Midweek Music Box: Ducktales (NES)

Woo!  Woo! (Yeah, you know you were thinking that.)

I talked about another Disney Capcom Crossover just recently and mentioned I wasn't a huge fan of the music for that game, but as I love the music from the first Disney Capcom venture, I thought I'd give a quick talk about how awesome the level themes from Ducktales are.

You're welcome by the way for the song that's now stuck in your head.

I think that it almost goes without saying that most people think of the Moon Theme when they think of this NES classic.  The fact of the matter is the whole soundtrack for the game has the same infectious catchy ability that we knew and loved from the cartoon, but none so much as the Moon Theme.  

Time to crack out the cane and bust some alien  heads laddie!

Yes, the 8-bit version of the iconic Ducktales theme takes the cake when it comes to a fusion of awesome childhood memories and deep, automatic-song-singing reaction, but the Moon Theme has....

Sigh  Go ahead and sing it again if you must, I know you want to.

Anywho.

As I was saying, the Moon Theme has a constant, peppy beat that is easy to hum, whistle or do a little singing interpretation of the song.  Not only was this tune great in its day, it still is infinitely enjoyable as an adult.  It's not one of those songs that we all realized was terrible when we grew up but just liked because we were kids and into the Ducktales show.  The tune has seen endless remixes and variations on Youtube, each one adding not only unique spin to the tune, but helping make it feel fresh every time, whatever instrument is used.  Everything from metal guitar, to banjo, to orchestrations, to even a kazoo has been used to interpret this song!

Yes, I said Kazooooooo!

The tune has an upbeat exploratory feel that suits the game, and reminds you of the tone of the show.  Not to mention the really good remixes put me personally in the writing mood and making working on various projects a breeze.  Although, with that I wish I had a cane sometimes so I could just smash boxes out of the way, and jewels the size of basketballs randomly appearing behind piles of clutter would be nice too and might provide even more incentive for me to get a bit more organized.  And I'd like it if I happened to run into an over-sized nanny that wants to toss cakes and ice cream cones or other snacks my way...

What was I saying?  

Oh yeah!  The Moon Theme also suits the feel of the stage in that it does evoke a certain tone that space shooters had at the time.  It still feels like Ducktales, and it still makes me feel like I'm on an adventure when I hear it, but I distinctly have that space-feel.  Maybe its the subtle high pitch of the bleeps and bloops in the sound track, but I feel like a duck in space...you know, as one would and all.

Owing to personal stuff that happened recently, this week's installment will be a bit on the short side.  I definitely want to revisit the Ducktales game music, most likely to do a comparison of the sound from the remaster versus the classic version.  In the mean time, since I know kazoos are cool and all, but not quite the same as an orchestra or metal guitar, I wanted to leave you with one of my favorite arrangements of the Moon Theme: The talented Smooth McGroove:

Beard on my friends...