Thread by @FrankAngones

I'm starting #DuckTales #RewriteHistory. Everyday, I'll post about a couple episodes (in the right order) with some hidden, never revealed trivia from the making of the episode. If we get the order fixed on @disneyplus before I finish, I'll reveal some TOP SECRET S3 info!

@disneyplus 1) WOO-OO!
Originally, this episode had a c-story that followed Donald on increasingly bizarre physical challenges to get that accounting job. It ended with him trying to ring a gold bell on top of a rock wall, which was eaten by the dragon Pixiu. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

@disneyplus In the early days, we were still trying to figure out the right mix of adventure, jokes, drama, and physical comedy while balancing a MASSIVE CAST, so this story was cut for time and also because it tipped off the big reveal of Donald's real job.
#DuckTales #RewriteHistory

@disneyplus Also cut for time: the reveal that Webby's best friend in the mansion was a spider in the vents she named Morocco Pete, after one of Scrooge's old adventuring buddies. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

@disneyplus 2. ESCAPE TO/FROM ATLANTIS!
Pt. 2 of the series premiere event. The cold open was originally supposed to introduce Gyro and Fenton working on the sub, although Fenton was just referred to as "Intern". #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

@disneyplus The idea was to have Fenton in the background of every Gyro scene until we revealed his actual name at the very end of "Beware the BUDDY System!" write before he turns into Gizmoduck. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

@disneyplus Again, we were already setting up a lot, and it felt like we were shortchanging both Gyro and Fenton by not giving them their own introductions. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

@disneyplus We also DRASTICALLY cut down the c-runner of Webby and Louie creating an elaborate lie to trick Beakley on the phone. They initially pretended to be members of "Subina's" entire family as they created a nonsensical dense family mythology for them. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

@disneyplus The irony of that last sentence is not lost on me, the writer of a nonsensical dense family history. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

@disneyplus On a personal note, I sweated it on this two parter like crazy. It was the biggest writing undertaking I had attempted up to that point. It had to set up A TON and still feel funny and still feel new and still feel like DuckTales. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

@disneyplus There's a phrase I wrote on @theironwrist's whiteboard at the start of this: "DUCKTALES MUST BE GREAT." It became a mantra on our show: DuckTales as a property deserved the very best we had to offer, and we've given it our all every day since. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

@disneyplus @theironwrist 3. DAYTRIP OF DOOM!
This was an important episode for us to establish what life was like now both in Duckburg. They had a big adventure, now everyone is feeling each other out and adjusting to a new status quo.
#DuckTales #RewriteHistory

@disneyplus @theironwrist It was also an opportunity to explore Webby's character and set her apart from other excitable adventure characters we knew she'd be compared to (particularly Mabel Pines from Gravity Falls).
#DuckTales #RewriteHistory

@disneyplus @theironwrist Webby was influenced by Rachel Weisz's character in "Brothers Bloom," a shut-in who's been locked away in a mansion where she cultivated tons of odd, specific skills, but has little real world experience and sees the most normal things as an adventure. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

@disneyplus @theironwrist That helped define some key Webby traits: excitable and incredibly competent when it comes specifically to adventure, but she can also be a little shy, anxious, and socially awkward. This episode became about exploring that. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

@disneyplus @theironwrist This was another episode where we were trying to figure out how much story we could cram into an episode and a whole storyline was cut. Here it was "Scrooge vs. the Forgotten Plumber". #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

@disneyplus @theironwrist After Donald ruined his bathroom, Scrooge went on a quest in a forgotten wing of the massive mansion searching for a long forgotten, almost mythical, second master bathroom. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

@disneyplus @theironwrist In his quest, he encountered a grizzled plumber he had hired long ago to fix that second bathroom and has been lost searching for it ever since. The plumber set elaborate traps to get revenge on Scrooge. Basically, Scrooge's everyday is an adventure.
#DuckTales #RewriteHistory

@disneyplus @theironwrist You can still see the remnants of this story in the finished episode, such as Scrooge going off to take a private bath, running from walls of water, and enjoying a hard earned soak while ignoring Donald.
#DuckTales #RewriteHistory

@disneyplus @theironwrist 4. THE IMPOSSIBLE SUMMIT OF MT. NEVERREST!
A prime example of our "No Minecart Chase" rule. If you've seen an adventure trope before, find an angle to make it new or weird. Like an unconquerable mountain that is secret covered in teleporting portals. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

@disneyplus @theironwrist This was always meant to be our fourth episode; we wanted each of the first five episodes to highlight one of the kids. We also felt it was important to have another globetrotting soon to establish that it would be a major part of the show.
#DuckTales #RewriteHistory

@disneyplus @theironwrist But the network needed more "wintery content" for its Christmastime programming, so they asked us to air this episode 10th instead of fourth because there is snow in it. That meant we ended up with a lot of Duckburg eps not featuring Scrooge in a row.
#DuckTales #RewriteHistory

@disneyplus @theironwrist BUT this change resulted in a very happy accident. To make the episode even more Christmasy, we threw in a joke about Santa and Scrooge having some unspoken, long-standing beef. That evolved into a recurring throughline that we explore in Season 3! #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

@disneyplus @theironwrist 5. THE GREAT DIME CHASE!
This one established a LOT for Louie, including his love of Pep and Ottoman Empire, and his relationship with Scrooge that became the basis for Season 2.

#DuckTales #RewriteHistory

@disneyplus @theironwrist It's also where we discovered the INSANE chemistry between Dewey and Webby as they started on their secret investigation together. And it really mapped out the various areas of the Bin and forced us to figure out geography (The Vault, Lab,Garage, etc.) #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

@disneyplus @theironwrist It was also an important moment in the writing, as it's the first episode to NOT feature all of the kids. We figured Huey had just had a big story on Neverrest, so he could sit this one out. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

@disneyplus @theironwrist This became crucial because it allowed us the flexibility to focus stories without having to cram every character into every episode. There was originally a scene of Huey in the mansion at the end yelling "Where is everyone?!", that was thankfully cut. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

@disneyplus @theironwrist This episode also gave our version of Gyro the big introduction he wouldn't have in the pilot. We started with his early Barks iteration, where he had a bit of an ego about how great an inventor he was and frustrated no one understood his inventions. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

@disneyplus @theironwrist In the original series, Gyro never really had an invention that didn't somehow misfire and threaten everyone. We pulled a bunch of failed inventions (pulled from the original DuckTales and the Disney Toontown Game), and teased a big one for the future. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

@disneyplus @theironwrist This was also the birth of what the writers would call a "Classic DuckTales List Gag". #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

@disneyplus @theironwrist But Gyro still loves his machine very much. The phrase "They're not all evil, some are just wildly misunderstood," is a key why Gyro is the way he is that we'll explore more in S3. (Image from @americanninjax) #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

@disneyplus @theironwrist @americanninjax Also, given what we know of the Buzzards now, sure seems like this story where they try to shut down all the crazies at the Bin is important, huh? #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

@disneyplus @theironwrist @americanninjax 6. THE BEAGLE BIRTHDAY BREAKOUT!
The big introduction of Magica's "niece" Lena. With our series' focus on familial relationships, we wanted to explore what it's like to be related to one of Scrooge's greatest nemeses too.
#DuckTales #RewriteHistory

@disneyplus @theironwrist @americanninjax A lot of people think Lena was based on Minima DeSpell from the comics, but she's actually based on Magica's shadow from the OG DuckTales ep "Magica's Shadow War". #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

@disneyplus @theironwrist @americanninjax I always felt the story of a shadow who was given life to do Magica's bidding only to try to gain free will and try to free herself was really interesting and potentially tragic. It also gave the show a chance to talk about abusive family relationships. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

@disneyplus @theironwrist @americanninjax Also, the idea of the Beagle Boys having several splinter theme gangs like in the movie "The Warriors" was part of our original pitch. One day I will find and post @Bob_Snow's somewhat nsfw list of possible Beagle Names. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

@disneyplus @theironwrist @americanninjax @Bob_Snow 7. THE HOUSE OF THE LUCKY GANDER! The introduction of everyone’s favorite jerk Gladstone Gander. Our first foray into extended duck family lore was also @TheOneCMag's first script. He became our expert/stickler as to the rules of Gladstone’s luck. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

@disneyplus @theironwrist @americanninjax @Bob_Snow @TheOneCMag Traditionally, Gladstone CANNOT put in any work or his luck will be nullified. For example, there was a lengthy argument as to whether the act of opening his wallet for cash was too much effort for Gladstone. Hence, “Hey, $20!”
#DuckTales #RewriteHistory

@disneyplus @theironwrist @americanninjax @Bob_Snow @TheOneCMag This also served as an out for the end of the episode when we were racking our brains to try to figure out how Gladstone could EVER lose a race to Donald. Something luckier had to happen #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

@disneyplus @theironwrist @americanninjax @Bob_Snow @TheOneCMag We had no second choice for Gladstone after @PFTompkins. It’s tricky casting a character like this. They have to be completely frustrating while still having something charming or relateable in their voice so that you still root for them. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

@disneyplus @theironwrist @americanninjax @Bob_Snow @TheOneCMag @PFTompkins For example, we considered @bibbymoynihan for both Louie and Launchpad. But we realized we NEEDED Bobby as Louie because his performance allowed him to be schemey and morally questionable while still being sincere and likeable. As seen in this ep. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

@disneyplus @theironwrist @americanninjax @Bob_Snow @TheOneCMag @PFTompkins @bibbymoynihan Also, I mean, @becbenit IS Launchpad, sooo… #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

@disneyplus @theironwrist @americanninjax @Bob_Snow @TheOneCMag @PFTompkins @bibbymoynihan @becbenit This was also the most lines Donald had to date. There were a lot of growing pains and experimentation trying to square Barks’ more verbose and nuanced portrayal of Donald from the comics with his traditionally quacky voice. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

@disneyplus @theironwrist @americanninjax @Bob_Snow @TheOneCMag @PFTompkins @bibbymoynihan @becbenit We’ve since found ways to use Donald that allow for his personality to shine through and still achieve the nuance the character deserves. Our goal is to do for Donald what A Goofy Movie did for Goofy. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

@disneyplus @theironwrist @americanninjax @Bob_Snow @TheOneCMag @PFTompkins @bibbymoynihan @becbenit I’m not gonna lie, it can be tricky, but we love the character so much and wanted to deepen more than he ever had been before. He deserves the effort from all involved to make him Duckburg’s best (if most frustrated) dad. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

@disneyplus @theironwrist @americanninjax @Bob_Snow @TheOneCMag @PFTompkins @bibbymoynihan @becbenit Originally, Gladstone tried to distract Donald with the buffet by singing “Oh Donny Boy, the shrimp the shrimp are caallling!” We recorded it but had to cut for legal reasons. It haunts me every day. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

@disneyplus @theironwrist @americanninjax @Bob_Snow @TheOneCMag @PFTompkins @bibbymoynihan @becbenit 8. THE INFERNAL INTERNSHIP OF MARK BEAKS! First off, let me finally say that YES, OF COURSE we originally wanted to call him “Mark Zuckerbird”! We were asked to change it for legal reasons. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

@disneyplus @theironwrist @americanninjax @Bob_Snow @TheOneCMag @PFTompkins @bibbymoynihan @becbenit We figured every era of Scrooge deserved its own type of billionaire rival that reflected the times. Rockerduck in the 20s/30s, Glomgold in the 90s. So we needed an insufferable tech bro. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

@disneyplus @theironwrist @americanninjax @Bob_Snow @TheOneCMag @PFTompkins @bibbymoynihan @becbenit In another happy accident, Beaks turned out to be the PERFECT foil for Fenton/Gizmoduck down the line. More on that later. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

@disneyplus @theironwrist @americanninjax @Bob_Snow @TheOneCMag @PFTompkins @bibbymoynihan @becbenit One of the goals of this episode was to signal out how the brothers interacted with each other and their new personalities. Type-A Huey and freewheeling Dewey seemed like natural foils. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

@disneyplus @theironwrist @americanninjax @Bob_Snow @TheOneCMag @PFTompkins @bibbymoynihan @becbenit Dewey’s briefcase runner was based on @theironwrist’s actual brother, who carried a briefcase around for a year as a kid because he thought it made him seem interesting. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

@disneyplus @theironwrist @americanninjax @Bob_Snow @TheOneCMag @PFTompkins @bibbymoynihan @becbenit The first draft of this episode featured one of our most famous cut plotlines: Daisy Duck as Glomgold’s assistant. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

@disneyplus @theironwrist @americanninjax @Bob_Snow @TheOneCMag @PFTompkins @bibbymoynihan @becbenit Originally, Daisy was going to be Donald’s ex who was sick and tired of only being known as “Donald Duck’s girlfriend,” so she went to business school and became a career woman. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

@disneyplus @theironwrist @americanninjax @Bob_Snow @TheOneCMag @PFTompkins @bibbymoynihan @becbenit Glomgold of course hired Daisy because if Scrooge had a Donald Duck in his organization, he needed someone equivalent. Anything Scrooge can do, Glomgold wants to do better. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

@disneyplus @theironwrist @americanninjax @Bob_Snow @TheOneCMag @PFTompkins @bibbymoynihan @becbenit In the original version of this ep, Donald dropped off the boys at the Billionaire’s Club only to see Daisy working a fancy job for Glomgold. Unemployed Donald is embarrassed, so he decides to compete against the boys for the internship too. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

@disneyplus @theironwrist @americanninjax @Bob_Snow @TheOneCMag @PFTompkins @bibbymoynihan @becbenit As the boys competed, Donald got into all kinds of physical hi-jinx at Waddle, ended up in his undershirt stuck in the vents trying to escape during a hostage situation. He essentially became John McClane from "Die Hard". #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

@disneyplus @theironwrist @americanninjax @Bob_Snow @TheOneCMag @PFTompkins @bibbymoynihan @becbenit This is why Falcon Graves has heavy Alan Rickman vibes. Also because @LadieFantastic loves Alan Rickman. The episode ended with a rooftop showdown between Donald and Graves. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

@disneyplus @theironwrist @americanninjax @Bob_Snow @TheOneCMag @PFTompkins @bibbymoynihan @becbenit @LadieFantastic This storyline was cut for a couple of reasons. First, it was obviously too big for this episode. I think this was the last episode we tried to shove a C-story into. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

@disneyplus @theironwrist @americanninjax @Bob_Snow @TheOneCMag @PFTompkins @bibbymoynihan @becbenit @LadieFantastic More importantly, we were running into the problem that all the most important events in our show seemed to have happened in the past. Donald and Daisy being estranged felt very similar to Donald and Scrooge being estranged. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

@disneyplus @theironwrist @americanninjax @Bob_Snow @TheOneCMag @PFTompkins @bibbymoynihan @becbenit @LadieFantastic We wanted to give Daisy a proper introduction as her own person, independent of Donald, and see them meet for the first time. Which is happening in Season 3! #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

@disneyplus @theironwrist @americanninjax @Bob_Snow @TheOneCMag @PFTompkins @bibbymoynihan @becbenit @LadieFantastic 8. THE LIVING MUMMIES OF TOTH-RA! Our crack at a classic DuckTales pyramid adventure. The Minecart Rule Twist: None of these “mummies” are dead, they just worship a weird mummy king. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

@disneyplus @theironwrist @americanninjax @Bob_Snow @TheOneCMag @PFTompkins @bibbymoynihan @becbenit @LadieFantastic The family’s adventure outfits are an extended nod to the opening of “DuckTales: Treasure of the Lost Lamp”, down to the bow Webby stuck on her pith helmet. Same with the crazy rockslide booby trap. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

@disneyplus @theironwrist @americanninjax @Bob_Snow @TheOneCMag @PFTompkins @bibbymoynihan @becbenit @LadieFantastic This was the first episode where EVERYONE used their distinct personalities to solve an adventure. Webby obsesses over prophecy, Louie cons, Huey analyzes, Dewey distracts/dances, Scrooge “inspires”, Launchpad…is Launchpad. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

@disneyplus @theironwrist @americanninjax @Bob_Snow @TheOneCMag @PFTompkins @bibbymoynihan @becbenit @LadieFantastic Louie’s bit where he’s trying to con Toth-Ra into letting him be his publicist was actually pulled from our initial Show Bible from development. A “Bible” is a document that lays out everything you need to know: character bios, themes, arcs, etc. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

@disneyplus @theironwrist @americanninjax @Bob_Snow @TheOneCMag @PFTompkins @bibbymoynihan @becbenit @LadieFantastic Every character bio in our Show Bible involved a list of stats, including likes, dislikes, greatest fears, prized possessions, and “How They Would Defeat a Mummy”. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

@disneyplus @theironwrist @americanninjax @Bob_Snow @TheOneCMag @PFTompkins @bibbymoynihan @becbenit @LadieFantastic One of my favorite recording memories was @katemicucci devolving into a giggle fit after being unable to pronounce “Toth-Ra”. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

@disneyplus @theironwrist @americanninjax @Bob_Snow @TheOneCMag @PFTompkins @bibbymoynihan @becbenit @LadieFantastic @katemicucci When we travel to another country/culture, we always try to cast actors from that country. Bassem Youssef (@byoussef), who played Sabaf, is a brilliant political comedian, often referred to as the “Jon Stewart of Egypt”. This was his first animated gig. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

@disneyplus @theironwrist @americanninjax @Bob_Snow @TheOneCMag @PFTompkins @bibbymoynihan @becbenit @LadieFantastic @katemicucci @Byoussef You can always tell how hungry the writers were based on the prominence of food in any given episode, often as a solution to all problems. BURRITOS! #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

@disneyplus @theironwrist @americanninjax @Bob_Snow @TheOneCMag @PFTompkins @bibbymoynihan @becbenit @LadieFantastic @katemicucci @Byoussef In the script, @madisonbateman specified that the food truck at the end was named “THE BEST BURRITO TRUCK IN EGYPT!” Not sure why that was cut. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

@disneyplus @theironwrist @americanninjax @Bob_Snow @TheOneCMag @PFTompkins @bibbymoynihan @becbenit @LadieFantastic @katemicucci @Byoussef @madisonbateman 9. TERROR OF THE TERRA-FIRMIANS! This riff on an old Barks story had already been epically adapted in the original DuckTales episode “Earth Quack”. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

@disneyplus @theironwrist @americanninjax @Bob_Snow @TheOneCMag @PFTompkins @bibbymoynihan @becbenit @LadieFantastic @katemicucci @Byoussef @madisonbateman Instead of trying to top that in terms of scale, we decided to go smaller and more intimate to explore why Huey clings to facts and his Junior Woodchuck Guidebook: to deal with his fear of the unknown. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

@disneyplus @theironwrist @americanninjax @Bob_Snow @TheOneCMag @PFTompkins @bibbymoynihan @becbenit @LadieFantastic @katemicucci @Byoussef @madisonbateman But the original storyline IS retold in Webby’s journal renderings of what she assumes is the Terries and the Firmies backstories. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

@disneyplus @theironwrist @americanninjax @Bob_Snow @TheOneCMag @PFTompkins @bibbymoynihan @becbenit @LadieFantastic @katemicucci @Byoussef @madisonbateman The ending was also influenced by the Joe Dante classic “Explorers!” #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

@disneyplus @theironwrist @americanninjax @Bob_Snow @TheOneCMag @PFTompkins @bibbymoynihan @becbenit @LadieFantastic @katemicucci @Byoussef @madisonbateman My note upon first reading the scene where Launchpad’s trying to figure out if Dewey is a Mole Monster: “THIS. IS. PERFECT.” #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

@disneyplus @theironwrist @americanninjax @Bob_Snow @TheOneCMag @PFTompkins @bibbymoynihan @becbenit @LadieFantastic @katemicucci @Byoussef @madisonbateman A joke that @TheOneCMag just came up with on his own in the first draft instantly became a very sweet cornerstone of Launchpad’s character: he believes Dewey is his best friend. But is he really? We’ll find out in Season 3. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

@disneyplus @theironwrist @americanninjax @Bob_Snow @TheOneCMag @PFTompkins @bibbymoynihan @becbenit @LadieFantastic @katemicucci @Byoussef @madisonbateman Also, @TheOneCMag is a HUGE Simpsons fan, and it shows in this scene. He loves DuckTales so much, but I once asked him if he would quit his steady job for even a chance to write a freelance “Simpsons”: “Oh, absolutely.” Didn’t even stop to think. Jerk. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

@disneyplus @theironwrist @americanninjax @Bob_Snow @TheOneCMag @PFTompkins @bibbymoynihan @becbenit @LadieFantastic @katemicucci @Byoussef @madisonbateman There was an interesting balancing act here between Lena and Webby. The audience knew Lena was a spy, but we still wanted them to like her and their “friendship” together and sympathize even before you find out she’s a prisoner. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

@disneyplus @theironwrist @americanninjax @Bob_Snow @TheOneCMag @PFTompkins @bibbymoynihan @becbenit @LadieFantastic @katemicucci @Byoussef @madisonbateman I think a lot of that comes threw when Lena playfully promises to avenge Webby’s death and Webby says, “Awww, that’s sweet.” These two get each other. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

@disneyplus @theironwrist @americanninjax @Bob_Snow @TheOneCMag @PFTompkins @bibbymoynihan @becbenit @LadieFantastic @katemicucci @Byoussef @madisonbateman Interesting side note: at this point, we had not yet cast Magica. Her lines were temped in as a whispery, scratchy ghost-like voice until we could find someone and play to her strengths. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

@disneyplus @theironwrist @americanninjax @Bob_Snow @TheOneCMag @PFTompkins @bibbymoynihan @becbenit @LadieFantastic @katemicucci @Byoussef @madisonbateman Once we cast Catherine Tate, we knew how delightfully unhinged her performance would be. But we had to justify why she had initially spoken so little early on. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

@disneyplus @theironwrist @americanninjax @Bob_Snow @TheOneCMag @PFTompkins @bibbymoynihan @becbenit @LadieFantastic @katemicucci @Byoussef @madisonbateman This led us to determine that as the Lunar Eclipse neared, Magica’s powers grew. She gained new abilities each time out: limited speech in this episode, the ability to rant and rave in "JAW$!", and ultimately the ability to possess Lena in “Other Bin”. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

@disneyplus @theironwrist @americanninjax @Bob_Snow @TheOneCMag @PFTompkins @bibbymoynihan @becbenit @LadieFantastic @katemicucci @Byoussef @madisonbateman 9. McMYSTERY AT McDUCK MANOR! This was the episode where we discovered that “Bottle Episodes” for animation are a STRAIGHT UP LIE. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

@disneyplus @theironwrist @americanninjax @Bob_Snow @TheOneCMag @PFTompkins @bibbymoynihan @becbenit @LadieFantastic @katemicucci @Byoussef @madisonbateman If you don’t know, a “Bottle Episode” is an episode of live-action television that takes place all in one location. It’s meant to be easy on production because you don’t have multiple locations to switch to. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

@disneyplus @theironwrist @americanninjax @Bob_Snow @TheOneCMag @PFTompkins @bibbymoynihan @becbenit @LadieFantastic @katemicucci @Byoussef @madisonbateman We were coming off some design and staging heavy episodes, so we figured a locked room mystery a la “Clue” would be a nice break. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

@disneyplus @theironwrist @americanninjax @Bob_Snow @TheOneCMag @PFTompkins @bibbymoynihan @becbenit @LadieFantastic @katemicucci @Byoussef @madisonbateman What we came to realize is that an episode can either be easy for the writing team or the board team or the design team. Easy for one means hard for the other two. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

@disneyplus @theironwrist @americanninjax @Bob_Snow @TheOneCMag @PFTompkins @bibbymoynihan @becbenit @LadieFantastic @katemicucci @Byoussef @madisonbateman An easier story for writing means not having to be judicious with locations, characters, props, action etc. You can just have fun and do anything. This is obviously tough on boards and design. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

@disneyplus @theironwrist @americanninjax @Bob_Snow @TheOneCMag @PFTompkins @bibbymoynihan @becbenit @LadieFantastic @katemicucci @Byoussef @madisonbateman Easier for boards means heavy pre-thought for writers to make action simple. And to keep the energy up for 22 minutes, the writers might throw extra props & characters, and if boards aren't judicious about their shot count, that's a design heavy ep. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

@disneyplus @theironwrist @americanninjax @Bob_Snow @TheOneCMag @PFTompkins @bibbymoynihan @becbenit @LadieFantastic @katemicucci @Byoussef @madisonbateman Easier for design (as we thought this would be) means not a lot of new props, bgs, and new characters, so the writers work extra hard to limit these, and the board team has to think VERY judiciously about every new shot and angle of a room designed. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

@disneyplus @theironwrist @americanninjax @Bob_Snow @TheOneCMag @PFTompkins @bibbymoynihan @becbenit @LadieFantastic @katemicucci @Byoussef @madisonbateman For this supposedly “easier” episode, we had to write an engaging extended mystery with no time jumps and a limited cast, boards had to figure out how to make it dynamic, and design had to figure out EVERY INCH of that main hall. Not so easy. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

@disneyplus @theironwrist @americanninjax @Bob_Snow @TheOneCMag @PFTompkins @bibbymoynihan @becbenit @LadieFantastic @katemicucci @Byoussef @madisonbateman I love the scene where Ma and Glomgold call out Mark Beaks, like “Seriously? This is what we’re calling a ‘Scrooge Villain’ these days?” #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

@disneyplus @theironwrist @americanninjax @Bob_Snow @TheOneCMag @PFTompkins @bibbymoynihan @becbenit @LadieFantastic @katemicucci @Byoussef @madisonbateman Also a good opportunity to reinforce each villains overarching goals and firmly establish Ma’s goal beyond petty theft: to reclaim Duckburg from Scrooge. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

@disneyplus @theironwrist @americanninjax @Bob_Snow @TheOneCMag @PFTompkins @bibbymoynihan @becbenit @LadieFantastic @katemicucci @Byoussef @madisonbateman The “Duckworth as Ghost” twist came from a reaction I had to a previous round of development. An earlier artist had done an updated “Family Portrait” for the show. Stodgy Butler, dowdy maid, four equally excitable kids, and a crackpot inventor. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

@disneyplus @theironwrist @americanninjax @Bob_Snow @TheOneCMag @PFTompkins @bibbymoynihan @becbenit @LadieFantastic @katemicucci @Byoussef @madisonbateman To us, it felt…soft. Safer and more predictable than even the original series or Barks comics. Scrooge is the world’s greatest adventurer, but he’d surrounded himself with soft, squishy tropes. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

@disneyplus @theironwrist @americanninjax @Bob_Snow @TheOneCMag @PFTompkins @bibbymoynihan @becbenit @LadieFantastic @katemicucci @Byoussef @madisonbateman I was reminded of an ep of the og series (“Metal Attraction”?) where a “Family Portrait” consisted of Scrooge, the kids, a caveman, a dinosaur, a maid, & Gizmoduck for some reason. That vibe was super engaging to me. I wanted to know about THAT family. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

@disneyplus @theironwrist @americanninjax @Bob_Snow @TheOneCMag @PFTompkins @bibbymoynihan @becbenit @LadieFantastic @katemicucci @Byoussef @madisonbateman So we looked at that old development art and said “She’s a spy, he’s a ghost, he’s a mad scientist, etc….” Basically, coming up with a group of allies Scrooge would have made over a century of adventure. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

@disneyplus @theironwrist @americanninjax @Bob_Snow @TheOneCMag @PFTompkins @bibbymoynihan @becbenit @LadieFantastic @katemicucci @Byoussef @madisonbateman I was so delighted when the show started and people started complaining “Where’s Duckworth?” They had no idea he was actually in the opening credits. We also hinted at him on Webby’s board in the pilot. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

@disneyplus @theironwrist @americanninjax @Bob_Snow @TheOneCMag @PFTompkins @bibbymoynihan @becbenit @LadieFantastic @katemicucci @Byoussef @madisonbateman 10. THE MISSING LINKS OF MOORSHIRE! The network asked us to do a sports-themed episode. We thought kids would be excited by golf. So much so that we had a character constantly talk about how much he hated golf. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

@disneyplus @theironwrist @americanninjax @Bob_Snow @TheOneCMag @PFTompkins @bibbymoynihan @becbenit @LadieFantastic @katemicucci @Byoussef @madisonbateman During the board pitch, the “Glomgold Coin Toss” scene caused one crewmember to start laughing so hard he had to excuse himself from the room. It was a very proud moment for all involved. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

@disneyplus @theironwrist @americanninjax @Bob_Snow @TheOneCMag @PFTompkins @bibbymoynihan @becbenit @LadieFantastic @katemicucci @Byoussef @madisonbateman The magic pairing of Huey and Launchpad is something we haven’t done enough since. We tried to remedy that in another sports episode coming up in Season 3! #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

@disneyplus @theironwrist @americanninjax @Bob_Snow @TheOneCMag @PFTompkins @bibbymoynihan @becbenit @LadieFantastic @katemicucci @Byoussef @madisonbateman I loved telling a story about the “wise old mentor” being in the wrong. Scrooge will always see himself as vital, but he’s got to learn when to step back. Here and in Neverrest, it’s important that Scrooge is learning and evolving as much as the kids. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

@disneyplus @theironwrist @americanninjax @Bob_Snow @TheOneCMag @PFTompkins @bibbymoynihan @becbenit @LadieFantastic @katemicucci @Byoussef @madisonbateman Cut for time: like two more full scenes featuring individual golf holes. @americanninjax very wisely condensed them into that rad montage in the middle of the ep. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

@disneyplus @theironwrist @americanninjax @Bob_Snow @TheOneCMag @PFTompkins @bibbymoynihan @becbenit @LadieFantastic @katemicucci @Byoussef @madisonbateman I remain incredibly tickled that @tarastrong and @AndreaLibman agreed to play the kelpies to really drive this ridiculous joke home. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

@disneyplus @theironwrist @americanninjax @Bob_Snow @TheOneCMag @PFTompkins @bibbymoynihan @becbenit @LadieFantastic @katemicucci @Byoussef @madisonbateman @tarastrong @AndreaLibman I’d like to add that I have SO much respect for @Fyre_flye and her work, and even more respect for the fact that she didn’t place a severed pony head in my bed after this episode aired. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

@disneyplus @theironwrist @americanninjax @Bob_Snow @TheOneCMag @PFTompkins @bibbymoynihan @becbenit @LadieFantastic @katemicucci @Byoussef @madisonbateman @tarastrong @AndreaLibman @Fyre_flye Lauren and @CrackMcCraigen gave me my first job in animation on "Wander Over Yonder". The story structure we use to break episodes on this show is a modified version of the one they came up with for that one. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

@disneyplus @theironwrist @americanninjax @Bob_Snow @TheOneCMag @PFTompkins @bibbymoynihan @becbenit @LadieFantastic @katemicucci @Byoussef @madisonbateman @tarastrong @AndreaLibman @Fyre_flye @CrackMcCraigen Lauren says she developed “Friendship is Magic” by giving the characters the same personalities as when she played with her ponies as a kid. Craig always said he makes shows by “making the best versions of the shows we thought we remembered as kids.” #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

@disneyplus @theironwrist @americanninjax @Bob_Snow @TheOneCMag @PFTompkins @bibbymoynihan @becbenit @LadieFantastic @katemicucci @Byoussef @madisonbateman @tarastrong @AndreaLibman @Fyre_flye @CrackMcCraigen Both these pieces of advice proved invaluable in developing DuckTales and trying to recapture both the excitement I used to have playing DuckTales as a kid and updating the show while keeping the core feeling of it intact. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

@disneyplus @theironwrist @americanninjax @Bob_Snow @TheOneCMag @PFTompkins @bibbymoynihan @becbenit @LadieFantastic @katemicucci @Byoussef @madisonbateman @tarastrong @AndreaLibman @Fyre_flye @CrackMcCraigen The last joke of the episode proved INSANELY controversial in the Writers Room, with many claiming Launchpad choking on golfballs because he thought they were eggs was TOO dumb, even for him. This became the cutoff line for LP jokes. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

@disneyplus @theironwrist @americanninjax @Bob_Snow @TheOneCMag @PFTompkins @bibbymoynihan @becbenit @LadieFantastic @katemicucci @Byoussef @madisonbateman @tarastrong @AndreaLibman @Fyre_flye @CrackMcCraigen For the record, Launchpad eating golfballs: too far. Launchpad convincing himself that he’s been a Molemonster this whole time only to be easily dissuaded by Beakley telling him he wasn’t? Perfection. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

@disneyplus @theironwrist @americanninjax @Bob_Snow @TheOneCMag @PFTompkins @bibbymoynihan @becbenit @LadieFantastic @katemicucci @Byoussef @madisonbateman @tarastrong @AndreaLibman @Fyre_flye @CrackMcCraigen 11. THE SPEAR OF SELENE! The continuation of the search for Dewey and Webby’s search for info on Della hinges on a question that we’ll be asking of various people over the series: “What if my hero is a bad person?” #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

@disneyplus @theironwrist @americanninjax @Bob_Snow @TheOneCMag @PFTompkins @bibbymoynihan @becbenit @LadieFantastic @katemicucci @Byoussef @madisonbateman @tarastrong @AndreaLibman @Fyre_flye @CrackMcCraigen The answer, of course, is always more nuanced than that, as we’ll see with Scrooge and Della and a bunch of other characters throughout the series. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

@disneyplus @theironwrist @americanninjax @Bob_Snow @TheOneCMag @PFTompkins @bibbymoynihan @becbenit @LadieFantastic @katemicucci @Byoussef @madisonbateman @tarastrong @AndreaLibman @Fyre_flye @CrackMcCraigen The Minecart Rule in full effect: What if a booby-trapped temple had way too many ancient treasures when I’m just looking for a specific one? That mirrors Dewey’s refusal to accept any answer but the one that he’s looking for. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

@disneyplus @theironwrist @americanninjax @Bob_Snow @TheOneCMag @PFTompkins @bibbymoynihan @becbenit @LadieFantastic @katemicucci @Byoussef @madisonbateman @tarastrong @AndreaLibman @Fyre_flye @CrackMcCraigen Ithaquack, of course, is a reference to the original series episode “Home Sweet Homer”. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

@disneyplus @theironwrist @americanninjax @Bob_Snow @TheOneCMag @PFTompkins @bibbymoynihan @becbenit @LadieFantastic @katemicucci @Byoussef @madisonbateman @tarastrong @AndreaLibman @Fyre_flye @CrackMcCraigen Originally, the island was a little more populated and featured a reappearance by the shifty salesman who sold Launchpad all that gear on Neverrest. Here he sold a map to the Temple of Heroes to Dewey and Webby. An unnecessary step, so it was cut. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

@disneyplus @theironwrist @americanninjax @Bob_Snow @TheOneCMag @PFTompkins @bibbymoynihan @becbenit @LadieFantastic @katemicucci @Byoussef @madisonbateman @tarastrong @AndreaLibman @Fyre_flye @CrackMcCraigen As per our casting policy, we went out to Greek actors to play the gods: Michael Chikilis as @theironwrist’s favorite petty villain Zeus, @NiaVardalos, whose bubbly nature helped us find a take on Selene, who was originally way more regal and staid... #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

And of course, THE LION OF LINDOS, THE HERO OF HELIOPOLIS, the mighty STORKULES, played to perfection by Chris Diamantopolous. It delighted us to no end that they guy who plays Mickey was going to play Donald’s best friend. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

I love big blustery noble dumdums with egos (I wonder why…). Chris had the amazing idea to pattern his performance off the old Mighty Hercules cartoon he used to watch in syndication as a kid, a weird, almost mid-atlantic thing. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

Storkules is allowed to be as full of himself as he is and still be likeable as a character because he thinks everyone has the capability to be as great as he is. Especially Donald. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

I’d never worked with Chris prior to this, but he left such a mark and is so stinking versatile that it makes total sense that he’d be perfect for ANOTHER blustery hero I’ll talk about later. Like Keith Ferguson, I want to work with Chris forever. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

This was another one where we spelled out every challenge and ended up having to montage it for time. Full scenes had been dedicated to the chariot race and the sculpting contest. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

We loved the idea of meeting people who knew Donald and Della back when they were young, and how that would have an impact on Donald. It’s the first time that we see how Della’s disappearance impacted Donald, and why he needs to keep these kids safe. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

12. DAY OF THE ONLY CHILD! The initial goal of this episode was to highlight each of the boys as kids. We’d seen them in so many fantastical situations in a huge ensemble, we wanted to give each of them a chance to shine on their own. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

It also tests each of their personal issues as we’d explore them throughout the series: Huey’s adherence to rules/order despite the risk, Louie’s desire for wealth at any cost, and Dewey’s search for approval and recognition. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

Originally, the setup was WAY more complicated. It involved Gyro creating a portal to alternate dimensions where each boy had grown up an only child. Instead of trying to pull off three simultaneous “It’s A Wonderful Life”s, we went simpler instead. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

Huey’s story allowed us to focus in on the actual Junior Woodchucks, which we’ll see more in S3. It also helped establish Bouncer as the sweetest of the Beagle Boys. I always had the notion that Bouncer would reform and become Scrooge’s personal chef. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

What can be said about Doofus Drake?

That’s it. That’s the tweet.
#DuckTales #RewriteHistory

Doofus’ character was roughly based on the Twilight Zone episode "It's A Good Life" , where an omnipotent boy becomes a monster because no one can tell him no. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

“Dewey Dew-nite!” is based off of something I used to do as a kid. I used to deliver fake late night talk show monologues to an imaginary audience and hold for applause. It was…unsettling to watch. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

But in a world where the point was to highlight each of the kid’s strengths, we knew one thing for certain: @rejectedjokes was going to nail this bit. Dewey Dew-Nite returns next season on location with a big name guest star. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

@rejectedjokes 13. BEWARE THE B.U.D.D.Y. SYSTEM! In Season 1, pretty much all of the writers got to volunteer for the episodes they wanted to write. I called dibs on this one because it premiered what I knew would be one of our biggest characters. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

I’m speaking, of course, of Manny, the Headless Manhorse. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

Manny became one of my favorite characters because he’s the opposite of most of our characters. The kids feel like they’re ordinary and wish for more spectacular lives. Manny thinks he’s a supernatural freak but he just wants to be a regular guy. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

One of our early ideas was the McDuck Nemesis Reformation Program, where Scrooge’s (numerous) defeated foes can apply for support and counseling and a job with McDuck Enterprises. This was how Manny was able to get a job as Gyro’s intern. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

If you want to learn more about Manny, I suggest you talk to @HeadlssManHorse. Some good backstory there. Pretty sure everything he tweets is canon, too. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

No, but really, Fenton Crackshell-Cabrera will always be one of my proudest contributions to Duckburg. When I grew up, the only Latino superhero I had was Vibe, who, at the time, was solely notable for having breakdance powers. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

I’d like to point out, still no Latino superheroes in the MCU. Maybe after fixing our Season 1 air order, @disneyplus can greenlight a White Tiger series. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

We wrote a letter to @Lin_Manuel to pitch him our stated goal: making our Gizmoduck a Hispanic hero who was entirely informed by his heritage without being solely defined by it. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

He’s so many things, and one of those things is Latino. We’ll talk more about that later. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

Because Gizmoduck was a popular known character, this was a unique opportunity. Fenton wasn’t just a token Latino character. He was the MAIN SUPERHERO of Duckburg. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

Fenton’s “IT. COULD. WORK!” was based on Gene Wilder from Young Frankenstein, which Lin understood right away because Lin’s the best. Also improvised my favorite line: “Go, you bumblebee-like savant, go!” #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

The Darkwing opener was entirely boarded and designed by my buddy @BenBalistreri, who I worked with on Wander, and I knew would jump at the chance to do this and cram it with love and easter eggs. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

Fact: The Ratcatcher was not in the script. Ben threw in that design for free. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

The idea that Launchpad would be a fan of Darkwing from his childhood was influenced by his first appearance in the og Darkwing pilot, where he introduces himself as Darkwing’s biggest fan. And, let’s face it, also based on me. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

And yes, of course we knew what we were going to do with Jim Starling in Season 2 right off the bat. We like our plants here in Duckburg. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

This episode is where the idea that Dewey is Launchpad’s best friend really paid off. I love this pairing because it forces Dewey to be the reasonable one sometimes, but they feed off their ridiculous kid energy. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

Launchpad’s drivers license lists his birthday as 9/18/1987 (the day that the original DuckTales premiered). Also, his signature matches the signature you get from the Launchpad Walk-Around character in the Disney parks. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

Cut for time: a scene where Fenton analyzes Launchpad’s skills in a VR simulator. He somehow manages to set the lab on fire. It was too long and too similar to a Simpsons joke with Homer in a Nuclear Plant Simulator. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

I teared up three times writing the first draft: “I am the terror…”, Launchpad saying “ Let’s Get Dangerous,” and Fenton saying “Blathering Blatherskite!” #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

Again, we were playing with the idea of Fenton being an unnamed background character, which would make him announcing his name on the phone a big reveal. Of course, casting Lin as a seemingly random extra probably would have tipped it off. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

An executive raised concern early on in the outline process that having Gizmoduck AND Darkwing show up this early in the run. After all, Gizmoduck didn’t appear in DuckTales until late in the run. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

Our response: we want to get everything in there because if we hadn’t got a second season, we didn’t want to have regrets about not getting to play with these things we love. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

14. THE GOLDEN LAGOON OF WHITE AGONY PLAINS! The debut of our version of Glitterin’ Goldie O’Gilt. Because our show emphasizes Scrooge as an adventurer, we made Goldie a bit of a swindler who was the only person sharper than him. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

We wanted the relationship between Scrooge and Goldie to have the energy of an old screwball energy, like Carey Grant and Katherine Hepburn or pretty much any Billy Wilder movie. It really comes across in their tango. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

“You loved gold more than you loved me.” “And that’s why you loved me.” I mean, OOF, I love that. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

Sometimes when we record, we’ll play an actor in with lines we’ve recorded from someone else. When many of our actors heard David for the first time, they’d literally miss a beat and say “Oh my God, it’s Scrooge McDuck!” #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

For this record, David missed a beat and said “Oh my God, it’s C.J. Cregg!” Honestly, if you’re going to do a screwball adventure romantic comedy, you should be so lucky as to have David Tennant and @AllisonBJanney. I don’t know how we pulled it off. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

Odd coincidence: our version of Goldie was influenced by the character The Jackal in "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels," while Allison Janney famously IS The Jackal. #WestWing #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

This was one of the hardest ones to get approved by the network in S1. This being a “kid’s channel,” they sometimes get antsy whenever kids don’t feature prominently in the story. Even more so when they’re sidelined for two “senior citizens”. #DuckTales #rewritehistory

Our response, of course, was that these aren’t two “senior citizens,” they’re THE MOST DARING ADVENTURERS THIS CENTURY HAS EVER SEEN. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

At one point it was suggested that we periodically cut back to the mansion to show the boys “wondering about” what Scrooge and Goldie were doing in the Klondike. Luckily, cooler heads prevailed. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

This is actually one of our rare episodes that just focuses on an A-Story. See also “The Beagle Birthday Breakout!” and “What Ever Happened to Della Duck?!” #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

It was Sean Jimenez’s idea to set the episode in an area not unlike the famed Rainbow Caves in China. He did such beautiful design work on this episode that he made it his end credits card. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

This isn’t really trivia, but I LOVE paralleling the dance at the gala with the pick axe fight at the end. I’m a sucker for ideas/dialogue in Act 1 coming back in Act 3. This whole bit feels so lovely and cinematic to me. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

Obviously, we pulled a lot of elements from Don Rosa comics on this one, including the mammoth and the notion of a dispute over a claim at White Agony Plains leading to romance. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

The Goldie/Scrooge/Glomgold triangle was somewhat inspired by the og DuckTales episode “Ducky Mountain High” and a LOT inspired by Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

In an episode visually inspired by Barks paintings of Klondike Scrooge, I wish I could remember who decided to have Glomgold’s flashbacks mirror Lichtensteins. Glomgold’s very existence is, like most Pop Art, riffing on a pre-existing theme. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

15. FROM THE CONFIDENTIAL CASEFILES OF AGENT 22! Some BIG backstory for Beakley here, introducing that thread from all the way back in Episode 3 “Daytrip of Doom!” and introducing SHUSH and F.O.W.L., who obviously play huge roles in Season 3. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

I’ve often said this ep is the promise of the premise of our approach to heritage: the “Secret Formula” as Gummi Berry Juice from Gummi Bears, Spy Orgs from Darkwing, and classic character Ludwig Von Drake, mashed together in a new, unique adventure. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

We typically don’t start off with “How would we incorporate THIS character?” but rather look at the needs of the story and say “Is there some interesting way we can incorporate something from Disney heritage while still being true to the character. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

When you start a series, you typically have a meeting with Legal to clear the names of the characters to make sure you’re legally allowed to use those names, or, in the case of pre-existing IP, making sure you’re allowed to use them. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

For example, you can’t just throw a character named “Harry Potter” in your show without getting very much sued. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

When we had that meeting for DuckTales, we really got away with something. We asked them to clear every character from the original series, as well as all American, European, and South American duck comics. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

Then, not knowing if they’d go for it, we asked them to clear every character from Darkwing Duck. And TaleSpin. And Gummi Bears. And… #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

They shockingly approved it. To this day I’m not sure that they knew what a gift they were giving us. Long story short, I will never complain about our legal clearances team. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

I’m pretty proud to say that by the end of Season 3, I’m pretty sure we hit everything that I consider to be “Peak Disney Afternoon”. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

My favorite bit of fan service that I didn’t notice until it aired: @domlewismx snuck a bit of “Gummi Bears” into the score during the backstory of the “Ancients of Castle Dunwin”. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

Inside writers scoop: Von Drake is RIDULOUSLY fun to write. My kids were listening to a lot of old Sherman Brothers albums at the time and Von Drake’s patter got under my skin. He’s SO fun and specific. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

That’s key I think: a character with enough facets that they can still be surprising, but specific enough that a savvy writer will instinctively know how they’ll react in any situation. Surprising but satisfying. See also Glomgold, Darkwing Duck. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

This was a surprisingly tricky story to break. We wanted to do a Webby/Scrooge bonding episode as we had done with the other boys. But they had all been on so many adventures at this point. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

It also felt reductive to Webby to have Scrooge say, “What?! A little girl is a great adventurer?” Because of course she is. She’s Beakley’s granddaughter, right? #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

But we hit on something when we realized how much Webby knew about and idolized Scrooge, but how little he knew about this girl as a person, despite her having lived in his house for years. But he wasn’t really talking to anyone post-Della. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

Remember how I said “bottle episode” cartoons are a lie? That doesn’t mean that we can’t find tricks to make epic stories manageable. This episode takes place in the same locations at two points in time, so we could cut down on background design. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

They still had to be redressed and differentiated, though. And the director and board team had to go above and beyond to make the two different time periods clear. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

Luckily, this was @TannerTrue’s solo-directorial debut, and he nailed that tricky balancing act. He also boarded that awesome, brutal Beakley/Heron fight. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

Bummed we lost a joke in translation: the binary code scrawled in the cave wall in the present was meant to read “Revenge for Number 4!” The robot that Scrooge let go in the 60s had been camped out waiting for a chance to avenge his fallen brother. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

One of the joys/challenges of working for @theironwrist is that he’s SUCH a prolific action-comedy director and he’ll never let you get away with a trope he’s already done. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

Robots, superheroes, spies, aliens. Dude's done it all and DOES NOT like repeating himself. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

Poor @TheOneCMag kept volunteering for episodes that Youngberg would have specific opinions about. See also “Who is Gizmoduck?!” #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

The upside of this is that it challenged us not to do the same old James Bond and Mission Impossible riffs on this episode. Hence, Scrooge and 22 became Steed and Mrs. Peel, and we also got to lean on “The Prisoner”. Long live the Troub-bubble. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

I LOVE working with April Winchell. She was my personal favorite to write for on Wander Over Yonder, a show full of VERY fun characters to write. You’ll be seeing a lot more unhinged Bond-villain Heron is Season 3. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

When we brought April back for her second appearance as Heron, she did not recognize her own voice in this ep: “Huh. I didn’t know I could do a Dench.” #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

David Tennant does a jaunty, rogueish sway back and forth whenever he records young, cocky Scrooge. It’s delightful. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

The “22” in Agent 22 references her alias’ initials. “B” is the second letter in the alphabet, hence “Bentina Beakley” is Agent 22. That said, we still don't know if her number is based on her real name or “Beakley” is an alias tied to her number. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

16. JAW$! This episode was originally titled “The Beast from Beneath the Bin!”, but I think we wanted to try this title first as an elaborate, unspoken game of chicken with our legal department. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

This was the first episode where Magica actually spoke, and also where @LadieFantastic became our go-to Magica writer. Basically, if it rants or raves, she’s on it. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

Even though her introductory monologue was cut for time, I think it helped us tremendously in the process of figuring out who Magica was as a character: the insanely petty mixed with the horrifically sadistic. Here’s the original draft of it. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

From the beginning of the season, we really wanted to do a “monster loose in the vault” seafaring adventure. This idea forced us to really wrap our heads around the scale of the vault. Was it big enough to sail the houseboat in? #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

We discussed the idea of the Bin having mystical properties that opened a portal to an additional sea of treasure, but that proved too confusing. Having the money shark start small and gain mass helped give us some latitude to play with scale. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

The “Hail Dewdonia” bit was another opportunity for the boys to goof off together like brothers instead of being in conflict with each other. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

Also cut for time: a straight up Launchpad as Quint monologue, presented here. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

Also cut for time (or logic?): after our heroes come home from a beanstalk adventure in the Cold Open, an angry giant’s fist started shaking at our heroes down out of the clouds. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

When discussing how Tiffany would move on land once she broke free of the bin, there was a lot of talk about referencing the monster from the beginning of Princess Mononoke. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

It also led to one of our more infamous room bits: Male Shark Lady Legs. @Bob_Snow pitched a male shark but with feminized legs in heels. He then proceeded to sketch about fifty variations on the same theme. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

My favorite featured Mail Shark Lady Legs, a female shark postal worker. I really gotta post some of these Bob images. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

This was a huge turning point in Lena and Webby’s relationship; it’s the last time that Lena is fully on Magica’s side, and we really needed to sell that turn, as well as her personal stakes. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

After she slips into Magica-ranting, calling Webby a sentimental fool, Lena immediately assumes that Webby hates her. She’s so used to fighting she can’t fathom the idea that Webby would still save her. She’s never had a loving relationship before. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

That selfless act turns Lena just enough to let us throw in another big reveal: she’s not just Magica’s agent, she’s Magica’s prisoner. And this is her only chance at freedom. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

The Grimoire du Merlock is of course a reference to Merlock, the magician villain of DuckTales The Movie. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

The Roxanne Featherly storyline also gave us a chance to explore how Scrooge is perceived by the public. It’s the first hint that not everybody in town may love the chaos Scrooge’s adventuring rains down upon Duckburg. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

Originally, Roxanne was also going to interview others to attempt to smear Scrooge’s name, including Ma Beagle. In retaliation, Scrooge brought on Gyro to make him seem benevolent. But of course Gyro only made McDuck Enterprises come off as more evil. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

One of my favorite cut jokes ever: Gyro is introduced as “Kid Inventor Gyro Gearloose”. Roxanne: “You’re clearly a fully grown man. Why would they call you a ‘Kid Inventor’?” Gyro hides a genetically modified robot baby behind his back. “No reason.” #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

17. SKY PIRATES…IN THE SKY! Our big Don Karnage episode! We took heavy inspiration from the original TaleSpin pilot where Don Karnage had a big musical number about himself and ran with it. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

This was actually before we’d hired the amazing Dom Lewis as our composer, but we knew we needed instantly catchy, hummable earworms to board to, so we turned to my old pal @andybeanmusic. If you want a song to get stuck in your head, turn to Andy. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

Don Karnage was another one of those characters that we were itching to get our hands on. Again, I love a blustery egomaniac…to no one’s surprise. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

In keeping with our casting ethos, we were so lucky to get to work with @jaimecamil as Don Karnage. “Evil Rogelio De La Vega” is as close to a perfect character description as they come. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

It also made all the sense in the world that Karnage would become Dewey’s archnemesis. Two showboating adventurers with a flair for the dramatic. But as we’ll learn in Season 3, there’s one person Karnage hates more than Dewey. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

We had two big conceits going into this one that got cut. The first, from episode writer @madisonbateman, was that the pirates were actually a failed theatre troupe first, and they fell into crime to try to bankroll their productions. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

The other idea I had was connected to that: perhaps “Don Karnage” was a title, like “The Dread Pirate Roberts” in Princess Bride. Whenever an understudy mutinies against the current Karnage, they would become the new Captain Karnage. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

The logic being that the events of TaleSpin had occurred in our show’s past, so each generation got a different Don Karnage. It was a cool conceit, but ultimately nothing came of it. Would still love to try it some day. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

The writers worked really hard to justify Dewey’s disappearance in the first act. And by “worked really hard,” I mean “painstakingly analyzed the first act of Home Alone”. That movie actually had a big influence on Dewey’s narrative in this one. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

All the musical numbers in this proved INCREDIBLY difficult to execute, because most of them involved CG vehicles as well. @theironwrist isn’t a fan of doing musical numbers in episodes, and the process of executing this one may point to why. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

Also he hates fun. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

There was a heated debate in the Writers Room about Karnage’s disguise in this episode. Originally, Karnage was going to dress up as a little old lady lost in the jungle for some reason. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

We bailed on that for a couple of reasons: we’d seen that joke before, and “haha it’s a man in a dress!” is a dated concept that we didn’t want to further it more. Also, someone came up with the name “Tom Karnage” and it stuck. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

18. THE SECRET(S) OF CASTLE McDUCK! If you’re going to deal with Scrooge, you’re going to want to go to Castle McDuck at some point. And that means reckoning with the extensive history of Clan McDuck. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

We tried to incorporate as many different McDucks from every kind of media possible. We started with Rosa’s line as a template, but added McDucks from the original DuckTales series who ran afoul of druids… #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

…as well as Black Donald McDuck, who got golf banned from Scotland by throwing a temper tantrum while playing against the king. We referenced that bit of Barks lore in “Missing Links of Moorshire!” #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

Our hope had been to get Alan Young to play Fergus, Scrooge’s father, in this episode. Sadly, he passed away before it came time to record. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

We were VERY lucky, though to get the incomparable @grahammctavish to play Fergus. He provided that ridiculous temper with that beautiful sincerity at the end. Graham had actually played David’s brother in a play not too long before we recorded. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

I’ve also loved Ashley Jensen since I first saw her in Extras, and I love her even more now that she’s played Downey. Again, if we’re going to Scotland, we’re going to cast some real Scots. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

There was some controversy amongst the writers about keeping Fergus and Downey alive, especially since Scrooge finding out about Downey’s death in “Life and Times” led to one of our definitive images of Scrooge that we had up in our writers room. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

Ultimately, the decision was made because this is primarily a show about FAMILY, and the opportunity to see how Scrooge interacts with his parents in light of how he’s acted with the kids up to this point. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

But both the demon dog and the secret origin of Scrooge’s #1 Dime was taken from Rosa and “Life and Times”. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

“You treat us like the plague.” “Come now, that’s unfair TO THE PLAGUE.” may be the greatest exchange in the history of our show. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

This ep was also a chance to get into some real Goonies-type hijinx with the boys…before the truth comes crashing down. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

We knew that this was going to be the episode where Huey and Louie find out Dewey’s been hiding information about their mom. I honestly don’t think we knew how they would react until we actually got to breaking that scene. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

It ended up proving a bit of an emotional Rosetta Stone for the trio; from this point on we knew that Huey could easily shift into confrontational older brother mode and that Louie had a hidden sensitivity that would play a big part in S2. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

We could have harped on “Dewey’s betrayal” for a while, but ultimately we liked the idea that even this couldn’t tear the brothers apart for too long. Plus, we knew we had a bigger “betrayal” coming up and wouldn’t want to overshadow it. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

Scrooge having a clump of hair named “Whiskers” as a pet is peak @Bob_Snow. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

@Bob_Snow 19. WHO IS GIZMODUCK?! We may have introduced Fenton in “BUDDY System,” but this is where we get to find out who he really is. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

One of our goals in evolving Fenton was to make sure he was entirely informed by the fact that he’s Latino without being solely defined by it. This episode explores all the things he thinks he’s supposed to be and how they inform who he is. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

Is he a scientist? A lowly intern? A hero? A son? Is going from Fenton Crackshell-Cabrera to Gizmoduck a form of code switching for him? He has limitless potential, so how can he settle on just one thing. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

The answer to those questions is that he is all those things. He is GIZMODUCK. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

Or, put another way, “he is everything he’s learned and more”. And that’s how you connect Lin back to Lin. Thanks for playing “One Degree of Lin-Manuel Miranda”. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

The million things the Gizmoduck armor can do was the perfect fit for Fenton’s character. He may not easily stand up for himself, but whenever he’s defending the limitless potential of the armor, that’s what he’s doing. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

Our original pitch for the character was “Peter Parker meets Iron Man”. This was before the MCU actually had Peter Parker meet Iron Man. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

I loved the chance to depict Fenton’s background organically, easily switching between Spanish and English, dealing with his strong Latina mother’s expectations of him (while watching telenovelas, of course). #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

Mama is in no small way based on every Latina mother I knew growing up. Entirely loving, a little judgy, incredibly protective, and often INTENSE. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

A big breakthrough for us occurred when I texted @TheOneCMag and said: “What if Mark Beaks was a little bit racist?” #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

Microaggressions are a very real problem, especially amongst the "entitled cool". In an ep where Fenton manages what everyone expects him to be, Beaks calling him “amigo” once he’s unmasked puts an unfortunately real-world spin on those "expectations". #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

In the cold open, when Fenton says “Ok, this is happening now BYYYYYEEEEEEE!!!”, we were initially gonna have that “BYYYYEEEEEEEEE…” last all the way through the opening titles. Lin even recorded a minute long version of that “BYYYYEEEEEEE!”. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

Remember how I said the network gets antsy if a story doesn’t focus partially on one of the kids? One of our ways to address that was to pair off the adult characters we want to tell stories about with a kid sidekick. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

In other words, if it’s a Launchpad story, you’ll probably see Dewey in it. If it’s a Fenton/Gizmoduck story, you’re going to see his biggest fan Huey. This was a way for us to tell the stories we wanted while still providing a kid perspective. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

“Waddleduck” is, objectively, the greatest song ever written. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

I don’t think I realized until late in the game that the “Gizmoduck gets rid of a bomb” sequence parallels the end of “The Dark Knight Rises” which parallels my favorite scene in the Batman ’66 movie. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

A very special #DuckTales #RewriteHistory today, as I’m feeling particularly thankful to work with this crew on this show. So here’s some development work that started it all.

This is the infamous “Murder Board” @theironwrist and I came up with early on when developing the characters, detailing key personality traits and connections. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

We knew we were looking at a huge ensemble of characters, and figuring out a few key connections amongst them all would open up tons of storytelling potential. We always knew how one character would react to another in the early days. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

One of our ideas in adapting these iconic cartoon characters was to find three-dimensional explanations for the cartoony traits everyone knows. Donald’s temper, the boys troublemaking tendencies, etc. This helped us track them. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

You’ll also notice the words in orange by the villains. We wanted each of them to be a dark reflection of a trait typically associated with Scrooge. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

You’ll notice some old ideas that never made it too, like Daisy’s role in the ensemble (which I’ve talked about) and the idea that Bradford hired Launchpad hoping that he’d get Scrooge killed in one of his numerous crashes. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

Here’s a very early sketch of Beakley by @theironwrist. She was originally described as “Mary Poppins meets Helen Mirren in RED.” #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

Some early Fenton and Gizmoduck designs. I gotta imagine this was some combination of Youngberg, Tim Moen, and Tapan Gandhi. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

In development, we called in a bunch of our favorite artists to help us crack the looks of certain characters. Alex Kirwan helped with the lineup at the top of this entry. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

Here’s an early Donald, Della, and Scrooge from Alonso Ramirez. I really loved the black and red motif that made them feel like a hero team. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

And this is probably my favorite piece of dev art, by @theironwrist. A perfect character vignette that tells you everything you need to know about our heroes. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

@theironwrist 21. Free Space! (I just realized I used the number 9 twice, which threw off my numbering. If only there was an easy service online that had all the episode numbers available in the correct order.) #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

22. THE OTHER BIN OF SCROOGE McDUCK!, in which one of our more ridiculous plots gets mashed up with one of our darkest plots, all to establish Lena’s POV at this moment. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

We wanted to access Lena’s worst fears to get her actual POV on Magica. Initially, we were going to do this using a McGuffin called the “Grim Nimbus,” a cloud that made all your worst nightmares come true. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

It was an interesting way to reveal pieces of everyone’s characters by revealing their deepest fears, but it was scrapped for a few reasons: first, there would be massive personal revelations for all characters that distracted from Lena’s story. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

Second, we already knew we were going to deal with some heavy, emotional “worst fears” stuff in the next episode. Also, it was VERY close to an original DuckTales episode’s plot. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

It was important to us to establish that Lena has nowhere to turn to. She doesn’t want to serve Magica, but she can’t tell anyone the truth or she fears they’ll turn on her too. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

That’s why we needed the ridiculous Gavin/Tenderfeet story paired with this one: to remind Lena (and the audience) that Scrooge and family are tenacious monster hunters. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

Scrooge’s reaction to finding out the boys have been hiding Gavin foreshadows his reaction to finding out the truth about Lena in the finale: despite his history, he’d ultimately accept one of the kids seemingly monstrous new friends. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

I don’t think Scrooge would have been so charitable at the start of the series. The fact that Louie’s able to win Scrooge over with a sob story about family shows that he’s grown some in all the right ways. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

In the very early stages, Lena’s goal wasn’t to steal the Dime, but instead to help Magica invade Scrooge’s dreams, where he had imprisoned the sorceress. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

The idea was that Scrooge would have a giant skylight in his room with a pattern drawn on it that turned out to be a dreamcatcher that protected him while he slept. Lena had to figure that out and break the skylight. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

This unfortunately led to a million questions: does Scrooge not sleep when he’s out of town or travelling the globe? Maybe we should put the dreamcatcher inside his hat? Does that mean he always has to wear his hat to bed? It was a mess. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

We scrapped it in favor of having Magica trapped in the #1 Dime; it made way more sense to connect her to the totem that she’s always wanted since she was introduced. The mystery became not WHAT she was after, but WHY. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

Though let me tell you, it was a bear keeping one half of that dime hidden for a whole season. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

A note: NEVER refer to the #1 Dime as “Scrooge’s Lucky Dime”. That’s a common mistake, but Scrooge doesn’t believe in luck. Magica only assumes the dime is lucky. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

A couple of quick easter eggs here: in Lena’s nightmare, the #1 Dime is kept in a replica of Scrooge’s classic “Worry Room”. Makes sense as this is the main source of Lena’s worry. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

Webby is of course turned into a doll version of herself from DuckTales ’87. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

Also, notice the amazing work @JohnAoshima’s team did w/ the Magica shadow stuff, including the puppeting of the Webby doll. John’s team kept finding interesting ways to show how powerful she’s become. Our animation team knocked it out of the park. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

That photo of Donald and the boys that Gavin threatens looks pretty familiar. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

Speaking of Gavin, we used to get a lot of notes about Louie storylines making him “unlikeable” or a “bad example” because his strength lies in conning people. So we ended up pitting him against much worse con-men, both here and in “Toth-Ra”. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

But the good news is we finally got to do a “What if ‘Harry and the Hendersons,’ but Harry’s a jerk?” story that I’ve been wanting to do for years. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

Fun fact: despite my tendency to write jerky characters for him, @samriegel is, on top of being the best Voice Director in the business, an unbelievably nice and supportive guy. He's just THAT good an actor. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

@samriegel 23. THE LAST CRASH OF THE SUNCHASER! The core idea we had from the very beginning of the series. Something happened that split up Scrooge and Donald for good, and no one in the family ever talks about it. It had to be Della. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

This was another ep where I was like “It’ll be easy! It’s a bottle episode!” Cut to @JohnAoshima having to build a complete 3D model of the interior of the Sunchaser so he could track seven characters and compose every shot. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

This one was a heartbreaker to write. If you’ve done all the right setup, your finale should fall like dominos. Luckily, that was the case on this one. Tons of sweet sweet payoff. And tears. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

We were originally going to be way more slavish to the conceit that they were hardly able to move without tilting the plain, but it would have made for a visually boring episode. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

There were a lot of conversations about the scale of the Sunchaser in this one too. Originally, we had the Submarine in the hull instead of the jeep, but there was no way to physically make that work. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

One of my greatest professional joys was forcing four of the greatest comedic actors working today to memorize the END CREDIT Darkwing Duck saxophone theme. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

Sean Jimenez requested to come up with the names of all the “crew” in the Darkwing credits, disappeared into his office for an hour, and emerged with pages of made-up “90s Animation Crew Member” names. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

I was very nervous that the third act of this episode only had one real joke in it: Launchpad offering to pause the Darkwing tape. But it’s what the episode needed. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

The big Scrooge flashback monologue in Act 3 was a page and a half long. David nailed it on the first take. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

The fight was…hard to write, emotionally, because no one was a hundred percent right. Scrooge is lashing out like a trapped animal; the kids aren’t saying anything he hasn’t thought himself over and over again. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

The wound was too fresh for the boys to listen to the entire story. After losing Della, this is the worst thing that could have happened to this family. This scene should play like a car crash in slow motion; there’s nothing you can do to stop it. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

I love the moment where Launchpad yells at everyone else. Take-charge LP don’t have time for your family melodrama, he’s got PLANES TO CRASH. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

Was very proud of the full family “WAIT, WHAT?!” in this one. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

And, of course, the last shot in the episode... #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

...mirrors Scrooge’s very first appearance in the comics. “Everybody hates me, and I hate everybody.” #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

24. THE SHADOW WAR, PT 1: THE NIGHT OF DE SPELL! Breaking a two-parter raises a bunch of questions off the bat: namely, how the hell do you balance it all? Do you break it as one big episode? Two smaller episodes? #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

Us being us, we decided to do it THE HARDEST WAY POSSIBLE. We broke the story so that each individual episode adhered to our typical story structure AND the 44 minutes somehow adheres to that structure as a whole. We are dumb. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

We also needed to keep this first part manageable and roughly contained to give our art team WAY more time on the second part. Magica may be the biggest effect in the whole thing, not including the Shadow Vortex. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

I am a real sucker for stuff (events, shots, lines) from the first act coming back in the third act; there’s a lot of “Cornetto Trilogy” in my DNA. You’ll get a ton of callbacks to the pilot in these two episodes. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

Particularly the idea that the boys are finally gonna take that big trip to Cape Suzette that they tried to take in the pilot. Only now, compared to everything they’ve experienced, it does seem like quite such a big adventure. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

I was delightfully surprised to see the TaleSpin logo and the Sea Duck in the final design of the Cape Suzette Brochure. Excited to actually see her in action in Season 3! #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

Being the two “outsiders” of the family, it made sense that Webby and LP would team up to try to keep this family together, because they have enough distance to not be caught up in it, but they’re part of the family too. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

Cut for time: a montage where Webby and LP buy food, decorations, and a bounce house for the dinner, only to reveal that all of those stores were in one strip mall. The bounce house survived to final cut. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

As I mentioned before, this particular story line started with the OG DuckTales episode "Magica's Shadow War" as a jumping off point. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

The Scrooge/Magica plot was an opportunity to put these two archenemies in a position to sympathize over their family troubles. Magica almost wins Scrooge over to her way of thinking: family is a headache and easily thrown away. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

Her attempt to get him to give up the Dime is what snaps him out of his desire to throw away his past and get back to basics. That Dime represents his lifetime’s experiences, and also, as he now knows after “Castle McDuck,” the importance of family. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

Also, we got to sort of do a whole episode of Catherine and David together. Sort of. @KimikoGlenn did an AMAZING job of channeling Catherine’s performance in this episode. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

The DuckTales crew firmly believes that the best way to signal that a character has hit rock bottom is to surround them with old pizza boxes. Scrooge sits on a literal cardboard throne of failure. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

It was important that Donald have the final word that convinces the boys to make up with Scrooge. Even when they’re finally all praising him above Scrooge, Donald realizes this family needs to be together. If he can bury the hatchet, so can they. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

25. THE SHADOW WAR, PT 2: THE DAY OF THE DUCKS!: This is the big one, and also our first shot at a massive, full-team event. We didn’t realize that we would have to, you know, try to top it every season. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

The narrative goal here was to take Scrooge off the table in order to prove that the family had grown as adventurers…and as a family. And each of them has an opportunity to shine at what they do best. Scrooge’s true strength is his family. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

That’s why the second part is called “Day of the Ducks” and not “Day of the McDucks”. They are every bit the epic adventurers that Scrooge is. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

As such, it felt like the right time to use the “Barksian Modulator,” that would allow everyone to see (and hear) Donald as every bit the hero Carl Barks made him out to be by allowing him to say anything and everything with passion and conviction. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

When trying to find the PERFECT voice for Barksian Donald, we knew we needed someone epic and funny and full of gravitas. Our exact words were, “We need an Avenger.” @rejectedjokes replied, “I know an Avenger.” #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

I cannot believe how lucky we were to get @DonCheadle for this incredible, epic performance. He was 100% game for anything and totally got the noble and ridiculous aspects of it; he even did a full “Squawk Rage”. He is, in all respects, “The Storm”. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

He also volunteered to do an interview for the event, which resulted in the single greatest interview chyron known to man. He also improvised the entire interview. We should really have him on again… #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

Our note for Webby after she finds out Lena betrayed her hero and mentor Scrooge: “Webby goes full Wolverine”. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

The showdown where Magica was first trapped in the Dime takes place on Mt. Vesuvius as a nod to her comic origins. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

There was initially a much longer competition between Manny and Bulb to see who could take out the most shadows, with Manny pleading “I really need this job, man.” It was very Gimli and Legolas. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

I will always look for opportunities that Fenton is just as formidable without the Gizmoduck Armor, if not even more so. Plus it allowed Donald to go toe-to-toe with “Gizmoduck” to prove what a badass he is. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

I really lobbied hard to have the stairway scene be a classic cartoon “white eyeballs in darkness” scene. See? Sometimes I do try to make things easier! #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

I love how competent Donald is in his element, and how well he knows the kids. He’s learned since the pilot that the best way to get these jerks to do something is to tell them they can’t. Also, sweet life vest callback. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

When it came down to the final showdown, we knew it had to be Magica vs. the kids by themselves. And each kid had to fight by exemplifying the core trait that we assigned them in the earliest stages of development. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

Huey is “brains,” (“smarter than the smarties”), Louie is “mouth,” (“sharper than the sharpies”), Dewey is “guts,” (“tougher than the toughies”) and Webby is “heart and fists” (“earns her way into this family square”). Combined, they equal Scrooge. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

Our note for Louie burrowing through the money to con Magica: “Louie goes full Bugs Bunny”. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

Lena’s sacrifice was hard, but necessary to prove herself free of Magica. And we knew her story was nowhere near over. What can I say? Friendship is magic. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

Another callback from the pilot we couldn’t resist: “Huey, Louie…the third one.” Only instead of “Curse me kilts, have I missed trouble,” it’s “Curse me kilts, have I missed you.” That, as we say, is growth. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

And, of course, one last parallel to the pilot as Dom beautifully blends his theme for the Della Mystery with the Moon Theme. "Mom?" vs... #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

"Boys...?" #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

26. THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME…NIGHT! The Season 2 premiere, and one of the single hardest story breaks we’ve ever had. So much of our team was very deep into the massive undertaking of The Shadow War, so we needed something a little production light. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

But it was also the SEASON 2 PREMIERE and follow up to our huge event AND the first episode after the audience discovered Della was on the moon. So it had to reestablish status quo, feel big and momentous, and still be somewhat easily produceable. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

Off the bat, we knew we wanted to hold off Della for a couple of episodes. Once we started following her, she’d overwhelm the entire season. So we had to establish a lot of other big stories (Louie, Glomgold) before getting around to her. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

Our initial instinct was a status quo refresher introducing where everyone was at this point. We talked about the old Fantastic Four comics where Stan Lee and Jack Kirby would follow the team on adventures to get inspiration for an in-world FF comic. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

So we started talking about doing a mockumentary, something focusing on an outsider learning about this fantastical family who considers themselves to be ordinary and functional. Essentially, “Grey Gardens” meets DuckTales. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

The idea was to track the comings and goings of a day in the mansion, check in with Donald, Scrooge, Dewey, Webby, Louie, etc., after the events of the Shadow War. We had two options for the documentarian: either Werner Herzog (or a Herzog type)… #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

…or potentially having this be an opportunity to introduce Daisy, leaning into her reporter persona from Quack Pack, trying to expose the family as “insane and dangerous rich folk living on a hill,” but ultimately falling for Donald. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

We tried to crack that story for two and a half weeks, one of our longest breaks. But this was ultimately too big and complicated to track, and would have needed a much stronger narrative. It felt more like table setting than an actual story. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

Also, @theironwrist brought up the concern that he’d seen a lot of animated “mockumentaries” already, and they’re very difficult to pull off well. Why put in a lot of effort to do something that people have already seen? #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

So we instead focused on person who wasn’t happy about the new “constant adventuring status quo,” Louie. We knew part of the season would focus on him starting Louie Inc., but we wanted to give him a deeper motivation for doing so than “to make money”. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

We liked the idea of Louie feeling like the outsider of the family, not sure where he belongs. It felt like a very relatable feeling to have in a big family, especially this one. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

Originally, there were going to be two different adventures colliding: the “Gyropuddlian” storyline that made the final cut, and an old wizard who’d come to send the Ducks on an epic quest that Louie had to distract. Way more of a slamming doors farce. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

Louie managed to convince the wizard that an avocado in the kitchen was cursed and tasked him to “guard it”…which became a problem when Launchpad wanted to make guacamole, and then the Gyropuddlians tried to steal the avocado. It was…a weird story. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

The opening adventure is a crazy snake-eating-its-own-tale of a reference: it’s riffing on Carl Barks’ “Seven Cities of Cibola” comic, which was the basis for the opening of Raiders of the Lost Ark, which influenced both versions of DuckTales. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

The “Woah, Wait What, Ahh!!” idea stemmed from our writing process on Season 1. Literally every episode in S1 has someone saying “Wait, what?!” at some point. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

I am fairly certain @EmmyCic had at least three more beats in the "Scrooge announcing Game Night" montage, all a delight. The birdbath was definitely her addition. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

This episode made it all the way to the first draft of script and it still felt lacking in importance or emotional resonance. “Louie wants to avoid danger” is not exactly a revolutionary story for us. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

It also felt weird that, even though time had passed since the finale, we had been through all the reveals about the Spear of Selene and Della and all the drama they had been through and it wasn’t addressed at all. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

Then we realized that deep down, Louie’s entire personal crisis was about Della. He’s always felt out of place in dangerous scenarios and he just found out his mom, the greatest adventurer ever, was probably lost forever. So what odds does he have? #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

This realization cracked the whole season open for us. It was about being “Sharper than the Sharpies”, trying your best to prepare your schemes/plans/cons and rolling with the punches when they don’t work out. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

It also gave us a clear connection between Louie and Della, which was huge for this season, as well as linking them to Glomgold and Lunaris. And all through a connection to one of the pillars of Scrooge’s personality. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

The hanging of that Della/Donald/Scrooge portrait in the main hall replacing the solo Scrooge portrait was a HUGE moment to signify that the show can evolve. And setting the stage for more status quo shifts this season. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

One of @TannerTrue‘s many strengths as a director is tracking and conveying the characters’ grounded emotions even through chaotic adventure. Every scene is about the characters’ emotions first, no matter how epic the action or ridiculous the scene. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

You can see that through Louie this entire episode. You’re always very connected to his increasingly distressed emotional state. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

Now that the hatchet was buried between Scrooge and Donald, we were finally able to put them on the same team, both in a game and in a fight, to show that they actually are a really good team. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

Also, I believe this is the first time Gyro officially stopped trying to learn the nephews names and only referred to them by outfit color. This will happen many more times. In related news, Gyro is THE BEST. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

27. THE DEPTHS OF COUSIN FETHRY! Donald’s cousin Fethry was a character we knew we wanted to incorporate early on. We’d done comics characters and Disney Afternoon characters and we REALLY wanted to pull some characters that were big in Europe too. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

On top of that, Fethry was just SUCH a fun foil for our characters; a truly sincere goofball without an ounce of malice. We’d already introduced Donald’s jerk cousin, this was a chance to introduce his weird one. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

In the early days we’d periodically have conversations with comics publishing, who’s Duck Comics remain MASSIVE in Europe. Their two most requested characters were Fethry and Neighbor Jones (who showed up later this season). #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

Because we’re primarily an adventure show, we always want to figure out how an existing character can best fit into our world. Original “Beatnik” Fethry didn’t fit exactly, but he still had to be a kook. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

The notion of Fethry as a weird, kinda isolated dude obsessed with weird pseudo-science who may have gone a little sea-mad felt true to his original while also fitting in. The Jacques Cousteau hat also helped. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

In the writing, we leaned heavily on a comparison to Doc Brown from Back to the Future. But once we cast @RealTomKenny, he put his own special warm, oddball spin on it. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

Speaking of Tom Kenny... WHOOOOOOO lives in a science lab under the sea? FE-TH-RY DUCK! #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

For those keeping score, this is the third of the main actors from my previous gig on Wander Over Yonder we were lucky enough to cast, after Keith as Glomgold, April as Black Heron, and @FredTatasciore as the Kraken. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

Tom improvised the melody for the “Blue Krill, Blue Krill” song. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

Fethry's first appearance upside down is a reference to one of his more famous original comic appearances. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

As I’ve mentioned before, the episode director and Art Director are in on the story break from the very beginning. That proved invaluable in this episode, as Sean was able to pre-design the Aquavator for @TheOneCMag to write to. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

Christian also got lots of real science input on hyrdothermal vents from Ben Tully (@phantomBugs), a marine scientist who happens to be married to @LadieFantastic. The Tully Observatory in this episode is named in his honor. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

I really loved the connection between Huey and Fethry. It’s such a hard, painful thing as a kid to be told you’re weird or “just like somebody” in a negative light, and even worse when you try to overcorrect and hurt that person's feelings. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

“It’s okay to be different/odd/weird,” has ended up being a major recurring theme in a lot of our stories, going all the way back to Daytrip of Doom. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

I love the reveal that Fethry is also a Junior Woodchuck. We’ll be meeting some other notable Woodchucks in Season 3; some that we’ve met before and some that we haven’t. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

27. THE BALLAD OF DUKE BALONEY! Another big one we wanted to do from the beginning. Unified Theory of DuckTales states that all versions are valid in our world, so we wanted to reconcile comics South African Glomgold with OGDT Scottish Glomgold. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

And have them all add up to our ridiculous Glomgold. Our version was partially inspired by every iteration of Glomgold essentially feeling like “evil Scrooge”. We wanted to play with his status as second best, in a “Single White Female” sort of way. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

Glomgold, the Second Richest Duck in The World, had always been obsessed with besting Scrooge’s fortune out of greed and ego. Our version wanted to best him in LITERALLY EVERYTHING, including being “The Most Scottish”. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

That’s a heck of a pathology to have, so we needed to find a character motivation for it that made sense, but in that twisted, maniacal Glomgold way. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

While also pointing out how much better his life would be if he could give up on that obsession. I like that both Young Duke AND Scrooge are in the wrong here, but neither would ever admit it. That idea came back in "The Richest Duck in The World". #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

The name “Duke Baloney” comes from an old pre-Glomgold Barks comic “Turkey with All the Schemings,” where Donald is mistaken for the second richest duck in the world, the "Duke of Baloni". #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

We campaigned HARD to have none of the Duck family in this ep and do a straight origin story, with the amnesia story as the A story and flashbacks to young Duke as the B. It was decided that all DuckTales episodes must have the Duck Family in them. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

Upon @LadieFantastic’s death, this episode in its entirety will be played at the memorial service. This is some unbelievable work. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

This was also the incomparable @jason_zurek’s first episode as a director, despite featuring no robots and very little electrocution. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

You know who doesn’t get enough credit? @WhoIsKF. He’s Glomgold, South African Glomgold, AND Young South African Glomgold, all distinct variations on the same theme, while walking the thin line between parody and sincerity with the amnesia stuff. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

This was also the premiere of Zan Owlson (the AMAZING @natasharothwell), the world’s most competent, altruistic businesswoman saddled with dealing with a bunch of scheming idiots. So of course we named her after our incomparable producer @zan_olson. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

I love the board team’s decision to have Zan’s intro mirror Glomgold’s intro from the pilot. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

The dream sequence had a lot of different inspirations. We didn’t want to just do David Lynch because everyone does David Lynch. So we pulled from a lot of surrealist filmmakers, especially Maya Daren’s “Meshes of the Afternoon”. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

I’d also like to point out some KILLER animation from Snipple, one of our overseas studio. This season our overseas teams raised the bar with some truly feature level stuff, ESPECIALLY all the stuff in the South Africa flashback. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

And so we kick off a classic Scrooge/Glomgold trope: a year long bet to see who can be the richest duck. This setup gave us the gift of allowing most of the Glomgold episodes revolve around what he does best: increasingly ridiculous schemes. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

One of the joys (and challenges) of writing on this show is figuring out the puzzle: how are all these various storylines going to collide and play off each other to build to a thematically resonant finale? #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

Last season, it was “how does the Magica storyline tie to the investigation into Della’s disappearance?” S2 it was bouncing Louie Inc. off of "The Bet" and Della. This led to our seasonal theme: “The best laid plans of ducks and men often go awry.” #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

As long as you have a general enough theme for the season, you can pretty much tie every episode to it and have it feel like a cohesive whole. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

29. THE TOWN WHERE EVERYONE WAS NICE! The Unified Theory of DuckTales strikes again, with two more characters we knew we HAD to introduce into the world of DuckTales: Panchito and Jose! #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

This episode was originally planned for Season 1, but we had so many other main characters to establish, and we wanted to give these two characters breathing room. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

It’s a lot of fun building out our characters’ backstories within our universe. Based on their original appearances, it only made sense to us that the Caballeros would be a touring college band. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

If you’re following our current timeline, this of course means that The Three Caballeros were trying to capitalize on the Latin Pop explosion of the late 90s/early 00s. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

It also immediately gave Scrooge an attitude about them. OF COURSE they practiced in his garage. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

This was early backstory we had for Donald; you'll notice he plays instruments throughout the series. We’d also planned to make Mickey Donald’s former college roommate who ended up being WAY more successful than him. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

We would have referenced him in this episode dealing with Donald’s feelings that he isn’t as successful as he could be, and we would have introduced him later. But, as I’ve mentioned elsewhere, Mickey is the one character we haven’t been allowed to use. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

“Imposter Syndrome” is a recurring theme that seems to keep popping up on our show. Don’t read too much into that. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

Man, we lucked out with @ArturoDelPuerto and Bernardo De Paula. They bring such insane, jovial energy that just feels like college buddies reuniting. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

Bernardo’s family was so insanely excited to hear he was playing Jose. For those who don’t know, Jose is a MASSIVE character in Brazil, especially in his own comics. He’s pretty much the Brazilian Mickey Mouse. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

We gave Arturo and Bernardo plenty of room to improvise culturally appropriate dialogue and slang. We do the same with David and Scottish phrases/slang. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

This is also a really easy way to avoid falling into dialogue traps that can be seen as stereotypical or offensive. As with all things, a little collaboration goes a long way. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

Of course their first lines are "Saludos Amigos!" #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

So our original idea for the end of this was incredibly ambitious to the point of being unproduceable on a TV episode budget and schedule. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

Initially, the idea was for the Carnivora Flower to use spores to trap our heroes in a LIVE ACTION hallucination, in honor of the amazing segments from the original Three Caballeros films. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

We’d specifically reference this segment where a cactus flower turned into a beautiful woman from the original film, then cut out of the hallucination to show that the hideous flower was luring them into its mouth. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

Instead, we decided to homage the originals with the surreal art style of the Caballeros definitive musical number. Sean and his team did an INCREDIBLE job on this sequence; the palate changes even let us get Donald in his blue outfit for the number. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

And MAN did @TannerTrue and his team do a great job on this music video fight at the end. For a brief second, we considered writing a new Caballeros song for this. It was the briefest second ever. The song is THE MOST iconic. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

But maybe we’ll get a new song out of them in Season 3… #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

In addition to all of the direct references in the fight sequence, Tanner's team also threw in little nods to the original all over the place, both in staging and action. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

I really think this was a perfect version of the Caballeros for our show, incorporating a bit of everything you know: distinctly musical but still rough and tumble and adventurous and willing to get into barfights at gigs or to defend their friends. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

That's always our goal: take the elements that everyone knows from across all media, embrace them, and evolve them respectfully within the context of our show. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

Fun/Mortifying Fact: In elementary school, I used to perform in my school’s talent shows under the stage name “The One Caballero,” where I famously sung the theme songs to Darkwing Duck and Rescue Rangers. #OnBrand #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

Dear California Adventure: let me write a new Viva Navidad show featuring the Three Caballeros, Fenton, Officer Cabrera, Gosalyn, Violet, and Don Karnage. I have both Latino bird and Christmas bona fides. #TheBeaksThatStoleNavidad #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

30. STORKULES IN DUCKBURG! It should come as no surprise that Storkules was one of THE most fun characters to write in Season 1, so of course we had to find some way to bring him back…and it was almost on a more permanent basis. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

Storkules and Donald are such a potent comedy team that we felt it would set up tons of great stories down the line to have Storkules on hand, similar to other recurrings like Gyro. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

The original plan was to actually have Storkules move into the Houseboat full time by the end of this episode. And we maintained that status quo for several subsequent episode breaks. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

That explains why Storkules so readily appeared in “The Golden Spear!” to help Dewey challenge Zeus. When we originally broke that story, he was living there. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

In “Nothing Can Stop Della Duck!”, it was Storkules Della met in the houseboat, not Launchpad. Storkules naively gave her a rundown of how great Donald and the kids were doing without her. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

And in “What Ever Happened to Donald Duck?!”, Storkules was the person who sensed something was amiss with Donald’s cruise and came to Dewey and Webby for help. We really went far down this rabbit hole. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

We scrapped this idea for two reasons. First, Storkules ruins tension. It was very hard to have a monster (like the Gilded Man) attack the mansion without the Lion of Lindos just punching it into the stratosphere. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

Second, it overshadowed Launchpad. We already invested a lot of love into developing one Himbo; it was distracting (and overpowering) to introduce a new one in the main cast. It'd create an all-consuming Himbo Singularity. A Himbularity, if you will #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

Also, we were just about to shake up the status quo with Della’s return. Didn’t make sense to do that twice. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

That being said, WHAT A DAMN JOY to have Storkules interact with Donald on an every day basis. And his arrival (along with the harpies), helped us set up a big problem: basically, what the hell IS Louie, Inc. anyway? #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

This seemed like the main thrust of Louie’s goal conflicting with Louie’s attitude: he’d like to start a billion-dollar company, but he has put in zero work into figuring out what it should be or what it does. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

So his instinct at first is, of course, a con. There are very big “Ghostbusters” vibes happening throughout this entire episode, especially in that montage. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

The harpies were initially going to be based of the more human ones from the Barks comic and the OGDT episode of the same name “The Golden Fleecing”, but it was decided “humans” would be too distracting. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

There was a lot of concern as to whether we’d be able to make business ideas engaging and relatable to kids. Our response was that if OGDT could teach kids about inflation, we could teach them about supply and demand. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

This season contained a lot of my favorite flavor of Webby: Sick of Everyone’s Nonsense Webby. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

By the way, this is the greatest sight gag anyone I know personally has ever written. If anyone ever asks what I mean when I call something a "@Bob_Snow Joke," I simply show them this image. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

@Bob_Snow 31. LAST CHRISTMAS! I am a sucker for a good Christmas episode and will always volunteer to write one if possible. Interesting story: this episode was originally supposed to happen in Season 1. We broke it and outlined it and everything. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

It was meant to be another step into Dewey’s search for answers about Della; he went to the past not to meet her but to try to gather clues about what her fate might have been. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

He ultimately broke down and asked her if the name “Spear of Selene” meant anything to her. She’d never heard of it, but liked the sound of it. So Dewey inadvertently named the ship he’s searching for. TIME TRAVEL! #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

It was pushed to Season 2 because it was felt that it was too early to do a Christmas Special that early in the first season (it would have been somewhere between Dime Chase and The Spear of Selene). #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

Ultimately I think this worked better. It would have been too early for Dewey to meet Della, and this ep served as a good reintroduction to her right before our big Della episode coming up next. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

I really loved the idea of doing a riff on Mickey’s Christmas Carol, only subverting it so Scrooge actually loves heading off with the ghosts because he’s allowed to blow off all of the headaches of Christmas. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

We were lucky enough to get the phenomenal Mike Peraza, how worked on the original (and so much of the Disney Afternoon) to recreate the style of his opening credit drawings for our closing credits. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

I was so very happy to get Jack McBrayer to come on as the voice of Definitely Not Jiminy Cricket, I MEAN, the Ghost of Christmas Past, after working with him on Wander Over Yonder. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

Jack has such a naturally sweet vocal quality that I couldn’t wait to use it for nefarious ends. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

We were originally going to use him as Legal Beagle, the son Ma put through Law School just to keep her out of prison. He was a real “I’m just a simple country lawyer,” type, then would zoom away in his Lamborghini. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

The flashbacks are, obviously, full of Easter Eggs, like Rhutt Betlah trying to get funding for an expedition to research a perfectly square rock in a prequel to Barks’ classic “Square Eggs” story. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

Farley Foghorn, the confused captain from OGDT also turns up. Cut for time: him requesting funding to build “The Uncrashable Hindentanic,” a reference to that OGDT episode. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

Back in “Golden Lagoon,” Scrooge and Goldie reminisce about a crazy captain named Foghorn. This was also meant to be the setup for that reference. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

I received a text in bed at 11:45 one night from @theironwrist asking if I wanted to make up Christmas-themed lyrics to the DuckTales theme. They were in his inbox by 11:46. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

I’ve spoken about this elsewhere, but Russi Taylor was so unbelievably generous and talented as Young Donald. She was the backbone of the original series and still so supportive of our series. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

When trying to figure out the right monster for this episode, we pulled in my buddy @wordwarthree, who co-wrote the movie "Krampus," to grill him about Christmas monsters. Given our story, he suggested a Wendigo. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

But it was @theironwrist that suggested the brilliant “WHEN’D HE GOOOOOO?!” twist. Man, that guy is stinkin’ great. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

We actually had to hold off on recording Young Della for this episode until we could record @pagetpaget for the next episode. It made sense to record that first to get a baseline for her character before asking her to play the young version of that. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

32. WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO DELLA DUCK?! Originally codenamed “They Put a Duck on The Moon”. This is the big one that we knew was coming all along, and we knew we had one shot to get it exactly right. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

We changed the title because we didn’t want to be coy about it; we wanted people to know that this is very specifically about what happened to her. Also a reference to the classic Alan Moore Superman story “What Ever Happened to The Man of Tomorrow?” #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

When we first pitched the idea that Season 2 would focus on bringing Della back, one exec said “If you’re going to do it, you really have to do it.” We couldn’t just bring her back one episode and then act like she’d always been there. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

We also knew we couldn’t start off the season with this episode for two reasons: 1) “The Shadow War!” was a MASSIVE undertaking, so we needed to give everyone a breather. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

And 2) We knew we weren’t going to bring Della back until midseason. That was an AWFUL LONG time to leave her out there without addressing her. So we waited for a quarter of the way through the season. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

There were concerns about doing a whole episode without any of our main characters (especially the kids) in it. But our argument was that they’d all had a whole season’s worth of character development. Della needed the full 22 minutes to catch up. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

One thing that helped is we gave her elements of all of her family members, personality wise. It made her feel like a natural member of the family even though she hadn’t been around them. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

We also included specific shoutouts to each member of her family. Huey’s Woodchuck training, Dewey’s tendency to sing his own theme song, Louie’s trying to bargain with a monster (“Let’s make a deal, mite!”)… #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

…Scrooge’s puffing himself up in the third person (“I’m Scrooge McDuck!” vs. “Nothing can stop Della Duck!”) and, of course, Donald’s bad luck and temper. Plus a whole bunch of “Aw, phooey”s. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

I think that’s the secret to Della: she’s Donald + Scrooge. She’s got all Donald’s bad luck, but all of Scrooge’s confidence. Paget was able to approximate a “squawk rage” by leaning upside down over a chair. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

We also needed someone who could carry a full episode of talking to herself and make it funny, thrilling, and heartbreaking all at the same time. Thank goodness for @pagetpaget #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

The conversation about Della’s prosthetic started with @zan_olson’s suggestion that we look for opportunities to showcase characters with limb difference. Based on what we already knew of Della, it made perfect sense for it to be her. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

S1 was about the past. S2 was about dealing with the present; rolling with the punches, accepting that things don’t go the way you expect, learning to adapt. That’s what life is, what parenting is, what a lot of learning to live with a prosthetic is. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

It was important for us to actually see the accident and see the moment that Della makes the decision. She sees what’s at stake and makes that difficult choice in order to survive, and in order to get back to her kids. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

We worked closely with @AmputeesUSA on the writing, boarding, and design of Della. We wanted her to be neither a token character whose entire personality was based on her prosthetic nor a character who just has a prosthetic but never addresses it. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

That's why you'll see her periodically adjusting her prosthetic, cleaning it, sometimes using it as a tool or weapon. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

It was also crucial that the character realized she screwed up IMMEDIATELY. This wasn’t a “her freaking out about kids” thing. It was a stupid, impetuous decision, the type she’s been making her whole life, only now it really affects others. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

That’s a big part of learning how to be in a family: recognizing that your actions have consequences on others. It’s a thing that Louie has to learn too, and a thing he rightfully calls Della out on down the line. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

And she’s committed to working hard every day to be a better mom, whether that means figuring out how to build a rocket on the moon or learning that you can’t make cake with poprocks. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

I’d like to apologize to @LadieFantastic and @madisonbateman for taking up a script that they knew I would have VERY strong opinions about. Same to @TannerTrue for directing it, and did so with confidence and his usual eye for character & emotion. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

Exact quote from Madiosn on the lyrics to Della’s Lullaby in the first draft: “Yeah, we didn’t kill ourselves on them because we KNEW you were going to want to write them.” #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

Speaking of, it was a BIG priority for us to not only incorporate the Moon Theme, but to do it in a meaningful way. It’s the second most recognizable song connected to DuckTales, and it felt important for us to pay homage to it. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

In the original storyboards, Della hung a sketch of the alien from the original DuckTales opening credits in the background. Pretty sure that was @EmmyCic’s doing? #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

There were two big deleted sections from the original script that had to be cut for time: one was a beautifully boarded bit following Della on her search for gold on the moon. We liked the idea that she’d use the skills she learned from Scrooge. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

The other deleted bit was a campfire with Della, Penny, and Lunaris where she explains her whole situation and they explain their war with the mites. Great character work, but ultimately unnecessary. We had them fall into the pit immediately instead. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

The tone vibe we settled on for the Moonlanders was “50s B-Movie alien”. That was the direction we gave every actor, which is why there are a lot of Mid-Atlantic accents on the Moon. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

In keeping with that idea, we were originally going to give everyone 50s Americana names, but with the word “Moon” in front of it. Gibbous was MoonKeith. Zenith was MoonMarge. Lunaris was General MoonJohnny Lunaris. It was too dumb, even for us. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

To be completely honest, I had no idea what a fun character Penumbra was going to be when we came up with her. But @SamanthaCKing sure as hell knew. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

33. TREASURE OF THE FOUND LAMP! See what we did with that title there? It’s like the movie from the original series but different! #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

A word about “reuse”. 1st seasons are tough because you build everything from scratch, then things are supposed to get easier because you’ve already built so many characters and locations. But we’re DuckTales, so we can’t really do as much of that. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

But after the INTENSE moon episode, we needed to focus on reuse so that everyone didn’t burn out (sensing a pattern here?). But the joy of this was embracing those limits to revisit characters we loved but didn’t have full episodes for in season 2 yet. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

It’s less “world building” and more “world exploration”. And has the added bonus of cementing some characters as strong supporting cast outside of their first appearances: Selene, Gladstone, Duckworth, and Doofus all get chances to shine. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

Plus it contains the idea of turning the tables on Scrooge. Instead of searching a temple for a lost treasure, he already found it and has to run the temple. It was a savvy excuse for reuse of the Temple of Heroes, which could have just been a one-off. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

On the show, we go to @TheOneCMag for cinematic scale, deep duck lore, or riffs on Simpsons type stuff. We posed this as our version of “22 Short Films about Springfield,” and he was 100% in. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

This is another entry in the “DuckTales Character Rehabilitation Project,” where we take characters with a… let’s say dicey history and try to find things about them to celebrate. We’re of course talking about D’jinn here, who was originally Dijon. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

We wanted to find a way to avoid the stereotypical aspects of the original (along with his thieving profession) and make him a badass hero. We managed this by combining him a bit with his brother Poupon (again, I didn’t name them). #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

In the original, Poupon was Dijon’s noble brother and guardian of the Golden Goose. We liked that idea of making him someone who was trying to “steal back” the lamp instead of stealing it. We liked still having him connected to a lamp. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

It was also very important to avoid making him a needlessly violent individual. He does everything with purpose, and always respects every step of the journey. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

We came up with the dockworker saying “I love you too!” during the record. The moment felt like it needed something. I like that everyone at Duckburg pier is so supportive of each other. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

Gladstone’s blimp was of course originally called the Gladyear Blimp. Also, while we hate coming up with fake inventions or disposable quests, we LOVE coming up with lucky things to happen to Gladstone. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

How David didn’t win every award in history for his “Scrooge as the Minotaur” bit, I’ll never know. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

The board for the Doofus bit by @SamanthaCKing has become the stuff of legend. I believe she was the one who decided to put him on tall rollerskates? And cover the action of Doofus’ numerous “Lamps” by having him skate around the room? #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

The race between Ma Beagle and Scrooge up the junkpile for the lamp is of course a reference to the classic DuckTales ep “Master of the Djinni”, which was also part of the original theme song. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

We also used the Djinni from that episode in the BEAUTIFUL flashback scroll done for our show by classic Disney artist Mike Peraza. I pushed to use Gene from the movie, but luckily we saved him of a CRAZY S3 episode! #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

Christian did scratch for the Beagle saying “Happy Birthday, dude!” and it was so perfect that we had to have @bauzilla (who voices all the Beagle Boys) match it. Which is insane because Eric is an UNBELIEVABLE GENIUS. But we all just got so attached. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

34. THE OUTLAW SCROOGE McDUCK! Originally titled “The Outlaw Buck McDuck!” That was in reference to a subplot where Scrooge had originally been a rustler out West (by accident) but was trying to go straight. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

That subplot felt unnecessary given all the other crazy stuff in this one, so we dropped it, along with any reference to his “outlaw nickname” Buck, which we took from “Life and Times”. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

Remember how I mentioned we went to @TheOneCMag for cinematic scale? I’m pretty sure I heard nothing but John Ford and Sergio Leone scores coming out of his office for a month on this one. Oh, and “There Will Be Blood”. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

The frame device on this one grew out of an idea for a “Princess Bride” inspired episode where Scrooge was telling the kids a story about his past but was under a curse so any embellishments and half-truths he provided actually changed history. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

It was tremendous fun to explore Scrooge and Goldie’s relationship in the early days. I imagine they had dozens of experiences like this over the years. And they’ll have to reckon with that in Season 3. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

We also got to reference Goldie’s dancehall roots from the comics with her song in this episode. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

This episode introduces our version of John D. Rockerduck and Jeeves. The idea was that Scrooge had to deal with a different rich rival for every era. Beaks in the present, Glomgold in the 80s/90s, and white gloved swindler Rockerduck in the Old West. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

There are certain occasions where we’re not sure of a character’s voice until we have an idea of who would be right to play them. It wasn’t until “What if we could get @hodgman to play him?” that our take on Rockerduck clicked into place. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

I love providing penniless Scrooge with a white-collar crook who never worked a day in his life as his first view of a “rich guy”. Cut for time was a joke where Rockerduck can’t chase Scrooge because he never learned how to open a door for himself. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

I love Rockerduck so much. Too bad we left him in the past. PSYCH. Rockerduck and “FrankenJeeves” are back as part of F.O.W.L.’s evil plot in Season 3! And he’s looking to exact revenge against those that wronged him in Gumption. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

We…have a tendency to homage the not obvious films in a series. Anyone can riff on Back To The Future. It takes a special brand of idiot to want to riff on Back To The Future Pt. 3. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

As we were talking about building out Scrooge’s posse, we decided we needed a lawman…and realized we had a beloved character who comes from a line of them on his mother’s side. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

And if we had Fenton-excuse me…”Marshall Cabrera”- we should probably get Gyro in the mix. It’d also been so long since we’d seen that pair that we wanted to throw some Gizmoduck action in there. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

Possibly my favorite fan-theory of all time is that the horse Gyro tied those rockets to became Manny the Headless Manhorse. Even though that’s not the case… because we know Manny’s secret origin… #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

Also, yes, this guy on Ottoman Empire definitely died. You really need two brothers to build a safe ottoman. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

(BONUS!) What a fine opportunity for a Mini #DuckTales #RewriteHistory on our Opening Titles!

https://twitter.com/DisneyTVA/status/1244293240813207555

It was INSANELY daunting trying to find a new version of one of the most iconic opening credit sequences of all time. We had a bunch of different proposals. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

One idea was to focus on the globetrotting element of the show. We tried to do a kind of art jam with different members of the crew with everyone chasing one treasure as it bounced across the globe. We landed on having the treasure be the #1 Dime. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

We tried this take, but it proved too chaotic as a freeform experiment; a lot of trickiness with tone and pacing on this take. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

Another idea was to lean into the "Family" theme, and have the Ducks jumping from photo to photo in a Duck Family Photo album. It felt a little low stakes, and also like something we'd seen before. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

We landed on a mix of the two, with the family chasing the dime through comic panels, which made sense as a lot of our design (and storytelling ideas) were homages to comics. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

It all came together when we realized that the comic-style ben day dots that were part of our design ethos could double as the coins in Scrooge's bin. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

In paying homage to the property’s comic roots, we incorporated a bunch of Carl Barks’ paintings, while also using them to define the ethos of our show: we’re taking from everything. So there’s Webby and the Scorpions from the original movie here... #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

And LP and Donald’s Houseboat added you the Flying Dutchman. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

It was the first indication that EVERYTHING was on the table. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

One of the tricky things about opening credit sequences is that you can only ever use characters you’ve already designed for early episodes. So we heavily featured one-offs like Hack and Slash and Peghook instead of bigger villains. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

We also wanted to hold back Magica’s reveal because we didn’t want to spoil it. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

We managed to add some other important characters for the Season 2 opening credits, like Magica and Gizmoduck. Wonder if we’ll change anything for Season 3? #DuckTales #RewriteHistory

I’d be remiss I didn’t mention the UNBELIEVABLE job @_Goldenwolf_ did on these opening titles. What fantastic work. #DuckTales #RewriteHistory