Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers (2022)

Directed by: Akiva Schaffer | 97 minutes | animation, adventure | Original voice cast: Andy Samberg, John Mulaney, KiKi Layne, Will Arnett, Eric Bana, Flula Borg, Dennis Haysbert, Keegan-Michael Key, Tress MacNeille, Tim Robinson, Seth Rogen, JK Simmons, Da’Vone McDonald

“It’s not a reboot, it’s a comeback” reads the poster of ‘Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers’ (Akiva Schaffer, 2022). Chip and Dale, also known as Chip and Babbel, had their own television series that first appeared in the Netherlands in 1991. This series consists of three seasons with a total of 65 episodes and has been repeated several times on television after the last episode in 1993. The film, as the poster claims, is indeed a return. One that arouses a lot of nostalgia. ‘Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers’ is set in a world like ‘Who Framed Roger Rabbit’ (Robert Zemeckis, 1989), where animation and live-action come together. Chip (John Mulaney) and Dale (Andy Samberg) have gone their separate ways after the end of “Rescue Rangers” and reunite after 30 years when their former colleague, Monterey Jack (Eric Bana), is kidnapped. The culprit is Sweet Pete (Will Arnett), who sets out to redesign well-known animated characters so that they can be forced to star in cheap fake movies. The two ground squirrels must reunite as usual to track down Sweet Pete and stop him before their beloved friend survives the change.

‘Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers’ is a refreshing film. Although the combination of live-action and animation is not new, these films are fairly rare. What makes this Disney film special is that a world has been created in which all possible animations come together and therefore this production shows the development of animation technology in the last twenty years in particular. For example, characters pass by in the style of the early CGI period, but also as Muppets and in stop-motion. This world has been well thought out and the creators seem to have taken their inspiration from ‘Zootopia’ (Byron Howard, Rich Moore and Jared Bush, 2016), which takes into account the different lengths of characters in infrastructure and utensils .

A theme that can often be seen in Hollywood is the transparency of the film industry. The film treats Chip and Dale as actors and not as the characters in the well-known series. At the same time, it is special that Disney shows a picture behind the scenes. Especially when this image is not always positive. Placing Chip and Dale in a Hollywood setting makes it possible to also show Hollywood clichés, such as the problem that many actors stop being cast in movies as they get older. This is reflected in the film, among other things, by Dale undergoing CGI surgery to stay relevant. This, of course, refers to actors undergoing plastic surgery to stay looking so young. Surgery in this way is not only the salvation, but also the enemy, when used to put characters in new profitable movies. It is therefore striking that the villain is a copyright violation and can therefore be placed more as an enemy of the Disney corporation.

This detail is carefully hidden behind a film that dares to ridicule itself. Disney is a big and powerful company that is certainly not perfect. For example, flopped material and merchandise in this film is recycled, such as the “Ugly Sonic” character that caused a lot of fuss among Sonic fans in 2019. The design of the character from ‘Sonic the Hedgehog’ (Jeff Fowler, 2020) deviated too much from the character from the popular game. Adding these kinds of characters in the film adds to the already existing sense of nostalgia. ‘Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers’ is basically a sequence of reference after reference, but with little substance. A weak script with several awkward dialogues hides behind many familiar characters from the past, the only thing that keeps the entertainment factor alive. Like a melting pot, Disney has put everything they’ve made so far into this movie. What this mainly shows is the frightening picture of how big the Disney corporation has become.