Hmm... not sure why I'm the only person here not too fond of this series. I'm not sure why I don't like it, but I just can't make myself sit through it. It's not bad, but not on my favorites list, either.

Holy crap, when will this show be on DVD?

I remember TaleSpin from the Disney Afternoon way back when! The uber-catchy opening theme (if you're not singing to it by the end of the show, something wrong with you), the airplanes and action, the personified animals from The Jungle Book (like Baloo, Shere Khan, and (King) Louie) and new original characters, and a whole lot more! It's awesomely great!

The stories are humorous, full of high-flying adventure (literally!) in a variety of colorful backgrounds and characters. I enjoyed it, as did many other young people that were around my age in the 90s.

If you get a chance to watch Toon Disney late at night, stay up and check out TaleSpin! You won't regret it! (it won't be long now until it comes to DVD, right?)

4 stars!

Time to come with an excuse to push Spongebob Squarepants off the bottom of the top 5.

It's kind of strange that one of Disney's weaker movies would go on to inspire one of their best cartoons. When I first heard the ideas for this show oh so many years ago, I thought it was a stupid idea, to have the animals of Jungle Book transported into a human-esque world and have them act like humans. Good thing the show proved me wrong when it did finally air. Tale Spin has one of the best theme songs in a Disney show and has a great sense of fun and high adventure. The characters are great and have strong personalities, especially Rebecca and I love her relationship with her daughter. All-in-all, a fun cartoon.

Ah, the glorious Disney Afternoon. At the time it started, I was technically too old for cartoons, but I have always been a Scrooge McDuck fan, and naturally had to watch Ducktales.

However, it was with Talespin that the Disney Afternoon hit its pinnacle (at least in my opinion, not being a Rescue Rangers or Darkwing Duck fan.)

Hearing first only that it was a cartoon featuring characters from the Jungle Book, I hoped for a wilderness adventure series, and was disappointed when the dramatis personae appeared wearing CLOTHES and FLYING AIRPLANES (!?) and Mowgli was replaced by a juvenile-delinquent bear cub.

But the disappointment didn't last--the characters were brilliant in their new roles, and the stories were well-written, full of fun and high adventure!

Baloo is a down-and-out pilot who can't make the payments on his sea plane. His business (and plane debt) is bought out by Rebecca Cunningham, a recently-graduated single-parent business student eager to make her first hostile takeover. Baloo becomes her delivery pilot, to work off what he owes on the plane, and the two of them begin a stormy business relationship and occasional romance. Rebecca has an obligatorily-cute girl toddler named Molly, and Baloo adopts an obligatorily-spirited air-surfing orphan boy named Kit Cloudkicker. Together they are one big, happy, dysfunctional family. The good guys are aided in their adventures by Louie (King Louie from the movie) who owns an island cantina/fueling station/hangout for seaplane pilots, and the wacky, whiskery mechanic, Wildcat.

They face a plethora of strange adventures and stranger characters, with regular villains including:

Air pirates, led by the charismatic, swashbuckling Don Carnage, arguably the most popular character of the series.

The Thembrians, rulers of a dangerous dictatorship which seems a cross between Nazi German and Communist Russia. They are represented by the dimunitive but fiery Colonel Spigot, head of the Thembrian Air Force, and his kindlier assistant, Dunder. (Spigot was always my favorite character, and the episode where he took flying lessons was my personal all-time favorite.)

Shere Khan, who takes the persona of a cold, aloof and mysterious business executive. He has unlimited wealth and power, and employs a crack squadron of black-panther fighter pilots. Sometimes ruthless, sometimes beneficent, you can never be sure whether Khan is going to be helpful or dangerous. An exciting character who was a bit under-used, as I recall.

Wrap it all up in a setting of tropical islands, travel, dogfights, adventure, slacking-off on the job, and general silliness, and give it a truly cool theme song, and you end up with Talespin, possibly the best cartoon of its time until Animaniacs appeared.

I never knew... The early 90's was not a time when I watched much TV, so if this was on in my area I missed it. Then when I got on the web everyone seemed to be talking about it, but I just assumed it wasn't available here. Then I saw videos of it about in the mid 90's and kept putting off renting one. And then of course they disappeared, the show went off the air, and I had to hunt up used VHS copies on ebay.

The first thing that hit me, as Inkwolf mentioned in her review of 'Porco Rosso' is a similarity of basic premise which is too similar to be coincidence. 'Porco Rosso' appeared about 2 years into Tailspin's run, so it's possible that being a movie it was conceived first, but I'm inclined to agree that 'Porco Rosso' ripped off Tailspin, at least in its basic setting. I imagine we'll see more on this when Porco hits the US market shortly and people notice the similarity.

Anyway, that aside, the other thing that hit me straight away was what a convincingly realised, original and instantly engrossing setting this series offers up. The main characters are instantly likeable, and the world of the series is fascinating and alluring. The dialog is quite witty, the stories are relatively unusual for a kid's TV series - the thing just looks and feels great. I'm going to have to find the rest of the eps now.

I think perhaps a measure of just how well this show works is that you don't constantly keep asking yourself what the heck the characters from The Jungle Book are doing piloting vintage seaplanes - and you have to admit, that is a pretty radical concept. Baloo is just instantly convincing as a cargo pilot though, and for my money I'd much rather watch this than either of the actual Jungle Book movies.

I can understand how people who grew up with this series would have a huge soft spot for it. Even now, to my eyes, seeing it for the first time, it's instantly impressive. Four stars, unless the other episodes turn out to be much below the quality of the ones I've seen. This is great TV for kids, and frankly I don't know why they didn't at least make a DTV movie of it, considering some of the rubbish they've put on video in the last 15 years.

I loved this show when I was growing up. It was one of my favorites. Most of the episodes were very entertaining and fun. I wish they'd release a DVD set of the series. I'd like to watch them again someday.

Of all the 'Disney Afternoon' shows that aired in the early 90s, this one will likely always be my favourite.

It's not what you would call the most obvious scenario in the world--take Baloo, Shere Khan and King Louie out of "The Jungle Book" and put them in the 1930s... in AIRPLANES. And yet, for whatever reason, it works. The world of Tale Spin is a world that is exciting, fun and a place that you actually want to visit.

Who knows if this one will ever make it out of the Disney vault again, but personally I'd love to see it.