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The Plunder & Lightning Movie Re-Rant
Reviewed: 11/22/2008-11/30/2008
Additional
Commentary: 09/21/2021
Can An Awesome Character Both Create & Seal The Fate Of An Entire Series In 90 Minutes? Yes It Can!
Original Airdate: 09/09/1990 (Disney Channel), 11/19/1990-11/22/1990 (Syndication), Episodes #1-4 (DVD Volume 1, Disc 1), Episodes #29-#32 (Production Order), Episodes #34-#37 (Syndication Order).
Plunder
& Lightning Re-Rant Part Two
Plunder
& Lightning Notes
Plunder
& Lightning Transcript
TaleSpin
Edits Page
(2016 Gregory Weagle Says: Well; it's finally time to do the editing and additional commentary of one of the biggest reasons why I love this show and why this show is one part awesome, one part funny and one part really sad all rolled into one. This is also going to be a daunting task of a pilot as well since I have decided to do the transcript and combine all three versions of this pilot series (Disney Channel version from 1990, the four parter in syndication a few months later (and on DVD in 2006) and the Toon Disney version from 1995 until the show stopped airing around 2007.) into one. Trust me on this; this might take weeks to do, but I'm still healing at this point, so I might as well do it now and get it over with; thus leaving Flying Dupes at the true final episode to be transcribed and commented on. I have also got Openoffice up to 4.1.2 at this point in time so I removed the first part of this re-rant; and it still means nothing.) Five and a half years have passed and I have finally admitted it: The Plunder and Lightning episode rants I did were absolute crap. They was way too much hyperbole and didn't have the entertainment value of the more recent ones that I have been doing lately. (As opposed to this one 2008 Me? It's more like 12 1/2 years and it's still crappy to this day. Still; it's better to look back at what I wrote and do a massive rethink on what I say; then act like a perfectionist and do nothing. Besides; my groin isn't going to heal quickly; that is for sure.)
So; it's time to revisit the pilot episode that I believe is truly the alpha and omega of DTVA: Plunder and Lightning from the series I not only still love; but get more and more impressed by it as time goes go: TaleSpin. (I'm still impressed that no one in Disney realizes how screwed up they were at the time: They had their answer to Warner Brothers right in front of them. They had what many consider to be the alternative to the comedy shows like Tiny Toons, The Simpsons and even Peter Pan & The Pirates (although that show was more adventure than anything else); and what do they do? Do they support the show and market it into a frenzy that kids and adults alike are actually watching the show together? That a children's show that acts like an adult show (in the context of what is a real adult and not some infantible vision of it (Hint: Where characters actually mean the most in terms of getting a show over; which even the most comical productions have to do on some level to give an incentive to continue watching.)) can be a show that is an alternative to even the almighty Simpsons (because at one time; TaleSpin was a serious challenge to the Simpsons in terms of quality.)? Nope. Disney didn't care; even when they were marketing the show to kids (which is all right in itself), they screwed it up badly. How? By going after Looney Tunes and bashing them for being old and aged. Chris Jericho mentioned this years ago with Bulldog Bob Brown that going after an old man basically buries yourself because if you beat up an old man, you look like a coward; and if he beats you, then you look like the weakest guy on the planet. That's a perfect analogy for Michael Eisner's plan in a nutshell; and he wonders why he got his ass kicked six ways from Sunday years later? This is what happens when you let your money mark mind writer write a check your money mark ass cannot cash in.)
After five and a half years of hindsight and Sean Malstrom; I can finally rant on this television movie with a much more critical eye (which wasn't all that critical at the time 2008 Me.) and I can also answer the ultimate question that has been bugging me for a long time: Was Kit Cloudkicker a blessing for this series; or is he a real curse?! (Answer: He was a blessing to getting the show approved. He was a curse for Plunder and Lightning; which was an origin story and thus everything that happened afterwards effected the character as a whole. More on that as we go along.) The answer will in fact surprise you all (If not, it will surprise Kit fans everywhere (It certainly did 2008 Me and no one liked the idea even though the evidence points to such a thing.)) and it might just be the first time I actually bash my favorite character even though he really doesn't deserve it or did anything wrong to earn it. (If he didn't do anything wrong; then bashing the character is just pointless.) TaleSpin is -- in the classic DTVA sense -- the black sleep of the family (since in the context of DTVA in general; it's nothing compared to the bashing of shows like Goof Troop, Bonkers, Quack Pack, Gargoyles: Chronicles, Recess, 101 Dalmations, Teamo Surpemo, Brandy & Mr. Whiskers and Dave the Barbarian. Although about half of those shows really don't deserve the bashing anymore. And don't get me started on live DTVA and High School Musical which surpasses even THAT.) due to the amount of baggage it gets. Let's see:
[1.] Let's take Walt Disney's last movie before he died (The Jungle Book) and turn it into a 1930's parody of itself with the mythology of flight from Tail Spin Tommy and Howard Hawkins Only Angels Have Wings to name a few. (Yip. You cannot top pigs with Piglets so to speak; that is the law of a Disney purist. Even though that is BS in reality, mostly because Walt sucked at sequels. Jymn Magon keeps claiming that this is not a parody; but many customers still don't buy that claim. There are way too many moments in this movie alone that point to a parody; even if it's unintentional.)
[2.] Let's then turn it into an 1930's version of Disney's Robin Hood to boot with anthro/furry characters. And have it helmed by a furry fan to boot. (This is one of the biggest reasons why I rooting for Zootopia to rule at the box office: The whole Yiff in Hell thing is so stupid on a childish-level because they make it as if there is any difference between live-action and cartoons in terms of childishness. Fiction is childish in nature simply because believing in fiction is a waste of time, even if the fiction is live-action. If adults are so insecure about this fact; then watch a documentary or the news, or better yet; just go outside and be an activist. It's okay to watch fiction; just don't pretend that it's somehow not childish compared to cartoons. It actually is and being insecure about it just reeks of projection. Another reason: We need a TaleSpin inspiration in this industry and Zootopia is dead perfect for it. I don't care if it's in CGI. I don't care if it's in modern times. This was a movie that was needed and Disney should be proud of this movie. As of this writing; it has already made over $800 million at the box office. It may not the best box office of all time, even for Disney; but it's a mighty fine start.)
[3.] Let's add a balanced female and female child roles for the anti-PC crowd to bash. (I would change that PC line to bigots 2008 Me; but point is still taken that they would bash Rebecca Cunningham. I mean; how many times have they used their fee-fees rather than their brains? Too many to be healthy.)
[4.] Let's add a BS&P nightmare twelve year old boy, a terrorist organization, a lot of bullet shooting guns, kids not afraid to tease death let alone bumps, a few racist stereotypes, hijacking planes, terrorize a city and let's hire about seven or eight animation studios to finish it off. (Let's see: The first two parts had Walt Disney Animation France S.A., Lapiz Azul, Pacific Rim Animation, Cinemadores and Jamie Diaz Studios. Part three had Walt Disney Animation Japan Inc. and Hanho Heung-Up Company Limited and part four was Sunwoo Animation. Yip; it's eight studios. That we know about. There are sources claiming that Sean Newton Animation in Canada worked on the show along with at least one American animation company on some of the original footage of the opening sequence. (2020 Gregory Weagle Says: I can confirm the American studio who worked on both part of the opening sequence and the Disney Channel promo, is Sam Cornell's studio. Sam Cornell sadly passed away in May of 2021 according to IMDB. He also did the title designs for The Wuzzles as well. So, it's officially nine studios now.))
That's only for starters! Disgrace to the Walt Disney's The Jungle Book? Check! (Nowadays; The original Jungle Book is the bigger disgrace, albeit because Mogwli is soooo boring.) Disgrace to the original writer of the Jungle Book? Check. (Because unintentional or not; parodies are supposed to offend. Otherwise; it would be a homage.) Politically Correct? Check. (How can it be PC when Last Horizons existed?) Disgrace to “family values”? Check. (If you consider "family values" to be "kill the homosexuals"....Yip.) Anti-American? Check. (So what?! Welcome to the rest of the world.) Disgrace to Walt Disney Feature? Check. (Only to those who whine about losing their jobs and don't want to compete against a new medium like television.) And the best series ever created? It was a tough run; but it is just barely a check. (Boy; you sound like Glenn Beck on a blood eye shooting rampage 2008 me! (2020 Gregory Weagle Says: Glenn Beck's catchphrase is that stuff is so offensive to him and his "audience" that it makes them literally shoot blood out of their eyes. I have been waiting with baited for Glenn Beck to demonstrate this gimmick, but it never happened. This sounds like a really creepy grift to me.)) Eighteen years later and it's even better than I first remembered it back in 1993. It's amazing how actually watching the series instead of looking at Baloo, Louie and Shere Khan and saying that it sucks because it's a disgrace to the Jungle Book gives someone a different view. (You could apply that to a lot of shows; including ones I loved in the reverse sense.) Discriminate our tastes? I actually agree with them. How about we discriminate our taste against art house freaks who don't know the meaning of the word fun and entertaining and just use art as a shield against criticism. (Oh; they do know the meaning of the word fun and entertainment. They just think it's childish and thus are insecure people who think that a job is so much better. If you want to be on a thankless job; that's your call. Just don't tell me that you are having fun at said job because I won't believe it for a second.)
TaleSpin was a litmus test of not only the Disney Afternoon Block which was created in 1990; it was also a test on how the hardcore purists would react to it. Oh; and in order to pass such a test; the hardcore has to whine and growl about it and that is what they did. (2020 Gregory Weagle Says: Heck, 1990 me did the exact same thing at the time of release. At least it only took me four years before I grew out of that phase and then whined about Spongebob SquarePants. Nowadays; I whine about how dumb Playstation is now.) Ducktales was harder to demonize because it was based on the Donald Duck/Uncle Scrooge Comics from Carl Barks and Don Rosa. (Ironically; Don Rosa wrote two TaleSpin episodes. (2020 Gregory Weagle Says: The late Christopher Barat says no 2008 me. Ducktales was probably second on the demonizing scale due to the Carl Barks comics and Ducktales not being faithful to that vision. I say it's more difficult to demonize simply because Disney Feature was the sacred cow of Disney. Slay the Uncle Scrooge comics; and you won't get a huge amount of whining and gnashing teeth. Slay the Disney Feature cow; and you kill the division and require PIXAR to prop it back up.)) Gummi Bears, The Wuzzles, Darkwing Duck, Gargoyles and Fluppy Dogs were difficult to demonize due to being original material. Winnie The Pooh was harder to demonize because it was almost a dead on series with the movies and novels. Rescue Rangers was difficult to demonize since they had to deal with a cult fan base at the time of it's release. Bonkers and Goof Troop were difficult to demonize since most DTVA fans were not impressed with the series; although minus the Lucky era, they were pretty decent. That leaves TaleSpin, Aladdin and Little Mermaid left and since TaleSpin was a parody of the Jungle Book and came first; it got the status as the bashing black sheep of DTVA by default. (Nowadays; no one cares anymore. Emotionalism can make the guy look more idiotic in hindsight.)
While TaleSpin is responsible for the negative consequences that would soon follow such as animated series made from feature movies, spin-offs from feature movies, the Disney Toon Sequels like Jungle Book 2 and remakes such as House of Mouse, Mickey's Mouseworks and even the DTVA remake of Ducktales, Quack Pack; it's creators Jymn Magon and Mark Zaslove gave so much of a crap about the series that they literally fought with the cast and crew together to stay on the ball for this series and know exactly how the series would be done; that the series got over in the long term and became one of those series you could watch with your family and not feel shame watching it. (I can just hear Eisner now: See what happens when you don't support Fluppy Dogs and the Wuzzles you cheap bastards?! Never mind that that it was Eisner's idea for Fluppy Dogs to begin with.) That's why I can look at the show and just smile at it because it had to overcome such baggage to get to the point it is now. (Sadly; it didn't overcome the Darkwing Duck faithful; because kids just want comedy. Joke Machine; thy name is animation.) Sadly; television execs do not like to wait even back in 1990; and apparently the baggage lead to the cancellation of the series after one season. (No, it was not the reason. The series was never intended to go past sixty-five episodes and it wouldn't go past it regardless of success nor failure. It was a huge success with bad toy sales; but it didn't matter. They didn't care about it in 1990; they don't care about it now. (2020 Gregory Weagle Says: And they aren't going to reboot TaleSpin now in spite of the awesome performances of Kit and Molly in Ducktales 2017. Rich dudes refuse to relate to non-rich characters. That's why Scrooge McDuck got away with so much.))
Actually; the vast majority of TaleSpin's baggage did not come from the sixty-one stories that followed the pilot episode as it was the pilot episode itself that not only broke new ground; it also sealed the series' fate much quicker than a redo episode like The Time Bandit (The Allowance Day ripoffing wasn't the problem; it was the sexism of Baloo once again making it hard to watch. (2020 Gregory Weagle Says: It's actually the sexism of the Thembrians and how Ken Koonce and David Weimers booked Rebecca in such a shit corner.)); an assassination attempt on a head of state plot line like Flying Dupes, (Yeah; considering that it was the final episode of the series in terms of air time, and Disney wasn't renewing the series anyway. So it didn't do a whole lot of damage. (2020 Gregory Weagle Says: Still less problematic than the comic book story Dogs of War, for obvious reasons.)) or even the ultra sloppy The Incredible Shrinking Molly; or even the toned down series in general. (I have watched half of this series while doing transcripts and it's not all that toned down. Sure; it's not as dark as the pilot; but the pilot was dark because they had to hit it out of the park with the bases loaded. Boy; did they ever.) So this is the pilot episode which debut on the Disney Channel on September 9th, 1990. (Actually; it was during the weekend of September 9th since it did air as a movie on certain channels during that time. Syndication craziness and all that; but the Disney Channel one was correct.) It won an Emmy for "Outstanding Animation Program of One Hour or More"; but that really doesn't mean anything to me anymore since a lot of people never got a chance to see the original in full bloom including some really funny mistakes and added scenes that weren't in the syndicated version most kids saw in November on it's first run. (For those who wonder why I blame this pilot for 4Kids' editing practices should read the TaleSpin Edits page which I have provided a link to. All it needs are music changes and it's all set. (2020 Gregory Weagle Says: I found two music changes in the pilot well after this additional commentary was released. It's 4Kids Entertainment to a T now.))
Of course; the syndicated version also contained scenes that didn't appear in the movie. I would like to explain more; but this opening summary is getting really long as it is so this will be the longest rant I have ever done since the television movie itself is a little over 90 minutes long. (Oh; I don't doubt that for a second 2008 Me! Although the pilot is 88 minutes long; so it's a little under 90.) Plus; I know a lot about this pilot episode and there is a lot of stuff I didn't cover in the original four rants I did for this series so it is going to be a wall of text no matter how much I slice it and dice it. (We're eight paragraphs into this thing already and we're not at the credits yet. ZOINKS!) However; I hope to make it as entertaining as humanly possible since I have Baloo to mock again; although thanks to Drake, Hoppo and Monty; it's going to be much tougher to mock him in this one. (And those are just the DTVA characters. Fanboy & Chum Chum are so easy to mock that I almost have to give them credit for it.) There will be lots of quotes, puns and mini-editorial rants in this one as well. (Ditto for the additional commentary.) So; let's rant on shall we?!
This episode is written by Alan Burnett, Len Uhley and Mark Zaslove.. The story was edited by Jymn Magon and the television movie was directed by Robert Taylor and Larry Latham. The most notable thing Alan Burnett did with Disney was doing Act II of this movie for a scene that only appears in this very movie and also was responsible for coming up with the name DARKWING...DUCK during an in-house contest. (Boy; did I have a lot to say about that scene and even then I have additional thoughts on that scene with Molly, Rebecca and Kit. The Darkwing Duck spelling thing is part of a joke of the way Darkwing Duck says his name when he cuts a full of himself promo. It is so hilarious to the point that even episode titles that didn't have it spelt that way were parodized by me.) Alan left around the time Last Horizons debuted. Huh. Needless to say; Alan is the big Warner Brothers guy. (Jim Hill has come up with a rumor that Alan Burnett is going to be returning to Disney to work on the Ducktales' reboot. (Turns out it was not him.) That sounds well and good until you realize that his work on Ducktales was in 1989 during the Bubba the Cave Duck era. To be fair; only one of the episodes he wrote was average, so he's not the worst pick DTVA would have chosen. Assuming this is all true of course. As for being in CGI; I betcha Ducktales will be in the same vein as the new Inspector Gadget: Faithful in it's concept; but making Inspector Gadget look even stupidier than he really was. I watched the new show and there is a lot to like; but Gadget's gadgets screwing up almost every time and then making up names for no reason did annoy me quite a bit.) Len Uhley is one of those writers that I truly loved during his run with DTVA and this series was his peak quality wise. (The Writers Guild Of America presented him with an award back in November of 2014; and one of the presenters of the award was a collegue who worked on this very television with Len: Alan Burnett. In fact they worked on back to back acts on the project.) Mark Zaslove is one writer that I thought was pretty good as well during his run on this series; but we got into a bit of a struggle over credits during my time on the Unofficial Kit Cloudkicker Homepage. (I'm now almost certain that the person I struggled with was not Mark Zaslove. Basically; he claimed that I was writing fiction on his work despite the fact that the real Mark Zaslove had in fact worked on productions like Happy Tree Friends. Although that production was not the basis for the struggle.)
As for story editors Jymn Magon is a really nice human being and a diamond in the rough when it came to writing animation and this was his one shot at the top as supervising producer. (2020 Gregory Weagle Says: He was also a producer and creative consultant on Titanic: The Legend Goes On which has been labeled as one of the worst films ever made. (I was one who said that Jymn's career was over after that debacle; but reading his resume: BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! On me of course. As Jymn once said: When you are over forty; the rest of the world cares about you; when Hollywood doesn't. Hollywood might be ahead of it's time on the enlightened scale; (BWHAHAHAHAHAHA!) but ageism is still a massive problem there.) Jymn even wrote one episode which contained one defining moment that just made me love Kit even more. (I have already talked about this at great length in the A Bad Reflection On You. and it's great to see in that two parter Kit finally getting over; but the episode aired in syndication before the syndication version of Plunder and Lightning. So; there was no way to paint a smiley face on all this considering that Disney never told Len Uhley to book a different angle than the one Len ultimately went with. I assume Jymn Magon approved Len Uhley's decision too.) He actually started as a music producer for Mickey Mouse Disco (He was working for chruches before this which only gives the purists ammunition that DTVA was "Art Of The State" rather than "State Of The Art".) and he even did some additional screenplay for A Goofy Movie (which was one of the first jobs as a freelancer.). He even made a cameo in the documentary Ringers: Lord of the Fans, which is about the culture importance of Lord of The Rings which is kind of weird since TaleSpin had more influences from anime and Star Wars than Lord of The Rings. I think Gummi Bears is more up to speed for Lord of the Rings.
(In a good twist; Jymn Magon's DTVA debut was on Gummi Bears. The story behind Gummi Bears is that Michael Eisner invited Jymn and company to his house and Eisner's kids were big fans of the Gummy Bear candy. So Michael simply wanted a television series out of it. Nowadays; we have talking baseballs, a deaf Dracula who does sign language, a turkey monster who has sex and loves blood, girls made from sugar, spice and everything "nice", a gay devil (What? No gay god? Bigoted god...), and even bears in airplanes. Many of these strange concepts came before Gummi Bears; so Michael Eisner wasn't crazy, he was merely an CEOHole; which is an asshole with actual power. Or had actual power since he no longer works at Disney. Glenn Martin DDS was more strange than Gummi Bears.) As for the directors; (Oh boy; the first two people who are now dead have surfaced and we haven't even started the movie.) the late Robert Taylor, whom passed away in 2014. (Robert has always said that he worked on TaleSpin for a pay cheque (a valid reason actually in hindsight); which means quality control was the cause for the decline of his work and not that he's a talentless hack.) The late Larry Latham also passed away in 2014; literally a month apart from Robert Taylor. (I should note this also because I was confused at first; but Larry Latham is not related to the Larry Latham who was a professional wrestler who wrestled under the name Moondog Spot in the WWE. It's pretty obvious because the animator Latham died in 2014; while the pro wrestler Latham died much earlier in a much more tragic situation. As in; he died in the ring wrestling a match in Memphis on Jerry Lawler's birthday.).
The animation is done by Walt Disney Animation France S.A. (Under partnerships with Jaime Diaz Studios in Argentina, Cinemadores Anicom in Chile, Lapiz Azul in Spain and Pacific Rim Animation Productions in China. This was all before you account for Walt Disney Animation UK's two episodes. While there is no evidence as of yet, Sean Newton Animation appears to be another studio that worked with the Walt Disney Animation France unit. You can basically tell when exceptionalism goes to extremes when people point out that none of the actual animation was done in the USA and that is bad. It's bad for jobs in America; but it's good for international relations and profits; that is for sure. Again; I'm more concerned with how the animators are treated overseas than how they animate. I should also note that Pacific Rim Animation's additional services were supervised by the same man who did the camerawork on TaleSpin from Walt Disney Animation France: Serge Conchonnet.), Walt Disney Animation Japan Inc. (Which is basically Pacific Animation Corporation combined with TMS employees and Sanrio's defunct movie division. Plus; they farm out to Tama Pro as well.), Hanho Heung-Up Company Ltd (Which is no surprise at all; since they often farm out Thundercats and Silver Hawks to this company in the 1980's. Again; while there is no evidence of them working on TaleSpin yet, PAC also farmed out to Anime-R as well. ) and Sunwoo Animation. Yikes! Sunwoo only animates part four and strangely they ended up doing an excellent job. (Ironically; there is no known evidence that they farm out anything TaleSpin related. Oh; the re-rant hasn't even got to the start of the pilot; and we are 12 paragraphs in. That's almost TWO Gargoyles rants in case anyone was wondering.)
Interesting
Moment #1:
Although it is not on my source video; the TaleSpin introduction is
still the best one DTVA ever did as they picked Michael and Patty
Silversher to write the lyrics and create one of the weirdest, most
annoying and somehow most awesome opening in history. It literally
gets into your head and it doesn't want to come out of your head. The
oeai's and oeoh's in the piece are what hook the entire piece along
with the music selection of jazz, jungle and classic played. (This
for some was a barrier because it was an odd sounding combination
piece of music. According to ahem from Toonzone: I know this isn't a
Mueller track, but this is pretty damn impressive because they have
evidently got a REAL sessions percussionist to do some classic Cuban
jammin'. It actually, suprisingly compliments the electronic 808
beats , because it's so warm and human. The only downer is the
reliance on the 16bit Fairlight/Synclavier samples, especially the
silly panpipe patches!:
- REAL percussion
- Simmons drums
(electronic snares)
- Roland TR 808 (percussion)
- Roland TR
909 (handclaps)
- Synclavier/Fairlight (pan pipes)
- Synth bass
In other words; it's one of those things that requires a certain taste in order to get over it.)
They even did music for a movie starring that annoying red Jim Henson puppet who stole everyone's wet dream of seeing Kit Cloudkicker made into a Tickle-Me doll: Elmo in Elmo in Grouchland. (Seriously; if Elmo can be a metaphor for tickling, then so can Kit Cloudkicker years earlier. Another reason why Michael Eisner is a total idiot.) Silversher & Silversher also wrote all the songs for this movie including a very important one that is dear to a lot of TaleSpinner's hearts for various reasons. I'll explain when we get to that point. (Michael Silversher was on DAF Radio and he explained in an interview that he originally thought the "Spin It!" theme was supposed to be Russian in nature. Apparently; someone told him about the Thembrian angle and he originally thought they were the main characters. That would be wrong; but hilarious in it's own sort of way.) Jim Gilstrap sang the lyrics for this opening theme song which is weird because I got e-mail claiming that Where In The World Is Carmen Sandeigo The TV Quiz Show Game music stars Rockapella were responsible for singing the song which has been proven false. He even did a backup vocal for Michael Jackson of all people. I never thought I see the day that Michael Freaking Jackson would have an indirect connection to TaleSpin; but here it is. (I'm going to explain in detail in the All's Whale That Ends Whale re-rant when I do additional commentary because I think it's important to note that if you are going to play the networking game; you might as well take it to it's logical conclusion, which I did with the TaleSpin Connections pages. It was a total mind screw because when you think about it, mainstream and even obscure stuff can be connected in some way if you dig deep enough.)
Act I: Plane For Keeps
(Okay; I have a really neat story about Plunder and Lightning's titling system. The titles I'm using stem from the comic books; but there were plans to bring title cards for each act of Plunder and Lightning; with Plunder and Lightning being Act IV (as it was in the comics.). This stems from memo released from Tim Van Hal that show that Len Uhley and Mark Zaslove were discussing titles for the episode and one idea was to call them based on terms related to "light". For example: Act I could have easily been called Glory Daze or Luster Buster or even Pain & Gloss. Needless to say that this idea was rejected and they went for the television movie idea with just parts being numbered. Only Plunder and Lightning was ever used, which is both act four and the pilot's total name. Also I should note that this is where I confirmed Lenora Hume and Jean-Pierre Quenet were working on the show. I'm still waiting for word on the "A Sunny Disney Afternoon" book's release, which should have been finished by now. I wonder what is holding Tim up? (The current situation is that the WDTVA book is going to be delay until 2017 now. Damn!))
We begin this one with a shot of the mountain side in the skies with the familiar background music called Opening Air Battle which is a really ominous piece of music for fans like me because it usually points out to a heel attack at any moment. (Actually; Opening Air Battle contains the TaleSpin Victory Theme which is played later on.) All background music was done by Christopher L. Stone who has a demo CD out at the time for this very series which was used to get hired for work. If TaleSpin was done today; that soundtrack would be expanded to about 30 tracks and be out in stores as an OST (Official Sound Track) not unlike many epic video games of today in fact. (This ain't no video game 2008 Me! It's a children's cartoon and children don't care about music. Or something.) Strangely; his first musical role was an interesting film called The Password Is Courage which was made for International Refugee Year back in 1959 (Although the credits say 1962 and since it's IMDB; take it with a grain of salt. I'm guessing that it was released worldwide in 1962.). We get a right pan shot as you can tell from the artwork that Walt Disney Animation France is animating as a plane rumbles into view with the Shere Khan logo and a pretty slick color scheme. On a note about the planes: They are all computer animated even in 1990 as Disney used computers for the very first time. Now normally; CGI looks pretty fake even when cell shading is used even today; but back when Commodore Amiga was the rage (Before Commodore went out of business due to Nintendo's disruption as a game machine and PC/Microsoft's disruption as a computer. (Only this pilot, I Only Have Ice For You and A Jolly Molly Christmas is where the planes were done in CGI on an Amiga. It really didn't affect the planes in the other episodes; although the storyboards were done by computers as well for all episodes involved. I'll have to re-read the interview with Kelly Day to make sure.)).
We then go to the front under head shot of the flying as the engines are really loud, and the plane is not alone either as at least five goofy looking smaller airplanes (You honestly think those small looking wings could fly in real life?) come from behind and let the shooting commence! Unlike Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles; those are not laser guns. (Actually; for a time, TMNT 1987 did in fact use bullet shooting guns.) Those are real bullet shooting guns that can kill you and cause a great deal of mess. Time to introduce the Trigun rating to the new fans; which is based on how much gun play in each episode contains. TaleSpin first major awesomeness is also one that would probably never come back to Disney; at least on the Disney brand side of things due to Columbine and major school shootings across America in the late 1990's. In fact; Baloo and Kit get shot at three times in the opening of each episode! Oooo... (I have already counted as of this writing, Plunder and Lightning since all four acts contains gun and bullet shooting...along with lasers; which is one for sixty-five episodes. Ponder that one for a moment because the ratio is usually the other way around. I think someone considered this as an excuse to watch Dora The Explorer. I can understand why they want their little ones to not be exposed to TaleSpin. Hell; at least Dora's world takes place inside a computer and thus all the contriveness makes sense there.) mOne of the shots makes contact with the plane's engines (the right one) and it smokes like a chain smoker on speed as the transport plane is in deep trouble. We cut to one of the goofy aircraft (blue in color with a brown nose) and see a brown ferret wearing a blue vest, pretty cool armlets, airplane goggles and sporting a really cool Fu Manchu style mustache which could be mistaken for a manly porn star. This is Mad Dog who is the slender, beanpole type character who is whiny and has Mepp's nasal voice. Strangely enough; he's not voiced by Peter Cullen; but by Charlie Adler who makes his DTVA debut voicing a major character.
Mad Dog was kind of annoying for me; but since he is Don Karnage's bump machine he came out slightly funnier than Mepps was. Mad Dog fires the grappling gun which the hook attaches itself to the left wing of the transport plane. Mad Dog climbs onto the rope and does a really neat spot there. Then we cut to another goofy plane (the red one, same brown nose) as another pirate/terrorist fires his grappling gun and it attaches itself to the right wing of the plane. This brown wolf who wears blue overalls, blue baseball cap (with a red stripe which turns orange later on), red shirt and a green muffler is Ratchet who is the mechanic of the terrorist team. He doesn't show up in the series often enough for me to get into his character; but he does play a key role later on in the television movie. Ratchet was voiced by Rob Paulsen for the movie and was virtually silent for most of the series, strangely enough. Two more terrorists do the same thing on both sides of the wing as the main plane (the black plane with the red nose) flies into the middle top of the plane as Mad Dog jumps right next to the left side of the plane with his musket around his neck and Ratchet on the right side with the crowbar which becomes a staple of cute spots later on in the series. The pilot in the plane is a black panther wearing a blue uniform with the SK logo and a blue hat looking terrified. Sort of. We then cut to the top as the rope ladder comes down and out swings an orange wolf hybrid (The official line is that he is a wolf. (In this case Jymn Magon was completely correct since he was shooting for a red wolf with Don Karnage.)) anthro wearing a uniform that just screams "Napoleon" along with gray pants and black boots. I won't spoil his name or voice just yet since the awesomeness has truly begun less than a minute in. This guy is the one we saw shooting in one of the shots earlier as he lands on top of the body of the airplane. The black panther doesn't know what to do as the terrorist dogs (HEE HEE!) invoke the crowbars in stereo on the top of the airplane! (I sounded so Reboot-ish on that one.)
The red wolf is clearly the leader of this terrorist group,and yes I use the term here since they are hijacking a freakin airplane! Wonder why Disney took this show off the air just after 9/11?! Hmmmm... (One rule of thumb for 2008 Me: You lose creditability when you start making bee impersonations. Then again; it wouldn't be so unbelievable for that to be the reason, so there you go. By the way; the actions of the Air Pirates here and later on make the real "hero" of the story look really scary in hindsight. (2020 Gregory Weagle Says: Len Uhley simply didn't believe Kit was flawed enough. Sure, he was a homeless orphan in the depression but that wasn't bold enough for this show. Oh no! Let's up the ante and this television is the basis for really uping the ante on Kit's character.)) I cannot make out the other two pirates in his group; both are dogs. The husky one on the bottom right does a funny spot later on in the movie and the other one I believe was in Ransom of the Red Chimp. (2020 Gregory Weagle Says: They were not named in the series is what you meant 2008 me.) The metal panel breaks open (and showing a purple underside as we go to the butt shot) as the black panther stands up and turns around. The leader jumps down in a really awesome visual by animated television standards. (This was the zenith of DTVA for a long while in terms of animation quality because television animation got to be too expensive at this point. Walt Disney Animation France itself was great for television; but got a bit tainted with it's subcontractors. When Darkwing Duck came along; the assembly animation policy won out and that was mostly because the volume of production increased to the point where they had no other choice, but to be cheap in order to keep the cost down.) Let the awesome dialog begin as we begin with quote number one complete with the dishonorable bow:
Don Karnage: Greetings and Salvations; fellow aviator! It is I; the panic-provoking pirate: Don Karnage!!
And the awesomeness begins in earnest right from the start. Most DTVA characters before this one were of the cliché type character of angry, non-flair characters who were pretty good; but lacked the x-factor to put them over the top. Flintheart Glomgold came close; but the fact that his country of origin was changed for Ducktales probably removed the x-factor of his character. On the other hand; it was an offensive stereotype. (The decision is two fold: Making him Scottish with Scrooge gives a perfect rival for him; and South Africa's problems are well documented. I don't know if they have that problem in 2017 with the Ducktales Reboot or not; however, I suggest that they'll keep him Scottish to maintain faithfulness with the Ducktales series, which a lot more people are familiar with than with the ones in the Donald Duck/Uncle Scrooge comics. (2020 Gregory Weagle Says: They don't anymore. Flintheart is South African pretending to be Scottish to spite Scrooge and his culture basically.)) Don Karnage is the complete package of a nasty heel: He alone could kill anyone; was nasty and evil, plus when he is committing evil; he is doing it in with such flair due to his “cannot put your finger on it” accent (A combination of French, Spanish, Italian at least and he's the master of torturing all of them including the English language...and really; considering the English language's treatment of other languages, it can be considered a form of justified revenge on Karnage's part.) and his broken English and his use of dental consonants for t and d which makes out for some really funny moments later on. If only his crew was half as smart as he was. (Although in some cases, like most characters; there are moments where he cannot help acting stupid.) He is really vain as well; although not to the excess like Fenton or Drake is. I just cannot hate this guy and a lot of TaleSpin fans cannot either as he is probably the most popular guy in the series.
It's not difficult to understand why he is overused and Don Karnage can carry an episode on his own. (Don Karnage was so over at one point; he was overshadowing any heel and even babyface; and TaleSpin had many good babyfaces and heels. (2020 Gregory Weagle Says: I think this is where the "overused" part came from, although that might be true if you count the comics and other stories not related to television. If Don Karnage is considered overused, then Molly was overused by proxy since Molly has more episode appearances than Don Karnage had.)) Although in reality; he really didn't have to as he wasn't the only one who could which was a problem Rescue Rangers had later on with Dale and Gadget basically running the show and Disney trying to get Monty over but couldn't. Speaking of Monty; Jim Cummings is his voice and Jim is all over the map in TaleSpin alone with about 40 roles in this series alone. (Probably more since I don't know every single voice role in the series. It's around a eighty percent clip.) He actually has two more roles in this movie later on. (2020 Gregory Weagle Says: Despite the greatness of Don Karnage, Jim Cummings is an awful human being. Even if you believe that he didn't rape his wife (I don't buy that he's innocent by the way) and committed animal cruelty to his pet (Ditto for that, too); his views are also awful. While Jamie Camill's version of Don Karnage is different, it's a different Don Karnage since the Don is a title and Karnage has been confirmed as a descendent by the creators of Ducktales 2017 themselves.) Don Karnage is a play on Don Quixotie and the voice is inspired by Ricky Ricardo.
Also, Don Karnage's original codename was Anthrax which thankfully wasn't his final name; or lord knows what would happen. (Jymn Magon confirmed that copyright was the reason for the name change (similar to the situation with the Iron Vulture originally being called the Sky Shark, although that one wasn't nearly as problematic as Anthrax was in another context) ; although over the long run, it was for the best. Had Magon convinced the execs that Anthrax cannot be trademarked; thus there's no violation of copyright, then TaleSpin would be still on the blacklist forever instead of being on the blacklist for a year (and then placed on DVD) due to 9/11; due to the fact that anthrax was also being used as a terrorist tool. Times change indeed.) The black panther panics and goes to the transmitter of doom and cries out a mayday from Flight #127; but the REGAL CUTLASS cuts the wires dead. HEE HEE! Speaking of Frank Welker; he's in this movie too and that black panther is one of the voices. Don tsks him for such bad manners and then black panther raises the stakes as he uncorks his crowbar (Seems to be a general theme in this scene...and Baloo's tool of choice in the series as well.) and blows him off accusing him of being a slimy thief. Ah; the wonders of BS&P which is hilarious in itself since Drake Mallard one year later was calling a female child named Gosalyn a tiny terrorist and yet full grown adults cannot call Don Karnage and his group a bunch of terrorists.
Let's face the inconvenient truth: they are a terrorist group. They may consider themselves to be Air Pirates; but that's merely a title they give to make themselves seem less evil than they REALLY are. That fact plays into my criticisms about the story later on. (Yeah; I realize that Drake Mallard's use of it was a figure of speech and was used in the context to hyperbole Gosalyn's rough personality. The problem is: Ducktales also used the word terrorist, and they used it in a serious and grave matter while making a complete joke out of it at the same time. Plus; there's no excuse for not calling the Air Pirates terrorists because ideology doesn't have to have religious connections. It can have secular connections and usually it means money and power. I've already mentioned the Air Pirates theory of existence in Captains Outrageous so I won't repeat it here. However; the word terrorist has been around long before 1930's; so it has to be a BS&P decision. Which is laughable considering what happens in Act IV of this movie.) Anyhow; Don Karnage trumps that with three Air Pirates (Okay; I'll stop calling them terrorists; it's not like you don't already know they are terrorists by now...) pop down and aim their long slender muskets at him. Considering the time frame; the chances of them being stun lasers is ZERO; Don Karnage wants the box he has and the black panther finally relents and gives him the CHEST OF DEMONS. HEE HEE! (Oh yeah; the 13 Ghosts Of Scooby Doo, the show where Scrappy Doo is NOT considered the worst character on planet Earth.) Don Karnage's evil look is just priceless; then again, Walt Disney Animation France is animating so it's apporos. I don't see the point of the pirates coming down with him; but there is no logic break anyway since they probably jumped down during the exchange shot. The Air Pirates exit through DA...HOLE (SLURP!) and climb up to their goofy aircraft as the black panther pilots the plane thinking that he is safe. Safe?! With Don Karnage?! Yeah right?! And Don Karnage gets off Quote Gem number two:
Don Karnage: What blows up must come down!! {Don Karnage shoots more bullets from his plane and it hits the left wing of the plane causing it to smoke and the airplane dives down like a dead duck.}
See; never assume anything with terrorists. Thankfully; the black panther pilot was smart enough to pack a parachute as he jumps off his plane on-screen and the transport plane blows up off-screen as it gets destroyed against the mountain side. For all the criticism and mocking I give to BS&P; having the black panther pilot not die here was a good move since if he dies, then it makes no sense for what happens later on in the movie. (Yeah; killing him and two other pilots later in Act III were a bad idea for Don Karnage because he wants Khan to know what they stole and rub it in when Don brings out the big guns. It's called being a dick heel.) I do have a beef with people concerning the parachute spots they do later on; but I won't mention it right now as the Air Pirates fly away back as we get a pretty awesome sequence (Major Syndication Time Cut Commencing! Get used to this; this movie had over 200 edits in between all versions of this movie, syndication and Disney+.) of the Iron Vulture coming into view (It looks like a purple/black vulture airship with a yellow iron beak on it which looks manly compared to a lot of looks using the color purple.) scrapping the side of the jagged rock on the mountainside. Sky Pirates Evil Music commences and it is EPIC BABEE! The planes fly in as Don Karnage gets off another really cute line ("Home again, Home again, jiggly jig!") as the yellow beak of the Iron Vulture opens and the airplanes all enter inside the belly of the Iron Vulture and land without further incident.
I thought Mad Dog would screw up the landing like he usually does; but it doesn't happen. Oh well. (This is the first example of exec mentality that you should never set up the scene and leave the audience in awe because kids would just change the channel. They did a thirty second scene setting up the Air Pirate's main residence which is the Iron Vulture. Pirate Island is merely a place to hide compared to the Iron Vulture and vehicles like the Iron Vulture give that attention of detail that makes TaleSpin, TaleSpin. So of course; they edit out the footage because (1.) Because it's a waste of time, and (2.) kids will see the Iron Vulture many more times; and we already did the setup shot in I Only Have Ice For You. That sounds logical until you realize that in terms of timeline, the Plunder and Lightning one should come first. (even though it was produced in the middle of production actually) Although to be fair; the one in I Only Have Ice For You cannot be so easily cut.) We head to the Navigational Room which looks absolutely beautiful. Walt Disney Animation France can do awesome artwork without making it look so kiddie; but uses bright enough colors that doesn't have the really dark grit that overtakes a lot of “mature” productions in my view. (TESTIFY~! Personally; I don't mind blood, language and stuff; but remember that you are still writing a story and being edgy and dark for the sake of being edgy and dark is considered hack writing. Make the darkness and edge mean something and have it make sense. For example: Putting a lot of brown color in for the sake of being realistic when your characters are furries is a bad idea. You can have realistic colors; but use them with the real world colors and not some dark fantasy. There are way too many of the later already, even in children's cartoons for goodness sake. Granted; too many bright colors can cause eye strain; but, really, only a few shows really go too far in that department. Plus; too much color/too little color distracts the audience from the story and the characters, and even the comedy for that matter, even if it doesn't cause eye strain or seizures.)
We pan over to a messy table as Don Karnage enters with the box and completely cleans the table with one awesome backhand. Awesome animating with the black ink flying around which sadly doesn't hit the Air Pirates in comical fashion. Then again; Magon and Zaslove wanted some drama. (2020 Gregory Weagle Says: Personally, if this were done in sequence; the Air Pirates would have gotten hit with the ink because Don Karnage is serious and don't care whom he hurts as long as the plan is in action. Keep in mind that the animation was so rushed to make the deadline for the September 9th release that retakes had to be done in order to correct mistakes occuring for the syndication release, which is the release for the DVD version as well as other cuts much later on.) Mad Dog and a short fat dog wearing a raincoat, a brown ear protection cap and the same boots Don Karnage is wearing. He is Gibber who is a cool character in itself. He has just one gimmick; but it's a good one in that he whispers into Don Karnage's ear to talk to him and of course it leads to some really funny blow off's from Don Karnage. If you want to be an Air Pirate and get over; make Don Karnage look good, even in defeat. It always works. (Yes; because Gibber is using witty questions and his question blow back in Gibber's face. Mach One For The Gipper had the best one ever and I'll get to that one later.) Don Karnage puts the treasure chest down and starts an awesome rant complete with evil laugh and eye contact violence that would put Hoppo to complete shame so much that she starts losing weight. POW! OUCH! Ummm...
This box is the key to his future; riches beyonds his minions unimportant dreams as we get a pointless shot from the vent as Don Karnage finishes with a flourish as he dances around and proclaims that he will be the wealthiest man in the entire world. (Can you feel the slow build up to the ultimate plan coming here?) Now who can stop this guy?! Who is suicidal enough to screw an entire terrorist group?! Only someone who has NOTHING...AND THE ROCK SAYS NOTHING to lose! That leaves no one in Disney other than Mickey Mouse circa 1920's/1930's to have THAT sort of personality. So; who in the HELL would screw him?! Please, I need an answer!! (Think about it this way: In Ducktales, Rescue Rangers, The Wuzzles and Winnie The Pooh; those pilots started off with the babyfaces. Gummi Bears started with the heels; but the heels plan was completely given away within three minutes and they weren't close to winning yet in the opening minutes of the pilot. Even Darkwing Duck started with Darkwing Duck arresting a bunch of heels. Here; the heels not only appear; but they defeat the babyface and get the key to their plan, and their plan hasn't even been revealed yet. That is the TaleSpin difference right there. The heels are extremely cool and they look invincible right now.) Then the top vent below the table gets kicked out and out pops a brown bear cub wearing a green sweater, white undershirt and a red scarf who grabs the treasure chest literally catching everyone off guard! HOLY CRAP?! (Yeah; 2008 Me hyperbole strikes again! Only this time; the hyperbole lived up to the hype in a big way.) Here's Quote Gem number three:
Bear Cub: For me?! Aww; you shouldn't have!
(I just realized something seeing this scene over and over again: Kit Cloudkicker "stole" this spot from The Adventures Of Teddy Ruxpin. Granted; the two scenes are very different in many ways; but the concept is similar: In the second to last story arc of Teddy Ruxpin, where Teddy lost all his friends due to the hate plague caused by MAVO's use of the seven crystals and he just runs into the middle of their celebration and basically does his 1985 commercial catchphrase where he says his name and asks if he can be friends. This is basically the same thing; only the Air Pirates are much, much more of a threat with their guns and everything. This was the beginning when I realized that Teddy Ruxpin was slowly becoming second rate. Teddy was an idealist while Kit is a realist.) I never thought Mark Zaslove would put a child in such danger like that; but here it is. Yeah; I used hyperbole here along with my previous rant, but even I was SHOCKED to see this when I saw it the first time. This is what makes this scene work over the one Chip & Dale did with Fat Cat in Rescue Rangers. It's the element of surprise which I was trying to build up before the big scene. (The reason To The Rescue didn't work was because we all saw it coming a mile away since we saw the pre-plans. We never saw the pre-planning by Kit; so Kit's drop from the vent was very surprising.) I mean let's face it: no one expected a twelve year old child would pop out of the vent and steal the treasure chest from under your nose as easily as he did, and that line was awesome in itself. (Mainly because this is R.J. Williams' most notable character in history. He made Kit Cloudkicker sound awesome with his brave smart-aleck voice and energy that Cavin never really had. Plus; R.J. Williams was around eleven years old at the time; and he played the part like he was trying to get an Oscar; even though there was no way a television movie was winning one. As much as Alan Roberts was decent enough; once R.J. Williams got the job; Alan Roberts was finished.)
In the syndication version; I said that he was monster over on one line, but that isn't true. He was monster over the moment he showed up from the vent. Right from there; this boy is going to be somebody; at least at the time of release. (Think about this: Kit Cloudkicker's entrance is shocking because it teases the probable situation that Kit might be an Air Pirate who has turned on Don Karnage for reasons only Kit knows. The fact that he terrorizes civilians is a mighty fine step into that reasoning.) By the way; that teddy bear look just screams “Hug Me!”; and those bare feet of his are so damn cute that they scream “tickle them and make me beg for mercy in helpless laughter”. (As per Polly Wants A Treasure. Thank you R.J. Williams for making it sound so believable that Kit had an actual weakness.) The boy jumps off the table stage right and just like before I'm not going to give him away just yet which unlike Don Karnage; this will take a while. (Sorry 2008 Me; I have to give it away now. Since everyone has already read the 2003 and 2008 versions of these rants.) Don Karnage doesn't even suspect a thing in a really funny spot (Because we didn't see it coming either; so it doesn't make Don Karnage look weak like it did with Fat Cat. The comics version of this story were less subtle than the television movie I should point out.) and then gets the LIGHTBULB OF BLOODY CLAIRTY and screams out to STOP THAT BOY! Good luck Don Karnage; you are going to need it. AND THE CHASE IS ON~!! (And in fact; Don Karange will later on stop the boy.) The animation from Walt Disney Animation France is simply breathtaking by television standards; you swear that someone in creative was thinking Feature Movie and it didn't pan out. I'm sorry folks; I cannot call this a Scooby Doo Chase Sequence in good conscience. It's too awesome to give it that insult. The background music is my favorite too which is “Kit's” Chase, it' so playful and mysterious. The boy runs down the steps in such a fashion that I'm digging the cute animation from Walt Disney Animation France S.A.
I see a fat, tall Great Dane dog wearing a top hat with a feather and the feather is an unusual purple color which comes dangerously close to getting Michael Eisner out of the Phantom Zone. He wears a beige sweater with a brown vest over that and is voiced by Chuck McCann who also voiced Gibber. Chuck is also a comedian who appeared in the documentary called The Aristocrats which is all about how to tell the most obscene joke in history not named 4Kids Entertainment. (2020 Gregory Weagle Says: Huh?) That is Dumptruck (Almost all of these Air Pirates could have been professional wrestlers since they have the look and builds to become them. (Heck; their names sound a lot like wrestling names: Gibber, Hacksaw (Hacksaw Jim Duggan and Hacksaw Butch Reed for starters.), Dumptruck, Sadie, Hal, Mad Dog (Mad Dog Vachon) etc.) 2020 Gregory Weagle Says: Ducktales 2017 went for more wackier names like Stinky Boot and Peg Leg Meg for instance.)) and he is so dumb that his head is probably made of solid bone. Example number one shows up as the boy stops in front of him and tells Dumptruck that the Captain needs his help and Dumptruck foolishly steps in front of this boy allowing Don Karnage to take a really sick bump into him. OUCH! Dumptruck's face expression is priceless and apparently seems to be bleached white here for some reason. (This was a classic Disney Animation France coloring mistake that also extends to the Banda-log of Louie's musicians later on. Anyhow; this is also great because at the middle of act four, we find out that Dumptruck isn't as dumb as we think he is. It's called setting up the spots and then paying them off.) The boy swings around the bend and runs down the steps in such hilarious fashion that it puts Kennedy Cartoons to shame and in the case of Kennedy Cartoons this proves why Disney should have NEVER done business with them. Ever. (Wang Films shouldn't be doing Gargoyles ever again either; but they can be good.)
The boy jumps onto the railing and slides down looking as cute and awesome as possible. He even doesn't forget to wave to Don Karnage who is getting more PISSED OFF by the second as he's screaming for his crew to get him. The boy grabs a stray rope behind him and swings like Tarzan and almost gets caught by Ratchet and a brown husky dog wearing some cheeky armor named Sadie (Although he remains nameless here...); but he dodges them. The pirate lackies have a meeting of the minds and it wasn't at the air tank. Don Karnage jumps down and pushes them aside allowing for the whirlwind spot just to get that out of the way. (No one but Butterbear should be doing that spot; Kit is the exception of course, because he's awesome.) This kid jumps down and runs straight to the wall containing all the muskets and one grappling hook gun and grabs one and does a really defining moment for fans like me on the near shot as he makes a really nasty face on camera that screams: “Screw me; and this grappling hook will be going right through your black heart!” Mad Boy! Mad Boy! I can just hear Dale doing it right now...or Ted Heinz. I have trouble keeping that straight. (Actually; Susan C. Mitchell was the first person to notice this non-verbal cue and it became the calling card for Kit's learned behavior. It showed that Kit was in fact going to get out of there alive and if pirates have to die, then so be it. While not a bullet shooting gun per se; it's still an effective weapon with the grappling hook doing a great deal of mess and death in it's own right. The fact that he can SHOOT this gun makes it one step below firing a real gun in my opinion; and at least several steps above using a laser gun. (2020 Gregory Weagle Says: Jymn Magon denied this was something more than just Kit being cool. This show suffers from Death Of An Author syndrome like nothing else. Having 26 different viewpoints will do that to your show.)
The boy take a glance to his right and runs stage left as he is chased right to the edge of the front of the Iron Vulture (the yellow beak part of course) and is forced to stop on a dime. Funny mistake: the voice audio editor actually blew it's cue because Kit was supposed to say “Wha?” just before he stopped instead of on the top near shot of the boy looking down at the sky below. The syndication version fixes this by the way. The background effects are almost Mode-7 like here as Don Karnage, Sadie and Ratchet block the entrance. Don Karnage is impressed as he calls the boy a reckless reptile which is funny since he isn't one; but it is apporos because the boy is like a sneaky, slimy snake since he stole the damn box RIGHT ABOVE HIS NOSE BABEE! (Don Karnage is basically calling Kit a snake; which is true in the context of him being sneaky.) Quote Gem number four beckons:
Don
Karnage: Well; my reckless reptile. Perhaps it's none my
business; but you have got yourself into a tiny piccolo, yesno?!
Boy:
{Looks at Don with disdain; but sounds normal}You know;
you're right...{Then he blows him off big time} It is
none of your business!
HAHA! That blowoff was just great and I'm just digging this kid as I think this kid cannot come up with any more tricks here... (You're about to speak way too soon here.) and then he trumps me into infinity by jumping off the Iron Vulture. Don Karnage tries to...Wait a second. HE JUMPED OFF THE IRON VULTURE?! Is this kid THAT suicidal?! (Yes, yes he is.) Seriously; who would be insane enough to do something like that?! (You know, after seeing this pilot and seeing Kit go through this and hearing even one percent of his backstory; (The one percent he basically had to tell because Baloo wouldn't stop asking him about it.) this kind of act by Kit makes sense. It's shocking because it's a 12 year old kid who has already screwed the #1 heel doing this and finding a way to get out of the situation. Kit is no match for Don Karnage and his pirates strength wise. Kit knows that; and he also knows that they are smart enough to kill him if given a chance. However; Kit has the agility, speed and brains to outsmart them and catch them off guard which he did perfectly here.) Don Karnage tries to grab him; but the kid is free falling down the skies. Don Karnage is angry as he order his minions to go after him; remembering to do a awesome double backhand to Sadie and almost hits Ratchet good in the process. Don Karnage's jumping up and down just puts it over the top. (Can you blame Don Karnage for this? This wasn't supposed to happen. Don had everything going his way and no one over the horizon to stop him; and here comes a little boy who should be easy pickings in any sane universe making him and his terrorist group look like idiots. Which is great because in the end, the heels are supposed to look stupid. Nowadays; the babyfaces must look stupid because kids just want comedy. It seems adults cannot give kids enough credit for actually using their brains in something that is fun. Kids are not that dumb; but adults are not supposed to be that dumb either.)
We then cut to the kid as he unties his red scarf and let's it fly into the wind never to be seen again. (2020 Gregory Weagle Says: Actually, the scraf comes back to Don Karnage, but because of the different writers; there was no explaination on how Karnage got the scarf back for Act III.) Somehow that little scarf is going to play a big role later on; I can just smell it coming. (It does because the red scarf is the final symbol of Kit's past and he's gotten rid of it to say: "I'm not going to be an air pirate anymore.") The kid then goes under his sweater and pulls a gray triangle piece of steel and with a flick of the wrist; it opens into a fan shape which he proceeds to put under his feet. I just love how he manages to do all this and keep the box in his procession all in one motion. (Not quite: The first shot, the box containing the stone completely disappears. Thankfully; it appears on every shot since then.) By the way; that thing is called an Air Foil which is a pretty awesome name based on a jet engine part in an airplane. I didn't know this until I watched an episode of How It's Made and I was surprised to hear the connection between it and this board. (Not only that; the air foil's application and purpose has not changed in many decades since. It's still an important element in flying; thus making the naming of Kit's surfboard even more timeless. (2020 Gregory Weagle Says: I hope to get an explaination on why Kit's Airfoil was changed to Skyfoil in Ducktales 2017. There's really no reason to change it, that I am aware of, outside of possible censorship by copyright.)) The boy spirals around in the sky for a while. Boy Chase Part Two plays as the boy notices a green plane flying and realizes that it's his meal ticket. We cut to the pilot who is another dog who looks like Monty with that black moustache of his; but the red shirt; brown overalls and hat make him different. Plus the voice is different despite being voiced by the same guy who did Monty. He is on the transmitter of doom as he is calling for Louie. Hmmm; why does that name sound familiar to me?
We cut back to the boy who uncorks the grappling hook gun (The only thing more dangerous than Gadget with a gun; it's this boy with a gun.) while managing to stay on the board without falling in a gravity defying spot. (I would also qualify Jackie Whackerman onto this list; only Kit and Gadget actually have the foresight that Jackie doesn't; thus making Jackie more dangerous. Besides; we all know that Honker was the first kid to fire a bullet shooting gun in Darkwing Duck. Baby steps everyone, baby steps. Too bad even BS&P was getting fed up with it.) I made the note before that the reason why he can do it is because he has a sticky substance on the soles of his feet which allow him to grip on metal; but leaves his soles so soft that even a slight touch of a feather will make him laugh so hard that his own voice actor's voice breaks. (2008 Me was doing headcanons before headcanons were cool! Hey; it's not the most absurd reason for him to be able to surf the clouds without falling. Robot Chicken had a great 10 second segment of what happened if Kit didn't have that sticky substance on his feet. Sure; Kit died in that segment, but they booked it in such PG fashion and I could believe it since Kit has already free fallen in this episode and he'll do the same thing much later on in this pilot.) Anyhow; the hook attaches to the wing of the plane as the pilot asks Louie if the party has started yet. UH OH! I think we know which Louie he is talking about as the hook sound beckons and the pilot is forced to stop his transmission to turn around. We see the kid steady himself and then he swings from side to side having such a good time and laughs as he surfs the clouds. I love that gimmick and it plays a huge role in the series and for the character himself as you will see later on. Did I mention that the laugh is absolutely spine tingling? (R.J. Williams has a really infectous laugh and that's mainly because he was around twelve years old when he was voicing Kit. It also scares me as we'll see later.)
There is a reason for that as we cut to a tropical island in the South Seas; also know at Louie's which looks like it's lacking some detail on the far shot; but the near shot is a lot better as we head inside the bar as there is a lot of anthromorphic animals (one of them looks like Seymour from All's Whale That Ends Whale judging by the first inside shot) as a server monkey serves some ice cream bowls and a black float which looks like oil for some strange reason. The Server Monkey swings around the eatery like Tarzan as we get a funny pan shot which shows no one moving a muscle in the sequence as we focus on a familiar gray bear wearing a light beige shirt which makes him look like a dork and a red pilot's cap; along with a brown orangutan wearing a Hawaiian shirt that looks like something out of Dale's rejected shirt ideas; a pink flower necklace and a yellow straw hat. (This was a motif in DTVA: Ducktales had Vaction Von Honk, Rescue Rangers had Dale and Donald donned it in Quack Pack. I'm shocked Louie Duck didn't get one in Ducktales 2017.) They waste no time admitting that the gray bear is Baloo and the brown orangutan is Louie. UH OH! I smell heavenly judgment coming from the Disney purists on this one. Baloo and Louie you know from the Jungle Book (2020 Gregory Weagle Says: From the 1967 version of the Jungle Book since Louie doesn't appear in other versions usually; speaking of parodies...) and the reason why there are some people who think this is a disgrace to Walt Disney's version of the Jungle Book is because Magon and Zaslove played the whole act as a parody to the Jungle Book. And in order to do good parody; you must offend. You'll really see the parody spots later on. (Jymn Magon has denied that this is a parody; but even if he's the "word of god"; just remember that this "god" doesn't remember most of what he has done outside of some general concepts and stories he considers memorable. Most customers disagree with him and think this is a parody and there's evidence to actually support that claim in the actual work. Remember that memories are not infallable and are subject to gaps in history and revising to paint a rosier picture of the situation.)
I think Baloo and Louie are the two weakest main characters in the entire series which is amazing since Baloo and Louie were in fact rgood characters in themselves. Baloo's main problem was acting like Fred Flintstone and Louie Barney Rubble; but that can be blamed on the writers taking a shortcut more than anything else. (Their sexism is also problematic too; although Baloo's is milder than Louie's ultimately. Although that's like comparing forms of cancer. Not exactly pleasant to say the least.) The other major strike against these two sadly is their voices. Baloo is voiced by the late Edmund Gilbert whom passed away in 1999. He also does a kick ass job in this role as he sounds almost exactly like Phill Harris; but the Southern accent sort of gives it away that it's not Phil Harris. (According to IMDB: Originally, the role of Baloo in TaleSpin (1990) was supposed to go to Phil Harris, who had voiced the character in the original 1967 film, The Jungle Book (1967). However, after one recording session for "TaleSpin," it was found that Harris, who had turned 85 just before recording began, had aged to the point where he could no longer do the voice successfully. In order to perfect his rendition of Baloo's voice, Ed listened to old recordings of Phil Harris and practiced for many hours until he had it just right.) You still have to have a critical ear to notice the difference though. Yeah. (If it wasn't for that Southern style accent; Baloo would sound like Phil Harris and it would kill the theory that soundslikes are a bad idea.) Ed actually came under fire by voice actor Corey Burton who stated that Ed should have not accepted the job as Baloo in which Ed accepted as long as Ed worked closely in perfecting the voice because it was a disgrace to Phil Harris who was considered for the voice role (Along with Peter Cullen and Jim Cummings. Originally, Peter Cullen was the favorite coming in; but he didn't have the goods to sound like Baloo either.); but a recording session went so terrible that it was clear Phil Harris was not the same anymore.
You can accuse Disney of putting Harris out to pasture like they did with Paul Winchell; but as we saw with John Goodman, recreating Baloo as much older would have been a mistake since the fans wanted Baloo to be as timeless as possible; right down to the voice. Also; Corey Burton is hypocritical since he accepted a role to be Dale and Ludwig Von Drake who had more heat than Baloo did at the time and those original talents were dead or buried by Disney. Then again; Burton has proven to be such a company man that he did overdubs for an old classic Fantasia. I think there is more to Corey Burton's slam that I cannot put my finger on. (Okay; I have mellowed out on Corey Burton since 2008. Corey Burton being a company man is true and yes he showed hypocrisy in being Dale and Ludwig Von Drake in similar shows. I'm also right in the recording session being terrible at the time; however, Phil Harris sounded good in Rock & Rule a few years later; indicating that Phil Harris suffered the same problem that Undertaker would later suffer with Brock Lesnar in that he wasn't healthy during that match and everyone panicked (thus killing the streak right there) and then return the next year against Bray Wyatt and ending up being perfectly healthy (for his age mind you). It happens and sometimes timing can be crappy. A lot of people think it was money and Occam's Razor suggests that; but then Harris would have been equally healthy during those recording sessions and he really wasn't. Jymn wanted Jungle Book Baloo; not Phil Harris in an older voice and Phil Harris wasn't Jungle Book Baloo at the time. Plus; even if money was the reason, I'm guessing Disney budgeted the thing out and couldn't afford two famous actors in the same show (Mind you the animation budget was around $30 million at the time; the highest of any show DTVA ever made at that point; and maybe the highest ever for years to come. I'll have to check on the later DTVA offerings and see where they stand budget wise.), plus they felt that Sally Struthers was reasonable in what she wanted for the deal.
As for Fantasia; re-releases of the product indicated that the overdubs were done not because the narrator was a barrier for kids and parents; but because the original master audio was terrible and had to be redubbed. So chalk it up for wear and tear issues; and not Disney hating a certain narrator. Corey talking ill of the dead is assholish; but he's not nearly as bad as some (including myself) painted over the years since he wrote those posts. Calling TaleSpin mediocre doesn't surprise me; because TaleSpin is a different series and when you have pounded into people's heads that cartoons are a sub-genre of children's comedy, you get responses like this. As I said before; if you want to call yourself a medium, you got to be more than just comedy, otherwise; you become a sub-genre which is far down the list of rigid thinking than medium. Oh; and Corey Burton is a great voice actor, but somewhat annoying when it comes to real life.) At least Phil Harris didn't sue Disney like Louis Prima's estate did with Disney and Jim Cummings. (Wrong 2008 me! The estates of Phil Harris and George Sanders did sue for royalites. It was just that the Prima Estate was much more vocal about their lawsuit.) They say it's a royalty issue (It actually was just that; but Prima Estates' vocal presence in this lawsuit made them look so defensive that people couldn't see that there really wasn't any other motive other than patenting the voice so to speak. Even more hilarious, Prima lost the lawsuit but Disney was so paranoid, the damage was done in House of Mouse with King Larry.). But screw them, it's because Jim Cummings did a even more perfect voice of Louie than Ed did with Baloo and they got upset. Why?
Because they feared the fans would think Louis Prima was not this legendary god who did an awesome Louie in the Jungle Book. (Which is sadly true. If I saw Jim Cummings doing my voice so perfectly; I would be flattered. I wouldn't go: "I'm going to kick this guys' ass and shake him of all his money."; and that's because that makes me look like a fraud and makes me an asshole unworthy of respect. I would think that "It's pretty cool actually." Not all of us are greedy sociopaths like you. Suing someone for doing a better voice than you because you got to it first is being basically known as being a sloth and leeching off your successes without putting any work into bettering yourself. It's one thing if the success wasn't trivial like finding cures for certain cancers. Who wouldn't want to patent those? Sure; many scientists don't act like heels in that regard; but at least I wouldn't hate them for doing so. They made history that helped people better their lives and deserve respect for that. Doing an awesome voice is trival in the grand scheme of things and trying to trademark that makes you look like an asshole not worthy of respect. And respect makes friends. Disrespect makes monsters. Remember that. ) The whole thing reeks as elitism because it's a rare sight to see two voice talents manage to mimic the originals as well as Baloo and Louie in TaleSpin did. It shows how practice, desire and having someone like Ginny MacSwain as a voice director to put it over the top. Anyway; we head back to the rant as Louie is pretty upset because the place has turned into a zoo. HAHA! I love real comments that aren't supposed to be real comments. (Zootopia indeed; only in the 1930's and without the anti-racism messages to go with.) Baloo nicely blows it off because he has a secret for relaxation.
Hey; if he can relieve stress in such a fun way; then he should call Nintendo and see if he can't make a few bucks. (He did call Capcom for a TaleSpin video game; but videogames were 20 years too soon for a sandbox game; which was the only way they could have done a video game that gave TaleSpin any due justice wise. Like I said before; timing is so important in the world of entertainment. Zootopia has learned it's lesson well. TaleSpin learned it way too early for anyone to care. (2020 Gregory Weagle Says: Let's make TaleSpin a shootet because guns exist in TaleSpin, despite killing the gimmick of Baloo not using guns.)) Louie asks what that is and Baloo snaps his fingers and it's time for Disney's time-honored tradition of having dancing animals sing a pointless song. Well; it's good to know that they are at least getting that out of the way. The song is "I'm Gone" and as a general rule; all pointless songs I do not call the spots although this one is a lot more realistic than most DTVA songs I have seen. It's certainly a departure from Tad Stones' cartoony numbers that's for sure. (Yeah; the whole thing takes place within the confines of the world and nothing turns into a dream sequence. It's almost like this cartoon is putting on theatre or something.) Let's just say Baloo and Louie sing very well; but Jim Cummings knows how to sing so it's apporos. Baloo slowly turns into the FRUITY LADY OF DEATH! HEE HEE! That spin on the stool is downright hilarious too. If you look closely; you can see Uncle Scrooge's hat in the background which still doesn't move until Baloo starts singing the chorus. Although that spin on the stool is negated somewhat by Baloo doing a back scratching spot on the bamboo railing. (No it doesn't. It doesn't add points to the song; but it doesn't subtract either. If he did it to his ass or groin, maybe.)
We then cut to outside as the green plane arrives with the awesome kid in tow in a recycled spot (but forgivable since he didn't change his stance. (2020 Gregory Weagle Says: Can you imagine the hate this would have gotten to purists if the internet existed in 1990?! It would be like God of War Raganrok in Kratos getting into a boat the same way in the 2018 edition of God of War and then claiming that it's DLC. Which is the same complaints I have heard in Super Smash Brothers Ultimate claiming to be a port. Shaking my head.)). The boy lets go of the grappling hook gun and glides down to the water and skips on it with such great neck speed that he makes a slightly WORSE transgression on his part since his Air Foil doesn't have any brakes whatsoever. HAHA! The kid's reaction is so priceless it's like he is so screwed. We head back inside as Baloo, Louie and his slave monkeys dance on the stage with Baloo doing the Homer Samba which is cute; but he needs to wear the red devil suit to make it really funny. (I am evil Ba-loo! I am evil Bal-oo! I am evil Ba-loo! I am evil Ba-loo! It still works and it's not like Baloo and Homer doesn't have similar character traits or anything.) He finally ends his song and he's seriously had as the boy bust in through the door and take about six of the sickest bumps I have ever seen from a child character off various anthros sitting in their seats. Now that's how to MURDER your audience! AHHAHAHAHAHA! That's gives new meaning to the term assault with a deadly child. AHHAHAHAHAHA! (Oh lord; where the punch to the kisser when you most need it 2008 Me?) And then the kid one up even THAT by doing the mother lode of all sick bumps as he spirals and invokes the sick missile move right in Baloo's mid section. And every bump up to this point is ON-SCREEN. Baloo's MAN-SIZED bump was off-screen; but it's too late anyway so who cares?! (Baloo's ribs must be broken and Kit's spleen is probably on the stage right now; so you should care. Will someone please pick Kit's spleen off the stage?! My god!)
Paging that awesome kid: This is Gregory Weagle; I need you to go to the Land of Wuz and do that spot to a certain Rhinokey guy when he attempts to crack his first joke. And while you are at it; you can do the same spot to a certain Hoppo, who is singing the national anthem at the Wuzzle 500. POW! OUCH! Ummm... (Oh, there it is. Took you fools long enough.) Oh; and there's a certain Butterbear who needs to shut up... (I see Butterbear searching for her gun.) Sorry kid; the job deal is off! I got to go, goodbye... (Why am I running away from Butterbear with a gun? Butterbear would have to have one and she never does. Coward.) Ahem; we see Baloo on his back as the kid with the box in his arm right on his belly as Baloo is surprised to see him. Then the pilot storms in and makes sure to call the kid a half-pint hitchhiker. He wants to MURDER the boy (BOO! HISS!); but Baloo stops him with the nose in the face complete with Hanna Barbera honking sound effect. Now I know Walt Disney Animation France is animating here; but Sun Woo does a part of the movie; so now you know you are watching a classic! (Not really since the MPSE guys are doing sound effects; not Sam Horta Editorial.) And then the boy just keeps bringing on the awesomeness here by blowing off Pilot Jack telling him the listen to the Fat Lady. SCORE!! The boy is so heelish with that POINTY FINGER OF DEATH as Baloo is SHOCKED and APPALLED by the accusation and the boy doesn't apologize for it anyway. (Kit is such a jerk that I wonder if he has been betrayed one too many times. Hmmm? Nah; that cannot happen. Disney orphans are happy orphans and don't live heelish lives. That would be scandalous...) Pilot Jack stammers as he assumes that the boy is friends with the Fat Lady. POW! OUCH! Ummm....Okay; Baloo as Jack pets the boy right on the head like a dog and then walks out before he gets messed up by Baloo. Baloo finally takes out his makeshift costume and calls the boy's entrance something.
He also calls the kid "Li'l Britches", which is a homage to the Jungle Book since he called Mogwli that pet name; but a parody since the boy doesn't wear any pants. That would have been offensive if he was the only Disney character doing it; but it's been done since Donald Duck in the 1950's so it's no shock here. Strangely enough; this kid's prototype had him wearing multiple pocket pants in 1988; but was nixed probably due to either problems animating it; or because someone in DTVA is a pervert. I'm hoping it's the former for the safety of this guy. (Jymn Magon ultimately said that it was easier to animate without the pants; even though Kit's bodysuit in Stormy Weather was animated just fine. It's got to be a money issue. Little details cost money you know 2008 Me.) The boy realizes that he's a pilot and asks if Baloo is any good. Baloo vainly proclaims that he's the best and the boy proclaims that he wants to be a pilot someday which just makes him look even more mysterious by the second. (It's not what he said; it was because he stammered. Normally when characters stammer, they think that it's because it was to make it more funny. Most of the time; it's true. Here is an example where the stammering makes a lot of sense because Kit is talking to another male adult and he's trying to keep everyone off the trail that he was an Air Pirate. He looks awkward talking and sounds like he's trying to say the right things, but it sounds forced, and in this case, it develops the character in Kit's early moments.) However; Baloo decides to get too nosy and sees the box; in which the kid blows him off because he found it (Or stole it from someone who stole it from Shere Khan...). Baloo defends himself because he was only admiring. You can just tell even then that this kid doesn't trust adults very well; even babyfaces which just makes this kid's back story even more tragic. (Considering that his last relationship was with a terrorist who betrayed him; it's going to take time before Kit realizes that he's being a jerk. Considering what happens later on, time is not on his side.)
The boy looks like he's ready to fight Baloo and I think he has a chance to defeat him because Baloo proclaims that he'll see the kid in the funny papers and then walks out. Smart move, Baloo and too funny as the boy tries to get his attention; but he's screwed and he's pissed off as he does a picture perfect kick which if Sunni was there; he would kick her in the nuts and the face with it. I am so loving him and I don't even know his name seven minutes into this thing! (Baloo deserves high praise for defusing this situation because Baloo knows that he can easily take this kid out; but it's just a twelve year old making boasts. Plus; punching down on kids no matter how powerful they are is extremely weak and only makes Baloo look like a monster heel. It's not like Kit was actually trying to pick a fight with Baloo, he just didn't trust him to stay out of his own business. Best thing Baloo did is to just walk out and get Kit all flustered and such.) We cut to Louie who has returned to his middle island waiting for more customers to arrive and in comes the last customers Louie would ever want to have. We pan over (Syndication Time Cut Commencing!) to the entrance and see Don Karnage, Dumptruck and Gibber in an awesome sequence complete with creepy music as Don Karnage is sorry for fracturing the party. HEE HEE! Only Don Karnage could make that funny as he has a brief announcement which is codeword for: Give me what I want; or there will be a massacre! (The fact that his last name is Karnage; he doesn't have to bother cutting a death threat type of promo. The name itself gives away his intentions.) The kid hides behind a table right on cue and then carefully notices the staircase to his right.
Don Karnage and his men enter into the bar and grabs the drink on a conveniently placed table and drinks it. He even praises Louie for making them to boot to show his loving, caring side. (Sadly; Don's dickish drinking was cut in syndication, so I'm guessing that the drink was considered legit alcohol even though there was no evidence as such. It's difficult to call this a time cut. Don Karnage is in dickass mode today; he doesn't have a care in the world and no one is going to stop him from getting either whatever Kit stole, or blood and gore. This is becoming a chess game between Kit and Don Karnage to see who will fold their tent first.) Louie walks in protesting this outrage; but the sword is pointed at his throat and he's forced back. HAHA! (Toon Disney Cut Alert!) Don Karnage is looking for a boy who has stolen something from him as we go to the staircase shot as the boy practices the fine art of not being seen and outclasses all DTVA characters in doing it. He even impresses the animators so much that they forgot to edit out the sexist spot of a woman hiding underneath the table on the top right side of the screen. Thankfully; the figure is not nude; but it's still pretty sexist. Thankfully; the syndication version edits this spot out. (Actually; they cut the woman out and replaced it with what appears to be Seymour from All's Whale That Ends Whale. So they replaced a woman with a man for syndication. I'm almost certain the edit was done because the original looked sexist, although considering The Time Bandit and Feminine Air; this remove and replace thing makes the editors look like idiots. Why not have the woman just sit at her seat like Seymour instead of hiding underneath the table?) Dumptruck has his musket on trigger happy mode I see as Don wants Louie to hand him over because if he does he'll go peacefully. (Riiiggghhhttt. There are at least two witnesses in this scene alone. Peaceful my ass!)
If they refuse; Don Karnage will demonstrate his ammosexual side as Gibber points his to the ceiling and fires it causing a decent side hole in the grass hut roof. I think the message has been delivered. Louie goldbricks in a surprise moment as the boy is hiding behind one of the Tiki Masks as his small frame allows him to kneel down and puts the box inside the mask. (It's not a surprise moment 2008 me; Louie had zero idea Kit had a box with him, so he didn't know what he was standing up too. However; even if he didn't know, Don Karnage is doing the time dishonored scoiopathic method of assuming that everyone is like him and would give up the boy. Louie shows that he isn't about to, although he probably has no idea where the boy is anyway.) It's too bad that home brew DS game featuring a lady that you can tickle using the touch screen doesn't have this boy in it because those cute feet of his are simply asking for people to tickle him and make him laugh his ass off. (Geez; I remembered that?! I can barely remember anything from the Nintendo DS era even though it is the greatest era Nintendo ever had. Sadly for Kit; 2008 Me is correct about Kit's ticklish feet. Although, R.J. Williams is such a great child actor at the time that it made it worthwhile.) So we cut to outside Louie's as Baloo is heading to his airplane in such a cocky manner; which is yellow with a red nose and certainly looks pretty unique. He treats it as a human being as he heads inside and starts the engine. (I do have an issue with this: Genderizing inanimate objects is generally a sign of not having any friends. Sure; he has Louie as a friend, but when you are genderizing your objects, it's a telltale sign that you need to get out of your comfront zone. Why is every airplane treated like it's a female? Even women are treating them as such in this show. Isn't that a form of objectifying women too? If it isn't; please explain to me why it isn't? It's something that had been bothering me and TaleSpin's not the only one guilty of it: Kick Buttowski did the same thing with Denise and Harold's cars; although Denise at least referred to her car under a male name.)
Also, I see logic break number one for the episode as Baloo should have seen the Air Pirates coming. Although a simple rearranging of the scene to have this scene happen (but cut away before he starts the engines) just before Don Karnage enters would have lopped it off easily without losing or gaining any time. Take a picture of that logic break folks; that's the last one in this entire movie. (No, it wasn't. Anyhow; the way this scene could have been made better was to have Baloo come out first just after the Cloudkicker Kick of Fear and enter the SeaDuck; and then cut back in. I should note that Louie does have a beach on the island (Her Chance To Dream), so the CT-37's could easily have landed there and no one would have noticed. Again; a rearrangement of scenes would have worked wonders here and I'm surprised the syndication version didn't fix this since they were rearranging scenes much later in the pilot.) We cut back to Don Karnage playing with his sword as he very unhappy; remembering to even do an awesome evil grin and breaking the fourth wall right on camera and then slicing a wooden table in half just to put it over the top. (Baloo would later do the same thing in My Fair Baloo; so Kit told Baloo this happened and Baloo stole Don's sword sometime down the line. It's little things like this that amuse me.) Strangely; Dumptruck's face have the original series' dark gray face now as Don orders his men to tear the place asunder. (I'm guessing that Pacific Rim Animation Production has no idea what to do with Dumptruck's face. Either that; or someone complained about Dumptruck's face being a racist stereotypical blackface, only it's ash greyface similar to the Dunac/Karn situation in Breath Of Fire 1. Karn was in Breath Of Fire 2 as a cameo, but I don't know if his face was changed in the North American version. I assume it was.)
However; Don doesn't have to even wait three seconds for a response to that as the boy's voice blows him off because he was just on his way out. The boy shows up on top of the stairs with his elbow on the barrel. I swear to God; he is going to kill himself if he keeps being this awesome if you catch my drift. (Oh, just wait until act III when Len Uhley seals this boy's fate as a character. There's only so much BS&P can do to hide this and none of what they ultimately did was effective enough. People talk about Molly not living past the age of twelve at the rate she was going; I would say Kit has already faced near death situations in this pilot alone, and we haven't even got started yet. Is this another form of sexist attitudes that we should have parked thirty years ago and somehow didn't? (2020 Gregory Weagle Says: Well, in Ducktales 2017, they are well above the age of thirty, so they surivived really well all things considered.)) Don points with the sword and orders his men to get him (In this case, not saying "kill him" actually is apporos because they need Kit to actually spill the beans as we'll see later on. Worry about killing later; grab kid now. By the time it's all over, Kit will be begging for Don to kill him, at least in Don Karnage's mind.) as Dumptruck and Gibber run up the stairs; but the boy grabs the barrel (which is thankfully empty because I shudder to think if he met Larson and Gary in this show; knowing those losers. If there is one way to bury a child; make him have roided muscles. (Bears are really strong in the wild (and typically are difficult to befriend according to David Tower) and don't really need steroids, so him rolling a barrel down and pulling Baloo up in Last Horizons is quite natural for him. Despite being a hundred pounds soaking wet.)) and rolls it down the steps which isn't so empty and it bowls over Dumptruck and Gibber. HEE HEE!
The boy blows Don Karnage off good and he jumps onto the railing and does another awesome Tarzan spot in which he dodges Don Karnage's sword and kicks Don Karnage right in the face. HAHA! Nice goof there, Walt Disney Animation France S.A.; as Don no sells the shot (TEE HEE!), misses the kid and the sword eats another innocent table. Now that is pre-score and ten! AHHAHAHAHA! The boy bust through the straw wall:
Joey Styles: We just fixed that wall!
Hey Joey; put it on Baloo's tab. That'll piss him off. (I don't recall the Tommy Dreamer VS. Brian Lee scaffolding match being on any WWE ECW DVD sets (I'll have to check them out again to make sure.); but at the beginning of the match, Tommy and Brian were fighting outside the ring and someone get smashed into a previously fixed wall made of drywall; and they broke the wall. Hence Joey's response as you see here. I always laughed at that because it was so well timed.). We cut to outside as the boy runs quickly on the docks towards Baloo's plane and Walt Disney Animation France S.A. animation of the kid is downright awesome. I think I have shortchanged Walt Disney Animation France S.A. here as the boy manages to grab onto the tail section of Baloo's plane just as the plane is about to leave the water ground and the plane flies away with the kid in tow as he struggles to get onto the outside of the plane. (I think most of the badly drawn scenes were on the smaller studios working with the main Disney French studio at the time mainly because they had a large volume of scenes to work with and making them come together in one unit made the lesser scenes look like a mess in comparsion. Mike Russo mentioned that Walt Disney Animation France's animation looked similar to the Wolfgang Reitherman Disney features of the 1960's and 1970's. Fitting since Jungle Book and Robin Hood; the two most notable movies TaleSpin was inspired by in terms of the furries in the show were made around that same time.) We then cut to inside the cockpit of the plane as Baloo puts his feet on the control stick (EWWWWW! (Get use to it; this is what passes for toilet humor in TaleSpin.)) because this is relaxation unleashed. Then he hears a knock on the window and looks to his right to see the same kid hanging on for dear life against the window. See what I mean by him killing himself doing this?!
He even does a window slide spot before grabbing the edge of the door just to make it look even MORE dangerous. Baloo asks if he needs a lift?! Geez; you need to ask him, you bastard?! The kid nods his head in really funny fashion as Baloo agrees to it and then nicely blows him off because it's better inside the plane. So we get the scene changer as we get a front shot of outside the plane as the boy is in awe as he starts talking like he knows way too much for his age. (He has the knowledge of an obessed fan; but acts like a mature adult doing so. As if he was an expert. This plays into Kit's character even further.) Baloo's plane is a Conwing L-16 as Baloo is impressed of it. He finally gives the plane a common name which is the SeaDuck. I should note that Launchpad was supposed to be the main character in this series and it was supposed to be a Ducktales' spinoff (thus explaining the SeaDuck's name); but it was nixed. In hindsight; it was an excellent decision on their part since Launchpad turned to crap in another spinoff released a year later: DARKWING...DUCK. (Oh come on 2008 Me! I have mellowed out on Darkwing Duck because his routine is so dated now. On the subject of TaleSpin/Ducktales: All Magon did in relation to Ducktales was take an angle with Launchpad having his own shipping company. It's a one off thing and TaleSpin never intended to be a Ducktales spinoff. Baloo was added after B-Players got sunked by management. Three days later; a series was born out of it. Nine months after it was approved, a series aired. It's even funnier when you considered that Kit Cloudkicker was the reason both in storyline and real life for this series existing in the first place. Kit was amazing as a character and it also brought a lot of dread among creators who didn't think kids should exist in cartoon, let alone be the main event.)
Baloo throws the elbow as the top shelf opens and out pops two bottles of orange soda as the kid continues to be too smart for his own good by commenting on the engines which are Superflight 100's. I'm amazed Disney let this boy get away with saying such stuff which in part explains why this show is screwed. (Nowadays; smart-assery involves being a total dumbass while sounding like you know what you're talking about. Sometimes; rose colored glasses do tell the truth.) Baloo calls the kid all right as he grabs the bottles of orange soda and flicks the caps off with one motion and asks who the boy's name is. FINALLY! I can stop calling him boy and kid now! The boy grabs the bottle of sparkling orange soda and finally announces his name at 9:37:
Kit: Kit.{His face looks unsure of the last name and then he finally says it.}Kit Cloudkicker.
Okay; the name itself is really awesome and the last name is homage to Luke Skywalker's last name which is a Native American type name. I think anyone who proclaims that someone was high on drugs naming kids like that are just simply daring to be called racists. Kit is a leftover from the show that became Chip & Dale's Rescue Rangers. The name; not the character. Susan C. Mitchell and I have written a lot about Kit THE MIRACLE WORKER Cloudkicker as a character in editorials and previous rants in TaleSpin and even outside the show. (I'll address it more in the Epilogue since this commentary is already nearing the 500 KB limit as it is, which means this re-rant is going to have to be split up now.) Kit Cloudkicker is the best DTVA character Disney ever had (Maybe one of the best in Disney history; and that covers a LOT OF GROUND!); and because he's not the star (Baloo is); Eisner squashed him. And unlike other characters; he would have a million reasons to justify it. (#1 Reason: He's a former Air Pirate. That's the only reason he needed to bury Kit. If this were today; Kit would be the main character and his backstory would be not only be celebrated, he would act more like an air pirate than what he would be today. It would be Ted Heinz's wet dream come true.) A note on Kit announcing his name: Jymn Magon's official line is that Kit was paying homage to James Bond when he announces his name to make him sound mysterious and strong. Apparently; someone at Walt Disney France didn't get the memo on Kit acting strong here and they animated it in such a way that Kit came off sounding very odd and had a dubious look on his face when he said it.
Now I respect Jymn Magon as an entertainment writer; but he's basically telling me that this was a blown spot. I don't think it is. (Plus; it's difficult to take this seriously from someone who has little knowledge of his own product.) I think Kit made up the name himself; and I still believe to this day that Cloudkicker is not his real last name. Even if the spot is blown; I think it's an awesome blown spot because it just make Kit look even more mysterious than I think even Jymn Magon intended it to be. Remember this; children love to disappoint their elders as an article from Reason.com stated about censorship. (You know what makes this amazing: It's clear later on that Kit has used the name before when Don Karnage addresses him by the last name as well. So when they first met; I betcha Kit used the Cloudkicker name then. Even so; this makes me wonder still if Kit is using this name just to throw certain people off of his scent. After seeing the comic book "The Long Flight Home"; it's pretty clear that Kit's real last name might have been a generic last name. On a personal note; I think he's Teddy Ruxpin's little bother even if Kit is in constant denial of it. Then again; I've come up with a theory on how this came about and it's one of those "pining for the fijords" type of moments (that this show is best known for both in storyline and in production), but this is fiction and those situations can exist. By the way; TaleSpin is a master of pathos; but it's also a master in the use of non-verbal cues to get a point across. Speaking, writing and reading words are great and all; but we do a poor job in the reading of non-verbal cues which can tell us a lot more about people then what they say, do or even write. (2020 Gregory Weagle Says: Let's just say I was doing headcanons before headcanons were cool and move on.))
There is a lot more about Kit in this movie alone and he's not only the focus character; he will prove to be the one to seal the shows' fate in an attempt to take his awesomeness way over the line. Ironic; since he's the reason why TaleSpin got approved in the first place according to Jymn Magon. Also; I simply cannot say Cloudkicker with a straight face without laughing my ass off. The name is too funny and it proves to be too ironic later on. (The name Kit is related to "kite" in flying and being small since he's 3' 9" in canon. (As per Flight School Confidential.) Cloudkicker refers to his cloudsurfing skills earlier in the episode; but as you'll see throughout this pilot and even in The Long Flight Home comic, there is a second more darker meaning to this character.) Baloo and Kit gently tap the bottles to toast and Kit drinks from the bottle. Kit continues to talk about owning a plane one day and Baloo asks if he has any rich folks which Kit responds with this gem:
Kit: {low voice}I don't have any folks.{head strong voice}But; I'm going to be rich...{low voice again} and real soon too.
I really love this line, not for the line itself; but the way he said it. He looks somber the first three seconds; then goes into cheerful mode for another three seconds and then back to a somber mode which include a near whisper as if he's hiding something as he beams towards the camera on cue. An average kid would not change tones like that; and certainly wouldn't hide dialogue. (Nowadays; kids are way too honest that it annoys me now. Apparently; it's "I'm going to get into trouble anyway, so I'll act like it's a good thing and be honest about it.") The kid is acting so mature and more mysterious by the minute that I'm surprised Baloo doesn't at least wonder for one second at least. (Oh; he'll start to wonder well after the shooting and dogfights begin, I assure you of that. The non-verbal cues Kit gives off are mixed messages; but that is intentional because he doesn't want anyone to know that (a.) Don Karnage is after him and (b.) That he worked for Don Karnage.) Baloo tells him that if he wants to own a plane; he's got to be able to fly it and he offers the stick to Kit just like that at exactly the ten minute mark. Kit is SHOCKED and he goes all cheerful on us again. Mowgli who?! Huey, Dewy, Louie who?! Gosalyn who?! Any kid in Disney who?! Okay; I'll stop there. (How about Dipper and Mabel Pines from Gravity Falls? They're as close to Kit and Molly as we are ever gonna get in the modern cartoon era.) Baloo tells him to knock himself out which is pretty sick; but Kit gets the irony and grabs onto the stick and starts flying as the SeaDuck flies outside. Kit actually does a decent job in mid-air here as the Air Pirates enter the scene and the clouds start rolling in. Nice touch to add a musical note to the Air Pirates background music in there before going back to Kit's Chase 2 as Baloo is amazed how quickly Kit learns to fly the stick. (Something tells me Kit is a selective bookworm in that he studies flight manuals and other flying stuff judging by how quickly he gets into the flight stick.)
Kit isn't as impressed because he won't be able to get his license for five more years which means Kit is eleven and a half years old during this. R.J. Williams is Kit's voice and he was twelve years old in 1990 and eleven years old in 1989 when the episode was recorded so he was PERFECT for this character. (Already did this tribute in From Here To Machinery.) R.J. Williams is a favorite of mine because he could truly act even at a young age; but he decided to become a producer and director in an ironic twist. Sadly; RJ's voice broke too soon as it would become raspy during this series and Alan Roberts had to fill in for some episodes; including a voice mixing two part episode. R.J. Williams also did another duet with Ed Gilberts five years before this in pretty much the same roles: A male adult bear and a male kid bear aged about five years younger than Kit: Kissyfur. Yeah. That show wasn't good. (There's a show I need to review; just to see if 2008 Me was right about it.) This one on the other hand is. (No argument there 2008 me.) The SeaDuck bounces around as Baloo proclaims that once he does; he'll be a regular ace. Not if Don Karnage has anything to say about it as the shooting commences again! Kit's reaction to it is awesome as Baloo retakes the controls and calls them the Air Pirates. That might be their group's name; but it's still a terrorists group; but BS&P won't allow them to say it as such. So we go inside an awesome flying sequence (by television standards) as the Amiga CGI is slowly starting to show here. The thunderstorm claps in blue as the Air Pirate chase them as the segment ends right there ten and a half minutes in. We are barely halfway through the first episode and it's already at twelve pages. (In spite of this; we are building the entire chess game perfectly now with Kit in transition from being in between a pilot he doesn't know to the fullest extent to being a full time babyface. Only one or two logic breaks so far in this and Kit has performed his role perfectly. The real fun is about to start now as the buildup is continuing to flower.)
After the commercial break; we continues with the Air Pirates chasing the SeaDuck with their small wing planes as the thunder, lightning and rain pelts down outside. That's all you need to know. Just take in the beautiful sequence in and enjoy as we cut Don Karnage getting off another awesome gem:
Don Karnage: Do what you want with the plane; but I want the boy untouched. So I can tear him into bite size pieces! {and right on cue; he fires his machine guns on the plane in an awesome spot.}
Geez; you don't think he's out to MURDER Kit; and I mean tear him apart limb from limb and cleave his head off his lifeless corpse type of MURDERING. Man; did Michael Eisner step in on tightening BS&P soon after this pilot or what?! (He doesn't have to say die here because he wants to do far more than just kill someone, he wants to dismember Kit for turning on him. Plus; Don Karnage -- despite having this facade of flair -- is getting more and more scoiopathic by the second because he couldn't control an eleven year old kid. More on this later on, because it ties into a point made by a number of TaleSpinners and it also is a point of evidence as to why Don Karnage would just rather forget this all ever happened.) More flying and shooting as the SeaDuck goes into a tailspin (BWHAHAHAHAHAHA!) as Baloo is getting really annoyed because he has nothing they want. Kit looks mighty concerned because if Baloo finds out who they are after; he is deader than my sex life, at least in his mind. (Yeah; because Kit doesn't know who Baloo really is and hasn't really gotten into the ugly side of Baloo just yet. So far, Kit sees this pilot as an easy going fat bear who likes to dress up, dance and is the self-professed greatest pilot of all time. In which Kit would love to have that spot one day once the stake of becoming a pilot becomes a reality (in due time of course). And Kit wasn't so happy with Baloo's butting into his business.) More shooting and some of the shots miss Kit's foot and leg by mere inches. HOLY CRAP?! That's closer than in To The Rescue; and this one has a lot more shooting in it to boot. No wonder some people wonder how Baloo dodged those shots. (I read the average Youtube comments on this show praising that there are guns in this show compared to now; and I feel embarrassed that I probably enabled those comments via my reviews. I feel bad for BS&P; who get bashed for not having firearms on other shows even though most shows don't need them and only having them makes Disney look like a card carrying member of the NRA. After all the school shootings, can you blame anyone for not touching this show with a ten foot pole; in spite of all the great, believeable characters, deep settings and witty humor?!)
We are approching 0.6 Trigun already as Baloo goes into a hyperbole and then splits the Air Pirates good to buy him some time. The coolest thing about the SeaDuck; no regular weapons like guns on board. It creates a lot of suspense in how Baloo is going to get himself out of this mess alive. (Furries do die on this show. Joe McGee was dead for instance. The problem is and Gargoyles basically proved the point for me: No one watches television just to see a fictional world become real. Sure; it's nice to have documentaries and the news; but the average life of a human being is pretty boring and tedious. We watch television because we want to have some fun. When your show is having people drop like flies; most people will stop watching because watching people die in millions of way is only funny to someone who has scoiopathic tendences. When even sadists think this has gone too far, it's time to stop pissing.) Don Karnage gets pissed off and it's another good one (Toon Disney Racist Edit Alert!)
Don Karnage: This is no time for a Chinese Firedrill! Follow them!
This is just becoming a quote fest and a test of wills to see who is the most awesome here. Bye, bye Boris Badenough; we hardly knew ye. (Don Karnage is such a cool heel that people loved him as a heel.) The SeaDuck spirals up a cloud as Kit screams out on top and the Air Pirates finally do the ambush to screw Baloo over. The SeaDuck dives down into the clouds as Baloo calls them tougher than ticks on a dog as the SeaDuck dives down towards the water and Mad Dog follows them first thinking that he has Baloo and Kit dead and done. If only as Kit really panics and screams for Baloo to pull up. (Who says Kit is totally fearless and a total Mary Sue? Seriously; anyone using this phrase in an unironic way is saying "I hate this character just because I hate him." Wouldn't it be easier just to say what I just said?) RJ Williams's acting is so top notch; that it only made Alan Roberts' run as Kit look even better in retrospect. Alan voiced less roles than Miss Woody Butterbear and yet Alan was more talented than SHE EVER WAS. (Kathleen Helppie was Butterbear's voice and it sucked. Why Katie Leigh didn't moonlight with this character along with Sunni Gummi is a mystery to me. The difference between Alan and R.J. is very profound when Kit laughs or he screams. R.J. brings a more mature voice to the proceedings, while Alan's voice is more childish voice. In a funny thought of mine, Kit weens in between a child and an adult voice so much that I have always wonder if A Bad Reflection On You was a total rib on the two different voices voicing Kit.)
Baloo tells Kit to calm down because he pulls the lever (JESUS~!) which causes the fin wings inside the wings to change direction and allows the SeaDuck to do the hyperbole in which Mad Dog's plane cannot pull up in time and it slams into the water hard. OUCH! If it wasn't for BS&P no death clause; I think Mad Dog would be the first dead character in DTVA history. (Well; you cannot kill yourself, but in this show; you can die (even if they say "passed away"). (2020 Gregory Weagle Says: There is one episode where I thought Mad Dog was legit murdered in: Bygones.)) Still; I think if they did; then the writers would be careless and then be forced to go into the “everyone drops like flies” to keep up the surprise and that's something anime is still trying to shed as a negative image even to this day. It's not a condemnation of anime; just an observation. (Nowadays; it's the staleness of the product that is the negative image of the company since anime has been tightening up on sex, language and even violence. Now granted; it's on a sliding scale in terms of context. However; it's biggest problem is not substance, it's style.) Kit had his eyes covered the whole time and he finally let's the hands go as he cannot believe Baloo did something awesome. Baloo thanks the SeaDuck for saving them because they have perfect chemistry and I agree with him. (Now Kit is seeing that Baloo does have some amazing moves. But that alone isn't what makes it impressive: Baloo is actually standing up to the Air Pirates instead of just surrending just like that. To me, that puts Baloo a step above the average pilot.) Kit does too as he asks what happens now even coming up with the awesome move name of the "Double Reverse Thimble-men" and even the "Pretzel Twist". Baloo opts for the more simple one: "The Quick Exit". Don Karnage gets on his tail section and gets ready to shoot to kill as he aims and gets off another awesome gem: (Syndication Time Cut Commencing~!)
Don Karnage: Your tail-section is mine!
Hey; if you are going to avoid the word ass, be creative. Butt no longer cuts it even in 1990 and it certainly doesn't cut it now. (That's not what the execs say in 2016; 2008 me. Butt humor also known as Pablo's Dog style humor makes a lot of money you know. Sadly; execs don't care about context, which is sad because if they did, we would get some creative fart jokes. Fanboy & Chum Chum's doing classic music in arm farts is actually pretty creative when you put more than thirty seconds of thought; and it's not much different than remixing musical themes we often see on Youtube.) Kit isn't concerned because Baloo can fly rings around them. Baloo doesn't want to because Cape Suzette is up ahead as we get a shot at the famed Cliff Guns as Kit worries that they will never make it in time. (When it comes to piloting a plane; he knows how to restrain himself and not make an ass out of himself. If only he was more rounded in everything outside of flying...) However, there is smoke appearing as Baloo points out that they will make it as we cut to the front and here comes the rockets. Don Karnage is forced to duck as the rocket completely destroy two planes behind it and somehow the pilots don't eject! HOLY CRAP?! (Actually the planes were not damaged as badly as I thought; but they went down with the ship so to speak.) That was saying "screw you" to BS&P right there, guys. Thankfully; only the props are destroyed as the plane dives into the water. Don proclaims that the cannons make him so angry and he orders his men to retreat. The planes sell and the remaining planes fly away from the Cliff Guns as Don Karnage proclaims that he'll be back since Kit has to get his treasure back anyway and he'll have to leave Cape Suzette to get it back. And just so you know; the two pilots who got nailed good are still alive because we need the shaggy dog fury later. Sometimes BS&P is good since it lops off logic breaks. (Still; that shot looked brutal and nasty.)
Baloo laughs it up because Don Karnage and his band of terrorists never seems to get past the cliff guns and that drives them crazy; a word Don Karnage HATES with a passion. Thankfully; he doesn't hear it. (Yeah; because being called crazy is a berserk button for Don Karnage. If this was aired in Japan today; crazy would have been edited out because on Japanese television, saying "crazy" is like saying "retard" is here. You are asking for trouble; which indicates that Don Karnage rules the airwaves in Japan. That's a weird way to playing it straight and narrow there, Don. I should note that Don Karnage is a title and not a name. Even the characters of this show refer to him by Karnage most of the time. So what is his real name? No one knows, not even Jymn Magon, not even me. (It is probably Anthrax since that was his original codename; but they cannot say it due to copyright reasons.) Which plays into the theory that Kit Cloudkicker is not his real name too. Although I think it's only the last name that was made up. I'm not certain about Karnage though.) The SeaDuck flies through the narrow ridge and we get the next awesome sequence which could have been evidence that Magon was thinking about a Feature movie and it didn't pan out because this is so Disney Feature-equse; but the television animation just cannot make it better. Good idea; wrong medium. (I have advocated this for a long time and realize that it's 25+ years too late; but Michael Eisner had a huge misstep with DTVA concerning TaleSpin: Why have a Ducktales movie when you have a hundred episodes of Scrooge's adventures on free television and the movie is basically an extended Ducktales episode, which has already been done on television with Treasure Of The Golden Suns? I mean; the movie made $15 million tops and barely broke even. If you had Plunder and Lightning as the movie to improve the visuals a little bit more and let the story be the story it wants to be; I betcha you make $50 million in ticket sales, because it's the origin story of a new series you are airing on television for free, and it gives me incentive to buy the movie. TaleSpin is fresh and you would make a small profit. Sure; I doubt that this would be a blockbuster or anything; but it would make a profit at least; and maybe then you can do a Ducktales movie with a better storyline that is different from most of Scrooge's adventures on television much later on.)
Cape Suzette is really an awesome place from the Cliff Guns; to Baloo's own Air Service; to Khan Tower among just some of the places; and this sweep over just isn't enough to do it justice character wise. (Someone on Livejournal said it best (I wish I knew who said this because I think this journal disappeared down the memory hole.) : If this show happened today; they wouldn't bother with this because BS&P would edit it for time under the theory that kids would change the channel and think that it's boring. It's what you call a science claim. If you are going to make a science claim, you must provide peer-reviewed studies as evidence. Focus groups don't count because they can be easily manipulated since children are the easiest to make do whatever the heck you want. When you can convince even adults that this is the greatest thing since sliced bread; that's not science either, but at least they consented to it.) The Seaduck finally lands onto the water and stops right next to the dock near a wooden building which looks like one of those Victorian houses which looks really odd compared to the rest of the buildings which look closer to 1960's. This is pretty much where I could safely say TaleSpin takes place in it's own universe (As if the diverse animal set didn't do it already? (2020 Gregory Weagle Says: It appears Ducktales 2017 actually takes place in TaleSpin's world circa 2017. As evidence in Let's Get Dangerous, when Scrooge was shown in the Ducktales 1987 alternate world in Act II.)). We head inside Baloo's Air Service and it is a complete mess which strangely is apporos for Baloo since he was lazy in the Jungle Book. Don't worry; you are going to see the irony very soon. (And here is where they show the ugly side of Baloo's character: Lazy, irresponsible and total apathy towards the business side of things. In the Jungle Book; you could get away with it because the law of the jungle is very different from the law of the land. Remember that as this scene goes on.)
Baloo enters through the door and the hallway is really clean compared to the rest of the mess; so Baloo isn't completely irresponsible as Baloo causally strolls in with Kit close behind. (Kit is looking around and he's wondering: What have I got myself into? For all of his piloting skills; he's really messy.) Baloo sits on the crimson loveseat next to a couple of boxes of pizza and calls this good to be back as he rest his feet on the boxes of pizza. Kit walks in and notices a glass with a straw on it. He tries to grab it; but chewing gum sticks on the bottom of it. Kit just goes "yuck" on that one as Baloo raises the stink factor by taking a pizza from the box which his feet is resting on (EWWWWWW!) and offers it to Kit. Is he trying to kill Kit with THAT?! Kit refuses as he's not hungry anymore and places the glass down. (Once again; a fart joke that works because Kit is completely embarrassed about it. That fart joke actually got edited out in syndication, believe it or not.) Baloo apparently eats the pizza off-screen and then he attempts to impress Kit by grabbing the newspaper and reading it. See; we read back then and we still would if we stop believing in Al Khan's silliness as Baloo proclaims that the Sox have won the Series. (Yeah; because only the ways of reading has changed, not the reading itself.) For those who don't get the rib here; the joke is that the Boston Red Sox could only win the World Series in a cartoon like TaleSpin and for 14 years after the pilot aired; this was perfectly true.
In October 2004; the Boston Red Sox finally won the World Series and then the Chicago White Sox won it a year later; and then Boston won it again in 2007. (Then they won it again in 2013 and then in 2018 (with one of the best win-loss records of all time to boot); and put the curse to bed once for all. Also during that stretch we have finally seen the Chicago Cubs win it all in 2016 and the joke was back in 1990 that Kit Cloudkicker was a mole for the Cubs when TaleSpin was on WGN as his role was to make kids watch the Chicago Cubs. Ironically; in 2014, Clark the Cub was born and he looked almost like Kit Cloudkicker in Chicago Cubs gears, only much older and more miserable. Almost every Cubs fan destroyed this at the time of it's release. Two years later; the Cubs won the World Series. Huh. Maybe Clark was a good luck charm after all. Anyhow; Baloo is trying to play chess with Kit here; but Kit isn't exactly letting him get away with it. On the one hand; he's grateful that Baloo has saved him from Karnage, but on the other hand; he's not exactly thrilled at the mixed messages Baloo is giving him. He is at a crossroads in weither or not to trust him and it's so fragile right now that one huge mistake could kill it just like that.) Kit completely ignores him and finds the letters on the table; in turn then blows him off because the newspaper is two months old which suggests that the date is somewhere in November or December which is when the syndication version of this pilot was released in 1990. Baloo blows him off nicely because he only does work when HE wants to which is so hardcore of him so to speak.
Kit gleefully blows him off because it's no way to run an airline. So Satrou Iwata-ish of him. (Kit Cloudkicker is playing the political game of taking the high road here; which is amazingly hypocritical of him when you realize what happens later on in this pilot. Baloo being hardcore at flying is certainly believable; but it's even harder hardcore when he has total apathy for his life. This just makes the hardcore "bit in the ass" spot much more hardcore than Baloo can handle and his reaction afterwards is classic.) Baloo goes to his messy filing cabinet and opens it with his foot (HEE HEE! I see where Molly Violence came from too.); remembering to throw out some more trash since the room isn't messy enough and finds a red/blue baseball cap and flips it onto Kit's head in a good spot. Baloo offers him the job of being a navigator; and Kit refuses because he wants to go back to Louie; before flipping the baseball cap backwards right on cue. (Amazingly enough; Kit actually believes that being the navigator implies wearing the hat on backwards. It was sort of a 1990 kids' thing that people absolutely shun nowadays (as evident when Clark The Cub, the mascot for the Chicago Cubs was unveiled (and no one was fooled by the Kit Cloudkicker knockoff, but the Cubs made it to the NLCS two years later, so no one cares anymore); but in this case, it actually works because if you consider Kit's backstory in the comic "The Long Flight Home" and this pilot alone, his life was so ass backwards and even in this series; he's still pretty messed up lifewise. I'm astounded that Mark Zaslove actually had the foresight to actually turn an annoying 1990's pop culture reference into something that not only made sense, but also made me feel bad for Kit as the babyface. That is another example of "stars are aligned" moment. (2020 Gregory Weagle Says: Kit wears the hat forward in Ducktales 2017, because he's an ace pilot now and not the navigator. This was a brilliant attention of detail by Tanner Johnson there.))
Thus; Kit's final look is born. Personally; I like him even more without the cap on; he's so cute without it! Baloo is puzzled because they were already there and Kit does the tough guy act because he wants to go back. (Insanity folks: Doing the same thing over and over again; expecting a different result. Seems to be Kit's gimmick in this show. Still a lot better than total apathy: Doing the same thing over and over again; not caring about the result, which seems to be Baloo's gimmick. ) Baloo no-sells it and asks him if this works on all his friends. Kit then turns his back on him and becomes somber again:
Kit: I …don't have any friends.
We are going to understand why later on as Baloo walks up to him and proclaims that he cannot return to Louie's for a few more weeks. Personally; this isn't a bad thing for Kit since he's safe as long as he's in Cape Suzette. However; Kit is so headstrong that he wants to go back now which shows just how suicidal he really is. I mean; if I was him, I'd wait two weeks before asking him again and see if this works out. (Again; if Kit's a Mary Sue; why is he making obvious mistakes like this? Because no matter what Kit has gone through and may act like an adult; but he's still twelve years old. However; Kit staying for a few weeks might not be a good idea either, as if Louie finds the box himself during that time, simply cleaning the place (because Louie isn't as messy as Baloo is.); or worse, what if Don Karnage just retraces his steps and figures out that Kit left Louie's without the box. So it has to be there; and therefore, Kit's concern is justified in some way.) Funny mistake number two: The syndication version blows the cue as in that version; Kit speaks that he has to go back on the last motion; making it as if his mouth doesn't move. In the movie version; it's perfect actually. (Nope; it's actually in reverse. The movie version has Kit saying the exact same line a full second earlier than he was supposed to. That is a post-production error and very noticable. ) A knock beckons on the door and Baloo walks past him to answer it. It so happens to be a hamster furry wearing a blue suit, blue pants, blue hat and a red striped tie who speaks in Howard Huge voice which clearly indicates that it is Charles Adler. It so happens to be someone from the Cape Suzette National Bank that Baloo has been awfully late on paying the bills for the SeaDuck as Baloo has zero idea what he is talking about. (Once again; the consequences of not having any concept of finances. Baloo's own apathy is coming back to bite him in the ass.)
In fact, he's late on his last six payments and if he doesn't find three thousand dollars by tomorrow morning at nine am; the SeaDuck will be reprocessed and the deal is foreclosed. (The comics had the banker talk in clusters, like Konoe Kikyo in Bravely Default. I'm surprised that they didn't use it here. It would have been hilarious to listen Charlie Adler try it out.) Baloo has ZERO idea what he is talking about and Kit delivers this gem:
Kit: He said: No dough, plane go! (Now here's where editing in syndication changed the scene: In the movie version, Baloo has no idea what he's talking about and wants Kit to translate what the bank representive said. It was to show that Baloo's a street smart guy with no concept of the business world, making him like like a book-idiot. In the syndication version; Baloo simply grabs the representive; acting like he knows what the bank representive was talking about. This changes the personality: In the movie edition; Baloo acts like he's merely dumb and didn't understand what the guy was saying. In syndication; this implies that Baloo is not dumb with totally apathy and then shocked when he got caught with his hand in the cookie jar. Time constriants cut this out; although keeping this scene would show that it wasn't just laziness and apathy that ruled Baloo, that Baloo's education level is also low. Considering that Vowel Play and Sheepskin Deep happened, Baloo's lack of education was a major trait, so there you go. There are many other scenes in this pilot that were cut in syndication that changed the way I saw the pilot and it gets even more upsetting when Kit's non-verbal cues get excised.)
Yeah; that should get Baloo's attention and Baloo finally gets the LIGHTBULB OF BLOODY CLARITY. He grabs the banker and shakes him around panicking like an idiot. HAHA! Remember what I said about this being a Jungle Book parody and irony?! Here it is: We are in the "modern jungle" (well compared to where Jungle Book took place of course) and in this jungle; Baloo's lifestyle/character is shunned and he can be buried because of it. That means either Baloo grows up; or gets buried. (This plays into why I don't buy that this is not a parody. How in the world can it not be a parody? Baloo is in a concrete jungle trying to pull off the "Bare Necessities" nonsense and he's paying for it big time. The day of his reckoning is forthcoming later that is going to force him to decide between his old and new character. The irony is so obvious and to me, I think Jymn Magon is afraid that Jungle Book fans would turn on it because parodies cause offense. Yes, it did cause offense to some people, but the parody was in fact brilliant because TaleSpin's Baloo and Jungle Book's Baloo are basically the same character at this point; but are in completely different locations. It's things like this that amuse me to no end.) The banker no-sells Baloo's pleas as he calmly reminds Baloo that he sent mail to him and Baloo finally gets the BALLOON OF CHILD CORRUPTING DOOM which shows Kit showing the mail containing the unpaid bills. Best balloon ever and it's fitting that it's the infamous "child corrupting balloon" when it's Kit Cloudkicker being in it. Baloo puts him down gently and brushes him off in order to suck up to the banker; but no dice as the banker leaves. Baloo is seriously finished and he does a dramatic oversell and pounds on the side of his house crying his eyes out. This is so great; however I cannot feel sympathy for him even though it would make Kit mad at me. Kit responds by telling him nicely to get a job. Baloo gets the LIGHTBULB OF BLOODY CLAIRTY and gets off an awesome line of his own:
Baloo: Kit! You're a genius! With a capital J!
Pretty funny line there because Baloo's character is that he cannot spell which foreshadows Vowel Play and also; G and J's can be interchanged in Japanese translations; like C's to K's, B's to V's and R's to L's. I mention this because Magon and Zaslove are anime fans and one famous animator in Japan is their major inspiration for this series; confirmed by Jymn Magon himself. The other is Tales of the Golden Monkey; but that was a minor influence compared to the anime influence. (I think Last Horizons was the closest thing to a Tales Of The Golden Monkey reference that the show would ever get. Although "Dogs Of War" is much closer to that.) Kit and Baloo run to the Bulletin Board Service and that's what it looked like before the World Wide Spiderweb....Errr...Web. Bad cartoon influences; begone from my fragile mind! (Dave The Barbarian is perfectly fine now as a series; although it got off to a much worse start than I thought it would.) Baloo looks on it as Kit asks if he can find one that will pay three thousand dollars in about eighteen hours more or less as Baloo responds saying that if the job is nasty enough and he finally find one. It's a zoo job as he grabs the paper and vainly proclaims that he's got it made now. (Here's a clue: If someone says "zoo job" and pay a lot of money; that means that this can kill you. I originally thought it was a "suit job" or "suicide job"; but the captions were correct in this case.) Kit just looks somber and that look indicates that he isn't very happy about him since he seems to care more about his plane than him. Kit turns around and says goodbye to Baloo as he is about to leave; but Baloo gets in front of him to stop him. Baloo proclaims that he needs someone to help him since this is a two person job and even swallows his pride that once he gets the MONEY, MONEY, YEAH, YEAH; he'll even return him to Louie's tomorrow after the bills are paid. (Notice how Kit is acting like: "You don't really care about me. I better get out of this relationship before it gets really bad". This goes into more of Kit's distrust of adults. Problem is; in order to get the stone, he needs someone to fly him back to Louie's. So Kit has to trust Baloo for a while longer...)
Kit likes it; but then his face tightens as he's not exactly buying this zoo job. He even does an awesome Gruffi pose (Check the sequence pose he does; it is great. (Thank you Walt Disney Animation France S.A.)) asking what they are delivering. Baloo isn't exactly being honest here as he does a description spot and once the word smelly comes into play; Kit finally gets it and he does an awesome over dramatic sell himself as they are Gorilla Birds. (Baloo is showing off the art of non-verbal cues here: When he says "big"; he moves his arm to show off the height of someone, when he says "mean" he shows off his boxing skills (ala Jungle Book), and when he says "smelly" he waves his hand over his nose. Strangely; I'm surprised syndication didn't edit out the "and ugly" part since Baloo doesn't do a non-verbal cue here. And it's not like cutting this out would ruin the episode or anything. It would be just one second of footage that wasn't needed.) Boy; Kit must have some nightmares with these birds. I think one of them licked his feet or something somewhere in the past. Oh come on! You knew that one was coming a mile away! (R.J. Williams' acting was great here and it just plays into Kit wondering: "What the hell have I got myself into?!") So we head to the skies as the SeaDuck flies in the air and we cut into the cockpit as the Gorilla Birds have already busted in and they are wrecking such funny havoc as Kit is kicking them and not once does he laugh as a result. I guess you have to use just the feathers to make the spot work. (Yeah; you have to tickle them; just pushing back doesn't cut it.) The gorilla birds are a corrupted version of ostriches who are big, mean, ugly and smelly. They are voiced by Frank Welker; the staple of animal vocals the world over. (Man of well over one thousand characters, half of them animals because it's cheaper to do vocals from a human being than it is to hire a stunt animal. Much less anger from animal rights groups; and it's not like animal testing where having animals is absolutely needed here and there's no alternative that matches the quality of the studies.)
Baloo thinks there is nothing to it and Kit gleefully blows him off on that response. Baloo calls it a piece of cake as the Gorilla Birds continue to wreck havoc and even want to drive the SeaDuck. HAHA! Baloo gets them off as he is forced to do a hyperbole to save the Seaduck. Baloo feels relieved as I worry about Kit's sanity as I think he was laughing a bit in the background. Well; he is very ticklish so it's apporos. (I'm figuring Kit doesn't wear shoes because he figures they'll just take them off anyway. Something Zip Skyboard of Pickle & Peanut should consider.) Kit then does me proud by invoking the broom and whacks the broom part right on Baloo's fat head. POW! OUCH! Ummm...Baloo protests this outrage even questioning Kit's alignment as a babyface. Foreshadowing?! What's that?! Kit goes all bashful in his apology; but R.J. Williams sounds absolutely cynical when he does it making Kit look more and more mysterious. I mean the emotion RJ shows doesn't match the animation and somehow it makes Kit even stronger than before. (Not to mention the fact that Kit looks like Young Simba from The Lion King at times. Foreshadowing indeed. Baloo asking who's side Kit is on makes me wonder how Kit is being able to handle Baloo so well. I mean; Baloo's ugly side is showing and we haven't even got to Baloo's other ugly trait: his temper. Of course; it's obvious why Kit is still with Baloo at this point: He needs to get back to Louie's and there's no assurances that anyone wants to give him a ride other then him. Pilot Jack almost was ready to kill Kit for hitchhiking on his plane.) Then again; Zipper's three human trip spot made me laugh my ass off so that explains it. (Oh; that episode was one of those episodes I seriously overrated, but that was mostly due to me marking out for the Zipper spot.) Baloo pushes the birds away and orders Kit to lock them into the back room sounding really angry at Kit even though it was his idea. (Uh oh; here comes the temper I was talking about.) Kit and Baloo push the birds into the next room and lock the door with the RIC FLAIR BROOMSTICK OF DOOM. I approve of this as Kit blows off Baloo's psychological projection of this being a piece of cake. Of course it turns out to be a paid off joke as here comes the Air Pirates shooting at them again! That ends the segment nearly seventeen and a half minutes in. I don't think we have even got into the first layer of cake here; Pop-A-Bear. (Now we come to the most crappiest part of the first act where they tried to do their first CGI stuff on television and it was clear that this was rushed completely. Thankfully; the story is more than making up for the Z-team's shortcomings in animation.)
After the commercial break; we return as the Air Pirates ambush the SeaDuck on the far shot and Walt Disney Animation France finally blows their first spot of the episode having the ambush being way off the mark as Baloo cannot believe that these pirates would go after him since he has NOTHING...AND THE ROCK SAYS NOTHING. Kit puts his hands up and almost blows his cover right there. (At this point, Baloo is now realizing that there is something wrong here, but even if he figures out who did it; now is not the time to think. It's time to get the hell out of there, for his own well being.) Of course with a bunch of blood thirsty terrorists attacking you; it's understandable for Baloo not to notice as we recycle the front shot of Don Karnage shooting at them which makes Walt Disney Animation France's blown spot look worse. Baloo goes full throttle and it's more shooting as we recycle the shot from the end of the previous segment and several shots actually hit the glass window. One of them would have clipped Baloo's ear in real life by the way. That's how close we are coming to Deadly Force! Who's the idiot who claimed this show had no sense of real danger?! (I mean if this show didn't have a real sense of danger; then why did Toon Disney bother to edit out striking matches and close ups of shooting machine guns and cocking guns in other episodes? Heck; later on in this pilot, Kit is nearly shot in the head which was cut out by syndication! Again; this is misunderstanding the difference between a sense of danger and a sense of death.) Baloo flies in a loop-de-loop for only fifteen cents and dives into the jungle as that separates the group again and Don Karnage actually get shot at by his own men. HAHA! Don Karnage goes for the transmitter and blows them off calling them Nimconpoop pirates! I love real comments that aren't supposed to be real comments. (I believe this was edited out in syndication.)
The SeaDuck flies into the deep jungle as we head into the cockpit as Kit is sitting in the navigational seat pleading for Baloo not to continue this because he already impressed with him. Baloo responds saying that he's doing it to save their skins. Fair enough; but this is getting really dangerous now as the Air Pirates are flying top side and Don gives the order for Mad Dog to dive down and go after them. Mad Dog sells it and goes down in the deep jungle..I sense Mad Dog is going to get screwed over here because he's the bump machine of this outfit as we get that wonderful TaleSpin victory sequence music. The CGI is pretty terrible here as the backgrounds look fake; but for the time it was really good all things considered. In fact; I could argue that the use of CGI here was done a lot better than the CGI done in about ninty percent of today's television animation which proves Malstroms' point: Bleeding edge technology exposes talent...or the lack of it so to speak. (Also of note; Kit's baseball cap is missing when the SeaDuck goes into the hard camera, so this scene was supposed be in the first dogfight rather than the second one. Despite the fact that there is no jungle anywhere in the previous dogfight! This is one of those situations where they tried something new for television and it looked bad. To be fair though, the SeaDuck itself was dead perfect and I have seen worse from Teddy Ruxpin when they try to do zoom in and zoom out camera shots, so I'll live. This is certainly something I would be embarrassed to see in 2016 with others. As for Malstorm: The point is: If you have to depend on bleeding edge technology to get yourself over instead of your own ability to entertain and make art, chances are you are not very good at what you do and it's better just to change careers. If half of the staff of Nickeledeon did that, even Breadwinners would improve in six weeks. Not very much mind you, but still enough to be notable. Also of note: two seconds of this scene was changed to a background in syndication.)
Iwata has got to be laughing now as Baloo flies the Seaduck towards a wooden bridge and uses the tail section to clip to slightly; allowing it to sway violently and Mad Dog is now screwed as he takes a really good bump into the bridge does an awesome twist around and Mad Dog ejects into the water. The plane does indeed fall down which isn't shown here by the way. We cut back to the SeaDuck flying some more through a river bank as Baloo starts off the next awesome sequence of dialog:
Baloo: HAHA! My flying is A+!
(Anyone who has watched -- oh, I would say ten series -- would know what happens next here. To be fair here, at least he didn't say: "It couldn't get any worse.") Sadly; the worst drawn animation in the entire series roadblock appears which is a cliff with palm trees shows up and the SeaDuck is forced to crash into the palm trees (The pitfalls of TV animation strike again. I'm guessing Cinemadores did the backgrounds here since they were supposed to be CGI. To be fair; the drawings are better than I thought they were, it just looked kind of fake.) and the Seaduck slides around in the mud. Then takes some really good bumps on the water and lands on the edge of the beach as the engine die faster than Hoppo's diet plans. AHHAHAHAHAHA! POW! OUCH! Ummm...Kit uncovers his eyes and does a Grade S blowoff on Baloo:
Kit: Yeah; but you're landings are C-!
I am so loving this as Kit and Don Karnage are running rings around Baloo at this point and we are up to 1.0 Trigun right now as we cut back to Don Karnage and the Air Pirates in the sky. Don Karnage is getting more and more pissed off by the second as he curses in DUBBED ANIME STYLE (Curses and more curses!). He orders them to find the boy and the Air Pirates sell as they fly their plane in different directions in order to secure the area. (Oh; and the syndication was adding dialogue and sound effects in this pilot as well.) Good plan there Don as we cut back to a shot of Baloo rubbing his plane as if he was giving it a back rub. The SeaDuck is damaged with bullet holes; but otherwise the damage isn't as great as Baloo thinks it is. Kit is still sitting in the navigational seat feeling a sigh of relief that they lost them. (Oh; that sigh of relief just blew his cover once again.) Baloo walks to the window just wondering why they are after him because he has nothing they want except him and Kit...Then the LIGHT BULB OF BLOODY CLAIRTY hits him like a sledgehammer and he is pissed off as he invokes an ultra nasty finger at Kit since they are after him. Kit's cover is so blown up that he pulls his hat down and slumps his body as if he just wants to be somewhere else. Baloo wants Kit to explain why the Pirates are after them and Kit really blows him off on that one because he believes Baloo is a heartless bastard more or less (What do you care?) and he basically proves his point because he keeps referring to the SeaDuck as a human being (They're shooting down my plane son; to paraphrase. (That was not a paraphrase, that was as direct of a quote as you are going to get. For those who don't like brats; remember this: Baloo cared more about his plane than the kid who a bunch of terrorists are after and are trying to kill him. Baloo handled this the wrong way and all he did was give Kit a good excuse to jettison him.)).
If he just said: "Because those Pirates are going to hurt you; or worse..."; then Kit wouldn't be so PISSED OFF here or Kit would look like a really selfish little brat. (Yeah; Kit would be the bigger asshole had Baloo not cared more about his plane than Kit himself. As I said before, this relationship was on the rocks to begin with and it looks like it's going to die a really quick death at this point.) Kit bursts the door open on the right side and jumps out. He then turns around; and gives him a rightful blow off to Baloo's heartlessness and then turns on his heel and storms off. Again; I stand on the assertion in my previous rant that Kit did the right thing here and really saved Baloo's ass here since now he's alone and if they find Kit then at least Baloo is safe. Yes; Kit sounded really selfish in all honesty; but Baloo was even worse than he was to the point where a lot of us truly believe that Baloo and Kit are two halves and they need to become whole in order to be at peace. (That is also the major theme in Stormy Weather: They're buddies; but at the same time, there's an actual good reason for them to co-exist together. Plus; one is the opposite of the other, but have their share of flaws that are compelling and make sense. Also; TaleSpin is not a buddy show. A show about friends, yes; but the friends can extend as being part of a family of friends.) Also; bears in real life usually do not trust each other making the whole conflict even more powerful. Like I said before; nixing Launchpad as the star character in this show was a GOOD idea. (Besides; Launchpad starred in Darkwing Duck, so who's complaining? I'm guessing everyone wanted to see Launchpad VS. Baloo in a grand race. The problem is; Baloo is not a fatalist and would squash Launchpad in a New York minute. Too bad though; it would have given Terrence McGovern a DTVA appearance that didn't involve all ducks all the time.) Yes; Baloo and the Seaduck have a history; but the plane is still a machine (in spite of us calling it a character) and Kit is a furry being.
Baloo protests this outrage (BOO HOO to you Pop-A-Bear! More on that later...) ; but Kit doesn't hear it as he is solid gone. Baloo blows him off and thinks he'll be back (Yeah right?!) as Baloo turns around and sees that the tail door is open and the Gorilla Birds have escaped. Yeah; like I'm buying that Kit didn't release them on purpose to screw Baloo over. (How exactly could Kit do that when he was in the cockpit the entire time? As much as I would have loved to see Kit do that because of Baloo's reaction to it; Kit is not the sort of guy to have a personal grunge for no good reason. Besides; if he did release the birds, he would have done it BEFORE Baloo figured out that the pirates were after him. That makes no sense. So I'm guessing the Gorilla Birds got out on their own and 2008 Me is seriously underestimating them as mean, nasty and smelly animals.) Baloo's shrill scream is simply priceless here. We then cut to deep within the jungle as the background is just beautiful here and again a excellent selection of colors contrasting both bright primary and the brown “mature” color in perfect balance making the scene good enough for both audiences. No one can accuse this show of pandering to a certain audience when it comes to colors at least. (Man; did the Diablo 3 petition really light a fire under me during the Wii years or what? TaleSpin was colorful and alive; but yet showed signs of darkness at the same time. Kevin Johnston said in his review on this show; that Talespin's world is so alive (and Cape Suzette in the most regard) that it showed the rich, middle class and poor all in the same location sometimes (Cape Suzette being the most notable). The coloring also made a difference in those scenes, giving us a believable world that is still more than wacky enough to still be a cartoon. It's things like this that make me regret hating this show back in 1990, when I was twelve years old. It doesn't mean I hate shows like Tiny Toons and Animaniacs now; it means that I have relooked at all of what I watch and put some critical thought into them when as a twelve year old, I could not. And yes, I thank Youtube and Disney DVD for bringing all this material back to life again. Not just the episodes; but the production stories (as few as they are) and also for me, a sense of how connected the show was to other shows from the past, present and future. Does it mean I love every show now? Of course not. It just means that I have to accept the fact that sometimes even the best can screw up big time. Take David Wise, he can write good episodes; I have seen it like in Risksy Beesness on Rescue Rangers for instance. However; I also saw Mighty Ducks and that killed his career until recently.)
Kit has a wooden stick and he bashes some innocent bushes as he completely rants on Baloo. He is probably not only yelling at him; but also echoing his anger on himself for trusting him which just makes me wonder what has happened to this child?! And if we find out; will we believe it and if we do, will we regret it later on?! (Oh boy; would I ever regret it later on. This is Kit being frustrated that yet another adult has screwed him, although in a way; Kit did do this to himself because as much as I think Kit was in the right here; he didn't do himself any favors by not taking the high road and admitting that the Air Pirates were after him for a treasure that Don Karnage stole from Mr. Khan. However; in a way, I can see why Kit is not upfront about telling any adults about this: If Kit ever told Baloo he was an Air Pirate; what would Baloo's reaction be? In the end when Kit finally told Baloo about his relationship, Baloo forgive him and proclaims that they are partners which Kit giggles as if he couldn't believe Baloo's reaction was this one. Right now; Kit's learned behavior would be: If I tell him; he'll call the police to arrest me because an air pirate is a carte blanche terrorist. Remember one important thing about ideology: It doesn't have to be organized religion. Money and power are often the biggest idealogies of terrorists, controlling the populace's own emotions is what terrorism is. Don Karnage wants people to fear him; and many people do fear him even now because he and his man can in fact kill you.) Kit doesn't pay attention to who is ahead of him and in jumps Don Karnage right in front of Kit as we get another awesome shot of his tail. Don Karnage calls it long time no see...SEE as he flashes his teeth right on camera in a really sick spot. Well; that was pretty quick. (Actually; 2008 Me misspoke as the last word he said was not "see", but "si" which is Spanish and Italian for "yes". So English is not the only language in the world that steals and bastardizes languages.)
So we cut back to another section of the jungle as Baloo has the LASSO OF BANE TO ALL ACTION CARTOONS EVERWHERE and since this is an adventure/interaction series; it's all okay. Baloo calls out for the birds as he walks in and then stops to take a sniff which it smells FOWL as the Gorilla Birds does the Hell Diver spot right on Baloo's fat head. (2020 Gregory Weagle Says: And wouldn't you know it, Kit did in fact deliever a package from another terrorist organization in Ducktales 2017: FOWL.) AHHAHAHAHAHA! POW! OUCH! Ummmm... That was too funny as Baloo does some bird wrestling to amuse me and that bump was pretty sick to boot. The bird even kick Baloo on the side of the head for a nice touch. (Man; these furries are not going to live beyond the age of forty at this rate.) So we go back to the previous section of the jungle as the post-production team blows the spot as Gibber is staggering drunk around the area and then returns just in time to allow Don Karnage to lean on his head. HAHA! That isn't the blown spot as that was either a fourth wall break or a scene that was supposed to be extended; but was cut for time reasons under the "Walt Disney Ninty Minute Movie Rule". (They couldn't keep a funny spot of Gibber running in just in time to put his head in the proper position just for Don to lean on him? I can see why you would cut out some of Kit's non-verbal cues and a lullaby; but why are you cutting funny spots? I thought kids just wanted comedy? Remind me never to hire money marks other than as bean counters and accountants. When they try to be scientists in a subjective form of entertainment, they will look stupid every time. Even funnier; they didn't just flip the image vertically, they flipped the image horizontally as well; and then they replay the footage backwards. In syndication, Don Karnage is leaning on Gibber already and then shoves him away causing the hat to go over his eyes. In the movie version; the hat is over Gibber's eyes already and he goes towards Don in order to let Don lean on his head. As for that rule; it's not a bad rule, but it's not due to quality. It's because it's the sweet spot for the attention spans of kids and adults alive. Unless your Damon Silverstar and your attention span is less than most kids nowadays.)
The yellow coyote pirate with all the TNT stuff in his bullet holder and the Mr. T clothing is Hacksaw who is voiced by Charlie Adler. He isn't much; but he did have a really awesome moment in the series in his phobia of water so to speak. (Hacksaw's reaction when Don Karnage was yelling at him in part two of A Bad Reflection On You is priceless. It's probably the same reaction Hacksaw Jim Duggan had when Vince found out about him being found with drugs in the same car as the Iron Shiek. Just be thankful that it wasn't Verne Gange finding out; that would have ended The Iron Shiek and Hacksaw's career all in one swoop.) The blown spot: The shot is supposed to be upside down since it's a first person perspective of what Kit is seeing as we cut to the real shot as we see Kit Cloudkicker tied up with enough ropes to really cause rope burns and then they even hang him upside down to boot. Kit even has his toes pointing down just to accent the spot perfectly. (Kind of like Kit would do if he took a piledriver from Jerry Lawler actually. I betcha he would also melt all over Lawler after taking the piledriver as well. And in Memphis; a piledriver usually means Kit's dead and you might as well cremate him and spread the ashes all over the ring.) Don Karnage goes over to Kit and sweet talks him into confessing where the box is and head butts Kit right in the kisser and thus paying him back for kicking him the face earlier. See; do the funny no sell spot and then pay it off; and that was a good shot too. Walt Disney Animation France really makes Kit look good as Kit's feet literally bounce wildly on recoil. (Yeah; not only did they pay off the animation goof with a non-verbal cue, the reaction to the non verbal cue was well done as well. This is the sort of thing you would never see nowadays because execs think fart jokes work. Never mind that most fart jokes are non-verbal cues too. Not all of them of course; but the vast majority of them.)
Don Karnage offers to refresh his memory by having him spent a night and dealing with killer jungle animals as Don foolishly turns his back and that spells danger to anyone when a bondage victim hasn't been gagged or his mouth tape shut as Kit swings like a pedalum trying to bite him; but misses on the on-screen shots. Nice touch on Kit's feet there by the animators as we go to the off-screen shot and Don Karnage completely oversells pain as Kit does an awesome bite right on Don Karnage's ass. Oh that cooky BS&P! (Since Sunni take an ass biting from a horse on-screen about four years ago. So apparently; anthro furry humans aren't allowed to bite the ass on-screen; but real animals can. Very odd. This is also one of the few times we saw Kit's teeth and they are almost as sharp as Baloo's. Almost.) Don Karnage is so PISSED off that he grabs Kit by the neck; yells at him and them twirls him around in such a violent fashion that he was really teasing slapping Kit right in the jaw on the rebound just to screw BS&P. Apparently he was going to and we are forced to cut back to Baloo again. D'OH! (I have a bad feeling that this was in the rough drafts of script and storyboard and they nixed it do to BS&P. Slapping a child on children's television is a federal hate crime (not really, but it's a bad idea.) you know.) Baloo is leading the tied up Gorilla Birds (well their mouths are at least along with their necks) as he is so happy because he has them back and the Seaduck is all his thus proving Kit's point. Great pan shot as Baloo looks like he's beaming as he then hears Don Karnage in probably the most pissed off voice ever proclaiming that this is Kit's last chance. (One of my favorite Don Karnage lines of all time; not the line itself, but how Don Karnage delivered it. He sounded strong but desperate at the same time.) That gets Baloo's attention as he hides before a bush and opens it to see a back shot of Don Karnage trying to extract information from a tied up, hung upside down Kit who continues to goldbrick like crazy.
Kit just lies through his teeth as Don Karnage isn't buying anything because they will find his friend that he was defending in his mind. Kit blows that off because he has no friends and that in his mind is the truth. Unless you are talking about Kit fans of course; but he doesn't know that. (Yeap; Kit has considered Baloo his enemy and doesn't realize that Baloo is hiding in the bushes.) Baloo pops up realizing it really is Kit as the Gorilla Bird pops up with him forcing Baloo to push him back down in a neat spot. Don Karnage has had it with Kit's goldbricking; and orders Dumptruck to go for the turnips and the sandpaper since it is TORTURE TIME~! You know; if only Don Karnage had known about Kit's tickling weakness then he should use that because Kit would likely give in within fifteen seconds judging by Polly Wants a Treasure. The turnip/sandpaper torture theory is that the sandpaper creates an open wound and then you put juice into it which causes horrible pain and suffering. At least that is the psychology. Strangely; I think that torture would turn Kit on actually since he no sells the torture. (Yeah; they didn't even show Kit's reaction at all here. Not even Kit being confused as to what the hell Don Karnage is talking about.Don Karnage doesn't just want to torment Kit for information; he wants to hurt him and tickling isn't all that effective in hurting someone, considering that most tough guys submit to it within a few minutes. Personally; lemons and limes would have been a better choice since pouring them on open wounds makes it much more painful due to the alkaline nature. I'm not sure turnips are alkaline enough for the juice to sting and cause pain. It's certainly a unique torture method, and I'm surprised only Don Karnage would think of it.)
Baloo is downright impressed at Kit for standing his ground; but even he knows Kit will die if this continues so he feels he has got to save him as he pops down. Baloo goes to the Gorilla Birds and unties himself proclaiming that he is going to hate himself in the morning. You don't know the half of that real comment there Baloo as Dumptruck returns and gives the torture devices to Don Karnage. (Yes; despite the fact that Baloo is hating himself; he is forced to make a decision here and both choices ultimately make him look bad. Either you leave Kit to the wolves literally and basically be an accessory to murder and being labelled a sociopath for the rest of your life for causing a child's death to save an airplane; or you save Kit at the risk of being killed by Don Karnage and even if you succeed, you lose the SeaDuck tomorrow to Rebecca Cunningham. In the long run; Baloo made the right decision, but it's was only because it was the less of two decisions that don't benefit Baloo all that much.) Don Karnage places the item right at Kit's face and demands answers. And Kit Cloudkicker does what Kit Cloudkicker does best when an adult demands answers:
Kit: Stuff it in your windsock!
HAHA! This kid is truly asking for his death and going down like a stubborn child would. Of course; no kid (and most adults) on earth knows what a windsock is. Ironically; most probably didn't know Baloo was from the Jungle Book first either, so there you go. (Kit Cloudkicker doesn't care about his life anymore and if he dies, then he ultimately defeats Don Karnage anyway since Don will be forced to retrace his steps and he cannot seem to figure out that Kit went into Louie's with the box; but didn't see Kit with it when Kit went out of Louie's. It's just another step in the Kit/Don Karnage chess game. Don Karnage might be a good captain leader, but he isn't the sharpest knife in the drawer. His sword is though. By the way; a windsock is a device used to measure wind speeds and I'm certain more kids know about this more than adults outside the aviation industry know about it, probably because they watched this show.) Don cannot believe this and he is pissed off as he unleashes his sword and does an really good Homer Simpson promo (Why you little--?! (And it just occured to me, Kit said windsock the same way you would say "Stuff it in your penis (dick)!" because a windsock is shaped similar to one. No wonder Don Karnage was so pissed off. Sadly for him, this would happen again in Ransom of The Red Chimp, although Don Karnage was a lot less pissed off that time...for a moment anyway.)) as he looks to cleave Kit's head off his hapless corpse (sort of); but he makes the fatal mistake of sniffing the air because it is FOWL! And the GORILLA BIRD STAMPEDE~ commences as Don Karnage and the Air Pirates get smoked; even Kit isn't completely unaffected by it as he sways around as Baloo enters and Kit is in complete SHOCK to see him. (Yeah; he never expected Baloo to return to save him after they blew off each other in the jungle earlier. Geez; maybe Baloo isn't the total scoiopath Kit's learned behavior was painting a picture for Mr. Cloudkicker.)
Baloo tells him this is no time to hang around (Now you tell him?!) and bites the rope to grab Kit and runs away stage left. We then cut to Don Karnage going up a tree as a Gorilla Bird continues to try to bite his ass as Don is in mortal fear. (The Gorilla Birds would return for a cameo in Ransom Of The Red Chimp during a scene where they were used to race inside Louie's because Aunt Louise is awesome.) Not even the Prince of Pirates can withstand the power of the Gorilla Birds! We then cut to the edge of the sandbar cliff as Baloo stops in front of it and does a cute spot in order to stop Kit from falling off of it by grabbing him and placing him on his feet at the edge. (Another time when syndication added extra audio.) By the way; there is no logic break here since in the comic version of the series; Baloo does untie Kit by actually spinning Kit like a top on his head which is not only funny; but downright sick. (It's not nearly as awful as a steel chair to the head; but it is downright wacky. If this were today; they keep that spot and even I would accept it as a good spot. At least it would explain how Kit got out of the ropes.) You can understand why that scene wasn't on television. You think the comic codes was bad?! (Yes; they were bad (but not because it was censorship as much as trying to bump an adult comic salesperson out of competition, even though simply creating family friendly comics without the need of a code would have at least made the adult comic business persona non grata. Instead; it only encouraged more adult comics.) and no, it wasn't a BS&P decision to not have the spot aired on television, it was for time. Odd since it was also a comedy spot and today's animation would have allowed it carte-blanche.) We then get a far shot of the SeaDuck on the beach and then we zoom out to see a bunch of crocodiles lining up the marsh like a bridge. I think you can guess the next spot coming here as Baloo and Kit do a cute spot:
Baloo:
Pull chocks? {Baloo gives a thumbs up to Kit.}
Kit:
Pull chocks! {Kit gives the thumbs up here.}
Then it's double suicide time as we get the really cute CROCODILE SNAPPING BRIDGE ROUTINE~! RJ's acting is downright awesome; Ed's not so much as Kit looks like he is fearing for his life even more as Baloo stomps right on one of the crocodile's head in a sick spot. I must have shortchanged Walt Disney Animation France here because the spots were only slightly screwed up and the cartoon-ish nature of the spot covered it up nicely. It's no where near what Kennedy or Sun Woo animation does. Baloo and Kit run into the SeaDuck and Baloo throws Kit right into the navigational seat in a good spot as Baloo hops in through the left door all in one motion as Kit asks about the birds. (Yeah; what about them birds? They were pretty much Baloo's only hope of recovering the SeaDuck. I mean; Kit was indirectly responsible for him losing the birds in the first place. So why would Baloo want to protect him? Maybe it's because even if Baloo is a total scumbag; he hasn't completely lost his humanity. Something your "learned behavior" conveniently forgot to tell you Kit. Maybe Kit was starting to lose his humanity at this point; but this gesture of Baloo's might have gotten it back.) Baloo asks him what is more important: The burping buzzards; or the navigator. Kit just smiles in a way that proclaims: Maybe there is hope for this adult. (In a way; this scene is really the start of Kit starting to reconsider his learned behavior that maybe not all adults are bad after all. Even if we'll never know the blow by blow story of his life; (and quite frankly, we're better off if we don't because later on, Kit's really ugly side will show and by then; it is depressing to see even a smige of how messed up Little Britches ultimately is.), there is a sense that Kit was always at a crossroads and he's too afraid to walk a different path.) Baloo starts the engines and flies the SeaDuck away from the jungle without further incident.
It may be a little too easy since the Air Pirates didn't give them chase here; but really it makes the Gorilla Birds look strong though so it works out and there is no logic break. We cut to inside the back of the plane as Kit is looking in the locker for a bunch of spoons which makes no sense; but I think Baloo is doing it for a reason that has nothing to do with ice cream as Kit cannot find any. Then he walks slowly towards the cockpit and sees Baloo talking to the Seaduck again saying his final goodbyes to him. Kit realizing that he feels really selfish for dumping him like that even though Baloo's heartlessness is to blame here; but it's nice to know that he is apologizing here. And it's not the “my bad” type of apology here. It's a really genuine “I'm sorry” or Gomen Nasai (Japanese wording here judging from the AMV videos on Youtube using Kit as a tribute.) type of apology here. Baloo forgives him easily because he was just as guilty here judging by the expression here. (I think Baloo is realizing that to a major extent; he did this to himself. Sure, Kit and the Air Pirates caused him a lot of grief; but the reality is, the real Baloo is quite miserable because Baloo is like a teenager who hate responsibilities; but realizes that they are necessary to live in a jungle that contradicts the organic jungle so hard. Think about it: Baloo had lots of time to get a job and pay up the money for the loan, and he didn't go for it. To blame Kit for it is completely irresponsible.) Kit flops onto the navigational seat and does a spot where he slumps down with his right foot planted on the seat; and his left leg propped on the seat; indicating that he's upset and insecure about something. He feels bad because no one has stood up to him before like this and then he decides that he has a treasure and agrees to share it with him. (Wait; he's using instinct instead of experience, opening up to someone who has saved him only once? So Kit is actually going to take a second chance with a male adult for once? What do we call that? Is that character development? In a children's cartoon? That's insanity infinity! Kids just want comedy, for god sakes!)
Baloo thanks him; but thinks it's merely a bottle cap collection. Kit counters that is a ruby jewel and Baloo doesn't buy it (And why should he? Oh wait...) as Kit then invokes the trump card asking him why then are the Air Pirates after him. Baloo gets the LIGHTBULB OF BLOODY CLAIRTY as Kit finally confesses to him that he hid it at Louie's. Baloo loves it because he can now buy back his plane as Kit stands on the chair and giggles like a teddy bear and drops onto his butt when he proclaims that it'll buy a lot of SeaDucks. That shot is so teddy bearish that I want to hug him right now. (And Disney in one of the rarest good decisions in the marketing of this show, did release a plush doll of Kit Cloudkicker and Molly Cunningham. So there you go critics of me (nah; no one is reading this); I did praise Disney's PR for something done right.) We even hear the music of I'm Gone playing in the background as Baloo and Kit agree to help each other tomorrow morning as they slap skin and sing the last part of I'm Gone which is funny since Kit never heard of the song at all. Must have happened during the trip with the Gorilla Birds before they got them. Not a logic break; just odd as the SeaDuck flies towards the sunset and back into Cape Suzette to end Act I at 23:15. (You know something; I don't think Baloo invented the song himself; I think it was a copyrighted song in TaleSpin's world (not copyrighted in our world of course) and Kit knew the song well before he met Baloo. That would make sense. It's also amazing that this song was sung literally minutes after Kit turned on Don Karnage and also, I'm gone is a BS&P approved phrase for "I'm dead". Even though, you can say die and dead on a DTVA show. Even something as fun as I'm Gone felt believable as a song where Kit and Baloo finally decided to say goodbye to their old lives. Kit's was completely intentional; while Baloo's is going to be very unintentional in the next act.)
Man; I really shortchanged this part because it's better than it was when I ranted it five years ago. Most of the blown spots were Post Production faults and Walt Disney Animation France only blew one spot badly. And the CGI is better than I remember it too. (Part One in syndication gets **** 1/2 (90%); the movie version gets **** 1/2 for a few extra parental bonuses; but the messy goofs prevented it from rating any higher.) Still; nearly a hundred paragraphs for just a little over twenty three minutes?! THAT'S WHACK!! (Oh lord; that sounded terrible as a bad attempt to sound like a black man, even in theory. This was a messy first act due to attempts to be creative, but ended up being lazy in the end. It's too bad because the storyline was action packed and the chess game played by Kit and his former employer Don Karnage was monster heat for this show. However; the next act slows the pace down and we get the second and third sides of this series coming to full bloom as we go from action/adventure to soap opera action.)
Act II: Misdeed's And Daring Don'ts!
(So after some dog fighting and bringing the two main male babyface stars of the show againest the giant monster heel; it's now time to bring a dose of drama and reality (no, not really) in the form of Rebecca Cunningham -- Business Major -- along with her daughter, the comedy relief of the show and of course the tweener corporation master himself who has been teased in the first scene of the pilot. This is also where the hounds of sexism start to rear their ugly heads as well. Like I stated in earlier additional commentaries on this show: They attacked Molly first because she was the ankle biter of the show and thus an easy, soft target; and they were hoping Rebecca would hook up with a man. When that failed (Molly Coddled); they directly targeted Rebecca. They cannot stand a woman who doesn't take crap from anyone. I should also note that in the recap in syndication, when Kit runs to the Iron Vulture, jumps off and free falls; the scene is flipped horizontally. Now; this is like flipping an image of a car driving in Japanese animation because they want it to be Americanized, I guess. The later is more bigoted than the former because the latter has no respect for another country and it's laws (and driving on a different side of the road in another country is not a bad thing. Besides; if you are going to play the "kids mime things" card; then I can play the "You just never know" card in that "what if the kid growing up to be an adult go to a country where they drive on the opposite side of the road?". We might as well blame the American cartoon for teaching him that people in Japan drive on the same side as Americans, when they don't.) and the former is just done because Disney can and none of the footage is cut. Besides; there is a bigger faux pas in the syndication version during these recaps in Act III that exposes the syndication version's butchery of the original. Although; in terms of audio and paint edits, many of them will be justified as you'll see later on.)
We begin this one with another pan shot of Cape Suzette harbor as a small turbo-prop red seaplane touches down onto the water really well as we get a shot of Baloo's Air Service and a blank sign. Note to Al Khan: Baloo is a lazy guy; he probably forgot to write Baloo's Air Service in there. It's not due to the Kids don't read mantra you keep spewing. (Actually; the very first scene in the movie version is a lot more depressing as it's foggy and cloudy; with the buildings and mountains looking a lot less polished and detailed than the syndication version. It's things like this that make me curse the movie version: It's one thing to be foggy and cloudy because you can use that as symbolism for Baloo's laziness about to get a smackdown from "reality". However; when the buildings and mountains look unfinished, I can understand why these scenes were retaked. It's obvious when you compare the two versions. This portion of the show had 66+ edits alone and many of them are paint edits as no one could keep anything straight in this episode. Also on that note; the sign was painted with Baloo's name in the syndication version.) We head inside on the pan shot as the place looks a little less messy now than before as Baloo is sleeping on the red chair and Kit is sleeping in the white hammock. Remember that for later as Baloo is snoring as usual just to annoy me and Kit's eardrums as the alarm clock rings. Baloo gets groggy so he throws his pillow right at the filing cabient and then throws another pillow to destroy the damn thing. HAHA! Ironically; the alarm clock is a model plane which is pretty symbolic if you ask me. (In syndication; Baloo merely sleeps through the whole thing and they showed a still shot of the airplane alarm clock on the filing cabinet. My guess is that they didn't want kids throwing pillows at alarm clocks and smashing them. I'm more worried about the stuff they didn't cut, like Kit being shot at point blank range. Throwing a pillow at a alarm clock is bad for the alarm clock; but those can be fixed. A kid getting killed by bullet shooting guns cannot. Okay?)
Kit finally wakes up and looks into his sweater to find his pocket watch (I wonder how he got THAT?!) and he jumps down at once remembering to put his baseball cap backwards. He tells Baloo that's it is almost ten am which is one hour later than the bank is supposed to foreclose on the deal. Baloo is sleepy as hell and don't want to leave; so Kit invokes the codeword treasure to wake him up. Baloo calls that his two favorite words and pets him on the head. I swear Kit is going to be in a pet store one of these days; and Gidget will probably buy him as a pet. And they are foreshadowing Baloo's bad grammar I see as Baloo yawns (remembering to step on the pizza boxes) and goes to the record player and opens it to reveal a hamburger. Geez; this guy is just asking for a heart attack here as he puts the needle on the record and it's music playing time. Baloo dances to the beat and it sounds almost like that song from Normie's Science Project as he's is going to be rich and have dough. (I think it was stock music from Normie's Science Project from Chip & Dale's Rescue Rangers. Ironically; one of the kids sounds exactly like Don Karnage; you would swear Jim Cummings was auditioning for Don Karnage at the same time he was reading those lines.) Kit thankfully stops him before the judges from Dancing With The Stars find their shot gun. Kit warns him that they need to be quick as he apparently has a wrist watch now. Did Kit steal more than just that box from Don Karnage or something?! Baloo blows him off nicely because no one would send someone from the bank this early in the morning. And then the "fatal knock" beckons which causes Baloo to dance over to the door as we see the glass being wiped clean with a female's brown hand. It looks like a female brown bear who is wearing a blue coat (Sadly; Walt Disney Animation France shows it as a purple coat which indicates that Magon and company didn't intend her to wear that coat. (Actually; the original plan was for Rebecca to wear a skirt and thus she showed bare legs in one of the shot; before morphing into her final look with the purple pants. Christopher Barat claimed the outfit was changed because it would date her. That usually means it's a bigoted stereotypical look and they changed it in order to make it less bigoted. Also on that note; Rebecca and Molly were supposed to be foxes; with one of them looking like Cindy from Yogi Bear and Rebecca being as tall as Kit is! Thankfully; feminism prevailed on that level. ).
Baloo answers the door and the female bear tries to introduce herself. Geez; that voice sounds familiar?! (Yes; it sounds like Gloria from All In The Family.) Baloo rudely blows her off and gets off a thinly veiled sexist comment about mating in June; waves goodbye and then slams the door in her face. Oooo; that was dangerously close to being sexist there Baloo. (Actually; Baloo is basically telling her that they are closed for the winter season since in the first episode; the Sox won the series, so the date is around December. Baloo is basically telling her to come back in six months. Baloo would have said the same thing to a man; although him calling her lady is more problematic than the promo itself.) The female bear tries to respond; (And I see where Vicki Gurrerro got her promo from; but Rebecca is much more subtle about it because Sally Struthers knows how to act very well.) but Baloo opens the glass window on the door and puts a sign which says “Gone Fishin'”. Geez; that was close to perfect spelling there actually as he closes that door and now the female bear is downright PISSED. And I mean PISSED! (Rebecca was mad and flustered only in the syndication; but not totally pissed off. Not to say she isn't justified in her anger; she clearly is. However; downright pissed is nowhere near that 2008 Me. I'm guessing some people read my rants and forgot that 2008 Me embellished a lot during that time.) We head inside as Baloo dances away as the window on the side opens and the green shutter is opened and in comes the female bear who apparently managed to get herself into some purple pants before entering. I would consider this to be a minor coloring mistake on Walt Disney Animation France's part; if I didn't see this character circa 1988 when she was supposed to look a lot more sexy than she looks now. (Again; if they kept the prototype version; it would make her look like a stereotype, so the change was for the best. Too bad Walt Disney Animation France forgot to edit this to completely get rid of it.)
It's WRAITH OF BECKEY time as she busts in and she literally backs Baloo up as Baloo isn't taking her seriously now. (Yeah; I gave away her name; but it's coming within thirty seconds; so it's not a big deal.) I think you should know who she is now. Baloo accuses her of acting like she owns the place and she turns off the phonograph and admits that she DOES own the damn place as Baloo plays peekaboo on the clothesline. The woman shows the paper of forth closure to prove that Baloo is screwed and Kit does an awesome told ya so blow off just to rub it in. See what I mean when I say parody here. Baloo's excuse is that he's didn't have time to brush this teeth and I say; "WAKE UP AT FOUR AM!", and you'll have all day to do everything including paying off the bills. Baloo is getting exactly what he deserves here for his Jungle Book character here. (Bingo~! Again; Baloo's doing himself in because he's so lazy. It's funny how people accuse Kit of ruining Pop-A-Bear's chances of getting the money; but in a world like TaleSpin, long term planning and smart work rule the roost. Unlike the Jungle Book; where it's free-for-all and Baloo can do whatever he wants. It's kind of like The World According To Gusto; only even Gusto has his limits.) The woman goes over to the table which contains a lot of messy stuff as she praises Baloo for being a great pilot as she shows disdain for a wet sock placed in the messy pot of boiling steam in a funny and ironic spot since none of the babyfaces wear shoes or socks of any kind. Must be a disguise Baloo uses to keep the Repo Man at bay. AHHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! And then the woman does me proud by honestly blowing him off as a sloppy, careless and rude pilot to boot. Gee; rude madam?! That's a bit overkill there. You had me at careless there; as Baloo goes over to the barrel which doubles as a trash can and Baloo pulls the MacDonald's drink bottle demanding her name and she gives it as Rebecca Cunningham.
Ah; Rebecca the Class-S jerk who you love to hate or love to have a crush on her and thus violate the cartoon version of Godwin's Law. It's easy to boo her because Baloo's the star; but she is dealing with Baloo here who has an unprofessional business ethic so she does have some sympathy heat on her. Sadly; she takes it too far sometimes and thus the heat goes back to Baloo anyway. She's on the money here though; and she becomes really important later in this act actually. She is a business major which relates to the opposite of Baloo's education and his attire. (This is the concept Jymn Magon was talking about when used the three legged stool analogy: Baloo is mostly street smart; but book dumb. Rebecca is mostly book smart, but street dumb. Those are two completely different character traits even if they both share the same type of ego that they are right and the opposite person is wrong. Kit is basically the bridge builder as he can relate to both; while being more humble, although even he can have an ego trip when it comes to cloud surfing and flying in his own right.) Rebecca is no Gadget (due to her tweener type personality) quality wise; but she's damn close and in some instances; I like her more than Gadget due to not being a geek. Still; the fact that she owns the place is certainly going to be praised by feminists and hated by the anti-PC crowd. However; I counter that with the same reason I stated in the original rant: TaleSpin takes place in it's own universe. It's not supposed to be based on the real world at all and therefore I say anything goes as much as BS&P would allow and what the creators want. That's why Rescue Rangers had to be taken place in the 1990's; otherwise, it's out of place to do a real world 1930's animated series. PC'ness really is a codeword to shield their bigotry in my view. (Wow; even 2008 Me knows. I don't know weither to be happy or pissed off now. Maybe both at this point.)
Rebecca is voiced by Sally Struthers, which had to be one of the most iconic choices Magon made since Sally was a real talent being on All In The Family as Gloria (a major role in which she was in the run for an Emmy and Golden Globes to boot) which was the precursor to The Simpsons and Family Guy. She also stared in Gilmore Girls recently and even got archive footage of herself in an episode of the O'Reily Factor. If you don't know who Bill O'Reily is; count yourself lucky. She was also in Disney's Jim Henson puppet show Dinosaurs as the Mrs. Sinclair; but that was really her only major cartoon appearance outside of TaleSpin. She also had one of the most iconic statements of all time in asking the question of valuing violence over tenderness ("Kissing a boob is X-Rated; but chopping it off is only R-rated." to paraphrase her.). Sally is really a nice human being; but she has been on the butt end of fat jokes due to her weight although during recording her weight was actually under control. (She clearly did not take South Park's parody of her well at all. It also bothers me because when she was working for TaleSpin; her weight was a complete non-issue. I'm guessing that she gained weight after Jim Henson's death at around that time in 1990 when voice recording, and she had to cope with it somehow. It happens to all of us, since we are supposed to be human beings. ) She also did ads for Christian Children's Fund which was noble at the time; but fat jokes and PZ Meyers make me wish that this was not on her resume if only for her sake as a talented actress. Rebecca walks around the place as she takes her coat off to reveal her violet sweater. I like this look better than her circa 1988 prototype because it makes me think of her as a character and not as an item. Smart move on BS&P here for a change. Rebecca was looking for a failing business to take over and make it come back from the depths of hell into a profitable venture.
So, Baloo's Air Service is so terrible that it was perfect for her as she opens the closet and sees about a dozen eyes glaring at her in the darkness. Perverts! (Do I have to remind you that you would later watch The Adventures Of The Gummi Bears with Cubbi Gummi striping naked on-screen to roll in the mud? Jymn Magon's claim of the writers being in the closet doesn't make any sense. I'm guessing that it's about a dozen bats in there.) She closes the door before more damage can be done to the writers as she walks over the place some more and uses a cloth to dust off a stray mirror proclaiming that this place needs a woman's touch..and she puts all of the stuff on the top into a drawer proclaiming that it really needs a bulldozer. (Of course syndication snipped that out. I guess they didn't like Rebecca putting stuff in a shelf.) And now Baloo is angry because she is completely running rings all over him. It's bad enough for Kit and Karnage to do this; but Rebecca?! What a whiner Baloo is if he's insulted by this and thankfully Kit butts in to praise Rebecca for her efforts to look good and Rebecca is honored. I think Rebecca is thinking: Who is this boy and why does he sound so different than Baloo? He couldn't have been here for longer than a month and not be influenced by him in a negative light; and yet he is handling Baloo well. (I'm sure the first question in her mind is: The bank didn't say anything about this pilot having a son? Is he using this boy as a barginning chip? I realize that it makes her look like a jerk; but considering the fact that Baloo has been showing contempt for her so far; maybe this is merely that. However; Rebecca probably thinks this is not the case because it seems the boy is legit doing this on his own for some reason.) Baloo takes exception and Kit whisper yells at him (I don't like it; but Kit makes an effort not to suck here so I'll live...) because there is the treasure to get.
Baloo realizes that this isn't so bad after all and Rebecca just playing mind games with him anyway. (Except she isn't playing mind games; she's performing business as she should. Question number two: Who is this boy and why is he so attached to this scumbag?) So Baloo takes out his pilot keys from his pocket and the adult in child's body and the child in man's body try to leave in such a cocky fashion (Baloo even remembers to insult her with Miz Manager just to rub it in...); but Rebecca does a picture perfect blow off of that and steals Baloo's keys right there! HAHA! UH OH! I think Baloo's screwed now as Baloo protests this outrage as Rebecca shows him the deed which is to the SeaDuck. Remember the SeaDuck was supposed to be forfeited if Baloo failed to make payments on the plane? Well; the bank sent Rebecca directly to Baloo knowing full well that if Baloo laid a hand on her; he would be shamed out of existence. Now that's a plan, BABEE! (Rest in peace Baloo's Air Service, baby! - Dante, Devil My Cry. Yeah; I went there, so shoot me. So the loan was not just for the plane as collateral but collateral on the entire business and building. This shows how much of a moron Baloo is: He basically combined his assets and now he's going to lose everything because of his laziness. He's getting exactly what he has coming to him now.) Now Baloo is PISSED as he wants to MURDER her; but a female child voice squeaks out and it's so...real?! We pan over slightly to the window to see a blond female bear cub who looks barely six years old wearing blue overalls, a pink shirts, blue ribbons tied around her ears and just to make the censors squeal in agony; over sized underwear. I almost mistake that as white lace trim; but it's part of her underwear. Kit's reaction to her complaining about staying in the car is simply priceless; as if he is happy to see her. (Here's a really amazing few moments here: Baloo's response to Molly was: "Oh swell, now I have to deal with another one." Kit Cloudkicker on the other hand is smiling like: "Rebecca has a daughter, and she's so sweet." It's almost like he's happy for this family if you look at his non-verbal cues. It's almost like he's also saying: "I'm happy for her. I wish I had a sister to play with." This all plays into Kit being an orphan with no real family of his own.)
She walks towards Rebecca and Rebecca grabs her so she must be barely five years old at the time of this episode. Rebecca addresses her as Molly Cunningham and to me she is the most improved character in the entire series. I thought she was merely cute filler; but after watching her in Libby Hinson written episodes; she became a huge star on par with Kit and Don Karnage. She has the Sunni face; but she has the Cubbi personality which is the clincher for her; but she puts it over the top in more ways than one. Now you may be saying: "Wow; she sounds like a real six year old!" Well; she was voiced by a seven year old actually. The talent is Janna Michaels and while she was in Bushwhacked, Little Giants and If These Walls Can Talk; Janna's best performance was in this show. I'm SHOCKED that Magon picked her because he could have just picked any middle age woman to voice her since they are a dime a dozen in the industry (Russi Taylor or even Sherry Lynn since Sherry went on to voice little girls in Japanese animation.); but he picked a real six year old to do the role. Good for realism; but bad for keeping the series alive since you cannot depend on her for too long; and voice talents grow up. Mary Kate & Ashley are in the same vein and had much better success in the long run; but they were still babies at the time of recording so Janna was picked for the role. And Janna was great in her role. (Janna Michaels also has a brain and knew when to get out of entertainment before she could be exploited and now works somewhere; thus is alive and well.) Molly goes all hyper as she wants to keep her room as messy as this place in a cute spot as Rebecca and Molly go into the next room while Baloo continues to plead for mercy. Rebecca offers a little mercy: Find $50,000 and the plane is his. OUCH! In the meantime; she also offers him the position of being her pilot. In other words; Baloo would be merely demoted instead of fired outright which is really generous of her; but really Rebecca needs a pilot and since she's a female, do you honestly think male pilots would take her seriously in this world?! See Feminine Air.
Rebecca leaves the room with confidence as Baloo back talks her proclaiming that her hair is too tight and making sexist remarks (well as sexist as BS&P would allow); and Kit whisper yells at him reminding him of Louie's again. Baloo recoils and decides that he will serve Rebecca after all; remembering to call her Beckey for the first time. Rebecca is honored; but she blows off Baloo nicely for calling her that awful pet name. (Yeah; she's more offended by her pet than being called lady, brown-eyes and other mild sexist words. Heck; even Kit called her lady at one point. I realize that one of the dogs in Lady & The Tramp was called "Lady"; but it isn't usually used as a pronoun. It's kind of like in Impact Wrestling when Vince Russo was booking that woman were taking much, much worse degrading insults (bitch, whore, slut, etc.) without as much as a tear, and then something like "Get your 33 Double D's" is spoken and the woman runs off crying. Yeah, what?! Here, even though Rebecca told him that it wasn't Becky, she didn't cry about it, she just merely told him not to say it. So, she's not a shrinking violet by any means.) However; Rebecca still wonders how this boy can control Baloo from hitting her (or on her depending on your point of view) as Molly gets onto the red chair Baloo was sitting. Rebecca goes over to Kit and wonders who else is on staff. Kit stammers a bit and to show how much of a gentleman he is; he takes off his baseball cap. He states his name normally this time (Which kills the continuity Jymn Magon was claiming to be shooting for and thus adds evidence to Susan's theory on Kit's last name. (2020 Gregory Weagle Says: Since Rebecca is a woman, he feels more confident stating his name without blowback. Also, despite the more confident stance, Kit's expressions are so great in this sequence. It's almost like him giving mixed messages in less than ten frames.)) and calls himself the navigator as he puts his hat back on.
Molly jumps onto Kit's back and ask if she can be her tail gunner. That's a little violent spitfire there and I'm surprised Disney stopped this afterward as Kit runs around Rebecca in a really neat spot while Molly makes gunfire noises. (Apparently; she's a fan of flying herself. (2020 Gregory Weagle Says: In pre-production sketches, Molly was going to be a much bigger flying fan than Kit himself was.)) Oh; that's why BS&P stopped it. Rebecca blows her off nicely because she's too young as Kit goes over to the chair and plops her right into the chair. I love that spot because Kit acted like a child instead of an adult here which shows that something happened to this kid that we are not supposed to know. (There is a lot more to this: When Kit was running around with Molly in tow; Rebecca looked excited as if she felt that maybe this boy could be a babysitter to her daughter, or even someone Molly would love to play pretend with. Baloo is the only one in this outfit who's miserable. Kit seems happy and Baloo cannot understand why. Maybe it's because there's a lot more to Kit than Baloo thinks. Building characters like human beings?! What's that?! This is something almost no one gets: If you want kids to relate to characters, presenting them like human beings instead of joke machines is a much better prospect. Sure; having them do comedy is fine, but give them some humanity to go along with it. Most kids will love you for it and have a bigger incentive to watch the show.) Molly gets on the edge of the seat next to Baloo who is doing the Gruffi pose and proclaims that flying is the funnest thing in the whole world and plops backwards on the seat again in a real funny spot. Baloo groans on that spot which is sad because flying adventures was a fun genre until 9/11 ruined the whole experience for us. Another observation that I missed: Notice the darkness in the closet scene: It's not the blue-green look cartoons usually use which is quite odd.
Rebecca gets so giddy as she's got a pilot and a navigator (and maybe a playmate for Molly to boot) and remembers to swear in DUBBED ANIME STYLE. However; the trapdoor opens from below the floor and out pops a greasy, dirty orange mountain lion wearing oily white overalls and a orange visor hat. (Ah; WildCat Puma (As per Len Smith in 2021 now.), the comedy relief and the closest thing to a joke machine in this show. However; WildCat has a huge dose of humanity that isn't really profound until episodes like Paradise Lost and Flight Of The Snowduck.) He speaks for the first time, proclaiming that he has fixed the sewer pipe as he's carrying both the pipe and actual sewer crap on his hand. EWWWWWWW! Rebecca is SHOCKED and APPALLED as WildCat pops up and Baloo starts mocking Rebecca good on the whole horror look on her face. (Baloo is like: "You want more employees, here's my mechanic." and watch it go downhill from there.) He goes over and shakes Rebecca's hand and then proclaims that she smells good for a boss! HAHA! Rebecca flicks the crap off of her hand and thanks him with a look of this guy is a moron. Wildcat is the dimwitted mechanic of the group; with the moronicness of Patrick Star. With one major difference: Patrick is also very stupid; WildCat is so much of a moron; you wouldn't know he is a genius. Wildcat's personality is that of a child and he is only one who could truly relates to Molly in every way. (Mainly because Molly can be cyncial and jaded at times like Kit; while WildCat just cannot be. There is a lot of people who believe that WildCat is autistic; and quite frankly, it's very possible because his behavior is similar to one. Mostly the really humane traits of a child; although he really gets off on the wrong foot with Rebecca here.) WildCat works his childish antics here as he plays telescope with the pipe and then does an over the top sell of the pipe choking and plops down with a funny bump onto the ground. (WildCat's anthromorphizing of the pipe's reaction to the clog is priceless; and they kept WildCat grabbing his own neck.)
Rebecca blows him off because he couldn't tell a screwdriver from a bus driver. UH OH! Rebecca is asking for it now as Baloo decides to play "Truth or Dare" on her. Baloo goes over to the red chair on the right side and finds a telephone which is inside a steel can and places it on the table. He then proceeds to completely MURDER the telephone with said steel can. Rebecca is SHOCKED and APPALLED on that spot as Baloo grabs the broken phone and gives it to Wildcat saying it in such a childish manner that he wakes up and sees the broken phone and nicely tells Baloo to be more careful. (That's great because it was Baloo who smashed the telephone in the first place. Nice one, Charles; you showed that you are on the ball and are paying attention.) Baloo counts for about ten seconds as Rebecca still doesn't know what to make of this as the phone rings on one and it's for Rebecca. Rebecca grabs the phone from WildCat from Baloo as he rubs it in and Rebecca nicely blows Baloo off for it. Rebecca takes the phone and answers it. (WildCat, weither he knows or not, just saved himself from being fired. While Rebecca has the look of "this is going to take time to get use to" when it comes to WildCat; Charles pretty much saved himself thanks to Baloo destroying property. Normally; many critics get mad at this because cartoons always seem to have them go so over the top, and then simply magically repair itself in the next scene or shot to make it so they can justify the destruction. Here, Baloo destroyed a telephone that Rebecca now owns and WildCat fixes it himself like anyone in the real world would. It was a small amount of destruction (that Baloo caused, not WildCat) and Baloo did it to protect WildCat from being fired. Like I said earlier in this pilot; Baloo is a complete scumbag, but he hasn't lost his humanity. This would become a recurring theme by the way.) I should note that WildCat is voiced by Pat Fraley; whom Wildcat is one of his favorite characters.
We switch gears with another shot of Cape Suzette near a road of cars and yet another air plane flies in the skies as we head to Khan Tower which is the tallest building in Cape Suzette. We then head inside to Mr. Khan's office which is pretty dark with the red curtains surrounding much of his office along with enough bug eating venus flytraps to make the guy look like a sadist. (Isn't it amazing that Khan's entire office of plants and jungle folige is one big metaphor of the compare and contrasts between the business world and the jungle itself.)And Shere Khan the tiger (in a full CEO suit and tie) is feeding his plants with bugs which is pretty nasty and even sadder today considering the whole financial meltdown lately. Shere Khan was a heel in the Jungle Book; but Magon decided to really create a paradox character by making him into a tweener. Eisner marketed him as a heel for the show; but the writer kept showing him as a tweener which is the first time in DTVA history that they did such a thing and not the last in this very series; who had no interest in anyone but himself regardless of heel and face. (2020 Gregory Weagle Says: I actually love Khan as the CEOhole over Scrooge McDuck because Scrooge is treated like a babyface and any money hording dragon should be booed out of the building for their psychopathic actions. Mr. Khan is a tweener to heel, meaning I don't have to cheer for him at all, like I have to do with Scrooge due to how Scrooge was booked. Again, TaleSpin is told from the non-rich character's lens; not the rich character, which is why money hording dragons don't want to do a full on reboot of TaleSpin since they do not want to relate to such characters.) He only helps both sides of the alignment if it help his business overall. He actually would make a really outstanding monster heel today with that style since CEO's are considered psychopaths today due to the excess greed and the Enron scandal. (Thankfully; Khan didn't run for president of Usland; because then this show would have predicted Donald Trump being president years before the Simpsons did!)
Khan is also completely unemotional; only showing signs of true anger when he claws his own desk. (Most of the time when he shows emotions; he is clearly acting so badly as shown in On A Wing & A Bear.) Somehow Shere Khan is more loved than Al Khan; if only because Shere is a character and Al is a real human being who runs a real company like 4Kids and downright hated by people like me. (I think he's loved because he's the type of monster heel that is difficult to deal with because there might be a chance of humanity within him. Sadly; most of Mr. Khan's role is as the Lex Luthor type. Although Whistlestop Jackson, Legend did give some insights into how Shere Khan became Mr. Khan today. Again; they build these characters and could have easily fleshed them out given more episodes; but Eisner cared about milking the stars. I'm guessing Shere Khan wasn't a star; and unlike most characters in this show, Eisner wasn't alone. Libby Hinson didn't like Shere Khan either as stated when she was interviewed by DAF Radio.) Mr. Khan is voiced by the late Tony Jay, whom passed away in 2006. Mr. Khan's original codename was Mr. Downs (according to sources) which indicates that Magon originally billed this as an original series with no Jungle Book characters; and then Baloo and company were added for star power. Which is fine except they were used to justify burying the original character who in fact got really over. See Kit, Molly, Don Karnage, WildCat and about ¾ of the one-shotters. Mr. Khan is even wearing Mickey Mouse gloves which indicates someone was ribbing Michael Eisner for killing the Mickey Mouse name for some funny reason. We cut over to the elevator as we see another tiger wearing more casual clothes compared to Mr. Khan busting into his office calling for Mr. Khan and Khan puts down the scissors next to the plant like a sword and the Yes Man shudders in fear like Shaggy on speed.
"Yes Man" equals Jim Cummings for those who don't know; as Mr. Khan just calmly walks over and sits down at his desk which just makes the scene more funny. He takes off the Mickey Mouse Gloves which is pretty symbolic since it's like taking the kid gloves off to this guy and that's not a good sign for the slave here as the Yes Man is free to speak now. (Also of note that the taking off the gloves, he took the glove off the same hand in both scenes making it look like he basically took one glove off and then pulled on his same hand. Not a good spot there, Walt Disney Animation France.) Yesman does a funny anime faceplant before getting up and having an update on the stone which is the defacto plot device by default. Mr. Khan asks if it has been found which indicates that he already knows something has happened even though the Yes Man does say that the pilot has been found safe and sound before Khan asks about the stone. I believe Mr. Khan KNEW that this would happen and STILL took the risk anyway because he is such a badass. This is so much like today that it's funny in hindsight as the Venus Flytrap sticks out a vine and ties it around the Yes Man's ankle as he stammers to proclaim that the stone has been stolen. Khan asks who looking even more creepy by the second as the Yes Man hops around stammering again before saying that it's the Air Pirates fault. Yes Man gets dropped on his face good and get dragged as Mr. Khan ruins the desk with his claws as he does a really ominous, unemotional rant about his business of Khan Industries as he goes over to the furry eating plant with a jar of bugs and takes a bug out. Yes Man is closer to closer to being eaten as Mr. Khan relates business to a jungle: There the eaters and then there are the eatens. (Yes; the audio fits with Disney Captions; so points for them.) That is one of those things that you know is true; and you don't like it one damn bit even though there is not a damn thing you can do about it. (Well; that is the eye of the beholder in the CEO. Government regulation would help in that problem, but I think Cape Suzette's government is not much more than a figurehead at this point.)
Thankfully; Khan feeds the plant a bug to chew on in a disgusting and violent fashion and the Yes Man finally is freed as a result as he get dropped on his face again. Khan orders him to find those pirates and Yes Man runs away like a scalded dog as Khan can only laugh at him. He does some French in a failed attempt to get French Americans to watch this movie since it's only on Disney Channel and then walks to the window to observe the sky light. (Not really; the scene is there in both versions anyway. It was probably a bone for the French Canadian crowd since we saw the pilot around this time too, only the show was called Looping. Despite using the Super Baloo dub. I told you; this is Canada (Quebec in this case) and we are not American rich.) So we head back to Baloo's Air...oh wait; nix that...Higher...For...Hire as Rebecca raises the white sign up of the new name for the very first time. Higher as in up and Hire as in for MONEY, MONEY, YEAH, YEAH. And Disney still couldn't get it right on their DVD Volume Set even though they OWN the show. Geez; you think TaleSpin wasn't downplayed in any way?! (When the second volume DVD was announced in 2007; Disney's promo blurbs for it was beyond hilarious. They got the name of the company wrong and did the exact same thing that Ted Heinz was whining about when TaleSpin was on the official Disney website. When the DVD was released; the promotional material was much better, so someone had a sense of shame. Hopefully, I can find the materials on that because it was worth a belly laugh to me.) She even hired three wood workers from Lake City to do the work for her; how generous of her. (A rhino, a weasel and some other furry with a tie.) Okay; it's not Lake City, but I had to shamelessly plug them in this rant somehow. (Phineas: Yes, yes you did.) We hear Molly's voice as she is on the platoon of the SeaDuck holding a green ballon, which is got to be the most dangerous place she could be right now thus showing how much Magon was teasing death even in scenes where he didn't need to.
We pan up to see more balloons on the SeaDuck wing as WildCat is painting some more details in as we clearly see some of the new paint job which looks delightfully absurd considering who Baloo is. Rebecca is giddy and she calls out for Baloo and Kit to come out of the storage area and Baloo refuses because he's offended at something. Rebecca then threaten him with the If he wants the SeaDuck back; then he better be her bitch on the double so to speak. I think Kit would be happy to come out; but Baloo is probably preventing him for the sake of his sanity. Like the child had any to begin with?! So, Baloo and Kit come out in soda jerk uniforms and I only have one response to it: BWHAHAHAHAHA! Oh boy! BWHAHAHAHAHAHA! Those two look like complete tools in those outfits. (I should note that Baloo's is way too small while Kit's is too big. Kit at first isn't amused either; but when he sees Rebecca, he smiles at once. Kit is playing along so nicely that Rebecca should have said: "You're up to something, Kit. And it has something to do with Baloo, right?" (2020 Gregory Weagle Says: This is the moment where I realized that one of the inspirations for Kit was Bongo The Bear from Fun & Fancy Free. My new headcanon for this revealtion was that Kit was Bongo's son and Kit's mother Lulubelle died during child birth and Kit was basically disowned by his father afterwards, thus the reason why Kit doesn't remember them. Hey, it makes more sense from being Teddy Ruxpin's father and required much less legal clearance.)) At least Kit is taking it well; even smiling for Rebecca as Baloo calls himself a flying fool. I love real comments that aren't supposed to be real comments. However; that is the least of Baloo's worries as he sees the SeaDuck and he's PISSED OFF now because it looks like something out of a Air Circus. I don't mean an Air Show from Stormy Weather; I mean a real circus. You know; with clowns in it.
There's something Greg Manson would love to get his hands on; a airplane dressed like a clown. If only he could fly it; then he would really take off in his career. (Greg Manson is no longer at Lake City where I work. Considering that I have been gone for six months straight due to the boil/skin infection that almost killed me, I probably will be next on the chopping block. As much as I want to come back; the slow healing process has not helped my creditability any. (2020 Gregory Weagle Says: Despite all the issues I have, I'm still at Reboot and the business is in better shape than even back then in 2015.)) Rebecca ignores the protests as she loves the design and Baloo dressing like a fool. Well; Baloo, you should have thought of this BEFORE you screwed the bank out of their MONEY, MONEY, YEAH, YEAH. And judging by Kit's face when Baloo continues to protest, he agrees with me. Rebecca plays "Truth or Dare" on him when Baloo proclaims that no one is going to hire a soda jerk as she does a cute Gruffi pose on cue. Psychology?! In a Disney show?! WHAT ARE THE ODDS?! About 40:1 odds which is the number of DTVA shows Disney created more or less. (It's like they are taking each other's egos and throwing the other ones right back in their faces. Baloo did it using WildCat and now Rebecca's doing it with her own style.) Rebecca should be the only one doing the Gruffi pose (Unless Kit is being sarcastic of course. (The Gruffi pose is basically folding the arms.)) as she announces that she got her first customer which is the Fandango Mango account no less which Baloo cannot believe proclaiming that she's pulling his propellor. She pulling more than that I assure ye Baloo as a truck back up from the left side of the dock and out comes a Chuck MacCann voiced driver who looks like a bear and has a blue baseball cap and Baloo's shirt. HEE HEE! (This truck driver is basically the same guy we would see at Louie's from time to time in other episodes.)
He asks for Higher For Hire as we see the box of mangoes in the back of the truck. See; make the joke and then pay it off. Remember Baloo played Truth or Dare with Rebecca using WildCat earlier?! Rebecca goes over to address him as the bear uses the portable lift to carry three boxes of mangoes towards the SeaDuck. Baloo goes over to the front of the sign and sees the name change as he is SHOCKED and APPALLED by the change. This is so Ted Woosley fanboyish of him that it isn't funny as I have had to deal with the crap of them (And purists who wanted the perfect original Japanese version...) complaining about SquareEnix retranslating ports of classic games I played many years ago. As I said before; I want an entertaining script and I want to see if the new translations of games such as Chrono Trigger DS can do them better than Ted Woosley. I want to see if Woosley really is talented and this is the only way to know is to do new translations of various games at the risk of the new game being worse than Woosley's on the whole. Odds are it isn't. (Actually; considering that he was rushed in all the localizations that he did for Square over the years and that if he was given Tim Slattery's resources and prop font size; he probably would have done as well as Slattery did. Woolsey is good at translating, but he's also really sloppy at it.) Rebecca calls the name cuter. I think it's a good name change myself since it kills the seflish attitude Baloo's Air Service provides to the table. (Yeah; Rebecca is actually trying to make the place customer friendly instead of owner friendly like Baloo was. Rebecca has done more in one day than Baloo could in years; which shows the contrast between the work ethics of Baloo and Rebecca.) I can just see Nintendo's Blue Ocean plan right there as Rebecca gives Baloo the keys and orders Baloo to deliver the goods. Should be easy right?! HEE HEE! Stay tuned as they say!
Then we pan down to Rebecca's pant leg as Molly wants to go on the first maiden voyage of the service and she's so giddy that she pulls on the pantleg just to cement her role as an ankle biter. Sad really as Rebecca kindly refuses to let her go. Molly whines as she looks at her doll Lucy; and proclaims that she promised her doll to go. Kit comes over and kneels down claiming that Lucy looks scared and maybe she can go some other time. Molly decides to hug Kit and accept his justification of the word no and the two embrace. Kit walks backwards as Rebecca thanks him very much as she probably is still wondering how this kid can easily stand Baloo in anyway. (I like this spot because he treated Molly like she was a person rather than just being the boss' daughter. I also like when he basically tells Molly that it might happen next time, thus making him look more generous than Rebecca and allowing Molly to reconsider. Of course, Molly would prove that she won't take no for an answer, even a "maybe" as we'll see here.) We see the SeaDuck flying around the harbour and then leaving through the narrow gap leading out to Cape Suzette. Here is some really great television animation here and sadly; the Kit seeing the blimp in awe on the Seaduck zoom shot of him is no where to be found in the movie version. This tells me that this movie must have been a nightmare BS&P wise which would become a huge nightmare in more ways than one later on. (Most of the edits found in this act are paint edits that I can at least justify in some way to be better in syndication than in the movie version, but the cuts and some of the audio fixes annoy me more. Also of note; while the blimp scene is not in the movie version, Baloo saying "we're free" is missing in syndication despite the fact that no video footage was cut when he said it. So this is the first muted audio and it tells me that "Always" was not an audio error on Disney's part.)
The SeaDuck flies away as Baloo proclaims that they are free and Rebecca is screwed as Baloo tries to get his soda jerk outfit off. Kit takes the hat off and giggles; but he feels bad for her because he actually liked her. (It's funny the difference between genders for Kit: Kit treats women and girls with kindness and respect, but treats most males like he's a tough guy who has a personal grudge against them. Huh. Very interesting, indeed.) Baloo blows it off because Rebecca doesn't know how to do flying see which is like Nintendo's Gamecube/N64 run in a lot of ways as Baloo opens the window and throws out the rainbow daisy curtain which is so cool that I want to punch Baloo in the face for throwing it out. (Honestly 2008 Me? You really think you can take Poppa Bear on? I have no reservations that Baloo could kill me if given a reason.) Baloo decides to stands up and walk into the back room to change so he offers Kit to fly the plane in the front seat this time. Kit goes from being absoultely somber and bored to giddy as he plops into the front seat and it's "Roger Skipper!" from Kit. (So Kit has already taken the stick twice, with the second time in the pilot's seat. So Baloo does have enough confidence that Kit can keep the SeaDuck in the air. We shouldn't be surprised since the first time, Kit did a fine job all things considered.) Kit is one of only four characters who got a commercial tribute from Disney; the others are Launchpad, Gosalyn and Gadget. (I think Cubbi Gummi got one too. It's funny that I remember the entire commercial word for word and even most of the footage and the CGI Disney Afternoon Castle which looked a million times better than the CGI in this show by the way. However; no one has ever uploaded it on Youtube yet. I'm stunned no one has the actual footage of that commercial. Was I in a dream world when that commercial aired in 1993/1994 or something?) Kit looks damn cute in that outfit without the hat and I'm sadden that he has to get rid of it. It wasn't the only outfit that made him look huggable though as we cut to somewhere in the skies as the Air Pirates are flying their planes again and Don Karnage is on the transmitter of doom again with another awesome quote:
Don Karnage: Attention my noble pirates! This is Don Karnage; speaking to you with my voice. Keep your eyes peeled men; that plane with the box is bound to come out later or sooner.
Right on cue; Don Karnage eats rainbow daisy curtain. HAHA! He throws them away and then he yells that they shall not pass. So what happens: The SeaDuck passes over the top of the planes and they do not suspect a thing. HAHA! Make the joke and pay it off. It's so easy guys. We cut back to Kit in the navigational seat pulling his face from the green sweater as Baloo is back in regular clothes proclaiming that Rebecca would pop her pearls since they are going to Louie's instead. It cannot get any better than this as Kit wonders how she would know; and then the absolute last person you would expect or want to be on your plane's voice beckons. I'll give you a hint: it's a little girl's voice as they turn around and we see Molly Cunningham standing RIGHT THERE blowing off Louie's. Man; she is a good hider if Baloo didn't notice her as Molly holds Lucy up and proclaims that she isn't scared anymore as the segment ends right there nearly thirty-four minutes in. Oh; this is going to get good now. (Okay; Molly is awesome here and she hasn't even gotten started yet. She basically hid in the back of the SeaDuck when no one noticed (if this was remade today; there would be a scene like this) and it's not like we shouldn't have seen this coming because Molly was on the left wing's patoon at the beginning of the reboot scene earlier and then managed to get back on the docks to pull the pantleg of Rebecca's. So she is pretty fearless. Basically; she got what she wanted originally and symbolically gave Kit the middle finger for trying to convince her to stay back at the office. Now I realize why parents always pull out the "Because I say so!" card, because the explaination card would never work on Molly Cunningham. This amused me and once again, burials of Kit by Molly will never fail to make me laugh. Once again; this episode is clicking on all cylinders even if the animation and audio is off in places between the two edits. Plunder and Lightning seriously needs a Mobile Suit Gundam Zeta: A New Translation treatment.)
After the commercial break; we see Baloo turn around wondering how she got in there and calls her button nose which is funny since Molly's nose is like a red button. (Of course nowdays; button-nose is considered a gendered insult. Make with that what you will.) Molly answers that one for me because she hid in the back during takeoff while Mommy wasn't looking. That is just plain sneaky of her. I thought it was going to be Rebecca Cunningham here; but it wasn't. (Are you really surprised that it wasn't Rebecca? Molly already demonstrated how easy it was to jump on and off the plane about three scenes ago.) Baloo whines about this because now he has to take her back home and Molly grabs onto Baloo's dorky shirt pleading for him to reconsider promising to be real good. Kit takes Baloo's side of things because this whole thing could be dangerous. (Actually, Kit apologizes and tells her that she's going home one way. He was much more direct this time compared to the last time.) Molly turns around and walks towards the back; remembering to proclaim that Rebecca wouldn't have approved of her going there anyway and the boys panic right there as Molly has that evil grin on her face on the face shot. Yeah; like she's being sweet and kind on THAT one. (She's got him now, there's no way Baloo can refuse now.) Baloo pleads for her not to tell her; and Molly agrees to it as long as they take her along. That sneaky, underhanded little....I like that!! She's as bad as Kit is and I mean that in a good way. (I see who was enabling Kit all this time in Captains Outrageous and My Fair Baloo. Next time you don't like Kit using your business sense to get what you want, look straight at your daughter. She's more special snowflake than even you realize.) Baloo realizes that he is had by Rebecca Junior and they both agree to take Molly to Louie's. (I believe the Rebecca Junior thing is in fact canonal according to Jymn, but considering all the times he's flip flopped on stuff; I wouldn't be surprised.)
Molly is so giddy as she plops right on Baloo's belly thanking him for it. HEE HEE! Kit realizes that he has some compeition in the sneakiness department as Molly gets to wear Baloo's hat and goes on the stick saying to Kit to watch out for Pirates in another really awesome spot. (And also, machine gun noises from Molly were added in syndication. Nowadays, only laser sounds are allowed on Disney programming because guns are bad. Which is true in fact.) The Rainbow Seaduck takes a 90 degree turn and heads straight for the "Island On the South Seas: Louie's Place". We cut to inside as Louie hops in and greets Molly as Louie uses his feet to hold Molly's hand and he kisses the hand commenting on Molly's age. EWWWWWWW! (This scene was cut in syndication and Baloo's dialogue was moved up as a result.) Baloo offers Louie to give Molly a famous Krackatoa Specials which is a kooky wordplay on breaking your toe. (Still funnier than getting a boil inside your asshole, that is for sure.) Molly asks what that is as Louie grabs her and whisks her away in such a funny fashion and places her on the bar stool as Louie proclaims that it's the best sundae in the world (Basically sounding like Mister T in terms of mangling maxims. Sadly; Louie cannot break down a door to save his life.) as he prepares it with lots of ice cream in a coconut bowl when he goes inside and hums a tune which causes Molly to do a really nice giggle on cue. You think a middle aged woman can pull that giggle off and NOT sound fake?! (Molly's giggling cue depends of the version as well. I'll let everyone guess when Molly giggles in this scene, because it's much more fun to show just how much I hated the editing of this movie when it came to syndication.) Baloo then whispers over to Kit on where the treasure is and Kit guides him up the stairs towards the Tiki Mask and Kit grabs the box from it. Kit opens the chest and reveal the stone which is cone shaped and ruby red. Pretty much similar to the one in To The Rescue; but more badass. (Oh; and we are not just taking about it's looks nor power either.)
We cut back to Louie on the back shot as he puts down the Special right in front of Molly and it is filled with so much ice cream and sparklers you swear it's Molly birthday today. Molly then decides to be a little greedy because there isn't enough for Lucy. HEE HEE! Never mind that Lucy is merely a liveless doll; but that is funny. Baloo comes over right beside her and calls for Louie. Louie walks over to the another side of the counter right behind Molly and Baloo gives him the stone. He wants Louie to appraise the stone which makes him look like Torenko Taloon there for a second; only Jamacian style. Louie takes the stone and invokes the jeweler's lenses on it going all orgasmic on us as the suspense is absolutely killing me here. (Nowadays; it's boils in the asshole. Times change. Anyhow; the movie version is much more animated, including a spot where a flash of light hits Louie in the eye causing him to be dizzy for a few seconds. Why they did a complete retake of this scene is beyond...Oh wait; BS&P thought that children might be blinded if they look at a shiny rock through jeweling lenses. Geez; how out of touch do you have to be to think that? Even the seizures caused by Pokemon made more sense than this.) Baloo is giddy as Kit asks for the price in round numbers and Louie proclaims that it's zero making sure to get as many versions of zero as possible as he hands the thing back to Baloo proclaiming that it's man made. (Someone e-mailed me once thatBaloo swears in DUBBED ANIME STYLE (Ah, nuts!) and throws the thing in the trash can while the two males sulk away stage left. Molly notices the yelling and stops eating her ice cream. She jumps down and looks inside the trash can as it's glowing red. This is like Dale; only more childish as we cut to Baloo and Kit sulking at the table wondering why the Air Pirates would steal something worthless from Shere Khan. Baloo is surprised as Kit claims that Don Karnage lifted from one of his planes. Baloo wonders if that is a fact as he notices the trash can is glowing and walks to it. I'm surprised that he doesn't notice that Kit would KNOW such a thing?!
Baloo grabs the stone from the trash can and he gets the CRIMSON LIGHTNING SHOCK OF DOOM right on his hand. (Vandemon from Digimon 01 believe it or not got referenced in this show. The Saban dub of course since the original name of the attack is Bloody Stream.) I guess a hard strike causes it to shock people; who knew. Nice off-screen bump into the table there Baloo; as somehow despite weighing five hundred pounds; the table doesn't break. It's tougher than Rebecca's pighead. SLAP! OUCH! Ummm... (I AM THE TABLE~! Also of note; the syndication and movie versions change the color of the sparks as one is white and one is red. I'll leave which version is which as an exercise to the reader.) Baloo crawls over and grabs the stone from it realizing that Shere Khan would want something from getting it back. So we cut to a far shot of Louie's outside as the MIRACLE WORKERS CONNECTION PLUS MOLLY walking down the docks towards the SeaDuck as Baloo's plan is to visit Mr. Khan and give him the stone back. Sounds like a plan to me as Molly stops and hears the engine noises and it's not coming from the Seaduck. Molly looks up and sees birdies. HEE! HEE! And this birdies can shoot to kill as the Air Pirates are back in full force and the bullets shall fly again! I'm amazed that none of them hit any of the characters as almost every bullet misses by mere inches which is too close for a Disney show. (This is getting cringeworthy even by this show's standards and we're not even halfway through this show yet.) Louie flees stage left while the rest get into the SeaDuck and the left window gets blown out. The Air Pirates circle around the SeaDuck shooting it good as the paint job of the SeaDuck gets completely destroyed by the second. (The syndication version had most of it's paint intact and the paint was slowly peeling off. It takes a while longer, but the SeaDuck will become bare metal in due time.) Don Karnage yells to attack as the machine guns go ablazing as we have reached over 1.0 Trigun in just forty-one minutes.
Baloo turns on the engines and asks why they keep chasing him which Kit shrugs in such a matter because you would think that Baloo would get it now that they are chasing after Kit because he screwed Don Karnage over. (Now here's a spot that I would have booked differently. I would have Baloo say: "Geez; these pirates really like chasing me recently!" and then have Kit shrug. You only have to change one line, it's not hard.) The Seaduck turns on a 180 degree dime in a slick spot and tries to lift up; but a goofy plane knocks it back down to keep it skipping onto the water. Baloo proclaims that Beckey's paint job is gone as he flips the plane 90 degrees and the SeaDuck smacks the CT-37 into the water like a basketball. The CT-37 bump like a madman that it's clear that Mad Dog is flying the plane. (Which changes from blue to red depending on the shot. Sigh.) The SeaDuck gets into the air finally and the chase is on as we cut into the cockpit as Baloo orders Kit to go into the back to get some mangoes. Kit jumps down and runs into the back as Molly follows close behind. Kit returns with ten mangoes in which one of them falls down and doesn't smash to pieces. (Those mangoes must not be ripe yet which is odd considering the climate of Cape Suzette.) Molly grabs that one and follows Kit to the front as Molly asks if they are really Air Pirates. Geez; you need to ask, little one?! Baloo grabs a mangoes to say yes and hopes that they are real hungry. He opens the door and throws the mangoes into the left prop and it makes slices of them which Don Karnage takes right in the kisser! I love that spot for some odd reason as Baloo pops with another full mango blowing off Karnage which is countered with a bullet right in the mango which is destroyed of course. HEE HEE! That'll teach him to show off as he pops back into the SeaDuck to proclaim the idea is nixed. (The movie version had the slices look like pineapple rings by the way.)
So we go to plan number two as Kit pulls out his Air Foil and opens it. He then asks Baloo for some rope and Baloo is downright confused on that all as we cut to the tailsection of the plane which opens up and out comes Kit with the Air Foil underneath his feet again with a tow rope and Molly's ice cream bowl. (Apparently, Molly compromised and got two of the scoops of ice cream since only four of them show up when Kit has the bowl.) All right, time for some Anti-Pirate Cloud Surfing~! We cut to the front of the plane as Baloo and Molly look out as the rope is attached to Baloo's chair as Baloo is wonder how he knows that. Better question: What is that?! Molly doesn't know; but she wants to go next. HAHA! Geez; even Kit would be taken aback by that response. (I just love how scared Baloo looks because Kit Cloudkicker, the one the pirates hate is going back into the line of fire; with their machine guns ablazing. How crazy is Kit Cloudkicker? THAT crazy! Molly; the moronic six year old finally shows why she's six by asking to go next which is just priceless. Molly and Kit are going to die much younger than most professional wrestlers on steroids or with deadly concussions at the rate they are going.) We head back to Kit who surfs next to Gibber's aircraft and throws the ice cream bowl right into his face while mocking him. Gibber's plane spirals down towards the ocean as he is blinded and Kit laughs his ass off. Did I mention that laugh absolutely SCARES me?! (In the movie version; you can actually see a second of animation Kit beginning to laugh before they cut away. R.J. Williams is playing this to the hilt and he's not letting up.) Dumptruck notices him and starts shooting at him AT CLOSE RANGE as Kit dodges him by inches. HOLY CRAP?! (This is the moment that I'm shocked Toon Disney didn't edit this out at all because it was so close to being mimed by children. I'm amazed how much this episode and this series got away with guns, most so when they shoot them at a child. It's the kind of thing that makes me glad BS&P stepped in because it was going to cause problems down the road. Sure, TaleSpin was never blamed for any school shooting or anything. However; businesses know that bad PR is good for a while, and then it becomes a problem when nothing is done about it.)
Eisner has got to be pushing the panic button on this series and we haven't even got into the real nightmare with Kit yet. (Although there are lots of moments already where it's becoming clear that something is amiss with Kit. Even though we didn't see a flashback with Kit's life with Don Karnage (and what a hell of a spin-off that would have been in this modern cartoon age, too.); this sequence gives us a taste of that pirate life and man, it tastes both awesome, evil and terrible all at the same time.) Kit then takes the tow rope and ties it around his ankle which is a spot Kit would often do as it's no hands Kit. Kit dodges the gun fire and goes to the right side of Dumptruck's plane and opens the engine and destroys the rubber fuel line. HAHA! Dumptruck reaction is absolutely priceless and true. I mean; you have a killer weapon and yet; a simple pull of the rubber hose ends it. And just to make it more insane; they were still shooting bullets at Kit the whole time. Baloo calls Kit dynamite as Molly has that look of: "Are you both insane?!" I don't think that it off-base as we cloud surf some more as Kit tries to look brave; but he's outnumbered five to one still (Must have seven planes brought for this mission and these are the reinforcements. (It's actually nine on one advantage heels; and that's before the guns are counted.)) as they attack together shooting right at Kit as he uses his Airfoil as a shield to deflect the bullets and then climbs on the ropes as the rain of bullets is too much for him. Smart move, Kit as we cut to Molly hugging Lucy in a scared fashion. (She says "Don't look, Lucy" which to me implies that Molly is scared that Kit is legit going to be shot and killed by the pirate bullets. Even she is cringing at this.) We cut back (Syndication Violence Cut Alert!) to Kit climbing still and the rope get shot at as it was only an inch away from shooting Kit right in the damn head! Okay; that's it! I'm officially declaring Kit nuts! (Even though they cut this in syndication (and really, I don't blame them for cutting it); later on in this pilot, when Kit gets thrown off the Iron Vulture (Spoiler Alert!); when Baloo grabs Kit, on the far shot; his feet nearly touches the propellers. More on that later.)
Kit grabs the ropes on the rebound and climbs into the SeaDuck without further incident. This kid is coming way too close to death for even my liking at this point. Baloo closes the door with the lever (JESUS~!) and Kit walks in as Baloo calls him something else. Eisner calls him something else; but I don't think you are going to like it, fans. (Stop it Kit! You don't have to be this kind of daredevil to impress me. I can just hear Michael saying that now.) Kit sits down and buckles his seatbelt asking what they can do now. Baloo has one more plan left as he pulls on the stick and the SeaDuck spirals up into the air as Don Karnage finally cleans himself and orders his men to climb up because no one makes a fruit salad out of me and lives. I would take him seriously on that even if he didn't say, "and lives." The CT-37's climb up (nine of them which lops off the logic break that could have happened; but didn't) close behind which proves to be the fatal error as Baloo proclaims that Rebecca's cargo is slowing them down and Kit wonders what that means. (This was edited out in syndication by the way.) Baloo knows as he opens the tailsection door in a repeat spot; which is fine since he's doing the same thing anyway. That opens the tailsection and that means it's time for the HANS SOLO MOVE OF DISMEMBERMENT~! For those who don't know; Hans Solo from Star Wars would do something like this considering that Baloo is supposed to be an inspiration of him. Don Karnage is seriously screwed as the fruit rains down and completely coats all of the air planes as Gibber grabs the prop and the planes can no longer fly anymore and they all free fall into the sea like a bunch of dead flies. HEE HEE! Oh well; better luck next time Don. The SeaDuck flies into the sunset as Baloo proclaims that he loses more cargo that way. I love real commetns that aren't supposed to be real comments as the segments ends right there about forty five minutes in. That was an awesome sequence there; but Baloo is going to get his eardrums screwed now.
After the commercial break; we head back to Higher For Hire as we get various shots of the SeaDuck looking quite trashed beyond belief and Rebecca does what Rebecca does best by invoking the WRAITH OF BECKEY on Baloo. And I betcha just like round one; she cannot be stopped. Baloo does a really lame excuse of proclaiming that he was just giving them the Vitamin C they need. HA, that's a laugh! (Basically, she asks why the pirates would want mangoes and that was Baloo's response. Rebecca then proclaims that Baloo is up to something. Huh. Maybe it has something to do with a certain navigator and Rebecca cannot fantom that a child would ever be using an adult to do something against Rebecca's wishes. More like: You're up to something, Kit.) Then Molly appears from the plane and Rebecca turns the whole heat up a notch as he accuses Baloo of letting Molly joyride in the plane. Baloo is so screwed that Rebecca looks like she wants to pull the trigger NOW; (She basically says that he'll never fly the SeaDuck again, which is about as good as firing him at this point without saying it.) but Molly chimes in admitting that she went inside the plane on her own doing and not Baloo; and Baloo saved her from them. (Great little moment cut in syndication: Molly winks at Baloo and says "Right, Baloo?" and Baloo and Kit look amazed because Molly told the truth while at the same time, she didn't rat him out on going to Louie's. That is great foresight from Molly there.) Rebecca realizes either (a) Baloo isn't reckless and obscene after all or (b) I still need this pilot because he's the only one who comes close to agreeing to do this with me. You can just tell that these two were going to be married at some point with Kit and Molly as the kids; WildCat and Louie as cousins. A family by heart and not by blood; the way it should be since no bigotry is involved. Rebecca decides to let the whole thing go as they go back in. (Baloo forgives her by the way; calling it water under the wing and they shook hands too. I can just tell this relationship is going to be fun to watch.)
However; she saves face by blowing them off about destroying the uniforms which I agree with since those made Kit look really cute myself. Molly actually winks at the camera which proves my theory that Molly wants to have them become a family there too. (That was before Rebecca says she owes Baloo an apology, but point taken 2008 Me.) We get another scene changer as it is AFTER HAPPY HOUR (After Dark) at the office of Higher For Hire as we look into the window and see Baloo sleeping on the red chair. (Oh here we go; the best animated and most touching scene in the series...) Kit is pushing Molly who is sitting in the rolling wheel green chair wearing the cutist pink footy PJ's she could wear under the FASHION POLICE OF LAW as she is making gunfire noises and she announces Danger Woman for the first time which was her comic book hero and idol as she even tries to dress like her and become an alter-ego while speaking in the third person; thus making Woosley and Slattery uncool for not doing it for Relm. I actually did a fanfic on the origin of Danger Woman based on information from Usenet that the person voicing her on the radio was crippled and put in a wheelchair. There's more to it; but that's the story. (It might have been a great idea; but my writing sucks. I should note that jb found a legit script where such an angle was in fact planned; but it didn't make it past the rough script stage, sadly.) Kit pushes Molly to the hammock and it's the slingshot as Molly flies right onto Baloo's belly with a cute bump on her can and Kit does a good bump on his ass. HEE HEE! I love that spot and it's a realistic version of a spot from The Jungle Book and was recycled for the sequel. (I should also note that anytime anyone does a slingshot spot; that it always ends up in the chair. Even if no one is sitting on it to break your fall. It always amuses me when dumb characters think that in the world of DTVA does a slingshot spot to stop a villian in their tracks and it never works. Unless the villain is in the chair; then there's no way in hell that the spot will hit anywhere else but the chair.)
Baloo wakes up on cue and grabs Molly gently as she's smiling at Baloo. Baloo asks her about her clearance for that landing as he plops her on her seat and starts tickling her in the ribs. Molly's selling is awesome as Janna just plays this to the hilt here. (Molly's facial expressions are great as she is smiling as Baloo is looking at her. When Baloo plops Molly on his belly; Molly looked confused and then closes her eyes and giggles.) We cut to Rebecca coming down the steps with some sheets and pillows wearing a night gown as Kit apparently comes to the chair because he's giggling now as we cut back to Baloo and Molly is tickling Kit underneath his neck. (Did Kit honestly think that Molly wasn't going to counter. Fanfics from Dan Green played into the fact that Kit can never get away with tickling Molly. Even I redid this scene with Kit trying to tickle Molly's feet; but she countered before he got a chance. It also played into the running gag I had in mind for the AeroStars: Cloudkicker Chronicles arc where Kit (of course this wouldn't happen every episode); but Kit would try to tickle Molly's feet; but he would fail either because of something Molly said and his conscience gets the better of him, or Rebecca finds out and threatens to fire him (only she really doesn't and that makes Kit look flustered.). The payoff was in Unforeseen Impact actually with Kit finally getting his revenge by playing dead and just doing it. Plus; If I remember correctly; Molly and Rebecca would get their revenge on him for that, although Molly also got tickled by Rebecca, so some revenge that was.) Even as gentle as Molly is; Kit sells it as if he was being tickled in the ribs himself. So much so; that he has to stop her by pulling the pilot hat over her eyes which I guess Baloo put on Molly's head during the cut over to Rebecca. That is so touching that even I can only smile and I'm a really cynical person.
It's things like this that make me love Disney Television Animation despite all the hate it usually gets. (This is a family that came together because life is hell in the 1930's. Despite how depressing the era is; they did what they had to do to live on. This is why Baloo has to tolerate Rebecca's tough-nosed things and Rebecca has to tolerate Baloo's antics if only because in Feminine Air, pilots in TaleSpin are sexist douchebags, other than Baloo and Kit. And Kit's too young to fly.) I think Kit tried to tickle Molly on the cut back and BS&P cut it out before release; but either way Kit was going to get it since he was the one who pushed Molly into the hammock in the first place. Kit and Molly just scream "TICKLE FIGHT" and sadly; Magon never considered doing one with them because seeing those two sell one would be hilarious. Of course; R.J. Williams's voice was very close to breaking at this point, so it's understandable why it was never planned. (If this were done today; they get 11 minutes out of it. No matter what they do; it will be hilarious, even more so if they get really creative with the spot instead of defaulting to being similar to the "Whaffles" episode from Teen Titans Go!) Molly's reaction to the hat pull is so cute by the way. (Molly's reaction to it was like: "You're gonna pay for that one, Kit." I just knew she was going to do burials of serious Kit at this point, because she knows that burials of cynical Kit will never fail to make me laugh.) Rebecca tells Molly that it is time for bed and Molly pulls the hat from her eyes and complains because she wants to play some more. Rebecca nicely tells her no because Kit and Baloo have to sleep too. Notice how Rebecca addresses Kit first here? Sounds like Miss Cunningham thinks of Kit very highly methinks. Baloo stands up and gives Molly the TICKLE FINGER OF DOOM on her ribs again as Molly kicks her feet and giggles again. I think she gets the point now as she takes the pilot's cap and places it on Baloo's head in a neat spot.
That leads to Rebecca making the bed on the red chair as Baloo places Molly on her seat in the bed in front of the pillow; which leads to both Kit and Molly smiling at each other. The music here sounds very familiar to me as I'm in tears for some reason. (It's the beginning of the "Home Is Where The Heart Is" lullaby music; and it shows how sloppy the editors were that they forgot to dub in a different kind of music so it didn't expose the business. Although compared to what happens later on, this was a minor qibble.) Rebecca then goes over to Kit and gives him a pillow and sheets; saying nicely to him that it's so he doesn't get chilly. Kit stammers on there before thanking her which is a scary sign right there for me as Baloo and Kit walk out with their covers and both say good night to. Molly ends it with a funny "See You Later Alligator" promo; but addresses Kit ("See you later navigator!"). Why is this looking like they are trying to tell Kit something and he doesn't get it?! Or if he does; does he believe it?! (If anyone was paying attention to Rebecca's appearance since the beginning, it seems that Rebecca is trying to figure out how this Kit Cloudkicker came into Baloo's life. More importantly; how could Kit stand this man, considering both person's personalities? It's clear that Rebecca and Molly are trying to convince Kit in a very subtle way that he always has a home at Higher For Hire because they have no personal beef with Kit. Even though, Baloo's decision to go to Louie's was based on where Kit hid the stone.) Baloo walks from the office as he looks towards Khan Towers proclaiming that they will see Shere Khan tomorrow morning to unleash a surprise on him. I think the real surprise is coming; but Shere Khan isn't the one who is involved here. Kit ignores him and just stares at the front of the office as if something Rebecca and Molly did surprised him. Can you guess why he's doing that?! Stay tuned! Baloo asks for Kit and Kit snaps out of his space out and quickly walks towards him as we cut back to inside the office. (Notice Baloo walks towards Khan Tower being giddy about seeing Shere Khan and nipping this whole relationship with Rebecca in the bud. Now contrast this with Kit: Kit is looking at the door in thought wondering because he was acting like no one was ever kind to him like this before. He's also wondering about another thing and we'll get to that in the next scene coming up next...)
ATTENTION! Awesome Scene Disney Cut in Sydincation Commencing!
Rebecca makes her bed on the hammock and Molly starts complaining again. However; this time she is absolutely concerned about this place. Rebecca wonders why that is the case and Molly responds that it is not like home. Rebecca tells her not to worry and that music starts up and Rebecca starts singing for real. The song: Home is Where The Heart Is. Oh my god; I'm actually crying as I'm doing this so I can barely see. (Oh; here we go, the moment where I realized the magic of this pilot.) Rebecca walks over to the filing cabient and opens it to reveal a plam tree cookie jar. Man; these bears like to hide food in the weirdest places. (This is a trait of bears in the wild? Because if so, then Jymn and company are a lot more on the ball then even I would give Jymn credit for.) Rebecca takes the cookie jar and opens it to find a chocolate chip cookie and gives it to Molly. Molly eats the cookie as Rebecca continues singing this awesome song (I mean only this song would have a line where some people think Rebecca wants to shove Molly back into her womb. Right Gidget/Cody?! (Some TaleSpinners just love to ham up the dumbest ideas ever; don't they? And I speak from experience, too. Worse, the second paragraph ends with "Inside of you". So, Rebecca is clearly using metaphors here. )) and I really feel stupid now that I bashed Sally Struthers for singing this in the previous rant because her singing is actually really good here and I'm reduced to tears. (However; that's not the reason that I'm crying. There's a bigger context to the singing that can only be explained when you watch the syndication first over the original pilot first.)
We cut back to outside as Baloo and Kit are looking out at Khan Tower on the docks; and Baloo walks stage left on the docks towards the SeaDuck dancing like a goof as Kit looks at him and just gives off this weak smile. Notice how I'm reporting this song blow by blow unlike the other songs. There is a good reason for that. (Yeah, because the actions of Kit, Molly and Rebecca is what made the lullaby special, not the singing itself. Normally; singing in a cartoon is completely tacky and time filler. This is one of the few exceptions to the rule.) I'm explain when the song is over as Kit looks to his right and sees WildCat in front of his office sleeping in the hammock as he turns off the lights. Funny spot: Rebecca on cue sings the chorus which is: "Four Walls May Surround You..."; which is funny since WildCat is surrounded by about one wall. That is so symbolic of WildCat's character (To be fair; WildCat's boat house does have four walls, and WildCat was outside the boathouse anyway. Sadly; we never get to see the inside of the boathouse until Flight Of The Snowduck.) as Kit walks over to the window and peeks into it as he sees Rebecca and Molly hugging each other as Rebecca sings. We go to a shot of Kit smiling at all this (he's much stronger than I am because I know what's coming next) as we see Molly and Rebecca as a reflection. Rebecca places Molly down on her seat again and she pops the question that changes everything you ever knew about Kit, Molly and Rebecca:
Molly: But what if I'm not with you..or...what if I'm alone?
Man; that question is so loaded that Kit actually changes from happiness to sadness right on the question. In fact; in the comic version, he actually sheds tears here which means the whole thing shook him even more than Walt Disney Animnation France S.A. showed. (Sadly, Bobbi Weiss' adaption of the scene was really butchered and it also lends to my theory that the song is in fact a copyrighted song Disney forgot to own.) Molly snuggles inside the covers. Rebecca sings the line: "Remember where my heart is and you'll always have a home." And then she kisses Molly on the cheek as Molly closes her eyes and falls sleep. Rebecca then looks stage left and notices Kit in the window. Kit pops his head away from the window thinking that he will be accused of being a pervert or a peeping tom; but Rebecca doesn't actually let on that she notices him as she goes over to the window sill; places the cookie jar on the sill and sings the last song directly to Kit this time as Kit is amazed at all this. (This is the moment where Rebecca Cunningham really shines and redeems herself as a character.) Kit takes the cookie jar and his covers and runs into the SeaDuck as we get a shot of Baloo sleeping on the bottom bunk of the bed and we pan up to see Kit on top of the bunk of the bed with his sweater off to reveal his white undershirt and he takes a cookie and eats one which absolutely clinches the whole thing. I cannot believe Disney would stoop to the low of claiming that this scene was a time cut and make Jymn Magon edited it out in syndication. A lot of people who didn't see the Disney Channel version of it were absolutely robbed of this lullaby. (This is the kind of song that would have stayed if TaleSpin was developed today, almost without contradiction.) I think I know why: The song is not in the image of Michael Eisner that "Singing Animals" must sing songs that have no heart and must be entertainment pieces that are so goofy that no human being would ever seriously consider singing it without thinking about having a death wish.
(Which makes zero sense when you consider that you have "I'm Gone" and "Sky Pirates" sandwiched in between. After considerable thought on the subject; I conclude that this lullaby was cut because it was a case of "censorship by copyright"; in that Disney never owned the actual song. (It might be a public domain song; although from a legal angle; this shouldn't prevent Disney from using the song; but again, that hasn't stopped then from acting like idiots before.) A cut for time sounds excusable; but only because they cut 90 seconds out of the pilot just to add recaps because they think kids have zero attention spans. Take those away; and you can keep the scene easily. Dulling emotion is possible; but this is one of those productions where you cannot simply paint a smiley face on the situation and it really shows in Act IV. Besides; Disney is supposed to be the king of pathos; so why cut a pathos scene? Then there is the whole "it's boring" thing. To those who say that: Citation required. If you have proof of this; then you have the viewership for this pilot; right down to every fifteen minutes. Please release these numbers to the public, most so to me. If you can provide actual evidence that this is the case; then I will safely say that it's because they thought it was too boring. Remember; you make the claim, you provide the evidence. Otherwise; you'll making stuff up. I'm still waiting for "The Stars" to cough up evidence on their "Comedy does better ratings on reruns" claim and they haven't done so yet.)
This was a character development song and it had the purpose of making me rethink everything I ever thought about Kit, Rebecca and Molly. In Rebecca's case; she was a jerk and was very harsh; as if she was hiding her past like a mask that something bad happened to her. To the point of being unlikable. However; she was able to rise above it; and prove here that she is a really nice lady. Kit knew that she was putting a mask on because Baloo is irresponable and maybe because she doesn't trust men; except for Kit. When she put the cookie jar on the window sill and sang the last song to Kit; she was indirectly saying to Kit that she loves him like a son and she has the foresight to know that something is troubling this kid even though she knows zero details about his own past. She basically reached out and said: "I care about you."; going beyond mere love. Love is abstract; care is absolute and she did it without even letting Kit on that she saw him which would have really made things worse for Kit as a whole if she did. This scene changed my view on Rebecca Cunningham and it's a damn shame no one got to see it. (Not only that, this scene was the best animated scene in the whole movie and that includes the first half of the scene that they didn't cut. Sadly; Kit's sheets turned from white to purple/navy blue in the end; but that wasn't in this scene anyway. Otherwise, it was perfect by television animation standards. Sally Struther's singing was great for what it was because it's a lullaby and it's not the type of song that you have to sing professionally. In fact, doing it this way made it sound real.) In Molly's case she welded a lot of power in asking the one question of not being with you or being alone. It changed Kit as the star he saw in these two which made him smile turned to tears because he knows that he doesn't even have that. This is a form of foreshadowing here as Kit has been teasing since the beginning of this pilot that he is an orphan runaway because everytime he talks about planes; he is happy. When he sees other families hugging each other; he is happy.
But when his "family" comes up; he's somber, almost ashamed in fact. (This also plays into his feelings when Baloo keeps asking him about the Air Pirates. This feels "real" and is certainly believable.) Some say he might even be a bastard child to boot which wouldn't be shocking in Disney because all orphans in Disney could be lumped into that disgraceful title. Now that Rebecca has basically said that she cares about him; Kit now has a really difficult decision to make here: Do I defend Baloo and go with him or do I go with Rebecca and Molly and try to convince Baloo to stay with her and become the family I never had or knew. And there really is no right or wrong decision here; but there will be pain and suffering for whomever Kit doesn't choose. (What was that I just heard? That regardless of the choice; there is consequences and the decision is purely based on which one is less painful. By the way; Kit ultimately chooses Baloo over Rebecca, but Don Karnage screws this decision over anyway.) This is truly an emotional song as I was in tears while writing it and I'm still in tears right now. Mental illness may have helped here; but it's refreshing for me to cry here because a lot of Disney songs in recent years are so bad that it turns tears and cheers to jeers. Michael Eisner truly has no shame here and thankfully; it's on Youtube; and I suggest that you download the song now before it gets cut from Youtube for whatever excuse Disney uses to get rid of it. Disney does not want this scene as canon and there is a good reason why as you will see later on in Act III and what happens next will completely shatter BS&P for good and seal the show's fate. Even this would not have sealed the show's fate in spite of the emotion on it's own.
(TESTIFY~! Plus; there's more to this story than 2008 Me is telling: I saw the syndication version of this pilot (Actually it was the Toon Disney version with additional scenes cut for violence and racism issues) well before I got to see the 1990 Disney Channel version of this pilot. Remember that this is in 1994 because in 1990; I didn't like this show at all. I considered it a disgrace to Disney and so on and so on. The full story is in my "X Years Of Cloudkicking" articles on my Unofficial Kit Cloudkicker Homepage. When I first went to IMDB and finally decided to see what presence does this show have on the internet (and it wasn't much and still isn't much outside of me and Steet.); I read that there was a scene that was missing from the syndication and this was around 1999; that they cut out a lullaby. I thought: "That's odd. Disney was known for musical numbers in their films; so why cut that out?". Even more to the point: "Really? There's a lullaby in this pilot?" I expected them to cut out some of the violence even back in 1990 syndication; but a musical number? Really? I then got to know Laura Trombley and the art of voice acting, gaining a newfound respect for voice acting in general. We did some tape trading and I finally got to see the 1990 Disney Channel version of Plunder and Lightning. Boy; did I underestimate even at the time; the amount of butchery Disney did to the pilot when it was released in syndication. It made Toon Disney's editing look less laughable and much more subtle. 149 edits is what I found and there might be more. They didn't just use scissors, they did every 4Kids trick in the book and even reanimated certain scenes. It became so comical. But at least I got to see that the lullaby in question and discovered in the end that many of the jokes on TaleSpin's editing practices were no joke anymore (and there's a huge paint edit job later on in this act that we all thought was a Photoshop joke.).
Then in this review in 2008; I saw the scene in question and was in tears. At first; I thought it was just mere emotion overwhelming me, which is what Disney was best know for. And then a few years later, it finally dawned on me: The reason I was in tears in 2008 was because I know what happens with Kit and company in Act III: Kit pretends to turn on his family to save them and unintentionally causes Cape Suzette to be a target for Don's sick desires. One act later; Kit was faced with a decision: Obey Baloo and risk having his new family die at the hands of Don Karnage; or disobey Baloo and risk their haterd of them for turning on said family. More on that later because the consequences go beyond even that. The fact that Rebecca knew something was amiss with Kit (I mean; how can he stand Baloo and more importantly; how can he be the opposite of Baloo in personality?) and the event occured after this song; this made the entire fake heel turn of Kit even more tragic than it already was. Kit finally might have found his family and Don Karnage came in to ruin it all by forcing his hand just to get a powerful energy source capable of plundering and terrorizing the world into submission. Alan Burnett didn't need to have this song to make it tragic; but it really hammered the point home; and I didn't realize it until I reviewed the pilot for the second time. Plus; it took years before I realized why I was in tears. This is TaleSpin at it's best and to cut the song out is tragic in itself. In the end; it doesn't matter what the excuse is and listening to Jymn on the subject (which I conclude was copyright infringement on Jymn's part) provides evidence to the fact: The reaction to the cut was exactly the same: Disney, you are heartless, soul less corporate bastards with no respect for your product.)
(November 2016 Gregory Weagle Says: I talked with Michael Silversher and he claims that the song is owned outright by Disney. So "Censorship By Copyright" is completely out now. Michael basically answered the question for me: Eisner hated Struther's performance and it was cut because of that. I don't know if Eisner told them to redub the scene with Melissa Manchester (who sang the song on the Disney Afternoon soundtrack) and they refused, causing the edit in the process; or not. But one thing is clear: This shows how little Michael Eisner knows about how musicals work. If the song was like Sky Pirates for example; or even I'm Gone, I can see why you would go to a professional singer like Melissa Manchester for these scenes. However; this is a lullaby. This is a song sang by mothers and fathers to their kids every single day in this world. If you bring a professional singer into a lullaby and it's not the person who is voicing the character, people will call you out on it and say "That was fake!". Having Sally Struthers sing the song instead is a brilliant move because it's a lullaby and thus she doesn't have to sing it in a professional way to get it over. In fact; singing in a professional way would kill the scene! One final note before I move on to the next scene, Michael Silversher also said this on my Facebook page: I know that Sally Struthers had a hard time with the song; in fact, they turned all the lights down in the studio, put her microphone with her back facing the control room, and I stood with her, holding her throughout the recording. It's very moving to me as it was probably the first time she had sung in years. Afterwards she was able to do more singing in front of people. i like to think that this session helped her to find her own courage. The Disney Afternoon CD version of the song is sung by the great Melissa Manchester. I didn't have to hold her, however!! )
So we cut to a far shot of Higher For Hire AFTER HAPPY HOUR as we pan over to the small river which connects Cape Suzette from the outside as we see a Italian boat with Don Karnage, Mad Dog and Dumptruck riding in dressed up as Italian Stallions~! HAHA! (What the hell were you drinking when you said that 2008 Me? Don Karnage is an Italian rowboat rower, Mad Dog is dressed like a stereotypical woman (and thus shows that Baloo has no monopoly on dressing in drag, and Dumptruck is dressed like a gentlemen, which has got to be so laughable that only Dumptruck could pull it off. What do horses have to do with this?) Don Karnage's singing is downright hilarious as that accent is almost as thick as the Scottish accents in Dragon Quest IV DS. (Again, Jim Cummings can sing well. No wonder DAF Radio loves him a lot. It's difficult to dislike him and I don't; but what about people like Frank Welker and Corey Burton who have much more interesting roles under their belt?) I almost glad he's here because now I can stop crying and see better again. The spotlight shines on thee as the Cliff Gun light operators demands answers as Mad Dog is cross dressing as the cute girl and Dumptruck as Uncle Scrooge. There is just something perverted about those two that I cannot put my finger on. Nah; can't be. I think Baloo Dumptruck is trying to shake me a bit. Don Karnage explains the whole thing while Mad Dog is squirming because Dumptruck wants to kiss him. Ooooo...I think I see why BD thinks these two are homosexuals now. Or not. (These two did not help themselves in that department in Ransom Of The Red Chimp with Dumptruck's imfamous "The weiner is in the snitchel." blast.) Don asks for privacy (Which just creates more evidence for that theory...) and he gets it as the spotlight is turned off. Don rows away a bit and then goes over to the back of the boat (which is kick ass to be perfectly honest with you) and invokes the motor engine from behind to speed up the rowing process.
I guess Baloo was wrong after all; but then again he never did it in a in your face frontal assault so it's all good. Now Don can look for the plane as Mad Dog starts whining like a little baby while invoking the binoculars. Man; that was more disturbing than I have intended as Don Karnage blows it off since they will search all in a sneaky type way of course as Mad Dog is rightfully screwed on cue. The Italian Motorboat Stallion (Why didn't Magon steal that name for this boat?) motors towards the city as we pan towards the upper left. So we get the scene changer as we get another shot of the broken up SeaDuck as the seagulls wail and fly around on cue. (Oh, I could never forget this moment: During my time on the TaleSpin High Flight Comment Board, someone informed me that during this scene, in the syndication version; the SeaDuck was completely repainted into the original color scheme and that the original movie version, it was still completely wrecked. Which makes no sense considering that there was no evidence the SeaDuck was repaired during the night and WildCat was in his hammock during the night. So I figured that this was all just a Photoshop joke and left it at that. Then I started compiling the edits for comparisons and checked both scenes...It wasn't a joke. Disney had the SeaDuck repainted in syndication. Not only did this make no sense, it also exposed that a different version of the pilot was available later on. Anyhow; they also changed Kit's blanket from purple to navy blue. Why? Why not!) You can hear Baloo telling Kit to rise and shine. I'm shocked that Kit hasn't gone mad over Baloo calling him Li'l Britches since Kit doesn't wear pants. We head inside as Kit wakes up and he apparently got too chilly because he's wearing the green sweater again. (Something Rebecca Cunningham did later on in this scene. In a surprise, Molly was still in her footy pj's for some reason. So footy pj's trump undershirts and robes in this world. Which is hilarious considering that Cape Suzette is supposed to be in the South Pacific, thus it would be warm in the Winter.)
Baloo does an early bird promo as Kit yawns on cue and grabs his baseball cap. I guess he has made his decision after all as he jumps down and follows Baloo who has the stone in hand. (Well; neither decision is painless, and Baloo did save him from the pirates in the first act, so I can fully understand him going with Baloo. I'm guessing even Rebecca figured this out; but wanted to show off her humanity, and did she succeed in every way.) They walks to the front of the office as Kit asks Baloo if it is smart to walk in and give him the stone outright. Baloo agrees with him on that one as they enter inside the office from the back enterance (the storage room) and enter through the side door next to the red chair where Molly is sleeping. Kit wonders if this is smart as Baloo agrees that it's bad to tip the hand too soon as he grabs Lucy and places the stone into the doll from the back end. Baloo places the doll back in Molly's care and then sneaks back into storage with Kit. He then makes the silly mistake of not looking where he is going as he runs into some more crap off-screen (Is that Rebecca's security system or something?) as we cut back to Molly who wakes up and calls out for Kit first and then Baloo. Rebecca tosses a bit in the hammock as she is wearing her regular clothes now. I guess it's too chilly in Cape Suzette in a November night. (Depending on the version; the spot where Rebecca tosses in the hammock is different, but both of them make sense; so it's not a big deal either way. Plus, no footage was cut.) We cut to a far shot of the office outside as Kit and Baloo run away stage right to Khan Towers. We pan left towards the SeaDuck as the MOTOR BOAT FROM ITALY arrives on the dock and Don Karnage sees his target as the Seaduck is still in shambles at this point. (Which it is not in syndication.) Don Karnage orders his heels to cut the engine and they obey without further incident.
We get the next scene changer and head to Khan Tower as we get some more animation of planes and cars and then pan up to the window where Mr. Khan is looking out as we hear Baloo talking to Khan about the stone. Baloo asks him what it is worth as Kit and Baloo are standing in front of his desk. Mr. Khan turns around and walks towards his desk doing me proud by calling him Mr. Balloon. AHHAHAHAHA! POW! OUCH! Ummm...I guess Shere Khan is too dangerous to hit. Khan explains that the stone is an electrical alloy created by his tech geeks as we see Kit pick up the vorpal dagger from the desk and he plays sword fencing with it in a spot that is both awesome and frightening at the same time. (Yeah, kids shouldn't handle knives like that. What does Kit think he is, a pirate? I betcha Michael Eisner was saying that before he saw Act III like everyone else.) I do not like where this is going would be an understatement here as Khan steals the dagger from Kit before Kit does any more harm to himself. Khan offers him a hundred and Baloo calls it lousy in which Khan responds by calling it in slow motion: One hundred thousand lousy bucks which Kit and Baloo chimes in with the correct usage of the currency in Cape Suzette. (I should note that Baloo and Kit looked at each other and Baloo's shocked reaction before saying dollars was cut in syndication.) Baloo and Kit get all giddy about it and they stroll right out of the office as they admit that they have the stone and they are glad to return it. As the elevator closes on them; Shere Khan opens a letter with the dagger and admits that it's worth fifty times that! HAHA! He makes fifty times profit on the sale like a greedy CEO would. (He was also opening a letter with the dagger Kit was sword playing with. Also cut in syndication.) So we return to Higher...For...Hire as Baloo and Kit stroll down towards the office as they sing the "I'm Gone" song again. (Also cut in syndication. Which is dumb because part one had the song in it's entirety and Disney owns the song outright)
I guess Kit has made his decision to stay with Baloo which of course is going to get screwed big time as Baloo proclaims victory right in front of the office because he can buy the SeaDuck and leave. Shere Khan gets his stone; Baloo gets his money and Kit gets away from Don for good. Everyone goes home happy as Kit and Baloo stroll into the office and it's completely ransacked. UH OH! This is bad, very bad as Bob from Reboot would say (The show; not the recyling department.) as Kit yells for the girls running upstairs while Baloo searches for the doll but cannot find it anywhere. (Once again, R.J. Williams is showing how good of a child actor he really is.) I love the blue shadow look when Baloo enters a dark room which is opposite of what it was at the beginning of the episode. (Syndication fixed that gaffe by the way.) Baloo enters inside the closet room as there is a dagger attached to a note on a dart board on the door where Baloo opens the door. Kit notices it and the dagger has a skull and crossbones on it which makes it even WORSE. Baloo rips the note from the dagger and reads it. Yeap; Don Karnage has kidnapped Molly and Rebecca which we all knew was coming a mile away when he entered Cape Suzette. Stupid spotlighters. If Kit doesn't deliver the stone to Don Karnage; they will never see them again which is basically; he'll kill them both. No need to directly come out and say it since it's perfectly clear. Kit cannot believe this is happening as Baloo crumbles the note when he reads his name and that ends Act II at 47:13.
I feel like a damn fool not giving this episode ***** in the previous rant. (The animation was ** 1/2; but the storyline, performances of the voices and emotion was eighteen stars without question.) If Sally Struthers singing can make me cry then you know that song is special. There is also a version of song not sang by Sally Struthers which is from the Disney Afternoon Soundtrack and that is also available on Youtube. Walt Disney Animation France was even better in this one with only a few coloring mistakes present; but the animation was dead on. (The animation itself was good, it was just looked unpolished and unfinished in the movie version in terms of backgrounds and coloring. Ironically, the big scene they cut was the best animated scene of the whole pilot. Copyright: It sucks! Anyhow; this is the end of Walt Disney Animation France's work until The Time Bandit; so Walt Disney Animation Japan takes over along with Hanho Heung-Up. That means, less of a mess of paint edits; but it also means a lot of sewing up the past together for Kit Cloudkicker. Act III is a moment that I will remember for the rest of my life as the moment Kit Cloudkicker' went from orphan wunderkid to immortally. A move by Len Uhley that would change everything about this series forever and start the Kit Cloudkicker fandom in earnest...)
(November 2016 Gregory Weagle Says: By the way; the "To Be Countinued..." sentence below contains a link to Part Two. Click it to continue...)
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