Rewatching DuckTales! Time for another undersea episode in episode 38, “Aqua Ducks.” It’s part three of the five-part, oops I mean four-part storyline, “Cash as Cash Can.”

Here’s what happens: To score a lucrative deal, Scrooge must transport his entire fortune to the country of Macaroon where it will be physically weighed against Glomgold. After last issue’s misadventures in the previous episode, all of Scrooge’s gold ended up in the bottom of the ocean. This one begins with Scrooge, Launchpad, Gyro, and Doofus heading into the ocean in the Gold Digger, an undersea vessel of Gyro’s design.

The Gold Digger reaches the depths of the Marinara Trench, only to find the money gone. The team follows a metal detector toward a possible location of the gold, and a current sweeps them away to unexplored part of the ocean. There, they encounter “fish folk” who are Gillman types. They have whole underwater city. The fish folk accuse Scrooge and other surface folk of destroying their home with littering and pollution. They include Scrooge’s fortune among the litter. They sentence our heroes to work 400 years in the city dump.

Turns out the city dump is the lost city of Atlantis, where the four ducks are put to work as trashmen. They plan a jailbreak, but are stopped by the fish folks’ monster, Globzilla. Gyro comes up with an idea to create a fizzy drink in large enough quantity to float all of Atlantis to the surface, taking the money with it. Doofus, who has befriended local dolphins, recuits them to help. Launchpad and the dolphins lead the fish folk and Globzilla on a wild chase through Atlantis. The plan works, the fish folk end up Thanking Scrooge for taking away all their garbage.

Humbug: Scrooge describes himself as a “mega-quad-zillionaire.” Not sure what dollar amount that is, exactly.

Fasten your seatbelts: Launchpad is disappointed this is an undersea mission and not a sky mission, so he submerses the Gold Digger by flinging it through the air and into the ocean, just so he can say he flew it.

Best brain: The first few minutes of the episode establish Gyro’s inventions of super-strong balloons and the fizzy drink, both of which come into play in act 3.

Do the doo: Doofus displays an ability to communicate with dolphins. At first he does this by squeaking a balloon to mimic dolphin sounds. But by the end of the episode, he and the dolphins are full-on speaking English to each other.

Foul fowls: We don’t see much of the fish folks’ leader, Master Malek. All he wants to punish surface dwellers for polluting the ocean.

Reference row: The myth of Atlantis apparently originated from the writings of Plato, where the sinking of Atlantis is believed by most to be an allegory. Atlantis sank, see, because it wasn’t as great as Plato’s great Republic. Others, however insist there was a real Atlantis Plato based his story on. The search for a real-life Atlantis, however, is considered more pseudoscience than science.

And yes, Globzilla is based on famed movie monster Godzilla.

Thoughts on this viewing: This is a fun episode as long as you don’t think about the logistics too much. (Like how do the fish folk speak English? Or how strong is that fizzy drink to lift an entire city? Or how did everyone withstand the deep ocean pressure? You know, things like that.) It’s also got a clear character arc, in how Scrooge at first thinks the other three in the group are idiots, but then appreciates their efforts by the end.

Next: “There’s that word again, heavy…”

* * * *

Want more? Check out my new book, MOM, I’M BULLETPROOF, now available for the Kindle and the free Kindle app. It’s a comedic/dramatic/romantic superhero epic!