What Ever Happened to Donald Duck?! is the seventeenth episode of Season 2 and the 40th episode overall of DuckTales 2017. It first aired on September 3, 2019, on Disney Channel.
Synopsis[]
Donald and Penumbra must break out of a Moon Prison and send a warning to Earth about a looming invasion. Meanwhile, Dewey and Webby uncover a sinister conspiracy targeting their family.
Plot[]
On the Moon, Lunaris continues to fill his fellow Moonlanders with hatred for Earth. He claims to have captured an Earth spy, which would confirm the Earth's prior plan to invade them first. Penumbra drags Donald, the supposed Earth spy, towards Lunaris and the rest of the audience. Lunaris clips Donald's beak shut with a golden strap, as he explains that Penumbra is the one to thank, having been the first to find out about Della's plan to invade them, and promotes her to captain. Penumbra wasn't comfortable with the idea of Lunaris lying to their people to proceed with the invasion, but Lunaris states that now she is considered a hero because of it. When he asks if that's what she's always wanted, Penumbra agrees, but has conflicted feelings.
Meanwhile on Earth, Scrooge is in his office assembling a miniature money bin inside of a bottle, when Dewey suddenly bursts into the room claiming he uncovered a conspiracy. Dewey originally believes there to be a secret fourth child among him and his brothers after noticing a strange spot on a photo of them as eggs, but Scrooge points out to him that it looked more like a mustard stain. Webby also comes barging into the room after her own discovery of a family tree painting that turned out to show geographical coordinates to a treasure. However, Scrooge assures her of having already found the treasure, as he points to a nearby suit of armor.
Scrooge tells them that an adventure must call to them, rather than going around making their own mystery. Webby states that, having spent most of their time on the mystery of the Spear of Selene, they were eager to move on to the next big mystery they could find. Webby and Dewey overhear Huey speaking to himself in the hall, due to his postcard to Donald having been oddly returned to him. This encourages Dewey and Webby to start their next mystery, but as they leave the room, Dewey accidentally slams the door so hard it knocks over Scrooge's miniature money bin.
Back on the moon, Donald witnesses all of the rockets being built in preparation for the invasion, as he is transported to the Tranquility prison. Donald attempts to escape from his cell by using his head to break a small hole into the wall, but he is interrupted when Lunaris and Penumbra walk towards his cell, and he attempts to cover up the cracks with a nearby poster. Lunaris states his confidence in the invasion preparations to Penumbra, but Penumbra herself begins to question if their people are truly prepared to go to war, having almost no combat experience or information about Earth. Nevertheless, Lunaris shrugged it off by recalling their motivation chant, "we are the mighty, we are the moon."
As Lunaris leaves, he orders Penumbra to move Donald to work below the gold mines, in the hopes that he loses his fighting spirit through hard labor. Once Lunaris is gone, Penumbra opens up the cell as Donald proceeds to make numerous attempts to flee from her, but fails in doing so. Penumbra then admits her own rejecting thoughts to Donald about the invasion plan, and considering it was Donald's family who created the rockets, she hoped Donald would know a weakness to them to stop the invasion. Even though Donald didn't know, Penumbra still considered his shaking head as an Earth yes.
Meanwhile, Dewey and Webby begin to question Huey about the unreceived postcard to Donald, and they eventually come to the conclusion that he's gone missing. Huey, however, believes it is simply hard to receive mail from a boat, and he was spending most of his time relaxing. Even so, Dewey and Webby search for further clues about Donald's whereabouts. Back on the moon, Penumbra reveals to Donald that Lunaris keeps the rocket's blueprints under guard in his private hangar. They are spotted by fellow Moonlanders Zenith and Gibbous. When asked why she let Donald out of his cell, Penumbra lies by claiming she was using Donald as practice for fighting the other Earth inhabitants, encouraging them to hit Donald for practice as well.
Once Zenith and Gibbous leave, Penumbra orders Donald to use a nearby vent and make his way over to the hangar, while also avoiding the soldiers' barracks. Back on Earth, Dewey informs Webby he plans to send both of them to the address marked on the postcard while inside a large package. When the mail lady comes, Dewey realizes he accidentally forgot to tape the bottom shut, and they are revealed the moment the mail lady lifts the package. Dewey questions her about Donald's whereabouts, but after the mail lady realizes the mansion was where Donald now lived, she hands them numerous letters originally addressed to him at the pier.
After noticing the bills are marked with the same address, they decide to investigate the address, believing Donald was on the run from a debt collector. Back on the Moon, Donald continues to make his way through the vents while also beginning to crawl away from a large Moon bug chasing him. He accidentally falls through another vent and lands on a bed within the soldiers' barracks; he tries to stay silent as possible without waking anyone up. Meanwhile, Dewey and Webby approach the building at the address marked on the bills in the hopes of finding the supposed bill collector Jones trying to find him.
Dewey suggests Webby distract Jones by dressing in a Junior Woodchuck uniform, which he stole from Huey, and pretending to sell cookies, while he sneaks into Jones's office to find any information about Donald. Dewey sneaks in through the window, but just as Jones is about to open the door, Webby knocks on the front door to lead him away, which allows Dewey to discover a large file dedicated just to Donald. Meanwhile, Donald makes his way out of the room while trying to keep all the soldiers asleep, but his plan abruptly fails after the bug chasing him jumps into his shirt and causes him to scream.
Although all the Moonlanders in the room are alerted, Donald is luckily able to fend them off due to the bug crawling inside his shirt, leading him to have numerous uncontrollable spasms and attacks on the soldiers. Penumbra eventually enters the room to find out what the commotion was about, only to realize Donald had already taken care of all the soldiers, impressing her. Donald and Penumbra go to Lunaris' hangar to find the blueprints, but Penumbra warns Donald not to touch anything as Lunaris would indefinitely find out. Donald leans on one of the walls in frustration, and discovers a secret war room hidden by the Moon's holographic technology.
As Penumbra activates the controls, they notice numerous screens displaying locations and citizens among Earth, including Donald's family, leading Penumbra to believe he's been planning the invasion since before Della even arrived on the Moon. Donald realizes Lunaris plans to target all the inhabitants of Earth he deems a threat to the mission first, while Penumbra realizes that Lunaris had secretly been creating test rockets prior to meeting Della, which is why he truly wanted Della's rocket manual. Meanwhile, as Dewey is looking through Donald's file, Webby regroups with him after having sent Jones to search through his drawers over a phony locket quest.
Dewey and Webby realize the file shows every date and record of all the bad things that ever happened to Donald, and are approached by Jones himself and thrown into the closet while preparing to make a call. Back on the Moon, Penumbra orders Donald to send a message to his family to warn them about the attack using Lunaris' own transmission invention. Suddenly, Penumbra is electrocuted and knocked unconscious by the captain badge Lunaris placed on her earlier. Lunaris shows himself and reveals he chose to come prepared, in the event Penumbra decided to rebel against him.
Even so, Donald flees from Lunaris while striving to get high enough so he can get a signal to send a transmission. However, Lunaris continues to block his path, and although Donald tries to fight back, the results are futile. Meanwhile, it is revealed that Jones phoned Scrooge to come and get Dewey and Webby. Scrooge also reveals to them that Jones is actually Donald's anger management counselor, who's sent Donald bills to pay for his time with him. When Dewey asks Jones why Donald is still the angriest person they know, Jones explains that Donald's anger comes from a fear that the world is out to get him, and that no one can understand him figuratively and literally.
Over time, his tendency to lash out became uncontrollable, until his nephews came along and encouraged him to go to Jones in order to be a good parent figure. Jones taught Donald to channel that anger into a protective instinct for his family. He states that Donald loves his family so much, the thought of anything bad happening to them would infuriate him beyond control. Meanwhile, Lunaris gloats about his plans to target Donald's nephews and thus striking the spirit of one of his greatest threats, Scrooge McDuck. This enrages Donald, and he is able to fight Lunaris well enough to allow him to send a warning to Scrooge about the coming invasion in one month.
Just as the message is sent, Lunaris snatches the transmitter from him and destroys it. In order to escape, Donald enters Lunaris' testing rocket, and it shoots him away from the Moon. Lunaris doesn't follow him, believing there is no way anyone could survive the test rocket's trip; Penumbra remarks about the bravery of Donald once she regained consciousness. Meanwhile, Scrooge, Dewey and Webby leave the office with Scrooge shouting at Jones about his refusal to pay for Donald's bills. Although Webby admits it wasn't a good idea to go looking for a mystery when there wasn't one, Dewey reminds her that they did find out the mystery of why Donald was mad at the world, because he loves them.
At that moment, Scrooge receives a voicemail from Donald about his warning, but Scrooge is unable to fully understand what Donald is saying due to the poor reception, while only understanding his claim to be back home in a month. Donald is still inside the rocket and flying within the atmosphere.
Cast[]
- David Tennant as Scrooge McDuck
- Danny Pudi as Huey Duck
- Ben Schwartz as Dewey Duck
- Kate Micucci as Webby Vanderquack
- Tony Anselmo as Donald Duck
- Julie Bowen as Penumbra
- Lance Reddick as Lunaris
- James Adomian as Jones
- April Winchell as Zenith
- Rob Paulsen as Gibbous
- Laura Bailey as Palus, Mail Lady, Female Moonlander (uncredited), Intercom (uncredited)
- Kari Wahlgren as Roxanne Featherly
Trivia[]
- Main Cast Absences: Louie, Launchpad, and Mrs. Beakley.
- While Donald fights Lunaris, he rapidly kicks his opponent in the face in a manner resembling Mortal Kombat character Liu Kang's Bicycle Kick.
- Donald's return to Earth is an homage to Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey, using the tune of "The Blue Danube" and featuring Donald staring into the "Star Gate".
- This episode marks the animated debut of Jones.
- Dewey theorizes that a fourth sibling named Phooey might exist based on what looks like a fourth egg, which is really only a mustard stain, in childhood photos of them as eggs. Phooey would later appear as a dream construct in "A Nightmare on Killmotor Hill!"
- Donald trying to escape via a hole in the cell wall and then hiding his work behind a poster is a reference to The Shawshank Redemption.
