Disney’s most recent film extended the story and universe of Chip and
Dale. Centering around the mystery of their missing friend Monteray Jack,
Chip and Dale take on the challenge of hunting down Sweet Pete’s bootleg operation. However,
just because they have the motivation, doesn’t mean that everyone involved makes the best
call. But who tcame out at the most clever and who wound up not being the brightest?
I’m Kyle with WickedBinge and this is Chip N’ Dale : Rescue Rangers : Dumb to Brilliant.
First up here, it's the Practically Brainless. This spot is reserved for
those who have a less than average intelligence, to put it nicely.
Winning the gold medal of most dumb we have Jimmy the Polar Bear. Jimmy was a secondary sidekick to
Sweet Pete and so wasn’t given much responsibility or screentime, and was relied on mostly for muscle
and added intimidation. He was shown to be easily distracted while hunting down Chip and
Dale at the convention and it was implied he lacked a lot of social cues during his
interaction with Bob in the hottub. He had enough understanding that asking to touch Baloo’s face
was likely not an acceptable request, but he had to physically restrain himself from the act.
Taking the silver medal of most dumb is DJ Herzogenaurach. Another fanboy,
Herzogenaurach was oblivious to what Chip and Dale were actually up to despite the
fact that he caught them redhanded. When he told Bob about running into the chimpunks,
Herzogenaurach was only interested in sharing that he ran into a couple of celebrities
and not the fact that Chip and Dale were lingering around Sweet Pete’s locker.
Going home with the bronze medal of most dumb is Bob the Warrior. He was a little more on the ball
than Jimmy. He had started to suspect something was off when he noticed that Chip and Dale had
left their bags behind while rushing off and then later recongnized the fake rat nose he found on
the floor. He had been chummy with the duo while leading them through Sweet Pete’s warehouse,
but in all fairness it isn’t unheard of for people with a lot of influence
ina city to let their guard down, cocky about not being taken down just because
someone was lingering around. However, due to Bob’s inability to be subtle,
he gained a lot of attention while chasing Chip and Dale down. In his need to capture them,
Bob flipped tables, attacked bystanders and was eventually grabbed and handed over to police.
Next up is the Grade School Students. Still far from smart characters… but
they aren’t as dumb as our previous category..
The first ranking in this section goes to Ugly Sonic. Sonic can be given some credit on how
he used his reputation and tried to roll with the punches. He figured out that since people
would be poking fun at him anyway, he may as well appear at conventions and get some money from it.
Though a lot of the attention he got was negative, Ugly Sonic was able to turn the
attention into a career that eventually earned him the chance to work with the FBI for a show.
Following is Baloo. Like the other celebrities making an appearance, Baloo was able to work a
crowd. He knew how to appeal to people and was shown to have gained a fair bit of success.
While others scoffed about the idea of a reboot, Dale had explained that Baloo found a way to make
it work, which made the bear a sort of role model for characters like Dale who wanted a revival.
Up next is the first half of the duo, Dale. Dale may have been a part of an infamous duo that took
on all sorts of challenges in Rescue Rangers but that didn’t mean that he was the smartest around.
Dale was not mature or aware enough to have a serious conversation with Chip
about their respective roles in the show, leading to Dale continuing to feel unappreciated and
deciding to take on his own tv series to try and get Chip to admit how important Dale was to him.
Even with how they had split up and went on different paths, Dale still placed his own
image and need for validation above Chip and his concerns. While looking for Monty, Dale didn’t
have any consideration for Chip when he was begged not to slip out too much information or when Chip
asked Dale to not wear the suit to see the cheese salesman. While in the midst of investigating,
Dale didn’t let up about asking for a reboot between the two of them. When it was believed
they were too late to save Monty, Dale went right to social media. Not only was this a pretty callus
thing to do, but going right to posting all of his plans online after ticking off a crime boss
was not the smartest idea. The most we can say on Dale’s behalf is that he was able to
decode Ellie’s message, even if he used an usual backroad to get to what she was trying to say.
Next up our list is the Average Folk. These guys are, as the name implies,
pretty average in terms of intelligence. Not too smart, but not too dumb. Normies.
Next up on our list is Monteray Jack. Now,
even the smartest of people can be done in by an addiction, so the fact that Monty fell
into debt because of his love of cheese was not enough to label him as dumb. After all,
Monty was able to reach out for help when he knew he couldn’t handle things on his own anymore.
He should have known better than to get involved with the Valley Gang of all people,
but we’ll give him the benefit of the doubt that Sweet Pete may have been the one in control of
all the stinky cheese being peddled in the city. Monty also didn’t go into trouble blind. He was
able to tell Chip exactly what was in store for him if he fell into the hands of the Valley Gang.
Following is Chip’s mother. With her advice and influence being the
underlying inspiration for Chip and Dale as they grew up and launched their careers,
she wound up being a crucial part of their lives. Even with the lack of screentime given to her,
she was clearly respected by both Chip and Dale and likely had been the person Chip
emulated as he grew away from the entertainment industry.
Next up is Zipper. Yes, he was shown with Gadget, but we can’t quite rank them the
same as far as intelligence goes. All we know for certain is that they made a stable home and were
a successful couple, able to raise a large family, own a spacious property and help
Dale to finace his independent films. Zipper was clearly a capable husband and
father and encouraged Gadget’s work, even if he wasn’t as involved with machinery as she was.
In a tied ranking we have Lumière and Tigra. Sensible and friendly,
they both came off as realists when talking with Dale during the convention. They didn’t
completely discourage Dale’s desire for a reboot, but they did make a few comments about what was
more likely to happen. Tigra herself was the one to really push for the idea of Dale inviting
Chip to do the conventions with him as it would have been more likely to get attention.
When Bob and Jimmy were rushing through the crowds with Sweet Pete to capture the duo,
Lumière and Tigra both leapt in despite not having much of an idea what was going on.
Lumière had been able to subdue Bob while Tigra intervened and contacted the police.
Now we’re really getting into the College Bound. These are the characters who are just a stone
throw away from the top, proving they have the ability to be the best, but just fall short.
Next we have the cheese salesman, Bjornson. He had been suspicious of Chip and Dale when they
showed up to his shop asking for stinky cheese, but his confidence wound up exposing his business.
Had Dale not spilled the beans about who they were and why they were really there, Bjornson
would have been taken down along with Sweet Pete and the other henchmen by the end of the film.
The following ranking goes to the manipulative Captain Putty. Putty’s
main concern had been getting as much money as possible from joining Sweet Pete’s operation.
He didn’t only risk his career but put the safety of a lot of officers at risk,
knowing that he would have to lie and lead false investigations into Sweet Pete. Knowing this,
Putty was able to take a lot of attention off of himself and place it on Ellie. By calling in
a fake tip that resulted in a large portion of their squad being injured beyond repair,
he not only humilated her and broke her self-confidence down,
but he effectively turned everyone against her. Putty was arrogant, but he knew full well that
if anyone could catch on to what he was doing, it would have been Ellie. When he was revealed to be
working for Sweet Pete, Putty proudly bragged about how he had managed to manipulate Ellie.
Not only had she gotten herself captured, but she managed to lead Chip and Dale towards them,
leading to them having Chip as their prisoner to be bootlegged. Putty’s main downfall was allowing
Ellie to talk to Dale when forcing her to make the call. That slip up led to Ellie giving Dale
the much needed clue and that snowballed into the whole operation being taken down.
We’re granting the next spot to Gadget. She was displayed in the show as being
a successful engineer for a reason. When Dale rushed to get help from her and Zipper,
she was still hard as work with her machines. When they all went to face Sweet Pete,
they were riding in a vehicle clearly designed by Gadget in order to get
close undetected by any henchmen. The rocket wasn’t really the best call,
but we can give some leniency on that choice due to the rush they were in.
Finally, we have The Geniuses. The bronze medal of most brilliant we’re giving to
Officer Ellie. Though Ellie had been rattled by the previous experience of a failed case,
she went with her gut and let Chip and Dale in on the investigation. It may have been against
protocal, but Ellie’s intuition paid off quickly when the two told her what they had found out.
Ellie was quick to think of a plan and rig up the equipment to track Sweet Pete to where
the bootlegging was done. When she was faced with Putty being the one who sabotaged her,
Ellie still played the role of the helpless victim long enough to slip Dale the coded message of her
favorite episode without Putty being able to catch on. In facing off against Putty during the escape,
Ellie was able to find a way to subdue him for good, using the extinguisher to
mess with his putty form and keep him from re-shaping in order to attack her.
Ellie’s work was so impressive, she was approached by the FBI to join their team. In the end,
we’re happy to see Ellie turned down the chance in order to focus on being a private investigator.
The silver medal of most brilliant goes to Chip. Chip was the more level-headed one between him
and Dale, but that didn’t mean he didn’t make mistakes. Chip had been clueless about how his
treatment of his friend may have led to their falling out. When Dale had begun to pull away,
Chip took the rejection and simply moved on rather than trying to mend their friendship,
thinking it was pointless. He had believed that if the partnership was really that important,
than Dale should have been the one to apologize. However, this paranoia that came from their
broken friendship did lead to Chip becoming more cautious and so more aware of his environments.
He was seen when entering his own property at the beginning of the movie wiping down the keypad
before entering the code. This made sense later on when Chip used a match to see where Sweet Pete’s
fingers had been when trying to get into the villain’s locker. Between working for the show
and for the insurance company, Chip manged to pick up a lot of tricks he was able to utilize.
He was the one to use the stinky cheese to find their first lead and had tried to lead
them through getting information without getting caught. He had even been the one to detect the
smell of Monty’s cologne in the police station, revealing that there was someone on the inside of
the investigation working for Sweet Pete. Chip’s arrogance, however, kept him from trusting Ellie.
His suspicion was understandable when he noticed their show hadn’t aired where Ellie lived, but he
had rushed to conclusions simply because he didn’t want to admit the chief could have been involved.
Finally, taking the gold medal of most brilliant is the main villain: Sweet Pete.
There’s something to be said for the operation Pete managed to build from the ground up. It
wasn’t only that he created a successful business, turning old movie merchandise into porta-pottys
and sending them all over the city. Below the surface of his legitiamite practices,
Sweet Pete managed to control a large portion of the city with his gang. He had control over
various rackets, including the supply of stinky cheese and krill and used the debts characters
got into as justification to hunt them down. He had some impressive machinery, re-purposing the
equipment used in CGI upgrade surgery to transform the characters he captured for his bootleg movies.
Even if it was horrifying to see the collection of various parts of characters, we have to admit it
was good thinking to have a way to see different designs before actually changing the characters he
mutilated. Sweet Pete had even managed to win over Putty and likely some other on the police force,
helping to spread the rumor that he sent the missing characters off overseas in order to make
the mockbuster films. It drew the attention away from his base at the docks and bought him time.
But let us know in the comment section if you agree with our ranking. And tell us what we should
cover next. Remember to hit that notification bell and binge our Dumb to Brilliant playlist.
Where we figure out which characters have the most wits. But most importantly, stay wicked.