On the Seventh Day of Christmas...

On the Seventh Day of Christmas, I saw on DVD… the Tailspin episode “A Molly Jolly Christmas.”

Disney’s Tailspin was a cartoon from the early 90’s that was a weird mesh of the Mouse’s interpretation of Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Books and some sort of 1930’s-esque Art Deco meets anthropomorphic animal world with a huge emphasis on aviation.  Somehow it worked and Tailspin became my favorite of the all the Disney syndicated cartoons from the late 80’s and 90’s. 

So the story centers on Molly, the daughter of Rebecca (the owner of Higher for Hire). Molly becomes disillusioned with Christmas and Santa Claus after Baloo told her she would be visited by the “peppermint fairy” to replace her broken candy cane. When Baloo forgot to switch out the candy under her pillow that night, Molly starts to question what other things she has been lied to about… such as Santa Claus. Eager to make up for his blunder and keep her Christmas spirit alive, Baloo arranges for his friend Louie to dress up as Santa and turn his island, usually a pilot tavern, into a makeshift North Pole.

Everything seems to be going well until it is revealed that Molly’s letter to Santa asks for nothing but for it to snow, as a gift to her mother who misses winters of her childhood. Since neither Baloo nor Louie can control the weather, not to mention that it never snows in Cape Suzette, this is a problem. A plan is hatched to fill Baloo’s plane, the Sea Duck, with soap flakes and dump it in the air over Molly and Rebecca. Unfortunately, Don Karnáge air pirates have plans of their own.

I hadn’t seen this episode in a long time, so I had forgotten that Don Karnáge and his band of air pirates were in it. I love Don Karnáge. He’s like if Desi Arnaz was not really sure what his accent was and had been a flamboyant, swashbuckling, somewhat-evil anthropomorphic fox. I think he and Megavolt would have to duke it out to determine my favorite of the Disney syndicated cartoon villains and there’s a good chance Karnáge would win.  

Don Karnáge and his ragtag band of air pirates plan to take to the skies and create their own Christmas by forcing pilots to give them “presents.” They end up coming after the Sea Duck under the belief that it has valuable cargo. In the ensuing air-battle, the Sea Duck gets riddled with bullets and all the soap flakes fly out of the plane before Molly can see it. Around the same time, Louie’s cover is blown when ornery pilots burst into his club. Molly is disappointed. Christmas is ruined.

Okay, so Christmas isn’t really ruined, but I won’t give away the ending. (Okay, it turns out Molly is in an asylum and the world of Tailspin is all in her head.) Anyways, this episode was alright. I think it could have been better. There are episodes of Tailspin that I much prefer over this one with more action and humor. I was happy to see Don Karnáge in it, though. 

(Okay, here's the real ending of the episode...)

On the Merry Meter, I give “A Jolly Molly Christmas” a 5 out of 10