Chip and Dale

In this Akiva Schaffer interview, the Lonely Island comedian talks about directing Chip and Dale Rescue Rangers, helping with the script, and crossovers.

I think I’ll celebrate the Disney+ release, but I do wish, if I knew it was going to be a crowded theater, that people could have that experience. Jorm was stuck in New York and Andy was stuck doing his thing, and I was doing this movie. Every day, we would have iPads on set and I would be able to have the crew gather around and be like, “Here’s what we’re filming today.” They could see a rudimentary version of it and we could go, “Okay, let’s do shot 1.” I’m trying to think of the fastest way to tell it all, but on set it was the fun of having dolls of Chip and Dale—you have eye line things that are like LED lights on little sticks so people know where to look. I color-corrected on a big screen, just the way you would for a theatrical movie. It was not easy and I keep giving big shout-outs to the lawyers—I always keep making a special point of that. I think we’re going to wait and see how people enjoy this film, but I think you can put in your request straight to Bob Chapek. Just write him an email. That’s part of what I was so excited to learn—getting to work with storyboard artists, creating animatics, and just do what you think of as classic animation the exact same way you would if you were making a Pixar movie. I love the Sonic movie and I’m very excited to see the second one. The producers dug it out because they always loved it and were like, “This has gotta go somewhere.” When they brought it to me, I definitely had a lot of things I wanted to do with it, and I was lucky that Dan and Doug agreed to come back on. The whale rap is definitely me and Andy. Dan Gregor and Doug Mand wrote it so I want to be careful about not taking any ownership away from them having written it, because their script was so good and that is what attracted me to it. I thought it was super funny and clever, and then I was also excited about learning modern filmmaking which is the live-action hybrid stuff. For Schaffer—who got his start by directing and editing goofy videos of Samberg and Jorma Taccone fake-rapping when they were just teenagers—it was a legal headache that was worth it.

Sonic, South Park, He-Man and Seth Rogen are among the surprising cameos in the Disney+ animated movie Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers.

The best part of the cameo is that Charles Fleischer reprises the character he voiced in the Robert Zemeckis classic starring the legendary Bob Hoskins. (Additional fun fan note: Eddie Murphy once said that Who Framed Roger Rabbit was the only film on which he ever regretted passing.) Toward the end of the film, in the same convention scene with He-Man and Skeletor, Pete bumps into one of the classic Disney Peter Pan Lost Boys. After he notes, shocked, that Peter grew up, Peter responds: “Yeah, death is coming for us all, kid.” One of the funniest moments in the film is between He-Man and Skeletor, who appear together at a fan convention. Rendered in their classic He-Man and the Masters of the Universe ’80s animation, the duo is at a table signing pictures when Chip and Dale run underneath to avoid trouble. The fan-favorite South Park character is seen briefly hanging out in a bathhouse sauna while Chip and Dale are on a mission. The poor guy is trying to get by in the industry as best he can — but it’s pretty clear opportunities have dried up and cons are his main source of income.

It wouldn't be a Disney movie without some Marvel references throw in but Rescue Rangers went for some deep cuts.

Sadly in the Rescue Rangers verse the title was changed to Ant-Man, though in the closing credits we do see a poster for the fictional film: Paul Rudd in his Ant-Man costume, minus the helmet, poses with several aunts. In the Rescue Rangers movie, it seems Tigra never got much acting success outside of the short lived series, the banner at her booth features nothing but photos from the short-lived series and the inviting statement, “Meet the Were-Woman In Person!” No, Rescue Rangers goes for the deepest of deep cuts.

Stars Andy Samberg and Kiki Layne and director Akiva Schaffer talk their meta animated comedy now streaming on Disney+.

As to who she’s like to see show up in that film, she laughed, “If Phil and Lil [from Rugrats] made an appearance, I would probably faint.” He also mentioned how expensive it was to make Roger Rabbit because of the licensing deals and that he’s happy for comparisons “as long as the comparisons are nice and fair…[because] it is the gold standard.” The biggest irony of doing a film that’s a comeback story that makes fun of reboots and comeback stories is that there is probably already talk of a sequel. It depends if we can split the last one … and Harry Potter the last book.” But the actress, who grew up on Nickelodeon cartoons like Rugrats and Hey Arnold!, said the beauty of this film is that “they grounded these animated characters in the real world. (In addition to briefly reprising his Lion King role as Pumba the warthog, Seth Rogen plays a motion-capture Viking dwarf from the early 2000s era of animated films and games who can never quite make eye contact.)

Take away the cameos—in the recording booth, and animated on-screen—and you get something that's a little too close to the same old junk.

The Henson company tried something similar to this a few years ago with vats of bodily fluids in the godawful “ The Happytime Murders.” This movie isn’t that bad, which is a plus. At the least the premise is funny: former enchanted sweetheart Sweet Pete ( Will Arnett) has been kidnapping characters and changing their physical features, “bootlegging” them for knock-offs. It doesn’t help that the jokes not related to current properties just aren't funny or memorable. This movie is directed by Akiva Schaffer, and stars Andy Samberg voicing as Dale, so technically that makes it a Lonely Island movie (their third member, Jorma Taccone, does bit voice parts). That inherently raises the pedigree for it, especially with how they have previously parodied pop music and success in the past. One such inspired idea is how this movie casually includes different eras and recognizable styles on animation, recognizing that we've all become historians in the industry, whether we realize it or not. Chip and Dale are smart candidates for a reboot—they’re a recognizable cartoon Disney duo, even if one doesn’t know their series, or have a nostalgia for them in the slightest.

Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers is a brand new film out today on Disney+. For some reason, it features Ugly Sonic. Ugly So…

Become a supporter of Eurogamer and you can view the site completely ad-free, as well as gaining exclusive access to articles, podcasts and conversations that will bring you closer to the team, the stories, and the games we all love. Ugly Sonic has a booth at a comic convention selling signed photos. Ugly Sonic, as you'll no doubt be aware, was the original design for Sonic in the 2020 film before fans complained.

The Disney+ film is like an updated Who Framed Roger Rabbit—a fantastically funny cartoon satire.

In Chip ’n Dale, Dale is trying to ride that trend to a comeback. (Samberg and Mulaney’s easy chemistry also helps.) The movie works mostly because, through its weird tricks of animation and self-referentiality, it somehow finds a fresh satirical angle. The return of Ugly Sonic is one of the biggest reasons to recommend Chip ’n Dale: Rescue Rangers, because it exemplifies the kind of humor on display in the rest of Akiva Schaffer’s film. That space is where characters such as Ugly Sonic are languishing, alongside Sweet Pete (Will Arnett), a middle-aged, beer-bellied version of Disney’s Peter Pan; and (most amusingly) a glassy-eyed CGI Viking warrior played by Seth Rogen, who resembles the eerie mannequins of 2000s films such as The Polar Express and Beowulf. In Chip ’n Dale, all of these forgotten figures continue to toil in obscurity, fighting for even a scrap of relevance amid so many flashy, new brands. I’m talking about the return of “Ugly Sonic”—an unsettling version of Sonic the Hedgehog with human teeth, beady eyes, and a weirdly elongated body that you might remember from 2020 before a hasty redesign salvaged his live-action movie debut. Hollywood loves a good comeback story, and the new Disney+ film Chip ’n Dale: Rescue Rangers has a great one.

The chipmunks are washed-up actors from their's '80s TV show, with Chip (John Mulaney) selling insurance and Dale (Andy Samberg) reliving his glory days at fan ...

Chip and Dale are brought to an unsettling location, look to their left, and see two furry humanoid cats—done in the style of Cats (2019)—fighting in the alley. Chip ‘n Dale takes shots at Cats (2019), Polar Express (2004), and more when the two chipmunks visit the Valley—the Uncanny Valley, that is. Without spoiling too much, Ugly Sonic shows up a few more times in Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers, and in fact becomes a fairly crucial character in the film. I love the Sonic movie.” The chipmunks are washed-up actors from their’s ’80s TV show, with Chip (John Mulaney) selling insurance and Dale (Andy Samberg) reliving his glory days at fan cons. Because, yes, Ugly Sonic shows up in Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers, and it is possible we have given Twitter too much power.

Lonely Island director Akiva Schaffer, also of Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping fame, filled the film with animated references, Who Framed Roger ...

In addition to creating Chip ’n Dale: Rescue Rangers, Stones also wrote and produced Darkwing Duck and produced other Disney shows, like Buzz Lightyear of Star Command and the Hercules and Aladdin animated TV spinoffs. It also pays homage to one of the original creators of the Chip ’n Dale: Rescue Rangers television show, Tad Stones. “He co-created with another guy named Alan Zaslove back in the ’90s,” explains director and Lonely Island member Akiva Schaffer. “Alan was much older, like the mentor, and he has since passed away at an old age.

Doug Mand and Dan Gregor on their inspiration for 'Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers' and how they decided what toons should have cameos.

John, as a stand-up, with all that experience, and Andy just being just such an amazing comedic actor, they both brought their own voice to the characters and took what was on the page and ran with it. If you’re normally onset with an actor, you gotta get it, but we had the pleasure and workload of doing this both many, many times as a script before we ever shot something, and then many, many times in the recording booth, where we would work on the line and change the line. Mand: Within the bath scene, there are a couple of characters that I still can’t believe are in there, and I’m just so excited about it. Then, when you’re recording, Dan and I are a lot of times on a Zoom watching and throwing in more jokes, and Akiva is giving them jokes, and they themselves are such amazing comedians and writers in their own right. But we wanted to kind of treat it like when you see the actors from a show you love, get back together, what is that like? It’s just so much fun, and it kind of lets the audience know, I think right from the get-go, that, hopefully, they’re in for a different kind of ride. So, I think that was the biggest thing, to treat them like that show was a huge part of their careers. What’s worth coming back?” Our police captain is not Gumby, but he’s in the vein of Gumby. And so even that kind of thing in the logic of the world is like, well if you’ve seen a character onscreen, you might not see that character again in this movie. Likewise, Baloo is the Jungle Book, and then all of a sudden, he’s a pilot in a jungle bar in TaleSpin, and so that idea that Chip and Dale were putting on hats and costumes every week really became part of the cornerstone of them being actors, that they’re just filling roles, and they show up to do a TV show, and when they leave, they put on different clothes. But one of the things that we felt was really great about jumping into this project was that despite our love for it as a kid, it’s not something that necessarily needs to exist again. Gregor: I just had my mom dig up a bunch of old photos of me at Disney World in the ’90s, and she found a ton of pictures of me obsessively hugging the dolls. Doug Mand: It was really one of the first things we talked about once we decided that we were gonna dive into this world.