Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers (TV series)
Two chipmunks run a detective agency for animal clients.
Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers is an American animated adventure comedy television series created by Tad Stones and Alan Zaslove and produced by Walt Disney Television Animation. It features the established Disney chipmunks Chip and Dale as the leaders of a detective agency, and premiered on The Disney Channel on March 4, 1989, after a preview episode aired on August 27, 1988. The series later became a cornerstone of the syndicated programming block The Disney Afternoon.
Quick Facts
- Based on
- Chip 'n' Dale, Bill Justice
- Genre
- Adventure
- Comedy
- Mystery
- Creator
- Tad Stones; Alan Zaslove
- Director
- John Kimball
- Bob Zamboni
- Rick Leon
- Jamie Mitchell
- Theme music
- Mark Mueller
- Voices
- Corey Burton
- Tress MacNeille
- Peter Cullen
- Jim Cummings
- Opening theme
- "Rescue Rangers Theme" by Jeff Pescetto
- End theme
- "Rescue Rangers Theme" (Instrumental)
Facts from the source article.
Characters
The Rescue Rangers are led by Chip, voiced by Tress MacNeille. Dale, voiced by Corey Burton, helped found the team. Monterey Jack, an Australian mouse voiced by Peter Cullen in season one and Jim Cummings thereafter, provides the group's strength but is easily distracted by cheese. Gadget Hackwrench, also voiced by Tress MacNeille, is a young blonde mouse who serves as pilot, mechanic, and second-in-command. Zipper, voiced by Corey Burton, is a small bluish-green housefly and a longtime companion of Monterey Jack. The Rangers' first adversary was crime boss Aldrin Klordane, voiced by Alan Oppenheimer. Fat Cat, voiced by Jim Cummings, is a grey tabby cat who began as Klordane's pet and kept up his criminal work after his owner was caught. Fat Cat's minions include Wart, a lizard voiced by Jim Cummings imitating Peter Lorre who is smarter than the others; Mole, a slow-witted mole voiced by Corey Burton; Mepps, an orange alley cat voiced by Peter Cullen; and Snout, a rat in a turtleneck voiced by Corey Burton imitating Paul Lynde. Another major enemy is Professor Norton Nimnul, voiced by Jim Cummings, a mad scientist who once collaborated with Klordane and has a fear of bats. Rat Capone, voiced by Jim Cummings imitating Edward G. Robinson, is a rat crime lord. His employees include Arnold Mousenegger, voiced by Brian Cummings, and Sugar Ray Lizard, voiced by Chuck McCann. Rat Capone also keeps a pet piranha named Mikey. Two police officers, Kirby and Muldoon, both voiced by Peter Cullen, handle arrests of human criminals like Professor Nimnul. Kirby is a muscular African-American with black hair and a mustache, while Muldoon is a redheaded Caucasian with buckteeth. Detective Donald Drake, voiced by Rob Paulsen, and his police dog K-9 Plato, voiced by Alan Oppenheimer, are a soon-to-retire duo who were framed by Fat Cat, later cleared, and helped capture Aldrin Klordane.
Production
Rescue Rangers was originally conceived as one of three companion shows to DuckTales, which had doubled child-audience ratings after its 1987 debut. Disney invested $28 million in Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers, following a $20 million investment in DuckTales. The series, along with TaleSpin and Double-O Duck (later Darkwing Duck), would form The Disney Afternoon programming block with Disney's Adventures of the Gummi Bears. Tad Stones initially pitched a series based on The Rescuers, but Disney rejected it because a sequel was in production. He created a new concept titled Metro Mice, starring an Indiana Jones-type mouse named Kit Colby. Michael Eisner and Jeffrey Katzenberg received the idea well but suggested replacing Kit with Chip and Dale. By late 1987, the show was announced as Chip 'n Dale and the Rescue Rangers. Only the chipmunks' general appearance and basic personality traits were kept from their earlier shorts; they became very verbal, with Chip voiced by Tress MacNeille and Dale by Corey Burton. Audio processing raised the pitch of their voices, especially Chip's. Chip wore the clothing of the original Kit, while Dale's Hawaiian shirt was reminiscent of Thomas Magnum from Magnum, P.I.
Home media
Walt Disney Home Video released episodes on VHS beginning November 6, 1989, with five cassettes in North America each containing two episodes. On October 1, 1993, the episode Ghost of a Chance was released with a Goof Troop episode on a VHS called Boo-Busters, and Good Times, Bat Times was released with a Darkwing Duck episode on a VHS called Witcheroo! Eleven VHS cassettes with 23 episodes were released in Australia and New Zealand. Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment released two DVD volumes in Region 1: Volume 1 on November 8, 2005 (episodes 1–27) and Volume 2 on November 14, 2006 (episodes 28–51). The first volume arranges episodes in production order; the second by original air date. Both were reissued in standard DVD cases in 2013. No third volume was released, leaving episodes 52–65 incomplete on DVD. In the United Kingdom, a Region 2 volume titled Chip 'n Dale - Rescue Rangers - First Collection was released in 2007 with 20 episodes and six language tracks. A second UK DVD set, Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers Season 2, was released on December 5, 2012, with English and German tracks but no subtitles. The complete series was released on Blu-ray on January 25, 2022, via Disney Movie Club and widely on February 15, 2022.
Other media
The Rescue Rangers make minor appearances in the 2017 DuckTales reboot. In the episode Double-O-Duck in You Only Crash Twice!, they are escaped laboratory test animals granted sentience by an intelligence ray from the criminal syndicate F.O.W.L., and they help Launchpad McQuack. In The Last Adventure!, they are among adventurers captured by F.O.W.L. and later freed. Good Humor made ice cream versions of Chip and Dale. In January 1993, Gadget's Go Coaster, a junior roller coaster, opened in Mickey's Toontown at Disneyland, and a similar attraction opened in Tokyo Disneyland in April 1996. In 2023, an orchestrated instrumental version of the theme song was added to the refurbished Mickey's Toontown. Boom Studios published an eight-issue series from December 2010 to June 2011. Capcom released a platform video game for the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1990.
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