Disney Countdown

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...

Today we wrap up the Dark Age films, beginning with The Rescuers. The Movie: The Rescuers is the 23rd film in the Disney Animated Canon and the last Disney's four films in the 1970s.  The movie was praised by critics and was successful at the box-office, making it the studios biggest hit since the death of Walt Disney.  The Rescuers was also popular in European markets, with its initial run out-grossing Star Wars in France that year and for a time becoming the highest grossing movie in West Germany.  At the time many critics thought this marked a turning point for Disney, though frustration among the staff during the production of this movie, in particular Don Bluth, would contribute to their eventually walkout during the production of The Fox and the Hound, which ultimately set Disney back for most of the 1980s. The Rescuers is based on the book of the same name and its sequel Miss Bianca, the first two in a series of books by Margery Sharp.  This is anothe...