Shout Out / Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers

Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers is chock full of Shout Outs, references, and in-jokes.

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• Look at Chip. Aviator jacket: check. Fedora: check. Whip (shown in concept art only): check.
• Dale's Magnum, P.I. Hawaiian shirt.
  • And his alter-ego RamDale in "Le Purrfect Crime".
  Dale: (after his Easy Amnesia is cured) "How come I'm dressed like this? And why do I have this sudden urge to say 'Yo...'?"
• Speaking of Dale in "Le Purrfect Crime", the large coffee bean container on his back gives his gun, the Decaffeinator, not little resemblance to Old Painless from Predator. Genius Bonus: Early Gatling cannons were crank-operated, as is the Decaffeinator.
• Gadget is more than obviously based on Jordan from Real Genius (Tad Stones also once joked about how Gadget resembled a Disney storyboard artist named Lonnie Lloyd).
  • Her appearance, with long blonde '80s Hair and a lavender jumpsuit, may be based on Laura from Police Academy 4: Citizens on Patrol (1987).
• "A Creep in the Deep" is one big and quite detailed Shout-Out to 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.
• The Fly (1958) is treated similarly in "A Fly in the Ointment" which also includes references to A Streetcar Named Desire, the Franz Kafka short story The Metamorphosis, Ronald Reagan's autobiography, and the Wes Craven movie Shocker.
  • During the scene in the classroom, the teacher says "Have you been reading too much Spider-Man?" (It sounds like she's saying "Spider-Men", but still.)
• "Adventures in Squirrelsitting" features a young squirrel girl named Tammy in love with Chip. And a Maltese Mouse.
• The alien Fleeblebroxians are named in reference to the two-headed alien Zaphod Beeblebrox in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy novels.
• Speaking of The Maltese Falcon, there is also Fat Cat's French cousin Maltese de Sade, a play on Marquis de Sade.
• Word of God has it that Fat Cat himself is modeled after Vincent Price, and that his goons Wart and Snout are references to Peter Lorre and Paul Lynde. On the other hand, another inspirational source for Fat Cat might have been Sydney Greenstreet who also stars in The Maltese Falcon, as is Peter Lorre. "Adventures in Squirrelsitting" was the episode which introduced Fat Cat, So Yeah...
  • Many have also noted that his physical appearance bares resemblance to Dom DeLuise, but it's unknown how intentional this was.
• Professor Nimnul was visually based on Bruce Talkington, a regular writer on The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh and several other Disney Channel cartoons in the '80s.
• Stan Blather is a Shout-Out to the news anchormen Dan Rather and Walter Cronkite.
• Sparky from "Does Pavlov Ring a Bell?" is quite similar to Dr. Emmett L. Brown.
• "Three Men and a Booby" contains Shout Outs to Three Men And A Baby, Alice in Wonderland (Mr. Dumpty), and Top Gun (Cruiser and Bruiser).
• The recurring incidental characters Edgar and Chauncey from Rocky and Bullwinkle appear in "To the Rescue".
• "Gadget Goes Hawaiian" is a pun on Gidget Goes Hawaiian. The villain of the episode was even voiced by Deborah Walley, who stared as the title character.
• Monty's father Cheddarhead Charlie bears a striking resemblance to Mick Dundee.
• "Pie in the Sky" has quite a few:
  • Mrs. Sweeney and her son Todd from "Pie in the Sky" have two guard cats named Jack and Nichols.
  • Mrs. Sweeney brags to herself that she'll be more famous than "Betty Whats-her-name?" and "that old colonel fella".
  • Upon hearing the squawking of crows, Monty remarks "Sounds like Alfred Hitchcock's making a movie over there."
  • "It's a shame they wasted a name like Dumbo on an elephant."
• The witch familiars Bud and Lou from "Good Times, Bat Times" are Funny Animal versions of Abbott and Costello.
• From "The Pied Piper Power Play":
  • When ranting about his scheme at the beginning, Nimnul remarks that he'll be known as the "Picasso of Potatoes", the "Svengali of Spuds", or even "Mr. Potato Head".
  • The deaf-mute mouse Mouseo looks a lot like Harpo Marx dressed like the Mad Hatter.
  • In the scene in which infamously depicts Dale way out of character stupidity-wise, he mentions a certain Moonwalk Jackson, a reference to both Michael Jackson, his most famous dance move, the Moonwalk, and possibly also to his movie Moonwalker. Furthermore, Dale says the case would be a thriller, referencing Jackson's best-selling album.
  • At one point when Nimnul wants the mice to resume running, he says "Let's get physical!"
• One of Dale's favorite movie characters, Dirk Suave, and the one villain we get to know, Dr. So-So, are Shout Outs to James Bond and Dr. No.
• Another one of Dale's heroes is the Red Badger of Courage.
• Rat Capone is a Shout-Out to both Al Capone and James Cagney. His henchmen, Arnold Mousenegger and Sugar Ray Lizard, are named after Arnold Schwarzenegger and the boxer Sugar Ray Leonard.
• Irweena Allen from "Risky Beesness" is the result of an in-joke targeted at Irwin Allen's The Swarm (1978). And then there's still the obviously British heavy metal band Iron Goose.
• The movie shown at the Drive-In Theater in "Good Times, Bat Times" bears a few striking similarities to Casablanca.
• In "Dale Beside Himself", Dale watches a movie very similar to Alien which Monty describes as "a real ripper", maybe a nod to Sigourney Weaver's character name and what happens to John Hurt's character. Dale also watches something looking a lot like a Ed Wood movie on another occasion in the episode. The Fleeblebroxian shape-shifters could be a nod to John Carpenter's The Thing (1982). And on the Fleeblebroxian ship, Dale says the Star Trek: The Original Series quote-that-is-none, "Beam Me Up, Scotty!"
• The Pi-Rats' first mate Jolly Roger shares his name with the famous skull & crossbones flag, and their disappeared captain Long Lost Lafitte is a play on Jean Lafitte. They have to deal with a certain Billy the Squid, a play on Billy the Kid.
• "Pound of the Baskervilles" introduces the late detective novel author Lord Howard Baskerville and his character Sureluck Jones. All one big Shout-Out to Sherlock Holmes in general and The Hound of the Baskervilles in particular.
• In "A Case of the Stage Blight" the Rangers find an underground lair filled with water beneath the city's opera house. This setup is an obvious reference to The Phantom of the Opera.
• The opera-singing alligator Sewernose de Bergerac is of course a Shout-Out to Cyrano de Bergerac.
• "Robocat" is believed to be a mixture of Pinocchio and Robocop.
• The spaceship crew in "Out to Launch" are references, too, namely to the city of Houston, Texas, home of the NASA (Roger Houston), Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin (Buzz Airfield), and Sally Ride, the first American woman in space (Joy Rider).
• Another Shout-Out to Real Life would be the gorilla Kookoo and her kitten Boots in "Gorilla My Dreams", being references to Koko, the famous gorilla who could communicate with humans, and her kitten companion All Ball.
• The show contains lots of Shout Outs to other Disney works: Humphrey the Bear from several Donald Duck cartoons has a cameo in "Bearing Up Baby", the crocodile in "Kiwi's Big Adventure" was taken straight out of Peter Pan, Colonel Hathi and his elephant squad make an appearance as Captain Kernel & company in "An Elephant Never Suspects", the Siamese Twins have look-alikes in Lady and the Tramp, and last but not least, there is Detective Donald Drake and his police dog Plato (Donald Duck and Pluto).
• While dangling Dale over a tank of piranhas, Fat Cat sings, "I've got some strings, ta tum tum tum..."
• "The S.S. Drainpipe":
  • There is a brief shout out to Alvin and the Chipmunks.
  Henchman of Rat Capone: Hurry it up, Alvin.
  Chip: The name is Chip.
  Henchman: Whatever. You chipmunks all sound alike.
  • At one point, Rat Capone sings a brief parody of My Favorite Things from The Sound of Music.
• "Battle of the Bulge" contains a reference to "the most tip-top Top Cat".
  Wart: You're the most tip-top, Fat Cat!
• The episode "Last Train to Cashville" is named after The Monkees' song "Last Train to Clarksville".
• "Zipper Come Home" is based off of Lassie Come Home. See also Tropey, Come Home, their common trope.
• The Lucitetania in "When You Fish Upon a Star" is a reference to the RMS Lusitania, both of which sunk. Of course, the precious fish Moby Carp is named after Moby-Dick.
• "They Shoot Dogs, Don't They?":
  • Monterey Jack and Canina La Fur do an obvious Shout-Out to The African Queen on their boat.
  • Canina's rival, Zsa Zsa Labrador, is a nod to Zsa Zsa Gabor.
  • The Lassie Awards are awarded to dogs in showbiz.
  • Throughout the episode, Canina keeps getting Monty's name wrong, and instead addresses him with random "M" names. At one point, she calls him Mickey.
  • Canina mentions a movie by the name of Whatever Happened to Baby Great Dane?. She later attempts to mention a film named One Fell Over..., but gets cutoff in mid-sentence before she can finish.
• Both Chip and Dale try and fail to kiss Gadget at the end of "Gadget Goes Hawaiian" much like they did at the end of "Two Chips and a Miss" (also known among fans as Episode Zero).
• Heinrich von Sugarbottom from "Chocolate Chips" is Oliver Hardy in lederhosen, a nod to Laurel and Hardy. Another one out of many is Dale's "Hey, what's the big idea?" Yet another one is the deep puddle in "Chipwrecked Shipmunks" into which Jolly Roger sinks much like Oliver Hardy.
• Muscles, Errol's only henchman with a known name in "Love Is a Many Splintered Thing", is a Shout-Out to Rocky Balboa.
• The tunnel-digging mechanical dragon built by the two pandas in "An Elephant Never Suspects" might count as a (yet another) Shout-Out to Dr. No which features a truck made up to look like a scary, fire-breathing dragon commandeered by a Chinese Big Bad.
• The ring from "Throw Mummy From the Train" is a reference to The Beatles' Help! movie. The villain in the same episode, Wexler, is modeled after the Rescue Rangers staff member Ed Wexler. See the Norton Nimnul/Bruce Talkington connection above.
  • The episode's title is, of course, a Shout-Out to Throw Momma from the Train.
• "When Mice Were Men" references Seven Samurai and may also contain a musical Shout-Out to Miles Davis' Sketches of Spain.
  • The title itself is also a pastiche of Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck and the phrase "when men were men".
• "Song of the Night 'n Dale" is a Shout-Out to the Hans Christian Andersen fairytale The Nightingale; it also seems to reference The Cretan Bull from Agatha Christie's The Labours of Hercules.
• "Ghost of a Chance" borrows a lot from the 1961 movie The Pit and the Pendulum, based on a work by Edgar Allan Poe, especially the namesake death trap.
  • The ghost being named Sir Coleby and hailing from Canterville (even having fought "the Canterville Cat") is a reference to the story The Canterville Ghost.
• King Kong (1933) is referenced with two King Kong Climbs: one by giant Zipper climbing up a skyscraper while holding Nimnul in "Fake Me to Your Leader", and probably one more by the aforementioned gorilla Kookoo climbing up another high-rise building in "Gorilla My Dreams".
• In "The Case of the Cola Cult", the main plot plays out like the plot of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (minus the heart-ripping of course) and the action scenes are similar.
• In one of the Police Headquarters scenes from "To the Rescue", you hear a police detective describing a burglary case thus "She came in through the bathroom window and cracked the safe with a silver spoon"
  • Speaking of Beatles references, in "One-Upsman Chip," Dale claims he has psychic powers by saying "It's all in the mind, y'know" (which itself was a reference to The Goon Show).
  • In the sequence where the police corner Percy in the first episode, Percy grabs Dale, mistaking him for his gun and upon attempting to fire, Dale simply shouts "Bang! Bang!", much like how he did with Pete in "The Lone Chipmunks", in an almost similar setup.
• "Normie's Science Project" has Monterey Jack mention that he once glided over Frostbite Falls with flying squirrels in search of mooseberries. Particularly interesting because Disney at the time attempted to create a new Rocky and Bullwinkle show until they discovered that they only had VHS distribution rights to the cartoon and nothing more (they ended up creating Darkwing Duck to fill the gap). The attempt to create a TV sequel to Rocky and Bullwinkle remained in cold-storage until Jeffrey Katzenberg's next studio, DreamWorks Animation, who are now the copyright holders of Rocky and Bullwinkle, launched the Netflix series The Mr. Peabody & Sherman Show in 2015.
• "A Chorus Crime":
  • The title is a reference to A Chorus Line.
  • Canina LaFur's musical, Hello Doggy, is a spoof of Hello, Dolly!, which Canina's voice actress, Carol Channing, starred in. The song that Canina and the penguins sing at the end of the episode even spoofs the main theme from Hello, Dolly!.
  • When he first orders the penguins to dance, Nimnul says "Eat your heart out, Busby Berkeley!"
  • The second time Nimnul orders the penguins to dance, he says "Shuffle off to Buffalo!".
  • When the Rangers try to get the penguins to dance, Monty says "Where's Fred Astaire when you need him?"
• "Dirty Rotten Diapers":
  • Gadget's "Kinder, gentler" approach to fighting crime is a reference to then-President George H. W. Bush's idea of creating a "Kinder, gentler America" (the Rangers eventually rebelling against the idea might even make this one of the earliest satires of Political Overcorrectness).
  • Gadget and Dale dress up in costumes based on Raggedy Ann and Andy. Monty remarks that their costumes might get them a spot on The Gong Show.

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