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Description

So what we have here is a show that slipped through the cracks where all the crimes heat up. As you can see, the quality doesn't seem to carry a mind that's as bright as the newer releases, but unlike other cartoons I've seen from the 80's, Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers appears to be a really weak series. Of course, like the other 80's toons, how this show stands right now is simply average, but why much average-er than usual? Prepare to keep a watchful eye on what these rodents are up to:
PIE CHART ANALYSIS

As I stated, this show is really mediocre. Enough so that much of the series lands on a mediocre rating that is avoidable but not something to keep a far distance away from. In fact, for a series that mostly stands in the lower end of the MEH range, it isn't that good neither that bad.

When analyzing, 26 episodes are BAD. And it's as simple as that since none of them managed to be worse except for one unsatisfactory episode. This here is a sign that the series, at worst, is one plain sucker.

But if you're hoping for optimistic news, then all you get is 5 recommendable episodes that is enough to create a Top 5 for the series. Doesn't sound that good when the 2 GOOD episodes are just ample, which shows how lukewarm this series is.

And besides all of that, there's not much to say here. I'd say the bit that interested me the most was how the worst episodes in a mediocre series weren't that bad, but that doesn't mean the best episodes are great.

FIRST THOUGHTS

If you recall from my DuckTales (1987) review, you may remember how I criticized aforementioned cartoon for not aging well and playing too safe at times. Since Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers feels like something in a similar umbrella as said series, I fear that this will be another depreciated series time couldn’t spare. But to its credit, I can smell this show having better personality than DuckTales (1987). The premise might suggest so:
Chip and Dale are two chipmunks who start a detective agency, Rescue Rangers, along with their friends Gadget, Monterey Jack, and Zipper. The pint-sized detectives deal with crimes that are often "too small" for the police to handle, usually with other animals as their clients. The gang frequently find themselves going up against two particular arch-villains: Mafia-style tabby cat Fat Cat and mad scientist Norton Nimnul.
-sourced from Wikipedia

So what had me unexcited for Chip and Dale’s small-scaled adventures is honestly the plots and action. From a couple of 80’s cartoons I’ve reviewed, this show might be indifferent with it containing bland plots and slow-paced action that I can barely get invested in. From some that I’ve read, they could have the possibility of having slow pacing to bore me.

Then there’s also the characters, who I can see having a clear identity, particularly with Chip and Dale, but reading some of their descriptions has me worried how repetitive some might be such as Chip having trouble dealing with Dale’s shenanigans. As for the rest of the characters, well they seem pretty bland though the one character I’m excited to see who can strike back is Fat Cat.

Despite all of this, the premise might at least present me something of substance. There could be a potential atmosphere with much of the characters being in small-scale, which seeing action in a small environment could be interesting, as well as the relationship between the animals and the humans. The latter might not appear too much, but I’d like to see both sides work together.

This show might have some potential with its small-scale approach as well as interactions, but the rest such as the action and characters suggest me that this will be another one of those un-special 80’s cartoons that would become more inferior as time flies.
WRITING

Alright, you know that I'm going to say "boring" words a lot, but let me explain:

Firstly, the main thing that ruins so much of the series is the teleplay or the script. Making its way on screen, it's so bland and generic. Much of the dialogue aims for obvious or clichéd reactions, leaving predictability galore such as someone not expecting the opposite to happen but then the irony of it occurs. When it tries cooking up some wit and sarcasm into the script, they usually don't feel that ingenuine or reasonable. Here's his master, who couldn't understand his directions, in which a dog sarcastically says "And he's supposed to be the dominant species of this planet", which doesn't work due to the unwise choice of words. Or, there's Chip's responses to Dale's foolishness, but it's, again, the lack of cleverness or sense.

In fact, the script can be so boring that the action scenes can feel pretty unoriginal, barebones, or too short to be convincing. Plus, the actions can feel forced such as someone slipping off, stare at how steep the drop is, and then climb back up. This is supposed to bring up some suspense, but it doesn't work here because the end result makes the view from the bottom feel pointless and is a failed attempt of the series trying to add some tension into the episode. Because of such forced actions like this, it makes some action scenes feel unbelievable with the Rangers being able to overcome obstacles easily with no problem. While they can get almost caught by an obstacle or a fine plot twist kicks in to enhance these scenes a little bit, there's some like the Rangers controlling objects to frighten the enemies or whenever someone gets distracted by the scent of food that is really overused with little to no variety or even a direction to make it feel fresh for a couple of times, which especially applies to Monterrey Jack's obsession of cheese.

If the chases seem unengaging, then what about the bigger picture: the conflicts? Not much variety as far as case busting is concerned. I'd say the one person who at least gives some of it a pinch of light is Professor Nimnul, but besides him, expect a good portion of the series to consist of stolen/missing items and kidnapped creatures. More could've been done with these conflicts as the series seems to be aiming for with the best creativity it can deliver, but they seem to enter the apparent direction with there not being as much opportunities as it can be repetitive or just nothing that attractive.

But while these conflicts unfold, the Rangers need a story of their own, and they managed to be vile-r than the villains with their subplots. Not only are they even duller and more unoriginal with a huge amount of predictability, but this aspect, alongside the setups, action scenes, and as well as some depth, can have trouble saving focus, which all of these aspects can lack enough of where I can forgot that they happened once they're brought up again minutes later or be baffled by how incomplete it is. Or, it didn't have enough development where these aspects weren't explored much as planned but instead use it for something such as bland actions and jokes, making it another regular episode of the series that could've stood out ("Rest Home Rangers"). But like some of the suspense, the series can pay forced importance to it such as whenever the characters point out that they can't do something with their or someone's conflict in the way. However, this conflict, as an obstacle, doesn't seem that difficult to overcome as the alternative the Rangers figure out seems simple and easy to figure out, leaving that subplot's possible moment to shine be generally crushed by a path that has the same, smooth length as the other one.

And now for something that I was expecting, since we're talking about Chip and Dale after all, the humor... which feels so soft and flat that sometimes, I wasn't sure of they were meant to be funny or not. In fact, they can turn an episode into a plain bore-fest devoid of a strong sense of humor. To its credit, the energetic personalities of Chip and Dale and some of the ways they pick on each other is pretty chuckleworthy as well as the ways humans can cause messes while in the middle of dealing with animals. However, Chip and Dale aren't funny most of the time as Dale's stupidity can be very dull or trashed by how off the directing was here. But if you find Dale finding certain names funny such as Spanish city names like Tramplonia, you can get a crack out of Dale's misunderstandings. Again, more could've been done with these jokes, but simplicity seems to mostly exist, which could be so fine if it weren't so far away from it.

What I was expecting out of the series is kind of here: the Rangers using their surroundings to their advantage. Sure, a lot of it is using larger objects with little to no twists involved but by using their scale and instincts to their advantage, it does pump the writing some blood at least.

Verdict: Most of the writing was simply nothing. It may sound like a stretch where there's still the bright minds involved with the twists, creativity, and energy, but they only amount to the size of Monterrey Jack when dealing with awful screenwriting, a lack of focus and charm despite the Rangers doing the best they can with them, and overall feeling plain and forgettable.
QUALITY
Another 80's cartoon that kind of looks alike with the other toons from its time, but it does has some good and bad news.

The best thing I can describe to come out of the quality would be the backgrounds. Granted, they do have the same style as other cartoons' backgrounds with their bright and detailed settings. But the more I see it, the more I can see more effort be put into these places as I notice how realistic they look with a careful attention to the textures and shading of all these places. This style seems to fit better with the series since you have the Rangers in a human world, which is more realistic than something like Duckburg from DuckTales (1987).

While the coloring isn't that colorful enough to push them further to be jaw-droppingly astonshing, the realistic approach to it seems alright. I notice some brushes vary from watercolor to pastel and they seem to compliment each other well without sticking out too much. Plus, they have a neat choice of colors with two shades sharing two sides, apparently to capture that sense of lighting.

Unfortunately, that's where the positives end, as far as "in general" is considered. We do have the animation to appreciate where it has some of that smoothness to it as Disney did try their best with the budget that isn't as glowing as their animated productions. However, there's one big issue to it that made me feel rather underwhelmed: it lacked energy. To be precise, the timing of the animation can have a lot of its odd moments, whether inconsistent or just plain strange. Now the reason why the energy is a big deal here is because with a show about Chip and Dale, I would be expecting some fever and fun come out of these two chipmunks as well as bits of the animation to capture the distinction between animals and humans. And to be fair, some of it is here and it can work fine like whenever a character zooms into the scene quickly or how Gadget and Monty's tails interact with them. However, it isn't here all the time to make much of the action scenes quicker or sharp with the Rangers running at the pace of a normal human being. Not only that, but this seems like a great ability for Zipper with how flies are really hard to catch with how we humans deal with them. But the speed of it, however, isn't fast enough to be potent as it could've been with Zipper being able to get swatted easier. And lastly, Chip and Dale's bickerings aren't always the same pace as the sluggishness of some of their antics makes these moments worth a yawn but would've been good opportunities to spice up the otherwise dull action. But to my surprise, the swiftness of that can be executed poorly with how Chip and Dale are shouting long lines of insults to each other with these ramblings failing to reach that mark, leaving it sounding awkward.

But enough of an energy shortage, we have the character designs. While the coloring and clothing doesn't make them pop out that much with rather obvious choices, neither the villain's abnormal faces, their differences are still somewhat identifiable. This applies to the Rangers with how their clothing defines them with Dale wearing an Aloha shirt to show how relaxed and care-free he is like the shores of Hawaii. I do wish that the designs of the inventions and crafts look more creative as they have traits that you'd expect from a tube shape to features that feel like pint-sized versions of necessary parts. But then we have some of the animal designs, which includes those that appears to be more wild. I'm not sure is a nitpick or not, but they seem to be recycled from classic Disney cartoons such as the elephants in "The Elephant Never Suspects" resembling the ones used in The Jungle Book.

For the acting, I can see how charismatic some of them are, particularly with Fat Cat and Monterrey Jack. In fact, I took a liking with the accents and how their use of slang distinguish them from others. But then there's Chip, who was voiced by a woman. As far as I'm concerned, this is the only voice I'm bothered by simply because of how he compares to Dale. Yes, they both have high-pitched voices, but with Dale sounding more masculine and deeper than Chip's voice actor, Tress MacNeille, Chip sounds awkward when with Dale since Chip sounds squeakier. Now that word I used to describe Chip is important here since that ruins how he tries to sound leader-like and ever vigilant. But hey, there's still some of the energy seen here with Chip and Dale's signature laughs.

And finally, a word from the soundtrack, which I don't have much to say but it has a solid amount of dramatic and action-like flare. At best, it can enhance the atmosphere of some settings decently such as playing Chinese music in an Asian setting or jazz in a metropolitan area. But at worst, it has that ugly-sounding synthesizer music with the notes being poorly played, sounding like two relative notes are unintentionally played at once, though this plays just a few times.

Verdict: Most of the quality is passable. It aims for a realistic approach and while it doesn't look that awe-inspiring to look at, it still has effort used well including smooth animation. But what it seems to be missing that I thought would've had importance is energy, which is sometimes present and mostly absent, leaving some moments either saved or left to get fed by boredom.
CHARACTERS

They seem to have alright skills, but how well can they pull them off?

The first to enter the auditions are Chip and Dale. Much like their original counterparts, logical and dim-witted respectively, it is examined further in the series with Chip's indulgence to always be on task for juicy crimes as well as encourage other Rangers to act the same, whereas Dale has an appreciation of television and comic books, which sometimes drift him a bit far away from distinguishing reality with fiction. These are fine additions to their attitude, but the thing is, they're not surprising or have a sense of smart wit. I'd say the issue with them that makes them fail include a variety of reasons, but the aspect I know the most about them is their dynamic, which can be pretty bland thanks to Dale's unfunny stupidity and Chip often yelling at him for his laziness and immaturity. This is where the script fails to sharpen these characters as well as their sense of humor and action since you've got instances where Dale enjoys floating in mid-air, yet all he does is swim with no tricks or fast-paced energy to spice up the sequence. Or, how about him often miscalculating the appearance of things as different things in rather uncreative or poorly developed ways with one time being him searching for clues and ends up finding Chip, using his likeliness as a clue for the case, with Chip's face being shown throughout the joke rather than search through his appearance. They can be really repetitive as well, whether if it's Chip yelling at Rangers like Dale or Monterrey for putting their safety in danger while meeting up with worried humans, which sometimes have no point to be here, or Dale getting distracted or used as a plot device to ignorantly start-a-conflict. And can't I mention that Chip can hate Dale so much that he implies that the Rangers are better off without him even though he has done little to no mess-ups through their adventures?

But moving towards the other Rangers, they seem to be more tolerable than these two chipmunks, starting with Gadget Hackwrench, who might be one of the best characters of the show, but even the script can't really upgrade her with more parts. While the machines and inventions she makes for the Rangers seem obvious and uncreative with not a whole lot of interesting features, I'd say with her and the Ranger's scale, some of the machines she creates well describe how she uses parts with the size and surroundings she's in. But besides gadget-making, she also seems to be the voice of reason to Chip and Dale's strained relationship and Monterrey's aggressiveness and has a conflict of her own of her inventions not reaching their fullest potential as she hoped as they break down, leaving at one point to have her re-evaluate her purpose as a mechanic and a Rescue Ranger. However, she can be the subject of something I used to despise a lot in which you will hear about later...

Then, from Australia or whatever he travels to, Monterrey Jack busts in to kick a move as well as have many adventures past and present, around the world to tell. He sounds like a good character with his backstories potentially giving him more layers, but they seem to end up in a bumpy turn with barely any of them interesting me due to how apparent they sound. Not to mention how they seem to lack engaging action or even action in general, maybe throw in his victory thanks to luck and call it a day. This might possibly be him bragging about his not-as-awesome adventures, but in the present, there's still his belligerence to get involved with all the fighting. Sounds like I want to join in, but no spectacular stunts or fascinating battles makes me want to decline his combat skills. But before the Rangers, he would have his missions of hunting cheese and eating it down so that's kind of nice and explains his obsessions with cheese that is literally the same thing again and again with little to stand out. But I guess you can say, cheese always at it all! Anyways, he's also accompanied with Zipper, who is a strong and fast fly which the series didn't offer it to their max.

And come to think of the series not cramping up the speed high enough for Zipper, I feel like most of the time, the ways these Rescue Rangers would save the day with their small size in comparison to humans are pretty bland and forgettable. While yes, they can use their size, skills, and animal instincts to their advantage, particularly with Gadget and how she can fix or make machines to get out of trouble, most of the time, they would simply bounce on buttons and carry large objects all together with little to no struggle, making them seem bland and again, straightforward.

But besides failing to bust some sweet moves, the Rangers also tried a course to character development but not in a way that makes them fully developed thanks to the bland and hollow subplots. Not to mention how fruitless it can be like the other aspects of the writing as the episode doesn't bring up that conflict that much as it's just there for characterization sake. An example of this is Chip yelling at others to stay vigilant and not slack off with one of them trying to tell him to have some fun for once, which would sound like good character development for Chip caring more about his team, but it has no effect as the episode doesn't acknowledges this by having Chip still acting as tough for the rest of the episode. Also, there's romance angles to be seen in the series that pretty much serve no point to be here as like Chip's bossiness, it happens in the beginning of the episode only for it to be ignored. But within them, it's just boring sequences of Chip and Dale trying to woe Gadget in clichéd ways.

And another victim to the show failing to give some time to shine to are the one-timers, whose habitats and even conflict aren't scouted much despite being brought up at least once, leaving them really one-note and two-dimensional. Plus, the lack of focus on them can make me forget that they're in the episode. One of them involve little children who lost something such as a kitten or toy, which the episode barely brings them up for much of the episode besides the beginning and ending. Due to this, it's hard for me to connect with these characters with their sorrow or even chemistry with one of the main characters. However, other one-timers can see a simple but effective mix-up as well, usually involving a well-known characteristic of theirs, whether if it's a scary ghost scared to haunt others or a dinosaur's gigantic scale making them dumber.

Heading towards the villains, oh boy are they even more repetitive than the Rangers themselves. Essentially, stock characters dominate them, going from the mad scientist/inventor characters who are either being let down by their boss for not having a good product or wanting to "make humanity bend on their knees" to the group of villains with one of them being too stupid for the other, smarter antagonist to deal with.

But with the former, that has more possibilities as a ticket to being enjoyable with Professor Nimnul's crazy but imaginative plans, despite him acting like all those other mad scientists as well as constantly wanting gold and prized items for himself. However, we can't admit that using bugs as aliens to rob the bank is a cool idea that Nimnul managed to pull off well until the Rangers came in.

Then with the other major antagonist, there's Fat Cat, who... is another villain who wants gold and prized items for himself. Yeah, talk about lack of substance. I was kind of disappointed that the crime aspect of him is not just that but having dim-witted henchmen whom he can't stand further makes him a shallow villain. Not to mention how these henchmen can find him funny for the stupidest reasons with Fat Cat obviously looking down upon them.

Verdict: Only a few were handled well and they're nothing that great. These characters feel repetitive and the layers within them feel forced, clichéd, or in need of a supply of something that would've made them stronger.

FINAL THOUGHTS

You know, it's no wonder why out of all 4 Disney Afternoon shows I'll be reviewing this season, this show is my least-anticipated. I tried rolling for some chances and I had a bit of hope for this series, but the actual product ended up turning me away. In other words, I watched it and I got nothing noteworthy. Hope this works for a noteworthy summary:
At best, Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers is passable but nothing extraordinary, liberating a few interesting ideas, the natural animation, and a sense of energy in rather badly injured conditions. By that, it means that there wasn't enough of these pros to heal everything else, which is simply nothing, going from an awfully bland script to having trouble caring about many other aspects where they would've had a clear focus to a lack of enthusiasm and imagination to repetitively unoriginal characters.I'd say a positive note I can bring to this story is that there are more boring shows than this as much of this series is just nothing. Nothing as in being not terribly unsatisfying, but also unable to compete with better executed ideas. So, as I described the series earlier, it is a very WEAK (40%) series.

Epilogue: While a product of the 80's, I do see the series trying with the budget it can reach, but it appears that for standards that changed drastically decades ago, this series only took a few steps and stopped going further. With some of the others cartoons from its time, I can see them trying as well as be a good show. However, what this show lacked was fun and cleverness and that's what turned me away. But as time flies, I will likely forget about much of this series as I experience better action come from better teams.

Description

So what we have here is a show that slipped through the cracks where all the crimes heat up. As you can see, the quality doesn't seem to carry a mind that's as bright as the newer releases, but unlike other cartoons I've seen from the 80's, Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers appears to be a really weak series. Of course, like the other 80's toons, how this show stands right now is simply average, but why much average-er than usual? Prepare to keep a watchful eye on what these rodents are up to:
PIE CHART ANALYSIS

As I stated, this show is really mediocre. Enough so that much of the series lands on a mediocre rating that is avoidable but not something to keep a far distance away from. In fact, for a series that mostly stands in the lower end of the MEH range, it isn't that good neither that bad.

When analyzing, 26 episodes are BAD. And it's as simple as that since none of them managed to be worse except for one unsatisfactory episode. This here is a sign that the series, at worst, is one plain sucker.

But if you're hoping for optimistic news, then all you get is 5 recommendable episodes that is enough to create a Top 5 for the series. Doesn't sound that good when the 2 GOOD episodes are just ample, which shows how lukewarm this series is.

And besides all of that, there's not much to say here. I'd say the bit that interested me the most was how the worst episodes in a mediocre series weren't that bad, but that doesn't mean the best episodes are great.

FIRST THOUGHTS

If you recall from my DuckTales (1987) review, you may remember how I criticized aforementioned cartoon for not aging well and playing too safe at times. Since Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers feels like something in a similar umbrella as said series, I fear that this will be another depreciated series time couldn’t spare. But to its credit, I can smell this show having better personality than DuckTales (1987). The premise might suggest so:
Chip and Dale are two chipmunks who start a detective agency, Rescue Rangers, along with their friends Gadget, Monterey Jack, and Zipper. The pint-sized detectives deal with crimes that are often "too small" for the police to handle, usually with other animals as their clients. The gang frequently find themselves going up against two particular arch-villains: Mafia-style tabby cat Fat Cat and mad scientist Norton Nimnul.
-sourced from Wikipedia

So what had me unexcited for Chip and Dale’s small-scaled adventures is honestly the plots and action. From a couple of 80’s cartoons I’ve reviewed, this show might be indifferent with it containing bland plots and slow-paced action that I can barely get invested in. From some that I’ve read, they could have the possibility of having slow pacing to bore me.

Then there’s also the characters, who I can see having a clear identity, particularly with Chip and Dale, but reading some of their descriptions has me worried how repetitive some might be such as Chip having trouble dealing with Dale’s shenanigans. As for the rest of the characters, well they seem pretty bland though the one character I’m excited to see who can strike back is Fat Cat.

Despite all of this, the premise might at least present me something of substance. There could be a potential atmosphere with much of the characters being in small-scale, which seeing action in a small environment could be interesting, as well as the relationship between the animals and the humans. The latter might not appear too much, but I’d like to see both sides work together.

This show might have some potential with its small-scale approach as well as interactions, but the rest such as the action and characters suggest me that this will be another one of those un-special 80’s cartoons that would become more inferior as time flies.
WRITING

Alright, you know that I'm going to say "boring" words a lot, but let me explain:

Firstly, the main thing that ruins so much of the series is the teleplay or the script. Making its way on screen, it's so bland and generic. Much of the dialogue aims for obvious or clichéd reactions, leaving predictability galore such as someone not expecting the opposite to happen but then the irony of it occurs. When it tries cooking up some wit and sarcasm into the script, they usually don't feel that ingenuine or reasonable. Here's his master, who couldn't understand his directions, in which a dog sarcastically says "And he's supposed to be the dominant species of this planet", which doesn't work due to the unwise choice of words. Or, there's Chip's responses to Dale's foolishness, but it's, again, the lack of cleverness or sense.

In fact, the script can be so boring that the action scenes can feel pretty unoriginal, barebones, or too short to be convincing. Plus, the actions can feel forced such as someone slipping off, stare at how steep the drop is, and then climb back up. This is supposed to bring up some suspense, but it doesn't work here because the end result makes the view from the bottom feel pointless and is a failed attempt of the series trying to add some tension into the episode. Because of such forced actions like this, it makes some action scenes feel unbelievable with the Rangers being able to overcome obstacles easily with no problem. While they can get almost caught by an obstacle or a fine plot twist kicks in to enhance these scenes a little bit, there's some like the Rangers controlling objects to frighten the enemies or whenever someone gets distracted by the scent of food that is really overused with little to no variety or even a direction to make it feel fresh for a couple of times, which especially applies to Monterrey Jack's obsession of cheese.

If the chases seem unengaging, then what about the bigger picture: the conflicts? Not much variety as far as case busting is concerned. I'd say the one person who at least gives some of it a pinch of light is Professor Nimnul, but besides him, expect a good portion of the series to consist of stolen/missing items and kidnapped creatures. More could've been done with these conflicts as the series seems to be aiming for with the best creativity it can deliver, but they seem to enter the apparent direction with there not being as much opportunities as it can be repetitive or just nothing that attractive.

But while these conflicts unfold, the Rangers need a story of their own, and they managed to be vile-r than the villains with their subplots. Not only are they even duller and more unoriginal with a huge amount of predictability, but this aspect, alongside the setups, action scenes, and as well as some depth, can have trouble saving focus, which all of these aspects can lack enough of where I can forgot that they happened once they're brought up again minutes later or be baffled by how incomplete it is. Or, it didn't have enough development where these aspects weren't explored much as planned but instead use it for something such as bland actions and jokes, making it another regular episode of the series that could've stood out ("Rest Home Rangers"). But like some of the suspense, the series can pay forced importance to it such as whenever the characters point out that they can't do something with their or someone's conflict in the way. However, this conflict, as an obstacle, doesn't seem that difficult to overcome as the alternative the Rangers figure out seems simple and easy to figure out, leaving that subplot's possible moment to shine be generally crushed by a path that has the same, smooth length as the other one.

And now for something that I was expecting, since we're talking about Chip and Dale after all, the humor... which feels so soft and flat that sometimes, I wasn't sure of they were meant to be funny or not. In fact, they can turn an episode into a plain bore-fest devoid of a strong sense of humor. To its credit, the energetic personalities of Chip and Dale and some of the ways they pick on each other is pretty chuckleworthy as well as the ways humans can cause messes while in the middle of dealing with animals. However, Chip and Dale aren't funny most of the time as Dale's stupidity can be very dull or trashed by how off the directing was here. But if you find Dale finding certain names funny such as Spanish city names like Tramplonia, you can get a crack out of Dale's misunderstandings. Again, more could've been done with these jokes, but simplicity seems to mostly exist, which could be so fine if it weren't so far away from it.

What I was expecting out of the series is kind of here: the Rangers using their surroundings to their advantage. Sure, a lot of it is using larger objects with little to no twists involved but by using their scale and instincts to their advantage, it does pump the writing some blood at least.

Verdict: Most of the writing was simply nothing. It may sound like a stretch where there's still the bright minds involved with the twists, creativity, and energy, but they only amount to the size of Monterrey Jack when dealing with awful screenwriting, a lack of focus and charm despite the Rangers doing the best they can with them, and overall feeling plain and forgettable.
QUALITY
Another 80's cartoon that kind of looks alike with the other toons from its time, but it does has some good and bad news.

The best thing I can describe to come out of the quality would be the backgrounds. Granted, they do have the same style as other cartoons' backgrounds with their bright and detailed settings. But the more I see it, the more I can see more effort be put into these places as I notice how realistic they look with a careful attention to the textures and shading of all these places. This style seems to fit better with the series since you have the Rangers in a human world, which is more realistic than something like Duckburg from DuckTales (1987).

While the coloring isn't that colorful enough to push them further to be jaw-droppingly astonshing, the realistic approach to it seems alright. I notice some brushes vary from watercolor to pastel and they seem to compliment each other well without sticking out too much. Plus, they have a neat choice of colors with two shades sharing two sides, apparently to capture that sense of lighting.

Unfortunately, that's where the positives end, as far as "in general" is considered. We do have the animation to appreciate where it has some of that smoothness to it as Disney did try their best with the budget that isn't as glowing as their animated productions. However, there's one big issue to it that made me feel rather underwhelmed: it lacked energy. To be precise, the timing of the animation can have a lot of its odd moments, whether inconsistent or just plain strange. Now the reason why the energy is a big deal here is because with a show about Chip and Dale, I would be expecting some fever and fun come out of these two chipmunks as well as bits of the animation to capture the distinction between animals and humans. And to be fair, some of it is here and it can work fine like whenever a character zooms into the scene quickly or how Gadget and Monty's tails interact with them. However, it isn't here all the time to make much of the action scenes quicker or sharp with the Rangers running at the pace of a normal human being. Not only that, but this seems like a great ability for Zipper with how flies are really hard to catch with how we humans deal with them. But the speed of it, however, isn't fast enough to be potent as it could've been with Zipper being able to get swatted easier. And lastly, Chip and Dale's bickerings aren't always the same pace as the sluggishness of some of their antics makes these moments worth a yawn but would've been good opportunities to spice up the otherwise dull action. But to my surprise, the swiftness of that can be executed poorly with how Chip and Dale are shouting long lines of insults to each other with these ramblings failing to reach that mark, leaving it sounding awkward.

But enough of an energy shortage, we have the character designs. While the coloring and clothing doesn't make them pop out that much with rather obvious choices, neither the villain's abnormal faces, their differences are still somewhat identifiable. This applies to the Rangers with how their clothing defines them with Dale wearing an Aloha shirt to show how relaxed and care-free he is like the shores of Hawaii. I do wish that the designs of the inventions and crafts look more creative as they have traits that you'd expect from a tube shape to features that feel like pint-sized versions of necessary parts. But then we have some of the animal designs, which includes those that appears to be more wild. I'm not sure is a nitpick or not, but they seem to be recycled from classic Disney cartoons such as the elephants in "The Elephant Never Suspects" resembling the ones used in The Jungle Book.

For the acting, I can see how charismatic some of them are, particularly with Fat Cat and Monterrey Jack. In fact, I took a liking with the accents and how their use of slang distinguish them from others. But then there's Chip, who was voiced by a woman. As far as I'm concerned, this is the only voice I'm bothered by simply because of how he compares to Dale. Yes, they both have high-pitched voices, but with Dale sounding more masculine and deeper than Chip's voice actor, Tress MacNeille, Chip sounds awkward when with Dale since Chip sounds squeakier. Now that word I used to describe Chip is important here since that ruins how he tries to sound leader-like and ever vigilant. But hey, there's still some of the energy seen here with Chip and Dale's signature laughs.

And finally, a word from the soundtrack, which I don't have much to say but it has a solid amount of dramatic and action-like flare. At best, it can enhance the atmosphere of some settings decently such as playing Chinese music in an Asian setting or jazz in a metropolitan area. But at worst, it has that ugly-sounding synthesizer music with the notes being poorly played, sounding like two relative notes are unintentionally played at once, though this plays just a few times.

Verdict: Most of the quality is passable. It aims for a realistic approach and while it doesn't look that awe-inspiring to look at, it still has effort used well including smooth animation. But what it seems to be missing that I thought would've had importance is energy, which is sometimes present and mostly absent, leaving some moments either saved or left to get fed by boredom.
CHARACTERS

They seem to have alright skills, but how well can they pull them off?

The first to enter the auditions are Chip and Dale. Much like their original counterparts, logical and dim-witted respectively, it is examined further in the series with Chip's indulgence to always be on task for juicy crimes as well as encourage other Rangers to act the same, whereas Dale has an appreciation of television and comic books, which sometimes drift him a bit far away from distinguishing reality with fiction. These are fine additions to their attitude, but the thing is, they're not surprising or have a sense of smart wit. I'd say the issue with them that makes them fail include a variety of reasons, but the aspect I know the most about them is their dynamic, which can be pretty bland thanks to Dale's unfunny stupidity and Chip often yelling at him for his laziness and immaturity. This is where the script fails to sharpen these characters as well as their sense of humor and action since you've got instances where Dale enjoys floating in mid-air, yet all he does is swim with no tricks or fast-paced energy to spice up the sequence. Or, how about him often miscalculating the appearance of things as different things in rather uncreative or poorly developed ways with one time being him searching for clues and ends up finding Chip, using his likeliness as a clue for the case, with Chip's face being shown throughout the joke rather than search through his appearance. They can be really repetitive as well, whether if it's Chip yelling at Rangers like Dale or Monterrey for putting their safety in danger while meeting up with worried humans, which sometimes have no point to be here, or Dale getting distracted or used as a plot device to ignorantly start-a-conflict. And can't I mention that Chip can hate Dale so much that he implies that the Rangers are better off without him even though he has done little to no mess-ups through their adventures?

But moving towards the other Rangers, they seem to be more tolerable than these two chipmunks, starting with Gadget Hackwrench, who might be one of the best characters of the show, but even the script can't really upgrade her with more parts. While the machines and inventions she makes for the Rangers seem obvious and uncreative with not a whole lot of interesting features, I'd say with her and the Ranger's scale, some of the machines she creates well describe how she uses parts with the size and surroundings she's in. But besides gadget-making, she also seems to be the voice of reason to Chip and Dale's strained relationship and Monterrey's aggressiveness and has a conflict of her own of her inventions not reaching their fullest potential as she hoped as they break down, leaving at one point to have her re-evaluate her purpose as a mechanic and a Rescue Ranger. However, she can be the subject of something I used to despise a lot in which you will hear about later...

Then, from Australia or whatever he travels to, Monterrey Jack busts in to kick a move as well as have many adventures past and present, around the world to tell. He sounds like a good character with his backstories potentially giving him more layers, but they seem to end up in a bumpy turn with barely any of them interesting me due to how apparent they sound. Not to mention how they seem to lack engaging action or even action in general, maybe throw in his victory thanks to luck and call it a day. This might possibly be him bragging about his not-as-awesome adventures, but in the present, there's still his belligerence to get involved with all the fighting. Sounds like I want to join in, but no spectacular stunts or fascinating battles makes me want to decline his combat skills. But before the Rangers, he would have his missions of hunting cheese and eating it down so that's kind of nice and explains his obsessions with cheese that is literally the same thing again and again with little to stand out. But I guess you can say, cheese always at it all! Anyways, he's also accompanied with Zipper, who is a strong and fast fly which the series didn't offer it to their max.

And come to think of the series not cramping up the speed high enough for Zipper, I feel like most of the time, the ways these Rescue Rangers would save the day with their small size in comparison to humans are pretty bland and forgettable. While yes, they can use their size, skills, and animal instincts to their advantage, particularly with Gadget and how she can fix or make machines to get out of trouble, most of the time, they would simply bounce on buttons and carry large objects all together with little to no struggle, making them seem bland and again, straightforward.

But besides failing to bust some sweet moves, the Rangers also tried a course to character development but not in a way that makes them fully developed thanks to the bland and hollow subplots. Not to mention how fruitless it can be like the other aspects of the writing as the episode doesn't bring up that conflict that much as it's just there for characterization sake. An example of this is Chip yelling at others to stay vigilant and not slack off with one of them trying to tell him to have some fun for once, which would sound like good character development for Chip caring more about his team, but it has no effect as the episode doesn't acknowledges this by having Chip still acting as tough for the rest of the episode. Also, there's romance angles to be seen in the series that pretty much serve no point to be here as like Chip's bossiness, it happens in the beginning of the episode only for it to be ignored. But within them, it's just boring sequences of Chip and Dale trying to woe Gadget in clichéd ways.

And another victim to the show failing to give some time to shine to are the one-timers, whose habitats and even conflict aren't scouted much despite being brought up at least once, leaving them really one-note and two-dimensional. Plus, the lack of focus on them can make me forget that they're in the episode. One of them involve little children who lost something such as a kitten or toy, which the episode barely brings them up for much of the episode besides the beginning and ending. Due to this, it's hard for me to connect with these characters with their sorrow or even chemistry with one of the main characters. However, other one-timers can see a simple but effective mix-up as well, usually involving a well-known characteristic of theirs, whether if it's a scary ghost scared to haunt others or a dinosaur's gigantic scale making them dumber.

Heading towards the villains, oh boy are they even more repetitive than the Rangers themselves. Essentially, stock characters dominate them, going from the mad scientist/inventor characters who are either being let down by their boss for not having a good product or wanting to "make humanity bend on their knees" to the group of villains with one of them being too stupid for the other, smarter antagonist to deal with.

But with the former, that has more possibilities as a ticket to being enjoyable with Professor Nimnul's crazy but imaginative plans, despite him acting like all those other mad scientists as well as constantly wanting gold and prized items for himself. However, we can't admit that using bugs as aliens to rob the bank is a cool idea that Nimnul managed to pull off well until the Rangers came in.

Then with the other major antagonist, there's Fat Cat, who... is another villain who wants gold and prized items for himself. Yeah, talk about lack of substance. I was kind of disappointed that the crime aspect of him is not just that but having dim-witted henchmen whom he can't stand further makes him a shallow villain. Not to mention how these henchmen can find him funny for the stupidest reasons with Fat Cat obviously looking down upon them.

Verdict: Only a few were handled well and they're nothing that great. These characters feel repetitive and the layers within them feel forced, clichéd, or in need of a supply of something that would've made them stronger.

FINAL THOUGHTS

You know, it's no wonder why out of all 4 Disney Afternoon shows I'll be reviewing this season, this show is my least-anticipated. I tried rolling for some chances and I had a bit of hope for this series, but the actual product ended up turning me away. In other words, I watched it and I got nothing noteworthy. Hope this works for a noteworthy summary:
At best, Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers is passable but nothing extraordinary, liberating a few interesting ideas, the natural animation, and a sense of energy in rather badly injured conditions. By that, it means that there wasn't enough of these pros to heal everything else, which is simply nothing, going from an awfully bland script to having trouble caring about many other aspects where they would've had a clear focus to a lack of enthusiasm and imagination to repetitively unoriginal characters.I'd say a positive note I can bring to this story is that there are more boring shows than this as much of this series is just nothing. Nothing as in being not terribly unsatisfying, but also unable to compete with better executed ideas. So, as I described the series earlier, it is a very WEAK (40%) series.

Epilogue: While a product of the 80's, I do see the series trying with the budget it can reach, but it appears that for standards that changed drastically decades ago, this series only took a few steps and stopped going further. With some of the others cartoons from its time, I can see them trying as well as be a good show. However, what this show lacked was fun and cleverness and that's what turned me away. But as time flies, I will likely forget about much of this series as I experience better action come from better teams.