Chip n' Dale: Rescue Rangers (2022)

Chip n' Dale: Rescue Rangers (2022)

6/10

Starring the voices of

John Mulaney

Andy Samberg

Will Arnett

Eric Bana

Keegan-Michael Key

 

Directed by Akiva Schaffer

 

From The Disney Afternoon comes this live-action/animated action-adventure comedy based on Chip and Dale’s detective life. The animation, story, and voice acting are amazing. You’ll love the comedy and the way the characters are developed. This world is so inviting and easy to follow; it’s a movie that adults won’t mind watching along with their children.

The Disney Afternoon is from the '90s and was a two-hour daily TV block of fun Disney animated series. Over the years, the block featured DuckTales, TaleSpin, Darkwing Duck, Gargoyles, and many more. This movie focuses on one animated series from the block: Chip n' Dale: Rescue Rangers. I loved watching the group pick up the slack and solve crimes the real police failed to close. I enjoyed their many adventures and lived off reruns.

In a way, this movie feels like a spiritual successor to 1988’s Who Framed Roger Rabbit, with Disney’s legal team working to get as many animated characters as possible from other studios to make this movie’s world-building fit. The world-building is similar to Who Framed Roger Rabbit, where animations live in the same world as humans, and their animation jobs are to work as entertainers.

We get to see the life behind the two chipmunks, Chip and Dale. We learn how they met when they were young and how they became a comedy pair. Their work landed them the gig with Disney to play the leads in the series Chip n' Dale: Rescue Rangers. Dale felt he was living in Chip’s shadow and wanted to venture on his own with his own solo show, which led to their show being canceled and his show never going past the pilot phase. The group part ways, with Gadget and Flipper getting married, and Jack going on his merry way with an addiction problem. The two leads no longer talk.

Now, in the present (many years later), Chip is working as an insurance salesperson, and Dale is still doing as many little gigs as possible to pay the bills while trying to revive the glory days. Chip gets a call from Monterey Jack, who’s in big trouble with a loan shark. Jack owes Sweet Pete a lot of money because of his cheese addiction, and if he doesn’t pay, he’s going to be bootlegged. Chip shows up, hears the story, and then Dale also shows up because Jack called the two for help. Chip leaves, believing it was a plan to get them together and patch things up. He later gets a call from Dale that Jack has been taken. The two must team up to find their friend.

The movie is available to stream on Disney+.