Saturday, February 11, 2012

Daytime Heroes: Chip 'N' Dale Rescue Rangers (1989)

Disney's mischief-making chipmunks, Chip 'N' Dale, were given their own series at the end of the 80's. Chip 'N' Dale Rescue Rangers initially previewed on the then-premium Disney Channel in August of 1988, then went to series in March of '89 before going into national syndication 6 months later. The series introduced three new characters as the remainder of the Rangers: Monterey Jack, an Australian mouse; Zipper, a housefly who is also Jack's sidekick; and Gadget Hackwrench, the team's answer to, well, MacGyver, as she's not only the team's pilot, but also an ace inventor, and the object of Chip & Dale's affection, however unrequited.

The producers found a way to tell Chip & Dale apart. Chip is the Indiana Jones clone, complete with a fedora and jacket. Dale opts for the Magnum P. I. look with the Hawaiian shirt, but otherwise can't maintain his focus while on a mission. The series lasted 4 years, mostly reruns after 1990, as part of the Disney Afternoon anthology series, with the final two years being all reruns. The family pop group, The Jets, are credited with performing the show's theme song.

Edit, 6/25/23: Let's try an intro:



Boom! Studios revived the series for a short-lived comic book that went 8 issues, the last published in June 2011 under their Kaboom! imprint. With Disney now owning Marvel, and if there's enough interest, maybe the Rangers will return.

Rating: A.

6 comments:

magicdog said...

This was a cute show.

How can you not love a group whose motto is, "No case too big, no case too small"?

Most of what we saw on the Disney Afternoon lineup was above average anyway, so viewers couldn't lose.

Didn't know the Jets had done the opening theme.

hobbyfan said...

Well, as I said, they were credited.

Now, how many girls do you think took Gadget as a role model? And maybe wanted her to hook up with either Chip or Dale?

magicdog said...

I had thought of Gadget as a great role model since she was so mechanically adept and her mind never seemed to stop working on inventing things.


In the romance department, I would have hooked her up with Chip. He was more serious of the chipmunk duo and would have balanced out Gadget's Einstein-like eccentric personality.

Then again, can chipmunks marry mice?

hobbyfan said...

In cartoons, stranger things have happened.

Scoobyfan1 said...

I'll admit, Chip and Dale Rescue Rangers was one of the shows I grew up with because I was like 5 when this show debuted.

It was a good show and it's definitely better then most cartoons are today, I know that much.

One thing's interesting though: how come everything that's older(at least on TV and radio) is better then most stuff today?

hobbyfan said...

Being an old saw myself, I'm trying not to be biased, but the problem is that there isn't enough true originality in Hollywood nowadays.

Disney knew how to utilize some of their mid-line characters, such as Chip & Dale and Baloo (TaleSpin) back then. Today's creators there? I'm not so sure.