Raiders of the Lost Harp is the forty-fifth episode of DuckTales 1987.
Synopsis[]
Scrooge, Huey, Dewey and Louie have traveled to a Trojan island, where an archaeological team that Scrooge has hired discovers a huge door that has been carved into a mountain. Though the crew is scared off by a griffin that’s been carved into the door itself (which symbolizes a danger warning), Scrooge shows no fear and enters with his nephews. Behind the door is a passageway which leads them underground to the lost city of Troy.
While Scrooge and the nephews search for artifacts, they discover an enormous Minotaur statue, in the hands of which rests a stone chest. Scrooge scales the statue and discovers a golden harp inside the chest. Unlike most harps, this one is shaped like a female duck, and is capable of singing.
After Scrooge, the nephews, and the archaeological team leave the island with the accumulated treasures, the Minotaur statue magically comes to life. Angry that Scrooge had stolen its harp, it breaks out of the mountain, just in time to watch Scrooge’s ship sail off. As for Scrooge, he attempts to play the harp on the ride home, but isn’t doing it very well. Dewey tells Scrooge that he should keep practicing, but the harp suddenly says; “Uh-uh-uh-uh! You are fibbing, fibbing, fibbing!”, though nobody pays attention to it. Scrooge then remarks that he’s been researching the said harp, and concludes that it once belonged to Helen of Troy, and that it is magical.
While the Minotaur follows the ship by walking along the bottom of the ocean, Magica receives a magazine in the mail, with an article on Scrooge’s discovery. More importantly to her, she learns that Scrooge also has Helen’s harp. Magica goes over a document she has, and reads out that Helen’s harp made her the most powerful woman of her time, so she desperately wants it as she thinks it will duplicate her power as well.
Back at McDuck Manor, Duckworth asks Scrooge if he’s considered giving him a raise, to which Scrooge replies by saying yes. The harp does its “fibbing” routine from earlier, but when Scrooge tries to tell Duckworth he can’t afford to give him a raise, the harp does its fibbing routine again. Duckworth picks up on the possibility that the harp acts as it does whenever one lies. This gives Scrooge an idea. He experiments with the harp on the boys, asking them if they cleaned their room, although he can see the closet door bulging. After exploiting them, he concludes that the harp really can tell when people tell a lie.
At the museum, Magica is unable to find the harp amongst all the other artifacts that Scrooge discovered. Poe figures that Scrooge probably has the harp on him. Magica is unsure of how to approach Scrooge, but after looking at a bust of Helen of Troy, she remembers from her document that no man could resist her. She then uses her magic to make herself resemble Helen of Troy, and sets out to find Scrooge.
Meanwhile, the Minotaur is still walking across the ocean floor towards Duckburg Bay. After it nearly crushes a submarine, the people on board prepare to alert the fleet. Magica, however, is driven to the Money Bin by someone who resembles Frankenstein's monster. Up in his office, Scrooge is talking to someone on the phone, and uses the harp to save himself from making a bad investment. Magica then enters the office and tries to seduce Scrooge, with her eye on the harp. The harp only sees through Magica’s lies, to the point where Scrooge has to lock it in his desk. Magica reveals her true self to Scrooge, only to turn into a sumo wrestler and demands for the key to his desk. Scrooge locks the key in the vault, but Magica starts to beat him up. Magica then takes the entire desk out of Scrooge’s office, throws it on top of her car, and is driven away. She plans to break it open and retrieve the harp at a safer place.
Duckworth drives Scrooge after Magica’s car, and he manages to catch up with her. Scrooge climbs on top of Magica’s car and onto his desk, only for the desk to slide off of her car while going up a hill. Magica too is knocked off the car, and falls unconscious. As Scrooge rides the desk down through the streets of Duckburg, he passes by his nephews, who are at an arcade. The nephews go after him in their roller skates, but the desk goes flying off a dock and into the bay. As the desk slowly starts to sink, Scrooge remarks that he can’t open the drawer. Though the nephews are tempted to simply go on without the harp ruining their lives, they give in and throw him their skate key. Scrooge manages to open the drawer with the key, and retrieves the harp. But Scrooge knows that Magica will try to find another way to get the harp.
When torpedoes from a submarine aren’t enough to stop the Minotaur, which has almost reached Duckburg, the captain suggests calling the Air Force and to have the city evacuated.
That night, as people evacuate Duckburg, Scrooge is disappointed that nobody’s visiting his exhibit at the museum. Scrooge is ordered to leave the museum just as the Minotaur emerges from the water. Missile attacks from the Air Force do no damage to the Minotaur. Scrooge remembers that his bubblegum factory is along the way to the museum, where the harp currently is, so he and the boys go there to release a ton of gum onto the street. The Minotaur steps in the gum and gets stuck, but it doesn’t appear as though it’ll be stuck there for long. Scrooge reluctantly decides to give it the harp.
Magica, who was hiding in the museum inside the Trojan Horse, finally gets her hands on the harp, just as Scrooge and the boys catch her on their way to the harp. Magica escapes out a window and up the fire escape, while Scrooge and the boys chase after her. Magica tries to get away in a helicopter, which Scrooge grabs onto it with his cane. Scrooge reaches into the helicopter, grabs the harp out of Magica’s hands and falls into the bubble gum. From there, Scrooge sadly gives up the harp back to the Minotaur.
After the Minotaur leaves, the nephews feel sorry for Scrooge having to give up the harp, even though they’re relieved that it’s gone. Scrooge tells them that knowing the truth can be more trouble than it’s worth, and that he’s not sorry that the harp is gone. In lieu of the harp, the boys point out that he’s “Fibbing, fibbing, fibbing!” The response is replied to with sustained laughter from all four of them.
Cast[]
- June Foray as Magica De Spell
- Chuck McCann as Duckworth and the Chief of Police
- Will Ryan as the Navy submarine captain
- Russi Taylor as Huey, Dewey, and Louie Duck and the Magic Harp
- Frank Welker as Poe and the Minotaur
- Alan Young as Scrooge McDuck
Video releases[]
VHS
- "DuckTales: Raiders of the Lost Harp" (US release)
Laserdisc
- "DuckTales: Raiders of the Lost Harp / Space Invaders" (US release)
DVD
- "DuckTales: Volume 2" (Reg. 1)
- "DuckTales: 2nd Collection" (Reg. 2)
Trivia[]
- The episode's title is a spoof to the first Indiana Jones movie, Raiders of the Lost Ark.