Customer Reviews

Quack Pack, Volume 1

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Quack Pack is an entertaining cartoon from the afternoon lineup on the Disney Channel. It features our favorite Ducks; Donald, and his 3 nephews-Hewey, Dewey, and Luey. I didn't get too much information about it before it came out, but I when I heard Disney was FINALLY going to put Quack Pack on DVD, I was excited. I read the title, Disney's Quack Pack Volume 1, and figured it would be like the other two previous cartoon releases on DVD (Chip N' Dale's Rescue Rangers and Ducktales Volume 1, 27 episodes each). I went to Tarzhay and bought it for $9.99 and thought I was getting a great deal. Unfortunately, this DVD only offers 3 selected episodes: (1) Transmission Impossible (2) Heavy Dental (3) Feats of Clay. These are great episodes, but its just not enough! I don't consider 3 episodes a volume, WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU DISNEY??? And of course, the previews about upcoming Disney stuff are super long. The quality isn't anything to be thrilled about either, it says "digitally mastered" on the cover but I don't see the difference, in fact, I think the picture is clearer when I watch the Disney Channel on TV. Those who purchased Ducktales & Chip N Dale's RR Volume 1 have experienced Disney's so-called "digitally mastered" quality. They made this mistake before, why did they do it again? I guess before you buy any Disney DVD that has "volume 1" in its title, you should check the back to see how many episodes there are. Otherwise, in my opinion, you are wasting money. I suppose I shouldn't complain about the $9.99+tax I spent on this, but I could have saved that money towards buying the actual volume set that contains more episodes (that is, if they ever release it). I feel very cheated. It should be considered deceptive advertising using the phrase "volume 1" when there aern't that many in this group that Disney likes to call "volume 1". (According to Webster's, volume is a mass or quantity, especially a large quantity). I'm not going to go nuts and start a class action lawsuit against Disney's deceptiveness, but can someone else write to them so maybe if they get enough complaints, they just might do something about it?

After the success of previous shows made for its Disney Afternoon line-up, many of which are highly respected and fondly remembered by animation fans today, one of Disney's little noticed, final additions to the programming block was introduced in 1996 and titled "Quack Pack". Following the formula of their hit series "Goof Troop" and hoping to lure in all the fans of their greatest series, "DuckTales", Disney's "Quack Pack" presented ducklings Huey, Dewey, and Louie as 90's teens in a strange new version of Duckburg where most citizens are humans (perhaps inspired by Donald's classic shorts) rather than dogs and ducks (as in DuckTales, Darkwing Duck, and the comic books that predated those shows). This surprising change in style, which pretty much cut ties to DuckTales and Darkwing, probably intentionally, is one of Quack Pack's less welcome new concepts. I'm sure we all would have preferred such a series to feel like a continuation of DuckTales, but we don't even get to see them visit Uncle Scrooge here (or vice versa). Another quirk, and probably the one that causes people to disapprove of this show so much, is the issue of the triplets' new personalities. Here, they are not the clever, promising young ducks of the DuckTales series and Carl Barks' comics. Instead, Huey, Louie, and Dewey are made to be a lot like Max from Goof Troop, trying to be hip or often obnoxiously convinced they already are, and not really showing the common sense or intelligence they had in their younger years. On the plus side though, they are not made out to be clones of each other. They not only dress differently, but they also have different personalities. Though how consistent these personalities are is hard to say with only 3 episodes included on this DVD and so many years since I saw other episodes on television or watched the 2 Quack Pack VHS tapes I have (3 were released).

To explore the show's pluses a bit more, in addition to individualizing the boys a bit and restoring them to Donald's care (definitely not making for a better show, but at least they are living with the uncle they are supposed to be living with, as in the comics DuckTales was based on when Donald was actually along for all the adventures too), we also get to see Daisy frequently and Ludwig Von Drake on rare occasion (though no Ludwig on this DVD). I could be mistaken, but I believe Quack Pack is very much responsible for the big development of Daisy's personality as we know her today through more recent shows and movies. I've always been a big Daisy fan, and she's definitely a highlight as the level-headed one of the Quack Pack cast. In addition, while "Quack Pack" is one of those later Disney Afternoon shows that doesn't really feel "brilliant" the way DuckTales or TaleSpin did and lacks the high adventure, those quirky issues I mentioned a while ago, Huey, Louie, and Dewey being re-imagined in a way and Duckburg having a mostly human population all of a sudden, along with some very imaginative stories, still make it a fun show to visit now and then as a Disney oddity if nothing else.

Now, as I mentioned, there are only 3 episodes included in this so-called Volume 1. Many folks have complained about how irritating single disc/best-of compilation DVD releases of TV shows are in this day and age, especially as this is such a downgrade from the other volume one releases that were coming out at the same time this disc was released for some of Disney's other shows. Disney let us down all around in the TV show DVD department. They surprised us with 3 disc Volume 1 and 2 releases of some of their best shows, each with around 9 episodes per disc, and then never completed releasing them. Not to mention they didn't even touch upon many other shows. Seeing these single disc "Volume 1" releases for Quack Pack and Goof Troop was like a knife in the hearts and backs of fans. And we have yet to see any other releases of their Disney Afternoon titles... In fact, all Disney has released lately in the TV department is the recent Disney Channel sludge, only granting Hannah Montana the honor of a season 1 set. And where is the rest of my Lizzie McGuire might I ask? Anyway, I digress. The storylines of Quack Pack, in my opinion, are somewhat reminiscent of those from Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers. It's sort of like combining Goof Troop with Rescue Rangers, but with a lot of 90's 'tude and less development lowering the I.Q. a bit, and more focus on the comedy. Here's a rundown:

The first episode is "Transmission Impossible". This is about the boys discovering a local thief who uses an invention to beam the objects of his heists into his basement through surveillance cameras. Huey, Dewey, and Louie can't get anyone to believe their story though, as they were caught lying earlier in the day.

The second episode is "Heavy Dental", in which Huey is mistakenly fitted with a mind-control device which he thinks is a heavy-duty set of braces. Discovering his newfound power, he decides to use it to take over the world, but a sexy android out to kill him throws a kink in his plans just when he is starting to see the error of his ways.

Finally, we have "Feats of Clay". In the Far East, Daisy is doing a report on an archaeologist (oh yeah, on this show, Daisy is a tabloid news reporter and Donald is her cameraman) while Huey is falling head over heels for a cute, local girl, but there is an evil plot in the air to awaken an army of clay soldiers! And, yes, this was way before the latest Mummy movie.

These apparently randomly selected episodes are fine entertainment, even if they are not on the level of the earlier Disney Afternoon offerings. They are still far above most animated television shows of today! While "Quack Pack is one of the less loved and remembered of the Disney Afternoon shows, I still would eagerly welcome a more serious and thoughtful release of the show someday. It is far more deserving than a lot of shows that DO get complete DVD releases, and certainly there are some episodes I'd be eager to see again that are not on this DVD. Hopefully, Disney will soon realize how much great TV show material it could be releasing on complete sets that would surely turn a profit for them. I mean, if so many lesser TV shows can keep getting DVD releases, why can't these? Anyway, while it's no DuckTales, I still have to give "Quack Pack" 5 stars for its content. As I said, compared to most animated shows, this is still great stuff. Unfortunately, for the terribly lacking DVD that only deserves one star itself if you don't consider the subject matter, I'm going to have to deduct one star. I'm going to recommend this for fans of the show/Disney fans since it is the only existing DVD of "Quack Pack" episodes, but with the warning that it is pathetic how few episodes it holds...

I'm not a kid, I just didn't want to reveal my account. Anyway, on with my review.

I was expecting one of those weird, crazy cartoons ( like the latest cartoons on Cartoon Network ) when I bought this set, but I was plesantly surprised. True, Quack Pack falls short when compared to the old classics like Duck Tales and Bugs Bunny, but when compared to later cartoons like The Grim adventures of Billy and Mandy, it's actually ok, even intelligent. It's about Huey, Dewey, and Louie as older boys living with their Uncle Donald.

The intro music is heavy rock and roll, but it's cute. The character drawings and backgrounds are beautifully done, definately better quality than later cartoons. The stories are pretty slapstick, but again they're cute and well done.

While not the best cartoon series, I would recomend Quack Pack to disney fans or babysitters.

Three episodes? THREE?

I loved this cartoon as a child, so not complaining about that. I still love it.

However, only three episodes? Disney, that's just shameful.

I'll start off by saying that I love Quack Pack as a show and thoroughly enjoyed it when it originally aired. Not many people seem to know about it, so I was very excited to see that Volume 1 of the season was being released at such a great price. I had previously purchased several volumes of Darkwing Duck and Duck Tales and was very impressed that each set contained over 20 episodes.

One point that I would also like to make is that these Disney volumes are not actual seasons of the shows, they're essentially miscellaneous compilations to some extent. Why they can't just release their television shows like everyone else out there, I don't know.

To get to the main issue, I absolutely could not believe that this so-called Volume 1 has only three episodes. That is just pathetic to sell after we all have seen the dvd sets that have been put together for the other cartoons. It's not like Quack Pack didn't have enough episodes for them to work with.

It seems like Disney has begun to make it a practice to put together a shoddy product and then overcharge because they know people will buy it anyway. If the company could get back to making quality products that are affordable for all of us who love and remember watching Disney cartoons growing up, that would be fantastic.

I will say that this product was accurately described and already had several other reviews pointing out the three episode issue. It was completely my fault that I purchased this item anyway, because I didn't bother to look at what it actually was. I got so excited about it that I just assumed it was like all the other "volumes" I had already seen.

Actually, the main menu title reads "The Best of Quack Pack." It's a goof right in keeping with the bulk of this mostly forgotten Disney TV series, which made ill-conceived attempts to recapture the "spirit" of the old Donald Duck shorts and update Huey, Dewey, and Louie into 90s teens complete with the requisite catchphrases, hairstyles, and attitudes. It must be admitted, however, that two of the episodes on this three-episode disc - "Feats of Clay" and "Transmission: Impossible" are, in fact, among the few genuine gems to emerge from what my friend Joe Torcivia once termed a "deconstructionist disaster." I suspect that it was mostly a matter of dumb luck - or a convenient plot contrivance of the sort the show had all too many of -- that they turned up here. One bright spot: Daisy Duck, who got a thoroughly appealing makeover for the series, features fairly prominently in "Feats of Clay," so you'll get a chance to appreciate what a touch of class she brought to what were usually fairly tedious slapstick doings.

Disney was known for its film animation for many years. The beginnings of its TV animation was Chip & Dale Rescue Rangers, Ducktales and Tailspin.

This begins up to Quack Pack. Huey, Dewey and Louie, Donald Duck's nephews, are now teens and not as cute as they were in Ducktales. These pint size ducky Jonny Quests seem out of tneir league. This seem like recycled Duck Tales without wise old Uncle Scrooge.There is little or no character developement and most of the situation seem so far out, it makes little of no sense

Thos DVD has only three episodes and there are no extras. This is the worst TV animation Diney studios have done...if you buy this, you been warned!

Bennet Pomerantz, AUDIOWORLD

I just want to say thank-you for that review. Ever since I bought the three Quack Pack tapes about a year or two ago, I have been anxiously waiting for the series to come out on DVD (I missed this cartoon when it originally aired.)

Seeing as how there are only three episodes on this first volume, I think I will go ahead and either continue to wait for a more comprehensive set or just try to catch them the next time they air on Toon Disney and burn them to DVD myself for my own personal collection.

Still, I could eventually buy this DVD if I find it cheap enough locally, since I don't yet have these three episodes. But, it is not a high priority for me now.