Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers
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| Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers | ||||||||||||||||||||||
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 Rescue Rangers! Ch-ch-ch-Chip 'n Dale! When there's danger! No, No, it never fails Once they're involved, Somehow whatever's wrong gets solved! Ch-ch-ch-Chip 'n Dale! 🎶 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
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"I Just love that this movie doesn't take itself too seriously. Let's make fun of but also feel love towards animation in general."
— Black Nerd Comedy
Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers is a 2022 American live-action/animated action-adventure comedy film based on the characters Chip and Dale and the TV series of the same name, also acting as a spiritual successor to Who Framed Roger Rabbit. This film is directed by Akiva Schaffer, written by Dan Gregor and Doug Mand, and co-produced by Walt Disney Pictures and Mandeville Films.
A film based on Chip and Dale was reported to be in consideration as early as 2014 when Disney announced a live-action film based on the Disney Afternoon series with CGI similar to that of the Alvin & the Chipmunks film series. Rober Rugan was going to write and direct the film and it would have talked about the origin story of the Rescue Rangers. In 2019 however, Akiva Schaffer replaced Rugan as the director while Dan and Doug became the new writers. It premiered in Orlando on May 16, 2022, and was released nationwide in the United States on May 20, 2022.
Plot
This movie takes place years after the original Rescue Rangers series ended production. Chip now works as a salesman while Dale had CGI surgery and works on the convention circuit in hopes of reliving his glory days. When a cast member of the original series disappears, Chip and Dale must reunite with the rest of the group to save their friend and rebuild the two's friendship.
Why It's One Heck Of A Comeback
- For starters, the way the characters are animated is quite creative, as every character is represented through a different art style much like The Amazing World of Gumball in a way. The hand-drawn-like characters (even though it's cel-shaded CGI) are given details that indicate them being hand-drawn regardless if those are the characters who originate in the original black and white cartoons via rubber hose, or perhaps the more modern-colored cartoons. You also got other characters animated differently like those depicted in CGI, stop motion, motion capture, and puppetry.
- In fact, Dale's photo-realistic CGI design for the movie is very accurate and faithful to his typical design much like the CGI used for the Sonic characters in the live-action Sonic movies.
- The cel-shaded CGI is reminiscent of the animal characters in the Tom and Jerry movie from 2021, so it proves that they don't always have to rely on animating every character in a photo-realistic art style for live-action adaptations.
- A crazy good story that is just a Roger Rabbit-esque premise that is a detective story. It doesn't need to take itself too seriously and instead wants to be fun much like Looney Tunes: Back in Action.
- You don't need to watch the original show to understand the plot. It may take place after the original show, but it's mostly just a meta-commentary.
- The tone of the movie is surprisingly dark on its level. It's still a family-friendly movie, yet it knows when to have its dark moments the right way such as the deep lore behind the bootleg toons who were once normal but were changed into altered versions of themselves due to a machine and when Chip and Dale discover the machine that causes the toons to become bootlegs complete with depictions of characters like Garfield, Sneezy, Flounder, Jiminy, and parts of certain characters, the climax, and Sweet Pete's backstory. Not to worry about those, it still has some lighthearted moments too as if the movie balances both tones. Sweet Pete's motives and characterization appear to tackle some serious topics in an unbiased manner consisting of loan sharking, human trafficking, former child stars becoming criminals, and modern-day slavery.
- After being absent most of the time, Roger Rabbit himself gets to appear in this movie so it was nice to see him return despite being a simple cameo.
- Good voice acting for the animated characters like Tress MacNeille as Gadget, Eric Bana as Monterey Jack, J.K. Simmons as Captain Putty, Seth Rogen as Bob, and Keegan-Michael Key as Bjornson. Chip and Dale even get to have their squeaky voices in some scenes.
- Even though Chip and Dale's human voices sound off-putting initially, John Mulaney and Andy Samberg did an excellent job as the titular duo. The same can be said about Dennis Haysbert voicing Zipper despite the character being mute.
- The acting of the real human characters is good too, like KiKi Layne as Ellie.
- It takes a lot of playful jabs at the modern American film & entertainment industry, like Chip complaining about reboots thus calling them Hollywood nonsense, Chip and Dale talking about motion capture animation being uncanny at times if given to the wrong hands (including two characters that resemble the cats from 2019's Cats), the fake movie posters of films like parodies of Fast and Furious and Mrs. Doubtfire which represents unwanted sequels/reboots, Chip complaining about cartoon characters rapping, Chip complaining about Captain Putty being the revealed villain, etc. Heck, Chip and Dale's relationship could be a nod to how a lot of stories depict many Hollywood screen partners hating each other.
- Bootlegs are also spoofed in this movie due to Sweet Pete's attempt to make bootlegs of certain films.
- Much like Who Framed Roger Rabbit, it makes good use of cameos from characters from the Disney lineup (like Scrooge McDuck, Lumiere from the 1991 version of Beauty and the Beast, Flounder from the 1989 version of The Little Mermaid, the Magic Carpet from the 1992 version of Aladdin, etc.) and even some non-Disney cameos like the Mane Six (and other ponies) from My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Sonic's old design from the first trailer for Sonic the Hedgehog, McGruff the Crime Dog, Naruto Uzumaki from Naruto (Though a bootleg that resembles him), He-Man and Skeletor from He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, and MC Skat Kat from Opposites Attract. The same can be said about the elements of certain characters like the hair of Jimmy Neutron, a Smurf hat, and Ickis' mouth from Aaahh!!! Real Monsters, the tail of Shenron from Dragon Ball, just to name a few, heck, even Beavis and Butthead from their series of the same name and Randy Marsh from South Park had cameos in this film!
- There are plenty of good comedic moments that are worth a chuckle like Little Dale pretending to have his eye socked poked by a pencil in class when in reality, he's holding the pencil near to it, Chip and Dale meeting Bob, the bootleg DVDs (despite dark lore behind it), Chip and Dale's rap number with a snake, Chip and Dale encountering bootleg/alt versions of Pooh, Tigger, Piglet, Pete, and The Simpson family, etc.
- Great and well-written dialogue such as:
- "The biggest risk is not taking any risk at all."
- "I've always been more of an Alvin and the Chipmunks person." "You... monster!"
- "You want a piece of me? Be my guest!"
- "Hey Putty... don't be so fragile."
- "Of course, they're rapping. They always have to make the cartoons rap."
- "We're as much real detectives as the Scooby-Doo gang."
- "Oh, you want me to go fast. That's Sonic's thing. Ugly Sonic goes (in slow-mo) sloooowww, babaayyyy."
- "Don't you just hate awkward silences?"
- "Yeah, death is coming for us all, kid."
- "When one of us succeeds, we all succeed."
- Tons of likable and well-written characters are found throughout the movie.
- Chip and Dale's relationship is much more realistic compared to their previous incarnations. Dale cares more about reboots and stardom while Chip is more serious. Both characters retain their typical personalities where Chip is depicted as a smart chipmunk while Dale is depicted as a dumb chipmunk. Even though Chip and Dale sometimes see themselves getting into heated tension with each other, they start to get a better relationship as time went on, evident when Dale sacrifices himself to prevent Chip from getting hit by a Bullet Bill-like character that was shot by the cartoon hybrid Sweet Pete got in.
- Bob is an entertaining henchman of Sweet Pete and by far the funniest of the bunch all thanks to his motion capture appearance and Seth Rogen voicing him.
- Ugly Sonic is Sonic's ugly design if he was much more likable. Sure, he may be based on that Sonic design from the first trailer of the 2020 Sonic the Hedgehog film, yet he's surprisingly funny and even helped Chip and Dale go after Sweet Pete's cartoon hybrid.
- Sweet Pete is a sympathetic yet well-written villain who happens to be a parody of Peter Pan himself. He was once Peter Pan until he realized he grew up to be an adult. He's also a big threat to the point where he can be terrifying in a good way even though it's weird to see Peter Pan become evil yet this is a non-canon version of him.
- Captain Putty may turn out to be an intentional cliché twist villain since this is a satire of the film industry, but he's not only an entertaining character but also a big threat who may seem like nothing at first yet shows no mercy to his enemies to the point of becoming a legit threat.
- Chip and Dale do get a backstory of some kind. It starts in the past when Chip and Dale first met at school, and both were revealed to be outcasts until they met each other. The backstory goes a lot more touching when Chip explains his side of the backstory where he's depicted as an outcast who has had no friends until he met Dale. Plus, the younger versions of Chip and Dale are indeed cute.
- Plenty of good callbacks to the original Rescue Rangers show like when Chip and Dale go to a garage filled with merchandise of the show and when the characters mention some episodes of their show. There's also footage of their show getting shown off in some scenes.
- Rescue Rangers are not the only ones getting the callbacks, we also get callbacks from other media including but not limited to:
- Sweet Pete's backstory of how he was the original Peter Pan only he aged as time went on.
- The mid-credits scene shows Darkwing Duck himself making an appearance and wanting a reboot with Jim Cummings reprising his role. Heck, Darkwing Duck will eventually get a reboot in the works which is pretty interesting.
- Ugly Sonic himself is a reject and is criticized for his ugly appearance.
- The scene where Bob talks about a supply of Shrek bubble bath bottles being unused and those things used to exist believe it or not.
- Bob encountering Pumbaa from the 2019 Lion King remake, Mantis from Kung Fu Panda, and B.O.B. from Monsters vs. Aliens as a nod to Seth Rogen's roles as those characters.
- When Chip went to get his food from the freezer, you can see a picture of Foghorn Leghorn in a Tyson box as a nod to the discontinued Looney Tunes Meals from Tyson, as well Scrat from Ice Age and Frozone from The Incredibles.
- DJ Herzogenaurach showing off a remix of the Disney Afternoon theme song.
- The scene where Chip puts on attire similar to that of Indiana Jones could be a nod to how Chip does have some similarities to Indy himself.
- Sometimes the cartoon hybrid monster Sweet Pete becomes does spews out some words from characters like Shredder from TMNT and Wreck-It Ralph.
- One of Sweet Pete's weapons appears to be the Dip from Who Framed Roger Rabbit.
- Another scene is when Chip and Dale go through the operating machine and are pictured in different animation styles, including anime, Cal-Arts, The Simpsons, and even Rick and Morty.
- Mentions of other fictional characters who did not make a cameo in some way like the Rugrats cast, Peppa Pig, Gumby, Jack Skellington from A Nightmare Before Christmas, the PAW Patrol cast, and Snoopy. Plus, a scene where Chip walks on the street shows the Hollywood star names of characters like Squidward from SpongeBob SquarePants and Chun-Li from Street Fighter.
- Rescue Rangers are not the only ones getting the callbacks, we also get callbacks from other media including but not limited to:
- Great soundtrack by Brian Tyler, which fits well with the movie's themes and its detective premise. Post Malone's cover of the Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers theme song is great as well.
- Plenty of great action sequences like Chip and Dale escaping from the machine that was gonna alter the chipmunks, the scene where Chip and Dale go to a bathhouse and spy on Sweet Pete, Bob and Jimmy chasing Chip and Dale at a fan convention, and the final battle which occurs near the end of the film.
- Great direction by Akiva Schaffer who loved the film's self-referential humor, his love of the original show, the film Who Framed Roger Rabbit, and his interest in working on animated films. He wanted this film to be a love letter celebration of animation much like Roger Rabbit thus adding both Disney and non-Disney characters.
- Has a good message of how friends are much more important than business. To prove this, there is a scene where Dale got a call from his agent only for Dale to throw his phone away during the scene where Dale was with Gadget and Zipper. Another good message is when Chip's motto is "The biggest risk is not taking any risk at all" which is also a major message for the film. Think about it, Chip and Dale have to go through a bunch of obstacles to rescue Monty. The final message is all about rekindling friendship because Chip and Dale have to deal with each other due to having separate views.
- The opening Disney logo comes with a new twist in a crazy cool glory. As soon as the fanfare is about to end, lasers appear thus altering the castle's appearance of various castles.
- This meta sequel of the original TV show of the same name is such an interesting and clever choice of a plot as well as giving the Rescue Rangers a new breath of fresh air not to mention a big true comeback of the Who Framed Roger Rabbit type of films. This can be considered to be a spiritual successor of the said film.
- The art designs from the 1900s to the present are very well done.
- The film also succeeded in what other live-action-animation hybrid movies like Tom & Jerry and Space Jam: A New Legacy tended to fail to do; make the title cartoon characters the stars and taking the spotlight instead of the (usually poorly-written) humans. Most of the screen time and character development centers on Chip and Dale while the human characters don't hog the spotlight while remaining useful to the plot.
Bootlegged Qualities
- Even though the plot is fascinating and clever, it's also predictable and nothing new, though this is to be expected as the film is made in good fun and doesn't need to be serious. Captain Putty's reveal of working with Sweet Pete was pretty obvious even though Chip and Dale made fun of it.
- Even though the animation for the hand-drawn characters is very good, it can look a bit off after you realize that they are cel-shaded in CGI rather than being traditionally hand-drawn. This can make the characters look more like they fit somewhere else in a cel-shaded environment like Guilty Gear for example. Sometimes the lighting and some facial expressions can also make the hand-drawn 2D characters look awkward a bit.
- Other issues occur in the film as well such as a character that looks like a character from Pixar's Cars looking weird and a cameo of Linda Flynn-Fletcher's eyebrows raising and her forehead increasing height.
- Product placement: There is some of such here and there such as the Nintendo Entertainment System, Capcom, Tyson, Facebook, Apple, Variety, Chase, McDonald's, or if you look at it the wrong way, Disney themselves.
- Additionaly, some of the product placements wern'nt around during the film's timeline, such as Facebook.
- Sometimes it can be slightly too dark for younger audiences albeit intentionally since it's a PG-rated family-friendly movie.
- For instance, the scene where Sweet Pete turns into a chimera monster that has the head of Felicia from The Great Mouse Detective, the torso of Peter Pan, the jacket of John Silver from Treasure Planet (could also be Yokai's jacket from Big Hero 6), the left arm of Wreck-It Ralph, the shoulder pad of Shredder from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the right leg of Woody from Toy Story, the left leg of Optimus Prime from the Bumblebee version of Transformers, the right arm of Megatron from the first generation of Transformers, a Bill Blaster from Super Mario (albeit the bullets are different looking), and the shorts of Mickey Mouse. Though, it may not look that terrifying, but still.
- The infamous scene where Flounder gets kidnapped and tortured through bootlegging, though thankfully, there is no blood.
- Even though the movie takes place in a different universe, the film does not acknowledge that Chip and Dale did more than just Rescue Rangers after the original show ended or before the show started including the original Walt Disney shorts, Park Life, Mickey Mouse Works, House of Mouse, 2017's DuckTales, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Kingdom Hearts, etc.
- While the voice acting for the animated characters is good, it does feel off for those who are more used to hearing Chip and Dale speak in high-pitched voices and not regular human voices despite having some moments of spewing out some dialogue with their typical voices. The same can be said about Zipper being voiced by Dennis Haysbert despite being mute in the source material. Again, being a meta-story, it would somewhat make sense.
- Everything going on in the film could distract some viewers.
- False advertising: Bjornson does appear in one of the main character posters, yet the film doesn't really show much of him, and he only appears in the scene where Chip and Dale go to his cheese shop, and he's not heard of again after he took Chip and Dale to see Bob.
- Some of the humor is a bit cringe-worthy due to its use of toilet humor like Dale having a drawing of a butt on his map (even though it's a reference to a gag in the Alvin and the Chipmunks film or when Chip and Dale go to a toilet, although the film shows some awareness with Chip showing disgust at jumping in the toilet.
- Sweet Pete, while relatable and is a great antagonist, is controversial because he was seen by some as a mirror of Peter Pan's original voice actor, Bobby Driscoll's dark life and fate, despite this version of Peter Pan being non-canon and could be purely coincidental. Likewise, one can assume that Disney was subtly admitting and acknowledging their error, as they were partly responsible for Driscoll's fate.
- There have been some fans who would rather have Fat Cat, an original character, or even a grown-up version of Pinocchio (due to wanting to be a real boy) as a potential main villain instead.
- Some goofs, oddities, and plot holes.
- For some reason, the fact that Sweet Pete collected certain parts of certain toons feels questionable. It's unclear why Sweet Pete has kept the parts at his hideout.
- How does Flouder survive without water when he's a fish. Fish don't survive on land. Though since it's a meta-movie, it might be justified.
- The cameos of Wynnchel and Duncan from Wreck-It Ralph depict them to be on the same height as Chip and Dale (alongside other small characters like Putty, Monty, Gadget, Lumiere, etc) when they are usually human size in the source material they come from.
- Why do some Toons like Chip, Dale, and Peter Pan age while others like Flounder, Bart Simpson, and Cubby don't?
- The movie depicts Chip and Dale meeting each other in 1983 when the characters were first created in 1943. Though they could be ancestors of the original characters yet still.
- Dale keeps a map of the highest ratings for Rescue Rangers in 1991, recalling that it was the show's most successful year. The original series ended in November 1990, having only aired in first-run for 20 months. Though re-runs exist yet still.
Reception
Chip 'n' Dale: Rescue Rangers received positive reviews. On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 79% of 34 critics' reviews are positive with an average rating of 6.7/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Sometimes some reboots fall through the cracks, but Chip 'n' Dale: Rescue Rangers picks up the slack with a fast, funny film that (almost) never fails.". Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 69 out of 100 based on 12 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".
On IMDb, it got a 7/10 while Metacritic gave the film a score of "generally favorable reviews"
Potential Sequel
Akiva Schaffer has gotten some feedback on whether or not this movie could get a sequel. However, Dan Gregor and Doug Mand (the screenwriters) were asked about any future for this movie and said that "In terms of the world, yes. I would say that, and not just a shameless writer, cash grab, or whatever, we think that there is a lot more to tell in the world that we've started to play in this movie. And that we've kind of only scratched the surface in both characters that we want to explore and stories for the characters that are currently in the movie. There's more to be said if the public likes the movie and Disney has an appetite for it. We do have ideas. And we do think that there are ways to keep digging at some of these themes, through different avenues". More can be found here.
Trivia
- Originally Charlie Brown would have been the main villain of this movie. He would have been depicted as an adult version of himself, yet he was scrapped due to having to pay licensing for the character. The team decided to add Sweet Pete/Peter Pan as the legit main villain.
- Back then, there have been reports that Corey Burton, Tress MacNeille, and Jim Cummings would have reprised their role as their characters from the show. Only Gadget got back her voice roles (though Chip and Dale do have their squeaky voices briefly) and Jim was replaced by Eric Bana. Also, Zipper is voiced by Dennis Haysbert, thus giving him an extremely deep voice.
- A 1990 issue of Comics Scene magazine reported that a theatrical feature film based on the series was planned for a 1990 release. However, the film never saw the light of day, possibly due to the lackluster performance of DuckTales the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp.
- One of the posters for the movie additionally sneaks in a Darkwing Duck reboot in the background (behind RR script and on the top-right side on the yellow note).
- This is the second time Keegan Michael-Key and Seth Rogen appeared in a film together with the first being the 2019 remake of The Lion King. Their third time will be the 2023 animated Super Mario movie.
- This film marks the first time MC Skat Kat appears in some form of media since the American Dad episode "Kiss Kiss Cam Cam". This film also marks the first time that he appears in a film, namely a Disney film.
- The teaser trailer for the film was released on the same day the series was released on Blu-ray.
- Dale's show proposal "Double-O-Dale" could be a shoutout to the Rescue Rangers episode Double-O-Chipmunk and a real life Launchpad McQuack pitch of "Double-O-Duck" which eventually became "Darkwing Duck".
- Captain Putty is a character inspired by Gumby.
- Bjornson is an Expy of The Swedish Chef from The Muppets.
- Though not explicit, Jimmy the Polar Bear seems to be inspired by one of the Coca-Cola Polar Bears.
- The scene where Putty is shown to re-emerge from a door alongside his incapacitation via freezing is a nod to the T-1000 from Terminator 2: Judgement Day
- Even though Chip's freezer shows an Ice Age branded food consisting of ice cream and Scrat appearing, there have been real-life Ice Age themed frozen popsicles and whatnot like Tip Top and Popsicle.
- In the credits scene, a billboard that shows an ad for a fake game called "Disney Afternoon Fight Fest" is a reference to the Super Smash Bros. series.
- This is not the first time Peter Pan grows up. He previously grew up in the film Hook.
- This is also not the first time Peter Pan is a villain. He was one of the villains on the ABC series Once Upon a Time.
- Before the film's release, there have been numerous leaks on the internet including 4Chan that predicted the film's plot is somehow accurate. One famous one would be a leak depicting Pluto as the main villain because of the lead characters upstaging him so many times yet Pluto wasn't depicted as a villain in the final film. There were a lot of unused scenes the leak stated including:
- Pluto kidnapping Gadget in an attempt to make her rig up an advanced version of the machine to upgrade himself into the ultimate toon which has elements of various kidnapped toons both 2D and 3D.
- Pluto would have gotten sent to the Toontown Dog Pound.
- Ellie is said to have much more focus than the titular characters when the latter characters get enough focus.
- Gadget is said to be a double for Scarlet Johannson for the MCU films.
- When Pluto was about to alter/erase/disassemble Chip, there were bits of various toons in glass cases all over the warehouse.
- More information can be found here
- There has been some controversy about the film due to Sweet Pete/Peter Pan being depicted as a villain and also the late Bobby Driscoll.
- This is the second time Dennis Haysbert gets to have a role in a Disney movie with the first being a minor character named General Hologram from Wreck-It Ralph. The same can be said about Eric Bana who gets to appear in a Disney movie the second time the first role he had in a Disney movie was one of the three sharks named Anchor from Finding Nemo.
- This is the first time John Mulaney and Andy Samberg get to have roles in a Disney product.
- Jar Jar Binks from Star Wars was originally going to appear in the film yet he was scrapped because he was replaced by Ugly Sonic. A storyboard for him exists though.
- The storyboard that mentioned Jar Jar Binks also revealed some differences too. Peter Pan's design slightly looked much closer to his original design in comparison to Peter Pan's more depressed and overweight design used in the final film. Chris Evans was also originally going to have a cameo in the film. Mike and Sully from Monsters, Inc. were also going to have a cameo before being cut and replaced by He-Man and Skeletor. A statue of Groot from Guardians of the Galaxy was also cut before being replaced by a Voltron statue. Baymax also had a cut cameo where he can be seen working as a barber. Mushu from Mulan was also going to appear when he was replaced by Lumiere in the final film. Elliot from the 1977 version of Pete's Dragon appears in the storyboard before being replaced by Doc McStuffins.
- Peter Pan in the storyboards also chases Chip and Dale on top of some metal platforms when Bob was chasing Chip and Dale in that scene during the final film.
- The reason why Peter Pan's design is different in the storyboards compared to the final film is that in that version, Peter Pan was a victim of a botched CGI surgery.
- Believe it or not, there is a small easter egg related to Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse which shows briefly the same graffiti art that Miles made in the film.
- At one point, the film made fun of PETA which is a company infamous for attacking animal abuse and meat eating despite killing animals with the line "Don't want PETA on your tail".
- Ugly Sonic became an internet meme due to him being based on that infamous Sonic the Hedgehog trailer released in 2019.
- The director teased some R-rated deleted scenes where Chip and Dale say the f-bomb uncensored"
- This is the 2nd time Steven Curtis Chapman voiced Baloo when the first time voicing him was in the video game The Jungle Book Rhythm n' Groove. Heck, Steven said that Baloo was one of his favorite Disney characters and even attempted to voice the bear in The Jungle Book 2 only to be replaced by John Goodman.
Reviews
External Links
Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers at the Internet Movie Database
Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers on Rotten Tomatoes
Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers on Metacritic
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