For tropes regarding the sequel, please see The Rescuers Down Under.
The film contain examples of:
- Adaptation Displacement: You can imagine how many people have even heard of the original books. In fact, there are a good 12 within the series. The final book, Bernard Into Battle, was made not too long after the first movie.
- Alternative Character Interpretation:
- Out of all the volunteers to choose from at the start, Miss Bianca selects Bernard, who is not an official rescuer. Is she already attracted to him and figures that if she has to take a partner, it may as well be one she likes? Does she think his more nervous personality means he's not likely to undermine her authority? Does she think said nervousness would be good to offset her fearlessness in the event that they need caution? Or does she sense potential that he himself doesn't realise?
- If one takes note of the alligators' attitudes towards Snoops and Penny, they're hostile to the former and delight in scaring him even after he compliments them. With Penny however, they're less rough, and even bring her teddy with them when they're sent to bring her back, and Penny likewise has no problem sassing them. This could point to them being Punch Clock Villains who only bring her back because Madame Medusa orders them to. And since the film ends with them surrounding Medusa and Snoops, perhaps they only went after Penny because Medusa had the gun. Or did they just get sick of her attitude?
- Madame Medusa is actually surprisingly wasteful for someone whose master plan is to get a rare diamond. Even when she drives out of her shop, she doesn't seem to care that her suitcase flies out of the car, and Snoops also draws attention to an absurd amount of jewels that Penny has already found for them, only for Medusa to insist on the Devil's Eye. Perhaps she's already quite wealthy, or at least well-off enough to not care, and merely wants the Devil's Eye as a status symbol rather than financial value. Or is she, as Miss Bianca seems to think, completely insane with greed and loves more the thrill of finding things? And if Penny did find the Devil's Eye for her, would she immediately move on to another obsession?
- Did Medusa always plan on killing Snoops along with Penny, to get rid of all witnesses, or did she only decide to after Snoops got angry after the realization that Medusa was not going to share whatever money is made from the diamond, and Medusa now realized he wasn't quite the Yes Man she thought he was.
- Base-Breaking Character: You either can't stand Madame Medusa for chewing way too much of the scenery or you cherish how much of a memorable villain Madame Medusa is.
- Fanon: Devil's Bayou has never had its location stated, and so some fans like to believe it's in Louisiana, due to the heavy southern accents on the local mice. Florida is a popular second guess, to make it more plausible that Penny's bottle travelled to New York City from there.
- Fashion-Victim Villain:
- Medusa's eyeshadow is a heavy lavender that clashes with her coloring and red lipstick, Her red dress doesn't flatter her figure and she wears long pumps with too-dark pantyhose. The sight of her would make Stacy and Clinton faint.
- Snoops's hair and his poorly fitted suit in a pastel color scream "I'm a middle-aged square in the 1970s!".
- Germans Love David Hasselhoff:
- According to famed Disney animators Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston in their book "Disney Animation and the Illusion of Life", when The Rescuers was released in Germany, it became the highest grossing picture of all time in that country.
- It was also a huge hit in France, and grossed more money there than Star Wars, of all films. It's still beloved there, thanks to the top notch vocal performances of Roger Carel (Bernard) and Perrette Pradier (Madame Medusa). There was even a 25th anniversary reunion featurette on the 2002 DVD in France.
- Hilarious in Hindsight:
- Instead of Madame Medusa, the villain was originally going to be Cruella DeVil before Disney decided they didn't want to make a sequel to one of their previous movies. Years later, this would be the first Disney film to receive a sequel, and not one that was Direct to Video.
- Bernard's janitor uniform at the beginning of the film, consisting of a red shirt and hat with blue overalls, gives him a striking resemblance to Mario, who wouldn't make his debut for another four years. Even funnier, at one point he climbs down a green bottle that looks just like Mario's green pipes.
- Rescuers famously went up against Star Wars in its original theatrical release, even beating it out at the box office in France. Coincidentally, Rescuers also has a character named Luke - albeit instead of wielding a lightsaber he wields a pitchfork while guzzling down moonshine which apparently can double as gasoline!
- Jerkass Woobie: Snoops is singled out for physical and verbal abuse from Medusa - moresoe than even Penny, arguably - and is ultimately betrayed when he is denied a share of the Devil's Eye. However, any sympathy one might have for him is quickly canceled out by his being an accessory to kidnapping a child, endangering the welfare of said child, and his constantly attempting to bully her and destroy her spirits (it doesn't work on Penny and she gives as good as she gets, but it's still a grown man taunting a orphaned child he's kidnapped).
- Love to Hate: Madame Medusa is an utterly rotten human being, but Geraldine Page kills the role and delivers a quality voice performance that helps make the character very enjoyable.
- Moe:
- Miss Bianca, due to her graceful and feminine demeanor, but especially her big heart and how warm and loving she is towards children.
- Penny, a cute and innocent Heartwarming Orphan who just wants to be loved, especially when the abusive Medusa brings her to tears.
- Moral Event Horizon: Medusa goes from kidnapping an orphan girl named Penny to use her to find a diamond in a cave beneath a well to encouraging Snoops to be harsher when Penny doesn't find it to personally making Penny look for the diamond in the cave even though this actually puts Penny's life in danger. Then when Penny gets the diamond and Medusa takes it, Medusa holds Snoops AND Penny at gunpoint to deter them from taking it. She even tries to shoot Penny, a little girl, when she tries to start the swampmobile.
- Nightmare Fuel:
- Madame Medusa's fittingly ominous and sinister theme
. Especially when accompanied by the cacophony of insect and night creature noises emanating from Devil's Bayou (listen here) - Brutus and Nero add an intimidating aura in the steamboat. Most importantly, they come close to killing Bernard and Bianca all the while playing the organ managing to make the scene both whimsical and threatening. The genuine threat they pose gives Madame Medusa's otherwise offscreen fate an ominous touch: she can't hang onto the mast forever, and when she does fall...
- The Black Hole scene is pretty well full of this. The movie builds up how much Penny hates the place, but it's only late in the movie do we actually see it for ourselves...a dark, cramped cave with skeletal remains here and there...and a large hole where water from the tide outside rushes in and floods the cavern periodically.
- Speaking of that hole "where the water comes in", Bernard believes it's the perfect place to hide something as valuable as the Devil's Eye and goes over to take a look. The movie doesn't show it, but whatever Bernard sees in that hole utterly terrifies him before he backs away, nervously stammering that if he were a pirate, he wouldn't hide anything near such a place. Despite Bernard's Cowardly Lion tendencies, you have to wonder...what did he see in that hole that frightened him so badly...? And we NEVER get to see in it at all... (Realistically, it's probably just much deeper than he thought it was and he would be doomed to drown if he fell in, but still....)
- Both Bernard and Penny nearly fall into the hole trying to cross it. And before they escape, they're nearly sucked down into the hole itself as the water begins to fill the cave and form a whirlpool. Face it...that hole is a scary deathtrap!
- And then, as noted above, there's the aspect that despite the extreme danger, the fact that this cave is so claustrophobic and cramped is why Medusa had to use a child to find the Devil's Eye, because an adult couldn't possibly fit in here.
- Bats coming within seconds from making a meal out Evinrude, as seen from the little dragonfly's eyes. The chase forced poor Evinrude to hide in an open bottle until morning when he flies as fast as he can to Ellie Mae’s place with two bats still pursuing him.
- In the original book, Miss Bianca by Margery Sharp, Bianca tries to reason with the Diamond Duchess' guard dogs Tyrant and Torment (who were redone as Brutus and Nero in the movie) and, trying to be polite, they offer her an ivory bench that's just her size. Shortly after they make it clear that she can't talk them into helping her, Bianca realizes what the "ivory" bench is: the bone of a previous victim of Tyrant and Torment! Who would have thought that the Duchess was related to Gerald Grice?!
- Madame Medusa's fittingly ominous and sinister theme
- Older Than They Think: The companion PDF file for The Lost Chords reveals that the movie had been in production since 1962, placing this as the last movie released that was in production during Walt Disney's lifetime.
- Overshadowed by Controversy: The original release had a near-subliminal topless woman in an apartment window during the trip on Orville. Unlike later accusations like the priest with an erection or the dust cloud saying “sex,” this one is actually confirmed to be genuine. Upon its discovery on the 1999 home video release, the studio insisted none of their animators were responsible and it appears to have been done at some point in post-production. The tapes were recalled and it was scrubbed from all future releases.
- Realism-Induced Horror: Madame Medusa. While her plan of kidnapping Penny and using her to get the Devil's Eye diamond comes off as a little more grandiose, one of her most loathed moments among fans of the movie occurs when she mocks Penny as "homely" and claims no adoptive parent would want her. As horrible as her endangering Penny's life is, that kind of cruelty happens far more commonly.
- Refrain from Assuming: The sad song that plays during Penny's tearful scene is "Someone's Waiting For You", not "Be Brave, Little One". Blame it on the fact that it's a pretty memorable song.
- Signature Scene: Bernard and Bianca in Evinrude's leaf boat. Almost any image-based reference to the movie will show them in the boat.
- Suspiciously Similar Song: "Tomorrow is Another Day" starts out sounding somewhat similar to Joni Mitchell's "The Circle Game," albeit with more of that sound of The '70s.
- Sweetness Aversion: Some viewers find Penny just a little too cute, although her feistiness and her sheer Woobie-ness help to balance it out.
- Tear Dryer: Penny, a young child who is held captive by Madame Medusa, is praying for someone to rescue her, then breaks down in tears. Thankfully, Bernard and Bianca arrives just in time to comfort her.
- Toy Ship: Although they've never officially met (at least until Once Upon a Studio where they're seen standing next to each other), Penny and Cody are a popular couple.
- Unintentional Period Piece: Mostly due to its 1970s poppy soundtrack (although the film also boasts a old-fashioned communal orphanage, the pawn shop Madame Medusa runs is filled with mid-century artifacts and the scene set there has a very antiquated feel, Penny's hopeful attitude towards being adopted comes across as naïve to modern viewers, and the infamous nude photo looks very '70s).
- Values Dissonance: The film has some mild examples, mostly to do with today's stricter ratings standards. It can be startling to see a Half-Dressed Cartoon Animal knocking back moonshine, to say nothing of the villain's carefree attitude toward gun safety. Practically all of the international mice are stereotypes, and there is only one delegate representing all of Africa as opposed to the other mice representing individual countries. Plus, the Chairman’s fond memories of when "it was a man's world", though he quickly agrees to let Miss Bianca take the mission, and Bernard's immediate objection that Bianca would need (male) help for protection for the same reason.
- Viewer Name Confusion: Madame Medusa's name is pronounced the same as 'madam', but spelt like 'madame', leading to some spelling and pronunciation confusion.
- Viewer Species Confusion: Brutus and Nero are called crocodiles by Miss Bianca (and they do have narrow snouts and interlocking teeth like crocodiles, rather than broad ones and overbites like alligators), but viewers often refer to them as alligators. To make things even more confusing, the concept art◊ does call them alligators, and an earlier design even gave them overlapping jaws and broad snouts appropriate for a gator. Even the This Very Wiki is inconsistent on the matter of what they're supposed to be. Seeing as the animators started studying and sketching alligators rather than crocodiles, and that the setting of Devil's Bayou is meant to be in Louisiana (though since they are Madame Medusa's pets, she could have had them imported), where alligators are found but not crocodiles, it is safe to say that they are supposed to be gators. The crocodile-like features are probably the result of later tweaks to the designs as pre-production went on.
- Win Back the Crowd: After several years of several films of varying quality that suffered from not having Walt Disney since his death in 1966, The Rescuers was at the time a badly-needed success for The Walt Disney Company. It was considered one of its better outings of that era, which made it an important step toward The Little Mermaid (1989) and the Disney Renaissance; Disney was clearly aware of this due to having the sequel be the second film of the Renaissance and the first film using the CAPS system (though it failed at the box office, the animation pioneering it did bring was crucial to the success of Beauty and the Beast, the third film of the Renaissance).
- The Woobie: Penny. A sweet, innocent girl who is kidnapped and forced to risk her life to get a diamond for Medusa. As if this weren't bad enough, she's constantly being put down by Medusa claiming no one would ever want to adopt her.
