Directed by Daniels (Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, Swiss Army Man) Starring Michelle Yeoh (Gunpowder Milkshake), Stephanie Hsu (Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings), Ke Huy Quan (Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom), Jenny Slate (Venom), Harry Shum Jr. (Crazy Rich Asians), James Hong (R.I.P.D.), Jamie Lee Curtis (Halloween) and Tallie Medel (Jules of Light and Dark)
Oh, boy… Where do we start here?
Evelyn Wang (Yeoh) and her husband Waymond (Quan) left China for America and now run a struggling laundromat. Their daughter, Joy (Hsu) wants them to accept her girlfriend Becky (Medel), Evelyn’s father Gong Gong (Hong) is visiting from China, and the Wangs are being audited by IRS inspector Deirdre Beaubeirdre (Curtis). A meeting at the IRS building is interrupted when the mild-mannered Waymond suddenly becomes assertive and tells Evelyn that he is a universe-jumping alternate version of her husband who has been looking for the one version of Evelyn who can combat the destructive chaos of multiversal villain Jobu Tupaki.
Chip ‘n’ Dale: Rescue Rangers was part of Disney’s late-80s animated TV boom, along with the likes of Ducktales and TaleSpin, taking much older characters and injecting them into a new setting. What if the Duck family went on globe-trotting adventures? What if Baloo from The Jungle Bookran an air-freight service and Shere Khan was a buisness mogul? What if two chipmunks named after an 18th century cabinet maker ran a detective agency and helped people in trouble; sort of like a smaller and less heavily-armed A-Team?
Chip ‘n’ Dale – two apostrophes in the collective character name and the series title, one for the movie – were basically recurring antagonists to various members of the core Disney canon (Mickey, Minnie, Donald) across 23 short films from 1943-1956. With the massive success of DuckTales from 1987, three new series were planned to join DuckTales and Adventures of the Gummi Bears in the Disney Afternoon slot: TaleSpin, Double-O Duck, and a show based on 1977’s The Rescuers. Eventually, Double-O Duck became Darkwing Duck, and the Rescuers’ series was recast and moved to the modern day as Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers, in which the chipmunks put on clothes – a Hawai’ian shirt and an Indiana Jones outfit respectively – became the reckless one and the serious one, and teamed up with two mice – ace mechanic Gadget and old campaigner Monterey Jack – and Zipper the fly to form a detective agency specialising in problems ‘too small’ for the human police.
The show ran for three seasons and a total of 65 episodes. Like most shows in the Disney Afternoon, it featured a mix of cartoon action, a little smart humour for the older kids, and an absolute banger of a theme song.
In a world where cartoon characters live alongside live-action people, animated chipmunk schoolfriends Chip (Mulaney) and Dale (Samberg) hit the big time in their TV series, Rescue Rangers, before Dale flirts with solo projects and the dream team falls apart. Years later, Chip is a disillusioned insurance salesman, while Dale is clinging to the dream making a living on the convention circuit. They are reunited after their co-star Monterey Jack (Bana) calls them both for help: his stinky cheese habit has got him in deep with the Valley Gang, and he is afraid he will be taken, surgically altered and forced to make overseas knock-offs.
The Bad Movie Marathon 