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Mommy For A Day Re-Rant

Reviewed: 09/14/2010
Additional Commentary: 07/10/2021

Webby Who?!

Original Airdate: 09/13/2010 (Syndication), Episode #8 (TaleSpin Volume 1, Disc 1), Episode #10 (Production Order).

Mommy For A Day Notes
Mommy For A Day Transcript

(2015 Gregory Weagle Says: It's not Webby Who?; it's Webby 2.0! Nostalgia Critc is the law of reviews you know. /sarcasm)

(2020 Gregory Weagle Says: Here's another episode where I found a lot of Libby Hinson's notes from eBay and unlike The Balooest Of The Bluebloods, most of the beats and the storyline are virtually similar from pre-production to the final script. First, Mommy For A Day's rough draft was written around October of 1989, with the second draft written on October 25th, 1989; and revised twice (October 30th/October 31st, 1989). The original name for this episode was called "No Pets Allowed" according to the beat outline. It was also called "Slippery When Wet, Dangerous When Wet!" as well. A few other titles: "Home's Home, Sweet Molly" and "The Beast Of Time". Mr. McNee is supposed to be old with a crackling voice similar to Walter Brennan/Huston only with no empathy and edges sharp as knives. Yup, really nasty. Outside of one major name change to the beast and valley, everything is more or less the same. One final note: The production number for this script is 1T89-018 according to the outline. Also, Jymn had issues with Baloo being naked because of Baloo's Jungle Book roots. That got killed in Vowel Play and two other episodes I should note.)

Well; folks, we are onto our final episode of disc one of this volume already and one of the last two episodes -- besides the Bad Reflection On You OAV I did already -- featuring Alan Roberts as Kit Cloudkicker. (The other one is A Fuel Dollars More.) This is another episode that I now watch more often than others simply because I was in complete awe that Molly Cunningham would go from ankle biter to mature little girl in a span of 22 minutes. (No kidding?!) This is the episode that got Libby Hinson over as an awesome writer and it is the exact same moment when not only Molly Cunningham got monster over on par with Kit Cloudkicker with me; but also the moment that I realized how much Webby and the nephews conned me with their voices. I'll explain when we get to that point. (The plot of this episode is another "little child (or adult with child's mind) befriends an animal or mystical beast being mistreated by an evil adult". A plot that was done at least four times in this series (Molly and twice with WildCat and Kit Cloudkicker each), all of them surprisely good to outstanding. Mainly because all of them had different takes on the plotline. Polly Wants A Treasure is more of a treasure hunt, All's Whale was a more Free Willy style plot, and Sound & The Furry leans more to plane sabotage. Paradise Lost and Mommy For A Day are similar in nature, only in Paradise Lost's case; someone actually did get shot. Anyhow; Mommy For A Day might now be my new favorite episode of all time. It's better animated than It Came From Beneath The SeaDuck; and Molly's character was much more profound compared to what Don Rosa wrote. Libby Hinson NEEDS to be a writer for the Ducktales reboot. I MEAN IT! If anyone can make Webigail Vanderquack be awesome, it's Libby. Heck; Mrs. Beakly would benefit from her writing too.)

This episode is written by Libby Hinson. The story is edited by Karl Geurs. The animation is done by Walt Disney Japan Animation (Inc.).

We begin this one on a windy night AFTER HAPPY HOUR (after dark) as a dog furry in hunter's gear and a really awesome looking hat is in shadows and is whipping on some monster with his whip. Oh yeah; let's start the episode with something a little bit scary. (Considering that the monster is lavander in color; this makes this bounty hunter look like a homophobe.) The bounty hunter (Jim Cummings) proclaims that he'll be rich and that the monster is a living fable as he closes up the box and we fade to black. He calls it an Yenkara (according to Disney Captions; my notes had it as an Yenkara; but the audio clearly has it as an Inkara. (No it doesn't 2010 Me! If there is a script of this episode that proves that it's Inkara, I'll reconsider the matter; but Alan Robert clearly said Yenkara in the audio; so it's Yenkara.)) as well and I must say that I'm not exactly endeared to this bounty hunter as a cruel heel. I guess that I wanted him to be more cold hearted than sounding like a semi hot head. (Actually; he is supposed to be a psychopath; so being a semi hot head actually works out.) On the other hand; the wind and rain effects here are great; and there is a lot of mature lighting in against the cartoon lighting for a really interesting effect. (I must have really over the top when that petition for Diablo 3 came out.) The Yenkara (Frank Welker) yells "Momma" in response with a monster like effect in it's voice. (Come to think about it; he sounds like Snorlax from Pokemon sometimes.) (2020 Gregory Weagle Says: There are lots of differences in this one scene alone. First of all, the original script didn't call it either a Yenkara or Inkara. Henry was originally called Manayar and it was called the Manayar valley in one of the final script. This was clearly changed for unknown reasons. Also, McNee's lines were changed as well: McNee's first two words are identical. Orginally, McNee basically says that Henry won't get away and he'll make a fortune instead of saying that he'll not hurt Henry nor his hide. Also in the original, McNee complains about the time it took to get Henry. In the final, McNee calls him an Inkara outright and a living fable. Everything else is more or less the same. Unlike The Balooest of The Bluebloods, mosts of the beats are similar enough from what I could find in the preview pictures for Hinson's binder.)

That logically leads to WELL AFTER HAPPY HOUR (sunrise) as we head to Rebecca's apartment as we zoom in and go to Rebecca's bedroom as she has her luggage at the door and she's not too happy about what Molly is doing. I betcha she's causing a mess and trying to be a model. I check the DVD...Damn; I'm so good. Rebecca pulls Molly from the chair and cleans her face off as Molly reminds her that she was supposed to take her to the zoo, the park and get some double-triple ripple ice cream. I guess Molly got tired of Frostipep after the squid incident. (Nope; later on she had a bucket of Frostipep with her when she raided the fridge the first time. While this episode didn't pay off zoo, park and ice cream stuff, it was almost paid off in the children's hardcover version of this episode. YAY!) Rebecca then gets flustered because she forgot and apologizes to Molly because she needs to go to work. Molly complains about that because Rebecca always has to go to work. Well; she is the owner of Higher...For...Hire after all. Molly does the Gruffi pose on her because she said that yesterday. (Yeah; Rebecca is a workaholic; but considering the time period, bigotry and the fact that she doesn't have a way to gain a second income because she chose this route, can you really blame her? Not to say Molly is wrong; because Rebecca should spend more time with Molly, but she has a great amount of excuses not too. This is why Baloo, Kit and WildCat are so important to the business, and probably the main reason why Rebecca has never fired Baloo yet. That Baloo has a number of redeemable traits (as does WildCat to a lesser extent since WildCat at least is not lazy) and being friendly to Molly is one of them and maybe the most important one.) Molly then embraces Rebecca -- with tears in her eyes -- saying that she misses her. Now; I don't blame her for being upset since Molly and Rebecca are really in a very difficult poisition considering that the Cunninghams are basically a broken family in the eyes of the moral guardians and that doesn't factor in the fact that Kit is missing both parents here which is actually worse. (Yeah; and he gains sympathy heat because he was in a really bad situation that almost legit killed him. This makes one of Molly's lines sound hypocritical in hindsight.).

If you are a single parent running a business raising a daughter or son; it can be even tougher than when a gay couple raises children; at least from a physical standpoint. Most of the difficulities from gay couples stems from bigotry rather than ability. So this is why it's difficult for me to take Molly's side of things even if I understand from Molly's view that Rebecca is thoughtless of her. (I watched this scene again doing transcript and it was clear to me that Rebecca has remorse for her forgetfulness. Both Molly and Rebecca are in a really bad spot here, and I'm certain that it was through no fault of their own.) Rebecca then proclaims that she is going to take her to work today and Molly is so happy that she blitzes her and they fall right into the papers off-screen with a MAN-SIZED bump. HAHA! Folks; this is why no matter how much of a jerk Rebecca is; she is a trooper to tolerate Molly's antics. That's what you get for being a single parent. (Even more so if your child is a spitfire like Molly is. I wondered why she likes Kit so much; and I think the answer is that he's much calmer and more professional at being a kid than Molly is. This is how you create three dimensional characters and get them over. If you make a buddy show like Breadwinners, make sure the second character is the opposite of the first character. It's okay for that character to be out of character once in a while, but when you do it all the time, then you created two stupid characters. You only need one main character to be stupid. It's not funny nor fun watching the characters being the same as the main character. Even kids will turn on that. Don't believe me? Breadwinners had 2.84 million viewers and it's peak was 2.86 million viewers. Since then; it has fallen to as low as 987,500 viewers. Why? Because every character is just a variation of Behdeuce and Sway Sway instead of being their own character. All in the name of comedy. Again; if you believe that kids just want comedy; draw a joke machine, put it on camera and just let it spew jokes for whatever amount of time you desire. If the ratings are higher than TaleSpin's syndication numbers for 39 episodes (around 11 million viewers); then your research is not junk science. If not; stop using focus groups. They do not take into account the long term audience, which is what you need if you want your show to make money.)

Anyhow we do the scene changer and get a shot of the sign of Higher...For...Hire (Higher as in "up" and For Hire as in "for money". This is not fanon; Rebecca Cunningham made this her mission statement in Whistlestop Jackson, Legend.) as there is crashing outside as Rebecca is on the phone inside her office shouting no more excuses while Molly messes up the place and uses the red stamp on the papers. Rebecca wants those mangoes as Molly stamps her hand and she almost takes it out on the guy on the phone as we can hear Kit and Baloo yelling for help from Rebecca; so Rebecca yells at them that she's too busy on the phone. To be honest; she needs to hire more employees, but really with Baloo's laziness; that option is hard to do at this point. (Don't you really mean that the pilots available are sexist douchebags, as per Feminine Air, 2010 me?) I should point out that for rants purposes; this is the second to last episode featuring Alan Roberts as the voice of Kit (With A Fuel Dollars More and the Bad Reflection On You voice mixing contest with R.J. Williams left.) Molly gets confused and Rebecca tells her that she wasn't talking about her. Baloo yells at someone (I'm guessing it's Kit that Baloo's defending and yelling at the guest character and I don't blame him for it. (Of course it's Kit that Baloo is defending. How does McNee know that Kit is even stronger than Baloo? Sure; Kit is stronger than most skinny kids with no muscles, but come on. The crate weighs more than Baloo and Hoppo combined! Even Kit's not THAT strong.)) as Rebecca tells the guy on the phone to get the mangoes here on time; or stick them in his ear. The guy on the phone takes it literally and Rebecca tries to tell him that it's a figure of speech and then panics when she sees Molly covered in papers stuck with glue and stamps. Strangely; the signture uses red targets which is weird since it's usually a name or the symbol of Higher For Hire which is a prop. I'm going to call that logic break #1 for the episode. (Not really; they could be a standard generic business stamp.) Rebecca hangs up the phone and unsticks the papers from Molly's body as Molly proclaims that she was having fun. HAHA! Well; Rebecca, you did ask her to have fun and this was her idea. You don't have anyone but yourself to blame for that one. (No she doesn't 2010 Me! Molly caused the chaos; so she takes the fall.)

Molly wants Rebecca to play with her looking as cute as ever; but the phone rings off the hook again and Rebecca is too busy once again. Ah; the pitfalls of being a single parent trying to run a small business while raising a daughter. I can just imagine giving birth to Molly (or any child) was a dangerous pain in the ass. Anyone who wants to proclaim how child birth is so awesome and enjoying should read Ed Brayton's abortion pieces on "Dispatches From The Culture Wars", and more to the point the comments and be prepared to listen for a long while. (A very long while. If a woman needs any incentive to not give birth to kids; giving birth to a full baby is the biggest one there is. Yes; science has done a much better job at reducing the death rate of the woman giving birth, but still; it's a very dangerous thing to do. A really great reason to give woman total control of their own bodies. (2020 Gregory Weagle Says: Ed Brayton has since passed away due to various illinesses. He invented the term "roughing up the suspect" I should note.)) Rebecca answers the phone and Molly looks mad. So we cut back to the SeaDuck as WildCat is using the wrench to fix whatever the hell he is currently fixing right now. We see that it's a pulley system as it pulls up the box containing the Yenkara. I know this because the bounty hunter from the beginning of the episode is there watching and barking at them. Well; he IS a dog anthro after all. (A lot of us felt he was, but official word is that McNee is a kowla who hates children. He looks nothing like a kowla. He looks like a mistiff like Dumptruck does. Someone please explain to me how McNee is a kowla? Now the child hating part...No argument there.) We then cut to see Baloo and Kit steadying the box; but the platforms separate and Baloo does some of the most painful spilts that would have broken every bone in his body in any other universe. OUCH! Molly then asks right there if they want to play and Baloo tells her that they are busy too. And in Baloo's case; you can understand why. He might not be able to play with her for at least another year in any other universe. (Groin injuries take months to heal you know.) That causes Baloo to separate from the platforms and fall into the drink. HAHA!

Thankfully; the box flies into the sky on the pulley as Dog The Bounty Hunter (I know his real name; but he is a bounty hunter and he's an anthro so...) yells for them to stop. Wildcat is on throttle pulley and proclaims that the thing is completely jammed. Sadly; WildCat is so stupid to leave his wrench about eight feet away from him (more like 20 feet away; but whatever). Then we get a nifty spot as WildCat uses his foot to steady the lever (JESUS~!) while streching to grab the wrench. He pushes on the blue lever (JESUS~!) and the box stops about six inches from the dock floor and then goes sky high. Molly goes over to WildCat and realizes he's too busy to play as well. WildCat would love to; calling her Mollycat (According to Disney Captions; although I like Mollykat better in reference to Thundercats.) and Molly mistakes it as he would want to play now as WildCat wants to play gotta get that wrench Jack. This would have been perfect if he said Jill just to make Molly's stupidity seem justified. (Actually; "jack" is usually a generic slang term meaning "nobody".) Molly runs in and grabs the wrench; but it gains about a hundred pounds on her (Is Rebecca buying wrenches from Larson and Gary? If so; that explains why. (Molly is really small; but even she can easily lift a wrench. That wrench looks really oversized.)) and she struggles to keep her balance. Molly skips over to the docks; forcing WildCat to grab Molly as the wrench falls into the drink and the box drops like a stone and lands right into the docks with a MAN-SIZED thud. Yeah; I called it fifteen seconds before it happened; but that's plausible logic for ye. Needless to say; everyone is shocked and Dog The Bounty Hunter is appalled and pissed off as he demands that Molly get out of here right now. Well; you can blame WildCat for that one since he put his wrench too far for him not to reach and he confused Molly into this. Molly didn't help matters either; but safety is first you know! (That's true in fact.) Rebecca runs over stage right and grabs Molly and whisper yells at her while apologizing profusely at Mr. Macnee (According to Disney Captions; we always had him as Mr. Macknee in some silly joke or something. I always thought it was Mr. McNeil myself but the audio clearly shows it's Macnee. (I have compromised a bit and call him McNee instead.))

She orders the boys to get the cargo shipped by tonight and be careful while getting it aboard the SeaDuck. Well; the customer is always right even if he's a no good poaching heartless, soulless, son of a bitch. (Please don't make me bring out Dave Brown again! Even if the customer is not always right, we're talking about a business in it's infant stages of development. It cannot afford bad customer relations at this point, so Rebecca behavior is justified here.) Anyhow, we cut to underneath the dock as the Yenkara (who has now reduced from twelve feet in height to about one foot in height) squeezes underneath DA....HOLE (SLURP! (Baby Plucky Duck reference from Tiny Toon Adventures. It's one of those jokes that isn't dated on that show, which makes it still funny today.)) and flies around as we see Rebecca telling Molly to stay out of trouble and that she made the man mad. Molly proclaims that he's always mad and thinks Rebecca is wrong to be nice to him. Rebecca states that he's a customer and paying her that MONEY, MONEY, YEAH, YEAH. See; it's hard for me to call her a jerk when she is offering a service and that the customer is usually right anyway. She's just following business principle and Molly is interfering in it even though it's unintentional. Furthermore; why didn't Wildcat just apologize to Molly and Rebecca for doing a stupid thing? At least then if Rebecca no sells it; then she's a full fledge jerk. This is the after effects of Treehouse Syndrome which is worse than Cartoon Duck Syndrome because CDS is at least fun to mock and doesn't discriminate. TS on the other hand is one step away from being called a sexist. (TESTIFY~! Yes; I made fun of Disney's overuse of ducks and not being able to end an episode properly in the case of Darkwing Duck. However; Treehouse Syndrome is sexism and it shows in this show in general. Half of the audience thinks Rebecca is a jerk; but never asks why she is a jerk. They only care about their own fee-fees instead of realizing that when you have a contempable pilot, a goofy mechanic, a hellion daughter and only one responsible employee who simply cannot do everything by himself because there are things that can only be done with others; you get frustrated and being difficult is a rational response. If the others would just tone it down; Rebecca wouldn't be such a jerk. Kit's problem though would still remain because that stubborn independent streak can only take you so far. I think people were calling Rebecca a jerk because it was WildCat's fault; but again, Molly was dumb enough to grab the wrench. Besides; if anyone is unjustified here, it's McNee. However; as I mentioned before, Rebecca needs all the customers she can get because Kit cannot do everything by himself.)

Anyhow; Rebecca orders Molly to stay out of the way and walks off stage left and that's not a bad idea all things considered. So, the Yenkara flies behind her as we get more groaning and pulley rising from the boys as they pry out of the box with the big ass crowbar and then we cut back to Molly sulking and blahing on the wooden post. Then we get another off-screen MAN-SIZED crash and then we cut back and the box is right on top of Mr. MacNee as he blows them off getting even more pissed off. HAHA! (He's pissed off because he cannot blame Molly for this one.) Man; he must suck as a heel if even the gravity gods don't like him. (What incredible foreshadowing to the finish here by the way.) We then cut back to Molly on the closeup as she looks on in shock and the Yenkara panics so it does probably the most funniest and creepist thing you can do in a Disney cartoon: Hide in Molly's pink shirt form behind and we zoom back and Molly does the goofiest face I have ever seen and giggles her ass off while the Yenkara zooms through her shirt and overalls. You can tell a six year old is doing her voice simply because she remembers to squeal before brusting into laughter and it's dead on perfect. This is the first major sign that I feel cheated whenever Russi Taylor does Webby or the nephews because Molly actually sounds like a six year old; since Janna Michaels was around six or seven when she did voice recording (In fact; TaleSpin was her acting debut overall if memory serves me. If I'm wrong; please correct me. (I have found nothing to contradict this.)). McNee then sees her laughing right on cue (Making the whole scene even funnier than it should be since Molly didn't intend to laugh at him even if he deserved it.) and Molly stops holding her belly making sure the object stops tickling her and acts as if nothing had happened. HAHA! (God bless Russi Taylor; she is wonderful in little kid roles; but hearing her do pathos compared to Janna Michaels or R.J. Williams or even Alan Roberts makes me feel sad. The whole point of drama is "sh*t has gotten real" and when you use cartoon voices to do the scene, no one (most so adults, kids for the most part will not care unless the voice is so terrible that even that would be awful.) takes it seriously in a scene. I'll get to Doofus Drake in A Bad Reflection On You later on; but in Cash As Catch Can Part 2; when the nephews and Webby were crying their eyes out when they thought Scrooge died, it came off as phoney. Russi Taylor tried her damnest to make this work; but it didn't matter because a child's voice is still different enough to tell the difference. When Molly laughed, Janna Michaels was behind her voice and it sounds like a real child because Janna Michaels was seven years old back then. While a comedy scene can get over with any voice; it's because no one is supposed to take it seriously. Drama is a different beast altogether, and when you have child characters involved, adult actors are not going to cut the mustard. It doesn't help that puberty and child labour laws exist; but those was uncontrollable factors of life anyway.)

(Too Long; Don't Care: Child actors are better in dramatic roles; cartoon voices are better in comedy when it comes to child characters. However; a great dialogue director can make child actors in comedy roles work better than they have any right to be.) MacNee climbs up the docks and gets right in Rebecca's kisser proclaiming that he's had enough and walks off-screen not to notice Molly giving him a well deserved raspberry on the way out. HAHA! (No one throws a better raspberry then Molly Cunningham. Sorry Kit.) We hear McNee threatening to take his business elsewhere as Molly takes out the tickling animal and she is giddy because it's a baby buffalo. HAHA! A buffalo with wings eh?! Now who would be stupid enough to market that...oh wait; never mind. (SquareEnix apparently with their Moogles. (2020 Gregory Weagle Says: Put Henry on the Captain N: The Gamemaster Set and it's a Moogle for goodness sakes!)) The Yenkara squeals for his mommy and Molly pets him and tells him not to worry and she won't hurt him. It makes me sad that Peter Freakin Griffin stole that line because he acted like a lying bastard on Family Guy doing it (Check the sobbing is equal to laughing effect Peter does for the answer to it.). (Memo to Seth: Good actors tend to cry much more differently than they laugh because then people understand what their feelings are.) Anyhow; Yenkara responds by plopping right into Molly's overalls again and making her giggle her ass off again. Molly asks if he wants to play and the Yenkara snuggles with her as she squeals and goes over to Kit and Baloo as both of them are using their backs to lift up the box again allowing Molly to come in and showing the buffalo to Kit as it's face rubs right against Kit's and Kit blows it off because he's trying to keep himself from getting MURDERED by that box see. Cannot say I blame him. The funniest thing about this is that Kit plays a huge role in this episode later on actually. (You don't know the half of it. Seeing cute creature nuzzle against Kit's cheek is many buys! If you look at some Deviant Art; there are pictures of Kit Cloudkicker taking care of cats, and reading to it. One of them features Kit looking out the window in though with a few cats and one of them is on Kit's head. AWESOME! Burials of serious Kit will never fail to make me laugh. Sadly; even that didn't last since one of Kit's cats did in fact die and Kit is sad again.)

Molly walks off stage left not looking happy that she got blown off and decides to show her mother her new find. So we head to an outdoor shot of the office of Higher For Hire as she opens the door from the opposite way (I think) and heads inside as Rebecca is assuring MacNee that this won't be a problem as he grumbles and calls it absurd. Molly sees him and hides the Yenkara behind her back (Funny how she instantly knew the thing was in trouble from the start hmmm.) and slides over as McNee leaves the office without further incident. (Modern cartoons would have McNee seeing it and have to pretend that the Yenkara isn't there; because stupid equals funny you see. Money marks never let logic and reason get in the way of money. Scoiopaths and all that stuff.) Unless they Molly runs over to Rebecca's desk as Rebecca is on the phone (It did ring during the hide the Yenkara sequence so no logic break there.) and Molly asks if she can keep him. Rebecca says yes and tells her to go outside. Rebecca addresses the man as Henry as something won't happen until noon. (I'm guessing that it's the returned call concerning the delay of those mangos. Doesn't matter either way, just would like to know what Rebecca was talking about.) Not that it matters since the Henry on the phone plays no part in the episode other than Molly naming her pet Yenkara Henry. (Good; at least now, I can stop editing the Inkara's to Yenkara's for a while. Just wait until In Search Of Ancient Blunders when I have to edit all references of Myra to Mira because Mark Lungo has the script and it's spelled "Mira" instead of "Myra". Despite the fact that Myra makes more sense. Sadly; Foxworthy is still fanon at this point.) Molly then shows Henry and wants Rebecca to pet him. Rebecca touches Henry's head and then gently shoves it back because she's still busy and wants Molly to take him for a walk. Molly decides to get the point and she walks out of the office and takes a pause as Rebecca continues to tell Henry about noon, and then Molly walks away. Notice the way Libby is building the misunderstanding between Rebecca and Molly. This is what makes TaleSpin different from most DTVA cartoons in general and it makes it feel like a Disney feature in twenty-two minutes.

Understand that; and you'll understand why a lot of animators and critics were so pissed off of this show, DTVA and cartoons in general. (Again, as I mentioned in the additional commentary of some of the editorials I wrote for the Unofficial Kit Cloudkicker Homepage; the critics wanted Disney to be an arthouse, even though Walt Disney was never that kind of person to do such a thing. He treated his product as a business; and then painted it in such a way so that the audience was assured that they got their money's worth. It's what entertainment is. If Eisner had simply done the same thing and not say that he's just there to make money, a lot of people would have fallen for it at least until 1995.) So we head to a sand pile somewhere near the docks as Molly is creating a sand castle for Henry. And you thought vandalism was limited to the new Disney shows eh? Molly finishes up; but cannot find him until we see him underneath the sand pail as Molly removes the sandpail and stuffs a bottle cap over his eyes. Which is the same thing Kit did to Molly with the pilot's cap when Molly tickled Kit under the chin in Plunder and Lightning Part 2! How about THAT for continuity! Molly sings the King of the Castle song which makes MacNee the dirty rascal. AHHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! SMACK! OUCH! Ummmm... He walks in punch drunk into the sand castle and the sand castle collapses! That leads to Henry doing the BUGS BUNNY OUT OF CONTROL~! I'm guessing the PR department put that spot in to remind us how aged and worthless Bugs Bunny is, eh? I just cannot stand it when the PR department won't let this show be itself on it's own merits. (I don't need to tell you what Cartoon Brew found in 1989 when Disney was sending PR materials do I? Before Microsoft turned FUD into an artform; Disney was the big, bad FUD'er. The funniest and saddest thing about this pointless, childish act was that not once did they actually try to put TaleSpin over as their big show. Partially because it was considered filler (a sign of unabashed arrogence by Disney's PR team) and partially because they couldn't handle competition. Cartoons are mostly about comedy. What is the alternative? Pathos. Which is Disney's forte! Ducktales, Gummi Bears and Rescue Rangers are already monster over with the audience. The new show is supposed to get the biggest rub and Disney basically decided that it was too hard. Disney was scared into stupidity is more like it.)

Henry gets his bell rung into the shovel and wobbles. Molly asks where he is going and then giggles as Henry wants his momma. Molly pets him as Henry sheds a tear and apologizes because there are no momma buffalos around here. I think she insulted that buffalo pilot's (From Here To Machinery) wife there dude. (No, she didn't.) Henry squeals in sadness as Molly pets her and admits that she misses her mother too. UH OH! Can you see the difficulities of being a single parent (even more so a single mom) starting to fold here? (Yes.) Molly then decides to be Herny's mom which should not only be fun to watch; but also give Molly the much needed multi-sided character development she really needs as steet would say. Molly proclaims that she won't be too busy for Henry as we see Rebecca come out of the office calling out for Molly and Molly blows her off and then walks away as it's time to go home. So we head to Rebecca's apartment AFTER HAPPY HOUR (after dark) as we zoom in and then head inside the kitchen as Rebecca is using a desk for a table and doing the accounting on the sky shot as Molly walks around. Molly goes in and we see her off-screen raid the fridge. She brings out some milk, ice cream (which is the bucket of Frosti Pep I was talking about.) and some potato chips as she tells Rebecca that she's having a party. Rebecca tells her not now and Molly isn't all that amused so she walks away blowing her off as it's her and Herny. We head inside Molly's bedroom and we see Herny dressed up like a baby with a blue ribbon around his chin. HA! He tries to open the window to get outside but it's locked and Molly gets him before he has even a chance to escape. Henry cries for his momma and Molly tells him that she's his momma now (Disney Captions screws up "silly"; writing it as "siree". She was not trying to be Jimmey Cricket, you jackoffs!) as she puts Henry on the tea table. Henry recovers as Molly gives Henry the most absurd sundae ever created; and then Molly takes it away and acts like another because Henry forgot to wash his hands first. Okay; that is too funny to see Molly try to be a mother and looking like a nicer Rebecca on that. (Molly is so adorable that I cannot take her jerk attitude seriously even if I tried.) The apple truly doesn't fall farther from the tree. (Still farther than most modern cartoons though.)

So, Molly gives Henry a bowl of water to wash up and so Henry sniffs the water and washes his hands which leads to the plot device taking effect as Henry becomes the FATASS MOG FLYING SPONGE OF DEATH~! Well; he is basically a Moogle with bird wings who has the abilities of a fatass Chocobo (Final Fantasy (original Japanese romance version) references of course) so it makes perfect sense. Molly wonders how that happened as Henry does the deep voice momma (it sounds exactly like a Snorlax which leads me to wonder if Frank Welker did the actual stock voice for Snorlax in Pokemon? Nah... (Nope. Although there is evidence that Welker's animal vocals were used in anime as the case in several Transformers series.)) and completely destroys the tea table of course. (This is much funnier in hindsight due to the Tea Party astroturfing that was done a number of years ago. I cannot tell you the countless stories of Orly Taitz and her misadventures of trying to play Jean D'Arc in forcing President Obama out of office by lawsuit. It was so hilariously out of touch; that people seriously thought she was trying to make America look bad and was a legit traitor and possible invader. Great times! Yes; racism was the reason for this happening of course.) No shock there as Molly runs out with the wagon and I see she got a new one after It Came From Beneath The SeaDuck. So we see Molly run to the fridge and she overloads the wagon with goodies and runs back into her room. Yeap; Miss Cunningham doesn't suspect a thing until she gets her tea cup and saucer and tries to drink it allowing for a massive belch off-screen. Now before someone states that I'm a hypocrite for allowing this bodily fluid joke to pass; I should remind people that I don't hate belch and fart jokes; I hate badly timed and pointless belch and fart jokes. Context is the key here; as is in life. (Umm; that wasn't what you thought seven years before writing this 2010 Me! Either way; well timed fart jokes do work; and it allows the little ones to enjoy it. When you don't depend on one way and try to do a good job in all, you should get a huge chunk of the audience. TaleSpin did around 11 million viewers on average. Breadwinners' peak was 2.86 million viewers. Why? Because Breadwinners depends on fart jokes and stupidity in every segment. TaleSpin doesn't do that. It tries to do it all. Phineas & Ferb knows this. Gravity Falls knows this. Spongebob used to know this. Avatar: The Last Airbender and Korra know this to a certain extent. Nickeledeon used to know this; but doesn't care anymore because RESEARCH~! Even if the research is junk science. Such fools money marks are.)

So, Rebecca finally decides to go to Molly's room as we see Molly blowing off Henry like a mother. HA! Reason: He forgot to dry his hands after washing them. I would add not to belch too loud; but that would be mean. I think BS&P stepped in here for some reason. Or not as Henry dries his hands and we get the FLASH OF DOOM as Rebecca walks in and she cannot believe the mess Molly made. I know this because she addresses Molly as Molly Elizabeth Cunningham (Funny how Molly is the only character in the series with a middle name. (Now that I think about it; that might have been a reference to Libby Hinson herself; since Libby is shorthand for Elizabeth. Which begs the question: Did she change jobs to being a sound editor with Rick Hinson and called herself "Elizabeth Hinson"? Considering that they are married; we have a mystery. Get on the case Neneko! (I can now confirm that Elizabeth Hinson is also Libby Hinson and was a sound editor.)). Molly insists that it was Henry's fault (Oh sure; act like a child after stating that you wanted to be the mother of Henry. Molly is Rebecca Jr.) and that he got big. Rebecca blows her off for fibbing at her and while Molly isn't really fibbing; it's irrelevant because Henry cannot give informed consent. Neither can Molly in techincal terms; but whatever. Molly tries to make Henry big; but Henry does nothing but eat a cookie. HA! Molly is so totally busted! (Henry just didn't give a damn at all about Molly being busted. That was even funnier than Molly's laughable attempt to clear her name.) Rebecca orders her to clean the room and tries to leave; but Molly sits down and sulks about Rebecca not having time for her at all. Rebecca is at the door and realizes that she really screwed up this time; and she tells Molly to take her bath and get ready for bed so she can finish her work and read her a story. Molly asks if it's Gladys and the Gorilla. I wonder if that is where this episode's premise came from? I got to ask Libby Hinson about the inspiration for this episode because that would be an interesting thing to see. (Considering her shoot interview on DAF Radio about Jolly Molly Christmas, that should be awesome to hear. Libby has a lot more knowledge and background about her writing on the show than Jymn Magon does. Maybe because Jymn only wrote one episode in the entire series? Most of his writing is with audio books and other stuff, not the television series. He was mostly a story editor. Mark Zaslove did more heavy lifting in the writing department.)

Molly asks if she promises; and Rebecca promises and then the phone screws her up again. Please; give this woman an orange juice break, guys! (Wow; my fanfic writing has infected this episode. I should have used coffee break here and in the fanfics; but I hate coffee, so there you go. I hate hot liquids. Much worse in buring your tongue than hot solid foods.) She's a single parent raising a daughter! So Rebecca is forced to run to the phone and answers it as Molly blows her off for breaking another promise (even though she hasn't done anything yet to break her word) and slams the door shut. We then cut to Rebecca on the phone and she blows Kit off (I know it's Kit because Kit is the only one with enough foresight to call Miss Cunningham) and tells Baloo to deal with whoever himself because she's spending that overdue time for Molly. Wow folks; do you treehouse syndrome freaks look bad now?! Too bad Molly doesn't realize it to care. (Yeah; we cannot have a woman realize that she needs to spend time with her daughter despite all the troubles in the company. Because that completely kills our sexist narrative that Rebecca is nothing but a jerk. This is what happens when you don't watch the show and don't take copious notes. You get sexism like this.) Kit tries to explain to her that there is trouble; but the phone hangs up on him as we hear MacNee yelling and swearing in DUBBED ANIME STYLE (Thunderation which has to be the funniest version of Damnation I have ever heard. (Still is by the way.)) as we cut into the back of the SeaDuck as MacNee has a box and Baloo has his grubby paws on him trying to calm him down. MacNee orders him to stop stopping him because the Yenkara has escaped. Baloo is shocked and blows off MacNee's sanity because there is no such thing. HA! This might be a plusiable world; but you're not fooling us Pop-A-Bear. We see Kit head inside as he tells him that it's only a fable and the crate is locked tight. So McNee kicks the crate over as Kit is forced to back away and Baloo tells him to be quiet as they use visual aids to proclaims that he's BOI-IIIIIONG!! (I guess he's using the same drugs as Orly Tatiz...Allegedly. (Personally; I would be worried since when McNee kicked the box, it appeared that he was teasing kicking Kit in the head in the process; which forced Kit to bail to Baloo. Which makes sense because he hates children and no matter how many times Kit tries to act like a responsible adult, we all know he's a child.)) Anyhow; we see that there is the hole from earlier as MacNee proclaims that he escaped through there and Baloo gets off quote gem #1:

Baloo: Well; let me see now. A twelve foot critter escaped through a six inch hole. Ah; don't tell me. He shrunk! (2020 Gregory Weagle Says: In the outline, the beast was fifteen feet tall. Also, they were going to reference Bigfoot for Henry as being just a legend, which was also nixed. Weird, because the legend has been around long before the setting of TaleSpin only the name came about in 1958, so it would have worked out well anyway. Another beat: MacNee's personality was supposed to be of Captain Queed.)

It's funny because Baloo is acting all sarcastic through the speech as MacNee calls his bluff on that one. See; the Yenkara is big, mean and dangerous. Sorry MacNee; but the Gorilla Birds would like to have a word with you on all this. However; it's only as long as he's wet see. Geez; I guess sitting on people might be dangerous, but I think MacNee's a heartless son of a bitch so what do I care?! (Please stop using that toxic word 2010 Me! McNee is heartless and the son of a really bad person; but come on! You're better than this, I know. You've written some excellent commentary in 2010; but you keep derailing yourself with this stupidity. Stop it!) And it's shrinks to a small size when dry and always cries for his momma. Baloo and Kit finally get the LIGHTBULB OF BLOODY CLAIRTY as that is Molly's buffalo and they run out. Notice how Kit seems to be getting younger and younger as the episode progresses?! I wonder if that is intentional or not? (Considering what happened in Time Waits For No Bear; I wouldn't put it past Walt Disney Animation Japan Inc. to do this on purpose. Frankly; this is a really awesome artistic choice by the animators to say "The more cynical you get; the more childish you ultimately become." That is sort of true; but you have to be almost to the point of not trusting anyone before that happens. Anyway; it's really a neat idea and burials of cynical Kit will never fail to make me laugh.) Anyhow we head to Rebecca's bathroom as Molly prepares the tub with water. Well; it's full of soap bubbles; so the bubbles are done properly according to the reality freaks. (Does it really matter at this point?) Anyhow; Molly goes over to Henry sitting on a pink bench as Molly stuffs a bathing cap on him and this time; it doesn't go over his eyes. Henry seems gleeful. So we head to the living room as Rebecca gets the book from underneath the green sofa filled with pillows (and one of them is a bunny rabbit's head in shadow. Could it be...Nah....) which shows Gladys who is a human girl with blond curly hair and a pink dress on the back of the gorilla in a jungle background. She looks like a rejected Cabbage Patch Doll. (In the TaleSpin world; humans are considered fairy tales. Sadly; Mission: Maybe Sort Of A Little Impossible killed that angle dead which had humans in it. They couldn't use dognoses in their place, like most Ducktales and even many TaleSpin comics do in this situation?! That said: the story is fine; it's just bizzare to see all these differences because most TaleSpin comic book stories are semi-faithful to the television series for the most part. Minus several quirks here and there due to not seeing everything about the television series. Cathyrn Perdue had the same problem in Destiny Rides Again which had dognoses more common with Ducktales than in this show.)

Rebecca then hears ultra violent knocks on the door as we hear Baloo demanding Rebecca to open the door. Rebecca is not happy to hear this (since she has already decided that it's time to show the treehouse syndrome freaks that they are idiots) as she goes to the door and as she unlocks it; MacNee barges in with his whip in hand as Rebecca squeals when she is shoved. Kit asks where Molly is and Baloo tells her that her pet is dangerous as he has the butterfly net on retainer for events such as this. (Which is deadly to Fairy Godparents~!) Rebecca has no clue what they are talking about as Kit and Baloo run in and then the real fun starts as we see Kit hearing Molly's giggle and he runs and opens the bathroom yelling at Molly not to get Henry wet. (Molly laughing is always a joy to hear because it's from a voice actor who is the same age as the character she is playing. Janna Michaels is a great child voice actor. She got out of the business and really, I don't blame her because she has a stable life now.) Sadly; too late as Molly places Henry into the bathtub and Henry is now the FATASS MOG FLYING SPONGE OF DEATH~! Somehow; the throw actually allow Molly to teleport right onto Henry's back. Now THAT'S a quality way to mask up a logic break without making it look obvious. Molly proclaims that there he goes again as everyone runs in and Rebecca gasps and MacNee shoves the adults down and whips Henry good three times. Henry screams for momma and then pushes onto the bathroom walls and destroys the section of the wall as the whipping continues. Then Kit jumps right on Henry's back and even takes a whip shot right on his right cheek for good measure. No one ever accused Kit Cloudkicker of being a coward; that is for sure. Henry finally breaks through the wall and both the Yenkara and the kids freefall much to Sally Struther's usual Grade A screaming skills as we get the Wile E. Coyote shot of Henry freefalling to end the segment more than eleven and a half minutes in.

(It's amazing how TaleSpin can put a mystical creature into the show and still have it sound believable and memorable. The story of this episode is no longer about McNee and Henry. This story is about what happens when real life intervenes in the face of conducting business. Libby Hinson is writing this one perfectly and both her characters are pulling this off perfectly. Webby who? is perfectly accurate in this case. As you will see; Molly is not Webby 2.0. I wonder if the Nostaliga Critic is just reading the plots of the episode and basing his opinions on that, rather than watching the actual show and taking notes of everything that was shown? Because it seems to me that my way exposes NC as an amateur since when it comes to Molly; our opinions are on completely different planets. It's one thing to have a difference in opinion (If this was a slight difference (like someone saying that Molly is not Webby, but still is an ankle biter because she's sarcastic for instance.) then it is believable at least even if I disagree with it.); but when you have two opinions that completely contradict each other; one of those opinions has to be wrong. Anyone who watched this show knows that Molly and Webby are completely different characters. The reason that Molly didn't have many episodes was because she was voiced by a seven year old kid and thus child welfare laws apply. If you want a comparsion of Molly; a better one would be "a cross between Cubbi and Sunni Gummi" taking their best traits and then add the sneaky side to her character. As you'll see in the very next act in fact.)

After the commercial break; we see a front shot of the free fall as Kit is screaming good and Henry does a hyperbole and flies into the air and under a bridge and up towards the moon as Rebecca continues to yell for Molly. We cut to the adults at the broken down wall as Baloo asks where they went. MacNee proclaims that it has to be to the Valley of the Yenkara because he wants his momma. Rebecca orders Baloo to come and we go to the scene changer in the skies with Henry flying towards the valley and then a close up shot as Molly is giddy and Kit is not amused at all as we go to one of my favorite sequences in this episode: (Oh, here we go.)

Kit: We've been kidnapped by a flying sponge and you think it's all right?!
Molly: {Checks Henry's back.} Guess he is sorta squishy. Dry off Henry!
Kit: MOLLY, NO! {Henry dries off like a dog and return to being just a moogle with bird wings} Whoa!
Molly: I didn't mean this fast. {Everyone freefalls about three thousand feet into a lake.}

Why do I think this sequence was awesome? Look at Molly's face just before she orders Henry; she actually looks at Kit for a split second acting all netural and when she orders Henry to dry off she look angry. She basically felt insulted by Kit's accusation that Henry was kidnapping them and Molly had every right to be since Kit chose to climb on Henry's back in the first place. (Bingo! You just saw the trait of Molly Cunningham from It Came From Beneath The SeaDuck where she acts like it's unintentional; but is doing it on purpose. Non-verbal cues are so important because they can tell a story much more effectively than what they say.) So Kit pretty much got what he deserved there. And the fact that Molly considers herself to be Henry's mother still. So this is the third time Molly has freefallen in this series and it won't be the last either. Molly and Kit pop up and Molly orders Henry to come here this instant and he turns into the FATASS MOG FLYING SPONGE OF DEATH~! He floats Molly and Kit to the lake edge(which explains how Kit and Molly managed to live through that; thus making Teddy Ruxpin look even worse now. (Not really; Teddy fell into the river and nearly drowned. This lake wasn't all that deep. There are a million reasons why Teddy Ruxpin looks second rate to TaleSpin. This is not one of them. That said: It's still pretty scary when it's little kids falling.). Kit grabs Molly and tries to make a run for it because Henry is dangerous see. Molly of course speaks for everyone watching this show:

Molly: Boy; are you dumb! Does THAT look dangerous?!

HAHA! She's right you know Kit. Look son; I have defended you for the longest time (terrorist thing notwithstanding) but Molly for once is correct. Henry's only biggest threat is sitting on people and I doubt he would sit on a bunch of kids willfully. Henry just sits there roaring sadly as Molly grabs Kit's arm and forces him over because Henry's not going to bite. (I just love how she completely buries Kit's lack of trust of a mystical beast like that. Molly's notorious for this as seen in The Long Flight Home comic book when Kit's well meaning and understandable decision to run away from home because anti-hobo busybody wants to put him in an orphanage (not really; but you get the picture.). She basically calls him out on it and tells him to tell Witherspoon that he has a family and they he lives there. To stop freaking out and stop jumping to conclusions. It's not only true and it makes Molly awesome; but it's also funny. Like I said over and over again: Burials of cynical Kit by Molly will never fail to make me laugh. Bobbi Weiss and Libby Hinson's own worldviews really help this series go from a boys only club to everyone, simply because they are not afraid to make women strong when need be. And not afraid to make their characters call out others for their own BS.) She introduces Kit and Henry feels happy for some reason (Because he does like Kit; after all, that cheek of Kit's is awfully warm.) as Kit does a quick "glad to meet you" to Henry (I see Kit is in cynical mode today which actually helps his character development a lot more as we will see later.) and goes to his compass from his belly as Cape Suzette is in the west. Molly no sells because she wants to take Henry with him. Kit is fine with that because then MacNee can have him again thus revealing that he's not trusting Henry at all. (Best way to make chemistry for Kit and Molly: Have Kit play cynic while Molly plays even more cynic because Molly's attempts to be an adult are much funnier than Kit's.) This is just great and it just gets better with this sequence of lines:

Molly: Forget it! I'm his momma and he belongs to me. Moms can't let their kids down you know.
Kit: Molly; you can pretend all you want; but you're never gonna be that thing's mother. {Molly doesn't like hearing that one.}

Sadly for her; Kit is right on this one simply because Molly and Henry are too incompatible to be together. (Really now 2010 Me?! Rebecca didn't seem to have any problems with Henry until McNee showed up. But McNee was whipping Henry while Molly was on his back. Very dangerous and psychopathish of him too.) Kit does have an option for Molly since he might have one she would be towards the blue star which is conveniently shown in the sky which is the Yenkara Valley where MacNee captured him in the first place. (Actually; they showed it before Molly told Henry to dry off; so it was supposed to be there.) I wonder if Kit believes that it's a fable or he's white lying because he has a moral promise to keep with them. After all; how much of Kit's life before Baloo DO WE KNOW?! Now there's a fanfic that is worth exploring and worth writing about. (Which I will never write because I suck writing fanfics. By the way Disney: You can have that one for free.) Molly accepts Kit's option and calls for Henry to fly as Kit calls her crazy. BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Psychological projection much there, Kit Cloudkicker?! Kit grabs onto Henry's left ankle as Henry flies into the sky with Molly cuddled in his arms in a cute spot as Kit asks Molly to consider her mother as she is worried sick (which is perfectly true); but Molly blows him off because Rebecca probably doesn't even think she is gone. UH OH! So we go to the scene changer with a screaming shot of the SeaDuck as Rebecca is worried sick for both Molly and Kit as she gets more panicky by the second. As I said before; this is the extreme rare case of paying the price for being a single parent. (To be shown on free television in an animated series with funny animals; a medium that no serious adult would watch on an adult level since there is no incentive to do so, because putting things in a box is what is right you see. Which is how sexism and racism usually start by the way.) Baloo tries to calm them down as we look at the window and Rebecca gets the binoculars and sees the kids and Henry flying in the distance. And so does MacNee who has somehow opened the right side door on binoculars as he actually unwraps his rifle and proclaims that he is going to put holes in the pretty hide. HOLY CRAP!! He's going to kill the kids and the Inkara just for his cruel selfish ends. Now, I'm starting to like this monster heel and I don't know why I hated him in the first place since he is supposed to be a irredeemable piece of crap. (Do you know how to give a villain monster heel heat? Make it try to kill kids for their selfish ends. It always works and even the most cynical of adults will be booing them forever. Always an effective move. It's even more profound in Plunder and Lightning part two where the air pirates were shooting at Kit at point blank range. That was scarier than this mostly because McNee was aiming for the Yenkara even though if he killed it; the kids fall to their deaths too.)

Thankfully; Rebecca sees him and scream before blitzing MacNee. MacNee's aim is screwed up just enough to miss the Yenkara by a mile (Knowing Kit Cloudkicker, Rebecca screwing up the shot required perfect timing because if she didn't get the angle right, you're talking two kids dead. This is one of the big reasons why bullet shooting guns and the gun culture are condemned. And really; can you blame them?); but the bullet puts a hole into the right engine props of the SeaDuck and it catches fire. (Sadly; in post-production, Disney forgot to reverse the scene with McNee and Rebecca along with the first shots of the engines because on the shots after Baloo states that they cut the oil line; Walt Disney Animation Japan animated it as if the shot hit the left engine. That's where logic break #1 for the episode comes from actually.) That leads to Baloo panicing on the control since they cut the oil line with the bullet and the SeaDuck goes down in a long sequence and slams into the rocky plateau floor about six times and in a surprise we go to the scene changer before it crashes. So we head into the skies with Henry and the kids as Molly sneezes and a good one at that. (See what happens when you have a great voice director?! It makes even kids sound great.)) Kit asks if she is cold and Kit is back on top of Henry. Molly notices that Henry is almost dry now and Kit panics again as Henry instantly turns into the small Yenkara. We freefall again with no lake to save them; which forces Kit to grab Molly and Henry and flip the airfoil from his sweater to feet (Now that is awesome to see!) and he glides now to the ground; but loses his balance and slides off a tree branch and they drop with MAN-SIZED bumps right onto the ground. That's four times Molly has freefallen and Kit pretty much has gone beyond BS&P's mandate at this point. (I love also that they played this up that Kit can only control himself on the airfoil perfectly. Legend of The Chaos God also played into this.) That leads to this gem:

Molly: Some cloudsurfer you are.
Kit: Well; excuse me for saving you, pigtails.

Now in any other universe; they would be arguing til the day they die; but a loud crash off-screen destroys any chance for them to argue and Kit asks what was that as we fade to black to turn Michael Eisner on again. We head inside the jungle as we see the SeaDuck is pretty much a dead duck at the moment. Baloo wants the number of that mountain (thus making Dale look completely uncool in Mind Your Cheese's & Q's. (Yeah; because the writers on that episodes are hacks. Even more so than David Wise post-Rescue Rangers.)) as he walks over and helps Rebecca up who is face down near the side door. Don't you just love it when Baloo actually acts like a human being and not a sexist jerk? (Yes, yes I do.) Rebecca wakes up and then notices that MacNee has left the airplane and then panics because he's after the kids. Not really; but after he tries to kill Kit and Molly just to get to the Yenkara, I don't blame Rebecca one bit. Baloo tells her that they cannot catch them as long as they are in the air. Problem is; that they are not in the air right now as Baloo checks the prop engines (It's tempting to call this one a logic break since it was the right one (it was the left engine) that was cut; but I guess the crash forced Baloo to check the other one to make sure. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt here. It's probably the only real mistake of the episode. (It was really the left engine from the start; but post-production made the mistake of not reversing about 30 seconds of footage that would have killed off the logic break completely. That said; checking the other engine would be a good idea.)). So we change scenes and we see MacNee with his rifle set to profits stalking the kids and Henry like a pervert. Without the sexual arousal of course. We notice that Kit and Molly are hiding behind a large rock (I see Kit thought his hiding places through) as he tells Molly not to worry and they won't be found. (Kit looks like a six year old now, like Molly. This is in fact the anime version of symbolism since Kit deals with adults as adults. Molly on the other hand, he turns into a six year old.) More stalking from MacNee with the shadow and we end the segment for real fifteen and a half minutes in. I'm amazed that Libby Hinson would put Kit and Molly in such danger and not because of the two freefalls so far; but having MacNee even threaten to shoot at the kids to boot! Considering what happened eleven plus years ago in Colarado; I think airplane crashing is the least of their worries here. (No kidding?! After Sandy Hook; I would suggest that releasing TaleSpin Volume 3 was done to keep me happy knowing that the show has too much baggage even of Disney to reboot. Oh well; there's always Zootopia. Kids free falling is pretty normal in a DTVA cartoon. Anyway; that was an impressive four minutes of drama and comedy as only Libby Hinson could deliver. )

After the commercial break; we see MacNee continuing to stalk the children like a pedophile as he demands the kids to stop hiding and come out in the open. Molly pops from the rocks: "Not a chance, creepface!" HAHA! Kit forces Molly down and shuts her mouth. I guess the "shut up" in Plunder and Lightning was an act after all. Nice subtly there, guys. (It's always something I notice in this show: Even when the writers are different with different viewpoints; there is a sense of knowing how to write the characters and making them likable without making people cringe.) MacNee proclaims that he doesn't have all day and looks more pissed off by the second. Kit; realizing that this is going to get ugly if this hiding continues decides to formulate a plan as he tells Molly to run to the river with Henry and Kit will watch her back. So we cut back to a far shot of the rock as we get a semi-glorified shot of MacNee's small tail (to match his small penis he has which he uses his rifle to compensate.) and Kit pops out and yells that Molly went towards the northeast as MacNee goes towards that direction; while Molly runs with Henry to the northwest towards the river. (YAY! A plan works to perfection in a DTVA show! At least in theory.) MacNee then turns around and backs Kit against the rock and calls him out for lying and nearly threatens him with violence if he is truly lying. So Kit gets off this perfect gem:

Kit: Now I remember! She dried up and shrunk! {Kit then shoves MacNee's hat over his eyes for good measure}

Kit tries to escape; but MacNee grabs him at the last second and he has his rifle corked up as he has had enough (You know MacNee has no reservations of shooting Kit dead!); but we get the flash as Henry is the FATASS MOG FLYING SPONGE OF DEATH as it grabs Kit like a child and nice selling from Alan Roberts and Kit on MacNee's weight for a nice touch. (Ginny McSwain in a nutshell everyone!)) with MacNee grabbing onto Kit as they rise into the sky over the conveniently placed river and Kit shoves MacNee (off-screen of course) and MacNee drops into the river like a stone. Now you cannot tell me Kit didn't plan that to happen now from the start can't we? (Now come on! Kit's plan could have failed if McNee was quick enough to shoot Kit in the head like the air pirates almost did. What do you mean that didn't happen? I realize the scene was snipped in syndication with Plunder and Lightning, but come on! I do have visual evidence of that.) MacNee gets carried away by the river as we see Molly asking Kit about Henry now and Kit calls it pretty good for a kid. I really don't like that response since it was Kit's plan right from the start to lure MacNee into the river. On the other hand; saying that it's pretty good for a buffalo would have made more sense since it Henry in fatass mode was what saved Kit from getting shot dead (and let's face it MacNee would have done it to him; he had no beef with shooting them earlier with the rifle. (After all; he hates children.)). Probably the only real problem with this episode and we are well past that now. (Actually; Kit was referring to the buffalo as a kid since Henry is considered a baby buffalo by Molly herself. This line makes sense.) So we head back into the skies again with the kids and Yenkara as they are nearing the blue star; but the storm clouds are roaring in fast. Kit proclaims that Henry will soon be home to his momma as Henry roars with glee. Molly isn't so happy as Kit asks what is wrong and Molly proclaims that Henry will have his momma and Molly still won't have hers. Okay; that's getting silly. What about Kit's mother?

Molly at least has a mother to go back; and Kit had to basically create a situation so dangerous in order to get at least some female to love him as a son and still doesn't have her real mother and probably never will. (That really came out wrong 2010 Me. When I was thinking over the reunion with the Ruxpins in Teddy Ruxpin; Kit would had probably said: You have your family back. I'll never really have mine back. It's difficult to take Molly's side of things when Kit is the one without any parents to go back to, in case the relationship with Baloo turns irredeemably south.) Thankfully for Molly; Kit's not that cynical as he's sure Rebecca is looking for her and Molly blows him off as the wind is getting stronger and stronger. Well; no shock there that Kit is "Running Against The Wind". AHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! (I am surprised that no one considered that song for a Kit AMV tribute on Youtube. Was the copyright issues more profound with that song? I wouldn't be shocked if that was the case.) The thunder claps as the ride is getting bumpy and Molly thinks it's getting stormy. Kit is confident because he's been through a lot of storms as the thunder claps against and they embrace because Kit hasn't even gotten that close. Oh please Kit; you forgot Stormy Weather already now? I guess that deprogramming Kit's going through at Higher For Hire has worked better than I previously thought. (Listen; it's probably for the best Kit forgets Stormy Weather. At least so Kit doesn't have to go through life thinking that he's Petey Williams in furry form.) Kit pats Henry's back and notices that he's pretty dry and wants Henry to fly down so they don't freefall again. Sadly; the wind howls violently and they are caught in the windstorm without any way to get down whatsoever. Kit braces and then he hears Rebecca's voice calling for Molly and Kit realizes that Molly's mom is here. Molly blows it off because that's impossible. She must really believe those treehouse syndrome freaks; but I think she's just nursing a personal grudge here. (Molly is the symbol of innocence; but when Rebecca breaks her promises (mostly not intentional mind you), even she can be cynical.)

We then cut to seeing the SeaDuck fly through the thunderstorm as Kit yells for Rebecca and Baloo. Rebecca hears them and hugs Baloo in response. We get a really awesome close up shot of Kit yelling for Baloo as he is looking older here. Now I know this is intentional on the animator's part since he got young as a child and almost as young as Molly when he was cynical and when he's optimistic; he gets older. Now that's a real subtle touch there. (And a really awesome example of TaleSpin in nutshell. It's the little things like that; which got the show over. Modern cartoons usually don't do that because it's too expensive for that. Again; joke machine. Anyone who is interested: You can have my Joke Machine pitch idea for free. I refuse to copyright it in good conscience; because I want an exec to be stupid enough to try this experiment.) We see Henry fly in the opposite direction of the SeaDuck by force and Rebecca orders Baloo to turn around. Baloo manages to turn the SeaDuck around (with 100 mph winds mind you) and fly back towards Henry and then in front of the back of Henry as we cut to Rebecca tying a rope around her waist as Baloo turns around in the cockpit and pleads for her not to do it. Rebecca doesn't care because it's her daughter that is in danger of dying (To be quite honest; if time constraints allowed it, she would have done the "Kit does it all the time" promo too from The Incredible Shrinking Molly. ). She pushes on the conveniently placed lever (JESUS~!) and the tailsection door opens and she goes flying out and nearly get a whiplash headache as a result. Man; I am having new respect for Miss Cunningham; she is the babyface version of Miss Gloria Vanderbucks. (I remember Brandala (Brandabat from Toonzone) say that she loved Kit at first; but then noticed Rebecca Cunningham and really loved her as a character even more. And I can see why too. Rebecca is as awesome as Kit is.) Kit yells for Rebecca again as Henry tries to fly towards her and Rebecca extends her hand but Molly completely no sells because Henry needs her and mothers are supposed to be protecting their kids. Man; she is playing this mother thing to her deathbed.

Rebecca literally pours her heart out on the apology and promises to spend more time with her (and really she was already planning to anyway before Molly got all cynical. (I'm going to sound like a broken record her; but Sally Struthers knows how to sell anything like a giant's deal even if it's completely stupid and toxic to the character she is playing. I just thought of something about critics asking the question: Why create an animated series that is so believable that people might mistake it as real; when it would be cheaper to do it in live action with real human beings? I just realized how asinine that question is: It implies that real human beings don't create cartoons. More directly; a question: Why create a live action show that is clearly fiction when documentaries and the news do a much better job at being real? I realize that both entites have their problems in trust and accurancy. I get that. But that doesn't mean that they are useless. In a cartoon; at least they don't pretend that it's real. Besides; you would think that the characters being half animal/half human chimera type creatures would be enough to prove that it's a fictional world; but alas. This is what happens when you have animation experts saying that animation is a medium; but don't treat it like one. They treat it like a sub-genre of children's comedy; and then they are SHOCKED that people come out and say "Shut up! This is a kid's show! You have no right to bash it!". You treated it like a genre and then called it a medium. Why should we take you seriously on anything entertainment?) ). Molly feels that Rebecca has been punished enough (good...for...her...) and tries to grab her hand; but both kids freefall from Henry's back as the wind is way too much to handle now. Kit manages to grab the rope in time; but Molly cannot and freefalls into the darkness below. HOLY CRAP! That's five times now and this one is a doozy. Rebecca cries her eyes out and screams (Sally is ON today! (She better be on 2010 me! If she acted differently; then all those accusations of being a jerk would actually hold water.)).

Henry cries for mother and flies down into the darkness below and we see Kit breathing a sigh of relief and he notices Molly is saved by Henry as he cuddles her like a baby. HAHA! Molly of course blows him off. BOO! HISS! No gratitude whatsoever from her. She IS Rebecca Junior. AHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! PUNT! OUCH! ALL HAIL MOLLY VIOLENCE! ALL HAIL!! I got to get ready for the next re-rant you know. (Okay Molly; you do realize that I was playing that thing in jest, and not insulting you. My heart still melted when Henry was cuddling Molly (who is supposed to be his mother in storyline.) like a child. Who cares who wears the pants in that family? The real question is: Who's the parent in this?) Henry gives Molly to Rebecca and they do the big hug and I cannot help but love it. The TaleSpin victory theme does the love for me. Rebecca calls for Baloo to reel them in and Baloo sells without question as the bears all jump into the tailsection of the plane. Henry follows them; but he shrinks right on cue (Disney Captions claims that it's Molly yelling; but the audio clearly has Kit yelling. (The "before you dry off." line was from Kit only. Molly and Kit equally said the line before that one.)) and struggles to get in. Rebecca tries to grab it; but no dice whatsoever. Rebecca then notices that Kit's baseball cap is right there on his head; so she grabs it and snags Henry right into the tailsection and the tailsection closes up for good. Molly gets Henry back and Rebecca gives Kit his baseball cap back as Kit puts it on backwards again (Because his life is so ass backwards, see.). That last touch is outstanding and it shows that Kit Cloudkicker is the true hero of this episode. Confused? I'll explain in the next scene as Rebecca embraces Molly and tells her that she's the most important thing in the world to her. Now that is extremely classy of her as we see the SeaDuck fly back into the wind and turn on a dime. So we head to the Valley of the Yenkara for real as it is a mystical place with crystal mountains and a lot of colored trees with a slight amount of fog. (It feels like something out of Rainbow Falls. I got to ask about this scene to the creators and what inspired it; because it looks really good in spite of being a brief scene.)

There is a waterfall as we see the SeaDuck fly in as Kit realizes that this is the place for real. Strangely; Kit calls it the Yenkara in the audio instead of the Inkara MacNee states. I wonder if we were taking Kit's word for it. Maybe he was right. Maybe the TaleSpin Virtual Season can do an episode on the probable that Kit met these creatures before. (Alan Roberts exposed Disney Captions right there when he said "YEN-kara". Inkara means "IN". It's so obvious! That said; if TaleSpin got rebooted (That would be impossible!) they need to work this angle in because it would be many buys!) The Seaduck lands on the water and all the bears plus Yenkara walk towards the forest. They walk in about thirty feet as Kit wonders where Henry's mother is and then we hear loud roars and we see the big Yenkaras in the background in shadow as Henry squeals "Momma" with glee. Then comes one of the most emotional moments in this episode and this is the scene that turned Molly into the monster over character that no one expected to happen:

Molly: {Molly walks forward with Henry} Now listen. When your mom gives you ice cream, don't gobble it up so fast OK? {She places Henry down onto the ground.} You'll get a tummy ache. {Molly then sheds two tears as I am right now.} And try to stay dry, so you don't catch cold, okay? {Henry nods at her.} I'm going to miss you little guy. {Molly and Henry embrace...}

...and then MacNee come in and RUINS the whole damn thing by snagging Molly and Henry with the whip. That was an awesome emotional moment for them as Molly turned mature for this moment and didn't sound like Rebecca Junior the Jerk; but Rebecca Junior the Loving Mother. It took only less than a minute and it was so effective; you could call it Disney effective. Naturally, MacNee is such a heartless bastard that he ruins it for me (Like a scoiopathic monster, iredeemable heel should be doing. This is how you build likable babyfaces and monster heels. It's not that hard. Most audiences perfer good productions. If something original is likable and well done, GREAT! Otherwise; don't assume that original idea automatically equals ratings nor sales. It often doesn't.) . He deserves whatever death he gets and I wouldn't piss on him if he were on fire. (The fire department would still put him out though; but that's their standard operating procedure anyway.) Everyone is shocked and appalled by this as MacNee turns full bastard heel mode on as he thanks them for leading him here and he's going to catch them all now. He must have followed the river towards the valley just to make Kit's plan look dumb. Well; Kit's plan almost worked perfectly, just missed that one little detail eh? (Time constraints did the logic in for this; but I can forgive them for that at least. I don't think even Kit would have known. This is a case of MacNee's psychopathic resolve more than anything else.) MacNee then reveals his true intentions that he wants to kill them and skin them for that MONEY, MONEY, YEAH, YEAH. I guess the shipment was to a slaughterhouse. Oooooo...that's nasty implications there Libby. (Yeah. I betcha many sexist twits would have thought Libby would have just have him say that he's shipping the Yenkara to the circus. I honestly don't know what is worse in that regard; but at least it shows that Libby's worldview is not what the sexist twits think it is.) Molly struggles along with Henry and demands to be released or else.

MacNee calls her bluff; so Molly finds MacNee's conveniently placed water canteen and sprays the water right at Henry as we go off-screen with the flash and Kit cheers for that one. (And the best part is; McNee carried that thing on his belt the entire time and McNee was stupid enough not to empty it BEFORE he caught Henry! Sometimes that psychopathic resolve can come back to bite you on the ass.) We return and Henry becomes the FATASS MOG FLYING SPONGE OF DEATH (last time with that stupid pun; I promise) and McNee is literally squashed. HAHA! How fitting that he would get squashed twice in the same day. Molly then blows off Henry for sitting on people. BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHA! I see the speech was rather pointless (and a form of projection on Molly's part because she was sitting on Kit's back numerous times in It Came From Beneath The SeaDuck.); but still too funny nevertheless. And who's the real hero of this whole thing? Kit Cloudkicker of course because he protected Molly long enough to get to that finish. (despite getting buried by Molly for being cynical and the animators made him pay for it by making him younger and younger until he parked that attitude away. It's sort of like when Donald Duck shrunk into a one inch duck after discovering that the cigars he made the nephews smoke in one of the Donald Duck shorts (which will never be shown again for obvious and not so obvious reasons.) were for his birthday.) I always love it when the independent writers know how to write and seem to know what is going on. So, we fade to black to get Michael Eisner all hot and bothered and then return to the Higher For Hire docks with the dock police as we hear from a gator policeman (Frank Welker) as he is trying to keep himself from laughing at MacNee's excuse for his crimes of illegal poaching and attempted murder of two children. (Yeah; he had no regard for their well being. He cared about killing Henry the Yenkara and no one else. Let him rot on Prison Island, he earned it.)

Nice light effects off the water as we see McNee in handcuffs with the gator and gorilla policeman (Libby knows how to pay off jokes eh? (Not really; you would need a woman officer and it would have to be human. Not that it matters anyway; since they did pay it off at the end of this episode.) joke around with McNee's story while Kit and Baloo visually call him crazy as the gator policeman winks at Baloo (as he is onto the story anyway) as he tells MacNee to come for a long rest in jail as they take MacNee away and Baloo thanks Kit for his good work. Wow; Baloo DID thank Kit after all. So much for foreshadowing A Bad Reflection On You. (I don't think they needed to do that; that episode did an awesome job on it's own.). Baloo also proclaims that they both have a day off as the place is theirs as Kit is surprised to hear that. Baloo states that Rebecca is taking the day off because she has some unfinished business to take care off with a special someone. We see Baloo and Kit walk away from the docks as we return to Rebecca's apartment and then a zoom in shot and then into Molly's bedroom as Molly is in her nightgown in the covers cuddled with her teddy bear and Rebecca is sitting right next to the bed reading the revisied version of Gladys And The Gorilla. (Yes; Rebecca tries to channel David Barton and Molly is not fooled at all by this. Even though; the story she told was in fact true.) I'll let the ending speak for itself:

Rebecca: "Once upon a time, there was a brave girl and her big squishy pet and her mom who loved her very much."
Molly: That's not how Glady & The Gorilla goes, mom. {BUSTED!}
Rebecca: It does now! {She then tickles Molly and both laughs their butts off as we pan to the window and zoom in to see the blue star in the background.}

And that officially ends the episode and disc one at 21:15. What a way to finish the disc in style?! Libby Hinson rocked and the entire team who worked on this episode rocked too. We have our third perfect monty on this disc alone and the second straight one too. Ducktales wannabe? I don't think so. ***** (100%). (True; but more to the point: Webby 2.0? Without question, not so! This was a plotline that got a new lease on life simply because Libby Hinson can write an emotional episode and make us the audience care about it. (Heck; Gosalyn's version of it was pretty awesome in itself and it didn't even have the grace of Libby Hinson to help it. Someone was watching and paying attention. GREAT!) And when you do that; you assure yourself that this show is worth continuing to watch. To future execs: 11.5 million average vs. 2.86 million at it's peak. There are no excuses. Your research is junk. How do I know? Because comedy doesn't assure people will watch. People have to care about your show on a certain level; at least at a level enough to have incentive to watch the show. Comedy is very risky in that regard, simply because comedy can offend and if you offend way too much, people will turn on the show. Breadwinners is evidence #1 in that regard. It opened at 2.84 million, and only gained 20,000 viewers at it's peak. Since then; in season 2, it goes down to 987,500 viewers. Less than half. TaleSpin was keeping at 11 million for it's entire first syndie run and only fell because of re-runs (which are going to be less than the first aired episode anyway, with a few exceptions. Smart business don't run on exceptions.). Why? Because people cared about the characters and had incentive to watch. Plus; the characters for the most part didn't do stuff that might be bad for ratings. It shouldn't matter what the X factors are; most so if your show is sinking like a stone. If Breadwinners was doing around 2.8 million every episode; then the show would be a success. If it did better; even more so a success. Even if the show is disgusting like Family Guy usually is. Okay; enough of that. The animation was great; and everything made sense and Rebecca and Molly are better characters because of it. Also a hearty screw you to the sexist twits out there who still think Rebecca is a jerk.)

THE REVIEW LINE

Well; we end disc one of the DVD with probably one of the best episodes of the volume and in Molly's case the first really important episode for her. To say that I enjoyed this episode from start to finish is an understatement. There were few if any mistakes animation wise; not performance wise and Libby Hinson wrote in my opinion the best “X has a pet” episode in animation (although When Aliens Collide in Darkwing Duck came close.). I also loved how Rebecca was shown here as she was a single parent struggling to juggle between Molly and business and they didn't mesh well together causing the conflict. It also showed that the problem was not Rebecca herself; but the nature of the beast when it comes to single parenting and how easily it can cause misunderstandings as shown when Rebecca got her role as mother and wanted to spend time; but everyone screwed her unintentionally. (Yeah; the second Molly said that "I only have Henry now", she basically learned her lesson and was preparing to do exactly what she was promised; even going as far as to tell Kit to go away and she even stated why she wanted Baloo to deal with it. Rebecca actually got it; it was as 2010 me said: nature of an unfair beast. You can build sympathy heat really easily with that.) That caused Molly to slowly become more cynical and take on a pet hoping that she would be the same as her mother. Ironically throughout most of it; she was in a way, the worst parts of her mother in slyness and anger; despite showing more protection. The most interesting thing about this episode was Kit Cloudkicker actually protecting Molly from Act II onward because he didn't have too; but he redeemed himself from being cynical to supporting Molly in the end in spite of it. Kit loved Molly enough to protect her; even if it came down to getting murdered in cold blood by a bastard called MacNee. (I have said before: These two kids have amazing chemistry together as siblings that I am begging them to reboot this show and give as a scene of those two tickling the hell out of each other. Kit has to lose though; because burials of Kit by Molly is what makes it so funny. How can the creators sit there and not see MONEY in a tickle fight. These two are the best ones to do it. Partially because of the child voices being used. Cubbi and Sunni would be great as well; even though they also need child actors to make it work.)

As much as I don't like the Jim Cummings voice; the character was dead on and nasty. Anyone willing to shoot down and risk killing two kids under thirteen years old is a heartless son of a bitch and MacNee played it in awesome fashion. I wanted to hate his guts and he made no reason to think otherwise. (Outside of the toxic words; pretty spot on. Then again; Kit has dealt with Don Karnage and the air pirates. I don't think he's afraid of one small rifle. He should be; but that's the consequence of being an air pirate at one time and the consequence of having to get away from said group.) Henry was good, Baloo was good in his role, WildCat did some funny things and everything clicked. That is the awesomeness of a Libby Hinson/Karl Geurs written script and it would come into play in two more episodes which defined Libby's legacy in DTVA: Her Chance to Dream and Jolly Molly Christmas. After that; it was all downhill from there for her. (Actually no. She wrote one TaleSpin episode after the christmas one and it was hilarious in it's own way: Ransom Of The Red Chimp. I haven't seen her Goof Troop episodes to get a read on her quality after TaleSpin; but I think 2010 Me is on fairly solid ground in that regard. For now anyway.) So next up is Disc 2 and Molly Coddled. I didn't bother to count the number of thumbs up simply because all nine episodes on disc one were thumbs up and that means all episodes were above ****. (No change in that regard; even on the Stud Muffin Scoring System.) That won't last long; although Polly Wants A Treasure might no longer be the first time anymore since I have mellowed out on that one even more than I did when I last ranted on it. So...

Thumbs way up for this episode and I'll see you next time.

(As said in my editorial on "My Favorite Episodes": I'd put it at #4 now. It is a ***** episode and it was really the very first episode where Molly really came out of her shell as a focus character and gave our second and final episode of mind blowing chemistry between her and Kit in the second half of the episode. I also love how they showed how difficult it was to be a single parent running a business. It felt believable and it allowed me to have sympathy and empathy towards Rebecca in general. She is in a really tight spot as a character. My opinion of MacNee has changed since this article as his psychopathic behaviour is what it should have been since he is supposed to be a cruel monster heel willing to kill kids to skin a mystical creature as demonstrated when he aimed the rifle at Molly and Kit when they were riding the Inkara Henry. The reason that this is not historic and is considered lower in the ranks is because the "kid befriend animal" plot has been used in Ducktales a lot and might have contributed to certain critics charging that Molly was Webby 2.0; which she is clearly not. Personally now; it might be my new favorite episode over It Came From Beneath The SeaDuck now. Mommy For A Day was better animated and Molly was less moronic.)

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