The Rescuers Down Under

In Australia, the young Cody discovers that evil poacher Perceval McLeach has captured the magnificent eagle, Marahute. He manages to set her free- only to be kidnapped himself and see Marahute later recaptured. A frantic call for help goes out to the Rescue Aid Society, which sends Miss Bianca and Bernard to help Cody. The two are aided by Wilbur the albatross, Jake, a kangaroo mouse, and Frank, a frill-necked lizard. Together Cody and his animal friends outwit McLeach and free his animal prisoners-including Marahute.

Bernard, Miss Bianca, Wilbur, Jake, Cody, McLeach, Frank, Krebbs, Joanna, Chairman, Doctor, Red, Baitmouse, Francois, Faloo, Mother, Nurse Mouse, Radio Announcer, Airplane Captain, French Mouse, International Mice

1990's The Rescuers Down Under has two very important distinctions: it was both the first fully animated using Disney's new CAPS coloring system and it was their first animated sequel. It was based on the characters from the hit 1977 Disney animated feature The Rescuers, which, in turn, was based on the novels Miss Bianca and The Rescuers, both written by Margery Sharp.

Animated by a team of over 415 artists and technicians, this was the first animated film that takes place in Australia. As would become commonplace for films in the Dis­ney Renaissance, members of the animation team traveled to the locations from the film to get a feel for the real places depicted in the film.

Beginning with this film, final color animation was accomplished using a digital method of importing the animators drawings called CAPS (Computer Animation Production System), which was developed for Disney by a northern California computer company called Pixar.

It is important to understand CAPS is not computer animation. Animation was still done by hand in the time-honored style. CAPS took those completed drawings and imported them into a computer environment. There, the drawings could be manipulated, resized, colored and copied as needed by the production on demand.

The CAPS system would save substantial amounts of time and money by eliminating the whole step of inking and painting cels; in fact, cels became a relic of the past. By working in the digital realm, the multi-plane camera and other optical effects used in the production of animated films could be previewed in real time rather than after days or weeks of animation and optical work.

The Rescuers Down Under does not include any musical numbers, only the second film to exclude character songs.

Released with the featurette "The Prince and the Pauper."

This was the 29th film in the official Disney list of animated films.