Cold Duck

Too Much of a Gold Thing

Mark Zaslove

**Cold Duck** is the fourth episode of Season 1 of *DuckTales 1987* and the fourth part of The Treasure of the Golden Suns. It aired on September 18, 1987 during the movie premiere and on November 12, 1987 individually on syndication.

## Synopsis

After Scrooge goes off alone to follow the ocean currents to find the other half of the map, Launchpad and the boys follow his trail to Anarctica, where they are captured by a city of intelligent Penguins. they receive unexpected help from the boys' new governess, Mrs. Beakley, and her granddaughter Webbigail.

## Plot

Back at the mansion, Huey, Dewey and Louie are trying to annoy Mrs. Beakley and Webby by way of a tuning fork. Just when Mrs. Beakley is about to use it on them, Launchpad shows up outside, piloting Scrooge's cargo plane. As the pilot runs about, tossing everything crucial and non-crucial into the plane, Huey, Dewey and Louie, trying to avoid Webby tagging along, sneak into the plane, but she follows them there. Launchpad unknowingly takes off with the kids in the plane, and when a scarf-bearing Mrs. Beakley catches sight of Webby in one of the windows, she hitches a ride on the landing gear. Fortunately, Launchpad manages to get her inside before she can slip and fall to the sidewalk below. Mrs. Beakley demands that Launchpad turn the plane around and drop them back off at the mansion. The pilot refuses, because he has to get this stuff to Scrooge before his homing beeper dies.

The group lands in Antarctica, and before long run into a cute and pretty little girl penguin chased by a walrus who is toting Scrooge's homing beeper. Mrs. Beakley's scarf attracts the walrus like a red cape, and Launchpad ends up being dragged along. Huey, Dewey and Louie reluctantly try to save them. The nephews ponder why the walrus was wearing Scrooge's things, and then dismiss Webby's new penguin friend as "another tag-along." Fortunately, they go with Mrs. Beakley's idea of backtracking the walrus's tracks. They come upon a cave where Scrooge has left his mark. After slipping on a frozen river, Launchpad fires a flare gun that causes the river to break apart and send him and the nephews towards a waterfall. Fortunately, the males survive the waterfall, but they do not know where they are going. Behind, Webby and Mrs. Beakley realize they'll have to find them. Just then, the penguin girl, whose name is Skittles, speaks up, saying that because everything in Antarctica is white and/or grey, colored objects are treasured by penguins.

Shortly after arriving in the never-named underground city of the talking penguins, Launchpad and the trio are ambushed by the mayor and his goons, because they want their colorful clothes. Then, when Launchpad tells the top-hatted penguin mayor that he knows Scrooge McDuck like a brother, the penguins throw him and the boys into the local jailhouse. Fortunately, Huey finds out that Scrooge, also stripped of his colorful outfit, happens to be in the next-door cell. Scrooge explains that he found the other half of the map to the Valley of the Golden Suns over in the museum, but before he could get it, the penguins had arrested him and taken his half of the map. Scrooge is positive that there is still hope when he hears that "Mrs. Beakley's still wanderin' around", but the three nephews believe that "she'll be captured easier than we were." Over at Skittles' house, Webby disguises herself as another penguin, and Mrs. Beakley goes off in search of everyone's clothes, leaving Webby and Skittles in the house - or so she thinks. Instead, the little girls head off to the Color Museum to discover that both halves of Scrooge's map are encased in the thickest ice possible. Mrs. Beakley, in the meantime, somehow finds the stolen clothes and pops up at the jailhouse. Huey, Dewey and Louie are a little grateful to her for bringing their clothes, and they are even more grateful when she reveals that she brought the tuning fork along. The boys use it to break free, destroying the jail in the process.

Unfortunately, it also breaks out a gigantic walrus who had been frozen in ice. While Launchpad goes to warm up the plane, Scrooge plans to use the tuning fork to get the map out of the ice once they get to the museum, provided they avert the snowball-throwing penguins first. Before reaching it, he and the boys come upon Webby and Skittles. The penguins run away, because the gigantic walrus then shows up and crushes the museum, along with Scrooge's hopes of getting the map out. The nephews run from the walrus as they try to get to the plane, and not far behind, Mrs. Beakley, Scrooge, Webby, and Skittles dash away from the bigger birds in town. The group soon ends up at the edge of an ice-cliff, with the walrus ready to clip their wings off. Suddenly, Launchpad flies in, scooping up the whole cliff point in the cargo plane, including the walrus. Before the walrus can sink his tusks into anyone, Scrooge smashes an alarm that sends the walrus plummeting into the ocean below. The boys thank Mrs. Beakley for saving them, and then Webby reveals that she managed to reproduce the map using her crayons. Skittles returns to her folks via colorful parachute, with Webby's crayons and Mrs. Beakley's scarf as parting gifts.

## Characters

* Mrs. Beakley
* Skittles' mother
* Launchpad McQuack
* Penguin Leader
* Skittles
* Huey, Dewey and Louie Duck
* Webby Vanderquack
* Scrooge McDuck

## Errors

When Webby lifts up her drawing to show to her grandmother, the first shot shows from left to right: Dewey, Huey, and Louie. However, in the next shot, Dewey and Louie's colors swap.