15. The Rescuers

DIRECTED BY WOLFANG REITHERMAN, JONH LOUNSBERY & ART STEVENS

WRITTEN BY:  LARRY CLEMMONS, VANCE GERRY, KEN ANDERSON, FRANK THOMAS, BURNY MATTINSON, FRED LUCKY, DICK SEBAT & DAVE MICHENER

STARRING: BOB NEWHART, EVA GABOR, MICHELLE STACY, GERALDINE PAGE, JOE FLYNN, JIM JORDAN, JOHN MCINTIRE, JEANETTE NOLAN, JANNETTE NOLAN, PAT BUTTRAM & BERNARD FOX

RELEASE DATE: JUNE 22, 1977

AGE RECOMMENDED: 4 & UP

Confession time I have never seen this movie in English, ergo I can say that The Spanish translation is really good. This movie took advantage of Annie’s trend and release a movie of the little orphan Penny. The movie is a dark story based in two stories by Margery Sharp. the movies is a solid, child-friendly work which will keep little ones content, if not mesmerised.

PLOT

The film begins in an abandoned river boat in Devil’s Bayou, where orphan Penny drops a message in a bottle containing a plea for help into the river. The bottle is carried out to sea and washes up in New York, where it is recovered by the Rescue Aid Society, formed by mice. The Hungarian representative, Miss Bianca, volunteers to accept the case and chooses the janitor Bernard as her co-agent. The two visit Morningside Orphanage, where Penny lived, and meet an old cat named Rufus. He tells them about a wicked woman named Madame Medusa who once tried to lure Penny into her car and may have abducted Penny this time.

The mice travel to Medusa’s pawn shop, where they discover that she and her partner, Mr. Snoops, are on a quest to find the world’s largest diamond, the Devil’s Eye, and Mr. Snoops is in the Devil’s Bayou with Penny, whom they have indeed kidnapped.^[1] With the help of analbatross named Orville, and a dragonfly named Evinrude, the mice follow Medusa to the bayou. There, they learn that Penny was captured to enter a hole that leads down into the pirates’ cave where the Devil’s Eye is located.

Thanks to Miss Bianca’s perfume, the mice attract the attention of Medusa’s pet alligators, Brutus and Nero. Bernard and Miss Bianca escape, and find Penny. Wanting to escape tonight, Bernard orders Evinrude to get Ellie Mae and the other neighbours who loathe Medusa, which he accepts. However, in the middle of his quest, Evinrude is thwarted by a flock of hungry bats, delaying him. The following morning, Medusa and Mr Snoops send Penny down into the cave to find the gem, unaware that Miss Bianca and Bernard are hiding in her skirt pocket. The three soon find the stone within a pirate skull; as Penny pries the mouth open with a sword, the mice push it out from within, but soon the oceanic tide rises and floods the cave. Miss Bianca, Penny, and Bernard barely manage to retrieve the diamond and escape.

The greedy Medusa steals the diamond for herself, attempting to run off with the diamond, leaving Snoops without any shares, and hides it in Penny’s teddy bear. When she trips over a cable set as a trap by Bernard and Bianca, Medusa loses the bear to Penny, who runs away with it. Medusa retaliates with gunfire, causing the mice to flee until they are met by Brutus and Nero, her alligators. Bernard and Miss Bianca trick them into entering a cage-like elevator, trapping them.

Two of the gang set off Mr. Snoops’s fireworks, making the boat sink. Meanwhile Penny and the mice commandeer Medusa’s “swampmobile,” a motor-boat used by Medusa to travel in the swamp. Medusa attempts pursuit, but is thwarted. Medusa is left clinged to the boat’s smoke stacks with Brutus and Nero attacking below.

Back in New York, the Rescue Aid Society watch TV to hear that the Devil’s Eye is given to the Smithsonian Institution and Penny is adopted by a new father and mother. Bernard and Miss Bianca remain partners in the Rescue Aid Society’s missions and soon after depart on Orville, accompanied by Evinrude, to a new rescue mission.

Penny: Oh, here. I brought you something. 
Rufus the Cat: Grand notion! Cat-nip snaps. 
Penny: [giggles] No, they’re ginger snaps. 
Rufus the Cat: Well, an old codger like me could use a little ginger. 
Penny: I taked two extra ones for lunch today. We’re not s’posed to do that. 
Rufus the Cat: You can trust me. I won’t tattletale on you. 
Penny: I love you, Rufus