This wasn’t what I was expecting but I’m not angry that I received it. The new Chip ‘n Dale Rescue Rangers movie was directed by Akiva Schaffer and he applies plenty of wild Lonely Island type energy into this work. I won’t lie, part of me was really hoping for a straightforward adaption of the Ranger canon, whereas much of this movie could pretty much be called Ready Player Munk.
Here, John Mulaney voices Chip and Andy Samberg plays Dale as aspiring “toon” performers who live in a strange hybrid world of animated characters and “real” humans/animals. You don’t see too many “toon”-oriented stories in media nowadays, a plot type that was popular in kids’ entertainment at the height of Roger Rabbit, Tiny Toons and Animaniacs’ early 1990s popularity. It’s an interesting creative choice for a Rangers revival, which followed a more conventional cartoon format but was its biggest during that time period.
In this incarnation, Chip and Dale are popular toon actors in the Rescue Rangers TV series, having been aspiring performers since grade school. They’re enjoying a rodent rockstar lifestyle with Gadget (a returning Tress MacNellie), Monterey Jack (Eric Bana) and Zipper (Dennis Haysbert- yes, that Dennis Haysbert), and I will never un-hear Chip singing Third World’s “Now That We Found Love” after a party.
That party soon comes to an end when Dale seeks to launch his own ill-fated “Double O’ Dale” spinoff series. Years later after the Ranger show’s end, Dale’s a pop culture convention regular who’s undergone a 3D makeover while Chip’s selling insurance and doting on his dog in suburbia, but the two reunite when they hear Monterey’s gone missing to rescue their friend. Despite not being legit sleuths, Dale encourages his friend to start learning on the job, and the duo unravels a sinister plot that’s endangering other popular toons.
As I watched this I could tell there were obviously many fans of the original show working on this film, given all of the callbacks to past episodes- Dale has a massive collection of both real-and-fictional Rescue Rangers merchandise in his garage, including the old VHS tapes- but it’s also a movie that’s interested in lampooning Hollywood’s current creative excesses, and that factor takes up a majority of the plot. It’s not enough to totally derail it if you’re a long-time fan of the series, just come into it knowing the movie aims to be a modern-day Who Framed Roger Rabbit (complete with a cameo from Roger to make that point clearer). There are tons of jokes about awkward and dated CGI, cheap knockoff copies of classic animated films, and even the recent crossover trend (“Batman vs. ET” had me rolling).
Some of the cameo characters, both from within Disney and outside studios like Warner Bros, do assist Chip and Dale throughout the story, so luckily there’s a point to a couple of them aside from “hey look it’s such-and-such”. Still, given this is a Disney+ production, I was caught off guard by briefly catching a glimpse of Randy from South Park of all people, which shows the length of legal wrangling required to make this production happen. None of the content here reaches beyond a basic PG level, but this contains nods to properties and inside jokes that adults and older teens would be more familiar with.
The movie is clever and fun, don’t get me wrong, but it’s also coming after stuff like Infinity War, the Wreck-It-Ralph films, Ready Player One, and the Space Jam sequel, and it’s fully aware it’s riding on that trend. What makes this stand out are Chip and Dale themselves, specifically Samberg and Mulaney who are an engaging comedy duo together. Samberg puts a ton of Jake Peralta-style energy into Dale, and I think he’s an ideal voice that fits his personality if we’re going to put his usual sped-up speech aside.
Mulaney wouldn’t have been my first choice for Chip, but I was pleasantly surprised with his range here. He’s less swaggering and bossy and more of a put-upon straight man. My one complaint is that I wish he’d raise his voice a little more during more intense scenes, but he gives Chip a lot of vulnerability when it comes to how much he loves Dale. Without giving anything away, I felt he was especially good during the climax. The side cast doesn’t disappoint either, as KiKi Layne is sweet and plucky as LAPD officer Ellie Stickler, a long-time Rangers fan who helps the titular duo. Seth Rogen gets some laughs as Bob the hyper-realistic CGI dwarf, and J. K. Simmons straight up had me dying with some of his improved lines as police captain Putty (yes, he’s a literal silly putty man). The dude’s such an underrated voice actor.
So this gets a good recommendation from me because I’d consider this movie snarky without being mean-spirited (it’s the factor that always separates good parodies from bad ones), and it’s surprisingly sweet and touching in spots. This 2022 Chip ‘n Dale has been in development in some form for quite a while, in fact, I brought it up when I reviewed a Rescue Ranger fan-comic and I mentioned: “maybe the movie will be good or it’ll be garbage”. Seven years later? Turns out I personally thought it was pretty fun. It’s definitely way more tongue-in-cheek and less dramatic than Mice and Mayhem. But I enjoyed Schaffer’s take on the franchise, you can tell there’s a lot of affection behind the production.
But what did you think about it? As always, if you loved or hated it, let us know at FAN’s social media spots on Twitter and Facebook!