A series of two films in the Disney Animated Canon (#23 and #29). Two mice, Miss Bianca (Eva Gabor) and Bernard (Bob Newhart), travel around the world to "R - E - S - C - U - E" cute human children while dealing with their own unresolved sexual tension. The films were based on a series of children's books by Margery Sharp. Loosely, of course—the only things that the movies and the books share are the protagonists' basic traits.The first film, titled simply The Rescuers, was released in 1977. The flamboyantly evil Madame Medusa (Geraldine Page) is trying to get her hands on the world's largest diamond hidden in a gloomy swamp. Needing someone who will fit in a tiny grotto, she kidnaps a disconsolate orphan girl named Penny (Michelle Stacy). Penny sends out a Message in a Bottle asking for help, which is intercepted by the all-mouse Rescue Aid Society, who for some reason, do not put it somewhere the police might find it while they send out their own agents. Bianca (Eva Gabor) and Bernard (Bob Newhart) are then sent out to save her, with help from an albatross named Orville (Jim Jordan) and a dragonfly named Evinrude (James MacDonald).In 1990, the film was followed by The Rescuers Down Under, which has the dubious honor of being Disney's first animated sequel. Set in the Australian Outback, the Evil Poacher McLeach (George C Scott) has kidnapped a young boy named Cody (Adam Ryen) in order to snare Marahute, an endangered eagle large enough to ride around on. Naturally, Bianca and Bernard must come to the rescue, with help from Orville's brother Wilbur (John Candy) and Jake (Tristan Rogers), the mouse equivalent to Crocodile Dundee. Down Under was also a pioneer in the use of CGI. Unlike the first film, which was a huge success, Down Under actually failed at the box office, making it the only true failure of the Disney Renaissance.What makes both the movies interesting in a Real Life sense is how each came during a time when Disney was facing changing fortunes. The first was almost a reflection of how the Disney company was facing up to the death of its founder — the late '70s Disney movies tended to be considerably darker than their forebears, reaching a nadir with the next movie, The Fox and the Hound. These movies both contained utterly gut-wrenching examples of Parental Abandonment. And Madame Medusa's casual nastiness towards Penny in the first movie ("What makes you think anyone would want a homely little girl like you?") comes up against the more outlandish behavior of any Disney villain in history simply because as a verbal shiv, to a freaking child, it has no equal (well, maybe oneor two). On the technical side, this film was the first Disney animated film to move away from the hard scratchy outline look that was the norm for Disney animation since 101 Dalmatians thanks to improvements of xerography processing technology to allow a softer look. It was also one of the few box office successes for Disney in the post-Walt/pre-Renaissance era, being the highest grossing animated film of all time until one of it's directors challenged Disney with An American Tail nearly a decade later.In the case of the 1990 movie, Disney was facing a future with computer animation rapidly changing the state of the art. They used the movie as a test bed of their new CAPS coloring system — instead of hand-painting cels, you could now use a computer program to color the animation. This saved a considerable amount of time and hand-drawn animation was now easier to integrate into CGI backgrounds and effects (and also allowed for extensive use of Cel Shading). In Down Under, the test run of this system had mostly decent, sometimes amazing (especially during Marahute's flight), and sometimes mixed results. They had mastered it brilliantly by the time of Beauty and the Beast, the following year.
The first features Penny in danger of drowning or even being sucked out to sea through a hole in the cave, as well as running through a dangerous swamp on at least one occasion.
Down Under features a powerful scene. Cody is shown as having parents (off-screen at that) and one scene shows his house while his mother cries "Cody!"
All Animals Are Dogs: Joanna the Goanna acts more like a pet dog than anything. She begs, she whimpers, she wags her tail, she crawls through doggy doors, and she watches McLeach's catches like a guard dog. She also is as sneaky - and smart about it - as any hound dog. Medusa also seems to have both her alligators, Brutus and Nero, on leashes, ordering them to retrieve Penny (who is trying to escape their clutches), and the two gators are seen sniffing Bernard and Bianca out with their noses.
That said, alligators have a very keen sense of smell all on their own.
Animation Bump: Both movies were also the first utilize new animation techniques by Disney; Rescuers did away with most of the rough sketching that was used for the frame-by-frame save Medusa, while Down Under was the first in movie history to render 2D animation with computers.
Butt Monkey: Orville and Evinrude from the 1st movie, and Wilbur from the 2nd.
Cowardly Lion: Bernard. He insists he's just a lowly janitor, he stutters and can be a nervous wreck, but if others are depending on him, he's unstoppable.
Evil Is Hammy: Geraldine Page as Medusa and George C. Scott as McLeach.
Jake: So, which way are you taking, Suicide Trail, Nightmare Canyon, or the shortcut, Satan's Ridge?
Bernard: S-s-suicide Trail?
Jake: Good choice! More snakes, but less quicksand. And once you're past Bloodworm Creek you're scot-free, that is until Dead Dingo Cross.
Interspecies Friendship: Involves mice talking to and befriending humans. The first even has a cat talking to and befriending both humans AND mice. The sequel also has Cody feeling very attached to Marahoute the eagle, though they can't communicate with each other.
Kick the Dog: Both villains get several such moments, but for Medusa, who kidnaps a young girl from an orphanage and makes her dig for a diamond in a cave and refusing to let her up even when her life is in danger, what really stands out in many people's minds is her trying to convince Penny that nobody would ever want to adopt "a homely little girl" like her. Ouch.
Large Ham: Orville, Wilbur and Frank, albeit to a lesser extent than the villains.
Market-Based Title: Some international versions of both films either have "Bernard and Bianca" either replace "the Rescuers" or have it as a subtitle. You might also see the title preceded by "the Adventures of".
Meaningful Name: Evinrude, the name of the leaf-propelling dragonfly in the first movie, is a well-known manufacturer of boat engines. Could also be considered a Shout Out.
Punny Name: Wilbur and Orville the air service birds.
Also, Joanna the goanna. (Goanna being the local Australian name for monitor lizard.)
Reptiles Are Abhorrent: Brutus and Nero in the first one, Joanna in the sequel. Frank the frilled lizard is harmlesslyinsane, so he's an exception to the trope.
Reckless Gun Usage: For a poacher, McLeach does not handle his rifle properly, the first instance of this being when he uses it (already loaded and cocked) to pull Cody out of a trap.
Medusa isn't recognizably careful with her shotgun.
The Rescuers: ..."The Rescuers" and "Miss Bianca" by Margery Sharp.
Down Under: ...characters created by Margery Sharp.
Talking Animal: It's left uncertain whether anyone other than Cody and Penny can actually understand the animals in the series.
Thirteen Is Unlucky: Thirteen years passed between the theatrical debuts of the two movies, and Down Under ended up being the least successful movie of the Disney Renaissance.
Humorously, Bernard has a fear of the number thirteen, such as complaining when a stepladder has thirteen steps.
Animation Bump: ANY scene with Medusa in the original. She was a notoriously difficult character to draw and animate for anyone whose name wasn't Milt Kahl.
Covers Always Lie: The 1989 theatrical re-release poster has Rufus in the motorboat. Not once does he set paw in Devil's Bayou. Same goes for the Rescue Aid Society members in the same poster.
Expecting Someone Taller: Penny is surprised, to say the least, that her rescue party is a pair of mice.
Didn't you bring somebody big with you? Like the police?
Expy: One early draft of the film cast Cruella de Vil as the villain. Consequently, Madame Medusa bears more than a passing resemblance to her in both appearance and mannerisms, and she even drives the same car... just as insanely as Cruella did too.
It's said that Penny was going to be in Oliver & Company to show how she turned out after getting adopted, but they decided against it and renamed her Jenny.
Interestingly; you can notice that Ursula in The Little Mermaid has some scenes with similar animation to Medusa, and like Ursula, she has a pair of dragon-like pets.
Faux Affably Evil: Medusa puts on a facade of being sweet and kindly to Penny, apparently in an attempt to make the girl willing to listen to her.
Flight of Romance: Flying on the back of an albatross brings Bernard and Bianca closer together, but it takes until the sequel for Bernard to confess his feelings.
Panty Shot: Penny. Medusa's crocodile holds her upside down by her bloomers, then later she shows Bernard and Bianca the tooth-holes in them.
Medusa has two: once when she's on the chair screaming about the mice and once when the fireworks are used as a diversion when Penny's starting up the swamp-mobile.
Parasol Parachute: Bernard and Bianca employ this after Orville gets shot at with fireworks and spirals out of control
Scavenged Punk: Much of the equipment in the film is built from human materials, but it's almost purely a background element.
Sequel Hook: The first movie ends with them setting off on another mission; however, an actual sequel had not been planned at the time. When one did finally come out, it featured an almost identical departure scene, from the weather to Wilbur's, er, vertical takeoff.
Skin Tone Sclerae: Bernard and Bianca (less noticeable on her, since she's already white-furred).
Sleep Cute: Bianca falls asleep on Bernard's shoulder. And heads right into a snuggle.
Stock Footage: The shots of Medusa driving may have used recycled cels from 101 Dalmatians given that she drives the exact same car as Cruella de Vil. Either that, or they just recycled the rotoscope model.
Several voice clips are repeated throughout the movie, two notable clips by Medusa and Bianca respectively being "Snoops? Snoops, get down here!" and "Help! Bernard!"
Thirteen Is Unlucky: A reoccurring motif. Bernard is afraid of the number thirteen, especially when it came to the number of steps on a ladder or stairs. The movie also ended on a Friday the 13th if you look at the calendar shown.
Truth in Television: The Devil's Eye ends up on display at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History - exactly where the Real Life Hope Diamond was donated, and is displayed to this day.
Urban Legend of Zelda: Rumors have popped up that the first movie is going to be re-released as part of the Platinum Edition line-up in 2013; so far, however, this has only been confirmed for Europe. Then again, that's still a year away, so Disney might announce a Western release by then.
The movies were released in a double pack in the US on both DVD and Blu-ray on August 21, 2012.
Weaksauce Weakness: Madame Medusa's fear of mice. Especially since she has pet alligators.
What Could Have Been: Early drafts of the original movie involve saving a polar bear from a tyrant penguin. Not sure how the finished product would have been.
Yet another draft would have been rescuing a depressed poet from a prison, which follows the book "The Rescuers", but in the end they followed the sequel "Miss Bianca" more closely.
Early drafts of the movie also wanted to use Cruella de Vil as the original Big Bad, but they decided not to as they deemed it would be confusing to use a familiar villain in a different movie.
Originally, Chip N Dale Rescue Rangers was supposed to be a Rescuers TV series. Consider the expies: Chip + Dale = Bernard Gadget = Bianca Monterey Jack = Jake Zipper = Evinrude the dragonfly
Had Penny not been replaced with Jenny, Oliver & Company would have instead been Disney's first sequel/spin-off in the canon, preceding Down Under by two years.
Would Hurt a Child: Medusa would do anything to get that diamond, even at the risk of Penny drowning in the rising tide.
Animation Bump: The thirteen years between movies helps out a lot, obviously. Most of the animals avoid the "dots for eyes" thing, and the Skin Tone Sclerae thing is avoided with the main characters.
Artistic License - Biology: Under no circumstances would a modern-day eagle grow to the dimensions of Marahoute, whose head is larger than most of Cody. Her wingspan could easily be estimated at well over twenty feet long in some shots (the biggest eagles would be a stretch to reach ten feet).
Book Dumb: Percivial "I didn't make it all the way through third grade for nuthin'!" McLeach is quite uneducated, but don't let that ever make you think he isn't cunning or insidiously clever.
Code Emergency: The Rescue Aid Society calls a Code Red Emergency Meeting to announce that Cody has been kidnapped.
Chekhov's Skill: Jake tames a snake through intimidation to get the gang a lift through marshlands. Bernard pulls the same trick on a razorback boar to save the others.
Even more conspicuous: The scenes where Wilbur is flying over the Sydney Opera House and through New York City.
Continuity Nod: Orville's flight number is 13 in the first movie, where Bernard makes a big deal out of it. Even though the superstition never comes up in Down Under, when Wilbur is attempting to land, he identifies himself as Albatross One-Three.
Cowboy Bebop At His Computer: The back cover blurb for one of the DVD releases of Down Under used a male pronoun on Marahute and went right downhill from there.
Cross-Dressing Voices: Frank Welker voices the female eagle Marahute and McLeach's lizard, Joanna. (It's less surprising that the actor is a man than it is that the actor is human.)
Krebbs: Double or nothing, he's caught in 5 minutes.
Digital Destruction: Some prints of the movie edit the knife throwing scene by replacing the shots where the knives come within inches of hitting Cody with cuts to Joanna in her bathtub, eating animal crackers... probably because the knives were too scary for children.
Disappeared Dad: Cody mentions that his dad is "gone" and empathizes with the unborn eagles whose father was shot pre-movie.
Free-Range Children: Cody lives in a pretty sparse area of Australia, and his mom doesn't have any problem with him running around. It's pretty viciously deconstructed when he walks into McLeach.
Gilligan Cut: Bernard getting Wilbur to sit on Marahute's eggs.
Glove Snap :"All right, girls, let's snap to it!" *snap* Oh! That smarts..."
Ignoring By Singing: In The Rescuers Down Under, Frank the frill-necked lizard covers his ears and sings "Waltzing Matilda" when Krebbs the koala starts describing what the poacher is going to do to them.
Mad Doctor: The unnamed mouse doctor that is assigned to cure Wilbur's back problems is clearly a few eggs short of a dozen. Who else but a Mad Doctor would load syringes in a double-barreled shotgun and use a chainsaw in surgery?
Match Cut: Marahute returning Cody to the ground, after they visit her nest.
That said, Australia does have a native eagle species that could possibly grow to sizes approaching that of Marahute, namely the massive wedge-tailed eagle.
Mundane Utility: Though not fully shown, McLeach intends to use a blow-torch to cook his dinner during the "eggs" scene.
Musicalis Interruptus: Bernard and Bianca can't get Wilbur's attention until Bernard turns off his stereo.
Musical Nod: When the delegates are summoned, a snippet of the Rescue Aid Society's theme features in the score.
Not Even Bothering with the Accent: Adam Ryen as Cody and George C. Scott as McLeach. Most of the animals in Down Under as well; only Jake, Krebs the Koala and a handful of kangaroos have noticeable Australian Accents.
Justifiable, considering that Cody and Mc Leach are more important to the plot, and the unwritten rule of family entertainment that foreign characters still have to speak with American accents so kids will understand them.
Parental Abandonment: There is no mention of Cody's father whatsoever. There are strong implications that he was another victim of the notoriously dangerous Austrailian Outback.
The Patient Has Left the Building: Wilbur tries escaping from the hospital in which he was confined after hurting his back, with the Doctor Mouse and his nurses chasing after him, trying to bring him back to the operating room.
Shoot the Rope: How McLeach tries to drop Cody in with the crocs. He doesn't find it as easy as it is in most movies.
Something We Forgot: The film ends with Wilbur as an unwilling babysitter to Marahute's newly-hatched chicks.
Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Wilbur. Justified in that Jim Jordan, who voiced Orville, died before the second film was produced.
Took a Level in Badass: Happens to Bernard the moment he decides to wrestle a razorback to the ground.
Underside Ride: In Down Under, Bernard, Miss Bianca and Jake get under McLeach's truck to follow him when he goes after Cody.
Wilbur pulls off a variant when he taxis in an airplane wheel compartment.
Villain Song: McLeach sings his own short one to the tune of Home on the Range without musical accompaniment.
McLeach: Home, home on the range, where the critters are tied up in chains! I cut through their sides, and I rip off their hides, and the next day I do it again! Everybody!
Wham Line: In the second: "I've already got the father."
Humorously, according to the Bloopers section of this site, some viewers might have noticed that the feather of the father was in McLeach's hat before he took it out of his jacket and put it in his hat.
What Happened To The Australian Fauna?: In Down Under, what happens to the rest of the animals caged up in McLeach's hideout? We never see them again after the second escape attempt, when Cody is taken away. Possibly intended and lampshaded: No-one returned for Wilbur or Marahute's eggs, either.
3 reviews 