Review by Captain Hook
Our story begins in a dark swamp: a young girl creeps out of her
room on a run-down boat and quietly walks to the edge, being under the
observation all the while by two ferocious-looking alligators. Quietly,
Penny (Michelle Stacy) drops a bottle in the water which is found by a
group called the Rescue Aid Society, an assembly of mice.
After the meeting is called to order (which takes place in the U.N.
building in New York), Miss Bianca (Eva Gabor) from Hungary and the
janitor Bernard (Bob Newhart) are chosen to rescue Penny. The rest of
the movie focuses on the two mice proceeding to Devil's Bayou where
Penny is being held prisoner by Madame Medusa (Geraldine Page from
The Happiest Millionaire) and her henchman Snoops (Joe Flynn).
With the aid of some of the neighbors in the swamp, Bernard and Bianca
are able to rescue Penny and see that she is adopted by a loving mother
and father at the end of the film.

Perhaps the story doesn't look good on paper, but the fact is the
story is full of touching scenes and beautiful (‘70s) music. Jim Jordan
does an excellent job at playing Orville the albatross, and Eva Gabor is
perfect as Miss Bianca. In fact, the entire voice cast is exactly as
they should be.
On the other hand, Disney seems to have disregarded this film as
anything but a classic (exactly what happened to The Great Mouse
Detective, another excellent mouse movie). Compared to the
perfection of the Platinum and Masterpiece DVDs, this one is absolutely
terrible. The DVD cover is essentially the old VHS cover slightly
modified, and this was also one of the DVDs which did not have an insert
in the cover. The Extras have little to do with the movie, and while
some are entertaining, some are downright awful. When I bought this
DVD, I was stopped by the salesman and another customer, surprised that
The Rescuers was on DVD and that they didn't know about it. It's
a shame this DVD was so scanty and publicity equally as poor.
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DVD
Details 1.66:1 Anamorphic Widescreen
Dolby Digital 5.1 (English)
Dolby Surround 2.0 (French, Spanish)
Subtitles: English;
Closed Captioned
Release Date: May 20, 2003
Single-sided, dual-layered disc (DVD-9)
Suggested Retail Price: $29.99
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VIDEO and AUDIO
The film probably has never looked this good, comparing it to the
Sing Along print with its washed out colors. However, there is still much
that could have been done to improve the video quality of the DVD. One
bothering note is that this was not THX certified. Flecks and grain are
almost consistent throughout the entire film, especially the opening Walt
Disney Pictures logo, and several scenes looked washed out. Thankfully,
the disc is anamorphic and in its proper aspect ratio of 1.66:1.
Audio is not out of the ordinary, and easy to hear. I didn't have
to move the volume controls at all during the entire film. As usual
with Disney's ‘70s films, the Dolby Digital 5.1 track was almost
primarily in the front speakers – in fact, I don't remember a time when
I could actually hear the back speakers. Still, the sound is efficient
throughout the entire film. French and Spanish language tracks are also
available on this disc, as well as English subtitles.

BONUS MATERIALS
The Rescuers is a catalogue release that does not contain many bonus
features, including a much wanted (and needed) making of documentary.
There are several enjoyable extras on the disc, though, even if they aren't
exactly related to the film.

The first extra is "The Ultimate Case" Set-Top Detective Game, where
you are a detective who must find about ten objects from four scenes of
the movie to help Penny find her lost teddy bear. Though boring and
incredibly easy, the cheap 3D ending where a fake Orville declares that
you have saved Teddy and found the Devil's Eye was almost too much to
bear. It might entertain kids.... might.
The next extra, "The Three Blind Mouseketeers" (8:42), was a real
gem. This short Silly Symphony looked better in video quality than
The Rescuers did, so it obviously has been restored. The story
centers of three blind mouse who are also the three musketeers. They
must outwit a cat, who looks remarkably like Pete of Mickey Mouse fame,
who has plans to kill them all with nasty mousetraps. It was a
pleasing, wonderfully animated short, though it was hard to find a
connection with The Rescuers besides its dealing with mice.
The True Life Adventure, "Water Birds" (30:38), was much harder to
watch. Disney obviously took no time to restore this feature. It was
fascinating to actually see a True Life adventure, and I was thrilled,
but the amount of grain and film deterioration made it difficult to sit
through. Colors would change in the middle of scenes, from dark to
washed out, and several scenes were out of focus. Audio was much
better, being understandable in mono. Judging by the film and not the
colors, I would love to see a True Life Adventure Treasure Set. Paul
Smith's musical score was astounding, and the underwater shots amazing,
knowing how hard it is to shoot under water. Again, it was hard to find
a true connection with this and The Rescuers because the film had
only two bird characters, Orville being the only water bird.

"Under the Hat Villains" (1:30) was a waste of disc space. Our
host, Beau, gives us the run down on all the types of Disney villains,
from the wicked witch from Snow White to Jafar in
Aladdin. Andreas Deja (the lead animator for Jafar) and Randy
Haycock (lead animator for Clayton in Tarzan) each gave a brief
statement about why villains are important in movies, then we return to
Beau, who gives a voice over while other animation is played (including
Medusa from The Rescuers) and then Beau invites us to watch
"Under the Hat" on Toon Disney. There is no relevance to the film at
all.
The Rescuers Scrapbook, which looked very promising, was
so-so. The back of the cover boasts, "Never-Before-Seen The
Rescuers Animation Art, Music and Behind-The-Scenes Secrets". I was
hoping for a bit more than just pictures, but alas, that was all that
was there. About 50 pictures in the scrapbook (spread over 15 pages)
cover topics from visual and character development, story boards, to the
voice actors. It also has ‘77 premiere pictures and publicity posters
for the first and subsequent releases.
The extras end with the Disney Songbook Sing-Along "Someone's
Waiting For You" (2:10). The film looks grimy, but the song is very
touching. At the end the Disney Songbook lets you know that the song is
available on the Sing-Along "Under the Sea". You have to wonder why
Disney would bother even putting this on the disc.
The Sneak Peeks that play at the beginning are The Lion King
Special Edition, Air Bud Strikes Back, The Jungle Book 2,
Piglet's Big Movie, Stitch! The Movie, and Sleeping
Beauty Special Edition. All these can be skipped by pressing the
menu button, and can be watched again, if so desired, in the Sneak Peek
section on the main menu.

CLOSING THOUGHTS
All in all, though the film is so excellent, I can't wholeheartedly
recommend the DVD. I wish that Disney had been willing to at least make
a documentary, an audio commentary, or anything that was more meaty than
just the scrapbook. It's also a shame that the video quality is so
lacking, since Disney is able to restore forty-year-old movies to
perfection. I personally cannot see any Special Edition in the future
for this movie, so I suppose that fans of The Rescuers must be
content with this wanting DVD until such a time that Disney wants to
re-release this masterpiece as such.
More on the DVD
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