Time Is Money (DuckTales)

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DuckTales episode
“Time Is Money”
Bubba and Tootsie arrive in the 20th century, much to Gyro's shock.
Episode no.	Season 2 Episode 66-70
Writer(s)
Director
Production no.	66-70
Original airdate	November 25, 1988
Episode chronology
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List of DuckTales episodes

Time Is Money is a five-part serial from the second season of the Disney animated series DuckTales. Originally aired as a television movie, it served as the introduction to Bubba the Caveduck and his pet Triceratops, Tootsie.

Contents 1 Synopsis 1.1 Part 1: "Marking Time" 1.2 Part 2: "The Duck Who Would Be King" 1.3 Part 3: "Bubba Trubba" 1.4 Part 4: "Ducks on the Lam" 1.5 Part 5: "Ali Bubba's Cave" 2 Trivia

[edit] Synopsis

[edit] Part 1: "Marking Time"

The second season of DuckTales opens up with Scrooge McDuck trying to buy Duckbill Island, the westernmost of Flintheart Glomgold's island chain, but Glomgold refuses to accept less than $20,000,000. Scrooge eventually gives in and reluctantly hands over $10,000,000, as it's all he has at the moment. Glomgold then leaves, telling Scrooge that he has till noon on Friday to pay the rest, or he'll loses his down payment and his purchase. Huey, Dewey and Louie are eager to know why Scrooge is wasting millions of bucks on the seemingly most worthless of the Glomgold Islands, so Scrooge shows the nephews a cave he came upon while exploring the islands last week, full of skeletons, cave drawings and very large diamonds. Glomgold, who is spying on them at the moment, is mighty ticked off at this, so he calls up the Beagle Boys and has them plant all around the cave while Scrooge and the nephews are asleep. When Scrooge-tachi awakens, Flintheart and the Beagles show up to tell them that what remains outside the cave is now the westernmost island that Scrooge bought, and Flintheart now owns Duckbill Island's diamond-infested cave.

Scrooge turns to Gyro Gearloose to help him reconnect the island, but that's a plan that would take a while. Fortunately, Gyro has discovered a new element called bombastium, which looks like a glow-in-the-dark popsicle, and it can go back in time! And Gyro has happened to build a bombastium-powered helicopter that could solve Scrooge's current problem, called the Millennium Shortcut. As expected, Launchpad McQuack's the pilot Gyro had in mind for flying this. Gyro's also invented a hand laser disguised as a pen. With their plane set up for the job, Scrooge, Launchpad, and the boys head back to the right time. Unfortunately, a near run-in with a plane and Launchpad's stupidity sends the group too far back in time.

They arrive on Duckbill Island as it was 65 million years ago, where they run into a caveduck named Bubba, whom they wind up saving from becoming lunch for a magenta Tyrannosaurus Rex. Scrooge doesn't take kindly to ending up in 1,000,000 BC, and he doesn't take kindly to Bubba, who is devoted to "Skooge" (as he calls him) for saving his life. Bubba then takes Scrooge to his cave - which, it turns out, is what would become that diamond mine! Scrooge then gets a brilliant idea - if he leaves his marker all over the diamond cave, then he legally owns the cave and Glomgold can't do anything about it! Right before he gets to it, the group meets Bubba's pet, Tootsie the Triceratops, named after what Launchpad says when she steps on his foot. They also find the priceless skeleton of a Rogetsthesaurus. As Launchpad loads the skeleton into the copter, Scrooge starts leaving his signature all over the cave, while Bubba listens to the radio with the nephews.

The boys suddenly go missing, right when the freezer busts and the bombastium starts to melt. But just when Scrooge and Launchpad find the boys, they return to find the Millennium Shortcut missing. Bubba, now an honorary Junior Woodchuck, helps them find it; it turns out that the T-Rex who tried to eat Bubba earlier stole it. In a complicated process, the heroes distract "Jerkzilla" away from the plane, using taunts and banana peels.

HD&L want to take Bubba & Tootsie with them, but Scrooge doesn't agree to it. But right when Scrooge's group is taking off, the T-Rex comes back, and he's rather ticked off at being tricked into slipping on a road of banana peels. He grits his teeth at the Millennium Shortcut, badgering them, but the heroes think the Rogetsthesaurus bones are preventing them from taking off, so Scrooge reluctantly jettisons them, hitting the T-Rex while they're at it. During this, Bubba & Tootsie stow away on the plane, and Scrooge blames them for the stalled take-off and the loss of the skeleton. But before they can say anything, they're starting to travel forward in time!

[edit] Part 2: "The Duck Who Would Be King"

The ducks land somewhere in an ancient Chinese setting. The Millennium Shortcut's controls are jammed, so Scrooge and Launchpad go looking for help, with Bubba wanting to come along. What they find is Tupei, "a 14-karat mirage" where a sinister tyrant named Mung Ho is executing an innocent girl named Sensen for her beliefs that he is an imposter and that "the Great One" will come riding atop a giant lizard. Launchpad falls for her, and he blows their cover by sticking up for her. Mung prepares to execute Scrooge and Launchpad as well, but just then, Bubba arrives, riding on Tootsie, and nearly everyone believes him to be the so-called "Great One". Mung tries to convince Bubba to let him continue with his tasks, but Bubba puts "Skooge" in charge instead, and, in a running gag, all the townsfolk address him as that ("That's Scrooge!" "Whatever.")

Scrooges tells the citizens to go fetch Bubba's "flying chariot", and that Sensen be set free. She escorts them to Bubba's new palace. Scrooge tells Sensen that as soon as they get the Millennium Shortcut back, they gotta leave, but she's certain that they're gonna have to stay. The villagers return with "the chariot", and Launchpad wanting to stay to get acquainted with Sensen. Scrooge says no, despite her saying that it'll be his destiny to stay. And she's right - the bombastium is melted, meaning they can't return to Duckburg just yet. So now they have to take it to the snow peaks to refreeze it.

As Launchpad and the boys take that into their own hands, Scrooge mutters about not wanting to stay here until Sensen shows him treasure room, which is just like the Money Bin. Feeling nostalgic, Scrooge swims around it until Sensen tells him that these are treasures Mung Ho took from the people. Since Scrooge doesn't go for dishonesty, he takes "Great One" with him to have a talk with Mung. Bubba calls a trial with Mung Ho as the defendant; the tyrant watches in horror as everything he's taken is ordered by Bubba to be given back, including his clothes. Mung then claims that every year at this time he defends Tupei from a gang of ruthless bandits. But it turns out, he's in cahoots with the bad gang, and he's just been paying them in the previous years. And now he's ordering them to "ransack the city and destroy Skooge!"

"Skooge", meanwhile, doesn't think either he or Bubba can fight the cutthroats, until he remembers he's still got that laser pen. In the meantime, HD&L head up the mountain, with Launchpad fawning for Sensen. Just as the boys have finished refreezing the bombastium, Launchpad finishes carving a monument of her in the snow, but he ends up causing a giant snowball to come rolling down, taking him, the boys, and the refrozen bombastium with it. Back at the palace gates, Scrooge faces off against Mung and his men, among them a big guy with a scimitar that can cut a boulder in half. Unfortunately, the laser pen runs out of "ink" before Scrooge can do anything more. The big guy knocks Scrooge out and prepares to smash him with his foot, but Bubba intercepts him by leaping at him, club drawn. When Bubba takes Scrooge back through the gates, Mungs orders them to to be knocked down. That's when Launchpad and HD&L come rolling in - literally, in their giant snowball! Sensen had predicted that, and she also predicts walking iron.

Mung Ho whines for his minions to destroy everyone, but then Launchpad leads the gang into the giant mech hidden in the statue, calling back to a gag of his earlier. His operation of the iron "statue" scares off Mung's army, and eventually Mung himself. Later, as our heroes prepare to leave, Scrooge turns over the leader role to Sensen, who tells him that Bubba "the Great One" saved him from Mung's strong man earlier. She also says goodbye to Launchpad by planting her lips on his. And as the episode ends, the Tupei citizens finally get Scrooge's name right, to which he replies, "That's Skooge! ...Whatever."

[edit] Part 3: "Bubba Trubba"

Our heroes finally arrive back in their own time, right after the moment they left. While Bubba is fascinated with modern inventions, Gyro realizes there may be timeline-changing trouble rising from this development; Scrooge tells Gyro to fix up the Millennium Shortcut so they can send "that prehistoric pest" back where he came from. Scrooge and the nephews arrive back at the McDuck Mansion, with Bubba & Tootsie in tow, and Scrooge tells his staff that he's going to tell the world that he's outfoxed Flintheart Glomgold on national TV. Scrooge's introduction of Bubba and his new legal markers in that cave become the talk on TV. Needless to say, when Glomgold hears about this, he's rather mad. So he hatches a plan to capture Bubba and turn him against Scrooge so that he'll destroy those dang markers.

Scrooge, meanwhile, is getting quite mad himself, because Bubba & Tootsie are causing him all sorts of problems in his Money Bin. He pays Gyro a visit, wanting to know how long it'll be till he can take that neanderduck home. Gyro, telling him it'll be one more day, also tells him that by bringing Bubba & Tootsie back, he's created a paradox big enough to swallow the Money Bin. Scrooge doesn't believe that, but then he's got good reason to fear when a sudden gust of wind takes a couple of dollars away. After quite a few problems from this kid, Scrooge hands the reins to the nephews. So HD&L take a fully-clothed Bubba to class, where he starts up a sudden song-and-dance number, joined by all the students and even the teacher. But the principal isn't so hot about it, and he makes HD&L stay after school for going into song in the middle of class. Bubba reluctantly heads home, during which the Beagle Boys unsuccessfully try to capture him.

Back at the ranch mansion, Scrooge refuses to believe that Bubba's problems aren't his fault, and he orders Mrs. Beakley to spend time with him. So she takes him to the snooty Duckburg Rose Society, where the Beagle Boys try to capture him by capturing his "overgrown iguana", but this time, Bubba's coming to the rescue makes a big mess of things, costing another fortune and also getting Mrs. Beakley banned from the Rose Society until May 1999. Launchpad is next to take care of Bubba, but he's not willing to do it until Scrooge offers him a new scarf. In the thick of it all, Bigtime tries disguising himself as old lady in an attempt to capture Bubba, but it fails, as Bubba finds a "shiny" to "give to Skooge." Launchpad takes Bubba and Tootsie to the Duckburg Museum, where Bubba is shocked at the sight of all the fake dinosaur statues, and he causes even more trouble by wreaking havoc in the museum.

Scrooge tries to keep Bubba preoccupied until the Millennium Shortcut's fixed by sticking Bubba in the bathroom while he goes swimming in the vault to relax. He suddenly finds himself talking with his conscience, who informs him that in spite of everything Bubba's doing to him, he means no harm, and by the time Scrooge stops blaming Bubba for everything, his troubles will be over. But then Bubba really screws up. By messing up with a hose, he lets the Beagle Boys in, thinking they can help him.

[edit] Part 4: "Ducks on the Lam"

The Beagle Boys waste no time kicking Scrooge, Bubba, and Tootsie out. Needless to say, even after that pep talk from his conscience, Scrooge is now at the point where he hates Bubba with a vengeance, and he tells Bubba to get out of his sight, and proceeds to get to work on getting his Bin back from the Beagles. Meanwhile, inside the Bin, the Beagles happily gloat that now they have the vault of money they've been trying to loot for years, so they call up Glomgold and gloat to him about it, telling him they don't need to work for him anymore. Glomgold doesn't take kindly to this, so he tells the trio that they didn't think of how to split with the cash. And Scrooge has by now called up the army. But Glomgold, ever living up to his name, has an evil plot up his kilt.

After telling the Beagles what to do with the security system, Glomgold drives up to Scrooge to gloat to him and remind him that he still owes $10,000,000. After Glomgold drives away (or so it seems), Scrooge orders his army to charge into the Bin, but that plan is foiled by the Beagle Boys operating the defenses. Obviously, he's not getting anywhere, so he decides to borrow the required cash from one of the banks he owns. But Glomgold, overhearding him, calls up Bigtime, who then calls up the banks (through videophone), pretending to be Scrooge, and claiming that there's an imposter (of Scrooge) running around. After failing to get money from his own banks, Scrooge returns home and has HD&L help him look for "loose change." Unfortunately, they only find $2,000,000 worth. Scrooge tries one more bank and becomes furious when they won't shut up about "fish in their pockets". The stupid bank manager thinks this is the imposter and has him arrested. Meanwhile, a saddened Bubba walks around Duckburg, looking for friends and sports. Obviously, he still isn't popular with the citizens. And lo and behold, he gets thrown in jail too.

After landing in his cell, Scrooge continues to blame Bubba for all this, and that's when his conscience, also in prison-stripe clothes, reappears. Scrooge gets into a fight with it, furious with every bad thing that's happened today, including no one believing he's the real McCoy McDuck. Says the conscience, maybe he isn't; the real Scrooge wouldn't blame his mistakes on luck, destiny, or little boys. "I'm ashamed to be your conscience!" Scrooge begs for another chance, and the conscience tells him, why not get the owed money from the diamond mine? After thanking his conscience for helping him, Scrooge now needs to figure out how to get out of jail. It just so happens that Bubba & Tootsie are over in the next cell. Scrooge apologizes for being so mean to Bubba earlier, and Bubba responds by giving him the "shiny" he found in the last episode. He also has Tootsie break down the wall.

The three of them escape with the cops on their tail. After finding a good hiding spot in the form of a lamppost, they elude the cops. But before Scrooge can make a call, Glomgold shows up and calls the police. Bubba & Tootsie suddenly send the lamppost crushing down on him. Glomgold gives chase after the cave dwellers as Scrooge tries to get away in a shopping cart. Scrooge then nabs Glomgold's phone and calls Louie, ending up (unknowingly) with all three of the nephews on the phone. Scrooge tells them to get Launchpad to ready the plane, and have Gyro bring the time machine over.

Over at the mansion, Gyro drags the Millennium Shortcut over just as Scrooge and Bubba & Tootsie arrive and the sun rises. The boys find it rather odd that Scrooge is now getting along well with Bubba. Bubba, though, doesn't want to go home because he's gonna miss "Skooge". But after saying goodbye, Bubba gets in the Millennium Shortcut, which Gyro sets to autopilot, but not before revealing that it'll take up the last bombastium bar. The cops arrive at this point, and Scrooge changes into his normal wear and huddles the nephews into the plane, 'cause it's off to Duckbill Island! The cops are angry with Duckworth for letting "the imposter" escape, but the butler assures that there's only one Scrooge McDuck, and the old guy who just took off in that plane was he.

[edit] Part 5: "Ali Bubba's Cave"

Our heroes to reach Duckbill Island, and even more surprising, Launchpad brings them down without crashing. Unfortunately, he lands them on the wrong side of the island, so they have to walk to the cave. But when they get there, they discover that Glomgold has built a wall around the cave to prevent them from getting in. He's also brought the Beagles with him too so they could watch Scrooge's humiliating defeat. The good guys return to their plane, Scrooge planning to fly over the wall. Suddenly, the ground gives way underneath, causing them (and the plane) to fall underground. There, they find a cavern. And one of the pathways leads to Bubba's cave! So they use the plane to try and widen a crack for them. (Now it's crashed.) So our heroes now have to hike through the cavern. During this, they run into all sorts of Duckbill Island-only animals not found anywhere else.

Meanwhile, Bubba & Tootsie arrive back to their own time. Bubba is at first happy to be home again, but he soon misses "Skooge", so he decides to go back forward in time to find Scrooge. Problem is, he hasn't worked the Millennium Shortcut himself. He ends up causing a few historical incidents along the way. Eventually, he gets an idea and draws a picture of "Skooge" on one of the numbers and points the clock arrow at it. The Millennium Shortcut pops out an eyeball that takes a good look at the picture, and sets itself to find Scrooge.

Back in the present, Scrooge-tachi find themselves dunked into an underground lake, using Launchpad as a raft (his jacket is airtight when zipped). Just when they've reached land, they find themselves on the run from a sea monster!! The heroes reach dry land and try climbing up a cliff, but it turns out that "Mr. Overgrown Salamander" can also climb and is fast on land. Just when it looks like the sea monster has cornered our heroes, Bubba and Tootsie arrive, scaring the monster off. After a quick reunion, Scrooge asks Bubba if he knows a quick way to the diamond mine - and he does. He quickly leads them to a lower part of the cave, where there's enough sparklers to win Scrooge's fortune back.

Up above, Team Glomgold is swimming in the upper floor's diamonds when they hear Team Scrooge's voices. Glomgold looks in a hole and takes notice of the good guys, who don't notice him up there. He orders the Beagles to roll a rock with which to trap them. It works, and Glomgold laughs meanly as Scrooge starts to feel like giving up all hope. Fortunately, Bubba has a great idea. HD&L use some diamonds to reflect sunlight onto a pool of water below, heating it up into a steam cannon, with a gigantic diamond as the cannonball. The boulder is blown to bits, and so's the cave roof. Glomgold's not happy with this development, and he times Scrooge as he and the boys climb upwards with a diamond worth $10,300,000. But just when Scrooge gives it to him, Glomgold remarks that he lied about them having 12 seconds left, and so he's keeping the island and the cave.

With that, Glomgold shoves the goodies off of his island, but not before tossing the diamond into a crack in the wall, triggering the steam cannon again. The cave erupts and sends all the diamonds flying onto the island portion that Scrooge does own. Now Scrooge has all the diamonds and Flintheart has none. Upon realizing he's lost once again, Flintheart throws a hissy fit, and the Beagle Boys get the feeling that maybe crime isn't all it's cracked up to be, but they give it a miss. Bubba misses his cave, though, so Scrooge has a replica of the old homestead built outside the mansion.

[edit] Trivia

• Bombastium originated in the Carl Barks comic story "A Cold Bargain".
• The skeletonized dinosaur's name is a pun on Roget's thesaurus. The close-captions mistakenly wrote the name as that.
• Apparently, Ma Beagle got arrested somewhere between "Till Nephews Do Us Part" and this - when Burger mistakes the disguised Bigtime for her, he remarks that "she musta broke outta jail!"
• Among the things Bubba destroys in the park is the statue of Cornelius Coot.
• When he starts rolling downhill before the second commercial break in "Ducks on the Lam", Scrooge remarks, "Missed it by that much." This was Don Adams' catch phrase on Get Smart.
• Glomgold shouts to Bubba, "I'll get you, laddie, and your little dinosaur too!" This is a reference to The Wizard of Oz, where a similar quote was said by the Wicked Witch of the West.
• Many of the kids in the classroom can also be seen in the beginning of the Darkwing Duck episode Toys Czar Us.
  

  

  The kids in Huey, Dewey and Louie's class (left) reappear in Darkwing Duck (right).