When Jake and Sparky are playing checkers, the positions and colors of the checkers changes right before Sparky makes his winning move.
Tracks
The flying scenes with Marahute were inspired by the films of Hayao Miyazaki, which typically feature elaborate aerial scenes.
When Joanna tries to bite into the “eagle eggs” (which are actually rocks thanks to Bernard’s trick) the first time, she very briefly has three pairs of eyes when her head comes down.
The location of Washington DC is placed incorrectly. It is shown somewhere around North Carolina.
The first Disney animated feature to use fully-rendered CG backgrounds (for the aerial shots of the UN building and the Sydney Opera House, and the globe for the relay sequence).
Adam Ryen, the boy who voiced Cody also dubbed the same character in his native Norway.
An old Apple keyboard is shown when the mice in the Hawaiian Islands receive the message about the kidnapping. (IDK if this is it, but i have no idea what an Apple keyboard looks like.)
This was the first 100% digital feature film ever made. The animation and backgrounds were done traditionally but all of the coloring, many effects and the final film printing was all done digitally. This was the first film produced with Disney’s Academy Award Winning “CAPS” production system.
McLeach’s full name is Percival C. McLeach. He says it just prior to his death.
A third Rescuers movie was planned for 1996, but after the death of Eva Gabor, this and all future Rescuers movies were scrapped.
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 (1991) and The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996).
During the Rescue Aid Society meeting, one of the name plates says ‘Latvia’. At the time Latvia was not an independent nation and was part of the Soviet Union.
CASTLE THUNDER Heard over the Buena Vista opening logo (on the DVD version, the thunderclap is heard over the 1985 Walt Disney Pictures opening logo), and then again at the first sight of the old riverboat. All other times lightning flashes in the movie, it is silent except for music; the dialogue and sound effects have been muted.
The first of the Disney “classics” to improve the Xerography process considerably. While its xeroxed predecessors had a much sketchier look and used a black toner, this movie used a medium-gray toner for a softer-looking “line” (the cel artists added some color inks, too, but xerography handled most of the inking). The Rescuers was also the first one where purple outlines (for Miss Bianca) was used (color-xerography). Later other colors were developed.
Fans of Walt Disney animation, and animation in general, have often mistakenly referred to the sometimes “sketchy” style in this film, as well as in others such as The Sword in the Stone (1963) and The AristoCats (1970) as “lazy” and budget-cut. In fact, the veteran animators working on these films, particularly Milt Kahl, strongly objected to their drawings being altered in any way and demanded that they should appear on the film’s animation cels exactly as they had been drawn.
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.
