Y’know, a while back I didn’t know what to do with Fantasy
Literature Rewind. I had done spotlights
on all the major children’s classics I could think of at the time (Pinocchio, Peter Pan, Alice’s Adventures
in Wonderland, Through the Looking
Glass, the Oz books, I even did “The
Snow Queen” even though I don’t particularly like H.C. Andersen’s work) and I
thought the well had run dry. Granted, I
was probably thinking too narrowly about what mistakenly gets called a “fairy
tale” and would fit the blog. But then
Disney released a remake of The Jungle
Book and I remembered “Oh yeah, there are more children’s classics out
there”. Now, I’ve been using Disney’s
production slate as a semi-guide for a little while now and here I am trying to
get ahead of it and spotlight the stories that aren’t likely to get the remake
treatment.
Case in point: The
Rescuers.
The Rescuers is a
book written by Margery Sharp and illustrated by Garth Williams and published
in 1959 (we are wandering far, far from our comfortable public domain here,
dear readers. So, brace
yourselves). The book was not expressly
written for children but ended up finding that audience anyway. The story concerns a group of mice called the
Prisoners’ Aid Society. The Prisoners’
Aid Society is a society of mice who fill a civic need by befriending prisoners
during their long incarcerations. As the
story starts though, the Prisoners’ Aid Society has decided to step outside
their usual bounds and actually rescue one of the prisoners in question. The prisoner in question is a Norwegian poet
who is being held in the infamously foreboding prison called The Black
Castle. For this, they need a mouse who
can speak Norwegian. So, a stalwart
mouse from the Pantry named Bernard goes to recruit Miss Bianca, who is an
ambassador’s pet and has the privilege of travelling via “diplomatic bag”, who
then makes her way to Norway and recruits a seafaring mouse named Nils. All three of them end up on the daring rescue
mission where they run the risk of not just failing to rescue the poet but also
getting caught by human guards but also by the cat Mamelouk.
If none of this sounds anything like the 1977 animated Disney film you grew up with, there’s good reason for that. All sources consulted suggest that Disney didn’t
take much from the first book when making their film adaptation of The Rescuers. Instead, most of it came from the sequel
titled Miss Bianca. Even then, they changed large amounts of it.
The book as it actually is, is an interesting piece of work. Friendly talking mice are a staple of
children’s literature and fairy tales and have been for a long time. This is one of the few times I’ve ever seen
them moved into the position of being political players. I mean, in this day and age our day-to-day
view of politics is “What law did they not pass today?” and “Did the President
really say something that stupid?”, but don’t doubt that what the Prisoners’
Aid Society is doing is political. Right
off the bat, they have to deal with travel issues (why they need Miss Bianca)
and language barriers (why they need Nils).
It’s also never really stated why the Norwegian poet was imprisoned, but
the fact that he was a poet suggests that he was jailed as a political prisoner
for writing something that a political figure did not like. You know, in this case the Disney movie may
have been better about getting across the political aspect because of how they
modeled their “Rescue Aid Society” deliberately on the United Nations (though,
I guess we could fault them with a lack of subtlety). Basically, we watch as three mice try to deal
with a very big, yet still delicate situation.
There’s no promise of success and for a good chunk of time it seems
practically impossible anyway. The book
goes into detail describing how for a period of months they spent their time
living in the walls of the Black Castle watching events and trying to figure
out how they’re even going to pull off their rescue in the first place. Then when they do figure it out, there’s only
one day of the year when it’s even possible.
The characters deserve some praise.
Nils is a bit of an over-the-top figure with his sailor talk and love
for his big rubber boots, but he’s still a likable character. Bernard is humble and plain-spoken, but it’s
established early on that he’s brave and true.
After all, he had been decorated with the Tybalt Star for Gallantry in
the Face of Cats. Special attention
should be paid to Miss Bianca, though. For,
you see, every one of the qualities she has that seem like they’d be weaknesses
on a rescue mission turn out to be strengths when applied correctly. The mission at one point calls for her to
talk to the dangerous cat Mamelouk. Not
a great mission for a spoiled pet mouse who doesn’t know enough to be afraid of
cats, right? Well, it’s because she’s
unafraid and because of her more genteel, sophisticated nature that allows her
to talk to Mamelouk in such a way that she gets the information they need out
of him. Not bad for someone who lives in
a porcelain pagoda.
The Rescuers book
series has nine books in it, but very few of them seem to be in print. So, the best bet is probably to check your
local library for most of them. As for
this first one, I thought it was a solid, entertaining little book. A quick read, too. I suggest giving it a read if you get the
chance. In the meantime, I’m going to
try and figure out what I’ll do if I run out of books that were turned into
movies.
Until next time.
