DuckTales Season 3, Episode 10: "The Trickening!

Episode: 310 "The Trickening!” 10/5/20
Starring: Huey Duck, Louie Duck, Launchpad McQuack, Donald Duck, Della Duck, Scrooge McDuck, Dewey Duck, and Webby Vanderquack
Featuring: Wereduck, Witch Hazel, Frankenstein, and Nosferatu
Appearances by: Mrs. Beakley and Timmy Jenkins
Setting: Duckburg (McDuck Manor, Hazel House, and Launchpad’s House)

PlotTales
It’s Halloween night and old demons are rearing their ugly heads, threatening to derail the McDuck family’s conflicting ideas of fun. Adult siblings, Donald and Della, squabble over the binary nature of trick-or-treating. Where angelic Donald is concerned with handing out candy, it’s devilish Della who would rather prank and scare the living daylights out of unsuspecting children. Meanwhile, Scrooge revels in the one-sided reward of outworking everyone for the most “spoils”… without spending a dime of course. Then there’s Launchpad who is haunted by childhood trauma that may or may not be Halloween adjacent. His confusion leaves him paranoid and thirsting for violence, resulting in him attempting to slash, final lad, Scrooge McDuck. But it’s Huey’s obsession with plotting out the “best Halloween ever” that proves to be the stickiest treat to unwrap.

Huey has the night all mapped out. He knows which neighbourhoods to hit, when to partake in activities like haunted hayrides, and has even carved out time for bathroom breaks. If they follow his plan, they’ll “score enough candy to last all year.” But Louie has other ideas and literally stomps all over Huey’s map. Louie only cares about the candy and has devised a scheme that will undermine Huey’s “legwork” and make them all “candy billionaires.” His latest shortcut involves taking them to Hazel House - the most haunted house in all of Duckburg that’s also rumoured to harbour years worth of free candy.

But it’s not just Huey’s and Louie’s difference in process, it’s their endgame and the subtle distinction between “candy for a year” and “candy for life” that creates the most tension. Huey may be overly fastidious, which can take the air out of the fun balloon, but fun is still his main goal. He wants to give everyone the best night ever. On the other hand, Louie wants to have such a productive night that they’ll never have to trick-or-treat again. He literally wants this to be their last Halloween ever.

Once the jig is up with the monsters and all visions for ungodly amounts of candy are lost, Huey and Louie reach a heartfelt detente. They both agree that the candy doesn’t matter with Louie realizing he was in the wrong (despite the fact that his shenanigans led to them meeting some real-life monsters). Donald, Della, Launchpad, and Scrooge converge on the scene and scare the monsters to the point of appreciation. At Huey’s suggestion, the McDuck family, along with the monsters, salvage the night by handing out candy (full candy bars!) at McDuck Manor.

Quacking Points

Like with “Last Christmas!” and “GlomTales!,” the theme song gets its own, episode-specific rendition. 

For Halloween, the extended McDuck family’s costumes are the following:

• Huey - Gizmoduck
  
• Louie - Huey
  
• Dewey - pirate on vacation
  
• Webby - Balor, Demon King of the Evil Eye (of the “Evil Eye Curse” that plagues 17th century Europe)
  
• Launchpad - evil mechanic (inspired by Jason Voorhees from the Friday the 13th franchise
  
• Scrooge - skeleton
  
• Donald and Della - angel and devil (this is (probably) an homage to the iconic characters of Angel Donald and Devil Donald who appear as two halves of Donald’s embattled conscience form the classic shorts, Donald’s Better Self (1938) and Donald’s Decision (1938)) 
  

Balor is a real life figure from Celtic mythology. He often is depicted as a giant with one eye and is the leader of a group of malevolent supernatural beings.

As he leaves to go trick-or-treating, Scrooge recreates a portion of the famed jig from the aptly titled Silly Symphony short, “The Skeleton Dance” (1929).

Hazel House, the most haunted house in town, is an homage to Witch Hazel who famously starred in the classic animated short, Trick or Treat (1952), with Donald and the nephews.

Despite having the same name as well as also being voiced by June Foray, the Witch Hazel, who appeared in numerous Looney Tunes shorts, is a completely different character.

Speaking of which, Donald’s turn as an angel who just wants to hand out candy belies his character in Trick or Treat when his main objective is to prank his nephews.

Louie tries to play it cool but he definitely knows some of the Junior Woodchuck Guidebook by heart, just like the real Huey.

The fake Dewey staring at the static-filled television set is in reference to the classic 80s movie, Poltergeist.

Among the important dates on LP’s calendar are Burrito Day at the gas station, a Darkwing Duck marathon, a Jr. Woodchuck Meeting at 5 PM (not AM like last time), and ballet class.

The gang of monsters “haunting” Hazel House are also wearing costumes due to their theory that “kids today don’t appreciate the classics” and are “scared of random kid stuff” like puppets, clowns, and little girls in wells.

The monsters and their corresponding costumes are as follows:

• Wereduck - am evil clown (similar to Pennywise from It)
  
• Witch Hazel - Samarra from The Ring
  
• Nosferatu - Billy the Puppet from the Saw movies 
  

To explain it further, “Frankenstein think it stem from latent fear of being perceived as childish and regressing to place where you no longer in control.”

Instead of a costume, Frankenstein was using his dismembered extremities to control various creepy crawlies.

Of course, Frankenstein is the doctor, not the “monster” but the big guy refers to himself as Frankenstein so I’m gonna call him “Frankenstein.”

Nosferatu is from a German silent film of the same name. The movie and character is an unauthorized and unofficial adaptation of Bram Stoker’s novel, Dracula - so, he's basically a Dracula ripoff.

Junior Woodchuck Rule 99: Who cares about the candy?

Timmy Jenkins is among the crowd of kids trick or treating at McDuck Manor, dressed as a mummy.

The closing shot of a black and white, framed photo of the McDuck family posing with the monsters hanging in Hazel House (of which you can plainly see in numerous scenes prior)  is an homage to The Shining (as is the episode’s title).