DuckTales - Whatever Happened to Della Duck! Disney Channel Promo

Five years ago today, "Whatever Happened to Della Duck?!" premiered on Disney Channel.

This is one of my most favorite episodes of the series. Maybe even my absolute favorite. 

After fans had learned that the reboot would be looking into Della's mystery, later let us know she had survived her disappearance AND let us see her again in "Last Christmas", an episode like this was highly anticipated. This was the first time Della was ever given this level of treatment in any officially animated project. We were all buzzing with excitement and were full of questions: 

"How did she survive for ten years?" "How was she breathing without a helmet?" 

"Did she gain superpowers from the storm?" "Was the storm a portal of some sort?"

"She's on the moon; are we getting 'The Moon Theme' from the game?"

Inspired by fans of other shows, I made bingo cards for the occasion (obviously unmarked):

   

And before this, sometime after "Shadow War", I was drawing her castaway design and noticed that her lower half wasn't shown. I just assumed there would be bandages on her legs like the ones on her arm, but once this detail continued to stay persistent throughout "Last Christmas" and the promotional material for "Whatever", another question was brought up: 

"...Did something bad happen to Della after the crash?"

Then as the premiere date got closer, Disney Channel released a clip from the beginning of the episode that basically confirmed Della having to cut off part of her leg. I remember being so startled by that...😨

This episode stars her in such a sad and frustrating situation, but its hopeful tone keeps it from being too hard of a watch. Both it and "Last Christmas" gave us a good look at Della's character and her intentions; they further prove what was previously said about her loving her family too much to be made out as selfish and completely careless without cause. They seriously gave us what we needed to know about original path of the show before it veered off-course in Season 3. 😑 I hope this will be the year that I talk about this even further...

So, uh, Happy Anniversary. Stinks all that hinting and potential never materialized into anything. 😕

Ahem, here's a compilation vid to revisit Della's arc for the occasion. 

If you haven't seen the show, (why did you click on this?!), I'd advise you not to watch this yet.