"The Rescuers" - Disney animated film review

The next Disney animated movie that I watched for the first time was "The Rescuers".


So, you know how sometimes, when I write reviews, I go off on tangents, and the review ends up being half about the film/TV show and half about random other stuff? Yeah, that.

I knew almost nothing about the movie going in. I knew there were two mice dressed in clothing, and a vague memory of seeing a snippet of them sitting inside a leaf bobbing along in the water. I think it might have also been a Walt Disney Classics piece that I’ve seen?

I always love seeing the credits on the older animated films to see what names I recognize because they’ve gone on to do other things since then.

Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston! Don Bluth and Gary Goldman! GLEN KEANE!!!!!

During the credits at the beginning of the film, when they had the beautiful painted backgrounds, the husband made a comment about making still paintings seem like you’re watching a film. I responded that it wasn’t new to me. I’ve seen the 1962 French short film called “La Jetée”, which utilizes almost entirely still photographs, and it’s the movement of the camera and composition and framing that makes the pictures seem to come to life. I was amused at the time when I heard that the then-forthcoming film “Twelve Monkeys” was inspired by that short. I’ve meant to see the film but haven’t gotten around to it. OK, sorry, film geek digression there.

I absolutely *loved* the parallel mouse contingent when the members of the United Nations gathered. A mouse in a kilt! So dang cute!!!!! So apparently, all the international mice are part of a Rescue Aid Society who help people and/or other animals - I’m not clear on their client base. The origin of their helpfulness seems to stem from a mouse pulling a thorn from a lion’s paw, which is depicted in a picture on the wall. Except that it’s actually a hybrid of two of Aesop’s fables, The Lion and the Mouse (wherein a mouse convinces a lion not to eat him and then later returns the favor of saving the life of the lion by chewing through the ropes that imprison him), and Androcles (wherein the slave Androcles escapes and then helps a lion with an infected paw by pulling a thorn out, and when Androcles is recaptured and thrown to the lions presumably to his death, it’s the same lion, who remembers him, and instead of killing him, is friendly to him).

One of the delegates arrives late to take her seat, and she’s a head turner. How perfect that Miss Bianca is from Hungary, given that she’s voiced by Eva Gabor. (I can apparently now cross “watch all the Disney animated films that Eva Gabor provided a voice for” off my list.) I enjoyed her performance in this film, though she was also a flirt, like Duchess was in “The Aristocats”. I’m sensing a pattern.

I’m not sure that I would have figured out that Bernard was voiced by Bob Newhart, but I really enjoyed his performance. I’m a fan of his anyway, but his calm, slightly uncertain but steady and endearing portrayal of Bernard was a lot of fun.

The scouts were really cute too. When they came on screen, the husband said, “Boy scouts!” I said, “No, mouse scouts.” And then, they were referred to as mouse scouts in the film. Nailed it!

And then it’s revealed why the Society has been convened. They’ve found a note written by a little girl named Penny, addressed to the orphanage where she lived, and she needs help. Miss Bianca volunteers to take on this mission and recruits Bernard to assist her.

OK, so far, we’ve had these little cute mice all dressed up in clothing of different countries, a little flirtation between Miss Bianca and Bernard, and then, we’re going to accompany them on an adventure. Swell. What’s next? How about ripping your heart out? Penny is a cute little girl (who reminded me of Pippi Longstocking in looks, with the red hair and pigtails, but definitely not in demeanor). Who lives in an orphanage. And it was adoption day. And she had the hope of being adopted, but the parents picked someone else. And she’s sitting on her bed, sad, because she wasn’t chosen, because the girl they picked was prettier, she tells Rufus the cat. WHAT??!?!??!?!?!? Oh my gosh, how sad. Poor little girl. How did we get here? (Yes, we saw a glimpse of her earlier in the film, but we didn’t know anything about her.) And then, we find out that she was kidnapped, for what nefarious reason, we do not know yet. Oh, great, this gets better. Orphan child, in peril. Seriously, I almost turned off the movie at this point.

So then, we find out the culprit is a proprietor down the street. And her name is Medusa. Oh, giant blaring warning horn there. Clearly, she’s a villain. She can’t be a loving grandmotherly type with THAT name! So Miss Bianca and Bernard poke around Medusa’s pawn shop (that’s a hint too, right, since pawn shops aren’t necessarily regarded as upstanding places of business – if it had been Medusa’s hair salon or Medusa’s house of pets, she might have been given a smidgen of the benefit of the doubt) to see what they can find out. Notice the calendar on the wall says Thursday the 12th? What comes after that? Ooooo, spooky.

We’re then introduced to Madame Medusa. Who looks a lot like Cruella DeVille from “One Hundred and One Dalmatians”, released 16 years prior. No, really, she REALLY looks like Cruella. Like Cruella 2.0. Or possibly Cruella 1.1. The hair, the face, the body shape, even the car, and she even puts on a coat that looks like Cruella’s. It’s like she was a reincarnation of Cruella.

So then Miss Bianca and Bernard overhear Cruella ... I mean, Medusa ... talk about a girl getting away and that she needs to go to Devil’s Bayou to straighten things out. Miss Bianca and Bernard then hitch a ride with her to the airport, where we see more evidence of Bernard’s superstitious nature. Earlier, when he was climbing the ladder to get to the top of the bottle to retrieve Penny’s note, he was frightened upon realizing that the ladder had 13 steps. Here, he’s also dismayed to discover that the ramp to their airport terminal also has 13 steps, and he’s not happy when he’s told that Flight 13 is the one they need to get where they need to go. I enjoyed their adventures with Captain Orville.

When we get to Devil’s Bayou, we find out that Medusa and her sidekick Mr. Snoops have imprisoned poor little Penny on a boat that looks like the Mark Twain at Disneyland, except that it has a side paddle wheel rather than a rear paddle wheel. Medusa has henchmen in the form of alligators named Nero and Brutus (ahh, more bad guy names), and they seem to have been the inspiration for Ursula’s henchmen eels named Flotsam and Jetsam in “The Little Mermaid”. Very similar depiction and characterization, though the gators don’t speak, but the look of the eyes and snouts were very reminiscent.

After Penny escapes, the gators retrieve her and her teddy and bring them back to the boat, while Miss Bianca and Bernard enlist the help of Evinrude the dragonfly to save Penny. I really liked the sequence where Miss Bianca and Bernard are trying to evade capture and ingestion by the gators, though I did find the gator playing the organ to force out the hiding mice to be a bit weird. They had been mostly doing gator-like things, with the exception of that. When it’s revealed that Medusa is afraid of mice, the husband commented that he thought it was funny that she’s perfectly fine with the ginormous scary alligators but she’s afraid of little mice. And Evinrude has not escaped danger either, as he’s feverishly chased by a huge swarm of hungry bats intent on making him a snack morsel. That was a pretty scary segment, with the bats and their fangs and the rabid look in their eyes. After Evinrude eventually evades the bats, he is tasked by Miss Bianca and Bernard to return to Ellie Mae to ask for help. In addition to other bayou mice, Ellie Mae has also gathered together other animals to help, though I had a bit of a problem with the rabbit and the turtle and the owl all seemingly the same size as the mice. Ummm, scale issues? Anyway, the gang heads off to help save Penny from Medusa.

So, speaking of Medusa, it’s not bad enough that she kidnapped an orphan girl and transported her across state lines, but it’s revealed that she’s using Penny to retrieve the Devil’s Eye, the largest diamond in the world that’s lost somewhere in a pirates treasure cove. Penny asks to be taken back to the orphanage, and Medusa, trying to act nice to her, asks her if she doesn’t like it there, with all the room on the boat to herself, and Penny says that if she doesn’t go back to the orphanage, then she’ll never be adopted. And Medusa tells her that no one would want her. Again, WHAT??!??!?!?!?!?!??! Seriously, how cruel can you be? I generally have more problems with this kind of thing than when there’s sorcery involved, like with the Evil Queen or Maleficent. In the case of Madame Tremain in Cinderella and Madame Medusa here, they’re just normal people with evil, cruel, mean dispositions. That bothers me so much more. So apparently, Medusa sought out Penny because she’s small enough to fit in a bucket and be lowered down to look for the diamond. There are other diamonds and jewels there, some of which Penny has previously retrieved, but that’s not enough for Medusa - she wants the Devil’s Eye. When Penny is reluctant to go down in the hole because it’s dark and scary, Medusa snatches teddy away from her and basically holds him hostage in exchange for her finding the diamond. Medusa, evil, through and through.

Miss Bianca and Bernard go along with Penny, and they’re the ones who eventually find the diamond, hidden inside a skull, and they help Penny get it out of the skull. But there’s some hole at the bottom of the cave from which water erupts, periodically flooding the cave. So yeah, Medusa doesn’t care that she’s sending an orphan girl into these dangerous conditions, and she’s impatient to boot that Penny isn’t finding the diamond fast enough. Once Penny obtains the diamond and is pulled back up, Medusa proves herself to be even worse by double-crossing Snoops, to whom she had promised half the loot but she’s now reneging on that deal. She also does not follow through on her promise to return teddy to Penny in exchange for the diamond (How many strikes is that against her now?), but her escape is thwarted by the arrival of Ellie Mae and her gang. We discover that Medusa didn’t want to give up teddy because she’d hidden the Devil’s Eye inside. Penny retrieves teddy, and she’s returned to safety, the diamond is put on display at the Smithsonian, and Penny gets adopted and expresses thanks to Miss Bianca, Bernard and everyone else who helped to save her. This poor girl deserves a happy life.

After their good deed, Miss Bianca and Bernard are on to their next adventure, with Orville and Evinrude along. Evinrude in the scarf and knit cap – oh my gosh, how darn cute is he?

Generally, I enjoyed the film, though I was really bothered by Penny’s plight. It seems a pretty heavy story for a “kids film”. I mean, she gets a happy ending, but not before being an orphan, being rejected, being kidnapped, being told that no one wants her, and then having her life put in danger because she’s viewed as less important than what is essentially a lump of coal. I would watch this film again, and maybe next time, because I know it turns out ok, it won’t bother me as much, but the look on little Penny’s face when Medusa tells her no one wants her – ugh, so heartbreaking. Side note that I learned reading background today – the girl who voiced Penny eventually went on to be in the movie "Airplane", and she’s the one who says she likes her coffee black.... How funny is that?

I was perplexed, though, that Bernard’s seeming preoccupation with superstition was never resolved. I figured he’d have some major obstacle to overcome, especially since they were going to the Devil’s Bayou, and eventually were tasked with helping to retrieve the Devil’s Eye, but nothing ever arose. I’m not sure why that whole side story was included.

A little note about the few songs in the movie – yeah, none of them did anything for me.