Review: Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers

 Sometimes....you just have to follow where your muse takes you.  That's how we got to here:

Full disclosure.  I was a fan of the short-lived 90s cartoon.  Just like most 90s kids.  I mean if we are being honest, this was no Duck Tales or Darkwing Duck, but it had its charm.  Just like a majority of the OG Disney Afternoon lineup.  That being said, when I heard this was getting adapted into a Disney+ original movie, I thought to myself, really?  I mean I guess it could be better than those awful new Cheaper by the Dozen or Home Alone movies.  But that's really not saying a lot.

And then we got that trailer.  Which was...incredibly weird and off putting at the same time.  I mean how many of these meta movies do we really need?  And why of all characters, were we getting this type of movie from Chip 'n Dale of all Disney properties?  Was this what the people really wanted?  

Also we can't ignore the other huge meta mystery elephant in the room that mixed animation and live-action like this over thirty years ago.  Hell even Disney addressed it in its own movie...

Clearly this movie was heavily inspired by the still timeless classic, Who Framed Roger Rabbit.  I mean Disney lent their own IP's for this movie and everyone lost their shit.  I still mark out seeing Daffy and Donald interact as well as Bugs and Mickey.  This was really ahead of its time in a timeline today where all studios try to have their giant epic brand promotion.  Here's looking at you Space Jam 2!

Needless to say, I was heavily skeptical that Disney would be able to pull this off for Chip n' Dale of all the freaking properties in the Walt Disney library that only grows larger by the day.  But you know what?  I was kind of pleasantly surprised by this.

Let me get this out of the way first.  This movie has plenty of problems and is not as smart as the writers think it is.  Addressing your own plot holes and skepticism don't cover up the fact that you fall into the same generic traps that the many properties you reference do too.  But I've got to give the team who made this credit.  I did not expect to be laughing and dropping my jaw as often as I expected.  Like this movie really surprises you when you least expect it.  It has heart, it has an actually compelling story, and there is far more depth than the trailer implies.

But man those problems though.  Okay let me just go out of the way and say that for as tough as it is to mix CGI and hand drawn animation with live action...trust me I know from my couple years doing digital visualization in high school and college as easy elective credits...it's not easy.  After awhile, it is more apparent than ever that Chip's animation is subpar.  Like there are tons of times in this movie where I legitimately believe that the hand drawn animated characters are there.  Hell, for as many times as I get on overreliance on CGI, I believe Dale is there FAR more often than I do Chip.  I don't know if the shading on Chip is just too apparent, but yeah after awhile, it just becomes more obvious that the animation on Chip is just not that good.  Not helping matters is that Chip is voiced by John Mulaney; who I know has his fans, but I am not one of them.  I can only handle his dry sarcastic voice for so long before I get tired of it and want him off my screen.  Andy Samberg just blows him out of the water as Dale, he is goofy and loveable enough to make Dale the heart of the movie.

My other main complaints are that KiKi Layne as the human lead is just not that good in this role.  I'm not saying she's bad.  I saw her as the co-lead in that Charlize Theron Netflix movie "The Old Guard".  I know she can act.  But she's just not believable as this cop who is a Chip N Dale super fan.  She certainly is no Bob Hoskins because there are times where she is not doing a believable job that she's interacting with CGI and hand drawn characters.  And speaking of those characters....SPOILERS...KIND OF....SORT OF!

Disney clearly has the money to shelve out to put non-Disney IP's in this movie.  I'm going to avoid spoiling who exactly but let's just say other studios animated characters appear in this movie and outside of one that made me crack the fuck up that this one-off internet meme eventually had an arch in this movie, they do nothing else with them.  Like they just appear...I mean you're Disney.  You have the money.  Do something with them.

But those complaints aside, this movie had absolutely no right being as good as it was.  Just when I thought I was getting absolutely tired of self-aware movies who are overly meta, this movie comes out of nowhere and just surprises you with its clever humor and a pretty good story.  I mean this movie ends with Post Malone singing the Chip N Dale theme song.  Did anyone expect that?  Well lower those expectations because you'll have a ball with the unpredictable nature of this movie...despite its predictable cliches.

Final Grade: B

And for you Chip 'N Dale fans, don't you worry.  The main cast gets together for like two total minutes.  So there you go.  What did you guys think?  Are you sick of meta humor yet?  Did this movie subvert your expectations after such an awful first trailer like it did to me?  Tell me what you think in the comments below.  Until next time, take care.