Cody’s TaleSpin Review
Plunder and Lightning
5 out of 5 Krakatoa Specials
*Reviewer’s Note:
I will be reviewing the uncut version, since that’s the only one I have access
to.
Part 1
Part 4
Summary
Don Karnage steals the Sub-Atomic Power Amplifier from
one of Shere Khan’s planes. Upon returning to the Iron Vulture, he gloats about
it to his loyal lackeys, unaware that he is being spied upon. Kit jumps out of
the grate over the table, snatches up the box containing what he thinks is a
jewel, and bolts out the door. Karnage orders his men to “Stop that boy!” and
Kit races, grabbing a grappling gun along the way. Karnage thinks he has the
boy cornered when he finds Kit perched on the edge of the beak. He is proven
wrong when Kit jumps. After disposing of his red scarf, Kit whips out his
airfoil and uses the grappling gun to hitch a ride on a plane bound for Louie’s.
As
he serves up drinks from behind the bar, Louie complains, “Man, Baloo!
Sometimes runnin’ this place is like workin’ in a zoo!”
“Hey-hey,
Louie… ya gotta learn my secret to ree-laxation.”
“Oh? And what’s that secret, cuz?” Louie
asks.
With
a snap of his fingers, Baloo cues the band, grabs a tablecloth to make a dress
and a bowl of fruit for a hat and proceeds to sing I’m Gone.
Gidget: Don’t you wish
you could do that? Snap! And
your favorite song plays on command?
Up
in the air, Kit lets go of the gun when he sees the nightclub, intending to
glide to a stop in the water. Unfortunately, he slides out of control up the
dock and through the door, effectively interrupting Baloo’s song-and-dance
number. He slams into Baloo, who is a good sport about being bowled over. The
pilot with whom Kit hitched a ride does not appreciate hitchhikers and storms
into Louie’s, yelling “C’mere, you half-pint hitchhiker!” Baloo intervenes and
the pilot backs down. When Baloo asks about the box, Kit gets defensive and the
pilot leaves, whistling cheerfully. Karnage bursts into Louie’s and threatens
to tear the place apart if he does not get “the boy and the box.” Kit hides the
box in one of Louie’s tiki masks and taunts the pirates. Then, he grabs a vine
and swings out the door, hitching a ride on the Sea Duck. After Baloo lets him
inside, they talk about planes for a while, and Kit tells the pilot that he’s
going to have his own plane someday.
Baloo
laughs. “I hope your folks are rich.”
“I
don’t have any folks,” Kit returns. “But I’m going to be rich! And real soon,
too.”
Baloo
lets the boy fly the Sea Duck—until they’re interrupted by the Air Pirates. The
pilot takes over and outmaneuvers the pirates with a game of chicken towards
the ocean. Then, he flies straight to Cape Suzette and his own dockside Baloo’s
Air Service. Kit is disgusted by the state of the interior, which resembles a
cross between a dump and a rummage sale, and comments on Baloo’s unpaid bills.
Gidget: Rude
little snip, isn’t he?
“I
only work when I have to and no more,” Baloo says indignantly. “Flyin’s what
life’s all about.”
Baloo finds a red and blue baseball cap, which he gives
to Kit with the offer of becoming his navigator. Kit turns him down without a
second thought, insisting that he’s got to get back to Louie’s. Before Kit can
persuade Baloo to take him back, a banker shows up and informs Baloo that he is
“delinquent on his airplane loan” and that if “three thousand dollars are not
deposited in our institution by nine am tomorrow, we will be forced to
foreclose on your airplane loan.”
Baloo goes into panic mode until Kit suggests that he
take a job. He finds a smelly and dangerous job transporting gorilla birds for
the zoo and persuades Kit to help him.
Once
in the air, the birds take over the plane until Kit locks them in the cargo
hold. Suddenly, the Air Pirates attack. Baloo tries to lose them in the jungle
and succeeds in crashing the plane on a sand bar.
Kit
breathes a sigh of relief. “Whew! We lost ‘em.”
“Maybe.
But it don’t figger. I got nothin’ they want, but they attack us every time me
an’ you…hey. You! They’re after you. Talk to me,
kid. What’s with you an’ the pirates?”
Kit
pulls his hat forward. “Look, what do you care?”
“They’re
shootin’ up my plane, son!”
The
boy jumps up. “Oh, that’s all you care about. Your plane, your plane!”
Kit
storms into the jungle where Karnage captures him.
Baloo rounds up the gorilla birds, which had escaped when
they crashed, and is heading back to the Sea Duck, secure in the knowledge that
the money is his, when he hears voices. Peeking through the vegetation, he sees
Kit hung upside down from a tree and surrounded by Air Pirates. As Karnage and
Kit exchange threats, Baloo decides he must save the boy.
“Oh, I’m gonna hate myself in the morning,” he moans,
untying the gorilla birds and shooing them into the clearing.
The birds chase Karnage into the jungle, Baloo grabs Kit,
and they head back to the Sea Duck. As they’re taking off, Kit gasps, “What
about the birds?”
Baloo, busy with the controls, answers, “What’s more
important, those burpin’ buzzards…or my new navigator?”
Touched,
Kit tells the pilot he has a treasure and offers to share it with him. They
decide to retrieve it the next morning and head back to Cape Suzette.
Quibbles and Bits
Cody: The
animation is kinda crappy. The lines on the characters are rough and the
backgrounds are a little more washed out than in other episodes.
Gidget: I agree, which
is a big part of why I don’t like P&L as much as you do. I like sharp, clean edges and well-defined
lines. Especially when comparing it to
the much improved animation later on.
And the dubbing is lousy.
Cody: You know, I think I heard somewhere that P&L was
actually made halfway through the series, which accounts for the big gaping
plot holes in some of the episodes. So they don’t have any excuse.
Cody: Kit’s trailing
after Baloo like a lost puppy bothered me. I expected him to be a little more suspicious
of people than that.
Gidget
(moaning like a ghost): Kiiiiit….Come, Kit…
run… run into the light!
Cody: I know Baloo’s a
tad unobservant, but wouldn’t he have
wondered why Kit ended up crashing into him at Louie’s? And why ‘Jack’ or
whoever he is was after him? Louie’s is an island—it’s not exactly a place you
can get to on foot, and it doesn’t strike me as a hangout for kids.
Gidget: Yeah, wasn’t
that supposed to be Burlesque Night at Louie’s? ;) There are better
places for kids to hang out. Remember
the Island of Misfit Toys? Or that
island where Pinocchio and his buddies are turned into donkeys?
Cody: Burlesque
night? Does that involve Louie and the gang in thongs?
Gidget: God, I
hope not (whimpers and curls up into a little ball). Speaking of observing things, I noticed the first appearance of a
frequent background character--- the redheaded pig lady---was standing behind
Baloo during I’m Gone. And when Baloo
sings, the background vocals are only provided by Louie and the monkey waiter. They sound like a quartet and nobody else in
the room is singing. Louie’s voice is
very distinct, not a blending backup vocal at all.
Cody: I never noticed that before. Huh. And did you see Amelia
Airhead or whatever her name is in the background as Karnage emerged from the
shadowy doorway?
Gidget: She’s just
trying to pick up guys, the dirty bird!
;)
Cody: Dumptruck
keeps dying himself. In some scenes, he’s all white, in other’s he’s the usual
gray and white.
Gidget: Yeah! He doesn’t look too well. Not that he’s ever looked that healthy to
begin with. Speaking of color
discrepancies, Kit’s eyebrows are black in the When Baloo tells Kit, “Look ---
sorry, kid. But I’m not due back at
Louie’s for a few weeks.” later eps.
Here they’re sort of reddish-brown. And what about Karnage? His teeth look unnaturally big and sharp
here. They’re practically fangs! In
the later parts of P&L, they’re a lot smaller.
Gidget:
Yet
he seems to go there every day after
Rebecca takes over… J
Cody: Can you blame him? Louie=fun, Becky=work. No contest!
Gidget: As the Sea Duck
flies into Cape Suzette to escape the pirate planes, how come the cliff guns
don’t shoot it first when they fire at the air pirates?
Neat Little Details
Gidget: Karnage
first steals the stone from Khan’s plane and we get our first glimpse of one of
the ‘Bagheera’ panther pilots. When he
speaks, it’s a little weird that he doesn’t
have a British accent, ala Sebasian Cabot.
And Baloo’s first words to Kit are, “Well, well, well… what have we
here?” Definitely a nod to the same
Baloo-Mowgli exchange in 1967’s The
Jungle Book.
Cody:
Much as I hate to say it, Kit and Mowgli did
act similar when they met Baloo. They both tried to be tough guys. Of course,
Mowgli just got stupid and Kit actually turned into a very good character.
Cody: Kit’s got a
serious attitude and skillfully manipulates people. Nuff said.
Gidget: When he steals
the stone, launching that grappling hook --- it reminds me of Batman!
Cody: Kit, Boy Wonder
to the rescue!
Cody: When Kit
hides the box behind the tiki mask and looks over the banister at Karnage, it
looks like there’s a dead woman lying under the table. All you see is her lower
half, but she doesn’t move and she isn’t crouched.
Gidget: She passed out when she got downwind of Louie?
Cody: I don’t
think Baloo has cleaned that office since he bought the place and who knows how
old that pizza was.
Gidget: I’m surprised
Baloo doesn’t get food poisoning. His
way of turning on the gramophone is to remove an old hamburger from in front of
the record needle. I nearly puked when
he found a sandwich in the Sea Duck and took a bite out of it (Pizza Pie in the Sky)
Cody: You mean that’s not what you’re supposed to do with a week-old sandwich? J
Gidget: Small but cool: Baloo and Kit drink their orange Fizzies and real fizz floats and
pops from the bottles.
Cody: A tribute
to “Iron Paws,” Baloo’s nickname in the Jungle Book—there are boxing gloves
hanging up in Baloo’s Air Service (thanks to Bearcat for pointing this out).
Gidget
(as Joanna, sighing): Iron
Paws!
Gidget: Also: This is the only
time Baloo lets Kit take the controls (“Knock yourself out, kid.”). Something odd, though… if Baloo was the
lone pilot all this time, how come there are two steering sticks instead of one? You’d think that they would have to switch seats so Kit can fly,
but Kit has a stick of his own. Oh,
that sounded bad… :p
When
they get attacked:
Kit
is alarmed. “What was that!”
Baloo
says, “Back on the corner where I hang out we call that pirates!” I love that
determined, do-or-die expression!
Cody:
“Nobody flies like that!”
Gidget: Wonder
how Kit’s hat stays on while he’s hanging upside-down? After Kit bites Karnage,
he’s tied with several more ropes!
Cody: How Kit’s hat
stays on is another of those mysteries of the ages things. I’ve always wondered
how it stays on when he cloudsurfs. I can never keep a hat on my head when I
get my horse to canter, so imagine how hard it would be while cloudsurfing!
Funny Stuff
Karnage’s frantic expression as he jumps up and down,
ordering his men “After him! After him!” Then he slaps them.
Gidget: All that jumping around and he doesn’t wear a bra? Tsk,
tsk!
Cody: He coulda borrowed that coconut bra of Baloo’s! And
didn’t he look like he had to go to the bathroom really bad?
Gidget: Well, he should have done that before he left home to go
pillaging.
Baloo’s
imitation of the Chiquita Banana lady:
Gidget: When ‘fat lady’
Baloo leans into the angry pilot (“Aw, cut the kid some slack, Jack!”), they
bump noses, making a honk sound.
Kit
mistaking Baloo for a woman:
“Yeah,
listen to the fat lady!” he says.
“Lady?!”
Baloo puts his hands on his hips indignantly.
“Whatever.”
Kit rolls his eyes.
Gidget: Funny how Baloo dresses in drag and then gets offended.
Gidget: I get a
kick out of Baloo kissing his plane, murmuring, “Miss me, baby?” That guy really
needs a girlfriend.
Baloo
coos to his plane, Oh, baby --- that’s my girl!
Gidget: Like I said…
Cody:
Hmmm…you may have a point on your head. He does like that plane a little too much,
doesn’t he?
Kit
trails after Baloo as he goes into his house/office. Trash is everywhere. Kit
sees a drink and eagerly picks it up—only to find that it’s practically glued
to the table. Baloo, oblivious, opens a pizza box and munches happily. “You
hungry?” he asks.
Kit
grimaces. “Not anymore.”
Kit
bashes Baloo over the head with a broom as he tries to corral the gorilla
birds.
“Ow! Whose side are you on?” Baloo complains.
“Sorry!”
Kit says, annoyed.
“Just
lock ‘em up in the back! Is that too much to ask?” Baloo snaps.
“Hey,
wait. You’re the one who said this
was gonna be a piece of cake,” Kit retorts.
Karnage’s
face as he’s trampled by the gorilla birds
Gidget: Just when he’s
about to torture Kit with the turnips and sandpaper, he drops them and asks,
“What’s that smell?”
(as
Mad Dog, whining): “Captain, Dumptruck
just let one go!”
Baloo
and Kit jumping over crocodiles, yelling at the top of their lungs.
Quotes
Karnage
faces down one of Khan’s panther pilots. “Grreetings and salivations, fellow
aviator. It is I, that panic-provoking pirate, Don Karnage.”
“Shere
Khan owns this plane, you slimy thief!” The pilot grabs an iron pipe and
brandishes it.
Several
pirates appear in the hole in the ceiling and the pilot gulps.
“The
box, if you please.” Karnage holds out his hand expectantly and the panther
hands it over. The pirates take their leave—after shooting the plane down, of
course.
As
the Iron Vulture looms into view, Karnage says, “Home again, home again,
jiggety-jig. Open up, my mangy minions! Your cunning commander is back!”
Kit
jumps from his hiding place, lands on the table where Karnage has placed the
box, and says, “For me? Aw, you shouldnta!”
“Well
it was nothing, really,” Karnage starts to say modestly. Then, he realizes he’s been duped. “Stop
that boy!”
Kit
bumps into Dumptruck and says, “Don’t just stand there. The captain needs your help!” (G: Ha!) The boy zips past him and just as the big pirate turns to
see what his captain wants, Karnage (in hot pursuit) slams into him!
Karnage
had a lot of great lines in this part:
“I
am sorry to fracture the festivities.”
“Boys, tear the place asunder!”
“This
is no time for a Chinese fire drill! Follow him!”
and
of course, “Your tail section is mine!”
Gidget: I like it when
Karnage, holding Louie’s hostage, grabs a drink off a nearby table and takes a
long swig. “You always serve such tasty drinks, Louie.” Talk about adding insult to injury.
Karnage
corners Kit on the beak of the Iron Vulture and saunters towards him. “Well, my
reckless reptile. It may be none of my business, but you seem to have gotten yourself
into a tiny piccolo, yes-no?”
“You
know, you’re right.” Kit turns. “It is
none of your business!”
“That
was quite an entrance, L’il Britches,” Baloo says after Kit plows into him.
Baloo
finds a blue and red baseball cap in a file cabinet drawer and tosses it to
Kit, saying, “I’ve been thinking of addin’ a navigator. You interested?”
Gidget (as Baloo,
calling): Wildcat, we’re addin’ a navigator to the Sea Duck. Get the weldin’ torch!
Cody: LOL! Can’t you
just see Wildcat chasing Kit around, trying to weld him to the navigator’s
seat?
Wildcat: Hold still! Baloo wants
to make sure you don’t get away like the last one.
Gidget: LOL!
I can see that! Wish they’d
included it.
Kit
twists the cap so that it’s backwards and says, “Me? No way! I’ve got to get
back to Louie’s.”
“Didn’t we just come from there?” Baloo asks.
“Yeah. And I wanna go back. Okay?” Kit defiantly replies.
“This
tough guy routine work on all your friends?”
The
boy’s shoulders slump. “I…I don’t have any friends.”
Gidget: Everybody
now: Awwww…
Cody: (as Kit) It could be my BO, but I don’t know. Mad Dog
gave me some of his favorite grooming tips.
A
bored-looking beaver with a handful of papers knocks on the door to Baloo’s Air
Service.
“Mr.
Baloo?” he asks.
“The
one and only,” Baloo says proudly.
“I’m
from the Cape Suzette National Bank about your plane.” The beaver cuts to the
chase.
“Yeah,
ain’t she a beauty?” Baloo looks fondly at the plane moored at the end of the
dock.
“You,
sir, are delinquent on your past six payments and unless funds totaling three
thousand dollars are deposited in our creditiary institution by nine am
tomorrow we will be forced to foreclose on your airplane loan,” the beaver
informs him.
Baloo is confused.
“This
guy speakin’ English?” he asks in a stage whisper.
“He
said ‘no dough, plane go,’” Kit translates.
“But
what about the birds?” Kit asks worriedly as Baloo starts the plane.
“Hey,
what’s more important, those burping buzzards or my new navigator?”
Kit
is speechless.
Gidget: I vote for those
burpin’ buzzards!
Cody: But they
can’t navigate the way Kit can! And they eat more than Baloo!
Gidget: No
way!
“Now
where does he keep his spoons?” Kit wonders. He turns to ask and overhears Baloo
talking to his plane.
“Now
remember… you be good to your new owner, like you were good to me. Make me proud.”
Kit (thinking): Oookkaay. When we land, I’m outta here.
Gidget: Well, he did
say the Sea Duck was his best friend.
And we never did find out why Kit wanted those spoons. They never ate anything.
Cody: And after seeing Baloo’s office, would Kit really want to eat anything the bear
offered him?
Forgetting about the spoons, he goes back to the cockpit.
“I’m…sorry about your plane.”
“Hey, you win some…you lose some,” Baloo says sadly.
“No
one’s ever stood up for me before and well,” Kit pauses, “I have a treasure.
I’ll share it with you.”
Baloo
chuckles. “Thanks, Li’l Britches, but I don’t think your bottle cap collection
will help.”
“No,
it’s a big glowing jewel!”
“Sure, kid.” Baloo sounds tolerantly disbelieving.
Cody: Kit
should have decked him.
Gidget:
And
get his fist stuck in Baloo’s stomach?
“Why
do you think the pirates are after me?”
That
gets Baloo’s attention. “A jewel? Really?”
“I
hid it at Louie’s.”
It dawns on Baloo. “I could buy back the Sea Duck!”
Cody: Gee, he’s quick.
Gidget (as Rebecca): *sighs* Quick to start, slow to finish!
Cody: I think I’m gonna hurl. ;)
Gidget (moves several feet away): Um… I’ll just sit over here, okay?
Commentary:
Cody: This is the kickoff to the best of all TaleSpin episodes.
Rebecca, Molly, and Wildcat have yet to make their appearance, but that’s okay.
I loved watching the interaction between Kit and Baloo as they meet and become friends.
The animation could definitely have been better. I think it was done by Disney
Japan, though, and that studio is the worst. The soundtrack is awesome. I love
Don Karnage’s music, a grand, sweeping thing that suits his personality well.
Gidget: Are you kidding?
For me, it doesn’t really begin until the rest of them show up. I don’t like a cast that’s all male or all
female. Mix it up you guys! However, the scenery --- especially the
ethereal, life-like clouds --- is gorgeous.
Even in their sub-par eps, the sky and ocean are almost always
masterfully animated.
Cody:
*shrugs* Well, I didn’t particularly care
for Becky’s role in this one. Kit was great, though, and since he was a big
part of the first one…
Part Two
Summary
Gidget: Ahhh…now the show really begins! :D
The
next morning, our boys sleep late. The alarm clock rings and Baloo smashes it
with his pillow. Kit groggily checks his watch, realizes Baloo’s payment is an
hour overdue, and instantly becomes fully awake. After carefully putting on his
new hat, he tries to wake up Baloo, who’s having none of it. When Kit reminds
him of the treasure, however, he jumps out of the chair, puts on some music,
and dances around the room while munching a moldy hamburger. His new navigator
tries to get him to hurry up, but Baloo tells him to relax. “The bank wouldn’t
send anyone this early!”
There is a knock at the door, and Kit says sourly, “You
hope.”
Baloo
opens the door to find a young attractive (C:
Well, that’s a matter of opinion J) female bear in a
raincoat. She starts to introduce herself, but is interrupted by Baloo, who
tells her to go away and “come back when the sun’s warm, like June.” Slamming
the door in her face, he returns to his dancing. Undaunted, the woman climbs
through the window and tells Baloo off.
“And
just who are you, sister?” Baloo
asks, annoyed.
“Rebecca
Cunningham, business major,” is the proud reply. She tells Baloo that the bank foreclosed
on his loan and that she now owns both the building and the plane.
“Now
just a doggoned minute…!”
Just
as things are about to get nasty, Molly crawls through the window, asking,
“Mommy! Do I still have to wait in the car?”
Gidget: … with the
windows rolled up on a hot summer day?
Rebecca should have tied her to a parking meter.
Cody: Or to a car bumper. Preferably one that’s moving.
Gidget: LOL!
And here I thought I was the
evil one!
While
Rebecca and Molly check out their new place, Kit reminds Baloo to be nice so
that they can get the plane and go to Louie’s. Baloo agrees to be her pilot,
Kit introduces himself, and Wildcat makes his debut. Filthy and slimy from
having wrestled with a pipe under the building, Wildcat pops up from a trapdoor
and shows Baloo the clogged pipe.
“Hey,
Baloo! I finally fixed the sewer pipe. You want the old one?” Wildcat asks.
Baloo introduces Rebecca, who is disgusted.
“This
is a mechanic?” she whispers in disbelief. “He couldn’t tell a screwdriver from
a bus driver!”
“Oh
yeah? Watch.” Baloo grabs the phone and
smashes it. “Oh, Wildcat? I think there’s something wrong with the
phooone…”
“You
know, you could be right. You should be
more careful…” Wildcat fixes the phone in five seconds flat.
Shere Khan, in the meantime, is busy trying to figure out
who stole his Sub-Electronic Power Amplifier. Gulping, his yes-man tries to
disentangle himself from Khan’s killer plant as he tells the businessman it was
Karnage. Khan uses his desk as a scratching post and orders that the stone be
found.
At the docks, Rebecca has been busy. She’s painted the
plane, redone the interior, and is busy supervising stevedores hanging the
Higher for Hire sign at the end of the dock. After being threatened with having
the Sea Duck taken away permanently, a reluctant Baloo and Kit emerge in new
outfits that make them look like “flyin’ soda jerks.”
Their
first assignment is to deliver mangoes for “the sizable Fandango Mango
account.” Molly wants to tag along, Rebecca says no, but she stows away,
anyway. She blackmails Baloo into taking her along by threatening to tell
Rebecca about Louie’s.
Gidget: She’s such a
little sh—er, con artist. I like that.
At
Louie’s, while the bartender distracts the little girl with a Krakatoa Special (Louie’s
patented ice cream sundae with the works), Kit presents Baloo with the
treasure. Baloo snags Louie, who appraises the “jewel” as worthless. Both pilot
and navigator are discouraged until Kit remembers that Karnage had swiped it
from Khan. Baloo muses that “this night light might be worth something after
all” and decides to take it with him. As they’re leaving, the pirates attack.
Kit reveals his talent with his airfoil and manages to down a couple of planes,
but it’s the cargo that saves the day—Baloo dumps it on the pirates.
Rebecca
has a fit. She rants, raves, and threatens until Molly sets the record
straight. Then, Rebecca apologizes and Baloo graciously “forgives” her.
Gidget: They didn’t exactly
‘kiss and make up’, but hey --- ya gotta start somewhere…
(as
Baloo to Rebecca): An’ how’s about I
start right here…
(as
Rebecca): Ooohh…yes!
That
night, she sends Baloo and Kit off to sleep in the plane with blankets and
pillows while she and Molly settle down in the office. Molly whines about
things not being like home, and Rebecca sings Home is Where the Heart is.
Gidget: Argggghhh! I hate
that song! Every time I hear it, I want
a gun. And it’s creepy, too. Listen to the lyrics sometime:
They’ll always
be a home for you here inside of meeeee… (G: Go to your womb, young lady!)
And …whatever you may do/They’ll always be a
part of me here inside of you
Cody: Yeah, I was pretty excited about hearing it since I’d heard
so much hype from other Spinners. Then, I nearly fell out of my chair laughing
because Sally Struthers can’t sing.)
After giving Molly a cookie and getting her settled, she sees Kit at the
window and leaves a cookie jar on the sill without really acknowledging that
she’s seen him. Kit gratefully takes a couple of cookies and goes to bed.
Gidget: Some
mother. Didn’t make the kid brush her
teeth afterward.
Outside
the cliffs, a less-than-melodious voice breaks into song. “O, solo-mio! O
so-do-you-o!”
“Who
goes there!” The guards shine a spotlight on Karnage dressed as a gondolier and
Mad Dog and Dumptruck dressed as an amorous couple.
Dumptruck
waves sheepishly. “Oh, uh, good evening, officers!”
“’Scuze, signore. The younga lovers, they need their
privacy!” Karnage calls as Dumptruck tries to kiss his “honey.”
The cops cut off the searchlight and Karnage opens a
panel in the back of the boat that conceals a motor. With the curls of Mad
Dog’s bad blonde wig flapping in the breeze, they go in search of the Sea Duck.
The
next morning, Baloo wakes Kit up and the two head to Shere Khan’s (after Baloo
has hidden the jewel in Molly’s doll) and find out that he’s offering “a
hundred thousand lousy bucks” for the stone’s return. Cheerfully, the two leave.
“Sit
tight, Shere, baby! We’ll be back before you can say Sea Duck!” Baloo says.
Khan
watches them go and chuckles to himself. “It was worth fifty times that.”
Gidget: Tsk!
And they say Khan doesn’t have a sense of humor.
Baloo and Kit return to Higher for Hire to get the jewel
and discover that the place has been torn apart. On the back of the door, Baloo
finds a ransom note pinned to the dartboard with a knife: Karnage wants that stone back or they’ll
never see Rebecca and Molly again.
Cody: Yeah, big
loss there. You know what I would have liked to have seen?
Baloo: (crumbles the note and tosses it aside) Big deal. We don’t need her.
Kit: Yeah. She already paid for the Sea Duck and this rat hole.
Baloo: Hey! Don’t bite the hand that feeds you, Kit.
Kit: ‘Specially since I haven’t had my
rabies shots yet.
Gidget
(as Baloo, doing a Stanley Kawolsky
imitation): Rebeccaaaaaaa!!
Quibbles and Bits:
Gidget: Before he wakes
up, Baloo’s hat is huge --- almost bigger than his head. Then, after the ‘alarm’ goes off, it’s the
right size.
Cody: When
Baloo answers the door, a panel of it is missing so that you can see Rebecca.
Then, when Baloo tells her to go away and closes it, the panel is back.
Gidget: When he pushes the round window in the door open, it
nearly hits her in the face. Actually,
I don’t think it should be able to open---no hinges. And when Rebecca climbs through the window, all she has to do is
unfurl the hanging blind. There’s no
window!
Gidget: Um, when Baloo
goes to the back of the plane to take off his ‘monkey suit’, later Molly comes out. Was she watching him get dressed? O_o
Cody: (*sighs*) She’s a
precocious little peeping tom, isn’t she?
Gidget: That sundae Louie made for Molly was huge---enough for three people.
Guess there aren’t any kid specials on the menu. And instead of sparklers, why not use
dynamite? J
Cody: Dynamite! Yeah! (rubs
hands together) And in the scene where Baloo wakes Kit up so they can go see
Shere Khan, Baloo leans against the bunk. For a few seconds, his torso from
neck to the bottom of his flight shirt is yellow.
Neat Little Details:
Kit’s obviously been taught manners. When Rebecca asks his
name, he looks as though he’s thinking for a moment. Then, he takes off his hat
and introduces himself. “Uh…Kit Cloudkicker, ma’am. I’m the navigator.”
Rebecca
shows her skills as a motivator. She quickly remodels the office, paints the
plane, renames the business, and convinces Baloo and Kit to wear hideous red
bellhop uniforms.
Gidget: Wonder how she
found uniforms in just their size?
Cody: I know.
Kit’s was a little big and I’m surprised she was even able to find one that fit
Baloo’s massive frame.
Gidget: Maybe she made
those uniforms.
(as
Rebecca to Baloo): Come here, big boy. Let’s ‘measure’ you.
Funny Stuff
Gidget: Baloo’s ‘alarm
clock’: He throws his pillow at the filing
cabinet, knocking the model airplane into the open drawer, landing on the
pillow. Then a mysterious second pillow is thrown, slamming the
drawer shut. Baloo only had one.
Kit’s
expression as he tries to remember what to do when introducing himself to a
woman:
Kit: (thinking)
Oh, crap! Do I have to kiss her hand?
Gidget: No…not her hand…
Gidget: Actually,
I like the innuendo of her offering him a job.
“…in
the meantime, I’ve got an opening for a staff pilot.”
Gidget: Baloo’s idea of
‘home’: During her inspection, Rebecca
finds a sock in a pot on the stove (I suppose Baloo was trying to boil the
smell out of it? Also, in My Fair Baloo,
she finds another sock!) Dead plants…
bats in the storeroom…
Cody:
Yeah, sounds like my room. ;D
Cody: Rebecca’s idea of a pretty plane: Rainbows, a weird smiley face, and frilly
curtains. Ugh. I thought I was going to be sick. Of course, not as sick as
Baloo and Kit when they got a load of what she’d done.
Louie
appraising the “jewel.” He could obviously tell right away it was a fake
because he made such a show of oohing and ahhing without really looking at it
through his jeweler’s glass.
Baloo getting zapped by the stone.
Gidget: (as Baloo) Wow!
It’s not Becky, but it’ll have to do. J
The
Sea Duck after Baloo’s fight with the pirates—broken headlights, rudders that
looked as if they’d been chomped, paint completely gone.
Mad
Dog and Dumptruck as lovers. Dumptruck gets into his role a little too well. He
tries to kiss Mad Dog, who slaps him.
Gidget
(as Mad Dog):
Not
in front of the captain, you nitwit!
Wait ‘til later.
Cody (as Dumptruck): Deerrr, sorry Mad Dog.
(whispers) Er, could you vear that dress?
Shere
Khan’s straight-man attitude when Baloo and Kit ask him about a reward.
“What
do you say to a hundred?” Khan drawls.
“Only
a lousy hundred bucks?” Baloo is outraged.
The
businessman arches an eyebrow, but his voice doesn’t change a bit. “A hundred thousand lousy bucks.”
“Dollars?!” Baloo and Kit are
incredulous.
Gidget: No…chocolate coins.
Quotes
“If
this is how you treat customers, buster, it’s no wonder your business is
failing.” Rebecca crawls through the window and stalks past Baloo.
“Whoa,
lady. You act like you own this place.” Baloo says.
“I
do.” Smugly, Rebecca waves the deed at him. “When you didn’t pay your loan this
morning, the bank sold the deed to me.”
“What?”
Baloo exclaims.
“Told you,” Kit says.
“They didn’t even give me time to brush my teeth!” Baloo
protests.
Gidget: Does he ever? Brush his teeth, I mean?
Rebecca
wipes the dust off a mirror and admires herself. “Yes, this place definitely
needs a woman’s touch.” Sweeping a load of junk into the drawer, she mutters,
“Or a bulldozer.”
Gidget: Since when does
a woman’s touch always mean
neatness? I hate housework.
Cody: I know! But she is a woman of the 30’s, even if she does represent the modern working woman.
Wildcat
pops up from a trapdoor. “Hey, Baloo! I finally fixed the sewer pipe! You want
the old one?”
“Make
that three employees. This is our mechanic, Wildcat. Wildcat, meet Rebecca
Cunningham, our new boss.” Baloo pronounces Rebecca’s name with exaggerated
care.
Wildcat
shakes Rebecca’s hand. “Really? You smell pretty good for a boss.”
“Thanks.”
Rebecca grimaces at her slime-covered hand.
Wildcat
holds the pipe up to his eye like a telescope and says, “This little guy was
all clogged up. He was sayin’ ‘help me, help me! I can’t breathe! I gotta
cold.’”
He
promptly flops on the ground. Rebecca looks at him in disgust. “This is a mechanic? He couldn’t tell a
screwdriver from a bus driver!”
“Oh
yeah? Watch.” Baloo digs around till he finds the phone and a bucket. He
smashes the phone and holds up the shattered remains. “Oh, Wildcat! I think
there’s something wrong with the phooone.”
Wildcat
sits up and takes a look at the phone. “You know, you could be right. You ought
to be more careful.”
Baloo counts down and Wildcat fixes the phone in five
seconds flat. It rings and he answers it.
“Uh,
it’s for you,” he tells Rebecca.
She
takes the phone. “Well, at least something
works around here.”
Gidget: How come the
phone works without even being plugged in?
And she hasn’t even moved in yet.
How could the phone be for her?
Wouldn’t it more likely be for Baloo?
Cody: Yeah! I had a serious quibble with that.
A
dock worker asks Rebecca where to load the cargo. “Which plane, ma’am?”
She
points to the balloon and happy face monstrosity. “The pretty one!”
Gidget: Rebecca,
Rebecca… arggghhh! And why ask ‘which
plane’? There’s only one tied to the dock! Maybe he means Wonder Woman’s invisible
plane?
“Get
out here, Baloo! Let me take a look!” Rebecca calls.
From
inside the shed, Baloo yells, “Forget it, lady! I’m not goin’ out in public
dressed like this!”
“If you ever want to see the Sea Duck again, you get out
here on the double!”
Cody: Rebecca learns
early on that threatening Baloo with Sea Duck deprivation is the quickest way
to get him to do something.
Gidget (as Rebecca):
Baloo, if you don’t rock my world right
now, you can kiss your plane good-bye!
;)
Baloo and Kit grudgingly emerge from hiding in their red
uniforms and hats.
“I feel like a flyin’ fool,” Baloo mutters.
Then, he and Kit see the Sea Duck and do a double take.
“My
plane! What did you do to my plane?”
“Doesn’t
it look wonderful? And incidentally, you look terrific. From now on, you’re
going to get noticed,” Rebecca gushes, in hyper-mode and oblivious to the fact
that her employees don’t look too thrilled.
“I’m
tellin’ ya, no one hires a pilot dressed like a flyin’ soda jerk,” Baloo
protests.
“Oh, no?” Rebecca looks smug. “What if I told you I just
landed us the sizable Fandango Mango account?”
Gidget (as
Rebecca): Later, flyboy. Wait ‘til we’re alone.
(as
Baloo): Hot diggity!
Commentary
Molly
is almost bearable in this part. I
like the way she conned Baloo into letting her come along. I also liked
Rebecca’s debut, even if her taste in clothes and planes leaves much to be
desired. J I do have to wonder if she dropped out of college,
though. She introduces herself as “Rebecca Cunningham, Business Major” instead
of “Rebecca Cunningham, BA in Business” or something to indicate that she had
graduated. In your fanfic, you assume that she didn’t, right, Gidge?;)
Gidget: Well, not during her marriage. She followed her dream after
the guy bought the farm. In those days,
women weren’t supposed to work or go to school if they were married. Maybe she killed him so she could get her
degree. ;)
Cody: LOL! Yeah, that sounds
like something she’d do.
Summary
Baloo
and Kit are in shock. Kit blames himself, then drags Baloo out to look for
them. Once they’re past the cliffs, the navigator reveals the location to
Pirate Island…and his big secret: That he was a pirate. Fearful of what his new
friend will say, Kit stomps to the cargo hold where Baloo confronts him.
“I got no family,” Kit says. “No home. I hooked up with
Karnage’s gang about a year ago, but I got…sick of ‘em.”
Baloo
tells him to forget about them and the two prepare to rescue Rebecca and Molly.
Karnage takes the Iron Vulture on a heist. He hijacks a
Khan cargo plane and loots their fishbowls. One of the pilots makes the mistake
of calling him crazy. After taking their propellers, he drops the plane in the
ocean.
Rebecca
and Molly, meanwhile, are locked up in a dank prison cell on Pirate Island.
Molly
whines, “Moom, I don’t like this place.”
“I
know, sweetie.” Rebecca hugs her.
“Neither
does Lucy.” Molly pouts adds.
The guard comes to give them food, and Rebecca gets an
idea. She coos and flirts with the guard until he agrees to let them out in
exchange for the pink slip to her plane. While the guard gets the keys, Rebecca
dismantles the board that serves as a bed and gets ready to knock him out.
Gidget: No room at the
inn?
Kit
and Baloo, meanwhile, dock and go in search of “the gals.” They jump on rocks
across a lava pit and Kit sets off some booby traps that had been fixed since
the last time he’d been there. A buzz saw nearly slices Baloo in half.
“Pull
chocks!” Kit yells.
They
make it to safety and Baloo examines his rear for damages. “Nice crowd you hung
around with, kid.”
The place is quiet, so Kit says he thinks everyone’s on a
heist. He leads the pilot to the brig where Baloo knocks out the guard as he’s
getting the keys. He notices the pink slip to the Sea Duck and snaps it up.
Then, he opens the door to the cell with a cheerful, “Hey, Becky! Guess
wh--!” Rebecca brains him with the
plank, grabs Molly, and prepares to run for it.
Gidget: Heh-heh…Baloo got brains, um, brained.
“That’ll
teach that goon to call me…Becky?”
Turning, she sees Baloo rubbing his head
Gidget: Oh.