Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers is an American animated adventure comedy television series produced by Walt Disney Television Animation. Created by Tad Stones and Alan Zaslove, it featured established Disney characters Chip 'n' Dale in a new setting. After the episode "Catteries Not Included" aired on August 27, 1988 as a preview, the series premiered on The Disney Channel on March 4, 1989. The series continued in syndication in September 1989 with a two-hour special, Rescue Rangers: To the Rescue, later divided into five parts to air as part of the weekday run. On September 18, 1989, the series entered national syndication. It often aired on afternoons along with DuckTales, and beginning on September 10, 1990, as a part of the syndicated programming block The Disney Afternoon. The final episode aired on November 19, 1990. Reruns aired on The Disney Afternoon until 1993. Subsequently, reruns were shown on The Disney Channel starting in 1995, and on Toon Disney upon that channel's launch in 1998 but were removed a decade later. The entire run became available (as one season) as part of Disney+ as of its launch on November 12, 2019, fully remastered in high definition. The series was initially released on Blu-ray on January 25, 2022, via Disney Movie Club, then everywhere else on February 15, 2022. A live-action/animated metafictional follow-up film of the same name was released on Disney+ on May 20, 2022. From May 20, 2022, Disney XD reran the show to promote the film.

Premise

The series follows Chip and Dale, two chipmunks who operate a detective agency called Rescue Rangers. The protagonists are joined by their friends Gadget Hackwrench, Monterey Jack, and Zipper. The detectives deal with crimes that are often "too small" for the police to handle, usually with other animals as their clients. The Rescue Rangers frequently find themselves going up against two arch-villains in particular: Mafia-style tabby cat Fat Cat and mad scientist Norton Nimnul.

Episodes

Except for the five-part set of episodes made from the pilot movie, each 22-minute episode of the series was self-contained. Plot points introduced in each episode stayed in the episode and any character development didn't appear to continue through to future episodes. Most of the episodes followed a similar format, wherein the next case was presented at the start of the episode, then the bulk of the episode had the sleuths gathering clues and investigating the situation. In the last few minutes of the episode, the case was resolved, usually in dramatic fashion and the final moments would have a humorous wrap-up scene between the Rangers.

Characters

Main

Allies

Villains

Production

Rescue Rangers was originally conceived as the first of three new companion shows to Disney's popular DuckTales series, which had more than doubled the ratings among child audiences in its time slots after its debut in the fall of 1987. Disney had originally invested $20 million in DuckTales and then invested $28 million in Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers. It, along with TaleSpin and a third series, Double-O Duck (which ultimately became Darkwing Duck), would round out a programming block later known as "The Disney Afternoon" along with the previously established Disney's Adventures of the Gummi Bears to capitalize on DuckTales's success. When Tad Stones first came up with the idea for the Rescue Rangers series, Chip and Dale were not part of the show. He initially pitched doing a TV series based on The Rescuers, but Disney rejected that idea as a sequel to that film was already in production. He created a new concept with the working title of Metro Mice. The original draft starred an Indiana Jones-type mouse named Kit Colby who sported a fedora and a fluffy collared leather jacket, and the rest of the team included a chameleon, an earlier version of Gadget and a character resembling Monterey Jack with a different name. When he proposed the show in a meeting with Michael Eisner and Jeffrey Katzenberg, the idea was well received except for the character of Kit. At Eisner's suggestion, they replaced him with the chipmunk duo to give the show some established Disney characters to work with. By late 1987, two years before its television debut, the show was announced under its original proposed title of "Chip 'n Dale and the Rescue Rangers". While Chip and Dale were established characters, in order to bring them into the series only their general appearance and basic personality traits were kept. Unlike their appearances in Disney shorts, the Rescue Rangers features the chipmunk duo as very verbal, with Chip voiced by Tress MacNeille and Dale voiced by Corey Burton. Audio processing was used to speed up the voice recordings and give the voices a higher pitch, particularly Chip's. The pair were given clothes—Chip the clothing of the original-concept Kit, while the goofier Dale was reminiscent of, but not specifically modeled after, Thomas Magnum from Magnum, P.I. with his Hawaiian shirt. The series premiered in March 1989 on The Disney Channel before moving into a regular slot in syndication in September of that year. A year later, in September 1990, the series became part of the newly-launched lineup The Disney Afternoon, where it ran new episodes until November of that year, and reruns until 1993. On October 2, 1995, Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers began reruns on The Disney Channel as part of a two-hour programming block called "Block Party", airing weekdays in the late afternoon/early evening and which also included Darkwing Duck, TaleSpin and DuckTales. The show's opening theme was written (listed in the end credits as "words & music") by Mark Mueller, an ASCAP Award-winning pop music songwriter who also wrote the popular DuckTales theme song, and produced by Alf Clausen. The song performed over the title credits is sung by Jeff Pescetto (who also performed the DuckTales theme song). A full-length theme song was recorded by The Jets, a Minnesota pop group, and released on The Disney Afternoon soundtrack.

Home media

United Kingdom VHS releases

On November 6, 1989, Walt Disney Home Video released episodes from the series on video, containing a pair of episodes each.

North American VHS releases

In 1989 and 1990, Walt Disney Home Video released 10 episodes from the series on five VHS cassettes in North America, containing a pair of episodes each. Additionally, on October 1, 1993, the episode "Ghost of a Chance" was released together with the Goof Troop episode "Hallow-Weenies" on one VHS cassette as a special release called Boo-Busters and the episode "Good Times, Bat Times" was released together with the Darkwing Duck episode "Ghoul of My Dreams" on one VHS cassette as a special release called Witcheroo! Several other episodes were available on international releases.

Australia and New Zealand releases

Eleven VHS cassettes containing 23 episodes of the series were released in Australia and New Zealand.

DVD releases

North America (Region 1)

Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment has released some of the series on DVD; two volumes have been released in Region 1 thus far, featuring the first 51 episodes of the series. The first was released on November 8, 2005 (containing episodes 1–27) and the second on November 14, 2006 (containing episodes 28–51). The episodes on the first volume are arranged in production order, while the episodes on the second volume are arranged by original air date. The sets were originally packaged in a box containing 3 slipcases, one for each disc. Both volumes were reissued in standard-sized DVD cases in 2013. There has yet to be any word from Disney regarding the release of a third volume set for episodes 52–65. In 2022, the complete show was released on Blu-ray.

International (Region 2)

In the United Kingdom, Disney released one Region 2 volume in 2007, titled Chip 'n Dale - Rescue Rangers - First Collection. Despite the set being similar to the US version, it contained only 20 episodes, while having 6 language tracks: English, French, Italian, German, Spanish and Dutch. Several other similar releases were then made to other countries, but only going up to episode #20. On December 5, 2012, a second DVD set of the series was released in the UK, but as a Region 2 version of Volume 2, titled Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers Season 2. Unlike the first DVD set, this 3-disc set includes a Fastplay mode and only two language tracks: English and German, but subtitles have not been added. As of yet, there are no announced plans to release the rest of the series, or the seven episodes missing between the first two sets.

Video on demand

The series was released on Amazon Video in 2013 and was free for Amazon Prime members. However, it was unavailable for some time. The series was brought back to Amazon Instant Video in the United States in 2016, being currently available for purchase in SD and HD. The complete series is also currently available for purchase in SD and HD on iTunes and Google Play (Volume 2 on Google Play is only available in SD), also released in 2016. The complete series was released alongside the release of Disney's streaming service Disney+ on November 12, 2019. There, it is cropped to 16:9 widescreen format, unlike the Blu-ray release (which retains its original aspect ratio).

Blu-ray releases

Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment has released the entire series on Blu-ray Disc in a 2022 multi-region, high definition six-disc set, keeping its original image ratio (1.33:1). All episodes have been scanned from the original negatives, except episode 32 of season 2 "Prehysterical Pet" whose negatives could not be located. They are not sorted in the original airing order, nor the intended chronological order (e.g., the pilot episodes "Rescue Rangers to the Rescue - parts 1-5" are on disc 4).

Reception

Critical reception

Hal Erickson of Television Cartoon Shows, An Illustrated Encyclopedia compared the show to DuckTales, stating that it was "consummately produced and written," and its animation "succeeded in putting most other overseas output to shame." Emily Ashby of Common Sense Media rated the series 4 out of 5 stars, complimented the depiction of positive messages, citing teamwork and saying the series succeeds to depict a female character as a role model, while finding the show family-friendly and entertaining. IGN named Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers as the 60th-best in the Top 100 Animated TV Shows. Jeremy Hayes of BuzzFeed ranked Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers 4th in their "Best Cartoons From The '80s" list. Tyler B. Searle of Collider included in their "10 Best Animated Disney Channel Shows" list.

Accolades

The show was nominated at the 17th Daytime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Animated Program.

Other media

Television

Merchandise

In fall of 1989, McDonald's produced a series of Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers themed Happy Meal that included toy versions of the main characters riding small vehicles. Scenes from the series were incorporated into the TV commercials advertising the Happy Meals. Ice cream versions of Chip 'n Dale were made by Good Humor.

Theme parks

Comic books

A monthly comic book based on the show was published by Disney Comics in 1990, that ran for 19 issues. Subsequent comic stories were printed in Disney Adventures from 1990 to 1995, as well as in the Disney Afternoon comic book published by Marvel Comics. They also had a series from Boom Studios that was published for 8 issues from December 2010 to June 2011.

Cameo appearances

In the first Darkwing Duck comic story from KaBoom!, Gadget makes a cameo gag.

BOOM! revival

From September 2010, Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers was revived by comics publisher Boom! Studios, as an ongoing monthly series slated to begin in December of the same year. This choice was based on the extreme and unexpected popularity of Darkwing Duck, another Disney Afternoon property which BOOM! revived earlier in 2010. The series featured comics writer Ian Brill, and artist Leonel Castellani. Eight issues were published, collecting the two 4-part stories into two trade paperback books. The comic series was cancelled May 2011, to be replaced by the launch of DuckTales. The Boom! Studios series was reprinted in IDW Publishing's Disney's Afternoon Giant in October 2018.

Video games

Other games

Film

A live-action CGI feature-length film directed by Akiva Schaffer; written by Dan Gregor and Doug Mand; produced by David Hoberman and Todd Lieberman; and starring John Mulaney and Andy Samberg as the voices of Chip and Dale was released on May 20, 2022, on Disney+. The film also stars Eric Bana and Dennis Haysbert as the voices of Monterey Jack and Zipper while both Tress MacNeille and Corey Burton reprise their roles of Gadget and Zipper as well as Chip and Dale for a brief scene.