I’m a little salty about this. I started watching DuckTales a while back and have been writing the reviews as I go, building up a good reserve of posts ready to go up after a quick read-through for final edits. In fact, I’m up through episode 19. But my review for “The Impossible Summit of Mt. Neverrest!” seems to have disappeared into the ether. Whether it never got saved in the first place or got deleted somewhere along the line, it’s gone. Although I remembered plenty of details about the story, it’s tough to do an actor review without the episode/movie/whatever fairly fresh in my mind, especially since I’ve seen a bunch more DuckTales episodes since then. So, I had to circle back around to watch this one again. I’ll do my best to stick to the initial impressions I had after seeing it for the first time, so as not to throw the write-up out of whack with foreknowledge. Since this is Other Doctor Lives, in short? This is gonna be a timey wimey review, folks.
I’m learning that the episode ordering on Disney+ doesn’t entirely jive with IMDb’s. Disney+ already split the double-length pilot, which I reviewed as a single episode, into two, and now IMDb lists this one as episode 9. Not sure if it’s a difference between production order and airdates or what. Either way, I’m just going to follow the Disney+ order, because I feel I’ll be less likely to overlook one that way.
Scrooge, the triplets, Webby, and Launchpad set out to be the first group of mountaineers to reach the peak of the notorious Mt. Neverrest. Of the kids, Huey is especially determined, because he’s anxious to earn his cartography badge for the Junior Woodchucks, but his is a logical, rule-bound determination buts up against Scrooge’s swashbuckling, devil-may-care tenacity.
A few scattered thoughts before I move on to the major plot stuff. The episode does a fun job spoofing adventure tourism, with the base of the “pristine, untouched” Mt. Neverrest being littered with restaurants, novelty T-shirt stands, and swindlers hawking unnecessary gear to clueless would-be climbers. And after Dewey discovers that Webby’s never been sledding before, they make a pact to sled off the summit together, a plan that’s as foolhardy and harebrained as it is cute. I enjoy the scenes of the excitable Webby repeatedly asking, “Now?” as Dewey tries to hold her back in anticipation of their “maximum opportunity.”
If the pilot focused more on Dewey than the other triplets and episode 2 was Webby’s time to shine, this episode helps to flesh out Huey more as a character. He’s really methodical, regularly quoting his Junior Woodchuck rulebook and getting increasingly frustrated as the trek up the mountain seems to defy all logic. I get a kick out of the fact that he’s more excited about mapping out their route than the actual climb itself—even though I don’t know that I could’ve attributed these specific qualities to Huey after seeing the first two episodes, they feel consistent, and it all comes together in a way that works.
However, his by-the-book approach puts him at odds with Scrooge, who, for personal reasons, is hell bent on getting to the top no matter what. So while Huey freaks out at Scrooge’s insistence on continuing on through conditions that are growing dangerous, Scrooge scoffs at Huey’s rigid adherence to checklists and protocol. For instance, Scrooge grumbles that they have too much unneeded gear slowing them down and starts chucking supplies off the side of the mountain. As he loudly declares, “We don’t need anything but grit, gumption, and an unwavering--”, Huey breaks in to say, “And water!” I know that, realistically, most of the actors probably recorded separately, but David Tennant and Danny Pudi do a nice job of making that combative exasperation come across well.
Speaking of Tennant, I’m really starting to enjoy this performance from him. He pitches the humor of Scrooge really well. He’s a lot of fun in the ridiculous bits, like when Louie makes an offhand reference to Santa and he snaps, “That man is not allowed in my home! He knows what he did.” But he also has a nice talent for throwing out absurd lines super casually, which makes them even funnier. I especially like his dismissive delivery on, “If I had a nickel for everyone who cursed me with their dying breath, I’d be twice as rich as I already am.”
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