DuckTales Season 3 Episode 20 Review: The Lost Cargo of Kit Cloudkicker!

This DUCKTALES review contains spoilers.

Kit thought he wanted to be a pilot, like his hero Baloo. Kit was great at cloud kicking but he put that aside, looking at it as remnants of his youth. He’s older now, he should be a pilot like his hero… right? Dewey is bored with piloting so after watching five seconds of cloud kicking he decides this is going to be his new thing because it’s exciting! He’s no good at it of course but man (duck?), he wants to dew it!

Who you want to be v. who you actually are is at the heart of today’s DuckTales… but I don’t think it was all that well handled. Yes, of course Dewey is bad a cloud kicking but everyone’s dismissive of it from the jump (though Della gritting through her teeth she needs to support her son was hilarious.) There’s an implication that Dewey is good with piloting so he should be satisfied with only that… but what if he’s not? What if he does want to broaden his horizons? He could be good at piloting AND something else if he wanted. He’s bad at cloud kicking for a day and he should just give it up? 

Let’s look at how Kit summed up the lesson.

“If you’re great at something you gotta hold onto that because brother, you are not great at cloud kicking.”

But just because you’re great at something does that mean you SHOULD be satisfied with it? You can’t want to do something else? This feels oddly out of character for DuckTales which is usually so warm with its lessons and compassionate. It doesn’t always say things are easy but to basically shut someone down and go, “you’re good at this so be satisfied with it” just feels like it’s telling anyone who dreams of doing more to, “stick with what you’re good at.”

The lesson could have worked with Kit but there wasn’t enough done to sell that he was really unsatisfied with being a pilot. Sure he was bad at it but seemed pretty content with trying to make it work. Was he late on all his payments and not all that good? Sure, but he was excited to be like his hero. Should he give up solely because he isn’t naturally talented at it? 

After that big speech is delivered it’s said that the thing you’re great at is special because you’re doing it. But again, just because you’re great at something doesn’t mean it’s satisfying. For Dewey and Kit, yes, it worked out. Dewey realized he’s great at planes and Kit remembers how much he loves cloud kicking. Still though, this whole plot just left a bad taste in my mouth. If the episode had shifted “who you want to be v. who you actually are” to really digging into who we think we’re SUPPOSED to be and questioning where those expectations come from, that would have been great. I believe that’s what they were going for since Kit also said, “I gave up the thing I was special at because I thought I was expected to do something else.” But again, not a lot of set up for that and it didn’t really track with Dewey’s side of things either.

As is we’re left with an unintended mean spirited DuckTales. If you’re a TaleSpin fan maybe there’s more to enjoy here but having never seen it the many references were lost on me. That big instrumental bit of TaleSpin’s theme was pretty cool though.

Still, this being DuckTales there were some great moments that still shone through. That stone combining animals together and then humans and animals was downright horrifying. Who knew we’d get that kinda body horror in DuckTales? Della continues to be a fantastic addition to the family and seeing her be so frustrated with Kit was a great way to tap into her anger.

It’s rare for me to have this kind of reaction to DuckTales but this is a rare exception in what is normally a fantastic show. Hopefully next week it’ll be back on form.

DuckTales Quotes To Make Your Life Better

– “Did he just DEWEY that?”

-“GASP! What a rollercoaster.”

– “He can’t hear me over his own horrified screams.”