Has DuckTales Given Us Too Much In Terms Of Characters?

While we enjoy the new DuckTales it is starting to seem like we are getting too many characters, which is cutting time from the characters that carry the show. This is just going to be a quick look at why DuckTales may be giving us too much in terms of characters and it could (if not already) impact the overall show. There are a few different things that are happening here to give us the high amount of characters, which we will go into a little more depth below. We have introduction of characters from other Disney cartoons, introduction of characters that were not in the original series, continuation of characters (with same or different roles) from the original series. From quick counting it seems that the new DuckTales series has a bunch more characters already in two seasons than the original had in four seasons. We are going to assume you are not only caught up on the new series, but that you also have seen the original series, so spoilers may happen below.

Let us start with the biggest story line and that revolves around a new character that was not in the original animated DuckTales cartoon, Della Duck. While we love the Della story so far, the problem we have is she is taking over a large part of the show. Think about the episode “Raiders of the Doomsday Vault!” we get Dewey and Della as the main characters where are the rest of the kids? There is just not a lot of screen time with a 30-minute show with approximately 20 episodes per season. There are some great characters though for this reboot with Mark Beaks being a favorite reoccurring guest and someone like Toad Liu Hai making a good single appearance, but gosh there are a lot of characters.

Some of the characters from the original series may not be the same characters you remember, while Doofus Drake is a totally re-imagined characters, Flintheart Glomgold seems to be very similar. Emily Quackfaster has a different name but same job as Mrs. Featherby and Gyro Gearloose is a little less oblivious and much more calculated. We feel like this is a great way to do a reboot, keep things new and familiar at the same time. Wasn’t it nice to see Farley Foghorn as well? There are a lot more of these characters that are in the new DuckTales and we enjoy seeing them as they do not seem to take over too much especially as one off episodes with a call back from time to time. Duckworth does not feel like he takes over much of the show, but it does beg the question was it necessary to introduce him or could we have done without him? That is the question with some characters, are they necessary to move the story, build the world, or create a plot point?

We all really thought this was going to make us happy, and on some level it did. Being able to revisit some of our favorite characters from other Disney shows really sounds like fun. Again the problem is, this is DuckTales and while we enjoyed seeing Don Karnage, Darkwing Duck, Drake Mallard, Negaduck, José Carioca and a few others it took away the development of our main characters. To be honest though, the way they brought Darkwing Duck back from just being a movie star to being a real super hero was brilliant and one can only hope this means a spin off of some sort. Do not make DuckTales a vehicle for other characters, let it grow and blossom on its own without so many guest stars. The show has us believing that a lot of these characters could carry their own show, and having them appear in DuckTales feels a little cheap, even if we consider all these shows under one Duckverse, but even that is tough since all the characters are not ducks or even birds.

Overall we really do enjoy DuckTales, so this is just for the betterment of the show, please let us get back to focusing on what makes DuckTales wonderful, the adventure of the “main” characters. We have been pretty disappointed in the amount of screen time that Launchpad has gotten outside of the Darkwing and automated driving episodes. We feel like while it is always fun to see new characters, there are just too many of them that take away from the rest of the cast. We love Lena and she has taken a nice role for the show, but someone like Violet Sabrewing, will she be back, if so another character to add to the heap.