User reviews

Along with Darkwing Duck this is unfairly cancelled. Disney has been in decline since Tarzan and we need a show like this to get Disney back on track. Ed Gilbert and Jim Cummings were perfect for the voices of Louis and Baloo (sounds familiar?) The theme tune is also catchy, one of the catchiest theme tunes ever I'd say. Out of all the villains, which are all great on their own merits, Tony Jay stands out as Shere Kahn. Louis and Baloo actually sound very similar to the voice overs in the Jungle Book, which isn't a bad thing at all. As a matter of fact, it's quite inspirational! The animation was spot on, and the script had plenty of wit that has been severely lacking in animations for years. PLEASE BRING THIS SHOW BACK! 9/10. Bethany Cox

It seems most would put DuckTales on top of the Disney cartoon television pile. For me though, DuckTales never reached the heights of world-building and character nuance that TaleSpin did.

In a way, this show was ahead of it's time. While it doesn't follow a strict continuity, there is a strong emphasis on character exploration. And at the time, I'd say that this is probably the most detailed cartoon world even put on television. There is a strong grasp on detail and making the world feel lived in and three dimensional. The protagonists aren't typical good guys either. They have have foibles and aren't out to serve the greater good and safe the world. They just want their own little slice of the pie and will do shady things to get it.

The shows not afraid to explore more mature and layered themes that flew over my head as kid. Corruption, thievery, money problems, parenthood vs career, selfishness, war, and even death are all covered here. Yet it never feels like too much for kids or too watered down for adults. This is one of the most smartly written cartoons Disney ever produced.

Of course not every single episode is a winner and sometimes the animation is less than stellar from time to time...but overall TaleSpin is prime animated fare that has stood the test of time. It's got colorful and fully realized characters, an interesting world, mature storytelling, good humor, and a fantastic sense of pure adventure. I adore this show.

If you are viewing this show for the first time, you may start wondering if you are in an alternate reality. Colorful and imaginative characters? Entertaining dialogue? Plots that seem to have some depth to them, even creating atmospheres of suspense and drama at times? I mean, this is a syndicated children's show right? This is the same venue that has brought kids such drek as "Pokemon", "Pepper Ann", "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers", and "VR Troopers" (please note that three of the titles mentioned above are crass Japanese exports, courtesy of the Fox Network and Saban Entertainment). Don't worry, you are just sampling some of the quality fare that was available to kids during the late 1980's and early 1990's. Some examples of this period would be "Transformers", "Garfield and Friends", "Captain Power", and "C.O.P.S." (a cartoon NOT to be confused with the live action show on Fox). Besides these prime examples, Disney also returned to syndicated programs for kids, coming up with a lineup called "The Disney Afternoon". Aside from a dumbed-down show called "The Gummi Bears", early shows like "Darkwing Duck", "Duck Tales", and "Chip 'N Dale's Rescue Rangers" gave credence to the Disney animation teams that were also turning out theatrical classics like "The Little Mermaid", "Beauty and the Beast", "The Rescuers Down Under", and "The Great Mouse Detective". But above all these wonders shines "TaleSpin". The premiere of "Plunder and Lightning" was a two-hour thrill ride, and won an Emmy. Much to my delight, the rest of the episodes were up to par on the promise of the premiere.

While I enjoy the plots and dialogue, I guess for me the greatest attraction are the characters. There's Rebecca Cunningham, an independent female, but still fallible; Kit Cloudkicker, full of pre-teen angst and optimism; Louie, with his loyalty and support; Frank Wildcat, the most entertaining engineer since Scotty on the original "Star Trek"; Molly Cunningham, cute and witty, but with some depth that most child characters don't have, and of course in the middle of it all, there's Baloo, whom I would describe as a slobby version of James Bond. This is because whenever there's trouble, Baloo saves the day with the assistance of his sleeker-than-most, fastest-of-all Sea Duck (Read: James Bond's Aston Martin). Of course every great show has to have great villains, and TaleSpin doesn't disappoint here either. From the megalomania of businesstiger Shere Kahn, to the vain and always failing air pirate Don Karnage, to the hilarious and inept Soviet-satirized Thembrians. The animation is good, the music appropriate, and the episodes are (for me) the finest that children's programming has ever had to offer. Great fun for the WHOLE family!

I was born in '83 so I was lucky enough to be old enough to love and appreciate the old incredible Disney Cartoons from the nineties.

The nineties were truly the best decade for animated series. Darkwing Duck, Gargoyles, Duck Tales, and Tale Spin were only a few of some of the best cartoons ever made.

While today's animated series are derivative, fluffy, shallow, and pretty dumb, these shows were epic, fun, entertaining, adventurous, funny, and exciting.

Suffice to say they were three-dimensional cartoons. They never talked down to kids and always took them on one incredible adventure after another. Disney has never been able to re-capture such imagination.

In this spin off from "The Jungle Book"'s most popular character Baloo, he stars as a lazy, self-centered but adventurous pilot who unwittingly gains responsibility stumbling upon Kit, an orphan. He teams up with Kit, a young cub who calls Baloo "papa bear". Their relationship is one of the main reasons to watch this show.

Baloo's airplane is then lost and is then bought back by small business woman Rebecca Cunningham and her daughter Molly who buys the plane and hires Baloo as a cargo pilot setting up the cargo business "Higher for Hire". They all form an uneasy relationship but grow fond of one another as they go from one exciting adventure to another.

Watch for an excellent cast of supporting characters including wildkat the odd mechanic, Shere Khan another Jungle Book character as an intimidating and powerful business mogul, and the pirate Don Karnage who's a mix of Blackbeard the pirate and Ricky Ricardo.

Inspired by "Indiana Jones" and old time adventure serials, this swashbuckling, episodic, animated serial show gave me some of the best memories of my childhood and truly took kids on memorable adventures.

Check it out if you get the chance, it's a can't miss.

"Spin it!"

The 90s opened up with a clever Disney favorite, "TaleSpin," the TV cartoon series that featured characters from "The Jungle Book." Join Baloo and Kit Cloudkicker as they fly the Sea Duck like you've never seen it before: out of Cape Suzette, to Louie's, up mountains, through jungles, on water, in volcanoes, looking for adventure, looking for treasure, looking for fun, all in one action-packed cartoon adventure!!!!!

This was a favorite of mine as well as my family's. This ran on The Disney Afternoon the entire first half of the 90s until the original cartoons moved to the Old Disney Channel in 1995, which I have seen on vacation once in 1996 before getting cable in March 1997.

And good news: today the DVDs are here!!!!! Relive the fun and excitement of "Dun, dun, dun, TaleSpin!!!!!"

10/10

Ever since I remember, I have loved airplanes and flying. I am now in college with a private pilot's license and looking to become a commercial. I could never remember why I was so obsessed with the subject until I came across my old Tail Spin tapes in my basement at home and it hit me, this was it. My parents bought every single tape they had and this was the only show I would watch as a kid. I had the theme memorized as I grew up and I can still re-cite it today. It is absolutely amazing and I plan on buying the DVD's soon! It really is great for children and adults and is absolutely timeless. I cannot get enough of this show.

"TaleSpin," like "Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers" and "DuckTales" was a short lived cartoon that ran in the early nineties. It was Disney's bid to get into the daytime cartoon game. It starred Baloo (voiced by Ed Gilbert) who you may remember as the bear from "The Jungle Book."

Baloo was a pilot and it seemed he spent most of his time flying in unideal conditions. He worked for Rebecca Cunningham (voiced by Sally Struthers) who seem to always have a messy office and no idea.

I watched this when I could. It didn't have quite the same appeal to me as the aforementioned "DuckTales" or "Chip 'n Dale."

As for many on here I can't help but praise the Cast and Crew who developed Talespin and others they made throughout My Childhood, I as all who have commented here have thoroughly enjoyed the Quality of not just the animation but the quality of the story lines and the characters.

To Class this work of art as a "Cartoon" could never do talespin justice, In fact it's an insult to class it as a "Cartoon", Talespin is an Animation and nothing less, It is evidently the greatest work of genius to be produced at Disney to date, When Disney "Pulled" it from the air little did they realise what they did and I'm sure their souls have been tortured by regret ever since.

I'll take a moment to explain, From the first which is ducktales to the last which I think is Darkwing Duck, Disney has been plagued with failures due to political Correctness and have taken a Quantum Leap backwards since, They prefer Quantity over Quality now not to mention the room full of Monkey's for the story's, I couldn't have My children watching the mind-numbing "Cartoons" they throw out now in fear that they would all turn out to be homer Simpson some time in the future and 50% of the blame would be on me for permitting them to watch it, I couldn't let that happen, Which is why I have ALL of the shows from the late 80's to the mid 90's on a Harddrive so one day My children couldn't be corrupted by the "Cartoon Crap" of today and to Savour the last piece of childhood I have and to hold on to and I owe that all to Talespin.

Talespin to me is without a doubt the best Animation ever produced in the world on account of it's depth, Charm, Wit, Compassion, Emotion and lack of Truly bad quality and story lines of which many have today, Do You see any of that content in say "Ed, Edd and Eddie or anything else You can think of?, The rubbish produced today can be likened to some 3 year old's undecipherable Hyroglyph Depicting a Picasso.

The next time You watch an episode of Talespin; take a look at the woodgrain on any wooden object or building such as Higher for Hire and salivate over the quality of workmanship and effort put into this Animation, Even the one shot backgrounds were done as though they would use them again and again, The Buildings look true to the Art Deco movement which was popular in the time period depicted, Even the vehicles are true to life, OK not ALL of the Episodes Were Fantastic in animation but the lower grade scenes were covered up by the superior scenes so all in all it evened it all out by the end of the episode and You'd probably never even notice at all unless you were focused and have an attention to detail.

The one thing I love about this is what I like to call the "Deliberate Mistakes" or "Intended Mistakes" in each episode and some have two, For example in sheepskin deep where rebecca say's "You're up to something Baloo" and Baloo replies "Who, Me!, I'm as innocent as a schoolboy" take a look into rebecca's eyes, I won't spoil the rest of the Baloopers but just keep an Eye out next time.

Everyone elses comment's are bang on and 100% correct, I have nothing else to add that others haven't said already on here, Disney, WAKE UP and smell the coffee, You have been asleep for over a decade, Stop producing rubbish and bring back Quality into Animations and Stop producing "Cartoons", We have seen the proof of what You can do and We want it back as rapidly as possible.

Since it has been some years since I reviewed this classic I have decided to go back and review it more in dept, but first some insider notes from a movie critic.

This animated series is one of those that I grew up with, it made my childhood joyful, it made it awesome, miss some of this stuff today that we clearly don't see as much as we did back in the days, well on to the review...

Talespin, or Luftens Helte which it is called in Denmark is a great animated series, it is much like chip and dale, ducktales and a lot of those old ones, so it has that weird feeling surrounding it, i cannot remember this series as much as I would like to remember it.

But in my opinion it was very great, it came with some kind of message, not that wild of a message, however it is one of the old ones so that can be forgiven.

Now i don't want to sound old or anything but i feel like time slipped out of my hands with these cartoons, today we see something like Ed Edd and Eddy or anything else weird like that, we have all these new or nearly new shows like Hannah Montana or something like that, yet I feel like that we don't have the same spirit in cartoons or real shows like we did in the early days.

Now maybe i am wrong but i feel like time has changed to much, to conclude i would be thrilled to see these series like Talespin being released again to the TV screen instead of all the new ones, give me back my childhood cartoons, give them to the kids i have some day, give them again...

Thanks Jymn Magon, for creating Disney's 2 best cartoons ever. This show has improved very much over the years. As a kid, I didn't like it because I thought it was a rip-off of Ducktales, which was my favorite Disney thing at the time (like Grandmoffromero). Then later on though it was good but not great. But after reading the reviews here, I decided to give it another chance & bought the DVD set & watched the whole pilot the first day I got it, & was very pleasantly surprised. It's still my favorite episode, although the series did live up to it. And by the end of disc 1, I knew this was going to be a top tenner.

The characters are so complex & charming. My favorite has got to be Wildcat. He's absolutely hilarious and sweet to boot. My next favorite is Baloo, the best pilot on the show. I can see why 'ol Jymn built the show around him. Then it's Kit Cloudkicker. He & Baloo have the best relationship in the series. After that, Louie. Jim Cummings did a perfect job of impersonating the original voice. After him, Rebecca. She has made me laugh pretty hard, and I do believe she and Baloo eventually marry. And finally(for the heroes), Molly. Although she's my least favorite, I still like her. I think she's a very cute character(much better than Webby from Ducktales). And the villains were very original. Don Karnage & his air pirates always crack me up, Kahn is ice-cold and ruthless, and the Thembrians are always at least amusing.

As said before, the stories range from hilarious(Time Waits For No Bear, Romance of Red Chimp) to nothing short of touching(The Old Man & the Seaduck, Paradise Lost), to fun, funny & exciting adventures(In Search of Ancient Blunders & my favorite For Whom the Bell Klangs). These are only a few of my favorite episodes. Anyway, Talespin is Disney's best, aside from Gummi Bears Some reasons for this? GB had a decent amount of my favorite character(Cubbi), while TS didn't have enough of Wildcat. But in the end Talespin remains a classic. BOTTOM LINE- 10/10 6th best cartoon ever.

It's the Jungle Book but not really. There's a Sam and Diane from Cheers dynamic. Throw some planes in the mix. It's alot to process. As a kid this was easily acceptable and enjoyable, as an adult not so much. If you like it then great but people calling this a masterpiece need to take a second look. Oddly enough a large portion of the people that praise it are probably those people that criticize a remake for deviating one iota from the source material.

"Tale Spin" is a classic. I love it so much that I'm not sure where to begin to sing its praises, so let's begin at the beginning. Michael and Patty Silversher wrote the single most IRRESISTIBLE theme song ever for this show! One listen and you just know you're in for a good time.

Scripts--For being a "kids' show," this series had a wide variety of story lines, and they were not totally geared toward comedy. The stories ranged from hilarious ("Mach One for the Gipper") to extremely touching ("Her Chance to Dream") to Indiana Jones-style adventure ("Search for the Lost City").

Voices--The cast was perfect, especially Sally Struthers as Rebecca. R. J. Williams as Kit Cloudkicker, Tony Jay as Shere Khan and Jim Cummings as Don Karnage.

There are other things I could get into, such as the quality animation, beautiful backgrounds and nice music score, but once you see an episode these things will all speak for themselves. This was, and still is, a fun and entertaining animated series. Disney has yet to top it.

What a treat to discover all these fan comments. It makes me feel like what we did was of real value. Tale Spin was a joy (and a struggle) to work on, but I love this show so much. Great cast, great writing, great artwork, great animation, great crew, great grandfathers... Oops, how did that get in there? Anyway, thanks again. Jymn Magon P.S. The series was never cancelled. Our syndicated shows were created with the goal of 52 episodes, and that's exactly what we completed on Tale Spin. Pull chocks!

I used to watch this show when I was a little girl. When I think about it, I only remember it vaguely. If you ask me, it was a good show. Two things I remember vaguely are the opening sequence and theme song. In addition to that, everyone was ideally cast. Also, the writing was very strong. The performances were top-grade, too. I hope some network brings it back so I can see every episode. Before I wrap this up, I'd like to say that I'll always remember this show in my memory forever, even though I don't think I've seen every episode. Now, in conclusion, if some network ever brings it back, I hope that you catch it one day before it goes off the air for good.

While this show does deviate from the Jungle Book movie the characters came from, it makes up for that with its action-packed and high-flying premise. If you like shows with action, adventure, airplanes, and pirates, than this is for you!

Plot: Follows the cast of the Jungle Book as they all portray new characters in and around the fictional city of Cape Suzette taking place around the 1930's and follows the skilled cargo pilot Baloo on his many adventures.

Verdict: Growing up in late 90's this was one of my favorite shows and seeing it again as an adult makes me love this show even more. This show is one of the most creative and greatly made adventure shows I have seen and it still holds up now in 2018. The different episodes are filled with great creative settings and great stories both for kids & adults and the animation is beautiful and well-crafted which is seen in the details of the animation. This is a gem from an era when kids show had more heart than they seem to nowadays and when telling a creative and good story, was more important than telling a story quickly and easily. A gem from the 90's!

9/10

Very Good!

I never cared for this show. It was colourful and had an interesting looking character, and that's how far it goes.

I just never cared for it. It's a blur in my childhood memory bank.

i found tale spin a fun and entertaining cartoon...i really liked the fact that the characters from the jungle book were placed into a role in this cartoon. a cartoon which had some pretty complex plots, always maintained a simple enough wit, to keep children entertained. it was very humorous...i loved it!!! truly a cartoon classic....

I wish this show was still on . The stories are great. Don Karnage is funny and so cute. Too bad, he has no love interest in the show .

This show is hilarious, and wonderful. It's very entertaining, and fun to watch. I definitely recommend giving it a go! I think it had a good life, and was well made.

This is the most beautiful show I've seen. The relationship between the characters, envolving feelings is outstanding. They sometimes break our hearts, mostly when it has to do with Baloo and Kit's father and son relationship. Disney has always been master in working with our emotions. TaleSpin is the one that makes me suffer a lot, when I see the characters suffering for love, care, attention, parental... The formula coming from the Jungle Book, where Baloo loves Mogly as if he was his own cub, has worked out perfectly with Kit. Without this ingredient, maybe the show wouldn't be successful. Thank you so much, authors.