DAC 23: The Rescuers

The Rescuers - 7.7/10

I loved this movie as a kid, but for whatever reason I never watched it as often as some of the others. In a way that kept it fresh; it was always kind of a treat to sit down and watch it, and for that same reason I've been really looking forward to it.

How does it stack up? Well, for starters, it has a cold open, which is a first. The background art is a bit lackluster though, and they skimped on the background animation. Also, the human characters seemed kind of weird - especially in the New York scenes, the combination of the backdrops and the weird human animation, I felt like I was watching the old Spider-man cartoon.

The story itself is an interesting one. A group of mice that travel around the world helping those in need? Neat. And the little girl they help in this one is really likable, too. She has almost no control over her situation, but she is brave and doesn't take crap from anybody, including two alligators (!) employed by the villain to keep her in line. The villain herself kind of screams "Cruella Deville wannabe" in her eccentricities and wild driving habits, not to mention her pure selfishness. However she has to be one of the single most despicable Disney villains simply in what she does to achieve her goal: that is, kidnapping a young girl and forcing her to risk her life in a tidal cave in pursuit of a legendary diamond, even to the exclusion of all the other myriad treasures the kid manages to find. And just in case it wasn't clear what an awful person she is, at one point she tells the girl flat-out (in a sickeningly sweet tone) that no one would ever want to adopt someone like her.

That last bit leads to a real tearjerker moment that is unfortunately kind of ruined by a random Bambi cameo that made me snort with laughter when I should have been tearing up. They did have one other pretty sad moment, so it wasn't a complete wash in that department.

The rest of the supporting characters are mostly forgettable, but the two leads are likable and I enjoyed their interactions. This film managed to avoid both common cliches of the male character bumblingly attempting to woo the high-class woman who's way out of his league, and of the two characters from radically different backgrounds rubbing each other the wrong way for the entire movie, building sexual tension that inevitably explodes during the climax. Instead, Bianca is a very sweet-natured high class woman with a sense of adventure who, while being quite taken with Bernard, is not above giving him a hard time now and again. Similarly, Bernard is a working class gentleman who knows Bianca is above his station and does his best to treat her right, but does not shirk from rebuking her if he thinks it's called for. All around one of the most realistic portrayals of a budding relationship I've ever seen in an animated film, even if they did rush it a bit. I'll grant them artistic license on that one.