The Rescuers

Like a few of the films during the post-Walt years, The Rescuers is actually a fun film and generally overlooked due to the huge shadow the princess oriented films tend to cast.

The animation is quite on par through the film, and is actually a much darker film than Oliver and Company or Fox and the Hound. Perhaps the only flaw that I can pick up on in the animation, is that during the vehicle shots, characters and the vehicle being used tend to stand out from the background a bit more which make the cel a tad obvious. Other than this minor bit, the animation is still quite pretty to look at.

Our story is pretty straightforward. A young girl named Penny has been abducted, and it is up to Bernard, a handyman mouse, and Miss Bianca to go and save her from the clutches of Madame Medusa. Along the way, our two heroic mice grow closer and make friends with some swamp folk who are all too eager to help drive away Medusa.

Much like most films from this time period, the songs are not sung by the characters themselves and are instead played in the background. Most of the songs don't have quite the same lasting power as other films in the canon, yet they are still quite fitting to the film and are a wonderful addition.

Two small things in this film did stand out to me, one made me giggle while the other made me scratch my head a bit. What made me giggle was how Bernard in his handyman outfit reminded me quite a bit of Mario, of Nintendo fame. The thing that made me scratch my head was how Penny does not seem to question talking animals. By the time she meets Bernard and Bianca, she already knows animals can talk and yet in a flashback the kitty at the orphanage simply chats with her like it's fully normal. It makes me wonder if this is normal in this world, or how exactly talking animals work precisely. Is it just something children can hear? A rather minor thing, yet it's something I picked up on.

One larger thing to point out is our villain, Madame Medusa. She is quite overlooked when being ranked with other villains. Two things that really stand out about her is that she is willing to go to any length to get what she wants, even if it means endangering Penny's life. The second is a very brief scene that really drives home her cruelty when she has a chat with Penny and asks the little girl "Why would anyone want a homely girl like you?" and says it so casually. One interesting thing to note is that originally Cruella De Vil was supposed to be the villain in this film, yet in the end they made Medusa, which is the right choice in my own opinion, though the two ladies share the same skill in driving.

3 1/2 /5