Did You Know?

Early in the film's development, Cruella DeVil from 101 Dalmatians was to be the villain instead of Madame Medusa. There are similarities between the two characters, notably during the reckless driving scenes where the women are seen through their car's windshields. Veteran Academy Award-winning American actress Geraldine Page voiced her character of Madame Medusa with a British accent in order to add the element of sophistication that is stereotypically associated with it. Further connections can be made to the early suggestion of reusing the character of Cruella DeVil (who also spoke with a British accent), as well as to reflect the primary inspiration for the character of Madame Medusa, which was the Diamond Dutchess in Margery Sharp's "Miss Bianca" (1962). Early sketches of Madame Medusa showed clear similarities to Garth Williams's design of the Diamond Dutchess in the original novel, "Miss Bianca". Brutus and Nero are based on the two bloodhounds, Torment and Tyrant. The character of Mr. Snoops is a retouched "Mandrake" from "Miss Bianca". One of Miss Bianca's talents in the original novels was being able to charm dangerous animals like cats and dogs (she being a mouse), that element was added to the film in the form of the wise cat, Rufus. Mr. Snoops is a caricature of film historian John Culhane, who made regular visits to the Disney studio during production and was nicknamed "Mr. Snoops" by the animators. The Rescue Aid Society was originally the "Prisoners' Aid Society", just as it was in the original Margery Sharp novels.

Bernard (Bob Newhart) complains several times that he hates flying. One of Newhart's comedy routines was called, "The Mrs. Grace L. Ferguson Airline (And Storm Door Company)", wherein he explains why he hates to fly.

This was Joe Flynn's last film. He recorded his lines as Mr. Snoops only a few weeks before his untimely death in July, 1974. The film was released three years later.

GOOFY HOLLER: When Madame Medusa runs over Orville with her swamp-mobile trapping him inside, and again when Orville falls backwards from the top of the New York building at the end of the film.

Don Bluth became the first of the new artists trained during the 1970s to be listed as a directing animator. Two years later, he left Walt Disney Productions to form his own studio.

This was the first Walt Disney animated feature to inspire a sequel.

The film broke a record for largest box office gains on opening weekend, a record it would keep until the release of Don Bluth's An American Tail.

The name of the cave where Penny must locate the Devil's Eye, the world's largest diamond, is never mentioned by a character in the movie, but according to the map that Madame Medusa is looking at, the name of the place is the "Black Bayou".

Ellie Mae and the Swamp Folks were originally going to carry a small flag that said "Swamp Volunteers". This detail was dropped, since this would be the only time they would serve as rescuers.

Bernard and Miss Bianca were supposed to go to a mouse supply room in the International Rescue Aid Society Headquarters. In here, they were supposed to have bins full of items Bernard and Miss Bianca would need on their journey. Once they were packed Rescue Aid would then send them off. Ken Anderson drew conceptual art of this storage room, what was inside of it, etc. This idea never made it past this stage.

The last Disney animated classic film to receive an Oscar nomination until The Little Mermaid, twelve years later.

Penny freezes whenever she gazes into Madame Medusa's eyes. In the mythical legend, those who gazed into Medusa's eyes turned to stone.

The island of Cuba was once considered as the setting for the film.

Rufus the cat is a caricature of animator Ollie Johnston.

The film's opening sequence was made up of paintings by Melvin Shaw, combined with "intelligent" camera movements, to captivate the dramatic feel of the journey of Penny's bottle.

James MacDonald was brought out of retirement to provide the vocal sound effects for Evinrude.

Considered by many of the film's producers, critics and audiences to be the film that proved that Walt Disney Productions' animation department could survive after the death of Walt Disney. The film was the company's first major success since The Jungle Book and last until The Little Mermaid. The Rescuers also out-grossed strong competition such as Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope in many European countries including France and Germany.

Animator Ollie Johnston did an extensive observation of the albatross in order to correctly animate Orville. He had an easy time making a realistic albatross landing "funny", but for the take-off, he decided to rely on gasping as well as feet thumping noises in order to create the comic effect he wanted.

Marked the end of Walt Disney Productions' longest 'golden age'. Starting in 1950 with Cinderella it ran for almost thirty years.

Deacon the owl's and Deadeye the rabbit's names are never mentioned in the film nor listed as such in the credits. Their names were given later in picture book adaptations and other written media.

The talking animals in this film can communicate not only with other animal species but also with human children who bother to begin conversation with them. The 1977 "Disney's Wonderful World of Reading" picture book based on the film revealed that the reason Rufus had not told of Penny's fate to another child at Morningside Orphanage was because no child or adult had bothered to ask him. It is unknown whether Rufus could have spoken to a human child without being talked to first, or if he could talk to grown-ups at all.

According to their publisher, The Rescuers helped put all of British author Margery Sharp's "The Rescuers" novels on the bestseller lists; not just "The Rescuers" and "Miss Bianca", on which the film is based, but all nine of them.

Even though most of Walt Disney Productions' films during the early '60s and '70s were shown theatrically in the aspect ratio of 1.75:1 they were actually animated in 1.37:1. This is the first non-Scope release to be animated in another ratio (in this case, 1.66:1).

The VHS version of the film was recalled by Disney in 1999 due to an inserted image of a topless woman, which appears about 38 minutes into the movie, as Bernard and Bianca fly through the city.

Madame Medusa's fiery red dress and hair and Penny's light blue overalls use their color to contrast the theme of good and innocence against evil. This use of color for personification was later used in other Walt Disney Company films such as Beauty and the Beast and The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

Sammy Fain's original version of "Someone's Waiting for You" commenced with a stanza not heard in the final film: "Every child has many wishes / that they wish when they're alone. / Faith can work just like magic, / nothing changes when you're grown." It is unknown whether the song's singer, Shelby Flint, ever performed and recorded this missing stanza.

Performer Nancy Adams, whom had previously appeared in Robin Hood singing "Love", recorded a demo for Sammy Fain's "Someone's Waiting for You" which was not used in the final film. The recording is believed to have been lost.

A calender on the wall of Madame Medusa's back room marks Thursday the 12th, implying that the investigation and rescue took but a day, ending on Friday the 13th.