Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers: A Reboot That Subverts Expectations

Every once in a while, a movie is announced that seems like another uninspired cash-grab designed purely to attempt to cash in on nostalgia. Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers certainly had that appearance when it was initially announced, considering it was going directly to streaming and was based on a beloved Disney Channel show from the early-90s. What was released however is a unique movie that totally exceeds every expectation set for it.

While the original show was about Chip and Dale starting a detective agency to deal with crimes “too small for the police to handle,” the new movie is set in a world where animated characters and humans live side-by-side (like Who Framed Roger Rabbit) and the cast are all stars of the show. After a falling out between Chip and Dale leads to its cancellation, Chip ends up working insurance and Dale ends up trying to reclaim his life in show business. They get a call from a former costar who has fallen on hard times and is in trouble with organized crime which launches them into a bootlegging conspiracy where cartoon characters are being abducted, modified to avoid copyright law, and then sold as bootleg movies.

The blend of live action and animation, and different forms of animation, is really where the movie works the best and has the funniest moments. There is a blend of 2D and 3D animation with cameos from all over the major studios that make the world feel alive and not just like a world populated by only Disney characters. Randy Marsh (South Park) “Ugly Sonic” (the iteration of Sonic that appeared in the first trailer of Sonic The Hedgehog), Batman (specifically Ben Affleck’s Armored Batman from Batman V Superman) among others all have small roles in the movie that are especially memorable. Some background jokes are also worth noticing, especially one that indicates a Lego movie version of Les Misérables is impending in that world as well as a gender-swapped Mrs. Doubtfire with Meryl Streep in the lead.

The biggest irony of the movie is what the bad guy is doing that paints them to be the antagonist. The fact that Disney of all companies is treating copyright law as sacrosanct is laughable considering how they have made billions upon billions of dollars pulling stories from the public domain and then getting the protections after the fact while lobbying to continually increase how long a work stays protected is kind of silly. Compound this with the current legal battles that Disney is facing over copyright law changes on the federal level (which is not necessarily a bad law, however it is being introduced for bad reasons) and you have a movie that could be argued to be a propaganda tool for that front of this ongoing fight. It is worth noting that it is not accurate considering how long it takes for a movie of this scale to be made, however the timing is questionable.

The final note about this film is that it will be interesting to see the finances of it and the final streaming performance, considering this is a movie that almost certainly could have made a fair amount of money at the box office if it came out this week. Right now there is a lull of family-friendly animated programming in theaters and this would have filled that void, especially in a slow week like this and headed into Memorial Day weekend when it’s major competition would be Top Gun: Maverick or The Bob’s Burger’s Movie and would not face any competition for younger audiences until Lightyear in mid-June. Looking at the summer and fall’s release slate, there are plenty of places that this movie could have been released to more than make up its budget so it will be interesting to see how subscriber numbers and Nielsen ratings compare.

This movie is worth a watch, not just for fans of the original show but for anyone who wants to see a solid family-friendly comedy that does innovative things with animation. It is available now on Disney+ included in the base subscription.

Final Rating: 9/10