The latest Disney+ original movie Flora & Ulysses adapts a modern classic children’s book about a girl and her squirrel, but it also cleverly has some pop culture pokes and nudges throughout to lean forward for. Fans of Disney XD’s Ducktales reboot may have caught on to a special reunion in Flora & Ulysses, as some cast members got to share the screen for the first time for the new release. I’m talking about Huey, Luey, Dewey and Webby’s voice talents in live-action: Danny Pudi, Ben Schwartz, Bobby Moynihan and Kate Micucci.
In Flora & Ulysses, Ben Schwartz gets to trade his more typical role behind the voice booth to play Flora’s father, who ventures alongside her for a fun adventure with a superpowered squirrel. Along the way, the characters meet three of Schwartz’s DuckTales’ co-stars. When speaking to CinemaBlend, Schwartz told us how it all came together:
When I was cast, Danny Pudi was already cast as well, so Danny was a part of it and then Lena was like, we’re trying to cast this comic book guy, do you have any ideas? And I go, ‘Well, why don’t I text Bobby Moynihan?’ And she was like, ‘You think he’d do it?’ And I was like ‘I don’t know?’ And so we got Bobby on, and when they were deciding for the Rita role, Kate [Micucci] was one of the people she was deciding, and Kate was just great so it worked out amazing.
It’s fitting since Flora & Ulysses follows the daughter of a comic book writer and avid reader of superheroes and everything else one can find at a comic book store. The Disney+ movie has audiences covered with some Marvel and DC references sprinkled throughout, but the Ducktales element is the perfect homage to Disney’s long-running comic book series featuring Uncle Scrooge, Donald Duck and their nephews Huey, Luey and Dewey, which was adapted in the late ‘80s in Ducktales and recently rebooted for Disney Channel. Schwartz continued:
The very first time you see Bobby, he’s reading a DuckTales comic and Lena did such a good job with that stuff, layering out all these Easter Eggs. I’ve known Bobby from UCB since I was 22 years old, so I’ve known him for a long time. Danny I’ve known for a bit, too, so it's so fun to play with these people I knew for a long time as human beings as opposed to little ducks. And that reboot is great. I’m so proud of being part of that show, I think they did such a great job.
SNL star Bobby Moynihan is even named “Stanlee” once again to go along with the comic book store tributes! If you missed it, check it out, this is one of the very first scenes in the movie:
It’s an awesome little detail within Flora & Ulysses that Ducktales fans like me geek out on, especially since it furthers the franchise’s hold on the young generation of today. The Ducktales reboot was recently announced to be ending after three seasons on the air. The show is set to conclude next month with a 90-minute finale called “The Last Adventure!” following three brand new episodes leading up to the conclusion on March 15. Flora & Ulysses’ director Lena Khan spoke about how having the Ducktales cast on set helped the film:
You could tell they had a very special bond with each other. There was a lot of brother-sister type rivalries there which is something you can only do for people who have been buddies for a long time, which was very cool to capitalize on.
It’s a sweet element of Flora & Ulysses, aside from the film being a blast of a family film about a squirrel’s superhero origin story. Also joining Ben Schwartz is Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s Alyson Hannigan, who plays Flora’s mother, a romance novelist without inspiration. Check out Flora & Ulysses on Disney+, streaming now.
