The Rescuers Down Under

The Rescuers Down Under is a 1990 film and is the 2nd film in the Disney Renaissance.

Plot
In the Australian Outback, a young boy named Cody rescues and befriends a rare golden eagle called Marahuté, who shows him her nest and eggs. Later on, he falls into an animal trap set by Percival C. McLeach, a local poacher wanted by the Australian Rangers. When McLeach finds one of Marahuté's feathers in Cody's backpack, he realizes he knows the eagle's location, and reveals he killed another, Marahuté's mate. McLeach throws Cody's backpack to a pack of crocodiles to trick the Rangers into thinking that Cody was eaten, and kidnaps him, intending to extract Marahuté's whereabouts.

A mouse, the bait in the trap, runs off to a secret outpost, from which a telegram is sent to the Rescue Aid Society headquarters in New York City. Bernard and Miss Bianca, the RAS' elite field agents, are assigned to the mission, interrupting Bernard's attempt to propose marriage to Bianca. They go to find Orville the albatross, who aided them previously, but instead meet his brother, Wilbur, whom they convince to fly them to Australia. There, they meet Jake, a hopping mouse who is the RAS' local regional operative. Jake becomes infatuated with Bianca and flirts with her, much to Bernard's dismay. He serves as their "tour guide" and protector in search of the boy. Wilbur accidentally bends his spinal column out of shape trying to help them, so Jake sends him to the hospital (an old abandoned ambulance). As Wilbur refuses to undergo surgery and escapes his captors, his back is unintentionally straightened in the struggle with the mouse medical staff. Cured, Wilbur departs in search of his friends.

At McLeach's hideout, Cody is imprisoned with a number of captured animals after refusing to divulge Marahuté's whereabouts. Cody tries to free himself and the animals, but is thwarted by Joanna, McLeach's pet goanna. Realizing that Marahuté's eggs are Cody's weak spot, McLeach tricks Cody into thinking someone else killed Marahuté and releases him, knowing Cody will go to Marahuté's nest. Bernard, Bianca, and Jake arrive as McLeach gives chase and jump onto his halftrack to follow him. At Marahuté's nest, the mice try to warn Cody, but just then, Marahuté appears and McLeach captures her, along with Cody, Jake and Bianca. McLeach then sends Joanna to eat Marahuté's eggs, but Bernard manages to trick her using egg-shaped stones, and she leaves without harming the real eggs. Wilbur arrives at the nest, whereupon Bernard convinces him to sit on the eggs while he goes after McLeach.

McLeach takes his captives to Crocodile Falls, a huge waterfall at the end of the river he threw Cody's backpack into. He ties Cody up and hangs him over a group of crocodiles in attempts to feed him to them, but Bernard, riding a wild razorback pig he tamed using a horse whispering technique he learned from Jake, arrives and disables McLeach's vehicle. McLeach then tries to shoot the rope holding Cody above the water, but Bernard tricks Joanna into crashing into McLeach, sending both of them into the water. The crocodiles attack McLeach and Joanna, while behind them Cody falls into the water as the damaged rope breaks. While Joanna flees, McLeach fends off the crocodiles, but forgets until too late about the waterfall and plunges over it to his death. Bernard dives into the water and holds Cody long enough for Jake and Bianca to free Marahuté, allowing her to save Cody and Bernard just as they go over the waterfall. Bernard, desperate to prevent any further incidents, proposes to Bianca, who eagerly and happily accepts while Jake salutes him with a new-found respect. Safe at last, the group departs for Cody's home. Meanwhile, Marahuté's eggs finally hatch, much to Wilbur's chagrin.

Good Qualities

 * 1) First and Foremost: this film is almost universally considered to be a major improvement over it's predecessor in almost every way, something that's incredibly rare (especially when it comes to direct-to-DVD Disney sequels). As it far less sappy, padding and forgettable, and far more exciting, expansive, and memorable. It's also easily one of the greatest DTV Disney sequels ever produced, a major contributor and reason to this being how it was the first one ever made, and therefore, Disney dedicated as much effort and care to the production as this film as they did with any other one of their movies (although unfortunately, this didn't last long).
 * 2) Beautiful and incredible animation that was revolutionary for its time, is a vast improvement over the previous film and still hold up to this day. The character's movements are much more flexible and lively, and the textures in the film are much more noticeable here than either of them were in the previous film.
 * 3) *Some of the moments where said already beautiful animation really shines is the flying scenes with Marahute. They were even inspired by the films of Hayao Miyazaki such as Spirited Away, My Neighbor Totoro, and Kiki's Delivery Service, which typically feature elaborate aerial sequences.
 * 4) Excellent characterization and character development.
 * 5) The scope if far upped here, giving us more worldbuilding and exploration of the world that this movie series takes place in. The most obvious and blatant example of this is the fact that it takes place in a different place than the original, but even apart from that, there's still much more learned about the world of this franchise in this film.
 * 6) Great color palette that's noticeably much brighter and lively than in the original film. It overall helps the film be all the more stand out visually (although even without said color palette, it's still a very vibrant film, but it's still one of the many ways this film ups it's game from it's predecessor).
 * 7) Great voice acting. Which is to be expected given how it has actors like Bob Newhart (as Bernard), Eva Gabor (as Miss Bianca), John Candy (as Wilbur), Adam Ryen (as Cody), George C. Scott (as Percival C. McLeach), and Tristan Rogers (as Jake).
 * 8) McLeach is one of the best Disney villains with a well-established motive, and George C. Scott does a good job playing him.
 * 9) The film takes place in Australia, and features many of its animals from there (most of which serving as part of the huge new supporting cast introduced in this film). This includes albatrosses (Wilbur), kangaroos (Faloo), koalas (Krebbs), frill-necked lizards (Frank), and hopping mice (Jake).
 * 10) Great new characters, such as Cody, Jake, and the insanely funny and entertaining comic relief Wilbur.
 * 11) *Even apart from the new characters, Bernard and Bianca are just as likable are they were as the original film. While they were decent enough in the previous film, they're made to be much more interesting here as they're thrust into an overall much more risky and dangerous mission here than the one that they went on in the previous film. And, as a result, they have much more courageous and determined personalities here as they go on a riskier mission. Bernard's attempts to propose to Bianca here are also executed pretty well and it makes them finally getting engaged in the end all the more deserved.
 * 12) Excellent music score by Bruce Broughton.
 * 13) While the first Rescuers movie was comedic and had some drama, this sequel was more exciting and adventurous. And also much less saccharine and corny than the original film by adapting a much darker story with higher stakes and greater tension.
 * 14) Excellent story and well-written plot. As it's far more exciting, interesting and has much higher stakes than the original movie. Being a high-paced adventure film rather than a saccharine, sugar-coated rescue story.
 * 15) 'Memorable and witty dialogue, namely "These are NOT Joanna eggs!"

Bad Qualities

 * 1) Bad Release Time: It was released the same day Home Alone was dominating the box office, causing this to flop. As a result, it made Disney to not consider releasing any sequel films to theaters, but rather direct-to-video for a while.
 * 2) It can be a slight rehash of the first film in some ways.
 * 3) The rescuers themselves, while still likable, don't receive as much focus as they do in the previous film.
 * 4) There can be some filler present (although there isn't much of it).

Reception
The Rescuers Down Under received mixed-to-positive reviews upon it's release. On the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 71%, based on 28 reviews, with a weighted average score of 6.30/10. The website's critical consensus reads: "Though its story is second-rate, The Rescuers Down Under redeems itself with some remarkable production values – particularly its flight scenes."

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Trivia

 * It was one of the first Disney sequels ever produced. And as a result, it was given a bigger budget and a wide cinematic debut upon it's release.
 * This movie was Disney's first theatrical animated sequel rather than simply being a DTV release. Later ones consist of Fantasia 2000, Return to Never Land, mh:awfulmovies:The Jungle Book 2, Ralph Breaks the Internet, and Frozen II.