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.
- Casual Danger Dialogue: When Baloo gets aboard Khan's plane, Shere Khan is behind the bar mixing a drink and calmly welcomes Baloo in offering him a drink. Just then, bullets riddle the plane just barely missing the two and hitting the glass Khan had just been using. Neither of them show any stress as Baloo calmly asks for a soda pop.
- Chekhov's Gunman: At the beginning of the episode, one pilot at Louie's was talking about evading the Air Pirates. This seemingly irrelevant line would end up coming into play in the climax.
- Confirm Before Reveal: While talking with Rebecca, Baloo was prompted to ask why she was running about straightening up her office, with Rebecca explaining she was expecting a visit from a very important client.Baloo: (Looking out the window) Short guy, glasses, bad toupee?
Rebecca: Yes.
Baloo: (Still looking out the window) Somebody beat you to it.
Rebecca: (Rushing over to the window) WHAT?!
(Sure enough, outside the client was signing a contact with Torque) - Death Flight: Invoked. Khan dangles Torque from the plane door, threatening to drop him unless he refunds all the money for the Auto-Aviators.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Dramatic Drop: Done by Torque with his champagne glass when the Auto-Aviator refuses his command to change course and evade the Air Pirates.
- 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.
- Irrevocable Order: One of the main features Torque included in the Auto-Aviator is maintaining its flight plan no matter what. Unfortunately, this becomes Exact Words as because Torque didn't factor in encountering Air Pirates, the robot refuses to take evasive action and maintains its flight path even though it endangers the plane and those on board.
- It's All My Fault: In the final act, with all pilots out of work and her business and others going under due to the Auto-Aviators, Rebecca says she wished she never rented the Sea Duck to Torque in the first place.
- 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.
- When Baloo enters the plane, Khan welcomes him aboard and starts to pour him a glass of water, when bullets fly through the fuselage and shatter the pitcher in his hand. Not even flinching, Khan calmly replaces the remains of the pitcher and asks Baloo for any suggestions.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain!: Thanks to the Air Pirates, the Auto-Aviator's flaw of being unable to evade them was discovered, resulting in regular pilots getting their jobs back.
- 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.
- OOC Is Serious Business: Following his loss to the Auto-Aviator, Baloo spent part of the second half in a guilt-ridden funk, to the point that when Higher For Hire is consequently out of business and Rebecca is sadly forced to sell the Sea Duck in order to keep a roof over her and Molly's heads, he solemnly tells a mortified Kit 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) - Wacky Wake Up Gadget: In order to stay awake during an endurance race against a robotic pilot, Baloo adds two devices to the Sea Duck; a bunch of speakers that blare out loud noise and a pair of automated fly swatters to slap him awake. They don't work, and Baloo falls asleep and loses the race.
- You Have Failed Me: After Baloo saves them, Khan tells Torque that the latter has failed him, and threatens to drop Torque out of his private plane unless Torque pays back all the money Khan paid for his Auto-Aviators.