The_Light_Triton

The second movie in the Disney renaissance of '89-'99, The Rescuers Down Under was an example of a sequel doing just as well as the original movie, but doesn't get a lot of love from Disney. A lot of the original voice actors came back, Including Bob Newhart & Eva Gabor as the anxious hero Bernard and the fearless heroine Bianca, and brought in George C. Scott as McCleach, the poacher who's greed for a rare bird named Marahute, the golden eagle, causes him to kidnap a child named Cody, whom the rescue aid society must help return home. Along with the help of the fun loving brother of Orville, appropriately named Wilbur, voiced by the late & lovable John Candy, the 2 beloved mice are on their way to Australia to do all of this.

There's a lot of love from Disney fans for this movie, so much so that this movie outdoes the original in a lot of ways. While the original is a good Disney movie, the second is just as much fun and keeps the story going.

One of my favorite things about this movie was that it was the Guinea pig for CAPS. The Computer Animation Production System was a mainstay for Disney animation movies for many years and it all began with Wilbur's swan dive off the empire state building accompanied by a fun surf rock soundtrack. While Disney often has used the sweeping shot of the ballroom from Beauty and the Beast in it's promotional content, arguably it's most famous CAPS animation, it all began with that swan dive. Disney kept using CAPS in movies for years after.

Another thing to note is the scene where Wilbur is in the hospital. That scene divides audiences. Some people find the sadistic nature of the mouse doctor hilarious, others found it traumatizing as children. Modern audiences would not likely find it funny, so a heads up if you have young children who are exploring the world of Disney.

Overall, this is an early example of a Disney sequel doing just as well, if not better than it's original counterpart. There aren't many Disney sequels before this one, but it was a great second entry into the Disney renaissance, and worth a view.

As far as the Mario Party series has come since it's debut in 1998, it's no doubt the N64 games were the ones people remember and the later ones slowly began to lose their luster over time. But going back to 2001, the final Mario Party on the N64 was an absolute treasure, and proved the N64 to be one of the most fun party consoles ever made.

In this one, 2 more characters are added to the fun - Waluigi and Daisy. More mini-games are added, and a few are taken away. There's a few new game modes, plenty enough to keep you occupied and plenty to replay just for the heck of it.

My favorite piece of this game is it's OST - Probably the best one. Ichiro Shimakura did an amazing job for this one, blending whimsical & frantic wonderfully.

Hard copies of this one have skyrocketed in value, so the best way to play this one as close to original is on a flashcart, but it wouldn't be too hard to play this in emulation.

Even Marc Brown disliked the way Arthur's big hit turned out. Unfortunately the writers for this one were too busy focusing on a "violence solves nothing" lesson that they totally ignored the spoiled nature of a 5-year old who should've known better.

In "Arthur's big hit" Arthur is working on a model plane which he constantly warns his little sister DW not to touch. Eventually the curious DW tries to launch the plane & breaks it, and it finally angers Arthur so he hits her. Instead of punishing DW for breaking someone else's property, Arthur's parents punish him for hitting his sister.

There's really no redeeming quality to this story. They were trying to push a moral that violence isn't the answer but they neglected the "consequences for your actions" portion, completely tossing it aside by defending DW by saying she was just a kid.

This episode has potential but ultimately got what it deserved by being the source for endless memes.