You know, it is quite amusing to think that this year we got two trailers to movies that the internet completely lost their minds over. First, there was the direct to video Pinocchio movie with Pauley Shore that I've already talked about, then we got this movie, the Chip & Dale... reboot? Spin-off? Original Film with classic characters? Yeah let's go with that. Why was this getting people excited? Was it because we were finally getting Chip and Dale back on the screen with all the characters we know and love? Nope! It was because of cameos!
Okay, that may be a bit harsh, there were probably a lot of people who were excited to see Chip, Dale, Gadget and the rest return, but most of the hype I saw on twitter was all of the cameos, and they squeezed a lot of cameos in this movie. Cameos from My Little Pony, South Park, He-Man, I believe I even caught a glimpse of Cow from Cow & Chicken at the end. Not to mention cameos from other Disney properties, including Scrooge McDuck, Darkwing Duck and Phineas and Ferb's mother. They even brought in "Ugly Sonic", who ended up having a bigger role than I anticipated. However, cameos aren't the only thing this movie offers, it does offer quite a bit more, it's just that I don't think any of it was that satisfying.
Everyone kind of imagined this movie would be a Who Framed Roger Rabbit kind of deal, only set in a contemporary setting. The thing is though, go back and watch Who Framed Roger Rabbit, it's not actually that funny of a movie. The draw to that movie was the characters, the setting, the mystery and the commentary. This movie does try to be funny, it's just that I don't find a lot of the jokes to really land. There was one gag I thought was cute, it was this character that was animated to look like those Image Movers Digital movies like Polar Express and Mars Needs Moms. They do kind of spell out the joke, but I feel like it was cute enough. Honestly, I can't even remember any other jokes in the movie, and I am literally writing this just after seeing it. There's a running gag where Chip hates Alvin and the Chipmunks which, really only is brought up like twice in the movie at least. There's one scene where Chip gets home from work, and the music he's listening to is "Laid to Rest" by Lamb of God, how is Lamb of God a joke? Is it because a "Cute" character is listening to "Intense" music? I mean, I do believe we've seen that joke before.
But what about the other draws to the movie? Well, honestly, I thought they were pretty weak. Like, let's take a look at the setting. Going back to Who Framed Roger Rabbit, the setting was full of iconic characters. Not that there aren't a lot of iconic characters in the backgrounds of this movie, but more often than not we're just seeing some generic animated figures. Like, how much funnier would it be if instead of two generic looking pigs talking about divorce, it was two pigs that looked like some of the Three Little Pigs? or what about making it two different versions of Porky Pig? You had Foghorn Leghorn cameo on a box, why not get Porky Pig too? They have a Muppet character at one point, and not only was the puppetry mediocre, but it was just a generic anything Muppet. How much funnier would it have been if it was one of the iconic background Muppets, like the Blue Frackle, or maybe one of the retired Sesame Street characters like Placido Flamingo or Frazzle? The cameos we had were cool, but I feel they could have been used more where it might have mattered a bit more.
But what about the mystery? Well, no spoilers but they did kind of through a curve ball with the surprise reveal, but I feel like they mostly did that as some kind of meta commentary. Like, yes, this kind of thing is cliché, what are you adding to this? I guess the point was to wave the red herring in our face, but like, what was accomplished? The point of me hitting you with a sledgehammer is to cause you immense amounts of pain, that doesn't mean it's a good thing that I succeed. Speaking of which, the commentary is... allegedly there. Like, I can see people taking away some bits of commentary about the treatment of child stars (Seriously look up Bobby Driscoll's story, it will make you vomit), the nature of reboots and the fickle fandom scene, but like, what is it really saying about any of this. It's just, "Peter Pan got old and turned to illegal activities" well, okay, that can be some commentary, and it does relate to Bobby Driscoll, but what about Macaulay Culkin? Mara Wilson? Christina Ricci? Judith Barsi? other child stars that got mistreated by the industry, the media and in some cases their own parents, seriously look up Judith Barsi's story, it will make you hate everything. I mean, the commentary is there, but I feel like it could be stronger.
I guess on the one hand, this movie is not as bad as I thought it would be. I was not cringing through it like I thought I would, and I would not say it is a terrible movie. It's just, weak. The story is weak, the humour is weak, any commentary it might be making is weak, I was pretty bored watching this movie. That being said, I was never a Rescue Rangers fan growing up, I didn't really watch any of the Disney Afternoon shows until Disney+ happened, on account of being way too young for those shows to have aired in my life. I grew up with Recess, Kim Possible, Proud Family, The Weekenders, Dave the Barbarian, and shows like that. So my attachment to Chip and Dale is not of nostalgia, more of respect. So maybe that's what I'm missing, people really seem to like this movie, as it currently has an 86 percent audience score on RottenTomatoes and a 7.3 rating on IMDb, so I'm definitely in the minority here. Look, I know people think critics are nothing more than some form of advertisement to movies and video games, but the truth of it is that we just share a point of view, and you know, you don't have to agree with it. Maybe that point of view is stupid like a lot of Turning Red takes, maybe it's just unpopular like thinking The Tragically Hip's "Now For Plan A" is a solid album and not their weakest release. So, while I would not recommend this movie by myself, the fact is, you might actually enjoy it. What would I know? I'm a critic.
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