TaleSpin: The Canadian Connection
TaleSpin: The Canadian Connection

Various notes, in a vain attept to add something to this page... But there is a connection. ;-)



Animation Errors

Believe it or not, there are differences in the Canadian episodes of TaleSpin compared to that of the American; there are errors in episodes that were aired in Canada that were actually corrected in those showed in the U.S.! Don't know if any other Canadian fans of the show ever noticed this... I only noticed because I used to watch the show first on a Canadian channel, then an American channel on the same day (yes, I liked it that much ;)P. My theory to why these errors were left in the ones shown in Canada is that they had to send the episodes up here early, so they could be aired on time... Either that, or it's a plot by capitalist American swine to sell an inferior product to their Northern neighbours, confident that they wouldn't notice (Sorry... Thembrian moment :-). Anyways, they made up for it; the episodes shown on the Family Channel (our version of the Disney Channel) are the corrected versions, although woefully edited for time. :-P

Enough of my ranting; here's a list of errors that I've I caught. They're listed from least noticable, to "What the heck is going on here?!" ;-) These errors tend to occur in the episodes that were aired in the second half of the season (i.e. aired in '91).

"Jolly Molly Christmas"
On Pirate Island, Karnage has just lectured his minions on how "Bad is good!" When he says "Christmas only comes once a year!" in the Canadian version, there is a small but noticable coloration error on Karnage; in the U.S. version, this is corrected.

"Bygones"
At the end of the episode, there is a close-up of pages from Baloo's Rick Skye comic. In the American version, the camera pans across the two pages; in the Canadian version, it only shows the last page.

"Mach One for the Gipper"
After Baloo and Wildcat are chased into a cave by Ace London and the Air Pirates, Wildcat suggests to Baloo to use the secret engine to escape. Baloo replies "Absolutely perfect!" In the Canadian version, the background behind Baloo is mistakenly shown as the sky, instead of the cockpit of the Sea Duck. Then, later on when the Sea Duck crashes inside the Iron Vulture, there are some colouring mistakes on Karnage. Both these mistakes were corrected in the U.S. version.


Changed scene, U.S. version --Stuck on You
"Stuck on You"
Now here's where it gets interesting... After Baloo gets off the phone with the glue factory, he re-enters the office, and Rebecca waves his plane keys coyly at him. The difference here is Rebecca is drawn differently in both versions! In the Canadian version the shot is further away; in the American version, the shot is a close-up, with a different pose and with more expression.

"Ransom of the Red Chimp"
Here's the most noticably edited of the bunch. A furious Don Karnage confronts Aunt Louise at the helm of the Iron Vulture... And gets more than he bargains for. ;-) This whole scene is different in both versions! Karnage's expressions differ in both versions, and in the Canadian one, when Karnage bangs his head on a pipe, this action is covered by another pipe. In the American, you can see it clearly. As I mentioned before, I used to watch both versions on the same day when TS first aired, and this discrepancy left me very confused for a long time... ;)P Not to mention the other less noticable corrections (Karnage being hit by pies, the spotlights in the hangar of the Iron Vulture).

Well, that all... That I know of. ;-) No, I'm not kidding about these mistakes; they're absolutely true! (I bought the fourth TS video in the U.S. because of this!)


French TaleSpin

French Canadian TaleSpin, that is. :-) This version is known as "Looping", as opposed to the one in France, which is known as "Superbaloo". As far as I know, the names of the main characters remain the same; however, names of other things are different. For example, "Higher for Hire" is known as "Loop-de-Loop" (a reference to the title, I assume) and I believe the Sea Duck is called L'Ongle L'Eau, or Claw of the Water.

One other interesting fact about the French version involves Don Karnage. His dubbed voice is a faithful reproduction of the excellent job done by Jim Cummings, with all the charisma of the original. However, the most notable quality of this is his accent (but isn't it always! ;-). The French Karnage tends to end a couple of his words with -age (pronounced like his name), even if the word doesn't end with that sound(!). I remember a friend telling me that -age sound indicates an Argentinian accent, once again pointing to Karnage's possible S. American origins. Cool, huh? :-)


Aircraft

Do you recall Wiley Pole, from "A Bad Reflection on You"? (He's also a minor background character in some episodes). Recognize the plane he flies? It's a DeHavilland Mosquito or DH-98, a rather anachronistic choice of aircraft, since the plane was first built in 1942 (TaleSpin is set in the late 30's). It appears to be a modified version, since Wiley's has pontoons for water landings.

Oh, and did you know there's a Canadian version of the Sea Duck? Take a look and judge for yourself: http://www.superscooper.com/

The aircraft is a CL-415, a sea plane by Canadair. It was developed in the fall of 1991 (which incidently, is a year after TaleSpin debuted. Coincidence? I think not. ;-) Although I'll admit the design is similar to their previous version (CL-215), it still doesn't explain that particular paint job...

I actually saw this plane a while ago... My father is an aircraft assembler at DeHavilland, and at one of their company picnics they had a display of various airplanes... This was one of them. Actually, I thought it was a really ugly plane at the time (someone had painted it chartreuse! :-P). But when I took a closer look, I thought, "Hey! It's the Sea Duck!" :-) Sure, the engines are on top of the wings and it lacks the twin tail booms, but it just had to have been inspired by the Sea Duck, don't you think? ;-)


---Aviatrix 8:-)<


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