*Spoilers from season 2, episode 14 (“Friendship Hates Magic!”, which isn’t part of Other Doctor Lives.)*
This is the third episode in a row with very little Scrooge, but it’s a pretty awesome one. At this point, I’m reviewing DuckTales for David Tennant, but I’m watching it simply because it’s a good show, and episodes with minimal Scrooge can’t dampen my enjoyment of it.
Webby is hosting a sleepover for the triplets, Lena, and her newest friend Violet. Lena has only recently been rescued from the Shadow Realm, where she was trapped at the end of season 1, and she’s determined that this will be Webby’s first non-cataclysmic sleepover. Everything is going great…until the kids fall asleep and they find themselves stuck in a magical shared dream state, where Lena is stalked by Magica De Spell.
Exploring various characters’ dreams is a classic episode premise for any good show, and this one makes the most of it. The kids’ dreams are all varied and fit them to a tee. Webby’s dream, which she ecstatically refers to as “facing certain death with my friends on a desert island!!!”, features such locales as the Acid Rainbow Waterfall, the Glitter Quicksand Pit, and Poison Flower Field. Meanwhile, Dewey dreams about his awesome life as a cool teenager at Dewey High, Louie dreams of being even lazier than he already is, and Huey struggles with the general concept of dreaming—“I’m not good at imagination stuff, okay?” he cries anxiously.
Other than Webby’s, which is the most straightforward in terms of the animation, each dream follows the palette of its dreamer’s signature color, a la Dewey’s dream is in blue, Louie’s in green, Huey’s in red, and so forth. And I love so much that, in Dewey’s dream, there’s a disembodied voice fawning over him. As he explains to the others, “I think that’s supposed to be my romantic interest, but I’m too threatened by that concept, so it never takes shape.”
At the center of all this mindbending fun and weirdness, we have Lena being pursued by Magica. She’s afraid that she can’t outrun her past, that she’s still “evil” and her friends will never accept her if they see it. It offers up a nice story about reform, self-determination, and friendship.
Only one Scrooge scene this week, and he never actually appears onscreen. We just hear him knocking outside Webby’s door while the kids are sleeping. And yet, in that brief time, Tennant delivers a line that is simply peak old-man-miser Scrooge: “What are you lot still doing asleep? It’s almost 6 a.m. Go get some jobs!” Flawless, no notes!
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