The fifth episode of TaleSpin.
Professor Martin Torque invents Auto-Aviators, a series of robot pilots that prove to be far more efficient than regular pilots like Baloo, putting them out of commission. However, they prove to be not so efficient after all when Shere Khan's private plane becomes a target of Don Karnage and his Air Pirates. Now, Baloo must prove his worth and save Khan from Karnage.
This episode provides examples of:
- Added Alliterative Appeal: Torque names his robot pilots the Auto-Aviators.
- A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Auto-Aviators do exactly what they're programmed to do — that is, they fly a plane from one location to another in the most efficient manner possible. They don't evade danger, they ignore contrary orders (even from their owner or inventor), and they react to attempts to be manually shut down or reprogrammed by shocking anyone who touches them.
- Anti-Villain: Shere Khan's villainous roles in TaleSpin, with Khan himself saying that he desires money and power, not the end of the world or committing villainy for the heck of it. This episode sees Khan giving Torque, the professor who invented the Auto-Aviators a chance to prove its mettle against the world's best pilot. Khan is a villain in the sense that the Auto-Aviator winning would put Higher For Hire and businesses like it out of business. Khan doesn't care, as long as the Auto-Aviators bring him money, so Khan can be amoral without being immoral.
- Badass Boast: Courtesy of Shere Khan after Baloo deactivates a faulty Auto-Aviator:Khan: Quiet, Professor. Let a real pilot show how it's done.
- The Big Race: Baloo challenges Torque's Auto-Aviator to see who is the superior pilot. The Auto-Aviator wins, briefly putting regular pilots out of business.
- Bizarre Beverage Use: This episode has an Auto-Aviator act as a pilot of Shere Khan's private plane. When Air Pirates attack the plane, the Auto-Aviator refuses to change course or relinquish control. Baloo jiggles a bottle of carbonated soda, then sprays the Auto-Aviator with fizzy discharge. This shorts out the Auto-Aviator, allowing Baloo to pilot Khan's plane to safety.
- Death Flight: Invoked. Khan dangles Torque from the plane door, threatening to drop him unless he refunds all the money for the Auto-Aviators.
- Disney Acid Sequence: During the big race, Baloo falls asleep and has a nightmare where he is turned into an Auto-Aviator as he tries to evade Torque.
- Didn't Think This Through: Torque never expected any run-ins with Air Pirates before making his robots refuse to deviate from their flight plans or let their owners override their control. Shere Khan is not pleased with this, as Torque had previously told him his Auto Aviators were prepared for any situation.
- The Door Slams You: When Baloo arrives onboard Khan's private plane, he opens the door, causing Torque, who was standing behind it, to get crushed.
- Harmless Electrocution: The Auto-Aviators electrocute manual pilots who try to take control of their planes.
- Hypocritical Humor: This episode has Rebecca telling Baloo he shouldn't lose his cool at every insult, rather he should be "calm and composed like her". When Baloo tells her seconds later that the same guy who insulted him is stealing her client, Rebecca loses it.
- Job-Stealing Robot: This episode features Auto-Aviators putting the regular cargo fliers like Baloo out of business. The Auto-Aviators were ultimately revealed to have a critical flaw of only ever flying in a straight line, rendering it easy prey for Air Pirates.
- Man Versus Machine: This episode has Baloo compete with the Auto-Aviators to see which is the superior pilot. Though Baloo loses the race in the first half, he manages to redeem himself in the second half when Khan's private plane is under attack by Don Karnage and his Air Pirates.
- Nerves of Steel: Nothing ever phases Shere Khan, not even getting shot at in his private plane by air pirates as seen in this episode.note When Torque was panicking insanely for help on the radio, Khan throws him aside and simply summarizes their situation over the radio lines and calmly requests assistance.
- No Waterproofing in the Future: Torque's Auto-Aviators may by decades ahead of their time, but one soda bottle's enough to put them down for the count.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Baloo fails a contest that decides a mass buyout of a mechanical pilot. Since Higher For Hire is consequently out of business, Rebecca notes sadly that she has to sell the Sea Duck, Baloo's beloved plane, in order to keep a roof under her and Molly's head. While Kit is mortified, a guilt-ridden Baloo just solemnly tells him to let it go.
- Reassigned to Antarctica: After Baloo saves Khan from the pirates by taking over as his pilot, regular pilots are back in business, and Torque gets relocated to Thembria, where he is left desperately attempting to market his Auto-Aviators as maids.
- Rotten Robotic Replacement: This episode revolves around an attempt by Khan Industries to replace all pilots with a robot, the "Auto-Aviator", and Baloo's fight to not be put out of business. While he's unfortunately unable to beat the Auto-Aviator in a Man Versus Machine competition, the Auto-Aviator showcases a very fatal flaw in the episode's final act: it is completely unable to change from its preset course and will not accept orders to do so, even when not doing so endangers the plane and everybody in it from being shot down by Air Pirates.
- Screw This, I'm Out of Here!: After Baloo saves Khan from the Air Pirates, causing them to shoot at each other, Karnage decides to head back to Pirate Island while he and the rest of the Air Pirates and their planes are still in one piece.
- The Stoic: Khan is this big time. One of the best examples of this is in this episode, when he doesn't even flinch when gunfire hits the drinking glass he's holding. If angered, he simply states that his patience is being "tried" or that he's not amused.
- [Verb] This!: This exchange between Baloo and Torque:Torque: You and your [normal pilot] kind are like the dinosaurs: decaying, defective, and defunct!
Baloo: Oh yeah? Well defunct THIS!
(Baloo punches Torque, which gets caught on camera and put on the front page of the newspaper) - You Have Failed Me: After Baloo saves Khan, Khan tells Torque that he (Torque) has failed him (Khan), and threatens to drop him (Torque) out of his (Khan's) private plane unless he (Torque) gives him (Khan) back all the money he (Khan) paid for his (Torque's) robots.
