McDuck Hospitality

Scrooge McDuck finally reckons with his family's colonial past in "The Curse of Castle McDuck", an October, 1987 episode of DuckTales. Travelling to Scotland to visit his ancestral cottage, he reluctantly admits to the ducklings there's a whole Castle McDuck across the river a few yards away. But it's abandoned because of the cost of upkeep and, oh, yes, a demon hound.

Based loosely on "The Hound of the Wiskervilles", a 1959 Carl Barks comic, the episode makes it fun to watch the ducks exploring the mystery. The enthusiasm Huey, Dewey, and Louie (Russi Taylor) show for investigating the castle is great but most of the episode's best lines belong to Webby (also Russi Taylor).

Asking Scrooge (Alan Young) who the pretty girl is in a portrait in his bedroom, he explains that it's actually a picture of himself. She tells him his skirt is cute but wonders why he was wearing it and he patiently explains it's a kilt. "Well," she says, "whatever you call it, I hope you stayed out of the wind."

Throughout the episode, she has a tendency to say things that seem slightly insulting but with absolute, sincere innocence. When he explains the curse of the hound, she says, "Isn't a hound the same thing as a dog, Uncle Scrooge?" A good line for kids watching who might be wondering. When the boys suggest exploring the castle, Webby also thinks it's a good idea but kindly adds, "Unless you're afraid of the doggie, Uncle Scrooge." A perfectly innocent concern.

"I'd better hold your hand, Uncle Scrooge," she says as they jump on stones to cross the river. Fortunately, Scrooge shows himself to be no coward when he tames the hound with some sausage links he brought along.

The other ducklings have some funny lines, too. When Scrooge proudly changes into his kilt, he says, "All the McDucks used to dress this way." Huey remarks, "No wonder dogs kept chasing them."

Of course, the real culprit ends up being the druids who tell Scrooge how his ancestor built the castle on their sacred stones.

DRUID: "He robbed us of our treasured past, our heritage!"
SCROOGE: "Why would he do such a thing?"
DRUID: "To save money on building costs."

Scrooge concocts a moneymaking solution to benefit himself and the Druids and all's well that ends well.

I'm always surprised how well this show holds up. I keep trying to watch the reboot series--I started watching the Darkwing Duck special episode a few days ago but had to stop about fifteen minutes in. The writing is beyond bad, it's aggressively unfunny. It would be a little better if the characters would be quiet now and then but it's like the writers are contractually obligated to have the characters tell a joke every second. So they all feel really forced and there's so many of them, it's really stifling to watch.

Both DuckTales series are available on Disney+.