[7]

Bob Newhart and Eva Gabor provide the voices of two brave mice who volunteer to rescue a kidnapped orphan in this surprisingly dark and scary offering from Disney’s animation department. I love the atmosphere this movie creates, especially around a wrecked riverboat tucked away in a spooky bayou. That’s where our villainess, Madame Medusa (voiced by Oscar-winner Geraldine Page), holds a little girl named Penny. The eccentric madame repeatedly sends Penny into a dark hole in the ground, desperate to locate a lost diamond. And when Penny tries to escape, Medusa’s pet alligators always bring her back again. Rescuers impresses me with its serious tone, at least until the last ten minutes where things get start to get a bit too silly. I could also do without the sappy songs in the movie, but at least there aren’t many of them. On a side note, The Rescuers has the distinction of being the very first motion picture this movie lover ever saw.

Oscar Nomination: Best Song (“Someone’s Waiting for You”)