History WesternAnimation / TheRescuersDownUnder

''The Rescuers Down Under'' is the 1990 sequel to Creator/{{Disney}}'s 1977 film, ''WesternAnimation/TheRescuers''. It is the 29th entry in the Franchise/DisneyAnimatedCanon and is also the first {{sequel}} to one of their previous films and would be the only sequel in that canon[[note]]not counting ''WesternAnimation/Fantasia2000'', which is less of a sequel and more of a spiritual continuation of the original[[/note]] until 2018, when ''WesternAnimation/RalphBreaksTheInternet'' came in. Creator/BobNewhart and Eva Gabor reprise their roles as Bernard and Miss Bianca, being the last performance for Gabor before her death in 1995.

* MisplacedWildlife: Downplayed. Some of the Australian animals featured are not found in the same parts of the continent; crocodiles are found in the northern regions, but there are also wombats, which are only found in the southeast and in Tasmania. The most egregious example is Marahute herself - not only are golden eagles not found in Australia, ''they're found only in the Northern Hemisphere!''
** Justified with the razorback, as feral pigs are one of the many invasive species that were brought to Australia.

* AchillesHeel: Discussed by [=McLeach=] when he has Cody prisoner. Cody can tell [=McLeach=] where Marahute's nest is, ergo the poacher needs to find and hit the boy's weak spot to get him to give up the goods. The problem? Marahute ironically ''is'' Cody's weak-spot, which means threatening the Eagle will do absolutely no good. So, [=McLeach=] isn't quite sure how to play this one -- at least Joanna unwittingly makes him realize he's had it wrong: [[spoiler: Cody's weak spot isn't Marahute, but her ''eggs''.]]

* FriendlyTickleTorture: Near the beginning, after [[CheerfulChild Cody]] frees [[GiantFlyer Majestic Eagle]] [[CuteGiant Marahute]] from a trap set by Mcleach, The eagle flies him around for a ride across the sky. During the event, Marahute catches Cody in her talons and tickles his tummy while in her grasp.

* BookDumb: Percival "I didn't make it all the way through third grade for nuthin'!" [=McLeach=] is quite uneducated, but don't let that ever make you think he isn't cunning or insidiously clever--especially when you consider he probably built that "truck" of his. That's an impressive piece of engineering. Even more impressively, when he kidnaps Cody, he tosses his back pack to the Crocodiles. This is later found by the Rangers while looking for the missing Cody, believing that the crocodiles had eaten him. [=McLeach=] waits until the search is called off to go out looking for the Eagle again and emotionally manipulates Cody into leading him to the nest. And to top, now that Cody is useless to him, he plans to feed Cody to the same pool of Crocs he tossed the back pack into, considering that if the body was to turn up, it would only confirm the initial reported death of Cody. Considering that his entire villainy in kidnapping Cody is done largely on the fly, he's one of the most intelligent members of Disney's Villains ever.

%%* TheAce: Jake.

%%* ButtMonkey: Wilbur.

* MapStabbing: [=McLeach=] has Cody tied in front of a large map and tries to intimidate him into revealing the location of the eagle Marahute by calling out locations and then throwing knives at them on the map, narrowly missing Cody.

Set in the Australian Outback, the EvilPoacher [=McLeach=] (Creator/GeorgeCScott) has kidnapped a young boy named Cody (Adam Ryen) in order to snare Marahute, an endangered eagle [[GiantFlyer large enough to ride around on]]. Naturally, Bianca and Bernard must come to the rescue, with help from Orville's brother Wilbur (Creator/JohnCandy) and Jake (Tristan Rogers), the mouse equivalent to Film/CrocodileDundee. ''Down Under'' was also a pioneer in the use of CGI. Unlike the first film, which was a huge success, ''Down Under'' actually failed at the box office, making it the ''only'' true failure of the Disney Renaissance.

* WouldHurtAChild: [=McLeach=] most definitely would. He even provides the page image for the Animated category. Apparently, this is Wilbur's BerserkButton.

* MapStabbing: McLeach has Cody tied in front of a large map and tries to intimidate him into revealing the location of the eagle Marahute by calling out locations and then throwing knives at them on the map, narrowly missing Cody.

* ThirteenIsUnlucky: Meta-example. Thirteen years passed between the theatrical debuts of the two movies, and ''Down Under'' ended up being the least successful movie of the Disney Renaissance. (It's the only one to be a clear BoxOfficeBomb due to opening against ''Film/HomeAlone'', and while it did make up some of the loss as a ''The Classics'' title on video, it convinced Disney to make the remaining Disney Renaissance films musicals in some part and other sequels outside the canon until ''WesternAnimation/{{Frozen|2013}}'' and ''WesternAnimation/WreckItRalph''.)

* DisneyVillainDeath: [=McLeach=] narrowly avoids being eaten by crocodiles only to fall off the edge of a waterfall. Considering everything he had put a truly colossal bird of prey though, he was probably lucky that gravity got him before [[https://i.redd.it/6pwln5ije9x21.jpg Marahute did.]]

* DisneyVillainDeath: [=McLeach=] narrowly avoids being eaten by crocodiles only to fall off the edge of a waterfall.

* SeldomSeenSpecies: Australia - it's not just for kangaroos! Tons of seldom-seen species are present, but they're all extras: the three prominent Australian animals are Marahoute (who's called a golden eagle, but seems to be either a fictional species or a massively oversized wedge-tailed eagle), Jake (who could be a member of any of several small hopping mouse-like species), and Joanna (a monitor lizard, most likely a Spence's monitor given her size). Additionally, the bird chart Jake looks at when Wilbur is about to land shows such rarities as [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrubbird scrubbird]], [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lories_and_lorikeets lorikeet]], [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honeyeater honeyeater]], [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butcherbird butcherbird]], [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galah galah]], [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noisy_miner noisy miner]], [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rufous_whistler rufous whistler]] (misspelled as "rufus whistler"), [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crested_bellbird crested bellbird]], [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freckled_duck freckled duck]] and [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flowerpiercer flowerpiercer]] (the last one being [[MisplacedWildlife a South American species]] - it was probably confused with the similarly-named [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flowerpecker flowerpecker]], which does live in Australia).

** The filmmakers were admittedly influenced by Creator/HayaoMiyazaki and as such, the film contains some ''very'' Miyazaki-like moments. Some have gone so far as to call this a "DisneyZaki" movie.

** The filmmakers were admittedly influenced by [[Creator/HayaoMiyazaki]] and as such, the film contains some *very* Miyazaki-like moments.

The film was accompanied in its theatrical release by the animated featurette ''WesternAnimation/ThePrinceAndThePauper'' (appropriately enough, the final Disney short to use cels) based on the story by Creator/MarkTwain and starring WesternAnimation/MickeyMouse and friends.

** The name Cody is derived from an Irish word meaning "helper".

* PintSizedPowerhouse: Jake manages an impressive feat of strength when he lassos a snake to get a ride, but he's got nothing on the male lead. Bernard not only wrestles a razorback to the ground by their tusks, but also manages to hurl a heavy set of keys all the way up to the back of McLeach's truck AND save a boy several times his size from going over a waterfall with a piece of rope almost as big around as he is.

* BookDumb: Percival "I didn't make it all the way through third grade for nuthin'!" [=McLeach=] is quite uneducated, but don't let that ever make you think he isn't cunning or insidiously clever--especially when you consider he probably built that "truck" of his. That's an impressive piece of engineering. Even more impressively, when he kidnaps Cody, he tosses his back pack to the Crocodiles. This is later found by the Rangers while looking for the missing Cody, believing that the crocodiles had eaten him. [=McLeach=] waits until the search is called off to go out looking for the Eagle again and emotionally manipulates Cody into leading him to the nest. And to top, now that Cody is useless to him, he plans to feed Cody to the same pool of Crocs he tossed the back pack into, considering that if the body was to turn up, it would only confirm the initial reported death of Cody. Considering that his entire villainy in Kidnapping Cody is done largely on the fly, he's one of the most intelligent members of Disney's Villains ever.

%%* NiceHat: [=McLeach=].

* SatelliteLoveInterest: Bianca becomes one (in the first film, she and Bernard are equally important in the story). Unlike the first film, Bernard is TheHero in this film who saves the day by himself, while Bianca's role revolves around her UnresolvedSexualTension with Bernard and being in the middle of the LoveTriangle with Bernard and Jake.

* OutlivingOnesOffspring: One powerful scene shows Cody's house while his mother cries "Cody!" while another scene shows her being notified of his supposed death.