What do you get when you cross Jim Cummings, Christine Cavanaugh, an egotistical, pant-less duck, a band of psychopathic villains, a dim-witted sidekick, an overly-enthusiastic young girl, brilliant writers, and quality Disney animation? One of the greatest shows of all time, of course!
Darkwing Duck was a show that premiered in 1991 on the Disney Afternoon. It ran for 2 years before it was cancelled.
This short-lived show was about a duck by the name of Drake Mallard, his daughter, Gosalyn, and his friend, Launchpad McQuack. Sounds exciting, eh? It isn’t very, until he dons his purple cape and mask and goes into the city to “th-wart” evil doers as the mysterious Darkwing Duck.
You may remember Launchpad from “Duck Tales”. After Uncle Scrooge fired him for the last time, he moved from Duckburg to St. Canard where he met his idol and became his sidekick. It is obvious to everyone else that DW only kept him as a pilot. The Masked Mallard has too much pride to have a sidekick! He eventually came to be very good friends with LP, but wouldn’t admit it.
Great animation, superb acting, and fantastic story lines make it a shame the show was cancelled. The show was entertainment at its very best. Sure, there were a few flop episodes, everything has a bad day every now and then, but most of the time you were kept laughing (or crying) the whole way through. The only shows now-a-days that come anywhere near Darkwing Duck are Rugrats, Daria, and Hey Arnold!.
Putting Jim Cummings and Christine Cavanaugh together was pure genius. Other voice-over greats on the cast include Kath Soucie, Tress MacNeille, Dan Castellaneta, Michael Bell, Rob Paulsen, Tim Curry, and occasional appearances (if you could call them that) by Charlie Adler and Tony Jay.
DW must battle a wide range of villains, including The Fearsome Five, Steelbeak (Rob Paulsen), Moliarty (JC), Taurus Bulba (Tim Curry), and others.
Darkwing is a Disney production and airs on Toon Disney at 8:30 PM and 11:00 AM, and on The Disney Channel at 7:00 PM on Sundays.
Thanks to Steve Begin of The Page That Flaps In The Night for the picture and John Renard's Darkwing Duck Page for the logo.
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