Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers

Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers is an American animated adventure comedy television series produced by Disney Television Animation (formerly Walt Disney Television Animation). Created by Tad Stones and Alan Zaslove, it featured the established Disney characters Chip 'n' Dale in a new setting. The series premiered on The Disney Channel on March 4, 1989, after a preview episode ("Catteries Not Included") was aired on August 27, 1988. The series continued in September with a two-hour movie special, Rescue Rangers: To the Rescue, which was later broken up into five parts to air as part of the weekday run. The final episode aired on November 19, 1990.

On September 18, 1989, the series entered national syndication. It aired afternoons along with and following DuckTales on a channel that would later become Fox network before moving to a new channel. Just before the Disney Afternoon aired on this new channel an additional cartoon called TaleSpin was added to the line up, following Rescue Rangers. From 1990 to 1993 reruns of the show were aired as a part of the Disney Afternoon lineup. Reruns were later shown on Toon Disney when the channel launched in 1998 but were removed in August 2008. The series' entire run is available (as one season) as part of Disney+ as of its launch November 12, 2019, HD Remastered.

## Synopsis

Chip and Dale are two chipmunks who start a detective agency, Rescue Rangers, along with their friends Gadget Hackwrench, Monterey Jack, and Zipper. The pint-sized detectives deal with crimes that are often "too small" for the police to handle, usually with other animals as their clients. The gang frequently find themselves going up against two particular arch-villains: Mafia-style tabby cat Fat Cat and mad scientist Norton Nimnul.

## Characters

### Main

* **Chip** (voiced by Tress MacNeille) is the leader of the Rescue Rangers. Loosely modeled after Indiana Jones, Chip wears a fedora and a bomber jacket and frequently uses a rope to lasso or swing to other spots. Chip is mature and has a strong sense of moral standards, to the point that he is sometimes accused of not knowing how to have fun. He can be opinionated and often ends up in arguments with Dale over his best friend's more lackluster approach. At times, though, he also lets himself go and joins Dale in some mischief. He and Dale have a crush on Gadget.
* **Dale** (voiced by Corey Burton) is the co-founder of the Rescue Rangers. He wears a red and yellow Hawaiian shirt reminiscent of Thomas Magnum in *Magnum, P.I.* Though passionate about the job, he is a free-spirited, genial hotshot who is sometimes immature 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 (ironically, Monty finds it disgusting that Dale can't control himself over candy). He frequently finds himself being knocked on the head by Chip when he says or does something foolish. Dale is largely a friendly and easy-going character, though he is just as willing to get serious when the situation calls for it. Dale has also shown some remarkable creativity, as he is depicted constructing several gadgets of his own based on one of his favorite movie characters in the episode Double O Chipmunk, seemingly in only a few hours, despite seeming to have little to no technological background.
* **Monterey Jack** (voiced by Peter Cullen and Jim Cummings), known as "Monty" to his friends and called "Monterey" by his mother, is an adventure-loving, red-haired and luxuriantly  mustachioed mouse who spent years traveling the world before a chance meeting with Chip and Dale during their first case. After Fat Cat destroyed his home, Monty and his sidekick Zipper decided to join the group in their detective work. Stronger and larger than the others—indeed, he has demonstrated feats of strength that some humans would be hardpressed to match—Monty can be quick to anger if he, or his friends, has been offended. This trait sometimes leaves him ready to do battle with a much larger opponent, and the others having to calm him down. Monty has an overpowering addiction to cheese, and the sight or smell of cheese causes him to be almost hypnotically drawn to it in a mustache-twisting, spiraling-eyed "cheese attack". Monty loves to tell stories of his travels, even if the others often stop his reminiscing, and he often uses colorful "pseudo-Australianisms" while talking, such as "Strike me starkers." Monterey Jack is the only Rescue Ranger known to have two living parents, Chadar Charlie and Camembert Kate, who are also travelers. Monty is most frequently found in the company of either Zipper or Dale, whose fun-loving nature matches his own. He also seems to consider Gadget to be something of a surrogate daughter, most likely due to his long friendship with her late father. Due to his traveling experience, Monty often handles the traveling arrangements for the group. Cullen voiced Monterey Jack in season 1, along with 20 of the first episodes of season 2 excluding the five-episode pilot. Cummings voiced him in the pilot, along with 22 episodes of season 2, and season 3.
* **Gadget Hackwrench** (voiced by MacNeille) is a young blond-haired female mouse who is the team's pilot, mechanic and inventor who wears a purple jumpsuit with blue goggles on her head. The daughter of deceased inventor and aviator Geegaw Hackwrench, who was a good friend of Monterey Jack, she first met Chip and Dale when Monty brought them to Geegaw's in search of an airplane. At loose ends since her father's death and eager to help, she joins the team. Known to say "Golly" whenever she's surprised by something, Gadget moves, thinks, and talks quickly, sometimes leaving the others looking dazed and confused. In addition to building and maintaining the Ranger Plane, Gadget is the one responsible for the various technological items used by the team, and is regularly inventing new vehicles and tools for the team's use. She has the uncanny ability to take discarded and unrelated items and invent nearly anything with them, which she attributes to the fact that she has a "mind-bashingly high IQ" and is easily bored. Unfortunately, her creations don't always work the way she intends, and have sometimes failed at just the wrong moment to cause the team trouble. Both Chip and Dale are attracted to Gadget, and often compete for her attention, but she doesn't seem to notice in many cases. Gadget's personality was based upon the inventive female character Jordan in the 1985 movie *Real Genius*.
* **Zipper** (voiced by Burton) is a tiny bluish-green housefly and a long time friend and sidekick of Monterey Jack. With his tiny size and flying abilities, Zipper often handles little jobs that the rest of the Rescue Rangers cannot. He speaks in unintelligible buzzes that only Monty and other insects are able to understand, although, in later episodes, he talks more clearly. Despite his tiny size, Zipper occasionally has impressive displays of strength which are matched only by his unwavering loyalty to his friends.

### Antagonists

* **Fat Cat** (voiced by Cummings) is a felonious, obese grey tabby cat and one of the Rescue Rangers' most frequent antagonists. Formerly owned by criminal Aldrin Klordane, in which capacity the Rangers first encountered him, Fat Cat became an independent agent and animal world crime boss after Klordane's incarceration. Inordinately proud of his appearance, he keeps his whiskers clean, wears a purple business suit, and has a taste for expensive things. Fat Cat is a ruthless criminal mastermind, and his plans, though sometimes bizarre, are nevertheless dangerous and sadistic. He hates dogs and several of his schemes have been attacks against them. The only thing he hates more than dogs are the Rescue Rangers, which he always tries to get rid of using elaborate and slow methods, rather than killing them immediately. The complexity of his plans usually ends up being his downfall. He has a cousin who lives in Paris, France. Voice actor Jim Cummings described Fat Cat as a combination of Zero Mostel and Dom DeLuise. Fat Cat is usually accompanied by four henchmen. In spite of their combined stupidity, Fat Cat almost always sends them out to do his dirty work for him, as he is too smart, or too lazy, to get his paws dirty, and they are too stupid and intimidated by him to do anything less than follow his exact orders.
	+ **Wart** (voiced by Cummings) is a lizard henchman of Fat Cat who dresses in a gangster-style suit and hat similar to his boss.
	+ **Mole** (voiced by Burton) is an overweight mole henchman of Fat Cat who is slow witted but cheerful, and 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.
	+ **Mepps** (voiced by Cullen) is a thin, yellow alley cat henchman of Fat Cat who is dressed in a ratty blue vest and toboggan, and who speaks with a whiny voice.
	+ **Snout** (voiced by Burton) is a rat henchman of Fat Cat who wears a short sleeved red turtle neck with a black vest and a dark blue hat that covers his eyes. He is seen the least of Fat Cat's henchmen.
* **Professor Norton Nimnul** (voiced by Cummings) is the Rangers' other major enemy and a mad scientist who once worked for Aldrin Klordane, which, as with Fat Cat, is how the Rangers first encountered him. Though Nimnul is an intelligent and creative scientist, his plans often lack any trace of logic and tend to be extremely convoluted. For example, he kidnapped all the cats in the city to make an immense amount of static electricity, and in his appearance in the pilot he constructed a laser cannon designed to create a giant gelatin mold which would be used to cause an earthquake under the United States Gold Reserve. Nimnul has receding red hair (and similarly colored, bushy moustache), wears very thick glasses, and a high-pitched laugh. Unlike other humans in the series, Nimnul is aware of the Rescue Rangers' activities, and even that they have human-level intelligence, due to their constant interference in his plans; this became even more explicit in "A Fly in the Ointment" when his malfunctioning teleporter caused him to swap heads with Zipper, allowing him to understand the Rangers when forced to work with them to rescue Zipper from the hospital and put everyone back to normal (the same 'glitch' in his teleporter causing Chip/Monty and Dale/Gadget, respectively, to switch heads). He is physically modeled on Disney animator Bruce Talkington.

## Reception and legacy

The show was nominated at the 17th Daytime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Animated Program.

In January 2009, IGN named *Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers* as the 60th-best in the Top 100 Animated TV Shows. Hal Erickson, author of *Television Cartoon Shows, An Illustrated Encyclopedia* compared the show to *DuckTales*, stating that it was "consummately produced and written" and its animation "succeeded in putting most other overseas output to shame."

The main characters of *Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers* appeared in the 2017 *DuckTales* series.

## Live-action film adaptation

In January 2014, it was announced that The Walt Disney Company is developing a live-action feature-length film, with use of CGI special effects, similar to 20th Century Fox's *Alvin & the Chipmunks* film series. Robert Rugan was hired to write and direct the film.

By May 2019, Akiva Schaffer was hired as the director, replacing Rugan. The script is now set to be co-written by Dan Gregor and Doug Mand, from a previous draft by Barry Schwartz. David Hoberman and Todd Lieberman will serve as producers. The film will be a co-production between Walt Disney Pictures and Mandeville Films. On October 19, 2020, it was reported that the film will be released on Disney+, with filming set to begin in early 2021 in Los Angeles, California. In November 2020, Larry Fong was hired as the film's cinematographer and Corey Burton was announced to reprise the role of Zipper. Chip will be voiced by John Mulaney and Andy Samberg will provide the voice of Dale.

1. ↑ Template:Cite book
2. ↑ 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 2.11 2.12 2.13 2.14 2.15 2.16 2.17 2.18 2.19 Cite error: Invalid `<ref>` tag; no text was provided for refs named `DisneyEncyc`
3. ↑ Cite error: Invalid `<ref>` tag; no text was provided for refs named `StonesInterview`
4. ↑ Template:Cite episode
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6 Template:Cite episode
6. ↑ Template:Cite episode
7. ↑ Full Disney Afternoon anniversary panel at San Diego Comic-Con 2013. *Inside the Magic*.
8. ↑ 1989 Tad Stones Interview published in "Furtherance", Issue 3, Winter 1991
9. ↑ Template:Cite episode
10. ↑ Daytime Emmy Awards (1990).
11. ↑ IGN – 60. Chip 'N Dale Rescue Rangers. ign.com.
12. ↑ Erickson, 2005. p.202
13. ↑ 'DuckTales' surprises Comic-Con with 'Rescue Rangers,' Lin-Manuel Miranda.
14. ↑ Template:Cite magazine
15. ↑ Template:Cite magazine
16. ↑ Exclusive: Disney’s Live-Action ‘Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers’ Will Debut on Disney+ The DisInsider, October 19, 2020
17. ↑ Burlingame, Russ (November 19, 2020). Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers Movie Lands Batman v Superman Cinematographer.
18. ↑ Exclusive: Corey Burton Joins ‘Chip N Dale Rescue Rangers’ Disney+ Movie The DisInsider, November 20, 2020
19. ↑ Aquilina, Tyler (December 10, 2020). John Mulaney 'n Andy Samberg to voice Chip 'n Dale in Rescue Rangers movie for Disney+.