30 Day Disney Challenge: Day Seven

Day Seven: Your favorite sidekick

Dr. Delbert Doppler has to be one of my favorite side characters. I don’t find him annoying as with other characters like “Flounder” or “Dory”. Wait… those are both fish. Do I really hate fish that much? Anyway, Dr. Doppler is a dog. A talking, humanoid dog with a doctorate in astrophysics. He’s also voiced by the very awesome David Hyde Pierce.

So if you are familiar with the Treasure Island story, Jim is accompanied by a “Doctor” of some sort (depending on the medium) on his quest. Dr. Doppler is clumsy and perhaps not socially gifted, but he’s smart and kind-hearted. He starts off a little pompous, but it is obvious that he isn’t used to much interaction beyond the academic world. He’s like a lot of friends I know.

He develops through the story from Astronomy nerd to a cunning, heroic… nerd. Well, at least he stops trying to be a know-it-all and handles himself pretty well in rough situations. For a nerd.

A lot of the fandom out there revolves around the relationship with Captain Amelia. (If you are not a furry, for the love of Zeus do not Google “Dr Doppler and Captain Amelia”.) It’s a cute side story: there are conflicting egos, slow-growing mutual respect, and sexual tension finally overcome. So the sidekick gets the girl! It was a nice deviation from the norm.

(I like this little video, but I don’t know if Disney is going to make the owner take it down. Just an FYI.)

Best quote: “Dang it, Jim, I’m an astronomer, not a doctor! I mean, I am a doctor, but I’m not that kind of doctor. I have a doctorate, it’s not the same thing. You can’t help people with a doctorate, you just sit there, and you’re useless!”

I just want to add that Treasure Planet (a link from a decade ago) is an underrated Disney film. When I saw it with friends several years ago we all had the general impression that it was one of the better recent Disney cartoons. It had a better delivery of adult humor and amazing visuals. I saw it right after college, so that’s probably why I loved it (being, you know, an “adult”), but unfortunately it was a box office bomb.