Sweet Duck of Youth

**Sweet Duck of Youth** is the twenty-eighth episode of *DuckTales 1987*.

## Synopsis

Scrooge and the boys head to the Okeefadokie Swamp in search of the fabled Fountain of Youth from Spanish mythology. There they encounter the ghost of Ponce De Loon.

## Plot

After Nightfall Launchpad is bringing Scrooge back to his Manor after taking him around looking for a lost mine. After the Helicopter has landed and Scrooge says a few things to Launchpad about how back when he was Launchpad's age he could not be talked into coming home at this time. Launchpad makes the comment "Of course not Mr. McDee, when you were my age airplanes and helicopters had not been invented yet!" Then Scrooge looks towards his Manor house and notices all the lights are turned off and that someone is using a flashlight to get around in one of the rooms on the far end of the house from where the Helicopter landing pad is at. Launchpad suggests for Scrooge to go inside the back door while he sneaks around to the other side and comes in another way. Scrooge creeps into his house and up the hallway and he starts overhearing some people quietly talking about something. Scrooge of course is thinking that he has found the burglars. Then when he busts open the door he steps on a skateboard and rolls across the room falling into a table knocking over a bowl of Fruit Punch. Then it shows who is in the room.

It shows that Gladstone Gander, Vacation Van Honk, Mrs. Beakley, Huey, Dewey, and Louie, Webby, Gyro Gearloose, Duckworth the Butler, and Doofus Drake are all standing together on one side of the room. Then Launchpad sticks his head in trough the window and says " See, I told you I would get him here in time!" "Happy Birthday Mr. McDee!" Then they all shout Happy Birthday to Scrooge. Then when they have the birthday cake ready and there is at least 60 candles on it Scrooge tries to blow them out but he can't. So Launchpad blows them out for him. Then Scrooge looks over and sees a very large wrapped gift the others have all pitched in to buy for him. When Scrooge walks over there to unwrap it he says "I hope it is a nice new office safe!" but when he unwraps it he sees it is a rocking chair and starts feeling down because of his age. Mrs. Beakley suggests for him to start having some fun with them but Scrooge says "Madam, at my age, fun can be hazardous to your health!" Then Mrs. Beakley says "Face it, Mr. McDuck, unless someone finds the Fountain of Youth everyone will age!" By hearing those words Scrooge suddenly runs to his Library and picks up a book that tells about The Fabled "Fountain of Youth". He then reads some information out of the book giving the details that a Spanish explorer 500 years earlier had searched the Okeefadokie Swamp for the fountain and that he had went into the swamp and never was seen again. One of the Nephews makes the comment "Maybe he did come back out but nobody recognized him!" That gives Scrooge the idea to have Huey and his brothers along with Launchpad to pack up supplies into the helicopter and head for the very swamp that the book said the Spanish man had went into.

When they arrive in the swamp and land Launchpad did not realize he had landed in quicksand so Scrooge and the boys have to lighten the load and get out of the helicopter in order for Launchpad to be able to lift off again. The boys got out fine but when Scrooge tried getting out the box he put his feet on started to sink and so he used his cane to hook onto the helicopter as Launchpad started taking off. As they were getting back up in the air off to the side in the swamp a stranger wearing an antique suit of armor fired and arrow from a crossbow hitting the rear rotor of the helicopter causing it to crash. Scrooge landed in one area while Launchpad crashed in an area near water. Huey and his brothers got to Launchpad asking him "Where's Uncle Scrooge?" Launchpad told the boys that their uncle had bailed out before the crash. One of the boys noticed the arrow stuck the rear rotor and suspected someone had shot at the copter. Then Dewey asked for the Junior Woodchuck Guidebook and so he and his brothers and Launchpad took the main body of the copter and rebuilt it into an airboat so they could get around the swamp searching for Scrooge. Then as Scrooge was walking around he started feeling pain in his legs that were a sign of his age that told him a rainstorm was coming. So Scrooge took some tree limbs and other things to make a lean to construction so he could be shielded from the rain. All of a sudden, a mysterious person in the antique armor come up and destroyed the lean to and Scrooge ran until he found a cabin in the middle of the swamp and was banging on the door for help. Whoever it was in the armor followed him there and captured him using a fishing net. On the other side of the swamp Launchpad told the boys to set up a tent while he kept searching for Scrooge. After the boys got done one of them said "I am worried because he can not take care of himself." One of the others said "Poor Uncle Scrooge!" The one who talked first said "I was talking about Launchpad" the third one then said "Uncle Scrooge can take care of himself but nobody can keep Launchpad out of trouble especially himself!" Then as Launchpad was going around the swamp using a search light he noticed a stranger standing on the shore wearing the armor of a Spanish explorer. Launchpad said to himself "That Spanish guy can't be still around in this swamp he would have to be 500 years old or a Ghost!" Then an arrow hits the side of the boat causing it to sink and Launchpad starts shouting "Help!, I can not Swim!" Then a fishing net is thrown to him. Just a short while later the very person in the Spanish armor attacks the tent of the boys and they decide to follow him.

Huey and his bothers notice the stranger going into a cabin. Then they look inside the window and notice Uncle Scrooge and Launchpad being held up by fishing nets. Then they see the man in the armor taking it off revealing to be a real man who looks to be in his late 60's to early 70's. Then after the elderly man goes to bed Huey and his brothers sneak into the cabin to try to free their uncle and friend. When one of the boys causes something to fall the elderly man wakes up coming into the room. The boys get into the Spanish armor and when the elderly man comes into the room the boys act like they are the ghost of the Spanish explorer who was the original owner of the armor. They scare the elderly man and when he causes a piece of firewood to roll out in front of them the boys trip and fall into the man knocking him out for a short while. By the next morning the elderly man tells Scrooge and the others how he had been searching for the fountain since he was in his mid 30s. Dewey and his brothers noticed a riddle in the armor and with a hint from Scrooge they figure it out that there was a hidden storage place in the helmet that contained the map to the Fountain of Youth. So Scrooge and the other elderly man made a deal that they would split the profits 50/50 after they find the fountain.

They all follow the map to where it leads and they see a dried up fountain on the surface but when Scrooge jumps up and down he causes the area on one side of the fountain to fall underground and when all of them fall down they wash downstream to a place where there are two waterfalls at that come together at one lake. When Scrooge reaches for his hat that is floating towards him in the water he looks and sees himself looking younger and the other man looks and sees himself younger. Then the boys look and they see themselves as eggs that have not hatched. Then Scrooge realizes they have not changed. The other elderly man tells Scrooge "The Fountain of Youth does not make you young it only makes your reflection young! Then the elderly man gets so upset he had spent over 30 years of his life searching for this fountain that turned out to be a hoax of what he was lead to believe it was. Then Scrooge helped him back up out of the cave and offered him a full paid trip so he could enjoy the rest of the world during the remaining time he had alive. By the time they got back to Duckburg, Launchpad was worn out and felt older than Scrooge. Scrooge had to tell Webby that he did not find the fountain that he was searching for when she asked if he had found it. Then it shows Scrooge, the boys, Launchpad, Webby, and Mrs. Beakley all getting into the car and Duckworth Driving them back to Scrooge's manor.

## Characters

* Doofus Drake
* Swamp Dweller
* Mrs. Beakley
* Launchpad McQuack
* Gyro Gearloose
* Huey, Dewey and Louie Duck
* Webby Vanderquack
* Scrooge McDuck

## Adaptations

* Picture book: "Sweet Duck of Youth and Double-O-Duck"

## Trivia

* Scrooge says "You are only as old as you think you are", paraphrasing Muhammad Ali.

## Goofs

* When Scrooge, the elderly man, and Launchpad are looking at their reflections, they can be heard talking, but their reflections do not move their breaks.