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Episode Info



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Too Much of a Gold Thing is the fifth episode of Season 1 of DuckTales 1987 and the final part of The Treasure of the Golden Suns. It aired on September 18, 1987 during the movie premiere and on November 13, 1987 individually on syndication.

Synopsis[]

Having completed the map, McDuck and Co. finally fly to the Valley of the Golden Suns. From outside they are stalked by El Capitan; from inside they are threatened by Scrooge's increasing greed, which leads him to recklessly risk all their lives against the Valley's booby traps.

Plot[]

As he and his companions fly over the Wakka-Wakka River, Scrooge grows increasingly impatient, yelling at everyone and scratching himself like he has fleas from the circus. According to Mrs. Beakley, Scrooge has caught gold fever, a disease that causes its recipients to itch for gold so much they forget everything else, including family. He orders Launchpad to speed up landing the plane. But when he does that, they find themselves being carried away with the current. Luckily, they avoid going over the waterfall, on account of Launchpad opening the loading-bay doors. Scrooge, the trio, Webby, and Mrs. Beakley board the raft outwards, while Launchpad is assigned to stay behind and get the plane floating again.

Before long, they run into a furious squadron of alligators, whom they evade by puncturing the raft with a knife, thus propelling them away from the carnage. They continue onward to the hidden treasure, because there's a pathway leading there. Unbeknownst to any of them, though, El Capitán is not far behind. Meanwhile, Launchpad must anchor the plane to the shore, shut the doors, and pump the water out. As he makes his attempt to do so, he is attacked by a giant anaconda, who tries to drag him underwater. He eventually completes pumping the plane out.

After the nephews save Scrooge from a trap planted for anyone foolish enough to follow the suspicion-arousing pathway, he comes up to an escalator. By now, Scrooge's twitching deteriorates. Just when it looks like things are hopeless, Scrooge and the kids use a tree limb to open the invisible door. Inside it is the Valley of the Golden Suns, where they stumble upon the first fraction of the treasure - a ring of giant golden discs. Just this much is even more gold than those back at Fort Knox, according to Scrooge, who tries to loosen one of them from the wall, believing he can carry it back to the cargo plane. The disc loosens, ending up falling down the walls, taking the gang with it. Luckily, they jump off at the right time, as the disc hits a hill-disguised temple made of gold.

As his gold fever is by now so bad that he gets the hiccups and at one point acts like a cat, Scrooge uncovers the temple's entrance, where practically every room is made of gold and stocked full of it. They head inside the central chamber, coming upon skeletons of deceased explorers who'd also been infected by gold fever. Not only does Scrooge refuse to believe he will meet their similar fate; he also refuses to believe the nearby well leads anywhere. Instead, he and the nephews (who are starting to catch gold fever themselves) explore the courtyard, seeing what this place has to offer. As the males check out the chambers of gold dust and coins (which, as noted by the nephews, looks similar to that of Scrooge's Money Bin), Webby tries to translate a "stone" tablet, saying that anyone who's greedy enough to open every door in the Valley will trigger another trap. Scrooge discovers this too late, unknowingly setting off the curse. He is knocked out unconscious by one of the gold bricks from the third room. All the doors slam shut, trapping our heroes. To make matters worse, El Capitán then arrives, pointing a shotgun at them.

El Capitán forces our heroes into the pot hanging over the aforementioned well, claiming that he has been waiting 400 years (four centuries) for this. He begins lowering them into the so-called lava pit. Scrooge regains his consciousness, shivering in spite of the intense heat, which is the final step in gold fever. This is because the lava is also made of gold. Scrooge declares this to be "the real Treasure of the Golden Suns". Upon hearing this, El Capitán brings them back up, saying he "won't have them tasting a single drop of [his] gold." Scrooge and El Capitán start their fight, failing to notice the curse's effects. They temporarily stop the argument in order to dodge the floor they notice is collapsing, and manages to jump to safety. The walls then start to move, trying to dump them all into the golden lava below. It is at this point that Scrooge is finally cured of his gold fever, using the vines growing on the walls to climb out with the others. They even take El Capitán with them, despite his urgent pleas to be left alone with "all the pretty gold". The curse next has the giant gold discs reflecting their sunlight into the lava pit, causing a volcanic eruption. Launchpad notices this and, believing this to be a rescue flare that Scrooge would signal him for, gets the plane back up and running, therefore saving everyone in the process.

Upon escaping the destructing Valley, our heroes land back in the river. El Capitán breaks loose, but when he comes to the spot where the Valley would be, it's now buried under a mountain of dirt. While Scrooge finds this hilarious, the frustrated yet undaunted El Capitán starts digging up the gold. Scrooge heads back to the plane, saying he wishes he had gotten at least one souvenir out of this. And it turns out that he did - another one of the gold lava's eruptions gave the VTOL cargo plane a new paint job! Scrooge looks forward to relaxing, saying he's through with treasure hunting... or so he thinks.

Cast[]

Video releases[]

VHS

  • "Treasure of the Golden Suns" (June 17, 1994)

DVD

  • "DuckTales: Volume 2" (Region 1)
  • "DuckTales: 2nd Collection" (Region 2)
vedDuckTales (1987) episodes
Season 1
"Don't Give Up the Ship" • "Wronguay in Ronguay" • "Three Ducks of the Condor" • "Cold Duck" • "Too Much of a Gold Thing" • "Send in the Clones" • "Sphinx for the Memories" • "Where No Duck Has Gone Before" • "Armstrong" • "Robot Robbers" • "Magica's Shadow War" • "Master of the Djinni" • "Hotel Strangeduck" • "Lost Crown of Genghis Khan" • "Duckman of Aquatraz" • "The Money Vanishes" • "Sir Gyro de Gearloose" • "Dinosaur Ducks" • "Hero for Hire" • "Superdoo!" • "Maid of the Myth" • "Down & Out in Duckburg" • "Much Ado About Scrooge" • "Top Duck" • "Pearl of Wisdom" • "The Curse of Castle McDuck" • "Launchpad's Civil War" • "Sweet Duck of Youth" • "Earth Quack" • "Home Sweet Homer" • "Bermuda Triangle Tangle" • "Micro Ducks from Outer Space" • "Back to the Klondike" • "Horse Scents" • "Scrooge's Pet" • "A Drain on the Economy" • "A Whale of a Bad Time" • "Aqua Ducks" • "Working for Scales" • "Merit-Time Adventure" • "The Golden Fleecing" • "Ducks of the West" • "Time Teasers" • "Back Out in the Outback" • "Raiders of the Lost Harp" • "The Right Duck" • "Scroogerello" • "Double-O-Duck" • "Luck O' the Ducks" • "Duckworth's Revolt" • "Magica's Magic Mirror/Take Me Out of the Ballgame" • "Duck to the Future" • "Jungle Duck" • "Launchpad's First Crash" • "Dime Enough for Luck" • "Duck in the Iron Mask" • "The Uncrashable Hindentanic" • "The Status Seekers" • "Nothing to Fear" • "Dr. Jekyll & Mr. McDuck" • "Once Upon a Dime" • "Spies in Their Eyes" • "All Ducks on Deck" • "Ducky Horror Picture Show" • "Till Nephews Do Us Part"
Season 2
"Marking Time" • "The Duck Who Would Be King" • "Bubba Trubba" • "Ducks on the Lam" • "Ali Bubba's Cave" • "Liquid Assets" • "Frozen Assets" • "Full Metal Duck" • "The Billionaire Beagle Boys Club" • "Money to Burn"
Season 3
"The Land of Trala La" • "Allowance Day" • "Bubbeo & Juliet" • "The Good Muddahs" • "My Mother the Psychic" • "Metal Attraction" • "Dough Ray Me" • "Bubba's Big Brainstorm" • "The Big Flub" • "A Case of Mistaken Secret Identity" • "Blue Collar Scrooge" • "Beaglemania" • "Yuppy Ducks" • "The Bride Wore Stripes" • "The Unbreakable Bin" • "Attack of the Fifty-Foot Webby" • "The Masked Mallard" • "A DuckTales Valentine"
Season 4
• "Ducky Mountain High" • "Attack of the Metal Mites" • "The Duck Who Knew Too Much" • "New Gizmo-Kids on the Block" • "Scrooge's Last Adventure" • "The Golden Goose, Part 1" • "The Golden Goose, Part 2"
Serials
"The Treasure of the Golden Suns" • "Catch as Cash Can" • "Time is Money" • "Super DuckTales" • "The Golden Goose"
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