Return to 50 Webs

Disclaimer#1: All images, characters and material is (C) 1990/1991 Walt Disney Company and is being used without permission. The web master has made sure that no money was made in the creation of this web page and that all material used here is used with the up most affection and respect to the Walt Disney Company and the Tale Spin Team.

Disclaimer#2: The views expressed here are solely the views of the web master and no one else. The web master has no intentions to change anyone's minds about a particular subject and respects the views of the viewers. Comments about this and other editorial can be E-Mail at gweagle@eastlink.ca or signing the Cloudkicker guest book.

TaleSpin Comics: Baloo's First Plane/A Piece O'Da Action/A Night On The Town Rant

Reviewed: 09/24/2016
Additional Commentary: 12/30/2025

Welcome To The Wacky World Of TaleSpin Comics, Part 15!

Original Release: 11/00/1993 (Baloo's First Plane), 03/11/1991 (A Piece O'Da Action), 08/00/1991 (A Night On The Town) .

Well; we have reached over the halfway point of these comics as we have more random comics to review. (2025 Gregory Weagle Says: This time, it's mostly Baloo-focused.) We start as Baloo finds his first plane and turns it back into it's own self while fending off Khan's offers to buy the plane for parts. Then from there, Baloo and Rebecca go out for dinner to improve morale while Kit and Molly go joyriding in the SeaDuck. YIIPPPPEEEE! Kit finally gets to fly the SeaDuck full on solo now! (This joyride doesn't end well for Kit Cloudkicker by the way.) Then we see Baloo, Louie and Kit turn "heel" in order to stop mobsters from destroying Louie's business. "A Night On The Town" debuted on Disney Adventures Volume 1.10 in 1991; "Baloo's First Plane" debuted on Disney Adventures Volume 4.01 in 1993 and "A Piece o'Da Action" debuted on Disney Adventures Volume 1.05 in 1991. How do these stories fare? Let's rant on shall we...

A Night On The Town is written by Jim Bricker and artwork done by Jorge Sanchez and Carlos Valenti. A Piece o'Da Action is written by Doug Gray and artwork is done by Carlos Paura and Jorge Sanchez. Strangely; I have nothing on Baloo's First Plane in terms of writers nor artwork. Strange. (The mystery has been solved. Baloo's First Plane was written by Bob Langhans and artwork is done by Jose Massaroli and Ruben Torreiro.)

Baloo's First Plane: We begin this one in an airplane junkyard somewhere in Cape Suzette. (IT'S UNCENSORED BABEE!) Baloo has an airplane part on his person and it's for the SeaDuck. You know Baloo's a desperate bear when he has to find a part for the SeaDuck in the junkyard. (Ah, the pitfalls of a combination of not enough money and making your plane custom to the point where it's unique.) Kit in inside a wrecked brown plane as he's role playing being a pilot outwitting Blackheart pirates as Kit addresses the plane as a Sharkfire XT150. (Considering that we have multiple gangs that are considered "pirates", I wouldn't be surprised if Blackheart is the regular water pirates.) Baloo turns around and instantly marks out on the plane as Kit explains only a dozen of these were ever made. (Which would have been quite common in 1937. Planes are not as common as car in any era.) Kit tries to get the pilot's door open. However, the latch is stuck. Baloo tells him thump it three times just behind the handle as Kit figures this will never work. (Remember that Kit and Baloo's personalities were based loosely on Rocket J. Squrriel and Bullwinkle in a proposed reboot of that show before the proposal was canned since Disney only had the broadcasting license to the show, not the license to actually create the show!) However, since Baloo is not Bullwinkle; the door opens and Kit is claiming that this popped his props. Baloo then comes in and notices that this plane was formally his as he addresses it as Clemetine (If this made television; the name would be changed since Clemetine is also a woman foreperson in "Citizen Khan".) Baloo uses his back to open a trapdoor on the ceiling while Kit calls Baloo's acting weirder than usual. Baloo gives Kit the grand tour as Baloo calls the Sharkfire XT150 is the hottest plane ever, end of discussion. Kit asks why he gave it up and Baloo explains -- via a pin-up photo of a young Baloo wearing a green sweater bomber jacket and hat standing next to the plane -- that he was young and wild. That was an understatement, Pop-A-Bear! He lost Clemetine on a bet and lost track of her. (See, gambling is a terrible thing. At least he didn't get killed by someone because the dealer didn't make a bet at all.) Baloo and Kit leave the plane as Baloo gets out his money and runs towards the Junkyard Office because he's going to buy Clemetine.

Kit questions this because Rebecca gave him the money for the spare parts. However, Baloo claims that he'll deal with Rebecca on this. (I don't think Rebecca is going to be amused by this misdirection, Pop-A-Bear!) We cut to inside a hanger as Mr. Khan and a green sweater dog nose walking inside. Khan explains that he has heard of Baloo's old Sharkfire as the dognose's name is Ridgly and calls it a pity that Ridgly didn't beat him to the punch on this. Ridgly claims that it might not be too late on this. I'm going to hazard a guess and say Ridgly is the junkyard owner. Although, the artwork in the hanger makes no sense with anything else here. That's because the next panel shows Khan in his office loading his briefcase with dollar bills from a wall safe, blowing off Baloo for being a crass bruin as he hates wasting time on tedious and small affairs. Khan wants to take Clementine apart and uses the parts for renovations. The dialogue itself is all right; but the shot continuity is shot so to speak. Several weeks later -- and painting the Higher For Hire sign green -- we cut to the docks of Higher...For...Hire as Clementine is at the docks looking brand new after Baloo scrubbed it clean and dry. Geez; the SeaDuck was at least a gender netural name; but Clementine isn't. (Even thought Baloo addresses the plane as a "she/her" in pronouns.) Baloo really has no life as Baloo explains that he was cutting his teeth on his pilot's license when he flew this thing as he calls it a beauty. Yeah; a feces colored plane. He is so full of it as Kit and WildCat are watching on. (Are you saying that Baloo's partying doesn't count as "having a life", former self?! Pfft, whatever.) Out comes Rebecca with the broken part of the SeaDuck asking WildCat about the spare part and Baloo about the petty cash, in that order. WildCat answers that he was working on a new plane and Baloo tells Kit that it's time to play the old charm on Rebecca as Baloo gets on Clementine's roof. Rebecca is already blowing him off for spending company money on an overgrown toy. BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Compared to the SeaDuck?! Really, Miss Cunningham?! (The FCC would like to have a word with you and Kit about that model SeaDuck Kit was carrying in "My Fair Baloo.") Baloo calls his plane "real history with wings attached" and a plane he learned how to fly in. (The second one is believable. The history part: That's bullshit!)

He also claims that his first daring wing walk high over the Swocky Mountains as Rebecca asks what good is a stunt plane for cargo deliveries. Which is odd because the plane looks like a smaller cargo plane in the artwork. Kit claims that this would bring in free publicity when Baloo flies it in air shows and almost claims that he would fly it. HAHA! Kit is such a rascal that no one is fooled. Rebecca walks off with a deed and proclaims that she'll sell it at a profit as Baloo blows her off for being as sentimental as a mud puddle. Geez; I wonder why. I mean; if it was out of Baloo's pocket, then I can understand Baloo not liking this. However, it was out of Rebecca's coffers. So, Rebecca's attitude is justified once again. (Once again, a babyface does not think his cunning plan through. Baloo is such a leech.) In comes Ridgly and two furries who just appear for no reason as Ridgly does all the talking here. Ridgly asks about Clementine and Kit is already protesting it. However, Kit gets cut off as Ridgly proclaims that Khan would like to buy the plane for the parts and he'll get a lot of money for it. Baloo proclaims that Khan has a sense of humor and has cracked the joke of the year in thinking that he would sell Clementine. Baloo no sells the deal, of course. Ridgly claims that Khan will not be pleased; but Baloo blows him off by telling Khan to sing songs until the morning ends. Of course! We head to Khan's office on the phone as we get Khan totally out of character looking angry. This frustrated me with the comics because the non-televised stories always seem hellbent in making Shere Khan look like an angry man even though his character is supposed to be calm as a cucumber. (I mentioned this before: It's okay to have Mr. Khan be a full-on heel. However, you can still do this without making him look like an angry manchild. Being a manchild is BALOO's gimmick!) Khan basically proclaims that Baloo will learn that a chain is only as strong as it's weakest link. In this case; it's Rebecca. The lines are fine; but the artwork is not. He calls Rebecca at her desk answering the phone. It took me a while to realize this: Khan is doxxing Higher For Hire by undercutting Rebecca's quotes for a client she was speaking to and hangs up in disgust.

Khan is such an asshole; but this is no surprise. WildCat comes in as Rebecca is angry and WildCat basically explains that Baloo wouldn't sell Clementine and loves it even more than fishing. And the fish laughed all the way to the bank.. The Fish National Bank. AHHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! POW! OUCH! Ummm...Fish Hooks was a fine show, get over it dumb critics of the world! (The rejected Rhinokey jokes are only getting you hurt now, get over it former self.) Baloo enters and Rebecca blows him off for not telling her about this, almost calling Baloo a miserable bastard. Baloo proclaims that he refuses to sell his youth to a cold-blooded bark scratcher like Khan because he was going to chop it up. (Wait, I thought you were supposed to find a part for the SeaDuck?!) Clementine belongs in the sky as Rebecca rightfully points out that he bought the plane with company money and issues an ruling: Either accept Khan's offer, or the plane is coming out of Baloo's paycheque. (That actually sounds reasonable to me.) Kit then brings up that they can make a fortune in airshow and sees the plane as a big draw. Rebecca ponders it over as Baloo proclaims that there is an air show next week and he'll prove Kit's idea is great. Rebecca agrees to the terms. However, if he doesn't draw money, then he'll be paying for that plane out of his paycheque for the rest of his life every week. This causes Baloo to gulp. Okay, then. We head to Khan's office as Khan is at his desk with Ridgly. Mr. Khan blows off Rebecca for not selling the plane and has a Krackpotkin plan to screw the babyfaces over and that is that. We have the air show on a mountain side near Cape Suzette as everyone except Rebecca and WildCat are dog noses watching on. Again; this is the usual "artists have never seen the actual TaleSpin world and they defaulted back to Uncle Scrooge/Donald Duck's world to compensate instead of actually watching the show carefully". (Geez, you are so toxic, former self.) Clementine takes off as the front looks like a brown face, how bigoted of Baloo to do that. Baloo's in the cockpit flying with Kit as the navigator as he is loving this. (That won't last long, I assure thee!) Two Khan fighter planes fly in as Baloo realizes them right away and it's time to dogfight. (That might be a new record actually.) We see a lot of absurd flying from Baloo, which includes moves such as Vertical Ascent Loop-de-Loop!

I was hoping that Kit would say "For Fifteen cents" just to prove where I stole that promo from. This is followed by the Quintuple Snakeskin Vortex. That last move literally rips the rivets out of the orange Khan fighter plane and destroys it. (In a surprise; it's piloted by a dog nose instead of a black panther.) More shooting bullets as they are now shooting to kill and don't care as long as Baloo doesn't have Clementine. (I'm done counting how many times the guns get pulled out. That's because I have made my point and the special days are even less in these comic stories.) More dogfighting ensues as one of them manages to shoot Clementine and Clementine is out of control. Clementine goes into a nose dive as Baloo claims that Clementine has an emergency airfoil parallax thruster. He pulls the lever (JESUS~!). However, it doesn't work and Clementine completely crashes into the ocean and breaks apart. Now; here's a logic break: Kit and Baloo are unhurt in the crash; but the artwork shows no signs of parachutes. So, neither of them abandoned the plane. This makes no sense and they teleport onto the docks unharmed. STUPID! (SUZY SHEEP~?! That scene should have killed both of them! ) The Khan pilots fly off giving up as they pretty much got what they wanted because we never saw Khan again since he started his plans. Baloo sniffs as Rebecca apologizes -- since the plane was a big draw -- and WildCat tells him to cheer up because he'll see Lambie again and Kit corrects him. Kit then asks him what the hell is he talking about. (WildCat must have been a time traveller to the future since Lambie is a Doc McStuffins character.) We head inside the office later on as Rebecca is being annoyed by a scale model airplane of the Sharkfire as Kit explains that the Air Museum accepted the restoration of Clementine so even though it cannot fly anymore, Baloo can still visit it. Rebecca is perfectly fine with the restoration. However, Rebecca blows off the model airplane as the model flies in the window and crashes through the glass of the upper window. Baloo grabs it and is giddy about all this to end the story. This was a good story marred by space constraints and terrible logic breaks at the end. I really like that they are putting back stories into these characters; but they need to work on shot continuity and making artwork make sense. *** 1/4 (65%).

A Night On The Town: We begin with Baloo looking himself in the mirror in Rebecca's office. Is he finally going to admit his faults and work hard to correct them?! Of course not! He's scheming for free food because he's broke and he's going to waste away despite being well over five hundred pounds. Louie, of course doesn't accept buttons and lint for banana specials. Didn't Baloo have a tab?! (This actually gets resolved in the end of an unused story that finally got it's release in 2025. I'll leave the title of that story as an exercise to the reader.) I guess Louie is tightening up that aspect as we see Rebecca at her desk wearing her white shirt reading papers. Baloo then gets the LIGHTBULB OF BLOODY CLAIRTY. Normally; I use the term as sarcasm for the obvious plan. However, in this case: when Baloo gets this; there is literally a light bulb in a thinking balloon here. So comically corny! Baloo goes over to her desk and makes small talk as Rebecca tells him to go away because she has things to do. Baloo does the all work and no play promo. Baloo tells Rebecca that Higher For Hire should buy dinner because of all the hard work they do, and use it to improve moral and productivity one hundred percent. Rebecca is looking in the filing cabinet looking surprised. Jump cut to Baloo at the door opening it as we see Kit sitting on a chair reading from the blue book. Baloo claims that Kit and Molly will be fine as Molly is lying on Kit's right leg. (Baloo thought that Molly would act as the binder to keep Kit tied down. How wrong that assumpation was in the end of this story?!) It's currently supper time as Rebecca grabs her blue coat and both her and Baloo walk out as Baloo thinks he can taste those juicy steaks now. DA DA DAAAAAAAA! The adults leave as Molly wakes up and Kit proclaims that he's sick of studying and has read the book front to back. (I betcha he did not and wants to fly so badly...AGAIN!) I'm guessing it's a flying book as he doesn't want to wait until he's sixteen to fly and can do it right now! Kit asks Molly if she wants to fly with him and Molly is loving this. Kit goes over to the door and notices WildCat walking towards the SeaDuck. He ponders over what to do and then yells to WildCat for help because his favorite wrench is sick and needs a doctor. WildCat calls him Silver and runs off around to the boathouse as Kit and Molly practice the fine art of not being seen and get into the SeaDuck with ease. Oh; this should be fun.

Kit starts the engines and takes off with ease and without incident. (This is the old "kid drives car" plot that seems to happen at least once a year on the news and while it's amusing, it's also very dangerous. Don't do that!) No bumping into anything. Remember that for later. (Yeah, this is not going to end well for Kit at the end.) We head to a restaurant as Baloo is at the table with Rebecca. Baloo has his hat off and is eating mash potatoes because he loves it. Rebecca comments about him not tasting the food first and then Baloo notices the SeaDuck in the air right away. Baloo panics and tells Rebecca that he needs to leave and use the bathroom (The little pilot's room according to him.) Baloo cannot believe Kit would try this out. I'm guessing that this is either a prelude to Flight School Confidential or a denouement to it as he needs to stop him before he hurts himself. (It's better off as a prelude since a denouement would imply that Kit hasn't learned his lesson and that would be bad in the moral guardians eyes...) We get Kit flying the SeaDuck over the city as Molly tells him to go faster and Kit doesn't think twice. You knew Kit would get bit by the flying bug beyond just studying about it and co-piloting with Baloo and WildCat. Speaking of WildCat; we head back to the docks as WildCat is attending to Silver his favorite wrench. Awwww, my heart melted! A taxi arrives and Baloo gets out demanding answers to this outrage. WildCat actually thinks Kit and Molly are sick. Oh; they are sick all right, they contacted "Maximum Overflying Syndrome". AHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! (A lot of moss for a bad joke by former self.) Baloo grabs WildCat in shadow and runs off stage left to find another plane at once. WildCat tells us that the SeaDuck is in need of repairs. Uh-oh! Baloo then stop and turns around saying: "What?!" (This is the point where any sympathy I had from Kit Cloudkicker was gone. If the plane was fully repaired, I would be amused by this and take Kit's side. However, Kit lost this because he ought to know better than to steal a plane that is being repaired. The SeaDuck is a possible death trap now!) We head inside the cockpit of the SeaDuck as the SeaDuck is grinding like crazy. (Uh-Oh! Kit might get so wrecked and he and Molly might in fact die!) Molly wonders what it is as Kit doesn't know; but it doesn't sound good.

Molly wants to go back to the docks and that is probably a smart move as Kit agrees with her. However, he is thinking that the steering wheel is shot and the engines sound awful. He's wondering where Baloo is as the SeaDuck goes into a wacky nose dive; which somehow causes Molly's seatbelt to snap and she is now wearing a parachute for no reason whatsoever. WHAT THE HELL?! For goodness sakes, if you are going to BS&P the moment at least show her wearing the parachute pack beforehand. (This is straight out of an anime dub, I should point out.) Kit turns to the side and panics like crazy. Molly is literally hanging from the SeaDuck door with the parachute; screaming for Baloo as in comes a green airplane with Baloo piloting in the cockpit with WildCat. Kit is screaming for the controls to work. However, there is no dice as Baloo tells WildCat to take over the controls. Baloo grabs Molly on the way down as Molly is literally hanging onto the parachute and calls Baloo "uncle. That was weird. (She must have been concussed.) Baloo tells WildCat to tow the plane and WildCat flies and allows the parachute rope to be attached to the green plane and the SeaDuck is towed back to the docks. The final panel of this story shows WildCat holding Kit -- implying that he was trying to bail out from facing the music; but failed -- as Kit fully apologizes for this. Molly is completely dizzy as Baloo shakes Kit and blows him off for making him worry. I don't blame Baloo for this and Kit really should have known better than to try to fly the SeaDuck at his age. Also, even if he was sixteen, it was irresponsible for him to fly it without making sure the SeaDuck was repaired first. Yeah; this was a denouement as WildCat goes into the office and yells at Baloo because the phone is ringing and it's for him. Baloo discovers that it's Rebecca. Baloo sweats and panics as he's in trouble. The final shot is a black dog nose waiter with a blue phone asking Rebecca at the table in the restaurant if she wants anything else. Rebecca wants a frying pan in a large blundering oaf size and to step on it. Yup, she got left hanging as usual to end the story. I cannot defend Kit here in spite of his flying skills being great; because it's his fault that he didn't realize the SeaDuck was being repaired by WildCat. He deserved that shaking and verbal beat down by Baloo and this was a great story marred by a few logic break near the end. **** (80%).

A Piece o'Da Action: We begin inside the bar on that wonderful place in the South Seas; Louie's Island. (Sadly, the place is better at being a furry being than the character that runs.) Louie is at the island counter wiping it as three shadows appear at the door. Louie doesn't like this and asks what the hell they are doing here. In comes a vulture furry wearing a purple suit, purple pants, black tie and purple hat; an pink elephant furry who is very big wearing grey pants with suspenders, grey coat, white shirt, bow tie and blue hat; and a small gorilla with Mister Magoo/Barney O'Turret eyes, grey hair blue suit, beige pants, black shirt, cyan blue tie and a machine gun with a cigar in his mouth. Now, we have seen cigars before in the televised series. However, usually they aren't lit. However; in the next frame with the vulture, he has a lit cigarette in his mouth. I'm not joking folks; this is the first time someone legit smoked in the series actually. (Ducktales had one episode with a character with a cigarette in it's mouth and that caused a fireworks incident if I do recall.) The vulture dood is the leader of these gangsters since he talks a lot here. Louie tells them it's not the end of the month yet and the vulture blows him off because they are Louie's silent partners. Why yes folks, Louie has a shady past as well, why do you ask?! I would have thought his stalking tendencies with Rebecca and his stealing of her purse in "A Touch Of Glass" would have convinced thee, but alas. Louie then gets on the counter and pardons himself as he calls them leeches at Louie's Money Tree. Vulture blows him off for his stupid jokes and wants to get down to business. Today, they will be collecting their free "bimonthly" instead of monthly. Louie asks if he means every two months, which is the correct definition for bimonthly. The vulture furry blows it off because he means twice a month actually. He asked his gorilla buddy with the gun -- whom he addresses as Gorelli -- and Gorelli answers that it's twice monthly. The vulture apologizes and this is where I noticed that the cigarette is lit as he is flicking ashes from the lit end of said cigarette. Sadly; there is no smoke coming out as he apologizes for the jokes and allows for Louie to react to the outrageous demands right now. Louie blows him off because he cannot even afford to pay once monthly let alone twice and refuses to pay.

The vulture furry flicks ashes from the lit cigarette onto Gorelli's head for his amusement and Gorelli's annoyance because his organization has a most comprehensive insurance plane. The pink elephant is addressed as Willie as Willie goes over to Louie. The vulture furry tells Willie to "explain in detail about the many health benefits to be found in our coverage." That's mob talk for "Pay or break" and that's too simple for idiots to understand. Louie begs off claiming that this excitement is bad for his heart. Are you sure these guys have hearts, Louie?! I realize the answer is yes. However, are you really sure in the metaphoric sense; not the literal sense?! We head on the docks as Baloo and Kit are delivering boxes towards Louie's. Baloo tells Kit to move along because they are a "little late" as Kit corrects him on that. Baloo hopes that Louie's in a good mood as they enter, they notice Willie has Louie upside down by the ankles and appears to be shaking him down for cash. Baloo's face turns grey colored in the process as he runs in as Louie is trying to tell Baloo to stand down. Baloo no sells; so Willie backhands him hard in the kisser and he flies off stage left. OUCH! Kit tries to run in. However, Gorelli cuts him off and literally points the machine gun at him! (At his head no less! Kit would rather be Baloo Mark II in Ducktales 2017, then have another episode of a gun being pointed to his head over and over again! Enough is enough!) That would be cut in the Toon Disney version as Gorelli calls Kit a "peewee". Kit is amused by this because inspite of the gun pointed at him, Kit is taller than Gorelli. In a way; it shows that Kit is no longer scared of guns. Why should he be scared since he has been so used to having guns shooting at him in this series, it's becoming routine for him. (Although I'm sure he's tired of them being pointed at others.) The vulture comes over and breaks it up as they are fortune to have such impulsive friends and that Louie escaped the complete body makeover. Willie is not happy with this as the vulture hopes Louie has learned his lesson and Louie claims it will stick. Willie lets him go off-screen and the heels leave. We cut to the island counter with Baloo nursing a headache, Louie nursing an inability to do anything and Kit nursing getting revenge on these dirty heels. Baloo claims that Willie moves fast and that's unfair. Willie didn't move an inch during that sequence. So, he must mean "Willie's arm".

Kit wants Louie to go to the police. However, Louie no sells because even if he gets the vulture and his henchmen arrested, they'll just bring more because they are not in charge. We discover that the vulture's name is Duke. Remember him and that promo for later as Kit proclaims that they need to stop him at the source. This causes Baloo headaches and earaches. That slap literally killed Baloo's ear drums! Rebecca ought to be jealous now. (Rebecca: You're out of line! Even if that is ture!) Kit tells Baloo to snap out of it and Baloo continues to act like he's in pain. Louie admits that Duke was right about the impulsive part. We head to a saloon AFTER HAPPY HOUR (After dark); which is totally out of character for a mobster and thus is the perfect hiding spot for them. We see Baloo, Kit and Louie wearing trench coats and hats outside in shadow. Kit is all green, Baloo is all blue and Louie has Gedo's fashion sense with a taxi hat. Louie is questioning this idea as Kit points out that they are the babyfaces and they cannot miss. Considering Kit's past, Louie isn't exactly thrilled by this. He is less thrilled with Baloo's promo. However, Louie accepts and they enter the saloon. Baloo tells them to follow his lead and see a pro at work. I hope his mobster routine is better than his seducing routine on Broadcast Sally in "The Time Bandit". Which should be easy since Willie is a man at least. (Willie is not into Baloo at all. Or anybody. Just moolah!) Willie is sitting at a table as there are more dog noses and birds sitting at their tables. I should also note that all three babyfaces are wearing fake black beards. Why?! I don't know. (Kit is understandable since he's 12 years old. The rest don't have an excuse.) Baloo sits down with Willie and does this subtle mobster voice asking for a "job". Scare quotes intentional, both me and the dialogue. Willie is confused and wants him to look at the classifieds. Yes; Willie can speak and sounds like a normal human being. Baloo tries again and Willie says "heavens" and calls it "second-story work" as he cannot believe they allowed thieves in here. This causes everyone in the room to hear it and laugh; except for Willie as Duke comes in and tells Willie to relax because Baloo was just kidding. I doubt that very seriously, Duke as he tells the babyfaces to step in the back for some business stuff and all that. We head back at a table in a barely lit room as Duke and Baloo sit down and exchange business notes.

Duke is always looking for a few good men and Baloo is ready to offer themselves. Duke wants to field test them before they take them to see the boss, as this is their procedure of course. Now; for those who wonder why Kit Cloudkicker never spoke when he was "Mickey The Mangler" in "Bringing Down Babyface"; here's example number one: Kit accuses Duke of treating them like mugs and that they are pros and know the business. Only Kit did this beyond the pale hideously hilarious gangster accent and Duke responds by saying and I'm paraphrasing here: "What the hell did he just say?!" BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Even better; Kit was so proud of this promo, Baloo claims that he's not from around here. I love real comments that aren't supposed to be real comments. Duke then cuts a promo about individual incentive and self-motivation as they are going to let the babyfaces choose the client to screw over and build the client list so they don't feel like some cog in an uncaring machine. Wow; Duke sounds more like the government than a gangster organization. Duke tells them to pick their first client to get the thing started and the babyface gulp. We cut to morning as the babyfaces are at Higher...For...Hire looking at the sign as we see the heels in a grey antique car looking on with Willie as the driver. Louie asks if they are going to do this and Baloo proclaims that they have to since the heels are watching. He also states that this is the problem with wanting people to think you are crooks since you have to act like one. That was pretty deep on Baloo's part. Kit doesn't want to wreck Higher For Hire and Baloo tells him not to worry as I point out the tail that is growing from Baloo in these shots. Must be like Pinocchio's nose; only with the ass end of it. AHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! POW! OUCH! Ummm... The babyface gangstas enter the office with the intention of only scaring Rebecca into agreeing with them. Rebecca greets them and doesn't suspect a thing as Baloo asks if she owns the place and she proclaims that she does. Louie and Kit do the mobster promo on it being a shame if anything happens to it. This leads to example number two of why Kit never spoke as "Mickey The Mangler" in "Bringing Down Babyface". Here is what happened:

Rebecca: What do you mean, "Something"?! Like what?!
Kit: Like maybe us comin' in and bustin' up da joint!
Rebecca: Why, you're a bunch of hooligans! Out! Shoo! Leave here this instant!
Baloo: Real subtle, Babyface!
Kit: Sorry, boss!

Yeah; Kit is called Babyface here and Louie is called Knuckles when Baloo and Rebecca get into a giant angry argument. (Kit Cloudkicker is our GEEK OF THE WEEK~!) Rebecca basically refuses to pay and knows these insurance programs are nothing but shams. Baloo tells Knuckles to show her while gulping -- a nice non verbal cue to indicate that he doesn't like doing this legit -- and Louie knocks a vase of flowers off a table. Rebecca is angry and vengeful as the flowers are Rhododendrons. According to Wikipedia (DANGER! DANGER!): Rhododendron /ˌroʊdəˈdɛndrən/ (from Ancient Greek ῥόδον rhódon "rose" and δένδρον déndron "tree"), often called rhodies, is a genus of 1,024 species of woody plants in the heath family (Ericaceae), either evergreen or deciduous, and found mainly in Asia, although it is also widespread throughout the Southern Highlands of the Appalachian Mountains of North America. It is the national flower of Nepal. Most species have showy flowers which bloom from late winter through to early summer. Azaleas make up two subgenera of Rhododendron. They are distinguished from "true" rhododendrons by having only five anthers per flower. Yes; they are legit flowers believe it or not. She calls them monsters and says she agrees to pay as Baloo, Kit and Louie leave in a sigh of relief. Literally two seconds later, Rebecca is at her desk calling the police calling them animals. BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Projection much there, Miss Cunningham?! I know that she means it in the metaphor sense; but come on! (Well Gigi Gazelle, you are not the only one who did this spot. Take solace in that at least!) We head inside the back of the car as Duke praises them for having spot on talent and it's time to see the boss. Baloo told him that he had nothing to worry about as Duke asks a burning question: Is "youse" a word?! The answer is: Yes. Youse means "you". Only instead of singular, it's plural. They reach the docks and get on a boat to an island called "Key Margo", which is a manison on an island with a small dock. Which is every Z-grade movie you ever saw. (Wow, this would look like a 1930's Epstein's Island with a name that is Donald Trumpish.)

I just love that they drove to the docks when Higher For Hire is at the docks. The babyfaces and Duke exit the boat and walk into the mansion as we see two gangsters with one of them smoking a cigar on screen. Duke introduces the office of his boss. Guess who the boss is?! Come on, guess; it's too shocking. SURPRISE! IT'S ANTONIO INOKI~! POW! OUCH! Ummmm...It's actually Duke the vulture. Welcome to "Economy Characters Syndrome", everyone. At least there is a story line reason for it. Willie and Gorelli comes in as the cigarette disappears and reappears in between shots of Duke's mouth in this comics. (Sigh as usual.) Duke explains that no one knows the secret because he has aligned himself with murderers who might bump him off. I just love how they allowed him to say murderer; but not kill in spite of the comics freely allowing the word kill more than the televised series did! Duke is sitting at his desk with his feet up as he also explains that Willie and Gorelli are his blood brothers and implies that he was involved in polygamy. So, basically; they are TaleSpin's answer to the Dudley Boyz family in ECW. So, Duke is Papa Dudley; Willie is Bubba and Gorelli is Devon. Who plays Spike?! (Better still; who plays Big Dick Dudley and Dances With Dudley?!) Never mind as he explains why he told his henchmen this. Louie asks why he's telling him and Duke admits that Louie and company are dead. In other words, Duke knew it was the babyfaces all along and waited until now to blow their cover. The amazing thing about this is, if they just went to the police, they would have stopped this crime wave because Duke is DA BOSS~! Making the babyfaces look like complete morons. (Kit Cloudkicker most of all since HE wanted to go the police right away.) Duke proclaims that they might as well wear glasses because he saw right through them. BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Even funnier; the disguises were much better than the ones in "All's Whale That Ends Whale"! Gorelli brings out the machine gun and marches the babyfaces out into the hallway as Duke tells Gorelli to "drill them"! Kit is the only one without his arms raised and then the babyfaces run away. Gorelli yells at them to stop of he'll start shooting.

Oh; please don't wait to start shooting Gorelli. It's not like this show in general has a gun control rule anyway. (Ooooh, Jymn Magon is going to need some medicial attention after that sick burn!) Gorelli finally shoots bullet as the babyfaces dodge and run out of the mansion. They get into the boat and Baloo sails the wheel operated boat away as Gorelli makes it to the edge of the dock and grabs the rope and then puts his machine gun with his teeth. Toon Disney would have cut this out if this made television. (Are you sure about that?! I swear an Air Pirate put a knife in his teeth like the Seton Hall Pirates used as a mascot before changing it made it through Toon Disney's filter?!) Gorelli is barefoot skiing and shooting bullets from the gun at the babyfaces as Louie mistakes them for mosquitoes. Of course, because mosquitoes can somehow kill you if they target the neck or head. Gorelli giggles and is chanting "gonna getcha" like a psychopath as he shoots some more and hits the bow of the police boat coming in. One of the dog nose officers in uniform brings out a pistol that is clearly spray painted orange. (BS&P strikes again as per Idiots Aboard! Don't know why; it's not a child pointing the thing at least.) Gorelli panics and the heel boat turns around and that causes Gorelli to nail the bow of the police boat causing one of the dog noses officers to be surprised to see him. The second dog nose is piloting the boat as he notices that the description of the punks inside the heel boat match the ones who trashed Higher For Hire. (Which he calls the "Girl's Air Service". Sexist punks these officers are!) The police boat chases the heel boat towards Key Margo and call for backup as a pink and yellow boat join in the chase literally seconds later. Louie is looking back and doesn't want to run because they haven't done anything. Talk about selective memory loss there, Knuckles. Kit panics because they have run out of water. Baloo wants to stop; but the boat has no brakes as the heel boat crashes over docks destroying the docks in the process.

The heel boat goes flying as we cut back to Duke's office as they hear noises. Duke orders Willie to check the window, Willie goes over like a complete idiot and he sees a boat. Duke goes over to the window and the heel boat crashes through the window and wall. Then the boat squashes both heels just like that as we cut to a shot of a newspaper that reads that the police broke up a protection racket and the entire gang at island refuge. (Well, it worked about as well as it could have, I guess.) We head inside the police office with a dog nose police officer in uniform with Rebecca walking in. Rebecca is grateful that they were caught so fast and the police thanks her for calling. The officer proclaims that they were wearing fake beards when they found them. However, the police officer are sure they are the suspects as he wants Clancy -- A woman police officer with blond hair -- to follow them. We see Baloo, Kit and Louie standing in a lineup room with spotlights on them. Rebecca instantly has a headache and the officer asks if she is all right. (I wonder who gave Rebecca the biggest headache: Baloo or Kit?! Louie is like "whatever" to Miss Cunningham though.) Apparently; the babyfaces confessed that they were trying to break up the ring themselves -- which is an ultra stupid move unless you go to the police first beforehand -- because they walk out of the police station without any incident whatsoever. (Yeah, this would be obstruction of justice today!) Rebecca admits that Louie was doing it for a good cause. However, Louie has to replace her flowers. Louie agrees to it and also offers to wallpaper the room. Kit is relieved to be a bouncing babyface again. (So am I Kit! Your mobster routine is hilariously awful.) Baloo claims that it's easier on the face. Which is true considering how hard Willie smacked him in the face. That ends the story. This was a fine story; but it's also an idiot plot that could have been avoided if Louie had taken Kit's advice to go to the police from the start and then go undercover. Call it *** 1/2 (70%).

THE REVIEW LINE

Pretty much a good set of stories this time around. The weakest was "Baloo's First Plane". which was a fine introduction to Baloo's stunt flying times in his youth and the story was solid for the most part with Khan heeling up Higher For Hire like a CEOHole. The finish was okay; but the artwork hurt it. It's not a bad story by any means; but it was just there for me. "A Piece O'Da Action" was actually fun; but suffered from the idiot plot tendencies. Kit's mobster routine was hideously hilarious as he proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that he was wise in not talking in "Bringing Down Babyface". "A Night On The Town" was the best one in spite of the BS&P fingers in the pie concerning Molly's parachute. Kit was such an idiot in this one and at the end of the story, I ended up on Baloo's side. Yes Ted; Kit could easily fly the plane. However, Kit was a total idiot for not realizing that there was a reason why WildCat was going to the plane. He was trying to repair it and Kit's joyride in a plane that was having trouble. That's a terrible idea and I don't blame Baloo for yelling and shaking Kit here. It's also a pretty good foreshadowing to either a intro to "Flight School Confidential" or a denouement to it actually. Overall; a decent set. Next up, we head to the final two sets of random TaleSpin comics. (The next one focuses on the most problematic comic book stories of the entire runs. Imagine cancelling Christmas in Thembria or having a story with Nazi's in them.) Christmas in Thembria canceled by Spigot! The wacky law of the Bayou! Nazis! (Yes, I mean it too!) Fire ants, flaming rafts and impossible airfoil moves by Kit! Cheaters and Rebecca's birthday, oh my! (Oops, I almost forgot that one.) Then after these two; we have Legend Of The Chaos God and The Wrong Culprit; along with Kit defeating Don Karnage with ink and a magic carpet. Yeah; this is going to be wackier than ever. So...

Thumbs in the middle for "Baloo's First Airplane", and "A Piece O'Da Action". Thumbs up for "A Night On The Town" and I'll see you all next time.

Back to TaleSpin Rants!
Return to the Rant Shack!
Return to the Unofficial Kit Cloudkicker Homepage!