I remember seeing this film's 1990 sequel, "The Rescuers Down Under" (or at least some of it), as a kid, but do not recall ever seeing any of this original 1977 Disney animated flick during my childhood. I don't think I even knew the title of the sequel until about six years ago. For a while now, I've known that "The Rescuers" is the first of the two, and I finally rented it just last week. It's not among the most popular Disney animations, so I wasn't expecting an excellent family film, but knowing that it did have appeal, I was expecting it to be good. I have now seen it twice, and the first time I watched it, I thought it was definitely no more than average. I gave it another try about 24 hours later, and thought it was a bit better this time, but still not that good.
A bottle containing a plea for help is sent from a boat in a bayou by a little girl and ends up in New York, where it is found by mice, so a Rescue Aid Society meeting is called to order in the city. At this meeting of mice from around the world, Miss Bianca volunteers to go and rescue Penny, the orphaned girl who sent the message. She chooses Bernard, a janitor, as her partner on the mission. Together, they go to the orphanage where Penny lived before disappearing, and meet an aging cat named Rufus, who tells them about the missing girl, and from what they learn, it sounds like she has been kidnapped by an evil pawn shop owner named Madame Medusa! So, Miss Bianca and Bernard go out and find Medusa, but fail to keep up with her, so the two mice take an albatross flight to Devil's Bayou, where Penny has been taken, and learn that here, the girl is being forced by Medusa and the evil woman's assistant, Mr. Snoops, to search for a large diamond in an underground cave, which Medusa longs to get her hands on!
Both times I watched this Disney cartoon very recently, I was not very impressed with the songs in general, most of which are performed by Shelby Flint. This includes the opening credits sequence and the ending, both featuring songs. The voice acting is another problem. Not all the voice-overs are lacklustre, but many of them are, including Bob Newhart and Eva Gabor as Bernard and Miss Bianca respectively. There are some funny parts in "The Rescuers", such as Bernard's struggle to get the message out of the bottle at the Rescue Aid Society meeting and Bernard trying to give permission to land at the airport, but there aren't enough funny moments. Madame Medusa certainly isn't the most entertaining villain in the history of Disney animation. She's like a bland version of Cruella De Vil from "One Hundred and One Dalmatians". Despite all these flaws, there is a bit of excitement and the story can be fairly intriguing. Also, the animation, while not great, has some nice backgrounds and colours.
Since this 1977 release, Disney has brought us worse animated features, like "Pocahontas" and "Home on the Range", but have also brought us far superior ones as well. Most Disney animated films that I've seen, from both before and after "The Rescuers", are better than this one. While I certainly wasn't completely bored throughout the movie, I get the feeling I might have liked it a lot better as a kid. I might even like it better now if I had seen it in the 90's. Even after two viewings, I can still rate it no higher than 6/10. I tried to like it better with a second viewing, but barely succeeded. I know many people like this film, including adults, so I won't say it's strictly for kids, but it didn't reach my expectations. If you're fan of Disney animation, this particular film could be worth checking out. You certainly could like it better than I did, but I wouldn't expect it to be one of the greatest pieces of Disney animation ever made.
A bottle containing a plea for help is sent from a boat in a bayou by a little girl and ends up in New York, where it is found by mice, so a Rescue Aid Society meeting is called to order in the city. At this meeting of mice from around the world, Miss Bianca volunteers to go and rescue Penny, the orphaned girl who sent the message. She chooses Bernard, a janitor, as her partner on the mission. Together, they go to the orphanage where Penny lived before disappearing, and meet an aging cat named Rufus, who tells them about the missing girl, and from what they learn, it sounds like she has been kidnapped by an evil pawn shop owner named Madame Medusa! So, Miss Bianca and Bernard go out and find Medusa, but fail to keep up with her, so the two mice take an albatross flight to Devil's Bayou, where Penny has been taken, and learn that here, the girl is being forced by Medusa and the evil woman's assistant, Mr. Snoops, to search for a large diamond in an underground cave, which Medusa longs to get her hands on!
Both times I watched this Disney cartoon very recently, I was not very impressed with the songs in general, most of which are performed by Shelby Flint. This includes the opening credits sequence and the ending, both featuring songs. The voice acting is another problem. Not all the voice-overs are lacklustre, but many of them are, including Bob Newhart and Eva Gabor as Bernard and Miss Bianca respectively. There are some funny parts in "The Rescuers", such as Bernard's struggle to get the message out of the bottle at the Rescue Aid Society meeting and Bernard trying to give permission to land at the airport, but there aren't enough funny moments. Madame Medusa certainly isn't the most entertaining villain in the history of Disney animation. She's like a bland version of Cruella De Vil from "One Hundred and One Dalmatians". Despite all these flaws, there is a bit of excitement and the story can be fairly intriguing. Also, the animation, while not great, has some nice backgrounds and colours.
Since this 1977 release, Disney has brought us worse animated features, like "Pocahontas" and "Home on the Range", but have also brought us far superior ones as well. Most Disney animated films that I've seen, from both before and after "The Rescuers", are better than this one. While I certainly wasn't completely bored throughout the movie, I get the feeling I might have liked it a lot better as a kid. I might even like it better now if I had seen it in the 90's. Even after two viewings, I can still rate it no higher than 6/10. I tried to like it better with a second viewing, but barely succeeded. I know many people like this film, including adults, so I won't say it's strictly for kids, but it didn't reach my expectations. If you're fan of Disney animation, this particular film could be worth checking out. You certainly could like it better than I did, but I wouldn't expect it to be one of the greatest pieces of Disney animation ever made.