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Movie number 60: DuckTales the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp (Bob Hathcock, 1990).
Inspired by Carl Barks’ Uncle Scrooge and Donald Duck comics from the 1940s to 1960s, Disney’s DuckTales was a weekday animation series that premiered on US TV in 1987. The show proved a massive hit with audiences and critics, running 4 seasons and 100 episodes and spawned the 1990 theatrical feature film DuckTales the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp.
The long form adventure stories of Barks formed the basis of many DuckTales episodes and would seem ideally suited to feature length adaptation. However for DuckTales the Movie an original story was created that drew upon both Barks and the stories of the Arabian Nights.
While treasure hunting in the Middle East, Scrooge McDuck and his nephews, accompanied by pilot Launchpad, housemaid’s grandaughter Webby and dubious guide Dijon stumble across a lost, sand covered pyramid in the Egyptian desert, resting place of the fabled Lost Treasure of Collie Baba. Among the riches is a seemingly worthless lamp which Scrooge discards but is rescued by Webby. Dijon, meanwhile, is in the employ of evil sorcerer Merlock who steals the treasure, minus the lamp and sends Scrooge home empty handed. On arriving home in Duckburg, Webby and the nephews discover the lamp contains a magical genie and before long Merlock and Dijon are back to secure the lamp for the sorcerer who wishes to use it for his evil doings.
The Barks-esq opening scenes of DuckTales are easily the movie’s best. The story lags somewhat in the Duckburg bound middle act but is back on form for an exciting climax drawn from the Arabian Nights and similar in execution to Disney’s own contemporarily produced adaptation of Aladdin (Ron Clements and John Musker, 1992).
The animation, while perhaps a step down from the classic Disney features is a notch up from the TV series and the voice work, particularly Alan Young as Scrooge and Christopher Lloyd as Merlock is excellent.
Underperforming slightly at the box office, there was to be no feature length sequel. The DuckTales franchise continued for a number of years, fittingly, in comic book form and was successfully rebooted for TV in 2017.
While DuckTales the Movie is not quite the adventure that Carl Barks aficionados may have hoped for, it is still an exciting, well executed fun movie. Treasure of the Lost Lamp is, indeed, a gem.
A FLINTSTONES CHRISTMAS CAROL (Dir: Joanna Romersa, 1994).
Geological puns abound, as Fred Flintstone stars as Ebonezer Scrooge against Barney Rubble’s Bob Cragic in this modern Stone Age retelling of Charles Dickens’ Christmas classic.
The Flintstones is, of course the enormously successful animated TV sitcom from Hanna-Barbera which aired for 6 seasons between 1960 and 1966. That this movie was made 30 years after the heyday of the show demonstrates the continued enduring popularity of the franchise.
Rather than a straight adaptation of Dickens’ familiar tale of festive redemption, A Flintstones Christmas Carol takes a tip from Mr Magoo’s Christmas Carol (Abe Leviton, 1962) and presents the story as a play within a story. So, running parallel to the events of the Bedrock Community Players performance of A Christmas Carol, we have the story of Fred, so engrossed in his role of Scrooge that he neglects his family duties until the lines between he and Ebonezer begin to blur.
Casting The Flintstones in the roles of Dickens’ characters is a nice idea. Not a particularly original idea, but I can see the appeal. The backstage story which runs alongside it is less engaging and the two strands work against each other to make for a somewhat choppy narrative. It isn’t a bad movie; made for US TV, the standard of animation is a shade better than normal Saturday morning fare and there is undeniable nostalgic value for those of a certain age.
Yet what is appealing in a 25 minute TV show is not quite as fun when stretched to nearly three times that length. While I enjoy The Flintstones on TV, I found A Flintstone Christmas Carol a little bit of a chore to watch come the halfway mark. Still, while it is a little disappointing in the story department, its colourful animation is above average and it does provides some mild chuckles. However, I think a straight version of the tale would have been better and can’t help but feel this somewhat of an opportunity missed. Longtime fans will probably get a kick out of the movie, but it’s not quite the ‘gay old time’ it might have been.
Visit my blog JINGLE BONES MOVIE TIME to read a longer, more in-depth review of A Flintstones Christmas Carol! Link below.
SCOOBY-DOO & THE CURSE OF THE 13TH GHOST (Dir: Cecilia Aranovich Hamilton, 2019).
Scooby-Doo Where are You! debuted on US TV network CBS in the late summer of 1969 and was an instant success for creators Joe Ruby and Ken Spears and producers Hanna-Barbera. This recent Warner Bros Animation effort is the continuation and conclusion of the 1985 series The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo, a short-lived series which premiered in September 1985 in which Mystery Inc teamed up with the mystical Vincent Van Ghoul in order to capture 13 ‘real’ spirits accidentally released from a magic chest by Scooby. Drawing criticism from those who accused the show of endorsing the occult, the show was cancelled before the season end and the final pesky paranormal entities were never captured.
Here we find Mystery Inc on the verge of retirement following the bungling of a recent case when the gang are contacted, via a crystal ball, by old friend and associate Vincent Van Ghoul. Van Ghoul is eager to find the 13th missing spirit and the gang are once again on a ghost hunt. This time around there is no janitor in a rubber mask as the ghosts are real! Or are they? A skeptical Velma is out to prove to the gang that 'ghoul' is not always how it appears.
Read the full review on my blog JINGLE BONES MOVIE TIME. Link below.
Personal vibe
Going through it tonight, lads.
Heavy Black Heart from death's dynamic shroud
•☆°☆¿🖤?☆°☆•
Like
What do you mean your partner is trying to blow up the moon
H- well it’s not my place to judge what they spent there life on
And the villains like
What do you mean your partner is trying to stop us blowing up the moon
V- who I’m I to judge there career choices, I let them do what there passionate about
You know I want, I want an enemies to lovers story where there still enemy’s. Like Saturday morning cartoon villain and hero
dawn of saturday morning
"Do Space ghosts bleed?"
I feel so old right now 😰
