The story picks up the characters of Chip ‘n Dale, three decades after their TV show came to an end and living in a universe in which live-action characters and cartoons of various styles exist alongside each other without anyone commenting on the strangeness of that as a concept. Ever the sensible one of the duo, Chip (John Mulaney) now sells insurance, while Dale (Andy Samberg) has paid for an expensive CGI makeover and tries to make cash on the fan convention circuit.
They become aware of a criminal gang, led by Will Arnett’s mobster Sweet Pete, which is kidnapping famous cartoons and subjecting them to the genuinely horrible-sounding cosmetic procedure of “bootlegging” – changing their appearance so they can star in copyright-avoiding knock-off movies. This discovery sends the characters off on a detective journey, in which they seek to reconcile their differences after the spat that brought their TV careers to an end, while also saving an old friend from Pete’s clutches.
It’s a fast-moving adventure story that delivers enormous dollops of meta humour while also cartwheeling with self-aware elan through the tropes of the detective tale. There’s enough animated animal action to keep the youngest audiences happy, but this is also a clear successor to the likes of The Lego Movie – crediting kids with enough intelligence to grasp jokes with more to them than farts and falling over.
The rat-a-tat script’s enviable gag rate is carried by the comedic energy of the central duo, with Samberg in particular cementing his credentials as one of Hollywood’s best delivery systems for thick-and-fast laugh lines. It’s a terrific supporting ensemble too, with If Beale Street Could Talk's KiKi Layne taking the lead human role as a detective who helps the protagonists, Arnett giving great crook and Seth Rogen doing stellar work as a motion-capture viking with vacant “Polar Express eyes”. Rogen’s character, in particular, gets a hell of a pay-off gag in the third act.
Rescue Rangers was originally announced back in 2014 and was then conceived as something a bit more generic, telling the origin story of Chip ‘n Dale. Wisely, this movie crams all of that into an opening voice-over segment in order to dive right into its present day narrative. It’s a film packed to bursting with cameos and references ranging from new to nostalgic, with the pause button on Disney+ accounts set to get a major workout from those hoping to spot every detail packed into the background. Boundaries between studios and various intellectual property walled gardens crumble to create a Who Framed Roger Rabbit? for our era of pure cultural saturation. If you thought the cameos in Spider-Man and Doctor Strange were bonkers, Chip ‘n Dale have a beer for you to hold.
There’s a sense of sheer joy at the heart of Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers that can’t be denied. It’s like Disney let a pair of writers and a director loose with the biggest possible cultural toy box and just allowed them to go utterly wild, like bulls run amok in a china shop of desperately guarded franchises and characters. Crucially, all involved get the tone absolutely right. This doesn’t feel like a corporate cash-in designed to set up future projects or flog colourful lunchboxes. It’s an exuberant, chaotic love letter to a century of big screen storytelling, inside and outside of the Mouse House. There’s even a disturbing, violent anecdote involving Peppa Pig and the critters from Paw Patrol. What more could you want?
Chip ‘N Dale: Rescue Rangers is available to stream on Disney+ from 20th May. — Thank you for visiting! If you’d like to support our attempts to make a non-clickbaity movie website: Follow Film Stories on Twitter here, and on Facebook here. Buy our Film Stories and Film Stories Junior print magazines here. Become a Patron here.
