Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers (2022) Movie Review

 Hey everyone! How's your weekend going so far? Mine's been pretty great. Last night I watched the new Disney+ Original Movie, Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers which just came out yesterday. So I'm here to talk about it. There will be some minor spoilers so if you haven't seen the movie yet, please do so before reading this review, unless you don't care about spoilers. With that out of the way, let's get into it.

Of all the Disney Afternoon cartoons that I used to watch when I was a kid, including the classics like DuckTales, Darkwing Duck, and TaleSpin, I don't remember ever watching Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers (1989-1990). The characters are familiar obviously, but I don't remember watching the show. at all. So this movie was an interesting one for me.

This movie actually felt more like a sequel to Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) than a movie based on the Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers cartoon. But I think that's the idea. The premise of the movie is that Chip and Dale are two Chipmunks who grew up together and went into show biz together. After three years of doing a show called Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers, the show gets canceled and Chip and Dale go their separate ways. But when an old friend calls them for help, the dynamic duo reunite to solve the mystery of the Bootlegged Toons.

We've seen this premise dozens of times before, so it's not actually anything new. But the way they did it is genius. Or at least interesting. Like I said, the blending of live action, 2-D Animation, 3-D Animation, and Muppets (yes there are Muppets in this movie) is very much like Who Framed Roger Rabbit, including the appearances of, and references to, non-Disney animated characters. Though oddly enough the Looney Tunes characters don't appear in the movie at all, Despite Batman from the DCEU showing up as a cameo in the movie. 

One of the things I like about the movie is that it isn't super cynical. Chip is the cynical one of the duo, but he isn't extreme about it. It's more like the cartoon Chipmunk version of Eddie Valiant from Roger Rabbit. Except, he's bitter about Dale leaving him behind at the end of their show's third season, which ended up being the show's final season, rather than a Toon killing his brother, like Eddie was. Which is interesting.

I love that the whole idea of this is to Bootleg cartoon characters for rip-off movies, that are made very poorly. I mean, it's something that happens all the time. Especially in the Golden Age of Animation in the '30s and '40s. It's almost an old-fashioned thing to make a movie about, but honestly, that's what I like about it.

The weird part was having grown up Peter Pan as the villain. It was kind of funny at times, especially when he ran into Cubby, one of the Lost Boys from the movies, But it was a bit disconcerting. Seeing Bootleg Homer and Bart Simpson, and Bootleg Winnie the Pooh and Tigger was hilarious though. 

One of the things that I was worried about with this movie is that it would rely heavily on the TV series it's based on and be confusing for the audience ff they hadn't watched the show when they were kids. Luckily, that wasn't the case. While there are a few references to the original cartoon series, the story didn't rely on the show to carry it. Which is nice when a movie or show is based on an existing property, but doesn't rely on the source material to carry the story. 

I honestly don't have much else to say about the movie. It was a fun watch and I will definitely revisit it sometime in the future. I would definitely recommend watching it if you have Disney+, or know someone who has Disney+ because it's doubtful it'll ever come out on physical media.

That is going to be it for me for today. But I will be back next week with lots more posts. So until then have a great long weekend and I will talk to you later. Take care.