The Rescuers Down Under Reviews

The first official sequel produced by the Disney studio, The Rescuers Down Under sacrifices the bruised heart of the original in favor of razzmatazz and loud action sequences. There’s also a strange subplot involving John Candy’s albatross getting questionable medical care, played purely for slapstick but also completely unnecessary to the film as a whole. The Rescuers Down Under is a dip from the dizzy heights of The Little Mermaid, but it’s not the worst film in the Renaissance.

Reuniting with Bernard and Miss Bianca is pleasant, and it’s nice to see the latest development of Disney’s Nick and Nora Charles. Finding their way to Australia in search of a kidnapped boy, they team-up with a Crocodile Dundee-style mouse and a giant golden eagle, and take down an evil poacher. Never for one moment do we doubt that they’ll come out on top, and the various threats are never terribly threatening. There’s nothing here quite as fun as the smoky bayou chases or hungry alligators.

And our villain is a bit of a lame duck, never truly developing into something frightening, played too often for laughs, and he seems beamed in from a Mad Max movie. That last part would be particularly thrilling if they had managed to make him terrifying, but he gets involved with too many slapstick moments to register as truly deadly. Shame, as George C. Scott gives it his typical bravado and is clearly game to add a new name to Disney’s pantheon of movie villains.

Where The Rescuers Down Under really shines is in the chemistry between Bernard and Bianca, and the various flight scenes. Or when the film decides to scale back and just observe the Australian Outback. The landscapes are beautifully rendered, filled with warm hues and colors, and all manner of exotic flora and fauna. But the flight scenes are truly something, borrowing liberally from Hayao Miyazaki's flight scenes, they sweep us away: across a waterfall, through a forest, and up high into a mountaintop. If only the film had found a better story to wrap around these flight sequences. It's fun and entertaining, but incredibly slight and a comedown from the original's battered heart and empathetic connections.

I already saw this movie but since it was a while back and since it was available on Disney+, I thought I might as well check it out again.  Well, even though this movie was a big flop when it was released, it is stil has nowadays a decent reputation but, to be honest, I really struggled to care about the damned thing. First of all, it, I have always been rather supicious concerning those sequels delivered by Disney. Furthermore, even though 'The Rescuers' is a classic, I never really liked it  so I thought it was rather odd that they would choose to make a sequel for this particular feature. Anyway, at least, I have to admit that the animation was actually not bad at all with  some really impressive action scenes but it was probably the only thing that worked in this flick. Indeed, above all, the whole thing was just terribly boring. I have to admit it, my youngest daughter did enjoy it but, as far as I was concerned, it was not really entertaining and even rather lazy. Basically, the plot was just terribly generic and predictable and Bernard and Bianca who at least used to be cute and sweet in 'The Rescuers' had become such a bore in this sequel. In my opinion, the only slightly entertaining character was Joanna the goanna. Eventually, the damned thing was pretty weak and since it wasn't a success, Disney decided to not release most of their sequels theatrically anymore  and would rather choose to release most of them straight to dvd (one of the biggest swindle in motion picture history if you ask me). Anyway, to conclude, even though this movie might be enjoyable for young kids, I don't think it is actually really worth a look though.