Why Disney should greenlight the series

The most obvious route for a Rescue Rangers reboot would be a straight-up continuation of the original 1988 cartoon series. Back in the 1980s and 1990s, Disney’s television animation department repurposed a lot of classic characters and found a new format for them. Goofy became a single dad on Goof Troop, Scrooge McDuck and his nephews Huey, Dewey and Louie became Indiana Jones-like treasure hunters in DuckTales and, strangest of all, the chattery chipmunks Chip and Dale became private detectives.

Prior to this, Chip and Dale had been pretty much regular little chipmunks who mostly existed to annoy the crap out of Mickey Mouse or Pluto. Chip was the smarter one, and Dale was the dumber one, but both were still just regular-sized chipmunks mostly motivated by eating something.

If it seems like an odd fit for Disney to have made these two simplistic characters into heroic private eyes, it’s because Chip and Dale were not part of the original plan for the series. Instead, Rescue Rangers began as a follow-up to The Rescuers, the 1977 Disney film about adventurous mice. However, a sequel to that movie was in the works at that time (1990’s The Rescuers Down Under) which required Rescue Rangers be reworked. Eventually, a different set of rodents were plugged into the premise, and Disney began production on Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers.

For Rescue Rangers, creators Tad Stones and Alan Zaslove took the simple dynamic of “smart chipmunk” (Chip) and “dumb chipmunk” (Dale) and expanded on it to give them fleshed out personalities. Chip became the daring, serious-minded leader of the Rescue Rangers operation, while Dale became his lazy, dumb, funny counterpoint. They also backed up the duo with a supporting cast consisting of the brainy female pilot mouse named Gadget, the gluttonous Australian mouse Monterey Jack, and Monterey Jack’s spunky fly friend, Zipper.

Along with DuckTales, TaleSpin, and Darkwing Duck, Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers turned “The Disney Afternoon” into a major animation block in syndication (which means it appeared on different channels in different markets). While Rescue Rangers was not quite as popular as either of those duck-themed programs in the same block, Rescue Rangers ran for three seasons totaling 65 episodes, which was considered the “magic number” back then that a cartoon needed to successfully run in syndication Monday through Friday.

However, while a straight-up, unchanged continuation of the series would no doubt please original fans in the same way X-Men ‘97 did for devotees of the original X-Men cartoon, it seems more likely that Disney would revamp the show for a modern audience, much like it did with DuckTales.

The 2017 DuckTales reboot modernized the looks of the characters in the original show and hired major voice actors to populate the cast. Dr. Who star David Tennant became the voice of the money-hungry Scottish mallard Scrooge McDuck, while Danny Pudi, Ben Schwartz and Bobby Moynihan became Huey, Dewey, and Louie with far more fleshed out personalities. DuckTales’ absolute banger of a theme song wisely remained the same, though a new cover was done by Felicia Barton to help separate the new series from the original.

The new DuckTales lasted for three seasons totaling 75 episodes. While that felt way too short for fans of the series, it had the effect of boosting nostalgia for the original cartoon, which is usually what happens with the very best of reboots (as this was).

Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers could be similarly reimagined. Just modernize the look, hire some good voice actors that generate excitement and don’t skimp on the writing. Then, re-record the original theme song without changing it too much, as the original was great and very catchy (without ever being annoying).

Or Disney could continue what it started with the 2022 movie. If you missed it, 2022’s Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers wasn’t just a long episode of the old cartoon or even a simple reboot. Instead it was a meta take on the old cartoon that drew inspiration from the animated classic Who Framed Roger Rabbit.

In it, Chip and Dale were established as actors who simply starred in the 1990s Disney Afternoon show. When we catch up with them, Dale is mostly working conventions with other out-of-work cartoon characters, meeting fans and signing autographs, while Chip sells insurance. Most interesting of all, the movie depicted Chip in 2D the way the old cartoon did, while Dale had been converted into 3D computer generated animation, an upgrade he chose to keep up with the times.

The movie also gave them new voices with John Mulaney for Chip and Andy Samberg for Dale with the conceit that the chipmunk-y voices done for the series were just character voices. While some purists recoiled at that, it made the movie more palatable and allowed the characters to feel real enough to carry an entire film. And their personalities, while toned down, preserved the central dynamic of a more serious Chip and a laid-back Dale.

Image: Disney

Granted, a live-action/cartoon hybrid with both 2D and 3D elements may be too expensive for an ongoing series — the film cost about $70 million — it seems reasonable to tone down the number of celebrity cameos as well as appearances from cartoon characters Disney doesn’t own (the movie has a memorable appearance by Ugly Sonic). Additionally, plenty of other Disney Plus shows have only a few episodes per season with budgets in the millions.

And if a Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers reboot following the 2022 film really is cost prohibitive, the least Disney could do is announce a sequel already. After all, Disney already found a new Chip and Dale dynamic that really works, so why not give us more of it?

Chip ‘n Dale Rescue Rangers is streaming on Disney Plus.