The Curse of Castle McDuck
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| DuckTales episode | ||
| "The Curse of Castle McDuck" | ||
 Scrooge tames the ghost hound with sausages. |
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|---|---|---|
| Season | 1 | |
| Episode no. | 52 | |
| Airdate | November 17, 1987 | |
| Writer(s) | Anthony Adams | |
| Director | Steve Clark | |
| Prod. no. | 21 | |
| Guest star(s) | Pat McCormick Brock Peters (Druid leader) |
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| Episode chronology | ||
| ← Previous | Next → | |
| "All Ducks on Deck" | "Superdoo!" | |
| List of DuckTales episodes | ||
"The Curse of Castle McDuck" is the fifty-second episode of the Disney animated television series DuckTales.
[edit] Synopsis
One night in Scotland, a shepherd is out looking for one of his lost lambs, when he is scared off by the howling of a ghostly hound with a blue aura.
The next morning, Scrooge, Huey, Dewey, Louie and Webby are riding through Scotland on a train. After passing by a monument that resembles Stonehenge, Scrooge remarks that the Druids probably built it, and that they were driven out of Scotland long ago.
After getting off the train, Scrooge and Co. meet up with the shepherd, who is friendly towards Scrooge until the old duck speaks of his last name, causing the shepherd to flee. Scrooge later scares off two women in the same manner as he did to the shepherd before returning to Cottage McDuck, the house he lived in when he was a youngster.
After looking around the cottage at all of Scrooge’s old belongings, the boys notice a castle located across the river. Scrooge tells them that it is Castle McDuck, which was built by his great-great-grandfather, Silas McDuck, and is now abandoned. He also tells the kids about how the castle is cursed, but that it was just a legend made up by his mother. He also says that the castle is guarded by a ghostly hound. Despite the story, the kids insist on checking out the castle.
While crossing the river, Scrooge is startled by howling in the distance, and falls into the water. After entering the castle, Webby discovers a kilt for Scrooge so that he can change out of his wet clothes. After Louie finds a portrait of Silas, Scrooge tells them about how Silas intended to build a castle for his large family. However, as soon as Silas started to dig, a druid warned him that he would be forever cursed if he went ahead with building the castle. When the castle was finally built, the ghost hound appeared, scaring off all of Silas’ family.
At nightfall, when Scrooge finishes his story, the fireplace slides open a crack, while a robed hand reaches into the room and grabs Scrooge’s top hat. Scrooge and the kids open the fireplace all the way, and are spotted by a druid and the hound. The hound chases the ducks out of the castle and across the river. However, when shadows and chanting emerge from the castle, Scrooge goes back, and is followed by the kids. Upon spying through a window, Scrooge and the kids see a group of druids praying, and Scrooge remarks that the druids never really left Scotland.
In the morning Scrooge remarks that the druids robbed his family of their castle, as well as Scrooge’s heritage. Nevertheless, Scrooge devises a plan, and sets off to buy supplies. Though the villagers are still uptight about Scrooge being a McDuck, they agree to help him mainly because Webby manages to befriend and cheer up the shepherd’s startled lamb. Afterwards, Scrooge and the kids return to the castle to set up traps.
While setting up a net, Webby triggers a secret passage, and gets stuck behind a wall. Unable to open the passage themselves, Scrooge and the boys try to get to Webby through the passage behind the fireplace. Before they can get to her, Webby goes exploring down the secret passage. Scrooge and the boys go through the passage behind the fireplace, which leads them to the forest behind the castle, where they spot the druids. They are then spotted by the hound, which chases them towards the bottom of a cliff. Fortunately, Scrooge is able to briefly tame the hound by feeding it sausages, allowing the ducks to make their getaway. They then hear puppies barking, which leads them to Webby, who is playing with some friendly hound puppies. Dewey concludes that the druids raise the puppies so that they can grow up into guard dogs.
Now that night has fallen, Scrooge and the kids head back to the castle, where they await the druids’ presence. When the hound shows up, Huey and Louie drop a net down from the second floor, but miss. They do manage to catch two druids who step onto the net, however. Three more druids show up, whom Dewey taunts from the second floor. The druids and the hound try to run up the stairs to the second floor, but they stumble because Dewey coated the steps with axle grease. Scrooge and Webby then catch them in a carpet that they’ve used as a makeshift net.
The hound manages to break out of the carpet, and chases after the ducks, who can’t open the door to the castle. However, Scrooge is able to tame the hound with some more sausages, and manages to befriend it. With the hound no longer loyal to them, the druid leader admits defeat. Scrooge demands that the druids give him back his property, but the leader explains that the McDucks built the castle right over their stone circle, and robbed them of their heritage. Scrooge questions why Silas would ever build over the stone circle, and is told that he did it to save on building costs.
In the end, Scrooge comes up with a plan to make money for him and the druids. As such, the castle is turned into a tourist attraction, which the druids can operate during the day, while still using the castle for their nightly ceremonies. Scrooge asks how the druids made their hound glow in the dark, and the leader tells him that they used a very special flea powder. Just then, the hound and the puppies show up, along with Scrooge’s chewed up top hat. The druid explains that he took Scrooge’s hat so that the hound could pick up his scent, even though Scrooge and the hound have become friends now.
[edit] Trivia
- This episode is a very loose adaptation of the Carl Barks story The Hound of the Whiskervilles. The original story took place when Scrooge was a child living in Scotland.
