With all of your favorite 90’s shows returning – this fan-favorite is sure to have you feeling extra nostalgic. Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers is coming to a screen near you in an upcoming American live action/animated action-adventure comedy film. Since 1940, Walt Disney has brought you the hilarious dynamic duo-chipmunk brothers.
In honor of the upcoming Rescue Rangers movie arrival on Disney+, The Koalition takes a look at the evolution of Chip and Dale to uncover everything we know about their origin story.
Evolution of Chip N’ Dale
Rescuing the world takes a pair.
A comeback 30 years in the making, the hybrid live-action/CG animated action-comedy catches up with the former Disney Afternoon television stars in modern-day Los Angeles.
In Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers, Chip and Dale are living amongst cartoons and humans in modern-day Los Angeles, but their lives are quite different now. It has been decades since their successful television series was canceled, and Chip (voice of Mulaney) has succumbed to a life of suburban domesticity as an insurance salesman. Dale (voice of Sandberg), meanwhile, has had CGI surgery and works the nostalgia convention circuit, desperate to relive his glory days. When a former cast mate mysteriously disappears, Chip and Dale must repair their broken friendship and take on their Rescue Rangers detective personas once again to save their friend’s life.
940s
It all started with the 1943’s Private Pluto (released on April 2, 1943) short that showcases Pluto as a soldier. Pluto is a guard dog on a military base. He’s told there are saboteurs and is assigned to guard a pill-box (gun emplacement). First, Pluto tries to follow marching orders, contorting himself into quite a mess. Then, he engages in hijinks with Chip and Dale (voiced by Norma Swank (Chip) and Dessie Flynn (Dale)), who are using a cannon to store and crack their nuts, and a war of wits naturally ensues.
- Private Pluto (1943)
- Squatter’s Rights (1946)
- Fun and Fancy Free (1947) (cameo)
- Chip an’ Dale (1947)
- Three for Breakfast (1948)
- Melody Time (1948) (comeo)
- Winter Storage (1949)
- All in a Nutshell (1949)
- Toy Tinkers (1949)
1950s
Chips Ahoy is a 1956 animated short starring Donald Duck and Chip ‘n’ Dale. It was the last Chip ‘n’ Dale short to be released theatrically.
In this short, Chip and Dale are both hungry sitting in their tree, which has few acorns. After a squabble over their last acorn, which falls into a lake below, Chip sees a larger tree overflowing with acorns across the way from them. However, the lake stands between them and their potential gain.
- Crazy Over Daisy (1950)
- Trailer Horn (1950)
- Food for Feudin’ (1950)
- Out on a Limb (1950)
- Chicken in the Rough (1951)
- Corn Chips (1951)
- Test Pilot Donald (1951)
- Out of Scale (1951)
- Donald Applecore (1952)
- Two Chips and a Miss (1952)
- Pluto’s Christmas Tree (1952)
- Working for Peanuts (1953)
- The Lone Chipmunks (1954)
- Dragon Around (1954)
- Up a Tree (1955)
- Chips Ahoy (1956)
1980s
Mickey’s Christmas Carol (cameo)is a 1983 theatrical featurette featuring established Disney characters re-enacting the classic Charles Dickens story A Christmas Carol. The production, hailed as Mickey Mouse’s big-screen comeback (despite his limited supporting role), was inspired by An Adaptation of Dickens’ Christmas Carol, Performed by The Walt Disney Players, a 1974 record album conceived by Alan Young and Alan Dineheart.
Television shows
Chip and Dale: Rescue Rangers TV show features Chip and Dale, two chipmunks with noses for trouble, start a detective agency, the Rescue Rangers, along with their new friends Gadget, Monterey Jack, and Zipper. The pint-sized detectives deal with crimes that are often “too small” for the (human) police to handle, usually with other animals as their clients.
The gang frequently finds itself going up against two particular arch-villains: Mafia-style tabby cat Fat Cat, and mad scientist Norton Nimnul. The Recue Rangers’ motto is to watch out for everyone, and whenever anyone is in trouble, they’re on the case. This gang would never steal from anybody, has “hearts of gold”, and always tries to help others in need.
- Walt Disney anthology series
- “Donald’s Award“
- “From All of Us to All of You“
- “Duck Flies Coop“
- “The Adventures of Chip ‘n’ Dale“
- “This is Your Life Donald Duck“
- The Mouse Factory
- “Man at Work”
- “Homeowners”
- “Aviation”
- “Winter Fun”
- Chip ‘n Dale Rescue Rangers
- Darkwing Duck
- “Negaduck” (cameo)
- “Twitching Channels” (voice cameo, Chip only)
- Mickey’s Fun Songs
- Quack Pack
- “Hit the Road, Backwater Jack” (cameo, Dale only)
- Mickey Mouse Works
- “Donald and the Big Nut“
- “Golf Nut Donald“
- “Mickey’s Christmas Chaos” (cameo)
- “Mickey’s Mixed Nuts“
- House of Mouse
- “Ladies’ Night” (cameo)
- “Chip ‘n’ Dale“
- “House of Turkey” (cameo)
- Mickey Mouse Clubhouse (31 episodes)
- Have a Laugh! (8 episodes)
- Mickey Mouse
- “Space Walkies“
- “The Birthday Song“
- “New Shoes“
- “Our Floating Dreams“
- Mickey and the Roadster Racers (42 episodes)
- Chip ‘n Dale’s Nutty Tales
- DuckTales (2017 series)
- Double-O-Duck in You Only Crash Twice!
- The Last Adventure!
- Chip ‘n’ Dale: Park Life
- Mickey Mouse Funhouse
Direct-to-video and Steaming movies
2022
It’s been over 30 years since the end of Chip ‘n Dale Rescue Rangers, and Chip and Dale are currently living a life of mediocrity in a world where humans and cartoon characters live together. Meanwhile, traditionally animated characters are doing their best to live in a world of remakes and reboots with realistic computer graphics. Now, Chip and Dale must renew their partnership and bring the gang back together to try and save a friend from a fate worse than death: video piracy.
- Disney’s Sing-Along Songs: The Twelve Days of Christmas (1994, Direct-to-video)
- Mickey’s Once Upon a Christmas (1999, Direct-to-video)
- Mickey’s Magical Christmas: Snowed in at the House of Mouse (2001, Direct-to-video) (cameo)
- Chip ‘n Dale Rescue Rangers (2022, Disney+)
TRIVIA TIDBITS
- Was the #1 rated syndicated cartoon for the 1989-1990 season (American market).
- The Look of Chip and Dale were modeled after Indiana Jones and Magnum P.I. as Chip wears a leather jacket and hat and Dale wears a Hawaiian shirt.
- Corey Burton, one of the voice actors of the original Rescue Rangers, reprises one of his roles from Chip ‘n’ Dale Rescue Rangers (1988) for this film.
- The teaser trailer was released on February 15th, the same day the original series was released on Blu-Ray.
- The show’s creator went on to work on Bob’s Burgers
- If you grew up watching cartoons, you’ve probably watched work by Tad Stones. As well as creating Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers, Stones was also instrumental in the production of Disney’s Adventures of the Gummi Bears, the Aladdin TV show, and – perhaps most famously – Darkwing Duck.
- Stones no longer works at Disney, but he’s stayed in the field of animation. He worked as a storyboard artist on the hit show Bob’s Burgers for 3 seasons. After that, he freelanced scripts then co-wrote and directed the first season of Kulapari (action adventure/frogs) for Netflix. He would retire in 2017.
- Chip and Dale went without names for four years
- Chip ‘n Dale first hit our screens back in 1943 in the cartoon, “Private Pluto” in which they appeared anonymously. It was four years later, in 1947, that the duo were given their names in the cartoon entitled “Chip an’ Dale” and two stars were born!
- Chip was played by voice-acting royalty
- Back in 1989, few knew that one cartoon would soon conquer the world. That show was not the admittedly popular Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers, but The Simpsons. Still airing new episodes to date, The Simpsons has become the most successful animated TV series of all time – but did you know that these shows are connected?
- Tress MacNeille, who voices Chip, went on to voice the likes of Agnes Skinner and high-powered businesswoman Lindsay Naegle on The Simpsons, as well as robot-manufacturing villain Mom on Futurama.
