Product: The Rescuers Down Under [VHS] (1990)
Rating: 5.0
Up, up and away...
Growing up, this was one of my absolute favorite films (and yes, this birthed my obsession with Australian accents, and the Australians who speak them). You can place this right next to another underappreciated animated classic, `The Chipmunk Adventure', as one of those films I wore out watching so many times. I've recently revisited this film (as I did with `The Chipmunk Adventure' a while back) and it has surprisingly held up. In fact, it held up remarkably well. Where `The Chipmunk Adventure' unveiled notable flaws (especially in the quality of the sound during those blurry musical numbers), I didn't find such flaws while watching `The Rescuers Down Under'.I actually found myself getting rather giddy all over again.As many have mentioned, this was one of those films that marked the return of Disney. Disney made a severe dent in pop culture for the second time (second generational time) in 1989 with `The Little Mermaid', and then it blew the competition away in 1991 with `Beauty and the Beast' (still possible the greatest animated feature of all time), but in between those two juggernauts was this little seen and little remembered gem. Yes, `The Rescuers Down Under', sequel to `The Rescuers' (the better known predecessor) needs to have a larger audience. It deserves a larger audience.It has so much going for it.It opens with cinematic perfection and animated delightfulness (that opening sequence is to die for) and it continues with slick scripting, light yet meaningful comic relief, aptly paced tension and a beautiful message that adds depth to the film without beating us over the head with it (the message of environmental harmony is lightly coaxed, unlike recent catastrophes like `Avatar', which consider the audience too stupid to `understand' subtlety). You can add to that a colorful repartee between the vocal talents (Bob Hope and Eva Gabor are just wonderful, and John Candy is classic!) and a devilishly evil villain in George C. Scott (he can do no wrong!).I love these little rodents, and you should too, so grab this solid adventure film and dig in. This is one of those `cartoons' that is perfectly constructed for youngins and oldins alike.:-D