I probably saw this film once or twice when I was child, all I remember from it were the clips I had seen in video trailers and stuff, so I was very glad when I was grown up that I got the opportunity to see this Disney animation and enjoy it as if it was my first time. Basically there is a message in a bottle, from an orphaned little girl named Penny (Michelle Stacy), containing a plea for help, this bottle is found by the Rescue Aid Society, a mouse organisation in the basement of the United Nations building. Hungarian representative Miss Bianca (The Aristocats' Eva Gabor) volunteers to accept the case, and she chooses stammering janitor Bernard (Elf's Bob Newhart) as her co- agent. Bernard and Bianca start searching for clues to her whereabouts at Penny's home at Morningside Orphanage in New York City, an old cat named Rufus (John McIntire) tells them about a woman named Madame Medusa (Geraldine Page) who once tried to lure Penny into her car, she may have abducted the girl. The mice travel to Medusa's pawn shop, they discover that she and her partner Mr. Snoops (Joe Flynn) are hunting for the world's largest diamond, the Devil's Eye, they also discover Medusa and Mr. Snoops have kidnapped Penny, she is being held at the Devil's Bayou guarded by two trained crocodiles, Brutus and Nero. Bernard and Bianca follow Medusa to the bayou, with the help of an albatross named Orville (Jim Jordan) and a dragonfly named Evinrude (James MacDonald), once there they learn that Penny was captured to enter a hole leading to a pirates' cave where the Devil's Eye is located. Bernard and Bianca find Penny a devise a plan for her rescue, sending Evinrude to alert the local animals, who loathe Medusa, but the dragonfly is delayed by a swarm of bats. The next morning Medusa and Snoops forces Penny down the pirates' cave to find the gem, with Bernard and Bianca hiding in her pocket, the three find the diamond hidden in a pirate skull, they barely get out and retrieve the diamond as the tide rises and the cave floods. Medusa plans to keep the diamond for herself, hiding it in Penny's teddy bear, but the mice have set up a cable to trip her, she loses the bear to Penny who runs away with it, the local animals aid Bernard and Bianca to trap the crocodiles and set off a number of Snoop's fireworks to create further chaos. Penny and the mice commandeer Medusa's swamp-mobile, a makeshift airboat, Medusa unsuccessfully pursues them using Brutas and Nero as water-skis, Snoops escapes while Medusa is left stranded on the boat's smoke stacks with the irritated crocodiles circling her. In the end back in New York, the Rescue Aid Society watch a news bulletin that the Devil's Eye diamond is given to the Smithsonian Institution, and Penny has been adopted, the meeting is interrupted by Evinrude arrives with a call for help, Bernard and Bianca set on a new adventure. Also starring Jeanette Nolan as muskrat Ellie Mae, Robin Hood's Pat Buttram as muskrat Luke, Titanic's Bernard Fox as The Chairman, Larry Clemmons as grumpy old turtle Gramps, George Lindsey as Rabbit, Dub Taylor as mole Digger and John Fiedler as Owl. Gabor and Newhart are likable as the voices of the brave mouse agents, and Page is suitably nasty as the villain, it is a simple story proving even the smallest of creatures can be heroes and save the poor little girl, a delightfully fun animated adventure. It was nominated the Oscar for Best Song for "Someone's Waiting for You". Very good!
Review of The Rescuers
