Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers  is a film with so many clever ideas and concepts, but is marred by sticking too close to the Disney formula.

From 1988-1990 there was a show on the Disney Afternoon called Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers. The show was about Chip and Dale along with their friends Monterey Jack, the muscle who’s a cheese addict; Gadget, inventor and brains of the operation; and a fly named Zipper who spoke in buzzing sounds and squeaks.

This year a movie based on the show was released to Disney+. The movie is simply called Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers (2022), directed by Akiva Schaffer. 

The movie takes place in a universe similar to ours where Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers was a real show but all the fictional characters played themselves, similar to Who Framed Roger Rabbit. 

It’s been 30 years since the show went off the air, and Monterey Jack’s (Eric Bana) cheese addiction has gotten the better of him. He owes a substantial amount of money to a loan shark named Sweet Pete (Will Arnett), who is in actuality a grown up Peter Pan. 

He calls Chip (John Mulaney) and Dale (Andy Samberg), who haven’t spoken to each other for years after having a falling out. Monterey asks for their help, but before they can get Monterey the money he needs, he’s kidnapped by Swete Pete, meaning it’s up to Chip and Dale to team up and go on an adventure one last time.

This movie is an animation fan’s dream come true, with so many references to past and present animation, you may not catch all of the references in the first viewing. 

It’s also full of clever concepts and jokes that are actually really well thought out. 

For instance, there’s a place literally called the uncanny valley where early 2000s CGI characters live, and the cats from the film version of Cats are the alley cats. Another example of a clever concept is that Dale had undergone surgery to become a fully CGI character. The final clever idea I’ll mention is that if you don’t pay off your debt to Peter Pan, he’ll modify you and ship you off to star in foreign knock off films.

The film can get kind of dark at times, not so dark that it gets depressing, but some of the jokes make the audience laugh on just how insane and dark it is, like what Peter does to you if you don’t pay off your debts or how Peter Pan’s backstory in this film strongly mirrors what happened to Pan’s original voice in real life. 

The film feels less like a rip roaring adventure and more like two washed up actors trying to get back into the business while trying to save their friend.

The acting from the cast is all around strong, John Mulaney and Andy Samburg do well in their roles, while they lack the well known high-pitch voice they still have good comedic timing and make the characters stand out from each other.

Despite all the clever ideas and satire, the film still has flaws.

There’s a subplot with a detective character that’s physically played by a real person named Ellie (KiKi Layne), similar to the character of Eddie Valiant from Who Framed Roger Rabbit. But where Eddie was just as interesting as the cartoon characters he was interacting with and was a fully fleshed out character in his own right, Ellie is pretty bland. 

As mentioned before, Dale is a fully CG character throughout most of the film, but Chip is supposed to be a 2D character. But it’s obvious that Chip, along with all the supposedly 2D characters, are just 3D models with a 2D looking filter. 

This is distracting because of how obviously 3D it looks at times. To go back to Who Framed Roger Rabbit, all the 2D characters were painstakingly hand animated and matched up with the actors, and the results were well worth it.

Meanwhile, there’s barely any Gadget, Monterey Jack, or Zipper; it’s mostly just Chip and Dale. So if you’re hoping to see the rest of the rescue rangers in Chip ‘n Dale: The Rescue Rangers, you’ll be sorely disappointed.

Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers is a film filled with many clever in-jokes and ideas, but is held back by some weak writing and iffy looking CGI.

Patrick will star in new Highline Feature Patrick and T.M: Paper Pushers.