The year is 2019 and it seems that every beloved cartoon series has been adapted into a live-action/CGI film, doesn’t it? Guess again! There are still a few classic properties that haven’t been translated to the big screen, like Chip ‘N’ Dale: Rescue Rangers, the lovable kids show from the 80s/90s featuring two chipmunk brothers who happen to be detectives. Chipmunks are known as the smartest, toughest animals in the natural world as we all know.
But it seems the time has come for Chip ‘N’ Dale. THR says that Akiva Schaffer, one-third of the extremely popular comedy group The Lonely Island, is directing a live-action/CGI movie based on the TV series. We have no clue if Disney will send the movie to theaters or save it for their upcoming streaming service, Disney+. One wonders if it would be a huge hit in theaters since modern children sadly have no clue who Chip ‘n’ Dale are. But they should know, dammit! Those brothers were good detectives!
Schaffer has a great comedic mind and I don’t have to tell you that The Lonely Island have been a part of some of the biggest comedy moments of the last decade. He’s also not looking to make a traditional family film apparently. Sources say Chip ‘N’ Dale “will not be an origin story nor detective agency story. Rather, the take is being described as being meta, something self-referential and cool.” Well I’m glad they’re making sure the movie is cool!
A Chip ‘N’ Dale film makes sense in this day and age. It really does feel as though every show from our childhoods have become movies. In fact, I’m surprised it hasn’t happened sooner for Chip ‘N’ Dale. It does make me wonder which other old cartoons should get their time on the silver screen. Here’s a few ideas…
Darkwing Duck
Kids, especially kids who loved Batman, adored Darkwing Duck. The show starred a bumbling do-gooder superhero named, you guessed it, Darkwing Duck, who fought evil and jumped from rooftop to rooftop with his team of heroes. The show was a spinoff of DuckTales and a parody of Batman and other comic book icons. But it was actually a damn fine superhero story in its own right. The action was tight, the characters enjoyable and the art was memorable. All in all this is a show that should have been rebooted by now and it’s a damn shame that Disney has kept it in their vault.
Talespin
A spin-off of The Jungle Book, TaleSpin starred lovable Baloo as a bush pilot on the tiny island nation of Usland. Baloo ran an air cargo freight business and spent his time doing battle with air pirates and bickering with his business partner Rebecca. Much like many of the Disney shows from this era, the animation was solid and the stories were surprisingly exciting and action-packed for a kids show. Plus TaleSpin has a ridiculously catchy theme song so it’s time we see this one come back to life in one way or another.
ReBoot
Now this is one that REALLY should have remade by now. As rudimentary as it was, ReBoot was definitely ahead of its time. It looks positively ancient and decrepit compared to modern CGI but it was mind-blowing back in the mid-90s. The show followed a group of crudely-animated heroes fighting crudely-animated villains in a crudely-animated computer metropolis. I don’t remember too much about ReBoot except that it was must-see TV for me as a youngster. It’s been more than 20 years and the power of computer animation has multiplied by millions. Imagine this show as a contemporary movie. With the right budget and right team, this thing could be even more mind-blowing than it was all those years ago. There was talk of ReBoot being…well, rebooted a few years ago but nothing ever came of it. Darn.