Review by Ian Keogh
Tom Angleberger’s Origami Yoda series is a maverick idea of Origami Yodas offering life advice to children, and Doorways to Danger offers the crowd-pleasing premise of uniting all the older Disney cartoon characters as they compete on a TV gameshow. That cast have dwindled to a niche market in the USA, and the suspicion is that while 21st century youngsters all know Frozen, even former superstars Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck will be new to them.
Angleberger and artist Jeff Harvey open by taking a tour around multiple characters hearing about new reality TV show Doorway to Danger, offering big prizes. Credit to Angleberger, who doesn’t just include what were once the big names, but also Horace Horsecollar, Gyro Gearloose and Ludwig Von Drake, while Scrooge McDuck’s presence is guaranteed when he realises it’s an adventure he never finished years previously. As children, Huey, Dewey and Louie aren’t allowed to take part, but make themselves busy as commentators around the TV studio.
Digitally created art means the cast look very different from their cartoon personas, but as most readers will only know their Duck Tales equivalents at best, that’s no great hindrance. Harvey’s most obvious change is drawing the ducks’ facial features three-quarters of the way down their heads, giving those heads an oversized look, while the ducks’ hands no longer resemble a form of human hands. They’re winged fingers tapering to points, although Mickey still wears his trademark white gloves. Harvey’s characters are largely full figures, but fill the panels to bursting, when a viewpoint from greater distance would be preferable. When it comes to the movement and action, though, Harvey’s very good other than not always making it completely clear how characters get from one place to another so rapidly. It may leave the younger readers confused.
The story is structured like a platform video game with tasks needing to be completed before moving to the next level, and players compete in teams. Only Donald and the team of Daisy Duck and Minnie Mouse are interested in winning the competition, with everyone else present for their own purposes. Mickey and Goofy, for instance, want to keep an eye on old enemy Peg Leg Pete and his wife.
As Huey, Dewey and Louie suspect from the start, the show’s host is untrustworthy, and he’s one of a number of jokes Angleberger escalates through the story, the repetitive prizes being another. He leads events to a final puzzle with a clever solution, but the story’s not about that, it’s about the adventures along the way. Angleberger remains true to the characters, and the fun is had.
