Five Thoughts on DuckTales‘ “Sky Pirates…In the Sky!”

DuckTales is back from hiatus to finish out the first season of the reboot, and now it’s made the jump from Saturday mornings on Disney XD to the Disney Channel proper. So, let’s dive in! In this week’s episode, Scrooge and the gang are caught by surprise when a band of singing and dancing sky pirates plunders their latest loot.

1. More musical episodes, please

Between the sky pirate theme song in this episode and “Waddleduck” from “Who is Gizmoduck,” the show has been very successful employing original songs. They should really do it more. “Waddleduck” was catchy enough, but the pirate theme song and accompanying dance number blew it out of the water. It was a great song by itself, but it was also used to flesh out the plot and characters in meaningful ways. It provided a quick and effective showcase of Don Karnage, and then acted as a vehicle for his crew to voice their motivations and desires which lead to the eventual mutiny. Dewey’s modified version in the climax then showed how each of the character’s desires didn’t necessarily satisfy them, and they needed to work through their family issues instead of looking for quick fixes.

2. “He’ll steal your treasure and your heart!”

The antagonists in the show keep improving. There have been several wonderful new additions recently, but Don Karnage and the sky pirates may be my new favorite. It helps that they’re also a dose of nostalgia from TaleSpin, another classic Disney cartoon. Karnage and his crew were already endearing as they stole the gang’s treasure by dazzling them with song and dance, and by the end I was basically rooting for them. The character development efficiency of this episode was probably the best so far. Don Karnage and several of his crew members all got great little moments and were fully understood by the climax of the episode. A great example of this was the pirate practicing his dance moves, causing him to be late. Dewey needed him to get on Don Karnage’s ship, but the quick scene also efficiently illustrated the ridiculous situation these pirates are in with Karnage as their captain.

3. Okay, now it’s funny again

I was surprised by how much I liked the alpaca bit by the end of the episode. It was one of those jokes that’s funny at first, gets old, and then comes back around again. At first it felt like a lame side plot that the show likes to give the non-featured main cast, so I was pleasantly surprised that it became an effective catalyst for the main plot. It felt like a good payoff when Dewey finally gets to tell the whole remarkable story to the pirates, inspiring them to overthrow Don Karnage. Like Huey befriending Tenderfeet last episode, it’s an example of the show picking up right after something wild has happened to a character, and letting it play out for the rest of the episode. This instance was much more effective.

4. Sapphire of suck

The one weak part of the episode was the conclusion to Webby and Louie’s subplot. Everything leading up to the end was really entertaining though. It was funny watching Louie twist himself into knots trying to justify keeping the gem. Each justification and scheme were more ridiculous than the previous one and kept getting funnier. The Gollum references were nicely executed as well. All of that was wasted, however, just to reveal that Webby planted it as a fake (miraculously appearing price tag and all), to teach Louise a lesson? I’m still not quite sure of the reasoning other than Webby getting back at Louie for telling her, “I am offended that you would try and taint this treasure hunt with learning,” at the beginning of the episode.

5. Is Scrooge going to evolve at all?

Taken on its own, the conversation between Dewey and Scrooge when he finally gets to share his story at the end of the episode was a nice moment for the two characters. Still, it seems like these touching moments keep happening with Scrooge and various other members of the main cast, but Scrooge keeps forgetting them. It was excusable at first, but at this point it’s starting to become a bit distracting. At some point, he’s going to need to show at least a little bit character growth.

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Afterthoughts