Disney Adventures — Ducktails
4.00 p.m. Channel 7, weekdays
Rated C, children's viewing
Reviewed (by chance) by Sean Malloy
In the 1950s, in an environment of McCarthyism, communists were accused of brainwashing. In the 1990s Disney productions have turned brainwashing into a form of entertainment for children.
I knew that Disney cartoons were generally conservative (I prefer Bugs Bunny myself), but when I happened to watch an episode of Ducktails I almost fell over my jaw at the blatant racism, prejudice and pro-imperialist ideology.
Uncle Scrooge owns a large factory in another country. The lease on the factory is due to expire on Friday, requiring the leader of this country to renew it with his signature.
Scrooge's factory (Scrooge is the only apt description in the whole show) is located in a third world country. How do we know it's a third world country? Because it is a dictatorship, people walk around in uniforms, people are executed and imprisoned and there are bananas growing.
Further, this country appears to be an Islamic state. The uniforms of the dictatorial regime and the country's flag have a crescent moon and a star. The symbol could easily be taken from the flags of Algeria, Libya, Malaysia, Mauritania, Pakistan, Singapore, Tunisia, Turkey or even the US Nation of Islam.
Scrooge's nephews, Huey, Louie and Dewey, don't want to go to school and make out that it is not Friday but Saturday. However confusion over what day it is spreads throughout the world, and people start to think it is Saturday.
The "greedy" dictator takes advantage of this situation by claiming that the lease on Scrooge's factory has expired and therefore the factory belongs
to him and his country, not Scrooge.
Scrooge's employee begs the dictator to renew the lease, but instead the dictator orders his execution.
Huey, Louie and Dewey come to the rescue with an Indiana Jones-type duck. They tell the dictator that they can prove it is Friday because an eclipse is due on the day (how lucky!). The dictator points out that it is too cloudy to see whether an eclipse is happening or not. The "Indiana" duck takes the three little ducks in his airplane to clear the clouds. They are unsuccessful.
Meanwhile Scrooge's employee is about to be executed by a firing squad of cannons! The dictator concedes one last phone call to the condemned duck. He rings Gizmoduck, an allegory for the US marines. Gizmoduck, a robotic duck full of gadgets that fold away, flies to the rescue. Scrooge's employee stalls by saying some last words. The dictator becomes impatient and decides to execute Scrooge as well.
Gizmoduck arrives in time to deflect the cannonballs from Scrooge and his employee. Using the cannon to propel himself in the air Gizmoduck then clears the sky of cloud to reveal the eclipse, proving it is Friday. Hooray! Uncle Scrooge gets to keep his factory in somebody else's country. Hooray! the nasty dictator is beaten by the overwhelming force of Gizmoduck.
Ducktail's story reinforces the notion that US corporations have an automatic right to own and control property in third world countries. The leaders of these countries are evil dictators and don't deserve to own factories. The story could have been about the Panama invasion of 1989, or the 1991 war against Iraq, or the 1986 bombing of Libya.
In the 1970s left-wing Chileans published a book called How to Read Donald Duck. I think it's time for a 1990s update called How to Watch Ducktails.