The Rescuers

After the smash hit of The Jungle Book and the relative success of Robin Hood, the Disney staff worked on a story based on Margery Sharp’s novels about two little mice that Walt Disney had begun supervising before his death.

Floyd Huddleston

These two heroes were part of an international rescue organization and, on their way to a mission, they met a bear who helped them freeing a kidnapped little girl named Penny. The bear, conveniently named Louie, was voiced by Louis Prima who had made such an impression as King Louie in The Jungle Book. Robin Hood composer Floyd Huddleston was asked to come up with half a dozen songs for the new film, in the jazzy spirit of Jungle Book, which was what Prima could do best.

A main title was designed to describe the activity of the organization with successive scenes showing the mice helping others animals or humans with a song to match. Finally, a ballad was planned in the style of “Love” from Robin Hood, with the same singer Nancy Adams, called "The Need to be Loved”.

Unfortunately, Prima’s health took a turn for the worse when he discovered he had a tumor and the talented singer went into a coma in 1975 and died three years later. Instead of shelving the project, the studio decided to alter their concept and remove the bear altogether. The mice were now on their own.

All songs were scrapped except “The Need to be Loved”, the only one to match the new style of the film. Yet the lyrics were changed to “Someone’s Waiting For You”. Shelby Flint, a new singer, was hired and two more similar songs were added for her by Carol Connors and Amy Robbins.

The main title would now be a stylized account of the journey of the bottle containing the message of a little girl in distress, told with a series of paintings with Flint singing a lovely ballad called “The Journey”. A first, for a Disney animated feature.

The Journey

Penny and Louie

The film was named The Rescuers and met with great success. At the time of its video release in 1999, viewers noticed that during the flight sequence, a still of a naked woman was inserted inside the window of a fast moving background. At a time when a freeze frame was impossible, the prankster technicians thought that the joke would never be noticed. The picture was erased digitally on subsequent releases.

Penny and Rufus

In 2012, a digital version of the Huddleston songs was released in the album “The Lost Chords: The Rescuers”. A year later, the rescuers came out on Blu-ray with a brand new HD restoration and the song "Peoplitis" sung by Louis Prima, Sam Butera and the Witnesses was offered as a bonus feature illustrated by production sketches of the bear.

Can any of you tell me what the connection between this film and Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho is?  Well, the cute little muskrat Ellie May is voiced by Jeannette Nolan, one of the voices of… the infamous Mrs. Bates!

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That’s all for today folks!