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Darkwing Duck

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Darkwing Duck (animation) title card

Darkwing Duck is an American animated superhero comedy television series produced by Disney Television Animation (formerly Walt Disney Television Animation) that first ran from 1991 to 1992 on both the syndicated programming block The Disney Afternoon and Saturday mornings on ABC. A total of ninety-one episodes were aired.[1] It features the adventures of Darkwing Duck, who is the superheroic alter-ego of ordinary suburban duck Drake Mallard.[2]

Though it was originally thought by some fans to be a spin-off of the 1987 DuckTales series, creator Tad Stones stated in a 2016 report that he believes the two shows exist in different universes.[3] Despite this, supporting characters Launchpad McQuack and Gizmoduck appear in both series in similar roles, and Scrooge McDuck is mentioned in the Darkwing Duck episode "Tiff of the Titans". Additionally, the 2011 comic book series DuckTales makes reference to Darkwing Duck and features various villains from the series. A crossover between the Darkwing Duck and DuckTales comics occurs in issues 17–18 and issues 5–6, respectively, of each. A reboot of the series is in development for Disney+.

Premise[]

Darkwing Duck tells the adventures of the titular superhero, aided by his sidekick and pilot Launchpad McQuack (from DuckTales). In his secret identity of Drake Mallard (a parody of Kent Allard, the alter ego of the Shadow), he lives in an unassuming suburban house with his adopted daughter Gosalyn, next door to the bafflingly dim-witted Muddlefoot family. Darkwing struggles to balance his egotistical craving for fame and attention against his desire to be a good father to Gosalyn and help do good in St. Canard. Most episodes put these two aspects of Darkwing's character in direct conflict, though Darkwing's better nature usually prevails.[4]

The show was the first Disney Afternoon series to emphasize action rather than adventure, with Darkwing routinely engaging in slapstick battles with both supervillains and street criminals. While conflict with villains was routine in earlier Disney Afternoon shows, actual fight scenes were relatively rare.

Darkwing Duck was also the first Disney Afternoon property that was produced completely as a genre parody. Prior shows would contain elements of parody in certain episodes, but would otherwise be straight-faced adventure concepts, this in the tradition of Carl Barks' work in the Disney comics. By contrast, every episode of Darkwing Duck is laden with references to superhero, pulp adventure, or super-spy fiction. Darkwing Duck himself is a satirical character. His costume, gas gun and flashy introductions are all reminiscent of pulp heroes and Golden Age superheroes such as The Shadow, The Sandman, Doc Savage, Batman, The Green Hornet and the Julius Schwartz Flash, as well as The Lone Ranger and Zorro. The fictional city of St. Canard is a direct parody of Gotham City. ("Canard" is the French word for "duck".)

Production[]

Darkwing Duck was developed as a last-minute replacement with concept artwork by Michael Peraza for a proposed reboot of The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show, when the management team realized that Disney did not own the rights to the characters (Disney merely held home video rights to the series).[5]

The show was a spin-off of the very successful series DuckTales.[5] Darkwing Duck entered production roughly one year after DuckTales ended. Darkwing Duck was inspired by two specific episodes of DuckTales: "Double-O-Duck" starring Launchpad McQuack as a secret agent,[5] and "The Masked Mallard" in which Scrooge McDuck becomes a masked vigilante superhero wearing a purple uniform and cape. The name "The Masked Mallard" became an epithet often used in the new show to refer to Darkwing himself.[6]

Tad Stones was directed to come up with a series for The Disney Afternoon around the premise of Double-O-Duck, as an executive liked the title Double-O Duck as a spoof of James Bond and felt Launchpad McQuack would take the starring role. It turned out that the title Double-O Duck could not be used as the Broccoli family owned the 'double-o' title.[7]

A new name was selected, "Darkwing Duck". Thus, Stones designed a new character for the lead, Drake Mallard, while selecting McQuack as the sidekick.[7] This name would result in a new look (Double-O Duck was to wear a white tuxedo and black domino mask). Other elements of the show, such as Darkwing's habit of coining new catchphrases every time he announced himself, would be invented during production.[8] (As an in-joke, the episode "A Duck by Any Other Name" had Drake suggest "Double-O Duck" as his new secret identity and Launchpad remarked that it "seems kinda silly".[9])

Where most prior Disney Afternoon series included at least some preexisting animated characters, Darkwing Duck featured a completely original cast. Even the DuckTales characters it reused had no counterpart in early Disney shorts or the comics. The only exception was the episode "In Like Blunt", which featured cameo appearances by the Beagle Boys, Flintheart Glomgold and Magica De Spell.[10]

Broadcast history[]

Darkwing Duck first aired on The Disney Channel on March 31, 1991, as a "sneak preview",[11][12] and then from April 6 into July 14 of that year as a regularly scheduled run on weekend mornings,[11][13][14] as it was advertised to be "The newest animated TV series exclusively to The Disney Channel". In reality, this was a preview-run of the series before it aired on The Disney Afternoon.

The two-part episode "Darkly Dawns the Duck" originally aired as an hour-length TV special on September 6, 1991, as part of a larger syndicated TV special, The Darkwing Duck Premiere / Back to School with the Mickey Mouse Club.[15] The film served as the show's pilot. Seasons 1 and 2 were aired simultaneously in the autumn of 1991. Season 1 aired in syndication as part of The Disney Afternoon block of shows. Seasons 2 and 3 aired on Saturday mornings on ABC. The final episode aired on December 12, 1992. All episodes remained in syndicated reruns on The Disney Afternoon until 1995 and then returned to the line-up from 1996 to 1997.

Starting on October 2, 1995, Darkwing Duck was rerun on The Disney Channel as part of a two-hour programming block called "Block Party" which aired on weekdays in the late-afternoon/early-evening and which also included TaleSpin, DuckTales, and Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers.[16] On September 3, 1996, Darkwing Duck was dropped from the beginning of the block when Goof Troop was added to the end.[17][18]

The series was last seen in the U.S. on Toon Disney on January 19, 2007, as part of the Toon Disney Wild Card Stack. Certain episodes from the show's original run rarely re-aired while the show was on Toon Disney. These episodes appear to have been removed for content reasons. The most prominent of the rarely seen episodes is "Hot Spells", which was never re-aired after its initial broadcast on ABC because of its religiously sensitive subject matter.

Darkwing Duck was one of the first American animated TV series to be officially broadcast in syndication in the former Soviet Union.[19]

The show formerly aired on Disney XD in international territories such as the Netherlands and Germany.[20]

The show also airs on the Disney+ streaming service, with the exception of the banned episode "Hot Spells".[21]

Home media []

VHS releases[]

Four VHS cassettes, each containing one or two episodes (a total of 6 episodes) of Darkwing Duck, were released under the title Darkwing Duck: His Favorite Adventures in the United States on March 23, 1993, individually titled "Darkly Dawns the Duck", "Justice Ducks Unite!", "Comic Book Capers" and "Birth of Negaduck!". However, most countries around the world only received releases of "Darkly Dawns the Duck" and "Justice Ducks Unite!" Each video came with two "glow-in-the-Darkwing" trading cards. Featured on the cards were Darkwing Duck, Launchpad, Gosalyn, Honker, Negaduck, Bushroot, Megavolt, and Taurus Bulba. The videotapes also included a Darkwing Duck music video which played at the end of each tape.

VHS name Episode titles Release date Stock number
Darkly Dawns the Duck "Darkly Dawns the Duck" (uncut version) March 23, 1993 1494
Justice Ducks Unite! "Just Us Justice Ducks" (Parts 1 & 2) March 23, 1993 1600
Comic Book Capers "Comic Book Capers" & "A Brush with Oblivion" March 23, 1993 1601
Birth of Negaduck! "Negaduck" & "Tiff of the Titans" March 23, 1993 1602

Additionally, on September 28, 1993, the Darkwing Duck episode "It's a Wonderful Leaf" was released together with the Goof Troop episode "Have Yourself a Goofy Little Christmas" on one VHS cassette as a special release called Happy Holidays with Darkwing Duck and Goofy![22][23] On September 3, 1996, the Darkwing Duck episode "Ghoul of My Dreams" was released together with the Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers episode "Good Times, Bat Times" on one VHS cassette as a special release called Witcheroo![24][25]

Australia and New Zealand releases[]

Seven VHS cassettes containing 12 episodes of the series were released in Australia and New Zealand.

VHS Name Episode Titles Release Date
Darkwing Duck (Volume 1): Darkly Dawns the Duck "Darkly Dawns the Duck" (Parts 1 & 2) November 26, 1993
Darkwing Duck (Volume 2): Justice Ducks Unite! "Just Us Justice Ducks" (Parts 1 & 2) November 26, 1993
Darkwing Duck (Volume 3): Comic Book Capers "Comic Book Capers" & "A Brush with Oblivion" April 1, 1994
Darkwing Duck (Volume 4): Birth of Negaduck! "Negaduck" & "Tiff of the Titans" April 1, 1994
Darkwing Duck (Volume 5): That Sinking Feeling "That Sinking Feeling" & "Water Way to Go" April 1, 1994
Darkwing Duck (Volume 6): The Incredible Shrinking Darkwing Duck "Getting Antsy" & "Apes of Wrath" April 1, 1994
Darkwing Duck (Volume 7): Cosmic Crusader "When Aliens Collide" & "Disguise the Limit" April 1, 1994

DVD releases[]

Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment released a three-disc DVD box set entitled "Darkwing Duck - Volume 1" on August 29, 2006. It included 25 episodes, plus the two-part pilot "Darkly Dawns the Duck", as opposed to the uncut version's release on VHS. The second volume, containing the next 27 episodes, was released on August 7, 2007.[26] The sets do not contain any special features. It is currently unknown if Disney has any intentions of releasing the remaining 37 episodes on DVD. No official releases have been made outside of the United States and Canada.

Product Episodes Release date
Darkwing Duck - Volume 1 27 August 29, 2006
Darkwing Duck - Volume 2 27 August 7, 2007

Video on demand[]

United States[]

As of September 2019, the majority of the series is available for purchase on the iTunes Store and Google TV,[27] with the lone exception of the banned episode "Hot Spells". They are listed in 6 separate volumes (with Seasons 2 and 3 individually representing the last two volumes[28][29]), which on the iTunes Store can also be bought in a pack other than individual purchases or a complete series pack at the price of $40 for all 90 available episodes.[30]

In addition, the series (with the exception of the episode "Hot Spells"[31]) can also be viewed on the Disney+ streaming service.[32][33]

International[]

The entire series (including the episode "Hot Spells") is currently available for purchase on Amazon Prime Video in Germany. The first season (comprising the show's first two seasons) is available in six volumes while the second season (comprising the third season) is available in one volume.[34]

Reception[]

Critical reception[]

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the first season holds an approval of 83% based on 6 reviews, with an average rating of 7.00/10.[35]

Nigel Mitchell of CBR.com stated, "He was the terror that flapped in the night. He was the fingernail that scraped the blackboard of your soul. He was Darkwing Duck, and he made a generation laugh and thrill with his crazy adventures. Following the success of "Ducktales," the 1992 TV show "Darkwing Duck" was one of the first action-oriented shows on Disney's block, and wasn't like any other show on TV."[36] Amanda Dyer of Common Sense Media rated the series 4 out of 5 stars, writing, "Darkwing Duck is a 1990s Disney animated comedy that has slapstick cartoon violence (including weapon use) and mild name calling. It follows the heroic yet self-serving antics of cartoon duck superhero Darkwing Duck as he battles various wacky supervillains with his sidekick, Launchpad McQuack."[37]

Darkwing Duck was named the 93rd Best Animated Series by IGN, calling it "one of the many reasons why after-school cartoons rule."[38] "Torgo's Pizzeria Podcast" gave a favorable retrospective review to Darkwing Duck in April 2012; the podcast did however note some weaknesses with the series.[39] Nick Caruso of TVLine lists the theme song from the series among the best animated series themes of all time.[40]

  1. ↑ Perlmutter, David (2018). The Encyclopedia of American Animated Television Shows. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 147. ISBN 978-1538103739. 
  2. ↑ Erickson, Hal (2005). Television Cartoon Shows: An Illustrated Encyclopedia, 1949 Through 2003 (2nd ed.). McFarland & Co. pp. 233–234. ISBN 978-1476665993. 
  3. ↑ BLAIR MARNELL (2016-09-11). "DARKWING DUCK Is an Alternate Reality, Not a DUCKTALES Spinoff". Nerdist. http://nerdist.com/darkwing-duck-is-an-alternate-reality-not-a-ducktales-spinoff/.
  4. ↑ Solomon, Charles. "Disney's 'Darkwing Duck' Can't Fly Very High", The Los Angeles Times, April 6, 1991. 
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Peraza, Michael (August 14, 2010). "Bullwinkled". Blogspot. http://michaelperaza.blogspot.com/2010/08/bullwinkled.html.
  6. ↑ "Let's Get Dangerous: 20 Crazy Things You Didn't Know About Darkwing Duck" (in en-US). 2017-10-12. https://www.thegamer.com/lets-get-dangerous-20-crazy-things-you-didnt-know-about-darkwing-duck/.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 "Tube Thursday : The "Disney Afternoon" shows that you didn't get to see", Jim Hill Media, August 15, 2007. 
  8. ↑ Stone, Tad (November 2010). "The Origin(s) of Darkwing Duck", Darkwing Duck: The Duck Knight Returns. Boom! Comics.
  9. ↑ "A Duck by Any Other Name". Darkwing Duck. Season 1 (Disney Afternoon). Episode 48. February 18, 1992.
  10. ↑ "In Like Blunt". Darkwing Duck. Season 1 (Disney Afternoon). Episode 50. February 24, 1992.
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 Lipton, Lauren. "Disney's 'Darkwing Duck' enlists a super fowl in fight against crime; ABC telecasts Easter Parade", The Los Angeles Times, March 31, 1991. 
  12. ↑ The Disney Channel Magazine, Vol. 9, no. 2, March/April 1991: pp. 38, 43.
  13. ↑ The Disney Channel Magazine, Vol. 9, no. 2, March/April 1991: pp. 2, 43.
  14. ↑ The Disney Channel Magazine, Vol. 9, no. 3, May/June 1991: pp. 28, 46.
  15. ↑ "Kokomo Tribune TV Update: Friday Sept. 6 – Evening", September 6, 1991, p. 7. “Darkwing Duck Premiere / Back to School with the Mickey Mouse Club previews a new Disney cartoon starring crime-fighting detective Darkwing Duck. Also, a Mickey Mouse Club special featuring comedy sketches and music performances.”  See also Lenburg 1997, pp. 247, 397.
  16. ↑ "Block Party: Four Disney Animated Series." The Disney Channel Magazine, Vol. 13, no. 5, October/November 1995: p. 36.
  17. ↑ The Disney Channel Magazine, Vol. 14, no. 3, June/July 1996: p. 26.
  18. ↑ The Disney Channel Magazine, Vol. 14, no. 4, August/September 1996: pp. 25, 28, 34.
  19. ↑ "Darkwing Duck". darkwing-duck.ru. http://www.darkwing-duck.ru/.
  20. ↑ Trank, Kim (2020-04-04). "Disney XD: Sendeschluss bei Pay-TV-Spartensender". digitalfernsehen.de. https://www.digitalfernsehen.de/ratgeber/digital-tv/disney-xd-554869/.
  21. ↑ "Every Disney movie, TV show available day one on Disney+". October 14, 2019. https://attractionsmagazine.com/disney-plus-day-one-list/.
  22. ↑ Happy Holidays with Darkwing Duck and Goofy [VHS]: Jim Cummings, Terence McGovern, Christine Cavanaugh, Katie Leigh, Dan Castellaneta, Susan Tolsky, Tino Insana, Danny Mann, Frank Welker, Rob Paulsen, Dana Hill, Michael Bell: Movies & TV. ASIN 6302794293. 
  23. ↑ "Happy holidays [with Darkwing Duck and Goofy] / produced by Walt Disney Television Animation | Miami University Libraries". Lib.muohio.edu. http://www.lib.muohio.edu/multifacet/record/mu3ugb4026194.
  24. ↑ Witcheroo [VHS]: Witcheroo: Movies & TV. ASIN 6302794242. 
  25. ↑ "Witcheroo! / Walt Disney Company | Miami University Libraries". Lib.muohio.edu. http://www.lib.muohio.edu/multifacet/record/mu3ugb4018981.
  26. ↑ "Darkwing Duck DVD news: Volume 2 release information and artwork for 'Darkwing Duck'" Template:Webarchive. TVShowsOnDVD.com. August 7, 2007.
  27. ↑ Darkwing Duck -Google Play Store
  28. ↑ Darkwing Duck, Vol. 5 -iTunes Store
  29. ↑ Darkwing Duck, Vol. 6 -iTunes Store
  30. ↑ Darkwing Duck, The Complete Series - iTunes Store
  31. ↑ Darkwing Duck's Hot Spells Controversy Explained - Screen Rant
  32. ↑ Template:Disney+ series
  33. ↑ Disney+ Shares Its Ideal Disney Afternoon Lineup - Comic Book Resources
  34. ↑ "Darkwing Duck - Staffel 1 Teil 1: Amazon.de: Alle Produkte". https://www.amazon.de/gp/video/detail/B01C0XKA7M/ref=atv_dp_season_select_s101?language=en.
  35. ↑ "DARKWING DUCK: SEASON 1". https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/darkwing_duck/s01.
  36. ↑ Mitchell, Nigel (2017-03-12). "The 15 Best Episodes of Darkwing Duck" (in en-US). https://www.cbr.com/the-15-best-episodes-of-darkwing-duck/.
  37. ↑ "Darkwing Duck TV Review | Common Sense Media" (in en). https://www.commonsensemedia.org/tv-reviews/darkwing-duck.
  38. ↑ "IGN – 93. Darkwing Duck". Ziff Davis. http://www.ign.com/top/animated-tv-series/93.html.
  39. ↑ "iTunes – Podcasts – Torgo's Pizzeria Podcast by Torgo!". Itunes.apple.com. https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/torgos-pizzeria-podcast/id425836729?mt=2&ign-mpt=uo%3D4.
  40. ↑ Caruso, Nick (2020-10-24). "The Top TV Theme Songs of All Time: Animated Series" (in en-US). https://tvline.com/lists/top-tv-theme-songs-all-time-animated-series/.
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