DuckTales Episode 20 Review: Sky Pirates… In The Sky!

This DuckTales review contains spoilers.

DuckTales Episode 20

The last few weeks I’ve been digging really deep into the minds of the DuckTales characters. Abuse, expectations, consequences, and more have been themes that have run through these episodes. They were all great abut sometimes you need to take a break from the deep stuff and have a few musical numbers.

“Sky Pirates… In The Sky!” is the breeziest DuckTales episode yet. It knows exactly what it is, a musical with a simple morale, and just revels in it. It doesn’t leave you much to chew on but sometimes we need a mouth full of sugary sweets and cheese. The fun never lets up.

Jaime Camil totally steals the show as Don Karnage and hams up every single line with appropriate bravado. The savyness of the characters when they totally saw through Karnage’s disguise was spot on. Louie and the gem might be in the running for best B story of the season, which is saying something cause it was such a small plot.

Just because the episode was so focused on having a good time doesn’t mean there weren’t some nice touches to dig into. As much as DuckTales is a series about family we haven’t had many episodes that felt like we were dealing with the Duck family itself. We’ve seen them all hang out and have conflict but it felt very one and one. 

Dewey here just wants to be noticed by everyone. It’s playing up how big this family is and how, especially on adventures, it’s a little easy to get lost in the shuffle. All he wants is for someone to acknowledge him but since Dewey always acts like this of course they’d ignore him after awhile.

Even with that, I loved how the reconciliation went down. Of special note was Huey calling Dewey out for not being more clear about his feelings but wonderfully Scrooge shuts that down. Of course Huey is technically right but Scrooge knows that’s not what Dewey needs right now. He needs to hear “I’m sorry” and they all give it to him. Even more, Dewey apologizes as well because he messed up to.

It’s small and simple but again, this episode isn’t digging deep. It’s just there to be wacky and bombastic and in that it totally succeeds. For the adult fans in the audience it’s easy to grasp onto deeper themes but if we can’t enjoy a light romp, in DuckTales of all things, we’re not watching the right show.  

Also come on, MUSICAL NUMBERS! They were great! They were catchy! I’m right there with Launchpad, that song will be stuck in my head for DAYS.

DuckTales Quotes To Make Your Life Better 

– “I am offended that you would try to taint this treasure hunt with learning!”

– “Stickers are for kids. Adults call them decals.”

– “I meant that as a rhetorical menacing.”

– “DON’T YOU GO SOUTH ON ME EVIL LOUIE!”

Shamus Kelley is a pop culture/television writer and official Power Rangers expert. Follow him on Twitter!