[Rating: Solid Rock Fist Up]
Exclusively on Disney+ May 20
A fun detective yarn that manages to incorporate vital elements of the original series with topical, clever jokes roasting modern Hollywood and its animation arm, Chip and Dale: Rescue Rangersis the rare 21st century franchise resurrection that works. A cultural kaleidoscope of friendly and rival animation notables that span the gamut from Spielberg to South Park (and all the free Disney and Fox properties in between), the film has serious Who Framed Roger Rabbit vibes, with just a dash of Lego Movie in there as well for good measure. It’s also a heck of a good time, and while not perfect, the razor-sharp script and the crackling interplay between the leads elevate the film well beyond anything approached in the original series.
And that original series, part of Disney’s afternoon T.V. lineup in 1989 and 1990, is very much at the forefront of the movie. As explained by Dale (Andy Samberg) in the opening flashback, he and Chip (John Mulaney) were childhood friends that moved to Hollywood to chase their showbiz dreams, bouncing around in the industry meatgrinder for a time before landing their own television series. Dale’s pursuit of an outside project during the original run of “Rescue Rangers” broke the duo up, however, and when the film catches up to them in 2022, the pair are living very different lives.
Although Chip has given up on Hollywood to grind away at an insurance sales job, Dale is working the convention circuit alongside other animated cast-offs like Tigra (Liz Cackowski), Lumiere (Jeff Bennett), and Ugly/Weird Teeth Sonic (Tim Robinson). When former castmate, Monterey Jack (Eric Bana), reaches out to Chip and Dale to reveal his involvement in a shady bootleg animation crime ring, the pair are forced back together to try and solve the mystery. And while they work for a time with local cop, Ellie (KiKi Layne), the adventure is very much their own and brings them into contact with a host of animation all-stars (along with some new faces) that never allow for a dull moment.
And while the basic conceit of the story is simple enough (the Rescue Rangers team back up for a new mystery), the way all of this is pulled together is anything but. Much like Roger Rabbit, this film lives in a world where regular humans and animated figures like Chip and Dale exist side-by-side. Characters from The Jungle Book or Beauty and the Beast are as real as Tom Hanks or Emma Stone, and this open-world concept allows for an endless barrage of meta humor and inside-baseball.
It is a shrewd approach and gives the film space to operate (and be funny) on several levels. Chip and Dale’s story, along with that of the discarded animated figures in their orbit, is deployed with knowing subtext, and acts as a broadside against an industry that too often chews up and spits out young talent. There’s also no shortage of jabs at the broader film community and the way it treats its animation counterparts, with jokes about uncanny valley renderings, copyright rip-offs, bad eye work, and IP-mashups littering this thing. And while it is hard to imagine the target demo of this film understanding even half of this, director Akiva Schaffer pulls off that elusive Shrek balancing act where there’s equal amounts of fun to be had throughout the picture for kids and adults alike.
That said, not everything works. A joke early on about how Dale upgraded himself into 3D plays well as a snipe at aging actors getting work done, yet the chuckle is fleeting while the distraction of having the leads appear throughout the film in two different animation styles endures. KiKi Layne, so magnetic and captivating in If Beale Street Could Talk and Native Son, feels very much out of her depth, here, and seems to be struggling with the challenge of acting opposite mini-tennis balls.
So, while not a home run, Chip and Dale: Rescue Rangers is far better than it has any right to be considering the glut of soulless franchise reboots and resurrections flooding the market in 2022. Fans of Brooklyn Nine-Nine will enjoy Samberg essentially riffing on his buffoonish but clever Jake Peralta character as Dale, while Mulaney is allowed plenty of break-out space to turn Chip into a delightful PG extension of his nebbish standup persona. There’s lots here for adults to enjoy while kids can go along for the mostly non-threatening action rollercoaster underpinning everything. And as for the handful of Chip and Dale die-hards out there, well…during the original run of the show, the theme song promised, “When there’s danger, oh no, it never fails, they’ll take the clues, and find the wheres and whys and whos.” This sacred promise is indeed upheld, so rest easy.
“Obvious Child” is the debut novel of Warren Cantrell, a film and music critic based out of Seattle, Washington. Mr. Cantrell has covered the Sundance and Seattle International Film Festivals, and provides regular dispatches for Scene-Stealers and The Playlist. Warren holds a B.A. and M.A. in History, and his hobbies include bourbon drinking, novel writing, and full-contact kickboxing.
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