25 years later, The Rescuers Down Under is still one of the best films of the Disney Renaissance

After Walt Disney’s 1966 death, Walt Disney Productions went through a period of decline, with many of its releases getting beaten at the box office by Universal Pictures movies like The Land Before Time and An American Tale. The studio turned things around with the 1989 release of The Little Mermaid, kicking off a period of hits known as the Disney Renaissance, which included beloved films like Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and The Lion King.

The Rescuers Down Under, which was released in 1990 and celebrates its 25th anniversary on Nov. 16, is technically part of the Disney Renaissance, but has very little in common with the other films in the group. The film, directed by Hendel Butoy (who’d worked as an animator on 1985’s The Black Cauldron) and Mike Gabriel (who went on to co-direct Pocahontas), was the first sequel to any of Disney’s theatrical animated films: a followup to 1977’s The Rescuers, one of the most successful Disney films of the post-Disney, pre-Renaissance era, earning $29 million in its original release. But The Rescuers Down Under bombed at the box office: In its opening weekend, it was soundly beaten by Home Alone.

Yet The Rescuers Down Under holds up as one of the best animated films of the ’80s, especially because it’s such an oddity. It isn’t a musical. It’s got an extremely threatening villain, made even more ominous because he’s endangering cute animals and a small child. It also has a strong environmental message, and a sense of adventure that made the Australian Outback feel as wondrous as any of Disney’s fantasy worlds.

The Rescuers Down Under vastly surpasses the original The Rescuers. The original is an adaptation of Miss Bianca, the second book in Margery Sharp’s The Rescuers series about heroic mice saving people in danger, but the film’s story about a kid held hostage as part of a treasure hunt winds up feeling pretty disjointed. The Rescuers Down Under keeps the concept of The Rescue Aid Society, a version of the United Nations for mice, but the writers otherwise charted their own path. The sequel is a tighter story, with the Rescuers deployed to save an Australian boy named Cody (Adam Ryen) from the dastardly poacher Percival C. McLeach (Patton star George C. Scott).

Scott is absolutely terrifying as McLeach, who’s like an even more twisted Cruella De Vil. In addition to being eager to skin animals, McLeach is also comfortable feeding children to hungry crocodiles. He’s hoping to get a big payday from killing Marahute, a female golden eagle who Cody rescues from a net at the beginning of the film.

The film’s opening sequence is triumphant, showing Cody enjoying his freedom to roam and hang out with his animal friends, which seemed like a fantasy to me as to a kid watching from the U.S. suburbs — as impossible as going under the sea or taking a magic carpet ride. While there are no songs in the film, Bruce Broughton’s score has an energy reminiscent of John Williams’ work on Indiana Jones. The music is especially stirring in the visually stunning early scene showing Cody soaring on Marahute’s back.

Image: Buena Vista Pictures/Everett Collection

McLeach captures Cody hoping the boy can lead him to Marahute, holding him hostage along with a menagerie of Australian critters. Douglas Seale, who went on to play the Sultan in Aladdin, does a great job of presenting the stakes as a pessimistic koala, who explains how all McLeach’s captives are going to be turned into fashion accessories.

Luckily, the Rescuers are on the case, with a riff on the Indiana Jones map travel gimmick showing how a plea for help in Australia makes it all the way to New York. The film does an adorable job of setting up the parallel world of rodents and bugs existing alongside humanity, most notably in a charming scene set in a fancy restaurant, where cricket chefs use a dropped pea to make pea soup for American Rescuer Bernard (Bob Newhart) and his Hungarian partner Bianca (Eva Gabor).

The duo are the perfect odd couple. Bianca is simultaneously glamorous and eager for adventure, while Bernard is perpetually flustered and insecure about the fact that Bianca charms everyone she meets. He’s especially jealous of their local guide Jake, a hopping mouse voiced by Australian actor Tristan Rogers, who is the only one in the film to speak with an Australian accent.

Image: Buena Vista Pictures/Everett Collection

John Candy supplies the more absurd, kid-friendly comedy as Wilbur, the albatross the mice fly on to get to Australia. His arrogance leads to one of the funnier sequences in the film, as a mouse airport has to frantically build a runway big enough for the bird to land on.

While most of the film’s animals talk, some are just as expressive without dialogue. Marahute is beautifully animated as she fluffs up her feathers while proudly showing Cody her eggs. It’s easy to see why Cody and all his animal friends would do everything in their power to protect her. Animation stalwart Frank Welker provided her distinctive screeches, along with the hisses of the film’s best character: McLeach’s pet goanna Joanna.

Disney Renaissance filmmakers loved giving villains animal sidekicks, from Scar’s hyenas in The Lion King to Jafar’s parrot Iago in Aladdin to Ursula’s electric eels Flotsam and Jetsam in The Little Mermaid. All of them are at least moderately useful lieutenants, but Joanna is less reliable. She repeatedly stops Cody and McLeach’s other captives from escaping, but she’s also a constant nuisance to McLeach, as she steals his eggs and chases mice around. Their odd love/hate relationship adds some personality to the villain without making him any less scary.

Image: Disney

Without any big musical numbers, The Rescuers Down Under moves at a breakneck pace filled with chase sequences involving a huge variety of animals and McLeach’s tank-like truck. While it never got the love of the other movies that rejuvenated Disney and restored its international reputation, it holds up as a sweet film about conservation and courage. It also helped prove that Disney movies didn’t need big music numbers to work, setting the stage for other adventure-focused films that would become cult classics, like Atlantis: The Lost Empire and Treasure Planet. The Rescuers Down Under was a box-office failure, but it deserves to find a new audience 25 years later.

The Rescuers Down Under is available to stream on Disney Plus and to rent or buy on Amazon, Apple and other VOD platforms.