The Rescuers Down Under (1990)

The Rescuers Down Under (1990)

6/10

Starring

Bob Newhart

Eva Gabor

John Candy

Adam Ryen

Directed by Hendel Butoy and Mike Gabriel

The animation is a huge step up from the previous first part The Rescuers (1977), but the story is not as grand. This is a good addition to the list of nice Disney movies you should see, but being the first theatrical release of theirs to get a sequel, it is a good first try. We have come to see that Disney has gotten a hand on making sequels so I praise this for being the first.

I think what made this story not meet up to that of the The Rescuers (1977) was the huge world Disney built to place the Rescue Aid Society. Disney made the world of the mice bigger and that in itself consumed half of the movie’s run time. In The Rescuers (1977) the world is smaller and all we got was a message in a bottle and the adventure began. Here, we have the message being relayed across the world and traveling thousands of miles and before Bernard and Bianca actually set out to go rescue the young boy, we are twenty-five minutes into the movie.

The other thing about the story was that it made them like supporting cast to the little boys rescue instead of the main leads, and there was little investigating going on this movie. Much of it is about traveling to the destination and intercepting the poacher’s plan.

The plot this time takes us to Australia, where a young boy who rescues animals is in trouble himself, he gets captured by a poacher after the poacher saw a feather of a golden eagle in his nap sack. The poacher claims to have killed the daddy eagle and wants to kill the mother eagle too. He kidnaps the boy and tries to force him to take him to where the eagle is.

The animals who witnessed the kidnapping are the ones who sent for aid from the mouse Rescue Aid Society, who then sent Bernard and Bianca to go help.

Soon they track down the boy and together with aid from a kangaroo rat who is now a friend of the duo, they must save the boy and stop the poacher.

As usual I enjoyed the way Bianca is made to take charge of things and be more outspoken and confident.

In the end the movie received a less positive review than the first with more praises going to the fine animation. The voice cast of Bob Newhart (Bernard) and Eva Gabor (Bianca) coming back to reprise their roles adds to the entertainment. Unlike the first movie this did not receive any award nomination and did poorly at the box office. The Rescuers (1977) is a Disney classic, this movie even though fun is not, but it is a fun movie to watch all the same as the nostalgia did the work of excitement for me.