"The Forbidden Fountain of the Foreverglades!" is the sixtieth episode of DuckTales. It premiered on October 12, 2020 and is the eleventh episode of the third season.
Plot[]
Scrooge McDuck and the kids arrive at the Conquistador Inn; a luxurious hotel that resides close to the fabled Fountain of the Foreverglades. The inn is currently overrun with teenage Springbreakers who begin to fill up the amenities. Huey once again has their whole day at the inn planned which upsets Dewey as Huey always makes the plans based on the fact that he is technically older. Scrooge and Webby run into Goldie O'Glit who is also after the fountain for its properties. She snags Isabella Finch's journal and flees into the jungle with Scrooge and Webby in hot pursuit while a mysterious figure watches them.
Dewey wants to give the pool a try, but the Springbreakers have filled it up and he only gets his toe in. A little while later, Dewey suddenly appears taller than Huey and Louie and proclaims that he must have gone through a growth spurt and attempts to take over the planning for the day. However, the boys see that the Springbreakers have all disappeared and instead seniors are everywhere, confusing Louie. In the jungle, Webby continues to outrun the elder Scrooge and Goldie and they both fight over a canister of water. They both end up falling into a river and when they emerge, have turned into teenagers. Scrooge and Goldie relish their newly restored youth and continue their chase with Webby following close behind.
Scrooge and Goldie begin to converse and flirt with one another, and they decide that they want to use the opportunity to renew their lives with each other by taking the fountain's power to make themselves permanently young. As Webby continues to follow, she encounters many misfortunes that cause her to walk and act like an elder, including getting attacked by an alligator and mosquitos. Eventually, they reach the fountain and run into the figure which turns out to be an elderly and wrinkled John D. Rockerduck being carried by Jeeves who is now a Frankenstein-esque monster. Scrooge and Goldie are shocked of seeing their nemesis, after believing him to be dead. The group fight, but quickly discover that the fountain is drained and deduce that it is all back at the inn.
As Huey and Dewey continue to have their power struggle, Louie looks around and realizes that the manager at the inn is Ponce De Leon and that he is draining the Springbreakers' youth for himself. Leon captures the boys and traps them in his backroom where he keeps a personal water fountain for himself. Scrooge and Goldie arrive at the inn and fight Leon with Rockerduck and Jeeves arriving to fight as well. Rockerduck drinks some of the water; restoring his youth, but quickly gets knocked out by Scrooge who continues to fight Leon and Jeeves.
Goldie slips away to steal the waters for herself, but upon seeing Louie in trouble, decides to turn back and aid Scrooge. She defeats Jeeves by forcing him to drink a large amount of the water, turning him back into a baby and forcing Rockerduck to take him and flee. Scrooge and Goldie continue to fight Leon, and they end up falling into the draining pool. Scrooge and Goldie escape, being restored to their original ages, while Leon dies, aging into dust.
Afterwards, following the death of Leon at the hands of Goldie and McDuck family, the heroes restore the Springbreakers' youth to them and Dewey returns to his proper age after realizing how much of a handful it is to be older. As Scrooge once again bemoans Goldie leaving, Goldie suddenly arrives to return Finch's journal before grabbing Scrooge and kissing him declaring "Spring Break!" much to everyone's joy.
Cast[]
- David Tennant as Scrooge McDuck
- Danny Pudi as Huey Duck
- Ben Schwartz as Dewey Duck
- Bobby Moynihan as Louie Duck
- Kate Micucci as Webby Vanderquack
- Allison Janney as Goldie O’Gilt
- John Hodgman as John D. Rockerduck
- Nestor Carbonell as Ponce de Leon, Springbreakers
- Keith Ferguson as FrankenJeeves, Springbreakers
- Laura Bailey as Springbreakers
- Deborah Marlowe as Additional Voices
Trivia[]
- The episode takes place during Spring Break.
- Ponce De Leon is named after real life explorer Juan Ponce de León, who according to legend searched for the fabled Fountain of Youth.
- This depiction, however, is portrayed as an anthropomorphic lion. Fittingly, his last name, "Leon", is the Spanish word for "lion".
- Goldie still has a soft spot for Louie and becomes convinced to help Scrooge because of him.
- Scrooge has a similar hairstyle to his voice actor David Tennant when he is de-aged.
- John D. Rockerduck regains his youth and Jeeves is turned into a baby. Rockerduck explains that he was only in a disabled condition due to the faulty cryonic tech he used to preserve himself.
- This episode features an onscreen death.
- The Fountain water takes youth and gives it to someone else, similar to the version from Stranger Tides.
- Seems strange Goldie even wants the fountain water as she already found the other one; Fountain of Youth. Unless it no longer has any affect on her.
- It seems strange Ponce never got found out sooner; surely the rapid increase in elderly people in the local areas over the centuries would have been a big tipoff that something is wrong. Plus as the reboot seems concurrent to the year it began airing, this also means that within the last 20 years DNA testing was advanced enough to prove the elders were in fact missing teenagers ( once they had contacted their families).
- The amount of fountain water to de-age someone is inconsistent. Jeeves was forced to swallow an entire gallon, turning him into a baby. The spring-breakers only needed a cup to regain their youth. However, ALL the jugs of water were drained. There was no way the McDucks could have given back all the stolen youth Ponce drained; unless Goldie hid some. Plus some of the previous victims have likely died by now.
- Ponce oddly tries to keep Scrooge in the pool to drain his youth despite having ample time to get out of the pool himself to save his own youth.
- Scrooge saving Goldie while swinging on a vine is an obvious spoof of Tarzan due to the titular character doing the same to save Jane Porter.
- Ponce de Leon shares similarities to both Scar and Prince John.
International premieres[]
- February 14, 2021 (Japan)
- March 19, 2021 (United Kingdom) (Premiere on Disney+)
- December 8, 2021 (Italy) (Premiere on Disney+)
- January 6, 2022 (Portugal)
Gallery[]
.jpg "The Forbidden Fountain of the Foreverglades! (1).jpg (338 KB)")
