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Darkwing Duck on DVD: Volume 1 • Volume 2 NEW!
Darkwing Duck: Volume 1 DVD Review
Page 1: Show Discussion, Disc 1, and Disc 2
By Aaron Wallace
"Darkwing Duck" premiered in 1991 as part of the Disney Afternoon programming block. That was four years after the syndicated debut of "DuckTales" had earned "Darkwing Duck" borrows heavily from "DuckTales," setting itself in an adjacent town, St. Canard, and calling upon one of its stars, Launchpad McQuack, as a main character. The show's premise, however, more closely resembles another uber-popular staple of the Disney Afternoon: "Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers." Like those chipmunk crusaders, Darkwing Duck is a crime-fighter by profession. Unlike them and all the cartoon stars Disney had featured since "DuckTales," however, Darkwing had not previously appeared anywhere in the Disney canon. Donning a cape and mask to conceal his true identity (the unassuming but temperamental Drake Mallard), he joins the ranks of Superman, Spider-man, and the superhero by whom he is most heavily influenced, Batman. With Launchpad at his side and his adopted daughter, Gosalyn, in his corner, Darkwing bravely defies St. Canard's most imposing villains, which most notably include the duck-turned-plant Dr. Bushroot, the electrically charged Megavolt, the dastardly comical Quackerjack, the metal-mouthed rooster Steelbeak, the soggy dog Liquidator, the compulsively clean Ammonia Pine, the bullying bull Taurus Bulba, the Cajun-crazed Jambalaya Jake, and Darkwing's own inverse identity, NegaDuck.
The show never takes itself very seriously. In fact, a certain silliness and reserved self-referentiality are essential to its charm. Darkwing himself serves as the primary source of humor, often suffering as a result of his arrogance or rash behavior. Self-appointed and seldom acknowledged, he may well be superherodom's least graceful representative but his abilities as a crime-fighter overshadow his own personal flaws. Despite its light-heartedness, the world of "Darkwing Duck" is nearly as well-realized as that of the Dark Knight that inspires it. The episodes are not quite serialized but the events of one are not forgotten in the next and story arcs aren't abandoned. The people, places, and mechanics of the series are consistent. While the details of the "Darkwing" world aren't at all daunting in the way that some series can be, they are plentiful and interesting enough to make the show accessible to fans of comic lore.
A large cast of characters accompany the title star. Launchpad is a little more one-dimensional here than in "DuckTales" but is entertaining nonetheless and provides the straight edge to Darkwing's zaniness. Detail and characters aside, the stories stand on their own merits as inventive and entertaining. Within each half-hour installment, a unique and semi-plausible adventure unfolds with the protagonist facing challenges and ultimately prevailing. Like most Saturday morning cartoons, the series is action-based and as it so often does, that comes at the cost of narrative. While surely diverting and satisfying, the stories are far from complex as much of the runtime is devoted to fighting or visual gags. That requires less thought but more focused attention that a typical sitcom or drama would. As a result, watching too many episodes at once (as was required of me in conducting this review) does wear thin. That's not so much a criticism of "Darkwing Duck" specifically as it is of the form as a whole. When screened more sparingly, "Darkwing Duck" is a winning production for just about every audience.
After a long wait, "DuckTales" and "Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers" made their DVD debuts last fall. It was only a matter of time before their televised successors made their way to home video in boxed sets as well. While Disney has for the time being overlooked "The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh," both "TaleSpin" and "Darkwing Duck" have finally received Volume 1 releases. "Darkwing"'s packaging boasts the inclusion of the "pilot & first 25 episodes." The accuracy of that claim depends partially on how you organize the episodes but something's a little off either way. The 27 episodes are presented in the order of their original airdate, though the episodes that debuted on ABC rather than the Disney Afternoon (of which there were 26) have been entirely overlooked in that process. Presumably, these will be tacked onto the final release of the series (likely Volume 3 or 4), though it makes little sense to not file them in amongst the Disney Afternoon episodes if airdate is going to be the organization of choice. Of course, there are those who like to view the ABC episodes as a separate season and will appreciate the weekday broadcasts being kept together.
Further complicating the issue is the two-part pilot episode, "Darkly Dawns the Duck." It originally aired on September 8, 1991 as part of television special that also included a kick-off for the most recent incarnation of "The Mickey Mouse Club." According to Bill Cotter's The Wonderful World of Disney Television: A Complete History, it also included a "Darkwing" dance video. This pilot was then divided into two stand-alone episodes and re-broadcast much later in the series' run. It is this latter two-episode format that appears on the DVD. That's entirely acceptable (though the original debut special would have been far more interesting and a nice inclusion), but for collectors, the use of the original airdate for the much later re-broadcast version is problematic. Additionally, it should be noted that even if the original version of the pilot had been included instead, one of the ABC episodes ("That Sinking Feeling") actually aired one day before the pilot special, so it would have come first. Confused yet? The waters are even murkier ahead.
In truth, the production order -- which varies wildly from the broadcast order -- would have been preferable. As it is, characters appear on this Volume 1 set without having been properly introduced and references to past episodes don't quite make sense. That solution would not have been quite perfect either, though. The two pilot episodes' production numbers are so low on the list that they wouldn't have even made it onto this Volume 1 set. After the multi-part pilots for "DuckTales" and "Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers" were left off their respective Volume 1 sets, Disney likely wanted to ensure the pilot's inclusion on the remaining introductory releases of their shows. After all, people expect to launch their series with a pilot even if the pilot isn't always strictly first.
No matter how it was done -- broadcast order or production order -- fudging things just a little to put the pilot episodes at the beginning is at best appropriate and at worst acceptable. That much has been done here and it's to the casual viewer's benefit. Disney would have gotten higher praise for including the ABC episodes in amongst the syndicated shows for the broadcast order, and even higher praise for going with the production order, but there's at least some method to the madness of its presentation here and so the issue isn't worth spending any more time on than these past four paragraphs have already done.
A star ( DISC 1
4. "Getting Antsy" (22:49) (Originally aired September 10, 1991)
5. "Night of the Living Spud" (22:47) (Originally aired September 11, 1991)
6. "Apes of Wrath" (22:39) (Originally aired September 12, 1991)
8. "Duck Blind" (22:41) (Originally aired September 16, 1991)
DISC 2
10. "Water Way to Go" (22:54) (Originally aired September 18, 1991)
12. "Easy Come, Easy Grows" (22:41) (Originally aired September 20, 1991)
13. "A Revolution in Home Appliances" (22:45) (Originally aired September 23, 1991)
15. "Hush, Hush Sweet Charlatan" (22:50) (Originally aired September 25, 1991)
16. "Can't Bayou Love" (22:41) (Originally aired September 26, 1991)
17. "Bearskin Thug" (22:52) (Originally aired September 27, 1991)
18. "You Sweat Your Life" (22:36) (Originally aired September 30, 1991)
Buy Darkwing Duck: Volume One on DVD / Buy Darkwing Duck: Volume 2 on DVD
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Reviewed August 30, 2006.
Darkwing Duck on DVD: Volume 1 • Volume 2 NEW!
Darkwing Duck: Volume 2 (1991) • TaleSpin: Volume 1 (1990) • Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers: Volume 1 (1989)
DuckTales: Volume 1 (1987) • Goof Troop: Volume 1 (1992) • Quack Pack: Volume 1 (1996)
Gargoyles: The Complete First Season (1994-95) • Gargoyles: Season 2, Volume 1 (1995-96)
Fantastic Four: The Complete 1994-95 Animated Television Series • Spider-Man: The Venom Saga
Dinosaurs: The Complete First and Second Seasons (1991-92) • Home Improvement: The Complete First Season (1991-92)
Tales From Avonlea: The "Complete" First Season (1990) • Beauty and the Beast (1991)