Ch-Ch-Ch-Chip ‘n Dale go from the small screen to the… same-sized screen in their Disney+ original movie Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers. Rather than a continuation of the adventures from the 65-episode Disney Afternoon animated series, the film takes a meta approach, finding the lovable chipmunks living mundane lives in the real world. It thrives on a host of animation-industry insider jokes and blink-and-you’ll-miss-them cameos from all over the pop culture landscape, but the moments in-between are surprisingly dull for what should be a very animated plot.
(Disney)
It’s been 30 years since Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers went off the air, with former best friends Chip and Dale having gone their separate ways. When Monterey Jack goes missing amidst a wave of cartoon character disappearances, the duo gets caught up in a real mystery to try and rescue him. They used to play gumshoes on TV, so how hard could it be?
Voiced by John Mulaney and Andy Samberg, Chip and Dale are not the characters you remember from the Disney Afternoon series. The premise here is that the version of them that you know were characters they played, whereas this is their true, authentic selves. Dale is self-absorbed and constantly thinking about a return to the spotlight, a bit of a gender-bent Norma Desmond who even had “the CG surgery” to stay relevant. Chip stayed 2D (technically, he’s computer-animated with cell shading) and left the business, which puts them in moral opposition to one another. It’s a dynamic that works for a few scenes but grows stale quickly over the 90-minute runtime.
The film instantly draws comparisons to Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Both films find cartoon characters living in the real world and both also center around solving a mystery. The comparisons, however, are to the detriment of Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers, which never comes close to matching the humor and warmth of the Robert Zemeckis classic (ironic because they repeatedly poke fun at Polar Express, another Zemeckis film). Whether intentional or not, the mystery at the center of the story even walks a similar path. It also mocks the “live-action” big-screen adaptations of similar cartoons from the 80s, like Alvin and the Chipmunks, but you ultimately wish it would’ve gone in that direction a little more.
(Disney)
Perhaps the biggest marvel to come from Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers is the breadth of non-Disney IP featured via cameos and Easter Eggs. Part of the fun is spotting them, so I won’t go into too much detail. However, I was surprised by some of the adult animation references included. I didn’t necessarily need to see a character from South Park, for example, inhabiting this world. It comes as less of a delightful surprise and more of a brand of shock-value humor you don’t typically associate with Disney.
If you’ve seen the trailer, then you also know that the bad guy is not an original creation ala Judge Doom, but Peter Pan all grown up. Whether intentional or not, this version of Peter’s backstory somewhat mirrors that of his voice actor, Bobby Driscoll. Driscoll was Disney’s first contract star in the 1940s, an adorable child actor who found it difficult to get roles as he matured and died young of complications from substance abuse. Here, Pan has instead become a mob boss, but the similarities are hard to shake and nonetheless disturbing.
Undoubtedly funny, occasionally charming, and sometimes offputting, Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers is like a bag of mixed nuts. You can’t really hate it overall, but you probably won’t love everything in it. If you’re a fan of the original series, don’t expect the film to purely serve the show you love justice, but it offers an occasionally fun ride.
(Disney)
I give Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers 3 out of 5 stars honoring toons on the Holywood Walk of Fame.
Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers premieres Friday, May 20th, on Disney+.