mollyfamwatDisney’s DuckTales series ends next week. Next week, Monday, March 15, the 90-minute series finale will air at 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT on Disney XD as part of the 2017 reincarnation of the classic animated series. Production on the reboot of the series has officially ended, bringing the series to 75 episodes and over 15 short films. He introduced new characters, new versions of old characters, and he always tried to include as many as possible. We had the chance to speak with executive producer Matt Youngberg and co-executive producer and head writer Frank Engons before the series ended.
To be clear, the full interview contained major spoilers about the upcoming series finale, but you won’t find them here. Those questions and answers will be the subject of a separate article after the final show, but let’s just say there will be plenty to hear from Angons and Youngberg, including some incredibly special questions.
It should be noted that it was announced today that the series finale will not be a complete goodbye to these characters. Disney has announced the creation of an original podcast called This Duckburg Life, inspired by the DuckTales series and featuring the same actors reprising their roles. The seven-part podcast, hosted by Huey Duck for Duckburg Public Radio, is scheduled for the 29th. The month of March appears. The first clip from the first episode, which you can see below, has already been released.
As previously mentioned, the finale of the DuckTales series will air on Monday the 15th. Mars, broadcast at 7:00 p.m. PT (ET/4:00 p.m. PT) on Disney XD. You can read all our previous reviews of the popular animated series here.
Are you upset about the departure of DuckTales? Have you been following the new episodes? Let us know what you think, or feel free to contact me directly on Twitter at @rollinbishop to talk about anything animation related. And read on for our full interview with Youngberg and the Angons!
On what is done but not yet dusted is.
(Photo: Disney XD)
First of all: Congratulations on the race, guys. How does it feel to…?
Frank Angons: Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you.
…yet?
Matt Youngberg: Wow. Well, I say…
F.A : It’s not over yet!
…as she ascends, the weight will fall from her shoulders, but…
F.A.: Yes. Nothing is done or dusty until it’s on TV.
ME: Yes. But once I turned it in, and it was over, and the final was in the box, as they say, there was that feeling of loneliness, like you’ve crossed the finish line, you’ve worked so hard for this goal and you’ve achieved it. And all you want to do is fall apart for a while. And so I literally collapsed and fell asleep for 14 hours.
F.A : You’ve had a long sleep.
ME: I slept a long time.
F.A : You slept late.
ME: And it was great. It was really great. But then again, the feeling of waiting for it to go out into the world is something that always….. Yes, the anticipation is so great.
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About the reaction to the show presented
The last time we spoke was just before an episode of Dark Duck. Apparently there were rumors since then that the show was over – even before the official announcement. This must have triggered conflicting thoughts and feelings. What did you think of the reaction to the news, and then to the official news?
F.A : I mean, we knew it was over.
ME: It’s no surprise to us. (laughs)
Yes! No, no, I mean exactly the outpouring of support from people and things like that, even if you couldn’t talk about it.
F.A : It was really good. I mean, I think what we were hoping for… These characters have always existed. Some of them are new to our series. Some features are new, some ideas are new. We hoped to open up a number of possibilities for the stories of these characters and hope that some of them will continue to exist in various forms, both in other projects and in the sequels to this project, for 30 years, or at least in the hearts and minds of the fans who love the show.
It was really nice to see people loving characters like Della and Webby and our versions of Huey, Dewey and Louie, as well as secondary characters like Darkwing, Gosalyn and Penumbra, and to see how our version of Donald and those characters really made people’s lives, especially last year, a little more connected and bearable.
One of the great things we have always talked about is the concept of family being founded and how this strange amalgamation of a great uncle and a great uncle with a cosmic mother and a triplet and a granddaughter who is a housekeeper, how they are as much family as any blood relationship. It’s really nice to see a community that has come to love the show become a sort of small founding family.
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And then…
(Photo: Disney XD)
You said you’ve known each other for a while, and the animation producer being what it is, with DuckTales in the making, as you said, but not on the tube yet, what’s next for you two?
ME: That’s the big question, isn’t it? I guess that’s all I can say, because honestly, it’s not over yet.
F.A : I mean, we’re both working on things and projects for ourselves, nothing we can’t talk about already. But I gotta say, man, we left it all out there in the DuckTales finale.
I’ve been saying it since season 1, we don’t know if we can touch these characters anymore. Treat every episode like it can be cancelled, treat every season finale like it’s the series finale. We had so many heads in this third season that we thought: Okay, what’s our last statement? If we never touch these characters again, what is the definitive statement about what DuckTales was and is supposed to be? So that was it.
And I hope that a version of these characters will continue to exist. And I can only speak for myself. I feel like I’ve grown tremendously personally and creatively by working with Matt and our entire team. And I think no matter what, DuckTales has made an indelible impression on me as a creative.
ME: It’s the same thing. Yes. I’d say the same thing. Being able to work with this team on the series was the best experience you could wish for in animation. And so I hope that no matter what happens next, I can still have that collaboration and that team and I hope to work with as many people from DuckTales as possible, because that was the best team you could imagine. So that’s the goal.
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Leave everything on the floor.
(Photo: Disney XD)
It was really clear that the finale was a love letter to DuckTales fans and these characters. Even with this extended time, it’s just full. And you both talked a lot about the themes of the series and are very proud of what you’ve done. And of course, leaving DuckTales here isn’t necessarily your choice, is it? But is there anything to lament about what you’ve accomplished in three seasons? Would you have done anything differently?
F.A : Yes. Working with Matt. If I could work with someone else, it would really ….. be. No.
I would never say that about you, Frank. I hope you feel really bad.
F.A : I was gone for about two minutes during that conversation, and I know as soon as I left, you said: Okay. I want to tell you the truth about Frank.
ME: A real one!
F.A.: No, it was absolute fun from top to bottom. I mean, we already knew that was our three-season plan. And we went for it, knowing that three seasons like …. These days, you’re lucky if you get three seasons out of a 25 episode cartoon.
We knew that everything that would happen next would be something new and different, something new and different from what we felt. So we adopted the DuckTales framework, that was pretty much the point: Hey, let’s keep these characters alive for another 30 years. And let’s try to bring as many characters as possible to the kids without slamming the door. And it’s either for us or for the characters.
We’ve always thought of it as a comic book series, and that it’s Matt and Frank’s DuckTales series. And someone else could have come. We may have a different story. Maybe someone spells out a different character, but they don’t regret the way we did it.
That’s exactly… I mean, it’s full, because that’s been the DuckTales approach, I think, since the pilot, when we introduced the world and the story and the ten new characters. If the last episode of DuckTales is the only episode of DuckTales you’ve seen, then you probably need Cliff Notes.
ME: Yes. We try to make episodes that stand on their own, that are fun and all that, but this is really one of those situations where you need the rest of the show to convey the feeling you want the audience to have.
I can only agree with Frank: I don’t regret DuckTales, because I think DuckTales is one of those rare things that allowed us to achieve what we wanted. We were allowed to tell the stories we wanted to tell. We were allowed to bring in the characters we wanted. It was really the kitchen sink of the show, but made in such a way that it looked natural and felt good. And I feel really good about every episode we do.
I love watching our episodes and such…. That’s funny. When you’re that close, you still watch episode after episode and say: Oh shit, I missed that little color error, that little thing. Oh, boy.
But I haven’t seen a single episode yet and I feel like it could have been a little better. I don’t think so. I think these episodes are just excellent and a testament to the team that worked on them. And yes, no, I am absolutely in love with this era of DuckTales.
Foreword
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