WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.320 Have you ever just completely and unapologetically 00:00:04.320 --> 00:00:08.619 loved a movie that the critics absolutely despised? 00:00:08.740 --> 00:00:11.019 Oh, totally. We all have that one movie. Right. 00:00:11.140 --> 00:00:13.240 Like, think about it. You sit down in the theater, 00:00:13.500 --> 00:00:15.660 you laugh, you defend it to your friends, you 00:00:15.660 --> 00:00:18.519 have a genuinely great time, but then you open 00:00:18.519 --> 00:00:21.420 up a review and you find out that the world's 00:00:21.420 --> 00:00:24.780 most respected cinema experts consider this thing 00:00:24.780 --> 00:00:27.379 you enjoyed to be an offense to the art form. 00:00:27.579 --> 00:00:30.079 It is I mean, it's one of the most fascinating 00:00:30.079 --> 00:00:32.840 phenomena in pop culture. That really sharp, 00:00:33.060 --> 00:00:35.420 jarring disconnect between highbrow critical 00:00:35.420 --> 00:00:39.340 consensus and the actual on -the -ground experience 00:00:39.340 --> 00:00:40.820 of someone who just wants to sit in the dark 00:00:40.820 --> 00:00:42.960 and be entertained for 90 minutes. Because we 00:00:42.960 --> 00:00:44.840 like to pretend that quality is the subject of 00:00:44.840 --> 00:00:46.640 science, but when you look at the historical 00:00:46.640 --> 00:00:49.079 reception of certain films, that theory just 00:00:49.079 --> 00:00:51.340 crumbles. And welcome to the deep dive, by the 00:00:51.340 --> 00:00:54.259 way. Because today, our mission is to examine 00:00:54.259 --> 00:00:57.700 a single Wikipedia article about a piece of media 00:00:57.700 --> 00:01:01.270 that perfectly, hilariously embodies this exact 00:01:01.270 --> 00:01:03.549 paradox. It really does. We were looking at a 00:01:03.549 --> 00:01:08.329 1971 Walt Disney comedy directed by Vincent McEvitty. 00:01:08.730 --> 00:01:11.409 It is called The Million Dollar Duck, which was 00:01:11.409 --> 00:01:14.090 also known in some releases as One Million Dollar 00:01:14.090 --> 00:01:16.170 Duck. Right, they had a couple titles for it. 00:01:16.230 --> 00:01:18.969 Yeah. And we're going to unpack how a seemingly 00:01:18.969 --> 00:01:22.989 silly family film about an irradiated waterfowl 00:01:22.989 --> 00:01:25.930 became this wild, contradictory flashpoint in 00:01:25.930 --> 00:01:28.430 cinema history. It's a film that somehow managed 00:01:28.430 --> 00:01:32.849 to earn major prestigious award nominations while 00:01:32.849 --> 00:01:36.069 simultaneously infuriating legendary critics 00:01:36.069 --> 00:01:38.090 so much that they literally physically walked 00:01:38.090 --> 00:01:40.209 out of the theater. It is glorious. And just 00:01:40.209 --> 00:01:42.129 to set the tone for you, this isn't just a movie 00:01:42.129 --> 00:01:45.629 about an animal. It's this bizarre 1970s time 00:01:45.629 --> 00:01:47.390 capsule. Oh, absolutely. When I was looking through 00:01:47.390 --> 00:01:49.370 these notes, I realized the premise of this film. 00:01:50.010 --> 00:01:52.250 Well, it's like finding a treasure chest of gold, 00:01:52.950 --> 00:01:55.269 but the gold is covered in radioactive applesauce. 00:01:55.409 --> 00:01:57.870 That is a very specific image. Right. Actually, 00:01:57.870 --> 00:01:59.750 you know what? A better way to put it is that 00:01:59.750 --> 00:02:01.569 judging the million -dollar duck by the same 00:02:01.569 --> 00:02:03.590 metrics as something like, say, The Godfather, 00:02:03.870 --> 00:02:06.030 it's like taking a micrometer to a bouncy castle. 00:02:06.049 --> 00:02:08.530 I love that. You're using this instrument of 00:02:08.530 --> 00:02:11.389 extreme precision to measure something that was 00:02:11.389 --> 00:02:14.330 built entirely for loud, clumsy fun. That is 00:02:14.330 --> 00:02:16.680 a perfect way to frame it. Because on the surface, 00:02:16.919 --> 00:02:19.280 yes, it's a bouncy castle. It's a slapstick family 00:02:19.280 --> 00:02:21.860 comedy. But when you look at the actual narrative 00:02:21.860 --> 00:02:24.900 mechanics, it accidentally becomes this profound 00:02:24.900 --> 00:02:29.099 exploration of Cold War economic paranoia, the 00:02:29.099 --> 00:02:32.020 fragility of the suburban family, and government 00:02:32.020 --> 00:02:34.879 overreach. OK, let's slow down. Because to understand 00:02:34.879 --> 00:02:37.879 this bizarre legacy, we can't just skip to the 00:02:37.879 --> 00:02:40.659 end. We have to understand the inciting incident. 00:02:40.879 --> 00:02:43.740 Right, the setup. And I promise you, if you haven't 00:02:43.740 --> 00:02:46.520 seen this, you cannot predict how this plot kicks 00:02:46.520 --> 00:02:49.139 off. We meet our main character, Albert Dooley, 00:02:49.300 --> 00:02:51.620 played by Dean Jones. E -classic Disney leading 00:02:51.620 --> 00:02:54.379 man. Totally. So Albert is a scientist, but he 00:02:54.379 --> 00:02:57.000 is seriously struggling to keep his head above 00:02:57.000 --> 00:02:59.659 water financially. Right, and the film establishes 00:02:59.659 --> 00:03:02.199 a very specific contrast here to ground the story. 00:03:02.639 --> 00:03:04.759 We learn that Albert was actually his college 00:03:04.759 --> 00:03:07.189 valedictorian. He was the guy everyone told, 00:03:07.189 --> 00:03:09.310 you know, you are going to go far in life. So 00:03:09.310 --> 00:03:11.569 right from the jump, you have this underlying 00:03:11.569 --> 00:03:15.689 tension of unfulfilled potential colliding with 00:03:15.689 --> 00:03:18.229 intense everyday financial pressure. So money 00:03:18.229 --> 00:03:22.449 is tight. His wife, Katie, played by Sandy Duncan, 00:03:22.930 --> 00:03:25.370 decides she is going to help cut down the household 00:03:25.370 --> 00:03:28.129 budget by making her own applesauce, which is 00:03:28.129 --> 00:03:30.469 a choice, a terrible choice, as it turns out. 00:03:30.469 --> 00:03:32.870 Yeah, because she completely botches the recipe. 00:03:32.870 --> 00:03:36.069 It is. entirely inedible. Which is actually a 00:03:36.069 --> 00:03:38.430 point where the film's modern reception bleeds 00:03:38.430 --> 00:03:41.530 into the plot. Critics, both then and now, were 00:03:41.530 --> 00:03:43.530 pretty brutal about this characterization. Oh 00:03:43.530 --> 00:03:46.069 really? Yeah, modern critics like Scott Weinberg 00:03:46.069 --> 00:03:48.449 of DVD Talk specifically roasted the writing 00:03:48.449 --> 00:03:50.870 for Sandy Duncan's character. He argued that 00:03:50.870 --> 00:03:53.710 she is written to be, and I quote, stupid as 00:03:53.710 --> 00:03:56.680 a stone. Ouch. Yeah. The film plays her lack 00:03:56.680 --> 00:03:59.120 of basic domestic skills as a hilarious punchline, 00:03:59.139 --> 00:04:01.439 which is a very dated, frustrating trope. Wait, 00:04:01.439 --> 00:04:03.300 hold on. So the studio thought a story featuring 00:04:03.300 --> 00:04:05.520 a struggling, valedictorian husband and a wife 00:04:05.520 --> 00:04:08.259 whose sheer incompetence drives the plot was 00:04:08.259 --> 00:04:12.439 just breezy, harmless comedy. Exactly. It highlights 00:04:12.439 --> 00:04:14.400 the disconnect we're talking about. The studio 00:04:14.400 --> 00:04:17.480 thought it were funny. The critics found it borderline 00:04:17.480 --> 00:04:21.199 insulting. Wow. But that botched applesauce is 00:04:21.199 --> 00:04:24.639 the engine of the entire plot. Katie gives the 00:04:24.639 --> 00:04:27.519 ruined, budget -saving applesauce to Albert to 00:04:27.519 --> 00:04:30.019 take to work. Albert gets to his laboratory, 00:04:30.199 --> 00:04:32.519 realizes he can't eat it, and throws it in the 00:04:32.519 --> 00:04:35.600 trash. And to the duck. Yes. Albert is currently 00:04:35.600 --> 00:04:39.060 running tests on a duck at work. And this duck, 00:04:39.180 --> 00:04:41.980 whose name is Charlie, despite explicitly being 00:04:41.980 --> 00:04:45.160 a female duck, wanders over, eats the discarded 00:04:45.160 --> 00:04:47.579 applesauce out of the trash, and then just casually 00:04:47.579 --> 00:04:50.139 wanders into a radiation lab. As one does. Right, 00:04:50.300 --> 00:04:53.139 as one does in a 1970s science facility. Workplace 00:04:53.139 --> 00:04:55.959 safety protocols were apparently not a high priority 00:04:55.959 --> 00:04:58.100 in this cinematic universe. Not at all. So the 00:04:58.100 --> 00:05:00.360 duck gets heavily irradiated. Okay, let's unpack 00:05:00.360 --> 00:05:02.600 this. The recipe for a magical creature here 00:05:02.600 --> 00:05:06.540 is literally just... bad budget saving applesauce 00:05:06.540 --> 00:05:09.220 plus workplace radiation. Pretty much. That feels 00:05:09.220 --> 00:05:12.519 like the most chaotic origin story ever. I mean, 00:05:12.779 --> 00:05:15.560 Captain America gets a highly calibrated super 00:05:15.560 --> 00:05:18.160 soldier serum. Charlie the Duck gets Katie's 00:05:18.160 --> 00:05:20.459 terrible cooking and some loose gamma rays. What's 00:05:20.459 --> 00:05:22.360 fascinating here is how the film is essentially 00:05:22.360 --> 00:05:25.100 taking an ancient narrative structure, East Ops 00:05:25.100 --> 00:05:27.339 fable of the goose that laid the golden eggs 00:05:27.339 --> 00:05:31.060 and updating it to reflect 1970s nuclear age 00:05:31.060 --> 00:05:33.779 anxieties. Oh, I see. If you look at the original 00:05:33.779 --> 00:05:36.300 fable, the magic just exists. It's an unexplained 00:05:36.300 --> 00:05:38.560 phenomenon. Right, it's just magic. But here... 00:05:38.600 --> 00:05:42.680 The magic is a direct causal result of scientific 00:05:42.680 --> 00:05:45.980 hubris, domestic frugality, and atomic radiation. 00:05:46.600 --> 00:05:49.420 It grounds a fairy tale in the very real atomic 00:05:49.420 --> 00:05:51.579 era fears that people were actually living with 00:05:51.579 --> 00:05:53.759 at the time. And the mechanics of this power 00:05:53.759 --> 00:05:56.379 are completely ridiculous. Because of the radiation 00:05:56.379 --> 00:05:58.420 exposure, Albert is ordered to get rid of the 00:05:58.420 --> 00:06:01.519 duck. But his son, Jimmy, played by Lee Montgomery, 00:06:01.920 --> 00:06:04.519 has been begging for a pet. So Albert brings 00:06:04.519 --> 00:06:07.490 the radioactive duck home to his kid. A questionable 00:06:07.490 --> 00:06:09.610 parenting choice, to be sure. It's just a little 00:06:09.610 --> 00:06:11.709 light radiation in the living room. But this 00:06:11.709 --> 00:06:13.629 is where they discover the duck's new ability. 00:06:14.209 --> 00:06:16.990 Whenever a dog barks, it triggers a Pavlovian 00:06:16.990 --> 00:06:19.490 response in Charlie. The classic conditioning 00:06:19.490 --> 00:06:22.110 experiment. Yeah. But instead of salivating, 00:06:22.370 --> 00:06:24.910 the sound of the bark causes the duck to lay 00:06:24.910 --> 00:06:28.329 an egg. And not a normal egg. The yolk of this 00:06:28.329 --> 00:06:31.930 egg is solid gold. Solid gold yolks on demand. 00:06:32.230 --> 00:06:34.949 Bark at the duck, get gold. Yeah. So naturally, 00:06:35.230 --> 00:06:38.079 Albert... Katie, their son Jimmy, and Albert's 00:06:38.079 --> 00:06:40.759 friend Fred, who is played by Tony Roberts in 00:06:40.759 --> 00:06:42.639 his actual film debut, which is a great piece 00:06:42.639 --> 00:06:44.560 of trivia. Oh, that's awesome. Yeah, they decide 00:06:44.560 --> 00:06:46.639 to keep this quiet. They start harvesting these 00:06:46.639 --> 00:06:48.519 golden yolks and selling them to pay off their 00:06:48.519 --> 00:06:50.620 debts. And this is where the narrative transitions 00:06:50.620 --> 00:06:53.800 from a quirky domestic comedy into a completely 00:06:53.800 --> 00:06:56.750 different genre. It really shifts gears. Because 00:06:56.750 --> 00:06:58.470 if you think about the mechanics of what they're 00:06:58.470 --> 00:07:02.629 doing, a family secretly generating endless untraceable 00:07:02.629 --> 00:07:05.930 gold cannot go unnoticed for long. Then to the 00:07:05.930 --> 00:07:09.230 U .S. government, specifically their nosy neighbor, 00:07:09.610 --> 00:07:12.689 Mr. Hooper, played by Joe Flynn. Yeah, Hooper 00:07:12.689 --> 00:07:14.389 works as a bureaucrat from the Treasury Department. 00:07:14.850 --> 00:07:17.110 He gets highly suspicious of the Dooley's sudden 00:07:17.110 --> 00:07:19.709 wealth and starts spying on them. Though his 00:07:19.709 --> 00:07:22.310 espionage is handled entirely through physical 00:07:22.310 --> 00:07:25.230 slapstick. Oh, it's peak cartoon logic. He's 00:07:25.230 --> 00:07:27.329 hiding up in a tree, spying on the Dooley house, 00:07:27.670 --> 00:07:30.410 and his own wife, Eunice, yells at him from the 00:07:30.410 --> 00:07:33.029 ground. Right. It startles him so badly he falls 00:07:33.029 --> 00:07:35.449 right out of the branches. But despite being 00:07:35.449 --> 00:07:38.879 incredibly inept, Hooper actually succeeds. He 00:07:38.879 --> 00:07:41.560 witnesses Charlie laying a golden yolk and he 00:07:41.560 --> 00:07:44.060 sees Albert and Fred celebrating. And this changes 00:07:44.060 --> 00:07:46.920 the entire scale of the movie. Hooper goes to 00:07:46.920 --> 00:07:49.160 his boss at the Treasury Department, Rutledge, 00:07:49.480 --> 00:07:52.220 played by James Gregory. Yeah. Initially, Rutledge 00:07:52.220 --> 00:07:54.600 thinks Hooper is delusional, but Hooper lays 00:07:54.600 --> 00:07:57.319 out a very serious logical argument about the 00:07:57.319 --> 00:08:00.199 economic upheaval that an easy and infinite supply 00:08:00.199 --> 00:08:02.540 of gold could create. Here's where it gets really 00:08:02.540 --> 00:08:05.720 interesting. We go from a family selling egg 00:08:05.720 --> 00:08:08.230 yolks. to a direct order from the Oval Office. 00:08:08.370 --> 00:08:11.170 It escalates so fast. The rumor travels up the 00:08:11.170 --> 00:08:13.769 chain of command, phone call by phone call, until 00:08:13.769 --> 00:08:15.589 Rutledge is on the phone with President Nixon 00:08:15.589 --> 00:08:18.930 himself. Which is wild for a Disney movie. Nixon 00:08:18.930 --> 00:08:21.730 personally orders the capture of the duck. It's 00:08:21.730 --> 00:08:24.930 like if your weird weekend side hustle suddenly 00:08:24.930 --> 00:08:27.110 threatened to destabilize the global economy. 00:08:27.269 --> 00:08:29.110 Well, if we connect this to the bigger picture, 00:08:29.509 --> 00:08:33.429 it's... wildly revealing about the time period. 00:08:34.009 --> 00:08:37.909 Imagine you are a viewer in 1971. You go to this 00:08:37.909 --> 00:08:40.950 Disney movie to escape the news. But the news 00:08:40.950 --> 00:08:44.149 was dominated by massive economic anxiety. Right, 00:08:44.289 --> 00:08:46.490 inflation and everything. Exactly. The United 00:08:46.490 --> 00:08:49.669 States was dealing with rampant inflation. And 00:08:49.669 --> 00:08:52.320 crucially, And we're just outlining the historical 00:08:52.320 --> 00:08:54.240 facts here to show why the film works the way 00:08:54.240 --> 00:08:57.759 it does. 1971 was the exact time period when 00:08:57.759 --> 00:09:00.059 the country was undergoing the Nixon shock. The 00:09:00.059 --> 00:09:02.360 Nixon shock. Yes, the transition completely away 00:09:02.360 --> 00:09:04.679 from the gold standard fundamentally changing 00:09:04.679 --> 00:09:07.220 how money worked. So the idea of gold suddenly 00:09:07.220 --> 00:09:09.379 flooding the market wasn't just a fantasy problem. 00:09:09.440 --> 00:09:12.120 It hit a very raw nerve. Exactly. Let's explain 00:09:12.120 --> 00:09:14.820 the mechanism of the fear here. If currency is 00:09:14.820 --> 00:09:17.519 tied to gold and a private citizen can suddenly 00:09:17.519 --> 00:09:19.700 manifest infinite gold in their living room, 00:09:20.320 --> 00:09:22.620 that citizen effectively controls the value of 00:09:22.620 --> 00:09:25.240 the US dollar. It would cause hyperinflation. 00:09:25.600 --> 00:09:27.700 So the government's terror in this film is actually 00:09:27.700 --> 00:09:30.899 economically sound. It's a slapstick comedy masking 00:09:30.899 --> 00:09:34.980 a geopolitical economic crisis. That is wild. 00:09:36.179 --> 00:09:38.019 But while the government is panicking on a macro 00:09:38.019 --> 00:09:40.379 level, Things are completely falling apart on 00:09:40.379 --> 00:09:42.379 a micro level for the Dooley's. Yeah, the family 00:09:42.379 --> 00:09:45.720 dynamic. Albert gets consumed by greed. The former 00:09:45.720 --> 00:09:47.740 valedictorian who couldn't pay his bills suddenly 00:09:47.740 --> 00:09:50.659 has limitless wealth, and he completely loses 00:09:50.659 --> 00:09:53.299 his moral compass. He stops spending time with 00:09:53.299 --> 00:09:55.879 his son Jimmy to focus entirely on the duck. 00:09:56.120 --> 00:09:59.440 It is the tragic flaw from Aesop's fable manifesting 00:09:59.440 --> 00:10:02.779 perfectly. The greed blinds him to his actual 00:10:02.779 --> 00:10:05.779 family. And this sets the stage for the film's 00:10:05.779 --> 00:10:07.860 physical climax, forcing the government pursuit 00:10:07.860 --> 00:10:10.240 and the fractured family dynamic to collide. 00:10:10.460 --> 00:10:12.679 Right. So Treasury Department officials, led 00:10:12.679 --> 00:10:15.159 by Hooper, show up at the house seize the duck 00:10:15.159 --> 00:10:17.559 for national security. Jimmy sees them coming. 00:10:17.600 --> 00:10:20.039 He takes action. He grabs the duck, climbs out 00:10:20.039 --> 00:10:22.480 his bedroom window, and manages to hitch a ride 00:10:22.480 --> 00:10:24.899 with a couple of teenagers in a hot rod. A very 00:10:24.899 --> 00:10:28.480 classic 1970s cinematic trope. Rebellious teens 00:10:28.480 --> 00:10:31.139 in a hot rod outrunning the squares. Totally. 00:10:31.820 --> 00:10:34.320 The government agents chase them. And this leads 00:10:34.320 --> 00:10:38.879 to a genuinely wild stunt. Jimmy somehow ends 00:10:38.879 --> 00:10:42.129 up suspended high in the air. on a ladder that 00:10:42.129 --> 00:10:44.169 is stretched directly between two parking garages. 00:10:44.190 --> 00:10:47.370 It's so dangerous. He is dangling over the city, 00:10:47.669 --> 00:10:49.929 clutching this million -dollar duck. And this 00:10:49.929 --> 00:10:52.549 becomes the ultimate crucible for Albert. He 00:10:52.549 --> 00:10:55.169 arrives at the scene, sees his son in mortal 00:10:55.169 --> 00:10:57.850 danger, and tries to convince Jimmy to reach 00:10:57.850 --> 00:11:00.389 out and grab his hand before the ladder snaps. 00:11:00.490 --> 00:11:03.570 But Jimmy refuses. Right. Because Jimmy genuinely 00:11:03.570 --> 00:11:05.429 believes that Albert doesn't care about him anymore. 00:11:05.690 --> 00:11:07.929 He thinks his dad is only risking his life to 00:11:07.929 --> 00:11:10.399 save the gold -producing duck. Yeah. For a movie 00:11:10.399 --> 00:11:12.919 with such a goofy premise, that is a surprisingly 00:11:12.919 --> 00:11:15.519 heavy emotional beat. It forces Albert to make 00:11:15.519 --> 00:11:18.139 a definitive choice. The ladder begins to break. 00:11:18.379 --> 00:11:20.559 Jimmy is terrified. And in that split second, 00:11:20.620 --> 00:11:23.620 he realizes his father is genuinely there for 00:11:23.620 --> 00:11:26.259 him, not the gold. And he saves him. Yes, Albert 00:11:26.259 --> 00:11:28.700 pulls Jimmy to safety just as the ladder falls. 00:11:28.919 --> 00:11:31.279 A beautiful triumphant family reunion, which 00:11:31.279 --> 00:11:33.340 is immediately ruined because the second they 00:11:33.340 --> 00:11:36.240 are safe, Albert is arrested by the Treasury 00:11:36.240 --> 00:11:40.159 officials and his crime. owning gold as a private 00:11:40.159 --> 00:11:42.399 citizen. Which, again, touches on historical 00:11:42.399 --> 00:11:45.299 realities. For decades, following executive orders 00:11:45.299 --> 00:11:48.820 in the 1930s, it actually was illegal for U .S. 00:11:49.100 --> 00:11:52.039 citizens to hoard gold. Really? Yes. And the 00:11:52.039 --> 00:11:54.580 film uses this to force a final confrontation 00:11:54.580 --> 00:11:57.600 in a courtroom. Albert is facing federal charges 00:11:57.600 --> 00:12:00.360 and realizes the only way to prove he isn't a 00:12:00.360 --> 00:12:03.139 criminal mastermind is to show the judge the 00:12:03.139 --> 00:12:05.519 absurdity of the situation. He has to prove the 00:12:05.519 --> 00:12:07.580 duck is the source. So they bring the duck into 00:12:07.580 --> 00:12:09.500 the courtroom. Mr. Hooper, the nosy neighbor, 00:12:09.559 --> 00:12:11.419 tries to trigger the magic by barking at it, 00:12:11.440 --> 00:12:14.059 but he fails. Of course. So Albert steps up. 00:12:14.340 --> 00:12:16.480 He barks at the duck. Charlie lays an egg into 00:12:16.480 --> 00:12:18.799 a glass right in front of the judge. The tension 00:12:18.799 --> 00:12:21.279 is at its peak. The judge breaks the egg open. 00:12:21.360 --> 00:12:24.059 It is just a regular yellow, completely normal 00:12:24.059 --> 00:12:26.639 yolk. The effects of the radiation had conveniently 00:12:26.639 --> 00:12:28.879 worn off at the exact second they needed them 00:12:28.879 --> 00:12:31.980 to. So what does this all mean? Wait, the government 00:12:31.980 --> 00:12:34.279 literally arrests a man for a federal crime. 00:12:34.399 --> 00:12:37.039 triggering a national security panic that reaches 00:12:37.039 --> 00:12:39.899 the President of the United States. And the entire 00:12:39.899 --> 00:12:42.559 tension of the film is resolved by the radiation 00:12:42.559 --> 00:12:45.580 just magically expiring. Pretty much. It's the 00:12:45.580 --> 00:12:48.200 ultimate cinematic reset button. There are zero 00:12:48.200 --> 00:12:50.740 consequences. This raises an important question 00:12:50.740 --> 00:12:53.259 about what the narrative of this era actually 00:12:53.259 --> 00:12:56.639 valued. You have to look at what the film prioritizes. 00:12:56.779 --> 00:13:00.480 OK. It introduces a massive geopolitical economic 00:13:00.480 --> 00:13:03.740 crisis, but it has absolutely no interest in 00:13:03.740 --> 00:13:06.710 solving it. The courtroom scene isn't about economics 00:13:06.710 --> 00:13:09.669 or justice. It is entirely about the restoration 00:13:09.669 --> 00:13:12.289 of the nuclear family. Because the magic is gone, 00:13:12.610 --> 00:13:14.970 the judge dismisses the charges due to lack of 00:13:14.970 --> 00:13:17.149 evidence. Exactly. Albert turns to his family 00:13:17.149 --> 00:13:19.730 and delivers the moral. The gold was nice, but 00:13:19.730 --> 00:13:21.730 at least we have our pet duck, and family is 00:13:21.730 --> 00:13:23.690 more important than wealth. He learns his lesson. 00:13:24.389 --> 00:13:25.929 But the judge actually gets the final word of 00:13:25.929 --> 00:13:28.450 the movie, and it is fantastic. He leans over 00:13:28.450 --> 00:13:30.909 the bench, looks at young Jimmy, and says, If 00:13:30.909 --> 00:13:33.309 that duck ever lays another golden egg, bury 00:13:33.309 --> 00:13:36.389 it quick. The judge ordering them to literally 00:13:36.389 --> 00:13:39.230 bury the gold is the perfect metaphor for how 00:13:39.230 --> 00:13:41.389 Disney wanted audiences to treat this movie. 00:13:41.509 --> 00:13:44.509 How so? Just bury the implications, have fun, 00:13:44.570 --> 00:13:46.570 and don't think too hard about the geopolitical 00:13:46.570 --> 00:13:49.889 consequences. But the film critics of 1971 absolutely 00:13:49.889 --> 00:13:51.870 refused to do that. Yeah. Which brings us to 00:13:51.870 --> 00:13:54.570 the reception. Because the behind -the -scenes 00:13:54.570 --> 00:13:56.970 trivia and the way the real world reacted to 00:13:56.970 --> 00:13:59.669 this movie are just as chaotic as the on -screen 00:13:59.669 --> 00:14:02.690 plot. To understand the critical whiplash, we 00:14:02.690 --> 00:14:05.470 should first look at the production itself. Disney 00:14:05.470 --> 00:14:07.830 brought a bizarre level of earnestness to this 00:14:07.830 --> 00:14:10.730 project. I am obsessed with this detail. Disney 00:14:10.730 --> 00:14:13.070 held open casting calls for the role of the duck. 00:14:13.429 --> 00:14:15.990 They literally auditioned ducks at the studio. 00:14:17.110 --> 00:14:20.769 The winner was a duck named Webfoot Waddle. And 00:14:20.769 --> 00:14:23.080 they had understudies. Two runners -up named 00:14:23.080 --> 00:14:25.460 Jennifer and Carlos were kept on set as stand 00:14:25.460 --> 00:14:28.120 -ins for Webfoot Waddle. It highlights the technical 00:14:28.120 --> 00:14:30.240 effort Disney was pouring into the formula, but 00:14:30.240 --> 00:14:32.620 that formula was colliding with a massive shift 00:14:32.620 --> 00:14:34.620 in cinematic history. Yeah, the timing was tough. 00:14:35.019 --> 00:14:38.059 You have to remember, the early 1970s was the 00:14:38.059 --> 00:14:41.379 dawn of the new Hollywood era. This was the time 00:14:41.379 --> 00:14:45.500 of gritty, realistic masterpieces. Critics were 00:14:45.500 --> 00:14:49.389 championing complex, dark... narratives, and 00:14:49.389 --> 00:14:51.370 right in the middle of that, Disney releases 00:14:51.370 --> 00:14:54.830 a movie about a duck laying gold when a dog barks. 00:14:55.009 --> 00:14:57.269 And the critics took it personally. Let's talk 00:14:57.269 --> 00:14:59.330 about Gene Siskel, one of the most respected 00:14:59.330 --> 00:15:01.820 film critics in history. a legend. Throughout 00:15:01.820 --> 00:15:04.580 his entire multi -decade career, sitting through 00:15:04.580 --> 00:15:07.399 thousands of movies, Gene Siskel only walked 00:15:07.399 --> 00:15:10.440 out of a theater three times. Once for a 1980 00:15:10.440 --> 00:15:13.700 slasher film called Maniac. Once for the 1996 00:15:13.700 --> 00:15:16.039 Chris Farley comedy Black Sheep. And the third 00:15:16.039 --> 00:15:19.220 time was The Million Dollar Duck. He was so fundamentally 00:15:19.220 --> 00:15:21.399 offended by what he was watching that he physically 00:15:21.399 --> 00:15:24.039 abandoned the screening. And his famous counterpart, 00:15:24.279 --> 00:15:27.019 Roger Ebert, was just as brutal. Ebert went on 00:15:27.019 --> 00:15:28.919 the record calling it one of the most profoundly 00:15:28.919 --> 00:15:31.440 stupid movies. I've ever seen. Profoundly stupid. 00:15:31.559 --> 00:15:33.559 That is a heavyweight insult. And as I mentioned 00:15:33.559 --> 00:15:36.159 earlier, modern critics like Scott Weinberg echo 00:15:36.159 --> 00:15:38.460 that sentiment today, calling it easily one of 00:15:38.460 --> 00:15:40.980 Disney's worst live action family comedies ever. 00:15:41.259 --> 00:15:43.820 If you look at Review Aggregators today, it sits 00:15:43.820 --> 00:15:47.460 at a dismal 17 % on Rotten Tomatoes and a 45 00:15:47.460 --> 00:15:51.029 on Metacritic, leaning heavily negative. But 00:15:51.029 --> 00:15:54.309 here is the massive paradox. How do we reconcile 00:15:54.309 --> 00:15:57.710 this intense critical hatred with what actually 00:15:57.710 --> 00:15:59.970 happened? That's a great question. Because Gene 00:15:59.970 --> 00:16:02.610 Siskel is fleeing the theater in disgust, but 00:16:02.610 --> 00:16:05.690 audiences loved it. The movie was a genuine financial 00:16:05.690 --> 00:16:09.210 success, bringing in $5 .1 million in North American 00:16:09.210 --> 00:16:12.029 rentals. And even crazier, the Hollywood Foreign 00:16:12.029 --> 00:16:14.909 Press Association looked at this film and gave 00:16:14.909 --> 00:16:17.820 it Golden Globe nominations. Two of them. Both 00:16:17.820 --> 00:16:20.179 Dean Jones and Sandy Duncan were nominated for 00:16:20.179 --> 00:16:22.419 Golden Globes for their comedic acting. Are you 00:16:22.419 --> 00:16:24.759 serious? The critics call it profoundly stupid, 00:16:25.120 --> 00:16:26.860 and the Golden Globes say, let's put them on 00:16:26.860 --> 00:16:28.960 the ballot. It is a stunning divide. But if you 00:16:28.960 --> 00:16:31.000 analyze the psychology of it, it makes sense. 00:16:31.139 --> 00:16:33.320 OK, tell me how. Critics like Siskel and Ebert 00:16:33.320 --> 00:16:35.779 were evaluating the film based on narrative structure, 00:16:36.000 --> 00:16:39.059 thematic depth, and intellectual rigor. By the 00:16:39.059 --> 00:16:41.840 metrics of high art, it fails. But the Hollywood 00:16:41.840 --> 00:16:44.279 Foreign Press Association was recognizing something 00:16:44.279 --> 00:16:47.740 entirely different. The genuine technical skill 00:16:47.740 --> 00:16:50.240 required to pull off physical comedy. So they 00:16:50.240 --> 00:16:52.899 were rewarding the sheer effort. Exactly. Selling 00:16:52.899 --> 00:16:56.240 a premise this absurd to a theater full of children 00:16:56.240 --> 00:16:59.220 requires tremendous comedic timing, physical 00:16:59.220 --> 00:17:01.480 commitment, and earnestness. Yeah, that's fair. 00:17:01.860 --> 00:17:04.940 Dean Jones and Sandy Duncan were given incredibly 00:17:04.940 --> 00:17:07.880 silly material. I mean, acting opposite a duck 00:17:07.880 --> 00:17:10.680 named Webfoot Wattle. But they fully committed 00:17:10.680 --> 00:17:13.700 to the reality of the scene. Revisionist critics 00:17:13.700 --> 00:17:16.119 today argue that judging this film alongside 00:17:16.119 --> 00:17:19.500 serious 1970s cinema is a fundamental mistake. 00:17:19.799 --> 00:17:22.539 Because it wasn't made for them. Right. Its targeted 00:17:22.539 --> 00:17:25.440 appeal was always kids. If you accept the essential 00:17:25.440 --> 00:17:28.099 silliness of The Bouncy Castle, it succeeds at 00:17:28.099 --> 00:17:30.539 exactly what it set out to do. It's the ultimate 00:17:30.539 --> 00:17:32.759 example of knowing your audience. The critics 00:17:32.759 --> 00:17:35.259 walked out. but the families bought tickets and 00:17:35.259 --> 00:17:37.660 the actors got to be Golden Globe nominees. I 00:17:37.660 --> 00:17:39.839 think that's why we love diving into the history 00:17:39.839 --> 00:17:43.160 of things like a critically panned 50 -year -old 00:17:43.160 --> 00:17:46.119 Disney movie. The pristine masterpieces are great, 00:17:46.480 --> 00:17:49.240 but sometimes these weird little forgotten corners 00:17:49.240 --> 00:17:52.059 of pop culture yield much more fascinating stories. 00:17:52.180 --> 00:17:54.569 Oh, without a doubt. I mean... The Godfather 00:17:54.569 --> 00:17:56.869 didn't have open casting calls for poultry, and 00:17:56.869 --> 00:17:58.849 it didn't make Gene Siskel flee the building. 00:17:58.990 --> 00:18:02.250 It certainly did not. It forces us to ask how 00:18:02.250 --> 00:18:05.750 we measure the true value of media. Is it the 00:18:05.750 --> 00:18:08.390 critical consensus or the joy it brought to its 00:18:08.390 --> 00:18:11.130 intended audience? Exactly. So as we wrap up 00:18:11.130 --> 00:18:12.849 this deep dive, I want to leave you with something 00:18:12.849 --> 00:18:15.750 to mull over. What if the true legacy of a piece 00:18:15.750 --> 00:18:18.809 of media isn't actually its objective quality, 00:18:19.250 --> 00:18:22.220 but its sheer audacity? Think about the movies 00:18:22.220 --> 00:18:24.519 coming out right now that the critics are absolutely 00:18:24.519 --> 00:18:27.519 tearing apart. Consider what seemingly bad movies 00:18:27.519 --> 00:18:30.579 from today might spark intense debates or be 00:18:30.579 --> 00:18:32.859 looked back upon fondly by revisionist critics 00:18:32.859 --> 00:18:35.160 50 years from now. This is a fun thought experiment. 00:18:35.440 --> 00:18:37.359 Because who knows? Maybe half a century from 00:18:37.359 --> 00:18:39.559 now someone will be recording their own deep 00:18:39.559 --> 00:18:42.859 dive about the hidden genius of today's biggest 00:18:42.859 --> 00:18:45.279 critical flops. It's all about perspective and 00:18:45.279 --> 00:18:48.279 sometimes you just have to appreciate the radioactive 00:18:48.279 --> 00:18:50.019 applesauce for exactly what it is.