Andy Samberg And John Mulaney Are Teaming Up To Play An Iconic Disney Duo
Saturday Night alums Andy Samberg and John Mulaney are joining forces to bring this Disney duo favorite to life!
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The Rescue Rangers celebrate new blood. Comedians John Mulaney (Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse) and Andy Samberg (Brooklyn Nine-Nine) tease playing diminutive detectives Chip and Dale in a live-action sequel to Tad Stones and Alan Zaslove’s 1989 Disney Channel animated series. The leads addressed fans of the original on Disney+ Day, the second anniversary of the streamer, where the film is expected to debut on Spring 2022. Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers is not a reboot, but “a comeback 30 years in the making,” as it says so in a miniature re-rendering of the script. Watch Samberg set the record straight in this short Twitter clip below:
The new Rescue Rangers movie was first announced in Investor Day 2020 as part of an ongoing slate of new content across several Disney subsidiaries. News of John Mulaney and Andy Samberg’s casting as the titular chipmunks shared the headlines with a Swiss Family Robinson for the digital age, a Turner & Hooch sequel-reboot starring Josh Peck, The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers, a Disney+ Percy Jackson series, two National Geographic docuseries hosted by Chris Hemsworth and Will Smith, an Elizabeth Holmes biopic, four additional seasons of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Hocus Pocus 2, James Mangold’s Indiana Jones, an Enchanted sequel, Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Encanto, Fantastic Four, a live-action Pinocchio with Tom Hanks, Chris Evans’s Lightyear, and Peter Pan & Wendy. And there’s plenty more where those came from. For the rest of the announcements, check here.
Andy Samberg will be taking over from original 80s voice Corey Burton as goofball candy junkie Dale, a chipmunk in a Thomas Magnum Hawaiian shirt, while Burton assumes his other role, Zipper, as a fun Easter egg for viewers. Zipper is a housefly in charge of the “littler” gigs not even the chipmunks are small enough for. John Mulaney plays fearless, responsible Chip, co-founder and leader of the Rescue Rangers and the chipmunk in the Indiana Jones costume. Seth Rogen is confirmed to appear in a presently undisclosed cameo. No word yet on who will be voicing fan-favorite Rescue Rangers Monterey Jack (a mustachioed mouse serving as muscle of the team) and Gadget Hackwrench (a female aviator rodent doubling as mechanic and inventor), and antagonists Fat Cat (a feline mobster) and Professor Norton Nimnul (a human mad scientist).
Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers will be a live-action feature with computer-generated animal characters similar to Alvin & the Chipmunks and Space Jam: A New Legacy. Robert Rugan (Danny And The Wild Bunch) was first to sign on as writer and director when the project was green-lit in 2014. By the time Disney had updated the press five years later, Akiva Schaffer is now directing based on a screenplay by Dan Gregor and Doug Mand. The pair had done an extensive rewrite of an earlier draft by Barry Schwartz. John Mulaney, Adam Samberg, Corey Burton, and Seth Rogen joined the production a year later. David Hoberman (Monk) and Todd Liebermann (The Fighter) of Mandeville Films are executive producing.
As far as voice roles go, Rescue Rangers is just one of Andy Samberg’s many distinguished parts, which over the years have included Jonathan Loughran in Hotel Transylvania, Brent McHale in Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, and Benedict Arnold in historical parody America: The Motion Picture. John Mulaney is a veteran himself, with major voice credits in television, notably Andrew Glouberman in Big Mouth. He also played Spider-Ham/Peter Porker in Sony’s Into the Spider-Verse and Spider-Ham: Caught in a Ham.
John Mulaney and Andy Samberg’s Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers started shooting and recording in March. The original animated show, currently streaming on Disney+, revolved around the eponymous Rescue Rangers, a detective agency that deals with criminal activity too tiny in size and scope to be covered by local authorities. Early footage of the feature was shared during Disney’s four-hour Investor Day presentation.
