The Rescuers Down Under

The Rescuers from 1977 is an unoriginal yet pleasant diversion. This sequel is even better! This time, it focuses on one of my personal favorite categories: Nature/wildlife (including the ones in Australia). This animated film has everything I could possibly want in a movie about wildlife; an underdog story about a sweet couple of adventurous mice, a young boy who loves animals and helps them, a glorious rare creature (the golden eagle named Marahute), and a very wicked poacher who is after the creature, has a hatred of all animals, and knows nothing about them. The messages about teamwork, courage, and animal rights were delivered nicely with subtle execution. But that's not all; The two directors (Hendel Butoy and Mike Gabriel) has staged each and every element with expert structure, particularly the comedy. From a dramatic standpoint, every single mood that these two directors have handled hits the mark and never ever a miss. The script-writers are very clever with the writing, and most of the writing is truly subtle. Another aspect that supports the mood is the sprightly music score by Bruce Broughton. Most of his score has a grand sense of adventure. The characters are contributes the high entertainment value; the main protagonists are the two mice "Bernard" and "Bianca" are a cute and valiant duo that are always up for heroic adventures. Jake is a plucky Australian hopping mouse who is Bernard's and Bianca's guide. Cody is a young boy who loves animals, helps the animals, and has the ability to speak to the animals. Marahute the golden eagle is a very friendly creature with great heart and soul, and some of her antics are so cute. The main antagonist is a wicked greedy poacher named Percival C. McLeach. McLeach is such a threatening villain, and very cruel too. His goal is the capture the golden eagle so that he can be filthy rich. McLeach has a sidekick: a wacky ravenous goanna named Joanna. The animation is excellent; visually, it's gorgeous and immersive with artful backgrounds like the big landscapes and waterfalls. The character designs are brilliantly drawn with genius planning and terrific precision, and the results of these character designs are absolutely engaging. The design of Marahute looks like a realistic eagle in the form of 2D animation, and it's glorious. As far as the voice acting went, the voice performances are exquisite; the whole cast ensemble are a pitch-perfect choice for the characters. Bob Newhart and Eva Gabor have returned to voice Bernard and Bianca and the material within their deliver made me realized that they still have the dramatic energy for the adventurous mice. John Candy is very amusing as Wilbur the comically eccentric Albatross who has a loud mouth for sharp humor. Another actor that is well up to par with John Candy's comedic performance is Wayne Robson as Frank the overly dramatic frilled-necked lizard. Expert voice actor "Frank Welker" has provided the amazing vocalizations for Marahute and Joanna. George C. Scott voices McLeach the poacher and he made his character sound genuinely menacing. In conclusion: This sequel to the first movie from 1977 is a very effective charmer that will strongly appeal to all families of all ages, especially to animal lovers. Highly recommended!

As the only sequel that is part of Disney's official feature animation canon, this film deserves it beautifully. It has rich animation and compelling characters serving a lively story that represents a welcome change of pace from the usual musical fare of Disney. The only real flaw is an annoying omission about trapped animals in an earlier scene that helped the boy try to escape; would it have been too much for at least a reference of our heroes going to save them at the ending? Regardless, Bob Newhart and Eva Gabor have a charmingly and well practiced chemistry as Bernard and Miss Bianca while John Candy is delight as the clumsy albatross, Wilber.

I used to watch this all the time as a child and I could never get enough of it lol