Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers

Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers is an American animated series produced by Walt Disney Television Animation"Chip 'n' Dale: Rescue Rangers on Walt Disney Pictures". Filmy Rating. Retrieved March 16, 2022. and created by Tad Stones and Alan Zaslove. The series aired a first episode on August 27, 1988 and then premiered on the Disney Channel on March 4, 1989. It technically premiered with a two-hour movie Rescue Rangers: To the Rescue, which was later broken up into a five-part pilot and aired as the opening of the second season.
The show's theme song (lyrics and music) were written by pop music songwriter Mark Mueller, who also wrote the theme song for DuckTales and produced by Alf Clausen. Both songs were performed by Jeff Pescetto.
The series premiered in syndication in the fall of 1989. In 1990, it became a part of the Disney Afternoon line-up, where it aired until the fall of 1993. It has been credited with also setting up the Disney Renaissance era alongside several other animated TV series at the time.
==Synopsis==
Chip and Dale, two chipmunks with noses for trouble, start a detective agency, the Rescue Rangers, along with their new friends Gadget, Monterey Jack, and Zipper. The pint-sized detectives deal with crimes that are often "too small" for the (human) police to handle, usually with other animals as their clients.
The gang frequently finds itself going up against two particular arch-villains: Mafia-style tabby cat Fat Cat, and mad scientist Norton Nimnul. The Rescue Rangers' motto is to watch out for everyone, and whenever anyone is in trouble, they're on the case. This gang would never steal from anybody, has "hearts of gold", and always tries to help others in need.
==Setting==
The series primarily takes place in a city (which is presumably New York City due to the presence of the Chrysler Building in "The Carpetsnaggers" and the WTC Twin Towers in "Robocat"), where the Rescue Rangers reside inside of a tree. However, many episodes also take the Rescue Rangers to a multitude of different and exotic parts of the world and, occasionally, to outer space.
Unlike the other cartoons that aired during the Disney Afternoon, the world of the Rescue Rangers is mainly dominated by humans, while animals are less anthropomorphic. Animals within the world of Rescue Rangers normally cannot speak or be understood by humans, and their behavior and appearance tends to vary greatly, with some actually being somewhat anthropomorphic to the point where they dress and act like humans, while others are less intelligent or they're incapable of properly speaking to their fellow animals and may even act like animals in the real world. In the episode "Bearing Up Baby", the Rescue Rangers acknowledge this fact and even referred to such wild animals as 'uncivilized animals'. In the episode "Dirty Rotten Diapers", the Rescue Rangers refer to the 'language' that mice and chipmunks speak as 'mouse-ese' and 'chipmunk' respectively, showing that animals mainly speak through the noises that they make and can understand one another despite how different their form of communication sounds amongst each species. However, the episode "A Fly in the Ointment" shows that if a human somehow becomes part animal they'll instantly be able to hear animals speak as if they were humans, showing that the sounds animals make, can actually be heard as regular speak through the ears of other animals. Humans, however, can understand animals under the right conditions, usually with the aid of magic or technology as shown by the likes of Winifred and Professor Norton Nimnul. A few rare animals have been shown to be capable of actually speaking to humans without any aid, as shown by Butch the Bulldog and Sewernose de Bergerac. Aliens, robots, and the undead have also displayed the ability to understand and speak with animals.
During the show's run, no anthropomorphic ducks, dogs, pigs, etc. like the ones seen in DuckTales, Darkwing Duck, or TaleSpin ever appeared within the series, which likely put Rescue Rangers in a separate universe of its own, and even in one episode, "A Case of Stage Blight", Dale mentioned a cartoon "with that big dumb duck". However, the comic, The Legend of the Chaos Gods, seems to imply that the animal characters from Rescue Rangers exist in the same universe as other Disney Afternoon shows even though the events of the Rescue Rangers show take place in a different one. The characters' appearance in the DuckTales reboot, provides an alternate origin story for the team of five, as a group of intelligence-enhanced lab animals within that series' universe (see more details here).
==Production==
When Tad Stones first came up with the idea of the Rescue Rangers series, Chip and Dale were not part of the show. In the original idea, the show would center around a team of animals, which included a chameleon, an earlier draft of Gadget, and Monterey Jack (with a different name). The main character, though, was an Indiana Jones-inspired mouse named Kit Colby who sported a fedora hat and a fluffy collared leather jacket. When he proposed the show in a meeting with Michael Eisner and Jeffrey Katzenberg, the idea was well received except for the character of Kit Colby. At Eisner's suggestion, he was replaced with the chipmunk duo to give the show some established Disney characters to work with.
While Chip and Dale were established characters, to bring them into the series, only their general appearance and broad personality traits were kept. Unlike their appearances in Disney shorts, in the Rescue Rangers the chipmunk duo are very verbal, with Chip voiced by Tress MacNeille, and Dale voiced by Corey Burton. Audio processing was used to speedup the voice recordings and give the voices a higher pitch, particularly Chip's. The pair were given clothes -- Chip, the clothing of the original-concept Kit character based on Indiana Jones, and the goofier Dale, incidentally modeled after Magnum, P.I., with his red Hawaiian shirt.
The series premiered in 1989 on the Disney Channel before moving into a regular slot in weekday afternoon syndication in the fall.
The show's opening theme was performed by the pop group The Jets. It was written by Mark Mueller, an ASCAP award-winning pop music songwriter, who also wrote the theme song to DuckTales.
==Characters==
===Heroes===
*Chip, the leader of the Rescue Rangers. Loosely modeled on Indiana Jones, Chip wears a fedora and a brown bomber jacket and frequently uses rope to lasso or swing to other spots. Chip tends to be serious and with a strong sense of responsibility, to the point that he is sometimes accused of not knowing how to have fun. He can be domineering and often ends up in squabbles with Dale over his more laid back manner. At times, though, he also lets himself go and joins Dale in some frivolity. Voiced by Tress MacNeille.
*Dale, more laid-back than Chip. Dale wears a red and yellow Hawaiian shirt reminiscent of . Though dedicated to the job, he is a fun-loving, mischievous prankster who is sometimes irresponsible and forgets to think before he acts. He spends his free time reading comic books and playing video games. A known candy addict, Dale has "chocolate attacks" similar to Monterey Jack's cheese attacks. He frequently finds himself being knocked on the head by Chip when he says or does something foolish. Voiced by Corey Burton.
*Monterey Jack, a fat mouse with a red mustache, that wears a light brownish coat. His favorite food is cheese, and he is named after a type of cheese. Voiced by Peter Cullen in Season 1-2, and by Jim Cummings in Seasons 2-3.
*Gadget Hackwrench, a female mechanic mouse with blonde hair, that wears a lavender jumpsuit and goggles. She can create and invent things on the fly. Voiced by Tress MacNeille.
*Zipper, a little blue-green fly that wears a red sweater. In earlier seasons, he doesn't talk much, usually communicating through buzzing and other noises. In later seasons, he occasionally speaks in short exclamations, but his high-pitched voice can still be hard to understand. He is very close to Monterey Jack. Voiced by Corey Burton.
===Villains===
*Fat Cat, a felonious grey tabby cat and one of the Rescue Rangers' most frequent antagonists. He is initially introduced as the pet of the nefarious underworld crime lord, Aldrin Klordane. Voiced by Jim Cummings. Fat Cat's Gang consists of:
**Wart, a lizard who dresses in a gangster-style suit and hat similar to his boss. Out of all of the henchmen, he is probably the least unintelligent and will sometimes ask questions about his boss' schemes, to which Fat Cat will usually explain in a gracious way, despite how simple he thinks he is. Voiced by Jim Cummings.
**Mole, a slow-witted, but cheerful, overweight mole, who wears an undersized red t-shirt and a yellow hat. When plans go wrong, Mole usually is the one who Fat Cat chooses to use as a punching bag. In these instances, Fat Cat is harshly critical of Mole (in fact he just might be the most criticized member of the gang). Voiced by Corey Burton.
**Mepps, a thin alley cat with brown and creme colored fur and dressed in a ratty blue vest and toboggan who speaks with a whiny voice. Due to Mepps' bandaged tail and bitten ear, it is possible that Mepps has had many adventures. Whether or not these adventures involve Fat Cat and the rest of the gang is unknown. Voiced by Peter Cullen.
**Snout, a rat who wears a short-sleeved red turtleneck with a black vest and a dark blue flat cap that covers his eyes. He is usually only seen briefly. It is possible the Snout joined the gang after the Rangers formed and initially defeated Fat Cat, because unlike Mole and Mepps who appear in 16 episodes, and Wart who appears in 15, Snout only appears in 7 episodes. Voiced by Corey Burton.
*Professor Norton Nimnul, a mad scientist who once worked for Aldrin Klordane. Though Nimnul is an intelligent and creative scientist, his plans often lack any trace of logic and tend to be extremely convoluted. Voiced by Jim Cummings.
*The Siamese Twin Gang, two Siamese cats that own a laundromat and an illegal underground casino. Though not major villains, these two characters have been considered as Asian stereotypes due to the fact that they own a laundromat and speak in fractured English. They bear a resemblance to Si and Am from Lady and the Tramp. Both of the cats are voiced by Tress MacNeille.
*Sewernose de Bergerac, a brown, sewer-dwelling alligator with bushy eyebrows and two different colored eyes. Voiced by Pete Schrum.
*Aldrin Klordane, a cranky, rough crime lord who is the owner of Fat Cat and has a well known gambling future in his hands. He has tried to steal and rob things from people multiple times, but fails, although he's planning ever bigger plans. He is voiced by Alan Oppenheimer.
===Comic characters===
*Biff and Daff
*Binky Boy
*Chef Arnie
*Chrapek
*Danger Rangers	
*Fearless Frogs
*Felina
*Jojo
*Le Sewer and Ratatouille
*Pole Cat	
*Sewer Al
*Sky Punks
*Spirit of the Lamp
*Techno-Rats
*Wasp Patrol
==Media==
===Episodes===
Except for the 5-part set of episodes made from the pilot movie, each 22-minute episode of the series was self-contained. Plot points introduced in each episode stayed in the episode and any character development did not appear to continue through to future episodes. Most of the episodes followed a similar format, where in the next case was presented at the start of the episode, then the bulk of the episode had the sleuths gathering clues and investigating the situation. In the last few minutes of the episode, the case was resolved, usually in dramatic fashion and the final moments would have a humorous wrap-up scene between the Rangers.
===Merchandise===
In the fall of 1989, McDonald's produced a series of Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers themed Happy Meal that included toy versions of the main characters riding small vehicles. Scenes from the TV series were incorporated into the TV commercials advertising the Happy Meals.
A monthly comic book based on the show was published by Disney Comics in 1990, that ran for 19 issues. Subsequent comic stories were printed in Disney Adventures from 1990 to 1994, as well as in the Disney Afternoon comic book published by Marvel Comics.
A 1990 issue of Comics Scene magazine reported that a theatrical feature film based on the series was planned for a 1991 release, however, the film never happened, possible due to the lackluster performance of DuckTales the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp.
===Video games===
*Disney's Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers
*Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers: The Adventure in Nimnul's Castle
*Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers 2
===Home video releases===
Disney has released some of the series to DVD in the form of box sets, with each set having three single-sided discs and no extra features. Two out of three planned volumes have been released to Region 1 as of November 14, 2006. Making 14 episodes not currently on DVD. Two volumes has been released to Region 2 DVD, in which the first volume contains seven fewer episodes than the Region 1 set. To date, there have been no releases for any additional volumes.
The episodes on the first volume are arranged by production date, while the episodes on the second volume are arranged by original air date.
The entire series was available on Amazon Prime, but became unavailable as of 2013. However, the entire series was made available for purchase on digital through Amazon Instant Video in 2016 in SD and HD formats, in addition to being available through iTunes and Google Play. It is now available to stream in its entirety on Disney+.
The series was released on Blu-ray on February 15, 2022.
===DuckTales (2017 series)===
The Rescue Rangers appeared in the reboot episode "Double-O-Duck in You Only Crash Twice!". In this series' alternate continuity, they are an artificially enhanced experiment by Black Heron of F.O.W.L. 
Later, they briefly reappear in the series' finale, "The Last Adventure!", Jeff Bennett provided the squeaks (and buzzes in Zipper's case) for all of the Rescue Rangers.
==Trivia==
*Early seasons of the show have the original intro with a synthesized theme song. Later seasons have the intro with different clips and a calypso version of the theme song.
*Chip and Dale's outfits are based on those worn by Indiana Jones and , respectively. Incidentally, Tom Selleck was the original pick for Indiana Jones, but had to back out of the film, because of his commitment to 
*The Rescue Rangers later appeared in the third season of the DuckTales reboot as super-evolved lab animals.
*Frank Angones, co-developer of the DuckTales reboot, once pitched a reboot of this show, which would have incorporated elements of The Great Mouse Detective and The Rescuers.
*The theme song is a slight major inspiration for the theme song of Nickelodeon/Paramount's 2013 show PAW Patrol, which features the lyric "No job's too big, no pup's too small."
*Mark Mueller, the songwriter who produced much of the music in Chip N’ Dale: Rescue Rangers, also wrote the 1998 teen pop song “Crush” by Jennifer Paige.
*This is the first television series for Chip and Dale to have as their own.
*Peter Cullen voiced Monterey Jack in Season 1 before Jim Cummings took over in Season 2.
==Gallery==
===Promotional Images===
CnDRR logo transparent.png|Series teaser
Chip N' dale premiere's this fall!.png
Chip n' Dale Rescue Rangers - Promotional Print Ad from 1989 Disneyland Guide Book.jpg
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R.R.jpg
Rescue Rangers.jpg
Chip N Dale Rescue Rangers in Crimebusters.jpg
Chip-N-Dale-RescueRangers-KeyArt.jpg
CNDRR y1 004 L-NEW.png
CNDRR y1 gal 008 L-NEW.png
Rescue Rangers textless NES cover art.png
Rescue Rangers 2 textless NES cover art.png
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Cd1ska.jpg
Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers, TaleSpin, and DuckTales promo.jpg
D23 - The Disney Afternoon on the Lot.jpg|D23's The Disney Afternoon on the Lot event print
===Concept Art===
DisneyChipnDaleRescueRangersModelSh.jpg
Chip ‘N’ Dale - Rescue Rangers Concept 1.jpg
Chip ‘N’ Dale - Rescue Rangers Concept 2.jpg
Chip ‘N’ Dale - Rescue Rangers Concept 3.jpg
Chip ‘N’ Dale - Rescue Rangers Concept 4.jpg
Chip ‘N’ Dale - Rescue Rangers Concept 5.jpg
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Chip ‘N’ Dale - Rescue Rangers Concept 8.jpg
Chip ‘N’ Dale - Rescue Rangers Concept 9.jpg
File:CNDRR - Original Gadget concept (1).jpg
File:CNDRR - Original Gadget concept (2).jpg
File:CNDRR - Original Gadget concept (3).jpg
File:Rescue Rangers pitch art.jpg
===Merchandise===
RescueRangersTradingCards-600.jpg
Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers Ice cream bars.jpg
Rescue Rangers T-Shirt.jpg
ChipnDaleRootToot-600.jpg
Rescue Rangers Fruit Snacks.jpg
Rescue Rangers Puzzle.jpg
Disney Club (1992 CD).jpg
Disney Club Vacancies No.1.jpg
Rescue Rangers 2010 Comic Issue 1C textless.png
Rescue Rangers 2010 Comic Issue 1D textless.png
Disney Afternoon Funko's Mystery Minis.png|Funko Mystery Minis (2017)
Funko Chip action figure.jpg|Funko Action Figure - Chip
Funko Dale action figure.jpg|Funko Action Figure - Dale with Zipper
Funko Gadget action figure.jpg|Funko Action Figure - Gadget Hackwrench
Monterey Jack POP.jpg|Funko POP! Figure - Monterey Jack
Disney Afternoon Funko Plushies.jpg|Funko Plushies
TheDisneyAfternoonAdventures-Vol1-FrontAndBackCover-(2021).png|The Disney Afternoon Adventures issue #1 (2021)
Disney Afternoon Adventures V3.jpg|The Disney Afternoon Adventures issue #3 (2023)
Chip 'n' Dale's Rescue Rangers- The Complete Series.png
==Videos==
Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers - Excellent Adventures (making of)
==External links==
*
==References==
<tabber>
|-|Rescue Rangers=
|-|The Disney Afternoon=
|-|Chip 'n Dale=
|-|Disney Television Animation=
</tabber>
ar:سنجب وسنجوب: كتيبة النجدة
es:Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers
fi:Tikun ja Takun pelastuspartio (TV-sarja)
fr:Tic et Tac, les rangers du risque
it:Cip & Ciop agenti speciali
ja:チップとデールの大作戦
pl:Chip i Dale: Brygada RR
pt-br:Tico e Teco e os Defensores da Lei
ro:Chip și Dale: Salvatorii în Misiune
ru:Чип и Дейл спешат на помощь
sv:Piff och Puff – Räddningspatrullen
zh:救難小福星
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Category:Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers
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