He was replaced by Mrs Beakly. She is Scrooge's butler/bodyguard/secretary now.

Yeah, I kinda expected as much, but that's not really relevant here. It's subjective like you said below: it's what defines the Ducktales universe for me, which is what the show did. I think I did read one or two of the original comics though, but I never got a chance to become a big fan. At the time I was all about Asterix and Tintin :)

Yeah that is pretty much how I feel, though not that I am all that annoyed with the existence of the new cartoon necessarily :)

And Gummi Bears rule! After all, it's its success that led to the creation of these other Disney cartoons. But yeah, it does have a silly name and a very silly premise: Sentient bears with advanced technology and bouncing as a superpower :P However overall the stories are a bit better for me than those of Ducktales episodes, specifically the earlier non-treasure hunting ones. And whenever I watch an episode (which I often do still) I'm frequently amazed by the artwork of the backgrounds. Drekmore castle, and Drekmore in general is one of my favorite locations in this regard : pic. And If I had the money I'd create my own underground Gummi Glen to live in. Damn, that sounds weird, but it's the truth :D The only better place I can think to live in is that apartment building Rebecca lives in in TaleSpin.

Give The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck a chance. It's a masterpiece, and I mean that quite seriously. It's an amazing work. Ducktales was my first conctact with Scrooge and the other characters, so it defined them for me too, but even so I had to bow my head to Rosa's magnum opus. I may love the Ducktales version more than any other, but I still have to admit that in all honesty it pales in comparison to that comics.

Yeah, the show holds up surprisingly well all things considered. It has a lot of things going for it. The artwork is great, there is a lot of intriguing lore hinted at, and Igthorne is a rare example of a cartoon villain who can get defeated on a weekly basis but not come off as a fool and still retain some menace. And I have to say, when I was a kid I loved princess Calla and I still think she's one of the coolest characters Disney ever had. Smart, brave and capable, it's downright criminal she gets overlooked in favor of all the boring-ass princesses from the movies.

By the way, have you seen The Black Cauldron? I think it's one of Disney's best (despite being apparently the least popular), and it's interesting how many elements of Gummi Bears seems to be lifted directly from it, only there it was a 1000 times darker.

Oh yes, but such a thing would be such an absolute pain to keep clean. All kinds of sediments will settle on the bottom :(
And according to the show the dome leaks and needs the sap of an extremely rare magical plant as well :P

Cool, I'll definitely check it out then. If I can make a time for a Tintin book every now and again I might as well make time for Scrooge :)

Princess Calla is a really cool character yes. There are a few great episodes centered around her and Sunni.

I've only seen bits and pieces of The Black Cauldron, and from what I've seen it looks like an incredible film. I really should make a point of watching the whole movie. A sad fact about the film is that about 12 minutes was cut. From the description of those scenes it does appear like they were pretty gruesome/disturbing, so probably better that it was cut. What is sad though is that some/most of what was cut has since been lost from what I remember from a wikipedia binge some years ago about lost film reels. Or perhaps not lost necessarily, just stored and forgotten somewhere :
[url=http://lostmediaarchive.wikia.com/wiki/The_Black_Cauldron_(Deleted_Cauldron_Born_Footage]http://lostmediaarchive.wikia.com/wiki/The_Black_Cauldron_(Deleted_Cauldron_Born_Footage[/url])

You definately should. The books it's based on are even better (way better to be honest) but it's still a great and, for a Disney movie, entirely unique. I mean, I think it's enough to say that instead of a villain singing a catchy song about his evil, we get John Hurt as a lich monologuing to his collection of corpses. It's quite amazing.

Not a fan of the art style at all, and the children's voices seriously bug me. They sound like they're in their late 30's/early 40's. * checked Wikipedia before submitting - turns out that the voice actors actually are all 35-40 years old after all*

Aside from that, the storyline seems very good. I like the version of Mrs Beakly that actually stands up for herself, and the Fat Bastard Glomgold has more character than the old one.

Very cool, I didn't realize it's based on a book. I'm definitely going to check it out. Is it very close to the film? Does the one spoil the other? I'm just wondering whether to start with the film or the book.

He seems so obsessed with Scrooge, I think it would be great if it turned out that he in fact isn't (he wasn't in the original comics), and is only pretending to be becasue he wants to out-Scrooge Scrooge.
It's actually a series of five books, The Chronicles of Prydain. The movie is a very, very loose adaptation of the first two. I've seen the movie first and only through that learned about the books. I think it's such a loose adaptation that it spoils nothing, and it doesn't matter much what you start with. In fact, it might actually be better to see the movie first, as that way you won't be annoyed by the changes and will just enjoy it for what it is.

Right, I was thinking of starting with the film. If nothing else it gives you a lot of exciting mental images to use while reading the book.

Just to mention, Disney XD uploaded the first episode to youtube if folks want to see it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gP0Neif7Y4E

Watched it last night.

While I certainly can't say it's bad, there's something about it that seems off to me. What that something is, however, I'm at a loss for words on how to describe it.

That aside, the lighthearted tone is there. Not that there was ever any worry that Disney would allow the people behind the show to roll it into the muck with a "gritty" reboot, but it's still good to know that the show isn't taking unnecessary steps into dark tone in hopes of retaining a modern audience's attention.

The jokes and gags weren't... great. Not to say those that were there weren't funny, it just seemed like most were the obvious ones that could be made within the confines of the episode. But I can't judge the entirety of the show's humor based on one/two episode(s) when it isn't a live-action sitcom pilot.

Donald having more of a presence within the show is a plus, even if I find in my old age that his voice is mostly a reminder to turn captions on just so I don't mangle what he's saying at a given time.

Overall, I think I'm more excited for this to do well enough that it warrants Darkwing Duck being brought back (simply referencing St. Canard and a brief peek of Darkwing at a convention presentation doesn't really cut it for me). At the same time, my excitement remains tempered by the notion that it can be screwed up significantly by bad choices from the people tasked with bringing the show back. At the very least, I'd hope they'd not dismiss any voice actors willing to return to the series should a revival/reboot happen like they did with a few of the DuckTales voice actors.

The artstyle looks cheap, to be honest. The whole thing is so off the only Ducktales about it is the name of the show.

I liked it.

Having to continually replay certain scenes to catch what Donald was saying is a bit annoying, and I agree that it'd be best if they found a way to make him more intelligible without throwing away his, um... accent? ...entirely. (Optional subtitles, perhaps?) And his classic bottomless=dressed, but topless=naked trope? A nice touch.

Giving the boys more obvious personality differences is also a good touch. I like how Huey is the planner, Dewey is the do-er (hah!) and Louie is the schemer. It seems that birth order stereotypes still apply, even to triplets.

Still on the fence about Webby. The concept is good: she's literally an odd duck, and there are already hints being dropped that adventuring is her destiny. But as much as I love Kate Micucci, hearing the same voice on almost every animated show I currently watch (including Steven Universe and Milo Murphy's Law) is a bit jarring.

And, because some sort of wordplay can be considered obligatory from a self-proclaimed "rapier wit", consider this: in a sense, David Tennant has finally graduated to landlord! (All right, not my finest effort; I'll do better next time. And that's a duckin' promise.)