49 Fun Facts About The Rescuers

Who voices Bernard in The Rescuers?

Bob Newhart built his stand-up fame on a hesitant, stammering delivery, and timid Bernard stutters in that same voice all through the rescue.

Which Hungarian-born actress voices Miss Bianca?

Eva Gabor's Budapest accent settled the mouse's nationality: the writers made Miss Bianca the delegate from Hungary to match the voice that had already played Duchess in The Aristocats.

Which author wrote the novels The Rescuers is based on?

Margery Sharp's mouse novels caught Walt Disney's own eye: he optioned them in 1962, fifteen years before the film finally reached cinemas.

What is the name of the mouse organisation Bernard and Bianca belong to?

The Rescue Aid Society was renamed for the film: in the novels it is the Prisoners' Aid Society, whose mice traditionally cheer captives up instead of freeing them.

What is Bernard's job when The Rescuers begins?

Janitor Bernard protests that sweeping up is all he does, yet Miss Bianca passes over every delegate in the hall and picks him as her co-agent.

What is the timid Bernard superstitious about?

The number 13 unnerves the superstitious Bernard, and flying frightens him just as much, which turns the trip south on an albatross into an ordeal.

Who voices the villainous Madame Medusa?

Geraldine Page inherited the part from comedian Phyllis Diller, who had been cast while an earlier draft of the story still had a different villainess.

What is the name of the giant diamond Medusa wants Penny to retrieve?

The Devil's Eye sits in a flooding cave reached only through a hole too tight for an adult, which is why Medusa needs a small child to fetch it.

What is the name of the swamp where Medusa holds Penny captive?

Devil's Bayou gave the story a Southern swamp only after earlier drafts had sent the mice to a Cuban prison and then to the South Pole.

What kind of business does Madame Medusa run?

A pawn shop is Medusa's New York front, and the mice search it for clues after learning she once tried to lure Penny into her car.

How does the kidnapped Penny send out her plea for help?

A message in a bottle, dropped into the river by Penny, drifts out to sea and washes up in New York, where the mice fish it out and read it.

Where does Medusa hide the diamond after snatching it for herself?

Inside Penny's teddy bear: Medusa stuffs the gem into the toy to cheat her partner, then loses both when the mice trip her and Penny grabs the bear and runs.

What are the names of Medusa's two reptilian pets?

Brutus and Nero stand in for the novels' bloodhounds Tyrant and Torment, and in the last scene the irritated pair turn on Medusa herself.

What is the name of the albatross who flies Bernard and Bianca to the swamp?

Orville is named for aviation pioneer Orville Wright, though the albatross's own take-offs and landings are anything but graceful.

Which museum is given the giant diamond at the end of The Rescuers?

The Smithsonian Institution gets the gem for nothing: back in New York, Penny donates the world's largest diamond instead of keeping it.

What kind of creature is Evinrude?

A dragonfly with no lines at all, Evinrude speaks only in buzzes, supplied by sound-effects veteran Jimmy MacDonald, who came out of retirement for the job.

What is Evinrude named after?

A brand of outboard motors lent Evinrude his name because the little insect does an engine's job, buzzing away to push the mice's boat across the water.

Which elderly cat comforts Penny at Morningside Orphanage?

Rufus is a self-portrait of sorts: veteran animator Ollie Johnston drew the kindly old cat as a caricature of himself in his last full film for Disney.

What does Luke the muskrat give the worn-out Evinrude to get him flying again?

A drop of his moonshine does it: Luke's homebrew had already revived Bernard, and it sends the flagging Evinrude buzzing off to call the swamp folk to the attack.

Beneath which New York landmark do the mice of The Rescuers hold their meetings?

The United Nations building suits them: in its basement the mice run a miniature assembly of their own, with a delegate for every country, Miss Bianca speaking for Hungary.

Why did Walt Disney shelve the first 1960s version of The Rescuers?

He disliked its political overtones: the plot had turned into an escape from a Cuban prison, and Walt, uneasy with the intrigue, put the mice on the shelf.

What frightens Bernard off the mice's shortcut through the zoo in The Rescuers?

A lion's roar is all that remains of a dropped subplot: the zoo was once home to a bear who had befriended Penny and would have given the mice their first clue.

Inside what do Penny and the mice find the giant diamond in the flooding cave?

A pirate's skull grips the gem so tightly that Penny has to prise its jaws apart with a sword while the mice shove from inside and the tide pours in.

Which jazz singer recorded dialogue and songs as Louie the Bear before The Rescuers cut the role?

Louis Prima had been King Louie in The Jungle Book, so the bear was named Louie for him; his recorded songs and dialogue were shelved when the part was written out.

Which earlier Disney villainess was sketched as the villain of The Rescuers before Medusa was created?

Cruella de Vil was sketched for the part in alligator-skin outfits, but colleagues felt it wrong to bring her back, so a brand-new villainess was drawn instead.

Milt Kahl modelled Madame Medusa's look on which person in his own life?

His then-wife, Phyllis Bounds, was the model, and Kahl cared so much about his farewell character that he animated nearly all of Medusa himself; the couple divorced in 1978.

In the final chase of The Rescuers, Medusa uses her two pet reptiles as what?

Water-skis: Medusa rides the two reptiles behind the fleeing boat until she crashes, and her irritated pets then turn on her.

Why did the writers decide against making Bernard and Bianca married detectives?

Novices in a new romance were more compelling than a seasoned married team: beginners have to struggle, so the audience roots for timid Bernard to prove himself.

Which singer was cast as a bullfrog that was cut from The Rescuers?

Phil Harris was cast as a singing bullfrog who led the swamp creatures, but the frog was cut when the marching home guard became a band of helpful locals.

What bird was first proposed as the mice's transport before the albatross?

A catapulted pigeon was the first idea, until one of the veteran animators recalled a nature film of albatrosses making clumsy take-offs and landings.

Where do Bernard and Bianca hide when Penny is lowered into the cave?

In her pocket: Medusa thinks she is sending one frightened child down the hole, but two stowaway mice ride along and help push the gem free.

The Rescuers was the last film to team Milt Kahl, Ollie Johnston and Frank Thomas, members of which group?

The Nine Old Men were Walt Disney's core animators, and this last reunion doubled as a handover: the trainees they coached here went on to lead the Disney Renaissance.

Ron Clements, a trainee animator on The Rescuers, went on to co-direct which 1989 Disney hit?

The Little Mermaid, which Clements wrote and directed with John Musker, opened the Disney Renaissance twelve years after his feature debut animating on The Rescuers.

The Xerox process refined for The Rescuers was first used throughout which Disney feature?

One Hundred and One Dalmatians could only manage hard black Xerox outlines in 1961; by The Rescuers a new medium-grey toner let the copied pencil lines look soft again.

What do the swamp animals set off to create a diversion during Penny's rescue?

Fireworks do more than distract: once the swamp animals light the villains' stockpile, the blasts wreck Medusa's hideout.

The Rescuers' songwriters earned an Oscar nomination for the theme of which 1976 film?

Rocky's theme has barely any words, yet the few that Carol Connors and Ayn Robbins wrote earned the nomination; the Oscar itself went to Evergreen from A Star Is Born.

Which song from The Rescuers was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song?

Someone's Waiting for You began as a Sammy Fain tune called The Need to Be Loved; the director liked the melody, ordered new words, and it plays as Penny loses hope.

What serves as Medusa's hideout in the swamp in The Rescuers?

An abandoned riverboat is hideout and prison in one: Penny keeps slipping away from it into the swamp at night, and Medusa's reptiles keep hauling her back.

What forces Evinrude into hiding as he races to fetch help for Penny?

A swarm of bats chases Evinrude into cover, so the alarm reaches the swamp volunteers late and the rescue has to wait until the next morning.

What becomes of the orphan Penny at the end of The Rescuers?

She is adopted: the closing news report shows Penny with a new mother and father, the wish she had almost given up on back at the orphanage.

Which two blockbusters did The Rescuers out-gross in France in 1977?

Star Wars and The Spy Who Loved Me both finished behind it in France, and it topped West Germany's year as well, outdrawing a space epic that was breaking records back home.

Which new featurette accompanied the 1983 re-release of The Rescuers?

Mickey's Christmas Carol brought Mickey Mouse back to cinemas after 30 years away, though only as Bob Cratchit: Scrooge McDuck took the lead as Ebenezer.

Why did Disney recall The Rescuers tapes in 1999?

A topless woman in two frames, glimpsed in a window as the mice fly across the city, had been slipped in more than twenty years earlier and cost Disney 3.4 million tapes.

What do Bernard and Bianca stretch across Medusa's path to trip her as she flees?

A cable pulled tight across her path sends Medusa sprawling just as she holds Penny and her own partner at gunpoint, and Penny bolts with the loot.

Who is Medusa's bumbling partner in the hunt for the diamond?

Mr. Snoops is a caricature of animation historian John Culhane, whom the animators tricked into posing while he was at the studio interviewing them.

The Rescuers was the first Disney animated feature to get what in 1990?

A theatrical sequel, The Rescuers Down Under, was already in the works, which is why a pitch for a Rescuers TV series was turned down and reworked into Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers.

In The Rescuers, the orphanage cat recites a poem to Penny that likens faith to what?

A bluebird you see from afar is how the old cat pictures faith, comforting Penny after a visiting couple has chosen another girl instead of her.

Which veteran Disney director, nicknamed Woolie, produced and co-directed The Rescuers?

Wolfgang Reitherman ended years of rewrites by demanding a simple story: a little girl is kidnapped, and the mice try to get her back.

Which vehicle from The Rescuers was added to Disney Infinity 2.0?

Medusa's Swamp Mobile, the makeshift motorboat that Penny and the mice steal for their getaway, became a drivable toy-box vehicle in the 2014 game.