Adaptation Displacement: Or what could be product displacement this case. "Home is Where the Heart Is," was featured in the movie version of the pilot, but edited out of the syndicated version (although if you concentrate you can a hear a few notes from it at one point). This causes many people to think it was created for the Disney Afternoon album.
Is Rebecca a social climber, or is her desire to acquire wealthier, classier clients simply an attempt to boost business and her company's reputation by establishing higher paying contacts?
Rebecca and Baloo's entire dynamic is up for debate. Is Rebecca an abusive Mean Boss who exploits her ownership of the Sea Duck to get labour from Baloo, or a charitable Extreme Doormat who constantly ensures employment and a living for her incompetent Jerkass friend? Similarly, is Baloo only working at Higher For Hire as a means to buy back the Sea Duck and bail out, or is he a provider and guardian for his surrogate family that only holds onto said vow out of stubborn pride? And what exactly is the nature of their relationship: Belligerent Sexual Tension, Platonic Life-Partners, or something else altogether?
Is Shere Khan villainous by inclination, only restrained from doing worse due to his pragmatism and lack of interest in anything that won't increase his money and/or power? A normally decent person who just happens to delve into less than ethical behavior when he believes his interests are on the line? Or is he neither: an amoral figure who chooses what side of the moral divide he's on based on what he thinks will better accomplish his goals?
Awesome Music: Courtesy of Christopher Stone, whose orchestral score manages to be atmospheric, uplifting, energetic, and grand.
Her daughter Molly as well. Fans either like her just fine or find her to be the most irritating character and wish that the writers had utilized and explored her sneakier, more manipulative side and Little Miss Snarker qualities more often rather than writing her as the second coming of Webby Vanderquack.
Broken Base: Is "Last Horizons" a racist Yellow Peril episode that deserves to be a Banned Episode or a victim of Political Overcorrectness? The fact that it has some of the best action scenes in the series, which can't be viewed on most streaming due to the ban, adds to the controversy.
Crosses the Line Twice: "The Time Bandit" has Rebecca arrested and sentenced to death by Thembrians. First by hanging and then by a firing squad. That's just sad and cruel. But Spigot presenting her different types of rope she can be hanged with, like a clothing store employee presenting ties and said firing squad being a bunch of tanks, however? Oh, and did we mention the This Is Your Life-esque presentation that precedes the execution?
Whenever Rebecca (voiced by Sally Struthers) goes into a Get-Rich-Quick Scheme, it's not hard to imagine her saying, "Do you want to make money? Sure, we all do!"
The episode involving two crooks named Muffy and BUFFY. In 1990? An excuse for 'uffy' puns. Nowadays, you just keep waiting for the crook to pull out a stake.
In "Vowel Play", there's a weasel named Weasel, but prefers his name to be pronounced as "Wesel". A couple of decades later, we have the Duke of Weselton who hates that his kingdom is referred to as "Weasel Town".
The plot of "All's Whale that Ends Whale" involves Baloo and Kit rescuing a mistreated whale from an aquarium. Three years later, Warner Bros. would make a movie with a similar concept.
He Really Can Act: Jim Cummings' performance as Louie was so perfect, that Gia Prima (Louis Prima’s widow) threatened legal action, should Louie have another speaking role.
I Am Not Shazam: "Don" is a Spanish title and form of address.
Colonel Spigot may be a jerk, but considering he combines aspects of Determinator and No-Respect Guy to the point where most people don't even remember his name, and that he is constantly mocked about his small size, and the fact that he does everything to please the High Marshall (who constantly insults and threatens him) so that he won't be shot, that definitely puts him under this trope. It's hard not to feel sorry for him sometimes.
Even Baloo, who is hardly the most sensitive of bears, tends to put him down a bit - though he obviously regards him as an Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain.
Also Douglas "Dougie" Benson from the episode "Louie's Last Stand" since he's been constantly harassed and humiliated since he was five years old, which can have unfortunate effects on one as adult, so his excess zeal is somewhat forgivable. His meanness when he thinks he's gotten the upper hand? Not so much. Probably.
Mad Dog is sometimes seen as this by fans. Sure he's one of Don Karnage's henchmen but the poor guy just can't catch a break. Just looking at this fanart pic of him is enough to want to hug him.
Kit Cloudkicker was heavily implied to be this when he used to work for Don Karnage but he's mellowed out a lot since then.
LGBT Fanbase: Baloo, Don Karnage and even Mad Dog have gotten this.
Magnificent Bastard: Shere Khan is the intimidating but charismatic head honcho of Khan Industries. A shrewd and capable business magnate whose company has greatly expanded and prospered under his administration, Khan has made himself one of the most powerful figures in the world, enough to make his own rules. Ruthless but pragmatic, he has a burning drive to make money and increase his power and authority, and will do so by fair means or foul. He and the main characters have frequently dealt with one another, sometimes as enemies, other times as allies. Morally ambiguous but not without honor, Shere Khan commands respect wherever he goes.
Oh boy is Shere Khan terrifying in his first scene. All Khan has to do is remain in the shadows and simply reacting to his very employee coming by simply sitting at his desk and simply commanding in a low authoritative voice, "Speak."
About 90% of "The Balooest of the Bluebloods." Baloo's Unexpected Inheritance causes him to end up alone in a huge mansion with two untrustworthy servants who smile in the creepiest way. He narrowly survives various Death Traps (a shark in the swimming pool, a bunch of cupid statuettes nearly skewering him, etc.) and learns that all twelve of his ancestors suffered similar horrible deaths.
The jackal, grown to a huge size and sporting Glowing Eyes of Doom, proclaiming with a demon voice.
The series contains several guest star characters who have fan followings.
The last Cape Suzette Air Force pilot to get shot down in "Last Horizons" is only onscreen for a minute, but makes a good impression with his incredible piloting skills.
The Problem with Licensed Games: In contrast to a lot of other Disney tie-in games from this era, the games based on this show have a pretty mediocre reputation. The NES game by Capcom is regarded to be an okayish side-scrolling shooter that's probably Capcom's weakest Disney tie-in — albeit still the best game based on this show. The Sega Genesis game is a generic platformer with murky, unappealing graphics, and boring level design. The TurboGrafx-16 game is seen as the bottom of the barrel, however, as despite having better graphics than the Genesis game, it's brought down by atrocious controls, severely faulty collision detection, and all-around uninspired gameplay (faults it shares with the even more notorious Darkwing Duck tie-in game on the same system, which was developed by the same company).
Retroactive Recognition: Minor character Joe Cropduster from the episode "Save the Tiger" is voiced by Patric Zimmerman, the then-future voice of Revolver Ocelot.
Ship Tease: The show was very fond of giving some blatant tension between Baloo and Rebecca. For instance, "A Star is Torn" clearly establishes that they have dated more than once and they clearly enjoy the experience.
Any episode in which Baloo and Louie are flying the Sea Duck... anywhere... is liable to closely resemble one of the Bob Hope/Bing CrosbyRoad to ... buddy films.
The series has its own spiritual successor in the webcomic Cloudscratcher.
Compare the theme song to "Some Fun Now" from the movie version of Little Shop of Horrors: not only are both Caribbean-style songs but the choruses are near-identical.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Ratchet, the air pirate mechanic who invents the Lightning Gun in the pilot, could have been a good member of the ensemble of recurring pirate Mooks but rarely gets even a background cameo later on.
fanart pic of him is enough to want to hug him.