Longtime Saturday Night Live comedians Andy Samberg and John Mulaney are reuniting to star in the new Disney+ project Chip 'N' Dale: Rescue Rangers, a movie based on the animated series of the same name. Mulaney and Samberg both jumpstarted their fame at SNL—Mulaney as a writer and Samberg as a cast member—before leaving in the early 2010s to cultivate their expansive careers. Mulaney is best known for dominating the stand-up scene and voicing Andrew Glouberman in Netflix's Big Mouth. Meanwhile, Samberg has come a long way from his days of making raunchy music videos with friends Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone, otherwise known as "The Lonely Island." After creating some movies that err on the slapstick side of comedy, they took a distinct turn recently with their creation of Palm Springs, the existential rom-com released on Hulu earlier this summer.
The Chip 'N' Dale: Rescue Rangers cartoon ran for three seasons from 1989-1990, airing 65 episodes in total. The show focuses on the titular chipmunks, two best friends who open a private detective agency together. They butt heads due to Chip's uptight attitude clashing with Dale's laid-back approach, but they always come through for their clients in the end. The series was quite popular in syndication, with reruns airing throughout the '90s. It's a cultural touchstone for a lot of kids who grew up in that era, so a reboot capitalizing on its nostalgia makes sense.
Samberg and Mulaney will now take their talents to Disney for a Chip 'N' Dale: Rescue Rangers movie, as revealed on the company's Twitter. This version will be a feature film that is a hybrid of live-action and animation. Mulaney and Samberg will voice Chip and Dale, respectively. The film will be directed by Schaffer, Samberg's Lonely Island groupmate. Chip 'N' Dale Rescue Rangers will go straight to Disney+, but the company has not given a release date at this time.
While Samberg and Mulaney have worked on a number of projects intended for mature audiences only, each of them has experience with creating kid-friendly content as well. Mulaney worked with Netflix to create the special John Mulaney and the Sack Lunch Bunch, which will have two more installments once the pandemic permits. Meanwhile, Samberg took his cartoonish and goofy tenor and went down the voice-acting route, starring in a number of animated children's movies such as Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs, Hotel Transylvania, and Storks. And, having worked together before, Mulaney and Samberg have the chemistry necessary to pull off the dynamic friendship between the two chipmunks.
Chip and Dale are classic Disney characters that the company has rarely revisited since the Disney Renaissance took off. But reboots like the recently canceled Ducktales (in which Chip and Dale guest-starred) prove there is an audience for these older stories, given the right talent is involved. Like Ducktales, Chip 'N' Dale: Rescue Rangers seems like it won't simply be a carbon copy of the original project; hopefully, this version will lean into the absurdity, humor, and wit that Mulaney and Samberg have to offer while maintaining the heart of the original series.
Source: Disney