Review of The Rescuers Down Under (1990) by Tommy K — 12 Nov 2016

Over a decade later from the first film The Rescuers, Disney presents its first animated sequel, The Rescuers Down Under. Bob Newhart and Eva Gabor reprise their roles as Bernard and Bianca. This time around they are headed down to the outback to rescue a boy named Cody. Cody is an ambitious animal lover that has rescued a rare golden eagle. A poacher McLeach (Geoge C. Scott) has captured Cody and he will not free him until Cody tells him the eagle's whereabouts.

Bianca and Bernard are tasked with finding him in the great outback. They enlist with Wilbur (John Candy), Orville's brother to help get them there. They also befriend a fellow mouse who is familiar with the territory in Krebbs (Douglas Seale). He helps them wrangle up snakes, and other wildlife to increase their time to finding the boy. As a team, they must brave the outback and take on the clever poacher and his wily salamander pet Joana. Their time is running out as Mcleach soon tricks Cody into leading him to the eagle's nest.

Rescuers Down Under is not a bad sequel. The film has a better sense of comedic balance than the first film. John Candy was an excellent voice as the bird Wilbur, who filled in because the voice of first bird Orville (Jim Jordan) had passed away. The film does have some pacing problems and scenes that do not really need to be in the film. The prison sequence where the annoying Lizard and various animals try and escape goes on far too long. The sequence of Wilbur being treated for his back, seems a bit forced, and minimally drives the story. McLeach was an excellent villain and really steals the picture. His dark manner, design and characteristics inspire many future Disney villains. While the first movie was 100% hand drawn, this movie was the first 100% digitally animated film. Although I prefer the colors and visuals of the original film, the sequel is well made and has its own character to it. The film did not do particularly well and instead this led Disney to deter making sequels for theatrical releases rather than deter them from making sequels all together. Rescuers Down Under is a solid follow-up and helped set the seeds in for some of the best animated films to come.

-11.12.2016.