Not necessarily a *bad* film, but one of the weaker Disney efforts

I will say this: there's nothing in this movie that's offensively politically correct, thank goodness. There's a vague eco theme, an anti-poacher theme, but one can put up with that.

The opening alone, from the first shot till the cutaway to New York, is truly thrilling and raised my expectations for the film; unfortunately, the movie descended to a much more prosaic level right afterwards.

The villain is is competent, but Madame Medusa in the original Rescuers was far more memorable.

The two main mice characters suffer from the standard problem of sequels: the first film had the benefit of get-to-know-them novelty, and in this film, they feel like they're rehashing the same beats.

The new Australian mouse was at least a somewhat entertaining fresh character, but they didn't do enough with him.

By contrast, there was altogether too much of the John Candy albatross. I always enjoyed John Candy's comedy, but it was simply too straightforward and kid-oriented here.

The boy wasn't nearly as sympathetic as the girl in the original Rescuers. Not by a long shot. That may have been the worst shortcoming of this film. In the original, the orphan girl's plight was extremely moving; one even felt tears at some points. Never in this case.

The animation style was obviously much more polished in this film, but the cruder style somehow worked for the original Rescuers. Also, the originals' darker setting gave it a great deal of mood.

All in all, the original Rescuers is a much better film, much better, though it isn't one of Disney's strongest either. In the end, this is a weak effort. Not an offensive or annoying one, just weak.