Line #22 Headscratchers/TheRescuers


1	[[foldercontrol]]
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3	[[folder:Why is Medusa Afraid of Mice?]]
4	* Madame Medusa lives in (or at least is hiding out in) a derelict steamboat in a desolate swamp. She has two pet crocodiles that are obedient to her. So why does she totally freak out at the sight of a tiny mouse? It's not like they'd be carrying some horrible disease that she could probably already get from the swamp's mosquitoes or her crocodiles.
5	** Fear is often an irrational, illogical emotion. For instance, someone who likes to do extreme dangerous sports could still freak out at the mere sight of any harmless spider. Also, RuleOfFunny. Her EekAMouse scene is one of the funniest parts of the movie.
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8	[[folder:Did the Film Reference the Goonies?]]
9	* Anybody noticed how similar this movie is to ''Film/TheGoonies''?
10	** How so? The only similarity I can think of is that it's about a kid looking for treasure in a flooded cave, and even that's not much of one--in ''Film/TheGoonies'', it's the entire plot, while it only occupies the climax of ''WesternAnimation/TheRescuers''.
11	*** You seriously don't see the similarities between Madame Medusa and Mama Fratelli?
12	*** I always thought she paralleled Cruella De Vil more. Besides, Medusa is a re-imagining of one of the Rescuers book's villains, the Diamond Duchess.
13	*** Funny thing that...Cruella De Vil was actually intended to be the villain at first, but really, could you see her using those gators for anything but shoes? Or that she'd move from genuine fur coats to Diamonds?
14	*** What'd force her to choose between one or the other?
15	*** Rescuers: 1977. Goonies: 1985.
16	*** The alternative hypothesis that makes more sense is that Creator/StevenSpielberg, Creator/ChrisColumbus, Creator/RichardDonner, and the others behind ''The Goonies'' may have derived some inspiration from ''The Rescuers'' (since the latter was released eight years earlier).
17	** Great - now all I can think of is Bernard doing the truffle shuffle.
18	*** Oh you BASTARD. I can neither get that out my MY head now, nor can I stop laughing about it. Oh, and by extension I keep thinking of the Chairmouse piloting that plane in The Mummy. SCREW.YOU.
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21	[[folder:Animal Communication and the Future]]
22	* A good question for either movie, and any other movie that involves children talking to animals. What is going to happen to these kids when they get older? Will they eventually stop believing that animals can talk and assume they were speaking to imaginary friends the whole time? Or will they be [[MistakenForInsane placed in therapy and treated like they're crazy]] by the rest of the world for insisting they really did speak to animals?
23	** Or they might just shrug it off and go on with their lives. If they run into talking animals again they'll just be less shocked than everyone else. As for the kid in The Rescuers and 'Down Under, I think they'll be okay. Penny's talking to animals might be chalked up to loneliness issues if anyone worries about it at all. Cody, on the other hand, might be considered a bit traumatized from his multiple near-death experiences if he tells anyone the exact details of what he went through.
24	** Well in the Peter in Kensington gardens (book set before Peter and Wendy, ie Peter Pan) and in the real Mary Poppins book. It seems like we can talk to birds/animals at birth but that ability disappears when one is older. It's been lampshaded in ''WesternAnimation/{{Arthur}}'' between Kate and Pal.
25	** Note however that Kate (I think) only loses her ability to communicate with Pal as she gains the ability to communicate with older people. Cody and Penny both are older than Kate and they can clearly speak to both animals and other humans. I would think that if as adults they remember having talking animals as friends (and don’t dismiss those memories as childhood fantasies) they should not be surprised if they happen to meet talking animals again as adults; but since we never see them as adults it’s hard to be certain.
26	*** Also, considering that Cody and Penny can speak to both animals and humans, it's probably that the animals are speaking English, rather than the kids are [[SpeaksFluentAnimal speaking fluent animal]]. As such, there probably isn't an age limit; the mice and Rufus could talk to adults if they so chose.
27	** Also, it is never stated that all human children know animals can talk. It’s possible that only certain children are aware of it (specifically the ones who have befriended talking animals). This seems to at least be the case in ''Charlotte’s Web''. Fern is apparently the only human character (adult or child) who understands the animals’ speech (besides Charlotte’s written messages in her web).
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30	[[folder:Why Pick Bernard?]]
31	* A room full of qualified agents and Bianca chooses the janitor to be her co-agent? Why?
32	** Perhaps she thought that all the agents are so eager to go with her only because of her looks and would not consider her a real partner. The chairman is rather pompous and it can be assumed that other agents are similar. In contrast Bernard is a humble fellow who still truly believes in the Rescue Aid Society ideals (which is established when he sings the jingle standing outside) even though he's just a janitor. Also it was Bernard who said (again having no right to speak) that it's too dangerous for her to go alone. Most importantly the "qualified agents" doesn't look very adventurous themselves so it was enough for Miss Bianca to feel his HiddenDepths to make a choice.
33	*** There were several other doe mice there too though. Did Bianca think that [[IncompatibleOrientation they were lesbians]]?
34	** While singing the anthem, the regular representatives in the meeting hall look rather pompous and self-important (or as much as they can for animated mice, anyway), and they have a little choreographed dance to go along with it. But Bernard, in the hallway where no one can see him, very earnestly has removed his hat and has his hand over his heart, passionately singing along like he actually believes in the mission that the song represents. Miss Bianca saw Bernard's commitment to the cause, even though he wasn't an agent proper.
35	** Bianca flutters her eyelashes coquettishly at Bernard as she puts her perfume on just before going into the meeting, so it looks like she already fancies him. Maybe she's seen him around the Society headquarters before (Bernard seems to be quite well known to the delegates, who all greet him as they go in) and recognised his hidden depths.
36	** More pragmatically, Bianca might sense that another agent might try to undermine her or treat her like an inferior. Bernard meanwhile is not the type who would try to boss her around, and he's a NiceGuy as well.
37	** Bianca is very observant, and the first thing she notices about the lowly janitor is that he's actually quite courageous. Despite being clearly shy and superstitious, he does his job with almost no complaint, simply noting that there are 13 rungs on his ladder before proceeding to fish Penny's help note out of the bottle in spite of the "bad luck" that final rung might inflict on him. He expresses concern for Bianca's safety when she leaps impulsively into action, which requires speaking up where he really has no authority. This also tells her that he will keep her grounded when she wants to run into danger without thinking--a potential flaw of hers of which she is clearly aware (good thing, too, or Bernard's comment about her safety very likely would've offended her). She recognizes that Bernard is the perfect partner to help her accomplish this mission, while the other delegates seem to be interested only in turning the mission into a sort of date, and have done nothing to prove their bravery or ability to think before acting.
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40	[[folder:Why Not Sell the Jewels?]]
41	* Remember all those jewels that Penny finds during her earlier trips down into the cave and the many more mentioned down there later on? All those gems are implied to be worth a lot of money; they could have kept both Snoops AND Medusa living in luxury for the rest of their lives. How come they just didn't have Penny grab as many of those gems as she could and [[CutLexLuthorACheck then live off the piles of money]] the gems could have been fenced for?
42	** Medusa wasn't interested in money. She wanted the diamond. Presumably she planned to sell the other gems later, but she ''really'' wanted the Devil's Eye for herself.
43	** Alternatively, Bianca is right: Medusa is insane.
44	** The Devil's Eye was wanted because it was so rare. Medusa had to be the one who found it. And maybe she thought that selling the other gems would be a long and tedious process, but the fame that would come with finding the Devil's Eye would be instantaneous.
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47	[[folder:Why Give the Diamond Away?]]
48	* Why was the diamond given to a museum? If anything it seems like ''Penny'' should be able to keep it after all she went through because of it.
49	** She's a little kid, she obviously [[WorthlessYellowRocks doesn't give a crap about that kind of stuff the way adults do]].
50	*** In what world would they have allowed Penny to keep the diamond? It is an extremely valuable object of historical importance (remember it even has a name- the Devil's Eye; there must be lots of legend and history behind it). The one logical place where one thing would end would be the museum- and even if Penny had considered keeping it (which she wouldn´t because for starters, she never had a personal interest in the diamond), surely Bernard and Bianca would've advised against it, knowing it could get her in trouble. You could even argue that she would be at risk of being adopted by materialistic opportunists rather than truly loving parents if she had been known or suspected to still possess the diamond.
51	** Seems like she should still get some kind of compensation (maybe a trust fund or the like) in exchange for finding it. Though perhaps she did and they just didn't mention it.
52	** If I were Penny, I wouldn't want to keep something that would just be a reminder of a time I was kidnapped and held against my will.
53	*** If you think about it, Penny probably gave the Devil's Eye to people who would later on become her adoptive parents, who in turn, turned it into the museum and used the money from it to adopt Penny and maybe give back to the orphanage or her adoptive parents were the ''proprietors'' of said museum. That's one theory but that's what I'll go with.
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56	[[folder:Why Not Intervene Sooner?]]
57	* It's implied the swamp critters knew about Penny's attempts to escape. Why didn't they devise a plan to help her sooner?
58	** Simple: the alligators and Medusa's shotgun. When Bernard and Bianca try to sneak through the front to get to Penny, Brutus and Nero easily find them and Medusa goes straight for the kill. They barely escape with their lives before going up to Penny's bedroom window once they can see her. Penny was unable to find the critters while running away every time because the alligators would catch up, meaning there was no opportunity for communication. While the swamp critters are brave, they don't have the layout of the boat the way that Penny does so they don't know what resources to use to trap the gators or get rid of the shotgun. Once they learn about the plan from the mice after convening, it becomes a CurbStompBattle in their favor.
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61	[[folder:After Penny Gets the Diamond]]
62	* What was Medusa going to do with Penny after she fulfilled her mission of retrieving the diamond? If she took her back to the orphanage, she knew Penny would most likely inform on her.
63	** Leave her in the hole...
64	** Medusa doesn't seem like she thought that far ahead. She was so focused on the diamond, what happened afterwards was a "worry about that tomorrow" deal.
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67	[[folder:Medusa's Fate]]
68	* What actually happened to Medusa after the end? Did she get eaten by the alligators, as seems to be the implication?
69	** Possibly she was eaten, or she had to stay up there for ages in terror with no food. And if she ever gets down, she'll have to live with the knowledge that Penny got the diamond and reaped the rewards.
70	** The newsman at the end of the movie seems to know the details of how the diamond was recovered. Penny probably told whoever found her about what had happened in the swamp, and once the police became involved, they would’ve sent someone down to shoo the crocodiles away and arrest Medusa—for the peace of mind of Penny and her new family, if nothing else. Realistically, this isn’t something that would be left up to karmic punishment by Nero and Brutus.
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73	[[folder:Why the Uncertainty About Bianca?]]
74	* Why were the chairman and Bernard both so unsure about Bianca going on a mission without a co-agent? The implication is that [[PoliticallyIncorrectHero they're sexist]] and think does are weaker than bucks, but if that's the case, then why are does even allowed to be agents?
75	** Part of it is the chivalry and perhaps sexism of the era. But another major reason is that Bianca is impulsive to a fault. She has no regard for her own safety and seems to be an adrenaline junkie. Bernard in particular recognizes this, and given that Bianca picked him as her partner in part because of his concern for her safety, it would seem she's quite self-aware and knows that her impulsiveness can get her into trouble.
76	** There probably are plenty of RAS missions simple enough for one agent to take on, male or female, but because the message from Penny's bottle was watered out leaving so much details in mystery, there was no telling how potentially dangerous this mission could be. That's why the chairman insisted Bianca have a co-agent.
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79	[[folder:Why not tell the police?]]
80	* No one in the Rescue Aid Society thinks of sending Penny's message-in-a-bottle to the police. [[LampShading Lampshaded]] by Penny:
81	-->"' Penny:' "Didn't you bring someone big with you, like the police?
82	** Given the reporter's reaction to what Penny said at the end of the movie, it's likely that unlike in the books, [[InvisibleToAdults the mice don't interact with adults]].
83	*** This doesn't mean they couldn't send it as an anonymous tip. An unsigned letter (or if it is, just R.A.S., which could mean anything to someone who's not in the know) explaining, "Hey, we found this message in a bottle telling us that there's a kidnapped little girl in Devil's Bayou. You should tell the local authorities so that they can help her." with the original letter would likely be enough for the police to take action or at least inform their Louisiana counterparts.
84	** Who's to say the rest of the R A S didn't do that off camera? As I recall, in the original books the society's purpose is to help people who need rescue stay alive (Bianca and Bernard are quite unusual in that they actively help the individuals escape) - perhaps when agents are dispatched a Plan B is also put into operation so that the rescuee will be okay even if something happens to the agents.

Context Headscratchers / TheRescuers