“Chip ‘n’ Dale: Rescue Rangers” won outstanding television movie at the creative arts Emmy’s this Sunday.
The film is a surprise win at this year’s Emmys, marking the first time that an animated movie has won the category, which tends to be somewhat confusing. This year, nominees included a variety of TV show reunions billed as one-time “movies,” from “Ray Donovan: The Movie,” “Reno 911! The Hunt for QAnon” and “Zoey’s Extraordinary Christmas.” HBO’s “The Survivor,” which was originally theatrical-minded and premiered at the 2021 Toronto International Film Festival, was also nominated for the category.
“Chip ‘n’ Dale: Rescue Rangers,” which stars Andy Samberg and John Mulaney as the classic chipmunks from the animated series of the same name, premiered on Disney+ on May 16, 2022. Directed by Akiva Schaffer of The Lonely Island, the film is a live-action/animation hybrid that follows Chip and Dale as middle-aged chipmunk actors. Chip is an insurance salesman, and Dale spends his time at fan conventions. Washed up has-beens living in L.A., Chip and Dale must now get the team back together to find a missing friend.
In true Disney style, the film is packed with Easter Eggs galore. Screenwriters Doug Mand and Dan Gregor reveled in the chance to drop as many in as they could. Mand explains during Fan Con, a moment where Dale is clinging on to fame and wanting to stay relevant was ideal. He says, “Fan Con felt like a perfect place to show his reality and the reality of actors of his level and those above and below.” He adds, “Fan Con became this great playground for us to let our imagination run free and put different kinds of Easter eggs in.”
Variety film critic Amy Nicholson enjoyed the film, writing in her review: “If only Andy Warhol had lived to see ‘Chip ‘n’ Dale: Rescue Rangers,’ the cinematic culmination of the Campbell’s soup can painter’s meta-commentary on the blurring of art and commerce. This frenetic and funny crossbreeding of live action and cartoon is both a reboot and an anti-reboot, a corporate-funded raspberry at corporate IP, and a giddily dumb smart aleck committed to mocking its joke — and making it, too.”