Della, Huey, and Dewey are searching for one of Isabella Finch's missing mysteries, the Stone of What Was, that was last seen when the showboating pilot Kit Cloudkicker lost it. They have no choice but to recruit Kit to take them to the island where he lost the Stone, which since then got overrun by monsters created by the Stone's power. Unfortunately, F.O.W.L. hires Don Karnage to find the very same treasure.
Tropes:
- Adaptational Badass:
- In The Wuzzles, Rhinokey was a goofy prankster, and Butterbear was a cute, naive girl. Here, both of them are gigantic, powerful monsters.
- In TaleSpin, Molly Cunningham was a cute little girl who usually wandered in danger and had to be rescued. In this episode she's grown up, was the best student at flying school, and is now an Ace Pilot stuntswoman and the star and leader of a flying circus.
- Kit himself show shades of this. While he was always badass to an extent he was still a teen and had to fight with his wits and was usually helpless if the pirates actually caught due to being a somewhat scrawny kid. Now he's a full grown bear with the size and brawn to match and can outright physically fight the pirates in the air on his board.
- Adaptation Dye-Job: The original Butterbear had yellow fur. Here, she has brown fur.
- Adaptational Nonsapience: In The Wuzzles, Rhinokey and Butterbear were fully sapient, anthropomorphic creatures. Here, they are gigantic, animalistic, aggressive beasts, fused from regular non-anthropomorphic animals.
- Adaptation Species Change: The original Rhinokey was half-monkey according to his name. Here, he is half-gorilla.
- Adaptational Villainy:
- In The Wuzzles, Rhinokey was a mischievous, but well-meaning prankster. Here, he's a giant Killer Gorilla armed with a rhino's horn.
- Butterbear also gets this to some extent. In The Wuzzles, she was a sweet girl and the nicest of the cast. Here, she is a vicious butterfly-winged bear that attacks anyone she sees, although she ends up becoming friendly to Della.
- An Aesop: You shouldn’t try to do something just because your idol does it, you feel like you're expected to do it, or feel like it’s more impressive than what you’re doing now. Do something that you like doing and are good at.
- Age Lift: Don Karnage appears to be roughly the same age as Kit and Della, making him much younger than Baloo in this continuity.
- Amazing Technicolor Wildlife: Rhinokey is magenta and yellow, neither of which are colors of gorillas or rhinos.
- Ambiguous Situation:
- Although Baloo does exist in this continuity, his whereabouts are made unclear. All we know for sure is that he passed his company on to Kit.
- Likewise for characters like Rebecca, who isn't even mentioned at all.
- Androcles' Lion: The Butterbear saves Della and flies away with her, as well as the Stone of What Was, because she helped free her from her cocoon inadvertently. When they part ways, she pats her neck affectionately and she licks her affectionately.
- As You Know: One of Don Karnage's minions re-relays to him in full the information that they're being paid by F.O.W.L. to retrieve the Stone of What Was that he told to them in the first place. Don Karnage mocks her for it.
- Don Karnage: Yes, Peg-Leg Meg, thank you for quoting me to me.
- Attack! Attack... Retreat! Retreat!:
- First happens when Don Karnage encourages Hardtack Hattie to lift the Stone of What Was:Don Karnage: Yes! Go you freak of nature! Go!
[The stone glows and merges Hardtack Hattie with an ant, and she screams in terror at her now insectoid body.]
Don Karnage: No you freak of nature! No! - Next when Kit and Dewey are in the air:Kit: [to Dewey] You can stop screaming now!
[Don Karnage cuts the rope]
Kit: You can start screaming now! - Later, when Della is flying Butterbear and fleeing from the sky pirates:Della: I gotta get off this bear!
[She almost falls off dodging one of the pirates' harpoons]
Della: I gotta stay on this bear!
- First happens when Don Karnage encourages Hardtack Hattie to lift the Stone of What Was:
- The Bad Guy Wins: Don Karnage is still able to successfully secure a piece of the Stone of What Was, meaning that both Clan McDuck and F.O.W.L. themselves have a hand on the artifact.
- The Beastmaster: Della successfully wrangles the bear-butterfly monster, turning it into her flying mount.
- Be Yourself: What Dewey and Kit learn at the end of the episode.
- Berserk Button: Dewey is outraged when Huey calls his landing "basic" and purposefully crashes his landing just to prove that he isn't basic.
- Blatant Lies: Any claim Kit makes about how good a pilot he is, or how well his business is doing.
- Body Horror: The Stone of What Was fuses several of Don Karnage's pirates together with the island's wildlife and each other; the results are not pleasant.
- The Bus Came Back: Don Karnage makes his first appearance since "GlomTales!".
- Call-Back:
- Della is once again teaching Dewey to fly a plane like back in "Raiders of the Doomsday Vault!".
- The Papyrus of Binding can be seen in Isabella Finch's journal near the start of the episode, revealing it to be one of her Missing Mysteries.
- Canon Welding: Not only do Kit Cloudkicker and Molly Cunningham from TaleSpin join their old enemy Don Karnage as characters existing in the DuckTales (2017) continuity (with a brief mention of Baloo existing too), but the monsters on the island are more animalistic versions of the eponymous creatures from The Wuzzles.
- Casting Gag: Kit and Molly are voiced by Adam Pally and Eliza Coupe, who costarred in Happy Endings. Pally played an irresponsible slacker, much like this version of Kit, while Coupe's character was a successful business woman like what Molly has become.
- Character Development: Della knows very well that her actions and recklessness endangered her children. She makes an effort to be a reasonable parent while giving Dewey flying lessons.
- Embarrassing Nickname: Della didn't remember Kit's real name, but calls him "Kit Skyprancer". He looks embarrassed after being called that, and says he hadn't heard that in a while.
- Everyone Went to School Together: Della, Kit, and Molly apparently went to pilot school together. While Kit remembers her, Della only remembers Molly.
- Foreshadowing: For both Dewey and Kit. Dewey is shown to be progressing very well in his piloting skills, but he can't help going off the rails to have some sort of extreme action to satisfy his needs. Kit, despite being bigger, is still a very good cloudkicker, but he believes flying is his thing even though he can't help being too reckless in his flying. Both of them realize later that it's best to not let go of what they're good at.
- Furry Confusion: Kit Cloudkicker is an anthropomorphic bear (and he identifies as one, saying "I'm perfectly proportionate for a bear of my size"). One of the island monsters is a non-anthropomorphic bear-butterfly hybrid. Don Karnage claims he's afraid of bears, but apparently that does not include anthropomorphic bears like Kit. Hilariously, both Kit and the bear have a stare down before Kit promptly runs away screaming.
- Fusion Dance: The Stone of What Was fuses together two animals (including anthropomorphic ones) touching it at the same time. This could be two different species or two individuals of a single one into a Body Horror abomination.
- Generation Xerox:
- The episode shows that Dewey wants to become an Ace Pilot, just like his mother.
- Adult Kit is basically a Palette Swap of Baloo, and is attempting to follow in his footsteps as a pilot (with mixed results).
- At the episode's end, Molly having the deed to the Sea Duck and hiring Kit as part of her business mirrors Rebecca's retaining Baloo as her pilot when she got the Sea Duck in TaleSpin.
- Giant Flyer: The bear-butterfly monster is a lot larger than a regular bear, but is still able to fly with its massive butterfly wings.
- Giant Footprint Reveal: On the island, Huey finds giant, three-hooved footprints and wonders what kind of animal could have made them... promptly before getting attacked by the beast that made the footprints, Rhinokey.
- Hero-Worshipper: Not only does Dewey hero-worship Kit, but Kit hero-worshipped Baloo.
Word of God is that Kit has ended up the way he has because "this is who Kit would have turned into if he continued his Baloo hero worship". - History Repeats: Kit spent years trying to live up to Baloo's expectations as an Ace Pilot but ends up losing his plane to his childhood friend Molly, after failing to keep up his payments. Unlike Baloo in Talespin, doing everything he can to get it back from Rebecca, Kit decides to fold and join Molly's circus.
- Hypocritical Humor: Della initially refuses to board Kit's plane, calling it a "heap". Kit points out her own plane isn't any better, seeing as it was smoking and sinking into the ocean as they spoke.
- I Am Big Boned: When Don Karnage calls Kit heavy, he responds with "I am perfectly proportioned for a bear of my size".
- I Just Want to Be Special: Dewey’s biggest problem with his flight training is that he thinks flying a plane smooth and steady is too mundane for him and thinks it’s something anyone can do. He realizes how important of a skill it really is after Kit admits he can’t do it.
- Island of Mystery: The island became the home to one of Isabella Finch's Missing Mysteries, the Stone of What Was, after Kit Cloudkicker lost it during a mission years ago.
- Isle of Giant Horrors: An island where Kit lost the Stone of What Was became overrun by Mix-and-Match Critters fused by the Stone's magic, some of which have grown into humongous monsters.
- Kid Hero All Grown-Up: This incarnation of Kit Cloudkicker is now an adult instead of a 12-year-old. Similarly, Molly Cunningham is also an adult.
- King Kong Copy: As a gigantic, aggressive ape-like monster dwelling on a tropical island, Rhinokey fits the bill.
- Lawyer-Friendly Cameo:
- Although he doesn’t make a physical appearance (possibly for legal reasons), Baloo is mentioned frequently throughout the episode and he appears on the Higher for Hire logo.
- The island monsters are clearly based on The Wuzzles, but they are never identified as such. Beside Rhinokey and Butterbear, Bumblelion also makes a cameo as a carving of a lion-insect hybrid on the Stone of What Was.
- MacGuffin: The Stone of What Was, one of Isabella Finch's Missing Mysteries, serves as the source of the episode's central conflict.
- Malicious Misnaming: Kit keeps "accidentally" calling Don Karnage "Dan" or "Danny", much to Karnage’s annoyance.
- Merging Mistake: The Stone of What Was is seemingly meant to fuse together two living beings, but also works best with non-sapient animals, as the results with the anthropomorphic characters are mixed and more than a little horrific. The sky pirates fused with animals essentially have animal parts blown up and grafted on their bodies, while the two that fused together simply have one body with extra arms, with one hand in place of both of their heads.
- Mix-and-Match Critters: True to the source material, the island monsters are combinations of real-life animals. The first one the gang encounters, based on Rhinokey, is half rhinoceros, half gorilla; the second one, based on Butterbear, is half bear, half butterfly. There's also a goat-chicken hybrid in the prologue, and three of the dogface air pirates get fused with an ant, a snail and a parrot, respectively. In this case, it's thanks to the power of the Stone of What Was.
- Mythology Gag:
- In the opening teaser, Kit says, "Spin it" before spinning the plane. Those are the opening lyrics to the TaleSpin credits.
- The TaleSpin theme song plays several times in the episode.
- Kit's jacket is the same as Baloo wore on the TaleSpin logo (though he never wore it in the series proper).
- Baloo's last name is "von Bruinwald", as it was according to the TaleSpin episode "The Balooest of the Bluebloods".
- Kit calls Dewey, "Little Britches", which is what Baloo called him, which is also what Baloo called Mowgli in The Jungle Book.
- The Higher for Hire logo is based on the TaleSpin logo.
- In the commercial for Higher for Hire, there's a clip of a pre-teen Kit Cloudkicker flying an air board with Molly Cunningham holding onto him. The clip is identical to one shot from the TaleSpin intro.
- Della gets Kit's last name wrong when they meet again, which was an issue for him in the TaleSpin two-parter "A Bad Reflection On You".
- Molly's stuntswoman alias is "Danger Woman", the name of the radio show heroine she idolized as a child.
- Molly purchases Higher for Hire, just like her mother did in the pilot movie.
- The Stone of What Was is used to make references to the Wuzzles, who lived in the Land of Wuz.
- The Stone is carved to resemble a lion with insect antennae, referencing Bumblelion.
- Nested Mouths: The pirate fused with a parrot has his dogface inside the parrot's mouth.
- Not the Fall That Kills You…: Justified; Kit dives to rescue Dewey, matching his speed, and uses the airboard to slow down their fall into the water. Kit makes sure to shield Dewey with his body to prevent any whiplash.
- Odd Organ Up Top: Two of the air pirates combine into one with none of their heads but with one arm on the left side of the body, two arms on the right, and a hand in place of the head. The fused pirate can still somehow scream without a visible mouth or perhaps it's just displaced somewhere else in the body, like the hand-head, that can't be seen.
- Only Sane Man: Huey falls into this. He tells Dewey that being safe in the air is something that every pilot must master, gets mad at him for screwing up the landing on purpose, and tells off both him and Kit for going Leeroy Jenkins to save Della. In the end, he tells them both to knock it off, for Dewey to fly the plane and Kit to do the cloudsurfing.
- Overly-Long Tongue: The bear-butterfly monster has a very long tongue shaped like a butterfly's proboscis.
- Papa Wolf: When Don Karnage goes after Dewey, Kit dives into action immediately to distract him and save his new "sidekick". Della even thanks Kit for it, before punching him in the stomach for letting Dewey try cloudsurfing in the first place.
- Shout-Out: The poor mook who gets fused with a snail ends up resembling one of the snail people from Uzumaki.
- Shown Their Work: When Rhinokey knuckle-walks, his thumbs do not touch the ground like on real gorillas which have thicker hands and wrists to support their weight.
- Strong Family Resemblance: Molly as an adult looks like a palette swap of her mother with a different hairstyle.
- Visual Pun: In a one-off gag, Kit (an anthropomorphic bear) has a sign outside the washroom in his plane that says "The Woods".
- What Happened to the Mouse?: We never learn what happens to Don Karnage's pirates that got transformed by the Stone of What Was; once the heroes leave the island, the plot just forgets about them.
- Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Don Karnage claims that the two things he's most afraid of are bears and insects, thus the bear-butterfly monster embodies his two worst fears in one. Ironically, he never realizes that one of his current arch-enemies, Kit, and his past arch-enemy Baloo, are also bears.
- Writing Around Trademarks: Though the island monsters are obviously based on Rhinokey and Butterbear, they are never referred to with these specific portmanteau names. Instead, Rhinokey is called "Rhinocerilla" by Dewey and "Gorillinoceros" by Kit, whereas Don Karnage calls Butterbear "Bearterfly" and "Grizzly-fly" on different occasions.
- Wrong Line of Work: Kit has followed in Baloo's footsteps and become a pilot running a delivery service, but he's not that great at it. By the end, he decides to give it up and accepts Molly's offer of doing his cloud-kicking stunts with her air show.
- You Have Failed Me: Discussed at the end. Don Karnage notes (in song) that F.O.W.L. "will surely come for his head" for his failure to reclaim the Stone of What Was and letting it fall into the hands of their enemies. Fortunately for him, he finds the piece of the Stone that got dislodged during the earlier dogfight.
