"Who Will Rescue Me?"
Saturday, June 11, 2011 at 12:38AM I'm lost at sea without a friend
This journey, will it ever end?
Who will rescue me?
So... goes the ballad that opens The Rescuers (1977), as Little Orphan Penny drops her message in a bottle into the swamp. I swear Shelby Flint's vocals dribbled out over the sides of my television like syrup. Who will rescue me from this treacle?!?
It wasn't always this way with The Rescuers and me. In fact, as a child it was one of my favorite movies. (When you voted for it in a poll some time ago, I was excited to revisit it!) As it turns out, sometimes childhood loves are best left in childhood.
Has this ever happened to you with an old formerly beloved movie?
As you can see in the still above, the animation team let the texture of the canvas bleed through and for a few seconds as the movie kicked off I thought "how lovely" (I'm not always so pleased with today's beautiful and shiny but often sterile animated images) but as the movie progressed it turned out not so lovely at all, a mess of inconsistent animation that often looked rushed through production.
For those who need a refresher, The Rescuers is about a girl named Penny who has been "borrowed" from her orphanage by a pawn shop owner named "Medusa" (wicked highly enjoyable voicework from Oscar regular Geraldine Page). Medusa wants a gargantuan diamond called The Devil's Eye which is buried in a cave that Penny is small enough to slip into in a creepy place called Devil's Bayou. Penny's bottled cry for help reaches the Rescue Aid Society, an international organization of ethnically and geographically stereotyped mice who meet in the United Nations building: HIGH CONCEPT!
While the characters are cute enough -- particularly elegant rodent Bianca (Eva Gabor) and a dragonfly named Evinrud -- the primary emotion that The Rescuers seems to be going for is pity. It works but "pity" isn't the most cathartic or endearing emotion to rest a whole movie on. Penny is either too young, too dumb or too helpless to be carrying this picture. The other significant problem is that despite a scant 78 minute running time, there's not enough plot to fill it with. Time and again we have a plot complications that are as thrilling as treading water. The narrative doesn't actually move until the complication is over. Like so:
1. Oh no, the mice are in trouble.
2. Cue frantic activity on or offscreen!
3. Whew, the mice are okay. So...
4. Back to the plot where you left it. Proceed.
And let's not even talk about the excessive amount of time we spent with the albatross Orville [yawn]. He's mere connective tissue to take you from Act 1 (New York) to Act 2 (Devil's Bayou) and last time I checked no intermission between acts ever lasted as long as Orville's fumbling flying routine.
The pictures sole bright spot then is Madame Medusa.
Seeing the movie as an adult, it's shocking to realize that she's nearly a carbon copy of Cruella de Vil: She enters the picture throwing open a door violently; She loses her temper constantly; She drives like a madwoman in vehicles that leave huge puffs of smoke behind them; She has a bumbling human henchman she despises; She has a one track mind (fur/diamonds) and she even has a scene where she slows down her "car" creepily while searching for the hiding protagonist, that immediately brings the famous "soot" scene in 101 Dalmatians to mind. When she's not recalling Cruella she's lifting Miss Hannigan from Annie.
In other words, she's no original.
Disney Generations: Cruela begat Medusa begat Ursula.
But if we needed Medusa as a missing link evolutionary step to get us from Cruella to Ursula than we owe Medusa a bag full of those diamonds she covets. Movie buffs have long noted that Disney has two types of villains: rotund or spindly. Medusa splits the difference, her arms and legs are skinny and her movements scream "bony villain" with their sharp angles, yet her body is saggy and slovenly. You know she's not the slip of a thing that she used to be. In 10 more years, she'll be a big as a house(boat).
Though I can no longer claim I have any affection for The Rescuers, I still completely dig Medusa and her darling crocodiles Flotsam and Jetsam.... I mean, Nero and Brutus! They're keepers. Or at least placeholders until Ursula, Flotsam & Jetsam arrive 12 years later for The Little Mermaid.
The Rescuers: C
Related Posts: Beauty & The Beast and 101 Dalmatians.
Cruella de Vil, Disney, The Rescuers, Ursula, animated films, reader requests
Reader Comments (14)
I'm going to have to disagree with you on one point: given the movies that immediately preceded it - The Jungle Book, The Aristocats, Robin Hood - I would go the exact opposite from "rushed"; to me, it's the first Disney film to have any real personality to its visuals for a good decade and a half, following... well, 101 Dalmatians, as a matter of fact.
(Disney Trivia! In the early story stages, Medusa wasn't just "nearly" a copy of Cruella; they were going to bring Cruella back, until the decision came down that it didn't make any story sense & they didn't want to be in the business of making sequels. Simpler times).
But I'll agree that the plot never gets going, and the whole thing is sickly sweet in all the wrong ways. I think I'm on record as saying that the movie would be infinitely improved if Penny had been eaten by the gators in the opening scene.
Too long that I saw "The Rescuers". I do have a problem with Disney movies in general nowadays... Movies better left in childhood? What immediately comes to my mind I used to love "Forrest Gump" when I was 14/15/16 and I cannot defend that today..
This movie always made me cry (particularly the song 'Someones waiting for you' - I can play it on piano. It's just heartbreaking.) I haven't seen it for a while, but was always struck by the similarities between Medusa and Cruella, just as I was struck at the animation similarities between Snow white, Robin Hood and the Aristocats.
This has certainly happened to me with a lot of movies. But not "The Rescuers." The 1977 classic still retains all of its charm, against all odds. The home video releases for the film have unfortunately been far, far, far from tolerable, and I can't help but cringe seeing to such degree of deterioration has Disney allowed the film to go into the digital age. Still, the film remains one of the satisfying Disney films of all time, with delightful characters, a lovely storybook plot that cleverly combines classic elements (pirate treasure, small captives, messages in bottles, etc...) with a working modern setting that does not feel out of place. The Disney writers did an excellent job adapting the finest elements from Margery Sharp's excellent "Miss Bianca" novels. The songs are gorgeous; the opening sequence you criticize so much is haunting and sophisticated, and the climatic scene inside the pirate's cave still sends thrills up my spine up to this day.
So, no, I disagree completely with the remarks made. The film would, however, benefit from a major clean-up, as its current presentation is unacceptable, and without a doubt it takes away from the viewing pleasure. On a side note, if you look carefully, you can find many more similarities between Madame Medusa and Ursula, and even plenty of similarities between Madame Medusa and Jafar: "You get down there and find me that magic lamp or you'll never see that teddy again!" "At last! The magic lamp! It's mi-hahaha-ine!" XD
Excellent Disney classic.
For the record, Evinrude is a dragonfly, not a mosquito. Second, Penny is possibly the first Disney heroine who, in spite of her young age, actually attempts to rescue herself and isn't sitting around waiting to be discovered and then rescued. She attempts several times to escape, but because she's small, her attempts are unsuccessful. Not only is she an endearing character from the beginning, but the fact that she tries so hard makes her even more likable. She's also a very realistic character, in spite of her sassy attitude and her faith, she still manages to become desperate and inconsolable at times, making her multi-dimensional. I also disagree with the comments made regarding the character.
Roderick -- i wasn't criticizing the opening so much... i said i loved the visual look... and agree that it's haunting. but the movie is downhill from there. I do, however, hate the music.
but you're right that Penny doesn't wait around to be rescued so perhaps i should give her props for that.
I also have to disagree with you. I think "The Rescuers" is just great. It's sequel - "The Rescuers Down Under"? Not so much.
But The Rescuers Down Under has Joanna the goanna, whose *way* more fun and funny than Flotsam/Jetsam or Nero/Brutus.
"Has this ever happened to you with an old formerly beloved movie?"
Sure has. With The Rescuers.
I still have a sentimental spot for it, but no, it isn't a very good film. (Though - because it isn't quite soul-numbingly tedious - it's probably one of the better things the Disney studios came up with during that prolonged 1961-1988 nadir.)
goran -- thank you. i'm glad i'm not alone. Not that i want to spoil anyone's childhood favorite. But Disney sure did have a rough spot there for awhile. I also remember loving Great Mouse Detective though so i wonder if that's safe to revisit. To this day it saddens me that they mucked up THE BLACK CAULDRON so much. Those novels are G-O-L-D for animated film adaptations but nobody has dared try again. There's just so much great stuff in those books and even very "disney" elements of the book, disney changed into less endearing things. weird.
regarding that rough patch: i recommend everyone see that WAKING SLEEPING BEAUTY documentary. very interesting on just how bad it was in the 80s and how they climbed back on the horse for The Little Mermaid and what followed.
That Waking Sleeping Beauty doco was entertaining (I think I could watch two hours worth of anybody talking about Disney cartoons) but it did kind of irk me. All these fat self-absorbed men in suits smugly judging the merit of films based chiefly, and in some cases, entirely on their box office intake. The whole film gives a telling and seemingly accidental glimpse into what's most twisted about Hollywood.
(And, along these lines, I can totally imagine these same people in 20 years time concluding that the box office takings for Pirates of the Carribean 7 were proof of its timeless status.)
More Disney trivia: I remember reading once that, there used to be two kinds of Disney animated movies: go-for-broke, money-is-no-object movies that were Walt Disney's personal babies and actually were not profitable (this would include movies such as Snow White and Pinocchio), and movies that were churned out on the cheap in order to make back the money lost on the studio's major projects - Dumbo actually belonged to this category, as do movies like The Rescuers and Aristocats.
Jessica, FYI: "Snow White" was a huge financial success in its day.
Wayne: But it wasn't *profitable*. It lost money, not because it wasn't successful, but because so much was spent in making it.