Along with Gummi Bears, Rescue Rangers, and Tale Spin, Ducktales was part of the original Disney Afternoon. It involved the very wealthy Scrooge McDuck (cousin of Donald Duck) and his wacky adventures to get more money. He was usually accompanied by his pilot LaunchPad McQuack and his nephews Huey, Dewey, and Louie. Other recurring characters included the maid Mrs. Beakley, her niece Webby, the robotic GizmoDuck, and caveman Bubba Duck. The main villain was goth chick/duck Magica de Spell who was always after Scrooge's lucky number one dime. Other recurring vilains included the Beagle Boys and rival wealthy mallard Flintheart Glomgold. The show was very Indiana Jones-esque. It ran from 1987-1990 can often be caught in reruns even today.

The show also spun off into a movie, called DuckTales: The Movie - Treasure of the Lost Lamp. As the title implies, the movie was concerned the search for a magical genie lamp which could grant wishes. It was mildy successfull grossing 18 million in the US box office.

DuckTales the cartoon also spawned DuckTales the videogame for the original 8-bit NES. The game is generally considered one of the greatest platformers of the 8-bit era. It was above and beyond what was expected from a Disney licensed platform game. You played as Scrooge scouring the world for even more money. The levels included Transylvania, African mines, the moon, Aztec ruins, and a few others. Scrooge could wield his walking cane as a golf club or bounce on it for a pogo stick. Along the way all the Ducktales regulars showed up to provide help. GizmoDuck could blow up a wall, Mrs. Beakley would give you cake, LaunchPad could fly you around, and Hewey Dewey and Louie would provide gameplay hints. It all culminated in a battle with Magica DeSpell and a race to a giant diamond with Glomgold. What made the game so replayable was that it kept track of how much money you made and it was actually fun to go back and try to get more. The videogame was followed by a sequel, which was just more of the same. Not that that's a bad thing.

DuckTales did, as mentioned elsewhere, spawn a couple of video games. These games are among my favorite Disney games and among the nicest "license games" I've ever played.

The NES version (described in more detail by WGN above) was a platformer. Above all, it had fun pogo stick stuff (with somewhat clumsy controls at first, but can be mastered with some practice) and great musics.

The computer version (produced in 1991 for PC and Amiga, at least) was an entirely different beast. The idea is to control Scrooge McDuck and the nephews to win a little money-gathering bet by Flintheart Glomgold. You have limited time to find tons of lost treasures.

The actual gameplay included the strategic side (a little stock market here and there, and the travelling...). Then, there was the actual travel by plane to the target (complete with botched landings, of course). After that, your great idea was to find the treasure. There were multiple kind of levels - including cave maze levels (falling to the bottomless pit is so much joy even now...), jungle levels (use Huey, Dewey and Louie to swing from branch to branch, and not fall in the shredding jaws of the alligators...), mountain climbing levels (same, but this time the levels are vertical and there's other kinds of stuff going on - bears in caves, Magica de Spell, the sort of things)...

...and in the end, the winner gets to the DIME Magazine cover!

On PC, the sound card support was somewhat limited (or maybe I didn't have proper gear at the time? anotherone mentions that Disney Sound Source was supported) and graphics support included only CGA and EGA. break also tells the Amiga version was crashy. But otherwise, it was a good game.

TheBooBooKitty suggested I move this from Charcter Guide to Ducktales. TheBooBooKitty was right.

Many of the characters on DuckTales were originally created by Carl Barks for the Uncle $crooge series of comic books. They are marked with an asterisk in the list below. The others were created especially for this cartoon series. Note, though, that these character descriptions refer to the characters in the cartoon, not the originals in the comic books.

* "Uncle" Scrooge McDuck. Scrooge was born in Scotland, where he earned his first dime (an American dime, interestingly) shining shoes. He keeps this dime under a glass dome in the library of his mansion, although he's been known to use a decoy from time to time. He earned his fortune by "working smarter ... not harder." As a shoeshine boy, he created a mechanical contraption that could shine multiple shoes simultaneously. This earned him enough money for passage to America, where he travelled to the Klondike, where he aquired a claim and mined the gold there. It was in the Klondike that he met Glittering Goldie, who would both win and break his heart. With the money he earned from his gold mine, he established a financial empire and became the Richest Duck in the World. He keeps a significant portion of his fortune in cash, held in a gigantic money bin, which makes a tempting target.

Scrooge is, above all, cunning and devious. He makes his living being "tougher than the toughies and smarter than the smarties." He is a ruthless businessduck and he has earned every penny. He can identify every coin in his money bin and how he earned it. He has a love of adventure; he relishes the chance to go out and explore some ancient ruins or investigate a far-off occurrence. But underneath his rough exterior is, unsuprisingly, a heart of gold. He cares deeply for his family and personal employees, and would do anything to protect them.

Huey, Dewey, and Louie. (Note: They appeared in many, many $crooge comics, but were not created for that series.) These triplets are Scrooge's grandnephews, through one of his sisters and her daughter (Donald's sister). They came to live with Scrooge, over his objections, at his mansion when Donald joined the Navy. It wasn't long, though, before their resourcefulness proved immensely valuable, and, since they are family, Scrooge soon accepted them fully.

The three are distinguishable by the colors they wear: Huey in red, Dewey in blue, and Louie in green. They sometimes trade in their baseball caps for brown furry ones with tails, as they are members of the Junior Woodchucks. Their Junior Woodchuck manual contains useful survival information that they and Scrooge put to good use.

Webigail Vanderquack. Webby is Mrs. Beakley's granddaughter who lives with her at the McDuck mansion. She is rarely without her rag doll, who is dressed in the same shade of pink as Webby is. She seems to be about five years old and, as such, is more often a liability than an asset when she tags along on an adventure. Her biggest motivation is to not be excluded by the Nephews, which she often is, because she's half their age and a girl.

Mrs. Beakley. You'd think with Scrooge's fortune, he could hire more than two domestic servants. As it is, though, Mrs. Beakley is half of his staff. She serves as maid and cook, as well as the Nephews' governess. Rotund and grey-haired, she rarely came into play unless her granddaughter Webby was involved or if the Nephews had to outsmart her to get out of the mansion.

Duckworth. The other half of Scrooge's staff, he serves as his butler, chauffeur, and occassionally groundskeeper. Like the Beagle Boys and the Duckburg police force, Duckworth is a dog. He has an English accent and is rarely anything but completely proper and loyal to his employer.

Launchpad McQuack. Scrooge's personal pilot, Launchpad is among the best when it comes to flying. When it comes to landing, however, he takes personal pride in being the worst. He keeps a painstaking record of every crash. Launchpad has so much practice at crashing that the only casualty is usually the aircraft. He comes from a successful family of stunt pilots, who still love him despite his inability to land. Launchpad later went on to become Darkwing Duck's sidekick.

Bubba Duck. While travelling through time into the past, Scrooge, the Nephews, and Launchpad encountered this young prehistoric duck and his pet dinosaur Tootsie. They inadvertantly brought the two back to the present and were forced to take them in. Bubba has very limited language capabilities but he is much stronger and tougher than the Nephews. Huey, Dewey, and Louie, who were about the same age as Bubba, tried to include him (moreso than they did Webby, certainly), but his lack of understanding caused many problems.

Fenton Crackshell. Hired on as Scrooge's accountant, Fenton had a keen mind for numbers. He was previously a bean counter (literally), where he displayed an uncanny ability to count beans almost instantaneously. His new job helps him support his mother, who sits in her trailer and watches soap operas in her bathrobe.

Unfortunately, Fenton lacks confidence -- he has none. His social ineptness is a hindrance to his attempts to start a relationship with the beautiful Gandra Dee. This changes when he puts on the Gizmoduck suit, which he stumbled into purely by accident (Gyro set the command word to be 'blatherskite,' which coincidentally was part of Fenton's favorite exclamation, "Blabberin' Blatherskite!"). As Gizmoduck, Fenton is charismatic and confident, a stark contrast to his normal personality, which helps maintain the secret.

* Gyro Gearloose. Gyro is a typical eccentric inventor -- mind-staggeringly brilliant but socially incompetent. He has a assistant in the form of a six-inch semi-intelligent robot with a lightbulb for a head. Gyro's greatest accomplishment is the creation of the Gizmoduck suit, into which he placed every useful feature he could think of. He created it at Scrooge's request to protect the Money Bin; Scrooge was going to hire someone appropriate to fill the suit but decided to keep Fenton on in the role after he stumbled into it.

* Flintheart Glomgold. The Second Richest Duck in the World. Although he was South African in the comics, Flinty is Scottish like Scrooge in the TV series. This is probably because he wears a tam-o'-shanter and a kilt. Glomgold is always, always, always, trying to become the Richest Duck in the World, but Scrooge is always, somehow, one step ahead. There is little that Glomgold won't do to reach his goal, even going so far as to hire the Beagle Boys on occasion.

* Magica de Spell. This black-haired Slavic-accented witch is perhaps Scrooge's most dangerous foe. She is a powerful magic-wielder, but she is often reckless with her power. She, too, has hired the Beagle Boys to help her out, but they often suffer the results of her magic more than Scrooge does. Magica's obsession is with obtaining Scrooge's Number One Dime, which she insists is extraordinarily lucky and the key to all of his wealth. Scrooge adamantly disagrees, but still refuses to give it up -- just in case! Magica's familiar is a talking raven, who happens to also be her brother; he helps out in hopes she might change him back one day.

* The Beagle Boys. Not to be confused with Beagle Bros. These ne'er-do-well perpetually-incarcerated canines are Scrooge's most frequent adversaries. Unlike in the comics, individual Beagle Boys in the cartoon have distinct names and personalities. There are a plethora of Beagle Boys, led by the criminal genius Ma Beagle, including Big Time Beagle, Burger Beagle, Baggy Beagle, Bouncer Beagle, and Baby Face Beagle. Their only purpose in life is to break into Scrooge's Money Bin and obtain all of his cash. They never ever try to get his assets any other way -- always directly through the most impregnable building in Duckburg. They have come tantalizingly close at times, but always end up back in the slammer by the time Scrooge is done with them.

Donald Duck. Donald appeared frequently in the comics on which many episodes of DuckTales were based, but only rarely in the cartoon, since he'd joined the Navy. He did show up from time to time, however, where we saw him being abused by his commanding officer.

Doofus. A fellow Junior Woodchuck, Doofus often appeared with the Nephews and Launchpad (in his role as their Head Woodchuck). Launchpad took a distinct liking to the nerdy, rotund little fellow, unlike many of his peers.

Mrs. Featherby. Scrooge's long-suffering secretary, Mrs. Featherby had the unpleasant tasks of attempting to keep unwanted visitors out and informing her employer of all manner of bad news.


I used the Encyclopedia of Walt Disney's Animated Characters by John Grant for spellings and some minor details, but this is mostly from memory.

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