Jake: Okay, here it goes. Ames, I love you. I love how smart you are. I love how beautiful you are. I love your face, and I love your butt. I should’ve written this down first.
Alright, I watched “ “Chip n’ Dale: Rescue Rangers”. Honestly, this movie was way better than I thought it’d be. It’s definitely what you’d expect from a Disney movie made by the Lonely Island, which just raises so many questions since why were they even in consideration for a Chip and Dale movie. But regardless, I feel like the movie was solid.
My only real complaint is that the movie felt a bit directionless in the second act. Chip and Dale are trying to find their friend, but they end up getting lost in all these animation gags which are all pretty funny, but don’t really go anywhere. For example, I loved the “Uncanny Valley” being an actual place. However, it didn’t really factor into the story and ended up just being a one-off gag.
But still, I thought the movie was fun despite its flaws. For a grade, maybe 6 out of 10? Or a letter grade of C+ / B-.
Some thoughts on how “Chip n’ Dale: Rescue Rangers” were able to use Sonic for the movie without breaking some copyright law:
1)Protected by fair use since it’s a parody. It’s still Sonic, but it’s a heavily exaggerated version of the character for comedic effect. That’s how we have movies like “Scary Movie” or how movies like “Wayne’s World’ can include characters from other movies (the T-1000 cameo scene).
2)Akiva Schaffer mentioned that he was able to use non-Disney characters because Disney was able to get approval from the original companies. The caveat was that the movie won’t make fun of the non-Disney characters. Now, yes, the joke is that Ugly Sonic looks terrible. But based on his scenes, Ugly Sonic is more mocking the reaction to him rather than just him being ugly.
What I mean is that Ugly Sonic is aware that he doesn’t look great, but he’s generally upbeat about his life and actually ends up helping Chip and Dale save the day. As some people have put it, the movie “redeemed” Ugly Sonic by making him this chill, lovable guy who feels unfairly ostracized by society. So it’s not punching down on Ugly Sonic, but hitting back at the public that rejected the original design.
Based on that, I can see Paramount and SEGA approving the use of Ugly Sonic.
I wasn’t planning on watching “Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers”, but I’m starting to consider watching based on the reviews I’ve read. I honestly wasn’t expecting this movie to actually be meta-commentary of the animation industry. Just the fact that Chip is drawn in 2D animation and Dale is in 3D CGI animation because he had to get “CGI plastic surgery” to improve his looks is so goddamn clever that I’m surprised no one’s made this joke before.
Also…Ugly Sonic.
I will say though that, even though they didn’t have to, it would’ve been funny if they included some jab at anime. Like Chip and Dale encounter a bunch of generic anime characters and Dale says, “Why do all of you have the same face?” And one of the anime characters says, “Look, the nineties were a LONG time ago.”
