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It seems to me that most people who like TaleSpin, did not actually watch it recently. Which is a shame!

If you can remember, I would like to know :

Which was the last episode you've seen? (and when?)





Around one week ago, I've watched War of the Weirds. This is definitely one of my favorites : both very funny (especially Wildcat), yet pretty "serious". (the threats of being put in jail...the guns...)
I love how the characters act in this episode : Baloo trying to get a vacation no matter what, Rebecca not buying into Baloo's plan at the first second, but still playing the "game"; poor Wildcat following both of them, without really understanding the situation. And Kit being the only "rational" in this whole mess!
Colonel Grogg (sp?) is a great character. I am still surprised at the amont of "violence" in the episode (Grogg firing guns like mad...), no wonder these scenes got cut when aired on TV (thankfully they're included on the DVD!)

The only thing I dislike about this episode, is the way Rebecca categorically refused to give a vacation to poor Baloo, shouting "NO!" and slamming the door...I mean, she could have at least negociated at least one or two days. She seemed very "out of character" there. But I guess the episode wouldn't have worked otherwise. Although, I really liked how B&B got closer to each other eventually, at the end of the episode.

I'm also a bit unsure about the morale of this episode...usually they have good morale, but here it is "Lying can sometimes be a good thing?" Strange!

"A Spy In The Ointment", just a moment ago in fact.

Hilarious episode (nearly every Thembrian episode is). Also kinda pointed out how quickly Baloo and Rebecca could switch the 'Idiot vs Straight Man' positions (I liked how the two characters foiled each other in different aspects, rather than just having one consistant 'Closer To Earth' character and another perpetually brainless one).

As corny as the spy stuff it is, it's funny as hell, especially with Baloo's less than enthusiastic additional quips:

Jack: Look, I really shouldn't be telling you this...
Baloo: Oh well then please don't.

As usual Col Spigot steals the show and has most of the funniest lines (anyone get the idea this was meant to be his first appearance? While Spigot never seemed to remember Baloo (outside his airing order debut 'The Idol Rich' ironically enough) the latter at least seemed to have some vague memories of being aqquainted, his opening scene in this episode with his misleading size seemed a clever way to introduce him as well).

Spigot: *sternly* Remember men, inspect those boxes like your life depended on it...*less boldly* because they do.

The ending was a bit jarring. Hidden text : click to show

The animation is sadly one of the poorest (looks like Hanho Heung-up studio's style) but that does add to comedy on occasion due to the overdone expressions and movement.



Well truthfully, that moral is sometimes seen as true, as sometimes there are points that bending the truth is important to save someone's feelings or keep them unburdened with horrible info (the film Liar Liar is perhaps the prime attempt at depicting this, and South Park of all shows played this moral out rather well once in "Butter's Own Episode").

It's arguably more broken due to being on the lines of "It's okay to lie for your own self gain."

I'm watching them all on youtube at the moment, but the quality is pretty bad.

Do any of you happen to know if there's a better quality one out there? I could use it for getting screen shots that aren't as blocky, and see a lot of missed detail.

Well that's probable. At least it was one of the first Thembrians episodes in production.


Another episode with a good morale I'm still unsure Disney would allow an ending like that in a series nowadays




So I'm guessing you don't own the DVDs? Well you really should!!!
This is actually the only way to get good quality pictures. A few episodes are still missing unfortunately, but most are available on the two DVD volumes released :

http://www.amazon.com/TaleSpin-1-Ed-Gil ... B000FS9MVA

http://www.amazon.com/TaleSpin-2-Ed-Gil ... pd_sim_d_1

Since I have the DVDs, I honestly couldn't bare to watch that horrible quality on Youtube. They deserve so much better!

Thought so, the airing order seems to be much different than production order, may explain why the 'finale' was basically a Col Spigot spinoff (not that it's really a bad concept).



Talespin did seem a bit zanier and more cynical than their previous series (eg. Gummi Bears, New Adventures of Winnie The Pooh) maybe they were trying to deviate and be a little darker in tone. Darkwing Duck would take things further.

They likely wouldn't allow onscreen firearms and constant threats of death by firing squad to be implemented either, oh and they likely would add exposition comments about 'no one was hurt' during disaster scenes (Thembrian's rather unusual ammunition substitutes almost seem like a parody of such situations these days, at least they wouldn't suffer in a possible revival).



Well lucky you. Us Region Two fans don't seem to have a choice. And even if we did it would likely have all the extras omitted and a horribly offmodel Baloo for boxart (see what they did to the Sonic DiC sets for example).

Well I'm currently watching Darkwing Duck, and I don't see how it's taking it "further". More "wild"? Certainly. More "funny"? Maybe, but more "immoral"? I don't think so. Unless you're talking about the graphical style, which is definitely "darker".



A-hem. I live in France, remember? I'm also region 2. I just imported the region 1 DVDs. Of course there's the shipping fees, but it's definitely worth it.

Darkwing Duck seemed to be a big point in Disney's series converting into more Looney Tunes-ish works, being less interested in it's trademark 'cutesy-ness' with morals and usually soft natured stories and slightly more cynical and surreal 'wackiness'. I could be wrong though since it's been a while since I watched Darkwing Duck (from what I know there was more slapstick violence and characters even died once in while, outside the dead already 'ghosts', there were no deaths in Talespin or even the two Jungle Books for that matter, which is admitedly rare for a Disney film).



Well not all of us shop on the internet (some are paranoid about what trading account info on the internet could lead to), then again I'm far more content with watching the episodes on YouTube, and since the whole series is on there and does not seem to be deleted frequently like other copyrighted material, there may be less of a point buying it, unless there are some big extras.

But less sales = less interest from Disney, unfortunately, and currently their interest in TaleSpin is close to zero And I assure you the quality difference is overwhelming (even if it also could have been a lot better, but Youtube quality is really horrible)

But I'm getting off topic...


I wasn't talking about death. Usually death isn't even shown in most Disney films / series. And Darkwing isn't as realistic but more cartoony, which makes it difficult to take anything seriously.

Actually some things are much more immoral to me : like putting a 6-years old child in a cold jail, or the repeated threats of being hang or being shot by a firing squad...
(Heck, it's not so much a threat : Rebecca IS standing front of a firing squad in "The Time Bandit"!! And Spigot asks Rebecca to choose the rope she would like to be hang with...in that very same episode! )

I don't think buying Tailspin DVDs off amazon gains any interest from Disney, it's just changing hands from a prior customer.
Even if it was purchased direct from Disney, I'm sure their sales on those DVDs are so incredibly low, it couldn't possibly justify further continuation of the series.

A movie might be interesting... What do you think they'd look like in CGI? I mean, good quality, like Pixar CGI

It's just that there's dozens of more options they'd rather go with than TaleSpin.


Oh... and I just watched "The road to Macadamia"

I mean more dark in comparison to recent shows, which had a slightly more innocent and aesop driven storyline. It's like comparing, say, the classic Disney shorts to those of Looney Tunes or Tex Avery. Both are still rather light hearted but it's obvious which one is more innocent in tone (for the most part).

Darker is hard to explain really, as it can be described for a cosmetic, a story basis, or anything. I guess by darker in Disney context, I mean the lower enthasis on the company's trademark cutesiness with less innocent plotlines. Talespin and Darkwing Duck, while still obviously made for a young audience, leaned a fair bit more into the more cynical slapstick area since, say, Gummi Bears.



Road To Macadamia was a good episode, nice animation by the Japan unit, it was nice to see Louie gaining bigger roles in the later episodes too. Also Kath Soucie using her Princess Sally voice (ie. her natural speaking voice) for Princess Lotta was a nice extra for us Sonic fans. But dammit Baloo, you're breaking the show's biggest ship.

Don't know how well CGI would do. The company's use of it for the classic characters and Winnie The Pooh was plausible but Talespin is more action orientated and the characters are less simplistic.

Well The Jungle Book is a rather frequently used franchise (a sequel, a live action remake with TWO sequels, and concepts used for two (Potentially three) animated series). Perhaps a new Jungle Book feature with non anthro Talespin characters included would sell.

Come on, you know it would be awesome.

I'm not sure if Baloo could be made a human and still be as likeable, though.

I mean, you hear Rebeccas descriptions of him? Fat, filthy, lazy, etc etc, even though they don't look THAT bad.

Of the actors out there, who do you think would fit the character best?

John Goodman (who actually voiced Baloo in the Jungle Book 2) often plays these characters in a loveable light. At the time the show aired I may have also said John Candy or Dom De Luise (RIP).

However, by 'non-anthro' I meant like the more normal looking unhumanized animals that they were in the Jungle Book, not turning them into humans. In which case Baloo already has a set design.

I should have read more carefully, I thought you meant having Talespin with human characters, not Jungle book with Talespin characters

I always thought Ed Gilbert fit Baloo perfectly; his voice just made the role better.

Personally, I think Ed G should've voiced Fred Flintstone, and not Henry Gorden, when Alan Reed passed away. The episode 'Double or Nothing', is evident he could've been a great Fred Flinstone. Too bad he's dead. :-/

Truthfully Baloo was made by Phil Harris' natural voice (which he also used for Little John in Robin Hood) so it's hard to give judgement on which actor really gave him life. Gilbert did Baloo a lot of justice however, both for his Talespin and Jungle Book incarnate:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jm17iZ8_Yy4

Gilbert also did a valid Tigger as well for Winnie the Pooh storybook tapes (at least according to Wikipedia):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpOwDkrQ3XE

Jim Cummings (Louie, Don Karnage) does a decent Tigger as well (though I thought it took him a while to get into the role, he sounds off in New Adventures for example).

I didn't really mind Goodman as Baloo, he basically used his normal voice but luckily it fits the character well enough. Corey Burton (or whoever voiced him in Jungle Book Groove Party) I think was the worst as the character, sounded kinda forced, but even then wasn't horrible.

Jeff Bergman has taken over as Fred Flintstone's VA since Gorden's death, I think he sounds a little closer to Alan Reed's version (he actually does a fair amount of good soundalike voiceovers, he filled in for most of Mel Blanc's characters during the early nineties) though his acting is a bit deadpan and unenthusiastic.



No prob. Nah, I think part of the fun of them is they are funny animals, after all it was a large part of their character for their Jungle Book forms. It could actually be kinda fun seeing Rebecca or Kit having to act more like actual bears.