Professor Popinjay's Compendium of Perspicacity

A Non-Review by Professor Popinjay

I’d be surprised if any have heard of this show. It was pretty late in the line up for Disney Afternoon toons. It was supposed to be an extension of Ducktales but, aside from the usual suspects of duck characters, I don’t see a connection and the show does nothing to answer any natural questions that should arise. Like why aren’t Hubert, Louis, and Dueteronomy living with their Uncle Scrooge anymore? (yes, that’s Huey, Dewey, Louie’s full names in this incarnation only. Elsewhere it’s Hubert, Dewford Dingus, and Llewellyn.) Did Uncle Scrooge die? Did the Beagle Boys kill him? Were they publicly executed via guillotine? And if Scrooge ist kaput who got all of his money? Were Duckworth and Mrs. Beakly tossed out on their cabooses? Or did they somehow get themselves written into Scrooge’s will while Donald and the boys got cut out and now the dastardly duo are laughing maniacally while they swim in Scrooge’s cold hard cash!?! Is Webby now just a spoiled entitled Karen living in the lap of luxury with nary a second thought of Donald and the boys!?! What became of Glomgold, Gyro, Goldie, Magica De Spell, and Doofus Drake? WHO ARE HUEY, DEWEY, AND LOUIE’S PARENTS!?!

Thankfully most of these questions are answered in the 2017 Ducktales which, by the way, is fantastic and a true extension of the original. Quack Pack is where we finally see HD&L get their own distinct character traits and it seems like these traits carry over into Ducktales 2017 so they got that going at least.

Quack Pack had some decent moments. I laughed when a guy who was trying to impress Daisy inadvertently drives over Donald and upon finally noticing him says to Daisy “Eugh! Is THIS really your boyfriend? He’s all puny and flat.”

Or something like that.

This brings up one of my main complaints about the show however. Ninety percent of the episodes dealt with some broad-shouldered big-chinned dim-witted egomaniac trying to woo Daisy. A man of this description was a main part of the cast and if they ever got away from him he was replaced by another and still voiced by the same guy. It got old fast. It’s a trope that appears in shows frequently. It probably started with Ted Baxter in The Mary Tyler Moore Show. It’s just been done to death long before Quack Pack came along but that didn’t stop Quack Pack from driving it into the ground.

For some reason they went with Ludwig Von Drake as the crack-pot inventor guy instead of Gyro Gearloose which, frankly, it’s a toss-up as to which of them is more interesting. I’ll say it was cool to see Von Drake revitalized though. How do they find people to do the voices of old characters?

My first inclination was this show was about HD&L getting super powers but that assumptions was based solely on the show’s intro which features allusions to this idea. That seemed mildly amusing at least. Better than the “toxic narcissist trying to one up Donald” plots. Whenever the show got away from that tired cliché it got so much better, or maybe it seemed better by comparison.

If this show was your jam, you have my apologies and I’m sorry for crapping on it. It’s a Disney show and even the worst of the Disney Afternoon line up was still pretty dang good. And I may have missed a few episodes and I’m probably not critiquing this show as a whole. I don’t know and I don’t care. I’m a full grown man critiquing kids shows. PATHETIC! As usual, enjoy what you enjoy and don’t listen to the critics.