A Look at Disney Christmas: Last Christmas (DuckTales (2017) Episode Review)

Hello & welcome back to A Look at Disney.  I know that I haven't been doing a lot of Disney Christmas reviews but that's in part because I wanted to focus on my other interests but over the next two days, we will be looking at Christmas episodes from two of my favorite current Disney shows.  Starting with the excellent reboot of DuckTales and then the wonderful, Elena of Avalor.





Intro






Now, I stopped looking at intros in episode reviews ages ago but I am making an exception here as the Christmas episode went out of its way to re-record the intro for the show and give it a Christmas makeover and it's fun as it still sounds like the theme song that we've come to love.  The only thing that I didn't care too much for sadly was the singer when I first listened to it but after hearing it in conjunction with the episode, I can see what they were going for as they wanted a crooner a la Frank Sinatra.   In that regard, I enjoy it.



The Plot



The plot is one of the big reasons I love this episode but it's also because of the history in this episode.  I'll be going into that more as we look at the episode but man, the Disney Duck history in this episode and this series are just wonderful.  We start this episode at McDuck Mansion and see most of the McDuck Clan celebrating for the holiday and Scrooge being an old humbug about the holiday.   And this is where we get our first taste of Disney Duck history in this episode as Beakley comes and says that the viewing of the Christmas movie,  Christmas on Bear Mountain will be read soon.   And oh my, I loved this.   Christmas on Bear Mountain is the comic that Scrooge McDuck made his debut in.  For those of you, that may not know, Uncle Scrooge was originally conceived as a comics character before appearing in animation.

I swear I plan to review this comic, one of these days.  It's been something I've wanted to do for a while but I've yet to find it.  We also get some interesting follow-up to the big mystery of the first season, mainly what happened to the boys' mom.   It's small but this is something that the show does very well, takes characters from Disney Duck history and expands upon them and here with Della Duck, Donald's sister, we see that as the big mystery of season one was finding out what happened to her and well, it's tragic but needless to say her adventurous side got her stranded on the moon and left her boys without a mother for ten years and causing Uncle Donald to step up and be the parent that the boys needed in that time.  Which brings to me an aspect I really enjoy about this take on Donald, he still has his angry outbursts but this reboot is more willing to show the softer side to Donald and how he cares for the boys.  And understands that they are going through hard things, and I say all of that as this helps set up the plot I was more invested in as Dewey out of the three nephews was the one that was perhaps hit the hardest by learning the truth about his mom.  And not having her around for the holiday hurts him.    And we are shown as he is looking at a picture of his mom and when Donald sees that his nephew is looking at it, he leaves him alone and understands that he needs time. And this is where the Christmas Carol element of the episode enters as Dewey overhears his elder uncle partying and we see that he's partying with the Ghosts of Christmas.   And in a swerve, it's revealed that Scrooge doesn't hate Christmas except for Santa but according to Scrooge, he knows what he did.  Now, I've read that the ghosts as presented in this episode were meant to homage the ghosts from Mickey's Christmas Carol and I can see that to an extent but man, I would've loved it if they could have Jiminy and Willie (but considering that we have some adaptional villainy going on, maybe not).

We find out that Scrooge meant the Ghosts by happenstance a couple years back as they were supposed to be haunting another Scrooge. Hah.   And they've hung out ever since every Christmas as Scrooge just needs one night to unwind and they do that by going to the best Christmas parties in history.    This year, Past decides to take them to the year that Scrooge was starting to make his fortune and see what Christmas was like.   And man, I love the humor in this show as young and old Scrooge pass each and just acknowledge that yes,  that's wheo thy are.  This is also when we get a sense that Past is up to something and in many ways, it's quite tragic as we see him take Scrooge back to his first Duckberg Christmas and we learn that he's basically afraid of losing a friend as that always happend when the old misers that he visits start to care for thers but Scroge was different until this year.   Yeah,  it's fun and I can get what they're doing but the Christmas Carol stuff is  the less interesting part of this episode.    What I do love is Dewey's subplot as the the nephew in blue meets up with a child version of his uncle.  And OMG,  brilliant stunt casting here as child Donald in the past is voiced by Russi Taylor.    Which  if you watched the original DuckTales, she voiced all three of the nephews.  How wonderful is this?   I was salivating at these kinds of references,   I mean they even went so far as to have young Donald say quackeroonie,  whiche was something the boys said all the time in the original DuckTales. 


Of course,  that's minor as the big thing that Dewey is interested in is finding his mom.  But her brother is less than interested as young Donald in this show is presented as kinda emo and trying to write a song and hating Christmas.  Which contrast that with adult Donald in the show, who loves Christmas, which more than likely comes from a place of wanting to make sure the boys have wonderful memories growing up. Donald informs Dewey that Della is out back watching for Santa. But once again, there's a twist as she's trying to capture Santa for Uncle Scrooge.  And this comes about after Dewey and Donald get trapped in a net that she set up.  And Donald and Della get into a fight and wow because Donald makes fun of his sister by calling her Dumbella. 


Wow... they really did that.  For those of you, that may not know, Della is one of two names associated with Donald's sister, the other is Dumbella.   I beleive this is is shown in the short, Donald's Nephews in a letter that she sent with her son.   I prefer them using Della as it just sounds nicer but the fact that they worked in Dumbella and did it in such an obvious way is just mindblowing.   Yeah, Santa doesn't show up a wendigo does.   And yeah, he is quite scarier than how MLP portrayed wendigos.   In a fun bit of foreshadowing, our wendigo can be heard saying "when he'd go".    Uncle Scrooge comes in for the save and we learn that wendigo is actually Past as he had become hardened and jaded over time.   But Scrooge forgives him and says that no-one should be alone for Christmas.  Before they leave, Donald and Della figure out that Dewey is a relative from the future as the McDuck family is that weird.   Dewey tries to warn the younger version of his mom about what's going to happen but they stop him as that'll have consquences.    And we see him give her a big old hug.  And our episode ends with the McDucks singing and Della on the moon wishing her boys, a Merry Christmas. 


This episode is so wonderful and just shows how good this reboot is at being it's own thing.




Characters


Main Character


Dewey voiced by Ben Schwartz 

I really loved seeing Dewey getting to see his mom as he more than his brothers wanted to know her as he spent all of the first season trying to solve the mystery of what happened to her.  And while it's always neat to imagine what our parents would be like as kids,  this is extra special as this is the first time that Dewey got to see his mom.  He never had her around while he was growing up. 


Scrooge voiced by David Tenant

Tenant's Scrooge is quite a blast and he does get some fun moments in the episode but like I said, the Christmas Carol stuff was the less interesting stuff in this episode 



Supporting Characters



Donald and Della voiced by Russi Taylor & Paget Brewster

What a treat to have Russi Taylor return to DuckTales and the thing I like here is that this is a take on Donald that we've not seen before but it fits within the world that DuckTales has set up and you could beleive Donald would have been like this, if he were a kid in the '90s as that is when our characters travel back to.  Della is fascinating as if I recall before this series, she had never had an onscreen appearance  I understand that her comics history is quite rich and something that I think will be pulled from as the series continues.  Having said, this take on the young Della continues a trend that we've seen with young girls in Disney cartoons, if you can consider three a trend.   Della seems to be of the mold of Mabel Pines, Star Butterfly and Webby from the DuckTales reboot in being outgoing, advetrous and a little quirky.   Do understand that this is not a complaint but rather an observation and I think from what we've been shown of Della in this series, it's works.



Antagonist 

The Ghost of Christmas Past voiced by Jack McBrayer

Not a whole lot to say here, it's a fun idea, what if one of the ghosts became an antagonist in the story but it's one I've seen before as the IDW Ghostbusters comics did a similiar thing. Granted, this was handled better but I'm not the biggest fan of having the ghosts stray from the lessons that they're meant to teach.   The Christmas Carol stuff was fun and another nice way of honoring of Duck history past but heh.


My Final Thoughts


While I don't care for the Christmas Carol stuff in this episode, I do love the rest of this episode and consider it be quite a good Christmas episode and just a great episode of DuckTales all around.