne Barr, and the idea of causing a character to go temporarily blind as a source of conflict is a relatively commonplace idea.)
- Similarly, the episode of MTV's Spider-Man animated series which featured the debut of Electro borrowed heavily from Darkwing Duck. In the same manner that Megavolt had been a nerdy student who had come into his powers due to being a victim of bullying, Electro gained his powers due to a bully prank(in the comics, Electro was originally Max Dillon, an electric company lineman who was struck by lightning while on the job).
- Although the show was still in development during 1990, Darkwing and Gosalyn can be seen in the original Disney Afternoon intro.
- Playmates, the company that made the Darkwing Duck toy line, was prepared to release a second figure series which would have seen Morgana, Negaduck, Liquidator and Gizmoduck. The end of the show forced the second series of toys to be cancelled, though a scan of the completed prototypes has been leaked to the internet.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- retrojunk.com Darkwing Duck section.
- Flapping Terror (Fansite)
- St. Canard at Sunset - Zebeckras Darkwing Duck Zone (Fansite)
| Darkwing Duck | |
|---|---|
| Characters | |
| Main Characters | Darkwing Duck/Drake Mallard | Gosalyn Mallard | Launchpad McQuack | Honker Muddlefoot |
| Villains | NegaDuck | Megavolt | Bushroot | Quackerjack | The Liquidator | F.O.W.L. | Splatter Phoenix | Taurus Bulba | Hammerhead, Hoof and Mouth | Dr. Fossil |
| Minor Characters | Herb, Binkie and Tank Muddlefoot | J. Gander Hooter | Vladimir Goudenov Grizzlikof | Gizmoduck | Morgana Macawber | Stegmutt | Dr. Sarah Bellum | DarkWarrior Duck |
| Other | |
| Misc | St. Canard | Calisota | Darkly Dawns the Duck | List of Darkwing Duck characters | Tad Stones |
| Media | List of Darkwing Duck episodes | Darkwing Duck DVD releases | Darkwing Duck video game |
