"Amnesiac Duck"

How about 'Forget-Me-Duck'? No?

Season 2 Episode 15 (episode 41 overall)

Original broadcast date: 19 December 1989

Writer: Jimmy Hibbert
Additional voices: 1^st peasant/Sviatoslav/
                              Dr. Von Goosewing:

                               Jimmy Hibbert

                              2^nd peasant/Dmitri: Brian  
                              Trueman

Joke credit: Gaffer: Erm…….

Castle transport visual not used.

 

 One of the plus points about having strong characterisation in this series is that we can have plotlines that don’t involve the castle travelling at all and still have an entertaining episode. The lack of travel means that character interaction is key and even inconsequential scenes never seem worthless. They simply illustrate day to day events for the cast in an amusing manner, like a traditional sitcom; highlighting the mundane familiarity of domestic life along with the tensions that go with it.

Said tensions in this series are almost always between Duckula and Igor. Their differing views often bring them to clash with one another and in this story Igor has pretty much tricked his master into signing an agreement, obliging him to stalk the ramparts and emit blood-curdling screams every Tuesday. This is at least a small request compared to blood-sucking, but it's not unimaginable that that would be the next logical step, or at least at attempt to build up to it.The Count, to give him his due, stands by the agreement up to a point and even seems to be enjoying it at one stage, spurred on by Igor’s genuine praise. Unfortunately, (for Igor) Nanny misunderstands the purposes of said screaming and barges into the scene to give Duckyboos a cuddle. This, ironically produces even more screams, that even the peasants down below comment on!  

Some fun struggling animation on Duckyboos as he tries to escape.

But Duckula, like a temperamental actor, has had enough of the whole traditional vampire shtick and just wants to feed his face (something he finally manages to do in the last scene). He looks in the fridge for ‘exquisite morsels’ (which Nanny mishears as ‘squeezed-out mouses') and refuses to return to the job in hand. In this sense I can’t blame him. Igor got him to sign the agreement by pretending he wanted the Count’s autograph for his little niece. The very idea of Igor having a neice amuses me. I wonder if she's anything like her uncle?

Then again, the Count did sign the agreement without reading so Igor is still technically in the right. The arguing between the two gets quite heated. You’d almost expect it to come to blows were it not for the feudal system being very much in place. I sometimes get the impression that this is the only thing holding Igor back from being outright disobedient most of the time. Still not finding much in the way of food Duckula storms out of the kitchen and into a cupboard where he steps on a mousetrap (suitable for squeezing out mouses?) and bashes his head badly causing him to not only forget his hunger but also, who he even is. After sharing in his confusion for a bit, Igor decides to turn the situation to his advantage by ‘appraising (him) of a few facts.’ Nanny is dismissed after she hampers the proceedings by repeating everything  only intended for Duckula to repeat and soon the Count is convinced that going down to the village to bite necks is the done thing for a fellow in his position. Igor’s luck zig-zags a few times though as Duckula keeps getting his noggin bashed, first by a vase dropped by Nanny, then by falling through a hole in the floor and again by tripping over Nanny’s carelessly discarded feather duster. Each time a bash occurs, it restores each alternate memory until finally Igor just gets fed up and doesn’t care if Nanny answers/breaks the front door, which has had someone knocking at it for some time. Said someone is Von Goosewing, crudely disguised as a door-to-door salesman selling a vampire blaster less crudely disguised as a vacuum cleaner. After buttering up Nanny (who was already flattered earlier than she thought Igor was proposing to her!) he enters the castle to demonstrate the cleaner. He immediately reveals himself and tries to demonstrate the cleaner on Duckula, interrupting his lunch. I wouldn’t even be surprised if it was just an ordinary cleaner and Goosewing had left the real weapon back home. Once again a head banging accident occurs (involving the vacuum itself – ouch!) and evil Duckula is to the fore once more while Goosewing seems to have now lost his memory. As if he wasn’t scattery enough already!
 

The Doctor flees the scene while Duckula tries to pursue him, tripping over Igor’s foot and restoring good Duckula once more. Nanny treads on the now ruined broccolli sandwich, causing her to fall and bash her head too. The vibration of a 16 stone hen causes the chandelier to fall on Igor and dmit him into the sore head club. Now theservants have lost their memories while Duckula is back to normal! Naturally he screams (voluntarily this time) in confusion thus wrapping up the episode.

If the Count had but known what was going on with his memory and were he as sneaky, he could have tried restoring Igor’s memory in the same way Igor himself tried earlier, thus having the butler as disgusted by vampirism as he is. Interesting as this could have been, sadly we’re now out of time either way!  

In the soundtrack we hear a lot of use of 'Fog Bound' by Ivor Slaney which can be heard on the DeWolfe music site here. It plays every time someone loses their memory and when Igor brainwashes Duckula. 'The Killer Insinct' by Richard Allen Harvey (track 35) plays when Duckula loses his memory for the first time. The jolly refined tune that plays in the kitchen scene was last heard at the end of 'Whodunnit?' and also can be heard at the end of the Victor & Hugo episode 'Do-In-Yourself' and also in 'The Show Must Go On' in this series. It is 'Sir Toby Belch' by Eric Spear (at the 2m30s mark.) Teutonic jollity for when Goosewing is shilling the vacuum cleaner, also heard in ‘Unreal Estate’ but I’m afraid I haven't been able to source any of his themes as of yet. Parts of ‘Terror by Night’ (Hubert Clifford) play when Goosewing reveals himself and when Duckula begins chasing him. Clock bats theme: 'Vamp Til Ready' (Wally Asp - track 88).

  Being a non-travelling episode, we get some nice shots of the castle including the familiar areas and a few that never got shown all that often. If you need larger size images of any of these, let me know.
    

                               As this one zooms out and tracks, I can't get it all in. 

At least they have a cleaner ceiling now thanks to Goosewing.

Trivia

* Another episode with ‘duck’ in the title.
* Last episode to be broadcast in 1989

* Instead of cutting away, the title words stay on screen as we pan across to the castle.

* It's Always Tuesday in Transylvania! Here it is in play again.
* Duckula puts in false fangs to appease Igor. He'd do the same again in 'A Christmas Quacker.' He also did it in 'A Family Reunion' using a much more rubbishy looking set.

* Igor's 'I think you've got it! By George you've got it!' could be a paraphrased quote from 'My Fair Lady' given the context of training someone to 'better' themselves.

* Some stock animation of Igor and Nanny is used and two pieces of recycled animation are also used. Nanny approaching Duckula to hug him at the start is re-used from ‘CastleDuckula: Open to the Public’ and Duckula falling down the hole is reused from ‘No Sax Please We’re Egyptian.’ When Duckula looks around his bedroom door the layout is the same as when he did the same in ‘One Stormy Night’ but the animation is new.

1st: This episode, 2nd: 'Castle Duckula: Open To The Public', 3rd: This episode, 4th: 'No Sax Please, We're Egyptian.'

Left: This episode, Right: from 'One Stormy Night.'

* Another appearance of the village inn ‘Ye Tooth and Jugular’. The innkeeper is there too, but has no lines, in direct contrast to 'Mobile Home.'

* Among the items Duckula looks through in the fridge: a bowl of something milky, a vase of flowers, a plate, a teapot, a half eaten (presumably not by him) pork pie, an almost empty bottle of lemonade, a shoe and an empty tin can.

* According to Igor's watch, it seems to be 10 o'clock and later on the bats' clock it read about 11. Time is pretty eleastic in the castle anyway which may partly explain why none of its residents ever age.

* The skies start off dull, clear up towards the middle and go back to dull towards the end.

* The hole Duckula falls through has him land on the kitchen table. This is in keeping with the kitchen’s location. It’s under the main hall at the bottom of the castle, possibly close to the cellars.

* Goosewing doesn’t refer to Heinrich in this one.

* Closest Nanny ever gets to saying Goosewing’s name outright in the whole series and even then she calls him ‘Doctor Van Whatsit.’

* Goosewing’s vacuum only has a plug and cord when the gag calls for it!
* Duckula eats (some of) a broccolli sandwich.

* Igor seems concerned that Duckula should not mess with Goosewing. He still holds some respect for his vampire slayer prowess clearly.

* Storyboard by regular Duckula illustrator Vincent James*(see below) and animation direction by Jean Flynn who would go on to board and direct ‘Avenger Penguins.’

Goofs and Nitpicks

* Mega oops moment with the clock bats. Their voices are switched so that Sviatoslav talks like Dmitri and addresses Sviatoslav as Dmitri! Either the clock needs fixed, or someone in the sound editing lost their memory too! Also, can anyone explain their joke this week? I know they’re intentionally corny, but I just don’t understand this one.

Anyway that’s all well and good, but it’s time for me to review this episode. Oh wait I already did it? Sorry I must have forgotten.

*I almost forgot! In fact I did forget, that I have some copies of the storyboard for this episode. As you can see, it differs in places form what finally ended up onscreen so it's fun to see. To me, this doesn't look like James' familiar style, but he was the credited artist, so you can judge for yourselves.

UPDATE: The artist responsible is actually a fellow called Mychailo Kazybrid. Here is a link to his blog.