The Rescuers movie (an adaptation of Margery Sharp’s The Rescuers and Miss Bianca) is an exciting and fun movie that keeps you in suspense at times, making you wonder what will happen next: especially the parts where Bernard and Miss Bianca were getting chased by the crocs, or when Evinrude was being chased by a colony of bats. I think that this movie isn’t a movie that just kids like, it seems to me that this movie is one that you can watch throughout your life, even as an adult. Though it is meant for children, it doesn’t mean adults can’t watch it as well! This movie was released in 1977 and is a Disney Animation. Unfortunately many reviews about this movie are not great, and many parents think it is not meant for children, because of the scenes where they almost drown, or they find out that the Devil’s Eye is in a human skull. The movie does start out with a darker feel than I expected, what might almost be a start to a horror movie, but soon everything calms down and you can see Miss Bianca’s elegance after the stormy, lightning start. For me I think that this movie might be too much for young kids but a great entertainment for older kids.
This movie was what I was expecting, but it also wasn’t what I was expecting. That might sound confusing, but let me explain. I expected it to be somewhat of a variation of the first two books combined, which is what it was, for the producers state this in a title card:
The characters were based off characters from the first two books, especially Miss Bianca, so that was basically a variation, but at the same time it was a different story, with different supporting characters. There were new exciting and horrible looking characters, as well as a team of supporting field mice, and even an albatross. His name is Orville after Wilbur and Orville Wright (the Wright Brothers).
I was expecting Sharp’s calmer, more elegant scenario, but I can see why they produced this more exciting plot. For many kids the real plot that was in Miss Bianca would just not provide enough excitement, and as a movie they couldn’t make it a movie that kids would ignore. So adding the crocodiles in instead of the bloodhounds and making Medusa so very ugly, does make sense.
The filmmakers (and the great voice actors) did manage to keep the personalities of Bernard and Miss Bianca the same, which I quite appreciate, since after all I don’t want to watch a movie with characters that are the opposite of what the author depicted them as. For example, you can see in the movie that Bernard is the worrier out of the two of them and Miss Bianca is always like “stop worrying Bernard”; she is a more “this is an adventure and this is just part of the fun included in the adventure” type of mouse. Well, Bernard does enough worrying for both of them, as he has to plan every single little detail out and still he will worry: you can’t really change that he is just that type of mouse. But the thing he worries about most is not himself but… Miss Bianca! I’m quite sure that he is much in love with Miss Bianca and what he says in the movie further proves that. Bernard, even though stuck in a green glass bottle, cries out “Mr. Chairman, sir. I don’t think Miss Bianca should go. It could be dangerous. I mean, anything could happen to her.” This just really proves how much Bernard cares about Miss Bianca, and to me it is also quite lovely because I feel that there is also a bit of romance included behind what Bernard is saying.
Though the main characters’ personalities didn’t change, other stuff did. And one change that just keeps jumping out to me is the fact that Miss Bianca is Hungarian instead of British like she was in the books, and how all the mice are meeting in the United Nations in New York City instead of somewhere in Europe.
Many parts of the movie are quite entertaining. For example, in the beginning you can see how colossal the green help bottle is compared to the minute mice. Or when poor Bernard falls down the bottle once again due to the surprise of being chosen by Miss Bianca for her co-agent. And the frantic struggle to get out of the zoo, with one of them always dropping something, is quite funny and entertaining too. The animation of the mice is also quite nice, with the big ears compared to their small bodies. Overall this is just a very entertaining, but also suspenseful movie that keeps you on your toes and is quite enjoyable to watch even if not all parents think that… fortunately if you want more, you can always watch The Rescuers Down Under! But there’s one thing that I’ve never puzzled out, what is that thing in the bottle that when you drink it, it makes your eyes pop out and your mouth start to breathe out fire? At least it brought Evinrude back up! So it doesn’t look like a great substance but at least it still came in handy!
