The Rescuers/The Fox and the Hound

Well everyone, I think it is right for today to look at the 1977 Disney classic, “The Rescuers.” Vincent Canby of the New York Times started his review out by saying, “WITH "ANNIE" already established as one of the bigger hits on the Broadway stage, the arrival of "The Rescuers"—the first animated feature from the Walt Disney organization since 1973—could make this the year of the transcendent orphan.” Much like Annie, the protagonist of this film, Penny, voiced by Michelle Stacy, doesn’t have parents and is tortured through all sorts of devices made by evil people, who fortunately, are so useless that they themselves have self-destruct buttons on them.

“The Rescuers” is surprisingly short, charming, a little scary in unimportant ways, and once in a while very funny. It’s perfect to show younger children who like their cartoons serious.

The screenplay, based on two stories by Margery Sharp, is mainly about the hard work of two New York mice, Bernard and Bianca, members of an organization called the Rescue Aid Society, to rescue Penny after she’s been kidnapped by Madame Medusa. Strangely enough, she runs Madame Medusa’s Pawn Shop Boutique, and has stolen Penny and ran off with her to Louisiana because Penny is the only person small enough to crawl into a pirate’s cave and get a diamond that’s as big as a baseball.

Canby stated in his review, “I doubt that even small children will pay too much attention to the story, which, as it should be, is simply the excuse for a series of marvelously improbable adventures.” For instance, there’s a crazy journey that Bernard (Bob Newhart) and Bianca (Eva Gabor) go to Louisiana via Albatross Air Charter Service. The equipment, as it’s called in timetables, is a very tired albatross named Orville, voiced by Jim Jordan, who isn’t good at takeoffs and landings.

In Satan’s Bayou in Louisiana, there are those extremely short moments when Penny escapes from Madame Medusa, a fine, fiery-haired villain that Geraldine Page has voiced and funny presence, and runs into various swamp items, including a dragonfly named Evinrude, voiced by James MacDonald, who runs a local boat service.

With sporadic timeouts for mandatory songs of an especially forgettable tale, “The Rescuers” moves a fast pace and doesn’t fuss from one part to the next, never making a sense of real fright or fear. Canby said that, “The animation is pretty in a conventional fashion that may be as fascinating to children as the bold innovations of someone like Ralph Bakshi are to the rest of us.”

“The Rescuers” isn’t in the same ballpark as the great Disney cartoon features (Snow White, Bambi, Fantasia) but it’s a reminder of a type of slicky cheerful, animated entertainment that you don’t really see anymore.

The next film I will look at is a film that I used to be crazy over in my childhood and watched repeatedly, “The Fox and the Hound,” released in 1981. I am not kidding, I drove my family nuts when I kept watching this movie. They still remember how I used to watch this all the time. Following Snow White, 101 Dalmatians and The Aristocats, Disney must have had been running out of classics to re-release. As a result, they had this movie as their final spirited increase until The Little Mermaid had them go back on the right track.

It starts off really well though. Tod, a fox cub with the mandatory big-eyed, soft-furred cuteness (Keith Mitchell) is abandoned by his mother during a chase by hunters, and is rescued by a wise owl named Big Mama (Pearl Bailey), adopted by Widow Tweed (Jeanette Nolan) and becomes friends with Copper (Corey Feldman), a playful puppy with adorable droopy eyelids, who is owned by Amos Slade (Jack Albertson) and is trained by Chief (Pat Buttram). For a while things are going great, until Copper goes away for the winter and returns older, wiser, and the best fox-hunter in the business (now voiced by the great action star Kurt Russell), a situation that puts his childhood friend with the now post-adolescent Tod (the late Mickey Rooney) to the test.

Empire said this in their review, “And it's here that the movie falters. While the backgrounds and animation are wonderful, the film suffers from an intensely depressing middle section, full of heart-stopping chases, damaged friendships and forgettable songs more likely to invoke fidgets than sniffles among the younger contingent in the audience. It takes Tod's transformation into a misty-eyed lovepup, and a rousing final€ as good as any in Disney's recent efforts to steer things back on track.”

As one of Disney’s more modern efforts, this is way better than “Oliver and Company,” which is still good, but I would prefer watching this again over that, but this film still pales when comparing this to 101 Dalmatians. As something to watch in school, however, it should keep everything together nicely until Pocahontas gets made, but that’s for another time.

In the end, I still like “The Fox and the Hound,” and I think all of you should watch it. If you don’t like it, I understand. I won’t force you to like something that you don’t like, but still give it a watch and give it a chance.

Hopefully everyone liked today’s entry, stay tuned tomorrow for more “Disney Month,” coming right at you.