Where was this in the last movie?!
- The very beginning of the film.
The gorgeous landscape, Bruce Broughton's music, the film's title occupying the entirety of the shot and the camera running fast as it gets closer to Cody's house. Watching it in the big screen would have been really an experience. Theatrical reruns should be mandatory for this film. - For the real Disney geeks, Marahute and Cody's flight together is absolutely a CMOA for the Bronze Age Disney animation team and for Chris Sanders and Glen Keane specifically. To be fair, anyone could enjoy the Awesome Music and incredible animation of that sequences. You don't have to an animation aficionado.
- Special mention goes to Cody's Crucified Hero Shot as he leaps over the waterfall. The music and animation are lovely, but the REALLY awesome part is the way it's put together: Cody and Marahute had just frightened a flock of wading birds and said wading birds proceeded to fly off of the falls as Cody made the leap, surrounding him on all sides as they go. For a moment, Cody just floats there in the air, with his arms outstretched and surrounded by birds. It almost looks as though he's flying...as though he has become like a bird himself. Rule of Symbolism regarding the boy's status as a Friend to All Living Things, perhaps?
- The fact that the R.A.S. views a single child going missing as grounds for an immediate international Red Alert with only the absolute best agents even considered for it.
- The Gondor Calls for Aid relay sequence, with the message being passed along from one unnamed character to another until it finally reaches the Rescue Aid Society. Just getting to see the sheer number of RAS outposts, and how different they all are; from a jury-rigged console in the Outback... to the remnants of a crashed P-47 fighter in the Marshall Islands... from there to a high-tech listening post in Hawaii, which the RAS has apparently hacked into... and from there, though we don't see the posts themselves, it jumps from San Francisco to Denver to St. Louis to Chicago to D.C. before finally arriving in New York. This really is a well-run, worldwide organization.
- The R.A.S. uses a ingenious trick to piggyback on the U.S. military's communications network. A message arrives at the base in Hawaii, and it appears to be nothing but screen after screen repeating "RAS", to the confusion of the tech. The mice on watch fake a phone call, he gets up to answer, and they quickly advance the message to the end, where the actual message is, then forward it along the chain to its destination.
- Wilbur skydiving!Wilbur: COWABUUNGAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!
- Between movies, Bernard is named the Rescue Aid Society's American delegate. He and Bianca are now considered the Society's best agents.
- Jake and Sparky (a dusky hopping mouse and a firefly) successfully extending the runway and making a dragline for the incoming Wilbur, using human-sized miscellany, within a minute.
- Any time Bernard decides it's time to get dangerous and he gets to be the hero. For example, Bernard tamed a razorback boar by grabbing it by the tusks, flipping it over and giving it a Death Glare. That was just the beginning, as Bernard proceeded to defeat McLeach practically singlehandedly!Bianca: Oh, Bernard, you were magnificent! You're absolutely the hero of the day!
- To elaborate, when it seems that McLeach has won and is about to feed Cody to the crocs, Bernard sneaks in with the help of the aforementioned boar and steals the keys from right under the man's nose. Then, when he's spotted by Joanna, he tricks her into climbing onto her master by running up the man's leg and throwing off his balance. Then he uses his finger to push them both into the water below, dusting his palms as if to say, "That'll teach them to mess with my friends!" This scene shows exactly why he was named the RAS's American delegate.
- What's more regarding this pig-whispering to this razorback, he actually mimicked what Jake did earlier with the keelback in order to get a lift.
- The scene where he hides Marahute’s eggs and replaces them with egg-shaped stones. He had to worked really quick to hide them and figure out the rocks would be enough to fool Joanna. Not to mention him forcing Wilbur to stay behind and watch the eggs while he went to save Cody. Bernard certainly has become more assertive over the years.
- Makes you wonder just how awesome and effective the network is now with the digital age.
- Cody keeping cool during his imprisonment by McLeach who tries to force him to reveal Marahute's nest, and even ignores his offer to split the money with him if he tells him. The kid didn't flinch when McLeach threw knives at him; kid's got guts.Cody: You won't get anything when the rangers are through with you.
[McLeach kicks the cauldron off his fireplace in frustration]
Cody: I'LL NEVER TELL YOU WHERE SHE IS! NEVER! NEVER! - McLeach is an evil villain, but he pulls a pretty impressive Batman Gambit: he lies to Cody that Marahute was shot, and then mutters about how the eggs have no one looking after them, knowing Cody will run to the nest, leading him to Marahute.
- McLeach's Disney Villain Death at the end of the movie is awesome in a cathartic way. Though he hasn't had as much exposure as some others, McLeach is especially despicable even for a Disney villain thanks to his Evil Poacher lifestyle and Would Hurt a Child behavior where he tries to feed Cody to crocodiles when he's no longer useful to him. After the aforementioned scene where Bernard drops him and Joanna into the river with the crocodiles, ultimately allowing him to save Cody, McLeach desperately fights back against the crocodiles until they start swimming away and he starts commending himself for apparently driving them off. Joanna, who's already climbed back out of the river, sees what's really happening first and, with a shocked expression on her face, waves goodbye. Then he finally sees why the crocs backed off: he's about to go over a waterfall. The music builds as he tries to swim away, but it's too late: with a very satisfying Big "NO!", he goes over the edge and falls to his (presumed) death, his silhouette quickly shrinking into the distance before disappearing in the mist below.
- The best part is that he's basically hoisted by his own petard; when the crocs swim off, McLeach is so busy boasting about his presumed toughness that by the time he notices the waterfall, he's already too close to it to fight the current. If he'd started swimming away as soon as the crocs did, he'd have been able to escape the same way Joanna did, but his ego at "defeating" the crocs wouldn't let him.
