Thursday, August 11, 2011

A (probably unscientific) contrast, to give some perspective...

During the weekend of September 18-20, 1987, DuckTales premiered with the two-hour TV version of "Treasure of the Golden Suns".  (I am the safekeeper of this fact being maintained across the Internet, by the way.)

 Example A:




Example B:




I must note: Nice animation of El Capitan at 4:10, and Scrooge at 4:18. 

Now, I don't know if the general jerkiness is actually the animation being dated/not living up to my aggrandized memory, or if it's the result of degradation through the course of these being taped off of a television broadcast and transferred and uploaded to YouTube. 

Regardless, revisting these has reaffirmed to me that the series (and the "Treasure of the Golden Suns" serial in particular) still holds up, and that I'm not operating on just nostalgia.  And thus, when BOOM! Studios launched a new DuckTales comic three months ago (in the wake of the success of their Darkwing Duck series), they owed it better treatment than this (scan courtesy of Chris Barat's review):




Chris' aforementioned review had a galvanizing effect: a fury of discussion commenced at Duck Comics Revue and the Disney Comics Forum -- that is, places where one would expect this subject to be discussed (though the extent to which it has been is atypical and extraordinary).  What's been truly flabbergasting is the coverage elsewhere:


It's not a stretch, by any means, to say that I'd been awaiting this since the last issue of Disney Comics' incarnation of DuckTales, published in late 1991.

Finally, meanwhile, at the official BOOM! forums, the silence that persists in response to our queries is deafening.  [Pssst ... you may note my post at the end of the thread.  I'm already embarrassed about its melodrama!]

Ryan

7 comments:

  1. Ryan,

    The guy at COMICS CAVERN gives me a little too much credit, actually; the only "worst" that I specifically identified in the story was "some of the worst art that I've ever seen in a contemporary Disney comic." The "worst of ALL time" comments was made in the comments section.

    The reaction to my review disproves, I suppose, the famous theory that you can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar. None of my positive reviews, for Boom!/kaboom! comics or anything else, ever elicited THIS much reaction.

    Chris

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  2. Ryan,

    Watching "Treasure of the Golden Suns" that weekend (I did so twice, since it was broadcast on two different syndicated stations in the Boston/Providence area) was one of the galvanizing events of my life. I speak with a COMPLETE lack of irony here.

    One thing that helped "Golden Suns" was the fact that it was produced rather late in the production process, therefore the animation was rather less stodgy than in such early eps as "Back to the Klondike."

    Chris

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  3. Chris,

    No, I would never expect you to reject your meticulous reviewing style for a loud, sweeping "worst ever!" declaration -- that'd be very out-of-character. I think your DT #3 post attracted this type of attention and was conflated by other outlets into something more sensational and polarizing because, unfortunately, an all-too large fraction of Internet culture thrives on negativity.

    I didn't realize you had once resided in the Boston-Providence area. I take it you were in school at that point? Also, do you happen to remember what those two stations were? By chance, would one have them been Boston's Channel 38? That was carried in my area, and I believe was where I watched the "Golden Suns" premiere my second time. (I think the first was via a Hartford station that was to become a Fox affiliate -- or already was at that point, but the network was still in its infancy.)

    I sort of hold that weekend as a formative event in my personal mythology. Several months ago, using newspaperarchive.org, I found TV listings from 9/18 and 9/20 that accounted for the premiere. Some papers even saw fit to highlight the special in their respective "Tonght's Top Picks"-esque column. It was exciting to find that, to some degree, the broadcast was treated as the singular occassion that I remember it as!

    Now, if I could one day access the TV movie version, if only for the thrill of seeing the title frame... (My holy grail!)

    Ryan

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  4. Ryan,

    One of the stations was definitely TV 38. I can't recall the other, but it might have been a New York station -- perhaps WPIX??

    I was in Providence because I was attending Brown (grad school) at that time. I had just moved from a small apartment without a cable connection to a larger house floor with a cable connection. Good timing!

    I THINK I still have the TV movie version of TOTGS somewhere on VHS, but don't hold me to that, I will have to check... I did a fairly thorough clearing out of some of my old tapes not too long ago.

    Chris

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  5. Ryan,

    You may be pleased to know that I may have hooked some young DT fans. Nicky and I gave our niece Fiona the three DT DVD sets for her birthday, and she LOVES them. She and her two sisters and one brother have been watching them religiously.

    Chris

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  6. Chris,

    That's really cool! Too bad that Disney never marketed the DVD sets toward kids...I honestly thought they might be right in figuring the shows wouldn't interesting today's children, but your niece's interest is a sign that not all hope is lost on them (kidding!) ... and the kind of reaction that Disney should have, and should BE, putting more effort into finding out if the shows elicit from children at large!

    Ryan

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  7. Chris ... oh, by the way, if your tape of the TV movie version of TotGS does turn up, might we be able to come up with a means to make a copy of it? (One that wouldn't have you going out of your way!)

    Ryan

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