The Rescuers 1977
I was able to get this movie for free as a bonus for getting someone from the internet to sign up for a Disney Movie Club membership. Given a fairly low ranking in the Disney canon at No. 38 out of 56, it would be a long time before I would ever want to buy it, but benefitted by also including its sequel at No. 39. I don’t know that I want to buy the entire Disney canon, but I had never seen either of these movies and wanted to judge for myself.
I wasn’t sure what to expect. The movie was made during a lull in the quality of Disney animated features, well before the Disney Renaissance that was still ten years off. There is some nice artwork in the backgrounds and the characters are well done, but at times the linework seems too heavy-handed and the compositing of the characters seems to leave some characters a lighter shade than others. Also the story is pretty simple and the movie itself only 77 minutes, including some song montages. The movie centers around two mice who set out to rescue a little (human) girl kidnapped from New York and imprisoned by her captors (humans and alligators) in Louisiana. The mice are members of an international society of mice that helps those in need of a rescue. It is an unlikely setup, but is based on a series of books by British writer Margery Sharp. The main villain, a deranged woman with terrible driving skills, seems a little too much like Cruella de Vil, maybe after she’s let herself go. While there is a lot of action, it seems like there is a lack of tension, with each challenge resolving itself very quickly despite quite a bit of danger at times. There are some creative scenes and some good characters and voices, including Bob Newhart and some familiar voices from TV. The songs are nice, but are a little dated, and don’t really fit the action story. Still, it isn’t a bad movie by any means, just one with a few flaws. It seems a little more like an offering from a studio wanting to be like Disney than Disney itself, but sometimes those movies are good too.
Written: 20 Jan 2019
Owned on: Blu-ray, DVD, Digital