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The Rescuers
May. 4th, 2020 12:29 pmI know that I saw The Rescuers when I was a child, because my brother and I enjoyed Albatross Airlines so much that we insisted our father incorporate an albatross airplane service into the Sam and Beulah stories, an ongoing bedtime story saga about the gerbils Sam, Beulah, and their sons Roscoe and Tommy Boy, plus an ever-growing list of younger gerbil siblings who existed mostly because my brother and I liked to name baby gerbils.
(Our albatross was named Albert.)
However, it's been so long since I've seen the movie that the only part I really remembered was the sardine can airplane seat, with the little key in the side so that Bianca and Bernard could roll up the metal lid to keep themselves snugly inside. (In general, I've found that I have a very good memory for scenes that play on tiny creatures retooling everyday objects into tiny pieces of furniture or crockery. Clearly I had my priorities when I was five.)
So revisiting the movie was an unexpected delight. I loved fearless Miss Bianca, who cheerfully choses the janitor Bernard as her co-rescuer (also loved the part where Bernard climbs a comb to retrieve a message from a bottle), and of course Penny - I'd completely forgotten the existence of Penny, the bayou, basically the entire plot - plucky but frightened, and deeply attached to her teddy bear. The moment when Medusa rips Teddy from Penny's hands - ! True evil, right there.
I think possibly we watched The Rescuers Down Under more often, but honestly I don't remember that movie too well either. I was amused to discover, however, that it came out thirteen years after the original Rescuers - given Bernard's ongoing anxious encounters with the number thirteen (thirteen rungs on the comb! Thirteen steps on the staircase up to the albatross's back!), it's funny that the gap between movies should be exactly that.
I'm also curious why Disney made a sequel to The Rescuers, given that they made no sequels for decades - and when they did get in the sequel game in the nineties, it was mostly straight to DVD, or maybe to the Disney channel. Maybe The Rescuers Down Under caused a power struggle? It came out in 1990, which is the year that Disney's Disneytoon Studios (which produced most of the direct-to-video sequels) started releasing movies...
I should look into this in more detail as we get closer to The Rescuers Down Under. (Once the library reopens, I hope to take out some books about the history of Disney animation in general.) But first... well, next up is The Fox and the Hound. I've already laid in a supply of tissues.
(Our albatross was named Albert.)
However, it's been so long since I've seen the movie that the only part I really remembered was the sardine can airplane seat, with the little key in the side so that Bianca and Bernard could roll up the metal lid to keep themselves snugly inside. (In general, I've found that I have a very good memory for scenes that play on tiny creatures retooling everyday objects into tiny pieces of furniture or crockery. Clearly I had my priorities when I was five.)
So revisiting the movie was an unexpected delight. I loved fearless Miss Bianca, who cheerfully choses the janitor Bernard as her co-rescuer (also loved the part where Bernard climbs a comb to retrieve a message from a bottle), and of course Penny - I'd completely forgotten the existence of Penny, the bayou, basically the entire plot - plucky but frightened, and deeply attached to her teddy bear. The moment when Medusa rips Teddy from Penny's hands - ! True evil, right there.
I think possibly we watched The Rescuers Down Under more often, but honestly I don't remember that movie too well either. I was amused to discover, however, that it came out thirteen years after the original Rescuers - given Bernard's ongoing anxious encounters with the number thirteen (thirteen rungs on the comb! Thirteen steps on the staircase up to the albatross's back!), it's funny that the gap between movies should be exactly that.
I'm also curious why Disney made a sequel to The Rescuers, given that they made no sequels for decades - and when they did get in the sequel game in the nineties, it was mostly straight to DVD, or maybe to the Disney channel. Maybe The Rescuers Down Under caused a power struggle? It came out in 1990, which is the year that Disney's Disneytoon Studios (which produced most of the direct-to-video sequels) started releasing movies...
I should look into this in more detail as we get closer to The Rescuers Down Under. (Once the library reopens, I hope to take out some books about the history of Disney animation in general.) But first... well, next up is The Fox and the Hound. I've already laid in a supply of tissues.
