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Teasers and promos
- The sasquatch Huey captures in one of the promos looks almost identical to the one in A Goofy Movie, apart from having fangs and a more grey fur. It looks a lot like the yeti boss from the old NES game as well.
- Scrooge's introductory short features a Time Machine, which feels like an Actor Allusion to his voice actor David Tennant, who became famous as the time-traveling protagonist of Doctor Who. Scrooge's time machine is a grandfather clock, which is one of the regular disguises of the Master's TARDIS.
- During the Dewey Dew-Night shorts, every segment would end with Dewey saying that Glomgold had been bumped from the schedule, much to Glomgold's dismay. This joke seems to be a reference to Jimmy Kimmel's running joke of running out of time for an interview with Matt Damon every single episode.
Season 1
"Woo-oo!"
- While Launchpad drives Scrooge home, he passes by a car with what appears to be a dogface version of Daisuke Jigen sticking out of it.
- One of the fossils in Scrooge's garage is a Geosternbergia, likely a reference to Dinosaur.
- The city of Atlantis is powered by a blue crystal that the Atlanteans went to some lengths to hide from intruders.
- A background character in "Woo-oo!", first appearing as one of the interviewees at Glomgold's office, and then as a news reporter, bears a strong resemblance to Roxanne from A Goofy Movie.
- The booby-trapped Lost City of Atlantis has some Indiana Jones vibes. Specifically, there is a snake pit among the traps.note
- The Headless Man-Horse is a reference to the Headless Horseman from The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.
- Gabby McStabberson is designed after the actress Grace Jones, even wearing a similar hood to the one Jones wore in A View to a Kill.
- When Webby exclaims "UNCLE Scrooge?" in her room, to her left is a toy dog that resembles Mr. Peabody.
- Two of Glomgold's henchmen are brothers named Hack and Slash.
- A dragon statue that must be woken up with a gong? Could Pixiu be related to the Fa Family's Great Stone Dragon... and Mushu? The way Pixiu's name is pronounced even sounds like "Pishu".
"Daytrip of Doom!"
- From this clip, Webby's "This is no foyer... it's a tomb."
- The background character resembling Roxanne shows up again on the bus, suggesting she will be a reoccurring background character.
- Huey paraphrases Gene Wilder's Willy Wonka with "Where your dreams become reality and reality becomes hyper dreams".
- Louie suggesting that the gang need her to be "Webby-normal" may also hearken to the classic comedic scene in Young Frankenstein.
- In order to kidnap the kids, the three Beagle Boys dress up as the Fun Zone's mascot in order to trick them, a plan rather similar to one of the Purple Guy's plots in Five Nights at Freddy's.
- The ransom note the Beagles send Donald has the word "RANSOM" spelled on the top with magazine cut-outs in an almost identical way to the iconic River City Ransom logo.
- When starting to sink into the World's Deepest Ball Pit, both Webby and Ma Beagle (at different times) yell out "It's a trap!"
"The Great Dime Chase!"
- Gyro has to use index cards in order to talk to people politely, not unlike the 12th Doctor. Even funnier, given the connection Ducktales has to that show.
- Possibly a coincidence, but the way Bradford and the Board of Directors make a vote brings to mind a certain other vulture and his henchmen.
- On the top of Gyro's "Good turned Evil" list are 'Cogs'. Cogs are the main antagonists from Toontown Online. In the original download video for Toontown Online, Gyro Gearloose was shown to be the inventor of the first Cog, which turned evil after Scrooge accidentally activated the robots before their programming was ready.
- When Scrooge takes Louie to the money bin, his office has a huge painting in the style of a pro-labor Diego Rivera mural.
- When Webby catches Dewey in her room, she surprises him the same way Ellie surprises Carl when she catches him in her clubhouse in Pixar's Up. Her secret notebook has an identical design to Ellie's Adventure Book, too (except for the glitter).
- Johnny and Randy, the two hosts of the TV show "Ottoman Empire", bear a strong resemblance to Buck Cluck.
- The way Louie shouts out "No-no-no-mineminemine!" while chasing the dime into the Money Bin sounds an awful lot like Daffy Duck from the Merry Melodies cartoon Ali Baba Bunny (specifically the scene where he's trying to stuff the genie back in the lamp, mistaking him for a competitor to the wealth he and Bugs Bunny found).
"The Beagle Birthday Massacre!"
- The plot is largely inspired by The Warriors. The kids have to make it across town to the safety of McDuck Mansion, while the various Beagle Boy gangs chase them. Ma Beagle speaking through the radio spoofs the DJ character, and one of the Ugly Failures has bottles on his fingers.
- The Tumblebums' make-up makes them look exactly like the Jokerz from Batman Beyond.
- Webby's new friend Lena pulling up a Fake Brit accent to fool some Beagle Boys may remind a video gamer of Tracer (aka Lena Oxton) from Overwatch, who actually is British.
- Webby and Lena are chased by the Beagle Boys in a huge truck with spikes, which even has a gear stick decorated with a chrome skull.
"Terror of the Terra-firmians!"
- Huey and the red Terri-firmian making contact by touching their fingers parodies the famous scene from E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.
- The Terra-firmians roll around like the trolls in Frozen. Though the Terra-firmians were canon in the original series long before Frozen came out.
- The horror movie that the ducks watch (titled simply The Beast based on the poster seen at the movie theater) is inspired by The Mole People.
"The House of the Lucky Gander!"
- The scene where Liu Hai reveals itself, where the entire casino folds in, and everyone and every object transforms into a pack of cards is evocative of the finale of Disney's version of Alice in Wonderland.
- Pei Pei, a masseur/bouncer in the House of Lucky Fortune, is a large, fat anthropomorphic panda who resembles Po, the protagonist of the Kung Fu Panda franchise.
- The jade illusions Liu Hai creates (such as the tigers and the chain around Gladstone's leg) resemble the powers of Kai, the Big Bad of Kung Fu Panda 3, another villainous spirit inspired by Chinese traditions.
- The House of Lucky Fortune is an Asian-style luxury resort with a staff of anthropomorphic amphibians, run by an evil spirit who imprisons mortals - not unlike Yubaba's bathhouse from Spirited Away.
- As a prison that grants your every wish and where you win every game every time, the House of Lucky Fortune strongly resembles a certain place as depicted in The Twilight Zone episode "A Nice Place To Visit." Of course, it's not that the games are rigged in Gladstone's favour; he's just that lucky.
"The Infernal Internship of Mark Beaks!"
- During Huey's Unstoppable Rage breakdown, he claims that he's "chilling like a villain".
- As Mark Beaks falls from the roof after his cellphone, he embraces the phone while falling in a way very reminiscent of Gollum cradling the One Ring in the climactic scene of Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.
- The secondary villain of the episode is named Falcon Graves, which is very similar to Malcolm Graves, a champion from League of Legends. Furthermore, like the League of Legends character, Falcon Graves also worked for the other villain of the episode, is physically stronger than the other villain, and ultimately tried to murder said partner after being betrayed by him.
- Mark Beaks's company Waddle is rather obviously a Bland-Name Product for Google with the episode's plot itself being similar to The Internship.
- The employee at the Duckburg Billionaire's Club appears to be visually based on Tattoo from Fantasy Island.
"The Living Mummies of Toth-Ra!"
- When Louie and Webby discover the guard behind the curtain, his reaction is similar to the one the Wizard had.
- Apparently, Dewey's mummy training includes the dance from Michael Jackson's "Thriller".
- There's a Freeze-Frame Bonus of Bill Cipher in one of the hieroglyphs, albeit green instead of yellow. Bill was originally going to be green, like a dollar Bill, which makes sense in a show about the world's richest duck.
"The Impossible Summit of Mt. Neverrest!"
- The sequence where Dewey and Webby traipse around the mountain through the wormholes is quite similar in principle to Portal.
- It's also similar to the Random Transportation during the convergence in Thor: The Dark World and in both cases, the portals are invisible.
- Huey questioning why the sun is drawn wearing glasses is the same question Dipper asked Soos.
"The Spear of Selene!"
- The Greek gods look like bird versions of their counterparts from earlier Disney movies: Selene wears a similar tiara to Diana (another Moon goddess) in Fantasia, and Storkules has exactly the same hairstyle and very similar clothing to the title character of Hercules. Storkules also has an affable Nice Guy personality like the Disney counterpart, whereas Zeus gets some Character Rerailment, depicted as a Jerkass God like in Fantasia rather than the Reasonable Authority Figure of Hercules.
"Beware The B.U.D.D.Y. System!"
- One of the devices Fenton mentions is an Oscillating Overthruster.
- Fenton's Transformation Sequence into Gizmoduck looks suspiciously like one from a Magical Girl or Mecha series. The way he summons the suit and it goes flying to him also has some Iron Man vibes.
- Darkwing Duck is presented as a Show Within a Show that is somewhat relevant to the plot of the episode. Dewey is seen watching an episode at the opening, and Launchpad explains to him that it used to be his favorite TV show and Darkwing is his idol. Launchpad has a Darkwing bobble-head doll in his car, and he quotes Darkwing's motto "Let's Get Dangerous!" several times over the course of the episode.
- Bill Cipher appears again in one of the sticky notes peppering Launchpad's windshield.
"The Missing Links of Moorshire!"
- Glomgold's caddie who walked out on him, whom he said to be the best golfer in the world, is a tiger.
- The kelpies Briar and Bramble look like small, brightly colored ponies. To drive the reference home, they are voiced by Andrea Libman and Tara Strong, the former voicing Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy, and the latter voicing Twilight Sparkle in My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic.
- The golf course has a deadly fog threatening the players when they don't complete the game fast enough, much like in The Hunger Games: Catching Fire. Only this fog is petrifying rather than poisonous.
"McMystery at McDuck McManor"
- Dewey DJ-ed as Daft Duck.
- While Ma Beagle and Glomgold are dressed as an old-timey debutante and a Roman emperor as their costumes, Mark Beaks is dressed in the same black-strapped yellow coat as anime protagonist Yuuta Gamon.
"Jaw$!"
- As the title suggests, the episode's plot is a Whole-Plot Reference to Jaws: the boys go for a midnight swim in the money bin and Dewey gets "eaten" by a golden shark. Then they team up with Webby, Lena, and Launchpad, steal Donald's boat and try to lure in the shark with chum (in this case, treasure). After eating almost everyone, the shark eventually gets blown up from the inside.
- Launchpad hilariously goes into a Quint-like vengeance to avenge Dewey.
- Webby claims that "friendship is the strongest magic of all". Although The Power of Friendship is a common trope in children's media, this particular choice of words sounds like a reference to My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic.
- Webby's book "So You Love Ponies?" is also a nod to the My Little Pony franchise.
- Magica exerting People Puppet control over Lena might remind older viewers of Hama doing the same to Katara in Avatar: The Last Airbender.
"The Golden Lagoon of White Agony Plains!"
- Double shout-out to both Moby-Dick and Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, thanks to Glomgold.Glomgold: To the last, I grapple with thee! From Hades' heart, I stab at thee!
- The amulet that Goldie has is known as the Eye of Demogorgon.
- The snake Glomgold picked up while getting through the cave implies one of the Death Traps was a pit of snakes.
"Day of the Only Child!"
- The security drone is a takeoff on ED-209 from RoboCop (1987), with its look and continuing to attack after people surrender. Even the CG animation stands out similarly to ED's stop motion.
- The robot toy that Dewey uses to represent Huey resembles one of the Transformers, with a red-blue color scheme similar to Optimus Prime. The duck faces on each of its limbs recall Voltron, where the titular Combining Mecha has lion faces at the same places.
- As per Word of God, Doofus is inspired by Anthony Fremont from The Twilight Zone (1959) episode "It's a Good Life".
- The alias Burger Beagle uses as a Junior Woodchuck is "Timbo". In the Muzzy in Gondoland sequel called Muzzy Comes Back, there's a dogface thug named "Thimbo".
"From the Confidential Casefiles of Agent 22!"
- The spying theme, and especially the cane and bowler hat of Scrooge and the hairdo of Beakley, are referencing the British spy-series The Avengers (1960s).
- The guard bubble in the flashback to Mrs. Beakley's past and in the present day when Webby joins Scrooge after stowing away on his submarine is a reference to the Rover bubble from The Prisoner.
- The book that Webby wrote about Scrooge is called The Man with the Golden Everything, a reference to The Man with the Golden Gun, as befitting the episode's spying theme.
- The episode centers around a potion formula created by the druids of Castle Dunwyn, which they learned from a group of mysterious bear-like creatures, that is brewed from berries and gives incredible bouncing powers to anyone who drinks it. Black Heron even misquotes the show's theme song:Bouncing here and there and everywhereMass destruction that's beyond compare!
"Who is Gizmoduck?!"
- Bouncer Beagle is wearing a hockey mask with a design similar to the logo of The Mighty Ducks.
- Mark Beak's tweet about Waddleduck (shortly after a scene where he rides on Gizmoduck's back while GD flies through the air) mentions that Waddleduck 'showed him a whole new world'.
- Beaks's Transformation Sequence into Waddleduck 2.0 is taken straight from Sailor Moon.
- The climax of the episode where Gizmoduck has to get a self-destructing power-core away from the city echoes the climax of The Dark Knight Rises and The Iron Giant.
"The Other Bin of Scrooge McDuck!"
- At the end of the episode, Magicka takes over Lena's body and asks the following question: "Where do you keep the sharp knives?". People who played the videogame Undertale a certain way won't fail to notice some similarities...
- Gavin resembles the Bigfoot seen in A Goofy Movie.
- Scrooge mutters "Clever girl" when he finds a freshly-prepared sandwich during his Bigfoot hunt.
- The boys' room has a Darkwing Duck poster on the wall.
- The whole "gentle Bigfoot gets adopted by a family" subplot references Harry and the Hendersons. More specifically, Louie pretending to be using tough love while exiling Gavin is from a scene of it being genuinely and heartbreakingly used the same way in that movie.
"Sky Pirates... in the Sky!"
- The whole episode is a Crossover where the Ducks are pursued by sky pirates, led by Don Karnage from TaleSpin. The pirates also perform elaborate musical numbers, which is a reference to the Villain Song Karnage sings in the episode "Plunder and Lightning".
- The pirate gang's airplanes are redesigned into a design similar to Porco Rosso's seaplane.
"The Secret-s of Castle McDuck!"
- When Scrooge visits his parents Fergus and Downie, one of his ancestors was Simon McDuck, the accountant to the Knights Templar. This could be seen as a reference to Simon Templar, the protagonist of The Saint.
- Scrooge's grandfather and Fergus's father is "Dirty" Dingus McDuck, a pun on "Dirty Dingus Magee", a 1970 film starring Frank Sinatra and George Kennedy.
"The Last Crash of the Sunchaser!"
- Webby sitting with a bored expression through most of the Darkwing Duck theme song only to enthusiastically sing along at one certain part is reminiscent of a routine by Andy Kaufman with the Mighty Mouse theme.
- Scrooge waxes on about the Maltese MacGuffin, including calling it "the stuff that dreams are made of." note
- According to Word of God, the "Darkwing Duck" end credits appearing in the episode, with Darkwing standing on a roof and playing the saxophone, is an homage to Night Man.
- One of the fake credits is for "Graphic Blandisher", referencing the cheeky way that Lee Mendelsohn and Bill Melendez would credit their animators in the various Peanuts TV specials.
"The Shadow War!"
- The device that gives Donald a normal voice is called a "Barksian Translator", presumably named as a shout out to comic book writer and artist Carl Barks, well known to his readers as "The Good Duck Artist" because of his extensive work on the Disney Ducks Comic Universe.
- Donald's Badass Boast of "I am the storm." "The Oncoming Storm" is one of the nicknames of the Doctor.
- It's also a lot like a certain supernatural pirate's boast of "I am the sea."
- Lena's ghost/shadow saving Webby from a fatal blow from Magica is similar to Prowl's ghost saving Optimus Prime from being killed by Megatron in Transformers: Animated.
- While fighting the shadows, Launchpad sings a Bragging Theme Tune to pep himself up - to the melody of the Darkwing Duck theme song.
- The plane on the front of the brochure for Cape Suzette is the Sea Duck. Cape Suzette was also written in the same font the show's title used.
- Magica de Spell's outfit looks a lot like Raven's from Teen Titans (2003). Furthermore, her green skin is likely a reference to another famous evil witch.
Season 2
"The Most Dangerous Game... Night!"
- The title refers to the short story The Most Dangerous Game.
- Gyro names the tiny civilization "the Gyropuddlians", a clear reference to the Lilliputians from Gulliver's Travels.
- During a guessing parlor game, the guesser fails to figure out that the answer is "Uncle Scrooge" — identical to a scene in A Christmas Carol.
- The second game, though unnamed, is clearly Jenga.
- The final game of the night is Scrooge-opoly.
- Huey tying up a Gyropuddlian made giant with thread is straight out of "Brave Little Tailor".
"The Depths of Cousin Fethry!"
- Dewey and Huey's jingle of 'Best Time Waste Ever' sounds almost in tune to the musical film Grease's We Go Together.
- Huey wincing and recoiling in terror from the giant sea worm is framed very much like the famous scene in Alien³.
- Launchpad upon his return from his adventure looks remarkably like Kevin Sorbo from Hercules: The Legendary Journeys.
"Storkules in Duckburg!"
- The title is a reference to the obscure comedy Hercules in New York (mostly known as the film debut of Arnold Schwarzenegger).
- Storkules flies after spinning Louie around, like how Thor can fly with Mjolnir.
- When feeling disappointed in himself, Storkules says "If I am not a hero, be I a zero?", in a reference to the song "Zero to Hero" from Disney's Hercules.
- The harpies look very much like the carpies from Adventures of the Gummi Bears.
"Last Christmas"
- The episode's title is a reference to the famous pop song by Wham!
- Posters on Donald's bedroom wall include duckified versions of Weezer's Weezer (The Blue Album) and Nirvana's Nevermind cover art (with an egg taking the place of the baby).
- The Wendigo's apparent tendency to say it's own name likely refers to the Marvel Comics version.
- At the Christmas Party, Scrooge is approached by a guest named Rhutt Betlah, a clear reference to Rhett Butler. Betlah even bears a resemblance to Clark Gable's rendition of Butler.
- In Launchpad's mangled singing of The Twelve Days of Christmas, he mentioned Seven Samurai.
"Treasure of the Found Lamp!"
- The genie in Djinn's backstory appears in blue smoke, wears blue clothes, and has golden armbands, which he removes after being freed, similarly to Disney's most famous genie. He lacks the blue skin, though.
- Scrooge and Ma Beagle fighting over the lamp is a clear call-back to the intro of the original DuckTales cartoon, with Ma Beagle filling in for Flintheart Glomgold.
"The Outlaw Scrooge McDuck!"
- The framing device of the episode is similar to The Princess Bride, with an old man telling the story to a young relative, who regularly interrupts him. More specifically, Louie is suspicious that Scrooge's story is going to be a romance, and is then surprised to find himself invested in it.
- Gyro using Time Travel and getting stuck in a town in the Old West, where he gets involved in a train heist, recalls Back to the Future Part III. Goldie also says "Follow me for the key changes and try to keep up", quoting the first film of the same franchise.
- Jeeves is largely based on Oddjob from Goldfinger: the villain's hulking, stoic, well-dressed henchman. However, he has the metal teeth of Jaws.
"The 87 Cent Solution!"
- The stopwatch comes from the 1991 Uncle Scrooge comic book story On Stolen Time. It was used similarly in said comic and harkens back, in turn, to other types of time-stopping devices/mechanisms used in other forms of media.
- The episode served as a Whole-Plot Reference to the Sherlock Holmes story The Adventure of the Dying Detective, down to Scrooge pretending to be dying in order to get the Villain of the Week, in this case, Glomgold, to do a Motive Rant and confess to his plot. The title on the other hand, is a Shout-Out to a different Sherlock Holmes pastiche, entitled The Seven-Per-Cent Solution.
"The Golden Spear!"
- Donald butchers zombies with a chainsaw a la Ash Williams from Evil Dead. Said zombies were raised from the Necronomi-cassette, and banished by a (pun on the) magic words from Army of Darkness.
- Della and the Moonlanders work to renovate the Spear of Selene like The Flight Of The Phoenix.
"Nothing Can Stop Della Duck!"
- When the Gilded Man begins its rampage outside of McDuck Manor, we are treated to a shot of a glass of water shaking from its footsteps.
"Raiders of the Doomsday Vault!"
- The title is a play on Raiders of the Lost Ark.
- Dewey and Della sing the Powerline song "Stand Out" from A Goofy Movie.
- Von Drake apparently took the security of his Doomsday Vault very seriously, considering that it's base camp contains the Echo Base Shield Generator.
- but he also had fun with it, as the code to open one of the doors was the Spectrum Song.
"Friendship Hates Magic!"
- The title is a reference to My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic. Violet Sabrewing, the new character introduced in this episode, is a purple bookworm who isn't good at making friends, similarly to Twilight Sparkle, the protagonist of My Little Pony.
- The book Mrs. Beakley is reading, "The Scarlet Pimperbill", is the Duck-verse's equivalent of The Scarlet Pimpernel, who was an early example of The Cowl and inspiration for works like Zorro and Batman. Similarly, the duck on the cover of the book looks like a red Darkwing Duck and is mistaken by Launchpad as such. The duck also resembles The Scarlet Pumpernickel, Daffy Duck's character in the eponymous Looney Tunes short.
- Among the mystical objects Webby hides are the three Shankara Stones from the Temple of Doom.
"The Dangerous Chemistry of Gandra Dee!"
- Dr. Atmoz Fear looks and sounds quite similar to a certain comical villain of the Tri-State Area that's always failing to a certain blue platypus.
- Coincidentally, he also looks like Dr. Crane, another Mad Scientist from the French cartoon S.O.S. Croco, minus his metal plated beak.
- When Fenton enters the store and sees all the news reports on the TVs, one of the reporters, voiced by Tom Kenny, says "And so once again, the day is saved. Thanks to... Gizmoduck!"
- In the climax, Mark Beaks turns into a muscular giant resembling The Incredible Hulk, complete with Magic Pants. He keeps his grey coloration and his intelligence, which makes him similar to Bruce Banner's "Grey Hulk" transformation rather than the better-known savage, dumb, green one.
- The transformed Mark Beaks climbs the Waddle tower while holding Huey and Webby in his hand.
- Gandra's plan to get Fenton to say a specific password using a date as a cover is straight out of Sneakers.
"The Duck Knight Returns!"
- There are tons to Batman; which makes sense since Darkwing is a homage to the pulp heroes that inspired the Caped Crusader.
- The name of the episode itself is a nod towards Batman: The Dark Knight Returns.
- The episode is an Inversion of the famous episode of Batman: The Animated Series episode, "Beware the Gray Ghost" guest-starring Adam West as an actor famous for playing a pulp hero now stuck in a Jim Starling-like situation, but ends up having an arc the complete opposite of Jim's.
- Jim Starling becomes one to classic villain Basil Karlo, the original Clayface: an actor that lost his mind when the studio tried to remake his classic role without him and turned villain in revenging himself.
- The design for the reboot movie incarnation of Megavolt is one to Bane from the The Dark Knight Trilogy, whereas the police officer appearing in the trailer (identified in the credits as Commissioner Haggard) looks like Gary Oldman as Commissioner Gordon from the same film trilogy. The movie poster is also a pastiche of the poster for Batman Begins, while the trailer is a pastiche of various Nolan movie trailers.
- The Darkwing Duck trailer alludes to several superhero movies, including lighting a match to reveal flaming initials and a pearl necklace falling and shattering.
- Boorswan is a fairly blatant Expy of Christopher Nolan, sharing his British accent, haircut, blue eyes, and scarf◊, as well as his more "psychological" approach to superhero movies. He's even voiced by a good friend of Nolan's.
- The dance Dewey does that recorded over the fight footage is the perfect cast.
- In a blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment, one of the buildings in the Show Within a Show at the beginning is labeled "Saint O'Malley's Kitten Orphanage".
- Crossing over with Actor Allusion, at one point Jim Starling gives a distinct Stooge eye-poke to his replacement actor. The replacement's voice actor, Chris Diamantopoulos, played Moe Howard in the 2012 The Three Stooges big-budget reboot.
- The basic plot is similar to Scooby-Doo! Mask of the Blue Falcon, with movie studios making a Darker and Edgier remake of a goofy TV series, with the Kindhearted Simpleton being a big fan of both the character and the original performer, who has been disrespected by the studios, forgotten by most fans, and has developed some noticeable mental issues. Extra points for both heroes being bird-based. However, unlike Jim, who only got worse, the guy playing the original Blue Falcon managed to show himself a true hero, in the end, impressing the director and the new performer to the point he got a good role in the movie's sequel.
- Doubling as an Actor Allusion: in one scene, Scrooge McDuck wears 3D glasses on top of his other glasses, similarly to the Tenth Doctor.
- Jim Starling's transformation into Negaduck, in which the purple color bleeds out of his costume, is similar to Rainbow the Clown's transformation into Mr. Mime in The Powerpuff Girls.
- A non-superhero example; Jim Starling seems to be named (in an animalised-pun version of such) after popular internet video game critic Jim Sterling of the Jimquisition. Sterling's cynical and abrasive Accentuate the Negative Caustic Critic persona shares similarities to Starling's cynical personality and Sterling frequently uses Scrooge McDuck to represent greedy video game executives in his videos.
- Jim Starling's name also bears resemblance to Jim Starlin, a comic book writer known for introducing Thanos (who had just played a major role in the Marvel Cinematic Universe the year the episode released) and the Guardians of the Galaxy.
- Jim Starling's name could also be a meta reference to voice actor Jim Cummings, who voiced the original Darkwing Duck and Starling himself.
What ever happened to Donald Duck?
- Lunaris's attempt at space travel involved, basically, a large gun that fired the passenger at the earth. The same device was used in A Trip to the Moon to make the trip in the opposite direction.
- Towards the end, when Donald is using the Moon People's ship to escape, he travels the same Tunnel of Light that Bowman did while On the Beautiful Blue Danube plays in the background.
Happy Birthday, Doofus Drake!
- One of the people looking to scam Doofus looks very similar to Gene Wilder's version of Willy Wonka.
- Doofus, intending to beat up Louie, says "I've never hunted the most dangerous piñata: man", a reference to The Most Dangerous Game.
- One of the places where Mark Beaks took a selfie with Boyd is Lester's Possum Park.
- The photo of Mark and Boyd at the aquarium has the former wearing a hat resembling the jellyfish from SpongeBob SquarePants and the latter a hat resembling Flounder.
- Legends of Legend Quest: Derenzaroth, the MMO that Della and Huey play together is obviously a take on both League of Legends and World of Warcraft.
- Della's avatar in said game looks like a duck hybrid version of Samus Aran and Zero.
- Several references to Dragon Ball Z: Della wears Vegeta's eyepiece, which cracks when Huey exchanges his experience points to character levels, and then she exclaims that Huey's level is over 9000. Huey then turns into a warrior with large muscles, long hair, and a flaming red aura, essentially using Kaio-ken.
A Nightmare on Killmotor Hill!
- The episode and title is an obvious nod towards A Nightmare on Elm Street, with Lena being chased around in her nightmares by her monstrous aunt.
- Dewey's dream seems to emulate High School Musical with him shooting basketballs and singing because that's what he believes teens do. The layout of the school hallway when they first arrive is quite clearly that of Bayside High.
- In one of the montage sequences, Lena gets Snow White's famous poison apple but the face is shaped like a duck.
Timephoon!
- The cowboy and cowgirl look like Woody and Jessie.
- When explaining the Butterfly Effect, Beakley mentions a hypothetical situation involving a butterfly getting stepped on in the past. Which is followed by Della shaming her for even thinking about stepping on butterflies, similar to how the Tenth Doctor did with Martha Jones.
- One of the heirloom canes of Clan McDuck is a parrot-headed umbrella.
- A prehistoric animal ends up in modern times due to a temporal anomaly, much like in Primeval.
GlomTales!
- The happy birthday song the Funzo staff sing has a similar tune to the happy birthday song sung to Yzma in The Emperor's New Groove.
The Richest Duck in the World!
- The invisibility cloak Scrooge sells seems to be a nod to Harry Potter.
- The Bombie's appearance is largely based on Solomon Grundy.
- The Bombie's facial features and black inverted eyes appear to be based after Jake the Dog.
- The animal guest star for the space-themed episode of Dewey Dew-Night! is a raccoon.
Moonvasion!
- Donald's Companion Cube resembles Mickey Mouse. Also his getting stranded on a beach with nothing but his melon for company as well as growing scraggly hair and a matching beard invokes Cast Away.
- [[spoiler Scrooge's Board of Directors being F.O.W.L. all along]] brings back memories of Hail Hydra.
Season 3
Double-O-Duck in You Only Crash Twice!:
- As can be expected there are references to numerous films in the James Bond series. The episode's theme song "I'm Just Not Good Enough" sounds similar to "The Writing's On The Wall" from Spectre. The scene where Launchpad and Steelbeak play baccarat recalls Casino Royale while the speedboat chase is a nod to Live and Let Die. Launchpad and Steelbeak having a fight over a satellite dish is likely a reference to GoldenEye.
- The shiny prison jumpsuits Launchpad and Dewey wear recall the spacesuits worn by Roger Moore in Moonraker and later parodied in Austin Powers.
- Launchpad and Dewey's V.R. glasses resemble the specs worn by Michael Caine, Colin Firth, and Taron Egerton in the Kingsman series.
- Launchpad and Dewey taking part in a game and never realizing they're in danger is a similar plot to the Bill Murray comedy The Man Who Knew Too Little.
- Gadget Hackwrench's origin could be considered a reference to both The Secret of NIMH and Pinky and the Brain.
The Lost Harp of Mervana!
- When first swimming among the Mervanans, Webby says, "Look at this stuff! Isn't it neat?"
Louie's Eleven!
- The title is a reference to Ocean's Eleven. At the end, Louie also suggests a sequel, "Dewey's Dozen".
- Donald says "Yippee ki-yay, Mr. Falcon!" after jumping out of the air vents.
- Daisy as the Beleaguered Assistant to an Anna Wintour Expy is a nod to The Devil Wears Prada.
- The IT List gala, which is set at a museum, is a reference to Wintour's annual Met Gala, which she throws at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in support of its costume institute.
- Louie appears to have a sticker of Shadowmourne, a legendary axe from World of Warcraft, (Or possibly Darius' battleaxe) on the back of his laptop.
- When Manny arrives, the sound of a shotgun cocking is heard as he readies his hooves in a punching stance. This is a reference to the infamous clip from the trailers for Mission Impossible: Fallout, where Henry Cavill does the same thing with the same sound effect.
Astro B.O.Y.D.!
- Fenton keeps B.O.Y.D.'s laser eyes at bay with a pair of ruby-colored glasses.
- The episode is loaded with references to Astro Boy.
- B.O.Y.D.'s original name, 2BO, is a reference to Astro's real name Tobio.
- Gyro clashes with an Inspector Tezuka, named for the legendary manga artist Osamu Tezuka who created Astro Boy.
- A background character is seen cosplaying as Sailor Moon. A figurine of the character appears in-universe and depicts her as a rabbit, a reference to Sailor Moon's civilian identity of Usaginote Tsukino.
- Dr. Akita eats from a bag of chips that has a fox version of one of the Matsuno brothers on it.
- The fact that the male robber has a clown motif on his bike helmet may be a reference to the bikers from AKIRA.
- The robot in the cardboard cut-out used by Huey and B.O.Y.D. looks a lot like Gigantor.
- There's a background character who looks like a Dogface version of Lupin III.
- Meanwhile, Tezuka is dressed similarly to Inspector Zenigata and even has his habit of keeping a ludicrous amount of handcuffs inside her trench coat.
The Rumble For Ragnarok!
- During Webby's stalling, she introduces her fists as "Lady Haymaker" and the "Duchess of Whaling", the same names that Sylvia has for her fists.
- The audience break out into an impromptu version of the main riff of "We Will Rock You" by banging on the bleachers.
- A fighting tournament with Earth's champions saving the world by defeating superpowered warriors and gods is the basic premise of Mortal Kombat.
- There are numerous references to professional wrestling throughout the episode.
- Scrooge's pro wrestling persona "The Millionaire Miser" is a homage to "The Million Dollar Man" Ted Di Biase. Jormungandr plays air guitar at one point like Hiroshi Tanahashi. Ms. Beakley even hits a Stone Cold Stunner at one point.
- Hecka's costume and elaborate entrance are an homage to The Undertaker; she even does The Undertaker's famous "zombie sit-up" spot.
- Before Launchpad and Huey take over the commentary we briefly see an announcer that's a dead ringer for Gorilla Monsoon.
- Dewey's sunglasses and haircut as "ChamPopular" resembles a young Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. Like Johnson's initial character "Rocky Maivia" ChamPopular fails to get over with the crowd and Dewey only manages to win over the audience after he embraces being a heel.
- Jormungandr sometimes ends his sentences with a brief "uh" when he's speaking to the audience is similar to Triple H's manor of speaking.
- Strongbeard's massive, muscular frame, long hair and pastel-colored ring gear gives him a similar look to the Ultimate Warrior.
- The crowd chants "This is awesome!" early in the episode.
- A reference to Norse Mythology: "Hecka" is an obvious family friendly version of Hel. Hecka being a one-eyed raven also links her to Odin.
- The final shot of Dewey and Scrooge facing off in their wrestling personas is a homage to the ending of Rocky III.
The Trickening!
- Launchpad spends most of the episode wearing a hockey mask and wielding a hand saw, evoking a very strong Jason Voorhees image. He even homages the infamous "sleeping bag of death" murder from Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood after he traps Scrooge in a sack (thinking Scrooge is a demon) and repeatedly beats him against the ground.
- The monsters in the episode are wearing costumes based on the antagonists of famous horror movies. The werewolf is dressed as a Monster Clown resembling Pennywise from It, the vampire is dressed as a puppet like Billy from Saw, the witch is dressed as a Stringy-Haired Ghost Girl climbing out of a well similar to Samara from The Ring, and the Frankenstein's Monster wears a striped shirt similar to Freddy from 'A Nightmare on Elm Street''.
- The scenario Launchpad describes, with the monsters suddenly taking over Duckburg, is similar to Evil Dead.
- The Dewey-like puppet in front of a TV set to static references Poltergeist.
- The scene where the monsters meet Donald and Della in the hallway and mistake them for Creepy Twins, the scene where Scrooge bashes the door and shows his face in the hole, and the final scene of the camera zooming in on a black-and-white photo, are nods to The Shining.
- Two nods to The Nightmare Before Christmas: Scrooge's skull mask is designed like the face of Jack Skellington, and Louie tells Launchpad "This is Halloween" at the end of the episode.
- In Launchpad's flashback, there is a kid dressed up as Captain Hook and another dressed up as Quasimodo.
- Two of the tombstones read, "Shirley U. Donminit" and "Don't call me Shirley."
- The Google Chrome Dinosaur appears as a Halloween decoration.
- The vampire Looks Like Orlok and is named Nosferatu.
- Early in the episode, a costumed Scrooge performs The Skeleton Dance.
The Forbidden Fountain of the Foreverglades!
- Scrooge and Goldie's dialogue of 'No, no, no, no.' and 'Oh yes. Yes, yes, yes, yes!' is strangely reminiscent of Adolf Hitler's 'NEIN! NEIN! NEIN! NEIN! NEIN! NEIN! NEIN!' vs. Aldo Raine's 'Oh yes yes yes yes.' dialogue from the trailer of Inglourious Basterds.
- Ponce's pointed snout, dark mane, protruding claws, and manipulative nature bring to mind Scar. He's also a scrawny, yellow-furred, anthropomorphic lion similar to Prince John.
- When Goldie and Scrooge discover what they think is the fountain, Rockerduck interrupts them with the same line Belloq used on Indiana Jones in the opening sequence of Raiders of the Lost Ark. Ponce's death by Rapid Aging is also very similar to Donovan's in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.
- Ponce’s scheme for immortality using supernatural powers and a friendly façade only to make victims of his visitors (and making adjustments to his plans to fit into the modern age) steps into Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island territory, right up to how he perishes by aging into nothing.
- The concept of the Fountain of Youth stealing life from one person to extend the life of another was previously used by Disney in Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides.
- Scrooge saves Goldie while swinging on a vine, much like how Tarzan did with Jane.
Escape From The Impossibin!
- Della begins checking for traps and comes across a stapler, which she hits, causing it to disgorge a paperclip. She then hits it three more times after Scrooge says, in a deadpan tone mimicing Principal Skinner: "Please don't waste those."
The Split Sword of Swanstantine!
- Rockerduck brags about he's the "heir of the Rockerduck fortune, ruthless rustler, and the greatest land baron of the American west ... in America."
- The cages used in the spice bar are straight out of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.
- After the F.O.W.L. agents corner the Duck family, Steelbeak mentions how their "bazaar adventure" is over, quickly covering it up with the fact they were at a bazaar.
- Throughout the episode, the group were at a middle Eastern city and were conveniently divided, something that would not look at all out of place from Stardust Crusaders. Bonus points for characters having to find their "inner strength" too.
The Fight for Castle McDuck!
- When Huey and Louie find a pile of old bagpipes, there's a wooden mask on the wall that resembles a certain other Mask.
How Santa Stole Christmas!
- The title is a reference to How the Grinch Stole Christmas!. Also, Jennifer is based after Cindy Lou, down to having pigtails and mistaking Scrooge for Santa.
- The flying reindeer all bear a resemblance to Sven.
Beaks in the Shell!
- The title is a reference to Ghost in the Shell.
- When Beaks squares off against the Gizmo-suited Officer Cabrera, he says "A robot cop? I smell a franchise!"
- "Uh uh uh, you didn't say the magic word!"
- Mark Beaks becoming a giant head with two floating disembodied hands is a reference to the final boss from Star Fox 64, Andross.
The Last Adventure!
- This isn't the first time David Tennant gets a daughter that's his clone.
- When Bradford completes the Junior Woodchuck Guidebook with Isabella Finch's Journal, there's a Blink-and-You-Miss-It frame◊ when we see objects referencing National Treasure and The Mummy.
- Manny's transformation into his final form references Sleepy Hollow when the Horseman regains his skull and regrows his head from the skull. This time, it's more like Manny reforming a head from nothing but the stump of his neck.
- As stated several times on the episode's main page, Manny is revealed to be a shout-out to Gargoyles complete with theme music paired to the transformation and having the voice of Keith David, in a manner exactly like how he voiced Goliath and Thailog.
- Per Manny's transformation and ties to Gargoyles his final form bears resemblance to members of the London Clan, most notably Una.
- An infant found in the enemy's lair during an invasion, and adopted and raised by the person who found the child, but without ever telling that child the truth which brings disaster in the future, recycles the story of Loki. And a young girl being an Opposite-Sex Clone of an important adult male, who regards the girl as his daughter, is exactly like Laura Kinney. Both are parts of franchises owned by Disney.