Ducktales: The Ducks Are Back in Town

By Mason Sansonia

Disney’s recent tendency to remake their classics has not worked out entirely in their favor, as many are questioning why it’s necessary to see a classic cartoon become live action. Ducktales 2017, however, happily bucks this trend, being a ton of adventurous fun. The focus is more on the characters and their relationships than the outlandish adventures of the original series, but it serves the series well, making for a great family dynamic. And in keeping with the theme of characters bearing great importance, other characters from the Disney Afternoon make some very conspicuous cameo appearances!

Darkwing Duck appears as a television show within a television show, a hilariously meta and entirely fitting cameo. It’s mentioned that the actor who played DW (it’s an old TV show) did his own stunts, which fits the childish, attention seeking character of the original show to a T.

The Gummi Bears also make an appearance, albeit in book form. They are depicted as legends who long ago taught the secret of their Gummi-Berry Juice to some druids. Why does this come up? Because an old foe of Scrooge McDuck wants to use it as a supersoldier serum! Those are all the rage these days.

But perhaps the greatest cameo comes from the villain of Talespin, a show that involved Baloo the Bear (of Jungle Book fame) flying a plane of all things. That villain is Don Carnage the Sky Pirate Captain. We wouldn’t dare ruin what happens when he makes his big debut (or comeback, if you like), but it may or may not involve a musical number.

Then there are the little things, like one of the Beagle Boys (a family of crooks) dressing up like one of the Mighty Ducks, or a Sasquatch that looks remarkably like the one in A Goofy Movie. Speaking of A Goofy Movie, while there’s been no confirmation in the plot, there’s a character who appears in the background a couple times who looks an awful lot like an adult version of Roxanne, the one-time crush of Goofy’s son Max. Could she be waiting in the wings for a big reveal?

Last, but certainly not least, there’s Episode 12, The Missing Links of Moorshire. While it’s not a cameo in the strictest sense, the characters encounter a pair of tiny, technicolor horses voiced by Tara Strong and Andrea Libman, both of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic fame. However, THESE magical horses turn out to be kelpies: malevolent spirits that drown their riders. One would almost think Disney was poking a bit of fun at MLP. But that would just be ridiculous, of course.