Monday, March 31, 2008

Little Golden Book Monday #50

Today's Little Golden Book is Walt Disney's The Rescuers Down Under. The book came out in 1980, the same year as this, the 29th animated Disney feature film was released to theaters.
I remember seeing this movie when it first came out, and I remember that I really liked it. I still do. So, it would seem that my taste in Disney animated films does not follow the norm. Some of my favorite Disney films include Atlantis The Lost Empire, Home on the Range and The Rescuers Down Under, all of which seem to be considered lesser films by most Disney fans.
But, come on, this one is just simply a fun movie, and it has some great voices, including; Bob Newhart as Bernard, Eva Gabor as Miss Bianca, and John Candy and Wilbur. What's not to like.

Here are some fun facts I found about the film on the IMDB.com web site:

* Disney's first animated sequel.

* This was the first 100% digital feature film ever made. The animation and backgrounds were done traditionally but all of the coloring, many effects and the final film printing was all done digitally. This was the first film produced with Disney's Academy Award Winning "CAPS" production system.

* The first Disney animated feature to use fully-rendered CG backgrounds (for the aerial shots of the UN building and the Sydney Opera House, and the globe for the relay sequence).

* Adam Ryen, the boy who voiced Cody also dubbed the same character in his native Norway.

* A third Rescuers movie was planned for 1996, but after the death of Eva Gabor, this and all future Rescuers movies were scrapped.

* The failure of this feature discouraged Disney from releasing later sequels theatrically.

* Originally meant as a straight-to-video production.

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