The Rescuers Down Under

[osprey_archer]

I loooooved The Rescuers when I was a child - both the original movie and this sequel, The Rescuers Down Under - so it was rather startling to rewatch them both and realize how very little I remembered from either movie. In The Rescuers Down Under, the only part that really stuck with me is the bit where our human hero, an Australian boy played by an American who occasionally attempts an indifferent Australian accent, leaps off a waterfall to ride on the back of a magnificent golden eagle.

(I was quite disappointed in later life to realize that there is in fact a bird called a golden eagle and it is not even slightly big enough for a child to ride, and also doesn’t flash gold in the sunshine. What a cheat!)

But I had entirely forgotten pretty much everything else, including:

The poacher, a classic Disney villain with an entire underground lair full of sad Australian animals in cages.

The doctor & nurse mice who take it upon themselves to put Wilbur the Albatross’s back into alignment after he crash lands. They are terrifying. What are they doing in this movie? Who at Disney thought “A spot of medical torture would liven this up”?

Jake the kangaroo rat ranger! Actually, the wikipedia page describes him as a “hopping mouse,” so I guess “kangaroo rat” is something the pet store made up when I went on a field trip to a pet store in preschool. I had forgotten Jake in the interval, but his existence came flooding back to me when we watched the film. He’s fun! He hops! He is the only character in an entire film set in Australia who consistently has an Australian accent!

Bernard and Bianca get engaged at the end??? I’m not sure if I thought that they had already gotten married after the first film, or contrariwise if I thought they were going to be platonic rescuing buddies forever and ever, but either way this was unexpected!

This movie is also unusual because it’s the first (and for a long time the only) Disney sequel that had a theatrical release instead of going direct to video. It’s an interesting contrast to Pixar, which released Toy Story in 1995 and then leapt more or less instantly into sequelville with Toy Story 2 in 1999.

Comments

[asakiyume]

We have this one on VHS tape for some reason--but not the first one.

Kangaroo rats are apparently a thing, but an American thing? Whereas there's a uniquely Australian creature called a hopping mouse --So the pet shop wasn't pulling a fast one!

[osprey_archer]

I can't tell by looking at the photos which hopping rodent the pet shop had. Certainly the fact that Jake referred to himself as a hopping mouse went right over my head in my youth. He looked like a kangaroo rat, and he was in Australia, so obviously that HAD to be what he was!

[brigdh]

This was also one of my favorite movies as a kid! Though... now that you mention it... I'm not sure I remember any of the characters or the plot? I have one vivid scene of an alligator stuck in my memory, but that was from the original Rescuers, and I'm sure The Rescuers Down Under is the only one my family owned on tape, and thus the one I watched way more often.

[osprey_archer]

Isn't that weird? You'd think that SOME of it would have stuck, but for both movies I remember a couple of vivid images (the boy on the golden eagle; Bianca and Bernard in the tin can on the back of the albatross) but have otherwise forgotten the movies entirely.

[kore]

Jake the kangaroo rat ranger! Actually, the wikipedia page describes him as a “hopping mouse,”

....DUNE CROSSOVER POSSIBLE

I wondered if the guy with a consistent Australian accent was Australian. He was!

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0737248/?ref_=tt_cl_t4 Tristan Rogers

I....did not know Bob Newhart was in this movie. That's some cast! Eva Gabor, John Candy, George C. Scott?

[osprey_archer]

The one Australian that they bothered to cast! I suppose they figured they might as well have one for verisimilitude.

[silverusagi]

I always like The Rescuers Down Under more than the original for some reason. I wonder if it got a theatrical release because it felt "bigger" than other sequel stories Disney did. Or whether the direct to video just became their marketing technique because of princess movies.

[osprey_archer]

Yeah, I liked The Rescuers Down Under best too! Maybe it's just hard to beat the giant golden eagle plotline.