The Rescuers

As the 23^rd Disney film, The Rescuers is definitely not quite as known as other Disney movies.  Before Walt Disney’s death, he had plans to make the book into a movie but it was shelved due to his dislike of the project’s political overtones.  When the film was finally released in 1977, it received positive reviews from critics and was a box office success, even outgrossing Star Wars in France.  Two classic “old school” actors voice the movie’s main protagonists; the female lead is voiced by Eva Gabor and the male lead by Bob Newhart.  While I really enjoyed this movie, I didn’t like the book it was based on very much (as I thought it was quite sexist).  I hope everyone loves this movie as much as I do! Whatever your thoughts I’d love to hear from you!

The Rescuers is about a unique group called the Rescue Aid Society, which operates under the United Nations; the society is run by mice from different parts of the world.  One day, the society has a case where a young girl is kidnapped from a New York orphanage by an evil woman, Madame Medusa; she wants the young girl, Penny, to retrieve a giant diamond called the Devil’s Eye.  It’s up to the ambassador of Hungary, Miss Bianca, and the society’s janitor, Bernard, to find Penny and bring her back safely.  This movie has some good messages, one of which is how very important it is to work with people from different cultures.  The Rescue Aid society is very diverse; there are mice that come from Africa, The Middle East, and all kinds of diverse cultures.  This is a big deal for a movie from the 1970’s, much less a Disney movie.  Also, the relationship between Penny and Rufus, the cat who keeps mice out of the orphanage (and who helps the rescuers on their quest to find Penny), is very sweet; next to her teddy bear, Rufus is her very best friend, and they look after each other in the orphanage.  However, despite the diversity and the adorable mice, this movie is a bit dark and Madame Medusa is pretty scary and could frighten young kids.  There is also a mouse in the film that is seen all the time drinking what appears to be strong moonshine, so I would caution parents regarding the scary villain and the moonshine-drinking mouse (a sentence I never thought I’d say).  My personal favorite part of the film was that, while in The Rescuers novel Miss Bianca was portrayed as a meek female needing to be protected 24/7, in the movie she is actually more adventurous than Bernard; she is willing to try new things and, though Bernard doubts whether they should go through with their mission, Bianca always remains determined to rescue Penny.  And while she is a traditionally feminine woman in a lot of ways (even using her pungent perfume once to distract some crocodiles), she breaks female stereotypes in other ways.   Overall, if there was to be a trailblazer for strong female Disney characters, I do believe Miss Bianca would be among the first!

“Faith is a blue bird we see from afar.  It’s for real and as sure as the first evening star; you can’t touch it or buy it or wrap it up tight but it’s there just the same, making things turn out right.”    

Rufus the cat