DuckTales the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp (1990)
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DuckTales the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp Movie Review
DuckTales the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp is a 1990 animated family fantasy adventure film from Disneytoon Studios. It’s a pretty solid, very fun movie.
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“I’m going to wish for a million wishes!
Get serious! That never works!“
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Huey, Dewey and Louie and their long-suffering uncle Scrooge McDuck are on an adventure, battling against evil sorcerer Merlock for possession of a magical lamp. First off, this film was obviously based on a TV show and that feeling was unfortunately inescapable from the end product. Not only does it feel oddly paced and put together, but it also starts suddenly out of nowhere with a giant action piece, and that was a big problem for me.
Yes, that first act really reminded me of Indiana Jones in all the wrong ways. It’s supposed to be an adventure, but it’s filled with action after action sequence that it becomes very tiring very quickly. But thankfully, the second act was much better.
While the third act is a solid, though standard conclusion, easily the best part is the second act where the best moments are to be had from the magic wishes to the villain pursuits. I found this part the most entertaining and the best executed for sure.
Let’s talk about the characters. Per usual, Huey, Dewey and Louie are not easily distinguishable as they really lack strong individual personalities, but of course as a group they are terrific as their dynamic is fantastic. But honestly, Webby was more memorable and quite amusing with some of her lines of dialogue.
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Naturally, Scrooge steals the show with his hilarious money obsession. He’s phenomenal here, well developed and with a great arc to him. As for the villains, they are standard, but quite solid and memorable overall. Merlock is bad-ass whereas Dijon is quite amusing. Their villain-henchman dynamic is undeniably superb, and they actually steal the show more often than not. And of course Genie is great and very endearing.
The animation in this movie is also solid for television standards. Being based on a television series, the film was never to have amazing, truly polished animation, and in my opinion it’s just good enough to be fine for what it is. I liked its hand-drawn, classic style, but yes, the overall feel to it is unpolished and cheap for theatrical feature standards. ‘A Goofy Movie’ would be much better animated later on, and it’s a better movie overall.
But DuckTales the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp is undoubtedly still a solid effort in its own right, and it should rank among the best efforts from Disneytoon Studios on anybody’s lists. I personally changed my mind about it as I firstly did not care for it all too much, but upon second viewing, I give it three and a half stars, and a strong 3.5 rating, verging toward the four more than the three.
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That’s because I could see now that the movie really improved after that unfortunate mess of a first act. I also found its runtime perfectly slim and it surely flies by. It’s a very entertaining movie for the most time and it should please any kid out there. I liked the dialogue and some of the humor, though I wanted more of it for sure. I also liked the score and the famous titular opening number, and I found the action so well executed.
DuckTales the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp very obviously has its limitations which all stem from its television origins. The animation isn’t the greatest and the first act just starts out of nowhere with very frenetic, dull action. But the second act is an evident improvement as it is quite entertaining. It has strong characterization, solid storytelling and it’s an endearing, charming flick that flies by how brief and fun it is.
