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TaleSpin Videos: Promotional Documentary Rant

Reviewed: 04/14/2016
Additional Commentary: 11/02/2025

A Telling Start Before The Show Releases Proper!

Original Release: ??1990??

One of the biggest requests I have ever made for years now has been of a video that Laura Ann Trombley had in storage which focused on the preview documentary of the making of TaleSpin. A lot of us TaleSpinners have seen stills of the documentaries. Also as I discovered later, a number of quotes Laura used for her Baloo9 AOL website decades ago were also from this documentary. (2025 Gregory Weagle Says: Since the end of AOL hosting like Geocities is now gone as a hosting site, all of her website has disappeared down the memory hole. I haven't been able to talk to Laura Ann Trombley since, so who knows what happened to her.) However; no matter how much money I was willing to pay to see this, Laura wouldn't tape trade with me. So, the documentary was a pipe dream for me and thanks to Tim Val Hal at DTA Central; it has finally been released on the internet. (I think it is on Youtube, but I have no idea which user has uploaded it.) I don't know the exact date when it was released, but it appears to be that it might have aired after the televised airing of the Jungle Book on CBC's Wonderful World Of Disney in Canada, and may have been part of the Jungle Book theater release as well during that time. I noticed that on the documentary, a company called Camelot is at the end of this footage. I have no idea who they are. (Okay, I have solved the mystery of this, sort of: According to Tim Val Hal: The animation for the opening titles was taken from the 60 second promo, which was animated by Sam Cornell's studio. Sam worked at Disney TVA in the early years, but also ran his own studio in Santa Monica. Sadly, both my sources Cartoon Resarch and Animation Source have both disappeared from the memory hole. However, my LiveJournal entry is still there, although it spans two entires.) One thing I'm certain of: This promotional documentary is less than six minutes long and that includes the preview opening at the end, that is already on Youtube various times before this. Yeah, I was disappointed at the length since some images showed about four tapes. I can now see why Laura didn't want to tape trade with me on that front now.

Since this is more of an infomercial on the product and surprise, surprise, they didn't show a single piece of footage from the show except for pieces of the preview opening that made it into the final opening. It's nowhere near Lilo & Stitch Live From Hawaii in terms of glorifying the product to extreme commercial ends. I refuse to rate this. That doesn't mean that I won't talk about my thoughts on it, it just means I won't give it a star rating. Anyhow; here is a review of the promotion documentary:

We begin with a clip from the Disney Channel preview of TaleSpin that many have already seen before. I won't go over the clip until the end because the full version is shown at the end of the documentary. Then we see Sally Struthers in the voice recording booth yelling "Baloo!". "Spin It" theme is playing as TaleSpin was coming this fall. There is a clip of CGI-skeleton SeaDuck rotating as we see Michael Peraza Jr. and Kelly Day discussing how to model an Air Pirate chase of the SeaDuck. In 1990; this looked really cool because it was one of the first attempts to use computers for television animation. I know Tron used them in the 1980's but, this was for television and was pretty new at the time. Then we see the SeaDuck rotating in the sky. This made it to the final opening of the series as we go to a clip of four men looking at various picture and going over what costumes should be used. I'm sorry, I have zero idea who they are. I think Ken Tsumura was in there; or Paro Hozumi. I'm not sure; I suck at reading faces. (Probably why I never got over as a reviewer then.) Clip of a pencil animation test of WildCat walking. Then to the editing room with I believe Ginny McSwain. Kit does his "Yahoo" spot which his animation made it to the final opening, but not the sound. That was really stupid. (Not really since Kit is suppose to mouth off the "Oeo" sound during the opening, so him saying "yahoo" after that wouldn't make sense.) Clip of someone coloring a piece of paper blue with a pencil. Then more clips from the preview opening and then a flip page of the SeaDuck being animated. The announcer is going on about this being the most ambitious project ever made; which is hilarious that it was true, but you would never know that this was an actual rush job that they tried to sell you as epic. The difference here is; this show delivered. Oh boy; they delivered! More animated clips from the preview opening and then a shot of Jim Cummings writing down his version of what his lines should be; because he's an ab-libber. More on him later on because there is a moment where the late Larry Latham says one of the most stupidest things I have ever heard. Clip of someone painting the finishing touches on the babyface characters. You've seen it before, they still put Rebecca in that same dumb wimpy pose each time and everyone rightfully calls them out on it. I think it was Debra Jorgensborg painting there. More preview opening clips to pad out the time.

Cut to Jymn Magon talking. Jymn claims that there was an attitude about TaleSpin that is that no one had ever seen anything like this before. You don't say?! I mean, TaleSpin's entire MO is based in 1930's pulp serials. However; in terms of animated pulp serials, yeah it's different. Cut to Mark Zaslove talking about trying to make the show not look like any other show; even though everyone thought it was a Ducktales knockoff. It wasn't; if anything Ducktales was more of the knockoff due to being part of the Uncle Scoorge comics, but convincing Ducktales fans that is like convincing a child to watch black & white. Good luck on that. (Give it twenty years and they might consider it. Might.) As we see someone painting a background (I think it's Debra); we hear Jymn Magon say that they wanted to make little mini movies. Cue horrifying gasp of horror from Walt Disney Feature. (Yeah, if you make good television movies, then that might make Disney Animation bleed money all over the place. What is wrong with this money mark known as Michael Eisner?!) Then clips of WildCat getting buzzed; which made it to the final opening, and then clips from the openings of Ducktales, Rescue Rangers and Gummi Bears as TaleSpin would be the first new show on the Disney Afternoon. Yay! Sadly, it was also the most underrated. (I think Gummi Bears has since got the most underrated mark considering how little it was used during Ducktales 2017 compared to TaleSpin and Darkwing Duck.) Cut to Jymn pointing out that the execs approved the show because Jymn Magon showed a picture of Kit Cloudkicker cloud surfing as we get a picture of Kit in his pre-production form with the pants. (Please read my re-rant and additional commentary for "I Only Have Ice For You" for the full details. That story might be more amazing than the show itself: The build towards TaleSpin getting the green light and putting to rest whom the real star of that show was. Answer: It was K-I-T.) At least Magon was prepared for Eisner's usual "This is great and all; but we need a classic Disney character, so just put Baloo in already!"; since he worked on B-Players which had Baloo in as a cameo. Add on an angle from Ducktales involving Launchpad having a cargo delivery service, and Jymn was set for...about five years.

More extended footage from the preview opening and then cut to Carol Police saying the exact line that Laura Ann Trombley used on her website and I have put as part of the tribute on the Unofficial Kit Cloudkicker Homepage. Basically she says that it's a marriage that hasn't been attempted in animation but probably attempted in live action. Actually; it's more like American animation since Japanese animation has been doing this for ages before this. However; hell of a bridge to make though. Cut to Bob Kline claiming that this was an attempt to create a unique show from the beginning. He's saying it as if to say: "We tried to be unique; but BS&P kept wanting us to be a Ducktales wannabe." I blame most of that on Ken Koonce & David Weimers, who at this point was becoming exposed as hack writers. (Also being sexist after an amazing episode called Feminine Air aired before The Time Bandit. I can only imagine what the original plans were for that episode. It might be worthy of a "Dark Side of Children Cartoons" segment if any producer is interested.) Shots of backgrounds used during the series, they look really great as always. Then footage from the Jungle Book and then we see Kit Cloudkicker in the flesh; in a beta form wearing a white baseball cap with a blue rim and an aviator's pin pinned on the sweater. Yes; they had the final version of Kit shown like minutes ago, and they debut a still of Kit still in beta form. Heck; even Molly Cunningham was shown in her final form and she and Miss Cunningham were redrawn at least four times before they finally decided on their final looks. Cut to Jymn talking about Baloo stealing the show in Jungle Book. Of course; they never tell us that the reason why Mogwli is not in TaleSpin was because kids think he's boring. I'm sure Eisner wasn't pleased when he found out that the sacred cow was getting rings rung around him by Kit Cloudkicker, Don Karnage and Rebecca Cunningham. Heck, even WildCat and Molly were great in their own interesting way. More animated clips from the preview video as the announcer in 1990 was more careful about how to sell the show than the folks in 1999; which indicates to me that they were burying the show deep within the ground.

We cut to more CGI stuff with Peraza and Day. Spliced in between this footage is Magon explaining about the CGI stuff; which was designed to help make the planes scale and rotate without making it looked contrived. That was a really cool thing back in 1990 and the basis for a lot of the CGI tools we use today. Magon compares this to TIE fighters from Star Wars as we cut to Michael Peraza Junior; who is more known for his source work in the Ducktales Remastered video game and is probably helping Disney with the Ducktales remake for Disney XD. At least I hope he is. We cut to Magon and McSwain in the booth comparing scripts; which makes sense since Jymn Magon also use to be a voice director. Clips of Jim Cummings making funny noises on camera while the late Tony Jay is deep in thought. I do not know who is behind him; and I'm drawing blank here. Cut to Sally Struther talking to Ginny McSwain as we do the split screen using a much better pose of Rebecca. Sally is saying the same line in Plunder and Lightning Part IV where Rebecca is asking for any cargo planes on sale on the "Telephon". (By the way, that I believe was the same shot where the original television movie had no music and the music was added to syndication. Also, the "telephon" thing was kept in both versions.) Cut to a shot of Larry Latham talking about how Sally Struthers was giving them performances they had never seen before. Which is carny talk for: She can frigging act! (Yup! Sally Struthers and RJ. Williams were the best actors on the show without question.) Cut to Sally comparing Molly Cunningham to her daughter Samantha. Please, for the love of life, I hope Samantha is like Molly Cunningham in real life when she was six or seven. That would be great. Then we get probably the stupidest line I have ever heard from Larry Latham. Larry said: "We wanted real acting, that's why real actors were cast instead of cartoon voices." Okay; first of all, Larry is a hypocrite because if you have ever watched the show, the most popular character in the show is Don Karnage. Who is voiced by a cartoon voice actor named Jim Cummings. Now granted, Rebecca, Kit, Molly and Shere Khan are voiced by face actors. That's a good chunk of the main cast.

Baloo was voiced by a former face actor who got into voice acting in the 1980's. I can accept that Edmund Gilbert was a face actor who retired from it and did cartoon voices, and his Baloo is similar to Phil Harris' whom in fact is a face actor who did a lot of Disney films in his time. Also; the second thing is: Larry makes it sound like he is literally dissing voice acting in general in this promo; even though Don Karnage got massive over because of a cartoon voice. Way to bury the animation industry in general there Larry. No wonder a lot of execs took your advice and started casting celebrities just for the name thing and not cast them in roles that were suited for their characters, like they did here with Rebecca! I hate this general disrespect towards voice acting because in many instances, voice actors do a lot of stuff most celebrities -- which Sally Struthers was one of them during her time working on this show -- wouldn't have the guts to do, and that even includes the best face actors in the world today! Cut to split screen with Tony Jay saying "That's a pilot to be reckoned with" from Plunder and Lightning Part 4. Bob Kline talks about working with the voice tracks being exciting and then a split screen of Baloo with Ed Gilbert from Plunder and Lightning Part Four again. More clips of people talking and looking over pages of images. Cut to Beth Gunn talking about gearing this show to an older audience. Cut to Sally Struthers talking about how awesome the scripts are week after week, on par with live action sitcoms she has done. Yes; she was comparing this show to All In The Family. After doing a number of transcripts and going through each episode; she was well within the bulleye. Cut to Ed Gilbert talking about the humor of being something on a level higher than "Pablo's Dog" humor for an older audience. Don't worry panicky execs of today, this show does have it's share of toilet humor, as demonstrated by WildCat's debut in Plunder and Lightning Part 2. (Although I am certain there was stuff BS&P wishes it had given notes on. The weiner is in the snitchzel is a fine example of this in "Ransom Of The Red Chimp".) More preview clips of the preview opening and then we cut to Beth Gunn talking about taking the time to make it feel like a Disney product.

Which is hilarious considering the fact that this show was rushed to death, and it showed in Plunder and Lightning Part 2 and 4 where double digit retakes were done because P&L looked messed up when it aired on the Disney Channel in September. Larry talks about high standards and he talks about things he likes. To Larry: No one cares what you like; it's what the audience likes. Thankfully; this show delivered on that front too. (Which has become the symbol of the "Get Woke, Go Broke" crowd. I was making an observation here that has nothing to do with progression. When you sell a product to an audience, such audiences can get pissy. If you know your audience well and don't insult them, you're fine. If only the Velma writers took the hint, and it wasn't because a woman was the lead since everyone actually liked Velma in the previous Scooby Doo shows.) We get clips of Bob Kline, Ed Gilbert and Jymn Magon talking about the excitement and how this will be different from most daytime cartoons on television. Correct on all counts; I look at the Simpsons and Tiny Toons, there is a huge difference between the three top programs. (Tiny Toon Adventures was whacky comedy in a school setting, The Simpsons was a sitcom, TaleSpin was more adventure with dramatic fight scenes and character interactions. If you want to add TMNT to the mix, TMNT was mostly action with wacky subplots to take the violence edge off as per the consequences of doing an action show.) No wonder the show did so well inspite of Disney's crappy PR and marketing practices and FUD on the competition. (Also, a show to buy time for Darkwing Duck, which was comedy batman at it's silliest.) Also of note is Jymn Magon talking about touching a fantasy nerve of this show; despite the fact that it pretty grounded in reality for a cartoon. Kind of a paradox, if you will. So, we end with the announcer announcing the product for this fall. Now, it's time for the preview opening that aired on Disney Channel aroud the Spring of 1990 for the TaleSpin preview episodes to launch later in the season before the big syndication release in September. Here we go:

[1.] Baloo and Kit dancing on the sidewalk somewhere in Cape Suzette as Baloo is carrying a red box. I have no idea who animated this as Baloo throws the box towards Kit. (Sam Cornell's studio did the entire animated sequence here and is probably the only studio in the USA from the animation side.) It bounces into his belly and Kit goes flying and bumps into a trash can, implying that he is supposed to be clumsy right from the start. Thank goodness they didn't use this for the final opening. Kit grins and out of the trash can pops Mad Dog who steals the red box and runs right into Baloo's fist and gets dropped like a bump machine idiot. Baloo steals the box back.

[2.] Baloo yelling "Oeay" with the red box. This was kept in the final. Cut to a shot in the sky of the SeaDuck rotating. That was kept in the final. Kit chanting "Oeoo" here is also kept in the final.

[3.] Cut to a shot of the SeaDuck doing loop-de-loop for only fifteen cents -- which makes a lot of sense since the show's time period is 1936/1937 -- and Kit yells "Yahoo" in the audio. None of this made it in the final.

[4.] Cut to inside the cockpit of the SeaDuck as Baloo is piloting and Kit is in his seat. Rebecca comes out of nowhere and shows her watch because Baloo is late again. Baloo responds by giving Rebecca an umbrella. Cut to outside as the SeaDuck pulls up and out comes Rebecca free falling. Yes folks; they did the exact same thing in the finish where Chargeman Ken jettisoned Professor Volga with "Dynamite In The Brain". The only difference is, Rebecca at least got some way to float down to safety without killing herself. Still; what a disgusting thing to do on Baloo's part. (Wow, I can hear the Joe Buck voice coming out of former self here.) Rebecca is landing in some mountainous region by the way. None of them made it to the final. (Thank goodness it didn't, that would have rightfully been called out for sexism right there.)

[5.] Cut to the SeaDuck buzzing WildCat and the bushes which made it to the final opening. Then we see in the skies Kit Cloudkicker cloud surfing as Don Karnage sneaks up and shoots at Kit. (Which we see in the preview opening; but not in the final opening.) Baloo responds by throwing a pineapple into the propeller -- the right one this time -- and pineapple rings hit Don in the face. Outside of one shot of Baloo going to the window of the SeaDuck; this all made it in the final opening. (This spot would actually be done in Plunder and Lightning Part Two, but never again afterwards.)

[6.] Cut to Baloo lying on a river on his back with Kit on his belly with the red box right on top of this head. This did not made it to the final. (Despite this, Baloo alone would do a similar spot in "Gruel & Unusual Punishment".) Baloo and Kit also fall down a waterfall; that didn't make the final cut for the opening either. Louie's showing up against a jungle background twice was in the final opening though.

[7.] Cut to WildCat on a pier riding a runaway plane motor; then footage of Baloo and Kit running as Baloo is enclosed by throwing spears. Baloo gulps as this did not make the final cut either.

[8.] Shot of the SeaDuck outside in storm clouds with a lightning bolt coming, this did make the final cut as did Shere Khan's claw spot. In between those shots; there is a shot of an octopus which didn't make the final cut which is a good thing because the squid from It Came From Beneath The SeaDuck was purple and this one is yellow in color!

[9.] Baloo's cross dressing on stage scene made the final cut, of course.

[10] Cut to an explosion as the SeaDuck flies into the hard camera and then we head to Louie's as Kit and Baloo run to Louie as Louie is handed the red box. He opens it to reveal a piece of paper showing an ugly version of the TaleSpin logo. None of this made the final opening, obviously. However; I'm disappointed that they didn't at least keep the gag at the end for the final opening and simply reanimated the final opening logo with Kit coming in with a fan to create wind in order to make Baloo's hair and scarf whip in the wind. That would have been great for the final opening; but I guess it was too expensive to animate, even for Disney Television Animation. A shame really, because the gag was actually funny. (If a TaleSpin Reboot happens to Seth Rogan: You can have that one for free. It's Disney's property anyway, so permission shouldn't be an issue.)

THE REVIEW LINE

That's it everyone. The whole documentary was five and a half minutes long, and a minute of it was the preview opening we have seen many times before; so it's about four minutes long, if that. I personally thought it was much longer than this given that I was told that Luara had four tapes of this; but whatever. At least I got to see it as the late Christopher Barat wasn't so lucky, sadly. Anyhow; it was fine outside of a really stupid comment from Larry Latham, and I got to see a beta form of Kit Cloudkicker before his final one.

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

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