Spoilers for this movie will be marked as usual. However, due to its nature as the sequel to The Rescuers, that film's spoilers are unmarked here. You Have Been Warned!

The Rescuers Down Under is the 1990 sequel to Disney's 1977 film, The Rescuers. It is the 29th entry in the Disney Animated Canon and is also the first sequel to one of their previous films and would be the only sequel in that canonnote until 2018, when Ralph Breaks the Internet came in. Bob Newhart and Eva Gabor reprise their roles as Bernard and Miss Bianca, being the last performance for Gabor before her death in 1995.
Set in the Australian Outback, the Evil Poacher McLeach (George C. Scott) has kidnapped a young boy named Cody (Adam Ryen) in order to snare Marahute, an endangered eagle large enough to ride around on. Naturally, Bianca and Bernard must come to the rescue, with help from Orville's brother Wilbur (John Candy) and Jake (Tristan Rogers), the mouse equivalent to Crocodile Dundee. Down Under was also a pioneer in the use of CGI. Unlike the first film, which was a huge success, Down Under actually failed at the box office, making it the only true failure of the Disney Renaissance.
Disney was facing a future with computer animation rapidly changing the state of the art. They used the movie as a test bed of their new CAPS coloring system — instead of hand-painting cels, you could now use a computer program to color the animation. This saved a considerable amount of time and hand-drawn animation was now easier to integrate into CGI backgrounds and effects (and also allowed for extensive use of Cel Shading). In Down Under, the test run of this system had mostly decent, sometimes amazing (especially during Marahute's flight), and sometimes mixed results. They had mastered it brilliantly by the time of Beauty and the Beast, the following year.
Due to its relatively short 73-minute running time, the film was accompanied in its theatrical release by the animated featurette The Prince and the Pauper (appropriately enough, the final Disney short to use cels) based on the story by Mark Twain and starring Mickey Mouse and friends.
This film provide examples of:
- Accidental Pervert: When Bernard drops the ring in the restaurant, it rolls under a table and becomes wedged on the toe of the large matronly mouse dining there. Bernard crawls under the table and wiggles it off her foot. The matronly mouse gets a shocked look on her face, and then slaps her scrawny, elderly dining companion; assuming he is playing footsie with her.
- The Ace: Jake, until he is trapped with Bianca and Marahute, unable to save Cody.
- Achilles' Heel: Discussed by McLeach when he has Cody prisoner. Cody can tell McLeach where Marahute's nest is, ergo the poacher needs to find and hit the boy's weak spot to get him to give up the goods. The problem? Marahute ironically is Cody's weak-spot, which means threatening the Eagle will do absolutely no good. So, McLeach isn't quite sure how to play this one — at least Joanna unwittingly makes him realize he's misread Cody's weak spot this entire time: It isn't Marahute, but her eggs.
- Actor Allusion: In addition to voicing the Rescue Aid Society leader, Bernard Fox also voices the doctor who tends to Wilbur's wounds, very similar to his famous role as Dr. Bombay on Bewitched.
- Africa Is a Country: Unlike the previous movie, the Rescue Aid Society meeting now has individual mice representing countries like Morocco, Tunisia and Ethiopia.
- Air Guitar: When Bernard and Bianca go to Wilbur to take them to Australia, they find him singing along to the radio, including an air guitar solo.
- Airplane Arms: Cody doing a Marahute impression.
- All Animals Are Dogs: Joanna the Goanna acts more like a pet dog than anything. She begs, she whimpers, she wags her tail, she crawls through doggy doors, and she watches McLeach's catches like a guard dog. She also is as sneaky - and smart about it - as any hound dog.
- All There in the Script: The captive Kangaroo is a Red Kangaroo named Red.
- Amazing Technicolor Wildlife: Many animals are their correct colors, with Frank the frilled dragon and Joanna the goanna being the exceptions. They're very, very green, while real-life frillies are brown and most of the Australian goannas are brown or gray.
- Amplified Animal Aptitude: Even animals that can't talk, such as Joanna, still tend to understand speech and act with human or near-human intelligence.
- Androcles' Lion: Cody saves Marahute the eagle from a poacher's trap, and she returns the favor by saving him from plummeting to his doom when she accidentally knocks him off the ridge.
- And the Adventure Continues: The movie ends with Bernard and Bianca getting engaged and presumably going off to continue their rescue work.
- Animation Bump: The thirteen years between movies helps out a lot, obviously. Most of the animals avoid the "dots for eyes" thing, and the Skin Tone Sclerae thing is avoided with the main characters. Down Under was also the first in movie history to render 2D animation with computers.
- Anything but That!: Being killed and skinned is bad enough, but Frank really doesn't want to be made into a lady's purse.
- Artistic License – Geography: Near the beginning of the movie, when we see the Travel Montage following the telegraph signal from Australia to the United States, Australia for some reason is unusually small and the United States is unusually big. In real life, both countries are approximately the same size. Also, Papua New Guinea is shown being the same size as Australia, the Marshall Islands the size of New Zealand, and Hawaii the size of Indonesia.
- Artistic License – Ornithology: Under no circumstances would a real eagle grow to the dimensions of Marahute, whose head is larger than most of Cody. Her wingspan could easily be estimated at well over thirty feet long in some shots (the biggest eagles would be a stretch to reach nine feet), which puts her on par with teratorns and giant pterosaurs. She's also very smart and way more friendly then a typical bird of prey (which would probably attack anyone that tried to touch them). The film does acknowledge this, as the rarity of an eagle being that size is the main reason McLeach is hunting her in the first place!
- Aside Glance: During the 'eggs' scene, when Joanna tricks McLeach into giving her the box of eggs, he briefly looks straight at the camera with an expression that reeks of "Are you shitting me?!"
- Ask a Stupid Question...: When Cody asks Frank the frilled lizard the following question:Cody: Hey! Where did you come from?
Frank: Um... the desert? - Attack the Tail: Joanna, Percival McLeach's pet goanna, is tricked into biting her own tail at one point in the film.
- Awesome Aussie: Jake, a hopping mouse and champion outdoorsman with whom Bernard battles for Bianca's affection..
- Ax-Crazy: McLeach, who clearly enjoys being a violent murderous thug even beyond wanting to make himself rich.McLeach: [as he lowers a helpless child into a crocodile pit] Now, this is my idea of fun!
- Bald of Evil: A variant; McLeach has notable male-pattern baldness.
- Batman Gambit: In order to get Cody to lead him to the bird, McLeach lies to him and says the bird is shot, knowing he'll go take care of the eggs, thus leading him to the nest.
- Big Bad: McLeach is the film's antagonist, who kidnaps Cody and seeks to capture and kill the eagle Marahute.
- Big "NO!":
- McLeach gives off one as he plummets to his doom down the waterfall.
- So does Cody the moment he's accidentally swept off the cliff when he frees Marahute.
- And when McLeach says to Cody that someone shot Marahute right out of the sky...
- Bizarre Instrument: Falu the kangaroo plays a hollowed out tree-trunk like a giant didgeridoo to summon Cody to Marahute's plight.
- Blade Enthusiast: McLeach throws, flourishes, or menaces Cody with a variety of large, unpleasant skinning knives. Of course, as a professional poacher he's got to be skilled with such implements, but does he have to enjoy it so much?
- Blade-of-Grass Cut: The movie opens with close-up shots of several insects crawling among plants and rocks with the background out of focus before shifting to an Epic Tracking Shot across the Outback.
- Book Dumb: Percival "I didn't make it all the way through third grade for nuthin'!" McLeach is quite uneducated, but don't let that ever make you think he isn't cunning or insidiously clever—especially when you consider he probably built that "truck" of his. That's an impressive piece of engineering. Even more impressively, when he kidnaps Cody, he tosses his back pack to the crocodiles. This is later found by the Rangers while looking for the missing Cody, believing that the crocodiles had eaten him. McLeach waits until the search is called off to go out looking for the eagle again and emotionally manipulates Cody into leading him to the nest. And to top, now that Cody is useless to him, he plans to feed Cody to the same pool of crocs he tossed the back pack into, considering that if the body was to turn up, it would only confirm the initial reported death of Cody. Considering that his entire villainy in kidnapping Cody is done largely on the fly, he's one of the most intelligent members of Disney's Villains ever.
- Bowdlerise: Some prints of the movie edit the knife throwing scene by replacing the shots where the knives come within inches of hitting Cody with cuts to Joanna in her bathtub, eating animal crackers... probably because the knives were too scary for children.
- Butt-Monkey: Wilbur, from the moment he does his back in.
- Cannot Spit It Out: Bernard has a very hard time working up the nerve to propose to Bianca. Jake does not help.
- Captain Crash: Either Orville taught Wilbur how to fly badly or they both inherited a clumsiness gene.
- Catch a Falling Star: Cody is accidentally knocked off of a large cliff by the giant eagle Marahute. However, she rectifies this mistake by swooping down and catching him on her back (as a thank you for freeing her and presumably as an apology of sorts). She later saves him again as well as Bernard when they fall off a waterfall.
- Caught in a Snare: A variation of this happens when Cody tries to free Marahute from a net. The poacher McCleach spots him and shakes the net, causing Cody to lose his grip and fall but his foot gets snagged on the net, leaving him hanging upside down and his foot nearly sliding out before been dumped into a cage.
- Character Development: Downplayed, but the RAS Chairman and his opinion of Bianca and Bernard. In the first movie, he was concerned about sending Bianca into danger, and had a low opinion of Bernard (for understandable reasons, as he was the RAS Janitor at the time). Between the success of the Devil's Bayou mission and their off-screen adventures in the interim, those concerns are long gone. It's clear from his first scene that the Chairman now considers Bernard and Bianca to be the RAS' flagship team and thinks very highly of them.
- Chekhov's Skill: Jake tames a snake through intimidation to get the gang a lift through marshlands. Bernard pulls the same trick on a razorback boar to save the others.
- Closeup on Head: Wilbur wakes up from being sedated and comments that his head feels like it's in a vise. Pull back to reveal... his head in a vise.
- Cock Fight: Bernard competes with Jake over Bianca's affections. Though in this case, Jake isn't openly competing with Bernard, just unaware of his relationship status with Bianca.
- Code Emergency: The Rescue Aid Society calls a Code Red emergency meeting to announce that Cody has been kidnapped.
- Company Cross-References: The dialog in the sequence where the Doctor orders the calibration of the syringes ("range 42!') with the nurses echoing him is identical to the dialog in Peter Pan when Captain Hook is aiming a cannon at Peter Pan and Wendy, with the orders repeated by Smee.
- Conspicuously Light Patch: It's obvious that Frank will get caught by Joanna after he grabs the keys, as the door flap that Joanna uses isn't painted with the background.
- Continuity Nod: Orville's flight number is 13 in the first movie, where Bernard makes a big deal out of it. Even though the superstition never comes up in Down Under, when Wilbur is attempting to land, he identifies himself as Albatross One-Three.
- Cool Car: McLeach's half-track.
- Cowardly Lion: Bernard. He insists he's just a lowly janitor, he stutters and can be a nervous wreck, but if others are depending on him, he's unstoppable.
- *Crack!* "Oh, My Back!": Wilbur injures his back while helping Bernard and Bianca with their luggage. He's sent to an outback hospital of dubious credentials, whose doctor has some unorthodox methods for healing (ex. launching a cane at him, shooting syringes at him from a shotgun, and attempting to saw him open with a chainsaw). As he tries to escape, the Doctor and nurses try to prevent him from leaving and pull him back inside, and Wilbur's back locks back in place and is off on his way. But in doing so, he accidentally falls on top of the doctor, who then moans, "My back!" *crack*
- Cute Giant:
- Marahute the giant eagle.
- To mice, humans are giants, so naturally human children will qualify as cute giants from the perspective of the mice as well.
- Darkest Hour: McLeach has captured Cody, Marahute, Jake, and Bianca. On the ride back to his hideout, he suddenly remembers that he's got a "loose end to tie up"; Cody. By nightfall, he arrives at Croc Falls, where he plans to lower Cody into the crocodile-infested waters to never be seen again using his half-track's crane attachment. To make matters worse, the mice and Marahute are in no position to help him, and can only watch helplessly as McLeach dangles poor Cody above the hungry crocs, singing and laughing maniacally as they snap at him.
- David Versus Goliath: Bernard faces down an Evil Poacher and his pet goanna using his wit and an assist from gravity to defeat them both single-handedly.
- Dead Hat Shot: In a non-hat variant, it's finding Cody's shredded backpack in a crocodile-infested river that convinces the authorities he's drowned
- Deadpan Snarker: Krebbs the koala, one of the many animals trapped in McLeach's hideout, seems to be one of these.Cody: Frank, you're free!
Frank: I'm free? I'm free, I'm free, I'm free, I'm free!
Kangaroo: Shhh... Joanna will hear.
Krebbs: Double or nothing, he's caught in 5 minutes. - Death Faked for You: McLeach kidnaps Cody to interrogate him in regards to where Marahute is, and fakes his death by throwing his backpack to a pack of crocodiles to keep the authorities from tailing them should a child be reported missing.
- Demoted to Satellite Love Interest: Bianca becomes one (in the first film, she and Bernard are equally important in the story). Unlike the first film, Bernard is The Hero in this film, while Bianca's role revolves around her Unresolved Sexual Tension with Bernard and being in the middle of the Love Triangle with Bernard and Jake. Though she does get to help save the day along with Jake by helping to free Marahute so she can save Cody and Bernard when they are about to fall to their deaths.
- Disappeared Dad: Cody mentions that his dad is "gone" and empathizes with the unborn eagles whose father was shot pre-movie.
- Disney Villain Death: McLeach narrowly avoids being eaten by crocodiles only to fall off the edge of a waterfall. Though, considering everything he had put a truly colossal bird of prey through, he was probably lucky that gravity got him before Marahute did.
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- Does This Remind You of Anything?:
- The film's score contains a very Indiana Jones-like heroic motif. One of the key moments it's heard is when the characters are rope-swinging under a moving truck.
- The filmmakers were admittedly influenced by Hayao Miyazaki and as such, the film contains some very Miyazaki-like moments. Some have gone so far as to call this a "Disneyzaki" movie.
- Don't Explain the Joke: The slogan for Albatross Air.Wilbur: "Albatross Air. A fair fare from here to there." Get it? A fair fare? It's a... a play on... never mind.
- Double Standard: Abuse, Female on Male: When the mouse wife at the fancy restaurant hits her husband after she thinks he was trying to play footsie with her under the table, it's presented comedically.
- Dramatic Thunder:
- After Cody is kidnapped and the mouse he freed earlier rushes off to send a call for help, a thunderstorm erupts.
- Near the climax, when the scene cuts from Bernard riding the razorback boar to Crocodile Falls, there is a single thunder strike to indicate the movie has reached its Darkest Hour.
- Epic Hail: After Cody is kidnapped, the audience follows the radio signals as they travel mouse-to-mouse from Australia to New York City to summon help from the Rescue Aid Society.
- Epic Tracking Shot: The movie opens with the camera flying for miles at high speed from a ladybug on a blade of grass to Cody's bedroom.
- "Eureka!" Moment: McLeach realizing Marahute's eggs are Cody's weakness.
- Every Man Has His Price: Invoked by Percival C. McLeach. Counts as a subversion, since he speaks of it but never actually does it.McLeach: Everyone's got his price. All I gotta do is offer him whatever he wants... and then not give it to him.
- Evil Egg Eater: Joanna, Percival McLeach's pet monitor lizard, is obsessed with eggs, and wants nothing more than to eat the eggs of the giant eagle Marahute. She is also, notably, one of the only animals in the movie that doesn't speak, only communicating in hisses and snarls.
- Evil Has a Bad Sense of Humor: Apparently, feeding Cody to crocodiles is McLeach's idea of fun.
- Evil Poacher: McLeach, voiced by George C. Scott. Did we mention he has a scope shotgun? Now there's a guy who loves to see the faces of his victims before he riddles them full of holes. He also sings this jolly-sounding but macabre song while he drives back to his camp in a giant, notified half-track he built himself:McLeach: Home, home on the range! Where the critters are tied up in chains! I cut through their sides, and I rip off their hides! And the next day I do it again! EVERYBODY!
- Expospeak Gag: A group of Australian mice are trying to fix Wilbur's hurt back. When one of the tools turns out to be rusted, the head doctor calls for another, which turns out to be a chainsaw.Mouse Doctor: (to the nurses) Bring me the epidermal tissue disruptor!
Wilbur: The epidermal what?
(The mouse nurses hoist a chainsaw over Wilbur's hospital bed) - The Faceless: Cody's mom's face was never shown in the movie. However, in all other productions based on Down Under, she was completely visible.
- False Reassurance: The mouse doctor on the prospects of his patient: "Now now, my dear. Keep a stiff upper lip. They all come in with a whimper, and leave with a grin." Think about it a minute.
- Faux Affably Evil: McLeach often acts in a way that is almost charming, but his true, brutish traits always shine through.
- Fed to the Beast: McLeach tries to feed Cody to crocodiles in the film's climax.
- Female Gaze: When Bernard and Ms. Bianca are on a date at the start of the movie, while Bernard is crawling around on the floor looking for the dropped engagement ring Ms. Bianca is visibly blushing while staring at his butt.
- Fingore: In the final scene of the movie, Marahute's eggs begin to hatch, and babysitter Wilbur finds one of the chicks cute and rubs it under the chin, only for it to bite his finger.
- Four Legs Good, Two Legs Better: Frank the Frilled Lizard is bipedal. While real-life frillies are known for standing up, inflating their frill, and running at larger animals in their famous threat gesture, they don't do so constantly.
- Free-Range Children: Cody lives in a very sparsely inhabited area of Australia, and his mom doesn't have any problem with him running around. It's pretty viciously deconstructed when he walks into McLeach.
- Friend to All Living Things: The opening scenes establish Cody as somebody who has many friends among the local animals and goes out of his way (and puts himself in danger) to rescue animals in trouble. At age eight (see Free-Range Children, above).
- Friendly Tickle Torture: After Cody meets and frees Marahute from one of Mcleach's traps, the eagle takes him for a ride across the sky. During which, Marahute catches Cody in her talons and tickles his tummy while in her grasp.
- Gale-Force Sound: Wilbur is playing loud music and can't hear Bernard and Miss Bianca calling him. As Bernard walks over to Wilbur's boom box to turn it off, he is clearly being blown back by the sound.
- Gallows Humor: Krebbs the koala, convinced that escape is hopeless, indulges in some. It's implied he regularly teases Frank about being made into a "lovely lady's purse."
- Genre Shift: While The Rescuers was more of a slow-paced mystery adventure with a melancholic tone, Down Under leans heavily into action-adventure, by featuring sweeping landscapes, high-stakes aerial sequences, and a more intense villain in McLeach, which gives it a grander, more cinematic style inspired by the Indiana Jones adventure films.
- Giant Flyer: Marahute is the closest to the trope, but in one scene, Wilbur is dwarfed by a trio of massive pink stork-like birds.
- Giant Medical Syringe: Orville the albatross crashes and is brought to a hospital where the creepy nurse mice try to use a syringe that requires six of them to move across the room. Upon seeing it he breaks his restraints in panic and flies away.
- Gilligan Cut: Bernard getting Wilbur to sit on Marahute's eggs.Wilbur: Oh, no. Wait a minute! Hold it! I know what you're thinking, and you're wrong! Don't even— No! Don't look at me like that! You getting "no" from me! You understand? No, I will not ever sit on those eggs! [cut to Wilbur now sitting on the eggs] Aww, nuts! Gotta learn to be more assertive. No is no is NO. [to the eggs] Hey! Quit movin' in there!
- Giving Them the Strip: Not a clothes example, but Cody does slip out of his backpack to escape from McLeach.
- Glove Snap: "All right, ladies, snap to it! [snap] Oh! That smarts..."
- Gondor Calls for Aid: Upon learning of Cody's kidnapping, members of the Rescue Aid Society relay for help to their headquarters at the United Nations building in New York from Australia. The signal is sent first from a ramshackle broadcasting station in the outback, then from the jury-rigged wreck of a Mitsubishi Zero fighter in the Marshall Islands, then from there to a high-tech (for the time period, of course) US military listening post in Hawaii, which the RAS has apparently hacked into, and then (whilst we don't see the rest of the stations) it jumps from San Francisco to Denver to Chicago to D.C. before finally arriving in New York.
- Gravity Is a Harsh Seamstress: An example without falling: When Wilbur is coming in for a landing, Jake rigs up a bra as a drag line. Of course Wilbur ends up wearing the bra.
- Guns Do Not Work That Way: McLeach apparently has a double-barrelled, pump action, side-by-side shotgun with a scope. And a foresight.
- Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Cody, who tries his hardest to protect Marahute from McLeach.
- Harmful Healing: Wilbur injures his back while helping Bernard and Bianca with their luggage. He's sent to an outback hospital of dubious credentials, whose doctor has some unorthodox methods for healing (ex. launching a cane at him, shooting syringes at him from a shotgun, and attempting to saw him in half with a chainsaw).
- Head in a Vise: Wilbur wakes up from sedation at the doctor mouse's office and mutters that he feels as though his head is in a vise. Then he looks up to see his head's really is in a vise. Presumably the doctor thought this was helpful to their practice, but he never explains how.
- Heart Is Where the Home Is: While all three participants are from different nationalities, the trope is set up in a way that is meant to appeal to Americans. American mouse Bernard, who has finally had enough Character Development to be Hungarian Bianca's equal, faces the adventurous, Awesome Aussie Jake for her affections. Bianca, who has returned Bernard's feelings since the previous movie, is not swayed by Jake's charm and picks Bernard.
- Help Mistaken for Attack: During the scene with Marahute the eagle trapped under rope,
when Cody arrives to free her, and takes out a knife, Marahute seems to (temporarily) interpret this as an attempt to wound or kill her rather than to free her.
- Hired by the Oppressor: Evil Poacher McLeach captures and kills wild animals, but uses a pet lizard to assist him in his actions.
- Hooking the Keys: Cody and the other animals trapped by McLeach make a long hook to get the key. They successfully hook the key when McLeach's pet goanna Joanna bursts in and breaks the hook apart, then puts the key back in its peg.
- I Don't Like the Sound of That Place: A flurry of these. Of course, it's likely Jake was making it all up to impress Bianca. Then again, it is Australia.Jake: So, which way you taking? Suicide Trail through Nightmare Canyon, or the shortcut at Satan's Ridge?
Bernard: S-s-suicide Trail?
Jake: Good choice! More snakes, less quicksand. And once you cross Bloodworm Creek you're scot-free, that is until... Dead Dingo Pass. - Ignoring by Singing: Frank the frill-necked lizard covers his ears and sings "Waltzing Matilda" when Krebbs the koala starts describing what the poacher is going to do to them. Then Frank uncovers his ears to see if Krebbs is done, only for Krebbs to just now finish his sentence, to Frank's horror.Krebbs: Frank will go as...
Frank: I can't hear you! LA-LA-LA-LA-LA-LA-LA! WALTZING MATILDA! [slightly uncovers his ears to see if Krebbs is done]
Krebbs: ...a purse.
Frank: AAAH! NO-HO-HO-HO-HO!
Krebbs: A lovely ladies' purse!
Frank: I DON'T WANNA GO AS A PURSE! - I Have No Idea What I'm Doing: Bernard — trying to save the day on his own — mutters, "I hope I know what I'm doing..." as he runs into danger.
- Improvised Lockpick: Frank tries to pick the lock of his cage with his tail. It takes him a while but he succeeds.
- Improvised Parachute: Frank the frill-necked lizard's frill acts as a parachute when Joanna knocks him off the box when he is attempting to steal the keys.
- Incorrect Animal Noise: Marahuté is an eagle, but has the typical falcon cry as its call. It's unlikely that such a different species would sound the same.
- Inevitable Waterfall: It is actually how McLeach meets his end. The heroes would have met their end this way, too, if not for Marahute's timely intervention.
- Infantilization Retaliation: When the eagle's eggs hatch, Wilbur gets the bright idea to try to scratch one of the baby chick's chin but it bites him since it doesn't know any better.
- Ink-Suit Actor:
- Wilbur bears quite a resemblance to John Candy in terms of facial features.
- George C. Scott seems like the performance model of McLeach.
- Inter-Class Romance: Bianca is rich, stylish, and every inch an upper class ambassador type. Bernard is a former janitor, and his best clothes have holes in the pockets that lead to him losing his wedding ring. For that matter Jake also probably doesn't have much money, but in his case he makes it come off as dashing and adventurous.
- Interspecies Friendship: Aside from the mice and Cody, the film also has Cody feeling very attached to Marahute the eagle, though she can't speak to him the way all the other animals can.
- I Resemble That Remark!: Wilbur is being cared for by the Australian medical crew, though he clearly doesn't want to be and keeps struggling to get away. The head doctor tells him to relax. Wilbur's insistence that he is relaxed is quite unconvincing to both the doctor and the audience.Wilbur: [frantically] Relax?! I have never been more relaxed in my life! IF I WERE ANY MORE RELAXED, I'D BE DEAD!!!
Head Doctor: I'm not convinced. - Ironic Nursery Tune: Percival McLeach's version of "Home on the Range" counts:Home, home on the range
Where them critters are tied up in chains
I cut through their sides
And tear off their hides
And the next day I do it again!
Everybody! - I Want My Mommy!: Wilbur gets scared in the hospital, and calls for mother.
- The Joy of First Flight: The whole sequence where Marahute takes Cody for a flight over the outback, and the boy clearly enjoys every moment of it.
- Knife Outline: Done intentionally by McLeach when he's trying to intimidate Cody into revealing Marahute's whereabouts.
- Laid-Back Koala: Krebbs the koala doesn't make a strong effort to escape his cage back at McLeach's hideout, though his laziness is partially fuelled by cynicism. It doesn't help that his fellow captives are relying on Frank to get the keys to their cages.
- Land Down Under: Naturally. The story largely takes place in the continent of Australia and features native wildlife.
- Large Ham: Wilbur and Frank, albeit to a lesser extent than McLeach.
- Legendary in the Sequel: Downplayed, but it's clear during the RAS Emergency Meeting that in the interim since the first film and their off-screen adventures, Bernard and Bianca have become the RAS' flagship team.
- Leitmotif: There are several.
- Cody is given a whimsically-thrilling motif that plays during many of his scenes, most notably the famous flight scene with Marahute. This could also double as her theme.
- The "Message Montage" motif plays during most of the daring and action-packed scenes of the film. At the end of said Montage, when the signal finally arrives at Rescue Aid Society HQ and they're called into the meeting, the RAS Anthem from the first film briefly plays.
- Bernard and Bianca are given a gentle, old-fashioned melody that reflects the relationship that exists between the two mice.
- McLeach himself doesn't necessarily get his own motif (unless one counts the eerie droning noise that plays in many of his scenes), but his highly-destructive half-track gets an aggressive, mechanistic rhythm that plays during it's presence.
- An alerting snake-like string cue frequently accompanies Joanna.
- Wilbur the albatross, like McLeach, doesn't get his own motif, but Wipeout-inspired guitar riffs by George Doering do play during certain moments involving him (such as his takeoff).
- Literal-Minded: After capturing Marahute, McLeach realises he has a loose end (Cody) to tie up, guess what he does to Cody in order to feed him to crocodiles?
- A Lizard Named "Liz": In this case, a Goanna named Joanna.
- Lyrical Dissonance: McLeach's version of "Home On The Range" mentioned below. The melody is still cheerful, but the words... well, don't ask.
- Mad Doctor: The unnamed mouse doctor that is assigned to cure Wilbur's back problems is clearly a few eggs short of a dozen. Who else but a Mad Doctor would load syringes in a double-barreled shotgun and use a chainsaw in surgery?
- Malicious Monitor Lizard: Joanna is a goanna who serves as Percival McLeach's Right-Hand Attack Dog who has a massive appetite for eggs, including the eggs of the giant eagle Marahute.
- Map Stabbing: McLeach has Cody tied up in front of a large map and tries to intimidate him into revealing the location of the eagle Marahute by calling out locations and then throwing knives at them on the map, narrowly missing Cody.
- Match Cut: Marahute returning Cody to the ground, after they visit her nest.
- Meaningful Echo: While they're traveling through Australia, Jake grabs a keelback by the nose and sternly tells it that they have a long journey ahead, that the keelback is going to be their ride, and that it isn't going to give them grief about it. The cowed snake nods. Right before the climax, Bernard pulls the same trick on a razorback.
- Meaningful Name:
- Meatgrinder Surgery: Wilbur is threatened with this by a group of mice before he decides he feels fine and decides to check out early.
- The Millstone: Joanna is one to McLeach, despite being a menacing threat to the other animals.
- Misplaced Accent: Cody and McLeach are both supposed to be Australian born and raised, yet both possess American accents.
- Misplaced Wildlife:
- Downplayed. Some of the Australian animals featured are not found in the same parts of the continent; crocodiles are found in the northern regions, but there are also wombats, which are only found in the southeast and in Tasmania.
- The most egregious example is Marahute herself — not only are golden eagles not found in Australia, they're found only in the Northern Hemisphere! However, her color pattern is not based on an actual golden eagle but a white-bellied sea eagle, which is an Australian species.
- Justified with the razorback, as feral pigs are one of the many invasive species that were brought to Australia and are found pretty much everywhere on the continent.
- A fairly obscure one: one of the birds on Jake's bird chart is a flowerpiercer
, which is a South American species - it was probably confused with the similarly-named flowerpecker
, which does live in Australia.
- Moment Killer: Happens several times between Bernard and Bianca (involving a marriage proposal rather than a kiss). The fact that one of the interruptions is caused by their tourist guide makes Bernard think that he'll be in for a Cock Fight (though this turns out not to be the case):
- Morton's Fork: McLeach asks Joanna if she knew about the razorback that just ran out of his truck. At first she nods (implying she knew it was there and hadn't done anything about it) and then, when McLeach gets angrier, she shakes her head (implying she wasn't guarding the truck properly). She gets in trouble anyway.
- Mouse World: Down Under is notable for the sheer number of ways the movie shows the mice interacting with humans and their technology, as they go about their business. They have hacked into intelligence listening posts for their own information relays, and even have a restaurant in the chandelier of the UN.
- Mundane Utility: Though not fully shown, McLeach intends to use a blowtorch to cook his dinner during the "eggs" scene.
- Musicalis Interruptus: Bernard and Bianca can't get Wilbur's attention until Bernard turns off his stereo.
- Musical Nod: When the delegates are summoned, a snippet of the Rescue Aid Society's theme (from the first film) features in the score.
- National Animal Stereotypes: Jake is an Awesome Aussie hopping mouse who wears a khaki shirt and a slouch hat, uses a boomerang, and talks with an Australian accent. Krebbs the koala and some of the kangaroos have the accent too.
- Near-Villain Victory: McLeach comes dangerously close to a total victory. Had Bernard not disabled his vehicle after having been stranded earlier, Cody would have been eaten by the crocodiles (thus confirming in the Rangers' mind that he died by misadventure), Marahute would remain McLeach's prize and the mice imprisoned.
- Never Smile at a Crocodile: McLeach tries to feed Cody to the crocodiles.
- Noble Bird of Prey: Marahute is a wedge-tailed eagle that's big enough for a small boy to ride on. She allows said boy to ride on her as thanks for saving her from a trap. She is an ally to the boy, as well as Bernard and Bianca, the titular rescuers, throughout the movie, as they face off against a poacher who wants to get his hands on the bird for money.
- Not Even Bothering with the Accent: Adam Ryen as Cody and George C. Scott as McLeach. Most of the animals in Down Under as well; only Jake, Krebs the Koala and a handful of kangaroos have noticeable Australian Accents.note
- Nothing Can Save Us Now: Jake to Bianca, during the climax. She's having none of it. Bernard is still out there.
- Nothing Personal: McLeach says this to Cody when he tries to feed him to some crocodiles. He claims to be doing it because he doesn't want to disappoint the rangers (who he had tricked into thinking Cody had been eaten by crocodiles earlier in the movie).
- Not Hyperbole: After being sedated by a bush doctor mouse, Wilbur wakes up and moans "I feel like I got my head in a vice..." Then it zooms out to show Wilbur's head has been restrained by an actual vice.
- Not the Fall That Kills You…: Cody cuts Marahute the giant eagle loose from a poachers trap at the top of a tall butte, only to have her accidentally knock him off the edge while taking flight. Cody falls for several seconds before Marahute comes out of a dive below him and catches him on her back; he suffers no injuries.
- Off-into-the-Distance Ending: Subverted, with the heroes riding into the night on the back of a giant eagle before cutting to show Wilbur the Albatross still sitting on the eagle's eggs, as he was instructed to do by Bernard while he went off to rescue the others.
- Offscreen Airplane Pull-up: The climax provides a heroic catch from an Inevitable Waterfall. Marahute, a giant eagle, dives after a falling Cody, and both disappear into the mist before soaring out together.
- Oh, Crap!:
- Cody gets a spectacular one as he falls off a cliff after freeing Marahute. Thankfully, she catches him.
- Also the scene where McLeach escapes from the crocodiles to apparent safety. Then he looks up and sees his sidekick mournfully waving good-bye to him from the shore. He turns around and sees that he's about to go over a huge waterfall, and starts desperately trying to paddle away, but all to no avail, and he goes over shouting a Big "NO!" as he falls.
- "Oh, Crap!" Fakeout: McLeach has Cody cornered at the edge of a crocodile-infested lake. Cody warns that his mom will call the Rangers if he goes missing, and McLeach pretends to be scared for a moment before tossing Cody's backpack to the crocodiles so that it seems as if Cody was eaten by them.
- One Dialogue, Two Conversations: Happens to Bernard and Bianca the first time he tries to propose. Bernard tries to propose to Bianca, but misplaces the ring. While he looks for it, Bianca receives word of the mission to Australia and is urgent to inform Bernard about it. The waiter volunteers that he'll tell Bernard about the case, but Bernard is too focused on his proposal to listen and he dismissively blows the waiter off. When Bernard returns to the table and tries to propose again, Bianca thinks he's talking about the mission and accepts. He is delighted, but is perplexed that she wants to do it now, and that she only needs to wear khaki shorts and hiking boots.Bianca: Bernard, did you talk to Francois?
Bernard: Ah, yes, but uh.. there's... there's something I want—
Bianca: I know exactly what you're going to say. Francois told me all about it.
Bernard: He did? How, how... how did he-
Bianca: Oh, it doesn't matter, I think it's a marvelous idea.
Bernard: You do? I mean, you... you really want to?
Bianca: I don't think it's a matter of wanting. It's a matter of duty.
Bernard: D-duty? I... I never thought of it... well, umm... all right.... all right. How does-how does next ah-April sound to you?
Bianca: Heavens, no! We must act immediately tonight!
Bernard: Tonight? But, but, ah.. wait! [cuts to them walking down into the Rescue Aid Society headquarters] Uh, Bianca, this is so sudden! I mean, don't you at least need a gown or something?
Bianca: No, just a pair of khaki shorts, and some hiking boots.
Bernard: Hiking boots?! - One-Steve Limit: Averted. Usually only noticeable on a second viewing, but one of the R.A.S. members is named Frank, who is clearly not the frilled lizard we meet later on.
- Open Sesame: When Bernard, Bianca and Jake reach McLeach's hideout where he's keeping Cody, Bernard and Bianca start digging under the door to get in while Jake sarcastically says "Have you tried 'Open Sesame'. At that moment, McLeach opened the door and the three rodents were raised into the air on it.Jake: Hey, it worked!
- Outliving One's Offspring: Cody's mother spends most of the movie believing this has happened to her, as McLeach throws Cody's backpack to the crocodiles to make it look as if he was eaten. One powerful scene shows Cody's house while his mother cries "Cody!" while another scene shows her being notified of his supposed death.
- Pantsless Males, Fully-Dressed Females: Averted. Like in the first film, Bianca has no pants and she is less dressed than Bernard and Jake.
- Parental Abandonment: Cody mentions to Marahute that his father is "gone." There are strong implications that he was another victim of the notoriously dangerous Australian Outback, but it could have been actual abandonment.
- Parrot Expo-WHAT?:
- The Patient Has Left the Building: Wilbur tries escaping from the hospital in which he was confined after hurting his back, with the Doctor Mouse and his nurses chasing after him, trying to bring him back to the operating room.
- Pet Gets the Keys: When Cody is trapped by McLeach with some of the animals he's poached, Frank the frilled lizard manages to free himself and tries to get the keys to Cody. Unfortunately, Joanna arrives to stop him.
- Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Jake manages an impressive feat of strength when he lassos a snake to get a ride, but he's got nothing on the male lead. Bernard not only wrestles a razorback to the ground by their tusks, but also manages to hurl a heavy set of keys all the way up to the back of McLeach's truck AND save a boy several times his size from going over a waterfall with a piece of rope almost as big around as he is.
- Pit Trap: Cody ends up in one of these dug by Evil Poacher McLeach when he frees the mouse that served as the bait. At first, McLeach is quite surprised to have caught a boy instead of an animal and tries to blame his pet lizard Joanna for having dug the hole. However, when he realizes Cody knows where the eagle Marahute is, he reveals his true colors and kidnaps the boy.
- Plummet Perspective: The decoy eggs in Marahute's nest. Also subverted earlier during Cody's flight when Marahute is carrying him in her talons, with a POV shot from Cody looking at the ground far below.
- P.O.V. Cam: We briefly experience Cody's euphoric point-of-view as Marahute holds him in her talons, looking down at the Outback that is at least a mile below his swinging feet.
- Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: "Your spine needs tender! Loving! Care!"
- Punny Name: Just like his brother Orville, there's Wilbur the air service birds. Also, Joanna the goanna. (Goanna being the local Australian name for monitor lizard.)
- Put on a Bus: Orville, whose voice actor Jim Jordan passed away before he could record any lines. His flight service is taken over by his brother Wilbur.
- Reckless Gun Usage: For a poacher, McLeach does not handle his rifle properly, the first instance of this being when he uses it (already loaded and cocked) to pull Cody out of the pit trap.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: McLeach figuring out how to get Cody to hand over the eagle.
- Reptiles Are Abhorrent: Joanna and some wild crocodiles. Frank the frilled lizard is harmlessly insane, so he's an exception to the trope.
- Rescue Introduction: Cody rescues Marahute, a giant golden eagle, from a poacher's trap on top of a cliff. When freed, Marahute accidentally pushes Cody off the cliff with her wing, and when she sees him falling down, she swoops down and saves him.
- Romantic False Lead: Jake for Bianca.
- Scared of What's Behind You: The Big Bad, McLeach, starts bragging about having "whooped" a bunch of crocodiles...only to turn around and see that they were really trying to avoid the Inevitable Waterfall.
- Scavenged Punk: Much of the equipment in the film is built from human materials, but it's almost purely a background element.
- Scenery Porn: There are some amazing shots of the Australian Outback, and the New York scenes are pretty stunning as well.
- Self-Disposing Villain: Averted despite the Disney Villain Death; after leading Joanna to crash into McLeach and leave him tettering on the cliff edge, Bernard deliberately pushes him off into the river eventually leading to the Inevitable Waterfall.
- Sequel Goes Foreign: As you can tell from its name, the second movie shifts the action to Australia.
- Shark Pool: Crocodile Falls is a river named for both featuring a waterfall shaped like a crocodiles head and being infested with crocodiles. McLeach tries to kill Cody by feeding him to the crocodiles, but is thwarted just in time. He's not so lucky.
- Shirtless Scene: Cody first appears in the film waking up in his hammock shirtless, and then from behind when dashing across his room to peer out his window before throwing on his trademark red shirt.
- Shoot the Rope: How McLeach tries to drop Cody in with the crocs when his truck shuts off. He doesn't find it as easy as it is in most movies, but he only missed once on the first shot.
- Shot in the Ass: Wilbur spends some time in a hospital. The doctors decide he needs some sedatives, and decide the best way to give them to him is to load syringes into a double barrel shotgun and shoot him in the ass. Amusing Injuries indeed.
- Shout-Out:
- When Wilbur is about to escape from the hospital after hurting his back, he yells "You'll never take me alive!" which is a reference to the famous Australian bush ballad "Waltzing Matilda."
- Wilbur also uses the catchphrase from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles towards of the beginning of Bernard and Bianca’s flight as well as his hospital escape.
- Shown Their Work: Despite Wilbur being the main focus on-screen for the final scene; the animators put the Big Dipper and the Southern Cross Constellation in the sky.
- Sleep Squashing: Wilbur is asleep on the wheelwell of a plane, with Bernard and Bianca sitting on the seats on his back. When Bernard tries to wake him up, Wilbur just rolls over, lying on top of his passengers.
- Single-Season Country: The majority of the movie is set in Australia, and naturally, during the summer. The movie correctly depicts it to be winter in New York City at the same time.
- Soft Water: Averted when McLeach falls of a waterfall to his death.
- Something We Forgot: At the end of the movie, Bernard, Bianca, Cody, Jake, and Marahute fly triumphantly into the sunset. The movie then cuts to Wilbur the albatross, who was left to guard Marahute's eggs, realizing that he was left behind and starts wondering what's taking everyone so long. And then the eggs start to hatch.Wilbur: HELP! Anybody! Bernard! Bianca! WHERE ARE YOU?!? Okay, that's it! I'm outta here, this is ridiculous! You can't leave me here alone! (laughs) I'm gone! I am GONE! (the eggs start hatching) Aww, no! Stay in those eggs! That's a direct order! Awww.....hey...you're kinda a cute little feller, coochy coochy...YOW! WHOA! (groans)
[cue credits] - Snakes Are Sinister: Subverted. When Bernard, Bianca and Jake come across a small snake named Twister who's about to eat them, Jake manages to overpower Twister and coerces him into taking them to their destination, to which Twister obliges with a nervous look on his face, not wanting to incur Jake's wrath. There's also another snake that was captured and confined in a cage by McLeach, and just like the rest of the captured animals, he helps Cody by giving him a shoe so that they can use it in an attempt to escape. Surprisingly, both snakes are implied to be venomous, but they barely showed any threat to the heroes compared to McLeach.
- Spit Take: When Bianca tells Wilbur that she and Bernard must leave for Australia tonight, Wilbur spits and coughs out his drink, getting it all over Bernard.
- Suddenly Shouting: McLeach, seeing Cody shaking the cage and demanding to be let go, tells him, "You need to be QUIET!! ...or the rangers might hear you." Naturally it's to demonstrate that they're in the middle of nowhere and there's no one to hear his screaming.
- Suggested by…: The Rescuers Down Under characters created by Margery Sharp.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Wilbur is Orville's previously unknown brother as Jim Jordan, who voiced Orville, died before the second film was produced.
- Sweeping the Table: Early on in the film, Jake the hopping mouse is playing checkers (the board is as big as a table to a mouse) when he gets a call from Wilbur the albatross, who is about to land on the runway. Jake hurriedly turns the checkerboard over, scattering the checkers in the process, to look at the bird identification guide on the other side. It confirms his suspicion that the runway is too short for Wilbur to safely use.
- That Liar Lies:McLeach: It's over boy, your bird's dead. Someone shot her. Shot her right out of the sky! [makes a shooting gesture] BANG!
[Joanna pretends to be shot and falls dead on Cody's lap]
Cody: [backs away] NO!
McLeach: What do you mean "no"? Calling me a liar? - Throat-Slitting Gesture: McLeach catches Cody with one of Marahute's feathers and asks where he found it. When Cody refuses, McLeach pulls out a similar feather and mimes slashing his throat with it to indicate that he shot down Marahute's mate.
- Took a Level in Badass: Happens to Bernard the moment he decides to wrestle a razorback to the ground.
- Trapped the Wrong Target: Played with; Cody falls into a Pit Trap that McLeach made to capture animals. Naturally, the poacher is quite surprised to find out he captured a boy instead of an animal, and (unsuccessfully) tries to hide the fact he's a poacher by blaming his pet goanna Joanna for having dug the hole (and apparently planting a signal device in it in the process). Then McLeach realizes that Cody knows the location of the rare giant eagle Marahute, and concludes he caught something he wants after all. Thus, he reveals his true colors and kidnaps the boy.
- Travel Montage: Done with a telegraph relay between the Australian Outback and New York portrayed via the "map with arrows" method.
- Trick-and-Follow Ploy: McLeach realizes that nothing he tries will get Cody to tell him where the nest is, so instead he lets Cody go and lies that the eagle has been killed and, as Cody runs off, mentions the eagle's eggs to Joanna. Cody, of course, goes to check on the eggs and McLeach follows.
- Troubled Takeoff: Bernard and Bianca arrive at Albatross Air, now run by Orville's brother Wilbur, to fly them to Australia. There's a snowstorm at the time, so Wilbur has no intention of flying them out that night; but when he's told that it's to save a kidnapped child, Wilbur goes all gung-ho and flies right into the blizzard, slipping on the cold rooftop before diving down into the New York street, narrowly avoiding traffic... all in all, no different than Orville's takeoff in the first movie.
- Underside Ride:
- Bernard, Miss Bianca and Jake get under McLeach's truck to follow him when he goes after Cody.
- Wilbur pulls off a variant when he taxis in an airplane wheel compartment.
- Unprovoked Pervert Payback: When Bernard drops the ring in the restaurant, it rolls under a table and becomes wedged on the toe of the large matronly mouse dining there. Bernard crawls under the table and wiggles it off her foot. The matronly mouse gets a shocked look on her face, and then slaps her scrawny, elderly dining companion; assuming he is playing footsie with her.
- Unwilling Suspension: Cody comes across a mouse tied up and hanging from a poacher's snare and tries to rescue it. In the climax, Cody himself is tied up and suspended from the crane on Mcleach's truck with the evil poacher intending to lower the boy into a crocodile-infested river.
- Villain Song: McLeach sings his own short one to the tune of Home on the Range without musical accompaniment.McLeach: Home, home on the range, where the critters are tied up in chains! I cut through their sides, and I rip off their hides, and the next day I do it again! Everybody!
- "Wanted!" Poster: There is one of these for McLeach in the forest. Its appearance to the viewer heralds a subdued scare chord and marks a shift in the movie's tone (Cody stumbles into a poacher's trap a few seconds later).
- Water Is Dry: At the end of the movie, when Marahute flies away from Crocodile Falls with Cody, Bernard, Bianca and Jake on her back, both Cody and Bernard show no signs of being wet even though they had been in the water mere moments before.
- Water Torture: McLeach intends to kill Cody by tying him up to a crane and feeding him to crocodiles. However, he chooses to torture the boy first by dunking him in the water momentarily before suspending him just out of the crocodiles' reach.
- Wham Line: "I've already got the father."
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Ironically, in this film we know what happened to the mice: it's a bunch of other creatures that drop off the movie's radar. What happened to the rest of the animals caged up in McLeach's hideout? They get plenty of screen time, names and personalities start getting established, and then... we never see them again.
- In a lampshaded example, no-one returned for Wilbur or Marahute's eggs.
- We also never get shown a different joyful reunion between parent and off-spring at the end: Cody and his mother. It doesn't help that the latter of whom likely still thinks Cody's dead.
- The female kangaroo and other animals who first brought Cody to Marahute. After he frees her, they're never seen again.
- With This Ring: The first time Bernard tries to propose, the ring falls out of his pocket and he has to go through some awkward moments to get it back.
- The World Is Just Awesome: Ahem. Marahute's Flight.
- Would Hurt a Child: McLeach was going to lower Cody into a river full of crocodiles. And before that, he threatened him with knives as part of an interrogation.
- Vocal Evolution: Eva Gabor's performance as Miss Bianca is notably quieter and slower compared to the previous film.