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Bob Newhart, Eva Gabor, Geraldine Page, Joe Flynn, Jeanette Nolan ... see more see more... , Bill McMillan , Pat Buttram , Bernard Fox , Jim Jordan , George Lindsey , James MacDonald (II) , John McIntire , Michelle Stacy , Dub Taylor , Larry Clemmons , John Fiedler

Two fantasy novels by Margery Sharp were combined for in the Disney animated feature The Rescuers. The title characters are a pair of mice, Bernard and Miss Bianca. A little girl named Penny has been ... read more read more...kidnapped by Miss Medusa. When the human law enforcement officials fail to locate the child, Bernard and Miss Bianca take over with the help of several colorful animal companions. In classic Disney tradition, the comedy element is offset by moments of genuine terror. Voices are provided by Bob Newhart (Bernard), Eva Gabor (Miss Bianca), Geraldine Page (Madame Medusa), Jim "Fibber McGee" Jordan, John McIntire, George "Goober" Lindsay, Joe Flynn (who died in 1974, not long into the four-year production), and a host of others. It scored at the box office, more than compensating for the $8 million investment and the half-decade of work it took to complete the film. In fact, The Rescuers remains one of the most popular of the Disney cartoon films produced after the death of Uncle Walt. A heavily-computerized sequel, The Rescuers Down Under, appeared in 1990. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

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66% liked it

74,671 ratings

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83% liked it

29 critics

G, 1 hr. 34 min.

Directed by: John Lounsbery, Wolfgang Reitherman, Art Stevens

Release Date: June 22, 1977

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DVD Release Date: May 20, 2003

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Flixster Reviews (2,053)

  • fb100000293612769
    November 26, 2012
    fb100000293612769
    With a thrilling plot, wonderful characters, and a mix of light humor and deep emotions, The Rescuers is a charming, memorable, and admirable film.
  • mumby1988
    September 22, 2012
    mumby1988
    Disney spent the 1970s in the doldrums, both financially and creatively. The passing of Walt Disney, and the retirement of Golden Age directors like Clyde Geronomi, Wilfred Jackson and Hamilton Luske, had left it in the hands of a new generation, who were taking on an established... read more brand rather than blazing a trail of their own.

    This new generation of animators and managers were faced with a dilemma. Should they try something radically different, and move the Disney brand forward at the risk of losing their current audience? Or should they seek to consolidate the symbols and motifs that had brought the company success, at the cost of blatantly re-treading old ground? Unsurprisingly, they opted for the latter - and The Rescuers is one of the more mediocre fruits of their decision.

    From a technical standpoint, The Rescuers is a subtle improvement on the style of animation first utilised on 101 Dalmatians. In the sixteen years between the two films, the Xeroxing technique had been refined to pick up greater detail in the original drawings, as well as enabling multiple colours to be replicated. From an aesthetic point of view this allows for a smoother style of animation, which suits the characters particularly when it comes to their movement.

    But despite this incremental improvement, the animation as a whole still looks tired. Despite the very best intentions of John Lounsbery, Wolfgang Reitherman and Art Stevens, the colours still look pale and faded, and characters such as Madame Medusa aren't drawn with believable proportions. The opening credits could have been effective if they showed Penny's message in a bottle floating all the way across the world. But instead we get a series of matte paintings, decently drawn in their own right but with no sense of urgency to them.

    What's equally depressing is how derivative the film is. We have gotten used to Disney using the same voice actors on multiple productions - for instance, Betty Lou Gerson voices both Cruella DeVil and Madame Mim (The Sword in the Stone). But like its predecessor Robin Hood, this film is replete with examples of the company shamelessly ripping itself off, raiding its back catalogue of recognisable scenes and characters, and attempting unsuccessfully to pass them off as something new.

    The most obvious example of this blatant rehashing is Medusa, who is essentially a badly-drawn version of Cruella DeVil. Her motivation is slightly different, but she's still essentially an over-the-top pantomime bad guy who delights in the pain of others. Snoops and the alligators fill in for Horace and Jasper, while on the heroes' side the community of yokels are effectively standing in for the Colonel, Sergeant Tibbs and the other dogs along the Twilight Bark.

    The imagery in The Rescuers borrows just as obviously from past glories. The shot of the star shining over the characters is taken from the ending of Pinocchio, and the wide shots of the deer roaming seem to have been lifted straight from Bambi. There are also clear nods to Snow White in the use of bluebirds and in particular the retrieving of the Devil's Eye from the skull. The animators were clearly trying to replicate the brief scare involving the raven hiding in the skull, and then proceeding to drag it out for as long as possible.

    In my review of The Pirates! In An Adventure with Scientists!, I commented that "the difference between a convention and a cliché is the emotional response that surrounds it: if we are enjoying ourselves, it's a convention, and if not, it's a cliché." You'd have good cause for defending The Rescuers, up to a point, if it was sufficiently entertaining to overcome its overly familiar nature. Unfortunately, on this occasion we are dealing with cliché, since the story of The Rescuers is deeply underwhelming.

    The best way to illuminate the problem is to compare the film to one of its contemporaries, The Great Mouse Detective. Both films follow in the Disney tradition of having mice as protagonists, and both imagine a mouse world running in parallel to humans with broadly the same social structures. The difference is that The Great Mouse Detective lays down the rules very early on about the relationship and level of interaction between the mouse world and human world: just as in Lady and the Tramp, the most we encounter of the humans is their lower limbs, voice or silhouette.

    The mouse world that The Rescuers creates simply doesn't feel as authentic or as well thought-out. You might argue that since The Great Mouse Detective was drawing on both the stories and the reputation of Sherlock Holmes, there was more room for manoeuvre when it came to imagine his mouse equivalent. But even with all the effort made to adapt Margery Sharp's novels, the rules are never laid down to such a degree that we accept them enough to engage with the story.

    We can accept that the Rescue Aid Society exists, and that mice come from all over the world to attend its meetings. We can also accept that different animals would interact to some extent, such as an albatross offering to fly the mice to their destination. But the extent of communication between mice and humans isn't really established. Considering how depressed Penny has been in her search for the diamond, she reacts surprisingly well to the prospect of talking mice, and the film is never clear as to whether the adults can understand them too.

    Because the plot is so thin, a great deal of The Rescuers feels like desperate and obvious padding. The supporting cast of animal yokels don't have enough to do in order to warrant so many of them; as in Robin Hood, you feel that most of them are there to fill out the frame. The banter between Snoops and Medusa is very repetitive, and Penny's aborted escape attempts feel like filler since she is so easily recaptured.

    In terms of the performances, they're all pretty standard or forgettable. Eva Gabor (sister of the socialite Zsa Zsa Gabor) is a little unintelligible, but her character is sympathetic enough to sustain our interest. Bob Newhart shambles through most of his lines, as does Joe Flynn in his final film role. As for Geraldine Page, she's passingly decent as Medusa, if only to see how far over-the-top she chooses to go.

    The only memorable moments in The Rescuers are a few pockets of welcome yet bizarrely out-of-place energy. Like the last 20 minutes of 101 Dalmatians, these are moments in which the film appears to go into overdrive as the colours brighten and the pace picks up. The best of these are Evinrude the dragonfly being chased by bats, and the running joke about the characters drinking moonshine (or whatever the animal equivalent is). These moments may be the product of Don Bluth's involvement, since they resemble the more appealingly ramshackle nature of his characters and stories.

    For the most part, however, The Rescuers is a deeply dull disappointment. It epitomises all the problems with Disney before the Renaissance, skimping on genuine creativity and pushing the envelope in favour of recycling what was successful in the past. Even with its improved technical aspects and a handful of memorable moments, it still looks and feels so pale and weary. You won't need to be rescued from its content, but the company that produced it would soon next a rescue of their own.
  • TheDudeLebowski65
    April 30, 2012
    TheDudeLebowski65
    The Rescuers was one of my personal favorite Disney films growing up. This is a terrific film that is very entertaining from start to finish. This is a very good film that will appeal to anyone who loves Disney films. The Rescuers has great characters, a very good story and good ... read morecomedic elements with genuine tension only which Disney could deliver. The characters are what make this film work well, and I personally think that this film is underrated. The film is very good for what it is, and will satisfy people of all ages. This is one of the best Disney flicks to come out since The Jungle Book. The Rescuers is a great adventure classic that will probably scare the younger kids, but will definitely appeal to older kids as much as adults. This is a great film worth seeing if you love a good animated Disney film. This film has everything you'd expect from an animated classic. Brilliantly acted, and fun, terrifying bursting with adventure this is a must see film. Disney has always made great animated films, and The Rescuers is one of those films that have stood out because it's simply a fun, entertaining feature with a great cast of talented voice actor who bring great characters to life, The Rescuers is an exhilarating Disney adventure that will appeal to the child in all of us. The Rescuers is among Disney's greatest animated features and is a memorable film from start to finish.
  • aquateen2
    March 7, 2012
    aquateen2
    the film that redeemed Disney during its fall in quality during the 1970's. So much care was put into making this film and in the end it worked. I get just as emotional watching this as 101 Dalmatians and The Lion King.
  • DreamExtractor
    August 15, 2011
    DreamExtractor
    I cant remeber much all I can remember was that it was boring and not very good.
  • spielberg00
    August 12, 2011
    spielberg00
    OK
  • erika250
    January 6, 2011
    erika250
    to hard for me to understand.
  • ajv2688
    January 5, 2011
    ajv2688
    A pretty good kids movie, pretty fun, and sorta exciting, but if you ask me, it could have been a lot better.
  • SirPant
    December 31, 2010
    SirPant
    I enjoyed The Rescuers very much growing up, I just love Eva Gabor's little mouse voice.
  • skeletonking101
    December 13, 2010
    skeletonking101
    i cant believe im going to say this even for a disney film but SO FREAKING BORING. Im not ashamed to admit i liked it alot when i was little but when i watched it recently after not watching it for a while i couldnt even stand 20 minutes of it and shut it off.

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Critic Reviews

Variety Staff
September 3, 2008
Variety Staff, Variety

Four years of work were invested on this $7.5 million production and the expense, care, and expertise shows. Full Review

February 9, 2006
Time Out

The people who really need rescuing are the Disney animators and storymen, who seem uncertain whether to keep up the old studio traditions of cute characters and plush settings, or to branch out into ... Full Review

Vincent Canby
May 9, 2005
Vincent Canby, New York Times

Efficiently short, charming, mildly scary in unimportant ways, and occasionally very funny. Full Review

Dave Kehr
January 1, 2000
Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader

The Walt Disney animators returned to top form with this beautifully crafted and wonderfully expressive cartoon feature, the first major work to come out of the Disney studios in a decade. Full Review

Matt Brunson
September 13, 2012
Matt Brunson, Creative Loafing

The songs aren't up to par, Madame Medusa comes off as a cut-rate Cruella De Vil (no surprise, since the 101 Dalmatians villainess was at one point discussed for this picture), and Newhart's Bernard r... Full Review

Peter Canavese
August 24, 2012
Peter Canavese, Groucho Reviews

The characters stick in the mind, and the classic Disney animation style works wonders with the likes of Orville and the gators. [Blu-ray] Full Review

James Plath
August 18, 2012
James Plath, Movie Metropolis

It's still a film that has its charms, along with one of the more peculiarly conceived Disney villains. Full Review

Ellen MacKay
January 1, 2011
Ellen MacKay, Common Sense Media

Great adventure, but too dark for preschoolers. Full Review

Tim Brayton
November 20, 2009
Tim Brayton, Antagony & Ecstasy

The one completely successful Disney feature produced between 1967 and the beginning of the company's renaissance in 1989. Full Review

Angie Errigo
September 3, 2008
Angie Errigo, Empire Magazine

A solid, child-friendly work which will keep little ones content, if not mesmerised. Full Review

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    • Rufus: Yeah, but two little mice.. what- what can you do?
    • Mme Medusa: Snoops, you don't have a way with children. You must gain their confidence, make them you like...
    • Mr. Snoops: Yeah? Well, how you do that?
    • Evinrude: You FORCE them to like you, idiot!
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The Rescuers Trivia

  • In which disney movie can you see a naked woman in a window in the background?  Answer »
  • Bernard and Bianca are the main characters in which 2 Disney masterpieces?  Answer »
  • In which movie was Cody rescued from the cluthes of an Evil Poacher and his sidekick Joanna the Goanna?  Answer »
  • In what movie does the villain have 2 unusual pets named Nero and Brutus?  Answer »
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