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Polly Wants A Treasure Re-Rant

Reviewed: 09/19/2010
Additional Commentary: 09/28/2021

The Episode That Broke My Spirit As Much As Kit's Groin.

Original Airdate: 09/18/1990 (Syndication), Episode #11 (TaleSpin DVD Volume 1, Disc 2), Episode #12 (Production Order)

Polly Wants A Treasure Notes
Polly Wants A Treasure Transcript

Well; here we are at the episode that broke my spirit for four years in 1990. There was a time when I HATED TaleSpin and the reasons were pretty simple: It was a parody of the Jungle Book and therefore it caused offense to my senses. (2015 Gregory Weagle Says: I probably should have said this from the start instead of using the ultra stupid "One scene offended me so much that I turned it off" defense because, tickling scenes happen all the time.) Four years later; I still didn't like this episode; but it was because of Sunwoo's spot blowing with the worse area during one of those scenes that is now probably even creepier than anyone had intended it to be. (Oh boy! I realize that Sunwoo animation didn't do this spot on purpose; but everytime I see it, it's more and more hilarious that all the naysayers hate for it is just dumb.) The lesson I can take from this is: When you take stuff from an art context; you become like me circa 1990-1993; when you take stuff from an entertainment context; you are like me 1994 to present. (In other words; I'm a much more composed reviewer than I used to be. You really have to do something so heinous that it should get you fired and make you unemployable in a cartoon to get me angry. Something like Terror! Mental Hospital from Chargeman Ken or Love Loaf from Breadwinners.) Now; how do I see this episode now? Let's rant on shall we...?!

This episode is written by Cater Crocker and the late Bruce Talkington. The story was edited by the late Bruce Talkington. The animation is done by Sunwoo Animation. (This is the episode to check out as to why a lot of people used to hate this company. Although this was before Kennedy Cartoons was a thing you wanted to hate so badly.)

We begin this one at a mountain island surrounded by water. Now THAT is different compared to most DTVA episodes I see. (Allowing us to get a glimpse of sparkle that Sunwoo Animation episodes are best known for.) We zoom into the launchpad and then cut to several hangers where a goose salesman is at a crate counting his MONEY, MONEY, YEAH, YEAH (Jim Cummings) as we hear Kit groaning in the background as he is carrying almost as much in body weight in boxes of junk. (Well, here we go. That spot where Kit who is 100 lbs. soaking wet; does the work of bumping and carrying ten guys. Kit's very strong, but come on Pop-A-Bear. Stop being so lazy, you slacker!) This is a "Hanger Sale" (Nyuk! Nyuk!) as Kit is asking why they are carrying so much junk. Baloo is carrying a "little less" weight in junk for his size (Read: He's suffering a lot less than Kit right now.) and he responds by asking why he cannot recognize rare antiques when he sees them. Someone needs an eye exam and I don't see Baloo getting one until Bearly Alive. Baloo drops the stuff down as they are near the SeaDuck and we see that the whole thing is full to the gills already as Baloo struggles to get the stuff in. See; he's buying stuff to pawn off so he can buy the SeaDuck and get the hell away from Miss Jerkface...POW! OUCH! Ummmm... (Yeah; the saga of Baloo not liking working for a woman continues. I'm all for recycling; but it's clearly not for altrustic reasons. Then again; I can see why Kevin Johnston sees these characters as morally grey; but well meaning.) One of the crates slips and drops about twelve feet away from the Seaduck; allowing Kit to grab them with the leap of faith. Man; gravity doesn't like someone today as Kit blows him off because they are delivering crystal glasses. Baloo tells Kit to relax (In this episode?! In your dreams Pop-a-Bear!) because there is always room in the SeaDuck to make that MONEY, MONEY, YEAH, YEAH. Baloo stuffs some stuff as we go dark since Baloo closed up the tailsection door of the SeaDuck.

That is a segue to a scene changer as we see the SeaDuck flying and bouncing on the runway on it's wheels. It runs off the runway and flies low; but still flies just the same as we see two CT-37's spiraling around. Then they bounce around the airway on the far sky shot and nail each other; smash a few boxes, allow Mad Dog and Dumptruck to dismount off of them and land on their feet and crash off-screen with MAN-SIZED bump while the goose salesman cowers in front of the box desk he was using. Got all that? Good; because I didn't. (This is so Nickelodeon-equse that I laughed at it; even though it was cringeworthy.) Mad Dog grabs the goose salesman by the suit (and he has glasses on too) as he demands something; but Dumptruck butts in and wants to make the goose his bitch because it's his turn. (Oh god; not again 2010 Me! Stop it!) I should point out that this is the only duck/goose in the entire series and this scene seems to be out of jealousy for Ducktales more than anything else. (Actually; there is a duck in this series. C.V. in A Star Is Torn is one such anthro. The ratio of ducks to everyone else is much lower than normal in a 1990's DTVA cartoon. Which is grounds for the kids to change the channel. Because ducks rules and bears drool right? What a hell of a childhood 1980's kids must have? No wonder I wiped most of my memories of that time out of my head.) Dumptruck grabs the salesman and demands to know where's something and the goose salesman asks where's what (In that voice that sounds quite familiar to some Disney character that I cannot put my finger on at this time.); and Dumptruck asks the same thing. HAHA! Mad Dog grabs the salesman in protest because he wants the CHEST OF DEMONS...ERRR...I mean sea chest of Captain Juan Toomany (Which I love as a punish name by the way.).

That leads to knees knocking complete with Hanna Barbara teeth chattering sound effect. Now you know you are watching a classic! (2020 Gregory Weagle Says: A reminder: DTVA was made to get us away from Hanna Barbara stuff, not remind us that it exists! Hence, the rib from me.) The salesman has no trouble pointing out that he sold it to Baloo as he points to the up-spiraling SeaDuck while flying out of sight. That allows Mad Dog to shake him some more because he hates slowpokes and then throws the salesman up into the sky and it takes a MAN-SIZED bump on his ass. (2020 Gregory Weagle Says: That scummy salesgoose was lucky compared to what Baloo gets later on in this episode.) The two knuckleheads exit stage left towards their damaged CT-37's which destroyed a hanger in the process and somehow we get our first logic break of the episode as Mad Dog's props somehow repair themselves instantly when he turns the CT-37 on. How about that?! They fly away (Dumptruck does some more damage on the hanger for fun...) with some more spiralling fun as we cut back to the side shot of the SeaDuck flying in the air to the west. (Yeah; so Nickelodeon of Disney and Nickelodeon didn't get really over until Rugrats existed to make an already loaded cartoon era even more so.) Kit comments on the SeaDuck being stuffed tighter than a Thanksgiving turkey (TaleSpin did a promo for that holiday and what a promo that was. Molly once again burying Kit by pointing out that it's his turn to do the dishes. Which didn't work because Kit is supposed to be industrious to begin with. Sady, I could not find the promo for a review like the crossover holiday PSA's I found online later.) as it zoops up and down some more. Baloo puts his feet on the control panel as Baloo proclaims that he's so smart that he scares himself. (I'm guessing some writers and animators of the toys for this series felt that Baloo steering the SeaDuck with his feet was cool. Never mind that we already have a character doing spots with his feet and is better at it. Louie L'Amour is whom I'm speaking to. Although the influence of Louie to Baloo on this spot is well known by now.)

Then we hear a non-Jim Cumming's voice sneeze in the background and that leads to some funny responding as both pilot and navigator excuse themselves, thank themselves, welcome themselves, admit to themselves that they didn't sneeze and wobble their heads to the HB wobble sound effect. Got that? Anyhow; the voice yells in pirate speak to stop chattering and help him out of this stuffy crate. Baloo is not amused because he has a stowaway. BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! I see Pop-A-Bear forgot about Kit and Molly already, huh. (Well; this stowaway is sort of chummy compared to Kit and Molly actually. Plus; Baloo didn't treat Kit as a hitchhiker, Pilot Jack was the one who did. Molly on the other paw...) Baloo invokes the REDNECK AUTOPILOT OF DOOM on the control stick and proclaims that no hitchhiker is gonna tell him how to fly. (It involves a crowbar againest the flight stick; not the former WCW wrestler of the same name; whose real name is Devon Storm or something.) Unless it's Kit, of course. Then Pop-A-Bear is screwed; right, Ted Heinz? Baloo and Kit haul boxes out of the door as Baloo barges in looking pissed. We hear glass shatter (UH OH!) as Baloo drops on his belly and the voice blows him off with the "you and what branch of the military" promo. I see our voice has a knack for pop-culture sayings and mannerisms and some people accuse KIT of this?! Kick yeah; but Kit?! I think some Kit haters are confusing Kick Buttowski with Kit here for some reason. (That was my first thought; and then I realized that they are probably there to cut Kit down to size because they have no concept on how to make cool characters look awesome and be great.) Baloo grabs a box and the voice does the French accent on him which is absolutely funny. Did I mention that the voice is barely a year into his acting debut here at this point? (Nah; he was more like five years into his career at this point; but had a half dozen credits.)

Baloo gets pissed off and grabs Rebecca's crystal glasses, which some of the glass broke (According to Disney Captions; so take that with a barrel of glass salt. (Nope; there was glass shatter noises in the background.)) so he gives it to Kit and he grabs another one, gives it to Kit. Baloo wants to tear the voice's head off and use it as a doorstop. This is why I didn't buy the assertion that censorship was the key to a changing of a phrase in From Here To Machinery. (Bingo! I love how people scream "censorship" at that scene with the "feathers in a knot" thing; and yet, we have different writers with different viewpoints on what standards should be used. It's called self control. Besides; if you are allowed to threaten to tear a bird's head off; then threatening cutting it off is also basically allowed. Also; it's not a good idea to use the same joke twice because it'll get old and stale. If only modern cartoons would realize that; then their comedy shows will be great and not be treated like hacks years down the road.) Baloo pulls on a rope attached to the CHEST OF DEMONS and he opens it and then takes the blue cloth off to reveal a cage revealing a parrot with a head too big for it's neck; doing the naked protection spot in response. (This parrot is actually a very unique character in the TaleSpin world. Oh sure; parrot in the cage is not unusual and it's been done many times before; but keep that in mind for the ending because it's important in understanding the psychology of this world in general.) The parrot pulls the rope down to close the CHEST OF DEMONS as Baloo calls the chicken a parrot. Baloo opens the CHEST OF DEMONS and the parrot wants lunch as Baloo grabs the cage and calls his talking mangy. I am shocked and appalled that Baloo would call his talking mangy. His looks on the other hand; yeah, he's mangy. The parrot shadow punches a bit.

Kit grabs the cage and likes the parrot already because he's colorful which is apporos since Kit is too colorful for Michael Eisner's health and well being. (Kit and Ignatz are great together because they are cynical, colorful and have unique characteristics that most cartoons at the time didn't have; even in the lovely world of DTVA.) Kit opens the cage and allows the parrot to fly around and the parrot lands on Kit's head and asks if Kit is friends with a pile of noise. I love real comments that aren't supposed to be real comments. (That the biggest pile of noise I have ever seen.) Kit thinks that this parrot likes him on the closeup sky shot; which is one of the weirdest shots I have ever seen. Baloo wants Kit to be careful because this parrot has enough fleas to start a circus. (I would be more careful about him falling down and squashing people than him having fleas, Ignatz; but point still taken. (2020 Gregory Weagle Says: Baloo said the line, not Ignatz; so what the hell are you talking about 2015 me?!)) See; this is why Scrooge and Flint are so childish; at least Baloo and the parrot try to sound adult here as the parrot asks one of those funny questions on Baloo:

Parrot: Is that your stomach; or a sub-division?

HAHA! Now THAT is a good question there dear sir. (Flintheart and Scrooge's insults at each other are kindergarden level playground insults that are basically blow offs and denials. Baloo and Ignatz's insults have wit behind it and therefore are more high school level insults; which is great in attracting an older audience. The writers appear to be putting effort into the insults and making the insults mean something in the context of the characters. Ignatz's subdivision is a great thiny-veiled fat joke; which at least is a throwaway spot compared to Rhinokey, who was using fat jokes on Hoppo in nearly every episode he was in.) Ignatz perches on Kit's arm and Kit wants to keep him as he asks for a name. It's Igantius also known as Ignatz. Unless you are Baloo; then you call him sir. HAHA! (Again; this is high school level wit that works here because Baloo is a manchild as well; thus making the joke work.) Ignatz is voiced by S. Scott Bullock. Baloo has had enough already and stuffs Ignatz in his cage as there are engines zooming around. Baloo goes to the window and we hear Mad Dog's voice calling for the plane to stop running; or he'll ground it for them. Baloo panics and Ignatz does a much better job selling as he twirls the cage so much Baloo flutters around and they crash into the junkpile. Baloo yells at Kit to get him out of there as Baloo is entombed partially while balancing the cage with his foot. Get used to it; the references to feet are fast and thick here. (Yeah; this is the show's answer to toilet humor. After WildCat's shaking the hand of Rebecca with a poopy hand in Plunder and Lightning; it is kind of pointless to do that humor when that handshake is the peek of DTVA toilet humor.) Kit proclaims that it's too late on the far shot as the SeaDuck is stalked from top to bottom by the CT-37's on the sky shot. We see land and we cut to an island as the SeaDuck has landed and apparently the CT-37's have crashed into each other again. HAHA!

We pan over as Dumptruck is living up to his name by dumping stuff out of the SeaDuck while Mad Dog has his rifle set to profits with Baloo's hands up while Kit has the cage with Ignatz in it. Baloo protests this outage; so Mad Dog jams the rifle right into his nose in response and Baloo backs off. (2020 Gregory Weagle Says: This is almost straight out of Trigun as a gimmick. Kit's lucky Frank Agnones hates guns in children's cartoons because a gun fetish guy would do much worse than even this show was doing when it came to gun violence in animation.) I should point out that scene was cut by Disney Channel in 1995 and it's really the first in a series of nonsensical edits made by the Disney Channel (Later continued with Toon Disney, iTunes and Disney+; even though the DVD version is clearly unedited.) after complaints from people about the guns in this show. Ironically; this was four years before Columbine; so the edits didn't work to stop anyone from shooting classmates. Damage done; move on. (It's called prevention of future acts 2010 Me. Toon Disney's editing practices are so laughable, it isn't funny. Gun cocking is cut; but far shot of guns pointing wasn't, then is, then isn't and so on and so on. ) Mad Dog unstuffs the rifle from Baloo's nose as Dumptruck has the CHEST OF DEMONS and Mad Dog is so happy that they got it as they go to their CT-37's. Kit wonders why they wanted the CHEST OF DEMONS. Baloo proclaims that there is no accounting the taste of idiots as we see some airplane drag racing from the knuckleheads. They fly into the sky and out of sight. Baloo holds up the cage and yells at them to take Ignatz with them to boot as Ignatz punishes him by biting Baloo's finger in response. (Yeah; what a meanie Pop-A-Bear is? Ignatz is just telling the facts of Baloo's character in a nutshell. If you think Rebecca is a jerk; Ignatz is far, far more mean and difficult.)

Kit grabs the cage to protect Ignatz from Baloo's wrath and Ignatz is mortified. Baloo sighs and can take solace that he has the facts behind him with Rebecca around. One problem; so did Kit in It Came From Beneath The SeaDuck and that didn't help Kit one bit either. So, I'm betting that Rebecca gives him the WRAITH OF BECKEY on this one too. I check the DVD...Damn; I'm good as Rebecca gets off some good lines at Baloo's expense, stuffs the lampshade on his neck and storms off. Yeap; that is it for Rebecca in this episode and she is a jerkface. Maybe Baloo shouldn't be lying about it the other one hundred times he used that excuse. Maybe fans should consider the Treehouse Syndrome effect and stop trying to justify it. (Indeed. Baloo should reconsider the consequences of crying wolf way too many times and the sexist twits should get a personality transplant. One that has a brain that actually has some common sense and some sense to feel shame.) Baloo proclaims that he needs a flea collar for being in Rebecca's doghouse. HAHA! So, we head to Higher...For...Hire docks as we cut to Kit talking to Ignatz in his cage on a box. Kit insists that only MONEY, MONEY, YEAH, YEAH is involved when it gets this bad. Ignatz flaps around and tells him that he can find him more money than he has ever seen. Wealth beyond his imagination (Disney Captions misses the gold and silver part of the dialog, no shock there. (Once again; Disney Captions was out to lunch in this episode.)) as Kit asks if he's joking. See; the stuff was buried by his former owner Captain Juan Toomany. Remember that for later on because there is an interesting ending to this whole thing that throws a monkey wrench into TaleSpin's world. (Oh; it's a doozy.) See; Juan didn't trust maps so he memorized the location and used Ignatz as his own personal map more or less. (Which means Juan was using him as a useful pet. Not unusual since we have seen this a million times before.)

Kit grabs the cage and runs over to Baloo, talking to a sulking Baloo while Kit steps on the soapbox, literally. (2020 Gregory Weagle Says: This is a nice attention to detail spot, actually.) Kit wants Baloo to listen because Ignatz knows where there is treasure. Baloo no sells it because he's in enough trouble with Rebecca to get help from a featherbrain. Ooooo... (Oh no, he didn't! He didn't happen to insult our resident fatalist Launchpad McQuack now...) Both do the Gruffi pose as Ignatz calls him beyond help. Kit wants Ignatz to ease off as he places him on a wooden pillar. Kit wants Baloo to listen to him for a minute. Baloo pets Kit on the head (Must resist Gidget pet shop joke...) and decides to listen to him for Kit's sake. Kit then asks Ignatz to inform him on the treasure and Ignatz Gruffi poses him on that one. See, he doesn't speak halfwit. HAHA! (That's being generous. Baloo's a nitwit actually.) Baloo is pissed off as he wants to MURDER that bird; but Kit stops him. Baloo decides to back off for about three seconds as he has some money in his eyes and it's the form of opening a resturant selling KFP (Kentucky Fried Parrot) as Ignatz's head is beheaded on top of a box of fried chicken. (Actually, no. Ignatz was inside the bucket; but it appeared that he was beheaded. It's a weird visual actually.) No, not really; but implied (Funny how this is the first time I have seen this spot in this series and maybe the only time in this series compared to Scrooge's dollar sign eyes spot in various episodes of Ducktales.) as Baloo blitzes the cage; and Kit grabs it away from Baloo and he falls into Cape Suzette harbor. HAHA! If only Rebecca's Diary truly existed in canon; then I could say that now Baloo knows how Kit feels after Molly tickled him into the drink. (You know; the fanfic that year after year, I never got to writing it and finishing it. We're still waiting on that; and it'll be forever before I release it, because I gave up on fanfic writing!)

Baloo pops up and spits water as Ignatz does his high voice because he always depends on the kindness of strangers. Well; there is no one stranger than Kit Cloudkicker. POW! OUCH! HEY! (Okay Kit; you're a former air hobo, a former air pirate, you surf on clouds with a metal board which should be impossible (as per Robot Chicken) and somehow you are a people person who isn't a sexist despite being a male. I think you need to re-examine your place in life there, sir.) We head to Pirate Island and it looks like the same recycled shot from From Here To Machinery; only AFTER HAPPY HOUR (after dark) as there are bird calls everywhere. (2020 Gregory Weagle Says: It's a peacock call.) We head inside Don Karnage's quarters as Mad Dog and Dumptruck present Don Karnage with the CHEST OF DEMONS and smelly old clothes. The chest is open as Don Karnage does some swordplay to take out the clothes as he wants to get something straight here: This is it?! Mad Dog then proclaims that there was a crazy old parrot and Mad Dog wanted no part of him. Needless to say; Don Karnage is not amused as he sticks the sword into the CHEST OF DEMONS and asks if they left the parrot. Mad Dog admits that he did and it was his idea as he closes his eyes. Don then comes around and slaps him hard on screen and calls him an idiot. HAHA! That is so true too since the parrot was RIGHT IN FRONT OF KIT when they were looking for the CHEST OF DEMONS. (Again; Dumptruck has a head made of solid bone and Mad Dog wanted no part of the bird.) Don explains that Ignatz is a living, breathing treasure map who hates Baloo's guts. Okay; I made the last part up, but it's true either way. So Mad Dog slaps Dumptruck and calls him an idiot. Dumptruck no sells the shot; so Don Karnage slaps Mad Dog again and Mad Dog is forced to sell. HAHA! See; he'll do the smacking around here.

So, he also backhands Dumptruck good on the nose and Dumptrucks sells that one. HAHA! (Note this for why anime purists hate dubs: Misty slaps Ash in the Japanese version of Pokemon. They cut this out in the 4Kids version. One slap! The air pirates slap each other multiple times in the same sequence including two from Don Karnage and that is not cut out; nor edited by Toon Disney nor even edited with a impact flash. Why should it matter if it is a child? (2020 Gregory Weagle Says: Even worse, in one of the early Goof Troop episodes, Max punched PJ in the face full bore and it was never edited out.) If slapping an adult is illegal in real life; then it's illegal to slap a child. So why bother editing one and keeping the other? Then again; trying to figure out morality is like trying to teach a pig to keep itself clean. It makes the pig dirty and just pisses everyone else off. Why bother?!) Don Karnage wants the oh-so paltry parrot because only he can tell Don where Juan Toomany hid his millions. Mad Dog asks how he knew that and Don proclaims that the feared pirate Don Karnage (as he took his sword out of the chest by now) knows all that a feared pirate needs to know. He apparently stole his little heart shaped diary. So Juan Toomany was either a female pirate; or a lover? (I should note that I don't think Juan's gender was ever considered. I'll have to do the transcript of this episode later on to check it. If it's a she, then it's a girl pirate. If it is he; then a lover. If it isn't mentioned, then it's probably both. (Okay; I checked the transcript; Juan Toomany is a male pirate. He's a lover.) The reason I'm doing the re-rant commentary first is because I'm still recovering from Satoru Iwata's death; and I have a lot to say on the matter. It was a sad week for Nintendo fans; but if you know anything about bile duct cancer and growths, this was not surprising.) Interesting as Don yells at his kunckleheads to get that damn bird. Funny how this can be misinterpted as giving Don Karnage the middle finger and no one notices.

Dumptruck and Mad Dog run away stage left before Don Karnage's thinking of hanging by pinkies can be considered. We head to the docks of Higher...For...Hire AFTER HAPPY HOUR as Baloo is sitting down in front of the SeaDuck reading the "Want Ads", as we discover that Baloo now owes Rebecca five hundred dollars while Kit sulks with Ignatz in his cage. Kit insists that it wasn't Ignatz's fault for this as Baloo continues to read the Cape Suzette Tribute (Without any lines in it since Sunwoo cannot animate detail too much at this point. (This gives Al Khan ideas in making junk science claims about the psychology of kids. I can buy kids just wanting comedy a lot more than kids not reading.)). We discover through Baloo's reading that he can own his own Cyrus P. Macdonald podiatry franchise (Basically a branch of medicine to treat disorders of feet and the lower legs and in this case; using a parody of MacDonalds slogans to force the point. MacDonalds was founded in 1940 by the way.) whereever you see the sign of the fallen arches. As I said before; lot of references to feet in this episode which is on par with most Nickelodeon shows nowadays. (Oh, you are dead wrong 2010 Me! You (and I) need to watch Breadwinners and Sanjay & Craig more. Not because they are any good; but to show how wrong 2010 Me is. And I thought present me's world has passed him by.) We cut to a shot of the dock floor as two shadows so up and then zoom up to see Mad Dog carrying some luggage with Dumptruck in tow. Mad Dog whisper yells at Dumptruck that they cannot risk another oopsy. So they will use brains instead. BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! With those two?! Yeah, right?! (There is stupid and then there is funny stoopid! Misspelling intentional, honest Detective Thursday!)

So, Mad Dog pulls Dumptruck away and we have the FCC FRIENDLY FIGHT OFF-SCREEN OF DOOM (With just two heels?! WHAT ARE THE ODDS?! (This is TaleSpin; a show that defies the logic of the pre-modern executive.)! Dumptruck is pushed forward looking like the biggest geek tool in history. The blue glasses, baseball cap and bow tie make him look like the tool by the way. (Dumptruck is a tool; since his brain matter is solid bone.) Dumptruck asks who he is and Mad Dog calls him a bird watcher and a muttonhead. Mad Dog slips away stage right as Dumptruck gets off this line:

Dumptruck: Oh yeah. I love the little birdies, especially with French fries. (2020 Gregory Weagle Says: I check he loves chicken fingers and fries at the fast food joint he would like to go if he wasn't a terrorist.)

Don't you just love an era where French fries aren't Freedom fries?! I certainly do. (Oh lord; I remember this stupidity! See; France thought the war on Iraq was stupid and pointless because America (most so George W. Bush) thought Saddam Hussien had weapons of mass destruction. This was botched so badly; that if this didn't cause America to be hated more, it would be weapons of mass hilarity. France refused to support America and Canada wasn't thrilled about it either. So in March of 2003; Bob Ney and Walter B. Jones decided to force government cafeterias to remove all french references and change them to freedom. So French Fries; despite being from Beligum; were renamed Freedom Fries. Ed Brayton was right on the money when he said that anyone who supported this should be fired; because not only did France not care about it; the people who did care called it out for what it was: Anti-French bigotry in the guise of patriotism. It was so stupid and thank goodness this policy for reversed, although it should have happened in 24 hours, rather than in 2006. At least Jones had some sense of shame of doing it; but it was one of the most childish responses to a reasonable decision by another country. This is something you see in a cartoon and laugh it; except this was real life.) Mad Dog gives him an orange book and tells him to sound like he knows what he is talking about. (2020 Gregory Weagle Says: Good luck, you'll need it Mad Dog Van Chaud~!) Mad Dog pushes him forward and tells him not to come back without the bird as we see Dumptruck has purple kilt pants to boot. Yeah; total tool in my book. We cut to Kit with Ignatz pleading with Baloo to be friends with Ignatz and that his money problems are over. Baloo goes over to Kit; and in the first of many hilarious Sunwoo blown spots, is that Baloo's face keeps that look of hate the whole time when he is blowing Ignatz off for being the losing side of a pillow fight.

Of course, when I was fifteen; almost everyone was on the losing side of a pillow fight when I was swinging it. (Like I said; high school level insults.) Ignatz blows him off in kind because he cannot win a beauty pageant; which is true because beauty pageants exist to oppress little girls. (2020 Gregory Weagle Says: Wow, 2010 Me is getting a little political there, methinks.) We then hear Dumptruck's voice and it is so girly that Chuck McCann might get his manly card revoked. Or maybe not. (Manliness is so toxic that revoking his manly card would be a relief, methinks.) Dumptruck glances at Ignatz who looks cool and then Dumptruck gleefully ignores him as he asks Baloo if he is willing to sell the bird. Baloo likes that word "sell" and gets coozy with Dumptruck: Bird Watcher (Yeah right?!) as Kit pleads with Baloo about the treasure and Baloo blows Ignatz off because he's looking for free room and board. BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! So what is Kit's excuse then Pop-A-Bear?! (Yeah; you would think that Baloo would choose his words carefully; but he's a manchild, so what a shocker.) We then see a side shot of the SeaDuck as Kit goes to Ignatz and Baloo wants Dumptruck to step into his office and talk turkey about parrots. We then cut to Ignatz's cage as Ignatz panics and doesn't want Kit to sell him. Kit walks to him wondering how they can get Baloo to listen. Ignatz has a plan and wants to get the treasure alone. Kit wonders about it and then agrees to it as he lets Ignatz out of his cage asking if he'll show Kit where it is and Ignatz is glad to as they are shipmates, share and share alike and Baloo's getting the treasure weither he likes it or not. (Kind of like the British Bulldog Davey Boy Smith winning the Royal Rumble weither he wants to or not (That kid saying it was hilarious by the way. Almost like a scripted WWE promo actually.); although he almost did in 1995.) Kit rips a piece of newspaper from the Want ads and plasters it onto the cage with his writing on it and runs off.

This episode, I think is the only time Kit ever went on a wild treasure hunt by himself. Probably because of what happens to him in the next act. (Ocean Glide actually had pre-production materials on TaleSpin and told us that the original plan was to have Kit be on wild treasure hunts while Baloo would be even more lazy. I'm guessing BS&P thought that it was too repetitive; which in a way I have no problems with it. I guess I have some aversion of Kit doing stupid stuff; even though his cloudsurfing gimmick would be one of those stupid things anyway. This is also where I discovered that TaleSpin was a rush job by the way.) Anyhow; we go to the scene changer to the door of the SeaDuck as Baloo and Dumptruck come out as Baloo calls for Kit to let Ignatz meet his new owner and there is nothing...AND THE ROCK SAYS NOTHING! Baloo wonders where the rare Norwegian Blue went. Baloo then does the SHILL SCREAM OF DEATH, which is so lovely to hear. I see Ginny McSwain's "Must Act At All Times" clause has finally effected Ed Gilbert. (That scream was a thing of beauty, folks.) Baloo wonders why Kit is out alone at night and then he notices the note on the cage and reads it. (2020 Gregory Weagle Says: Considering Kit's past, Baloo should not be shocked by this. Appalled, understandable; but not shocked.) Then we get logic break #2 for the episode because I don't recall Kit knowing that the place was in Tucker Forest BEFORE he wrote the note since I don't recall Ignatz saying anything about it. (This would be fine if Ignatz whispered in Kit's ear before he wrote the note; but he didn't to my knowledge.) Baloo is not liking this at all and shakes his head to end the segment eleven and a half minutes in. Pretty good start thus far with few blow ups from Sunwoo; but the real creepy part comes next.

After the commercial break; we go over a mountain as an airplane with rope attached to it and Kit hovering with his airfoil close behind as we get a brilliant shot of the moonlight. Kit then lets go, floats down towards the forest, then lands on his feet with the airfoil in mid air and then grabs it on the rebound. Now, that is pretty cool to see. Kit places the foil inside his sweater and asks for Ignatz to give him directions. Ignatz is perched on a branch as he explains that the treasure is buried in Carlsbear Caverns (Nice to see Disney Caption is dead on to my notes in names today; even if they are missing dialog left and right again. (And making mistakes again like in Stormy Weather. UGH! Anyhow; as mentioned in my notes, Carlsbear is a play on Carlsbad Caverns which is a National Park in New Mexico.)). Kit asks where that is. Ignatz isn't sure and needs to get his bearings straight again. All Ignatz claims that it's a big hole in the ground and he cannot miss it. Kit then panics as Don Karnage and the knuckleheads have spotted him. Now, I know some call this a logic break; but since Kit had to find a plane that would take them to Tucker Forest and that takes time; I'm going to call that time constraints more than anything else. (Tad Stones would have been fine with this; mainly because you are not supposed to film like a 1936 live action movie in animation. Never mind that TaleSpin takes place in 1937 in storyline; so that kind of episode writing would make total sense. So yeah; it's time constraints.) That leads to the SCOOBY DOO CHASE SEQUENCE THE TICKLING EDITION~! Yes; that does have some meaning later on. Kit jumps over the tree branch as Don wanted them seized; so Kit counters with the large tree branch and that murders the knuckleheads dead; but Don smartly jumps over the branch and grabs Kit easily. Ignatz flies over and tries to annoy Don Karnage to let Kit go.

Don uses the sword to swing back as he calls his pirates "clumsy feet" and demands that they grab the damn bird. (TaleSpin doesn't even realize what "give me the bird" really means now with all of this being played on a literal context rather than the symbolic middle finger gesture.) That leads to Mad Dog grabbing Ignatz by his talons and we get the FCC FRIENDLY DUSTCLOUD FIGHT OF DEATH as the feathers fly and Ignatz manages to get away proclaiming that he's getting help. (Remember the feathers for later because Kit sure wishes Ignatz was not grabbed.) Kit smiles and Don Karnage calls the kunckleheads idiots of course as Mad Dog and Dumptruck stop fighting. See; that spot usually means the babyface comeback in this series. (But in TaleSpin in this case; the babyface comes back later while the heels fight each other once again. Very amusing.) Don backs Kit up against a tree and wants information from Kit and Kit calls him out on that:

Kit: Baloo told me never to talk to strangers! And I haven't met anyone stranger than you!
Don: Cute kid.

Some people complained about this as a wall banger because Don seems to forget his feud with Kit; (*cough*Ted Heinz*cough*) but I don't believe so since Kit is a cute kid and Don was pointing that out to us. (2020 Gregory Weagle Says: That's true, actually. Remember, that this episode was produced before Plunder and Lightning, so that could also be a factor. Also, the comic book story "Pirate For A Day", Don tries to recruit Kit Cloudkicker to be his successor...AGAIN~! Only for Kit to channel The Gummi Bears, with Don Karnage channeling Sunni Gummi from "Guess Who's Gumming To Dinner" and Kit beat SIX HEELS by himself that at the end of the story, Don never wanted to hear Kit's name ever again. In essence, Don wanted to forget the feud. So, there you go; a perfect explaination for this scene that makes sense.) I also know Ted cringed on the "telling strangers" part; but that was Kit insulting Don for acting strange; which is also true although Kit isn't much better in THAT department either. POW! OUCH! Hey...So; it all works out. Yeah; I have an answer for everything in this series. It's a way to keep people in line. (Yeah; Don Karnage is a very strange character. Plus; after what Kit did to Don Karnage in Plunder and Lightning, do you want Don to remember the feud? How Kit fooled him into thinking that he turned on his new family? How Kit double-crossed him twice? Kit is the first person to defy him and live, making Don Karnage no longer the invincible leader that he once was. I'll talk about that more when I do the Plunder and Lightning commentary because there is some interesting thoughts from "Kitckicker" from TaleSpin Source. Heck; Kit's second line makes perfect sense too. So; I think it's someone making excuses for what characters say.) Anyhow; Kit and Don go nose to nose and blow each other off.

Don lets his guard down and admits that Kit doesn't know; but Ignatz does and Kit proclaims that he'll never catch him. Don cuts an early worm promo and Kit Cloudkicker is the bait for this trap. Dumptruck loves to go fishing because he loves worms with French fries, of course. Kudos to Toon Disney for not falling into the Freedom fries nonsense too either. You are welcome. (It would also be difficult to redub Chuck McCann's lines for such a pointless gesture that was just whining by a bunch of useless idiots. (2020 Gregory Weagle Says: Also, Chuck McCann is now deceased, forgot to mention that as well.)) So, we cut to Tucker Forest again as Baloo is calling for Kit again. Then we go to the far zoom out shot and then pan east as Ignatz's flies west. Wow; Sunwoo managed to keep the backgrounds striaght here and not turn dark as Ignatz squawks that the air pirates have kidnapped him. Baloo seems more interested in breaking every bone in his head if anything happens to Kit. He demands to know where he is as Ignatz is perched on a tree. Ignatz blows him off for wasting time because he knows where he is and he has a Krackpotkin Plan. Baloo blows him off because that PLAN got Kit into this mess and Ignatz gleefully answers that one for me. (2020 Gregory Weagle Says: Because Baloo didn't back up Ignatz because Ignatz and the treasure hunt was the best chance he got in getting that $500 to give to Rebecca.) Baloo has no counter to that whatsoever as he admits defeat and deserves an ass kicking. (But cannot because his leg's aren't long nor flexable enough. Yeah; I made up the flexable part; but it's true.) HAHA! Ignatz offers his services (To kick Baloo's ass, which would be a main event anywhere in the cartoon world, let me tell ya.) as Baloo threatens to strangle Ignatz if anything happens to Kit...and HIT THE HEAT MACHINE OF LAUGHS! As in; R.J. Williams demonstrating his laugh which is the signal that the Air Pirates are using the tickle torture on Kit.

Now, watch how the animators and post-production just screw up this scene in such a hilarious fashion. We start with the fade to black. (What was the point of doing that? If there was anytime where cutting the black slug out was apporos; this would be it. Yeah; it probably would make the soundtrack skip; but it would have made more sense. Unless they were planning the second commercial break there; which they probably should have placed it there instead of several minutes later, to build up suspense.) Then, we return as Baloo and Ignatz blitz through the bushes, then hide behind some bushes as Baloo is horrified and Ignatz mortified literally. We see Kit on the closeup tied with ropes against the tree screaming his heart out (How does RJ manage to pull this off without taking a breath? That's why he was PERFECT for Kit. (This is the kind of spot where you use professional middle age actors sounding like kids instead of a real kid. Not because it's funnier or better; but because this is brutal on the vocal chords. I hope for R.J.'s sake that this was done in one take; because I shutter to think if this took even more than one. If you are a kid actor; don't let the writer book a tickling spot even if your strength is that laugh. Your vocal chords will thank you for it.) as he yells that he would prefer algebra as Mad Dog is using Ignatz's feathers to try to tickle Kit's feet. (The funniest thing about this is: I watched Chargeman Ken and there was an episode where Professor Pantless was getting tortured with electrical shock just to find out what Ken Izumi's weakness was. At the end of the episode; Ken admits that his weakness is math. It was supposed to make him likable; but it was an epic fail since all they have to do is give Ken a math test. Here; this was a success because Kit isn't strong in algebra (which is a part of mathmatics) and they tortured him with tickling and it works for sympathy heat.)

At least that was the plan if Sunwoo didn't screw up the scene as the feather only touches Kit's foot once and Kit is forced to have his legs almost frozen in midair on the far shot to make the scene work thus making it look contrived. What makes this scene even more creepy is that if you do a frame freeze of the scene; you'll notice that Mad Dog actually sticks the feather right into Kit's groin area and that actually causes most of the laughter from Kit. That is right on par with Cubbi stripping his clothes off in Gummi By Any Other Name; only slightly less perverted because the writers never intended for Kit to be tickled in the groin. And yes; I have visual evidence to prove my point; but I'm not showing right now. Disney DVD didn't even bother to edit it like they did with several episodes of Rescue Rangers on DVD. (The big reason I'm not showing the frames of footage is because I'm afraid someone is going to doctor the pictures for their own perverse pleasures. Kind of like the penis incident when someone doctored an old B&W Mickey Mouse short that Snopes.com featured. Needless to say; the feather did touch Kit's groin area.) Dumptruck laughs at Mad Dog's perverted tickling and then to make matters worse: when we go to Baloo's shot saying that he cannot stand it; the laughing stops. Oh lord; wouldn't it hurt to loop R.J.'s laugh in the background there for thirty seconds at least? (And that would be fine because you are reusing the audio instead of having R.J. Williams laugh all the time. Norman Normal actually got this right in their torture scene with the goldfish in the bowl tickling spot.) Needless to say; this was the scene that broke the camel's back for me in 1990 simply because I have seen too many of these scenes and wasn't looking forward to another one.

Ironically; this is one of the better scenes because it's not the standard "torture for information spot"; it's more a combination of forcing Ignatz to come back (Which is the real thing Don Karnage wants since he already admitted that Kit doesn't know about Carlsbear Caverns.) and a bit of revenge for being embrassed in Plunder and Lightning and It Came From Beneath The SeaDuck to a lesser extent. You cannot blame the writers for this either since the scene on paper was excellent and the continuity and nice touch of using Ignatz's own feathers as the tickler worked. (There are a lot of pictures on DeviantArt of babyfaces and heels trying to make Kit laugh in funny and unusual ways. To be fair; it's a way to prevent from going total fragile emo on us. When a kid who acts like a tough guy tries to be cocky; this often brings him down to size. Kit is a great example of this. It's free heat; costs nothing and it pisses off the Kit marks building sympathy heat. No one cares about that Ken Izzy dude's weakness because it's so lame. So to defeat him; give him a math test. How are we supposed to feel sorry for him having this weakness? Answer: you don't.) This is an example of when Sunwoo dogs it and it is less exposed in this series simply because it's not considered an American cartoon and is made more stiff on purpose. However; the downside is that it is a case for Feature to complain about because they would never make that kind of mistake and therefore television animation is BAD for animation in general. (True; but nowadays, this would have been treated as an off-model on purpose spot; even though there was no evidence that this was done on purpose.) The solace I can take from this is that it's hilariously bad spot blowing from Sunwoo instead of the usual bad spot blowing Sunwoo would partake in later series, including Darkwing Duck next year.

Baloo wants Ignatz to do something and charge because he's in charge, see. Ignatz calls him twinkletoes (Yeap; more feet references.) as he needs a diversion and Baloo blows him off because diversions don't grow on trees. So, Ignatz whistles to Don Karnage and points to Baloo that he's here for the kid. HAHA! Screw you indeed, Pop-A-Bear! I see Ignatz comes from the "Molly Cunningham School of Screw You's". AHHAHAHAHAHA! (I just love how Ignatz is creating plans designed to screw Baloo over for being a manchild.) Don Karnage of course turns around, unleashes his sword and demands his bumping logs to get him that damn bird. The Air Pirates run him over in response. HAHA! That's a creative way to give BS&P the middle finger and this is the point where Kit Cloudkicker should have stopped laughing by the way as the knuckleheads blitz Baloo in the bushes while missing Ignatz in the process. We have another FCC FRIENDLY DUSTCLOUD FIGHT OF DEATH. (In which follows DTVA tradition of the heels winning.) We cut to Don face down on the ground as Ignatz flies over and bites through the ropes freeing Kit (Well; he didn't need to get the blood back in his feet since he was mostly tickled in the groin. In the far shot; Kit was squirming like he was ticked there, too. So, that spot blowing might as well have been on purpose.). Kit drops down and thanks Ignatz for coming back. Ignatz proclaims that it's time to beat it despite the laughs and then Ignatz flies back over, while taunting a punch drunk Don Karnage getting up. HAHA! Don orders the ugly pirates to stop playing with Baloo and help him as we see Baloo upside down again held by the ankles by the knuckleheads.

The knuckleheads throw Baloo up into the air about fifteen feet or so -- and Baloo takes in my opinion, the sickest bump in Disney history -- as he takes a sick MAN-SIZED bump right on top of his head that would have killed him in any other universe; and some neck and back injuries to boot. It was THAT sick. We don't do wussy bumps in this show; no siree! (This is a spot straight out of the Brainy Smurf playbook; only they actually shown Baloo get thrown into the air. Normally in The Smurfs, Brainy gets thrown out off-screen. This was a nasty concussion he got and the writers even booked it as such. I realize that this was in 1990 and the show takes place in 1936; but this is like taking an unprotected chairshot to the head. I cringe everytime and it makes me go into a cold sweat. This is the kind of thing Toon Disney should have edited since it's easier to mimic than a gun. By the way; we are now seven for eleven in terms of the guns being pulled out. Eleven for fifteen if you include Plunder and Lightning as a movie.) Baloo gets up and he's punch drunk as he is shadow punching because they aren't getting away that easily. We then get a disturbing closeup of Don Karnage's googly eyes as Don is happy to see reinforcement as he sees double and maybe triple at this point. Don tells them to spread out and find that boy as Baloo is still shadow punching, Kit comes around to Baloo and Ignatz blows Baloo off. Time to make with the feet (Baloo's words, not mine.) as he helps Kit up to open the door of the SeaDuck and Kit goes into the SeaDuck and Baloo closes the door as he turns around and notices the Air Pirates coming after him and that ends the segment nearly sixteen minutes in. Pretty much the worst is over for this episode. (Eh; not quite, but the rest of it was good at least.)

After the commercial break; we continue in Tucker Forest as Don Karnage and the knuckleheads run towards the SeaDuck; but Baloo gets into the pilot's side of the SeaDuck and starts the engines. Wow; the fog effects are weird as the scene looks darker than it should be. Baloo flies the SeaDuck into the sky as Ignatz and Kit asks about the treasure. Baloo gets all angry because that was Don Karnage back there (Funny, since Kit knows all about him in Plunder & Lightning. (Baloo's surprise is justified since Don Karnage is not nearly as bumbling as the henchmen are. It's not like Kit can easily defeat Don or anything.)) as Kit wants to go back as we have an airplane chase par excellence. Baloo is more concerned about losing the pirates as Ignatz insists that he has a plan as the shooting commences while Kit wants Baloo to give him a chance. You know Sunwoo's animating since they use red flashes for the bullets as Baloo takes another swipe at Ignatz because he got nearly MURDERED literally and the bird is bad news. So, Ignatz perches on the stick and tells him to take him to the treasure and he's officially out of his life for good. He promises too and Baloo likes that proposition. (Because Baloo is dumb. At least Ignatz isn't toxic.) So, the SeaDuck turns around 180 degrees and goes through the CT-37's as they scatter. Sadly for Don; he flies too low and crashes into the trees; taking some one hundred pine tree branches with him and that allows this gem while the branches fly away from the plane:

Don Karnage: When I catch that bothersome Baloo; I tear him into itsy-bitsy pieces of ugly bear and then I sew him back together with dull needles! (Kevin Johnston is right about Don Karnage. Everything that comes out of his mouth is comedy diamond. And part of that is because of the writing and the other part is Jim Cummings winging it. Compare that to Darkwing Duck and you'll see that it was almost all Jim Cummings; because otherwise, Darkwing Duck is no where near Don Karnage's level. It's even better when you consider that he's covered in nature's needles; which are duller than real needles. That's why the joke was funny.)

So, we head into the forest as Ignatz isn't liking this; and I'm guessing Dumptruck even less as one of the CT-37's hits the tree branch and does the 360 spot about five times before slapping into the tree with a MAN-SIZED bump. I know it's Dumptruck since he has the blue CT-37. The SeaDuck flies above the trees and the two CT-37's follow them as Ignatz points to Carlsbear Canverns -- which so happens to have the face of a grizzly bear. -- Jeepers; didn't ANYONE notice the obvious here? Never mind; as Ignatz wants him to land as close as Baloo can. We then get more gunfire from the trees; and somehow there is no more red flash as it's black now. Did Walt Disney Animation France take over while we were away? (Nope.) So much for BS&P'ing (Also my theory on bullet shooting flashes telling me what episode is what. As least I have all the ED's for TaleSpin now; so that is fixed up.) as we are up to 0.5 Trigun now as the underbelly of the SeaDuck gets Swiss-cheesed. The SeaDuck heads inside Carlsbear Canverns with the CT-37's in hot pursuit. Don proclaims that they cannot escape him; but Mad Dog won't help him as his CT-37 smashes into an obvious rock spike and his plane gets clipped. As the plane goes down we see Mad Dog with his parachute on proclaiming that he installed a new ejection seat in it and he doesn't even bother to press it (logic break number four for the episode. (No it's not 2010 Me! Mad Dog actually pulled a lever (JESUS~!) to trigger the ejection seat. So there's one logic break lopped off with more to come.)) and he bounces right into the ceiling with his head stuck in it for a decent bump. The parachute opens on him and he falls down easily as we continue the chase with headlights on this time around and some screaming from Kit as Baloo pulls up from the wall, does the hyperbole up and into the narrow top of the cave. Also, since the CT-37's cannot go up on a steep climb (as seen in A Bad Reflection On You Part 2); Don Karnage panics and crashes into the wall with a MAN-SIZED bump and another bump off-screen allowing this awesome line:

Don Karnage: What a lousy place for a wall!

HAHA! So true Don; so true. So, we continue with the SeaDuck as Baloo is cooking with gas now. And then we cut to the CT-37 driven into the floor as Don is upside down. HAHA! Mad Dog and Dumptruck run to his aid and pull him down to the ground. Mad Dog asks the dumbest question of the day: "Is he all right?" Answer: No, not really as Mad Dog gets slapped again. HAHA! Mad Dog proclaims that he's fine and Don wants to go after them now. Everyone runs stage right as we cut to the SeaDuck landing on the ground above a hill and we get the Wuzzles' scene changer (really guys?) as everyone is already out. Baloo asks Ignatz where the treasure is and Ignatz notices a the tunnel with a mouth curved out of it and it's only as big as Kit when he's kneeling. Baloo wants to take the left route which has a bigger opening for him to go through. Ignatz states that it works; but the trip is hellish (my words, not his). Oh; and we have logic break number five for the episode as the mouth has changed rock colors now. (This is very minor compared to Molly Coddled when the backpack changed into a white sack. Plus; I didn't really see it when doing the transcripts, so 2010 Me is just looking for flaws that aren't there. Another logic break lopped off.) Baloo blows him off and walks towards the larger cave as Ignatz warns him about not trusting him before. Baloo walks in and blows Ignatz off for not trusting him, he steps on a panel and Ignatz states that Juan didn't like company either as the floor completely breaks in the middle. That in the end forces Kit to the other side and there is a huge abyss between the bears. Baloo sees rocks fall into the abyss and yells out to Kit as the Air Pirates have him again and this time Don proclaims in his own way there will be no tickling and it will be even more painful if they don't give him the bird. Wow; and no one noticed the obvious joke here? Although to be fair; Kit would probably be turned on by anything other than tickling. POW! OUCH! Hey!...

Ignatz wants Baloo to move because the boobies will spring more traps and Baloo does the Gruffi poses him because he's not leaving Kit to the dogs. Then the ground collapses on him and we do the old slide down the stone slide routine from The Idol Rich. Wow; Sunwoo really screwed up as Baloo goes straight down in the far slide and there's no slide undeneath him. UGH! That's even worse than the tickling screw up from earlier and thus the streak of ****+ episodes ends RIGHT there. (No it doesn't 2010 Me! That's because that wasn't Baloo going straight down. It was Ignatz flying straight down. That makes sense. How could you miss that matted green sweater feathered friend there?! How?! That's three logic breaks lopped off! ) Then we get more bad animation with Baloo's arms as Baloo drops on his ass on all of Juan Toomany's treasure. (Wait, what?!) He grabs some jewels as he rubs his ass and then he does the poor man's Scrooge McDuck routine on us. Ignatz actually praises him for finding the treasure his way after all. Baloo throws gold coins and then realizes that Kit is still in danger and he has to save him. Ignatz then completely blows him off because he wasn't even a good diversion. I disagree with him because Baloo does make an awesome splat on his head. AHHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! POW! OUCH! Ummm... (That was not funny 2010 Me! And you should know better after Chris Benoit killed his family! Concussions are no longer funny. Get over it and find something else to laugh at.) Ignatz wants to save him again and we stoop to child playground insults now as we get the first doofus outside of Ducktales spoken. Then they point the finger (or wing) at each other and proclaim that the only thing good about them is Kit. HA! Then they get the LIGHTBULB OF BLOODY CLAIRTY and shake hands. HAHA! Like Ted said; Kit always stirs the pot in this series even when he isn't on screen. (In a way; them resorting to grade school level insults makes sense because there was only so much these two guys could do (within BS&P mandate) in the witty high school level insults that they have to do childish insults to compenstate. And Baloo's a manchild anyway. Plus; it makes the payoff to these insults great in hindsight.)

We head back to Kit being doghandled by the knukleheads as Don points the finger at his nose demanding that he get the annoying bird back here or he dies before he can even collect social insecurity. We then cut to a far shot as Baloo hides behind a large rock which still cannot give him a good hiding spot if his life depended on it. Baloo doesn't see a plan in sight for saving Kit at this point and Ignatz seems more concerned with springing the big trap. (In this case, Ignatz has a good reason to be concerned as you'll see next.) Baloo tells him to relax because that would take someone really dumb to pull off. (I see at least two pirates fit that description to a T.) Baloo rests his ass onto the spring column and that is enough to trip the big trap. Ignatz gleefully answers that one for me as ALL HELL BREAKS LOOSE~! (Make it three now.) Spikes fall down and Don Karnage is forced to dodge the part he hates the most and almost gets impaled by one as the knuckleheads looks up and dodges. (They then squish into each other which gives Kit the opening he needs.) Big mistake there as Kit sees his opening and stomps on Dumptruck's foot perfectly as Dumptruck sells the foot grabbing spot and then absolutely MURDER's Mad Dog's foot much to his concern. (There was a cracking bone sound when that happens, implying that Mad Dog broke his right foot right there for real. OUCH!) Both knuckleheads sell foot grabbing spots (How fitting after they tickled Kit's "feet" (groin in reality)?) as Baloo yells at Kit to come over and Kit tries to run to him; but Don Karnage (from behind a hiding place, natch) grabs his sweater and puts the sword to Kit's throat. Toon Disney cut this scene partially in 1995 by the way (What they cut out was Don Karnage saying: "Or something terrible will happen to the boy." basically.) as Baloo and Ignatz are shocked; but the trap door opens on the heels and Kit and they get WARNERED~!

Don calls for "Momma" in a funny way and everyone free falls; but Baloo manages to snag Kit at the last second with Ignatz floating to keep Baloo from falling. So Baloo's dumb luck worked after all as Baloo and Kit have an embrace and Baloo runs stage right. So we see the mouth entrance of Carlsbear Caverns as the SeaDuck flies out with the Air Pirates running out as fast as they can and then we get a far shot of the mountain as it collapses in such a lame way that Lance Storm would see this and say: "Damn; that is a lame collapse.". (Originally; a lot of fans felt that the Air Pirates were trapped inside the caverns and thus got the treasure and won; thus the heels win. Ummm; no. They clearly got out with nothing of note. They would still need the Iron Vulture to get themselves out of this anyway; plus Dumptruck's plane crashed outside the building. So it still made sense in the end.) We get a shot of the navigator's window as Kit sees his plans go up in dust; but Baloo seemly doesn't care because they got out of there alive and that's all that counts. It's morning now and Ignatz blows him off for nearly squashing them and Baloo counters that as rich. (Don't you just love it when the parrot calls Baloo out for his stupidity; and Baloo doesn't give a damn?! That's why Baloo is a manchild.) So we head back to Higher...For...Hire docks as Baloo is reading the newspaper and Kit is fishing for fish to sell, I guess. Baloo wonders how he is going to pay Rebecca the $500 he owes back. Then the twist moment I was telling about occurs as Ignatz flies down onto the box wearing clothes! So, he went from being merely a parrot animal to being a freed from slavery anthro in a span of 22 minutes. This TaleSpin world is so believable in spite of the dancing animals. That is so peachy too.

(Yes; Ignatz went from pet to human being, so in essence; Kit and Baloo freed him from slavery. That is an awesome way to end an episode. TaleSpin is one of those shows that plays around with the concept of "Why is Pluto a pet; but Goofy is a anthro being when they are the same spieces? Isn't that slavery". The answer usually is: "Pluto is not sentient. He doesn't know right from wrong. Goofy does however because he's half human which is not present in Pluto!" This is a really easy answer and it's critics cannot accept it because in their world; pets and humans are equal. No wonder folks like Raging Bee from "Dispatches From The Culture Wars" get so pissed off at people with Disney-equse viewpoints. They never accept the one difference between Pluto and Goofy because they think a human is an animal. So what if it is? It's like with dogs, humans and chocolate. Why does a dog get fatally sick from eating chocolate but a human doesn't. Answer: Because a dog has a different digestion track than human beings do. That's why you shouldn't feed the animals with food that is designed for human consumpation only. Why you let professional biologist do the feeding? Just because we are animals; doesn't me that we are the same as all animals. Nature doesn't work that way. TaleSpin throws even that conventional wisdom on it's head with Ignatz because now we know that Ignatz is a parrot who is sentinet. It's obvious that he was from the start; but was treated as a pet. Once the deal was done with Baloo and Kit (and it was Ignatz who wanted to go on the treasure hunt willfully on his own; and was happy for Kit to come along.), he was freed from his slave pet relationship with Juan Toomany because Kit actually let him act like an anthro parrot and saw that as better for Ignatz, Ignatz became an anthro and became part of society. And apparently, he broke into society quite well, quite quickly. This was the basis for Jeffrey Mika's theory on what Anthros and Animals were about on The TaleSpin Source Page (no relationship to Steet's version of the website; although Steet owns both pages now). It's quite an eye-opener. Sure; some critics will never get it, but there are lots of people who don't get the parody of this series either so...)

Ignatz shows Baloo $500 and Baloo is in shock asking where he got that kind of MONEY, MONEY, YEAH, YEAH. Ignatz admits that he signed on with the Museum of History as he is going to tell the tale of how he single-handedly saved Baloo from a fate worse than death, which is first death reference of the episode and it makes sense in Kit's case. POW! OUCH! Hey... Baloo blows off Ignatz's big mouth as Ignatz blows him off for a favor and gives Kit the five hundred dollars since he protected Ignatz long enough to save them from a fate worse than death and then flies away. Oh; and what Kit does with the money is none of Ignatz's business either. HAHA! (Kit simply gives Baloo the money just like that, because he's not a neopist nor a scoiopath. He earned that money; but there is one thing that bothers me. How much was Baloo going to sell Ignatz? Not that it matters since Ignatz and Kit escaped anyway; but I would love to know.) Kit asks Baloo about Ignatz now and Baloo decides to consider giving up eating fried chicken to end the episode at 21:18. (I put 1:1 odds that will be completely ignored in the next episode. Not that it matters; since I don't see Baloo even trying to keep his word within an episode, let alone the next one.) Well; it still holds up; but it ends the streak at nine straight thumbs up episodes (Nope; the streak is not over.) with the Sunwoo sloppiness and a really muted finish. (Actually; this episode deserves better and was better animated than Molly Coddled was. Yes; it had one really laughable logic break; but giving it a thumbs in the middle is wrong when three logic breaks were lopped off in spite of what 2010 Me saw. That streak of ****+ episode continues; this is **** (80%) without question now. It was a very fun adventure episode with R.J. Williams being awesome in a role he shouldn't be playing in for the sake of his own voice. That ending was great too.)

THE REVIEW LINE

While I have mellowed out on this episode in general and consider it a middle of the road episode and not a DUD; I didn't like some of the mistakes made in this episode. (It had it's problems; but this episode was better animated than Molly Coddled. Plus at least three logic breaks were proven to be not logic breaks when I did the transcript for this episode.) The tickling scene is no longer the problem anymore from Sunwoo's side of things as it was so hilariously bad that it was funny to watch R.J. Williams and Ed Gilbert play it to the hilt and oversell the whole thing because the animation was bad and it did look like Kit was tickled in the groin on-screen. (If Ed and R.J. recorded this after Sunwoo animated it, GREAT! If it was done before; you would never know because they are face actors who have a great voice director behind them. I don't care if it's not true. They need to WORK this angle as R.J. and Ed recording this after it was animated and they actually saw the animation.) There were a few logic breaks and the biggest one was the slide scene with the far animation as Baloo goes straight down when he show still be sliding into the camera. Not to mention the dulled finish of the mountain collapsing as it looked almost as dull as dishwater. (Sometimes; TaleSpin falls short on stuff like this. Sunwoo was still really green at this point when it came to DTVA, so it's not like this was many years later and they still don't get the memo on not blowing spots. Nothing wrong with pointing it out; but getting angry over a rookie company is kind of pointless right now. Besides; the one spot they screw up the most was the most hilarious blown spot of all time in DTVA. So blown that it might as well be a purposeful off-model moment; even though it is clearly not.)

Still; this episode was pretty good with Ignatz, Kit and Don Karnage carrying the episode at Baloo's expense and the ending was the right one in my view. So, we get a middling episode that could have continued the streak if Sunwoo and post-production didn't screw thing up along the way. (Nope; this was a great episode with some flaws; but not as many as 2010 Me thought. Polly Wants A Treasure is actually pretty good in spite of the screw ups. It's an amazing change of opinion from 1990, that is for sure.) Next up is Vowel Play and the only episode featuring Tamapro for additional services; spelling hijinks and unintentional fan service! (2020 Gregory Weagle Says: Wrong 2010 me! There were four episodes with additional services done by Tamapro, the company that did the animation for Chargeman Ken. Ponder that one for a moment and wonder why the American animators were pissed at DTVA.) That is followed by Bearly Alive and that one features the old question: How many times before BS&P steps in? So...

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

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