Stoo said:
One thing I realized while watching the episodes again, all these years later, is that Bon Chance Louie was once part of the French Foreign Legion with the classic, adventure character, Beau Geste. In one episode, he mentions the Blue Water Sapphire jewel and, in another, he talks about being at Fort Zinderneuf!
I've just finished that episode! Episode IV --
Legends are Forever.
The nod to the Blue Water Sapphire &
Beau Geste was a nice touch for fans of the genre, as was the obvious connection to H. Rider Haggard's
King Solomon's Mines. In fact, this was probably closest the entire series has become to being a classic action-adventure tale -- hidden villages, lost treasures and tribes, and a fantastic treasure! There's even a rope bridge! Yet, it all gets neatly subverted at the end to keep true to the series' core direction.
For me though, the best touch about that episode was the implication that Louie (who's quickly becoming my favorite character) was on Everest with George Mallory! And he (Louie) doesn't get why Jake thinks that's surprising. Louie's reaction to Jake's questioning is great.
Brief back story: George Mallory was part of the first three expeditions to Mount Everest that the British mounted. He and his climbing partner, Andy Irvine, disappeared a mere 800 feet from the summit in 1924. Which would have made the pair the first to have ever scaled the peak, well before Hillary & Norgay stepped into the history books. Irvine's body has never been found, but a colleague was the lucky so and so who discovered Mallory's body in '99, 75 years after the climber's death.
The following episode is a nice homage to
Papillon!
Stoo said:
When Le Sab & I went for beers (at The Trappist in Oakland) he clarified that he didn't mean the monkey statue but the actual animal which crawls around the bar. My misinterpretation. In case anyone else is interested to know...
Well, I thought I was pretty clear!
I would have said
statue if that's what I meant. Still, like you said, when Jake and Gandy Dancer* got into a scrap, Louie pulled the statue off the bar and gave it to Gushie. I would have preferred the monkey, but the blue & gold macaw has been amusing in his brief appearances.
Total bill for the damage: 920 francs!
* - Fun fact: Gandy Dancer is old railroad slang for the workers who laid and maintained the tracks.
Stoo said:
Damn! I was there in '99 and didn't even realize how close I was to The Monkey Bar set. Can you go inside?
I was wondering the same thing, but it only appears to be viewable from the tram ride through the backlot. It's been at least twenty years since I visited, but it appears to still be there as of 2009. Or, at least that's the most current reference I could find.
Stoo said:
...it's shocking to see how much emphasis is placed on BEER!
A man works up a powerful thirst after battling pirates and oversized monkeys! Oddly enough, TaleSpin has quite a few scenes in King Louie's bar/island thing. It's very odd for a cartoon, and especially a Disney cartoon.
InexorableTash said:
Huzzah! Now I can indoctrinate my spouse, who was a huge *Talespin* fan. And perhaps the offspring.
Speaking of TaleSpin, I did find the whole series on DVD for, like, twenty bucks rather recently. The packaging was better on the original release, but it was too nice a deal to pass up. I never did pick up the second season.
Anyway, it holds up remarkably well from a storytelling and characterization aspect. The animation is a bit dodgy in places, but I suspect that was part of the nineties' television budgetary constraints. I am rather amazed at how... "progressive" the show was when looking back on it all of these years later.
Spin it!
<iframe width="480" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/RVWKP9QPRjU" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Idris Elba is going to have a lot to live up to.
Stoo said:
- Plane: It suits Jake's needs because he also flies passengers around. The cleanliness isn't too much of a problem because those Grumman Gooses were brand new back then.
It's not a deal breaker, but the latest and greatest bits of technology hardly wend their out to remote atolls so early in their lifespan. Something like a Beech 18 converted for seaplane use is what I imagine. Though, if they fail to make the joke "Jake, your Goose is cooked!" I'll be mildly annoyed. It's a perfect setup!
Imagine what a modern update could be like if it were on HBO or something. And with the distant rumblings of classic pulp characters making their way to the big screen again, Cutter's Goose could definitely fly again!