BrianL
Doom Buggy Driver
- Joined
- Jul 24, 2013
- Messages
- 27,049
Okay, so I've been going through The Disney Afternoon and reliving my childhood - well, that time when I was probably supposed to be too old for cartoons but never was 
- and have watched most of Talespin now. I always remember liking this show and how delightfully weird the premise was, but watching it now I can see that it really was brilliant - perhaps the best of The Disney Afternoon shows which is quite the compliment!
The very idea of taking the characters of The Jungle Book and translating them into a 1930's style adventure world of pilots, something like Where Angels Fear to Tread, is just such a wild idea, but it works! The roles are perfect with Baloo as the ace pilot who is nonetheless laid back and a bit reckless, Louie as the slightly sketchy night club owner, and Shere Khan as the capitalist robber barron with a lot of power though not intrinsically evil. I never realized as a kid that Kit is in fact Mowgli in every way except being a human - something that wouldn't work in this setting. The Jungle Book wasn't a big movie for me when I was little, so I never noticed things like "little britches" and "pappa bear" being directly related to the Baloo/Mowgli relationship.
The show itself is incredibly well made, though there are a couple of less than stellar or lazy episodes (re-using plots from DuckTales for example). The amount of care that went into it is amazing though. Flying scenes, which are the star of the show, are incredibly smooth as they used some early computer animation to help out with motion and proportions as planes move and turn. It looks really good for the time. Also, there is this brilliant and rousing score that is somewhat unbelieveable - they reuse the same music a lot but it is very, very good! This production was probably riding high off the huge success of DuckTales and Rescue Rangers so they probably got a little budget injection - it shows!
While not every episode is solid gold, some really are amazing. Two episodes nearly brought me to tears with their heartfelt messages: One where Baloo is injured and "forgets" how to fly though has really just become scared to and he re-learns form an old ace pilot - there's a twist that really hits your heart, and another where Molly stops believing in Santa but, well, you know how that goes - it was handled really well with a mature eye toward what it all means. The amount of emotion injected into these 24 minutes is astounding. Otherwise, I'd like to note there are two missing episodes on Disney + though with a show like this it's not too crucial. One is Last Horizons which is likely redacted due to the depiction of Asian pandas, though an episode of Rescue Rangers was quite similar in that regard, and the other is The Two Dupes, which apparently has been banned since it's first airing due to a story involving terrorism. This is actually the last episode of the series.
If you want to see a fun adventure peice with a lot of heart, TaleSpin is a winner, even moreso than I remember. It's been a delight to rewatch.
- and have watched most of Talespin now. I always remember liking this show and how delightfully weird the premise was, but watching it now I can see that it really was brilliant - perhaps the best of The Disney Afternoon shows which is quite the compliment!The very idea of taking the characters of The Jungle Book and translating them into a 1930's style adventure world of pilots, something like Where Angels Fear to Tread, is just such a wild idea, but it works! The roles are perfect with Baloo as the ace pilot who is nonetheless laid back and a bit reckless, Louie as the slightly sketchy night club owner, and Shere Khan as the capitalist robber barron with a lot of power though not intrinsically evil. I never realized as a kid that Kit is in fact Mowgli in every way except being a human - something that wouldn't work in this setting. The Jungle Book wasn't a big movie for me when I was little, so I never noticed things like "little britches" and "pappa bear" being directly related to the Baloo/Mowgli relationship.
The show itself is incredibly well made, though there are a couple of less than stellar or lazy episodes (re-using plots from DuckTales for example). The amount of care that went into it is amazing though. Flying scenes, which are the star of the show, are incredibly smooth as they used some early computer animation to help out with motion and proportions as planes move and turn. It looks really good for the time. Also, there is this brilliant and rousing score that is somewhat unbelieveable - they reuse the same music a lot but it is very, very good! This production was probably riding high off the huge success of DuckTales and Rescue Rangers so they probably got a little budget injection - it shows!
While not every episode is solid gold, some really are amazing. Two episodes nearly brought me to tears with their heartfelt messages: One where Baloo is injured and "forgets" how to fly though has really just become scared to and he re-learns form an old ace pilot - there's a twist that really hits your heart, and another where Molly stops believing in Santa but, well, you know how that goes - it was handled really well with a mature eye toward what it all means. The amount of emotion injected into these 24 minutes is astounding. Otherwise, I'd like to note there are two missing episodes on Disney + though with a show like this it's not too crucial. One is Last Horizons which is likely redacted due to the depiction of Asian pandas, though an episode of Rescue Rangers was quite similar in that regard, and the other is The Two Dupes, which apparently has been banned since it's first airing due to a story involving terrorism. This is actually the last episode of the series.
If you want to see a fun adventure peice with a lot of heart, TaleSpin is a winner, even moreso than I remember. It's been a delight to rewatch.
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