Retro Reviews: DuckTales The Movie: Treasures of the Lost Lamp

John Viaes- If you grew up in the 80’s and 90’s, you’re probably familiar with The Disney Afternoon’s animated TV classic, DuckTales, that wonderful show where Donald Duck joins the navy and leaves his nephews, Huey, Dewy, and Louie in the hands of his rich uncle Scrooge McDuck. Scrooge and the boys go on dangerous adventures that link with history and archeology. This show proved to be successful among Saturday morning cartoons in the late 1980’s that in 1990, feature-length film was produced for theaters from a sister company of Disney’s known as Disney MovieToons (now known as DisneyToon Studios). This film is called DuckTales: The Movie - Treasure of the Lost Lamp. 

Scrooge McDuck along with his three great nephews, Webby Vanderquack, and LaunchPad McQuack make their way into the Middle East to find the lost treasure of Collie Baba. After years and years of searching, Scrooge finally finds the treasure, then eventually loses it after being trapped by the evil Merlock.

After Merlock gets the treasure, he soon realizes that the one thing missing is the one thing he came for - a magic lamp, which is the one thing they held onto. Merlock and his henchman, Dijon follow the ducks back to Duckburg to get the lamp back. The children find that there is a genie in the lamp after trying to polish it. The Genie decides to grant them three wishes, which all lead to mishap. The genie soon realizes that Merlock is after him and it is up to him and the DuckTales gang to put an end to Merlock’s evil.

I have to say, this movie was great. At first, it might seem like just a double-length episode of DuckTales, but it really makes up for that with the action and adventure while still keeping the spirit of the show. Growing up watching re-runs of DuckTales and other Disney Afternoon shows on Toon Disney (now known as Disney XD), this movie brought back a lot of nostalgia for me. I think my favorite part of this movie was the genie. He is a very curious duck that is very interested in that the 20th Century has to offer and likes to make jokes every now and then. I especially like the wishes he granted, for example, Webby wishes for all of her stuffed animals to come to life, and they wreck havoc all over the mansion, scaring their housemaid, Mrs. Beakley. As soon as Scrooge comes back, the boys wish for everything back to normal and when Mrs. Beakley is trying to explain everything, Scrooge tells her she is hallucinating. That kind of slapstick is funny in my opinion, if not beaten to death constantly, which is something this movie successfully keeps.

Nowadays, this film could be compared to Aladdin, which came out a couple years later. This film is loosely based off of the story of Aladdin. Both stories involve finding lost treasure in the middle east, they find a lamp with a genie inside, and there is a villain out there to take it from them and use it for evil.

I would definitely recommend this movie to any Disney fan. It is available on DVD but only through the Disney Movie Club. We won’t be seeing any wide release anytime soon, but, the DVD is presented in 1.66:1 for widescreen televisions, which is perfect. It is also available for rent and purchase on both iTunes and Amazon Instant Video.

3/5 - Genie in the Lamp