Ducks Part Three: Quack Pack and Spy Power

11:56 AM · Dec 20, 2020 "GAMER!!!"

 

 

 

 

 

 

Quack Pack is kind of hard to discuss. Like the prior three shows, many people had stuff to say about Quack Pack in the survey. Like the prior three shows, I watched it before the Disney watch. However, if I recall correctly, I got shitfaced drunk one evening in 2018-ish and got angry that Ludwig von Drake showed up in the first episode instead of Gyro and stopped watching about five minutes in.

Gyro is kind of my favorite duck comics character... If that wasn't evident.

But it's 2020 now and I'm a different person. Since then, I quit benzos, and this may have been around the time I stopped drinking for good. If my only qualm is this petty character thing, I should enjoy the show, yeah?

9:10 PM · Dec 21, 2020 "ohhhhh this is too cursed...."
9:39 PM · Dec 21, 2020 "french guy wants daisy feet pics wish i was kidding"
9:41 PM · Dec 21, 2020 "they're gonna kill donald for the ratings"
10:06 PM · Dec 21, 2020 "im not really in a good mindset right now so quack pack fills me with indescribable rage."
11:24 PM · Dec 21, 2020 "strong women make huey uncomfortable????"

Yeah no.

Quack Pack takes in a lot of the selfish adult figure + spunky child dynamic you see in other Duck shows, this time with the more familiar dynamic of Donald and the triplets. It adds a little of the hip 90s suburban nature from Goof Troop. And like Goof Troop tosses in a lot of stuff from classic Goofy shorts, Quack Pack tosses in a lot of isms from the classic Donald shorts.

Also Quack Pack is really fucking weird.

The first thing you notice is that Huey Dewey and Louie are given different personalities in this one. Huey is a self proclaimed ladies man. Dewey is the smart one. Louie is a kind jock. Last blog post we discussed how there is no ideal HDL, and how the triplets can exist as their own characters or a monolith

Barks comics succeeded in the HDL monolith where Ducktales 1987 failed. Inversely, Ducktales 2017 succeeded in making the triplets individuals where Quack Pack failed.

Despite the three having character traits to make them individuals, they become the weakest part of the show, and you wonder what the show would be like without them.

The answer: It's a thirty minute Donald Duck cartoon.

11:58 AM · Dec 20, 2020 "finally gay rep in disney (this is a JOKE)"

 

 

 

 

 

 

12:01 PM · Dec 20, 2020 "this ep of quack pack is really funny like donald is TRYING to be a good navyman but he just is lazy and sux...... the triplets aren't in the episode.... that' could be it."

Two episodes: "All Hands on Duck" and "The Late Donald Duck" do not feature the triplets, and mostly focus on Donald. "All Hands on Duck" in particular I really enjoyed as it's mostly just Donald from the cartoon shorts goofing around on a navy ship. He one ups and gets one upped by his commander. 

Apparently while Ducktales was inspired by the Carl Barks comics, Quack Pack took more of its inspiration from the classic Donald Duck shorts, and in the episodes without the Duck Triplets, you can see the inspiration a lot more clearly, though you can see it in some of the triplet episodes, particularly in Donald only scenes.

If you do want to watch an episode of Quack Pack, I would say check that one out so you get a false positive impression of what the show is about, then watch "Pardon my Molecules" or "Koi Story" to see what show is actually about. 

Or I can talk about it. Here's some things that happen in Quack Pack:

• Huey, Dewey, and Louie turn into superheroes in order to avoid cleaning their room. Donald becomes a supervillain and destroys the universe in order to make them clean their room
• A man turns himself into a germ and infects Donald with himself.
  
• A family moves in next door and it turns out they are robots built for a military coup who have gained sentience and now live in hiding
• "Tasty Paste," which made me the most angry I think...
  

9:12 PM · Dec 21, 2020 "quack pack is a very out there show. liike i expect it to go one way but it goes another.... huey dewey an dlouie are corporate sellouts but i still haven't seen them have much separate personality from one another...."
9:15 PM · Dec 21, 2020 "IT WAS A FUCKING DREAM?!"
9:17 PM · Dec 21, 2020 "YOU'RE TELLING ME THE SHOW WHERE DONALD DUCK SAVES THE WORLD AND TRAVELS THRU TIME. THE SHOW WHERE HUEY DEWEY AND LOUIE BECOME TWO INCHES TALL AND SAVE THEIR UNCLE FROM GERMS. YOU'RE TELLING ME TASTY PASTE IS TOO OUT THERE TO BE REAL?"
9:17 PM · Dec 21, 2020 "what is the POINT of it being a DREAM?! it's QUACK PACK."
9:18 PM · Dec 21, 2020 "BUT IT'S REAL AND WE'RE GONNA im so mad."

For some reason, I guess the line is drawn at kids running a multi million dollar business of addictive food?

I feel like everyone has talked about human man Kent Powers, so I'm not gonna. I do like Daisy's hair in this series too (the other thing everyone loves to talk about). The girl character with stylized short hair is something they do in Park Life too, with Clarice, though with Daisy it's more of a pixie cut and with Clarice it's more of an undercut. Anyway Disney please redesign your girl characters with short hair. I, personally, adore it.

Speaking of Daisy's cool hairstyles, I picked up this comic the other day, with the cover featuring what my friend Amanda referred to as "pink hair and pronouns." 

 

The story itself is very much something for young girls (not my thing), but I love the art. It's done by Giada Perissonotto, who has a really fun style, and a knack for putting Disney characters in cute outfits.

It kind of gives an idea as to what Disney comics distribution is like in North America. This was distributed by Peachtree Playthings, a company that if you know the compound word well enough, is very clearly situated in Atlanta. I have never heard of this company. I had no idea they were distributing comics. When I saw the Peachtree Playthings logo I assumed it was a coloring book.

They're also distributing these in dollar stores. I picked this up from Dollarama, but you might be able to find it at a Dollar Tree or Dollar General or Five Below or whatever Dollar stores they have around you.

For those of you who live in a country where Duck comics are popular and released often, a lot of North American Disney comic releases are similar to this. They're released by one of many different publishers (IDV, Dark Horse, Peachtree Playthings), usually only have 1-2 stories in them (3 if you're really lucky), and they'll usually be released one every 2-3 months, but there's no real schedule for them. It's a nightmare. We're living in a nightmare.

This Has Nothing To Do With Quack Pack. I just forgot to mention it when I was talking about duck comics last post.

Overall Rating For Quack Pack: D Tier