Exclusive Interview with Duck Tales executive producer Matt Youngberg and co-producer/story editor Francisco Angones at the D23 Expo #D23Expo #DuckTales

Remember I told you I shared with you about jumping into the Scrooge McDuck’s Money Bin? It was a fun way to start the celebration for the return of Duck Tales this August 12th on Disney XD.  Besides the epic jump, we had an Exclusive Interview with Duck Tales executive producer Matt Youngberg and co-producer/story editor Francisco Angones at the D23 Expo.  After we previewed the first episode of the reimagined Duck Tales, we spoke with Youngerg and Angones.  We have all the details of it for you below. Duck Tales woo-ooo!

The tone of the interview was set when Francisco (Frank) shared he is Cuban and grew up in Miami.  Latinas and South Floridians in the room gave a woo-00 of shorts shout out and we were all family from them on after he gave a laugh and said: “Suddenly this became a much friendlier room.” 🙂

 

Both of them made it clear that working on Duck Tales was a labor of love.  As a matter of fact, they were terrified of messing it up.   Their whole focus is sharing Duck Tales with a new generation in such a way that they will get the same sensation Angones and Youngberg got when they watched it back in the day.  All this in hopes that the new viewers will be the ones to bring back Duck Tales 30 years from now. Keep in mind that their work is not recreating Duck Tales.  It is creating something new with new topics and updated situations.  

 

The modern family in play at Duck Tales: uncle and nephews.- a friend that becomes a sister. A great uncle and a housekeeper all as family.  Francisco Angones adds:” We wanted to make this a show that was about a big, blended, interesting family where each family member has their unique characterization so they could bounce off of each other. So, we wanted to push the boy’s characteristics a little bit further. So, let’s just make them oldest, middle, youngest. Hewey is the oldest, he’s kinda the nerdy responsible one. Dewey is the middle child eager to stand out. Louie is the youngest who likes sliding under the radar because he can get away with more stuff. “

 

When asked about the choice of David Tennant, Matt Youngberg says :”We really wanted to find somebody who was legitimately Scottish. We thought that was really important in this iteration. David is an amazing actor. He’s morphed into this role in an incredible way. Because, when you think David Tennant, you think young and kind of, and vibrant and all of these things, and Scrooge you think of as old and miserly.”  To that Frank Angones adds :”DuckTales is a globetrotting adventure show. It’s part of the reason why in our pilot premier we do half of the episode in Duckburg, which is this amazing adventure local, and the other half going all around the world. every time we go to a different location, we always want to try to be authentic. So, we would genuinely try to find voice actors. If we go to Egypt, we try, gonna try to find Egyptian voice actors. to bring that extra level of interesting diversity and authenticity, and present a world that kids actually see around them every day. ”

Voice Talent and Diversity

Growing up, Francisco Angones only had one Latino super hero.  He set out to give his children a Latino superhero that they could look up to. Angones goes on:” Wouldn’t it be great if the main superhero of DuckTales was Latino? Not just a token side superhero. This is our Peter Parker meets Tony Stark.  We looked at adapting Fenton Crackshell-Cabrera slash Gizmoduck.   We looked at the original traits, and he always had another idea. He was always fast talking. He was always putting together a scheme. He was very earnest and I was like, this is Lin-Manuel Miranda, and we’ll never get him.” 

They wrote the episode in a very Lin-ish way and sent him the script.  As a huge fan of the original series, Lin Miranda was on board before they knew it.

Fun fact: The first thing Lin Miranda did when he came in to record was to sing the moon theme from the Duck Tales video game.  It used to be his ringtone!

Duck Tales Look and Feel

We also learned that from the very start they decided that Duck Tales would have a hand drawn feel to it. In part to maintain the style of the show and also because looking at the comics that served originally as inspiration for Duck Tales it just felt natural. Perhaps CG would feel a bit fake when you think about ducks going on an adventure.  Somehow that is OK if it is in comic style.  Duck Tales continues to be a flat warm graphic.  That said, it does have updates like Donald Duck using a smartphone.

Fun fact: Scrooge McDuck has a golden flip phone because he hasn’t updated in 30 years!

Easter Eggs

Francisco Angones shares:” If you’re paying attention, there are a couple of places that were mentioned in this first episode that Scrooge has business holdings in, that were not put there by accident.

Duck Tales on Disney XD Starting August 12th

Is your calendar marked?  Ours is.  Duck Tales will again be a super hit, and we can’t wait to share a show we enjoyed as kids with our children.  Time to start singing in anticipation to the Disney XD premiere, join along, Duck Tales woo-ooo!