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Description

In the, technically bright, alleys of 90’s Saturday morning cartoons lies a beloved action comedy young, curious minds visit to get a thrill out of the adventures of the terror that flaps in the night, Darkwing Duck. He may not be a beloved hero in his universe, but how heroic can he get to strengthen his show’s quality?

PIE CHART ANALYSIS

The pie chart reports mostly good news, but the show couldn’t sustain itself from a handful of flawed episodes.

But on the bright side, the defense mechanism has granted Darkwing Duck with half of all the ratings amounting to at least a GOOD rating. Deeper into this, there are only 2 blessed episodes, but there are a lot of episodes I find really well with 20 not counting the blessed champions.

In the Negaverse, however, has 6 episodes ruthless enough to remain there. The other 5 episodes I don’t recommend at all, however, managed to escape but too badly injured to meet neutral standards.

What I think is the most interesting thing regarding this pie chart isn’t the ratings but how the seasons stack up to one another. When analyzing the ABC seasons (Seasons 2 and 3), the first was lukewarm while the second was a major step-up with most of the episodes landing in the GOOD range, albeit with a few stinkers.

While the duck failed to overcome several flawed episodes, his and the rest of the cast’s stunts were pleasing to make half of the series relatively good.

FIRST THOUGHTS

I heard that this series was initially intended as a spin-off to DuckTales (1987), which said cartoon, if you remembered from my review, had a lot of underwhelming moments mixed in with some effective hits. A few years later, there’s Darkwing Duck which I hear people crowning this show higher than Scrooge’s riches. You know, the theme song sounds pretty fun and maybe this show as well, so what scheme are they up to?
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 […], 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.
-sourced from Wikipedia

Although this is an old, retro cartoon that might’ve lost its value from time to time like the previous two Disney Afternoon disappointments, I must admit that this premise sounds pretty good, particularly with how the characters might be handled. While Drake’s conflicts definitely sound like he’ll be more than a two-dimensional crime fighter, I’d say the villains are the ones I’m the most excited in seeing due to their creative motives and how menacing Negaduck could be, from all the credit he receives.

Observing the animation a little bit, I noticed how it’s wackier than the typical Disney style and if this is to craft the humor solidly, then I guess I’m in for the style. But the atmosphere has me questioning if it’s going to be loaded with bland background design and music that won’t make me feel like I’m in the series. As for everything else, I don’t know what to expect since I’m not as familiar as this show compared to some of Disney’s other cartoons.

Maybe I should better watch out for the show missing the extent of its potential, but that seems like the only fear I have as I could possibly get along with the characters and the wacky nature of the series.

WRITING

I’m quite impressed with how St. Canard has a lot going for its uniqueness.

One element that manages to keep a lot of episodes intriguing and fun are the villains’ interesting and creative schemes. As one of the biggest driving forces of the series, it offers a lot of neat twists in many scenes it lurks within, especially whenever they use their powers to their advantage. In fact, some of their schemes can seem so difficult to overcome that they can really challenge Darkwing and his sidekicks by making them weaker. Rather than his powers, the villains can go for Darkwing's health to give him conditions like blindness and while simple, the episode can take this to a solid direction.

As the villains' schemes are one the biggest core of a superhero series, to deliver some packed action scenes that worked due to the series' blend of cartoon slapstick into the cloud of danger. Of course, several cartoons has seem to have something like this, but what makes this work on its own is the consistent wacky atmosphere. This tone has a major presence in the series where in this case, the silliness of these scenes would make them better also due to one element I generally wasn't expecting:

Satire. Using Darkwing Duck's personality, the show satirizes superheroes and works decently such as how it pokes fun of how long superhero entrances can be by having the antagonists ignore his introduction and just swat him right away as if he's just standing there. But even without his trusty superpowers, Darkwing still has various other topics to take a jab at like like history, martial arts, etc., all in thanks due to certain characters arguing which is which. As a history enthusiast, it was enjoyable seeing at one point having Christopher Columbus and the vikings argue who got to the New World first and this example works really well because the context of which European got to the New World first is confusing and the real answer can be overlooked.

But enough of history, the series can also mess around with meta-ness. With how the series handled them, it's pretty decent but interesting as most swings at the subject tend to end up in the interesting category. Here, Darkwing Duck isn't just a cartoon, but also a TV show personality who has a large following all thanks to the decision made at Disney. And yes, the series did mention Disney at some point. But why did I call it a decent attempt at referencing itself in a meta way? Well, it has some bland and obvious effects like having Darkwing's creator be greedy and lazy rather than kind and full of ideas and how Darkwing Duck simply visits the studio that made him. Besides one device, there could've been more with this, but outside of the studio, the series still carries along its satire where it then places Darkwing in a play and read a script that isn't true to who he is at all.

Climbing back onto the whole superhero shtick, another element that makes several episodes entertaining is the dialogue. Much like how superheroes and villains would have clever one-liners be used a weapon towards each other or to inflict harm or save the day, Darkwing would very commonly have something to say after delivering his trademark catchphrase "I am the terror that flaps in the night!" that relates to whatever the villains are doing or add in his own lines such as "I am the gum that sticks underneath your shoe!". And continuing on with how the series makes fun of this entrance, he can sometimes forget what else to say while still exclaiming it.

Darkwing Duck may have defeated several flaws, but some either fled the scene or resulted in his defeat. One such case are the subplots which, at best, can be surprisingly clever with how it connects with the main plot such as how a narration can help solve a conflict without entering the setting of that episode ("Inside Binkie's Brain"). Moreover with narrations, they can have a simple but effective conflict of their own with Darkwing telling a story to impress some kids of how cool he really is. However, another element that Drake Mallard must also balance is family life and as expected, it doesn't turn out the way they've planned at it's bland, clichéd, and predictable, especially during the 2nd season, but more on that later.

But being bland, clichéd, and predictable isn't always the case because usually when it deals with the biggest crimes of the episodes, it can mildly make up for it with the villains' motives or the themes it handles. And sometimes, it can pay off due to the ingenuine script provoking very strong irony such as Negaduck, posing as Darkwing Duck, getting caught while civilians assume he is Darkwing wrecking havoc across the streets. Speaking of civilians, it can be hard trying to understand what they view Darkwing Duck as. While it can be reasonable like how his dark appearance frightened many, what about all those times he saved the day? It feels like they're targeting him as the bad guy rather than someone like the Fearsome Five, but it seems like Darkwing's ego is the only excuse this series can bring up and it needs to be countered with comeuppance. Giving his ego a piece of their mind is alright, but in this case it doesn't make a lot of sense.

Another attribute that has rather mixed results are the endings. On one hand, they can be ironic as well as unexpected and can result in one last laugh before the episode's over such as when Gosalyn was given a bath to get rid of all that slime that consumed her, with her admitting that baths are worse than being a slime monster. But when it involves the villains, it can be rushed and too quick with just one simple blow from Darkwing. Plus, the villain can get away and the episode will forget about them.

However, what I must say is the weakest aspect of the series as a whole is how repetitive it can get. Now wait a minute, repetitive? This series made fun of a lot of topics and the villains' motives give this show some variety! There's that, but what about the way most of the episodes are structured? Specifically with how Darkwing Duck gets constantly mistreated throughout the episode? Again, the reasons this show brings up as an excuse is that his ego is annoying to those around him as well as acting stupid in certain situations. But the thing is, the slapstick inflicted on him can really overstay their welcome that it makes it look like Darkwing Duck is a very weak superhero who is the only funny character in the series as well as everyone in St. Canard hating him so much. And with it happening so much, it gets predictable and old fast even if they tried some things differently. Also, Darkwing Duck isn't that moronic in the episode as the whole episode continues to use him for slapstick. So much that I even feel bad for him as it's just mean-spirited.

The last side-effects that I found out was Darkwing's weakest points was that in Season 2, the series got staler with heavy predictability, more repetition with characters constantly arguing, and how the dialogue is flat and often missed opportunities for jokes. Sometimes when it does smart dialogue, I get something just nonsensical like "A "How I became a villain" story" and "I'm being insulted by a talking grocery cart!". It also has a habit of playing it safe at times where it can skip the shots that feel too physical to be shown on camera, but what makes this more baffling is that it feels like cartoon slapstick and some shots don't bother skipping similar shots. Talk about hypocrisy. As for the villains' schemes, while some make some feel sympathetic, there are other that have rather obvious and bland plans to achieve whatever they want. In this season, Megavolt now uses a ray rather than his own powers. What is this ray's purpose, you may ask? To split the personalities of someone, which is something I've seen plenty of times as this usually involves a machine to execute the separation. And the family troubles here seem to be more generic here as they involve something like Gosalyn being trained to act more like a lady and Honker trying to act tougher.

Verdict: It feels like a superhero cartoon yet it put its own spin and style to it where it has many enjoyable aspects from the antagonists' creative schemes, to the wacky atmosphere and satire, and how it's overall plenty of fun for everyone. The biggest problems the series doesn't know how to overcome is excessive repetition of Darkwing Duck's constant mistreatment as well as a lackluster 2nd season tarnishing the quality of the writing.

HUMOR
Apparently, yes. The humor does deserve its own section and for the most part, I enjoyed it.

But what I didn't mostly enjoy was the slapstick, which I can say isn't as strong as it should've due to the timing not being as sharp. Plus, acts such as characters suffering from consuming spicy goods or characters sleeping during someone's plan or story are part of the wacky and over-the-top slapstick that feel rather overused and even predictable, which is from, again, the weak timing. However, what I can say is the best handling of slapstick here is whenever Darkwing gets wrecked and morphs into a cartoony, humorous shape further improved by the impressions delivered by the acting and sound.

And where's the "I enjoyed it." part of the comedy? Well, it's outside the heart and rather into the lungs with the show's nice sense of irony. This usually involves Drake's ego and how he tries to act smart and tough but the opposite ends up happening. This results in one common type of irony this show likes to mess around with: a character tries to save something really simple, only to transmit a lot of wreckage surrounding the trouble. And what makes this joke work is that it uses that to poke fun at superheroes, thinking that they're super but only causing more danger for others.

Verdict: The comedy of the series can be described within this sentence: what is expected isn't always good (the slapstick), but what isn't expected usually is (the irony).

QUALITY
While superheroes aren't always about appearances, the quality does pose a neat one.

The most notable aspect to come from the quality would be the character designs as I remember this show for its cartoony-looking characters. Overall, they're not only colorful, but their distinct and unique coloring combined with different clothing as well as fur color really defines them. For example, there's Darkwing Duck who has a good choice of purple and pink to focus on the time of the day he fights. Or we have Megavolt where yellow and orange dominates him to express light.

But what's more noteworthy than their designs is their animation, which manages to have a sense of fluidity plus a balance of expressiveness and rubber-ness, adding to the wacky nature of the series. And sometimes, the rubbery animation lightens up some of the seemingly serious aspects such as the strict bosses and how they can overreact, the animation focuses on their emotions and body language to really convey that. This also includes the various powers throughout the series with all the smooth changes in shape and size. But often, the animation couldn't be sharp enough to make the slapstick work.

As for backgrounds, the show aims for a simplistic style with just the shapes of various objects with some shading and it complements the cartoony animation pretty well with how abstract it feels, much like the wackiness of the designs and animation. Plus, since it usually takes place at night, alongside the common occurrence of cool colors, it gives the show some identity. The most notable usage of this is a wide shot of St. Canard, specifically with how the gradient ascends with each layer of the skyscrapers combined, making it look pretty gorgeous from a distance. But then again, the streets of St. Canard can feel empty with no citizens.

And speaking of empty, while not exactly, this chimes some of the bells of not justice, but animation goofs and errors can be common place in the series. The most notable incident being the discoloring of various characters such as whenever they bounce or shake in any direction. I've seen this happen with Darkwing Duck's mask being brighter than the rest of his suit and funnily enough, Negaduck was colored as Darkwing at one point. Plus, the transitions don't seem to cover the characters appearing and disappearing entirely as several frames later makes the lack of supervision seem obvious.

Then there are the other negatives I've found but not sure if they were from the original prints or not. For example, the vignette from DuckTales (1987) is also back here and I still don't get why. Maybe with all the action and speed, it's a little reasonable but that's probably just me. Also, and sometimes, the animation can have a low frame rate in contrast to the previously smoother, faster animation, which is more common in the 2nd season, and it can be sluggish enough that it doesn't line up with the dialogue.

With the visuals mostly taken care of, now we have the audio which luckily got away with little quirks in mind. Of course, as complimentary to the cartoony atmosphere of the series that's pretty reminiscent of the Golden Age cartoons like how the music would play along with the comedic actions of the characters as well as the creative and fun choices for the sound effects, the voice acting is the real deal here as it's fun, energetic, and charismatic with much of the talented actors giving out a lot of their energy for this cartoon, but who I think worked the best out of all of them is Jim Cummings, especially when as Negaduck as he's simply spectacular at capturing his broodiness, anger, and threat that it's really convincing

Verdict: The quality makes foes bow down in fear solidly with its wacky approach being the main focus, offering a lot of affectious energy from the colorful designs, fluid animation, and talented voice acting. The only thing in its footsteps are that some of the animation errors can be a distraction.

CHARACTERS
I thought I will be getting super-zeroes, but only a few managed to live up to that insult.

Someone who partially falls in that is Drake Mallard, or as well all know him as, Darkwing Duck. As a superhero, he can brag about how he can save the day and is the one to listen to, which suggests me that he'll be an annoying egomaniac. However, Darkwing rather has a watchable ego because of how he can get some slack of his skills with how certain characters can correct him about something, leaving him confused in a funny light. Plus, as much as the world despises him, it's ironic how he seems to be good at all that physical action, yet failed when training in martial arts. While he does fit in the agenda where the portrayal and relationships of certain characters can be really repetitive to overstay their welcome, especially his incompetence, for the most part he's still a fun lad.

But the annoying part about him is actually his father side and how he can put his adopted daughter, Gosalyn Mallard, to shame. Before I talk more about how this can be an issue, Gosalyn, on her own, is a welcoming kid to the wacky nature with her wild and crazy personality being too muck for Drake that all the mess she can cause like mess around with a certain object around the house is enjoyable and imaginative, much like other kids where she would imagine herself as a detective describing Drake's battle between a couple of suspects that sounds really ridiculous.

Now it's time I discuss their dynamic. For the most part, I didn't mind Drake yelling at Gosalyn too much as that adds to some of the zaniness as well as irony this series very well executes with, whether if it's him, previously asleep, is already aware that Gosalyn is trying to pluck one little toy off of him or the funniest moment between them, Gosalyn impersonating Drake's strict and over-protective behavior, in which Drake claims he's not like that and then all of a sudden, she crashed his car into the house and says the exact same words Gosalyn used to mock him in a more aggressive manner. All of this adds up to how funny this relationship is with how both father and daughter can manage to take advantage of each other. However, when Gosalyn can be a good help to Drake's tasks as Darkwing, knowing that she can be useful after all, in the end, he puts shame to Gosalyn that she should stay in the house out of danger. This is a time when the father-daughter relationship is more generic, making Drake look like he's looking down on her daughter all because of danger coming to get her despite on much of their adventures, she's rather useful and mostly unscarred with little punches. In fact, during the second season, Drake feels bossier but in a predictably annoying way. Not only with that, but there would be an overused plot point of Drake not listening to either Gosalyn and Launchpad and turning out that he's wrong, making him feel rather selfish and inconsiderate, but there would luckily be some karma to stop him.

And speaking of Launchpad McQuack, a DuckTales (1987) character attracted away from his universe to serve as Darkwing Duck's sidekick, he is still the gentle idiot... but instead of, from quoted from my review of aforementioned series, "how he would take pride of how idiotic he is, further misunderstanding that being stupid is a blessing", he feels a lot softer in writing where here, he not only serves as like the common sense of Darkwing where he would cowardly ask him if he's sure to do such a bold move, but most of his moments involve him stating the obvious rather than relish in his own idiocy, making him a bland and mostly unconvincing addition to the action figure lineup. But to his credit, it's funny whenever he or Gosalyn doesn't understand the common sense or point of fighting like Gosalyn telling a villain that he'll get someone hurt.

However, I would rather keep Launchpad and throw away Gizmoduck, now the typical rival the main protagonist is jealous of. He was a silly superhero trying to fit in the hero's shoes, but with him now seemingly used to it and not using his naivety to throw a strong laugh, all he is is just the generally flawless hero everyone in St. Canard adores. These characters would've been great choices to lead a double-life in St. Canard as more comic reliefs to combat the dominance of Darkwing's mistreatment, but overall, they feel watered down.

Besides those two disappointments, I can say that the Muddlefoots are more charming characters, including Herb who is a lazy yet fun-loving father, Binkie is the nice mother in which the show can make fun of how over-protective and respectful she can be, and the most common Muddlefoot in the land, Honker, who has some of his relatable conflicts of tired of being himself and wanting to be cool or a hero like Darkwing. As for the seemingly worst member, Tank, he does has his clever moments of acting nice towards Honker but the end result is mean like all bullies end their actions.

And now to turn the tables, and it seems like they've won over the protagonists. In the antagonistic side, the show has a lot of goofy villains who on their own have a decent amount of charm. One thing some of them have in common is greed and the ways they rob the bank for money is intriguing because of their powers plus having different intentions including stealing cash for a thing they want (toy, heat) or to pay off student loans. While some of these villains such as Steelbeak and Tuskernini seem to act pretty cool, they seem to be rocks in comparison to...

...The Fearsome Five with their highly creative powers, motives, and a tremendous amount of variety to be found within them. So much can be seen within them that I was glued to the screen wanting to see what else they have up their sleeves. These include Reginald Bushroot who can manipulates nature and while having a personal struggle of finding a wife, he would use plant monsters to marry, Megavolt, who can manipulate electricity which includes traveling through circuits and even end up in the real world through television, Quackerjack, who crafts toys to spread misery across children and the streets using his wind-up toys and at one point hire kids to build him vicious toys, and The Liquidator, a mutant who can control water as well as cause floods.

But we're not on the high step of the hierarchy yet. All of these characters with their powers manages to keep multiple episodes fresh, but the ultimate villain is Negaduck, well, according to pretty much everyone. To me, he's a rather unbalanced villain not as consistently strong as the other members of the Fearsome Five feeling weak in front of him with so much power and threat in his eyes. And that last part really describes the best thing about him: he's a violent psychopath wanting Darkwing killed and is allergic of everything nice like cute bunnies. I find that to be something that could be better, and with his psychotic uses with weaponry like chainsaws and bazookas, plus Cummings' great performance, he seems to be pretty good, but only his violent side. Besides this, he's just a bland villain carrying various traits many other villains have like showing no mercy towards others, how they hate heroes so much, and wanting to spread chaos everywhere with their powers. He also has an overused motive of framing Darkwing into a terrible hero, which is not only one of the most obvious things to come out of the series, but how some of this can mostly be achieved without his violent personality involved, resulting him in being a boring antagonist and another one of the "opposite version of main character" cliché.

Verdict: A lot of these characters feel fun, clever, and easy to mock from the series, as simple as that. The seemingly negative aspects can be balanced to make some characters tolerable in some situations, but stripped and left of nothing but generic and bland makes them feel unusually unlikable.

FINAL THOUGHTS
It's kind of a shame that this series wasn't that consistent with a lot of it stuck in average-ness and mediocrity. But luckily, this show did its job relatively well. I'd say that from a lot of superhero shows I have watched, this one was kind of a nice breath of fresh air. But how would Darkwing Duck hold itself in a summary?
Taking the superhero genre and messing it around in many wacky but amusing situations is mostly Darkwing Duck's name where its moves involve many creatively engaging schemes and villains, satire executed in a funnily ironic way, smooth and eye-candy animation, and plenty of friends the series mocked hilariously. However, it's not all that good when the show repeatedly sags Darkwing way too much to overstay its welcome, how some characters feel like dull and watered-down versions of what they could've been, and a lackluster 2nd season made the duck cause a bit too many mistakes.A lot of the pros sounds like this is GOOD material, but with more weaker episodes afoot made me question if the series is eligible for the one relieving rating. While ALRIGHT (67%) is one, that doesn't justify the show enough for it to be really something special as Darkwing is now stuck under the clutches of that rating.

Epilogue: As I've mentioned, Darkwing Duck is still a breath of fresh air in my eyes, so don't be worried that an okay rating weighs the series down too much. Then again, I've awarded this rating to a lot of shows that this feels like the average rating for a series. In other words, this wouldn't be so good for an episode, but for a TV show, it's mostly solid.

Description

In the, technically bright, alleys of 90’s Saturday morning cartoons lies a beloved action comedy young, curious minds visit to get a thrill out of the adventures of the terror that flaps in the night, Darkwing Duck. He may not be a beloved hero in his universe, but how heroic can he get to strengthen his show’s quality?

PIE CHART ANALYSIS

The pie chart reports mostly good news, but the show couldn’t sustain itself from a handful of flawed episodes.

But on the bright side, the defense mechanism has granted Darkwing Duck with half of all the ratings amounting to at least a GOOD rating. Deeper into this, there are only 2 blessed episodes, but there are a lot of episodes I find really well with 20 not counting the blessed champions.

In the Negaverse, however, has 6 episodes ruthless enough to remain there. The other 5 episodes I don’t recommend at all, however, managed to escape but too badly injured to meet neutral standards.

What I think is the most interesting thing regarding this pie chart isn’t the ratings but how the seasons stack up to one another. When analyzing the ABC seasons (Seasons 2 and 3), the first was lukewarm while the second was a major step-up with most of the episodes landing in the GOOD range, albeit with a few stinkers.

While the duck failed to overcome several flawed episodes, his and the rest of the cast’s stunts were pleasing to make half of the series relatively good.

FIRST THOUGHTS

I heard that this series was initially intended as a spin-off to DuckTales (1987), which said cartoon, if you remembered from my review, had a lot of underwhelming moments mixed in with some effective hits. A few years later, there’s Darkwing Duck which I hear people crowning this show higher than Scrooge’s riches. You know, the theme song sounds pretty fun and maybe this show as well, so what scheme are they up to?
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 […], 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.
-sourced from Wikipedia

Although this is an old, retro cartoon that might’ve lost its value from time to time like the previous two Disney Afternoon disappointments, I must admit that this premise sounds pretty good, particularly with how the characters might be handled. While Drake’s conflicts definitely sound like he’ll be more than a two-dimensional crime fighter, I’d say the villains are the ones I’m the most excited in seeing due to their creative motives and how menacing Negaduck could be, from all the credit he receives.

Observing the animation a little bit, I noticed how it’s wackier than the typical Disney style and if this is to craft the humor solidly, then I guess I’m in for the style. But the atmosphere has me questioning if it’s going to be loaded with bland background design and music that won’t make me feel like I’m in the series. As for everything else, I don’t know what to expect since I’m not as familiar as this show compared to some of Disney’s other cartoons.

Maybe I should better watch out for the show missing the extent of its potential, but that seems like the only fear I have as I could possibly get along with the characters and the wacky nature of the series.

WRITING

I’m quite impressed with how St. Canard has a lot going for its uniqueness.

One element that manages to keep a lot of episodes intriguing and fun are the villains’ interesting and creative schemes. As one of the biggest driving forces of the series, it offers a lot of neat twists in many scenes it lurks within, especially whenever they use their powers to their advantage. In fact, some of their schemes can seem so difficult to overcome that they can really challenge Darkwing and his sidekicks by making them weaker. Rather than his powers, the villains can go for Darkwing's health to give him conditions like blindness and while simple, the episode can take this to a solid direction.

As the villains' schemes are one the biggest core of a superhero series, to deliver some packed action scenes that worked due to the series' blend of cartoon slapstick into the cloud of danger. Of course, several cartoons has seem to have something like this, but what makes this work on its own is the consistent wacky atmosphere. This tone has a major presence in the series where in this case, the silliness of these scenes would make them better also due to one element I generally wasn't expecting:

Satire. Using Darkwing Duck's personality, the show satirizes superheroes and works decently such as how it pokes fun of how long superhero entrances can be by having the antagonists ignore his introduction and just swat him right away as if he's just standing there. But even without his trusty superpowers, Darkwing still has various other topics to take a jab at like like history, martial arts, etc., all in thanks due to certain characters arguing which is which. As a history enthusiast, it was enjoyable seeing at one point having Christopher Columbus and the vikings argue who got to the New World first and this example works really well because the context of which European got to the New World first is confusing and the real answer can be overlooked.

But enough of history, the series can also mess around with meta-ness. With how the series handled them, it's pretty decent but interesting as most swings at the subject tend to end up in the interesting category. Here, Darkwing Duck isn't just a cartoon, but also a TV show personality who has a large following all thanks to the decision made at Disney. And yes, the series did mention Disney at some point. But why did I call it a decent attempt at referencing itself in a meta way? Well, it has some bland and obvious effects like having Darkwing's creator be greedy and lazy rather than kind and full of ideas and how Darkwing Duck simply visits the studio that made him. Besides one device, there could've been more with this, but outside of the studio, the series still carries along its satire where it then places Darkwing in a play and read a script that isn't true to who he is at all.

Climbing back onto the whole superhero shtick, another element that makes several episodes entertaining is the dialogue. Much like how superheroes and villains would have clever one-liners be used a weapon towards each other or to inflict harm or save the day, Darkwing would very commonly have something to say after delivering his trademark catchphrase "I am the terror that flaps in the night!" that relates to whatever the villains are doing or add in his own lines such as "I am the gum that sticks underneath your shoe!". And continuing on with how the series makes fun of this entrance, he can sometimes forget what else to say while still exclaiming it.

Darkwing Duck may have defeated several flaws, but some either fled the scene or resulted in his defeat. One such case are the subplots which, at best, can be surprisingly clever with how it connects with the main plot such as how a narration can help solve a conflict without entering the setting of that episode ("Inside Binkie's Brain"). Moreover with narrations, they can have a simple but effective conflict of their own with Darkwing telling a story to impress some kids of how cool he really is. However, another element that Drake Mallard must also balance is family life and as expected, it doesn't turn out the way they've planned at it's bland, clichéd, and predictable, especially during the 2nd season, but more on that later.

But being bland, clichéd, and predictable isn't always the case because usually when it deals with the biggest crimes of the episodes, it can mildly make up for it with the villains' motives or the themes it handles. And sometimes, it can pay off due to the ingenuine script provoking very strong irony such as Negaduck, posing as Darkwing Duck, getting caught while civilians assume he is Darkwing wrecking havoc across the streets. Speaking of civilians, it can be hard trying to understand what they view Darkwing Duck as. While it can be reasonable like how his dark appearance frightened many, what about all those times he saved the day? It feels like they're targeting him as the bad guy rather than someone like the Fearsome Five, but it seems like Darkwing's ego is the only excuse this series can bring up and it needs to be countered with comeuppance. Giving his ego a piece of their mind is alright, but in this case it doesn't make a lot of sense.

Another attribute that has rather mixed results are the endings. On one hand, they can be ironic as well as unexpected and can result in one last laugh before the episode's over such as when Gosalyn was given a bath to get rid of all that slime that consumed her, with her admitting that baths are worse than being a slime monster. But when it involves the villains, it can be rushed and too quick with just one simple blow from Darkwing. Plus, the villain can get away and the episode will forget about them.

However, what I must say is the weakest aspect of the series as a whole is how repetitive it can get. Now wait a minute, repetitive? This series made fun of a lot of topics and the villains' motives give this show some variety! There's that, but what about the way most of the episodes are structured? Specifically with how Darkwing Duck gets constantly mistreated throughout the episode? Again, the reasons this show brings up as an excuse is that his ego is annoying to those around him as well as acting stupid in certain situations. But the thing is, the slapstick inflicted on him can really overstay their welcome that it makes it look like Darkwing Duck is a very weak superhero who is the only funny character in the series as well as everyone in St. Canard hating him so much. And with it happening so much, it gets predictable and old fast even if they tried some things differently. Also, Darkwing Duck isn't that moronic in the episode as the whole episode continues to use him for slapstick. So much that I even feel bad for him as it's just mean-spirited.

The last side-effects that I found out was Darkwing's weakest points was that in Season 2, the series got staler with heavy predictability, more repetition with characters constantly arguing, and how the dialogue is flat and often missed opportunities for jokes. Sometimes when it does smart dialogue, I get something just nonsensical like "A "How I became a villain" story" and "I'm being insulted by a talking grocery cart!". It also has a habit of playing it safe at times where it can skip the shots that feel too physical to be shown on camera, but what makes this more baffling is that it feels like cartoon slapstick and some shots don't bother skipping similar shots. Talk about hypocrisy. As for the villains' schemes, while some make some feel sympathetic, there are other that have rather obvious and bland plans to achieve whatever they want. In this season, Megavolt now uses a ray rather than his own powers. What is this ray's purpose, you may ask? To split the personalities of someone, which is something I've seen plenty of times as this usually involves a machine to execute the separation. And the family troubles here seem to be more generic here as they involve something like Gosalyn being trained to act more like a lady and Honker trying to act tougher.

Verdict: It feels like a superhero cartoon yet it put its own spin and style to it where it has many enjoyable aspects from the antagonists' creative schemes, to the wacky atmosphere and satire, and how it's overall plenty of fun for everyone. The biggest problems the series doesn't know how to overcome is excessive repetition of Darkwing Duck's constant mistreatment as well as a lackluster 2nd season tarnishing the quality of the writing.

HUMOR
Apparently, yes. The humor does deserve its own section and for the most part, I enjoyed it.

But what I didn't mostly enjoy was the slapstick, which I can say isn't as strong as it should've due to the timing not being as sharp. Plus, acts such as characters suffering from consuming spicy goods or characters sleeping during someone's plan or story are part of the wacky and over-the-top slapstick that feel rather overused and even predictable, which is from, again, the weak timing. However, what I can say is the best handling of slapstick here is whenever Darkwing gets wrecked and morphs into a cartoony, humorous shape further improved by the impressions delivered by the acting and sound.

And where's the "I enjoyed it." part of the comedy? Well, it's outside the heart and rather into the lungs with the show's nice sense of irony. This usually involves Drake's ego and how he tries to act smart and tough but the opposite ends up happening. This results in one common type of irony this show likes to mess around with: a character tries to save something really simple, only to transmit a lot of wreckage surrounding the trouble. And what makes this joke work is that it uses that to poke fun at superheroes, thinking that they're super but only causing more danger for others.

Verdict: The comedy of the series can be described within this sentence: what is expected isn't always good (the slapstick), but what isn't expected usually is (the irony).

QUALITY
While superheroes aren't always about appearances, the quality does pose a neat one.

The most notable aspect to come from the quality would be the character designs as I remember this show for its cartoony-looking characters. Overall, they're not only colorful, but their distinct and unique coloring combined with different clothing as well as fur color really defines them. For example, there's Darkwing Duck who has a good choice of purple and pink to focus on the time of the day he fights. Or we have Megavolt where yellow and orange dominates him to express light.

But what's more noteworthy than their designs is their animation, which manages to have a sense of fluidity plus a balance of expressiveness and rubber-ness, adding to the wacky nature of the series. And sometimes, the rubbery animation lightens up some of the seemingly serious aspects such as the strict bosses and how they can overreact, the animation focuses on their emotions and body language to really convey that. This also includes the various powers throughout the series with all the smooth changes in shape and size. But often, the animation couldn't be sharp enough to make the slapstick work.

As for backgrounds, the show aims for a simplistic style with just the shapes of various objects with some shading and it complements the cartoony animation pretty well with how abstract it feels, much like the wackiness of the designs and animation. Plus, since it usually takes place at night, alongside the common occurrence of cool colors, it gives the show some identity. The most notable usage of this is a wide shot of St. Canard, specifically with how the gradient ascends with each layer of the skyscrapers combined, making it look pretty gorgeous from a distance. But then again, the streets of St. Canard can feel empty with no citizens.

And speaking of empty, while not exactly, this chimes some of the bells of not justice, but animation goofs and errors can be common place in the series. The most notable incident being the discoloring of various characters such as whenever they bounce or shake in any direction. I've seen this happen with Darkwing Duck's mask being brighter than the rest of his suit and funnily enough, Negaduck was colored as Darkwing at one point. Plus, the transitions don't seem to cover the characters appearing and disappearing entirely as several frames later makes the lack of supervision seem obvious.

Then there are the other negatives I've found but not sure if they were from the original prints or not. For example, the vignette from DuckTales (1987) is also back here and I still don't get why. Maybe with all the action and speed, it's a little reasonable but that's probably just me. Also, and sometimes, the animation can have a low frame rate in contrast to the previously smoother, faster animation, which is more common in the 2nd season, and it can be sluggish enough that it doesn't line up with the dialogue.

With the visuals mostly taken care of, now we have the audio which luckily got away with little quirks in mind. Of course, as complimentary to the cartoony atmosphere of the series that's pretty reminiscent of the Golden Age cartoons like how the music would play along with the comedic actions of the characters as well as the creative and fun choices for the sound effects, the voice acting is the real deal here as it's fun, energetic, and charismatic with much of the talented actors giving out a lot of their energy for this cartoon, but who I think worked the best out of all of them is Jim Cummings, especially when as Negaduck as he's simply spectacular at capturing his broodiness, anger, and threat that it's really convincing

Verdict: The quality makes foes bow down in fear solidly with its wacky approach being the main focus, offering a lot of affectious energy from the colorful designs, fluid animation, and talented voice acting. The only thing in its footsteps are that some of the animation errors can be a distraction.

CHARACTERS
I thought I will be getting super-zeroes, but only a few managed to live up to that insult.

Someone who partially falls in that is Drake Mallard, or as well all know him as, Darkwing Duck. As a superhero, he can brag about how he can save the day and is the one to listen to, which suggests me that he'll be an annoying egomaniac. However, Darkwing rather has a watchable ego because of how he can get some slack of his skills with how certain characters can correct him about something, leaving him confused in a funny light. Plus, as much as the world despises him, it's ironic how he seems to be good at all that physical action, yet failed when training in martial arts. While he does fit in the agenda where the portrayal and relationships of certain characters can be really repetitive to overstay their welcome, especially his incompetence, for the most part he's still a fun lad.

But the annoying part about him is actually his father side and how he can put his adopted daughter, Gosalyn Mallard, to shame. Before I talk more about how this can be an issue, Gosalyn, on her own, is a welcoming kid to the wacky nature with her wild and crazy personality being too muck for Drake that all the mess she can cause like mess around with a certain object around the house is enjoyable and imaginative, much like other kids where she would imagine herself as a detective describing Drake's battle between a couple of suspects that sounds really ridiculous.

Now it's time I discuss their dynamic. For the most part, I didn't mind Drake yelling at Gosalyn too much as that adds to some of the zaniness as well as irony this series very well executes with, whether if it's him, previously asleep, is already aware that Gosalyn is trying to pluck one little toy off of him or the funniest moment between them, Gosalyn impersonating Drake's strict and over-protective behavior, in which Drake claims he's not like that and then all of a sudden, she crashed his car into the house and says the exact same words Gosalyn used to mock him in a more aggressive manner. All of this adds up to how funny this relationship is with how both father and daughter can manage to take advantage of each other. However, when Gosalyn can be a good help to Drake's tasks as Darkwing, knowing that she can be useful after all, in the end, he puts shame to Gosalyn that she should stay in the house out of danger. This is a time when the father-daughter relationship is more generic, making Drake look like he's looking down on her daughter all because of danger coming to get her despite on much of their adventures, she's rather useful and mostly unscarred with little punches. In fact, during the second season, Drake feels bossier but in a predictably annoying way. Not only with that, but there would be an overused plot point of Drake not listening to either Gosalyn and Launchpad and turning out that he's wrong, making him feel rather selfish and inconsiderate, but there would luckily be some karma to stop him.

And speaking of Launchpad McQuack, a DuckTales (1987) character attracted away from his universe to serve as Darkwing Duck's sidekick, he is still the gentle idiot... but instead of, from quoted from my review of aforementioned series, "how he would take pride of how idiotic he is, further misunderstanding that being stupid is a blessing", he feels a lot softer in writing where here, he not only serves as like the common sense of Darkwing where he would cowardly ask him if he's sure to do such a bold move, but most of his moments involve him stating the obvious rather than relish in his own idiocy, making him a bland and mostly unconvincing addition to the action figure lineup. But to his credit, it's funny whenever he or Gosalyn doesn't understand the common sense or point of fighting like Gosalyn telling a villain that he'll get someone hurt.

However, I would rather keep Launchpad and throw away Gizmoduck, now the typical rival the main protagonist is jealous of. He was a silly superhero trying to fit in the hero's shoes, but with him now seemingly used to it and not using his naivety to throw a strong laugh, all he is is just the generally flawless hero everyone in St. Canard adores. These characters would've been great choices to lead a double-life in St. Canard as more comic reliefs to combat the dominance of Darkwing's mistreatment, but overall, they feel watered down.

Besides those two disappointments, I can say that the Muddlefoots are more charming characters, including Herb who is a lazy yet fun-loving father, Binkie is the nice mother in which the show can make fun of how over-protective and respectful she can be, and the most common Muddlefoot in the land, Honker, who has some of his relatable conflicts of tired of being himself and wanting to be cool or a hero like Darkwing. As for the seemingly worst member, Tank, he does has his clever moments of acting nice towards Honker but the end result is mean like all bullies end their actions.

And now to turn the tables, and it seems like they've won over the protagonists. In the antagonistic side, the show has a lot of goofy villains who on their own have a decent amount of charm. One thing some of them have in common is greed and the ways they rob the bank for money is intriguing because of their powers plus having different intentions including stealing cash for a thing they want (toy, heat) or to pay off student loans. While some of these villains such as Steelbeak and Tuskernini seem to act pretty cool, they seem to be rocks in comparison to...

...The Fearsome Five with their highly creative powers, motives, and a tremendous amount of variety to be found within them. So much can be seen within them that I was glued to the screen wanting to see what else they have up their sleeves. These include Reginald Bushroot who can manipulates nature and while having a personal struggle of finding a wife, he would use plant monsters to marry, Megavolt, who can manipulate electricity which includes traveling through circuits and even end up in the real world through television, Quackerjack, who crafts toys to spread misery across children and the streets using his wind-up toys and at one point hire kids to build him vicious toys, and The Liquidator, a mutant who can control water as well as cause floods.

But we're not on the high step of the hierarchy yet. All of these characters with their powers manages to keep multiple episodes fresh, but the ultimate villain is Negaduck, well, according to pretty much everyone. To me, he's a rather unbalanced villain not as consistently strong as the other members of the Fearsome Five feeling weak in front of him with so much power and threat in his eyes. And that last part really describes the best thing about him: he's a violent psychopath wanting Darkwing killed and is allergic of everything nice like cute bunnies. I find that to be something that could be better, and with his psychotic uses with weaponry like chainsaws and bazookas, plus Cummings' great performance, he seems to be pretty good, but only his violent side. Besides this, he's just a bland villain carrying various traits many other villains have like showing no mercy towards others, how they hate heroes so much, and wanting to spread chaos everywhere with their powers. He also has an overused motive of framing Darkwing into a terrible hero, which is not only one of the most obvious things to come out of the series, but how some of this can mostly be achieved without his violent personality involved, resulting him in being a boring antagonist and another one of the "opposite version of main character" cliché.

Verdict: A lot of these characters feel fun, clever, and easy to mock from the series, as simple as that. The seemingly negative aspects can be balanced to make some characters tolerable in some situations, but stripped and left of nothing but generic and bland makes them feel unusually unlikable.

FINAL THOUGHTS
It's kind of a shame that this series wasn't that consistent with a lot of it stuck in average-ness and mediocrity. But luckily, this show did its job relatively well. I'd say that from a lot of superhero shows I have watched, this one was kind of a nice breath of fresh air. But how would Darkwing Duck hold itself in a summary?
Taking the superhero genre and messing it around in many wacky but amusing situations is mostly Darkwing Duck's name where its moves involve many creatively engaging schemes and villains, satire executed in a funnily ironic way, smooth and eye-candy animation, and plenty of friends the series mocked hilariously. However, it's not all that good when the show repeatedly sags Darkwing way too much to overstay its welcome, how some characters feel like dull and watered-down versions of what they could've been, and a lackluster 2nd season made the duck cause a bit too many mistakes.A lot of the pros sounds like this is GOOD material, but with more weaker episodes afoot made me question if the series is eligible for the one relieving rating. While ALRIGHT (67%) is one, that doesn't justify the show enough for it to be really something special as Darkwing is now stuck under the clutches of that rating.

Epilogue: As I've mentioned, Darkwing Duck is still a breath of fresh air in my eyes, so don't be worried that an okay rating weighs the series down too much. Then again, I've awarded this rating to a lot of shows that this feels like the average rating for a series. In other words, this wouldn't be so good for an episode, but for a TV show, it's mostly solid.