Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers

Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers is a mix of a reboot of an old kiddie show, a Hollywood satire, a genuine mystery comedy, and a high-tech blend of live action and animation that, like Roger Rabbit, borrows licensed characters from different studios and blends them together.  The end result is a movie that works much better than you would expect, and is definitely smarter than it needed to be. 

In a way, the movie resembles a successful take on the same idea The Happytime Murders attempted.  That was the failed Hard-R Muppet Movie the Jim Henson Studio tried their luck with back in 2018 that featured a Muppet detective trying to solve a series of murders connected to an old TV show.  Both films take a concept usually associated with children's programming, and drops them into a more mature storyline.  But where as Happytime emphasized four-letter words and dumb jokes about Muppet sex, Rescue Rangers takes the concept of the 1989 cartoon and its characters, and honors it with smart writing, respect for the original fanbase, and some genuinely bright humor.  No, this is not the movie most people who grew up with the show will be expecting, but it's probably better than that.

Catching up with the two Chipmunk stars from Disney's past, we learn that they don't always talk like they're on helium.  Apparently, that was an act for the show. (They do occasionally slip back into their "chipmunk" speak from time to time.) Chip (voice by John Mulaney) and Dale (voice by Andy Samberg) are childhood friends who came to Hollywood together with a dream of making it big, worked their way doing cameos on various shows in the 80s, and eventually got their break when the Disney Corporation gave them their own show, where they played the leaders of a team of pint-sized rodent detectives who solved crimes the police wouldn't touch.  Despite the success, Dale became tired of being seen as a second banana to his friend, and tried to get a solo spin off project ("Double-O Dale") off the ground.  This, combined with the cancellation of the TV show, caused a rift between the friends.

30 years later, Dale has had the "CG Surgery", and is working the convention circuit, living off his past fame.  Chip (still hand drawn) now sells insurance, and despite being great at his job, is unhappy with life.  The former friends are brought together when one of their co-stars from the old show, Monterey Jack (voice by Eric Bana), calls them up needing help.  His addiction to cheese has gotten him in trouble with an underground gang that is rounding up old cartoon characters, and forcing them to go under a surgery process that turns them into cheap bootleg characters who star in knockoff DVD movies.  When he ends up going missing, the duo team up with human police detective Ellie Steckler (KiKi Layne) to find him and the other missing cartoon characters.

I can imagine the lawyers at Disney were constantly breathing down the necks of the filmmakers while they were making this, as the movie not only serves as a satire of one of their nostalgic franchises, but includes cameos from shows not owned by them, such as Beavis & Butt-Head, Lego, and My Little Pony to name a few.  I'm sure it cost a lot to license outside characters, but I'm glad they took a chance, because it helps with the overall theme of humans and cartoon characters of different styles (stop motion, anime) inhabiting the same world.  Beyond the cameos and references, this is just a bright and funny script by Dan Gregor and Doug Mand that, while it definitely doesn't have anything inappropriate, seems targeted more at adults than kids.

And it makes sense to make this movie for them, since the kids who used to watch the old TV show are now in their 30s and 40s.  Apparently, this is an idea that's been around for almost 10 years at the Studio, and the original plan was to do a straight up reboot origin story film about the mini crime fighters.  But when director Akiva Schaffer (2016's Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping) and members of the comedy team The Lonely Island came on board, they completely retooled the idea into more of a satire.  This was obviously a risky move, but it pays off, because it still manages to pay respect to the original source, while giving audiences a unique experience.  It could not have been easy for them to talk a major corporation into doing a more satirical and slightly more adult take on the material, but it works.

Rescue Rangers is certainly a gamble, but one that should play well both with those who watch it out of nostalgia, and those who are not familiar with what came before.  That's really the best way to tackle a nostalgic reboot film.  It's hard to please both audiences, but this movie does just that.

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