Disneyear: The Rescuers Down Under (1990)

You all know the films of the Disney Renaissance in order right? First we have Little Mermaid, then Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and The Lion King. So far that's correct, right? Actually, you'd be wrong. There was a film released between the time of Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast that a lot of folks seem to forget about: The Rescuers Down Under. I mentioned earlier that I can't recall much of the first film from my childhood but I remember so much more from this film. Why is that? I guess it's about time we headed over to the land down under via albatross and find out.

The story is about a little boy named Cody who lives in Australia (yet has no accent) frees a rare golden eagle from a poacher's trap. He finds out that it was set up by a poacher named McLeach (played by George C. Scott) who kidnaps Cody because he wants to know where the eagle is. Word goes all the way to New York where the Rescuers themselves Bernard and Miss Bianca (played once again by Bob Newhart and Eva Gabor) take the case. They have to fly there of course only to find that Orville isn't there and instead meet with a new albatross there named Wilbur (get it? Orville? Wilbur? It's cute.)  who agrees to take them there. After landing, poor Wilbur breaks his back and is sent to a psychotic hospital for treatment. The two also meet up with a kangaroo rat named Jake that agrees to help rescue the kid. After several intense scenes with them trying to get to McLeach that include Jake and Bianca being accidentally captured themselves with the eagle, Bernard overcomes his timid side and actually winds up the hero, saving Cody, the eagle, Jake, and of course Miss Bianca. He even pops the question and she happily accepts! Talk about a happy ending!

Now I'll admit that out of all the Disney films to do a sequel for, it's a little strange to me that they chose to do one for The Rescuers. But Disney really put so much effort into this film! This has to be one of the best action/adventure films the studio ever produced! The animation is beautiful, the main characters are likable, the villain's great (hey, it's George C. Scott!), the action scenes are intense, it's fun, it's funny, it's just a wonderful experience. I think one of the best scenes is when Cody frees the eagle. You'd think they'd go the simple route, they fly to her nest. But instead, we get intense falls off mountains, flying in the sky, skating through water... you know what? Just watch it!

Like I said earlier, all the characters are likable. I liked Bernard and Bianca in the first film and here Bernard wants to take his relationship with her to the next level by proposing to her. One problem: some crap keeps happening to keep him from doing so. On top of that, he gets new competition with Jake. You really feel for him!

See the heartbreak in poor Bernard's face? :'(

There's also some great voice-over work here. I mentioned that George C. Scott plays the villain, McLeach, who's a fun but nasty villain who wants the eagle for money since it's a rare species. He's kind of fun especially with his lizard Joanna, who's another funny character. What I didn't mention was that the voice of Wilbur was John Candy in another heart-felt role that he just gets passionate in. He's just so much fun and gets a lot of funny scenes. I really miss him.

So why is it that this film keeps getting glossed over? Well, I think I have some ideas. One is that on it's opening weekend, it didn't do so hot at the box office so Disney immediately pulled all advertising from it. It's almost like they didn't want us to know it exists... Second is that there's not a whole lot of things that Disney's famous for marketing for in this film. It's not a musical, it's not a fairy tale, there's no strong ethics, and it doesn't have those overly-cute animals in here that the marketing folks like to make toys out of.

They're cute but I guess not Flounder or Stitch cute...

But that's just it! It's not supposed to be any of these things! It's just your basic, fun family adventure film that is vastly underrated in my eyes. I mean we never look at films like Raiders of the Lost Ark and call them bad  just because they're not up to par with films like Casablanca. It's it's own little genre. So again, why doesn't this film get some glory? Trust me when I say that this is a rare case where the sequel completely improves the original. It's your basic adventure film with cute little mice like the first film but done a million times better! If you haven't seen it by now, check it out and see where I'm getting at here. Or better yet, buy it! This film could use the DVD revenue.

Disneyear: The Rescuers (1977)

We have come to the end of the 70's, where we say goodbye to Milt Kahl, Frank Thomas, and Ollie Johnston: three animators that have been working for Disney since the beginning. The Rescuers was their swan song and it opened with rather positive reception, being called "a fresh breath of air " by film critic Leonard Maltin. Today however it seems that there are two kinds of fans: you either like this movie or you don't. I guess you'll see which side I'm on today.

A bottle containing a plea for help is sent from a boat in a bayou by a little girl and ends up in New York, where it is found by mice, so a Rescue Aid Society meeting is called to order in the city. One delegate named Miss Bianca (played by Eva Gabor) volunteers to go and rescue Penny, the orphaned girl who sent the message. She chooses Bernard (played by Bob Newhart), a janitor, as her partner on the mission. They find out that she was kidnapped by an evil pawn shop owner named Madame Medusa (Gerladine Paige). So Miss Bianca and Bernard go out and find Medusa, but fail to keep up, so the two mice take an albatross flight to Devil's Bayou, where Penny has been taken, and learn that here, the girl is being forced by Medusa and the evil woman's assistant, Mr. Snoops, to search for a large diamond in an underground cave that Medusa plans on making a fortune off of. Talk about child labor laws... You know how this goes, they get out after a chase scene, make it back to New York, and ends with Bernard and Bianca going on another rescue aid.

I suppose a few things stand out about it, like the villian Medusa. She's sleazy, greedy, and comes off as kind of crazy. I know she's based on Milt Kahl's wife, so that I suppose adds to the joke. Geraldine Paige's acting is good and her reactions are fun. The animation isn't too bad but I don't think it's Kahl's best work. That honor belongs to Shere Khan and Tigger.

There's also a few good scenes in it. Like when Bernard and Bianca go to the albatross airport to fly to Devil's Bayou. I especially like it when Bernard tries to get permission to land. It's a funny scene. I wish Orville was in more of the movie too.

Needless to say, the rest of The Rescuers is only average. It seems childish to me at points such as while creative I guess, what on Earth are a bunch of mice going to do in rescuing a bunch of people? I guess that's the moral or something: no person to small. In addition, Penny the orphan is quite cloying to me. She's like one of the Olson twins, just designed to be pwecious.

To be perfectly honest, the whole film comes across as fairly tired. The animation department at Disney supposedly lost a lot of confidence after Walt died and The Rescuers does seem to emphasize it at times. The animation here okay but not stellar and the story isn't extremely inventive (it kind of feels like 101 Dalmatians) There is the odd bit of cleverness (the leaf boat that the mice sail in, for example), but some scenes drag and occasionally feel like filler; a scene involving Bernard and Bianca searching for Penny's orphanage could have been trimmed without much damage to the film, as could the odd line of dialogue here and there.

The Rescuers is by no means the worst animated film ever made, but there's always better options to watch. I don't hate it and I admit it's a lot better than The AristoCats and some of the other films I'm going to have to look at later this year in that it's fairly dark with a few decent scenes here and there. I'm just not that big a fan of this flick. I'd probably enjoy it more if I was younger.