Darkwing Duck is an American animated superhero comedy television series produced by Walt Disney Television Animation that first ran from 1991 to 1992 on both the syndicated programming block The Disney Afternoon and Saturday mornings on ABC. A total of ninety-one episodes were aired. It features the adventures of Darkwing Duck, who is the superheroic alter-ego of ordinary suburban duck Drake Mallard.
, a reboot of the series has been ordered for Disney+, with older characters. Mark Hamill will take over the role of Darkwing Duck.
Premise Darkwing Duck follows the adventures of the titular superhero, aided by his sidekick and pilot Launchpad McQuack (from DuckTales). In his secret identity of Drake Mallard (a parody of Kent Allard, the alter ego of The Shadow), he lives in an unassuming suburban house with his adopted daughter Gosalyn, next door to the dim-witted Muddlefoot family. Darkwing struggles to balance his egotistical craving for fame and attention against his desire to be a good father to Gosalyn and help do good in St. Canard as he fights villains that include but are not limited to Negaduck (a Darkwing Duck from an alternate reality), Dr. Reginald Bushroot, Megavolt, Quackerjack, Liquidator, F.O.W.L. agents like Steelbeak and Ammonia Pine, and Arturo Tuskernini. Most episodes place these two sides of Darkwing's character in direct conflict, though his better nature usually wins out.
The show was the first Disney Afternoon series to emphasize action rather than adventure, with Darkwing routinely engaging in slapstick battles with both supervillains and street criminals. While conflict with villains was routine in earlier Disney Afternoon shows, actual fight scenes were relatively rare.
Darkwing Duck was also the first Disney Afternoon property that was produced completely as a genre parody. Prior shows would contain elements of parody in certain episodes, but would otherwise be straight-faced adventure concepts, this in the tradition of Carl Barks' work in the Disney comics. By contrast, every episode of Darkwing Duck is laden with references to superhero, pulp adventure, or super-spy fiction. Darkwing Duck himself is a satirical character. His costume, gas gun and flashy introductions are all reminiscent of pulp heroes and Golden Age superheroes such as The Shadow, The Sandman, Doc Savage, Batman, The Green Hornet and the Julius Schwartz Flash, as well as The Lone Ranger and Zorro. The fictional city of St. Canard is a direct parody of Gotham City ("Canard" is the French word for "duck").
Episodes
Characters
Production Darkwing Duck was developed as a last-minute replacement with concept artwork by Michael Peraza for a proposed reboot of The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show, when the management team realized that Disney did not own the rights to the characters (Disney merely held home video rights to the series).
Darkwing Duck entered production roughly one year after DuckTales ended. Darkwing Duck was inspired by two specific episodes of DuckTales: "Double-O-Duck" starring Launchpad McQuack as a secret agent, and "The Masked Mallard" in which Scrooge McDuck becomes a masked vigilante superhero wearing a purple uniform and cape. The name "The Masked Mallard" became an epithet often used in the new show to refer to Darkwing himself.
Tad Stones was directed to come up with a series for The Disney Afternoon around the premise of Double-O-Duck, as an executive liked the title Double-O Duck as a spoof of James Bond and felt Launchpad McQuack would take the starring role. It turned out that the title Double-O Duck could not be used as the Broccoli family owned the 'double-o' title.
A new name was selected, "Darkwing Duck". Thus, Stones designed a new character for the lead, Drake Mallard, while selecting McQuack as the sidekick. This name would result in a new look (Double-O Duck was to wear a white tuxedo and black domino mask). Other elements of the show, such as Darkwing's habit of coining new catchphrases every time he announced himself, would be invented during production.Stone, Tad (November 2010). "The Origin(s) of Darkwing Duck", Darkwing Duck: The Duck Knight Returns. Boom! Comics. (As an in-joke, the episode "A Duck by Any Other Name" had Drake suggest "Double-O Duck" as his new secret identity, and Launchpad remarked that it "seems kinda silly".)
Where most prior Disney Afternoon series included at least some preexisting animated characters, Darkwing Duck featured a completely original cast. Even the DuckTales characters it reused had no counterpart in early Disney shorts or the comics. The only exception was the episode "In Like Blunt", which featured cameo appearances by the Beagle Boys, Flintheart Glomgold and Magica De Spell.
Though it was originally thought by some fans to be a spin-off of the 1987 DuckTales series, creator Tad Stones stated in a 2016 report that the two shows exist in different universes. Despite this, supporting characters Launchpad McQuack and Gizmoduck appear in both series in similar roles, and Scrooge McDuck is mentioned in the Darkwing Duck episode "Tiff of the Titans", and thus established a relation to both shows.
Broadcast history Darkwing Duck first aired on The Disney Channel on March 31, 1991, as a "sneak preview",The Disney Channel Magazine, Vol. 9, no. 2, March/April 1991: pp. 38, 43. and then from April 6 into July 14 of that year as a regularly scheduled run on weekend mornings,The Disney Channel Magazine, Vol. 9, no. 2, March/April 1991: pp. 2, 43.The Disney Channel Magazine, Vol. 9, no. 3, May/June 1991: pp. 28, 46. as it was advertised to be "The newest animated TV series exclusively to The Disney Channel". In reality, this was a preview-run of the series before it aired on The Disney Afternoon.
The two-part episode "Darkly Dawns the Duck" originally aired as an hour-length TV special on September 6, 1991, as part of a larger syndicated TV special, The Darkwing Duck Premiere / Back to School with the Mickey Mouse Club. The film served as the show's pilot. Seasons 1 and 2 were aired simultaneously in the autumn of 1991. Season 1 aired in syndication as part of The Disney Afternoon block of shows. Seasons 2 and 3 aired on Saturday mornings on ABC. The final episode aired on December 12, 1992. ABC stopped airing reruns of the show in September 1993, and it was replaced by Sonic the Hedgehog. All episodes remained in syndicated reruns on The Disney Afternoon until 1995 and then returned to the lineup from 1996 to 1997.
Starting on October 2, 1995, Darkwing Duck was rerun on The Disney Channel as part of a two-hour programming block called "Block Party" which aired on weekdays in the late-afternoon/early-evening and which also included TaleSpin, DuckTales, and Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers."Block Party: Four Disney Animated Series." The Disney Channel Magazine, Vol. 13, no. 5, October/November 1995: p. 36. On September 3, 1996, Darkwing Duck was dropped from the beginning of the block when Goof Troop was added to the end.The Disney Channel Magazine, Vol. 14, no. 3, June/July 1996: p. 26.The Disney Channel Magazine, Vol. 14, no. 4, August/September 1996: pp. 25, 28, 34.
The series was last seen in the U.S. on Toon Disney on January 19, 2007, as part of the Toon Disney Wild Card Stack. Certain episodes from the show's original run rarely re-aired while the show was on Toon Disney. These episodes appear to have been removed for content reasons. The most prominent of the rarely seen episodes is "Hot Spells", which was never re-aired after its initial broadcast on ABC because of its religiously sensitive subject matter. Darkwing Duck was one of the first American animated TV series to be officially broadcast in syndication in the former Soviet Union. The show formerly aired on Disney XD in international territories such as the Netherlands and Germany.
Home media Four VHS cassettes, each containing one or two episodes (a total of 6 episodes) of Darkwing Duck, were released under the title Darkwing Duck: His Favorite Adventures in the United States on March 23, 1993, individually titled "Darkly Dawns the Duck", "Justice Ducks Unite!", "Comic Book Capers" and "Birth of Negaduck!". However, most countries around the world only received releases of "Darkly Dawns the Duck" and "Justice Ducks Unite!" Each video came with two "glow-in-the-Darkwing" trading cards. Featured on the cards were Darkwing Duck, Launchpad, Gosalyn, Honker, Negaduck, Bushroot, Megavolt, and Taurus Bulba. The videotapes also included a Darkwing Duck music video which played at the end of each tape.
Additionally, on September 28, 1993, the Darkwing Duck episode "It's a Wonderful Leaf" was released together with the Goof Troop episode "Have Yourself a Goofy Little Christmas" on one VHS cassette as a special release called Happy Holidays with Darkwing Duck and Goofy! On September 3, 1996, the Darkwing Duck episode "Ghoul of My Dreams" was released together with the Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers episode "Good Times, Bat Times" on one VHS cassette as a special release called Witcheroo!
Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment released a three-disc DVD box set entitled "Darkwing Duck - Volume 1" on August 29, 2006. It included 25 episodes, plus the two-part pilot "Darkly Dawns the Duck", as opposed to the uncut version's release on VHS. The second volume, containing the next 27 episodes, was released on August 7, 2007. The sets do not contain any special features. It is currently unknown if Disney has any intentions of releasing the remaining 37 episodes on DVD. No official releases have been made outside of the United States and Canada.
As of September 2019, the majority of the series is available for purchase on the iTunes Store and Google TV,Darkwing Duck -Google Play Store with the lone exception of the banned episode "Hot Spells". They are listed in 6 separate volumes (with Seasons 2 and 3 individually representing the last two volumesDarkwing Duck, Vol. 5 -iTunes StoreDarkwing Duck, Vol. 6 -iTunes Store), which on the iTunes Store can also be bought in a pack other than individual purchases or a complete series pack at the price of $40 for all 90 available episodes.Darkwing Duck, The Complete Series - iTunes Store In addition, the series (with the exception of the episode "Hot Spells"Darkwing Duck's Hot Spells Controversy Explained - Screen Rant) can also be viewed on the Disney+ streaming service, which has been on the streaming service since its launch on November 12, 2019.Disney+ Shares Its Ideal Disney Afternoon Lineup - Comic Book Resources The show is available on the Disney+ streaming service, with the exception of the episode "Hot Spells".
Reception
Critical reception On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the first season holds an approval of 83% based on 6 reviews, with an average rating of 7.00/10.
Nigel Mitchell of CBR.com stated, "He was the terror that flapped in the night. He was the fingernail that scraped the blackboard of your soul. He was Darkwing Duck, and he made a generation laugh and thrill with his crazy adventures. Following the success of DuckTales, the 1992 TV show Darkwing Duck was one of the first action-oriented shows on Disney's block, and wasn't like any other show on TV." Amanda Dyer of Common Sense Media rated the series 4 out of 5 stars, writing, "Darkwing Duck is a 1990s Disney animated comedy that has slapstick cartoon violence (including weapon use) and mild name calling. It follows the heroic yet self-serving antics of cartoon duck superhero Darkwing Duck as he battles various wacky supervillains with his sidekick, Launchpad McQuack."