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The Rescuers
Original theatrical release poster
Directed byWolfgang Reitherman
John Lounsbery
Art Stevens
Screenplay byLarry Clemmons
Vance Gerry
Ken Anderson
Frank Thomas
Burny Mattinson
Fred Lucky
Dick Sebast
Dave Michener
Story byMargery Sharp
Produced byWolfgang Reitherman
StarringBob Newhart
Eva Gabor
Michelle Stacy
Geraldine Page
Joe Flynn
Jim Jordan
John McIntire
Jeanette Nolan
Pat Buttram
Bernard Fox
Music byArtie Butler
Songs:
Sammy Fain
Carol Connors
Ayn Robbins
Shelby Flint
Production
company
Distributed byBuena Vista Distribution
Release date
  • June 22, 1977 (1977-06-22)
Running time
77 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$1.2 million
Box office$71,215,869

The Rescuers is a 1977 American animated feature produced by Walt Disney Productions and first released on June 22, 1977. The 23rd film in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series, the film is about the Rescue Aid Society, an international mouse organization headquartered in New York and shadowing the United Nations, dedicated to helping abduction victims around the world at large. Two of these mice, jittery janitor Bernard (Bob Newhart) and his co-agent, the elegant Miss Bianca (Eva Gabor), set out to rescue Penny (Michelle Stacy), an orphan girl being held prisoner in the Devil's Bayou by treasure huntress Madame Medusa (Geraldine Page).

The film is based on a series of books by Margery Sharp, most notably The Rescuers and Miss Bianca. Due to the film's success, a sequel entitled The Rescuers Down Under was released in 1990.

Plot

Bernard & Bianca: In an abandoned river boat in Devil's Bayou, orphan Penny drops a message in a bottle containing a plea for help into the river. The bottle is carried out to sea and washes up in New York, where it is recovered by the Rescue Aid Society, formed by mice. The Hungarian representative, Miss Bianca, volunteers to accept the case and chooses the janitor Bernard as her co-agent. The two visit Morningside Orphanage, where Penny lived, and meet an old cat named Rufus. He tells them about a wicked woman named Madame Medusa who once tried to lure Penny into her car and may have abducted Penny this time.

The mice travel to Medusa's pawn shop, where they discover that she and her partner, Mr. Snoops, are on a quest to find the world's largest diamond, the Devil's Eye, and Mr. Snoops is in the Devil's Bayou with Penny, whom they have indeed kidnapped. With the help of an albatross named Orville, and a dragonfly named Evinrude, the mice follow Medusa to the bayou. There, they learn that Penny was captured to enter a hole that leads down into the pirates' cave where the Devil's Eye is located.

Thanks to Miss Bianca's perfume, the mice attract the attention of Medusa's pet alligators, Brutus and Nero. Bernard and Miss Bianca escape, and find Penny. Desparate, Bernard orders Evinrude to get the bayou neighbours who loathe Medusa. He does so, only to be thwarted by a flock of hungry bats which delay him. The following morning, Medusa and Mr Snoops send Penny down into the cave to find the gem, unaware that Miss Bianca and Bernard are hiding in her skirt pocket. The three soon find the stone within a pirate skull; as Penny pries the mouth open with a sword, the mice push it out from within, but soon the oceanic tide rises and floods the cave. Miss Bianca, Penny, and Bernard barely manage to retrieve the diamond and escape.

The greedy Medusa steals the diamond for herself, attempting to run off with the diamond, leaving Snoops without any shares, and hides it in Penny's teddy bear. When she trips over a cable set as a trap by Bernard and Bianca, Medusa loses the bear to Penny, who runs away with it. After a struggle with Snoops, Medusa retaliates with gunfire, causing the mice to flee until they are met by Brutus and Nero, her alligators. With help from Ellie Mae and her neighbours, Bernard and Miss Bianca trick them into entering a cage-like elevator, trapping them.

Two of the gang set off Mr. Snoops's fireworks, making the boat sink. Meanwhile Penny and the mice commandeer Medusa's "Swampmobile", a motor-boat used by Medusa to travel in the swamp. The Swampmobile resembles the front clip Ford Model T body mounted to a small boat, with a single tractor seat for the driver. Medusa attempts pursuit, but is thwarted. Medusa is left clinging to the boat's smoke stacks with Brutus and Nero attacking below.

Back in New York, the Rescue Aid Society watch TV to hear that the Devil's Eye is given to the Smithsonian Institution and Penny is adopted by a new father and mother. Bernard and Miss Bianca remain partners in the Rescue Aid Society's missions and soon after depart on Orville, accompanied by Evinrude, to a new rescue mission.

Bernard & Bianca 2: Bernard's New Adventure AKA Through the Outback: In the Australian Outback, a young 10-year-old boy named Cody (Adam Ryen) rescues and befriends a rare golden eagle called Marahute, who shows him her nest and eggs. Later, the boy is captured in an animal trap set by Percival C. McLeach (George C. Scott), a local wanted poacher. When McLeach finds one of the eagle's feathers in the boy's backpack he is instantly overcome with excitement, for he knew that capturing the bird would make him rich because he had caught one before (which was presumably Marahute's mate). McLeach kidnaps the boy and attempts to force out of him the whereabouts of the rare eagle, even going as far as offering to split the profit with him. McLeach throws Cody's backpack to some crocodiles, fooling the local Rangers into thinking that Cody was eaten.

Meanwhile, the message in a bottle is sent to New York to the Rescue Aid Society headquarters, and Bernard and Bianca (Bob Newhart and Eva Gabor), the RAS' elite field agents, are assigned to the mission, interrupting Bernard's attempt to propose marriage to Bianca. They go to find Orville the albatross who aided them previously, but instead find Wilbur, Orville's brother. Bernard and Bianca convince Wilbur to fly them to Australia to save Cody. In Australia, they meet Jake, a kangaroo rat who is the RAS' local regional operative. Jake later flirts with Bianca, much to Bernard's anger. He serves as their guide and protector in search of the boy. At the same time, Wilbur is immobilized when his spinal column is bent out of its natural shape, convincing Jake to send him to the hospital.

When he refuses to undergo surgery and instead attempts to flee, Wilbur's back is unintentionally straightened by the efforts of the mouse medical staff to prevent him escaping through a window. Cured, he departs in search of his friends. At McLeach's ranch, Cody has been thrown into a cage with several of McLeach's captured animals after refusing to give up Marahute's whereabouts. Cody tries to free himself and the animals, but is thwarted by Joanna, McLeach's pet goanna lizard. McLeach ultimately tricks Cody into thinking that someone else has shot Marahute, making Cody lead him to Marahute's nest.

Bernard, Bianca, and Jake, half-aware of what is happening, jump onto McLeach's Halftrack to follow him. At Marahute's nest, the three mice try to warn Cody that he has been followed; just as they do, McLeach arrives and captures Marahute, along with Cody, Jake, and Bianca. Joanna tries to eat Marahute's eggs, but Bernard found the nest first and replaced the eggs with stones in order to protect them. Wilbur arrives at the nest, whereupon Bernard convinces him to sit on the eagle's eggs, so that Bernard can go after McLeach. McLeach takes Cody and Marahute to Crocodile Falls, where he ties Cody up and hangs him over a large group of saltwater crocodiles and attempts to feed him to them, but Bernard, riding a type of wild pig called a "Razorback", which he had tamed using a horse whispering technique earlier used by Jake, follows and disables McLeach's vehicle, preventing the use of its crane to put Cody at risk. McLeach then gets out his Winchester Model 1912 and tries to shoot the rope holding Cody above the water. To save Cody and get rid of McLeach, Bernard tricks Joanna into crashing into McLeach, sending them both into the water. The crocodiles chase McLeach, while behind them the damaged rope holding Cody breaks apart. McLeach fights off the crocodiles, but only Joanna reaches the shoreline, while McLeach goes over an enormous main waterfall to his death.

Bernard dives into the water to save Cody, but fails. Jake and Bianca free Marahute in time for her to save Cody and Bernard, sparing them McLeach's fate. Bernard, desperate to avoid any further incidents, proposes to marry Bianca, who accepts eagerly while Jake salutes him with a newfound respect. All of them depart for Cody's home. Wilbur, whom they have neglected to relieve of his task, incubates the eggs until they hatch, much to his dismay.

Cast

Rescuers:

Rescuers part 2:

Production

The film was four years in the making with the combined talents of 250 people, including 40 animators who produced approximately 330,000 drawings; there were 14 sequences with 1,039 separate scenes and 750 backgrounds.[1]

It was the first Disney film that combined the talents of Walt Disney's original crew of story writers and animators (including Walt Disney's "Nine Old Men") with a newer, less experienced crew that Walt Disney Productions had recruited in the mid-1970s.[1]

Penny struggles to free the Devil's Eye diamond from a pirate's skull. The producers carefully designed every shot of the scene to raise the tension.[2]

The film marked the last joint effort by veterans Milt Kahl, Ollie Johnston, and Frank Thomas, and the first Disney film worked on by Don Bluth as an animator, instead of an assistant animator.[3] Other animators who stepped up during production were Glen Keane, Ron Clements, and Andy Gaskill, who would all play an important role in the Disney Renaissance of the 1980s and 90s.[4]

The Rescuers was also the company's first major animated success since The Jungle Book and the last until The Little Mermaid. The film marked the end of the silver age of Disney animation that had begun in 1950 with Cinderella. This also marked the first successful animated film that Walt Disney himself had not worked on.

During the 1960s and early 70s Disney films took on the trend of comedy, rather than story, heart, and drama. The Rescuers marked the return of the animated drama films the studio had previously been known for, such as Bambi and Dumbo. Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston stated in their website that The Rescuers had been their return to a film with heart and also considered it their best film without Walt Disney.[5] Also unique to the animation was the opening credits: this film marked the first time that practiced camera movements over still photographs were used to make the opening credits. Prior to this, the studio had used the cels with the credits motionless over different still backgrounds, sometimes over one single background, as was done in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937). The Rescuers was also the first Disney animated film to feature a prologue, or part of the story prior to the opening credits sequence, making said sequence part of the storyline.

The film marked the end of the studio's so-called sketchy animation period of the 1960s and 70s. The new xerographic process restored a softer outline that previously was not possible with the technology, which so far only had been able to produce black outlines. This allowed the use of a medium-gray tone and even a purple tone for outlines, such as that used for Miss Bianca.

Inspiration

Bernard was inspired by the character of the same name in Margery Sharp's The Rescuers series and much of his personality and character were kept. In the novel Miss Bianca, however, Bernard plays a very minor role.

Penny was inspired by Patience, the orphan in the novel. Mr. Snoops is a version of Mandrake, a character of the book. His appearance is a caricature of animation historian John Culhane.[1] Culhane claims he was practically tricked into posing for various reactions, and his movements were imitated on Mr. Snoops' model sheet. However, he stated, "Becoming a Disney character was beyond my wildest dreams of glory."[6] Brutus and Nero are based on the two bloodhounds, Tyrant and Torment in the novels.

A pigeon was originally proposed to be the transportation for Bernard and Bianca, until animator Frank Thomas remembered a True Life Adventures film of albatrosses and their clumsy take-offs and landings, and suggested the ungainly bird instead.[3]

Originally, Cruella de Vil from One Hundred and One Dalmatians was to have been recast as the villainess in The Rescuers, but this idea was dropped since the studio was not interested in producing sequels at the time. She was replaced by a retouched version of the Diamond Duchess in Miss Bianca. The two characters share surprisingly few similarities, other than perhaps the tendency to drive recklessly. The motive to steal a diamond originated in Margery Sharp's 1959 novel, Miss Bianca. Her appearance was based on animator Milt Kahl's ex-wife, whom he didn't particularly like. This was Kahl's last film for the studio, and he wanted his final character to be his best; he was so insistent on perfecting Medusa that he ended up doing almost all the animation for the character himself.[7]

Script to novels comparison

The Rescuers is based on novels by Margery Sharp and there are a number of differences between the film and the original work[8][9]:

  • In the books, the Rescue Aid Society (known instead as the "Mouse Prisoner's Aid Society") is located in a hole in an unspecified place. In the movie, the R.A. Society is located in the basement of the United Nations building in New York.
  • In the books, Penny is named "Patience", and Garth Williams's illustrations of her depict her as looking less "child-like" than in the movie.
  • In the books, Madame Medusa is known as the Diamond Duchess, and lives in a palace made entirely out of diamonds, instead of a bayou. Also Mr. Snoops, known in the books as "Mandrake", is her majordomo and not a colleague.
  • Unlike Penny, Patience is not forced into treasure-seeking, but rather polishing the palace's diamond walls and maintaining the Duchess's wig.
  • Two bloodhounds, Tyrant and Torment, have the roles that the alligators Brutus and Nero have in the film.
  • Bernard and Miss Bianca are not romantically paired in the books.

Release

The Rescuers was re-released to theaters on December 16, 1983 along with a new Mickey Mouse featurette, Mickey's Christmas Carol, Mickey's first theatrical appearance after a 30-year absence. In anticipation of its upcoming theatrically released sequel in 1990, The Rescuers saw another successful theatrical run on March 17, 1989.

Marketing

To tie in with the film's 25th Anniversary, The Rescuers debuted in the Walt Disney Classics Collection (WDCC) line in 2002 (not to be confused with the Walt Disney Classics video series) with three different figures featuring three of the film's biggest stars, as well as the opening title scroll. The three figures were sculpted by Dusty Horner and they were: Brave Bianca, featuring Miss Bianca the heroine and priced at $75,[10] Bold Bernard, featuring hero Bernard, priced also at $75[10] and Evinrude Base, featuring Evinrude the dragonfly and priced at $85.[10] The title scroll featuring the film's name, The Rescuers and from the opening song sequence "The Journey," was priced at $30. All figures were retired in March 2005, except for the opening title scroll which is still widely available.

The Rescuers was the inspiration for another Walt Disney Classics Collection figure in 2003. Ken Melton was the sculptor of Teddy Goes With Me, My Dear, a limited edition, 8-inch sculpture featuring the evil Madame Medusa, the orphan girl Penny, her teddy bear "Teddy" and the Devil's Eye diamond. 1,977 of these sculptures were made, in reference to the film's release year, 1977. The sculpture was priced at $299 and instantly declared retired in 2003.[10]

In November 2008, a sixth sculpture inspired by the film was released. Made with pewter and resin, Cleared For Take Off introduced the character of Orville into the collection and featured Bernard and Bianca a second time. The piece, inspired by Orville's take-off scene in the film, was sculpted by Ruben Procopio.[11]

Critical reception

The Rescuers was successful upon its original theatrical release earning $48 million at the box office and becoming Disney's most successful film to that date.[citation needed] The film broke a record for the largest financial amount made for an animated film on opening weekend, a record it kept until 1986, when An American Tail, directed by Rescuers animator Don Bluth, broke the record. The Rescuers was Disney's first significant success since The Jungle Book and the last until The Little Mermaid.

The film was received with praise from critics[12] and was also well-received by audiences. The Rescuers was said to be Disney's greatest film since Mary Poppins in 1964 and that it seemed to signal a new golden age for Disney animation.[13] The film was ranked 20th out of the 48 canon Disney animated features in a 2009 countdown at Rotten Tomatoes, where it holds a "fresh" 84% rating.[14]

In his book, The Disney Films, film historian Leonard Maltin refers to The Rescuers as "a breath of fresh air for everyone who had been concerned about the future of animation at Walt Disney's," praises its "humor and imagination and [it is] expertly woven into a solid story structure [...] with a delightful cast of characters." Finally, he declares the film "the most satisfying animated feature to come from the studio since 101 Dalmatians." He also briefly mentions the ease with which the film surpassed other animated films of its time.[15]

The film received an Academy Award nomination for the song "Someone's Waiting for You", which was nominated in 1978 at the 50th Academy Awards.[16] The song lost to "You Light Up My Life" from the film of the same name.

Jack Shaheen, in his study of Hollywood portrayals and stereotypes of Arabs, noted the inclusion of delegates from Arab countries in the Rescue Aid Society.[17]

The American Film Institute nominated The Rescuers for its Top 10 Animated Films list.[18]

Home media

The Rescuers premiered on VHS and Laserdisc on September 18, 1992 as part of the Walt Disney Classics series. It was re-released on VHS as part of the Walt Disney Masterpiece Collection on January 5, 1999, but was recalled three days later and reissued on March 23, 1999 (see "Controversy"). The Rescuers was released on DVD on May 20, 2003.

The film has been, along with a small number of other Disney films, added to Walt Disney Home Entertainment's "Platinum Collection" line and will be released as such on DVD and Blu-ray on March 12, 2013.[19]

Controversy

One of the frozen frames containing a picture of a topless woman in the window

On January 8, 1999, three days after the film's second release on home video, the Walt Disney Company announced a recall of about 3.4 million copies of the videotapes because there was an objectionable image in one of The Rescuers background cels.[20][21][22][23][24][25]

The image in question is a blurry image of a topless woman that appears in two out of the film's more than 110,000 frames. The image appears twice in non-consecutive frames during the scene in which Miss Bianca and Bernard are flying on Orville's back through New York City. The two images could not be seen in ordinary viewing because the film runs too fast — at 30 frames per second on video.[20][26]

In 1999, two days after the recall was announced, the London press site The Independent reported:

A Disney spokeswoman said that the images in The Rescuers were placed in the film during production, but she declined to say what they were or who placed them... The company said the aim of the recall was to keep its promise to families that they can trust and rely on the Disney brand to provide the best in family entertainment.[20]

The Rescuers video was reissued March 23, 1999 with the offending image edited out. On May 20, 2003, the film was released on DVD.

Soundtrack

The songs were written by Sammy Fain, Carol Connors, and Ayn Robbins, and performed by Shelby Flint. For the first time since Bambi, all the most significant songs were sung as part of a narrative, as opposed to by the film’s characters as in most Disney animated features.

  • The Journey (a.k.a. Who Will Rescue Me?) – Sung during the film’s opening credits, the song follows Penny’s bottle as it floats out of the Devil’s Bayou and into the Atlantic Ocean. The song’s repeated line "Who will rescue me?" has led many to believe that the song is being sung from Penny’s perspective, but the line, "I’m lost at sea without a friend" confirms that it is actually the bottle singing. For this reason Shelby Flint is credited as the bottle’s "voice".[citation needed]
  • Rescue Aid Society – Sung by the Chairman (Bernard Fox), Bernard (Bob Newhart) and Miss Bianca (Robie Lester, filling in for Eva Gabor), as well as the various international mouse delegates (the Disney Studio Chorus) during the R.A.S. meeting. A reprise of the plays when Bernard and Bianca begin to lose their faith, and are reminded of the song and its meaning.
  • Faith is a Bluebird – Although not an actual song, it is a poem recited by Rufus and partially by Penny in a flashback the old cat has to when he last saw the small orphan girl, and comforted her through the poem, about having faith. The titular bluebird that appears in this sequence originally appeared in Alice in Wonderland.[citation needed]
  • Tomorrow is Another Day – Sung as Bernard and Bianca travel to Devil’s Bayou upon Orville’s back. The heartwarming song plays again at the film’s closure, as Bernard and Bianca, assisted by Evinrude and Orville, set out on a new rescue mission, thus concluding the film with the lines: "Tomorrow is another day", a very loose homage to Gone with the Wind[citation needed], which features exactly the same final line.
  • Someone’s Waiting For You – Sung as Penny begins to lose her faith, after Medusa cruelly speaks to her. During this segment, the star of faith, that Rufus mentioned earlier lights up the night sky. Bambi and his mother appear during this segment.[citation needed] Various artists, such as Lea Salonga, have covered it.
  • For Penny's a Jolly Good Fellow - Sung by the orphan kids at the end of the film, a variation of the song "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow".

References

  1. ^ a b c "The Rescuers DVD Fun Facts". Disney. Retrieved 12 April 2009.
  2. ^ Smith, D: "Animal Heroes", page 80. Disney: The Ultimate Visual Guide, 2002
  3. ^ a b Thomas, Bob: "Carrying on the Tradition", pages 111-112. Art of Animation: From Mickey Mouse to Hercules, 1997
  4. ^ Finch, Christopher: "Chapter 9: The End of an Era", page 260. The Art of Walt Disney, 2004
  5. ^ "Feature Films". Frank and Ollie's Official Site. Retrieved 12 April 2007.
  6. ^ Johnston, Ollie, and Thomas, Frank: "The Rescuers", pages 156-163. The Disney Villain, 1993
  7. ^ "Madame Medusa". Disney Archives: Villains. Retrieved 23 April 2009.
  8. ^ Sharp, Margery (1959). The Rescuers. Illustrated by Garth Williams. Boston, Toronto: Little, Brown and Company.
  9. ^ Sharp, Margery (1962). Miss Bianca. Illustrated by Garth Williams. Boston, Toronto: Little, Brown and Company.
  10. ^ a b c d "The Rescuers". Secondary Price Guide. Retrieved 12 April 2007. Cite error: The named reference "price" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  11. ^ "2008 Limited Edition-Orville with Bernard & Bianca". WDCC Duckman. Retrieved 17 November 2008.
  12. ^ "Rotten Tomatoes - The Rescuers". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 12 April 2007.
  13. ^ "The Animated Films of Don Bluth - The Rescuers". Cataroo.com. Retrieved 12 April 2007.
  14. ^ "Disney Animation Celebration". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 28 November 2009.
  15. ^ Maltin, Leornard (2000). The Disney Films, p.265. JessieFilm Ltd., New York. ISBN 0786885270. Quotations from this same source were used in the 1998 home video promotional trailer for the film found in the VHS release of Lady and the Tramp (1955) of the same year.
  16. ^ Oscars Database
  17. ^ Jack G., Shaheen (2001). Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People. Olive branch Press (an imprint of Interlink publishing group). p. 393. ISBN 1-56656-388-7.
  18. ^ AFI's 10 Top 10 Ballot
  19. ^ "Los Rescatadores - Edición Platino". ZonaDVD. Retrieved 2009-06-07.
  20. ^ a b c "Disney recalls "sabotaged" video". The Independent (London). Retrieved 22 April 2009. [dead link]
  21. ^ "Photographic images of a topless woman can be spotted in The Rescuers". Urban Legends Reference Pages. Retrieved 12 April 2007.
  22. ^ Davies, Jonathan (11 January 1999). "Dis Calls in 'Rescuers' After Nude Images Found". The Hollywood Reporter. {{cite news}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
  23. ^ Mikkelson (1996). {{cite news}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help); Missing or empty |title= (help)
  24. ^ Howell, Peter (13 January 1999). "Disney Knows the Net Never Blinks". The Toronto Star. {{cite news}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
  25. ^ Miller, D.M. (2001). "What Would Walt Do?". San Jose, CA: Writers Club Press. p. 96. {{cite news}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
  26. ^ "Disney Recalls 'The Rescuers' Video". Associated Press. 8 January 1999. {{cite news}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
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