It’s no real surprise that someone was prepped to poke fun at Hollywood’s increasingly aggressive remaking, rebooting and remixing of dust-caked IP, but it’s perhaps more of a surprise to find the joke coming from inside the house. Not just any house either but the House of Mouse, arguably the most egregious offender of all.
But the unending sift of studios trawling though their back catalogues (this year promises new spins on Gremlins, Three Men and a Baby, Father of the Bride, Frasier, Scooby Doo, Night at the Museum, Hellraiser, Matilda and many, many others), has resulted in an unusual satire, made even more unusual given the unlikely packaging. The relatively un-hyped release of a live-action-animation-hybrid movie based on late 80s series Chip ’n Dale: Rescue Rangers, offloaded on to Disney+, seemed at first glance to be more of the same. But inside the Trojan horse of a lazily inevitable kids adventure is a surprisingly sharp and detailed comedy. It’s not quite on par with Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, the film it undoubtedly wants to be likened to, but it’s infinitely better than it had any right to be.
