I have a problem with impulse purchases. If I see something that is on sale or inspires nostalgia or feels quirky or carries sentiment or is one of a kind, I will need to have it. This goes especially for anything Disney, with bears on it or involving constellations.
This happened a few years ago. My Amanda (not work Amanda or Jake's Amanda but my Amanda which is confusing) and I were Christmas shopping at Target and I saw a double feature disc of The Rescuers and The Rescuers Down Under. It cost less than one Disney movie, was kind of obscure, reminded me of being a kid and watching these with my brother. I was also broke. Like mega broke and she convinced me not to get it. Flash forward to a month later and she got it for me for my birthday and an air popcorn popper for Christmas and the promise of a movie night. Last night, we spend day two of Snowpocalypse fulfilling that promise. We also made dinner that was reminiscent of being babysat (mac and cheese, chicken nuggets, tatter tots.)
I want you to picture the softer side of the 1970s. I want you to think about Joni Mitchell and complimentary colors and soft oil paints and bad floral patterns and knit turtlenecks. Got that? That is what The Rescuers feels like. It is so delightfully dated and amazing. Aside from being a great time capsule, the story is pretty funny. Mice have their own rescue society within the United Nations that helps people. They get message in a bottle that says help and all of the sudden the mouse delegate from Hungary and the mouse handy man are in the bayou outsmarting a drag queen who is using child labor to secure a diamond. Also, there is a hillbilly family of animals. The movie is zany but not as crazy as the Black Cauldron. It is a crazy tale that is just maybe plausible.
The Rescuers Down Under on the other hand is the embodiment of 1990s extreme. There are huge trucks and prehistoric computer animation and a bird that is bigger than a Buick and a mother kangaroo that allows a young boy to free climb a sheer cliff. Also, there is battle for the Hungarian mouse delegates heart by the former mouse handy man who is now the US delegate and an Australian mouse who runs a landing strip for birds. With everything being so extreme, I fell asleep and I don't plan to pick it back up. Whether it be the large carbohydrate loaded meal or the fact that this was the tape that my brother played on repeat as kids, I just couldn't make it. It is a good movie but no The Rescuers.
My advice isn't to watch the double feature back to back. The Rescuers would compliment another Disney movie better. For being the only pair of true sequels (not counting Fantasia and Fantasia 2000 or The Great Adventures of Winnie the Pooh and Winnie the Pooh) in the official Disney cannon, these two movies couldn't be more different even though they both star Bob Newhart and Eva Gabor. The original is a classic and the sequel was the last rock Disney had to shake out before really hitting its early 1990s stride.
No comments:
Post a Comment