There was this Disney Afternoon cartoon back in the very late 80's called "Chip 'n Dale - Rescue Rangers", it only ran for about a year and a half and was popular enough while it was on, but compared to long-lived powerhouses like say "Ducktales" and "Goof Troop", "Rescue Rangers" was more of a shooting star. Aside from a bit of rerun mileage and like literally two or three costumed-character appearances at Disney parks in the more than 30 years since the final episode originally aired, it's a more or less dead property.
And there's just been a movie released, but it kind of doesn't change that. The Rescue Rangers movie is, consciously NOT a remake, or a reboot, or a reimagining, or anything like this, of the original cartoon. But it's not a continuation of the cartoon either. Chip and Dale and the other characters from the cartoon are there, but they're not there AS "Chip and Dale and the other characters", they are there as rather "the cartoon actors who portrayed Chip and Dale and the other characters", together with live-actors and set in the real world. In other words, it is Disney's own in-house version of "Who Framed Roger Rabbit", and much like that movie it has some situational comedy and in-jokes going on with the cartoon "actors" and cameos from other unrelated properties that Disney either owns or licensed for the movie from their owners. It sounds like the kind of thing I might enjoy and it's probably an okay flick, although I have no plans to see it just because I dunno about you but I'm "nostalgia'd" to death already so I'm just kind of not interested in these things anymore? And that's a whole other conversation but anyways.
So why am I bringing this up?
lol
Well,
Okay so in the original cartoon - that aired 30 years ago - there's Chip and Dale and they're like detectives and solve crimes, and they've got a team with three other characters on it, a buff Australian-stereotype mouse named Monterey Jack, a girl-genius mouse named Gadget, and a tiny fly named Zipper that communicates with squeaky vocalizations and expressions instead of words. For context you should know that Chip and Dale both are always trying to impress Gadget (because she's the only girl and all) but for the whole run of the show, Gadget is ace as hell and either doesn't notice or just doesn't care, she's clearly not interested in either of them.
Why does this matter?
Evidently at the end of the movie, there is a short scene when it's shown that Gadget and Zipper - or rather the actors who "portrayed them" - had gotten together in the years after the show, and they've got LOTS of kids. And Zipper, who always just made squeaky noises in the actual cartoon, is voiced by bass-toned Dennis Haysbert, the "Are you in good hands?" guy from the Allstate commercials. It's the visual equivalent of a one-liner - like Donkey and the dragon getting together on Shrek. It's purely for the laughs and you're not meant to put any thought into it. Having not seen the movie, reading a description of the scene made me snicker.
Well,
lol
Some people aren't taking it too well, lol
God it hurts
Bear in mind when you read those that the men who wrote them (and it was absolutely all men) are either in their 40's or just about to turn that page.
www.criterionchannel.com
