I didn't make it all the way through third grade for nothing. - The Rescuers Down Under

29 – The Rescuers Down Under

The Rescuers Down Under from 1990 has the distinction of being the very first direct sequel in the Disney Animated Classics series. This is a bit unfortunate for me as I really didn't love the first one. Despite that, I tried to go in with no preconceived notions or judge it too harshly. This is made way harder since it follows the incredible The Little Mermaid. This movie had a bit of an uphill battle with me to convince me that it was good. I don't want to just rehash all the things I said from the first one so please read my original The Rescuers review first.

The plot is mostly similar to the first movie but takes place in Australia. A young boy named Cody loves animals and goes to rescue them. He rescues a rare Golden Eagle named Marahute from a trap and befriends it. He ends up being kidnapped by a poacher called McLeach. McLeach wants Marahute for himself to sell but Cody refuses to tell him where she is. The Rescue Aid Society gets the message that the boy has been kidnapped and dispatches Bianca and Bernard to go rescue Cody. When Bianca and Bernard get to Australia they meet the Kangaroo Mouse Jake who helps them try to rescue Cody. Cody, meanwhile, tries to escape McLeach and protect Marahute.

The only characters who really return from the last movie are Bianca and Bernard. Bianca is largely the same as before. She is still seemingly oblivious to Bernard's feelings and believes that he has the potential to really be a hero. I felt like she did less in this movie than she did in the last, however. Bernard is still timid and reluctant but this time he has to compete for Bianca's affections with Jake. I think this is a big reason he actually finally gets some character development in this movie. He finally gets those scenes that really lets him prove himself like I wanted last time. Bob Newhart definitely did a better job this time as well.

The new cast includes Jake, a very charismatic and flirty kangaroo mouse. His interest in Bianca really makes the movie more interesting with regards to Bernard's and Bianca's relationship. He comes off as much more adventurous and brave than Bernard which forces Bernard to come out of his shell a bit. Unfortunately, his role kind of ends there. He has a bunch of scenes where he acts cool and makes Bernard look bad but he doesn't really do anything else. Cody, in comparison, does much better in that sense. He is very brave and has a strong desire to help animals. He never gives up and is always trying to do the right thing. That's sort of where I had a big problem with him. He's just kind of a bland character. I feel like we've seen this kind of one dimensional character so many times before. I wanted to see his motivation and struggles more. I don't think this is entirely his fault, though. The problem may have been that he just didn't really have a worthy nemesis.

McLeach the poacher is the villain of this story. His whole motivation is to capture the Golden Eagle Marahute and sell it. He has a huge temper but he's otherwise just a really lame villain. He comes off as just incredibly stupid sometimes. He gets outsmarted by his pet Joanna, a goanna, which is a silly scene just played for laughs but it just makes McLeach look even more stupid. Joanna herself is just a standard Disney villain pet. We never get a good idea of why he does what he does except that he's going to make a “fortune.” I feel like the movie makers were just trying to shoehorn that “poachers are bad” idea. Of course they're bad, but don't forget to actually make an interesting villain.

Aside from these characters, almost all the other side characters are just idiotic. Wilbur, the albatross, is just made for comic relief and acts stupid the whole time. The other animals locked up by McLeach are equally dumb with Frank, the frill necked lizard, particularly annoying. He really gave me a Jar Jar vibe. The action scenes were ok. They were gorgeous because the animation and presentation is great but I just didn't feel invested in the action. One of the scenes had Frank getting chased around by Joanna that they played for humor but it was just frustrating because you knew it was because Frank was such a stupid character. McLeach just wasn't a good villain. He was a jerk but he so generic that it was boring and I never felt any tension with any of his scenes. Worse than all of this, I still don't have a reason to actually care about any of these characters.

So I tried real hard not to judge this film before it started but, as a sequel, they still couldn't manage to make me like the characters. The animation is still top notch. The music is really great. It's awesome that Bernard finally got some development. Still, I really felt like this movie was all style with the absolute minimum of substance. This is so frustrating after watching The Little Mermaid. You can still make a movie that kids enjoy without it being downright idiotic. It's kind of funny too because I probably liked this movie more than the first one but I'm so much more frustrated with seeing the lack of progress now. Tomorrow, however, we get back into the good stuff.

29 down. 24 to go.