This summer, get ready for another duck blur in Duckburg! The classic Disney animated series, DuckTales, is getting rebooted in August, complete with a bigger part for Donald Duck, a surprisingly fit Mrs. Beakley, and one of our favorite Doctors—David Tennant—stepping into the role of Scrooge McDuck. This week, Disney XD released the new opening sequence for DuckTales, which had plenty of nods to the previous series. But if you’re familiar with Disney comics, then the opening has even deeper significance. Today’s Nerdist News is taking a deep dive into the Junior Woodchucks guidebook to explain what it means for the show!
Join host and Choboduck’s alter ego, Jessica Chobot, as she gets old school with Disney legend Carl Barks. Modern fans may not realize this, but Barks is one of the uncrowned kings of comics whose work defined the Disney Ducks for generations. He created Uncle Scrooge, Duckburg, and almost all of the supporting characters while throwing Donald and his three nephews, Huey, Dewey, and Louie into globetrotting adventures. Even George Lucas and Steven Spielberg cribbed from Barks’ work in the famous boulder sequence from Raiders of the Lost Ark.
The original DuckTales series was inspired by Barks’ work, but it made significant changes, including the introduction of Launchpad, Mrs. Beakley, and Webby. It also shuffled Donald off to the Navy rather than giving him a prominent place alongside his uncle and nephews. One of the most intriguing aspects of the new opening sequence is that it restores a lot of the aspects of Barks’ comics that were missing from the first show. That’s why Scrooge is wearing his red suit from the comics, and there are other nods to Barks’ work as well, including the ducks’ encounter with the Flying Dutchman.
This new series has apparently retained many of the elements of the first show, including Gizmoduck and other characters created for the series, while also taking its cues from the past. There’s a lot of untapped potential in the decades of stories that Barks left behind, and it appears that this show will take full advantage of that. If you love these characters, that’s something to be very excited about!
What do you think about the new DuckTales opening sequence? Let’s discuss in the comment section below!
