Disney Marathon: ‘The Rescuers Down Under’

Disney Marathon: 'The Rescuers Down Under'

I've never put much thought into how much we've dedicated to this project...until I realised that this is 50th review in the series. That's a lot of Disney. Since this is something of a landmark entry we decided to pick something with a personal collection, and since we live in Australia it only made sense to go with Disney's only outback adventure. Prior to this film's release, Disney studio did a Disney Down Under tour and visited our city. At 9 years old I got to meet some animators when they held a drawing lesson in the main shopping centre. Pretty exciting stuff for out very out of the way location.

For those just joining us, this is a movie marathon with a twist. Myself (cranky 40 year old blogger), my son Josh (11 year old Nintendo obsessive) and my daughter Amelia (drama llama 8 year old princess) are watching Disney movies in a random order and ranking them. We hope to see interesting differences in how we organise our lists.

Film: The Rescuers Down Under

Released: 1990

Director: Hendel Butoy and Mike Gabriel

Cast: Bob Newhart, Eva Gabor, John Candy, Adam Ryen, George C. Scott, Frank Welker, Tristan Rogers, Peter Firth, Wayne Robson, Douglas Seale

Plot: Bianca and Bernard are dispatched by the Rescue Aid Society to once again rescue a kidnapped child, this time to Australia. They're looking for a young boy being held hostage by a poacher who wants to reveal the nest of a giant golden eagle.

Review: The 1980s were not a good time for Disney Animation. The whole company seemed to be in a slump, with little interest being shown in their parks and lice action work in addition to their flagship animation studio. When Michael Eisner and Jeffrey Katzenberg taking the reigns of the company (for better or for worse) they quickly looked to the most successful of their recent films and ordered a sequel, something out of character with for Disney. With a quick glance and the box office numbers, they also decided to capitalise on the interest in the worlds largest island nation generated by Crocodile Dundee and sent their rodent rescuers to the southern hemisphere.

The first and most notable thing about this movie is how well they captured the Australian landscape. It's clear that they put a lot of work into studying and recreating the unique appearance of outback Australia, and we appreciate the effort that went into getting it right. Even the appearance of the small house Cody (Ryen) lives in with his mother is accurate right down to the elevated floor to keep the snakes from checking the place out and flyscreen doors. We'll always appreciate the work Disney animators go to when capturing a distinct looking region. All the colours and plant-life are spot on, and the animals aren't to shabby either. Although they have the the basic appearance right, they certainly haven't capture the movement of marsupials and just had them tumble about like standard cartoon mammals.

We open with Cody, a young kid living out the middle of nowhere who is very much in touch with nature. We rescues a giant eagle from a trap, only to be captured himself by McLeach (Scott), a cold-hearted animal poacher. McLeach plans on holding Cody hostage until he gives up the location of the eagle's nest. A message gets delivered to the RAS, who send Bianca and Bernard (Gabor and Newhart reprising their roles) to the rescue. Bernard is planning on proposing to Bianca, but the smooth talking Australian hopping mouse Jake (Rogers) gets in their way.

What we get now is a quick moving adventure with plenty of action sequences to keep things exciting. Cody teams up with captured animals, including a manic frill-neck lizard, to try and secure his escape. Bernard, Bianca and Jake travel across the land in search for Cody encountering a number of animals to use as transport. The albatross who brings them to Australia, Wilbur (Candy), is trapped in a medical centre run by a mad scientist mouse where he provides some slapstick comic relief. By bouncing back and forth between these three plot threads there's little time for things to slow down, and the tight 77 minute run time flies past.

The casting goes a long way to keep things fun. Gabor and Newhart bring the same old Hollywood charm to the lead roles, and John Candy provides plenty of brevity. Initially Jim Jordan was going to voice Orville again, but with the performers accidental death they introduced Wilbur as his brother. What is odd is the lack of Australian talent involved in the production. George C. Scott and other actors do passable Australian accents, but the only local performer is TV star Tristan Rogers as Jake. Given the setting in the Northern Territory in the area surrounding Uluru the lack of Indigenous figures is quite noticeable. Allegedly the production team pushed for Cody to be played by an Indigenous Australian actor, but Jeffrey Katzenberg shut the idea down insisting on a "little white blonde kid".

Thanks, Jeff.

That said, the depiction of Indigenous Australian's created by Disney in 1990 would likely create more problems.

As much fun as this outback adventure is, it doesn't have a great deal of lasting impact. It's fun, and has a sense of scale, but it lacks the epic blockbuster feel of Disney at its best. It's a fine diversion but it's unlikely to be anyones favourite movie in the canon. We'll always have a soft spot for it. It was shuffled into the Vault pretty quickly, but seek it out if you get the chance.

Coolest Easter Egg: Russi Taylor, the voice of Minnie Mouse, cameos as a nurse mouse.

Weirdest Trivia: This was Disney first theatrically released sequel, and would remain the only one under Ralph Wrecks the Internet released 28 years later.

Rating: SEVEN out of TEN

THE RANKING ME

The Rescuers Down Under is better than the first one on my list, sliding easily into the top half of the list.

Click those titles if you want to see what we said about the other movies.

AMELIA

1. Raya and the Last Dragon
2. Frozen
3. Moana
4. Tangled
5. The Little Mermaid
6. The Rescuers
7. The Rescuers Down Under
8. Peter Pan
9. Emperor's New Groove
10. Zootopia
11. Lilo & Stitch
12. Atlantis: The Lost Empire
13. The Great Mouse Detective
14. Home on the Range
15. The Nightmare Before Christmas
16. Mulan
17. Hercules
18. Alice in Wonderland
19. Cinderella
20. Wreck-It Ralph
21. Bolt
22. Pocahontas
23. Enchanted
24. Dinosaur
25. The Aristocats
26. The Princess and the Frog
27. Robin Hood
28. The Jungle Book
29. Fantasia 2000
30. The Lion King
31. Beauty and the Beast
32. The Three Caballeros
33. The Fox and the Hound
34. The Sword in the Stone
35. Saludos Amigos
36. The Hunchback of Notre Dame
37. Tarzan
38. Oliver & Company
39. Aladdin
40. Treasure Planet
41. Big Hero 6
42. Fun and Fancy Free
43. Sleeping Beauty
44. A Goofy Movie
45. Snow White and the Seven Dwarves
46. Meet the Robinsons
47. Chicken Little
48. The Wild
49. Fantasia

JOSHUA

1. Zootopia
2. Big Hero 6
3. Raya and the Last Dragon
4. Aladdin
5. Emperor's New Groove
6. Treasure Planet
7. Moana
8. Ralph Breaks the Internet
9. The Three Caballeros
10. Saludos Amigos
11. Wreck-It Ralph
12. The Rescuers
13. Frozen
14. Mulan
15. The Princess and the Frog
16. The Lion King
17. Lilo & Stitch
18. The Jungle Book
19. Robin Hood
20. Bolt
21. The Sword in the Stone
22. Beauty and the Beast
23. Oliver & Company
24. Peter Pan
25. The Rescuers Down Under
26. Sleeping Beauty
27. Tangled
28. The Great Mouse Detective
29. Cinderella
30. The Little Mermaid
31. Meet The Robinsons
32. Enchanted
33. The Hunchback Of Notre Dame
34. Home on the Range
35. Pocahontas
36. A Goofy Movie
37. The Aristocats
38. Fantasia
39. Snow White and the Seven Dwarves
40. Atlantis: The Lost Empire
41. Fun and Fancy Free
42. The Fox and the Hound
43. Fantasia 2000
44. The Nightmare Before Christmas
45. Dinosaur
46. Hercules
47. Tarzan
48. Alice in Wonderland
49. The Wild
50. Chicken Little