From 1989 to 1993, Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers aired on American free TV. Also in the 90s, several more or less official comics were released for young readers (and, unbeknownst to the House of Mouse, the growing ranks of dedicated fans). In January 2003, however, one guy from New York City outdid it all single-handedly when he published a fan work he had created over the course of three years: Of Mice and Mayhem.
It is a Web Comic, or rather a Web Graphic Novel: It follows a Comic Book page layout and, unlike the serial format of most web fiction, the entire story—all 232 pages, including a front and back cover—was published at once.
Instead of throwing the show's concept over and making up something entirely new, Of Mice and Mayhem picks up where the show left off, and that is presumably after the episode "Good Times, Bat Times". Three of the most popular one-shot characters have joined the Rescue Rangers (giving at least two of them an extra popularity boost), and this extra personnel, together with their individual abilities, is direly needed on the case the Rangers are thrown into, a case that doesn't only go beyond anything ever seen in official material, but also takes several months to solve. Since the target audience isn't the same as the show's at that time—the first generation of fans who had all grown up by then rather than the kids who watched CDRR on Toon Disney—the author could increase the overall intensity by multiple notches.
While some accuse it of being a bad excuse for blatant Shipping promotion, most fans regard Of Mice and Mayhem as one of the greatest creations ever done by a Rescue Rangers fan and "up there" together with Mike Demcio's Fan Fiction epic Rhyme and Reason. It is often considered superior to the show as well as the official comics, both story-wise and artwork-wise, and it received fandom awards by the dozen.
Click here
to read this fan crafting (or view it on the comic's Facebook page). Prepare for a sleepless night or two after taking it in. note A colorized (albeit edited-down) version has been posted on DeviantArt and can be found here.
Fans will be delighted to know that the author is planning a sequel, but it won't be finished for some time.
Of Tropes and Mayhem:
- '80s Hair: Gadget's famously poofy blond mane is lampshaded when she returns with a more modern hairstyle.
- Animal Testing: Nimnul did that in his lab in the Flashback.
- Asshole Victim: The guy Gadget killed while under mind control was an evil dictator who was going to kill his own stepson and granddaughter for siding against him. The Rangers actually point this out to Gadget in hopes of making her feel better about it.
- Bald of Evil: Ferrante. In fact, even Gadget when the chip's effect kicks in.
- Beta Couple: Dale and Foxglove isn't overtly shown, but it's made clear that they've become this when Dale tells Chip that he's over Gadget because of her when their past rivalry comes up. Chip decides to troll him by suggesting he ought to become interested in Foxglove as well to keep it going.
- Big Bad: The Black Table, mainly MacMillan and Dr. Snow.
- The Big Damn Kiss: When Chip and Gadget finally get over their hangups at the end, and cement their Relationship Upgrade. It earns a full-page splash panel.
- Brainwashed and Crazy: Gadget plus a couple of nameless rat assassins.
- Cannot Spit It Out: Both Chip and Gadget, but especially Chip. Although he is deeply in love with her, he'd rather wish her to find another mouse someday than to spend her life with someone from another species with whom she cannot have a family.
- Continuity Nod:
- Chip and Dale mention their past rivalries over girls, particularly Gadget. Dale is over Gadget by this point, but Chip jokes about missing the competitions and having to develop a crush on Foxglove just to retain it. Dale isn't amused.
- The body swap episode "A Fly in the Ointment" also gets referenced. It actually becomes a plot point for the grand finale.
- Beyond those more plot-important nods, there's enough small background references to the series that it often borders on outright Continuity Porn.
- Converse with the Unconscious: Gadget confesses her love to Chip as he is lying before her unconscious after having caught the poisoned dart with his body.
- Curb-Stomp Battle:
- When Gadget is activated, she utterly mops the floor with the entire Ranger team.
- Chip versus one of the hit rats sent to kill Gadget. He keeps pounding the rat even after it's unconscious, and Monty and Dale have to haul him off to stop him.
- Darker and Edgier: To be expected from Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers Fan Fiction, but still remarkably so.
- Doves Mean Peace: In order to signify the new peaceful relations between the United States and the unnamed Middle Eastern nation whose former dictator Gadget killed while under mind control, a "Dove of Peace" is planned to be released at a large event. Humorously, said dove is a foul-mouthed jerk who makes Pesto look tame.
- The Dragon: Ferrante.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: Of Mice and Mayhem does have a happy ending, but to call the path to it rocky would be a great understatement. It especially applies to Chip and Gadget.
- Empty Bedroom Grieving: After the Rangers pick up on clues that hint Gadget died, they opt to leave her room the way it was on the night they went out on their ill-fated mission.
- Everyone Can See It: It's rather obvious for the other Rangers to see how Chip and Gadget are pining for each other.
- Everyone Knows Morse: Monty communicates with Chip this way at one point during a mission.
- Exact Words: What the Rangers assume when Gadget tells them her programming will cause her to kill a leader, making everyone think she will kill Chip. It's more specific then that.
- Expy: Besides the canonical Dan Rather expy Stan Blather; the First Family is clearly a spoof of the Clintons, and the Middle Eastern dictator Gagdet assassinated looks like Saddam Hussein.
- First Kiss: Probably the most famous of 232 pages, did wonders on the fandom.
- Funetik Aksent: Monterey Jack's extreme (yet fake) Aussie speak.
- Fun with Acronyms: M.A.P. Mouse Assassin-Project.
- Fur Is Skin: Not this time. When Chip offers Gadget his black turtleneck to cover up her "nudity", she mentions that she's covered in fur just like him so there's nothing to see.
- Furry Baldness: The absence of a certain Furry Female Mane does not cause actual bald spots.
- Furry Female Mane: Subverted in that the poster child of this trope, Gadget Hackwrench, spends most of the story shaved "bald".
- Government Agency of Fiction: Subverted. MacMillan, Dr. Snow, and Ferrante are all working for the Black Table which happens to have ties to the C.I.A., and therefore, the U.S. government.
- Government Conspiracy: What most of the story is about.
- He Knows Too Much: The attempted liquidation of Chip.
- I Just Want My Beloved to Be Happy: One reason why Chip Cannot Spit It Out: He believes Gadget would be happier with another mouse because she may want to start a family some day, and their genetics are not compatible. Ultimately it turns out to be a moot point: Gadget has enough chipmunk DNA after the incident in which she was Body Swapped with Dale to be genetically compatible.
- Important Haircut: Gadget.
- I Need to Go Iron My DogGadget: I think I left the thingy on the whatzit....
- Innocence Lost: Gadget has to overcome her, albeit brief, past as an assassin and even having killed a human under mind control.
- Interspecies Romance: Well, this is bordering on a shipping fic. The pairings are the usual: Chip×Gadget and Dale×Foxglove. This is actually why Chip never confessed his love to Gadget: He figured she would want to find another mouse as a mate because a chipmunk and a mouse could never have kids. However, ever since "A Fly in the Ointment" when Gadget and Dale switched bodies, Gadget has had enough chipmunk DNA to have Chip's children.
- I Was Named "My Name": The President's daughter names Chip... Chip. Lampshaded by the other characters.
- Leave the Two Lovebirds Alone: When Gadget meets Chip at the White House, the other Rangers stay back for a very good reason.
- LEGO Genetics: Gadget discovers that the time Nimnul mixed up the Rangers' DNA left her genetically compatible with chipmunks.
- Love Hurts: Both Chip and Gadget.
- Manchurian Agent: Gadget as the MAP.
- The Mourning After: Chip mourns for Gadget after he finds files that suggest she was killed. Thankfully for him, she wasn't.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Gadget after realizing what she had done under mind control.
- My Life Flashed Before My Eyes: Happens to Gadget while the poisoned dart is closing in on her. Albeit lampshaded with the words "Oh- Here comes the 'Life Flashback'"
- Mythology Gag: After busting Rat Capone, Monterey Jack and Zipper took over the Acorn Club from him and have run it ever since, having had plenty of time for that after the Rangers have cleared up the crime in the city. The Acorn Club is where Chip and Dale went to see Clarice sing in the Chip 'n Dale cartoon "Two Chips and a Miss". In fact, under Monty's ownership, the Acorn Club saw the 'munks redo their show from back then.
- Non-Humans Lack Attributes: Of course this has always applied to Chip and Dale but Gadget has a few "nude" scenes in which whatever she might have is covered with fur as she explains herself.
- Not Quite Dead: Gadget
- Not That Kind of Doctor: After Chip is shot, the President's daughter begs her mother to help him, stating that she is Surgeon General and that she should be able to help him. Against all odds, she succeeds.
- Obligatory Swearing: Being a Darker and Edgier take on the Rescue Rangers, the language tends to get fouler than it was on the show.
- Our Presidents Are Different: President Logan, the President Personable who is actually unaware of the Government Conspiracy.
- Out of Focus: Both Monterey Jack and Zipper, who in the series had major roles but are mostly background characters here.
- Pantsless Males, Fully-Dressed Females:
- While CDRR plays this straight in general, Gadget ends up spending a large part of the story wearing nothing but a black turtleneck. In fact, it was Chip who wears the turtleneck first but gives it to Gadget after rescuing her from the lab clothesless so she can cover herself. He actually doesn't have to, see Non-Humans Lack Attributes.
- On the other hand, Foxglove, who doesn't wear anything in the show, is now fully clothed (except for shoes). Of course, her wings are still free.
- Police Are Useless: To be expected in Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers Fan Fic, but the FBI team that raided Nimnul's lab in the Flashback was quite efficient, as are police forces later on in the story.
- Relationship Upgrade: Chip and Gadget finally upgrade their relationship to Official Couple. While Dale and Foxglove aren't quite as overt, it's indicated they're firmly together by the time the story begins.
- Right on the Tick: The mind control chip makes Gadget go and kill a leader at 9 o'clock unless she is sedated well enough. The Rangers experience this behavior first hand the morning after the rescue.
- Running Gag: In one early scene Gadget accidentally fires one of her plunger guns while doing maintenance, and the plunger comes down on Monty's head. During Gadget's memorial Monty himself tells the story to others, drawing a big laugh out of his audience. Later, Sparky is messing around with a plunger gun when it goes off...and the plunger comes down on Monty's head.
- She Cleans Up Nicely: Gadget is wearing a dress and a new hairdo when she comes to take Chip home; mind you she has been wearing dresses in the show for disguise purposes only.
- Shout-Out:
- The First Daughter shares her first name with Tress MacNeille (voice of both Chip and Gadget on the series).
- And then there are Tress's Pikachu plush, a poison
named after the Roland music workstation the author was craving back then... - Roy Batty, the leader of the movie-addicted bat clan, is named after Rutger Hauer's character, the sort of Big Bad, in Blade Runner. The movie-addicted bat in question might indeed have watched Blade Runner once too often and decided to adopt the name.
- Gadget felt the need to do a barrel roll.
- Dale shouts "I'm king of the world!" when the Rangers are flying to Washington by bat. Foxglove immediately chastises him.
- Gadget mops the floor with the Rangers when her programming takes control. When Chip checks on Foxglove, she quips "'Tis but a flesh wound."
- Tress has a Powerpuff Girls T-shirt.
- Shrine to the Fallen: Gadget's room is left as-is and not repurposed.
- Spoiler Opening: The cover gives away several key scenes in advance.
- Take That!: When Dale makes a Titanic reference while flying on Foxglove's back, she immediately calls him out that it was stupid when Leonardo DiCaprio said it.
- Taking the Bullet: Chip throws himself into the trajectory of the poisoned dart Ferrante fires at Gadget.
- The Power of Love: Gadget is a mind-controlled assassin, captured by two killer rats, a poisoned dart is shot at her from a rifle, and Chip comes to save her.
- Time Skip: Number one occurs between losing Gadget and finding a possible trail to her, number two skips Chip's healing time in Washington and Gadget's therapy at home.
- Trojan Horse: Chip and Dale's cage, used to gain access to a government lab performing animal experimentation.
