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TaleSpin Books: The Old Man & The SeaDuck Comparisons

Reviewed: 04/25/2015
Additional Commentary: 10/12/2025

Welcome To The Wacky World Of TaleSpin Books, Part Eight!

Original Release: ??1991??

The Old Man & The SeaDuck. One of the most amazing stories you will ever see on children's television. Yes; there are a few notable logic breaks near the end of the episode. Yes; it featured the dread amnesia gimmick that everyone loathed because all amnesia angles are the same: Someone gets a concussion that causes memory loss due to a bump on the head due to some unintentional, but still reckless behavior and then comedy arises until they restore the memory by doing a second bump on the head. It's always brutally unfunny because making fun of people with brain damage is no longer funny. The Adventures Of Teddy Ruxpin got this whole angle right by using it to fuel Teddy reuniting with Burl Ruxpin after he went missing for ten years. No one thought it would be topped because it was never played for comedy. Although they also had Tweeg losing his memories and that was played for laughs, although Tweeg is a heel and did it to himself. Plus; no bumps to the head were involved in either case, so it wasn't nearly as offensive as it could have been. And then Libby Hinson came along and wrote this classic TaleSpin episode. Even though there were moments where they played it off for laughs; it often was funny because it didn't punch down on Baloo who had the concussion; the jokes were always at someone else's expense and there were only enough of them to not warm out their welcome, nor start to punch down. Also; the bump Baloo took was believable and violent, and the way they brought back his memories was awesome and believable. It was like Libby Hinson knew about concussions and their effects years before all of us did. Then there is that killer finish and ending that makes TaleSpin, well; TaleSpin. This episode was so great; that Disney did TWO adaptations of it. One of them was for the comics and adapted by Bobbi J. Weiss; the second one was this hardcover version. The hardcover version is of course marketed to kids under the age of eight, and so a lot of concessions had to be made to make the show lawsuit resistance so to speak and I am dreading the worst. How does this adaptation do? Let's rant on shall we...?!

The Old Man & The SeaDuck is written by Libby Hinson, and the hardcover adaption is done by Lee Nordling and illustrated by Vaccaro Associates.

Opening Moment #1: They showed the scene of Baloo on the red plane with Joe McGee. Joe's face has a bright shade of yellow on his fur, without any dulling of the color. He is also wearing a blue scarf, goggles and brown bomber jacket.

Page 1/2: The first major change is obvious as Wildcat is with Baloo and Kit in the Seaduck. There is no mention of Kit pointing out that Rebecca is going to be mad in this version or anything about Rebecca for that matter. (2025 Gregory Weagle Says: Wow! This is like "The Lost Cargo Of Kit Cloudkicker" all over again now that I think about it, only at least Molly Cunningham showed up for the final minute in Ducktales 2017!) Baloo is only drinking a container of soda and nothing else. Baloo was not steering the plane with his foot in the televised version. The hardcover version makes no mention that the mountain range was the cliff guns in the televised version.

Page 3/4: Mirkle Pass has been changed to Miracle Pass, but Baloo's reaction to the name is more or less the same. Much of the flying is compressed down for obvious reasons. Kit's expression in the hardcover version is priceless.

Page 5/6: Baloo's massive head trauma spot is completely changed. In the televised version; the metal black box at the back wall snapped off and whacked Baloo in the head. In the hardcover version had Wildcat going to the back as a net of coconuts get tossed around and one of the coconuts nail Baloo in the head. I don't get how coconuts do less damage than a metal black box. I'm certain coconuts; in spite of their hallow insides; the skin is still hard enough to cause a concussion. Also, this implies that Wildcat is at fault instead of Kit here. If I'm not mistaken; in the televised version, Baloo didn't make it through Mirkle Pass completely as they had to row the SeaDuck into Cape Suzette harbor. Here; Baloo makes it and then gets knocked out cold; while the televised version had him knocked out cold instantly after the shot to the head. It was also foggy in the televised version.

Page 7/8: Kit reviving Baloo is also changed; as Kit used a hotdog to revive him by having him smell it as if it were smelling salts in the televised version. Here; Kit simply sprays soda pop on his head. The dialogue was completely changed to reflect that. Unless there is notable dialogue; most of the dialogue was changed in the hardcover episodes of this series. Also; Wildcat takes over the plane in the hardcover version; since this is marketed for infants. Wildcat is also under stress as Baloo actually asks what makes Kit think he is a pilot.

Page 8/9: In fact; Kit knows right away that Baloo has lost his memories and has a big cartoonish lump on the back of his head, which was never there in the comics nor animated series. In fact; all scenes from Higher For Hire are completely gone; so we'll never see Rebecca at all. The dialogue of the crash course is pretty much the same as before.

Page 10-14: Yeah; while much of the dialogue has been changed or removed; the scene is more or less the same.

Page 15-18: Although the artwork is not very good here; much of the actual conversation with Joe McGee and Baloo; including the landing are for the most part more or less the same.

Page 19-24: Believe it or not; the televised version never actually revealed the name of the small town that Kit and Wildcat went to "hire" the jeep; but in the hardcover version, it is named Zambizi Flats. (However, the location was mentioned in Libby Hinson's beats scripts in the production of the actual episode! How about that?!) The license number of the jeep is 711211 by the way; I don't think it had a license plate in the televised version. Kit is sadly not on his airfoil with a rope attached to the jeep in this scene in the hardcover version; he's simply in the passenger side. Most of the next page is compressed; but the Legion Of Valor wall is more or less the same. As I noted earlier; Joe McGee has a much, much brighter yellow in is fur. Most of the spots from Joe's flying school -- which is basically TaleSpin answer to Goku's training with King Kai in Dragon Ball Z, only less absurd -- are there; but most of it is compressed and either shows the aftermath or in the middle of the spot.

Page 25-30: Again; the actual flying of the red plane sequence is compressed; but the spirit of the sequence is the same. Joe McGee's famous promo is kept; but the entire flashback Baloo has of his joy of flight is completely removed. In the televised version; when the memories of Mirkle Pass came back; there was a really neat, albeit Nightmare Fuel-ish flashback. In the hardcover version; it's merely mentioned. Baloo's trick knee is merely mentioned; but otherwise not shown . The rest is more or less the same; although the sneezing black pepper/garlic trick was replaced with an onion in the hardcover version. In a major shock; they kept the fake leg injury scene in it's entirely including McGee selling the left leg too. Also; the small town where Doc Cooper lives is in fact named Zambizi Flats.

Page 31-33: In the televised version; Baloo went through the airplane shaped entrance, but it was never Mirkle Pass or in this case Miracle Pass like it is in the hardcover version. Also of note; the hardcover version actually mentions the flashback that happened during the red airplane glider scene in the televised version. They moved the memories to have him remember the trauma BEFORE the good memories in the hardcover version instead of the trauma occurring AFTER the good memories. I prefer the later over the former, but either one is much better than the "second bump to head restores memories" spot. Heck; it's even better than the Crystal Memory Wipe/Restore from Teddy Ruxpin.

Page 34-36: Again; Kit is not on his airfoil in the hardcover version. They never showed Zambizi Flats in the hardcover version; which is probably because there was a church with an actual cross on top of the steeple in both the the televised version and the comic version. The first aid kit is removed maybe due partially Red Cross copyright methinks. Doc Cooper also looks different: In the televised version; Cooper had a yellow beak, while having a green beak in the televised version. In the televised version; Cooper's skin was a dark green instead of a brighter lime green, and in the televised version; Cooper wore a grey tie while wearing a red tie in the hardcover version. Yeah; apparently, little children only like bright colors. To be fair; there is nothing wrong with bright colors, but Doc Cooper wasn't colored that brightly on television nor the comics. The hardcover version is still acting like Mirkle Pass is part of Joe's flying school rather than being part of Cape Suzette.

Page 37-42: I'm going to say this and it's going to shock people: The final pages of this were about as convincing as in the televised version. With a few caveats: (a) The flashback of Joe's life is removed; but is mentioned. Most of the dialogue is there; albeit changed a bit. (b) Baloo thanks Joe in the SeaDuck in the hardcover version, instead of inside the hanger in the televised version, and the closing shot in the televised version didn't show a cloud looking like Joe McGee's face. That is that for Old Man & The SeaDuck. Like Captains Outrageous; it felt like a "use your imagination" version of the episode and a lot of the violent stuff was toned down, although coconuts probably wasn't a good move in hindsight. All the Rebecca stuff being removed annoyed me because this treats her like nothing and they wrote it as to stay away from Cape Suzette as much as they could. Thankfully; the comic book version is much more faithful than the hardcover version by a country mile and almost the same as the televised version in fact, minus some dialogue changes. Still; the main points of the episode were as faithful as they could be; so kudos to that I guess. Call it *** (60%).

THE REVIEW LINE

Well, there's another hardcover comparison done and rated. Again; it's really clear who the books were marketed to: small boys as there was no sign of Rebecca anywhere in this adaptation; and the violent head shot was toned down and made to look comical when it was not in the televised version. (Which nowadays would have been condemned due to CTE worries. Dramatic head shots are fine for storyline purposes, but not for comedy.) Nature of the beast I guess. Hopefully; I can find the "Mommy For A Day" hardcover because I remember that episode a lot more than Old Man & The SeaDuck. There is Her Chance To Dream left as well; and I might do that one tomorrow depending on if I find Mommy For A Day or not. Anyhow; next weekend, I'm starting the 25 Years Of Spin television episode commentary and editing of my re-rants from the 20 Years Of Spin for real since May 5th is on a Tuesday before this and I'll be doing three episodes: I Only Have Ice For You, Time Waits For No Bear and A Touch Of Glass. The added commentary and editing are the easy parts; it's the trivia notes and transcripts that will take up the most work. So...

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

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