November 18
9. McMYSTERY AT McDUCK MANOR! This was the episode where we discovered that “Bottle Episodes” for animation are a STRAIGHT UP LIE.
If you don’t know, a “Bottle Episode” is an episode of live-action television that takes place all in one location. It’s meant to be easy on production because you don’t have multiple locations to switch to.
We were coming off some design and staging heavy episodes, so we figured a locked room mystery a la “Clue” would be a nice break.
What we came to realize is that an episode can either be easy for the writing team or the board team or the design team. Easy for one means hard for the other two.
An easier story for writing means not having to be judicious with locations, characters, props, action etc. You can just have fun and do anything. This is obviously tough on boards and design.
Easier for boards means heavy pre-thought for writers to make action simple. And to keep the energy up for 22 minutes, the writers might throw extra props & characters, and if boards aren't judicious about their shot count, that's a design heavy ep.
Easier for design (as we thought this would be) means not a lot of new props, bgs, and new characters, so the writers work extra hard to limit these, and the board team has to think VERY judiciously about every new shot and angle of a room designed.
For this supposedly “easier” episode, we had to write an engaging extended mystery with no time jumps and a limited cast, boards had to figure out how to make it dynamic, and design had to figure out EVERY INCH of that main hall. Not so easy.
I love the scene where Ma and Glomgold call out Mark Beaks, like “Seriously? This is what we’re calling a ‘Scrooge Villain’ these days?”
Also a good opportunity to reinforce each villains overarching goals and firmly establish Ma’s goal beyond petty theft: to reclaim Duckburg from Scrooge.
The “Duckworth as Ghost” twist came from a reaction I had to a previous round of development. An earlier artist had done an updated “Family Portrait” for the show. Stodgy Butler, dowdy maid, four equally excitable kids, and a crackpot inventor.
To us, it felt…soft. Safer and more predictable than even the original series or Barks comics. Scrooge is the world’s greatest adventurer, but he’d surrounded himself with soft, squishy tropes.
I was reminded of an ep of the og series (“Metal Attraction”?) where a “Family Portrait” consisted of Scrooge, the kids, a caveman, a dinosaur, a maid, & Gizmoduck for some reason. That vibe was super engaging to me. I wanted to know about THAT family.
So we looked at that old development art and said “She’s a spy, he’s a ghost, he’s a mad scientist, etc….” Basically, coming up with a group of allies Scrooge would have made over a century of adventure.
I was so delighted when the show started and people started complaining “Where’s Duckworth?” They had no idea he was actually in the opening credits. We also hinted at him on Webby’s board in the pilot.
10. THE MISSING LINKS OF MOORSHIRE! The network asked us to do a sports-themed episode. We thought kids would be excited by golf. So much so that we had a character constantly talk about how much he hated golf.
During the board pitch, the “Glomgold Coin Toss” scene caused one crewmember to start laughing so hard he had to excuse himself from the room. It was a very proud moment for all involved.
The magic pairing of Huey and Launchpad is something we haven’t done enough since. We tried to remedy that in another sports episode coming up in Season 3!
I loved telling a story about the “wise old mentor” being in the wrong. Scrooge will always see himself as vital, but he’s got to learn when to step back. Here and in Neverrest, it’s important that Scrooge is learning and evolving as much as the kids.
Cut for time: like two more full scenes featuring individual golf holes. @americanninjax very wisely condensed them into that rad montage in the middle of the ep.
I remain incredibly tickled that @tarastrong and @AndreaLibman agreed to play the kelpies to really drive this ridiculous joke home.
I’d like to add that I have SO much respect for @Fyre_flye and her work, and even more respect for the fact that she didn’t place a severed pony head in my bed after this episode aired.
Lauren and @CrackMcCraigen gave me my first job in animation on "Wander Over Yonder". The story structure we use to break episodes on this show is a modified version of the one they came up with for that one.
Lauren says she developed “Friendship is Magic” by giving the characters the same personalities as when she played with her ponies as a kid. Craig always said he makes shows by “making the best versions of the shows we thought we remembered as kids.”
Both these pieces of advice proved invaluable in developing DuckTales and trying to recapture both the excitement I used to have playing DuckTales as a kid and updating the show while keeping the core feeling of it intact.
The last joke of the episode proved INSANELY controversial in the Writers Room, with many claiming Launchpad choking on golfballs because he thought they were eggs was TOO dumb, even for him. This became the cutoff line for LP jokes.
For the record, Launchpad eating golfballs: too far. Launchpad convincing himself that he’s been a Molemonster this whole time only to be easily dissuaded by Beakley telling him he wasn’t? Perfection.
November 19
11. THE SPEAR OF SELENE! The continuation of the search for Dewey and Webby’s search for info on Della hinges on a question that we’ll be asking of various people over the series: “What if my hero is a bad person?”
The answer, of course, is always more nuanced than that, as we’ll see with Scrooge and Della and a bunch of other characters throughout the series.
The Minecart Rule in full effect: What if a booby-trapped temple had way too many ancient treasures when I’m just looking for a specific one? That mirrors Dewey’s refusal to accept any answer but the one that he’s looking for.
Ithaquack, of course, is a reference to the original series episode “Home Sweet Homer”.
Originally, the island was a little more populated and featured a reappearance by the shifty salesman who sold Launchpad all that gear on Neverrest. Here he sold a map to the Temple of Heroes to Dewey and Webby. An unnecessary step, so it was cut.
As per our casting policy, we went out to Greek actors to play the gods: Michael Chikilis as @theironwrist’s favorite petty villain Zeus, @NiaVardalos, whose bubbly nature helped us find a take on Selene, who was originally way more regal and staid...
And of course, THE LION OF LINDOS, THE HERO OF HELIOPOLIS, the mighty STORKULES, played to perfection by Chris Diamantopolous. It delighted us to no end that they guy who plays Mickey was going to play Donald’s best friend.
I love big blustery noble dumdums with egos (I wonder why…). Chris had the amazing idea to pattern his performance off the old Mighty Hercules cartoon he used to watch in syndication as a kid, a weird, almost mid-atlantic thing.
Storkules is allowed to be as full of himself as he is and still be likeable as a character because he thinks everyone has the capability to be as great as he is. Especially Donald.
I’d never worked with Chris prior to this, but he left such a mark and is so stinking versatile that it makes total sense that he’d be perfect for ANOTHER blustery hero I’ll talk about later. Like Keith Ferguson, I want to work with Chris forever.
This was another one where we spelled out every challenge and ended up having to montage it for time. Full scenes had been dedicated to the chariot race and the sculpting contest.
We loved the idea of meeting people who knew Donald and Della back when they were young, and how that would have an impact on Donald. It’s the first time that we see how Della’s disappearance impacted Donald, and why he needs to keep these kids safe.
November 20
12. DAY OF THE ONLY CHILD! The initial goal of this episode was to highlight each of the boys as kids. We’d seen them in so many fantastical situations in a huge ensemble, we wanted to give each of them a chance to shine on their own.
It also tests each of their personal issues as we’d explore them throughout the series: Huey’s adherence to rules/order despite the risk, Louie’s desire for wealth at any cost, and Dewey’s search for approval and recognition.
Originally, the setup was WAY more complicated. It involved Gyro creating a portal to alternate dimensions where each boy had grown up an only child. Instead of trying to pull off three simultaneous “It’s A Wonderful Life”s, we went simpler instead.
Huey’s story allowed us to focus in on the actual Junior Woodchucks, which we’ll see more in S3. It also helped establish Bouncer as the sweetest of the Beagle Boys. I always had the notion that Bouncer would reform and become Scrooge’s personal chef.
What can be said about Doofus Drake?
That’s it. That’s the tweet.
Doofus’ character was roughly based on the Twilight Zone episode "It's A Good Life" , where an omnipotent boy becomes a monster because no one can tell him no.
“Dewey Dew-nite!” is based off of something I used to do as a kid. I used to deliver fake late night talk show monologues to an imaginary audience and hold for applause. It was…unsettling to watch.
But in a world where the point was to highlight each of the kid’s strengths, we knew one thing for certain: @rejectedjokes was going to nail this bit. Dewey Dew-Nite returns next season on location with a big name guest star.
November 21
13. BEWARE THE B.U.D.D.Y. SYSTEM! In Season 1, pretty much all of the writers got to volunteer for the episodes they wanted to write. I called dibs on this one because it premiered what I knew would be one of our biggest characters.
I’m speaking, of course, of Manny, the Headless Manhorse.
Manny became one of my favorite characters because he’s the opposite of most of our characters. The kids feel like they’re ordinary and wish for more spectacular lives. Manny thinks he’s a supernatural freak but he just wants to be a regular guy.
One of our early ideas was the McDuck Nemesis Reformation Program, where Scrooge’s (numerous) defeated foes can apply for support and counseling and a job with McDuck Enterprises. This was how Manny was able to get a job as Gyro’s intern.
If you want to learn more about Manny, I suggest you talk to
@HeadlssManHorse. Some good backstory there. Pretty sure everything he tweets is canon, too.
No, but really, Fenton Crackshell-Cabrera will always be one of my proudest contributions to Duckburg. When I grew up, the only Latino superhero I had was Vibe, who, at the time, was solely notable for having breakdance powers.
I’d like to point out, still no Latino superheroes in the MCU. Maybe after fixing our Season 1 air order, @disneyplus can greenlight a White Tiger series.
We wrote a letter to @Lin_Manuel to pitch him our stated goal: making our Gizmoduck a Hispanic hero who was entirely informed by his heritage without being solely defined by it.
He’s so many things, and one of those things is Latino. We’ll talk more about that later.
Because Gizmoduck was a popular known character, this was a unique opportunity. Fenton wasn’t just a token Latino character. He was the MAIN SUPERHERO of Duckburg.
Fenton’s “IT. COULD. WORK!” was based on Gene Wilder from Young Frankenstein, which Lin understood right away because Lin’s the best. Also improvised my favorite line: “Go, you bumblebee-like savant, go!”
The Darkwing opener was entirely boarded and designed by my buddy @BenBalistreri, who I worked with on Wander, and I knew would jump at the chance to do this and cram it with love and easter eggs.
Fact: The Ratcatcher was not in the script. Ben threw in that design for free.
The idea that Launchpad would be a fan of Darkwing from his childhood was influenced by his first appearance in the og Darkwing pilot, where he introduces himself as Darkwing’s biggest fan. And, let’s face it, also based on me.
And yes, of course we knew what we were going to do with Jim Starling in Season 2 right off the bat. We like our plants here in Duckburg.
This episode is where the idea that Dewey is Launchpad’s best friend really paid off. I love this pairing because it forces Dewey to be the reasonable one sometimes, but they feed off their ridiculous kid energy.
Launchpad’s drivers license lists his birthday as 9/18/1987 (the day that the original DuckTales premiered). Also, his signature matches the signature you get from the Launchpad Walk-Around character in the Disney parks.
Cut for time: a scene where Fenton analyzes Launchpad’s skills in a VR simulator. He somehow manages to set the lab on fire. It was too long and too similar to a Simpsons joke with Homer in a Nuclear Plant Simulator.
I teared up three times writing the first draft: “I am the terror…”, Launchpad saying “ Let’s Get Dangerous,” and Fenton saying “Blathering Blatherskite!”
Again, we were playing with the idea of Fenton being an unnamed background character, which would make him announcing his name on the phone a big reveal. Of course, casting Lin as a seemingly random extra probably would have tipped it off.
An executive raised concern early on in the outline process that having Gizmoduck AND Darkwing show up this early in the run. After all, Gizmoduck didn’t appear in DuckTales until late in the run.
Our response: we want to get everything in there because if we hadn’t got a second season, we didn’t want to have regrets about not getting to play with these things we love.
November 23
14. THE GOLDEN LAGOON OF WHITE AGONY PLAINS! The debut of our version of Glitterin’ Goldie O’Gilt. Because our show emphasizes Scrooge as an adventurer, we made Goldie a bit of a swindler who was the only person sharper than him.
We wanted the relationship between Scrooge and Goldie to have the energy of an old screwball energy, like Carey Grant and Katherine Hepburn or pretty much any Billy Wilder movie. It really comes across in their tango.
“You loved gold more than you loved me.” “And that’s why you loved me.” I mean, OOF, I love that.
Sometimes when we record, we’ll play an actor in with lines we’ve recorded from someone else. When many of our actors heard David for the first time, they’d literally miss a beat and say “Oh my God, it’s Scrooge McDuck!”
For this record, David missed a beat and said “Oh my God, it’s C.J. Cregg!” Honestly, if you’re going to do a screwball adventure romantic comedy, you should be so lucky as to have David Tennant and @AllisonBJanney. I don’t know how we pulled it off.
Odd coincidence: our version of Goldie was influenced by the character The Jackal in "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels," while Allison Janney famously IS The Jackal.
This was one of the hardest ones to get approved by the network in S1. This being a “kid’s channel,” they sometimes get antsy whenever kids don’t feature prominently in the story. Even more so when they’re sidelined for two “senior citizens”.
Our response, of course, was that these aren’t two “senior citizens,” they’re THE MOST DARING ADVENTURERS THIS CENTURY HAS EVER SEEN.
At one point it was suggested that we periodically cut back to the mansion to show the boys “wondering about” what Scrooge and Goldie were doing in the Klondike. Luckily, cooler heads prevailed.
This is actually one of our rare episodes that just focuses on an A-Story. See also “The Beagle Birthday Breakout!” and “What Ever Happened to Della Duck?!”
It was Sean Jimenez’s idea to set the episode in an area not unlike the famed Rainbow Caves in China. He did such beautiful design work on this episode that he made it his end credits card.
This isn’t really trivia, but I LOVE paralleling the dance at the gala with the pick axe fight at the end. I’m a sucker for ideas/dialogue in Act 1 coming back in Act 3. This whole bit feels so lovely and cinematic to me.
Obviously, we pulled a lot of elements from Don Rosa comics on this one, including the mammoth and the notion of a dispute over a claim at White Agony Plains leading to romance.
The Goldie/Scrooge/Glomgold triangle was somewhat inspired by the og DuckTales episode “Ducky Mountain High” and a LOT inspired by Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.
In an episode visually inspired by Barks paintings of Klondike Scrooge, I wish I could remember who decided to have Glomgold’s flashbacks mirror Lichtensteins. Glomgold’s very existence is, like most Pop Art, riffing on a pre-existing theme.
Honestly, I should have assumed this was Tanner. I also assume that @theironwrist saw the muscles in Glomgold and said MAKE THIS MAN A DIRECTOR.
15. FROM THE CONFIDENTIAL CASEFILES OF AGENT 22! Some BIG backstory for Beakley here, introducing that thread from all the way back in Episode 3 “Daytrip of Doom!” and introducing SHUSH and F.O.W.L., who obviously play huge roles in Season 3.
I’ve often said this ep is the promise of the premise of our approach to heritage: the “Secret Formula” as Gummi Berry Juice from Gummi Bears, Spy Orgs from Darkwing, and classic character Ludwig Von Drake, mashed together in a new, unique adventure.
We typically don’t start off with “How would we incorporate THIS character?” but rather look at the needs of the story and say “Is there some interesting way we can incorporate something from Disney heritage while still being true to the character.
When you start a series, you typically have a meeting with Legal to clear the names of the characters to make sure you’re legally allowed to use those names, or, in the case of pre-existing IP, making sure you’re allowed to use them.
For example, you can’t just throw a character named “Harry Potter” in your show without getting very much sued.
When we had that meeting for DuckTales, we really got away with something. We asked them to clear every character from the original series, as well as all American, European, and South American duck comics.
Then, not knowing if they’d go for it, we asked them to clear every character from Darkwing Duck. And TaleSpin. And Gummi Bears. And…
They shockingly approved it. To this day I’m not sure that they knew what a gift they were giving us. Long story short, I will never complain about our legal clearances team.
I’m pretty proud to say that by the end of Season 3, I’m pretty sure we hit everything that I consider to be “Peak Disney Afternoon”.
My favorite bit of fan service that I didn’t notice until it aired: @domlewismx snuck a bit of “Gummi Bears” into the score during the backstory of the “Ancients of Castle Dunwin”.
Inside writers scoop: Von Drake is RIDULOUSLY fun to write. My kids were listening to a lot of old Sherman Brothers albums at the time and Von Drake’s patter got under my skin. He’s SO fun and specific.
That’s key I think: a character with enough facets that they can still be surprising, but specific enough that a savvy writer will instinctively know how they’ll react in any situation. Surprising but satisfying. See also Glomgold, Darkwing Duck.
This was a surprisingly tricky story to break. We wanted to do a Webby/Scrooge bonding episode as we had done with the other boys. But they had all been on so many adventures at this point.
It also felt reductive to Webby to have Scrooge say, “What?! A little girl is a great adventurer?” Because of course she is. She’s Beakley’s granddaughter, right?
But we hit on something when we realized how much Webby knew about and idolized Scrooge, but how little he knew about this girl as a person, despite her having lived in his house for years. But he wasn’t really talking to anyone post-Della.
Remember how I said “bottle episode” cartoons are a lie? That doesn’t mean that we can’t find tricks to make epic stories manageable. This episode takes place in the same locations at two points in time, so we could cut down on background design.
They still had to be redressed and differentiated, though. And the director and board team had to go above and beyond to make the two different time periods clear.
Luckily, this was @TannerTrue’s solo-directorial debut, and he nailed that tricky balancing act. He also boarded that awesome, brutal Beakley/Heron fight.
Bummed we lost a joke in translation: the binary code scrawled in the cave wall in the present was meant to read “Revenge for Number 4!” The robot that Scrooge let go in the 60s had been camped out waiting for a chance to avenge his fallen brother.
One of the joys/challenges of working for @theironwrist is that he’s SUCH a prolific action-comedy director and he’ll never let you get away with a trope he’s already done.
Robots, superheroes, spies, aliens. Dude's done it all and DOES NOT like repeating himself.
Poor @TheOneCMag kept volunteering for episodes that Youngberg would have specific opinions about. See also “Who is Gizmoduck?!”
The upside of this is that it challenged us not to do the same old James Bond and Mission Impossible riffs on this episode. Hence, Scrooge and 22 became Steed and Mrs. Peel, and we also got to lean on “The Prisoner”. Long live the Troub-bubble.
I LOVE working with April Winchell. She was my personal favorite to write for on Wander Over Yonder, a show full of VERY fun characters to write. You’ll be seeing a lot more unhinged Bond-villain Heron is Season 3.
When we brought April back for her second appearance as Heron, she did not recognize her own voice in this ep: “Huh. I didn’t know I could do a Dench.”
David Tennant does a jaunty, rogueish sway back and forth whenever he records young, cocky Scrooge. It’s delightful.
The “22” in Agent 22 references her alias’ initials. “B” is the second letter in the alphabet, hence “Bentina Beakley” is Agent 22. That said, we still don't know if her number is based on her real name or “Beakley” is an alias tied to her number.
November 24
16. JAW$! This episode was originally titled “The Beast from Beneath the Bin!”, but I think we wanted to try this title first as an elaborate, unspoken game of chicken with our legal department.
This was the first episode where Magica actually spoke, and also where @LadieFantastic became our go-to Magica writer. Basically, if it rants or raves, she’s on it.
Even though her introductory monologue was cut for time, I think it helped us tremendously in the process of figuring out who Magica was as a character: the insanely petty mixed with the horrifically sadistic. Here’s the original draft of it.
From the beginning of the season, we really wanted to do a “monster loose in the vault” seafaring adventure. This idea forced us to really wrap our heads around the scale of the vault. Was it big enough to sail the houseboat in?
We discussed the idea of the Bin having mystical properties that opened a portal to an additional sea of treasure, but that proved too confusing. Having the money shark start small and gain mass helped give us some latitude to play with scale.
The “Hail Dewdonia” bit was another opportunity for the boys to goof off together like brothers instead of being in conflict with each other.
Also cut for time: a straight up Launchpad as Quint monologue, presented here.
Also cut for time (or logic?): after our heroes come home from a beanstalk adventure in the Cold Open, an angry giant’s fist started shaking at our heroes down out of the clouds.
When discussing how Tiffany would move on land once she broke free of the bin, there was a lot of talk about referencing the monster from the beginning of Princess Mononoke.
It also led to one of our more infamous room bits: Male Shark Lady Legs. @Bob_Snow pitched a male shark but with feminized legs in heels. He then proceeded to sketch about fifty variations on the same theme.
My favorite featured Mail Shark Lady Legs, a female shark postal worker. I really gotta post some of these Bob images.
This was a huge turning point in Lena and Webby’s relationship; it’s the last time that Lena is fully on Magica’s side, and we really needed to sell that turn, as well as her personal stakes.
After she slips into Magica-ranting, calling Webby a sentimental fool, Lena immediately assumes that Webby hates her. She’s so used to fighting she can’t fathom the idea that Webby would still save her. She’s never had a loving relationship before.
That selfless act turns Lena just enough to let us throw in another big reveal: she’s not just Magica’s agent, she’s Magica’s prisoner. And this is her only chance at freedom.
The Grimoire du Merlock is of course a reference to Merlock, the magician villain of DuckTales The Movie.
The Roxanne Featherly storyline also gave us a chance to explore how Scrooge is perceived by the public. It’s the first hint that not everybody in town may love the chaos Scrooge’s adventuring rains down upon Duckburg.
Originally, Roxanne was also going to interview others to attempt to smear Scrooge’s name, including Ma Beagle. In retaliation, Scrooge brought on Gyro to make him seem benevolent. But of course Gyro only made McDuck Enterprises come off as more evil.
One of my favorite cut jokes ever: Gyro is introduced as “Kid Inventor Gyro Gearloose”. Roxanne: “You’re clearly a fully grown man. Why would they call you a ‘Kid Inventor’?” Gyro hides a genetically modified robot baby behind his back. “No reason.”
Submitted December 03, 2019 at 02:38PM by mrsmuckers https://ift.tt/2PcmIVa
No comments:
Post a Comment