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Capcom DuckTales Moon theme gets lyrics, joins Disney canon

One of the 8-bit generation's most memorable pieces of music has joined the Disney canon, officially making it into the DuckTales animated reboot in a key capacity, with lyrics and everything.

Ozzie Mejia

March 9, 2019 2:10 PM

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The original DuckTales for NES is considered an all-time classic of the 8-bit gaming generation. This collaboration between Disney and Capcom was a staple of many NES gamers' childhoods, with players journeying across Duckburg and beyond in a quest to best Flintheart Glomgold and become the richest duck in the world. Scrooge even traveled out to the moon, where players would be introduced to one of the greatest video game tracks ever created. It's even held in high esteem by the writers of the recent DuckTales animated reboot. Not only did it show up in Saturday's latest episode, but the show creators even gave it a place in the DuckTales canon by adding lyrics.

In the 2017 DuckTales world, the Moon theme from the NES classic is what Della Duck would use to sing her kids Huey, Dewey, and Louie to sleep. The song goes a little something like this:

Look to the stars
My darling baby boys
Life is strange and vast
Filled with wonders and joys

Face each new sun
With eyes clear and true
Unafraid of the unknown
Because I'll face it all with you

The Moon theme has had a tremendous influence on a full generation of gamers, some of whom have grown to be game developers themselves. Re-creating it was one of the tallest tasks that Capcom faced when asked to craft a fresh take on the 8-bit NES gem. Composer Jake Kaufman was more than up to the challenge, releasing this take on the track back in 2013.

And for reference, here's the original track.

Add the creators of the DuckTales television reboot to the list of those clearly influenced by what Capcom put together back in the late 80s. This is a nice reminder that gaming is starting to poke through many different aspects of pop culture, even in places where it's not totally expected. Shacknews loves the DuckTales franchise too, which is why we wrote a retrospective on its history in video games back in 2015. Take some time this weekend and give it a look.

Ozzie Mejia

Senior Editor

Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?