Disney Making Live-Action Chip 'n' Dale Film

[MarlaDesat]

Disney Making Live-Action Chip 'n' Dale Film

A Rescue Rangers movie will bring the animated chipmunks to the big screen in a live-action/CG hybrid film.

Get ready for a wave of nostalgia. The Hollywood Reporter [http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/disney-reviving-chip-n-dale-676161] has revealed that Disney is reviving Chip 'n' Dale with a feature film. The film is expected to be a live-action/CG hybrid, in same vein as the recent Alvin and the Chipmunks and Smurfs movies. Robert Rugan, award-winning commercials director, pitched an updated take on the detective chipmunk duo to Disney. Mandeville Films/TV, the studio behind the Muppets films, will produce the Chip 'n' Dale film.

Chip 'n' Dale have been around in Disney cartoons since 1943. The pair got a television show in 1989, titled Chip 'n' Dale Rescue Rangers, which put them in charge of a detective agency. Along with Australian mouse Monterey Jack, his sidekick housefly Zipper, and mechanic mouse Gadget Hackwrench, Chip and Dale solved crimes for their animal clientele. Chip 'n' Dale Rescue Rangers ran for three seasons alongside DuckTales, TailSpin and Darkwing Duck. The show ran in syndication on The Disney Channel for ten years. In 2010, the chipmunks returned in a short-lived comic book series from BOOM! Studios [http://www.boom-studios.com/]. The new film will draw on Chip 'n' Dale Rescue Rangers, telling an origin story for the chipmunks.

Live-action/CG hybrid films have been doing well, so it's easy to see why Disney would join the fray. Fox is on its fourth installment in the Alvin and the Chipmunks series, and Sony Pictures Animation has produced two Smurfs movies. Personally, I find the combination of live actors with CG animals a little off-putting, though I imagine photorealism wouldn't make the films look any less strange. Listening to the old theme song [http://video.disney.com/watch/disneychannel-chip-n-dale-rescue-rangers-theme-song-4c2f262c648b6840e619df87] delivers a hard hit of nostalgia, and has me hoping that the film will be more than just a grab for some of the live-action/CG market share.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter [http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/disney-reviving-chip-n-dale-676161]

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[Queen Michael]

Here's to hoping that Fat Cat's in the movie. He always was my favorite villain.

 

[Ratty]

Maybe they'll finally release the rest of the series now. Also anyone else thing that themesong is "inspired by" David Bowie's Changes?

 

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

Meh, I'll go as far as to say it can't top my memories of Rescue Rangers... and the awesome NES game that the series spawned.

 

[MrBrightside919]

No...oh please god no!

You went from a cartoon to a CGI + Real Life movie. When you go from a cartoon to a CGI + Real life movie, you're gonna have a bad time...

 

[Leemaster777]

I feel very conflicted about this. On the one hand, yay, more Rescue Rangers. On the other, ech, all the other recent CGI/live action hybrid movies like this have been shite.

I don't even know whether I should be excited or filled with dread, or whether I should take a "wait and see" attitude, or just not even give it a chance on principle.

Like I said, conflicted.

 

[schrodinger]

live. action.

[HEADING=2]LIVE ACTION?![/HEADING]

are you screwing with us here, Disney? You lazy bastards could of done this entirely CG or maybe you could hand animate it, like the show was!

I swear to all the gods if this turns out to be like the smurfs or chipmunks, filled with obnoxious characters and pop culture references, i will burn Disney down.

 

[Atary77]

live. action.

[HEADING=2]LIVE ACTION?![/HEADING]

are you screwing with us here, Disney? You lazy bastards could does this entirely CG or maybe you could hand animate it, like the show was!

I swear to all the gods if this turns out to be like the smurfs or chipmunks, filled with obnoxious characters and pop culture references, i will burn Disney down.

My thoughts exactly. We've had three Live Action/CGI movies wit chipmunks, we don't need anymore like them! And seriously, with a movie who's main characters have to be animated to begin with, can you still really call it "Live Action" ?

 

[Raggedstar]

Disney, Rescue Rangers is about a group of rodents (and a bug) saving humans and animals alike, usually from their enemy who is a cat in a suit.

What part of the above makes it seem like they'll translate well into a CGI + real life film?

As much as I would love a bigger budget Rescue Rangers film, part of what was so great about it was that it was a CARTOON! It was silly, the animation and violence were all cartoony and exaggerated, and not a lot seems like it'll work well for real life. That show was so bloody charming and something will definitely be lost.

 

[Ldude893]

On the one hand, I really hated CGI/live action films based on cartoon characters.

On the other hand, most of those were either made by hacks, or were meddled to the bone by executives. This is a Disney movie made by the same guys who made the Muppets films, and as much as I dislike Disney's ability to take risks in its shows and movies sometimes, at the very least they know how to make good animated films, and they've shown that a lot in the past.

Besides, if a movie can have felt puppets as actual characters in a live-action film, I'm sure they can pull of a film with CGI characters too. The main problem lies in the writing and characters themselves, not with the CGI.

 

[Yopaz]

live. action.

[HEADING=2]LIVE ACTION?![/HEADING]

are you screwing with us here, Disney? You lazy bastards could does this entirely CG or maybe you could hand animate it, like the show was!

I swear to all the gods if this turns out to be like the smurfs or chipmunks, filled with obnoxious characters and pop culture references, i will burn Disney down.

If I had been drinking when I saw the headline I would have choked on my drink. What the fuck are they thinking?! It's been years since I watched this show and I remember liking it, but some things shouldn't be live action. There are examples where live action works and there are those where it doesn't. You can't get talking chipmunks in clothes to fit into the real world without it looking silly. Then there's the CGI effects making it look like something that doesn't fit into either animation or live action. Please Disney, cancel this, don't mess up the nostalgia the only fans old enough to remember this have left.

Also, we should coordinate when you decide to burn Disney to the ground. We could cover more ground if we divided the task.

 

[Sigmund Av Volsung]

No.

Nonononono.

Not "live action", if it's live action, they will inevitably add in a human character, which just adds a layer of awful to the whole thing, not to mention that the characters people give a shit about (CHIP'N'FUCKING-DALE) will be CG.

*reads further*

WHAT A SURPRISE.

GODDAMNIT, DO THEY NOT REALISE THAT IT WOULD BE CHEAPER AND BETTER IF THEY JUST DID IT 2D, EXCEPT USING ALL OF THAT LOVELY ANIMATION WE HAVE ACCESS TO?

But no, here will be another Smurfs/Alvin and The Chipmunks disgrace.

*for God's sake*

The best I can hope for is that if this movie tanks, then they will not pull this kind of nonsense again.

EDIT: *even further reading* Yeah, this is geared to fail: "commercials director", "origin story", those terms just further prove how this will be crap.

Oh God, I can anticipate the "updated theme tune".

*sigh*

Disney, why are you doing this? These are no longer the 90s/early 2000s, you don't have to keep doing this.

But if I find out that Matthew Broderick is in it, then I know they are deliberately trying (and succeeding)to get to me.

 

[kajinking]

No.

Nonononono.

Not "live action", if it's live action, they will inevitably add in a human character, which just adds a layer of awful to the whole thing, not to mention that the characters people give a shit about (CHIP'N'FUCKING-DALE) will be CG.

Maybe if we're lucky they'll get Shia Labeouf! He's not doing anything at the moment right?

A re-make of a classic series with Shia Labeouf, I fail to see how this can end badly!

 

[RJ Dalton]

No. Just no. Hasn't the ugliness of the very Alvin and the Chipmunks movie shown us what a horrible idea this is?
Also, they don't have to tell an origin story. The series already had one. A two hour movie that was split into . . . was it five episodes? I think it was five. They really don't need an origin.

 

[Vivi22]

live-action

No! Bad Disney! No soup for you!

No way this ends well.

 

[Fox12]

No...oh please god no!

You went from a cartoon to a CGI + Real Life movie. When you go from a cartoon to a CGI + Real life movie, you're gonna have a bad time...

I'm just waiting for them to announce that it's -wait for it- set in New York. I understand Disney now hates all things 2D, but they could at least try to make a great 3D CGI film. This is really too bad, Rescue Rangers is a gold mine of potential. In the right hands it could be like a spiritual successor of The Rescuers. The show alone was great.

 

[skywolfblue]

Rescue Rangers was the frikkin boss. I loved that show!

But CG and Live Action, no. No. NO! The whimsical 2D animation style is part of what made Chip'n'Dale fun. This just speaks "cash grab without understanding the fundamentals of the original".

Why do they insist on making such obvious train wrecks?

 

[ClanCrusher]

If the chipmunks haven't 'invaded' our world in this upcoming movie, you can probably be assured that they'll do so in the sequel, with theoretically hilarious hijinks.

 

[VoidOfOne]

This was definitely one of my favorite Disney cartoons growing up, and I can still hear the theme song in my head.

I'm honestly not surprised they're combining live action and CG, considering how much success that had with other franchises, whether or not I liked them (I didn't). I can definitely see why people would be smacking their heads and shaking them in dismay. LA and CG have not been attractive to the young adult demographic when it comes to redoing 80's and 90's cartoons, although one can argue those movies weren't made for these audiences in mind, but more for families. Family movies always have the potential to make lots of money; being a quality film is besides the point, and is also subjective to the opinion.

Personally, I couldn't stand the first 2 minutes of the first Chipmunks movie. So I'm cautiously optimistic about how well this movie appeals to me. But I know, this movie isn't meant for people like me; whether I like it or not is another matter.