If there is one thing that can be said about the this decade, it’s that our media is saturated with nostalgia. 

Reboots, remakes, and adaptations are being shot at us left and right regardless of whether  or not most people are familiar with the source material. 

Unfortunately, many of these revivals fall flat on capturing what made the original so enjoyable, giving revivals, especially  childhood favorites, a bad reputation.

In 2015, Disney announced that “Ducktales,” the beloved late 1980s animated series that forever changed the course of television animation, was going to get a reboot. 

It made sense that people were nervous, and fans of the original show had questions. 

What would they change? Would the changes be necessary? Would the animation style change? Would they keep the original iconic opening theme?

But “Ducktales 2017” introduced itself to viewers in the first two episodes as a humorous, clever, faithful, and overall promising show that can be enjoyed by any fan that had grown up with the show, not to mention a younger audience that might not be familiar with the original.

“[“Ducktales 2017”] is a good demonstration of when a crew working on a show knows exactly who their target audience is, and knowing exactly what appeals to them,” said English teacher Abraham Kim, who grew up watching the original, and found himself greatly enjoying the reboot.

“They were able to take what was, of course, originally good,” said Kim, “but improve and change the things that everyone watching the original always had problems with, while keeping the things that worked the same.” 

A prime example of this is with the character Webby, who in the original show was considered nothing more than an unnecessary attempt to attract a larger female audience. She was generally seen by viewers as flat, unnecessary, and generally disliked. 

In contrast, Webby in the 2017 series has been given a distinct personality, with her own quirks and traits. She actually develops as a duck, making her a character that has a place in a show and needs to be there.

With tweaks to give the show it’s own identity, the animation was updated into a style that was both refreshing and somewhat nostalgic, utilizing digital animation for subtle movement and expression the old show could not with cel animation. 

Some character designs were updated, like Mrs. Beakley, who in her previous form was your average grandmotherly character. She was updated with a design that reflected her over-protective personality of her granddaughter, Webby.

The new show makes a clear effort to try and individualize the triplets, Huey, Dewey, and Louie. Giving them their own unique features prevents the audience from being able to lump them together as one being, as Dewey himself points out in the premier episodes.

Donald Duck has also changed in the reboot.

Rather than being a minor supporting character as he was in the original, Donald is now part of the main cast, serving as the parental figure of the triplets and accomplice of Scrooge McDuck.

It has been implied, through easter eggs in the first two episodes, that other classic Disney animated series, such as “Tailspin”, “Darkwing Duck” and “Goof Troop”, are in the same canonical universe as the current “Ducktales”, and will perhaps have characters from said shows make an appearance.

Simply put, “Ducktales 2017” is able to remind us that we are not only living in one of the greatest decades of animation so far, but that a good reboot is definitely possible, as long as you have capable writers and animators. 

It shows, making “Ducktales” definitely worth watching.