The Rescuers Down Under is a 1990 American animated adventure film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures.
The 29th Disney animated feature film and the second movie to be produced during the Disney Renaissance, it is the sequel to Disney's 1977 animated feature film The Rescuers, which was based on the novels by Margery Sharp.
In The Rescuers Down Under, Bernard and Bianca travel to the Australian Outback to save a boy named Cody from a villainous poacher who wants to capture an endangered golden eagle for money.
Directed by Hendel Butoy and Mike Gabriel from a screenplay by Jim Cox, Karey Kirkpatrick, Byron Simpson, and Joe Ranft, the film features the voices of Bob Newhart, Eva Gabor (in her final film role), John Candy, and George C. Scott.
By the mid-1980s, The Rescuers had become one of Disney's most successful animated releases.
Under the new management of Michael Eisner and Jeffrey Katzenberg, a feature-length sequel was approved, making it the first animated film sequel theatrically released by the studio.
Following their duties on Oliver & Company (1988), animators Butoy and Gabriel were recruited to direct the sequel.
Research trips to Australia provided inspiration for the background designs.
The film would also mark the full use of the Computer Animation Production System (CAPS), becoming the first feature film to be completely created digitally.
The software allowed for artists to digitally ink-and-paint the animators' drawings, and then composite the digital cels over the scanned background art.
The Rescuers Down Under was released to theaters on November 16, 1990, to positive reviews from film critics.
However, it struggled at the box office, as it opened on the same day as Home Alone (which also features John Candy).
The film went on to garner $47.4 million worldwide.
Bernard is the male protagonist of Disney's 1977 animated feature film The Rescuers and its 1990 sequel.
He is a pudgy young mouse who initially works as a janitor for the Rescue Aid Society, the mouse version of the United Nations.
After aiding Miss Bianca on their first mission, the Society rewards him by commissioning him as their American ambassador.
Bernard has always had a friendly and unassuming personality.
Even before becoming an RAS delegate, he was apparently well-liked by the other society members, who always exchanged friendly greetings with him and called him by name.
When Miss Bianca chooses him as her co-agent, the other delegates respond with cheers and encouragement for him.