"Unreal Estate"

Season 3 Episode 3 (episode 48 overall) 

Original broadcast date: 5th November 1990

Writer: Brian Trueman
Additional voices: Caterpiller/Von Goosewing/

                             Dmitri: Jimmy Hibbert

                          Sviatoslav: Brian Trueman

                          Zizi L'Amour: Ruby Wax

                       

Travel location: Nice, Moscow, Hollywood

Castle transport visual used.

Duckula decides to fly the castle to Hollywood to see if he can sell it.

I suppose it's oddly fitting for me to end this reviews blog with the very first episode. Well, sort of. This was in fact the first episode put into production as a sort of test pilot and viewing it, you can see this. A lot of the animation is kind of weird and oddly crude at times and much of the first half is spent on exposition. Von Goosewing even seems to be surprised to read in the newspaper (in the undeaths section!) that Duckula is back from the dead. At some stage they obviously decided to work this into an actual episode proper (perhaps adding some stuff along the way) and bury it about 2 thirds of the way through the series. Some of the artwork of the main characters is quite shocking compared to what we'd more usually expect, with Igor and Nanny in particular looking more akin to their earlier uglier designs. (see the trivia section) But the most jarring aspect of "Unreal Estate", apart from the occasional art style shifts, is Duckula's voice. They were clearly trying to experiment to see what sounded right, but this has the effect of making the character sound like he's pumped up on helium at times! Thank goodness they abandoned this idea. Another odd thing that fans may notice is that Dmitri and Sviatoslav's voices (but not names nor personalities) are switched over. I'm glad they changed this too, personally. Brian's voice worked better for the joker and Jimmy's for the straight-man in this instance.

As for the episode itself, it's good sitcom style stuff and feudal system rivalry. After a hefty bit of back-story from Igor and some more from Goosewing, we get onto the main point of the episode. Duckula flies the castle to various places with the castle misunderstanding on each occasion - nice for Nice and must go for Moscow. Although in the castle's defence, I imagine Nice is a rather nice place to visit! Duckula happily settles for Hollywood. This fits with his love of money and showbiz. Igor is less than pleased, of course. He's convinced that the sale of the castle means unemployment for both Nanny and himself. A fair assumption, though who knows? Perhaps Duckula could afford to give them both a raise after selling the castle.

The first (and only) customer to be enticed by the not very subtle adverts plastered all over the castle is film star Zizi L'Amour. In keeping with the archaic nature of this series, she resembles a 1920s film star more than a 1980s one, with the exception of her enormous high collar. She gets a guided tour of the castle by the Count himself while Igor does his best to try and spoil things, thus nixing any sale. This is a perfect introduction to this aspect of his character. He's faithful to his master, but he's not above bending rules and being sneaky if he feels it's for the greater good (or bad so to speak). While all this is going on, Von Goosewing is wondering about the castle in pursuit of Duckula, having accidentally hitched a ride.

One of Igor's plans involves convincing the 'awful Zizi woman' that the castle has 'Transylvanian plywood beetle.' So he involves Nanny and they do the time-old 'when I nod my head, hit it' joke which I'm sure UK TV stablemate Sooty also did (among many others I'm sure!) but I remember it gave my brother and I a big laugh. It's funny because although we see Nanny raise the hammer above Igor's head, we don't see the impact. We cut away and just hear Igor's scream. We found it all the funnier, because it reminded us of a train journey where my mum or dad opened the door of our sleeper compartment and hit my head with it. So my brother in the bunk down below heard my groan but didn't see the impact. Sometimes it's just a lot funnier to hear stuff or have it obliquely referenced than to actually see it. Life imitates art.

Naturally this plan doesn't work. Next, Igor tries to poison Miss L'Amour and then tries to saw away some floorboards in an effort to make her think the place is falling apart. Thanks to Nanny, these plans fail too and they all end up crashing into the dungeon - I mean cellar. None of this deters the actress, who is more keen than ever to purchase the castle AND Igor! Unfortunately (for Duckula) the castle choses this moment to return home and Goosewing choses this moment to zap Miss L'Amour, who runs away back to Hollywood. So everything is back as it should be and sets the tone for the rest of the series.

A well-written and succinct episode that introduces viewers to what they would come to expect from the rest of the series and the characters therein. Although I can see why they decided to get several more instalments under their belts to broadcast ahead of this one. "Unreal Estate" was never intended to be shown as a regular episode, but it was too good to waste. It certainly suffers from some weirdly patchy animation in parts, which, although oddly charming in its own way, is definitely at odds with the feel of the rest of the show as a whole. I would be curious to see this episode in its original form, because I get the distinct impression that some of the more on-model moments were added later in the game, to bulk out the run-time to the proper broadcast length. I could be (and probably am) completely wrong though.

Music

"Shadow Link No. 2" (Paul Ferris) - "To the balloon!"

"Fog Bound" (Ivor Slaney) - Igor's lecture.

Cash or charge?

"Dramatic Impact 3" (Ivor Slaney) - Target.

"Eccentric Walk" (Roger Roger 13m37s) - Broken balcony aftermath.

"Sinister Street 2" (Peter Francklyn) - Flying the castle.

"Paris Pavements" (Dick Walter) - Nice.

"Vamp Til Ready" (Wally Asp) - Clock bats.

"Music for Anglo Saxes" (Alan Bristow) - Zizi L'Amour

"Creeps No. 1" (H.M. Farrar) - Dungeon - er, cellar.

"Hide and Seek" (Track 37 - Richard Allen Harvey) - "Subvay station."/"Nice cup of tea."

"Horse Feathers" (5m40s - Phillip Green) -  "Vampire legend!"/"Now 'ow did that 'appen?"

"Menace From The Deep" (track 10 - Robert Leslie Cornfield) Sharks!
"Path of Destruction 1" (Tim Souster) - End.

Pans and Backgrounds

Lots. And I do mean lots! Perhaps to either show off or to pad out what might have been a shorter pilot? Looks nice either way. As might be expected, a lot of art is of the castle itself. I would imagine that most of the art was created with not only this episode in mind, but also with a view to putting it into some kind of stock system for future use. This series is not overly reliant on stock by any means, but there are certain standard locations that crop up a few times such as the dining room, lounge area and kitchen, which are seen here, chronologically, for the first time. This applies to some of the animation too, mainly the more 'on-model' of it, particularly of Igor. There's a lot of free-form pans I can't piece together and I'm not including all the backgrounds of shots that are available on this blog elsewhere. Although I might have. Memory fails me!

 

Trivia

• 

  Top: Unreal Estate, bottom: Count & Pauper.

  Episode starts the trend: Begins and ends on Duckula screaming. In Transylvania on both occasions.
• There is also a Garfield and Friends (Garfield segment) episode with the same title. About ghosts appropriately!
• Igor mentions Dracula star Bela Lugosi. He does the same in "The Lost Valley."
• The animation of Duckula reacting to Igor is reused in "The Count and the Pauper." (see right) Backgrounds from here are also used in that episode.
  
• Von Goosewing is seen reading the Transylvanian Times, one of several newspapers used throughout the series.
• First appearance of Zizi L'Amour. She appears again in "Manhattan Duck" where she again tries to (and succeeds in) purchasing Igor. Although she doesn't wish to buy the castle in that episode because of the travelling/returning home catch.
• Despite being written by Brian Trueman, Igor denies the existence of the pet werewolf. Normally his scripts have Duckula aware of it. I prefer this way.
  
• Another (or first?) appearance of Von Goosewing's hot air balloon.
• Von Goosewing inventions: Hypnosis goggles, stake and hammer, vampire-o-meter, vampire zapper. Von Goosewing curses: "Einzutreten ist verboten!" (to enter is forbidden)
• Another (first) reference to Heinrich. It seems that Goosewing thought he left him, but came back. The blurred vision afforded by his goggles means he mistakes a mop for his ever-elusive assistant. 
• Duckula plays the harmonica in this episode. This began as a joke in "Danger Mouse" where DM throws the (then villainous) Count a booby-trapped exploding harmonica. This also finally explains the presence of the sequence in the opening titles. Other segments from the opening titles come from "Vampire Vacation" and "The Mutinous Penguins."

• The portrait to the left hand side of the cobweb-ridden door and the 'trophy' above it appear in the end credits. (see pans and backgrounds)
• Igor asks if Duckula could wear his cape while eating beetroot sandwich, but he's already wearing his cape. Maybe implying he might take it off.
• The coffin is depicted with the lightbulbs all present before Duckula enters. When he does, they start flashing and all that jazz. This is not really a mistake and more a case of early instalment weirdness.

• 

  VG as he appears in the annual.

  Another (first!) appearance of the magic coffin. The verses are:
  
  "I've had enough of this place so
   To somewhere else I now must go."
  
  "I want to get the highest price, so take us somewhere really nice."
  
  "Your work so far has been less than polished,
  So unless you want to be demolished,
  Take us where, before too late
  There's a lot of cash in real estate."
• The backgrounds of Nice are also used as Paris in "Hunchbudgie of Notre Dame."
  
• Some of the fonts on the for sale signs is the same as that used in the show title and credits.
• Duckula intentionally misspells rich as writch. He does the same in "Bombay Duck."
• Dollar signs appear in Duckula's eyes when Miss L'Amour arrives. Since they are in America, this makes sense.
• A packet of Vim can be seen in the kitchen.
• Amusingly, when Goosewing says female impersonators are the worst kind of vampire, Zizi scream in Jimmy Hibbert's voice! Perhaps this is a reference to his encounter with dragged-up Duckula in "Rent A Butler." Although clearly that takes place after this episode, I think they were written about the same time if this article is anything to go by. 
• This episode was released on the Bumper Special Volume 2 VHS in 1990 along with "Arctic Circles", "A Christmas Quacker", "There Are Werewolves At The Bottom Of Our Garden" and "Alps-A-Daisy."
  

  

  Doesn't appear in this episode, but here's the blimp anyway.

  
  

Goofs and Nitpicks

• It's a new year miracle! I'm not counting anything as a mistake or a pedantic observation here, because anything that seems 'more than a little off' is almost certainly the result of early instalment weirdness.
  

Coda

In five years I have reached the end of this reviews blog. This seems appropriate given that it's about the same amount of time the original series ran. This marks all 65 episodes of Count Duckula having undergone the scrutiny of my beady eyes and ears. Reviews blogs are nothing new, but I always felt that there wasn't enough internet attention given to this show which is why I set out to rectify this. Almost everything I came across was little more than a brief synopsis of the series as a whole with 'David Jason was in it.' These would often be peppered with false facts, mangled quotes and images of Nanny with her sling on the wrong side. That wasn't good enough for this fan!

Now, I'm not suggesting that this blog is the be-all-and-end-all for fellow fans. But I hope it has at least proved as rewarding to you as it has been to me. I trust that it has given new fans and old a bit of information, insight and intelligent interest, as the Count himself might alliterate. Stuff that is helpful, inspiring or just fun. Perhaps it helped open up new avenues of entertainment and research into the sources this series took cuttings from for you as it did for me. I certainly learned many new things. This series just has so many hidden gems, tidbits (and to be fair, the odd error - nothing's perfect!) that keep getting unearthed open repeated viewings. Overall, it never fails to entertain me and I believe if a show is doing that, it's a success. It's doing what it's designed to do. The art style, tone and humour have always ticked all my boxes, plus it's just so rare to come across a UK-produced cartoon that isn't aimed at pre-schoolers and has an adult feel without descending into potty humour or swearing. I'm going to assume you all agree at least in part with those assessments. Heck of an assumption, but then again, if you aren't a fan of this show, what are you doing here?

High points aside, I'm not going to deny, at times it's been a little tough. This was simply because at the start I was so enthused to get all this stuff out of my brain and into the open I burned out somewhat and thus began pacing myself more later on. After a while it did become something of a chore at times, but only because I don't believe in half-baking things and wanted every episode to be given a fair hearing. And viewing. It wasn't so much that I was running out of things to say - far from it - but piecing together images and the simple time-consuming act of writing started to eat up more time than I had. Watching was always fun, but reviewing was work.

However, I still believe I gave every episode the due attention it deserved and I had a great time revisiting old favourites as well as others I hadn't seen as much in a while.  

Although they're all done now, that doesn't mean that its bye bye forever for this blog. I will still be popping back now and then to add, amend and possibly post new entries tied to other elements of the series like character bios etc. But for now it's time for a break. 

Also I've managed to go through this entire blog without swearing once, which must be a first for an internet reviewer. 

Happy New Ducking Year!

Things I have learned from Count Duckula

• Broccoli sandwiches are actually really tasty. Especially with ketchup or mayonnaise. 
• If you are anchored to the castle when it travels, you will travel with it.
• If Brian Trueman's character is the boss, Jimmy Hibbert will play the dopey sidekick. If Jimmy Hibbert's character is the boss, David Jason will play the dopey sidekick. With the odd exception.
• The YouTube channel has generally better quality prints than the DVDs, but they're zoomed out too far.
• The expressions "ghastly little bounder", "nouveau riche " and "arriviste."
• The castle needs to rest a while after it travels.
• If anything in life can go wrong, 9 times out of 10, it will.
• Bumbling French crooks are comedy gold. Actually, bumbling crooks in general are.
• Waistcoats are cool.
• Jimmy Hibbert is born to play mad doctors.
• Spanish animation is underrated. 
• Removing the clock strands the castle where it is. Removing the coffin does not. However, you need both in order to make it travel.
• Beaks are fun to draw and can aid with lip-synch.
• Most people are motivated by money.
• Americans have ludicrous middle initialled names and the English have wimpy hyphenated ones.