1 The Mickey Mindset: Disney TV Show Spotlight: Darkwing Duck

Tuesday, April 8, 2014

Disney TV Show Spotlight: Darkwing Duck

Mitchell Stein- Out of all of the original classic Disney Afternoon television programs, Darkwing Duck by far by absolute favorite. With voice actor Jim Cummings as the title hero, the character is an incredibly fun character to watch and Cummings brings a lot of life into him and forms him into the hilarious comedic character that we know him as. Launchpad McQuack, fresh off his debut from DuckTales serves as an assistant to the quirky hero, and provides a lot of the slapstick comedy himself, and I love how the running gag between the two concerning Darkwing’s name (“It’s Darkwing, not DW!”) and Dawrkwing even refers to Lauchpad as LP in one episode. It’s a funny running gag, and it’s done quite well.

Darkwing’s newly adopted daughter, Gosylyn is a good character, while not my favorite, she adds a lot to the show along with Honker, her friend. To be honest, Darkwing is hilarious enough, and could easily carry an entire show by himself, I never feel any of these characters are necessary in that sense, but the other characters are fun to have around and play off well of the terror that flaps in the night.
The villains are so wacky and zany, they’re just perfect. I love Negaduck, Darkwing’s evil diabolical doppelganger. Negaduck is the leader of “The Fearsome Five”, which is probably my favorite villainous element to this series. Some of the other villains of the fearsome five include Dr. Bushroot, Megavolt, and Quackerjack. Other characters Steelbreak is a fun villain, as well as the other agents at F.O.W.L. Many of the show’s elements feel like parodies of other well-known superhero stories, especially with some of the familiarities between this show and other comic book characters, such as Batman and Spider-Man.


I also enjoy the somewhat continuing story in this series. Not many children’s/family cartoon shows take the time to create an entire backstory to the series, but Darkwing Duck has a fantastic two-part pilot episode named “Darkwing Dawns the Duck” where it establishes the entire backstory of DW, and his adoption of Gosylyn and other facts mentioned throughout the show.

Overall, I really enjoy this show a lot. It’s a shame more shows like this don’t dominate the current Disney Channel. I think its fun, quirky and good clean entertainment with a lot of really hilarious slapstick humor. It’s one of those shows that I still enjoy watching today and probably enjoy it more than I did previously. I think it’s safe to say out of all of the classic shows, Darkwing easily comes out in first place. 


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