Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers (2022)

IMDb plot summary: Thirty years after their popular television show ended, chipmunks Chip and Dale live very different lives. When a cast member from the original series mysteriously disappears, the pair must reunite to save their friend.

Directed by Akiva Schaffer. Starring Andy Samberg, John Mulaney, and KiKi Layne.

Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers is the 2022 reboot of the Rescue Rangers franchise. In this version, Chip and Dale are real characters in a cartoon/live action hybrid world, a la Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Chip and Dale have gone their own way after the success of their Rescue Rangers TV show in the 90s. When their friend Monty is kidnapped, the two have to make amends and get together to solve one more crime. This movie went as meta as you can possibly get. More meta than was good for it, I think. The parts of the script that worked were the ones that did not rely on prior knowledge of the Rescue Rangers or of the various Disney properties that show up in this version of the story. I can't think of one joke that was primarily a reference that I laughed at. Not that reference jokes can't be funny, they just weren't interestingly used here. The parts that did work were the character-centric ones. It feels a little bit like they took a script that was solid to begin with and just grafted a Rescue Rangers skin onto it and added some references to flesh it out. As someone with no ties to the original Rescue Rangers, I found myself reacting the way I react to most franchise movies these days: I just don't care. It wasn't bad. I just can't make myself care about any of it because none of it matters in a world of endless franchises. If you liked Rescue Rangers, maybe you'll like this one. I don't know. I don't care enough to give much of an opinion on it.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers < Ripley's Game

Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers > Fifth of July

Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers > The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio

Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers < Heartbeat

Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers > Finding Dory

Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers > Remember the Night

Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers < Planes, Trains & Automobiles

Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers < The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer

Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers > Bill Cunningham New York

Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers > Mad Dog and Glory

Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers > Street of Chance

Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers < Happy Gilmore

Final spot: #2089 out of 3635, or 43%.