- “Flying is what life's all about.”
- ―Baloo; uncut pilot[src]
Baloo is the main protagonist of The Disney Afternoon animated series TaleSpin. He is an anthropomorphic bear and an ace pilot who lives in the city of Cape Suzette.
He is based on the character of the same name from Disney's 1967 animated film The Jungle Book.
Background[]
Baloo lives in the city of Cape Suzette, where he runs his own air-freight shipping company, Baloo's Air Service. However, his business usually does not make enough profit, and when it does, Baloo is often too forgetful to pay his bills or the mortgage. As a result, the bank forecloses on Baloo's mortgage and repossesses his business, including his plane, the Sea Duck. It is quickly purchased by a businesswoman named Rebecca Cunningham, who changes the company's name to Higher for Hire. However, she has a hard time finding a pilot until she meets the unemployed Baloo, and rehires him as the main pilot for his former business, mainly due to the fact that, as the new owner, she has possession of the Sea Duck only until Baloo is able to pay her off, and reclaim ownership of it.
Baloo's best pal and foster son is a bear cub, named Kit Cloudkicker, a former air pirate, who used to work for Don Karnage, and now serves as Baloo's co-pilot on the cargo plane, the Sea Duck. His strange, but incredibly ingenious mechanic, Wildcat, takes care of all the equipment maintenance for Higher for Hire.
Baloo enjoys the good life, and can often be found hanging out in his pal Louie's tropical cabana night club. Baloo is constantly troubled by the business tycoon Shere Khan, the air pirate Don Karnage and the crazed military hog Colonel Spigot, among others.
Personality[]
Baloo is lazy, slobbish, unreliable and always broke. He will also selflessly come to the aid of those in need of help. His irresponsible behavior sometimes jeopardizes important situations, as seen in the episode "Your Baloo's in the Mail" when he fails to mail a winning ticket in the proper way, which puts Rebecca's ability to receive one hundred thousand dollars in prize money at risk. He also has a penchant for getting into schemes that require him to dress up in drag to suit the situation, such as when he became Rebecca's "female" co-pilot Tan-Margaret in the episode "Feminine Air".
Physical appearance[]
Like the original character, Baloo is a large bipedal sloth bear with dark-grey fur, light-grey muzzle, grey belly, and periwinkle muzzle. Although he still has claws on his toes like in The Jungle Book, he has none on his fingers in this series. He dresses in a light brown pilot shirt and a red pilot's cap.
Abilities[]
- Expert Pilot: Baloo is a highly skilled pilot. He is capable of flying most different types of aircrafts, such as airplanes.
Appearances[]
TaleSpin[]
Baloo first met Kit in "Plunder and Lightning" after fleeing from the Pirates with a precious jewel that was stolen by one of Khan's planes. (what the two of them do not know is that the jewel is a kind of miniature nuclear reactor, a one-of-a-kind fluke creation that can generate limitless energy). Kit follows Baloo's home in Cape Suzette. When they arrive, Baloo receives a warning from the national bank, who threaten to repossess his plane after neglecting his payments for months. Baloo tries to make quick cash by catching some Gorilla birds to sell at the zoo, but when Kit becomes captured by the pirates, he gives up the birds to save Kit. In gratitude for saving him, Kit tells him about the jewel and offers to share it with him to buy back the Sea Duck.
The next morning, Baloo and Kit meet their service's new owner, Rebecca Cunningham, who plans to turn Baloo's failing business into a real moneymaker. She also claims ownership of the Sea Duck, and Baloo has to pay her fifty thousand dollars to reclaim it. But until then, he is her staff pilot. Baloo agrees to this because he can get to Louie's this way. During their first delivery run, Baloo and Kit, along with Molly who stowed away, fly to Louie's to retrieve the jewel, only to be told by Louie it is not a jewel and therefore is worthless. But when Kit mentions that Don Karnage stole it from Shere Khan, Baloo takes another look at it, only to receive a shock from him, making him decide that it is still worth something. They return to Cape Suzette with the rock after escaping Air Pirates, and pay a visit to Mr. Khan the next day who promises to pay them handsomely for the stone's return. When Baloo and Kit head back to Higher for Hire to retrieve the stone, they discover that Rebecca and Molly have been kidnapped by Don Karnage in exchange for the stone.
With Kit's help, Baloo flies them to Pirate Island and rescues Rebecca and Molly. They also discover the pirates have created a lightning gun which they intend to use to plunder Cape Suzette. They try to sneak away with Baloo and Rebecca disguised as pirates and with the kids in sacks, but they get caught. To cover their escape, Kit pretends to rejoin the pirates and gives them the rock, but his acting angers Baloo, who ends up taking it too seriously. Baloo and the girls make their escape, not knowing Kit was faking. With the pirates unshakable, Baloo turns on an Overdrive function that allows them to get away very quickly, even though it would risk destroying the Sea Duck's engines if used for too long.
Upon returning to Cape Suzette, Baloo, fed up with everybody and being used, he packs his bags and flies away with the Sea Duck and pays Becky for it in the form of gold dust he swiped from the pirates earlier. On the night the pirates attack Cape Suzette, Baloo is staying at Louie's when he receives a radio call for help from Kit. Realizing he was wrong about Kit, he jumps back into his plane and flies back to Cape Suzette using Overdrive. Just as his engines catch fire, he makes it back in time to save Kit from falling. They return to Higher For Fire, and in spite of Baloo's suggestions to flee, Rebecca refuses to leave the city, and then states that she knows how to combat Karnage's Lightning Gun. They coat the Sea Duck with an armor of rubber, which deflects the Lightning Gun's attacks. Karnage tries sending his men to chase the Sea Duck, but they all end up getting lost along the way. Baloo then reluctantly flies the Sea Duck right into the Lightning Gun, sending it crashing into the sea. A week later, the Sea Duck is recovered and repaired, but since Rebecca paid for its repairs, she owns it again, so now Baloo becomes her staff pilot once again. Only this time, he accepts the job, saying it is only until he is able to buy it back again.
Throughout the series, Baloo and Kit get themselves involved in a series of adventures and misadventures around Cape Suzette or around the world. Some episodes involve Baloo conjuring up some quick get-rich schemes to buy back the Sea Duck. Unfortunately, his schemes often leave him nothing shortly after making a fortune. In "The Idol Rich", he and Kit recovered a lost Idol and made millions (though they had to take it back from Ivanod Spigot) only to have their fortune seized by Louie to pay off their tabs. In "Pizza Pie in the Sky", Baloo and Kit, along with Louie, started an air pizza delivery business, and made a great deal of money delivering two hundred pizzas, only to have their earnings taken to pay off several fines for health violations, leaving them with only a dollar.
Some of Baloo's schemes involve trying to cheat the system, as seen in "The Time Bandit", where he attempted to trick Rebecca into thinking it was Saturday instead of Friday so he could receive his paycheck early and attend a party at Louie's Place. He even went as far as pulling in a favor at a radio station to do a Saturday broadcast. However, his scheme caused mass confusion when Baloo was told to deliver a package to Thembria that was scheduled for Friday, nearly getting Rebecca executed.
Other appearances[]
In the episode "When Chaos Comes Calling" of Aladdin, Genie turns into Baloo and flies in the skies of Agrabah with the Zingalow. In this scene, he also transforms Jasmine into Rebecca Cunningham, Abu into King Louie, and Iago into Kit Cloudkicker (Genie even calls him "little britches"). These transformations here are a reference to TaleSpin.
Baloo's cameo in DuckTales.
Baloo appears on the TaleSpin logo in an ad for Higher for Hire in the DuckTales reboot episode, "The Lost Cargo of Kit Cloudkicker!"
At the end of Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers, Baloo can be seen on a street banner along with the Disney Afternoon characters.
Baloo makes an appearance in the Chibi Tiny Tales short "Happy Birthday, Disney Channel!" along with Kit and the Sea Duck, celebrating Disney Channel's birthday along with other chibi Disney characters.
Video games[]
TaleSpin[]
Baloo is the star of the TaleSpin games. This game involves the adventures of Baloo delivering cargo for Rebecca Cunningham. However, Shere Khan wants to put Rebecca out of business, so he hires Don Karnage and his air pirates to stall Baloo on his deliverers. In the NES and Gameboy games, Baloo has to deliver his cargo across the world while fighting the pirates who are trying to stop him. In the Sega game, Baloo and Kit face up against Shere Khan's company in a contest to earn a lifetime work contract from the city. This is a platformer for up to two players. In the TurboGrafx game, Louie tells Baloo of an ancient artifact, the pieces of which are scattered across the road.
Other games[]
Baloo sports his TaleSpin outfit in Disney Mirrorverse.
Disney Parks[]
Baloo and Louie, in their TaleSpin outfits, in Disney On Ice.
One of Baloo's most prominent roles at the parks was in the Plane Crazy stage show that ran at Disneyland as part of Disney Afternoon Avenue in 1991. In the stage show, he is recruited along with Chip and Dale and Launchpad McQuack to recover the X-22 spy jet when it is stolen by Don Karnage and Fat Cat.
He also sported his TaleSpin outfit during the 90's Nite and Disney Channel Nite at Disneyland and Halloween in Disney's California Adventure.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- In the episode "The Balooest of the Bluebloods", it is revealed that Baloo comes from a prominent noble family and that his full name is in fact "Baloo von Bruinwald XIII".
- Baloo was originally going to appear in a DuckTales episode that would have explored his fate alongside those of Rebecca Cunningham, Shere Khan, and the original Don Karnage. However, plans were scrapped after the series wasn't renewed for a fourth season.
- Phil Harris, the original voice for Baloo in The Jungle Book, was planned to reprise his role for TaleSpin. But unfortunately, after a few recording sessions, the crew realized that Harris couldn't match his comedic tone for Baloo he had back then. He was replaced with Ed Gilbert in the final show. The episodes Harris recorded for before being recast were "I Only Have Ice for You", "Time Waits for No Bear", "A Touch of Glass", and "A Bad Reflection on You" (Part 1).[1]
- To perfect his rendition of Baloo's voice, Gilbert listened to old vintage recordings of Phil Harris and practiced for many hours until he had it just right.
See also[]
- Baloo
- Baloo (Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book)
- Baloo (The Jungle Book: Mowgli's Story)
- Baloo (The Jungle Book 2016)
References[]
External links[]
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