The early-mid 1990′s represent a paramount in the quality of Disney’s cinematic and television animation. Among the myriad gems of Disney’s animated entourage is a wonderful show named TaleSpin, a cartoon that uses many characters from and is loosely based on the personages from the animated movie Jungle Book, with familiar anthropomorphic characters such as Baloo and Sher Kahn. The show won two Emmy awards for ’Outstanding Animated Program’ in 1990-1991, one for its 2-hour series pilot (television movie) episode “Plunder and Lightning,” and the other for the entire series as a whole. The show consists of sixty-five episodes and is loads of fun for all ages. The primary setting is the fictional city-state of Cape Suzette, located somewhere in the South Pacific islands during the 1930′s. Baloo, Rebecca Cunningham, her daughter Mollie, and the young orphan cub, Kit Cloudkicker, work together while at the same time building a unique surrogate family bond.
I watched TaleSpin back as a young child where I grew to love the characters and story. I have since rewatched the series as an adult, and I think I can honestly say I enjoy it even more now that I am older than when I was a member of its target audience. The stories are witty, complex, varied, and the series as a whole seeks to communicate a heartfelt message of overcoming adversity and learning to work together as family and friends. It is also presented in superb, rich animation. Unlike a majority of the cartoons of today, TaleSpin is a legitimate masterpiece of noteworthy quality that seeks to build character rather than numb minds.
That said, Kit Cloudkicker (presumably a stand-in for Mowgli from Jungle Book) is a uniquely complex character from Disney animation. Having had a rough start in life as an orphan (though his origins are never clearly stated), he joins the infamous air pirates of Don Karnage for about a year, before getting “sick of them” and accidentally running into Baloo whilst making a daring escape. Kit learns to trust Baloo, and with time they grow into a strong surrogate father-son relationship. Being a big Kit fan myself, I put together a little tribute video dedicated to him and some of his adventures and challenges.
Be sure to move your mouse pointer away from the actual video while playing it so as to avoid blocking it with the video’s control bar. The footage included within the video came from portions of nearly all of the series episodes, and was edited in Sony Vegas Pro 8. The music is “Breakaway” by Kelly Clarkson. It was a lot of work, so I hope you enjoy it!
For a larger version, click the “Vimeo” button/text on the bottom right of the video frame, or alternatively visit my YouTube version (original) here (be sure to click the “High Quality” (HQ) button).
Thanks for watching!
EDIT: Version 2 of my TaleSpin tribute video is now available for viewing exclusively here (embedded) and on Vimeo. This new revision fixes some minor transition errors in the first version and features new/modified footage in the form of overlays and additional cuts.
Hey Nigel!!
Love the rockin’ talespin video wow. I really could get the lyrics and the scenes that you applied to it, could really tell that you put a lot of thought in to, way to go. You should be proud of yourself.
Anna
Thanks Anna!
That was the goal, to match the lyrics with related scenes as best I could while at the same time managing to tell (or at least suggest) the overall story or theme.
As I mentioned in my post, TaleSpin is a cartoon with a very rich storyline and wonderfully developed characters, and almost all of the episodes teach one value or another, while at the same time managing to stay unique and interesting, even to adults as I have found.
Glad you enjoyed it and that it makes sense!
Outstanding video there Nigel. Being a Kit fan myself and one who has written about TaleSpin and Kit Cloudkicker it always warms my heart to see tribute videos of this heartwarming character. Well done.