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Kit attempts to let nerdy Oscar Vandersnoot join the Jungle Aces, much to the dismay of the rest of the group. According to the rules, anyone can join if they're had an adventure. Since Oscar hasn't ever had any experience remotly close to an adventure, Kit, Baloo and Wildcat come up with a sceme to give Oscar a fake one, which in the end turns out to be not-so-fake.

Starring:
Kit, Karnage, Baloo, Wildcat

Appearances by:
Rebecca, Maddog, Dumptruck, most of the other pirates, the Jungle Aces

Other/New Characters:
Oscar Vandersnoot, Mrs. Vandersnoot

We being in the headquarters of the Jungle Aces, where Kit is giving a dramatic reinactment of his adventure. He looks so cute - he borrowed Molly's Danger Woman sieve just for the occasion!
His story concludes and everyone cheers. The five of them then launch into the Jungle Ace's chant:

Pick 'em up, knock 'em down
Hit 'em hard, make'em frown
Over Sea's, in the sky
Jungle Ace's flying high
Flying Aces!

Cute :)

Ernie then takes over the podium - the obvious leader of the group. Although I seriously wonder why. Kit is so much better leader material. Though, I also confess that I have a bias against Ernie - I've never liked him! The Jungle aces only appear in two episodes of Talespin - this one (Captains Outrageous, for those who skipped reading the title...) and in Bullethead Baloo. He's so mean towards Oscar in this episode, and in Bullethead Baloo he's a right little sh*t towards Baloo and quite the arrogent little brat toward that robot MEL... I guess that last one's understandable considering MEL's a bad guy :) But, in general, I just don't like Ernie's attitude. Kit's a good kid - seems like he's mixing with the wrong crowd. Oh well. Anyway, moving on from my Ernie blab and getting back to this ep:

Ernie stands behind podium and bangs it with a mullet a few times, and announces that the meeting Jungle Ace's Secret Midnight Club is now in order. (Hmm... A midnight club that meets in broad daylight... How odd!) He announces that Kit wants to present a friend of his for membership. Kit walks over to the door, kicking a chair out the way as he goes, and rolls down the window.
Enter Oscar Vandersoot (hitting his head on the way in). This kid really is such a little nerd! With those glasses that are almost as big as his head, and the hair that looks like you could pull it right off his head and use it as a magazine rack or something... I just love him! :)
Oscar's entrance is greeted with a chorus of "Oh no, not Vandersnoot!"

Ernie: "You can't nominate Oscar Vandersnoot. He's a walking disaster area, like zero!"
Kit: "The rules say anyone can join if they're had an adventure. I'm sure Oscar's had lots of them!"
Oscar: "Not... really..."
Kit: "Ever been in an air plane?"
Oscar: "No"
Kit: "Motor boat?"
Oscar: "No"
Kit: "Race car?"
Oscar: "My mum says they're too dangerous"
Kit: "Well, you ever ride a bike?"
Oscar: "Mum won't let me have one"
Ernie: "He's just not Jungle Ace material"
Oscar: "Yeah I know" (blows his nose on the curtain) "If it was my club, I wouldn't want me either"

All together - Awwww! I gotta admit, I do feel sorry for the lil sprat. Kit, being the kind hearted kid that he is, comes to Oscar's resuce. He grabs his hand and leads him out of the club, telling him they're going to get him an adventure! I'm not sure how they actually exit the clubhouse though... They walk in the opposite direction from the door! Did anyone else notice this?!

So, Kit and Oscar head back toward Higher For Hire. They pass through a kind of construction site, where Oscar attemps to jump a mud puddle but falls in instead.

Oscar: "Is this an adventure?"
Kit: "No, that's falling in the mud!"

They come to the fence surrounding the area. Kit scales it without a problem, while Oscar struggles to climb it. While they're busy doing this, they are unaware that they're being watched by Maddog and Dumptruck, who are currently on the radio to Karnage.

Maddog: "We got Vandersnoot in our sites. But somebody's with him... It's another boy... Looks like K-Kit Cloudkicker! What should we do?"
Karnage: "That boy of Baloo's is less than something to me. The rich one I can ransom for a reasonably enormous fortune! Wait until he is alone, and then capture him into your clutches!"

Kit scales the fence without a hitch and disappears over the other side, and we're left watching cute n clumsy Oscar hanging from the top of the fence trying and follow. Seeing Oscar alone, Maddog and Dumptruck sneak up behind him and are about to make capture, when the fence board Oscar's hanging onto comes loose and smacks the two of them out. Bwahahaha!

Oscar: "Was that an adventure?"
Kit: "No, that's getting hung up by the shorts..."

Finally, the two reach Higher For Hire. Oscar spies Baloo sleeping in a hammock and is totally awestruck
("Is that who I think it is?")
Baloo chooses that moment to chomp on a few grapes while still sleeping (wow, now that's talent!) and lets out a nice loud snore. Kit, doing a little on the spot thinking, tells Oscar that Baloo's saving up energy for their next big mission (Oscar: "Wow!"). So cute and yet so gulible.
They then head over to Wildcat's house, where Wildcat is found tinkering with a tank.. Umm, pardon me, I mean 'tinkering with a super secret anti-pirate weapon'. Silly me. At that moment, Dumptruck had been spying on the trio through the window, thus overhearing that they have a secret weapon. Ooooooo!
Wildcat is about to tell them that it's actually nothing special, when he tinkers just a little to much and accidently sends the tank rocketing around the room. He yells for the kids to hit the deck, and the tank zooms straight through the window hence smashing into Dumptruck (guess he picked the wrong moment to eavsdrop). The tank (with Dumptruck) zooms past Baloo, causing him to tumble from his hammock, collects Maddog in its flight and crashes into the construction site, causing the building to literally collapse. Wow, guess the apparant weapon sorta actually worked :)

Oscar: "Was that an adventure Kit?"
Kit: "No, that was a disaster!"

Poor Oscar... He's trying :) Meanwhile, Maddog and Dumptruck are now totally convinced that the weapeon is for real, and decide they'd better get to the radio to inform Karnage.

Now, we move into Rebecca's office where Kit is asking/pleading with Rebecca to let Oscar fly with him and Baloo, so he can have an adventure that will get him into the club. Baloo's happy with the idea ("Sounds good to me, we got adventures we haven't even used yet!"). Rebecca is jubious, so Kit jumps in with cunning persuasive techniques:

Kit: "The Vandersnoot's could be big clients!"
(Rebecca's eye's light up)
Rebecca: "Ooooo K. Oscar can fly with you on tomorrow's delivery run! If he gets his Mom's permission"

Oscar voices that delivering vegetables doesn't sound overly adventurous. Baloo reassures him, saying that that's only a secret code and that they are really delivering a super secret anti-pirate weapon! (Duh).

The next morning at Higher For Hire, Kit and Wildcat are in a (rented) red plane (with a scary face painted on the front) dressed as pirates. They're just finalizing their plans with Baloo - to meet him mid-air and pretend to attack the Sea Duck as pirates. This scene is funny! Kit does an adorable little show of pretending to fire imaginary plane guns, then collapsing in a fit of laughter. And Wildcat - well, the whole concept is totally confusing to him! We hear a car horn indicating that Oscar's just arrived, so Kit and Wildcat take off (with strict orders from Baloo to be careful with the rented plane). Wildcat still has no idea what's going on :)
Mrs. Vandersnoot emerges from her limo, followed by a reluctant Oscar who's got so much protective gear on I'm surpirsed he could actually stand up, let alone walk! He's standing around looking sorry for himself (while Rebecca and Mrs. Vandersnoot converse) when Baloo signals him from around the corner. Oscar runs around to the dock, to find Baloo leaning casually (looking quite dashing, actually!) against a newly polished and shining Sea Duck. Awestruck, he follws Baloo aboard, and spies the secret weapon. He also notices a couple vegies peeking out from under a cover, which Baloo casually kicks out of view. To avoid the topic of vegetables, Baloo suggests that Oscar ditch the 'extra amour'. Oscar is delighted, saying that his Mom is always afraid he'll get hurt. (Baloo: "Yeah, kinda figured that).
Since Kit can't come along on this delivery (cause he's running an "errand") Oscar is titled co-pilot. Baloo does an impressive take off followed by a few stunts, much to the dismay of Mrs. Vandersnoot (who runs after the plane asking Oscar if he's got his vitamin pills, allergy pills, air sickness pills, blah blah blah), and the two head off, Baloo telling Oscar to keep his eyes peeled for pirates.

Meanwhile, Wildcat and Kit and circling in their plane, waiting for the SeaDuck to show up, when a shadow is cast over them. The two look up to find the Iron Vulture flying overhead, then the beak opens and they are captured by the pirates.

Karnage: "What nincompoopery is this!? Any silly fool can see this is not the Sea Duck"
(to Kit and Wildcat)
Karnage: "These friends of Baloo are usless. They have no money, bad breath and their mother dresses them in the silly clothes"

Hehehehe. Kit, looknig defiant, tells Karnage that he's not afraid of him, and that he should watch who he's calling usless. Wildcat agrees ("Yeah! What he said") only to be whacked over the head by Dumptruck. I love this bit - Karnage growls! Call me crazy, but it cracked me up! Karnage grabs Kit and warns him to shut his mouth, then turns smug again as his 'incredibly calculating mind' comes up with a use for them after all.

Getting back to the Sea Duck, Oscar is taking his job of pirate watch very seriously, keeping a constant eye on the skies with the aid of a telescope. In a paniced stutter, he tells Baloo he see's p-p-pirates! Baloo, thinking it's Wildcat and Kit, causally tells Oscar that they're show those pirates a thing or two. But of course, in zoon the real pirates in their CT-37's, guns blazing. Baloo attemps to outfly them, heading into Deadman's Cave. He tells Oscar to hit the lights, but Oscar being the little clutz that he is pulls the wrong knob, releasing the vegies in the back but actually managing to knock out a bunch of pirates ("Nice move, slick!"). Oscar tries for the lights again and this time hits the right one. They approach a skull shaped rock, where Baloo reveals to Oscar that this cave is a dead end. Oscar buries his face in the seat, and Baloo flies straight into the skulls mouth, then U-turns out through its eyes. The pirates, no so bright, follow him in and crash into the back wall. Yay, the Sea Duck made it out!

As soon as they fly out of the cave, a giant claw thing clamps a hold of the Sea Duck, and Karnage's conceited introduction blares out over the loud speaker

Baloo: "What's that two-bit buckaneer want... I ain't got nothing to say to you, Karnage!"
Karnage: "Well then, perhaps you would like to says 'ello' to your friends, who even now are enjoying my hospitablness. Surrender your secret weapon and i will let them go. Maybe even alive"

Dumptruck then uncovers the struggling Kit's mouth, who grabs hold of the radio and tells Baloo not to surrender and to save himself. Hearing Kit's voice, Baloo agrees to Karnage's demands without a second thought. He loves that Kid. Kit and Wildcat are then escorted to the brigg (not gently), Wildcat being carried off by Dumptruck and Kit practically getting his ear yanked off by Gibber.

Back in the Sea Duck, Oscar asks Baloo if they're going to "blast them out of the sky" with the secret weapon. Baloo relectantly admits that there is no secret weapon, and that this whole adventure was a set-up to get him into the club - Oscar is devestated. Poor kid :( Baloo says he's got a plan, and throws two bags of potatoes attatched to parachutes out of the plane, fooling the pirates into believing that he and Oscar bailed out. Once the Sea Duck is aboard the Vultrue, Karnage takes the weapon and gleefully heads off to torchure it's secrets out of Kit and Wildcat. Gotta love his walk here - feet turned out, walking like a duck hehehe.

In the brigg, Karnage is berrarting Kit and Wildcat for the secrets of the 'weapon' and getting mightly frustrated when Kit tells him it's a fake. Gibber brings over a chest, and Karnage pulls out a scary looking tiger paw glove, complete with claws. Looks like Shere Khan's hand!

Karnage: "Very well... You force me to do terrible things that I enjoy doing anyway!"

Back to the Sea Duck, Baloo arms himself with a stick of dynamite, tells Oscar to sit tights, and crawls off to rescue Kit and Wildcat. There's a little scene here that's been cut out, where Oscar picks up a box of matches and calls after Baloo, trying to tell him that he forgot them. Disney seems to have something against matches and /or fire... There's also a scene in another ep, 'Last Horizons', where a part is cut where Baloo strikes a match and lights a rocket.

So Baloo appraoches the brigg, to hear Kit and Wildcat screaming. These are pretty horrific screams! Kit especially - sounds like he's really in agony. Baloo searches his pockets, and finally realized he's forgotten the matches. He is discovered by Maddog, who escorts him to the brigg to join the torchure session. Karnage is thrilled (he'll torchure all three of them for the price of one - sooo generous!). Wildcat points out that the pirates havn't caught Oscar, but Baloo dismisses the thought thinking that Oscar wouldn't have a hope of saving them. From behind the wall, we hear Oscar chanting the Jungle Aces chant, followed by a massive bang and he detonates the dynamite and blows down the wall. And Karnage growls again! I love it, love it! So in comes Oscar, walking throught the smoke like he's out for a Sunday morning stroll. We walks past the pirates, up to Baloo, and asks what he should do next

Baloo, Kit and Wildcat: "RUN!!!"

Duh kiddo. But, too late. Karnage grabs him, gives him a complement (sort of) telling him he's brave, and that for that he'll reduce his ransom to a mere million dollars. How nice of him. Luckily, Oscar gets cluey and strikes a bargain with Karnage - if he lets Baloo, Kit and Wildcat go, he'll show him how the secret weapon works.

Karnage: "Oh yes, the secret weapon! Son-a-gun I was having so much fun torchuring I almost forgot!"

Not wanting to share the weapon's secret, Karnage tells the other pirates to close their eyes and cover their ears. Remembering what happened when Wildcat twisted the cap, Oscar repeats the same action sending the tank flying at Karnage, who is taken unwillingly on a flight around the vulture. While Karnage is zooming around the room, Oscar sneaks up behind Dumptruck (who still has his eyes and ears covered) and takes the keys from his belt. His tosses the keys to Baloo, who (damn quickly) frees himself, Kit and Wildcat. The four of them bolt towards the Sea Duck, where the tank (and Karnage) crash land causing the tank to explode, and sending Wildcat, Kit, Oscar and Baloo (in that order) packing in a heap. How the heck did the kids not get squished by Baloo!? They just hopped up and kept running, not a wince! Second time lucky Baloo, Kit and Wildcat jump into the Sea Duck, which topples out of the hole Karnage's expolosion made and starts to fall. Kit yells for Oscar to jump, but Karnage grabs a hold of his collar. Oscar gives Karny's finger a good chomp causing Karnage to drop him (with a yelp of pain).

The Sea Duck's falling toward the ocean, and Baloo's frantically pressing the starter button over and over with no success. Baloo yells for Kit to grab a hold of Oscar, but Kit's one step ahead of him and already running toward the back door... Or at least trying to. Kinda hard to run straight when your on boad a falling plane. He flicks open his air foil, grabs the tow rope and jumps out the back. Meanwhile, Baloo's still in a panic while Wildcat plays with the wires telling him it'll be fixed in a jiffy. Ah, Wildcat. Always good to have a calm head around in a crisis. In the nick of time, the engines start and Kit manages to grab a hold of Oscar. Baloo pulls up just before the plane hits the ocean, and Kit and Oscar skip across the water a few times before becoming air born.

Oscar: "Now are we having an adventure?"
Kit: "You'd better believe it!"

Yaaay! He finally got his adventure! The Sea Duck heads back to Higher For Hire, where Mrs. Vandersnoot is in a tizz with worry ("If anything happened to my Oscar"... If she only knew). She see's Oscar cloudsurfing with Kit, and is so shocked that she faints! Hahahahaha! And Rebecca tries to catch her! Priceless. Then they have to fly by the Jungle Aces, of course, who all cheer when they see the airsurfing duo. They even made it into the paper - a cute pic of Kit and Oscar with the headline "Kids Foil Kidnap Plot".

Back at the secret midnight club, Ernie announces that Oscar is named honary president. Weird... If Oscar's going to be president, does that mean Ernie's demoted? I'm assuming he would not be too thrilled with this prospect. But, alas, Oscar is not present at the meeting. Instead, he's on a roller coaster with his mum! He's finally getting out there and living a little :)

Quote Of The Episode
Karnage: "I am beginning to have the faintest twinge of regret..."

Baloo: "We got adventures we haven't even used yet!"

Karnage: "That boy of Baloo's is less than something to me"

Wildcat: "Did somebody turn off the sun?"

Karnage: "These friends of Baloo are usless. They have no money, bad breath and their mother dresses them in the silly clothes"

Karnage: "Let us not be the hasty puddings..."

Karnage: "A moment, please... So I can free you from your miserable hides!"

Oscar blowing his nose on the curtain

Kit conning Rebecca into letting Oscar fly with him and Baloo. Clever kid!

Rebecca sucking up to Mrs. Vandersnoot

Oscar's "armor"

Kit and Wildcat dressed as pirates

Karnage growling. Twice!!

Karnage's method of torchure. Hey, those claws on the chalkboard can be agonizing :)

Karnage zooming around the vulture on the tank

I love this episode :)

Oscar and Mrs. Vandersnoot are really terrific one-shot characters. Oscar's that nerdy little kid at school - we've all been there and seen that kid! (Or, perhaps even been that kid). The overprotective parent gig was played up to the hilts - so much that it just got silly. Oscar would be, what, somewhere between 8 and 10 years old perhaps? What kind of mother has a kid that age on that much medication? Vitamin pills, air sickness pills, allergy pills... Poor little sprat. Rebecca tried sooo hard to suck up to Mrs. Vandersnoot. Shameful. But funny!

Karnage, as always, was a hoot in this episode. When you're watching any episode of Talespin and Karnage appears for the first time, your face cracks into a smile cos you know it'll be funny. Come on - I know you know what I'm talking about :) Maddog and Dumptruck were good in this one too - duped by a couple of kids who weren't even trying to dupe them. Wildcat acted typically of Wildcat - totally clueless. I loved when Dumptruck knocked Wildcat out - one knock on the head and he was out like a light with that stoopid expression on his face.

It was also nice to see the Jungle Aces. I can't say I fully understand why Kit hangs around with them though... He is sooo much more mature than the rest of them, and Ernie is such an arrogent little tyke. Kit's a strong personality and doesn't take any crap from adults, let alone kids. He still has that 'ex-pirate', kinda arrogent attitude hiding in him, and it seems like he sort of let's Ernie boss everone around. Although - despite his past life and experiences, it's often overlooked that Kit is still only 12 years old! It's nice seeing his child side creep out when he's around the Jungle Aces, and also when he spends time with Molly. I also think it was really nice of Kit to stand up for nerdy little Oscar! He's got a big heart.

Overall, I really liked this episode. It's fun, and the story line was very cleverly executed. You could just see the disaster coming before it happened. I especially liked the end - Oscar on the rollercoast with his mum, who's yelling "Are you sure this is safe?!" and Oscar replying with a "Yaaa-hooooo!" Quality :)

Well, I think that's it for this one. Til next time! - Lee ^-^