Feeling the need for nostalgia with ‘Top Gun,’ ‘Chip ‘n Dale’
Nothing sells better than the familiar.
With ballooning production budgets and marketing costs, even the richest of movie studios now show a reluctance to spend dollars on unproven, original content.
Perhaps because of an absence of “original” hit movies in recent years, one of the safer bets around is the legacy sequel — a project that capitalizes on an audience’s appreciation for a long-dormant property. Specifically, hit movies like “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” “Ghostbusters: Afterlife” and even the latest “Scream” installment rely heavily on audiences coming back to theaters to feel something they enjoyed as kids or at other impressionable moments in their lives.
The nostalgia-pull can feel cheap and uninspired at times, with no better example than the “Ghostbusters” refresh last year, a movie that desperately pulls on the heartstrings of an audience that seems to have forgotten the tone and spirit of the original movie.
As cynical as I am about “Ghostbusters” and some of the worst examples of nostalgia-driven-IP (I’m looking at you, “Space Jam: A New Legacy”), there are more than a few proven success stories. While “No Way Home” isn’t as narratively cohesive as, say, the first two Sam Raimi-directed “Spider-Man” films, “No Way Home” balances its callbacks alongside thoughtful storytelling that moves the current iteration of Peter Parker forward.
Two more recent nostalgia plays find success in two totally different ways — we’re talking about the theatrical release of “Top Gun: Maverick” and the new “Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers” on Disney+.
Maybe the world doesn’t technically need a new “Top Gun,” but Tom Cruise at least understood what audiences would want from it in 2022. “Top Gun: Maverick” is about big screen spectacle and the promise of Cruise and his collaborators doing crazy, wild, expensive-looking things. Sure, people love that cheesy volleyball scene in the original movie, but the staying power of “Top Gun” was always about the spectacular aerial combat, and “Maverick” delivers it in a way that hasn’t been touched since 1986.
Nostalgia-done-right works on audiences, even those most cynical of moviegoers — the critics. “Top Gun: Maverick,” ahead of its wide release this weekend, earned almost universal praise from those snooty snoots around the country.
Whereas “Top Gun” had its share of fans demanding a sequel for decades, surely almost nobody thought about rehashing a 90s-era, weekday-afternoon Disney cartoon that aired a total of 65 episodes across three seasons. Truthfully, “Chip ‘n Dale Rescue Rangers” is probably known more for its catchy theme song and addictive Nintendo game than any of its actual episodes.
Yet, the genius (yes, genius) of the new live-action/animation reboot is how it mines the audience’s hazy childhood memories for fresh laughs. While it helps to have a director in “Lonely Island” mainstay Akiva Schaffer, as well as likable comic voices in John Mulaney and another “Lonely Island” alum Andy Samberg as the titular characters, the humor of “Chip ‘n Dale” affectionately recalls memories of another long-appreciated-but-unmatched classic, 1988’s “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?”
The new “Chip ‘n Dale” can surely be enjoyed by younger audiences, but it’s the interaction between the “real world” elements and those forgotten 90s-era cartoon characters that result in satisfying comic moments. It also knows what makes for bad nostalgia-tinged movies, and so it viciously lampoons the approaches that sunk the new “Space Jam,” “Alvin and the Chipmunks” and other woefully unfunny kid-focused reboots.
Yes, there are probably a few “Chip ‘n Dale” fans that would want a straight reboot of that series, and, at least, the new movie makes a point to celebrate its existence even while sidestepping nearly all of its identifiable elements. It does so because a straight rehash of this particular property can provide only fleeting amusement. Mining those elements for fresh and funny commentary on the state of modern IP-driven filmmaking, however, makes for a subversive and satisfying experience. Honestly, it’s incredible such a thing exists on the behemoth that is the Disney+ platform.
Though they take two wildly different approaches, a singular lesson can be gleaned from both “Top Gun: Maverick” and “Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers” — nostalgia can be satisfying so long as the people yielding it have a thoughtful perspective on how to use it.
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Tyler Wilson is a member of the International Press Academy and has been writing about movies and pop culture for Inland Northwest publications since 2000, including a regular column in The Press since 2006. He can be reached at twilson@cdapress.com.
