TV Episode Review: Darkwing Duck - Justice Ducks Unite

Stars: 5 out of 5
Pros: Humorous story with lots of great one-liners

Cons: None worth dwelling on

The Bottom Line:

Good vs. bad unite

Delightful two episodes

Funny and plain fun

"This is the Third Most Painful Moment of My Life."

This is another video release of Darkwing Duck. The cartoon show aired in the early 90's on the Disney Action Adventure Afternoon. Darkwing is a crime fighting masked hero who saves the citizens of St. Canard from evil in whatever form it may take. This tape features the two-part episode "Just Us Justice Ducks."

Darkwing is just about to head out on a date with girlfriend Morgana when the lights go out in the city. Investigating, he narrowly escapes an encounter with archenemies Megavolt and Quackerjack. The next morning, he finds villains Bushroot and Liquidator jacking the police station to the sky with a bean stock. Unfortunately, it all begins to make sense when he learns Negaduck is behind it. The five villains have teamed up to take over the city and plan to use their reign of terror to extort every last cent from the citizens.

Fortunately, Darkwing has help in for form of Gizmoduck (from DuckTales), fish Neptunia, duck turned dinosaur Stegmutt, and Morgana. But his ego prevents him from accepting their help. This is his city, and he will protect it, thank you very much. But his pride gets him into trouble. Is it too late for the Justice Ducks to capture the criminals?

These two episodes are among from favorites from the run of the show. Not only do they include some of my favorite characters, like the underused duck turned into water Liquidator, but these five villains make a great team. As do the five heroes. As always, there are some great one-liners and running gags, including one poking fun at Lassie as mute animals try to communicate danger to other characters. Darkwing Duck is always at his funniest when he lets his ego get in the way of crime solving, and here is it in full abundance. The only real downside is, with all the other characters, series regulars Launchpad and Gosalyn are left with glorified walk on parts.

The voice over work is wonderful, bringing the characters to life. The animation is typical TV work. Hand drawn, you can sometimes see shortcuts in frozen characters or poor backgrounds. Still, I really only notice if I'm watching for it. The animation gets the job done and entertains.

The only true con to this tape is that it is long out of print. But the good news is that this classic two-parter is included in the Darkwing Duck Vol. 1 DVD release.