| “ | Whoo-crashed it! | ” |
– Launchpad | ||
Launchpad McQuack is one of the nine main protagonists in DuckTales 2017, based on his original version from DuckTales 1987 and Darkwing Duck.
Contents
Description
Launchpad is a fearless and big-hearted guy who works for Scrooge McDuck, initially as his limo driver and later as his air and submarine pilot. Launchpad may not be a Carl Barks original character but he is still an endearing friend to the McDuck family as well as the show.
Personality
As loyal as he is to an employee of McDuck Enterprises, Launchpad also serves as a loyal friend to the McDuck family. He is fearless and always up for anything which suits well as Scrooge's drivers. Launchpad isn't the brightest, he acts on instinct and learns on the go. Though even through some misadventures and mistakes, he always keeps a positive attitude, and this is shown in "Woo-oo!" when he got bitten by snakes and remained calm and positive throughout the ordeal. And even when things are going wrong he is determined to make things right and be there some others as seen in "Beware the B.U.D.D.Y. System!". Launchpad is very kind and friendly he always there to help others like in "Woo-oo!" when Huey, Dewey, Louie, and Webby need to help Scrooge defeat a flying golden dragon. Launchpad offers himself as a pilot the Sunchaser, to rescue Scrooge even though he didn't know them well at the time, he still wished to help. In "Day of the Only Child!", Launchpad is shown to be oblivious when he could see past the Beagle Boys' disguises. And he shows to get easily distracted, this often interferes with his driving, which is shown in many occasions like in "Sky Pirates...in the Sky!" where Launchpad is intrigued by Don Karnage and his musical performance. Even though he is not smart, he has a pure heart and is a true hero.
Skills and Abilities
- Driving Skills: Without truly getting the training Launchpad is an "okay" driver. He often crashes but besides being a "driver" Launchpad is a team player.
- Tolerance for injuries: He can crash airplanes and not get injured.
- He apparently speaks Swedish, as shown in Woo-oo!
- Resourceful Repairment Skills: Although his experiences with flying appear extremely crash-centric, in "The Golden Armory of Cornelius Coot!" he proves to Della his out-of-the-box maintenance methods actually work.
- Musical Abilities: He is shown to be good at playing the piano in the episode "Last Christmas!", where he played the 12 days of Christmas, with the rest of the family. He can also play the saxophone, as seen in Quack Pack! (although, that may have been under the influence of Gene's magic)
Relationships
Scrooge McDuck
Launchpad is a devoted employee of McDuck Enterprises and prides his job as Scrooge's chauffeur. He not only views Scrooge as his boss but also somewhat of a father figure as shown in "Beware the B.U.D.D.Y. System!".
Donald Duck
Even though Donald and Launchpad never really hang out, Launchpad is very friendly towards him, even though he took his boat without asking in "Jaw$!". But still treats him kindly, Launchpad as shares that he likes his fashion sense in "The Shadow War!".
Huey Duck
Launchpad has serves Huey as his friends and his Junior Woodchuck trooper as shown in "Day of the Only Child!". Huey has shown to judge Launchpad because he is dim behavior this is seen in "Sky Pirates...in the Sky!" where Huey assists Launchpad to return home in one piece.
Dewey Duck
Launchpad considers Dewey as his best friend, shown favoritism towards Dewey that on an occasion he refers to Huey and Louie as "Dewey's brothers." In "Beware the B.U.D.D.Y. System!", the two of them hang out together, and Launchpad introduces Dewey to his favorite TV show, Darkwing Duck. Launchpad also asks fashion advice from Dewey. In "Jaw$!", it's shown that Launchpad is protective of him. When Dewey gets eaten by Tiffany, Launchpad wakes up in the middle of the night because he senses his best friend is in danger and takes Donald's houseboat to the Money Bin to rescue Dewey. In "Double-O-Duck in You Only Crash Twice!" Launchpad with his smart persona manages to save Dewey from getting hit by an Intelli-Ray gun F.O.W.L. agent Steelbeak was planning to use on him and the entire city of Duckburg. However, once the Sate-lighthouse is equipped with the ray gun and prepared to blast, Launchpad realizes the only way to save Dewey and the city is to sacrifice the intelligence he had just attained. Originally, Launchpad feels conflicted because he believes he could only be good enough for Dewey with his new abilities, but when Dewey states he's already good enough for him and his best friend, Launchpad willingly hangs in front of the ray and reverts back to his normal self.
Webby Vanderquack
Even though they don't interact or hang out a lot, they make a great team as shown in "The Shadow War!" where they work together to prevent Donald and the triplets from permanently moving to Cape Suzette.
Bentina Beakley
Mrs. Beakley rarely seen with Launchpad but does seem to tolerate his accident-prone nature, especially during the Shadow War. When she tried to bond with him one night, Launchpad was afraid she was going to fire him for damaging Mr. McDuck’s gate. But what he notices she was reading “The Scarlett Pimpabill”, it reminded him of Darkwing Duck and showed her his video series. Beakley liked the series so much that she even teamed up with him to make a fan film after he told her the show was cancelled before the show’s finale.
Della Duck
After Della Duck returns to Earth after spending a decade on the Moon, she is shocked when she realized that Scrooge replaced her with Launchpad as a pilot. And even though Launchpad tried to befriend her, she was infuriated with him and didn’t give him a chance. He later tries to show his own skills as a pilot to Della during an anniversary being held for Cornelius Coot, but instead it shows Della how inexperienced Launchpad is when it comes to the mechanics and proper procedure of flying a plane. Nevertheless, he later proves to her that his way of controlling the plane is also effective, as they managed to escape from the Beagle Boys and a hoard of spiders using Launchpad's plane tactics.
Drake Mallard
Launchpad became acquainted with Drake during the events of The Duck Knight Returns!, where originally Launchpad attempted to help Jim Starling by trapping the new actor for the Darkwing Duck film. But instead, they ended up bonding over their loving interest for the original Darkwing Duck TV show. Eventually, when Jim begins to get out of hand on the movie set, Launchpad and Drake work together to convince him that his obsession was getting too out of control. After the explosion incident with Jim having seemingly disappeared, Launchpad encouraged Drake to step in Jim's shoes as both the role of Darkwing Duck and a hero. This gave Drake enough belief in himself to take on the roles, with Launchpad claiming he had now gained his first fan.
Gosalyn Waddlemeyer
Launchpad had encouraged Drake to look into Gosalyn's accusation after she breaks into the layer. He also protects her from Taurus Bulba when he tries to attack her, and catches her and Drake when they fall off the side of the building. He informs her later on Drake trying to find ways to save her grandfather, and encourages her to be a hero when she gets scared. He eventually decides to join her and Drake on their superhero adventures at night in St. Canard.
Old flames
Unused art of the Viking Shieldmaiden and The Wereduck drawn by storyboarder Sam King.
In several episodes, including "The House of the Lucky Gander!", "The Depths of Cousin Fethry!" and others, Launchpad reconnects with old flames. His relationships with these individuals, who are almost never actually shown, often lead him into his own adventures separate from those of Scrooge and his family.
- Ziyi—lives in the vicinity of Macaw; mentioned in "The House of the Lucky Gander!"
- Oceanika (voiced by Jennifer Hale)—a mermaid; appears briefly in the distance in "The Depths of Cousin Fethry!"
- Diane, Queen of the Underwater Kingdom, appears in "Money-Grubbing Hooligans from the Deep!"
- In "The Dangerous Chemistry of Gandra Dee!", Launchpad lists some of the kinds of characters he has found love with, including "a friend, a confidant, a deadly ninja, a forbidden mermaid, a wereduck, a clone of yourself, ... a Viking Shieldmaiden, a talking cloud of energy that one time..."
Videos
Promos
Shorts
Best Moments
Gallery
Click here to view this page's gallery.
Appearances
Shorts
Season 1 (74%)
- 1. Woo-oo!
- 3. The Great Dime Chase!
- 5. Terror of the Terra-firmians!
- 6. The House of the Lucky Gander!
- 8. The Living Mummies of Toth-Ra!
- 9. The Impossible Summit of Mt. Neverrest!
- 10.The Spear of Selene!
- 11.Beware the B.U.D.D.Y. System!
- 12.The Missing Links of Moorshire!
- 14.Jaw$!
- 15.The Golden Lagoon of White Agony Plains! (Non-speaking cameo)
- 16.Day of the Only Child!
- 17.From the Confidential Casefiles of Agent 22!
- 20.Sky Pirates…in the Sky!
- 21.The Secret(s) of Castle McDuck!
- 22.The Last Crash of the Sunchaser!
- 23.The Shadow War!
Season 2 (67%)
- 1. The Most Dangerous Game...Night!
- 2. The Depths of Cousin Fethry!
- 4. The Town Where Everyone Was Nice! (Launchpad's right arm is seen in the Sunchaser, no lines.)
- 6. Last Christmas!
- 10. The 87 Cent Solution!
- 11. The Golden Spear! (Archived footage from Roxanne Featherly's broadcast, no lines)
- 12. Nothing Can Stop Della Duck!
- 14. Friendship Hates Magic!
- 15. The Dangerous Chemistry of Gandra Dee!
- 16. The Duck Knight Returns!
- 18. Happy Birthday, Doofus Drake!
- 19. A Nightmare on Killmotor Hill! (as a whale in a dream)
- 20. The Golden Armory of Cornelius Coot!
- 21. Timephoon!
- 22. GlomTales!
- 23. The Richest Duck in the World!
- 24. Moonvasion!
Season 3 (45%)
- 1. Challenge of the Senior Junior Woodchucks!
- 2. Quack Pack!
- 3. Double-O-Duck in You Only Crash Twice!
- 6. Astro B.O.Y.D.!
- 7. The Rumble for Ragnarok!
- 9. They Put a Moonlander on the Earth!
- 10. The Trickening!
- 12. Let's Get Dangerous!
- 18. How Santa Stole Christmas!
- 22. The Last Adventure!
Trivia
Launchpad's driver's license.
- His driver's license in "Beware the B.U.D.D.Y. System!" states his birthdate as September 18, 1987.
- 09/18/1987 is a reference to when the first few episodes of the original DuckTales show aired.
- Launchpad is an organ and tissue donor, and he signs his signature with a drawing of an airplane propeller.
- It is revealed in "Last Christmas!" that Launchpad is Jewish.
- Though he has the likeness of a pelican, Launchpad is actually a duck, as stated in Frank Angone's Tumblr.
- Launchpad is the last character to speak in the series.
Reference
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