“DuckTales Wo-oo! Everyday they’re out there making DuckTales! Wo-oo! Tales of derring-do, bad and good Luck Tales!” This is the chorus of the theme song written for Disney’s DuckTales (1987-1990), featuring music and lyrics by Mark Mueller. The show originally began airing on the ABC Network on September 18th, 1987, 35 years ago today, and was rebooted on the Disney XD Network on August 12th, 2017. In honor of it’s milestone anniversary let’s explore how the show came about:
“DuckTales,” was the very first Disney-produced cartoon show for syndication. The show’s inspiration came from the Disney comic book series, Uncle Scrooge, written and designed by Carl Barks. (The first edition was published in March 1952). The series told stories of Donald Duck, his nephews Huey, Dewey, and Louie, and Donald’s uncle Scrooge McDuck. Their adventures in the fictional city of Duckburg, often involved foiling the schemes of Flintheart Glomgold, The Beagle Boys, and Magica de Spell. The comic book series caught the attention of television writer Jymn Magon, who began developing the idea for a show with Disney. With animation designed at Wang Film Productions, Cuckoo’s Nest Studio, TMS Entertainment and Burbank Films, the show’s first five episodes were looped together as a made-for-television movie that aired on ABC entitled “The Treasure of the Golden Sun.”
The movie’s success lead to a run of 101 episodes over four seasons. It won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Film Sound Editing in its third year, 1990. That same year, there was another made-for-television film, DuckTales the Movie: The Treasure of the Lost Lamp. The show’s success set the stage for future Disney cartoon shows including Darkwing Duck a “DuckTales,” spin-off that included the “DuckTales” regular Launchpad McQuack as the sidekick of Darkwing Duck and Huey, Dewey and Louie made guest star appearances.
The show’s main voice cast included the lagreat Alan Young as Scrooge McDuck and the late-great Russi Taylor juggled the roles of Huey, Dewey and Louie. Tony Anselmo voiced Donald Duck and Launchpad McQuack was voiced by Terrence McGovern. (Fun Fact about Terence McGovern: He did voice-over work on George Lucas’s THX 1138 (1971), a pre-Star Wars project. At one point during voice recording McGovern messed up a line and said “I think I ran over a wookie back there.” Intrigued, Lucas asked McGovern what he meant by that and McGovern said that he just made it up, and Lucas never forgot that word, later using it as the species of one his most beloved characters, Chewbacca!) The series also featured Donald Duck’s other uncle, Professor Ludwig von Drake, Disney’s first ever television cartoon character, who was voiced by Corey Burton.
Every episode of the original “DuckTales,” is available to stream on Disney+, along with the “Lost Lamp” movie as well as the reboot show. Despite being 35 years old, DuckTales remains a favorite among Disney fans. since it initially aired. Alan Young passed away in May 2016 and Russi Taylor passed in July 2019. It is sad they are no longer with us, but with the rest of the talented voice cast and Jymn Magon’s writing skills and Mark Mueller’s music, they’ve left quite an animation legacy.
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