Since you honestly don't need to see the first Rescuers be able to follow this one at all you would think it's not important to talk about it, but I am going to anyone because a point here needs making. What that point is I'm not entirely sure, but we'll get to that in a minute. When I reviewed The Rescuers, it was the hardest Disney Review to write, because it was a stretch to talk about that movie. I honestly considered making my review two words, 'Nothing happens', and just call it there. It was easily the worst Disney movie I have sat through yet, without any real competition.
Were I on the board of Disney's directors, or whatever their management structure was at the time, and someone suggested a sequel to a movie that boring, that had no plot hooks and a finished plot leaving no obligation to continue the franchise, I would have strongly considered firing them outright for suggesting such a blatantly bad idea? There is no way there would be anything to gain by taking another look at this one. Furthermore, it was going to be the animated feature film that started off the decade. Everything about this should have looked like a complete disaster to anyone with half a brain. (This is all looking at it now mind you, looking at some other articles and Wikipedia, apparently The Rescuers was one of Disney's biggest hits, and for the life of me I do not understand why).
Yet here I am, reviewing what I think is one of the best Disney Animated films ever made. The jump in quality from the original to this is astonishing. It doesn't feel like they are just meandering about like the previous film, things are constantly moving forward or things are getting established. That said, what exactly is this movie about?
We are first introduced to Cody, a young boy in Australia who will go out into the outback and save animals from poacher traps. Having saved a golden eagle, we are treated to a truly magnificent scene of this large bird flying around with Cody on her back. While the eagle cannot talk like many of the other animals can (Only a few types of animals in this universe can talk, though they seem to understand human language. How many people are aware of this fact is never really discussed, it seems limited to children), it's obvious how grateful she is. The animation here is just fantastic, probably the best Disney has done at the time.
However, the feather was given to Cody as a gift before he leaves tips off a poacher that Cody knows the Golden Eagles location, as well as the location of her eggs. After getting kidnapped, the word is put out to The Rescuers about what happened. We very quickly care about Cody because he seems like a great kid. His sense of adventure, his wonder, and even his recklessness is handled well in the opening. It continues throughout because he always ends up feeling like a kid, despite the crazy things he did to save the Eagle in the first place. He has all the tropes of a cartoon child in a starring role, but nothing is exaggerated to the point of annoyance or breaking your suspension of disbelief.
From here, the story is pretty straight forward. Bianca and Bernard are sent by the Rescuers Society to save Cody, and they work with a local agent to traverse the outback. There's also the running side plot of Bernard trying to propose, which is pretty charming. They are pretty much the same characters as they were in the first movie, but they are given a bit more time to breathe here, and having Jake to interact with does a lot to make them feel less like one note characters like before.
The visuals gags and explanations in the show are almost all great. Seeing the message get sent from Australia to New York City is a lot of fun to watch, and rather creative at that. The jokes are all a lot funnier, and they are constant throughout the whole movie. There is never a dull moment, and even the couple scenes that do feel like padding (Cody attempting to escape the cage) at least get some laughs and show you a bit more about the characters.
The poacher is a great villain because he's not the smartest guy around in a lot of ways, but he is very cunning and crafty. He may only have a third-grade education, but he is good at deceiving the Rangers of his crimes, or conning small children. There is also a lot of fun slapstick humor between him and his pet lizard that shows off both how terrifying and stupid they can be, all at the same time. He isn't one of the best Disney villains, but he is still great to watch.
It's a simple story, but there is so much great action, characters, and comedy that it makes that alright. You can do a very simple story like this, just so long as you have a lot of heart and creativity to make it interesting along the way. It's just a fantastic movie, and defiantly worth a watch.
