CHIP ‘N DALE RESCUE RANGERS, Episode 1 “Piratsy Under the Seas” (7 out of 10) – Directed by John Kimball, Bob Zambonie, and Alan Zaslove; Written by Mark Edens; Starring Corey Burton, Peter Cullen, Jim Cummings, and Tress MacNeille. Originally aired March 4, 1989.
By the time that “Rescue Rangers” hit the air, Chip and Dale were already well known and established Disney Characters. The duo were created in 1943 and appeared in 23 shorts between then and 1956. “Rescue Rangers” saw them paired up with two other mice (Monty and Gadget) and a fly (Zipper). Collectively they made up the a team that solved mysteries and the day using a combination of sleuthing, bumbling, muscle, intelligence, and loyalty.
The design of the two title characters is based loosely on the characters Indiana Jones and Magnum P.I. This basis only goes about as far as wardrobe, the personalities don’t transfer.
In the pilot episode titled “Piratsy Under the Seas,” Dale finds himself accidentally inside a trash can on garbage day and is lifted into a truck and eventually a barge out to sea. The rest of the rangers make pursuit to rescue him on a powered roller skate designed and built by Gadget. While on the barge, the group encounters a group of “pi-rats” so called because they are pirates, but also rats. The series is filled with puns just like this. The pirates are all located on a capsized ship on the bottom of the ocean but send up a surface craft made from a barrel to pull trash from the passing barge for them to eat. Chip and Dale happen are pulled into the water and the rest of the gang must rescue them. Gadget once again comes to the rescue by building a submarine out of supplies she finds on the barge.
Chip and Dale discover that the pi-rats have been guarding a pile of gold and waiting for their long lost captain for 200 years, never having seen the surface during that time. Most of them were born on the ship under water and have never seen the surface, only one rat is shown to have actually known the captain. Once Chip and Dale see the massive amount of gold they are guarding, they find that they will never again be allowed to return to the surface for fear that they may reveal the secret of the treasure to the world on the surface.
Using a disguise, Monty pretends to be the captain and is almost successful but it all falls to pieces due to Monty’s biggest weakness, visually stinky cheese.
Once discovered for their ruse, the Rangers are forced to walk the plank and become the latest meal for Billy the Squid (another one of those puns for you). Luckily they all escape, due one more time to Gadget’s ingenuity. She devises a plan to raise the entire ship to the surface by dumping the gold that’s weighing it down.
One short talk later, the pi-rats are convinced that they have become prisoners of their own mythology and take the newly raised ship on new adventures of their own, while the gang goes back home.
The series is particularly good in its ability to showcase the problem solving ability of teamwork and because of the character Gadget, the genius and only female member of the team who more often than not saves the day with brain power. The characters and situations of this series make it a gem that stands out above most other cartoons from the same era.