Okay here is a little secret. A lot of the ideas of these blog posts come to me between about 6 and 9 ' oclock. If you know me you're asking "But Greg you're a horrible morning person, growling and grunting". Yes. Yes I am, but when I actually am able to wake up naturally that's the time when my brain can do some "free thinking" Instead of trying to focus on how much I want to go back to bed or some other immediate problem that forced me to wake up in the first place.
Some of these ideas are really weird for instance I've got a Gothic vampire story ruminating in my computer archives somewhere. But their almost always interesting.
Normally I forget the random dream or train of thought that got me to that point but this time I wrote it down so here goes.
Magnum P.I. and Indiana Jones as Rodents
Being the nostalgically I already knew that Chip and Dale's costumes were reminiscent of older cultural icons.
But it was one of those pop culture tidbits I have rolling around in my head but never put into a larger context and well then 5'clock in the morning happened.
For most major animation studios the late 80's and early 90's were "rebuilding" years. Now that meant stuff in the theater circuit and I'll talk about movies in a bit. But in particular Disney decided to start animating stuff soley for the TV which at the time was thought to be very undisney. See in the 60's and 80's other animation studios like Warner Brothers had survived the collapse of the studio system by going to TV way back in the 50's but Disney never really made the jump preferring to crank out features.
But in the Disney Renesaince they started to pump out TV versions of their movies.
The Rescuers
Not all of these were able be direct TV show of the movies though. Bonkers was basically a reworked version of Who Framed Roger Rabbit. By the way if you haven't seen Who Framed Roger Rabbit, go watch Who Framed Roger Rabbit.
While yes it works as a kid movie, it is also very much a tribute to the old school film noirs that would have made the parents taking their kids to see it have a heart attack. Seriously how did this scene make it in a kids movie.
Yeah there is no way parents would stand for that on Saturday Morning TV so instead we got
The show that started this whole discussion is actually similar. Both Bonkers and Rescue Rangers are loose adaptations of older Disney movies.
Before I actually talk about the Rescuers I just wanted to say that While most people like to chart The Disney Renaissance at the Little Mermaid I always oscillate between the rabbit and The Rescuer's Down Under.
The Rescuers
When talking about the Rescurers what really interests me is the contrast between the first and second movies. Okay, let's get this out of the way. People tend to have a very rose colored lens when looking at Disney movies forgetting that the 1970's disney was doing things technically that an animation purist would not find too cool. Mainly reusing animation from older movies.
The original Rescures was made in this enviornment. That said if you can't tell by now the credit I will give it is that the movie had a good premise. Just like the Rangers the Rescuers were a bunch a of rodents who would help kids in trouble, and "not oh God I have a test" trouble balls to the wall peril trouble.
The Rescuers Down Under
You want to see George C. Scott frighten the hell out small children?
Anyway you know those great wide and tracking shots you get in Aladdin and The Lion King? Well they happened because of new digital inking techniques that were pioneered in this movie.
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