SCREEN | Bootlegging Nostalgia – 'Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers'

"I don't wear pants!"

Walt Disney Pictures / Mandeville Films

The Lonely Island member and director Akiva Schaffer skewers our current wave of nostalgic cinematic reboots of once-popular properties in a self-referential, live-action modern-day version of the hit 1980-90s Disney cartoon, Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers.

Starring John Mulaney and Andy Samberg as the voices of the animated chipmunk actors who played the eponymous crime-solving detective team in the "filmed" television show within the film in a world where cartoon characters live in real-life, there's a strong contemporary deconstruction of the Who Framed Roger Rabbit detective formula where so many non-Disney characters show up for memorable cameos and one-off jokes.

Screenwriters Dan Gregor and Doug Mand layer the ironic comedy with tons of lively humour with some truly wild references and cultural touchstones. It's hard to believe this film even exists as its just as much about our collective love for animated children's programming like the original cartoon as it is about mining our reverence for the things we once loved.

There are so many Hollywood insider riffs about the state of showbiz pop culture. Schaeffer uses Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers to satirize what gets to be made as a movie as mainstream entertainment. It's a sort of crossover film reboot much more for adults than children with its sophisticated humour about intellectual property and nostalgia.

Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers is available to stream on Disney+.


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