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87-613: The Rescuers is a 1977 American animated adventure comedy-drama film produced by Walt Disney Productions and released by Buena Vista Distribution . Bob Newhart and Eva Gabor respectively star as Bernard and Bianca, two mice who are members of the Rescue Aid Society, an international mouse organization dedicated to helping abduction victims around the world. Both must free 6 year old orphan Penny (voiced by Michelle Stacy) from two treasure hunters (played by Geraldine Page and Joe Flynn ), who intend to use her to help them obtain

174-514: A story treatment based on the first book, centering on a Norwegian poet unfairly imprisoned in a Siberia -like stronghold known as the Black Castle. The story was revised with the location changed to Cuba , in which the mice would help the poet escape into the United States. However, as the story became overtly involved in international intrigue, Disney shelved the project as he was unhappy with

261-474: A "landmark of effects-led adventure cinema." Outside technical effects, adventure films of Douglas Fairbanks such as Robin Hood (1922) with its scenes of battles and recreations of castles cost a record-setting $ 1.5 million to produce also provided a variant of adventure spectacle to audiences. Tasker stated that The Lost World (1925) arguably initiated a jungle adventure film cycle that would be expanded on in

348-464: A Studio . The Rescuers was the first Disney animated film to have a sequel. After three successful theatrical releases of the original film, The Rescuers Down Under was released theatrically on November 16, 1990. The Rescuers Down Under takes place in the Australian Outback , and involves Bernard and Bianca trying to rescue a boy named Cody and a giant golden eagle called Marahute from

435-620: A beautifully animated film that showed Disney still knew a lot about making quality children's fare even as their track record was weakening." They also praised the voice acting of the characters, and stated that the film is "a delight for children as well as adults who appreciate good animation and brisk storytelling." Ellen MacKay of Common Sense Media gave the film four out of five stars, writing, "Great adventure, but too dark for preschoolers". In his book, The Disney Films , film historian Leonard Maltin referred to The Rescuers as "a breath of fresh air for everyone who had been concerned about

522-525: A bright spot in Disney's post-golden age." On Metacritic , the film has a weighted average score of 74 out of 100 based on 8 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews". In 2008, the American Film Institute nominated The Rescuers for its Top 10 Animated Films list . Bernard and Bianca made appearances as meet-and-greet characters at Walt Disney World and Disneyland in the years following

609-468: A continuing trend for Hollywood adventure films. The other major Hollywood style was the historical adventure typified by early films in the style of The Black Pirate (1926) and The Mark of Zorro (1920) which feature less intense violence. Historical adventure was a popular Hollywood staple until the mid-1950s. While the historical adventure film would be parodied or presented as highly camp , special effects -driven adventure films began to dominate

696-424: A directing animator, instead of as an assistant animator. Ever since One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961), animation for theatrical Disney animated films had been done by xerography , which had only been able to produce black outlines. By the time The Rescuers was in production, the technology had been improved for the cel artists to use a medium-grey toner in order to create a softer-looking line. Sammy Fain

783-409: A film with heart and also considered it their best film without Walt Disney. The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported that the film received a 79% approval rating, with an average rating of 6.5/10 based on 33 reviews. The website's consensus states: "Featuring superlative animation, off-kilter characters, and affectionate voice work by Bob Newhart and Eva Gabor, The Rescuers represents

870-437: A giant diamond. The film is based on a series of books by Margery Sharp , including The Rescuers (1959) and Miss Bianca (1962). An early version of The Rescuers entered development in 1962, but was shelved due to Walt Disney 's dislike of its political overtones. During the 1970s, the film was revived as a project intended for the younger animators, with the oversight of the senior staff. Four years were spent working on

957-543: A greedy poacher named Percival C. McLeach. Both Bob Newhart and Eva Gabor reprised their lead roles. Since Jim Jordan, who had voiced Orville, had since died, a new character, Wilbur (Orville's brother, another albatross), was created and voiced by John Candy . Adventure film Adventure films boast their setting and visuals as key elements. This ranged from early technical showcases such as The Lost World (1925) and King Kong (1933). These films set up exotic locations as both beautiful and dangerous. This would be

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1044-587: A low critical status, with a few exceptions. Historically, the genre has not been seen as authored cinema. The genre's cinematic traditions were effectively absent from debates on genre cinema since the 1960s. Chapman echoed this statement. He argued that with only a handful of exceptions, adventure films have not won much favour with film critics: "In traditional film criticism there are few 'good' adventure films; those that have won critical acclaim have usually done so on grounds other than their status as genre films." When action and adventure cinema secure awards, it

1131-495: A more adventurous approach to color and background stylization than previous Disney efforts have displayed, with a delicate pastel palette used to wide-ranging effect." Vincent Canby of The New York Times wrote that the film "doesn't belong in the same category as the great Disney cartoon features ( Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs , Bambi , Fantasia ) but it's a reminder of a kind of slickly cheerful, animated entertainment that has become all but extinct." Gene Siskel of

1218-410: A new relationship was more compelling and romantic. For the supporting characters, a pint-sized swamp mobile for the mice—a leaf powered by a dragonfly—was created. As they developed the comedic potential of displaying his exhaustion through buzzing, the dragonfly grew from an incidental into a major character. Veteran sound effects artist and voice actor Jimmy MacDonald came out of retirement to provide

1305-407: A pigeon was proposed (specifically one that would be catapulted, repurposing an unused gag from Robin Hood ), until Johnston remembered a True-Life Adventures film featuring albatrosses and their clumsy take-offs and landings, leading him suggest that ungainly bird instead. A scene of the mice preparing for their adventure, with Bianca choosing outfits and Bernard testing James Bond -like gadgets,

1392-507: A quest narrative, where characters seek mythical objects or fabulous treasure as seen in films like King Solomon's Mines (1950) or Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981). Tasker opted for a broader sense of genre, and commented on Taves limits, stating it was an understandable impulse to place generic limits on potentially diverse bodies of texts, while included films like Raiders of the Lost Ark which she described as feeling "like an adventure in

1479-440: A recall of about 3.4 million copies of the videotapes because there was a blurry image of a topless woman in the background of a scene. The image appears twice in non-consecutive frames during the scene in which Miss Bianca and Bernard are flying on Orville's back through New York City. The two images could not be seen in ordinary viewing because the film runs too fast—at 24 frames per second. On January 10, 1999, two days after

1566-541: A second time. The piece, inspired by Orville's take-off scene in the film, was sculpted by Ruben Procopio . The Rescuers premiered on VHS and LaserDisc on September 18, 1992 as part of the Walt Disney Classics series. The release went into moratorium on April 30, 1993. It was re-released on VHS as part of the Walt Disney Masterpiece Collection on January 5, 1999, but due to a scandal

1653-584: A setting that was both remote in time and space to its audience. While Cameron refuted the idea of a clearly defined adventure genre, he said films described the "positive feeling for adventure" evoked from the scenes of action in the film and the identification with the main character. Taves echoed this, exemplifying the character of Robin Hood who deals with a valiant fight for just government in an exotic past. Taves wrote in The Romance of Adventure: The Genre of Historical Adventure Movies (1993) that defining

1740-643: A small blowhole that leads down into a blocked-off pirates ' cave where the Devil's Eye is located. Bernard and Bianca find Penny and devise a plan of escape. They send Evinrude to alert the local animals, who loathe Medusa, but Evinrude is delayed when he is forced to take shelter from a cloud of bats . The following morning, Medusa and Snoops send Penny down into the cave to find the gem. Unbeknownst to Medusa, Bianca and Bernard are hiding in Penny's dress pocket. The three soon find

1827-672: A villain in this thing. ' " The villainess and her motive to steal a diamond was adapted from the Diamond Duchess in Miss Bianca . The setting was then changed to the bayous found in the Southern United States . By August 1973, the villainess was named the Grand Duchess with Phyllis Diller cast in the role. A month later, Ken Anderson began depicting Cruella de Vil , the villainess from One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961), as

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1914-425: Is interrupted when Evinrude arrives with a call for help, sending Bernard and Bianca on a new adventure. In 1959, the book The Rescuers by Margery Sharp had been published to considerable success. In 1962, Sharp followed up with a sequel titled Miss Bianca . That same year, the books were optioned by Walt Disney , who began developing an animated film adaptation. In January 1963, story artist Otto Englander wrote

2001-703: Is often in categories such as visual effects and sound editing. Tasker found this reflected Richards comments on the creative labor as being the primary appeal on work in the genre. Raft A raft is any flat structure for support or transportation over water. It is usually of basic design, characterized by the absence of a hull . Rafts are usually kept afloat by using any combination of buoyant materials such as wood , sealed barrels , or inflated air chambers (such as pontoons ), and are typically not propelled by an engine. Rafts are an ancient mode of transport; naturally-occurring rafts such as entwined vegetation and pieces of wood have been used to traverse water since

2088-471: The Chicago Tribune gave the film two-and-a-half stars out of four writing, "To see any Disney animated film these days is to compare it with Disney classics released 30 or 40 years ago. Judged against Pinocchio, for example. The Rescuers is lightweight, indeed. Its themes are forgettable. It's mostly an adventure story." TV Guide gave the film three stars out of five, opining that The Rescuers "is

2175-460: The logging industry for the transportation of logs, by tying them together into rafts and drifting or pulling them down a river. This method was very common up until the middle of the 20th century but is now used only rarely. Large rafts made of balsa logs and using sails for navigation were important in maritime trade on the Pacific Ocean coast of South America from pre-Columbian times until

2262-485: The silent films of the 1910s and 1920s. These films required elaborate visual effects that were important to displaying menacing or fantastic worlds. These films often took narratives from novels, such as films like 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1916) and The Lost World (1925). Beyond being adaptations of famous books, Tasker said that the appeal of these films was also in their effects laden scene, finding The Lost World

2349-404: The world builder video game Disney Magic Kingdoms , Bernard, Miss Bianca, Penny, Madame Medusa, and Orville appear as playable characters in the main storyline of the game, along with The Rescue Aid Society and Madame Medusa's Riverboat as attractions. Along with other Walt Disney Animation Studios characters, the main characters of the film have cameo appearances in the short film Once Upon

2436-518: The " Nine Old Men " animators, scouted for potential artists who were studying at art schools and colleges throughout the United States. More than 60 artists were brought into the training program. Then, the selected trainees were to create a black-and-white animation test, which were reviewed at the end of the month. The process would continue for several months, in which the few finalists were first employed as in-betweeners working only on nights and weekends. By 1977, more than 25 artists were hired during

2523-559: The 19th century. Voyages were made to locations as far away as Mexico, and many trans-Pacific voyages using replicas of ancient rafts have been undertaken to demonstrate possible contacts between South America and Polynesia . The type of raft used for recreational rafting is almost exclusively an inflatable raft , manufactured of flexible materials for use on whitewater . In biology , particularly in island biogeography , non-manmade rafts are an important concept. Such rafts consist of matted clumps of vegetation that has been swept off

2610-405: The Devil's Eye diamond. Exactly 1,977 of these sculptures were made, in reference to the film's release year, 1977. The sculpture was priced at $ 299 and instantly declared retired in 2003. In November 2008, a sixth sculpture inspired by the film was released. Made with pewter and resin , Cleared For Take Off introduced the character of Orville into the collection and featured Bernard and Bianca

2697-412: The Devil's Eye within a pirate skull. As Penny pries the mouth open with a sword, the mice push the gem through it, but soon the oceanic tide rises and floods the cave. The three barely manage to escape with the diamond. Medusa betrays Snoops and hides the diamond in Penny's teddy bear, while holding Penny and Snoops at gunpoint. When she trips over a cable set as a trap by Bernard and Bianca, Medusa loses

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2784-466: The Light Brigade (1936) and The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938). The historical adventure film continued to be a popular Hollywood genre into the mid-1950s featuring various male stars such as Tyrone Power , Douglas Fairbanks Jr. , Burt Lancaster , and Stewart Granger . Imperialism -themed adventure films continued in the 1950s with a greater emphasis on location shooting . Examples include

2871-561: The Lost Ark (1981), The Mummy (1999), and Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003). Few other films embarked on more serious tones, such as Ridley Scott 's Gladiator and Kingdom of Heaven (2005). Since the late 1970s, both action and adventure films have become synonymous with the high-budgeted and profitable Hollywood films and franchises. While both genres took on challenging material, towards

2958-533: The Movies (1973) stated that adventure "is not confined to a particular genre [...] it is a quality which turns up in almost every sort of story film; indeed the most obvious adventures movies, the sword-and-bosom epics, are usually among the least interesting." American historian Brian Taves wrote in 1993 that having such wide-ranging application of the genre would render it meaningless. Despite their different definitions, both Taves and Cameron stated that genre required

3045-607: The South Pole where he can make himself a bigger star. But he gets homesick; he feels fooled. They send out little mice as 'rescuers'." By November 1973, the role of Louie the Bear had been heavily scaled back and then eliminated. In one version, the bear was meant to be Bernard and Bianca's connection to Penny. Gerry explained, "We developed the sequence where, while the two mice are searching for clues as to where Penny has been taken, they come across this bear who she had been friends with because

3132-469: The Teddy Bears . Meanwhile, Robbins worked as a personal secretary to actors George Kennedy and Eva Gabor and wrote unpublished poetry. Desiring more contemporary songs for the film, Reitherman called Connors and Robbins into his office and shown them storyboards of Bernard and Bianca flying on Orville. Connors and Robbins then composed "Tomorrow Is Another Day" to accompany the scene. They later composed

3219-501: The adventure film was defined from a fictional narrative and excluded films based on historical events and people such as Zulu (1964) and Lawrence of Arabia (1962), finding they belonged to other types of narratives such as the historical film and the war film . Chapman summarized the complicated nature of the genre, stating that the "Adventure film is a less clearly defined than most: indeed, this might be one reason why film historians have left it pretty much alone." He described

3306-415: The art director, costume designer, fencing master, stunt arranger, cinematographer and actor just much as the writer and director. For the swashbuckler is truly the sum of all their work." Both action and adventure are often used together as film genres, and are even used interchangeably. For Taves, he compared the styles saying that adventure films were "something beyond action" and were elevated "beyond

3393-405: The bear and the diamond to Penny, who runs away with them. The local animals arrive at the riverboat and aid Bernard and Bianca in trapping Brutus and Nero, then set off Mr. Snoops's fireworks to create more chaos. Meanwhile, Penny and the mice commandeer Medusa's swamp-mobile, a makeshift airboat . Medusa unsuccessfully pursues them, using Brutus and Nero as water-skis. As the riverboat sinks from

3480-584: The box office hit King Solomon's Mines (1950) which was shot in Africa. 1960s fantasy films such as Jason and the Argonauts (1963) combined the set-pieces and fantastic locations of historical adventures with renewed emphasis on special effects. By the 1970s, The Three Musketeers (1973) marked a point where the historical adventure has been firmly associated with what Tasker described as "comic - even camp - tone" that would inform later films such as Raiders of

3567-445: The broadest sense of the term." Tasker noted this specifically, that even when disregarding its historical setting, the film concerned a quest, with travel and developing moral sense of the hero's place in the world. Tasker wrote that these films films have no consistent iconography, their set design and special effects, ranging from stop-motion, to digital imagery and 3D are given a privileged place in these genres. Chapman also noted

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3654-419: The case. She chooses Bernard, a stammering janitor, as her co-agent. The two visit Morningside Orphanage, where Penny lived, and meet an old cat named Rufus. He tells them about a woman named Madame Medusa who once tried to lure Penny into her car, prompting the mice to investigate her pawn shop for clues. At the pawn shop, Bianca and Bernard discover that Medusa and her partner, Mr. Snoops, are searching for

3741-524: The character's first theatrical appearance after a 30-year absence. The film grossed $ 21 million domestically. In 1989, the film earned $ 21.2 million domestically. The film's total lifetime domestic gross is $ 71.2 million, and its total lifetime worldwide gross is $ 169 million. To tie in with the film's 25th anniversary, The Rescuers debuted in the Walt Disney Classics Collection line in 2002, with three different figures featuring three of

3828-401: The dawn of humanity. Traditional or primitive rafts were constructed of wood, bamboo or reeds ; early buoyed or float rafts use inflated animal skins or sealed clay pots which are lashed together. Modern float rafts may also use pontoons , drums , or extruded polystyrene blocks. Depending on its use and size, it may have a superstructure , masts, or rudders. Timber rafting is used by

3915-464: The decade. Erb found that the jungle imagery of these films of the 1930s frequently showcased the jungle world as frequently alternating between "demonic and edenic " images, while Tasker said the jungle films and other adventure films of the period would establish a travelogue allure of these settings as romantic spaces. Within the Classical Hollywood cinema , one of the major other styles

4002-592: The dry land by a storm , tsunami , tide , earthquake or similar event; in modern times they sometimes also incorporate other kind of flotsam and jetsam , e.g. plastic containers. They stay afloat by its natural buoyancy and can travel for hundreds, even thousands of miles and are ultimately destroyed by wave action and decomposition , or make landfall. Rafting events are important means of oceanic dispersal for non-flying animals. For amphibians , reptiles , and small mammals , in particular, but for many invertebrates as well, such rafts of vegetation were often

4089-427: The effects. Additionally, the local swamp creatures were originally written as a dedicated home guard that drilled and marched incessantly. However, the writers rewrote them into a volunteer group of helpful little bayou creatures. Their leader, a singing bullfrog, voiced by Phil Harris , was cut from the film, as were lines characterizing muskrat Ellie Mae as their outspoken boss. For Bernard and Bianca's transportation,

4176-434: The film's characters, as well as the opening title scroll. The three figures were sculpted by Dusty Horner and they were: Brave Bianca , featuring Miss Bianca the heroine and priced at $ 75, Bold Bernard , featuring hero Bernard, priced also at $ 75 and Evinrude Base , featuring Evinrude the dragonfly and priced at $ 85. The title scroll featuring the film's name, The Rescuers , and from the opening song sequence, "The Journey,"

4263-406: The film. The Rescuers was released on June 22, 1977, to positive critical reception and became a box office success, earning $ 48 million against a budget of $ 7.5 million during its initial theatrical run. It has since grossed a total of $ 169 million after two re-releases in 1983 and 1989. Due to the film's success, a sequel titled The Rescuers Down Under was released in 1990, which made this film

4350-601: The fireworks' damage, Medusa crashes and is left clinging to the boat's smoke stacks. Mr. Snoops escapes on a raft and laughs at her, while the irritated Brutus and Nero turn on her and circle below. Back in New York City, the Rescue Aid Society watch a news report of how Penny found the Devil's Eye, which has been given to the Smithsonian Institution while it is implied that Medusa and Mr. Snoops have been arrested. It also mentions she has been adopted . The meeting

4437-535: The first Disney animated film to have a sequel. In an abandoned riverboat in Devil's Bayou, Louisiana , a 6 year old orphan named Penny drops a message in a bottle , containing a plea for help, into the river. The Rescue Aid Society, an international mouse organization inside the United Nations , finds the bottle when it washes up in New York City . The Hungarian representative, Miss Bianca, volunteers to accept

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4524-524: The future of animation at Walt Disney's," praises its "humor and imagination and [that it is] expertly woven into a solid story structure ... with a delightful cast of characters." Finally, he declares the film "the most satisfying animated feature to come from the studio since 101 Dalmatians ." He also briefly mentions the ease with which the film surpassed other animated films of its time. The film's own animators Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston stated on their website that The Rescuers had been their return to

4611-431: The genre in context with the historical adventure, and said explicitly excluding films with fantasy settings such as Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) as they involved the supernatural over human agency. Taves wrote that "unlike adventure, fantasy presents a netherworld where events violate physical reality and the bounds of human possibility." Comparatively, in his overview of British adventure cinema, James Chapman said

4698-767: The genre that would continue into the 21st century with film series like The Lord of the Rings , Harry Potter , and Pirates of the Caribbean . In their analysis of the genre in 2018, Johan Höglund and Agnieszka Soltysik Monnet found that the contemporary adventure form often appears in trans-genre work where the adventure component is perceived as secondary. They exemplified that in films such ranging from Top Gun (1986), Godzilla (2014), to Lone Survivor (2013), which range from fantasy film to science fiction film to war film genres, all adhere to traditional adventure narratives. Adventure films are generally perceived with

4785-569: The henchman, the filmmakers adapted the character, Mandrake, into Mr. Snoops. His appearance was caricatured from John Culhane, a journalist, who had been interviewing animators at the Disney studios. Culhane claimed he was practically tricked into posing for various reactions, and his movements were imitated on Mr. Snoops's model sheet. However, he stated, "Becoming a Disney character was beyond my wildest dreams of glory." The writers had considered depicting Bernard and Bianca as married professional detectives, but decided that depicting them as novices in

4872-493: The highest-grossing film in West Germany for 1977, earning $ 6 million during its first 20 days of release. Altogether, it received admissions of 10.3 million. During its release, it earned $ 48–50 million in worldwide gross rentals at the box office. The Rescuers was re-released in 1983 and 1989. During its 1983 re-release, the film was accompanied with the new Mickey Mouse featurette, Mickey's Christmas Carol , which marked

4959-411: The late '30s, the film is both a triumphant swan song and gladdening act of regeneration." Dave Kehr of The Chicago Reader praised the film as "a beautifully crafted and wonderfully expressive cartoon feature," calling it "genuinely funny and touching." Variety magazine wrote the film was "the best work by Disney animators in many years, restoring the craft to its former glories. In addition, it has

5046-515: The late 1970s of an adventure style geared towards more family-oriented audiences with films like Star Wars (1977) and Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981). Star Wars exemplifies a resurgent adventure strand of the 1970s cinema with characters like the Jedi Knights who swing from ropes and wield light sabers recall sword-fighting and swashbuckling films. Tasker commented that this led to a commercially lucrative and culturally conservative version of

5133-452: The main antagonist of the film. Anderson had drawn several sketches of Cruella de Vil sporting alligator-leathered chic attire and sunglasses; one sketch depicted her wearing bell-bottom pants and platform shoes . However, several staff members such as animator Ollie Johnston stated it felt wrong to attempt a sequel for the character. Furthermore, Mattinson explained that Milt Kahl did not want to animate Cruella de Vil. "Milt, of course,

5220-531: The market towards the late 1970s, with films such as Star Wars (1977) and Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981). This trend continued into the 21st century. Adventure is a broad film genre. Early writing on the genre had wide categorizations. Critic André Bazin went as far to say in the 1950s that "there is not difference between Hopalong Cassidy and Tarzan except for their costumes and the arena in which they demonstrate their prowess." Ian Cameron in Adventure in

5307-456: The most coherent, and moving from start to finish, and probably most important of all, it is also the most touching in that unique way fantasy has of carrying vibrations of real life and real feelings." Gary Arnold of The Washington Post wrote the film "is one of the most rousing and appealing animated features ever made by the Disney studio. The last production for several members of the original feature animation unit assembled by Walt Disney in

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5394-455: The most recent book, Miss Bianca in the Antarctic , to adapt from. The new story involved a King penguin deceiving a captured polar bear into performing in shows aboard a schooner , causing the unsatisfied bear to place a bottle that would reach the mice. Fred Lucky, a newly hired storyboard artist, was assigned to develop the story adaptation, alongside Ken Anderson . This version of the story

5481-542: The original film's release. While they currently do not make regular appearances at the American parks, both continue to appear regularly at Tokyo Disney Resort . Like other Disney animated characters, the characters of the film have recurring cameo appearances in the television series House of Mouse . In the Disney Infinity video games, Medusa's Swamp Mobile was introduced as a vehicle in Disney Infinity 2.0 . In

5568-494: The orphanage where Penny was living was near the zoo." In the final film, the idea was reduced to a simple scene where Bernard enters a zoo and hears a lion's roar that scares him away. While promoting the release of Robin Hood (1973) in Europe, Reitherman stated: "I took Margery Sharp's books along and there was in there a mean woman in a crystal palace. When I got back I called some of the guys together and I said, 'We've got to get

5655-1120: The physical challenge" and by "its moral and intellectual flavour." Forms of filmmaking that would become film genres were mostly defined in other media before Thomas Edison devised the Kinetograph in the late 1890s. Genres, such as adventure fiction were developed as written fiction. In the early Hollywood cinema, early adventure cinema were both original stories as well as adaptations of popular media such as adventure stories, magazines, and folk tales. Films were adapted from adventure stories such as King Solomon's Mines (1885), She (1887), and Treasure Island (1883). Tasker described both action and adventure cinema are resistant to any historical evolutionary chronology. Both genres are self-reflexive and draw from conventions of other genres ranging from horror to historical imperial adventure. Taves found that that films that were swashbucklers or pirate-themed adventures were often humorous, and that they retained viability even when parodied. Many silent films with action and adventure scenarios flourished in

5742-517: The piano and I play the pencil." During production, both women were nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song for " Gonna Fly Now " from Rocky (1976) with Bill Conti . Original songs performed in the film include: Songs heard in the film but not released on the soundtrack include: On June 19, 1977, The Rescuers premiered at the AFI Silver Theatre in Washington, D.C. , and

5829-651: The political overtones. In August 1968, Englander wrote another treatment featuring Bernard and Bianca rescuing Richard the Lionheart during the Middle Ages . A total of four years were spent working on The Rescuers , which was made on a budget of $ 7.5 million. During the early 1970s, The Rescuers reentered development as a project for the young animators, led by Don Bluth , with the studio planning to alternate between full-scale "A pictures" and smaller, scaled-back "B pictures" with simpler animation. The animators had selected

5916-545: The recall was announced, the London newspaper The Independent reported: A Disney spokeswoman said that the images in The Rescuers were placed in the film during post-production, but she declined to say what they were or who placed them... The company said the aim of the recall was to keep its promise to families that they can trust and rely on the Disney brand to provide the best in family entertainment. The Rescuers home video

6003-432: The similarly effects driven sound film King Kong (1933). In her study of King Kong , Cynthia Erb noted a conventions of both travel documentary and jungle adventure traditions. Tasker wrote that the best known displays of these films were those that focused on the character of Tarzan which found more significantly commercial success with the success of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer films featuring Johnny Weissmuller during

6090-420: The songs. They also recomposed a new version of the "Rescuers Aid Society" song. Most of the songs they had written for the film were performed by Shelby Flint . Also, for the first time since Bambi (1942), all the most prominent songs were sung as part of a narrative, as opposed to by the film's characters as in most Disney animated films. Describing their collaborative process, Robbins noted "...Carol plays

6177-500: The style as being commonly applied to narratives where action and visual spectacle were foregrounded. He included styles like the swashbuckler , the British empire film, the sensationalized spy thriller, and mythological fantasy films as part of adventure cinema genre. Writing about the adventure genre in the 1970s, Jeffrey Richards said that "since the way a swashbuckler moves and looks is just as important as what it says, we must look at

6264-401: The style as not being a discrete genre in its own, but a flexible, overarching category that encompasses a range of different related narrative forms. British author and academic Yvonne Tasker wrote in her 2015 book The Hollywood Action and Adventure Film (2015) that adventure films imply a story that is located within a fantasy of exoticized setting. She found that these films often apply

6351-435: The symphonic piece "The Journey" to play during the opening titles. Near the end of the film's production, Reitherman asked artist Mel Shaw to illustrate pastel sketches to accompany the music. Shaw agreed and was assisted by Burny Mattinson. Connors and Robbins wrote another song "The Need To Be Loved", but Reitherman preferred Fain's song "Someone's Waiting for You". He nevertheless asked both women to compose new lyrics for

6438-488: The training program. Among those selected were Glen Keane , Ron Clements , and Andy Gaskill, all of whom would play crucial roles in the Disney Renaissance . Because of this, The Rescuers was the first collaboration between the newly recruited trainees and the senior animators. It would also mark the last joint effort by Milt Kahl, Ollie Johnston, and Frank Thomas , and the first Disney film Don Bluth had worked on as

6525-407: The world's largest diamond , the Devil's Eye. The mice learn that Medusa and Snoops are currently at the Devil's Bayou with Penny, whom they have kidnapped and placed under the guard of two trained crocodiles, Brutus and Nero. With the help of an albatross named Orville and a dragonfly named Evinrude, the mice follow Medusa to the bayou . There, they learn that Medusa plans to force Penny to enter

6612-400: Was Kahl's last film for the studio, and he wanted his final character to be his best. He was so insistent on perfecting Madame Medusa that he ended up doing almost all the animation for the character himself. The kidnapped child Penny was inspired by Patience, the orphan in the novel. The alligator characters Brutus and Nero was based on the two bloodhounds, Tyrant and Torment, in the novels. For

6699-510: Was accompanied with the live-action nature documentary film, A Tale of Two Critters (1977). By January 1979, the film had earned $ 15 million in distributor rentals from the United States and Canada, achieving the highest-gross for an animated film during its initial release. The film was the highest-grossing film in France in 1977, out-grossing Star Wars and The Spy Who Loved Me . It received admissions of $ 7.2 million. The film also became

6786-428: Was cut for pacing. On February 13, 1976, co-director John Lounsbery died of a heart attack during production. Art Stevens , an animator, was then selected as the new co-director. After the commercial success of The Aristocats (1970), then-vice president Ron Miller pledged that new animators should be hired to ensure "a continuity of quality Disney animated films for another generation." Eric Larson , one of

6873-475: Was dropped, to which Lucky explained the Arctic setting "was too stark a background for the animators." Vance Gerry , also a storyboard artist, also explained director Wolfgang Reitherman "decided not to go with Fred Lucky's version. He said, " 'It's too complicated. I want a simple story: A little girl gets kidnapped and the mice try to get her back, period. ' " According to Burny Mattinson , he stated: "Our problem

6960-444: Was first hired as a lyricist and wrote two original songs "Swamp Volunteers March" and "The Rescuers Aid Society". Meanwhile, the filmmakers had listened to an unproduced musical composed by the songwriting team of Carol Connors and Ayn Robbins . Both women had first met each other in 1973 on a double date. Before then, Connors had co-composed and sang successful songs such as " To Know Him Is to Love Him " and " Hey Little Cobra " with

7047-510: Was priced at $ 30. All figures were retired in March 2005, except for the opening title scroll which was suspended in December 2012. The Rescuers was the inspiration for another Walt Disney Classics Collection figure in 2003. Ken Melton was the sculptor of Teddy Goes With Me, My Dear , a limited-edition, 8-inch sculpture featuring the evil Madame Medusa, the orphan girl Penny, her teddy bear "Teddy" and

7134-487: Was recalled three days later and reissued on March 23, 1999. The Rescuers was released on DVD on May 20, 2003, as a standard edition, which was discontinued in November 2011. On August 21, 2012, a 35th-anniversary edition of The Rescuers was released on Blu-ray alongside its sequel in a "2-Movie Collection". On January 8, 1999, three days after the film's second release on home video, The Walt Disney Company announced

7221-474: Was reissued on March 23, 1999, with the nudity edited and blocked out. The Rescuers was said to be Disney's greatest film since Mary Poppins (1964), and seemed to signal a new golden age for Disney animation. Charles Champlin of the Los Angeles Times praised the film as "the best feature-length animated film from Disney in a decade or more—the funniest, the most inventive, the least self-conscious,

7308-457: Was renamed Louie the Bear. Jazz singer Louis Prima was cast in the role and had recorded most of the dialogue and multiple songs that were composed by Floyd Huddleston . The writers also expanded the role of his best friend, Gus the Lion. Huddleston had stated, "It's about two animals. One is Louis Prima — he's the polar bear — and Redd Foxx is the lion ...Louis gets cornered into leaving and going to

7395-461: Was that the penguin wasn't formidable or evil enough for the audience to believe he would dominate the big bear. We struggled with that for a year or so. We changed the locale to somewhere in America and it was now a regular zoo and we tried to come up with something with the bear in the zoo and needing to be rescued but that didn't work either." In that version, the bear character was still retained, but

7482-648: Was the historical adventure film. These films were typically set in the past and drew from the Fairbanks films such as The Black Pirate (1926) and The Mark of Zorro (1920). They feature violence in a less intense manner than other contemporary genres such as the Western or war film . While not specifically associated with one Hollywood studio, Warner Bros. released a series of popular historical adventures featuring Errol Flynn such as Captain Blood (1935), The Charge of

7569-419: Was very strong against that, 'Oh, no no. We're gonna have a new character. I'm not gonna do Cruella'," Mattinson recalled, "Because he felt that Marc [Davis] had animated Cruella beautifully. He was not gonna go and take his character." The new villain was named Madame Medusa, and her appearance was based on Kahl's then-wife, Phyllis Bounds (who was the niece of Lillian Disney ), whom he divorced in 1978. This

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