TV Review: “DuckTales” Season 3, Episode 8 – “The Phantom and the Sorceress!”

After a four-month hiatus over the summer, DuckTales has finally returned to Disney XD with new episodes, continuing the show’s already-in-progress third season. And the first installment of this autumnal batch of fresh outings-- entitled “The Phantom and the Sorceress!”-- focuses on young Webbigail Vanderquack (AKA Webby, voiced by series regular Kate Micucci) and her friends. It’s a not-unwelcoming break from regular adventures featuring Uncle Scrooge McDuck (David Tennant) and family, though it’s odd that this mid-season premiere would highlight what are mostly otherwise supporting characters instead of re-establishing a norm for the show.

But speaking of supporting characters, this episode also makes terrific use of Donald Duck’s usually-lucky cousin Gladstone Gander (returning guest star Paul F. Tompkins), who has found his uncanny power of good fortune absent after a stealth attack by this week’s vengeful villain, the deep-cut Disney reference Phantom Blot (Giancarlo Esposito of Breaking Bad and The Mandalorian). This baddie resembles a spectral executioner wielding Thanos’s Infinity Gauntlet, and he’s seeking to eliminate all magic from the world because of a past experience he had with-- you guessed it-- first season “big bad” Magica De Spell (Catherine Tate of Doctor Who).

And Webby’s best friend, of course-- the recently re-corporealized Lena (Kimiko Glen of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse)-- is a progeny of Magica’s magic, so the Phantom Blot’s quest puts her in direct danger of non-existence as well. This leads Webby, Lena, Gladstone, and the ever-precocious Violet (Libe Barer) to seek out Magica in her swamp hut and learn how to out-magic the magic collector thanks to a fun training montage set to a clever original song.

Despite this being a webby-centric episode, we do also see glimpses of Scrooge and nephews Huey (Danny Pudi), Dewey (Ben Schwartz), and Louie (Bobby Moynihan) embarking on their own off-screen exploit, and we’re treated to an cold-open in which the kids escape a video game brought to life by Lena’s powers, which serves as an impetus for the former shadow of Magica to seek out a way to bring her own abilities under control. Overall, I thought “The Phantom and the Sorceress!” was a lot of fun, and I especially liked the exploration of how Gladstone Gander handles his newfound unluckiness. It’s also cool to see the Phantom Blot-- a character with a very long, storied fictional history in Walt Disney Company-produced comic strips, comic books, and animation-- featured in such a pivotal (though likely one-off) role… and voiced by such a talented and accomplished actor.

Next week: “They Put a Moonlander On the Earth!”

New episodes of DuckTales air Mondays on Disney XD.