Monday, August 3, 2015

Ducktales DuckGossip

This news is more apropos of Gossip Gerty, but it's Ducktales news! And Darkwing Duck - related! And Kim Possible - related, if you're a fan of that show. I couldn't decide which picture should headline this post: Gossip Gerty from the Batman movies, as played by Bob Kane's widow Elizabeth Sanders, a cover image from Topolino homaging The Simpsons Movie, or Magica de Spell as a fortune teller..the last one sounds right...or maybe a picture foreshadowing something...

Last month, I read a comment on artist James Silvani's Facebook page reacting to a rumor that the relaunched Darkwing Duck comic book from Joe Books has been postponed due to development on the new Ducktales TV series airing on DisneyXD in 2017. That's not been confirmed, but news about the book has been nonexistent for some time now...

Then, last week, Jim Hill of Jim Hill Media - the valuable Gossip Gerty of all things regarding all things Disney - was interviewed at The Daily Disney Blog Podcast on Stitcher. He revealed a few tantalizing tidbits he had learned at this year's San Diego ComicCon:

The new Ducktales series WILL be animated in CG : That's a blow to fans who were hoping the new episodes would stay consistent by sticking to traditional hand-drawn animation  (albeit, scanned & digitally rendered by computer; animation studios haven't used celluloid pages - "cells" in over a decade), so we'll have to wait and see if Scrooge McDuck & co.'s CG designs will resemble episodes of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse or The Garfield Show. We HAVE seen Scrooge in cg before..and better cg depictions of McDuck on Deviantart...I have no problem with this new wrinkle..so long as it feels like these are the same characters and not knock-offs, the way longtime duck fans reacted to watching Quack Pack..in Michael Barrier's words, when he reviewed Looney Tunes Back In Action: "They might as well be djinn!"

Alan Burnett or Paul Dini may be working on the show: Hill was being cryptic here, saying that development/production hasn't been moving as fast as desired, so..."a writer" from Batman: The Animated Series has been brought in to help out with the process. My guess is between Dini and Burnett; Dini has been doing a lot of work for Marvel Studios TV cartoons, while Burnett's past credits include working on the original Ducktales TV series during its later seasons. Hill didn't want to name names, but my guess is Dini, because he's there, doing work for them. I actually think Burnett would be the better choice.

A "Disney Afternoon"-themed expansion pack for "Disney Infinity" is...in consideration: I don't own the Disney Infinity video game, but those statues/figurines used as game pieces that are scanned into the game look awesome. Hill revealed that if the new Ducktales CG series is a hit, then ...wheels will be set in motion. The current trend at Disney these days is...glancing at old properties and considering new ways to dust them off, as opposed to films based on theme park rides. They're doing a live-action adaptation of The Sword In The Stone, a remake of Pete's Dragon...the creators of Kim Possible pitched a CG reboot of the series that could be greenlit if Ducktales is a hit. Contingent on the show's success, the game will feature an expansion pack following the Star Wars expansion that's debuting in time for Christmas.

I remember Pete's Dragon was one of a handful of Disney movies that played in heavy rotation in the 1980s on syndicated television. I recall liking the film - I would have to watch it again to see if I had a different opinion - I remember it being kind-of melancholy at times (too many villains; Jim Dale & Red Buttons as the con men were alright, but Pete's surrogate family of country bumpkins weren't really interesting, even if their "We got a 'bill of sale' r'ight he'ere" song remains permanently ingrained in the back of my head. And Helen Reddy's performance seemed to be out-of-sync with the Petticoat Junction -esque antics, but Elliot the dragon was excellent. I heard he'll get a redesign for the new film, more from Asian dragons than from Don Bluth's influences (seriously, when Don Bluth designs a housecat, he seems to draw them looking miniature mustachioed lions; Elliot looked like a brontosauros with a pink wig).

As for Kim Possible, I'm not a big fan of the show...I thought it pandered to teen trends and focused more to her bumbling sidekick, Ron Stoppable and the villains, Doctor Drakken in particular, as it went on. As with Scrooge McDuck, we've seen what a cg update of this show could look like, thanks to fan art and video games.

And then there's Darkwing Duck...there are subtle nods to the show existing within the Disney Infinity game (his motorcycle, The Ratcatcher, and his signature gas gun have often been spotted), but these tidbits hint very strongly that he might appear in the new Ducktales show..and in CG...

"Gossip is always true." - Clarabell Cow

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