When Disney TV animation first created it's "Disney Afternoon" lineup in 1990, the concept was that every fall, a new series would be added to the lineup, relegating the oldest series to the syndicated purgatory of the Disney Channel. That first year, the two-hour programming block consisted of The Gummi Bears, Duck Tales, Chip 'n' Dale's Rescue Rangers, and the then brand-new Tale Spin. In the fall of 1991, Darkwing Duck made it's debut on weekday afternoons.

The colorful adventure series concerned itself with one Drake Mallard (Disney voiceover vet Jim Cummings), seemingly mild-mannered anthropomorphic duck bachelor and single dad to adopted daughter Gosalyn (future Rugrats and Babe star Christine Cavanaugh). But underneath this meek, suburbanite surface lays the secret identity of the caped crimefighter Darkwing Duck, who emerges from the shadows to strike fear into the hearts of evildoers armed with an arsenal of doodads and, even more scary, a florid flood of purple prose which D.W. uses to narrate his own calamitous crimefighting capers ("I am the terror that flaps in the night! I am the winged scourge that peaks at your nightmares...!"). Along with his trusty, accident-prone sidekick/pilot Launchpad McQuack (Terry McGovern), Darkwing must defend his bustling adopted city of St. Canard against the sinister schemes of vile villains such as Dr. Bushroot (Tino Insana), Megavolt (Dan "Homer Simpson" Castellaneta), Quackerjack (Michael Bell) and even his own mirror image Negaduck (Cummings again).

The references to Batman are obvious, but unlike previous Disney Afternoon fare, which all at least made a nod towards "realism" in their storytelling, Dawkwing Duck takes a sharp left turn into outright spoofiness and Warner Bros.-inspired comic mayhem. Falling anvils and other "cartooney" comic props abound, as do deliberately rotten puns ("You're at wick's end, Doubloon!"), a decidedly lax adherence to the general laws of physics (Darkwing has a body every bit as malleable and fluid as the characters in any Bugs Bunny or Tom & Jerry short), and plots that veer off into weird, non-sequitir sidetracks. Unfortunately, the jokes don't always hit their marks as well for this now-thirtysomething DVD reviewer, and thus the show's relentlessly surreal vibe grows wearisome when viewing multiple episodes in a compacted timeframe. It doesn't help that the show's animation is wildly inconsistent, ranging from near feature-quality from the Japanese studios to embarassingly rubbery and off-model from the cheaper Korean houses.

There are still highlights to be found, such as "Life, The Negaverse, And Everything", wherein Darkwing travels to a nightmarish alternate universe version of St, Canard, "Twin Beaks", a bizarre entry that crossbreeeds a spoof of Twin Peaks (nothing like watching a 15-year-old cartoon series to appreciate insanely dated cultural references) with a sendup of Invasion Of The Body Snatchers, and "Dead Duck" with Darkwing literally getting killed during a traffic accident(!) and returning as a spirit to continue his crimefighting crusade. But these solid entries are few and far-between. On the whole, Darkwing Duck really was the beginning of the end of Disney's "golden" TV animation period of the late 80's. It's agreeable enough fare for kids, and the occasional line sneaks through and tickles the funny bone of the adult viewer (like Launchpad screaming "Ahhhhhhh, lobster women!" Maybe you had to be there...), but after the initial, pleasurable glow of nostalgia wore off about halfway through the first of this set's three discs, it became more of a chore than a pleasure to sit through. Let's get mediocre...

Presentation
The show's 1:33 full-frame aspect rato is reproduced here with the same lack of care that has marred every previous "Disney Afternoon" DVD set to date. Colors look fairly bright, but there are plenty of hairs and dust speckles and other animation irregularities on display. The 2.0 English audio (also available in French) fares a little better, with the show's appropriately annoying voice work and hyperactive sound F/X cues reproduced with decent clarity. At least all of the episodes appear to be unaltered, unlike the Rescue Rangers and Tale Spin sets, which featured many edited-for-syndication episodes studded throughout.

Extras
Aside from the usual "sneak peek" menu pimping other Disney product like Meet The Robinsons and the upcoming Jungle Book SE, there's not a single, solitary additional feature. Apparently Disney thinks that fans of the show should feel lucky that they're getting the show at all. Lame.

The Bottom Line
Nostalgia aside, Darkwing Duck is fairly dreary going before you even hit the halfway point of this 27-episode set. Kids should enjoy it, but with so many superior comedy/adventure 'toons available nowadays, The Masked Mallard's cape is beginning to seem rather threadbare.