DuckTales is an American animated television series produced by Walt Disney Television Animation. It originally premiered on syndication on September 18, 1987, and ran for a total of 100 episodes over four seasons, with its final episode airing on November 28, 1990. Based upon Uncle Scrooge and other Duck universe comic books created by Carl Barks, the show follows Scrooge McDuck, his three grandnephews Huey, Dewey, and Louie, and close friends of the group, on various adventures, most of which either involve seeking out treasure or thwarting the efforts of villains seeking to steal Scrooge's fortune or his Number One Dime.^[1]

DuckTales has inspired video games, merchandise, and comic books, along with an animated theatrical spin-off film entitled DuckTales the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp, that was released to theaters across the United States on August 3, 1990. The series is notable for being the first Disney cartoon to be produced for weekday syndication,^[2][3] with its success paving the way for future Disney cartoons, such as Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers and TaleSpin, creating the syndication block The Disney Afternoon. The show's popular theme song was written by Mark Mueller. Also, Launchpad McQuack later returned to appear in another Disney animated series, becoming a main character in Darkwing Duck.

In February 2015, Disney XD announced the revival of the show, with the intention of rebooting the series. The rebooted series premiered on August 12, 2017, and concluded on March 15, 2021.

When Donald Duck decides to join the US Navy, he enlists his uncle Scrooge McDuck to look after his nephews, Huey, Dewey, and Louie. Although reluctant to do so due to their hyperactivity, along with his continual pursuit of increasing his wealth and maintaining harsh business ethics, he eventually warms up to them upon seeing how smart and resourceful they are and takes them into his manor as well as several adventures. Scrooge McDuck is well known for his characteristic Scottish accent, spats, and top hat. We later learn in the series his family comes from Castle McDuck, and he came to America when he was young learning how to "work smarter not harder". In addition to them, the show features frequent appearances by Gyro Gearloose, an established comic book character, as well as guest appearances by Donald in the first season – this was either a full appearance, or in a cameo scene when Scrooge and his nephews read letters he sends to them, and a few minor appearances by Scrooge's old flame, Glittering Goldie, whose character was adapted from the comic books. The show introduced new characters to the Duck universe; while some were minor including the nanny Mrs. Beakley, whom Scrooge hires to babysit the nephews; Mrs. Beakley's granddaughter Webby; Scrooge's pilot Launchpad McQuack; Doofus Drake, an admirer of Launchpad and a close friend of the nephews; and the McDuck Manor butler, Duckworth. The second season later introduced three new additional characters as part of the show's stories: "caveduck" Bubba Duck and his pet triceratops Tootsie; and Fenton Crackshell, Scrooge's personal accountant who secretly works as a superhero named Gizmoduck.

The show's primary villains consist of those from the comics: Flintheart Glomgold, who seeks to replace Scrooge as the "richest duck in the world"; the Beagle Boys, who seek to rob Scrooge of his fortune and often target his money bin; and Magica De Spell, who seeks to steal his Number One Dime. A few changes were made to these villains – unlike the comics, Flintheart is of Scottish descent and wears a couple of pieces of Scottish attire, including a kilt; Magica, who is Italian in the comics, has an Eastern European accent, always saying "darling" (which shocks Scrooge in an episode when Magica changes into the form of Mrs. Beakly). She has a brother named Poe, who was transformed into a raven; the Beagle Boys have individual personalities and are headed by their mother, Ma Beagle, who sometimes springs them from jail to conduct schemes with her, but always avoids being caught by the police. The animated series also featured a list of minor villains, most of whom sought to either claim Scrooge's wealth or beat him to treasure.

Most of the stories used in the show revolve around one of three common themes – the first focuses on the group's efforts to thwart attempts by various villains to steal Scrooge's fortune or his Number One Dime; the second focuses on a race for treasure; the third focused on specific characters within the show. Although some stories are original or based on Barks' comic book series, others are pastiches on classical stories or legends, including characters based on either fictional or historical persons. DuckTales is well noted for its many references to popular culture, including Shakespeare, Jack the Ripper, Greek mythology, James Bond, Indiana Jones, and Sherlock Holmes. After its first season, the show moved away from globe-trotting stories, with adventures focused mainly within Duckburg.

• Alan Young as Scrooge McDuck
• Russi Taylor as Huey, Dewey, and Louie Duck and Webby Vanderquack
• Chuck McCann as Duckworth the Butler, Burger Beagle, and Bouncer Beagle
• Terry McGovern as Launchpad McQuack (entire series) and Babyface Beagle (season 1)
• Frank Welker as Bigtime Beagle (entire series), Baggy Beagle (entire series), Poe (season 1), and Bubba (seasons 2–4)
• Hal Smith as Gyro Gearloose and Flintheart Glomgold
• Joan Gerber as Mrs. Bentina Beakley, Glittering Goldie and Additional voices
• Hamilton Camp as Fenton Crackshell/Gizmoduck (seasons 2–4). Additional voices in season 1
• June Foray as Ma Beagle and Magica De Spell
• Peter Cullen as Bankjob Beagle and Admiral Grimitz (season 1)
• Brian Cummings as Doofus Drake and Bugle Beagle (season 1). Additional voices in season 3
• Tony Anselmo as Donald Duck (season 1)

The show also featured a range of additional voice actors who voiced several minor characters, most frequently including the following:

The series theme song was written by Mark Mueller, an ASCAP award-winning pop music songwriter who also wrote the theme song to Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers; Mueller was paid a little over $1,000 to write the tune.^[24]

Episode musical scores and background cues were written by at least four musicians. The primary and most known composer was Ron Jones, who wrote and conducted orchestral themes for the program. In contrast to how the other composers were creating a "patronizing" and "cute" score for the show, Jones says he composed the music with regard to the audience and its intelligence. "I would not play the score like a kid's show at all. If they went on an adventure I would play it serious like Raiders of the Lost Ark. Jones' score for DuckTales has been praised by fans of the show.

Three other musicians worked on creating incidental music cues for DuckTales. One musician, Stephen Rucker, also was in charge of conducting and composing tracks, much like Jones. The two other musicians, Steve Zuckerman, and Thomas Chase Jones, composed only synthetic cues for the show, and generally kept the tone lighter, as opposed to Jones and Rucker.

In total, there were approximately 85(?) incidental music cues composed for DuckTales. A track was played on different occasions on an episode, appropriate with the current ongoing situation. As of 2019, there has never been an official release of any of the background music on DuckTales.

The DuckTales Theme was sung by Jeff Pescetto. There are four different versions of the theme song. The original version, serving as the show's opening theme, contained one verse, chorus, bridge, and then a chorus. A shorter version of the opening theme was used in The Disney Afternoon lineup with the line, "Everyday they're out there making Duck Tales, woo-ooh", taken out.

A full-length version of the theme song was released on the Disney Afternoon soundtrack, the third volume (which was released in a set with the other two volumes) in The Music of Disney: a Legacy in Song along with the full TaleSpin theme and in the November 2013 release of the Disney Classics collection. Also, it is heard in the end credits of DuckTales: Remastered and is also released on its official soundtrack.

The full version contains a second verse, and it includes a guitar solo, which is performed with a wah-wah pedal to make it sound like duck-like noises. It also has a fadeout ending, unlike the other versions. There is also a rare extended version that was used in the read-along cassettes in 1987. It has a sequence order of verse-chorus-bridge-chorus-instrumental break-chorus.

According to an interview conducted with Jeff Pescetto in 2009, he was originally approached by Mark Mueller to cut a demo version of the theme song for Disney's approval. Although they were impressed with Pescetto's demo, Disney had decided at first to hire pop group The Jets to perform the theme song for broadcast. However, after recording a version with the group, Disney felt that the theme song needed a different vocal style, and instead commissioned Pescetto to perform the theme.^[25] After performing on DuckTales, Pescetto would later be asked to sing the vocal themes for Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers (composed by Mueller and produced by Alf Clausen), Darkwing Duck (composed by Steve Nelson and Thom Sharp and produced by Steve Tyrell), and for The Disney Afternoon itself. The Jets, meanwhile, later performed a full-length version of the Rescue Rangers theme song in a music video aired on The Disney Channel in 1989.

DuckTales the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp was released nationwide in the United States on August 3, 1990, by Walt Disney Pictures and Disney MovieToons, Disney TV Animation division and Disney France. The film follows Scrooge McDuck and his nephews as they try to defeat the evil warlock Merlock from taking over the legendary magic lamp.^[11]

The film was well received by critics and audiences, but was considered a financial disappointment^[44] by Disney and several planned sequels were abandoned as a result.

In February 2015, Disney XD announced a reboot of the original DuckTales TV series. It premiered on August 11, 2017^[45] and ran for three seasons.

In May 2015, Terry McGovern (the original voice of Launchpad McQuack) stated on Facebook that the entire voice cast would be replaced, stating he felt "heartsick" at the news.^[46]

The success of DuckTales led to the translation of the show into many languages. Featured together with Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers in a Sunday morning program titled Walt Disney Presents, the show premiered in the former Soviet Union in 1991, the first American cartoon shown in the region after the Cold War. One year later, Darkwing Duck was also added to this lineup. However, the show's theme song (written by Mark Mueller and originally sung by Jeff Pescetto) remained in English for several episodes. The first Russian version of the song was replaced midway through the series with an alternate rendition that contained completely different lyrics.

The series screened in New Zealand weekday afternoons on TVNZ. When TV3 started airing in November 1989 they took over the rights to Disney properties previously held by TVNZ, and as a result Ducktales was later repeated on TV3.

The series aired in India on Doordarshan, dubbed in Hindi. The title track for the original series was sung in Hindi by Amit Kumar. The features were dubbed and the episodes have voice cast of Chetan Shasital, Javed Jaffery, Rakshanda Khan and others. In many countries, the theme song was performed by well-known singers (like in Finland, where it was sung by Pave Maijanen^{[citation needed]}).

In Spanish speaking countries of Latin America, the series was called Pato Aventuras (Duck Adventures). Scrooge McDuck is called "Rico McPato" and the nephews were translated as Hugo, Paco, and Luis, keeping the names of the translated vintage cartoons and comic books. In Spain, while the Latin American dub was used for the first broadcast, a high-quality local dub was produced afterward, keeping the local "Gilito/Juanito/Jaimito/Jorgito" names for the characters. In Brazil, the series was called "Duck Tales: os Caçadores de Aventuras" (Duck Tales: the Adventure Hunters).

In Italy, the series was called Avventure di paperi.

In France, the series was called La bande à Picsou (McDuck's gang).^{[56][circular reference]} The French name of Scrooge McDuck is Balthazar Picsou. Scrooge's last name Picsou comes from a French expression Pique-Sou emphasizing Scrooge's stingy behavior. Huey, Dewey, and Louie are called Fifi, Riri and Loulou.

In Hungary, the term "DuckTales generation" (Kacsamesék generáció) refers to the people who were born in the early to mid-1980s, because the death of József Antall, the first democratically elected Prime Minister of Hungary, was announced during a DuckTales episode in 1993. This was the generation's first encounter with politics.^[57]

In Romania, the series was called Povești cu Mac-Mac (Stories with Mac-Mac). Only the episodes 1–65 were dubbed and aired. Scrooge McDuck was dubbed by a well-known actor, Gheorghe Dinică, until his death (only 5 episodes remained after his death). After Gheorghe Dinică's death, Valentin Uritescu dubbed Scrooge (episodes 50, 57, 60, 64, 65). Also, Angela Filipescu provided the voices of Huey, Dewey, and Louie, Tamara Buciuceanu-Botez provides the voice of Ms. Beakley, Mihaela Mitrache was Webbigail along with the great master Cornel Vulpe as Duckworth. The series was broadcast on Prima TV and first aired on TVR1 in 1994 and the dubbing studio who provide the Romanian version is Ager Film. The intro song was performed by a winner from Mamaia Festival, Alin Cibian.^[58]

in Iran, this series was broadcast on IRIB Pooya & Nahal from 2018 to 2019 then the 2017 reboot was broadcast on IRIB Pooya & Nahal in 2019 after The DuckTales 1987 series was broadcast in Iran.

In the Philippines, the series was broadcast on GMA Network from 1988 to 1993.

In Uzbekistan, the series was called O'rdaklar sarguzashti (Ducks Adventures).^{[59][circular reference]}