Deep Dive Ducktales: Wes Looks at The House of the Lucky Gander!

Time once again for Deep Dive Ducktales!

Our episode opens with our heroes flying over the majestic, vaguely Chinese city of Macaw on their way to the Temple of the Golden Cricket. The Golden Cricket apparently only emerges to sing its ethereal song once every fifty years, and Scrooge believes that the song may hold the answer to life’s greatest mysteries. However, much to Scrooge’s utter chagrin, the children are more excited by the bright neon lights of the city below. Oh, by the way, before they head to the temple, the family will be making a pit stop to visit Donald’s cousin, Gladstone Gander, someone the boys, particularly Louie, seem to idolize for his charm, charisma and incredible luck. Donald, who, unlike Gladstone, is incredibly unlucky, can’t stand his cousin and thinks he’s the worst. Scrooge doesn’t think to highly of Gladstone either, describing him as a layabout who never earned anything through real hard work and both he and Donald don’t seem to appreciate Louie idolizing Gladstone.

Our heroes arrive at a casino hotel called The House of Lucky Fortune. While the family heads inside to see what Gladstone wants, Launchpad won’t be coming with them. Apparently, Launchpad’s ex-girlfriend, Ziyi, is in trouble with a local crime syndicate or something so while our episode is happening, he’ll be off having a super badass adventure that we’ll never get to see and will never be referenced again for the rest of the show’s run. Normally, I applaud this show and others like it for following up on seemingly insignificant plot points, but in this case, the fact that Launchpad apparently has this insane double life where he fights the Chinese Triads or something is funnier if we don’t see it. In any case, our heroes finally meet up with Gladstone (voiced by Paul F. Tompkins) who has apparently been winning big at the casino and invited the family out to help him spend all his winnings. Gladstone even mimics Scrooge by swimming around in a small pool of casino chips. Scrooge is not amused, thinking that places like this are for no account freeloaders who want something for nothing and demands they leave, but Donald, wanting to prove that he’s just as cool an uncle as Gladstone says that Louie can stay for a little while, provided he sticks around to keep them out of trouble.

While Louie, Donald and Gladstone go to hit the casino, Scrooge tries to usher Huey, Dewey and Webby out the door so they don’t miss the cricket song. However, the gang finds that locating the exit is more difficult than expected in this maze of a hotel. They are soon greeted by the hotel’s proprietor, a shady looking toad named Liu Hai (voiced by B.D. Wong). With the practiced silver-tongued wit of a true con-artist, Liu Hai tries to entice Scrooge to gamble in his casino and even performed a few magic tricks to entice the children. Scrooge isn’t swallowing Liu Hai’s bullshit, and at first, neither are the kids until Huey finally cracks when he’s enticed by an incredible water ballet floor show.

Meanwhile, Louie and Gladstone are having a blast in the casino, while Donald’s abysmal luck keeps tripping him up. Strangely, Gladstone seems to keep insisting Donald try his luck at all of the games and seems to enjoy the fact that he’s failing miserably each time.

Back with Scrooge, our heroes once again try to find the exit, only to once again be accosted by Liu Hai who shows them the rare Jade Tigers of Macaw, humanely raised in their natural wildlife pavilion and business center. Dewey is immediately overjoyed by the very idea of these tigers and all but has a heart attack when Liu Hai offers to let him keep one. Scrooge insists that you can’t give a child a tiger, especially not this one, but it’s too late, Dewey is already super emotionally attached and has named his Tiger Dewey Jr.

Back on the casino floor, Gladstone continues to prove himself to be the luckiest duck on planet earth while Donald proves himself the unluckiest. He’s so bad, he can’t even guess how many fingers one guy is holding behind his back. Through all of this, Gladstone seems to be acting strange, continuing to encourage Donald even though he’s consistently failing miserably and even subtly masking disappointment when he wins. Finally, Donald gives up on trying to win big at the casino. He wanted to show Louie he could be a winner like Gladstone, but all he’s done is embarrass himself and prove he’s a loser. As Donald storms off, Gladstone reacts with horror, angrily blowing off Louie and going after Donald because he needs him for something.

Back with Scrooge, he is at the end of his rope. This is a man who has overcome every challenge that has come his way, including escaping something called “The Infinitaur’s Labyrinth” and yet he can’t find the blasted hotel exit. Liu Hai appears once again, this time enticing Webby with an all you can eat buffet containing exotic food from every country on earth. The kids are well and truly suckered in by the cheap thrills of The House of Lucky Fortune and Scrooge has no choice but to throw in the towel and check in to a room, much to Liu Hai’s elation. However, this was all a clever ruse by Scrooge since check-in at any hotel is always right by the exit. Scrooge makes a break for it and the family does the same, but it turns out Gladstone can’t come with them because he’s kind of trapped there by mystical forces. Uh-Oh.

See, it turns out Hotel is some kind of pocket dimension controlled by Liu Hai who reveals himself to be a luck-vampire, an ancient spirit who feeds off the good fortune of others for sustenance. Since Gladstone is the luckiest person alive, his winning streak is most delicious for Liu Hai. The whole reason Gladstone called the family in the first place was because he was hoping Donald’s overwhelming bad luck would cancel out his own overwhelming good luck, forcing Liu Hai to let him go. However, Liu Hai has his sights set on a bigger prize. Since Scrooge is the richest Duck in the world, his luck must be the most delicious feast of all. Scrooge insists that luck has nothing to do with his success and challenges Liu Hai to a contest of his choosing. If Scrooge wins, he and his family are free to go, if Liu Hai wins, Scrooge and the others will remain Liu Hai’s prisoner forever. Liu Hai agrees to the terms, stating that the contest will be a race to the end of a deadly obstacle course, but throws in a twist. Scrooge and Liu Hai will not be competing but will instead have representatives competing on their behalf. Gladstone will represent Liu Hai since he’s technically still owned by the big scary demon guy, and Scrooge will be represented by… Donald? Well… this can’t possibly end well.

Gladstone feels really bad about all this, but he’s not about to sign up for a life-time of servitude so he’s in it to win it. Man, Donald was right, Gladstone is the worst. The contest begins, and the obstacles are actually pretty clever, taking many of the attractions used to entice our heroes and turning them into nightmarish death traps. Naturally, Gladstone being Gladstone, he pretty much breezes his way through the course with little to no adversity while Donald is tripped up at every turn. As it looks like Gladstone is about to leisurely stroll across the finish-line, Donald slumps down and is ready to accept his fate. However, Louie reminds his uncle that it doesn’t matter how bad his luck is, he always keeps going and never gives up, and that’s more admirable than anything Gladstone has ever done in his life. These words of encouragement from his nephew give Donald his second wind. He’s never had the common sense to give up before, why start now? So, with a pure and concentrated burst of unfiltered Donald-Rage powerful enough to bend the very laws of physics and probability, Donald makes his way across the finish-line before Gladstone or Liu Hai even know what’s what.

Liu Hai concedes defeat, but Gladstone still belongs to him and won’t be leaving the casino. Scrooge tells Liu Hai that since Donald bested Gladstone that technically makes him the new luckiest and so Liu Hai takes Donald instead. Outside, Louie berates Scrooge for selling out Donald like that, but not two seconds later, Donald comes tumbling out the doors behind them, his luck being so awful that it turned Liu Hai into a malnourished husk and caused the pocket dimension to collapse in mere tenths of a second. That’s both incredibly impressive and a little pathetic at the same time. But anyway, it seems all’s well that ends well as the boys embrace Donald, Launchpad returns having clearly gone through some shit and Gladstone considers finding a new noble purpose in which he doesn’t just coast through life on luck alone. Well, he considers it for about three seconds before a beautiful woman in a solid gold yacht pulls up saying she’s looking to sell the boat for under twenty dollars.

Oh, and the song of the Golden Cricket turns out to be pretty lame.

The House of the Lucky Gander is a really fun episode. It introduces a great foil for Donald in Gladstone Gander and Liu Hai was an entertaining villain of the week with a solid gimmick. I actually really liked Louie’s arc in this one where he starts off idolizing Gladstone but ultimately realized that Donald’s perseverance in the face of adversity is way cooler than Gladstone constantly falling backwards into success. And of course, I especially loved Launchpad’s weird side story that we never see. It made for a hilarious book end for the episode. Overall, I loved this episode and had a lot of fun with it. Next time, we’re introduced to a new villain when our heroes undertake The Infernal Internship of Mark Beaks.