The Rescuers
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 young 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 a giant diamond. The film is based on a series of books by Margery Sharp, including The Rescuers (1959) and Miss Bianca (1962).
For other uses, see The Rescuers (disambiguation).The Rescuers
- Larry Clemmons
- Vance Gerry
- Ken Anderson
- Frank Thomas
- Burny Mattinson
- Fred Lucky
- Dick Sebast
- David Michener
- Ted Berman
The Rescuers
Miss Bianca
by Margery Sharp
- Wolfgang Reitherman
- Jim Koford
- James Melton
- June 22, 1977
77 minutes
United States
English
$7.5 million[1]
$169 million[2]
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 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 the first Disney animated film to have a sequel.
Plot
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 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 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 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 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 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 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 is interrupted when Evinrude arrives with a call for help, sending Bernard and Bianca on a new adventure.
The Rescuers
Release
Original theatrical run
On June 19, 1977, The Rescuers premiered at the AFI Silver Theatre in Washington, D.C.,[37] and was accompanied with the live-action nature documentary film, A Tale of Two Critters (1977).[38] By January 1979, the film had earned $15 million in distributor rentals from the United States and Canada,[39] achieving the highest-gross for an animated film during its initial release.[40]
The film was the highest-grossing film in France in 1977, out-grossing Star Wars and The Spy Who Loved Me.[40] It received admissions of $7.2 million.[41] The film also became the highest-grossing film in West Germany for 1977,[42] earning $6 million during its first 20 days of release.[40] Altogether, it received admissions of 10.3 million.[43] During its release, it earned $48–50 million in worldwide gross rentals at the box office.[44][1]
Re-releases
The Rescuers was re-released in 1983 and 1989.[18] During its 1983 re-release, the film was accompanied with the new Mickey Mouse featurette, Mickey's Christmas Carol, which marked the character's first theatrical appearance after a 30-year absence. The film grossed $21 million domestically.[45] In 1989, the film earned $21.2 million domestically.[46] The film's total lifetime domestic gross is $71.2 million,[47] and its total lifetime worldwide gross is $169 million.[2]
Marketing
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 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,[48] Bold Bernard, featuring hero Bernard, priced also at $75[49] and Evinrude Base, featuring Evinrude the dragonfly and priced at $85.[48] The title scroll featuring the film's name, The Rescuers, and from the opening song sequence, "The Journey," was priced at $30. All figures were retired in March 2005, except for the opening title scroll which was suspended in December 2012.[48]
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 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.[49]
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 a second time. The piece, inspired by Orville's take-off scene in the film, was sculpted by Ruben Procopio.[50]
Home media
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.[51] It was re-released on VHS as part of the Walt Disney Masterpiece Collection on January 5, 1999, but due to a scandal 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".[52][53]
Legacy
Bernard and Bianca made appearances as meet-and-greet characters at Walt Disney World and Disneyland in the years following 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.[76]
In 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.[77][78][79]
Along with other Walt Disney Animation Studios characters, the main characters of the film have cameo appearances in the short film Once Upon a Studio.[80]