Comments on: Nostalgia November Day 06 — TaleSpin #7

By: adam24

adam24 — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 11:25:24 +0000

Talespin, weak??…I don’t think we watched the same show!
To me it was clearly above all the Disney Afternoon shows, and yet I love all of them!
It was very special in many ways : more adult stories, very varied episodes (unlike Chip & dale which is very repetitive and naive), best multi-dimensional characters ever created!

Yes two Talespin DVD packs have been released.

Also, if you want to read this comic, it’s available for download here :

http://www.animationsource.org/talespin/en/custom_list/&id_film=9&nump=1201

By: AdamYJ

AdamYJ — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 02:01:31 +0000

With all the craziness within the superhero genre during the early 1990s, people often forget that there was a short-lived but very respectable line of Disney comics at the time. It was also no slouch in the talent department with people like Marv Wolfman writing Duck Tales and Mickey Mouse Adventures and Peter David writing Little Mermaid. I still have a number of ’90s Disney comics stashed away around here.

As for Tale Spin, it was a good show, but not my favorite from the Disney Afternoon. My favorite was probably Darkwing Duck and my least favorite was probably Goof Troop. As much as I like Goofy and Max (their animated movie is a load of fun), I didn’t warm up to the show’s whole sitcom vibe,

By: Pedro Bouça

Pedro Bouça — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 01:39:29 +0000

TaleSpin was a GREAT show! For Disney TV shows I only rate it below Duck Tales – and that’s because of the Barks factor.

I really wish it could have some sort of conclusion. Maybe a direct-to-video feature length movie? I can dream…

Best,
Hunter (Pedro Bouça)

By: Ben Herman

Ben Herman — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 20:04:02 +0000

Cool, thanks for the DVD info, Chad. Now I have to track them down.

Ah, nostalgia

By: Chad Nevett

Chad Nevett — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 19:45:03 +0000

Goof Troop was the worst. Awful show.

And TaleSpin is on DVD: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talespin#DVD_releases

By: Ben Herman

Ben Herman — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 19:28:55 +0000

I really enjoyed TaleSpin, but I can understand why it wasn’t a huge hit with younger viewers. It had kinda a retro pulp feel, and was pretty clearly intended to be set in a 1920s or 30s era. Shere Khan, who in the Jungle Book film was obviously the villain, was reinterpreted as a morally ambiguous Kingpin type figure, one who you were never sure who’s side he was on, aside from his own, of course. And there was a lot of Cold War satire with Thembria, which was obviously a stand in for the Soviet Union.

At the time the show aired, though, I was in high school, so it appealed to my slightly more mature sensibilities. I loved the period setting, and the retro feel of the technology. It was so cool that Rebecca and her daughter lived in an apartment building built on a waterfall. How awesome is that?!? And I enjoyed the idea of sky pirates flying around in a giant airborne base called the Iron Vulture.

So I ended up buying all the issues of the comic book series, and was disappointed when it was canceled. If the TV show ever makes it onto DVD, I am so buying it.

By: SuthernBoy

SuthernBoy — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 15:54:47 +0000

I never read the comic but really enjoyed the show. This and Darkwing Duck were my 2 fave Disney cartoons. Like one of the posters above I still have one of the cereal figures from this series. Don Carnage, the pirate leader, was probably my favorite character.

By: Ninjazilla

Ninjazilla — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 12:38:44 +0000

GOOF TROOP was the worst.
I always thought Shear Khan was a badass, kinda like how Lex Luthor became to be portrayed

By: Myron

Myron — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 02:40:35 +0000

I always felt that Tailspin probably had the least kid-appeal of all the Disney Afternoon shows (and that includes Gargoyles which had plenty of kid appeal but was definitely was more sophisticated than a kid show). With the exception of Kit and Molly, the main characters were adults who did adult things and who led adult lives (not children in adult bodies as was the case in so many children’s animated cartoons). The premise of the show was more workplace comedy than comedy-adventure or action-adventure. It had plenty of action and adventure but the show centered around cargo freight company rather than a group of adventurers. The show reminds me of Cheers in a lot of ways. Heck, the shows creator stated that he modeled the Baloo and Rebecca relationship after Sam and Diane. Maybe I enjoyed show more than many of you because I saw the show in my mid-teens (the show debuted when I was 16) rather than as a younger kid.

By: chad

chad — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 21:31:39 +0000

i remember thinking the show was interesting espically with shear khan as a business man. watched it along with duck tales and dark wing duck. maybe disney could always revive it some day.

By: Perry

Perry — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 09:11:35 +0000

I’ve still got my plastic Kit figurine that I got in a cereal box lying around here somewhere.

Oh, the nostalgia

By: Joe

Joe — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 07:37:47 +0000

Man, I LOVED these cartoons as a kid. I remember when I moved from Florida to Arkansas thinking “why aren’t these shows on Channel 3 anymore?”

By: Scavenger

Scavenger — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 06:03:46 +0000

zzz : my guess is it’s a knee-jerk liberal reaction to King Louie.

By: ZZZ

ZZZ — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 05:36:23 +0000

Not to stir controversy, but how was Rescue Rangers racist? I’m not saying it wasn’t, I’m actually asking looking-for-information-wise. I have no recollection of any racial elements on the show, but I have little recollection of much of anything from that show.

By: Wraith

Wraith — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 22:32:06 +0000

But that Gadget chick was HOT, for a geeky mouse!

By: Apodaca

Apodaca — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 21:44:12 +0000

All you have to do is watch any random clip of Rescue Rangers on Youtube to see that it was actually atrocious. Racist, too.

By: Matthew E

Matthew E — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 18:36:13 +0000

I’m not sure how often it’s remarked on, but I’m sure that TaleSpin was influenced by the TV show “Tales of the Gold Monkey”, which surfaced for a season in the wake of the success of Raiders of the Lost Ark.

By: Wraith

Wraith — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 17:26:23 +0000

Y’know, oddly enough the thing I remember most about this show is reading somewhere, once, one of the people who worked on the show observing that yes, it was a little odd taking Baloo, the jungle-livin’ bear who sang of “The Simple Bear Necessities” and putting him into a furry-animal modern civilization with jobs and machines and evil business tycoons, etc.

As I recall the show was okay, but yeah, definitely a weak offering by Disney cartoon show standards. I’d rank Ducktales, Rescue Rangers AND Darkwing Duck ahead of it.

(I really did just type that, didn’t I? Oh well, this is America in the 21st century; 31 is still basically adolescence, right?)

By: Adam

Adam — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 17:19:33 +0000

I remember watching this show religiously on TV’s “Disney Afternoon.” I always thought it was strange that it apparently didn’t exist in the larger Duck-universe the way Duck Tales and Darkwing Duck did. (C’mon, Duck Tales had talking dogs, too. Talking bears isn’t that much of a stretch.) I could never figure out why it had this sort of modernized steampunk environment: technological marvels like robots and houses built on waterfalls existed, but television did not.

Anyway, great show, but very much an oddity in the Disney lineup at the time.

By: Chad Nevett

Chad Nevett — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 16:47:02 +0000

Jeremy — A few more maybe… as a kid, I was mostly into superheroes… and the other non-superhero stuff I remember isn’t in this box… perhaps they’re in another, meaning they’ll show up if I do this again next year.