- Not to be confused with Quack Pack, an earlier Disney Afternoon show.
- Not to be confused with "Quack Quack!", an episode of Gawayn.
"Quack Pack!" is the fifty-first episode of DuckTales. It premiered on April 4, 2020 and is the second episode of the third season.
Synopsis[]
The family is not quite themselves as they discover the planned family photoshoot might just be a part of a bigger "wish" gone wrong.
Plot[]
In an unusual change to the DuckTales set up, the characters appear to be in a sitcom titled Quack Pack (created by Gene C. Baba), where all their situations are "normal". The duck family also seem to have different clothes, excluding Donald, who has his original blue uniform and hat. Huey acts as a straight man, while Donald is his understanding uncle, who talks with his modified voice from "The Shadow War!". Dewey is the cool brother, Louie is the one who makes get-rich-quick schemes, Webby is the adorable friend who does weird things, Scrooge is the typical money grubbing uncle, Launchpad is the funny friend with a band called The Crash-Happies, Della is the fun mom who explains her actions with "Back on the moon..." and Mrs. Beakley is the maid who constantly utters "I am not a spy!" despite her actions depicting the contrary.
The family is preparing for a family photo and in typical sitcom fashion, nothing is going right. The study, which is where the photo is to take place, is in ruins leaving Scrooge, Louie and Della to try and fix it, while Webby is convinced that the photographer they hired, Knux Quackington, is a spy and captures him. While all this is going on, Huey begins to notice that something is not right. He begins to hear the laugh track at various moments and his Junior Woodchucks guidebook is full of blank pages. Huey begins to panic, especially when the show actually cuts to commercial. He tries telling Dewey and Donald, but they tell him to go help fix the study. Meanwhile, Webby tries interrogating Quackington who seems relieved that she thinks he is a spy. She has Launchpad look out for him and upon hearing that he is an "agent" gets his band to come in and play for him (though quietly due to being told that he was a "secret" agent).
Huey finally confronts Scrooge, Louie and Della with the fact that they are on a TV show as there is not any pipes in the walls, his book is a prop and the most glaring of all, there is not a fourth wall in the room, but instead a bigger room with shadowy people watching them. As they attempt to dig their way out of the room after being trapped, Donald is forced to hire his neighbor Goofy (whose entrance is met with excited applause) to fill in as their photographer, though Donald has to lead him to realize this.
Everyone eventually makes their way to the garage where Huey tries to get everyone to remember how they ended up in this situation, though Donald seems hesitant to participate. Using the power of creating a flashback, it is revealed that they were on an adventure trying to recover the magic lamp of Collie baba when Donald inadvertently wished on it to have "normal family problems", creating the reality they are in. Webby manages to recognize that Quackington is actually Gene the Genie who made Donald's wish come true. He is unable to release them unless Donald wishes for it. However, Donald refuses as he does not want to have any more dangerous adventures and leaves in a huff with Goofy.
As everyone argues to leave the reality after Gene gives them synopses of two future episodes, being in three seasons, spin-offs and a reboot (in other words, forever), the audience reveals themselves as laughing humans who proceed to chase them in the shattering reality, which Gene explains was due to the wish fighting to preserve itself if they try to escape. As they fight them off, while also dealing with three girls who had dates with Launchpad on the same night, Louie's pet snake, and miniature versions of Johnny and Randy, Donald continues to prepare for his photo. Using a recent memory of him and Max on an outing, Goofy gives him words of encouragement, admitting that the best photos are the ones that are not perfect and that every family has their own definition of normal. Donald returns to help fight off the humans and find the lamp; using his second wish to undo the previous one.
Everyone finds themselves back to before the wish and with everything back to normal. Goofy is revealed to be real because, according to Gene, "Magic's got nothing over a big name guest star." He offers one final wish for Donald and after a moment decides on one: a perfect family photo depicting them all battling the humans, to Louie's ire.
Cast[]
- David Tennant as Scrooge McDuck
- Danny Pudi as Huey Duck
- Ben Schwartz as Dewey Duck
- Bobby Moynihan as Louie Duck
- Kate Micucci as Webby Vanderquack
- Tony Anselmo as Donald Duck
- Don Cheadle as Donald Duck (alternate reality)
- Paget Brewster as Della Duck
- Beck Bennett as Launchpad McQuack
- Toks Olagundoye as Mrs. Beakley
- Bill Farmer as Goofy
- Jaleel White as Gene the Genie
- Laura Bailey as Launchpad's Girlfriends
- Abby Ryder Fortson as Little Girl Audience Member
- Noah Baird as Little Boy Audience Member
- Kari Wahlgren as Audience Members
Trivia[]
- There are several references to Quack Pack.
- The title itself is a reference to the show's title.
- The Quack Pack logo is reused.
- The episode features human beings, which were also present in Quack Pack and select Donald Duck cartoons.
- This is the only DuckTales episode to involve humans.
- Plus, a human resembles to Kent Powers.
- There are several references to the original DuckTales.
- Scrooge, Launchpad, and Mrs. Beakley's original outfits come from the classic version of the show.
- Gene states that he has been trapped in the lamp since 1990. This is a nod to DuckTales the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp which was released that year, and which was also Gene's debut in the original series, which also ended that year. Gene briefly wears his "real boy" outfit during the reveal of the year.
- Donald wears his signature blue sailor suit and hat in the sitcom reality.
- Donald's intelligible voice from "The Shadow War!" returns, but this time as the result of a wish instead of Gyro's Barksian Modulator.
- This episode aired on the same day as the "Challenge of the Senior Junior Woodchucks!".
- One of the artifacts in the background of the manor's garage set is a smaller version of the giant golden sun coins from "The Treasure of the Golden Suns - Part 5: Too Much of a Gold Thing", the others are a painting of a bull-like creature and a dog-ified Easter Island head.
- Goofy is depicted in this episode as being a photographer, a reference to A Goofy Movie, where he was shown working as a photographer, and wears his outfit from Goof Troop.
- Max, P.J. and Roxanne make cameos in the photographs that Goofy shows Donald.
- This marks Max's first animated appearance since Mickey's Twice Upon a Christmas back in 2004. Although he doesn’t appear in person, several skateboarding Maxes (and stars) twirl around above a passed-out Goofy in the end, akin to how imagined cartoon birds sometimes do in other media.
- This also marks the first time P.J. and Roxanne have been seen since An Extremely Goofy Movie and House of Mouse, respectively.
- In the photo of Max dressed as Powerline for Halloween, his outfit is erroneously colored red when it should be yellow.
- The top photo of Max as a baby is from An Extremely Goofy Movie.
- The Pep commercial is a parody of Sprite.
- As it turns out Disney was originally planning to do a reboot of Goof Troop back in 2019 which was to have the original show with A Goofy Movie and An Extremely Goofy Movie all put together. But it was scrapped for unknown reasons
- Gene makes several allusions to Jaleel White when he jokes about several segments and conventions from ABC's TGIF block that White constructed.
- The scorpions resemble the one in the theme song which is also a reference to the scorpions from DuckTales the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp.
- Jaleel White and Ben Schwartz have both portrayed Sonic the Hedgehog in two different incarnations. White voiced Sonic in the 1990s DIC Entertainment cartoons, while Schwartz voiced Sonic in the Paramount Sonic the Hedgehog film series.
- Coincidentally, two of White's incarnations of Sonic appeared on Disney XD at different points of its life. When the channel was still Toon Disney, it ran reruns of Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog from 1998 to 2002, and Disney XD ran reruns of Sonic Underground in 2012.
- Gene is seen playing with Pogs.
- Huey breaks the fourth wall when he asks why he's dancing and why he's also in the screen transition.
- There is a reference to Aladdin where Louie berates Donald for wasting his last wish even having him mention that Donald could've wished to be a genie himself. This is exactly what Jafar did in the film.
- With Goofy's appearance, this is the first episode to feature another member of the "Sensational Six", besides Donald. The second episode to do so, is "Louie's Eleven!", with Daisy Duck appearing.
- The episode's premise is eerily similar to WandaVision which would air almost a whole year after this episode. Among the similarities include:
- The culprit being a magic user (Agatha Harkness and Gene the Genie) who was hiding among the cast and using their powers to feed into the want of another character who was desperate for an idyllic life (Wanda Maximoff and Donald Duck).
- However, in Agatha's case it was for malicious intent while Gene was simply acting off of Donald's wish and wasn't actually evil.
- A supporting cast who slowly begin to realize that there is something amiss with their life (Vision and Huey, though later it is the rest of the cast).
- A familiar "guest star" who arrives to shake up the show (Ralph Bohner as Pietro Maximoff and Goofy).
- The lead characters having to fight for their lives against elements of their false realities when they begin to fall apart (the citizens of Westview and the human audience members).
- The culprit being a magic user (Agatha Harkness and Gene the Genie) who was hiding among the cast and using their powers to feed into the want of another character who was desperate for an idyllic life (Wanda Maximoff and Donald Duck).
- Gene's poster of a hypothetical gritty reboot is meant to be a jab at the Netflix series Riverdale.
International premieres[]
- October 11, 2020 (Japan)
- March 19, 2021 (United Kingdom) (Premiere on Disney+)
- October 13, 2021 (Italy) (Premiere on Disney+)
- November 9, 2021 (Portugal)
Gallery[]
-S03E02-QuackPack!-MaxGoof.png "DuckTales(2017)-S03E02-QuackPack!-MaxGoof.png (783 KB)")
-S03E02-QuackPack!-1990.png "DuckTales(2017)-S03E02-QuackPack!-1990.png (1.07 MB)")
-S03E02-QuackPack!-DuckTalesReboot.png "DuckTales(2017)-S03E02-QuackPack!-DuckTalesReboot.png (1.08 MB)")
-S03E02-QuackPack!-Shocked.png "DuckTales(2017)-S03E02-QuackPack!-Shocked.png (1.05 MB)")
.jpg "Quack Pack Ducks vs. Humans (1).jpg (91 KB)")
.jpg "Quack Pack Ducks vs. Humans (2).jpg (97 KB)")
.jpg "Quack Pack Ducks vs. Humans (3).jpg (81 KB)")
.jpg "Quack Pack Ducks vs. Humans (4).jpg (99 KB)")
.png "DuckTales - Season 3 Sneak Peek! (2).png (907 KB)")
-S03E02-QuackPack!-GeneWithGoofy.png "DuckTales(2017)-S03E02-QuackPack!-GeneWithGoofy.png (769 KB)")
