From 1961 ("101 Dalmations") to 1977 ("The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh"), Walt Disney Studios relied heavily on producing cheap and fun children's movies to ensure a profit, a far cry from their extravagant fairy tales or award-worthy stories. Which is fine. Like most children, I grew up with those movies, and some of them remain my favorites in Disney's catalogue. But "The Rescuers" (also released in 1977) instantly feels like something different, and would guide the studio into a new era, to attempt to make stories that were more meaningful for both children and adults. It has a much darker, but also optmistic story, with the premise that somewhere out there, there are mice that are looking out for young children that might be victims the world. It opens with a somber scene of a young girl on a stranded boat throwing a message in a bottle out to sea, only the world "HELP" visible from the outside, and the bottle's journey across canvas-paintings to its eventual heroes. In a clever setup for how human and animal worlds co-exist, in the basement of the U.N. building in New York, there is an analogous organization of mice from around the world. This is "The Rescue Aid Society," complete with an anthem, vowing to protect and rescue children in need of their support. On this day, they've received a bottle with a message begging for help, from a girl named Penny. The representative from Hungary, the beautiful and elegant Miss Bianca (appropriately, her actress is also Hungarian), volunteers for the mission. Out of concern for her safety (and some outdated comments on how a woman shouldn't go alone; this could be viewed as either an act of chivalry or misogyny), the committee insists on her taking a partner, and due to her beauty, everyone volunteers. She chooses Bernard, the bumbling janitor for the building (voiced by TV icon Bob Newhart, one of the most major actors in a Disney movie yet), whose timid and superstitious nature makes him tempted to reject the offer, but with Bianca's charm, he agrees. The two mice are a mismatched pair, with Bianca being very adventurous, while also relying on a lot of luggage of clothing for the journey. Bernard is hesitant and prefers the safe route for everything, sometimes throwing doubt into the journey, but when posed with a problem, is able to think out a strategy to overcome it. It's not a perfectly even duo, but it's close enough, and both become heroes despite their small stature. They come across a variety of memorable characters, from the old cat Rufus from Penny's orphanage (their first stop, as the letter isn't clear where Penny is held), and the large bird / comic-relief Orville that runs an airline business for small animals (he's also the airplane). They eventually find Penny, a six-year-old girl who was kidnapped from her orphanage by Madame Medusa and her partner Mr. Snoops. Medusa is after a legendary diamond, likely hidden down a cave in a nearby Bayou swamp. The cave is too small, so they need a child to search the caverns, and have forced Penny into it for months. Medusa could easily be Cruella de Vil's cousin (old production plans considered having Curella be the villain again), but is fatter in certain parts and wears a lot more makeup. Her bizarre design looks like one of the ugly stepsisters in "Cinderella," but maybe 20 years older. Mr. Snoops is a round, curly-haired, sniveling sidekick, but is as eager to get the diamon as Medusa is. To round out their steamboat-hideout is a pair of pet alligators that keep Penny from running away. Benard and Bianca can't really call the police or fight back, but despite their size, and with some help from other swamp animals local to the area, they might be able to plan a distraction to help Penny escape. 
There are some bright moments in the movie. Penny for example, not because she's cute (her age and missing tooth might be cute to others, and was a little annoying to me), but because of her independence and quick thinking. When the mice finally find her, she's the one that suggests the details of the plan to escape, a sign that she might have been able to save herself if someone encouraged her. But there's no denying how bleak the story is to see a child kidnapped. And "The Rescuers" is kind enough to suggest this only happens every once and a while, at least in terms of the Rescue Aid Society getting word of it. In the real world, harsher situations are probably happening to children thousands of times a day. As a kid, I also never liked the Bayou setting. The villains are deliberately designed to be ugly, representing the sort of small-town people that might live near a swamp. The local mice are depicted as country bumpkins and rednecks, drinking moonshine on the porch all day. It's a unique setting for Disney, but not an attractive one. Even for the characters on the good side, their depiction seems offensive in hindsight to Americans in the south. The animation and production design is slightly better than their recent "fun" movies, but not significantly so. Most of the good elements come from smart design rather than animation quality. This isn't a musical, and the few songs present are beautiful, but also somber and sad. It's a shame the setting didn't click with me, because the more serious tone and premise was a refreshing and exciting idea for Disney's animation team. We hadn't really seen a movie like this since "Bambi." There's no doubt that "The Rescuers" is an important classic, it just isn't one of their more fun and marketable ones. On the flip side, its sequel "The Rescuers Down Under" solves those problems and makes a good alternative.