#Talespin airshot series

The series goes a bit epic in the pulpy Last Horizons, where Baloo finds the lost city of Panda-La instead of this feat causing him to be a proclaimed a hero, though, his discovery ends up endangering Cape Suzette.

Baloo teaches Kit all about the value of laziness in Double Or Nothing, and then tries to enter an air show competition in the episode Feminine Air, a tale which could have been inspired somewhat by O. Next, Baloo becomes disillusioned with his idol in Whistlestop Jackson, Legend, though of course ol’ Whistlestop comes through in the end the best part of the episode, though, is in watching the machinations of Shere Khan as he tries to win a contract with Klopstokia. Nevertheless, there is a nice mix of adventures on this set of 27 episodes (out of a 65-episode run), which starts out strongly with the Indiana Jones-like A Baloo Switcheroo, which features a Raiders-inspired opening that introduces an artifact which causes Baloo and Kit to switch places and leads to a confrontation with Don Karnage and his air pirates. If you’re going to bother casting Baloo and the others, you might as well find roles for Bagheera and Kaa, too, don’t ya think? In some ways, I only wish that the creators of the show had done more with TaleSpin as a “re-imagining” of The Jungle Book. As played by veteran actor Tony Jay, Khan comes off as malevolent but noble- certainly a villain, but one you can almost respect. Shere Khan’s role in TaleSpin is fairly delicious.

He is an obvious stand-in for Jungle Book’s Mowgli, even going as far as calling Baloo “Papa Bear,” and himself being referred to as “Little Britches.” I do have a hard time wrapping my brain around seeing Louie as a nightclub owner, but he does otherwise seem familiar. Kit Cloudkicker is a nice character, an adolescent who has many honorable traits, always trying to elevate Baloo. Rebecca, on the other hand, always seems justified in her frustrations with the work ethic-impaired bear, and I found her to be a most sympathetic character, in large part to the voice work by Sally Struthers and the character’s warm relationship with her daughter Molly. Baloo sometimes comes off as a little too selfish to be likeable, but of course he is always given the chance to redeem himself. In fact, it’s quite an enjoyable show, at times reaching towards the heights of DuckTales, though not generally having its scope of adventure. From the standpoint of a Jungle Book fan, it’s all a little weird but that doesn’t mean it’s a bad show. Lest one thinks that all the other characters on TaleSpin are new, the series also adds in Louie, no longer an ape king, but instead transformed into a nightclub owner and Shere Khan is still predatory, but now exercises this trait as the head of a large aviation company. Here, this lad is a cub named Kit Cloudkicker, apparently an orphan who loves hanging around airplanes.

Just like in The Jungle Book, however, Baloo has a little buddy who idolizes him while still managing to correct Baloo’s immature behavior. Baloo’s lazy charm remains intact, but otherwise this is clearly a whole new character. Baloo, once a dedicated permanent denizen of the jungle in Disney’s The Jungle Book, in TaleSpin becomes a down-on-his-luck courier pilot in a cargo shirt who becomes indebted to aviation company owner Rebecca Cunningham. And, while Chip ‘n’ Dale Rescue Rangers took the classic squirrels out of their usual element, TaleSpin went even farther in presenting its characters in such a different light that one wonders what the point was of using them in the first place. Of all the Disney Afternoon shows that premiered in the late 1980s and early 1990s, there are two that stand apart due to their unconventional use of established Disney characters.

Talespin airshot