What Ever Happened to Donald Duck? is the seventeenth episode of Season 2 of DuckTales 2017, written by Colleen Evanson (along with DuckTales 2017's normal team of writers) and directed by Jason Zurek and Jason Reicher. It features the 2017 Continuum versions of Donald Duck, Huey, Dewey and Louie Duck, Webby Vanderquack, Scrooge McDuck, Lieutenant Penumbra, Della Duck, General Lunaris, Penumbra, Gibbous & Zenith, Palus, Roxanne Featherly, cameo appearances on screens by Mr D'jinn, Don Karnage, Flintheart Glomgold, Mark Beaks, Ma Beagle, Magica De Spell and Gizmoduck, and, in his debut, the series' version of Jones. The Beagle Boys and F.O.W.L. are mentioned.
Description[]
After Donald Duck crash lands on the Moon, Penumbra helps him escape prison. Together they discover the full extent of General Lunaris's schemes. Meanwhile, Dewey and Webby try to solve the mystery of why Donald isn't receiving any of the postcards his family send him.
References[]
- General Lunaris has been developing his plan to conquer Earth for years, keeping track of all Earthlings who might threaten his plans; they include Scrooge McDuck, Don Karnage, Mr D'jinn, Flintheart Glomgold, Magica De Spell, Mark Beaks, Ma Beagle and Gizmoduck.
- He built a Space Cannon as a first attempt to get to Earth from the Moon, but never quite got it working; the pressures involved would be the death of any Moonlander, though they turn out to be just about bearable for an Earthling used to a greater gravity than the Moon's.
- Moon Scorpions glow in the dark.
- When he took in Huey, Dewey and Louie Duck, Donald Duck began seeing Jones, who, in the 2017 Continuum, is an anger management therapist. He learned to focus his anger into an incredibly strong protective instinct for the kids.
Continuity[]
- The title apes that of Episode 7 of Season 2, What Ever Happened to Della Duck? (2019).
- Donald Duck attempts to create a gash in a stone wall by repeatedly knocking his head on it, much as the original Donald was shown to have often done as a toddler in This Is Your Life, Donald Duck (1960).
Behind the scenes[]
This episode of DuckTales 2017 was released on September the 3d, 2019.
Lunaris's attempt to get to Earth from the Moon by shooting himself there with a giant cannon, and the jokes at the expense of the implausibility of such a system, are a reference to Jules Verne's De la Terre à la Lune, one of the first "serious" science fiction novels to feature a trip from Earth to the Moon, achieved with such a cannon.
Though the title card of the episode spells its title What Ever Happened to Donald Duck?, the second of the official "movie posters" released by the show's creators on Twitter instead spells it Whatever Happened to Donald Duck?.