Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Rescue Aid Society Mice Save Orphan!, April 6, 2005
When a little orphan girl falls into the hands of Madame Medusa and sends a message in a bottle, the Rescue Aid Society answers in the form of Bernard (Bob Newhart) and Miss Bianca (Eva Gabor). What can two mice possible do to help the little girl? It turns out they can do a lot.
The movie starts on a reasonably funny note, as the rodent duo hop aboard an albatross to head for the swamps. Albatrosses are incredibly aerodynamic, but they are less then stellar at takeoffs and landings, and Orville the Albatross (Jim Jordan) proves no more adept than his brethren. After a plummet off a building that thrills Miss Bianca and petrifies Bernard, the journey has begun.
In the swamps the duo marshals the other animals to take on Madame Medusa (Geraldine Page), who needs the little orphan Penny (Michelle Stacy) to fit into a hole that leads to a cave. In the cave is located a quantity of jewels, but Madame Medusa is interested only in a huge diamond called the Devil's Eye. The Rescue Society mice and their swampland friends must overcome Madame Medusa and her aids Mr. Snoops (Joe Flynn) and a pair of alligators, who also frequently play babysitter to Penny.
Madame Medusa never realizes that the mice and swamp animals are trying to rescue Penny, which makes this movie more interesting to watch. As happens with many such movies, Madame Medusa's henchmen are cerebrally challenged and the animals are able to plan around them.
The ending of the movie contains a few surprises, and I found the end interesting. This movie also nicely sets up the excellent sequel "The Rescuers Down Under."
The real star of this clever movie is Eva Gabor. Bob Newhart gets top billing, but Eva was perfect for her role and seems to get the best lines in the movie. She is clever, funny and fearless as compared to Bernard's timid character. Only when Miss Bianca is in trouble does Bernard seem to rise to some measure of courage. There were a variety of other notable characters. Evinrude (James MacDonald) the dragonfly was cute and funny. George Lindsey was classic as Deadeye the Rabbit. Other supporting characters gave this movie depth and interest.
The art of this movie is also unusual in that the artist drew some of the characters in a rough style. I am unsure of the reason, but I found the art style to initially be distracting. I eventually became accustomed to the style and no longer noticed it as the movie went on. The music was also notable. A song from this movie was nominated for an Academy Award.
This movie is clever and funny. In places the movie is tense and suspenseful. There are a few places where the alligators are a little bit scary, but I believe this movie should be suitable for all family members in line with the movie's G rating. I would recommend this movie for any collection of family-oriented movies and for those who collect animated movies. Most families will want to see this movie more than once.
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22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Underrated., February 11, 2002
The Rescuers is Disney's most underrated work! It was the last great feature film before what became a strings of forgettable works like The Black Cauldron, The Great Detective, Oliver and Company in which the Disney studio was trying to break into new ground but somehow was unable to find the right formula.It wasn't until The Little Mermaid that Disney Studio has reclaimed it's number one position as the world's greatest cartoon creator.Having said that, The Rescuers Down Under- produced after The Little Mermaid - is a thorough disappointment, both in its story and in its style of drawing. This always seems to be the curse of sequels! The Rescuers, however, has all of the Disney's magic! Medusa is possibly one of the greatest of Disney's villains, yet somehow she doesn't catch on as did the others.T he only criticism I would make is the opening of The Rescuers. It seemed that the studio had run out of money when they were doing the opening scene, for all we have is a collage of storybook sketches from an artist's impression.
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25 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wow, July 20, 2000
After all of these years, Madame Medusa is still the scariest Disney villian hands down. Aside from the fact this film is overall darker than it's modern counterparts, I've always thought she was purposefuly drawn to resemble one of her beloved crocodiles. Even her bumbling co-conspirtor Snoops is more humane, and he is no model of morals either. Whenever this film came on as a little girl, I could not watch it because it gave me night mares. Even if there were real kids who were in horrible (but obviously not the same) experiences, I had no way to relate to it. Yet looking back, it was a perfect offering for the decade. I largely developed my current hypothesis about this film from realizing (as sad as it seems) compared to the nightly broadcast of the vietnam war and other urban/social programs---this WAS very kid friendly for it's time. In a time when American social protest was still very visible, the children's fare Disney itself had previously produced seemed outdated and simplistic. It's also worth noting that efforts in locating missing and exploited children really did not begin until this time, even if it certainly was not Disney's intention to bring issues to the forefront. Again, the somber screenplay and emphasis on social justice owes much to the day's politics where many social safeguards we are accustomed to were non-existent. The fact that Penny was adopted from an orphanage with little or no safeguards and subjected to such intolerable conditions for so long without any human contact other than the two creeps is another really telling area of the movie. To some extent it was hollywood dramatization, but to another extent that was how things were back then. Thankfully, world governmental bodies (such as the rescue aid society) are around. Many years later, I like this movie, but am convinced it is more adult oriented. I am now fancinated by this screenplay and see something new each time I am watching. While it might not work for somebody accustomed to the light hearted nature of today's Disney movies, anybody willing to open their mind would love this movie.
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