23 – The Rescuers
It's really great when I get to review
movies that I end up loving, like Alice in Wonderland or
One Hundred and One Dalmatians.
It's also not bad when I end up hating a movie like Sleeping
Beauty or Melody
Time. Those reviews almost write
themselves. It's movies like 1977's The Rescuers
that really give me problems. The movie isn't terrible but it's
nothing really special either.
The
story is about a little girl named Penny who gets kidnapped but
manages to send a message in a bottle for help. The people, or in
this case mice, who find the message are the Rescue Aid Society. The
representative of the Society from Hungary, Bianca, volunteers to
find and rescue Penny and chooses the janitor Bernard to help her.
They then have to find out where Penny is and how to save her from
the evil Madame Medusa. The plot is ok. The beginning is actually
pretty cool with Bianca and Bernard trying to figure out where Penny
actually is. It plays out a bit like a mystery and that's different
from what I've seen from Disney before. Sometimes great characters
can help an average plot like this really take off.
Unfortunately,
one of our characters is Bernard. Bernard is a timid and
superstitious janitor and gets chosen, for some reason, by Bianca to
help her save Penny. Throughout the movie he has a few moments where
he shows he might be braver than he looks. He even seems to be a good
person and wants to help Penny and do the right thing. Otherwise he's
kind of a boring character. Even though he has the potential for
really brave actions he never really has a shining moment to prove
himself. I really think his character needed that. This results in
feeling like he hasn't changed or grown as a character and that's a
shame cause he really has a lot of growing he can do. I usually don't
mention the voice actors that play the characters but I have to
mention Bob Newhart. I really don't think he did a good job. He just
sounded really phoned in and unemotional the whole time. That
definitely didn't help me like Bernard.
I did,
however, like Bianca. I think she's actually a pretty cool character.
She is much more adventurous than Bernard but also wants to help
Penny. She is much more sophisticated and just has a more interesting
personality than Bernard. Unfortunately, she also doesn't really
change or grow during the story either. I also really don't see what
she sees in Bernard. I suppose he shows himself to be brave and a
good guy every now and then but I just don't really buy their
relationship. Bernard just never really proves himself the way I
think he should. As far as her voice actor goes, however, I think Eva
Gabor did a great job. She was much more expressive and reminds me of
one of the few things I liked about The Aristocats
which was her performance as Duchess.
So
Bernard and Bianca are a bit of a mixed bag. A great villain is
always interesting too. Madame Medusa is pretty creepy and wears way
too much make up but I don't think she's really anything special. She
has her mean comments and keeps some dangerous company, two
alligators named Brutus and Nero. Otherwise, she's pretty much the
standard Disney villain I've come to expect. Her business partner Mr.
Snoops also hangs around but he's just really dumb and doesn't do to
much. Medusa's plan is also a bit stupid. She really wants Penny to
find the Devil's Eye diamond for her in a pirate's cave only Penny
can fit into. I really wonder why they need Penny specifically. Penny
comes from New York and they end up going to The Devil's Bayou which
I presume is somewhere like Florida. Are there no orphaned children
in Florida she can use? Maybe I just missed something? It's just a
small nit pick but it bothered me a bit.
Penny
wasn't a terrible character though she didn't really get a ton of
screen time. She's a little orphan girl who wants to be adopted and
is scared that no one would want her. I kinda felt sorry for her so
that made me at least want her to succeed a bit. She's also really
feisty and tries to escape Medusa on her own a few times. I really
liked that she had her brave moments. It makes for a more interesting
character. She's also helped by a bunch of other characters who show
up but don't really stand out. They don't really get a ton of screen
time so I don't feel like they took a lot away from the movie but
they could have been a bit more integrated into the story, especially
if they were more interesting.
So on
top of a lot of bland characters, the animation was really
inconsistent for a Disney movie. One example is a scene where
Bianca's jacket kept appearing and disappearing between shots. It's
just weird when I'm so used to such attention to detail in these
movies. The music isn't really great either. The music either didn't
really stand out or I actively thought that it was bad at times. The
action scenes are actually pretty good but they definitely don't
stand out like some of the ones I've seen before.
Overall,
the movie is just really run of the mill. It's definitely not the
best work Disney has done but it's certainly not the worst. I just
didn't really have that special quality that makes movies like One
Hundred One Dalmatians stand
out. Hopefully tomorrow is a bit better.
23
down. 30 to go.
No comments:
Post a Comment