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Disclaimer#1: All images and characters are copyrighted 1990/1991 Walt Disney Company Inc. and are being used without premission. The webmaster has made sure that no money was made in the creation of this page and all material is used with the upmost affection and respect to the Walt Disney Company and the Tale Spin team.

Disclaimer #2: The following is an editorial about Molly Cunningham. The views expressed here are of my own and does not mean that you actually agree by it. If you have any comments relating to this editorial or any other editorial created by me; then E-Mail me at: gweagle@eastlink.ca

Molly Cunningham: A Necessary Annoyance

I designed this editorial to take some of the mystery out of Molly; because she has been a somewhat mistreated character. I've heard the horror stories about Molly being compared to other characters and also being so annoying to the point where people wished that Molly was eaten by that robot in "Bullethead Baloo". Maybe her face does look like hers; but don't confuse Molly with Sunni Gummi (From Gummi Bears); they are two completely different characters. And I'm not saying it because Jymn Magon sez that he doesn't see a similarity between the two either. However; Molly's annoyance is not only neccessary in order to smooth out an otherwise gritty (by Disney standards before Gargoyles) Disney Television Series, but also in order to make many of TaleSpin plot lines and character designs work. If it wasn't for Molly; TaleSpin's plotlines and character designs for at least 11 episodes wouldn't have worked nearly as well. Also Molly's character design is quite real and very typical of a six-year old child. She is a bundle of energy; very, very hyper cute and she has a knack for getting into trouble. The first time she appeared in "Plunder and Lightning" Part Two; I thought that she was a useless character in terms of adding anything to the storyline and that she was only placed in the series just to please the Disney Company. That prespective lasted just five minutes; when I found out the truth about Molly. As annoying as she is; she is one of the greatest filler characters in Disney history. Interestly enough; she was voiced by a six year old girl (Janna Michaels) and she is almost as sharp as her mother.

Molly At A Glance:

Name: Molly 'Elizabeth' Cunningham ('Elizabeth' is Molly's middle name found out in Mommy for a Day)
Possible Names: Button Nose, Cupcake (Baloo), Kiddo, Pig-Tails (Kit), Danger Woman (her super-hero alter ego), Mollykat (WildCat), Honey (Rebecca)
Age: Six (Some make her younger 4 or 5 years old; but Molly Coddled provided a good idea of her age.)
Height: About 3' (Disney never gave an exact height)
Friends: Baloo Bear, Rebecca Cunningham (She's her mother), Kit Cloudkicker, WildCat, Lucy (her doll and her self-proclaim Danger Woman sidekick...), Henry (Kit thinks he's a flying sponge! Weird indeed!)
Rivials: Don Karnage, Mad Dog, Dumptruck, Convington, MacKnee, Col. Spigot
Likes: Playing a comical hero known as "Danger Woman", Making messes, playing with her friends
Dislikes: Being lied to, being ignored, not getting her way etc.
First Quote: "Mommy; do I still have to wait in the car?" - Plunder and Lightning Part Two
Most Memoriable Quote: "Now Mommy! You shouldn't like your imagination run wild"- Flight of the SnowDuck
Weaknesses: Tickling (Although not nearly as bad of Kit's See Plunder and Lightning Part Two and Mommy for a Day), being a mischief kid who gets into too much trouble.

Molly wears blue overalls (with white trim near her legs) with a pink shirt and blue ribbons tied around her fury ears (looks inspired by Chun-Li in Street Fighter 2; somewhat Japanese Anime as well.). When she's playing Danger Woman (her alter-ego hero based on a pulp serial radio show); she wears a steel strainer on her head (as a helmet) and a pink cape. She has also wore pink pjs. (Very cute and very typical of Disney.)

First Appearance: "It Came From Beneath the SeaDuck"; Tale Spin Preview Episode on the Disney Channel 06/00/1990.
First National Appearnace: "Plunder and Lightning"; Tale Spin Special TV Movie on CBC/Disney on 09/09/1990.
Person who voiced Molly Cunningham : Janna Michaels

Editorial Note: She is the youngest voice talent to ever voice a character in Disney Television Animation History; at the age of seven.

The Myth of Molly: A Surprise

Molly Cunningham is a troublesome girl who is a bundle of energy. She can wear down anyone (even the high-energy Kit Cloudkicker) and often uses it to get her way. She can also be a sneaky type person as well. In Plunder and Lightning Part Two; Molly wanted to ride with Baloo and Kit on the very first run for Rebecca's new business venture known as "Higher for Hire" (Rebecca bought "Baloo's Air Service" after the previous owner failed to promptly pay his bills on the SeaDuck.). However; Rebecca said no despite the fact that Molly promised her pretend friend; a bearish-like doll named Lucy. (It tells me that prehaps Molly never had any real friends before meeting Kit) Although it seems that Kit's little pep-talk with Molly had worked; when Baloo and Kit finally left Cape Suzette in order to retrive the stone, Molly in fact stowed away on the SeaDuck while Rebecca wasn't looking. (That was a sneaky act in itself; but it leads to what I was talking about my prespective lasting only five minutes.) As soon as Baloo and Kit discovered this; they were forced to abort their plans and return Molly home; however, Molly got her way by telling them that she would tell Rebecca that they were going to Louie's instead of completing the delivery run. (Notice how Molly says it; very sweet and her eyes looked quite sharp. No bluntness here. Interesting character design by the TaleSpin team.) Baloo and Kit realized that they have a character who is sneakier than they are and agreed to let Molly come with them to Louie's. (Strangely enough Molly's mom never told her about the pirates; she thought those CT-37's were "birdies".) Molly can also cause trouble when you least expect her to. In "It Came From Beneath the SeaDuck" where Kit was babysitting her; Kit felt that it would be easy to handle her since she liked Kit very much. However; Molly took advantage of the fact that when compared to Rebecca; Kit Cloudkicker *is* a virtual softie. She knows how to play pranks on an boy who underestimates her energy and does it in several ways. She can often hide from Kit and catch him from behind and play cowgirl by covering Kit's eyes and grabbing his baseball cap while jumping on Kit's back. She often got into trouble (Did you see Kit's eyes bug out when Molly was going to jump out of the apartment window and pretend she was the 'High Diving Queen'. ) ; and the ultimate example was when Kit and Molly went out for ice cream and Molly unintentionally leaned back on the wagon that she was sitting in; causing the wagon to roll down th hill towards the docks. (Luckly Kit stopped her just before she hit the water.) This was the real reason why they were late and Rebecca went ballastic on Kit (See Kit profile/editorial Page Two). Yes; Molly can be an annoying little girl....

However; that doesn't mean that Molly cannot be mature either and she clearly showed it in "Mommy for a Day" and in "Molly Coddled". In "Mommy for a Day"; Molly Cunningham discovered unintentionally that Mr. Macknee (the villian in this story.) was a poacher and had captured a "flying sponge" ceature known to Molly as Henry. (This is not the first time one TaleSpin character had a pet: Kit was friends with a whale (Moby Dimple) and a green parrot (Ignatz); and WildCat had cats, furries (unintentionally called Lobsters in his mind) and even a dinosaur.) She finally had a playmate that would in fact listen to her since most of the TaleSpin characters seem to ignore her (and with serious implications I might add!) She actually tried (with limited success) to rear the ceature and even giving it a bath. However; the ceature had a strange trait where if it gets wet for any reason it grows into a 12 ft. ceatures (Baloo: A 12 ft. monster fits into a six-inch hole. Let me guess: he shrunk!). This causes people (even Kit) to believe that the monster was in fact dangerous. Kit (who rode along with Molly when Henry "kidnapped" [depending on the characters point of view] Molly...); in his usual protective stance towards children; tried to convince Molly that Henry was dangerous. However; Molly stood her ground and actually sounded very mature (similar to Kit's maturely; only done in a different way. A great example of TaleSpin's character design.). With the help of Kit; Molly agrees relucently to return Henry to its rightful place and Henry even got to save Kit from MacKnee who was going to do a number on him. (maybe with his shotgun.) Plus; Molly got caught by MacKnee in the valley; as he used Henry and the SeaDuck as a pawn to gain access and 'poach' the creatures off the face of the earth. However; Molly's knowledge of how Henry grows (plus the fact that MacKnee had a vial of water.) defeated the poacher and now he's sitting in asylum.(Major hangover here folks!) However; there was a defining moment before that. Molly also showed that she is willing to give Rebecca another chance; (like Kit did so many times with Baloo; only to a lesser degree then this trio.) during the major storm where Molly and Kit were hanging on for dear life on Henry and Rebecca pleading with Molly to come to her. However; Molly at first refuses Rebecca's request since she felt ignored by her own mother all through today. However; Rebecca's insane way of her unconditional love convinced Molly that she turely cares for her and accepts her. (Did you know Molly got tickled three time in that single episode; twice by Henry and once by Rebecca when she slightly modified Molly's bedtime story on purpose? And who sez's there's no laugher in TaleSpin.) One final note: "The Incrediable Shrinking Molly" showed a very similar picture; but to a lesser degree and I didn't find it as effective as the last example I mentioned.

Another example of Molly's maturety and a good example of her ability to see people for what they really are was in the episode "Molly Coddled" where Molly discovers and unintentionally takes an idol which was stolen by a person named Convington; a two-bit crook (so to speak) who was being chased by two other "crooks" (Shows there is no honor among thieves after all.) Convington decides to use Rebecca Cunningham as a pawn to escape the law; mostly because Rebecca is such an easy target. Rebecca has already suffered the lost of her husband; whatever the way she losted it (Her real chance to shine is still to come though.) and Convington seemed to be such a dashing man for her. However; Convington was a smart person (although a coward to boot) into trying to kidnap Molly behind Rebecca's "back" and even convincing those two "crooks" who were after him to try to keep Molly's mouth shut. (Molly must have kicked Convington and his crooks around at least seven or eight times; I didn't get to an exact count of how many.) However; Molly continued to stay focus and managed to get the idol away from Convington in a cave by kicking him in the shin for the ninth time in the episode. She hid inside the crack and tried to taunt Convington into admitting that he was using her mother. Well; as most men have shown in history; Convington fell for Molly's trick since she was trying to distract him long enough for Rebecca to hear the truth straight from Convington's mouth. Yes; Molly is an annoying person; but she is not a stupid nor a defenseless person either and this episode proves it. One question: What did happen to Convington after those "crooks" captured him? (Jymn Magon; I need you again! Where are you? You haven't answered since September for crying out loud!)

The Ultimate Example: Flight of The SnowDuck!

The final example deals with Molly's ability to take a fantasy element (from a children's story no less) and use it to solve the ordeal that she went through in real life (In the TaleSpin world). In the episode "Flight of the SnowDuck" (One of the best Molly episodes in TaleSpin in my humble opinion.); Rebecca trusted on WildCat to babysit Molly while she worked on running the business (again!). Molly and WildCat were having fun playing in the snow not knowing that in Thembria; playing in the snow is a crime. Not to mention that they (Molly and WildCat) were smiling (In Thembria; that is an even worser crime. An example of TaleSpin's Russian parody playing out once again!)! They were thrown in prison after the usual routine of Thembria justice was served to both and later Baloo Bear was thrown in as well. Molly had an idea of creating a makeshift plane out of ice; and she got that idea out of a children's fairy tale. Baloo didn't believe her and called the idea crazy. Molly couldn't believe that Baloo would just give in to Thembrians (after the number of times Baloo was able to get out of comprosiming situations.); and started to weep. However; WildCat (as seedy as he is) showed his ture heart to Molly and was willing to help Molly create that makeshift plane out of ice. (One day; I plan to write a profile for WildCat, but some other time!) Although Baloo was having his doubts; the makeshift plane (The SnowDuck as Molly would call it.) actually allowed the gang to escape the snow prison of Thembria. I'm not going to ruin the sequence that follows; but I will reveal the ending. The SeaDuck and the gang returned despite the fact that the SeaDuck was painted blue; had a 50 cent pricetag and a snowman in the front seat. I'll never forget Molly's justifed response: "Now Mommy; you shouldn't let your imagination run wild on ya." (Boy was Rebecca's face in an act of puzzlement after that.) So there you have it; Molly can be quite an annoying character. However; she is only annoying because she is only six years old; a typically real young girl with wit that can be even sharper than her mother and almost be as sneaky as Kit. She was able to keep Kit Cloudkicker from being total adult and made Rebecca Cunningham become a more caring person; not only to her but to Kit too. Yes; Molly is annoying but her annoyance is nessecary and when its all said and done; she could turn out to be one of better filler character in Disney Television Animation. Besides; I have seen worser main characters than Molly (Antila from 101 Dalmatians come to mind.)

Molly?! You will always be my favorite female child character. That's my opinion; I welcome yours. See you next profile!

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