50 Fun Facts About The Rescuers

Who voices Bernard in The Rescuers?

Bernard's dislike of flying was borrowed from the comedian's own personality.

Which Hungarian-born actress voices Miss Bianca?

Bianca was made the Society's Hungarian delegate because of her voice actress; the same actress later voiced Duchess in The Aristocats.

Which author wrote the novels The Rescuers is based on?

Walt optioned The Rescuers (1959) and Miss Bianca (1962) in 1962.

What is the name of the mouse organisation Bernard and Bianca belong to?

It is an international body dedicated to helping abduction victims around the world, headquartered under the United Nations.

What is Bernard's job at the Society?

Miss Bianca picks the timid janitor as her co-agent anyway; he is also superstitious about the number 13.

Which number is Bernard superstitious about?

He also hates flying, a trait lifted from Bob Newhart himself.

Who voices the villainous Madame Medusa?

Phyllis Diller had been cast when the villainess was still called the Grand Duchess.

What is the name of the giant diamond Medusa wants Penny to retrieve?

It is hidden in a blowhole only a child is small enough to enter, which is why Penny is kidnapped.

Where does Medusa hold Penny captive?

The setting was moved to the swamps of the American South after earlier drafts tried Siberia, Cuba and the Antarctic.

What kind of business does Madame Medusa run?

Penny finds the mice's message in a bottle from the orphanage before she is spirited to the swamp.

Who voices Medusa's bumbling partner Mr. Snoops?

It was his final role; he died in 1974, three years before the film came out.

Which journalist was caricatured as Mr. Snoops?

He had been interviewing animators at the studio and said he was practically tricked into posing; he called it beyond his wildest dreams of glory.

What are the names of Medusa's two pet crocodiles?

They were adapted from the bloodhounds Tyrant and Torment in Margery Sharp's books, and turn on their mistress at the end.

What is the name of the albatross who flies Bernard and Bianca to the bayou?

Named for one of the Wright brothers, probably via Newhart's Merchandising the Wright Brothers routine; his brother gets the sequel.

Who voices the albatross, coming out of a 16-year retirement to do so?

Radio's Fibber McGee was 80 and had not performed since his wife and partner Marian died in 1961; it was his last public performance.

What kind of creature is Evinrude?

He powers a leaf boat across the swamp and is named after a brand of outboard motors.

What is Evinrude named after?

Sound-effects veteran Jimmy MacDonald came out of retirement to provide his buzzing.

Which elderly cat comforts Penny at Morningside Orphanage?

Ollie Johnston designed him as his last character before retiring after 40 years at Disney; his poem Faith Is a Bluebird carries the film's theme.

What do the swamp muskrats contribute to the climactic chase?

The moonshine that revives Bernard and Evinrude ends up powering Medusa's swamp-mobile.

In which year did Walt Disney first option the Rescuers books?

Otto Englander's first treatment featured a Norwegian poet imprisoned in a Siberia-like Black Castle.

Why did Walt shelve the 1960s version of The Rescuers?

The story had drifted into a Cuban escape plot thick with international intrigue.

Which historical king was to be rescued in a 1968 treatment of the story?

It was one of several abandoned takes before the simple kidnapped-girl story won out.

Which Sharp novel did the young animators first try to adapt in the early 1970s?

Its penguin-and-polar-bear plot was dropped because the Arctic was too stark a background for the animators.

Which jazz singer recorded dialogue and songs as Louie the Bear before the role was cut?

Redd Foxx was to play his friend Gus the Lion; by November 1973 the bear was gone, leaving only a zoo roar that scares Bernard.

Which earlier Disney villainess was sketched as the film's antagonist before Medusa was created?

Ken Anderson drew her in alligator-leather chic and bell-bottoms, but Milt Kahl refused to take over Marc Davis's character.

On whom did Milt Kahl base Madame Medusa's appearance?

She was Lillian Disney's niece and they divorced in 1978; Kahl animated almost all of Medusa himself as his last Disney character.

What was the Madame Medusa character's working name when Phyllis Diller was cast?

Her diamond-stealing motive came from the Diamond Duchess in Miss Bianca.

Why did the writers decide against making Bernard and Bianca married detectives?

The pair's tentative courtship runs through both films.

Which singer's bullfrog leader of the swamp volunteers was cut from the film?

The swamp creatures were first written as a drilling home guard before becoming friendly volunteers.

What bird was first proposed as the mice's transport before the albatross?

Ollie Johnston remembered a True-Life Adventures film of albatrosses' clumsy landings and suggested the ungainly bird instead.

Which co-director died of a heart attack during production in 1976?

Animator Art Stevens was promoted to replace him alongside Reitherman.

Which of Disney's Nine Old Men scouted art schools for the trainees who joined the film?

More than 60 artists entered the programme and over 25 were hired, among them Glen Keane and Ron Clements.

The Rescuers was the last joint effort of which three veteran animators?

It was also Don Bluth's first Disney film as a directing animator rather than an assistant.

Which future Little Mermaid director was among the trainees hired for The Rescuers?

Glen Keane and Andy Gaskill came through the same programme.

What improvement to xerography gave The Rescuers softer lines than earlier films?

Since 101 Dalmatians the process had only produced hard black outlines.

Which songwriting duo wrote Tomorrow Is Another Day for the film?

Reitherman showed them storyboards of the mice on Orville; the pair met on a double date in 1973.

For which 1976 film were the Rescuers songwriters Oscar-nominated during production?

Gonna Fly Now, written with Bill Conti; Connors had earlier sung with the Teddy Bears on To Know Him Is to Love Him.

Which song did Reitherman prefer over Connors and Robbins' The Need To Be Loved?

Sammy Fain wrote it, though the women were asked to write new lyrics; Shelby Flint sang most of the score's songs.

Which earlier Disney film do the narrated songs of The Rescuers hark back to?

For the first time since 1942, the main songs were sung over the narrative rather than by the characters.

Which piece of music serves as the albatross's leitmotif?

The albatross's runway take-offs get the wild blue yonder treatment.

Where did The Rescuers premiere on June 19, 1977?

It played with the nature documentary A Tale of Two Critters.

Which two blockbusters did The Rescuers out-gross in France in 1977?

It was the year's top film in both France and West Germany, with 7.2 million and 10.3 million admissions.

Which new featurette accompanied the 1983 re-release?

It was Mickey's first theatrical appearance in 30 years.

Roughly how many videotapes did Disney recall in January 1999?

Two frames during the flight over New York contained a blurry topless image inserted in post-production decades earlier.

During which scene do the two offending frames of the 1999 recall appear?

They appear twice in non-consecutive frames and cannot be seen at the normal 24 frames per second.

Which critic called it the best Disney animated feature in a decade or more?

Siskel, by contrast, gave it two and a half stars and called it lightweight next to Pinocchio.

What precedent did The Rescuers set in 1990?

The Rescuers Down Under moved the action to the Australian Outback.

How many copies of the Medusa sculpture Teddy Goes With Me, My Dear were made?

The number nods to the film's release year; it was priced at $299 and retired the day it came out.

Where do Bernard and Bianca still make regular meet-and-greet appearances?

They no longer appear regularly at the American parks.

Which vehicle from the film was added to Disney Infinity 2.0?

Bernard, Bianca, Penny, Medusa and Orville are all playable in Disney Magic Kingdoms as well.