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The All-Too-Brief Return of the Rescue Rangers
13 years ago
General
It's old news now, but in case you missed it:
http://www.amazon.com/Chip-Dale-Res.....f=cm_cr-mr-img
CHIP 'N DALE RESCUE RANGERS: WORLDWIDE RESCUE (Boom Studios, 2011, ISBN 978-1608866557)
reviewed by Roochak
A funny thing happened to the Rescue Rangers on the way to the 21st century: they've matured. Increased confidence and professionalism, not to mention twenty years of internet fan fiction, will do that to characters. It seems as if the team members were designed to get on each others' nerves: there's a blustering know-it-all, a scatterbrained genius, a half-pint scrapper, a joker, and a control freak, each reliant on the others. From the start they were such an unusually complex ensemble that they transcended the relentlessly mediocre TV episodes they appeared in, sparking a fan fiction phenomenon: Ranger Noir. Several fan writers did justice to the concept, and something of that spirit -- within Disney's kid-friendly guidelines -- informs their return in the present graphic novel.
"Worldwide Rescue" pits the team against their old nemesis, Fat Cat, who's gotten his paws on a long-dormant mind control device, but while the series's familiar blend of comedy and action hasn't changed, the stakes are higher and the tone is darker. There are new and decidedly noirish elements in the mix: a frequent use of flashbacks, a morally compromised former good guy, and the (off-panel) death of a supporting character. In spite of these more mature elements, it isn't really the story this time around that grabs me, but the Rangers themselves: it's a pleasure seeing once again how this clashing, contradictory bunch of oddballs makes up a team greater than the sum of its parts. Ian Brill's dialogue (right down to Zipper's pictographic buzzing) perfectly captures each character's voice; Leonel Castellani's drawings give the figures and their backgrounds a warm but sculptural quality; it's a more rounded, slightly old-fashioned depiction of furry characters that evokes the traditionalism of Disney animation in the 1980s (before the extreme stylization of "The Ren & Stimpy Show" conquered all). Castellani's elegant, gorgeously rendered artwork complements the more emotionally realistic tone of the story, but it's Fat Cat himself that seems the most retro, if not timelocked, thing about this story arc; while the Rangers have evolved since 1989, he hasn't. It's in the second Kaboom story arc Chip 'N' Dale Rescue Rangers: Slippin' Through the Cracks that full-fledged Ranger Noir gets the Disney imprimatur -- but that's another story.
http://www.amazon.com/Chip-Dale-Res.....f=cm_cr-mr-img
CHIP 'N DALE RESCUE RANGERS: WORLDWIDE RESCUE (Boom Studios, 2011, ISBN 978-1608866557)
reviewed by Roochak
A funny thing happened to the Rescue Rangers on the way to the 21st century: they've matured. Increased confidence and professionalism, not to mention twenty years of internet fan fiction, will do that to characters. It seems as if the team members were designed to get on each others' nerves: there's a blustering know-it-all, a scatterbrained genius, a half-pint scrapper, a joker, and a control freak, each reliant on the others. From the start they were such an unusually complex ensemble that they transcended the relentlessly mediocre TV episodes they appeared in, sparking a fan fiction phenomenon: Ranger Noir. Several fan writers did justice to the concept, and something of that spirit -- within Disney's kid-friendly guidelines -- informs their return in the present graphic novel.
"Worldwide Rescue" pits the team against their old nemesis, Fat Cat, who's gotten his paws on a long-dormant mind control device, but while the series's familiar blend of comedy and action hasn't changed, the stakes are higher and the tone is darker. There are new and decidedly noirish elements in the mix: a frequent use of flashbacks, a morally compromised former good guy, and the (off-panel) death of a supporting character. In spite of these more mature elements, it isn't really the story this time around that grabs me, but the Rangers themselves: it's a pleasure seeing once again how this clashing, contradictory bunch of oddballs makes up a team greater than the sum of its parts. Ian Brill's dialogue (right down to Zipper's pictographic buzzing) perfectly captures each character's voice; Leonel Castellani's drawings give the figures and their backgrounds a warm but sculptural quality; it's a more rounded, slightly old-fashioned depiction of furry characters that evokes the traditionalism of Disney animation in the 1980s (before the extreme stylization of "The Ren & Stimpy Show" conquered all). Castellani's elegant, gorgeously rendered artwork complements the more emotionally realistic tone of the story, but it's Fat Cat himself that seems the most retro, if not timelocked, thing about this story arc; while the Rangers have evolved since 1989, he hasn't. It's in the second Kaboom story arc Chip 'N' Dale Rescue Rangers: Slippin' Through the Cracks that full-fledged Ranger Noir gets the Disney imprimatur -- but that's another story.
I've heard many good things about this, with you adding to the chorus, as you did with the Darkwing Duck gritty reboot.
It's good to have you back with some regularity.