Film Review: CHIP ‘N DALE: RESCUE RANGERS (2022): New Film Based on Popular Chipmunks Has Its Moments but Feels Stale

Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers Review

Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers (2022) Film Review, a movie directed by Akiva Schaffer, written by Dan Gregor and Doug Mand and starring Andy Samberg, John Mulaney, KiKi Layne, Will Arnett, Eric Bana, Flula Borg, Dennis Haysbert, Keegan-Michael Key, Tress MacNeille, Tim Robinson, Seth Rogen, J.K. Simmons, Da’Vone McDonald, Akiva Schaffer, Rachel Bloom, Juliet Donenfeld, Liz Cackowski and Mason Blomberg.

Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers feels like a movie that was made about 20 years ago. In this particular case, however, that’s not a compliment. Director Akiva Schaffer’s new comedy mixes animation with live action but falls flat in its attempts to revive a somewhat stale cartoon franchise. It must have sounded great on paper especially with the financial success of the Alvin and the Chipmunks movies but, in actuality, it’s almost impossible to decipher who this movie was made for.

Young kids will probably be frightened by this film’s portrayal of a creepy, overweight grown up Peter Pan-inspired character known as Sweet Pete (voiced interestingly by Will Arnett) who suggests in one scene that “death is coming for us all,” a message I surely wouldn’t want to have little kids who are watching the movie hear. But, Chip and Dale (voiced by John Mulaney and Andy Samberg) are cute and cuddly so it should all be OK. Right? Not really. They’re fun to look at but their humor is, at its funniest, corny and at its worst, somewhat offensive.

For a lot of the movie’s running time, Chip ‘n Dale are forced to bicker and argue until one of them seems to be dead and then the other one professes how much the other one means to him. It’s cute to an extent but there’s certainly not enough interesting content to fill a live action movie. The plot, or what there is of one, revolves around Sweet Pete bootlegging popular cartoons such as Frozen and the story line runs out of steam before it even really gets going. Adults could laugh at the “bootlegging” scenario or smile when one of our chipmunks ends up selling insurance early in the film but will the kids “get” the humor? Probably not.

Chip intentionally looks like a hand drawn cartoon while Dale seems to have been enhanced by CGI. It’s a combination of two styles of animation that partially helps serve as a throwback to the old days of the original cartoon the film is based on. It is also a reminder of modern day technology. However, this film is never on a par with the brilliant Who Framed Roger Rabbit?. In terms of quality, it’s closer to Space Jam at its most clever, and that film’s sequel at its worst.

Eric Bana voices the beloved character Monterey Jack in the movie but the character isn’t really given enough screen time for proper development. Instead, you’d have to have watched old shows of the original cartoon to understand why Jack is so important to Chip and Dale. I’m happy to say, however, that when the cute female character from the show Gadget (voice of Tress MacNeille) appears, there is some genuine magical fun to be had as she helps save our beloved chipmunks at one point in the movie. There is also a demented, ugly version of Sonic the Hedgehog who shows up at a convention in the film and provides momentary comic relief.

There are a lot of stars who got involved in this mixed up mess from the wonderful J.K. Simmons (who is playing Captain Putty here) and Seth Rogen (who is playing Bob the Warrior Viking) to KiKi Layne who actually has a nice amount of screen time playing Ellie who helps our heroes out. Ellie is the only human character in the entire movie who is likable. I don’t think Simmons or Rogen will hurt their careers at all being in this film but they both could do so much better focusing their talents elsewhere.

Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers could, I suppose, have been a lot worse than it actually is. As Dale who is trying to get his charismatic mojo back, Samberg voices his chipmunk character in such a way that we could grow to like him a bit more than was expected but the movie is a surprising miss, overall, and doesn’t come close to hitting the bullseye that Who Framed Roger Rabbit? hit, as previously stated. Still, if kids want to watch the beloved chipmunks and don’t understand the lame jokes (which will probably go over their heads), they could be mildly diverted. Could be. It’s a toss up. As far as I’m concerned, this one missed the boat almost entirely.

Rating: 5/10

Leave your thoughts on this Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers review and the film below in the comments section. Readers seeking to support this type of content can visit our Patreon Page and become one of FilmBook’s patrons. Readers seeking more film reviews can visit our Movie Review Page, our Movie Review Twitter Page, and our Movie Review Facebook Page. Want up-to-the-minute notifications? FilmBook staff members publish articles by Email, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr, Pinterest, and Flipboard.