Let's Get Dangerous! is the twelfth episode of Season 3 and the 59th episode overall of DuckTales 2017. It is an hour-long special that first aired on October 19, 2020 on Disney XD.
Synopsis[]
Darkwing gains an unlikely sidekick as he uncovers a dark conspiracy tied to the Missing Mysteries and one of Scrooge’s employees.
Summary[]
Part 1: The St. Canardian Guardian![]
Scrooge McDuck, Huey, Dewey, Louie, and Launchpad arrive at Saint Canard. Scrooge, Huey and Louie go to see scientist Taurus Bulba about his latest invention, the Ramrod, which has the ability to materialize any object into existence. The jovial Taurus is eager to introduce his work to his visitors, though Huey makes a quick observation over the design for the key that activates the Ramrod and becomes suspicious. Meanwhile, Dewey and Launchpad go to the hideout of their friend Drake Mallard, who is now the superhero Darkwing Duck. Despite his claim of heroics, St. Canard has had very little crime in recent years due to Mayor Zan Owlson's restructuring. Darkwing also works with Fenton Crackshell-Cabrera, who had given him an A.I. to work with named W.A.N.D.A., and is apparently unaware that he is Gizmoduck.
At the suggestion of Dewey and Launchpad, Darkwing goes out to fight crime, but is unable to find any. They suddenly spot someone breaking into Taurus' building and go in after them, only to find that it is a little girl. The girl escapes, and the three are caught, but Taurus praises Darkwing as a hero for preventing the possible sabotage of the Ramrod, and he is given the key to the city by Owlson. Back at the lair, Darkwing, Dewey and Launchpad meet the girl, Gosalyn Waddlemeyer, who tells them that Taurus was her grandfather Dr. Thaddeus Waddlemeyer's partner, who helped build the Ramrod. However, Dr. Waddlemeyer discovered a flaw in the Ramrod and tried to warn Taurus, but has disappeared. Since then, Gosalyn has been trying to find out what happened to him and to stop Taurus.
Darkwing is reluctant to help, as he does not want to damage his reputation. Dewey sympathizes with Gosalyn over similar issues and Launchpad talks Darkwing into helping her. The group arrive at Taurus's building and break in to try and find the files for the information on the Ramrod. They are forced to hide when Scrooge, Huey, and Louie come in asking Taurus to look at the blueprints. He distracts them by giving them a layout of the building that shows them where to find the blueprints. They later find a room full of notes and discover that the Ramrod contains the same insignia as Solego's Circuit. Solego was a mad thinker who believed that everyone's imagination is tied to alternate dimensions; meaning that the Ramrod is not making things from nothing, it is taking them from other alternate worlds parallel to their own.
Darkwing directly confronts Taurus and asks about Dr. Waddlemeyer. Taurus claims that he had resolved all the flaws and that Dr. Waddlemeyer was sabotaging his own work when the Ramrod poofed him out of existence. He covered up the disappearance to prevent people from thinking that Dr. Waddlemeyer was crazy. Angered, Gosalyn attacks him, and soon Launchpad and Dewey join in in fighting Taurus. Gosalyn explains the purpose of the Ramrod to Darkwing, adding that her grandfather is most likely in another dimension. Taurus explains that the Ramrod is too unstable to search for Dr. Waddlemeyer. Darkwing picks up on his flub, and a fight over the key ensues, with Taurus getting scarred from it.
Gosalyn tries to flee with the key, but Taurus catches up to her. Darkwing fights off Taurus and rescues Gosalyn, but is forced to leave the key behind as he, Gosalyn and Launchpad escape. Dewey meets up with Huey, Louie and Scrooge, and they witness Taurus using the Ramrod to bring classic Darkwing Duck villains Bushroot, Megavolt, Liquidator, and Quackerjack to their dimension. Huey, Dewey and Louie are locked away in a cell while Scrooge is sent to a dimension that resembles the original DuckTales universe.
Part 2: A Case of Mistaken Reality![]
As St. Canard descends into chaos, Darkwing becomes frightened by the events and begins ignoring Fenton, despite his calls for help with saving the city. Launchpad and Gosalyn encourage Darkwing to gear up and head out to fight crime. Meanwhile, Taurus announces his new plan: to use the Ramrod to tear down their reality and replace it with a better one. He is confronted by Bradford Buzzard of F.O.W.L., who is upset over Taurus's over-the-top use for the Ramrod, as he wants to keep things discreet with the McDuck family. Taurus captures him and has him imprisoned as well and orders the villains to make themselves known in the city.
Darkwing, Launchpad and Gosalyn run into Quackerjack, who chases them through the streets with a giant robot, and are then chased away by Liquidator. They come back, and Gosalyn accuses Darkwing of not taking his job seriously. As she sulks, Launchpad informs her that Darkwing is doing everything he can to try and help her, with Darkwing trying to speak with Fenton on how to rescue Dr. Waddlemeyer. Gosalyn puts Darkwing to sleep due to all the stress. Huey, Dewey and Louie escape their cell and free Buzzard, whom they immediately become suspicious of, due to his presence. After escaping Bushroot, they find the Ramrod and discover where Scrooge is. At this point, the triplets deduce that Buzzard is working with F.O.W.L., but he tosses the three into the same dimension as Scrooge.
W.A.N.D.A. informs Darkwing that the Ramrod has one more energy surge in it before it collapses all of reality, and he leaves without Gosalyn and Launchpad. Darkwing heads to Taurus' building where he is confronted by his villains, who beat him up and take him inside. Gosalyn and Launchpad witness these events on W.A.N.D.A. and go in after him, disguised as "c-list" villains Jambalaya Jake and the Bugmaster. Launchpad, Gosalyn and Darkwing take on the villains using their abilities, with Gosalyn freeing Scrooge and the triplets. Gosalyn frantically tries to search for her grandfather, but she is unable to and is forced to destroy the Ramrod before it destroys reality. Darkwing defeats Taurus, and the rest of the villains are sucked back through the dimensional rift.
Buzzard escapes thanks to Black Heron, but everyone spots that he is in a F.O.W.L. helicopter, with Scrooge realizing that his greatest enemy has returned. Fenton as Gizmoduck, who had spent the majority of the episode trying to saw away Bushroot's vines from outside St. Canard, is hailed as the hero. Afterwards, Darkwing meets with Gosalyn and promises that he will help her find her grandfather and suggests taking her under his wing as his crime fighting partner, which she happily accepts. At Dewey's suggestion, Launchpad also joins Darkwing and Gosalyn, who says, "I'll spend my days in Duckburg, nights in St. Canard, and I'll sleep on the drive over!" The three head off into the night for another adventure.
Cast[]
- David Tennant as Scrooge McDuck
- Danny Pudi as Huey Duck
- Ben Schwartz as Dewey Duck
- Bobby Moynihan as Louie Duck
- Beck Bennett as Launchpad McQuack
- Chris Diamantopoulos as Drake Mallard/Darkwing Duck
- Lin-Manuel Miranda as Fenton Crackshell-Cabrera/Gizmoduck
- Stephanie Beatriz as Gosalyn Waddlemeyer
- James Monroe Iglehart as Taurus Bulba
- Jameela Jamil as W.A.N.D.A.
- Natasha Rothwell as Zan Owlson
- Marc Evan Jackson as Bradford Buzzard
- April Winchell as Black Heron
- Keith Ferguson as Megavolt, Liquidator, Police Officer (uncredited)
- Michael Bell as Quackerjack
Trivia[]
- Main Cast Absences: Webby, Ms. Beakley, Donald, and Della Duck. Webby, Donald, and Della are all referenced.
- This is the first hour-long episode that isn't the series premiere or the season finale.
- The episode title is a reference to Darkwing's catchphrase.
- At one point Dewey throws a smoke bomb while shouting, "Smoke bomb!" This is a reference to the Disney XD animated series Randy Cunningham: 9th Grade Ninja, in which Dewey's voice actor Ben Schwartz starred.
- As a Darkwing Duck-focused special, this episode includes a number of references to the original Darkwing Duck series:
- The plot of the episode is similar to the Darkwing duck episode "Film Flam" in which Tuskernini uses the 3d camera to bring villains from the silver screen to reality to cause chaos.
- Drake's Darkwing line “I am the scourge that pecks at your nightmares!” is reused from the classic Darkwing Duck episodes “That Sinking Feeling” and “Can't Bayou Love”.
- Gosalyn is wearing her original shirt from the Darkwing Duck TV series in a flashback.
- The episodes “Beauty and the Beet” and “Just Us Justice Ducks” from the original Darkwing Duck are referenced by Darkwing and Launchpad as they fight the Fearsome Four, even using their "official" real-world numbers of 3 and 21, respectively. However, if one groups the Darkwing Duck episodes that premiered on ABC with the syndicated episodes by their original airdates, then "Beauty and the Beet" is actually the fourth episode, and "Just Us Justice Ducks" is actually episode 24.
- Those titles, in turn, are references to "Beauty and the Beast" and "Justice League".
- Launchpad and Gosalyn dress up as Jambalaya Jake and the Bugmaster; two minor Darkwing Duck villains.
- The collectible cards of the Darkwing Duck villains that Launchpad has are labeled with the exact episode numbers where they were first introduced.
- Many elements from the Darkwing Duck episode "Darkly Dawns the Duck" appear, such as the Ramrod device, which first appeared in that episode, where it altered gravity instead of being capable of altering reality. Gosalyn and Taurus Bulba also made their first appearances in this episode.
- The song Gosalyn hums as she tucks in an exhausted Darkwing is part of the "Little Girl Blue" song.
- Gosalyn shouts her original catchphrase, "Keen gear!" in the episode.
- This is the second time the DuckTales logo is purple, the first being "The Duck Knight Returns!"
- The dimension to which Scrooge, Huey, Dewey, and Louie are transported is supposed to be the original DuckTales series.
- Scrooge even reenacts the infamous "A SEA MONSTER ATE MY ICE CREAM!!!" line from "A Whale of a Bad Time", and Louie questions what "Quack-a-rooney" means, a reference to the boys catchphrase.
- Solego, the main villain of the five-part Disney Adventures comic "The Legend of the Chaos God" (which is a crossover between TaleSpin, Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers, Goof Troop, DuckTales, and Darkwing Duck) is referenced as the creator of a device that is used to turn on the Ramrod, this device is called Solego's Circuit.
- An illustration and description of the 2017 version of the character appears in Isabella Finch Journal.
- One of the dimensions that Gosalyn scrolls through is the Fluppy Dogs.
- Bonkers D. Bobcat from the show Bonkers appears when W.A.N.D.A. pulls up a police search.
- The title for Part 2 may be a nod to the 1987 episode "A Case of Mistaken Secret Identity".
- When Fenton Crackshell-Cabrera/Gizmoduck makes video calls to Darkwing, the interface inside his suit looks like the interface inside of Iron Man's suit from Marvel Cinematic Universe.
- In an old draft of the two-parter "Let's Get Dangerous", Negaduck meant to return in disguise as Taurus Bulba's assistant, a cow woman named Calfka. Originally, Bulba was meant to get arrested at the end of the first part, while Negaduck unmasks himself and takes over as main antagonist of the second part by being the one to bring the Fearsome Four into their dimension.[6]
