The Rescuers (1977)
Written by Larry Clemmons, et al.
Directed by Wolfgang Reitherman, John Lounsbery, & Art Stevens
I mentioned in an earlier review that my mind can’t remember if the first film I saw in a movie theater was Fantasia or The Rescuers Down Under. For the longest time, I believed it was the latter. It’s not a great film, but I recall being surprised when, about 5 years later (so, about 23 years ago, for those of you playing along at home), I discovered that Down Under was actually a sequel, to a film called, simply, The Rescuers. I watched it, and that was the last time I saw it, until just now.
Bianca and Bernard on their “airplane”
There are some really, really great things about this movie. And, there are other things that a bit more cringeworthy. One thing I’ve always loved about this film (and its sequel) is the quasi-alternate universe the mice live in. Here, they have their own United Nations-type of assembly, and their own airports. It’s really ingenious, and every example of it made me smile.
The music of the film firmly straddles the line between good and bad. The film was released in mid 1977, and some of the soundtrack CLEARLY reflects that; it made me laugh just how “70’s” it sounded. Yet, there are other moments where the music was so good: this was most of the instrumental stuff. The opening scene had perfectly creepy underscoring, and then turned surprisingly epic. It’s a sound that I hadn’t heard from the Disney films yet.
The animation continues to be a problem here, with more rough lines distracting the eye. Additionally, there were a lot of instances where the gap between the animation cel and the painted background were starkly contrasted, giving the characters a feeling of floating off their environments, as if the cel wasn’t laying flat on the background when photographed.
Me, seeing how stereotypical they’ve made Bianca
Eva Gabor, fresh-ish off of voicing Dutchess in The Aristocats returns here as Bianca, and again, thoroughly bored me. She also isn’t given great material. Her partner, Bernard, is full of superstitions and nuances. She’s...a stereotypical girl? They’re late because she was packing. Her perfume gives them away. Bernard gets to have all the interesting character quirks, she gets nothing. The film, unfortunately, doesn’t do much to boost gender equality, that’s for sure.
Penny and Medusa
I’ve never really given Medusa much thought as a Disney villain, but after this film, I’d would go so far as to say that she’s one of the worst (and I mean that in the best way). She cements that with a single line, when, after Penny says she wants to go back to the orphanage, she looks Penny dead in the eye and says, “Who’d want a homely little girl like you?” and I’m just over here like DAAAAAAAAAAAAAMN. How many villains would be that hurtful to a crying little girl?
Overall, I went into this film expecting it to be as forgettable as I had recalled, but I was pleasantly surprised by it. It’s still not up there in my top 10, but it’s a worthy entry.
FINAL GRADE: B-
