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Double Or Nothing Re-Rant

Reviewed: 11/07/2010
Additional Commentary: 10/17/2021

The Downfall of Pop-A-Bear As A Likable Character.


Original Airdate: 10/24/1990 (Syndication), Episode #30 (TaleSpin DVD Volume 2, Disc 1), Episode #34 (Production Order).

Double Or Nothing Notes
Double Or Nothing Transcript

Here is one of those episodes that I was dreading since ranting on this series. (2016 Gregory Weagle Says: I have said that a lot in my career and that is mostly because I have seen many of the DTVA shows before and in my faint memories, I hated them at the time. Double Or Nothing is far from the worst episode in the series and I didn't dread this nearly as much as I dread Citizen Khan or Your Baloo's In The Mail; which had bigger problems than this one.) All DTVA shows have them... (All shows have one episode that defines the worst of the show; but this episode is not one of them, inspite of the fact that this was the worst Baloo episode ever.) and this one featured in my opinion, the real low point for Baloo. Not unlike the low point for Rebecca Cunningham in The Bigger They Are, The Louder They Oink. (WildCat's low point was My Fair Baloo. Don Karnage's low point was the end of the Raw Toonage host segment; although it was still funny either way. Kit and Molly's low point was Your Baloo's In The Mail; but that was because of the writing and pounding the slow joke into the ground at the expense of giving Kit and Molly good spots. As for Louie's low point; A Touch of Glass, mostly due to his sexism more than anything else.) So what is the problem with Baloo in this one? (Here is the plot for this episode: Baloo destroys record player with record which is his father's heirloom and is in mourning. He then discovers the last record in the world for a hundred bucks and he's flat broke. Kit notices this and works for his money while Baloo tries to loan money; but fails because Rebecca hates that song. So Baloo decides to play with Kit's "life savings" (I'll explain why this was in scare quotes later) in a double or nothing scheme to get a lot of easy money. However; Baloo screws Kit out of his money and also screws Trader Moe out of his despite neither one of them screwing Pop-A-Bear. You got that? I'll explain why I hated this and why Baloo was a total heel in this episode when we get there.) Let's rant on shall we....?!

This episode is written by Bruce Morris. The story is edited by Karl Geurs. (Just imagine how worse this would have been if there was no story editor; or Ken Koonce and David Weimers were story editing. Bruce isn't the worst writer in the world; but he did frustrate me in this episode.) The animation is done by Walt Disney Animation Japan (Inc.) with additional services done by Hanho Heung-Up Company Limited.


We begin this one with the windshield shot of the SeaDuck as Baloo is wiping the windows while humming to his favorite tune which he stole from Marvin in Normie's Secret Project in Rescue Rangers. (Okay; I get this show was a year after Rescue Rangers. However; in context, TaleSpin was set in a world that is fifty to sixty years in the past; give or take twenty years. So in practice; Marvin stole this music from this show. Of course, that is assuming that both the TaleSpin and real worlds are perfectly aligned with each other in terms of time. Yes; this explaination is a Gish Gallop and a half. However; I can suspend my disbelief for this.) I think that's the first episode of this series where they used stock music. Baloo is even using the SHANE DOUGLAS MOP OF DOOM which means that something bad is going to happen to something. The record player is on the right wing I should point out. (Nope; it's on the left wing. ) Needless to say; we head to Rebecca's office and she has her ears covered and looks parently pissed off. Rebecca storms out of the office and demands that the music be turned down; but eats water when she gets out. Rebecca storms up the ladder yelling at Baloo as Baloo wipes down the engines and Baloo thinks Rebecca loves it; so he turns the volume on the record player higher. (Which in the end; it sounded exactly the same, making Baloo look like a complete idiot. Whomever did the sound editing missed this little naunce.) Rebecca tries to blow him off and then we see them dance on top of the Seaduck just as Kit comes out eating an apple. Geez; that is a horror show: Seeing Baloo and Rebecca outclass everyone on Dancing With The Stars. (If this were today; Kit would have said: "Oh no; Baloo's auditioning for "Dacing With The Pilots" again!"; and the plot would be based off of that. That might actually be funny in the context of pleasing most people. It's not like Disney can get away with gritty plots anymore, am I right?!) That allows the record player to have a mind of it's own, it crashes onto the docks with a MAN-SIZED bump and the record plus player is broken into various pieces. (Nah; the bouncing effect caused it so it's all Baloo's fault for his stupid dancing and singing.)

I betcha Rebecca was HAPPY to see that happen. (I betcha she would prefer the Jonas Brothers over this song too. I don't hate the song; but it's still stock music from Rescue Rangers. They couldn't get Christopher L. Stone to compose an original piece of music based on the new music?) Baloo then drops down and starts to cry in order to gain sympathy heat with us because it's his father's record and it's his favorite song too. Well; it was Baloo's fault for putting the record player on the left wing in the first place. (Yeah; Baloo was extremely careless to leave the music player on the wing instead of putting it in the SeaDuck like everyone else would when it comes to car radios. Also of note; Kit is the one who says that the music was Baloo's favorite song. Again; I don't hate the song, but it's still stock music. Although in a way; it's still better than the lunacy record in Chargeman Ken where they used the same evil background music for the record. At least here; it's music from a different show transferred to this show.) Rebecca blows it off like a meanie. (She doesn't like piano music for some reason; even though by our standards, that's classical music. I mention this because later on in the episode; Rebecca claims to love classical music.) Baloo cries over losing the tune called: "I Got Them Flat Broke Sticky Shoed No Banana Boogie Woogie Blues". Jeepers; creepers. No wonder they used it in Rescue Rangers too. (Yeah; it fits Baloo well doesn't it?! Although, it would have fit perfectly if Baloo was wearing sticky shoes; or has the sticky soles of the feet like Kit does as per his cloudsurfing gimmick.) Rebecca calls it a tough break as she leaves stage left. (And does so in a sarcastic manner; although the sarcasm is subtle here. It's still noticable through voice inflication.) We go into the city of Cape Suzette as we zoom in and go to the sidewalk to see Baloo sitting on a fire hydrant as Kit tries to cheer him up; but Baloo shows no dice because that record was special see. I think Mervin might dispute that claim Pop-A-Bear. (I certainly would since it's stock music.) Then we hear some low volume version of the music as Baloo thinks he's hearing things.

However; Kit notices it coming from Scott's Antiques (I think. (Nope; it's just antiques.)) as we look inside as we see various stuff with just the record player animating next to the Christan Cross looking sword. (Okay; now you are looking for religious symbols in which there was none here.) It's the absolute last copy on earth (Yeah; I often call TaleSpin's world Earthia in my fanfics, so shoot me. (Memo to Karl Geurs: If you want to maintain the sense that TaleSpin takes place in it's own world (which it does), then you cannot use the word earth in the context of the world. Say "last copy in the world"; which Baloo already said earlier. Also of note: Since Walt Disney Japan is animating this; we get more Engrish as the sign says "Absolutely Last Copy On Earth". It's supposed to be "Absolute Last Copy On Earth"; which is exactly what Baloo said in the audio.) and it's a hundred dollars. I'm guessing a hundred dollars is a lot of money in 1937 considering that records cost fifty cents even in 1940. (Actually; I kind of figure this one out on my own. Since the record player was also destroyed in the first scene; I'm guessing that the record and the record player were the last copies in the world and thus they both came with the package. That would easily explain the price as well as lop off a logic break in that you have the record, but what about the record player (since it was destroyed in the first scene.)?!) Baloo is giddy and his toes are tapping already. Sadly; Baloo looks into his pockets and there's no money to be found which gets Baloo to be depressed. (He said this as he was checking his pockets instead of after. Not that it makes a real difference in the end; but the timing was a bit off.) He leaves wondering who would be dumb enough to lend him a hundred dollars in which Kit is stunned a bit. (He looks into the hard camera stunned which indicates that Baloo was implying that he is dumb even though he wasn't actually implying that Kit was dumb. In fact...) We head to the office of Higher...For...Hire as Baloo tries to sweet-talk Rebecca into lending him a hundred dollars. Oh sure Pop-A-Bear; try to ask for money from a woman who would love to fire you at a moment's notice.

I wonder if Baloo ever thinks his own plans through; even the small fry ones? (Even Rebecca is acting like this is BS; so she simply plays along in order to give enough rope for Baloo to hang himself.) Rebecca actually sells it by going into the drawer and the lock safe box to give Baloo a hundred dollars. See Baloo claims that it's for classical records and Rebecca does love classical music. So do I; why else would I like listening to Christoper L. Stone's soundtracks? However; Baloo screws it up by telling the truth leading Rebecca puts the money back in and blows Baloo off. HAHA! (Baloo basically said that he like music that has a beat and Rebecca realized right away that it was the banana song and killed the sale. It's a lot more subtle than 2010 me made it out to be and it was funny. The way Rebecca was speaking; it was clear she knew Baloo was trying to screw her out of a hundred bucks and she let him talk himself into a corner.) Rebecca goes to the window and makes me proud by commending Kit THE MIRACLE WORKER for asking to earn his money by actually working. We see outside the window as Kit is painting a fence and Baloo is horrified. (Yeah; because in a child's mind, work makes you a heel, even though in real life; earning your living and not being a chairty case makes you a big babyface. It's like cartooning is using the 1984 playbook in terms of getting characters over. While this show actually uses the real life playbook and understands how to make great babyfaces. Even if Baloo's going to be a total heel here.) See; in Baloo's world; work equals death. Or something. (Can you imagine modern cartoon writers getting their mitts on this promo?! Can you imagine the overdramatics and melodramatic acting and visuals to jackhammer the point home that Baloo hates work?! Making Baloo look like a pathetic scumbag while killing any sympathy for him. Look; you love to be wacky, I get it. However; when it comes at the expense of making likable and lovable characters, it's not worth it. Here; Baloo's pathetic; but he doesn't force the issue to the point of being totally unlikable. Besides; he'll become unlikable soon enough through his real actions rather than his promos.)

See; this is the multi-sided stuff Steet was talking about as we go to the closeup of Kit painting the fence white and Baloo grabs the paint brush proclaiming that work is a fate worse than being broke. Kit shows him the MONEY, MONEY, YEAH, YEAH and Baloo blows it off because it's only a dollar. Which would buy two records in 1940. (Yeah; try again Baloo. You look like a whiny wimp.) Kit then shows that he has forty-nine more in his pocket for the first logic break of the episode. See; this is WHY the 1989 pre-production designs with Kit wearing those awesome pocket pants were a good idea. Simpler animation my ass. (I concur.) Kit proclaims that it's his “life savings” and Baloo suddenly gets inspired as it's only half of what he needs to buy the record. UH-OH! Watch this episode quality drop now. (Boy does Baloo look like a scumbag idiot in many different ways: Kit is actually lying here as we see at the end of the episode; Kit wasn't saving up for his future life because he already has a home and even Rebecca pointed out it was extra money. Plus; what Kit brought was the exact same thing Baloo wanted, so it made Baloo look like an idiot on top of being a scumbag.) Baloo proclaims that this is Kit's lucky day. Baloo has a proposition for Kit in order to make some really easy MONEY, MONEY, YEAH, YEAH. Kit is forced to the tail section of the SeaDuck as he blows off Baloo for coming up with another screwball scheme. Baloo ignores him and offers to double the money he currently has; and Baloo gets the leftovers. Thus the episode title. (Yes; even Kit Cloudkicker is not convinced at all that this is nothing more than a get rich quick money scheme, only it's being done to a 12 year old kid. That's disgusting on Baloo's part. It's bad enough to do this to an adult; but it's amplified a lot more when the victim is under the age of sixteen. Maybe not on the level of doxxing a 12 year old boy because he's pro-vaccine; but it's dangerously close. I'm shocked Mr. Enter hasn't tackled this episode yet as an Animated Atrocity yet since this character derailment of Baloo at the expense of a child would be worthy material.)

Baloo asks Kit to borrow his fifty dollars to get started. Baloo backs up Kit into the SeaDuck and Kit says no; but Baloo tells Kit to trust him. (Yes folks; Kit said no, but Baloo still acted like he said yes. He's using the "Child cannot give informed consent" to his advantage even though in this case; the child is in fact informed well enough to know that Baloo is going to screw him out of his money. This is also disgusting.) Jeepers; didn't Baloo learn ANYTHING from Stormy Weather nor Plunder and Lightning? Even worse; that was when Kit was at fault; can you imagine how much less of an excuse this is now?! (Yeah; he comes off as a less creepy and more disgusting because Baloo is supposed to be the number one babyface of the show version of Dan Dawson, which was a character Baloo absolutely despies. You wonder why a lot of people were on Kit's side of thing when Stormy Weather happened and now are on Kit's side even more here.) I mean; Baloo looks like he's trying to kidnap Kit here. Baloo is not even thirty seconds into this scheme and I hate him already! (If Kit had say "Uh, all right, I'll give you the benefit of the doubt."; maybe this would be less disgusting, but Kit said no anyway. He made his choice and Baloo still didn't listen. Again; this turns Baloo into a heel who is using Kit to get what he wants even though in the end; Kit was going to buy him the thing he wanted anyway.) We get a shot of the SeaDuck flying past the Cliff Guns and out of sight without further incident. (Okay; I never understood why they needed to show the SeaDuck leaving Cape Suzette since they went into the SeaDuck anyway.) We head to an island country called Moola-Boola which is called the uncivilized trading center of the world. Which for some strange reason fits Baloo's personality really well. (Nothing strange about it; it's basically this show's version of an RPG trading ground.) The SeaDuck lands next to the fisherman's wharf-like dock and the engines are cut off. Baloo believes that with Kit's money and Baloo's brain they will clean up. Kit doesn't buy it as we cut to see a gray rabbit (with red shirt and blue overalls) fixing a gray seaplane. That seems to be out of nowhere; but with Magon around; I doubt it will go the same place.

My hatred for Baloo's latest Krackpotkin plan is clouding my judgment at this time. (No kidding 2010 me? Kit's not just being skeptical here, he's outright hating this plan.) Baloo and Bobo (Frank Welker) shakes hands and dance like a couple of idiots (what a shock?) as apparently they have met before. Baloo introduces Bobo to Kit as Baloo calls Kit his financial advisor which is another phrase TaleSpin put into popular use over the years. (Yes; Baloo calls Kit the financial advisor even though Kit gives zero advice in this episode. Although; he should say: "Stop this angle, now!" Also of note: Baloo calls Kit; kid a lot in this episode. Almost everytime in fact. That annoys me in a way because Baloo is implying that Kit is merely a kid who doesn't know any better even though at the end of the day; Kit was right all along that this plan was a terrible one.) Bobo steals the money as he greets Kit; but Baloo steals the money back which is kind of funny actually. (I like Bobo actually; even if he's friends with a scumbag like Baloo. Mostly because of two spots he does.) Kit is shocked, appalled and can only get out a hello. I should point out that Bobo is wearing a blue/white baseball cap that doubles as a cash register. HEE HEE! (Ah, there's spot number one.) Baloo and Bobo does a classic spot where Bobo gives out information one phrase at a time for a dollar which I got to admit was pretty funny. Sadly; it also pisses off Kit Cloudkicker off badly. (Actually; it pisses me off badly 2010 me! The joke here is that Bobo's advice costs a dollar per ten words or so; and over time, it is almost literally word for word. So Bobo's a scumbag swindler in his own right. Who is enabling who here?) We find out that the action is with a crimson red seaplane owned by Trader Moe and if they screw with him they are in deep mango peel. (The plane looks like it has Rebecca Cunningham's clothes color scheme actually.) Which is a nice phrase for "deep shit" I should note. (That would have worked better if Bobo had said "deep mango pulp".) Funny error: When they do the "cost per word" spot; Kit seemly doesn't run out of cash in his hands despite them doing it about fifty times. I guess Baloo stole the money back and put it back in Kit's hands. (No he didn't.) It's when it says "If you know what I mean"; Kit actually runs out of cash and Kit blows Baloo off.

Baloo then does the same “spend money to make money” promo Rebecca cut in I Only Have Ice For You. (Speaking of never realizing how bad that sounds...) They walk over to the docks as we go to the scene changer and see Trader Moe and the goons exchanging words and boxes. A word on the pacing: TaleSpin's pacing feels like I have watched six minutes of action; and yet in Fish Hooks; I feel like I spent double that in a span of three minutes. Moe has some animals (check the holes in the box) in the box as this has taken three months to gather. The goons try to grab it; but it slips and falls onto the ground with no damage caused. Trader Moe calls them stupid anyway and the goons agree; slapping each other with Trader Moe's hat. That is one devastating hat. (Not really; since none of the goons sold the shots at all. Maybe Dumptruck isn't the only one with a brain made from solid bone.) Trader Moe places the box into the wooden crate which is padded with red cushions and tells them to watch over it as he has lunch; remembering to call them peach pits. I guess putz is forbidden in 1990 which is funny considering A Baloo Switcheroo. (Or even Plunder and Lightning Part Four. Different writers with different interperations of BS&P, I guess.) The question I ask here is: Who are the heels in this episode? Because I'm sure Kit doesn't know either. Cannot say I blame him. (I concur. Trader Moe is supposed to be the heel; but there is no indication that he's doing anything heelish. In Time Waits For No Bear; he stole a crown using an elephant thief, and used Higher For Hire as a decoy. That was heelish. Trader Moe wanted to steal the Golden Sprocket of Friendship from Spigot. That was heelish. Here; he's doing trading. That is not heelish at all. In fact; Trader Moe is more honest than Baloo in this episode. Now granted; Trader Moe does a lot of heel move stuff in this episode; but that only happens because Baloo's the one who acts like the scumbag heel here. No one in story editing (and Karl Geurs is the story editor here) took this into account and it got green lighted. It's much worse when you consider that Baloo is the seller here. Moral Guardians rightfully should be angry over this because Baloo is acting like the heel; and Trader Moe looks like a babyface in this setup. It's so stupid.)

Also; we find out that he's going to trade them up north for ten big ones; which is one plus nine according to the goons. (Actually; one of them says it's better than nine.) Moe orders them to watch the box as he walks off stage right for lunch. The goons watch the box of course. See; simple instructions make for simple following. AHHAHAHAHAHAHA! Anyhow; we see Trader Moe storming off as Baloo and Kit are hiding behind wooden crate in the foreground (Something you don't see everyday in television animation...) as Kit is going to observe a master at work. Yeah; the master of screwing with Kit's life. I should point out that I would have loved to hear Kit say stealing is wrong; just so I can get a cheap shot in. Sadly; no dice as we return to the goons watching the box as Baloo walks behind the goons and plays mind games with the goons just to show how much brains they really have. Which is not much I should point out. (As much as I hate Baloo being a heel in this episode; his mocking of the goons is funny to watch because at least he's not insulting the customers here. I watched the Bubsy pilot and Bubsy kept jackhammering the point that Sid is stupid by insulting him for having a small brain. Look; Sid is stupid, we get it. Bubsy is the babyface and he acts like an asshole to the nth degree. Yes; Sid is stupid, but you don't have to rub it in. Baloo is acting charming and getting the goons to act stupid; so we can all point out that the goons are stupid. Bruce Morris at least knows that babying kids is going to have their audience turn on them. Bubsy didn't get the memo; doesn't get past the pilot stage. TaleSpin pasts pilot stage with flying colors and should have gotten a hundred episodes; but only gets sixty five. Still much better than Bubsy, Fluppy Dogs, Battletoads and the Wuzzles combined.) Baloo offers to pay the goons for the box so he can watch it instead and Rhino goon no sells because they are going to make ten big ones off of the box with Ape goon chiming in agreement. Sadly; Kit is right there with twenty dollars in his hands and Baloo steals it from him! UGH! (I concur because Kit was supposed to have zero dollars in the previous scene. So the advice cost them thirty dollars and this deal cost him the remaining twenty dollars. Again; we are supposed to boo Trader Moe because Baloo swindled the goons out of their money? Seriously?))

They get twenty big ones which is double what the boss is going to make while waving ten bucks in each hand like a fan. (It looks like he's paying them in two dollar bills actually.) Naturally; the goons sell without getting the point of this screw up. Baloo walks away as he asks the goons about the location and they do the Hack & Slash routine on the location which is up north. (I just realized that Baloo asked them in order to cover up the probability that the goons would figure this out had Baloo not asked where Trader Moe was heading. Baloo might be a scumbag; but he does know how to hedge his bets as we'll see later on.) We see Baloo walk away with the crate in the same background as before (no big deal since he's going the same way as Trader Moe anyway. (And the docks are designed where they had to walk to the right in order to get to the SeaDuck anyway, so I'm fine with this.) ). We go to the scene changer as we get a shot of the red plane and the SeaDuck flying away into the sky as Trader Moe is pissed off of course. We head inside the plane as Moe has the Gruffi pose on full blast. The goons chuckle because they show twenty bucks to him. Moe grabs the bills and invokes the WRAITH OF MOE on the lug nuts because the box is worth ten thousand dollars! Ooooooooo...If you look up dumb in the Earthia dictionary; you will see these two goons. (Moe is so mad that he is also an idiot because he rips up Kit's twenty dollars as well. He could have used it for extra gas. What an idiot?! It won't be the last stupid thing he does too.) Moe asks if they have any idea what is in the box. See; Baloo really isn't trying as we return to the SeaDuck as Kit opens up the box and sees that it's a box of worms. But not any normal worms. They are black belt karate worms! TOTAL MARKUP CITY FOR THAT SPOT including the karate worms dancing, punching and chopping around. (What is this about TaleSpin being so rooted in reality that it should be live action? I get that CGI can easily make this work; but this was 1990. Besides; live-action is way overdone even then. Also of note; the worms actually speak, albeit in grunts. Judging by the sound, it sounds similar to Zipper The Fly from Rescue Rangers. I would assume Frank Welker does the voice; but Zipper was voiced by Corey Burton, so I don't know what the story is.)

It's sad that Baloo is ruining the experience for me; because otherwise; this episode is pretty good. Baloo closes the box (animators did a coloring mistake on Kit's feet I should note on one shot) as Kit gets flustered (He calls Baloo crazy. BWHAHAHAHAHA! Projection much there Kit Cloudkicker?) because he spent fifty dollars on a box of worms. But Kit; they're black belt karate worms! They got to be more expensive anyway. (Besides; Rebecca bought truffles at fifty dollars a pop; and you were instantly amused by it.) Baloo tells Kit to trust him -- while doing a sloppy job petting his head -- because they are going to make big bucks off of this. I should point out that both Susan C Mitchell and I noticed that Kit has a hard time trusting adults because many adults screw him and someone else who didn't deserve it. I have a feeling Kit's past is starting to come back to him at this point. Just wait until later on when R.J. Williams really starts to feel it. (R.J. Williams was awesome in this episode. Yes; the episode revolved around Baloo's terrible behavior; but R.J. Williams' performance made up for it in spades. I swear Kit was going to get a heart attack and stroke in this episode, at age twelve no less!) Baloo wonders how to sell the black belt karate worms. We head to the north pole, at least here; TaleSpin is in it's very own world so anything goes. HEE HEE! (Actually; it's the Land Of The Midnight Sun as per Pizza Pie In The Sky; so this is their first appearance on this show.) The SeaDuck lands next to the town of igloos. Kit blows Baloo off for claiming that this is the road to easy MONEY, MONEY, YEAH, YEAH. Strangely; I didn't realize that the SeaDuck had added skiis on. I guess WildCat added those to allow the plane to glide on ice. No logic break there; just weird. (And we would never see them again in this series. I guess a custom L-16 has multiple landing gears for different landing conditions. If only real life planes had this...) Anyhow; we go to a scene changer as we see Kit and Baloo in front of the SeaDuck as Baloo has the box and he pets Kit on the baseball cap again. UGH! (There were a lot of scene changers in this episode. I think there were 21 scenes I had counted in the transcript; with two or three scenes not included since there was no talking in them, so I couldn't count them.)

See; it's all part of the Krackpotkin plan see; as the circle of spears circle the babyfaces. (Just like the prototype opening they showed on Disney Channel before the series aired on Disney Channel; only it's on ice instead of a incomplete jungle.) Kit asks of the polar bears with blue fur coats being part of the plan as we see the polar bear chief (red nose; light blue fur coat – voiced by Jim Cummings) walking forward noticing that Baloo is not Trader Moe. Baloo gives the chief the black belt karate worms and everyone cheers for victory as the polar bears get some worms and they fish with them as the karate worms do some karate moves below the ice water off-screen and out comes about ten fish from the broken up hole in the ice as they land in the fish basket placed on the ground out of nowhere. I guess dynamite is the PETA safe method of fishing. AHHAHAHAHAHAHA! POW! OUCH! Ummmmm... (This was a really cruel scene in a way because we never saw the karate worms again; only the fish in the basket. So they implied that the karate worms died inside the stomaches of the fish (acid bath no doubt) as their punching and chopping to their deaths caused the fish to fly up into the baskets. PETA thinks fish are people too; so there is no safe method of fishing in their eyes.) The polar bears are HAPPY as the polar bear chief shakes hands with Baloo and decides that they deserve a reward. Well; they have enough fish for winter which filled the customer needs. See; Baloo's plan worked after all as even Kit Cloudkicker is impressed with this. Polar Bear Chief offers a hundred dollars and Kit is impressed with this as he wants the money and to leave. Kit prays and even hugs Baloo's right arm. (Once again; Kit was completely skeptical about it at first; but when it was shown that it did work; Kit was hugging Baloo and even apologizing to him. Sadly; he's gonna wish he didn't apologize...) Baloo no sells it and is unsure. UH-OH! (Actually; this is a smart move on Baloo's part because Kit would get all the money and Baloo is left with none. So I'm perfectly fine with Baloo not being sure about it.) Polar bear chief raises it to two hundred dollars. Kit is loving this.

Now here is where the episode goes south on me: Kit gets double the money as promised from Baloo which is a hundred dollars; Baloo gets a hundred dollars which is enough to buy the last record. That should end the episode in any other universe. So what does Baloo choose? If you said the reward they were “really” going to get which is none other than Sparky The Half-Pint sled dog; you win the no prize. I suspect this is the reason why Bruce Morris never did another episode for DTVA after this. You cannot say stupid without Stu. (Actually; this is not the dumbest thing Baloo could have done. Baloo must have figured that "there must be sales tax on this product." Which is a rational response; but as we'll see at the end, there was no sales tax on the product. However; this is a case of Baloo hedging his bets more than anything else. It's when he repeats this is when the episode really goes south and makes Baloo look like a real disgusting fatass bear. Oh; and you can't say stupid without Stu would have been better if Baloo was called "Stu". He isn't. Not funny 2010 me.) We return to the SeaDuck cockpit to see Sparky in a cage on the floor and Kit is blowing Baloo off for that one. Ah Kit; when Baloo said that they were going to clean up; he meant screwing you out of your money silly. Not to mention make himself look stupid; you hyper and Bruce Morris look like an idiot. (If the idea of this was to wreck R.J. Williams' vocal chords; then bully to Bruce Morris for doing that since the voice actor is also twelve years old. That's also pretty disgusting and why we have child labour laws in this country too.) Baloo tells Kit to trust him as this is for big buck as Baloo asks for the next location and the polar bear chief states that it's Maswitch Village (Disney Captions has it as Maswich Village which is close enough. I think the name is supposed to be "Morewich Village" since mas is Spanish for more. And when you consider the amount of cats in the next scene, this makes sense; although it should have been called Nomaswich Village. ) which is where they need the dog. (I should note that the polar bears all speak like Magica in Ducktales; with slightly broken English.) Baloo starts the engines and waves goodbye and flies into the air away from the polar bear igloo village. We then see the Rebecca Cunningham style seaplane land on the ice and Trader Moe apparently saw the SeaDuck fly away and Trader Moe goes nuts on the goons inside the cockpit. I was tempted to call this logic break number one; but I guess he knew the deals beforehand.

Trader Moe then pushes some buttons on the plane and we cut to a shot of the seaplane in full profile uncork the machine guns (!!!) and they fire about a 0.3 Trigun and cause some smoke (AND THAT'S BAD FOR YOUR HEALTH & MOVIE RATING! Good for preserving fish though – gives evil look to the entire Fish Hooks cast. (I don't know why you hate Fish Hooks so much. I reviewed the show and it was fine. Yes; they killed the heat of the show by jettisoning the Oscar/Angela angle; but the show wasn't horrible. Pickle And Peanut is much worse than Fish Hooks ever was. Although P&P at least had "1990's Adventure Bear" going for it.)). As it clears, the seaplane goes through the big ass hole in the ice made by the guns. HAHA! We cut back to the cockpit as the seaplane sinks and the whole plane is taking up water. Trader Moe and the goons are oblivious to everything as I say: If he needs new goons; Hacksaw is always available. AHHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! POW! OUCH! Ummmm... Trader Moe drowns on his promo and that ends the segment ten minutes in. (Wow; Trader Moe is so stupid that he pushed the stupid button before the goons ever did. No wonder Trader Moe was done after this episode outside of one appearance in the comics. Yes; Baloo is a scumbag swindling idiot who takes advantage of the informed consent law to screw Kit out of his well earned money. However; Trader Moe is doing stuff out of frustration and making himself look like an idiot in the process. Think about it: If the episode centers around just trading stuff and then the chain of deals ends back where you started with the calm exchange; why bother chasing them? Just simply go back to Moola-Boola and wait until they come back with the clams, cash it in and then steal the money back from them, since it was YOUR deal to begin with. Why bother going through all the trouble you are about to see later on. This annoyed me. Of course; the problem is, kids just want comedy, so Moe has to be stupider than his goons in order to pull it off. And you need to pad the running time somehow. If Baloo was swindling Louie; this wouldn't be so scummy since Louie is scummy in his own way, but this is a child we are talking about. Normal people will feel bad for Kit Cloudkicker and hate Baloo for this. Which is bad since Baloo is your number one babyface and the guy Eisner is trying to milk. Thank goodness Bruce was never allowed to darken DTVA's doors after this episode in anyway. That being said; R.J. Williams performance is awesome and I love Kit anyway; so I have no problems booing Baloo in this episode. None whatsoever. )

After the commercial break; we head to Maswich Village as the SeaDuck lands on the docks which is overflowing with cats. Now watch the ultra sick joke commencing here as we see Baloo and Kit come out through the side door with the caged Sparky The Half Pint Sled Dog. Baloo proclaims as they move the cage out that they wait for the locals to pay them big bucks as Kit blows him off because no one wants a dog in cat heaven. Seriously; I think that's the first time a child has ever said heaven on DTVA. (I might be right on that subject too. I think Kit was supposed to say "cat haven"; but he ab-libbed it. Great; it's just like "you see" in TNA promos. Originally; it was Just Joe and now it's spreading like Swine Flu. Although in this case; it made more sense to not ab-lib. Also; I don't get why this is an ultra sick joke unless you are talking about the sick joke played on Kit by Baloo on this own "life savings".) Sparky then sees the cats and he sees blood as he struggles in his cage and breaks free like Hogzilla did in The Bigger They Are; The Louder They Oink. Nice selling by Kit and Baloo to grab on the cage to stop Sparky; but no dice. All hell breaks loose as he either chases the cats out of town or slaughters them and buries them in shallow graves (judging by the amount of dirt that flies in that sequence to follow off-screen. (Ummm; he chased the cats out of town. If he had done the later, there would have been way too much evidence of blood and guts on the ground; which there were not. Even Walt Disney Animation Japan would have left something other than dirt, even a collar.)). The town is empty as Kit wants to get the hell out of here, but they are stopped by a lion mayor and his panther aide (who's carrying Sparky). Baloo indirectly admits that the dog is his (basically he says that he didn't see Sparky be so spunky in his life even though he only had the dog for two scenes at the most) and the mayor is happy because they are allergic to real cats and Sparky got rid of them. The Mayor of Maswich even remembers to sneeze to sell it. Yeah; a bunch of anthro cats (most of them lions I might add- Wonder if this is where the MGM lion from Lionhearts came from? (Nope.) ) are allergic to real cats.

Like I said; this is just a sick joke to amuse Bruce Morris because even he knows that this episode is being jackhammered to the ground. (Really? I was amused by this. Logic wise; this shouldn't make sense since they are cats. However; furries are half human so it is possible for you to be allergic to yourself. In fact; the mayor in this scene still had a huge cold after this; so even though he can breathe again, it's only relative.) The villagers cheer for their new heroes as the mayor of the village decides to award Baloo five hundred dollars for his troubles. (2020 Gregory Weagle Says: This joke would be revived for Ducktales 2017 when Penny was gravely offended for Dewey feeding a real seagull with popcorn. To be fair: I was not a fan of Peppa Pig feeding the ducks in the early series, which became a massive angle for Mrs. Duck to gain her revenge on Peppa for bleaching her feathers white in "The Golden Boots".) Kit demands that Baloo take the money and walk away; however, Baloo screws Kit again by taking what Trader Moe was going to get as a result. That officially makes Trader Moe the babyface in this episode and Baloo the heel. UGH! (This is exactly where Baloo turns heel in my eyes! Kit has a hundred dollars and Baloo has four hundred dollars! Baloo has enough to buy at least three records and record players. In other words; the episode should be over! However; because Baloo is a greedy bastard, he has to continue. Now if he had said in a whisper that: " Hey, maybe I can buy back the SeaDuck and kill two birds with one stone."; I could see that in a way. But the problem is; it's $10,000 while the SeaDuck is at least ten times that! So it doesn't work and it kills Baloo as a babyface. This is getting really scummy now.) We go to a shot of the engines of the SeaDuck as Kit is flustered again beyond belief. Man; R.J. Williams's acting is awesome at this point; he really sounds like he is going to hyperventilate at this point. We head into the cockpit as Kit is in the navigational seat trying to calm down as he deduces that they are going to sell the six dozen umbrellas to the rain forest. Baloo states that it's wrong because they are selling them in the desert and Kit groans in such a fashion that somebody forgot to tell R.J. Williams that he isn't supposed to act as the SeaDuck flies away. (Yeah; because vocal chords are a terrible thing to destroy.)

We pan west and see Trader Moe's seaplane touch down on the water. We then go to the scene changer as we see Trader Moe upset with the goons behind him because they are in town with Sparky being in the doghouse literally. (Also of note is somewhat of a major faux pas on the background artist's part: The village is mostly a regular fish village type area on a lake. However; in this scene, there seems to be a section of town that contains a Western theme in the middle of a lush forest with a lake beside it. This is a hilarious continuity error on Minoru Nishida's part here.) Trader Moe is PISSED as he blows off his goons for being at fault here and gets off this gem:

Trader Moe: If you two were any stupider; you'd fall off the world!

Trader Moe's hat gets involved as the goons slap themselves with said hat and blow each other off just to amuse me. Sparky gets mad and growls as the “heels” get the LIGHT BULB OF BLOODY CLAIRTY and run away stage left as Sparky chases them. I see he hasn't got enough gator meat in his diet yet. AHHAHAHAHAHAHA! POW! OUCH! Ummmmm... So we fade to black and we head to the desert as we land in the city of sand so to speak. They haven't named the city yet which is very sloppy for Bruce Morris at this point. (The most interesting part of this is that there is a midair stone bridge connecting the area between the western area of the sand and the area where Mondo Bobo is. There is no sign to say where this is; so I have no clue where we are right now.) We head into the city as we see Baloo and Kit walk in with the six dozen umbrellas. I notice that there is a sign that reads "Olympic Diving Competition" which becomes important in a few moments. They head to the line of competitors which are all hippos I should point out. (Why only hippos is a mystery to me since there's no indication that this is a qualifying round for the Olympics for that country. They should have added it as one of the stips to winning the event; even if it's a pointless one.) One of the hippos, who is clearly injured. (Remember the injuries for later because no one in animation knew what they were doing. Bad sign #1: The injured hippo was wearing a black/yellow striped short on the far shot; and then it changed to an orange/yellow striped shirt on the closeup. This is Chargeman Ken-equse style sloppiness. Also note that he has a black eye, bandaged head and a right arm in a sling.), tells us that the object of the game is to dive off the cliff; get a perfect ten and the one who does gets to marry the chief's daughter and get the chief's inheritance. (And you thought professional wrestling/sports entertainment was a terrible occupation?!) We head to the actual diving -- complete with a hippo in a grass skirt invoking the gong -- (Oddly; he and the chief are the only two who dress up this way. I'm guessing this was supposed to be a jungle setting; but someone figured that it was too generic and went for a desert which somehow was an improvement in their eyes?)) as a healthy hippo jumps off the hill.

We cut quickly to the chief's hippo daughter who looks pretty cute eating grapes as the hippo takes a huge MAN-SIZED off-screen bump on the ground. See; there's no water to break their fall if you know what I mean. And you thought this stupidity was limited to Nick cartoons. I guess that's why the Nick cartoons don't work anymore. (The problem is not that they do something stupid. It just that in Nick cartoons they do stupid stuff for absolutely no reason; thus giving us no reason to care about the characters doing it. Here at least; there is a motive (actually two) to do this stupid stuff. So at least I can feel sorry for these guys having to do such a stupid thing just to get a decent payoff of it.) The hippo only gets "2" for his trouble as the daughter yawns, which is probably a stock yawn voice. (It might be Sally Struthers for all we know.) Yeah; Bruce Morris is trying to keep this weak episode afloat with Spongebob SquarePants stuff ten years before it got over. (Actually; outside of the animators being wonky; this was in a way funny.) The injured hippo thinks he can beat that as he jumps off the hill and we quickly cut to see Baloo and Kit watching in horror. I see a logic break here because he was at the end of the line. (That's fair; but that's not the worst of it. The most hilarious part of this is that he teleported over and as he teleported he now wears a cast on his right leg and a cast on his right arm. This implies that teleporting him broke his arm and leg literally. As stupid as this is as a logic break; I couldn't help but be in giggling mirth.) The hippo lady gives him three point five and Baloo protests this outrage. (Baloo's protest is a thing of beauty as he claims that it's at least a three point seven. As if an extra point two would make a difference since that hippo is in the lead. Unless Baloo saw a scoreboard and it shows the leader is a three point six or something.) Then another logic break ensues as we see Baloo and Kit still at the end of the line. Someone forgot to have an animation continuity checker for this episode. (I'm lopping off this logic break. Yes; Baloo and Kit were at the front of the line when this happened (not the end like 2010 me claimed); but they walk away from the line anyway so it meant nothing as a logic break.)

Baloo and Kit decide to go to the castle as we cut to see that Trader Moe is actually one step ahead of them as they tie up the chief (who looks butt naked and a hippo) and gag him as they hide him behind the throne chair. Trader Moe dresses up as the chief and the goons play his guards see. We then cut to see Baloo and Kit enter the palace which is made of solid rock. Baloo states that they have umbrellas for sale and Trader Moe wastes no time in revealing himself and wanting to kill them ("fix a plot in the local cemetery" which is basically a death reference #1 for the episode. (Trader Moe pretty much blew his cover the moment he called Baloo and Kit intruders.)); so he sics his two guards as Baloo and Kit figure it out that it is Trader Moe. Well; that was quick and dirty. (Also of note is that Trader Moe calls the area Mondo Bobo. Ironically; seven years later; this became the name of a 1997 Croatian film directed by Goran Rusinovic. The plot of the film: Bobo, a young man, kills two criminals in self-defense. Acting on his lawyer's advice, he turns himself in, but ends up in a mental institution. He then escapes and meets up with his girlfriend, but she is killed in a police shootout. With Bobo on the run, the police start a manhunt which also attracts a great deal of media attention, including an ambitious journalist who follows the chase. Bobo then barricades himself in an abandoned house and takes a woman for a hostage. So yeah; a very unusual film to say the least.) We go back to the cliff as Ape Goon and Rhino Goon carry Baloo and Kit above their heads with Trader Moe close behind which proves to be a stupid move on his part. (Yeah; I would have kept my disguise and stayed in the throne room; but then again, this is the same Trader Moe who sank his own airplane into the water in a shooter's rage so there you go.) Kit is flustered a bit for this turn of events (and R.J. Williams still continuing to act like nothing before) as Trader Moe want the goons to throw Baloo and Kit over the edge. Baloo agrees with it and Kit is SHOCKED to hear that.

Baloo thas a plan for this: If Baloo and Kit are thrown over the edge; they win the contest and get rich. Kit sees this as a way out and decides to play along with Baloo. (Now I know what you are all thinking: Kit has an airfoil; he can be thrown overboard and all he has to do is open the airfoil, save Baloo and land safely. There are a number of problems with this idea. Problem #1: If Kit saves himself and lands safely; he wins the competition. Why is this a bad idea? Because Kit has to marry the chief's daughter. It says so in the stips. Can you say child groom?! Children cannot give informed consent to marriage and everyone will hate you for booking such a spot. Problem #2: Even if that stip is broken or waived off for Kit: If Baloo lands safely with Kit in tow; then Baloo has to marry the chief's daughter and that's bad because there's no reason for it. It's less disgusting, but it still makes no sense. Problem #3: As with problem #2; Kit cannot steady himself with Molly Cunningham on board, let alone Baloo. They will crash and get broken limbs and probably lose the competition anyway. So in other words; Baloo and Kit cannot even be involved in anyway to this event, but the heels can because the heels are supposed to look stupid in the end. Plus; no one is going to feel sorry for Trader Moe if he has to marry the chief's daughter.) Baloo tells the goons to put them down gently, grab his boss and throw him over the edge for the win. They sell it like mad and grab Trader Moe (who has a red umbrella) and throw him over the cliff while Moe protests this outrage. Okay; that was great as Trader Moe opens the red umbrella with great difficulty and manages to float down. That gives the hippos -- who look like something out of Babar -- an idea as they grab black umbrellas, which is the second coloring mistake of the episode (And how did they get the umbrellas? I know Trader Moe took a number of them with him near the cliff.) and they float down. Trader Moe is forced to dodge the heavier hippos as the lady princess hippo is so impressed, she raises the marks up to nine from a five as she is impressed that they didn't MURDER themselves.

Baloo takes that as Trader Moe is losing badly and demands that the goons help him. (So if you want the answer to the question: If everyone jumped off a cliff; would the goons do it too? Answer: Of course. They had zero problems throwing their own boss off the cliff previously.) They sell and jump right off the cliff, which is the ultimate death wish for Trader Moe as the goon grab onto him and they free fall faster with the umbrella getting shredded of course. (I just realized that the whole umbrella thing is a parody of Inspector Gadget's 1980's cartoon in which the umbrella inverts about 90% of the time in the show.)) This causes them to create a carter sized hole and an off-screen MAN-SIZED BUMP in the process. This would normally kill them in real life; however, the goons manage to pull Trader Moe out of the hole as the hippo lady gives a perfect ten to Trader Moe. The hippo lady smiles and Trader Moe is forced to flee from her in a panic. So sad; they would make the oddest couple in this series; or basically the Hoppo-Croc marriage that would NEVER happen. Okay; that sequence was great, I'll grant Bruce that at least. (I got to admit; as dumb as this whole thing sounds, at least it had a reason, a motive and some really nasty bumping going on; so kudos to the writers to make this not suck.) We return to the palace as Chief Mondo Bondo is sitting on his throne (with new duds no doubt) thanking Baloo and Kit for the gift because now they won't break their legs as a result. The chief is voiced by the late Howard Morris whom passed away in 2005. Baloo states that it was nothing of course. The chief agrees to give Baloo a reward of a thousand dollars which Kit Cloudkicker is so HAPPY to see. Sadly; I'm not because we all know what is going to happen next as Baloo states that they will take whatever Trader Moe was going to get and Kit is flustered beyond belief by that decision (R.J. Williams sounds like he's having a stroke on THAT one. He squeaks on that one as if his voice was konking out at this point. This had to be done with more than one take. It just has to. I refuse to believe R.J. Williams has extremely weak vocal chords.).

We cut to see the SeaDuck flying away from Mondo Bondo, which starts with M like in money. (In fact; Midnight Sun, Maswich Village and Moola Boola all start with the letter M too. So it's hardly an accident.) Kit is becoming completely delusional now and I'm continuing to hate Baloo for putting Kit in danger just for stupid plans like this one. Kit's trying to invoke rational thought into this is so funny that I'm bursting with laughter and sadness at the same time. It involves using six clams as fish transmitters in Bambezi. That's not the funny part though; Kit's acting is the funny part. (R.J. Williams must have been swindled once in his life before this episode was voiced by him because I swear he's acting like he's knows how to overdramatically sell the entire stupid plan Baloo is selling to us.) Baloo calms him down because six clams in Moola Boola equal ten thousand dollars (which is exactly what Trader Moe was saying earlier in the episode. (And that's fine because Trader Moe told his goon this after they were swindled by Baloo and Baloo was long gone by the time Moe said the line.)) as we return to Moola Boola docks AFTER HAPPY HOUR (after dark) as we see Kit Cloudkicker and Baloo with a sack of the money as we see Kit and Baloo very happy that they stole all of Trader Moe's hard work. However; Trader Moe and the goons hide behind the boxes (that looks contrived to me) as Baloo and Kit try to return to the SeaDuck and they point their guns at the babyfaces. I don't think Toon Disney cut this scene out as Baloo and Kit raise their arms.

Trader Moe takes what is rightfully his (Since it will cover the cost of the funerals.) and decides to execute them -- while we see clear shots of pointing guns on both closeup of Trader Moe and the far shot of Trader Moe and his goons while they laugh -- by throwing them into the volcano at dawn to end the segment nearly seventeen minutes in. OUCH! (Personally; this is stupid because if Trader Moe was smart; he would have tied up the babyfaces and locked them in the cage; but he doesn't here, making him look stupid once again. To be fair though; I think making them swan dive into the volcano is a lot more gruesome than killing them with guns; and it would be fitting revenge for Baloo tricking them into throwing their boss over the cliff in the previous scene. And if they don't swan dive, then you shoot them to death and throw them into the volcano. Same result; same revenge. So this is brilliant on Bruce's part actually.) What's funny is that Bruce Morris actually had a clue during this scene since we clearly saw a volcano in the background during this sequence. (Sadly; the animators forgot that it was night time and during the closeup where Baloo and Kit were hauling the moneybags towards the docks when they were cut off by Trader Moe and company; the background appears it be sunset. At least this can be blamed on Nishida and not Morris in this case.) Well; Baloo is finally going to get what he deserves for his stupid Krackpotkin plans. He screwed Kit out of his money and stole what was clearly an honest job by Trader Moe. (2020 Gregory Weagle Says: Geez, I sound like a heel wrestler commenter on Youtube after that crack. Again, to the people who think I hate Baloo: This is how Baloo was booked in this very episode and by taking his side, you endorsed his disgusting actions. First rule of arguments: Don't make one that tells more about you than the argument.)

After the commercial break; We get a shot of the docks and then we pan over and we head inside Trader Moe's seaplane as he relishes the moment that he will MURDER the babyfaces inside a volcano at dawn. Kit and Baloo are inside a cage I should point out. He tells the goons to guard the money as he decides to go to sleep in the cockpit. The goons sell as Trader Moe leaves making sure their machine guns are set to profits underneath the shelf where the sack is. Kit is angry beyond belief as Baloo wonders what went wrong. (I should also note that Kit is sitting the exact same way he sat in Plunder and Lightning Part Three after he stormed to the back after revealing he was an Air Pirate. That is generally a bad sign that he hates Baloo now. And why shouldn't he? Baloo swindled him out of their money and Baloo swindled three goons who had machine guns. Even Bobo was telling Baloo to stay away from them and Baloo didn't listen; and now Kit is the innocent bystander who thought he was getting his money back and now has no money and probably will lose his life by dawn. I don't blame Kit at all for yelling at Baloo. Not at all. ) Kit shoves Baloo violently (and a really good shove too as Baloo is pushed back quite a bit as a result.) as he yells at him because he trusted Baloo in the first place and Kit suddenly relapses into the character that is afraid to trust adults. Can you really blame him? He EARNED his keep and Baloo screwed him out of it. Baloo apologizes for the whole thing, like that's going to work (I'm going to give Baloo this: At least the second Kit shoved him and got rightfully blown off; Baloo didn't blame anyone but himself for his transgressions. Most modern cartoons would have babyfaces blaming everyone else, including blaming the victim themselves, turning them into unlikable heels. I'm guessing that most writers do this because they cannot imagine someone apologize genuinely and getting forgiveness for it. Ummm; you should not expecting to gain forgiveness for anything. You are apologizing for doing something wrong and you promise to work hard so it never happens again. At least Baloo got it.) ) as he starts to tap his foot as that music is giving him another Krackpotkin plan. (Yes; he got a plan from hearing the music he loves in his head. Here's the thing: I realize that Baloo hasn't really learned his lesson from this; but Kit doesn't have a plan of his own and is probably wanting to see Baloo die anyway for his sins. So Baloo has to come up with the plan.)

Kit doesn't like it already (Doing his usual S-grade acting job, since R.J. Williams is ON today.) as he's probably thinking of returning to Don Karnage at this point; if he gets out of this alive. Baloo continues to dance and knocks on the wall and wonders who it could be. Gorilla Goon and Rhino Goon sell it as if there is someone at the door. (However; the goons actually use their brains and not answer the door even though they were not commanded to not answer the door. I should also note that Trader Moe told them to do something smart for once and they did. So kudos to the goons for at least forcing Baloo to think smarter, not harder.) Baloo continues the mind games as the Rescue Rangers stock music continues to play in the background. Baloo produces a white piece of paper which contains a telegram for the goons and it is for free dancing lessons. The goons walk over and look confused as they have taken the bait. Hey; they are the goons, what did you expect?! IQ higher than a paint chip? (Well; they tried at least and got taken in by the professional scumbag.) The goons actually sell and they drop their machine guns and take the golden key and unlock the cage. (Why did Trader Moe give them the key? That's really stupid.) Baloo and Kit walk out as Baloo lets go of Kit and decide to dance with the goons. Kit doesn't know what to make of this as Baloo and goons start dancing below the sack of money which is on a wooden shelf. The bouncing by the goons causes Trader Moe to return to protest this outrage and he's forced to dance with the goons. Way to make the animals kick ass, guys. (Oh, don't worry, they'll shoot Baloo and Kit's ass after they recover from getting knocked out by the huge money sack. Trust me on that one, this show is very violent even by Disney's already violent standards.) Rhino goon even calls himself a soul man at one point I should point out. (I think the original music was going to be the music for the Blues Brothers "I'm a Soul Man"; but Disney couldn't get the license nor rights to the music for some reason. So they recycled a piece of music from Normie's Science Project. Shame, really.) Baloo stands back as the plan actually works to perfection with the wooden shelf breaking. Trader Moe and his goons are knocked out by the big ass moneybag. Baloo grabs the sack of money and leaves blowing off the goons.

Baloo and Kit leave the red seaplane with the moneybag as Kit thanks Baloo for actually coming out with a great plan for a change. So he's back into his new character again. That was pretty out of place for him. (Actually; the plan worked and even Baloo stated that they aren't out of the woods yet. So Baloo at least has toned down the cockiness of his behavior, so baby steps of progress are showing.) Baloo and Kit walk on the docks but Baloo claims that they aren't out of danger yet as Trader Moe and the Goons recover and Trader Moe's urge to kill is rising as he goes to the red seaplane's cockpit and start to open fire on the babyfaces with the cannon and the machine guns. Geez; Baloo actually didn't sound stupid for a change. He still grates my nerves though. (This scumbag tendencies is what grates my nerves. Sure; he has a lot of lovable qualities; but he also has a lot of hated qualities. One being in this episode where he swindled Trader Moe who did nothing to deserve it other than: He's the heel. He deserves it. If the heel doesn't act like a heel; then no, he doesn't deserve it. The goons were being stupid; but that's them, and they didn't do anything to deserve it either. Being stupid doesn't make you an automatic heel. If you believe that; then you might be a vile heel as well.) Baloo and Kit are forced to duck the gunfire as one shot actually hits the moneybag and money pours out slowly. Kit gets to the SeaDuck as Baloo cannot run faster as more gunfire ensues. It's around 0.5 Trigun at this point as a portion of the dock is blown to bits. (In an amazing moment; Toon Disney didn't bother to cut out Kit dodging bullets nor the machine gun itself. So if it's not manned, it's okay to show it; but if a police officer uses it, it's edited out. Moral Guardians; how does this makes sense? We all know the answer: It doesn't. Shut up for once! It's not all about you and your whims. You might claim that it's not all about you; but you act like it is about you when you act stupid like this. Stop it!) Bobo isn't going to like this and he appears to tell Baloo that he would help him create a miracle for a price which Baloo doesn't like.

However; more gunfire nearly kills Baloo's head (by about a foot) and Baloo decides to give him the money in response. (Not all of it; since as we'll see there was still at least a hundred dollars left in the bag.) Kit panics on cue as he waves to Baloo as he enters the SeaDuck with the bag nearly empty as Baloo starts the engines and the SeaDuck flies away from the island of Moola Boola. Trader Moe tries to fly away in order to catch the SeaDuck; but his hope chest is gone as the plane gets completely destroyed due to a steel cow chain being wrapped around the plane and the dock. Trader Moe and the Goons do a nice Warner Brothers trademark spot (All Rights Reserved) before dropping into the water below. We then cut to see Bobo kissing the money next to a wrench. That was just awesome and hey; he did help a friend even if he's on the greedy side, he ultimately kept his word. (That's the second spot I loved from Bobo.) Scene changer and we return to the SeaDuck as Baloo comments on how tough that easy money was. Kit is flustered as he asks if they got anything left in the moneybag. Baloo finds a hundred dollar bill and gives it to Kit; double the money as promised. Kit is happy and decides to give Baloo the rest of the money in the bag which comes to two cents as the SeaDuck returns to Cape Suzette. BWHAHAHAAHAAHAHAHA! Serves you right Pop-A-Bear. This is the one time where BS&P did the right thing here. Too bad we had to go through silliness that didn't always catch. (Personally; I thought all the spots out of context were in fact funny and Trader Moe is supposed to be stupid at the end of it. However; in order to find this funny, you have to accept the disgusting thought of having Baloo screw Kit out of his money for his evil greedy scheme that involved poking the damn gator with a machine gun. It's both awful and stupid all at the same time. When I'm feeling bad for Trader Moe more than I feel bad for Kit (because as you noticed; once he got back to Moola-Boola and discovered that Baloo's plan worked; he was happy beyond belief for him even though the money belonged to Trader Moe.); that's not good writing.) We return to that wooden fence as we see Baloo painting it white which is a great moment for me as payback for screwing Kit out of his money. Sadly; it's the same fence and yet only a quarter is done; instead of 3/4's like the one Kit was painting. (Yeah; that was a rare dumb logic break. Would have been better if it was completely re-painted and Baloo then had to do the second coat on his own, which would have been believable.)

Baloo doesn't see the work as bad; but it is missing a beat. Kit runs away stage right and as if it was on cue the Rescue Rangers music starts up again and Baloo starts to move. Baloo looks to his right and sees the record player complete with the record playing as Kit surprises him because that what he was going to spend his hard earned money on in the first place. (Yes; Kit lied about the live saving part so he could surprise him in giving him the record player because he likes the song too apparently.) I know Kit is not a neopist; but COME ON! He screwed you out of you money; and you pay him back with the thing that caused all this trouble?! Damn you Bruce; you should have just let the episode end with Baloo painting the fence. (Kit was planning this all along anyway and lied about the life savings part as part of the surprise. This makes sense actually. Plus; he was happy when he got the money and no longer held a grudge against Baloo. This is actually great character development for Kit actually in that he is slowly trusting Baloo more and more in spite of him screwing up. Yes; he screwed Kit out of his money and put him in danger. However; this is Kit Cloudkicker we are talking about. Once you have "ex-pirate, ex-terrorist" and ex-hobo on your resume and realizing the damgers of being these things; even Kit would realize that holding a grudge for endangering your life is pointless when they both love each other in spite of that. The relationship is not toxic; so I think you overreacted there 2010 me.) The dancing continues -- as the fence is knocked down -- as Rebecca once again is annoyed by the music. You know who to blame for this one. Hint: It's the one who's very tough and very ticklish. (I concur. Remind Rebecca to tickle Kit after this episode is over. Oh; and the reference 2010 made was related to what Dora The Explorer said to Boots the monkey. So there you go.) She tries to invoke the WRAITH OF BECKEY on Baloo; but she gets white paint in the face and a knocked down fence for her trouble. That is one weak fence, I tell ya! Baloo continues to annoy Rebecca with their dancing on the zoom out sky shot of Higher...For...Hire to end the episode at 21:13. Baloo's antics were bad; some obvious logic breaks and the entire plotline was too thin to be taken seriously. However; Kit Cloudkicker carried this episode kicking and screaming with his acting and the diving sequence was awesome. Thankfully; Baloo improved after this episode by the way . (I watched this again; and I'm giving it *** 1/4 (65%); mostly for the ending and a few lopped off logic break I don't see anymore. Most of what 2010 Me said was accurate; but I thought the plot was fine. The problem was that it involved a 12 year old kid getting swindled. To be fair; Kit Cloudkicker is one of those characters where informed consent law is thrown out the window; but still, an adult doing this to a kid is disgusting. It's like doxxing a kid actually.)


THE REVIEW LINE

People wonder why Baloo is the least over major character in the series. This is the episode I point to. As I said in the old rant: In all honestly; it wasn't so much the easy money/greedy angle that bothered me because Baloo's Krackpotkin plans actually worked to perfection this time. It was because Baloo actually STOLE from the competition. Trader Moe may be a bad guy and he shouldn't have solved his problem with killing Baloo and Kit when the babyfaces was caught red-handed; but Baloo deserved to face the consequences for stealing Trader Moe's honest work. (Again; I concur. Just because Trader Moe is a heel doesn't mean you are allowed to become one.) In the end Baloo started with fifty dollars and ended with two cents. In short; he got exactly what he deserved for trying to get easy money. (Plus; Bruce at least did it without screwing Kit in the process for a cheap laugh in something you shouldn't laugh at.) The part that really got my goat was that the money he used to start this joke was with money that Kit EARNED from HARD WORK. This episode proved that Kit is not a charity case and therefore he will earn his keep to prove to everyone that he is a good kid despite his past dealings. (Plus; painting a fence is not dangerous and thus informed consent is not neccessary. Besides; Kit is awesome at painting the fence and he could painted the TNA Asylum in his spare time. I refuse to believe Jeff Jarrett did that, even if it is true.) While I hate Baloo for what he did; the episode was pretty decent with a few coloring mistakes and a few logic breaks. It wasn't awful by any means and some of the silliness was pretty good, although those plot devices are now being used to death by Nick as an excuse for Business Standards And Practices. (Actually; it's because of SCIENCE~! You cannot argue science 2010 me. Even if it's designed by execs which makes it not science.)

Also, the obvious problem was that the episode should have been over at the ten minute mark with the black belt karate worms (Which was an awesome plot device if nothing else...) because Baloo could have bought the record RIGHT there with two hundred dollars. (Actually; I was fine with the first one. It was the one with the umbrellas at the 12-13 minute mark that angered me more. Yeah; I know there was no tax for antiques in this show; but thinking about the sales tax is a rational response in decided to raise the stakes a bit. It's after the second time that it started to get bad.) However; the SLEDGEHAMMER OF PLOT took over and it degraded into silliness so much that Baloo turned into a heel and the heels into tweeners with guns. Still; in spite of this, Bruce didn't break logic much nor the stuff that was silly was crappy. It was just silly and the whole episode made Baloo look vile and greedy because it was his best friend (who happens to be a child). This works a lot better in Save The Tiger where Shere Khan has a lot of money and therefore there is no sympathy heat on him to make me hate Baloo; but to be amused by it. (Plus; Shere Khan and Rebecca are adults as well, so I can watch them get screwed without seething in anger like this episode did with Kit getting screwed.) That's why this episode is the downer episode for Baloo; and not Save The Tiger. Next up is Feminine Air which is now known as the infamous sexist episode complete with cross dressing and someone named Mary Lamb. (Coolhands Luke is the definition of a WASP to a T. Anyhow; the next episode I'm going to transcribe will be War Of The Weirds. By the way; I almost forgot: Since there were machine guns involved; we are 42 for 53 in terms of the guns being pulled out. War of the Weirds has a lot of guns and Toon Disney cuts; so it's 43 for 54 in terms of guns being pulled out. And to think; I will be finished two volumes worth of TaleSpin episodes with that episode. Great!) So...

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

 

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