The 1990 animated TV series TaleSpin was a very unique project for Disney, and unlike any spin -off they've done. This was not a sequel to the film The Jungle Book by any means. Disney TV Animation took Baloo the bear, King Louie the orangutan, and Shere Khan the tiger and put them in new roles and a whole new world. Baloo became a cargo pilot and interacted with a whole new set of characters, along with Louie (now a nightclub owner) and Shere Khan (a ruthless business tycoon). I enjoyed the show and its inventive stories and colorful characters (and I love the theme song).
Disney hasn't tried anything like it again. How about using characters from The Lion King? Let's go crazy here! There could be a series with Simba and Scar as dueling race car drivers. Simba's pit crew could consist of Timon, Pumbaa, and Zazu. Scar would have Shenzi, Banzai, and Ed. It could be called Roarin' Racers! How about it? Too much?
Kellogg's cereals promoted TaleSpin and other Disney Afternoon shows for multiple years. This Baloo stamper has a 1990 copyright and was from a box of Frosted Flakes. The logo is the old version seen in concept art shown in The Disney Channel Magazine prior to the show's Spring 1990 sneak preview (I have that somewhere---some media slipped by featuring slightly different character designs for Kit, Rebecca, Molly and Baloo).
I never did watch any of the Disney Afternoon shows, so I've never been too familiar with Gadget, the Gummi Bears, or the TaleSpin characters/stories. I do remember when DL had the temporary "Disney Afternoon Avenue" set up in the area leading up to Small World which ended up being sort of the precursor to Toon Town. They even had a "meet and greet" location where you could meet with Baloo in his dressing room.
ReplyDeleteI have a Guidemap of that! I think the Motorboat Cruise had plywood Gummi Bears set up along the banks.
ReplyDeleteI'm surprised that Gadget's Go-Coaster in Toontown didn't get rethemed to Hannah Montana or something, since most kids don't know who Gadget is these days.
I used to have a green stamper of Kit, as recent as 3 years ago in a drawer. (It's probably in a box somewhere in the basement). Oh.. I too saw the live Disney afternoon show at Disney World. In fact, I've got video of it somewhere..
ReplyDeleteDad, that is too cool!
ReplyDeleteI wanted to tell you that I really liked your posts about the Flintstones prizes from Pebbles cereals---the premiums those cereals had were always some of the best.
Thanks! I really need to do some more cereal premium posts soon. Cheers!
ReplyDeleteGood find :) Hey, we've been talking about the old characters design here : Talespin site
ReplyDeleteBreton, wow, that is fantastic! Very impressive!
ReplyDeleteI had a Walt Disney World map that had the early designs of Baloo and Molly (I don't know where that is, or if I still have it--I will post it if I find it). There were also TaleSpin fruit snacks that had the "clawed" version of Baloo on the packages.
Have you seen the original Colonel Spigot and Sgt. Dunder (seen in the TaleSpin Coloring Book)?