Superdoo!
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| DuckTales episode | |
|---|---|
| “Superdoo!” | |
 Doofus, dressed up as Superdoo. |
|
| Episode no. | Season 1 Episode 53 |
| Guest star(s) | Richard Beals |
| Writer(s) | Michael Keyes |
| Director | Steve Clark |
| Production no. | 15 |
| Original airdate | November 18, 1987 |
| Episode chronology | |
| ← Previous | Next → |
| "The Curse of Castle McDuck" | "Earth Quack" |
"Superdoo!" is the fifty-third episode of the Disney animated television series DuckTales.
[edit] Synopsis
Launchpad is taking Junior Woodchucks Huey, Dewey, Louie, Doofus and two other boys on a hike in the woods. Because he is rather out of shape, Doofus is having a hard time keeping up with the rest of the group. After Doofus tumbles into the others, Launchpad orders him to collect firewood on his own while the others set up tents. This leads to Doofus rolling on a log and accidentally destroying the tents, leaving the group to sleep outside in their sleeping bags.
Meanwhile, up in outer space, two aliens; one purple, one green, are trying to escape the Star Police in their UFO. This is because they’ve stolen a powerful crystal in the shape of a doughnut, and are trying to escape the law. The aliens decide to jettison the crystal in a pod towards Earth which they can retrieve after the Star Police search them. The crystal coincidentally lands in a small chasm near where the Junior Woodchucks are camping.
The next morning, the Junior Woodchucks are trying to earn their geology merit badges by finding a valuable artifact for Launchpad to identify. Doofus discovers the crystal, which he refers to as a diamond doughnut, and presents it to Launchpad. But Launchpad can’t identify what it is, and is unable to reward him with a merit badge. Doofus still decides to keep the crystal anyway as a good luck charm.
The purple alien talks about how he can use the crystal’s powers to rule the galaxy, and prepares to fly down to Earth. When they get there that night, they discover that the crystal is no longer in the pod, and the green alien explains that the crystal’s powers will activate shortly. But the green alien has a tracking device that reveals Doofus’ footprints, which lead back to the camp.
The crystal’s powers activate while Doofus, who is wearing it as a pendant, is asleep in bed, causing him to float out of the cabin and into the air. Though he wakes up and crashes into a boulder, he ends up breaking the boulder without a scratch, as the crystal gives him super strength as well. Two wolves approach Doofus, who runs away at lightning speed. Doofus concludes that the crystal is what’s giving him his new powers, and deems it to be magic. When Doofus flies back to his cabin to tell the others, who are too tired to care, they tell him to shut up. Doofus then decides to keep his powers a secret for now so that he can win all the merit badges with ease.
The following morning, Doofus impresses everyone by using the crystal to win his knot-tying merit badge with ease, by tying everyone up. When Huey complains that the fire-starting merit badge is too hard, Doofus earns it for himself easily. Doofus then goes on to win rowing, cooking, woodcarving, sewing and pottery merit badges easily enough, but the nephews suspect that something is up. Doofus then proclaims that he’s one badge away from being the Junior Woodchuck with the most badges ever.
When the Junior Woodchucks break for lunch, the aliens prepare to blow up the mess hall so that only the crystal will remain. However, since the green alien is holding the gun in reverse, he shoots backwards and ends up starting a forest fire. While everyone panics, Doofus decides to use his powers to put it out, but not without a disguise. He pulls his cap over his eyes, throws on a thick sweater, as well as a pair of boots, uses a flag as a cape, and becomes Superdoo. While Launchpad instructs his campers to put out the fire with a bucket brigade, but they can’t as they have no buckets. Superdoo shows up, and picks up the storage compartment of a water tower. Though all the water falls out at first, Superdoo turns the tower upside down and scoops up water from the river to put out the fire. But the nephews get suspicious of Superdoo, and the fact that Doofus wasn’t with them.
For their next plan, the aliens plan to blow up the nearby dam with a time bomb. When the dam does blow up, a huge wave of water comes rushing towards the camp. Doofus then changes into Superdoo, and rips out a large chunk of earth. Next, he uses his powerful breath to blow all the water back into the dam, and seals the busted dam with the chunk of earth, saving the day again. However, the nephews catch Superdoo changing back into Doofus in an outhouse and the jig is up. Louie complains that Doofus doesn’t deserve his badges, as he didn’t earn them fairly. Doofus then boasts about his powers, and the boys ditch him, as they liked the old Doofus better, as do the other boys.
Launchpad realizes that technically, Doofus didn’t break any rules by earning his badges with super powers, and declares him the new merit badge champion (the old one was himself). Launchpad rejects Doofus’ Superdoo’s offer to arm wrestle, and leaves him. Alas, Doofus is saddened that nobody likes him anymore, so he tosses the crystal down a hill, where it catches the aliens’ attention, and lands in a hole in a tree. The aliens go after the crystal, which has gotten stuck on a squirrel’s neck. The aliens retreat to their ship, but the super-powered squirrel gives chase and boards it as well.
Doofus then confesses to Launchpad, and offers to give back his merit badges, who is actually rather proud of him. Doofus then reports the same thing to the nephews, but they are then approached by two wolves (assumedly the same two wolves that approached Doofus earlier). Doofus still feels that he can stop the wolves without any powers, and charges into another water tower, which ends up falling on top of the wolves, trapping them. That night, Launchpad is telling some campers a ghost story by a campfire, when Doofus, who tripped while carrying pots and pans, startles them. The nephews then comment on how they’re glad to have the old Doofus back for good, and how Doofus himself wouldn’t have it any other way.
As for the aliens, they’re still flying around in space, getting harassed by the super-powered squirrel.
[edit] Trivia
- This is the only episode to feature Doofus extensively.
- Scrooge does not appear in this episode.
- Doofus' powers, as well as the name and alter-ego Superdoo, are allusions to Superman.
- Although their names are never spoken, the anthropomorphic pig and chicken who appear this episode do have names according to the DVD subtitles. The pig is named Bill, while the chicken is named Webster. The origin of these names is unknown, although they could've originated from the episode's original script or some sort of promotional material like a press kit.
- The inconsistent time system used by the aliens has become a point of savage contention in Ducktales circles. They twice refer to time measurements, once, whilst in space seeking to avoid the galactic police, they call them "time units" then, later when they have placed explosives on the dam, One askes the other how long until the explosion, the other replies "2 flarns" the first one belts out "2 FLARNS!!!" It has been theorised that time units are a universal galactic measurment but that "flarns" are specific and only used by aliens of that particular species(or from that particular planet), thought the debate continues unabated. Since both "time units" and "flarns" are used to measure time remaining,i.e. time until the diamond donut activates and time until the explosives activate, there is no possible way that they could have a hopi style time measurement system, with different counting systems depending on whether one is talking about a period of time or of a particular spot in time. Some say that it would be such a serious oversight of the writiers to allow such a simple mistake that it must be interntional.
