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All's Whale That Ends Whale Re-Rant

Reviewed: 10/05/2010
Additional Commentary: 09/30/2021

I Wonder Why Free Willy Did So Badly?!

Original Airdate: 09/26/1990 (Syndication), Episode #17 (TaleSpin DVD Volume 1, Disc 2), Episode #15 (Production Order).

All's Whale That Ends Whale Notes
All's Whale That Ends Whale Transcript

(2016 Gregory Weagle Says: I haven't seen Free Wily and it's sequels; but I'm guessing I think this episode is better than them is because they were effectively done better in 22 minutes and it's more of a time thing; than the actual quality. I'm sure Free Willy is a decent movie and so are it's sequels. But; they don't have Kit Cloudkicker being awesome either.) Well; here we are in one of those episodes which is basically the old “Save The Whales” caper. Now that in itself isn't bad; but the historic environmental message in general has never been endearing due to the fact that another more notable series was being aired which contained so many PSA's in 22 minutes; you would swear it was written by Greenpeace and PETA. That would be Captain Planet & The Planeteers. Now to be perfectly fair; a show about saving the environment does sound like a great idea since it's relevant and important. However; Captain Planet completely ruined that dream by being so black & white and earnest about the way Americans treat the environment which would have worked if real life was so easy. As anyone who does the research; other countries are even more guilty than America is when violating the environment. (Well; in the developing world; yes. In the developed world, not so much.) Canada even more so. To make matters worse; the heels were so one sided that any attempt to make the show interesting was gone because it was the same cookie cutter villains destroying the environment because they like to. TaleSpin characterization would have been perfect to remedy both sides and they blew it on that count. (I concur. By the way; R.J. Williams voiced a wanna-be Planeteer called Jason in the show and at least Jason was trying to care about the environment; but was way over his head. Which in a way is reasonable even in a cartoon about an complex issue like this.) Of course; if that happened, Captain Planet the Superhero would be pointless. (That was one of the problems with the show: Every episode required Captain Planet to save the day; but if they did the job without him, then there's no use for a superhero who you are trying to get over.)

Personally; I thought Captain Planet was cheesy and I personally didn't think there was a hidden agenda by Ted Turner. (Of course not; Ted was completely up front about his views to the public.) However; Billionaire Ted's hypocrisy showed big time with his bison farming which would be in violation of the laws of Captain Planet. (I don't know. Is his bison farming any worse than mass marketing slaughter houses? I'm certain that Turner's bison farming was much more humane than that.) Needless to say; I'm not impressed. Al Gore & David Sazuki has more creditability than Ted Turner ever had in environmental affairs and both are no great shakes either. Ultimately; this show was so cheesy and so terrible in the eyes of the public at large that they would literally turn on any episode that has an environmental message regardless if the message was sound and the episode was written well and entertaining. (Oh come on, 2010 me! Captain Planet was hilariously bad and cheesy; not bad cheesy. Yes; you are right about the way they handled the heels and the sad ones who were along for the ride. However; what could they do? Trying to do a complex issue like the environment into a cartoon is really, really hard. Besides; Captain Planet at least had the guts to tackle AIDS and hatred on a massive scale! You cannot say that about even freaking Gargoyles pulling that one off! I get that we watch cartoons to be entertained; not to learn something. But; if you want to be more than children's comedy, you have to expand beyond entertainment. Captain Planet is one of those shows that did just that. Oh; and you have never lived a full life if you didn't see the Robot Chicken sketch featuring Ted Turner changing into Captain Planet on his own free will. By the way; whatever happened to the remake that was promised? Also 2010 me; in Canada, we had The Smoggies which was another show about the environment which was a better show; but didn't have the cheesy charm Captain Planet brought to the table.)

That leads to this episode of TaleSpin which was tough to critique; but I did it before and I can do it again. (So the plot of this episode is: Kit befriends a giant whale that went missing from a seaquarium owned by an abusive animal trainer. Kit and Baloo discover abuse and try to go through the proper channels to get the park shut down; but the animal trainer keeps screwing them at every turn. I have done the transcripts and there is a lot I need to talk about because 2010 me did yet another copy and paste job from his 2005 rant; although, it's mostly for the second act that he did this since there are a lot of errors and stuff that he missed. Oh; and the DAF Radio rant I wanted to do is finally upon us! I hope everyone is ready for that.) So let's rant on shall we...?!

This episode is written by Julia Jane Lewald. The story was edited by the late Bruce Talkington. Julia Jane is married to Eric Lewald (formally Julia Jane Roberts). The animation is done by Walt Disney Animation Japan (Inc.) and Jade Productions (Which becomes apparent in the art style in some places; although it's not half as bad as the animation during the tennis scene in Save The Tiger. This is also their debut on TaleSpin. I think they debuted on Gummi Bears during the two part finale.). I should have the final supplemental up after this rant is posted.

We begin this one at the docks of Higher...For...Hire AFTER HAPPY HOUR (after dark) as we go inside the offices. Baloo and Kit do some stalling (While Jade's animation looks apparent here for obvious reasons. Check's Kit most of all. His face is off model actually.) as Baloo opens up a floorboard and brings out a box filled with MONEY, MONEY, YEAH, YEAH. Kit asks where he got the money and Baloo proclaims that he was saving it up a little at a time to buy back the SeaDuck. It's not enough "wampum" to buy it back of course; but it will be as they are six weeks away from living free and easy. (Wampum are traditional shell beads of the Eastern Woodlands tribes of the indigenous people of North America. Wampum include the white shell beads fashioned from the North Atlantic channeled whelk shell; and the white and purple beads made from the quahog, or Western North Atlantic hard-shelled clam. Wampum were used by the northeastern Native Americans as a form of gift exchange. Early historians and colonists mistook[1] wampum as a form of money.[2] The colonists then adopted wampum as their own currency; however, the Europeans' more efficient production of wampum caused inflation and ultimately the obsolescence of wampum as currency. This is a really odd way of saying "money" since no shell beads are in the lock box. I get that they are trying to make the show sound smart; but it would help if there were shell beads in the lock box to begin with.) Kit tells Baloo to wait as he brings out a gold coin from his pocket and drops it into the box. (Which of course they do a closeup of the coin in his hand sparkling.) Baloo pets him on the head, thanks him as a partner (Must...resist...pet...shop...joke...Which Baloo does twice.) and we fade to black. Well; that scene was okay; but the artwork on Baloo and Kit is ultra weird; like something out of Nickelodeon. We return to an island in the south seas as the waterfall is the only thing animated in the entire scene. There is no birds around either which shows the cheapness that was slowly beginning to creep into DTVA. (Yeah; usually in a TaleSpin episode; we see pointless animation of birds flying around or some throwaway animation spot to prove that you were not watching Hanna Barbara. I guess Jade is too wet behind the ears to pull that off.)

We see the SeaDuck on the water as Baloo is fishing in his hammock tied to the left wing with a life preserver full of bait in a bucket. (2020 Gregory Weagle Says: While Kit and Baloo are merely partners in storyline, this is one of those thing that makes it more like father and son bonding that to be honest, Kit needs a lot of it due to making up for lost time.) Kit is making lunch in the pilot's seat of the SeaDuck as Baloo admits that they are screwing Rebecca over again on another delivery. Kit swears in DUBBED ANIME STYLE (gosh) because they cannot travel on empty stomaches as the artwork is slowly getting better here. Baloo proclaims that Kit wins and we get two more minutes. (Baloo's reasoning for this is that he wants practice for the free time. If you have the SeaDuck back; won't you have unlimited time, thus have time to practice whatever you are doing?) Baloo casts his line as he snags the peanut butter jar, it lands into the bucket of fish bait and pours out. Baloo and Kit blow each other for getting stuff into their other stuff. (Here we are; the moment I have been waiting for since the start of doing these additional commentaries. In this episode; here's what Baloo and Kit said:

Kit: Yuck! You got bait in my peanut butter.
Baloo: Yuck! You got peanut butter in my bait.

The lines themselves and the spot itself aren't anything special. It's that, there was a DAF Radio interview several years ago with I'm guessing Tad Stones, and in the interview they talked about how Greg Weissman was involved in Darkwing Duck and Gargoyles. The interviewers then responed saying "You got Darkwing Duck in my Gargoyles!" That really, really annoyed me to the point of actually pissing me off. The reason is this: If you are going to play "Six Degrees Of Rupert Murdoh" and try to connect the dots; you end up with something like this: TaleSpin Connections. Or something along these lines. I did a thought experiment with this and the thought experiment went something like this: You take your favorite show. You then compile a list of all the credits that show has; credited or not credited. Then you research their resumes through IMDB, Wikipedia and any official websites they have. Then you create the list according to what I did. I'll give a few examples: If you want to go there with Greg Weissman, wouldn't you also say that there is some Gargoyles in my Last Horizons in TaleSpin? Since Greg Weissman voiced one of the characters in that episode? How about this: Walt Disney Animation Japan (Inc.). You could say that I have Astro Boy, Hello Kitty, Samurai Pizza Cats, Thundercats and Silverhawks in my TaleSpin. I mean WD-Japan is basically a defunct Sanrio unit from Toei, Pacific Animation Corporation (and in a another connection; outsourced animation to Hanho Heung-Up just like Walt Disney Animation Japan) and a bunch of TMS Entertainment people. Seriously; when you play that game, you are daring someone to come up with that list and it's a mind-screw because the connections between people and the shows is mind boggling. And even more to the point: As absurd as it was with TaleSpin as an example; it's probably even more so now with the new shows. Also of note; my TaleSpin Connections section is incomplete and I do mean incomplete. I'm certain that there are more than 10,000 productions for this series alone. Try this experiment the next time with your favorite show, or better yet, don't. If you do; be prepared to work on it for a very long time and be prepared to have your brain fry like nothing else before. Respect your elders, indeed! More like; don't act like the creator is the only guy that matters in a production. It is a team production after all. Heck; I have Libby Hinson's credits as a writer on the connections pages; but not her sound editing credits. Although it probably wouldn't increase the number of productions anyway. I'm just glad to get this all off my chest now and we can continue on with the additional commentary becaue I have even more things to say about this episode.)

I am going to have to call this a draw on the blame game here. The life perserver floats away from the SeaDuck as Baloo calls it a waste as the bucket sinks into the ocean and then a huge gusher comes out. Baloo panics because it's a giant ass whale with perfect dimple teeth coming up from the ocean depths roaring (Frank Welker, DUH!). Kit is impressed by the whale splashing around making big ass waves causing Baloo to struggle in his makeshift hammock. HAHA! Kit waves hello and the whale bumps the SeaDuck, Kit bounces into the drink and the giant whale goes after him. Ooooooooo. Baloo struggles some more in a panic, dives into the water and we get an underwater shot of Baloo swimming. (It's hard to take this seriously that Kit was going to drown after seeing him fall thousands of feet into a lake in Mommy For A Day and in the harbour in Time Waits For No Bear.) Then we go to the surface as the giant ass whale resurfaces with Kit on top of him as Kit calls this more fun than a rollercoaster. Considering Kit; that sounds like he's insulting the whale as Baloo pops up and spits water while hanging onto the prop because it's soggier too. I love real comments that aren't supposed to be real comments. (Yeah; because that means the whale is not as fun as cloudsurfing, you see.) That leads to Kit realizing that the whale loves the bait. so he dips the tuna into the peanut butter jar out of a magically placed picnic basket (Logic break #1 for the episode right there three and a half minutes in.) and then playfully plays with the bait to get the whale to stand up while the whale smiles for him. Baloo violate the anime conduct rule #12 on the whale's friendliness (which I somehow doubt in real life) as the whale bops around and spins. He then splashes into the water again; causing more waves to splash right into Baloo's kisser. HAHA! A rule of thumb: Anything that screws Baloo over is automatically over in my book; even more so when Kit is the puppet master. Kit tells the whale to roll over and that's exactly what the whale does in a full 360 into the water. Then we get the whale spout spot on Kit as Kit laughs and wants to keep him and he even says please. (This would be the second time Kit has a pet; the first being Igantaz from Polly Wants A Treasure. Although Ignatz went from pet to full furry being in that episode. This whale doesn't have that kind of conscience sadly.)

You can clearly see why Ginny McSwain chose R.J. Williams over Alan Roberts; because R.J. Williams sounds so much better when Kit's happy over Alan Roberts. (R.J. Williams acting was as always great in this episode as he demonstrates later on with Seal Boy Kit. I don't think Kit will ever live that moment down, but I will because it was great.) Baloo blows it off because he needs a fishbowl the size of Thembria. (2020 Gregory Weagle Says: I believe in Ducktales 2017, Thembria was changed to Boarmania, but I'll have to watch the entire show to make sure.) Kit is brought down from the spout as Kit thinks he would make a great pet. Anyone who doubts me that Kit is nuts should consider that he wanted to make a giant whale a pet. (I think most people would have you with him being an ex-Air Pirate and an ex-Hobo 2010 me; but this helps your case even further nevertheless.) Baloo tells him that they really have no right to oppress the freedom he currently has right now. (Remember that for later since Baloo is going to forget that statement he just made. Kit wasn't happy about it either, which is kind of odd actually.) Baloo goes back into the SeaDuck after unplugging his ears of water and tells Kit that they have to return to work anyway. The whale floats Kit over as Kit says goodbye for now and Baloo helps him back into the SeaDuck and the SeaDuck flies away while the whale sinks into the depths. So far so good. We head back to the docks of Higher...For...Hire as Baloo addresses Rebecca and admits that he's back five minutes early. CALL THE OUT OF CHARACTER DEPARTMENT! (Oh please 2010 me! This is a good thing and it shows that Baloo can be on time or earlier; but he usually isn't due to his laziness or recklessness.) Baloo then whistles and asks Rebecca about the customers. We pan over to see a rhino, the elephant and gator from Idol Rich, a mouse with a rifle dressed in red, and I cannot tell the rest of them (Except one of them looks like Pilot Jack from Plunder and Lightning Part One. (Since we see a gun being pulled out; we are 46 for 57 in the guns being pulled out.)). Rebecca states that they are after a missing whale from Seymour's See-More Seaquarium.

See-More is Seymour's last name by the way as I just noticed the awkward saying from Rebecca. (I think "See-More" is a pun on the title of the Seaquarium; not his last name. Although calling him "See-More" is so funny; that I didn't consider it in the transcript. I guess I wanted to get serious in the transcripts to contrast with the fun nature of my rants.) Kit is confused of this as Rebecca states that the whole afternoon is booked solid with customers who want five minutes of air time to search for it as there is a rhino in green pants, pif helmet, binoculars, yellow shirt and the butterfly net. (Five minutes? That's kind of BS there Miss Cunningham. It'll take five minutes just to get there. Unless the time starts after they land on the island.) The rhino shows the clip with the red "1" on it as Baloo asks why they are after an overgrown tuna fish. Rebecca hands Baloo a blue piece of paper with the whale's picture and reward written in red letters. Rebecca explains the obvious to us. Baloo then gets the LIGHTBULB OF BLOODY CLAIRTY as he sees the money could buy back the SeaDuck and then Kit proclaims that he could visit the whale at the Seaquarium every day. Now, I know that in the previous rant I wrote about this very episode that I bashed Kit for being so cruel and oppressive; but in hindsight, in real life, nature is not the happy place many animal rights guys think it is. In fact; a lot of times, animals used for research and amusement are treated a lot better than they are in the wild. Not always the case, of course and some animals are considered forbidden by researchers (I'm not certain about whales; probably forbidden. (Whale hunting is illegal by the way even if it is to capture a whale to use for entertainment purposes, so this means Seymore is a much bigger heel that he already was.) ). So, I'm not so upset about Kit acting like this on his own violition; it's because of our next character that I wish Kit didn't go along with this plan. (Yup. Besides, I expected Baloo to be a hypocrite here because in the previous scene, he was defending the whale's freedom. However; when money's involved, that is completely out the window. Scumbag; thy name is Baloo Von Bruinwald XIII.)

Rebecca orders them back to work and Baloo states that they have four minutes of break time left. (So true; although an extra four minutes isn't going to make much difference anyway, so there's you're "Rebecca is a jerk" statement and she isn't much like one today.) Kit and Baloo quickly get into the SeaDuck and start the engines and then fly away before the rhino can step onto the tailsection door and he goes flying into the drink as a result. The rhino pops up and Rebecca is not amused by this either. (Again; it's difficult to defend Baloo when he does stupid crap like this and it's hard to boo Rebecca for not being happy about it.) So now we head to Seymour's See-More Seaquarium which is basically a second rate circus with a huge tank. (With a submarine diving bell for a trailer and has two smaller tanks; which one of them is filled with sharks as we see later on.) Reason #1 why I wish Kit didn't go along with this plan. (I could believe that SeaWorld handles their aqua creatures with respect and kindness, I cannot with Seymore (which it what I used for the transcript by the way.).)We head inside as we see a greasy weasel talking like Gizmo Duck wearing mostly white and almond, dragging a sack of stuff towards the outside near the ticket booth. Bad Sign #2: The ticket booth is rusted and the black paint is smudged. Seymour blesses his lucky starfish and Baloo blesses his future MONEY, MONEY, YEAH, YEAH as Seymour addresses the whale as Moby Dimple. Seymore puts his goes to his helicopter (I know that this doesn't make sense since Baloo Thunder claims that it's the first helicopter; but then again when has Professor Buzz invented anything original?! (Yeah; since we have seen a helicopter in Vowel Play earlier. In a neat way; it demonstrates Malstorm's point about how innovation gets over in the end since the Cruisin' Art was a helicopter; but it looked like a luxary helicopter Shere Khan would love to own for himself, although it is under Khan's dime anyway. The other two helicopters are one person or two person rides while the Cruisin' Art could hold ten people or more it looks like. Too bad it cannot warp between times like the Shortcut in Ducktales, but eh.)).

Baloo places the whale catching equipment into the white storage space inside the helicopter and asks about the whale disappearing before. (That whale catching equipment in the bag would prove to be never used because it was never brought up again after it was put in the back of the helicopter. Also; the whale escaping before makes no sense at first because the seaquarium is too far away from the ocean. Watch how Julia Jane Lewald explains this all away near the end of this episode and you'll see why Kevin Johnston scoffed at TaleSpin's "whale physics".) Seymour is voiced by the late Hamilton Camp whom passed away in 2005 (Death count is up to nine now now in fifteen episodes. 12 if you include writer Dean Stefan, and directors Robert Taylor and Larry Latham.) Seymour states that Moby Dimple is tame and cannot live in the wild as Kit is not amused by this already because he thought he looked okay to him. Seymour counters with the old "me or your lying eyes" spot as Seymour plops into the front seat and Kit calls him out on the double barreled harpoon from Smith and Wessonoil (Smith & Wesson is a company who created weapons for police forces. They are not even hiding the fact that this show has a lot of guns, when you are mentioning a gun maker with a thiny veiled parody name.) Which are illegal as Baloo shows his redundency. Which is funny since Kit is an ex-terrorist. (Not to mention the fact that the Air Pirates use pretty much the same harpoon gun as Seymour; only Kit's is single barrel and contains an anchor instead of two harpoons. I guess those are still legal.) Seymour counters that it's only illegal if you use it to hunt; and it's just a museum piece see. (Which proved to be a lie as we'll see at the end. Well, he did use it to hunt, I mean.) Seymour then shows us a periscope shot of Baloo and Kit as he is ready to get back his Moby Dimple. Okay; that was more disturbing than I had intented. That periscope shot would be edited by 4Kids by the way. (Probably would be rightfully called out here and now on most children's cartoons since we have seen various politicans use the periscope thing as targets on certain people since the target scope is usually a sign of a death threat nowadays. I cannot wait until I rant on 90's Adventure Bear because Pickle & Peanut do a lot of death jokes. A lot of them; which in that case actually works for 90's Adventure Bear.)

We go to the top of the waterfall shot with the water running like crazy as the helicopter is covered with branches of leaves. Seymour pops up and tells the SeaDuck to get ready. It on a sandspit by the way as we pan left to the Seaduck as Kit and Baloo are at the tailsection and Kit is using his peanut butter fish bait to tease Moby to appear. Kit dips a tuna into some peanut butter as he doesn't appeared amused to be even doing this. (Why should have be amused? He has pretty much all but admitted that this is wrong and is way too polite to say anything.) We then go to a shot of Moby Dimple racing and appearing showing his massive dimple teeth. HEE HEE! Kit throws the fish and Moby dives backwards into the sea as he eats it. We then cut back to the helicopter on the sandspit as Seymour calls Moby a naughty boy (BOO! HISS!) and the helicopter pops from it's hiding spot. I was considering calling it blowing his cover; but I think Seymour sucks as a character. Although so far; he hasn't done anything really sucky, just yet. Moby notices that he has been had, Seymour targets his harpoon straight at Moby, Moby squeals and dives into the sea. However; he lets his tail be exposed as the arrow actually bounces off the tail; but still manages to wrap around the tail. That's logic break number two for the episode seven and a quarter minutes in. (That wasn't a logic break; that was a BS&P decision; since they couldn't let Seymour actually harpoon the whale by the tail because that would be gruesome. I get that; but the problem is, they wouldn't allow Seymour to stab a whale; but BS&P had no problem with Dimple getting his tail burned with the flaming hoop in the next act. Also remember; this show allowed a dinosaur to be shot in the wing on-screen. So, why not have the harpoon stab the tail of Dimple? I don't get it. You don't need to show blood. I think Julia Jane Lewald made a mistake here because if BS&P didn't prevail; then it would make Seymour look even more cruel in the long run; which is clearly what they were shooting for. Personally; I have no problem with Seymour being a monster heel anymore; but I still would have preferred 2010 me's booking of Seymour more than this, more so if BS&P is going to step in like this.)

Seymour proclaims that he has the whale; but Moby decides to race like mad; dragging the helicopter with him. HAHA! This goes on for a long while; and Moby gets too tired and gives up within thirty seconds. Seymour drags Moby away and tells her that she will be making money in no time. (Seymour isn't hiding the fact that the whale's well being means nothing at all since she makes a crapload of money. The fact that Seymour addresses Dimple as a female whale is also pretty sexist on his part.) Seymour then throws two free passes into the water in front of the MIRACLE WORKERS CONNECTION, tells them to come to the show and they can square up the reward money. Baloo proclaims that Seymour has his whale and they have the SeaDuck as this is their lucky day. Kit is not happy at all with that sad voice of his and with that shot that we fade to black. (Baloo's characterizations during these scenes up to the point where Kit finally calls Baloo out on his stupidity was really all over the place here. Sure; it's very human to have mixed emotions and such; but seeing a whale's tail tied up isn't as mixed emotional as the tail getting stabbed. I wonder if the original plan was for the tail to get stabbed by the harpoon and then was nixed by BS&P; but they forgot to change Baloo's emotions so that they lined up more with what happened in the finish product instead of what they originally planned. I can understand Kit's reaction because he's already regretting the day he heard about that reward and he feels responsible for stuff that isn't even his fault most of the time. So there you go.) We get a shot of the fish flapping in the wind with See-More painted on the side in pink letters as we go to the sky shot of the FIFTH RATE SEAWORLD PLATFORM OF DOOM. The crowd pops on cue and we pan over to Seymour on a plank wearing a blue uniform with a whip and a magically appearing tail (logic break number three for the episode) as he calls this the grand finale of the Wotta Whale Show. (Just to note; the sky shot for the most part was really good; but there was a logic break since the entrance is supposed to have the aqariums are supposed to be in the area where the red barriers are, and they are not there.)

Seymour also has the megaphone on full blast as he proclaims that the great Moby Dimple will leap fifty feet into the air through the amazing hoop of doom. (Which is a lie since the hoop appears to be half of that height. Oh, and Seymour did say "Hoop of Doom" here. He wishes he was Dan Dawson.) Which we see a flaming hoop as Kit isn't sure about this. He should know; Kit was forced into this exact same stunt by Dan Dawson in Stormy Weather. We see Baloo stuffing his face like the carefree bastard that he is. See it's all just part of the show. Like it was in Stormy Weather; right Pop-A-Bear?! (This was really stupid on Baloo's part after what happened in Stormy Weather. He sounds blasie about this whole thing which is kind of hypocritical since Baloo is half-animal. That's what reward money can do to you.) Moby swims underwater, feeling bad about this as Seymour invokes the whip on the water, that forces Moby into the air and he manages to clear through the flaming hoop. Wow; I thought they blew that spot in the previous rant. I must have been in a foul mood when I wrote it. (Well; that hatred of Captain Planet can rub off on most people.) The splash spot is no sold by everyone except for Kit who is still the most over character in the episode right now. (Kit wiggles, twitches and looks like he giggles; but no sound comes out (probably drowned out by the crowd.). That was probably what was botched.) Moby continues to swim underwater in pain since he did touch the flames on the way down (Which was expected and done with more precision than I expected, since Dimple is too big.). Seymour takes in the huge pop from the crowd. ANIMAL HATERS~! (Oh lord; even 2010 me is using the most overrated "shut down the discussion" word in existence. Shame!) Kit notices that Moby burned her tail; but Baloo squeezes the water from his hat proclaiming that it's all just part of the act. Yeah; animal cruelity is ALL PART OF THE ACT~, Pop-A-Bear? Suuurrrreeeeee. The crowd leaves on cue as Baloo and Seymour do the greet and meet. Seymour gives Baloo the money as Kit tells Seymour about Moby's burnt tail. Seymour tells Kit not to worry because it happens all the time and Seymour then finally gets my goat by claiming that he's an animal and he doesn't feel a thing.

As much as I think animal rights activists are full of crap most of the time; they are correct about one thing and even as a human being; this is where I really hated Seymour. (I don't blame you for doing so 2010 me. Also; that line really bothers me now in hindsight because it's very hypocritical in a show where the furries are half animal. It's slightly more believable if the characters were live-action human adults; even though in reality, animals do feel pain. Also, humans are considered animals as well, one of the reasons why PETA hasn't been shunned out of existence. I'm also certain plants feel pain too. The key to the difference between animals and humans is that human beings can tell the difference between right and wrong, while animals usually cannot. Children of humans is a unique breed in that some can depending on age; but we usually draw the line where they can give informed consent near their young adult years (Usually around 16-21 depending on the issue and what the laws in certain areas say.) because it's way too complex as it is to build a system that fairly treats childrens like human beings. I just find that line in this show brutal.) Personally; I would have gone with a more plausible angle of having Seymour just struggling to make money, so he couldn't afford to raise his standards to keep his business alive and thus make he look well meaning; but delluisonally cruel. This comes off as a animal rights message rather than a cry for help; which the stiutation would be more plausible. (Don't get me wrong; I don't mind him being irreedemable. However; we already have enough of these kinds of heels on this show; and there's only one seaquarium. The last thing you want is to make it appear you'll painting every seaquarium owner with the same brush in a show where you are supposed to be rooted in some form of reality.) We then get the march through the seaquarium as Kit notices the seals are dying in the heat and could use some shade. Seymour proclaims that it costs money. Now if he said; "I'm short of it right now and customer viewership is low."; then Seymour would look plausible instead of the sucky, evil sadist we ultimately got.

I mean, the tanks are dirty and Seymour acts evil throughout it all. Forget what he says; his emotions are evil and that is what matters here. I would have gone with a more concerned face here. Again; this is what happens when Hollywood is in bed with activists rather than customers. (Seymour's actions are deplorable here as he lies through his teeth that he does clean the tanks; but that cost money. Implying that he only cleans them when he wants to. Even though as we'll see later; he has two henchmen working for him in the next act. So Seymour comes off as a spoiled little child who cannot take responsibility like Baloo; only Seymour hates animals and only sees them as objects for people's entertainment. ) Seymour basically yells at them to scram and does the Bart Simpson promo from Daredevil Bart (The "my body, my life" one of course.) and then slams the door causing them to back away. Great bump there guys. Even Baloo was taken aback by Seymour's cruelity towards Kit and talking about his sandpaper underpants. (Baloo is gravely underestimating how unpleasant Seymour is; since we haven't seen him homicidal tendences later on in the next act.) Then he forgets all and kisses the money. EEEEWWWWWW! GET IT AWAY! GET IT AWAY! I can hear Kit saying it now. Kit does the Cloudkicker kick and storms off because this hypocrisy stinks. Baloo confuses that with the tanks being downwind and Kit proclaims that their freedom cost Dimple his and that stinks. Baloo tells Kit to take it easy, thinks the whale likes it and Kit blows him off for that one. (I just love how Kit responds to Baloo's promo that the whale likes it. Kit says "And you believe that, Poppa Bear?!"; and Baloo's reaction looks like he just got schooled by a twelve year old boy. Which in fact he does since Baloo really doesn't believe it like a cynicial scumbag out to make money.) Baloo sighs and admits that this does stink. However; Seymour won't listen to them and then Baloo gets the LIGHTBULB OF BLOODY CLAIRTY as has a Krackpotkin plan in mind. Baloo and Kit run off to end the segment for real a little more than eleven minutes in. Wow; there weren't as many screw ups as I thought there would be. I really only counted three logic breaks and one badly animated no sell in the eleven minutes I watched. I guess I really was in a really bad mood last time. Although; I'm still right about one thing: Seymour still sucks. (In the same sense that Dino Bravo sucks.)

After the commercial break; we REPEAT THE SEQUENCE from earlier and then we see some newspapers flying around in the foreground as we head to the ticket booth. We head inside as Seymour is counting the MONEY, MONEY, YEAH, YEAH on the table and calls it a sell out show which just makes him look even worse now. (Yeah; because it's clear on the table that he makes enough money to clean up his act. Julia is booking him as a monster heel now; which would be fine if there was actual competition in the "sea animals entertainment" business. However; there's no evidence that there is, so it comes off as an animal rights message.) We zoom out and see two blue shirt weasels in sailor hats (one has black hair and one is blond). Then we hear a knock on the door (grey paw; green sleeve) as Seymour blows him off because he is out of tickets at the moment and for him to come back later. The guy who is an otter with a hat, green trenchcoat and clipboard with glasses and sounds like Bonkers (Jim Cummings); he addresses himself as Inspector Burrough. (According to Disney Captions. We had him as Borrow; but since Baloo rhymes it with "thorough", Burrough sounds about right.) Kit and Baloo appear right behind him. Seymour panics, yells at his henchmen that there is another inspection and they know what to do. The henchmen jump underneath the conveniently placed trap door and go in. Seymour opens the door and comes out to ask who it is and the furry states that he is Inspector Burrough of the Agency Concerned with the Happiness of Oceanic Oddities...or ACHOO! (Actually; that's wrong 2010 me and the next two to three scenes were cut and pasted from my first rant on this episode; which was crappy! Here's what happened: Burrough sneezes on cue and Seymour mistakes it as legit sneezing; but Baloo is the one who points out that Burrough is from that Agency, not Burrough himself. You can clearly tell it's a copy-paste job because I spell Burrough as Burrow. There is a lot more to come that 2010 missed because he was copy-paste happy.) I love that wordplay and it's better than Preston Manning's attempt to untie the right into Conservative Reform Alliance Party; which turns to CRAP. (I am so keeping that Fruedian slip on my part since 2010 me meant "unite". "Barginning into a ladies room" was merely a punchline to this whole "hilarious careless errors in my writing".)

He is in charge of enforcing DA RULES (FAIRY GODPARENTS!) on seaquarium's and he will shut down Seymore if he finds violations. (Kit is the one who points out that if the animals are not happy; the whole park is shut down.) Seymore keeps his cool as Kit THE MIRACLE WORKER goes into his tough-guy routine about mistreating the animals. (Seymour is actually flustered at first; but then we get a moment that 2010 me missed and this moment absolutely pissed me off: Seymour goes over to Burrough and they talk. Burrough then takes out some money and gives it to Seymour for absolutely no reason I can think of. I think Julia Jane Lewald was booking this to show that Burrough was on the take and Seymour was greasing Burrough palms in order to get his inspection certificate. Here's the problem with this: If that was the case; why bother with the henchmen going through all this trouble with the umbrella shade huts on the seals tank, the picture paper in the background to hide the slime, and even the garden hose spot with Dimple later on? I mean; if you have Burrough on the take, isn't he going to ignore the violations in plain sight anyway? And they booked Burrough the rest of the episode as if he was an honest, fair and impartial observer. So what gives? Bruce Talkington should have met with Juila and removed the money spot completely and just have Seymour try to woo Burrough in and Burrough doesn't sell it.) He'll prove it by first going to the seal tank where the seals were overheating. However; the seal tank is now in full shade thanks to the two escaped henchmen as Seymore passes the first of his many tests. (Here's what happened: The henchmen put straw umbrellas over the seals and then spray painted them green. Why they bothered spray painting them is a mystery to me. Seymour did claim that the umbrella were plant hybrids that grow quickly. Which is a lie. I guess I'll have to ask the inspectors of aquariums about giving seals shade. I'm guessing straw umbrella huts aren't enough. By the way; both henchmen do speak in this episode, I think the brown haired one is either Ed Gilbert or Pat Fraley.)

I guess he did listen to Kit THE MIRACLE WORKER's concerns after all. What am I saying?! (Also of note; Baloo actually said that the huts were not there an hour ago; so it's only a thirty minute ride from Cape Suzette to the Seaquarium. Which makes sense since it's outside Cape Suzette within the region.) Believe me; I only had to see the tape once in order to get everything that happens in this sequence. It was that easy to spot. They go to the fish tanks filled with mold and one of the henchman replaces the mold with a picture of a clean sea background as Baloo and Kit are shocked. (There is a point in this where Burrough claims that the difference between "dirty" and "clean" is a trade secret. Hell of a secret there, Burrough.) You would think that the MIRACLE WORKER CONNECTION would have got it by now that Seymore is such a badly developed character. (Actually; this is exactly the way Julia Jane wanted him booked; and we might as well accept it now. Although; I still prefer 2010 me's booking of him. But that's just 2010 Me.) Anyway; Baloo states that there's one way to prove that Seymore mistreats his performers and they go straight to Moby Dimple's tank as Kit talks to Moby Dimple a little bit. (Actually; that's not what happened. As the scene begins, Burrough actually points out that the tank Moby Dimple is in is pretty tiny and very close to the shark tank as shown in the scene. In a way; they actually set up the end of the second act nicely; but at the same time, this makes the whole "Burrough is in Seymour's back pocket" thing look completely stupid. ) They then agree to do the water spout spot. (I should note that Seymore says that the performance tank is much bigger even though Dimple is in the performance tank. So that's another lie along with Dimple loving company.) For those who don't know what I'm talking about; Kit will ask a yes or no question to Moby. If the answer is a yes; she will blow her water top once; if the answer is a no; she will blow her water top twice. I think it's three times for a maybe; but I made that one up. (No; that's not what happened. Seymour is the one who came up with the special code and not Kit. That makes sense actually with what Seymour was shooting for. Also; Kit is not the one who asked the question, it was Inspector Burrough himself.)

Moby Dimple then decides to answer by spouting water from her blowhole once and Kit and Baloo are pleased. (Actually; Kit is the one who points out that Seymour is had. However...) Moby suddenly spouts water from her blowhole for the second time and that's enough for Inspector Burrow to pass Seymore again. I cannot believe that Moby Dimple would betray Kit like that. (Kit's reaction to it is priceless as he cannot believe that even his own pet would turn on him like that. However...) Seymore and Burrow leave the fish tank with Baloo and Kit close behind as the henchmen appears OUT OF NOWHERE holding a garden hose which spouts water. Now that was pretty clever; however, the two henchmen are doing all the work here and Seymore is so lazy that his character hasn't convinced me one bit. We return to the trailer and Inspector Burrow gives Seymore a passing grade for inspection (An A+ for deception and an F+ for workrate. Which is enough for Seymour to not get inspected again for another year.) and scolds Baloo for lying to him as he leaves. I told you that plan wasn't going to work as Seymore saw this whole thing coming. (Burrough basically tells Baloo not to bother him ever again for wasting his time or else.) Kit pulls on Baloo's shirt as he doesn't want Seymour to win (YAY!). Baloo agrees and brings out the reward money from his pocket as he wants to talk turkey about his whale. Seymour turns around the with the paper and asks if he wants to buy the whale with the reward money and Baloo proclaims that plus ten times more as Kit cannot believe that Baloo would waste that money on the SeaDuck. I just love it when Baloo actually cares more about his heritage than his inanimate object. (I'm going to be honest with you here: Baloo and Kit are in fact playing this by the book and trying to be reasonable here; but Seymour is screwing them at every turn because he's a heartless, soulless, scoiopathic bastard ringmaster in a fourth rate circus that's inspection record is only high because he has mooks who do more work than he does. In a way; when Baloo and Kit steal the whale in the end, they manage to do this without destroying his own seaquarium in the process at all. That's great!)

Seymour no sells all because the whale brings in one hundred times that. Riiiiiggggghhhhhtttt. (That's believable because the whale is making a lot of bank; but Seymour is embellishing a lot here.) Seymour than gets mad for streching his gratitude and orders them out of his park and Baloo looks ready to MURDER that creep ( I'm on Baloo's side for a change. Also of note; Seymour looks like he's ready to fight as well judging by his look. I was half expecting Seymour to call his heavies and have them throw Baloo and Kit out of the park at this point. However...); however Kit runs off to the main tank to say goodbye to Dimple. Baloo follows him and Seymour allows him that; but warns him that he's not responsible if anything happens. (Which is carny talk for "Perfect! I can kill the final two birds with one stone.") We head to the giant tank as Kit and Baloo walk onto the plank above the giant fish tank as Moby swims around sounding more sick than usual. Moby smiles as Kit and Baloo turn around and there's Seymour at the end of the plank as he is at the conveniently placed lever (JESUS~! Which by the way; moves from being on the diving board to behind the diving board on the next shot.) and pulls it as the plank goes into the left tank which is filled with sharks which is conveniently and ironically the only tank that seems happy. (Yeah; those sharks look much happier than anyone in the entire area. This circus needs to shut down somehow.) Baloo grabs Kit to protect him and Baloo kicks the shark right in the mouth. Not a wise move, Pop-A-Bear. (That was actually an awesome thing to see and somehow Baloo didn't get bit as a result.) Kit proclaims that he hasn't heard the last of this (He's right by the way.); and Seymour calls checkmate and the board breaks in half and they get dumped into the tank of sharks. HA!

And people thought Teddy's fall in Captured was deadly?! All this needs is a pack of WWE lawyers; and it would truly be deadly. AHHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Yeah; I stole that one from Scott Keith; so shoot me. (2020 Gregory Weagle Says: TaleSpin is a "no fuss, no must" show I would say.) Seymour believes that he will never be exposed. (Because attempted murder is so animal trainer-equse eh PETA? On a personal note; even if I had booked this with what 2010 me wanted booked; I would still have this scene happen as a sign of how dellusional and desparate Seymour would be, in a "killing the messenger" type of way.) The sharks circle Baloo and Kit and that ends the segment sixteen minutes in. Seymour still sucks; but I'm enjoying this episode a lot more the second time around. I think Karmacat influenced my previous rant quite a bit last time around. (I have not read Karmacat's review of the episode in many years, so I have zero idea why she hated this episode. However; I think if she read my review with the additional commentary; I think we both agree that Julia Jane's script does require a re-write. Before I begin the next act; I should point out that TaleSpin was nominated for an EMA award which should be in the Notes link. However; I found this from Jymn Magon, which is odd since he never wrote nor directed nor story edited this episode. I would like to know if this episode was the reason for the award and if not; what was the reason for the nomination? Hopefully; Jymn explains this to me. I'm certain this episode is the reason for it; but I want to be sure of this. Anyhow; this show wasn't going to win that award in an era where CAPTAINNNNNNNN PLANET~ existed. Trust me; when that show is on the nomination ticket, every show including TaleSpin is jobbing to it. Just accept it.)

After the commercial break; we continue in the shark tank with Baloo and Kit screaming for help as Seymour has left them to die. What a monster psychopath Seymour is?! We get some struggling with the legs underwater as we go to the sky shot of the tanks and pan left towards Moby's tank. Moby wakes up as Baloo and Kit manage to scream for a good twenty seconds or so. Wow; how does R.J. Williams do this without taking a breath?! (R.J. Williams once again shows off his acting skills like he wants to win an award or something. He was nominated various times for a Young Artist Awards along with Janna Michaels and this show; but he's never won it when he was on TaleSpin. He was nominated nine times (including two for TaleSpin) and won two of them; both on General Hospital in 1990 and 1991. Listen; I agree that R.J. Williams deserved those awards, just not for General Hospital.) Then we hear some banging as we see Moby doing headbutts on the side of his tank. He manages to break through as the three sharks go into formation and blitz the babyfaces as they both do the backstroke. HAHA! See; make the joke and then pay it off even if it takes five or six episodes. (Here's something that defies the laws of physics: Dimple breaks through both tanks even though the tanks are separated by at least ten feet. So logic dicatates that the water would flow out of both tanks, right? In this show; wrong! Dimple manage to break through both tanks and somehow no water flows out from the breaks. And you wonder why Kevin Johnston was scoffing at this episode? In fact; watch how Julia tries to explain away how Moby Dimple got away from the Seaquarium in the first place. Granted; this makes Dimple look awesome, but still. ) The sharks all open their mouths as Kit and Baloo are shark bait so to speak; until Moby uses her nose to raise them into the air and smile. Nice to see that Moby is very forgiving to them after Baloo and Kit screwed her freedom. (Well; no one cares about the whale other than Kit and Baloo (and when I mean care, I mean care about the whale's well being); so Dimple really doesn't have much of a choice.)

Moby does the ugly eye contact violence on the sharks (Dimple's gonna kill ya! I believe that even if I find out that whales are a bunch of wimps who would get squashed by sharks in real life. Dimple has already broke the laws of phsyics in this show anyway.) and the sharks bounce on water better than Jesus like scalded dogs; or in this case boiled fish. AHHAHAHAHAHAH! CHOMP! OUCH! Ummm... The sharks are voiced by Frank Welker; DUH! Kit proclaims that Dimple saved them and Baloo proclaims that it's time to return the favor as they slide down Moby's back with Baloo screwing up the landing with a thud. That is only the fourth spot Jade Animation has blown in this episode and we fade to black again. Man; Michael Eisner must not be getting his food today. (There were a lot of fade to blacks in this episode and thankfully; this one is the last one. I thought the landing was perfectly fine; so what gives? Jade's a little awkward to watch at times; but they aren't the worst studio out there.) We head to the office as we see Baloo use his finger to take out the board; which contains a hiding place containing the box of MONEY, MONEY, YEAH, YEAH. Baloo takes it out as Kit and WildCat come into the barn storage room. WildCat proclaims that there's a guy out there with a really big package and a really big bill. (WildCat sounds less zany in this episode than most episode and I'm guessing that WildCat was added at the last minute because the episode was too short without him.) Kit shows the bill just for good measure; as Baloo walks out with Kit as he needs a minute to get the money really. We do a scene changer and we see that the SeaDuck has two U-shaped metal rods shaped to allow some giant ass whale to lay on with metal supports. We zoom out to WildCat proclaiming that he did it and then asks what exactly he did. HAHA! Baloo and Kit come over as Kit climbs the ladder up onto the roof of the SeaDuck as Baloo tells WildCat that it's the ACME portable whale lift. I think Warner Brothers is going to have a lawyer on speed dial after that one. Or maybe not. They are probably laughing too hard after hearing Disney proclaim that Bugs Bunny is worn out and washed up. I know I would laugh too. (Yup.)

WildCat proclaims that all they need is a whale and Baloo tells WildCat that he'll handle it. Kit knows where to spot one as WildCat proclaims that he doesn't want to throw the whale away because it's heavy. We head with the third rate water circus (third time they recycled that shot by the way) as we zoom in towards the tents and see blond henchmen wheeling in a cart of floppy fish while black haired henchmen writes on the clipboard. We then hear Baloo's voice as we see Baloo in the worst disguise ever (Which is just a mustache. Riiiiiiggggghhhhhttttt Pop-A-Bear!) wheeling in Kit Cloudkicker dressed up as...wait for it...a seal! BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Oh boy! BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! The late Christopher Barat really put me in my place when I suggested that Kit would never be caught dead wearing a Junior Woodchuck raccoon cap. (I can just see the conversation right now of the nephews and Kit and Kit looking down when the nephews claim that they wouldn't be caught dead dressed up as a seal. Boy; would Kit have a tale to weave about that and he wouldn't have to lie about it at all.) As of right now; I going to use my joke pun name from the previous rant as Kit is now Sealboy Kit. (Hey; if Kit can call Baloo "Teensie-Weenise Poppa Bear" (in canon) or "Round Bear" (Dan Green's Thanksgiving fanfic); then call this me and Poppa Bear returning the favor on the Ironic Li'l Britches, so to speak.) Idiot Baloo wants the pup in the briny before Sealboy Kit melts and R.J. Williams shocks me by doing a really good seal bark. Remember that R.J. Williams is about 11 years old when he did this and Frank Welker is three times his age at this point. I wonder if Welker was giving RJ pointers for this episode? (If I find out that R.J. Williams did the seal bark on his own without any help from Frank Welker; my respect for him goes up at least three notches. Ponder that for a moment.) The black haired henchmen proclaims that he wasn't expecting any deliveries. Idiot Baloo counters with that he's delivering it to them. The black haired henchmen shrugs his shoulders and let's them in. Baloo wheels Sealboy Kit forward and then runs and takes off the mustache. Hey; if those henchmen can be fooled with a mustache; screw Seymour.

They stop at the forks and Sealboy Kit tells Baloo to be at the whale tank in ten minutes. Baloo nods and Sealboy Kit crawls away stage left while Baloo runs stage right. We head to the whale tank as Sealboy Kit crawls around the circle; but Seymour catches him not suspecting a thing. (Even though Sealboy Kit is on his hind legs with his back against the wall. I guess Seymour's seals can do that, too with the correct amount of torture...ERR...I mean whipping.) Seymour proclaims that they have to start the show and he doesn't want to go one seal short. He also has the LASSO OF BANE TO ALL ACTION CARTOONS EVERYWHERE. He calls Sealboy Kit, Rover, lassoes the rope around Sealboy Kit's neck (!!!) and drags him away stage right. HOLY CRAP! That was cruel and Toon Disney censors thought it was so cruel and dangerous to show that they edited that bit out in 1995. (They would have cut this out even if Kit was an adult since a lasso is like a noose. Look at the editing they did when Louie was beating up the Health Inspector in Pizza Pie In The Sky. Most of the editing was because the health inspector's tie was in a position to look like a noose. Of course they are going to edit that off Toon Disney's broadcasts. This also shows how low Seymour will stoop to make money as well; and seeing him do this to a child (albeit he doesn't know since Kit is in disguise); it's pretty cringeworthy.) We go to a pan shot of the crowd popping for more cruelty to the animals. Okay; maybe not. We see Moby splashing the crowd with waves as a sign of protest. Okay; maybe not. Then we go to the seal stage as Seymour arrives with his bucket of fish and the megaphone (plus his blue suit) as he addresses the crowd and calls it the wettest show on earth. I love real comments that aren't supposed to be real comments. We then see the seals and Sealboy Kit get onto their stands and Seymour throws a ball. The seals balance and pass the ball to each other; but Kit misses his cue (Intentional? Who knows. (Actually; it was intentional in the sense that Kit was looking to his left at the black octopus structure because that is where the clock is. He's waiting for Baloo to return with the SeaDuck. This makes sense actually.)) and takes a MAN-SIZED bump off the ball with a really nasty sound effect. OUCH!

The audience groins in sympathy pain as Sealboy Kit sees the wrong kind of stars. (Man; that plastic ball must have been made from concrete. A plastic ball is not like a metal chair in anyway; but the way it was staged still made me cringe, because the shot was pretty hard.) Seymour panics but recovers and throws fish at the seals. Everyone grabs them in their mouths; but Sealboy Kit hates raw fish and spits it out back to seal #3's mouth in a really funny spot. (I don't think Kit hates fish per se; he just doesn't like raw fish. I realize the irony of a bear hating raw fish; but Kit is half human you know.) Kit is carrying this episode on it's back now. (Kit does this almost all the time and most times; he does it in episodes that don't need him to do that. That explains a lot of the eighteen star performances Kit does in episodes that are much better than this.) Sealboy Kit looks up and sees the time at nearly three o'clock. (I think the raw fish made him get a case of nausea since his vision was out of focus on the shot with the clock shown. At least there was an explaination for the camera going out of focus unlike a lot of Z-Grade movies you often see.) Sealboy Kit tries to leave stage right; but Seymour catches him and brings out the clown horns. If you cannot guess what Kit does to Seymour next; you have no business reading this rant. HAHA! Seymour is pissed as he pushes the horns away and the crowd boos Seymour out of the building. HAHA! Kit is screwing Seymour up and I'm loving it. (Kit's biting the plastic on the clown horns and making the worst classical music in history is so priceless that it puts the piano teacher Jural and Caron Izzy to shame when they attempted to be this classically bad as Seymour said in the promo. Also of note; I have to praise Chargeman Ken on one thing: The Jurals' disguise as the piano teacher was much more convincing than Baloo's disguise in this episode. Seriously, I mean it.) Sadly; Sealboy Kit sees the SeaDuck flying overhead tries to escape stage left; but Seymour steps on his fin for some more cruelty. Sealboy Kit has no choice but to blow his cover right there by unhooking the flipper and Kit runs away stage left. (I'll give Kit this: Outside of him with his back against the wall; he played the seal part perfectly, even if he suffered a concussion and a bad taste left in his mouth. To say Kit has moxie is underestimating him in that department, considering that this is a kid who Dumptruck was shooting at, at point blank range and nearly got shot in the head in a scene that syndication was forced to cut out because it was too violent even for syndication.)

Seymour notices him right away and the henchmen follow. (Coming up from the right side of the stage behind him.) Kit finds the conveniently placed bucket of fish and throws it right on the floor. We get a pointless shot of the seals licking their chops, the heels all slip and slide on the fish on the floor and then they wrestle with the seals in a hilarious spot. Kit runs onto the plank; jumps, does a forward roll and lands on his ass right on Moby's head. The SeaDuck flies down, Kit takes off the fake seal nose, tells Dimple that it's him and orders him to jump like he's never jumped before. Dimple dives into the water as the SeaDuck takes a nosedive. We get a sky shot of Dimple circling the tank, then Dimple jumps into the air about hundred feet, the SeaDuck lands just above the tank water to grab Dimple on the way down and then flies into the sky as the crowd loudly pops for that one. Doesn't take much to amuse them, indeed. I'm betting Free Willy stole that spot from this episode too. (Yes; this is how Julia Jane booked in unspoken terms how Dimple escaped from the Seaquarium. This defies the laws of gravity and physics beyond a believable degree; but it looked really cool and awesome. I can take this as a cartoon as there are far more absurd moments in Darkwing Duck that make less sense than a whale jumping onto the roof of the SeaDuck. It's still absurd and easy to scoff at, though.) Seymour is pissed and proclaims that no one steals his whale. Now remember that Kit and Baloo are basically criminals for stealing Seymour's property. (That's true; however, the thing about this is: Kit and Baloo merely stole a giant whale who was mistreated and should have been free because in any other universe, Seymore's park gets shut down. Baloo and Kit went through every legal channel to get Dimple freedom and got screwed at every turn. Not only that; when they stole the whale, notice that no property damage was done. The only thing Kit did that was violent was make the heels slip and slide on fish; causing a pileup with the seals. In other words; there was no destruction of property with inpunity. They went in, save the whale, and got out without causing any damage whatsoever. That is how you keep your thieving babyfaces as babyfaces rather than heels. If this was done today; the whole seaquarium gets wrecked without consequences because in the exec minds, destruction of people's property is funny and kids only want comedy you see. It's so absurd that it just allows the exec's scoiopathic freak flags to fly.)

We go into the skies as we see the SeaDuck flying with Dimple on it's top as we to the cockpit as Kit comes in (No longer dressed as a seal; which makes me sad.) and hops into the navigator's seat. Kit proclaims that they did it; but here comes Seymour in his loaded helicopter with the harpoon banging on the side and calling them thieves. Well; he is right about that as Baloo decides to pay Inspector Burrough a visit and give him something to inspect. We see the SeaDuck fly into the city, towards the building where the conveniently placed Burrough (sans hat) is reading the Cape Suzette Tribute and having teas outside with the telescope on the window sill. The SeaDuck whizzes by just as he is drinking tea and Burrough blows it off; but Seymour's helicopter whizzes by and he gets scalded. HAHA! (Here's an important non-verbal cue: When the SeaDuck goes past Burrough, the wind whips and Burrough feels it; but he never sees the SeaDuck nor the whale. That is very important because when Seymour whizzes by and causes him to spit out his tea; Burrough goes over to the telescope and only notices Seymour looking at his scope through his harpoon. This means Burrough has no idea that the whale is stolen; but does know...) Burrough goes to the telescope and he sees Burrough using the Smith & Wessonoil double barreled harpoon being used to hunt an airplane. See; no one slips one of those past ACHOO. (So yes; Seymour was lying about the harpoon being legal as long as it was just a museum piece. Although; it doesn't matter now; because even if Seymour was telling the truth, he still used the weapon twice and once right in front of Burrough. Remember; Seymour claimed that as long as he doesn't use it to hunt and only shows it as a museum piece, it is legal.) Ummm; yeah. He spins the telescope around and runs into the building. We head to the island BEFORE HAPPY HOUR (sunset) as we see a palm tree wearing Dimple (I'm not fooled guys!) with the SeaDuck next to it as we zoom in and see Baloo fishing with bait along with Kit sitting down doing nothing for a rare change. (After being a glutton to making me laugh dressed up as a seal, he has earned the right to do nothing for the rest of the episode.)

We then hear the helicopter arriving as it lands right on Dimple's back just for one more slap in the face from him. (Although this was unintentional, of course since he doesn't know where the whale actually is.) He demands answers on where his whale is, Baloo and Kit play dumb as usual. Seymour is getting more and more pissed off as the white marine boat arrives with sirens wailing. Seymour demands action from Inspector Burrough about this. Burrough gleefully proclaims that he will as the plank comes down. Officer Malarkay and Officer Gridelman walk down and they arrest Seymour for illegal possession of a harpoon. UH OH! Burrough proclaims that he knew something was fishy. I betcha he will go back to the grounds and inspect it for real causing the inspector to arrest his henchmen for cruelty to animals. (He is going to have problems doing that since he cannot do another inspection on Seymour's property for another year according to the storyline; although that only applies to ACHOO. The police on the other hand...) Anyhow; the boat sails away and out of sight as Kit calls for Dimple that the coast is clear. Naturally; the palm tree is popped aside and he destroys the helicopter in the process by sinking it into the ocean. Dimple squeals and bounces as Baloo and Kit wave goodbye and shut the doors. The SeaDuck then flies away from the island and into the sky towards the sunset as Kit proclaims that he has the entire ocean to play in now free as a whale. We get one more shot of Dimple jumping through the water and squealing to end the episode at 21:17. Seymour still sucks; but the storyline doesn't as a whole as I love this a lot more the second rant in. And there weren't as many screw ups as I though there was . (Kit Cloudkicker saved this episode from being a thumbs down episode and it was still enjoyable the third time around mostly due to him; however, the writing was a mess as there were too many logic breaks in the process. The lack of physic logic in this episode was damning for it; but most of that actually looked cool in spite of it, so I can accept it for the most part. *** 1/2 (70%). Oh; and Seymour still sucks a dick after the third viewing, although I have mellowed out on him.)

THE REVIEW LINE

Maybe, one the better environmental episode you will ever see and this one actually improved quite a lot since I last ranted on it. The biggest problem was no longer Jade Animation as the logic breaks were few and the screw ups were not as bad as I thought they were; but mostly due to Seymour being a total piss ant. He was a cruel animal trainer with no redeemable qualities whatsoever. Even his henchmen were more creditable heels due to them doing most of the work while Seymour whips around and counted money. I still say that Seymour would have been better if he was seem as a desperate sad heel who was going to lose his business due to bad business of the depression and disruption rather than just being a heel to please PETA. (Yeah; but the way they did it doesn't offend me anymore. I'm more angry with the way Julia Jane booked this episode, most so with the Burrough/Seymore back pocket angle that went nowhere at all; which is a rarity in TaleSpin.) Still; Kit Cloudkicker literally carried this episode on his back and almost got to to thumbs up to boot. He certainly prevented the thumbs down thanks to the Sealboy Kit routine which shows that Kit is always game for embarrassment. I shouldn't be surprised; Kit did get tickled in the groin in Polly Wants A Treasure and RJ Williams sold it to the hilt. (I have said this before: Burials of serious Kit will never fail to make me laugh; most so when Kit looks like a jerkass himself.) The story was really solid; the animation better than I thought, Dimple was very good, Burrough was good enough (outside of the "grease the palms" angle that came out of nowhere and went the same place.) and Baloo was Baloo; except for one scene where he was Double Or Nothing Baloo. (Overall; this episode was a messy episode saved by Kit Cloudkicker being awesome!) So, we end disc two next with The Golden Sprocket of Friendship and then we start disc three with For A Fuel Dollars More. (We finally finished the first volume set of TaleSpin and I must say that I'm glad to finish it because the Disney subtitles for this volume were so horrible it's not even funny. It's a D- effort at best. Next up is Sheepskin Deep and then on the weekend of my birthday, I'm going to work on Bullethead Baloo to complete the third disc of volume 2. So we are down to eight episodes left.) So...

Thumbs in the middle pointing up for this episode and I'll see you next time.

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