Baloo von Bruinwald XIII is the main protagonist of The Disney Afternoon animated series TaleSpin. In this series, Baloo and other characters live in a world of anthropomorphic animals that wear clothing and live in large cities.
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.
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.
Baloo is the star of the TaleSpin games. This game involves the adventures of Baloo and Kit, two bears delivering cargo for Rebecca Cunningham, another bear as well as their boss. However, Shere Khan, the evil tiger tycoon, wants to put Rebecca out of business, so he hires pirates, led by Don Karnage, to do his dirty work. 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.
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.[1]
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.
