The Rescuers Down Under (1990)

Now for the red-headed stepchild of the Disney Renaissance, The Rescuers Down Under.

The Movie:

The Rescuers Down Under is the 29th movie in the Disney Animated Canon and the 2nd movie during the Disney Renaissance.  Despite mostly positive reviews, it is also the only box-office bomb of the Disney Renaissance.  (This movie opened the same weekend as Home Alone, the highest grossing film of 1990.  And to make matters worse, studio head Jeffery Katzenberg pulled all advertising after the opening weekend due to that poor performance.)  Modern audiences, if they are even familiar with both films, are split on which Rescuers film is the better movie.

Also, it should be noted that this is the first sequel in the Disney Animated Canon.  Out of all the movies to get a sequel, The Rescuers seems like an unlikely choice, but when this film was being developed on the heels of The Black Cauldron, The Rescuers was Disney's most success film of the preceding two and a half decades.

(Some would argue that The Three Caballeros is the first Disney sequel, but one, neither that movie and Saludos Amigos are truly narrative films, and two, the only connection is two characters, one of whom barely appears in the first.  Keeping in mind that the mindset of Disney at the time was that his characters were like actors, I would argue that while the two films are definitely results of the same production work, the second is not a sequel.)

Though The Rescuers was based on a book series, The Rescuers Down Under doesn't really draw from the books except the characters already used in the first movie.  The trouble in need of assistance this time is Cody, who lives in the Australian Outback.  Cody rescues a rare golden eagle from a trap, and he is subsequently captured by the poacher Percival C. McLeach, who holds him to get information on the eagle's location.  Bernard and Miss Bianca travel to Australia with the help of Wilbur the albatross (Orville's brother).  There they meet Jake, a kangaroo mouse who offers to be their guide, and the three set out to find Cody.

I'm split on which movie is the better movie, as they both have their moments.  The Rescuers Down Under is the more action-packed movie, Disney's first action-adventure movie.  The pacing is much faster than the first, but the story is also amazingly less focused.  For what is supposed to be a Rescuers film, this movie spends a lot more time with the side characters.  And while that's not always a bad thing, scenes like Wilbur being treated by doctors or Frank the lizard trying to escape go on for too long and distract from the main story.  The voice acting is great, with Bob Newhart and Eva Gabor once again bringing a great mix of charm and sophistication to their roles.  McLeach is voiced by George C. Scott, and he gives it his all in the role.

Where this movie really stands out is the visuals.  The first Rescuers movie had some big shots, but this one blows them out of the water, especially the opening sequence with Cody and the eagle.  It should also be noted that this was the first Disney movie done entirely with their CAPS system, a computer program for cel-painting and composting.  Though Disney didn't promote this technological break-through at the time, CAPS was used for all the subsequent movies of the Disney Renaissance, allowing them to produce movies at a much faster pace.

The Rescuers Down Under also has a very underrated score.  It was only the second movie in the canon to not have any songs, after The Black Cauldron, so all the music (except for some brief in-character singing or listening to a radio) is in the score, and it is epic.  The score was written by Bruce Broughton, who has scored many TV shows and movies, winning 12 Emmys.  He is also the former Governor of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (the Oscar people) and the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (the Emmy people).  Unfortunately, he might best be known as one of a few people who have had an Oscar nomination rescinded, as his Best Song nomination for the 2013 film Alone Yet Not Alone was taken back after the Academy ruled Broughton had improperly contacted people to consider his song.

On a final note, given this movie's box-office failure and the success of The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast on either side, this was Disney's last non-musical for a decade.

Presence in the Parks:

Like The Rescuers, The Rescuers Down Under doesn't really get any love in the parks.  However, unlike the first one, this movie didn't even get much promotion in the parks at the time of release.