Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers is an American animated television series created by Tad Stones and Alan Zaslove and produced by Walt Disney Television Animation. It featured established Disney characters Chip 'n' Dale in a new setting. After the episode "Catteries Not Included" aired on August 27, 1988, as a preview, the series premiered on The Disney Channel on March 4, 1989.Disney A to Z: The updated official Encyclopedia, Dave Smith p 101 The series continued in syndication in September 1989 with a two-hour special, Rescue Rangers: To the Rescue, later divided into five parts to air as part of the weekday run." On September 18, 1989, the series entered national syndication. It often aired on afternoons along with DuckTales, and beginning on September 10, 1990, as a part of the syndicated programming block The Disney Afternoon. The final episode aired on November 19, 1990.
Reruns aired on The Disney Afternoon until 1993. Subsequently, reruns were shown on The Disney Channel starting in 1995, and on Toon Disney upon that channel's launch in 1998 but were removed a decade later. The entire run became available (as one season) as part of Disney+ as of its launch on November 12, 2019, fully remastered in high definition. The series was initially released on Blu-ray on January 25, 2022, via Disney Movie Club, then everywhere else on February 15, 2022.
A live-action/animated metafictional follow-up film of the same name was released on Disney+ on May 20, 2022. From that same day, Disney XD reran the show to promote the film.
Premise The series follows the two chipmunks Chip and Dale who operate a detective agency called Rescue Rangers. The protagonists are joined by their friends Gadget Hackwrench, Monterey Jack, and Zipper. The detectives deal with crimes that are often "too small" for the police to handle, usually with other animals as their clients. The Rescue Rangers frequently find themselves going up against two arch-villains in particular: Mafia-style tabby cat Fat Cat and mad scientist Norton Nimnul.
Episodes
Except for the five-part set of episodes made from the pilot movie, each 22-minute episode of the series was self-contained. Plot points introduced in each episode stayed in the episode and any character development didn't appear to continue through to future episodes. Most of the episodes followed a similar format, wherein the next case was presented at the start of the episode, then the bulk of the episode had the sleuths gathering clues and investigating the situation. In the last few minutes of the episode, the case was resolved, usually in dramatic fashion and the final moments would have a humorous wrap-up scene between the Rangers.
Characters Main Chip (voiced by Tress MacNeille) is the leader of the Rescue Rangers. Dale (voiced by Corey Burton) is the co-founder of the Rescue Rangers. Monterey Jack (voiced by Peter Cullen in season 1 and Jim Cummings in seasons 2 and 3) is an Australian mouse who serves as the muscle of the Rescue Rangers, but is weak against "cheese attacks" every time he sees or smells cheese. Gadget Hackwrench (voiced by Tress MacNeille) is a young blond-haired mouse who is the team's pilot, mechanic, and second-in-command. Zipper (voiced by Corey Burton) is a tiny bluish-green housefly and a longtime friend of Monterey Jack.
Villains Aldrin Klordane (voiced by Alan Oppenheimer) is a crime boss and criminal mastermind who was the Rescue Rangers' first opponent. Fat Cat (voiced by Jim Cummings) is a grey tabby cat crime boss. He started out as the pet cat of Aldrin Klordane and continued his criminal activities after his master was arrested. Wart (voiced by Jim Cummings impersonating Peter Lorre) is a lizard who is shown to be more intelligent than the rest of Fat Cat's minions. Mole (voiced by Corey Burton) is a slow-witted mole. Mepps (voiced by Peter Cullen) is an orange alley cat. Snout (voiced by Corey Burton impersonating Paul Lynde) is a rat in a turtleneck. Professor Norton Nimnul (voiced by Jim Cummings) is the Rangers' other major enemy and a mad scientist who in the Rescue Rangers' earlier days once worked with Aldrin Klordane. Following Klordane's arrest, Professor Nimnul continued his evil plots that are constantly thwarted by the Rescue Rangers. Professor Nimnul has a fear of bats due to the fact that they might suck the blood from his neck. Rat Capone (voiced by Jim Cummings impersonating Edward G. Robinson) is a rat crime lord. Arnold Mousenegger (voiced by Brian Cummings) is a mouse who works for Rat Capone. Sugar Ray Lizard (voiced by Chuck McCann) is a lizard who works for Rat Capone. Mikey is Rat Capone's pet piranha.
Other characters Officer Kirby and Officer Muldoon (both voiced by Peter Cullen) are two police officers. Kirby is a buff African-American with black hair and a black moustache and Muldoon is a Caucasian redhead with buckteeth. They would be the ones who arrest Professor Nimnul and any other human bad guy that the Rescue Rangers defeat. Detective Donald Drake and K-9 Plato (voiced by Rob Paulsen and Alan Oppenheimer respectively) are soon-to-be retired detective and police dog of the police force. After being framed and incarcerated by Fat Cat, Detective Drake and K-9 are released upon their innocence being proven and helped to arrest Aldrin Klordane. Sergeant Spinelli (voiced by Jim Cummings) is Kirby and Muldoon's superior officer.
Production Rescue Rangers was originally conceived as the first of three new companion shows to Disney's popular DuckTales series, which had more than doubled the ratings among child audiences in its time slots after its debut in the fall of 1987. Disney had originally invested $20 million in DuckTales and then invested $28 million in Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers.Erickson, 2005. p.201
It, along with TaleSpin and a third series, Double-O Duck (which ultimately became Darkwing Duck), would round out a programming block later known as "The Disney Afternoon" along with the previously established Disney's Adventures of the Gummi Bears to capitalize on DuckTaless success.
When Tad Stones first came up with the idea for the Rescue Rangers series, Chip and Dale were not part of the show. He initially pitched doing a TV series based on The Rescuers, but Disney rejected that idea as a sequel to that film was already in production. He created a new concept with the working title of Metro Mice. The original draft starred an Indiana Jones-type mouse named Kit Colby who sported a fedora and a fluffy collared leather jacket, and the rest of the team included a chameleon, an earlier version of Gadget and a character resembling Monterey Jack with a different name. When he proposed the show in a meeting with Michael Eisner and Jeffrey Katzenberg, the idea was well received except for the character of Kit. At Eisner's suggestion, they replaced him with the chipmunk duo to give the show some established Disney characters to work with. By late 1987, two years before its television debut, the show was announced under its original proposed title of "Chip 'n Dale and the Rescue Rangers".
While Chip and Dale were established characters, in order to bring them into the series only their general appearance and basic personality traits were kept. Unlike their appearances in Disney shorts, the Rescue Rangers features the chipmunk duo as very verbal, with Chip voiced by Tress MacNeille and Dale voiced by Corey Burton. Audio processing was used to speed up the voice recordings and give the voices a higher pitch, particularly Chip's. The pair were given clothes—Chip the clothing of the original-concept Kit, while the goofier Dale was reminiscent of, but not specifically modeled after, Thomas Magnum from Magnum, P.I. with his Hawaiian shirt.
The series premiered in March 1989 on The Disney Channel before moving into a regular slot in syndication in September of that year. A year later, in September 1990, the series became part of the newly-launched lineup The Disney Afternoon, where it ran new episodes until November of that year, and reruns until 1993. On October 2, 1995, Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers began reruns on The Disney Channel as part of a two-hour programming block called "Block Party", airing weekdays in the late afternoon/early evening and which also included Darkwing Duck, TaleSpin and DuckTales.
The show's opening theme was written (listed in the end credits as "words & music") by Mark Mueller, an ASCAP Award-winning pop music songwriter who also wrote the popular DuckTales theme song, and produced by Alf Clausen. The song performed over the title credits is sung by Jeff Pescetto (who also performed the DuckTales theme song). A full-length theme song was recorded by The Jets, a Minnesota pop group, and released on The Disney Afternoon soundtrack.
Home media
United Kingdom VHS releases On November 6, 1989, Walt Disney Home Video released episodes from the series on video, containing a pair of episodes each. VHS name Episode titles Release date Crimebusters "Catteries Not Included" & "Piratsy Under the Seas" November 6, 1989
North American VHS releases Between 1989 and 1990, Walt Disney Home Video released 10 episodes from the series on five VHS cassettes in North America, containing a pair of episodes each. VHS name Episode titles Release date Double Trouble "Dale Beside Himself" & "Flash the Wonder Dog" September 28, 1989 Crimebusters "Catteries Not Included" & "Piratsy Under the Seas" Undercover Critters "Adventures in Squirrelsitting" & "Three Men and a Booby" Danger Rangers "Kiwi's Big Adventure" & "Bearing Up Baby" August 14, 1990 Super Sleuths "Pound of the Baskervilles" & "Out to Launch"
Additionally, on October 1, 1993, the episode "Ghost of a Chance" was released together with the Goof Troop episode "Hallow-Weenies" on one VHS cassette as a special release called Boo-Busters and the episode "Good Times, Bat Times" was released together with the Darkwing Duck episode "Ghoul of My Dreams" on one VHS cassette as a special release called Witcheroo!
Several other episodes were available on international releases.
Australia and New Zealand releases Eleven VHS cassettes containing 23 episodes of the series were released in Australia and New Zealand."Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers PAL VHS covers", Imgur.com. Retrieved on 2 September 2016. VHS name Episode titles Release date Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers (Volume 1): Crimebusters "Catteries Not Included" & "Piratsy Under the Seas" November 6, 1989 (UK) / September 11, 1992 Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers (Volume 2): The Pound of the Baskervilles "Pound of the Baskervilles" & "Adventures in Squirrelsitting" September 11, 1992 Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers (Volume 3): Risky Beesness "Bearing Up Baby" & "Risky Beesness" September 11, 1992 Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers (Volume 4): Romancing the Clone "Dale Beside Himself" & "Flash the Wonder Dog" September 11, 1992 Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers (Volume 5): Astro Nuts "The Carpetsnaggers" & "Out to Launch" September 11, 1992 Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers (Volume 6): 3 Men and a Birdie "Three Men and a Booby", "Parental Discretion Retired" & "Chocolate Chips" April 2, 1993 Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers (Volume 7): Ghouls and Jewels "Ghost of a Chance" & "A Wolf in Cheap Clothing" April 2, 1993 Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers (Volume 8): Half-Size Heroes "A Lad in a Lamp" & "Seer No Evil" April 2, 1993 Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers (Volume 9): Flies in Disguise "When You Wish Upon A Star" & "Chipwrecked Shipmunk" September 10, 1993 Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers (Volume 10): Danger Rangers "Out of Scale", "Kiwi's Big Adventure" & "Gorilla My Dreams" September 10, 1993 Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers (Volume 11): Duelling Dale "Mind Your Cheese and Q's", "The S.S. Drainpipe" & "A Creep in the Deep" September 10, 1993
DVD releases
North America (Region 1)