"Bad Luck Duck"

Season 2 episode 19 (episode 45 overall)

Original broadcast date: 23 January 1990

Writer: Jimmy Hibbert
Additional voices: Dr Von Goosewing/
                              Sviatoslav: Jimmy Hibbert
                              Dmitri: Brian Trueman

                      

Castle transport visual not used

Joke Credit: Joke - The Quite Funny Joke Company



Duckula attempts to prove that Nanny's superstitions are without foundation. Unluckily, every time he tries to prove them wrong, he encounters bad luck himself.

The stage is set with Nanny's wailing and howling which causes Duckula to join in without really knowing why and then realising he ought to at least know the facts before panicking. This whole scene demonstrates not only the Count's impetuousness, but also the frustration involved in trying to get any sense out of Nanny. It's fun how she enrages him so much that he is now shouting and Nanny has now stopped. Clever bit of turnaround writing. Igor as usual is clued in on what has got Nanny's feathers in an uproar, but thanks to him she remembers why she was panicking and leaves again before Duckula can figure it out. He eventually finds out what's going on by checking the paper and putting two and two together and getting 13. Friday 13 to be exact.  So now we know what the title was all about!

So far this feels almost like a 10-minute episode that was padded out to fill 20 minutes. I feel it definitely would have benefited from a shorter running time, given the more straightforward premise (like a comic strip story), but I guess that just wasn't an option. The jokes are solid enough, but would have been funnier if faster paced. The opening scene is particularly long, but things pick up when we get to the 'meat' of the episode. Or should that be 'veg?'

The following three scenes function as a sort of education on well-known superstitions and how they probably should not be taken seriously. The first is to demonstrate that walking under a ladder is not something to worry about. This joke is quite subtle in a sense and it took me a while to even notice it. But just as Duckula does walk under the ladder Goosewing (who is on the warpath again) falls on him after failing to secure his own rope ladder to his overhead airship. That's probably the cleverest joke of the three segments. Goosewing excuses himself when he realises he's left his latest weapon behind. Duckula is surprisingly polite about it.

Next is salt spilling. Igor completely wastes an entire bag of salt by pouring it on the ground. I guess he must really be serious about disproving Nanny's beliefs! In an attention to continuity we get a scene that involves something that regular viewers may have been wondering for quite some time. Just how does Dr. Von Goosewing get back onto his airship each time he falls out? You'd think by this stage he's have invented a remote control of some sort to bring it to him, or perhaps even an automatic ladder that's attached to the craft and lowered down. But this is Goosewing we're talking about. He finds a model bat outside the castle which he uses as a hook to try and swing the rope ladder back up and attach to the gondola. For some reason this bit reminds me of a video game. Find bat hook, combine bat hook with rope ladder, test skill! Come to think of it, wouldn't a survival horror style Duckula game have been great? Too bad the series came out at the wrong time for that and only got a couple of ZX Spectrum ones - the second of which is the true horror.

Anyway, the Doctor misfires and doesn't get anywhere near the airship, but does manage to bonk the Count on the head with the bat, tangle  him in the rope and land him face down in the mound of salt before pulling him out of the window he was standing near. This time Duckula isn't so polite and we get an interesting little scene where he actually gets angry at Goosewing. I wish this bit had gone on for longer as I really wanted to see Goosewing getting all embarrassed as Duckula details how much his life is being ruined by him. Nanny 'helps out' by simply throwing VG back to his ship and characteristically missing the door.

The final lesson involves Duckula breaking a mirror (more needless waste!) proving that seven years bad luck will not ensue. A bit of a risk, but considering Duckula's luck is pretty bad anyway, I doubt he'd notice any appreciable difference. This exchange is funny. I like how Nanny understands what Igor's saying better than Duckula does.

Igor: Thus demonstrating to you the fallacy of the superstition attached to such an action.
Duckula: Yes. Whatever that means.
Nanny: He means you're going to break the mirror on purpose, duckyboos.

Nanny of course won't have this, which is particularly ironic considering how often she herself breaks things. Although in fairness, she never does so on purpose. She chases Duckula around trying to relieve him of the hammer like an angry mum trying to stop a bratty kid -pretty funny actually - until Duckula returns to the mirror and smashes it anyway ("into littlllle tinyyyy pieces milord") while outside Gooeswing has managed to accidentally break something by shooting off his stake gun up through his roof and into the blimp. Only he didn't do it on purpose. So now he has a hole in the top and bottom on his gondola. Oo-err.

The blimp smashes through a window - shattering it and most of the wall also into little tiny pieces too. So there's another subtle bit of echoing. Then it does the same to our main three. Well almost - it crashes, sandwiching them against a wall in a comedy ball of dust.

Next day, Duckula is recovering in bed and glad it's no longer Friday the 13th....or IS IT? Igor brings in his breakfast (after thoughtfully taking it from Nanny - he doesn't want her to drop it whilst opening the door evidently) and the morning paper. Here's the punchline folks! Turns out that there was a misprint in yesterday's paper and today is actually Friday the 13th which sends Duckula into a panic. Now he's as superstitious as Nanny was at the start. I like how it seems to imply Igor agrees and Nanny now seems cured or at least sceptical. A funny and ironic denouement.

Overall, not exactly a stand-out episode by any means, but worth it for the ending, which always makes me chuckle. The whole thing puts me in mind of an episode of "Hancock's Half Hour" ("The 13th in the Series") which was also about bad luck and superstition. Funnily enough there was a later episode of Ren and Stimpy along a similar premise ("Superstitious Stimpy") that the artists weren't that keen on either. I guess it's just a hard plot to do. It is possible that Jimmy Hibbert was being spread a little thinly by this point in the series, but I don't know how much these things were shuffled about. On the plus side, we have all the core cast doing their best and some solid draughtsmanship. Overall this is somewhat weak for a season finale though and I feel it would have been fairer to shift this one to the middle of the season. 'Amnesiac Duck' would have been a better closer. It has a similar feel to this episode, but with more emphasis on character and drama and is probably the stronger for it. The animation here though well-drawn, but quite limited by this show's standards, especially near the start. The angular artists tend to get the more elaborate staging and little details like the sparkles on Goosewing's gun are welcome.


Music
'Eccentric Walk' (Roger Roger 13:34) - The ladder.
'Stealth By Night' (Jack Coles) - Goosewing falling from his ladder.
'Vamp Til Ready' (Wally Asp - track 88) - Clock bats.
'Petticoat Lane' (Eric Siday 10:44) - Get some salt.  
'Agitato No.1' (Derek Laren) - Goosewing musing on how to get back on his airship.
'Clowneries' (Roger Roger) - "Spilling salt is just superstitious -"
'The Plot Thickens' (Dick Walter) - Nanny won't have Duckula breaking a mirror.
'Path of Destruction 1' (Tim Souster) -  "Slight technical hitch."
The music that plays as VG approaches in his airship is also used in "The Ghost of McCastle McDuckula" and "Ducknapped" - can't trace that one yet. The cue heard as Duckula checks the paper in bed is heard in "The Return..." and "Transylvania Take-Away." 
'Horse Feathers' (Philip Green) (5m40s) Mirror.
'Barrage' (Jack Trombey) - Closing music. Also used to end "Duck and the Broccoli Stalk" and "Family Reunion."

With thanks to the anonymous contributor who furnishes me with music cues I have not sourced.

Pans and backgrounds
No pans this time, just some castle-centric backgrounds. There's not a huge deal of them and they're mostly taken up by the characters who are onscreen in almost every shot, so perhaps this would account for the less complex animation. There is a long repeating pan as Nanny chases after Duckula, but it moves too quickly and has too much covered (by Nanny mainly!) for reconstruction here.

Trivia

• Another title with the word 'duck' in it. In the title card, the horseshoe letter Us represents good luck. When they flip upside-down, it represents bad luck. 2nd episode to make reference to poor luck in the title. Prior one was "Hard Luck Hotel."
• Episode starts with Nanny screaming (Duckula joins in) and ends with Duckula screaming. Opens and closes in Transylvania.
• According to Nanny's gibbering her niece Primrose has her birthday on Monday the 9th. She and her mum (Nanny's sister) are mentioned again in "Mystery Cruise."
• Goosewing inventions: Vampirometer and Fantastisch Mark Zwolf Vampire Vanquisher (patent pending) which appears to be a smaller version of his usual stake gun. Zwolf is German for 12.
• Dmitri makes a joke about good luck charms involving a black cat. Black cats are considered good luck in some countries (including Britain, where this show was made) and bad luck in others. He also apparently has an uncle Boris.
• Another appearance of Von Goosewing's airship and reference to Heinrich.
• Goosewing curse: "Tannhäuser und Lohingrin!" (Opera by Richard Wagner).
• Nanny seems to be under the impression that Goosewing is one of Duckula's friends, while Igor mostly ignores him in this episode.
  
• Duckula apologises sarcastically to Goosewing, not unlike how he did to Mrs. G in "Duck and the Broccoli Stalk." He even uses the word abject again. A couple of music cues are used from that episode here too.
• Does Goosewing actually say world as opposed to vorld for once?
• The dart-studded Goosewing poster can be seen in the Count's bedroom again. 
• Another appearance of the newspaper, the Transylvanian Morning Sun.
• This episode is (mostly) set on Thursday the 12th of May which makes it (presumably) take place in 1988.
• This is a very rare episode where Igor partakes in no grisly or fiendish observations or actions. Unless you count his terrible waste of all that salt.
• Is the gag credit the writer's reflection on how he felt about this episode? Maybe no-one likes doing episodes about superstition!
• There's also an episode of Darkwing Duck with the same title. It also, ends a season.
  
  
  Goofs and Nitpicks
• Mainly wee colour errors only pedants like me even spot. Nanny's apron string near the start (only noticeable as the cel is held for so long) and her collar in one shot during the ladder bit. VG's beak is coloured as his eyes briefly when swinging the rope ladder and his VG symbol is coloured white instead of red shortly after. Duckula's hand and sleeve switch colour for a single frame during the salt-spilling. The handle of his gun changes colour when he accidentally fires it - same with Duckula's hammer at one point. Sliver of Igor's waistcoat is miscoloured during the mirror segment.