I remember seeing the second half of this film with my sister (who has the same name as the little girl in this film) while our dad was fishing and the most memorable moments from the second half were Penny being sent down the pirate cave to retrieve a diamond for Madame Medusa and Penny being shown on TV with her new mother and father. The other part of this film I remember from my childhood is the 'Someone's Waiting For You' (one of the best songs in the film) sequence because it was featured on the Disney 'Sing-A-Long Songs: Under the Sea' video tape I watched constantly as a child. As with 'Toy Story 3,' 'Dumbo' and 'The Rescuers Down Under (which is just as good as this film),' I watched this on my flight home from Dubai and I really enjoyed it.
As with the majority of Disney films that came out between the 1960s and 1980s, the characters are drawn in a sketchy and linear way, thus making their animation a little on the flat side. The character designs range from being simplistic (e.g. Bernard and Bianca) to more detailed (e.g. Penny and Madame Medusa, but the facial expressions and lip-sync are spot on. As for the background designs and some of the props, they were intricately drawn, especially the bottle that contained Penny's call for help and the cars parked outside the United Nations building. My favourite characters in this film are Bernard, Bianca and Penny, who are all very sweet. Even though this film has a sentimental tone for the most part, it has a few comical moments such as Bernard unintentionally wearing Bianca's hat briefly while they are blown through the organ pipes when Brutus and Nero play it; and Penny imitating Madame Medusa as soon as Bernard and Bianca find her. In addition to 'Someone's Waiting For You,' the other songs I liked were 'The Journey,' which I initially thought was called 'Who Will Rescue Me?' but was accompanied by beautiful paintings of Penny's message in a bottle floating on the water as the opening credits were shown, and 'Rescue Aid Society,' which I found catchy, although the other songs were pretty forgettable. This film also has some clever writing, such as the running gag of Bernard's fear of the number 13 (for example when he climbs up a ladder/comb to pull Penny's message out of the bottle, he falls inside it) but it was also clichéd (Medusa being afraid of mice) and repetitive (one of Penny's lines being the same as Medusa's) in parts. One element of this film that reminded me of other films was Penny's teddy bear resembling Winnie the Pooh.
Overall this was a charming film that I'd happily watch again. 8/10.
As with the majority of Disney films that came out between the 1960s and 1980s, the characters are drawn in a sketchy and linear way, thus making their animation a little on the flat side. The character designs range from being simplistic (e.g. Bernard and Bianca) to more detailed (e.g. Penny and Madame Medusa, but the facial expressions and lip-sync are spot on. As for the background designs and some of the props, they were intricately drawn, especially the bottle that contained Penny's call for help and the cars parked outside the United Nations building. My favourite characters in this film are Bernard, Bianca and Penny, who are all very sweet. Even though this film has a sentimental tone for the most part, it has a few comical moments such as Bernard unintentionally wearing Bianca's hat briefly while they are blown through the organ pipes when Brutus and Nero play it; and Penny imitating Madame Medusa as soon as Bernard and Bianca find her. In addition to 'Someone's Waiting For You,' the other songs I liked were 'The Journey,' which I initially thought was called 'Who Will Rescue Me?' but was accompanied by beautiful paintings of Penny's message in a bottle floating on the water as the opening credits were shown, and 'Rescue Aid Society,' which I found catchy, although the other songs were pretty forgettable. This film also has some clever writing, such as the running gag of Bernard's fear of the number 13 (for example when he climbs up a ladder/comb to pull Penny's message out of the bottle, he falls inside it) but it was also clichéd (Medusa being afraid of mice) and repetitive (one of Penny's lines being the same as Medusa's) in parts. One element of this film that reminded me of other films was Penny's teddy bear resembling Winnie the Pooh.
Overall this was a charming film that I'd happily watch again. 8/10.