TV series: where did Disney go wrong?

I have only very recently discovered the 3 marvelous series that Disney made in the late 80's to early 90's. To be specific: DuckTales (1987-1990), Darkwing Duck (1991-1992) and Quack Pack (1996). There might be more great series of that time (I really don't know), but those were truly remarkably good, and I'll give you some of my thoughts on them.

DuckTales was really great, at least the first season with all its adventures. The later seasons seemed to lack adventuring a bit, becoming mostly Scrooge and his family vs. The Beagle Boys. I am actually glad they replaced Bubba the Caveduck with Fenton Crackshell alias Gizmoduck, as some of his episodes were quite good and he could at least talk in longer sentences. The animation and voice acting of the whole series were generally quite good, even though I think The Beagle Boys had too goofy and irritating voices. Alan Young as Scrooge McDuck can't be beaten in that role, and Russi Taylor did a good job as the kids while Terry McGovern sounds like what a somewhat goofy sidekick like Launchpad McQuack is supposed to sound like. But what really stood out in this regard was good old June Foray as Magica DeSpell! She was simply amazing in the role, and I wish they had made fewer encounters with The Beagle Boys and more with her, if only to hear her sarcastic "Scroogie, darling(k)!" more often. Absolutely fantastic to hear her not as the sweet Granny or the stereotypical Witch Hazel, but with a great accent and maniacal laughter nearly sending shivers down my spine! Simply wonderful!

And what can I say about Darkwing Duck? Seriously one of the best animated series I've seen, without much of the usual Disney "mushy stuff", but with lots of tight action comedy coupled with great voice talents. It really opened my eyes for the talent that is Jim Cummings, with his roles as Drake Mallard alias Darkwing Duck and his annoying neighbour Herb Muddlefoot. I showed an episode to my sister, and she commented that they all had very distinct voices in this show, especially for the main children Gosalyn Mallard and Herbert J."Honker" Muddlefoot. Amazing work by the voice cast, writers and animators of this show. One thing struck me and that was the reuse of nearly all villains and side characters. Many of them had at least 2 episodes, and these revisits into the minds and criminal activities of the villains made it very enjoyable since a very good continuity was being upheld through the series. After all, how many world-conquering or city-crushing villains can one city possibly have? I know that they aired the series and released the DVD's with wrong episode sorting, but I went through the Wikipedia list and watched them after production number, with the exception of the pilot episode "Darkly Dawns the Duck", showing great continuity through almost the whole series. With that being said, there were some episodes that wasn't as enjoyable, maybe in the mid-to-later half of the series, but the general feel was very good and many episodes were truly ingenious and worth watching again (e.g. "In like Blunt"). The darker tone of the series really appealed to me as an adult, without making episodes senseless shoot/beat-'em-up's, and the relationship between Drake/Darkwing and Gosalyn was beautifully laid out with lots of psychology. (Still, I wonder why Drake even tried to get her to stay behind, or at least he should have locked her door and window as using the window seemed to be her favourite escape plan.)

The last few days I've been watching the 39 episodes of Quack Pack. And it leaves me wondering why they didn't make more than one season, as DuckTales with its 100 episodes and Darwking Duck with its 91 really outnumbers this series. I was very sceptical to the whole premise, and even more so since the episode theme song was really lame (in my opinion). To my delighful surprise, the show was much better than feared, and actually quite enjoyable. Voice cast was good, animation likewise, and the more separated personalities of Huey, Dewey and Louie gave them a breath of fresh air and showed that they weren't always as likeminded and inseparable as usually depicted. Even though the comedy wasn't always as successful, its writers showed good story skills and its personality gags and character one-liners gave me a good chuckle at times. As this series probably was meant for teenagers roughly the same age as its colourful trio, I wonder why they didn't continue with the series, since I'd think that the formula should work well for many teens/pre-teens. They weren't afraid to show guns and dangerous booby-traps in Quack Pack, whilst tastefully keeping them in line with good cartoon violence tradition and not make them actually harm its main characters (too much). Overall an enjoyable series, which I'd think would appeal to many viewers.

That brings me to this question: WHY IN ALL THAT'S GOOD IN TV ANIMATION DID THEY STOP MAKING SUCH AWESOMENESS??? I didn't know about these series until quite recently, which makes me wonder what else I might have missed out on. I'll hopefully discover that in time, but unless I'm really mistaken, all Disney seems to be good for these days is making pre-teen and early teenage girls become even more warped in their minds with Hannah Montana and other craptastically uncool shows. WHERE DID YOU GO WRONG?

Sorry for the long post and somewhat ranty tone, but I just had to vent a little, whilst trying to find something new to fill the gap after the unbelievably good shows I've recently had the pleasure to discover for the first time.

Disney made several good shows back in the day. "The Gummi Bears", "Tale Spin", "Chip 'n' Dale Rescue Rangers", "Goof Troop" and "Aladdin" are other classics from this era.

All very good shows that Disney seems to prefer setting on store shelves as DVDs then to reshow them again on television and get back in the public eye. My nephews and niece would watch Disney's Doug and Recess when they stayed the weekend with me in the late 90's and early 2000's. Those are two shows that seem to break the age barrier.

I have several episodes of Brand Spanking New Doug recorded off ABC including the last episode but part of the tape has gone bad. Still waiting on Disney to release the whole series.

I love Disney cartoons and movies as well.

I forgot to mention "Hercules" and "The legend of Tarzan". Those are two very underrated TV shows from Disney. And I even got a few laughs from "Emperor's new school".