The Rescuers - Plot

Plot

In an abandoned river boat in Devil's Bayou, Penny, a young orphan, drops a message in a bottle containing a plea for help into the river. The bottle is carried out to sea and washes up in New York City, where it is recovered by the Rescue Aid Society, an international mouse organization inside the United Nations. The Hungarian representative, Miss Bianca, volunteers to accept the case and chooses Bernard, a stammering janitor who has triskaidekaphobia, as her co-agent. The two visit Morningside Orphanage, where Penny lived, and meet an old cat named Rufus. He tells them about a woman named Madame Medusa who once tried to lure Penny into her car and may have succeeded in abuducting Penny this time.

The mice travel to Medusa's pawn shop, where they discover that she and her partner, Mr. Snoops, are on a quest to find the world's largest diamond, the Devil's Eye. They also discover that Mr. Snoops is in the Devil's Bayou with Penny, whom they have indeed kidnapped. With the help of an albatross named Orville, and a dragonfly named Evinrude, the mice follow Medusa to the bayou. There, they learn that Penny was captured to enter a hole that leads down into the pirates' cave where the Devil's Eye is located.

Miss Bianca's perfume inadvertently attracts the attention of Medusa's pet alligators, Brutus and Nero. Bernard and Miss Bianca flee and find Penny. The arrival of the two mice raises her morale. Together, the three devise a plan, which is put into action on the following day. Wanting to escape tonight, Bernard orders Evinrude to get Ellie Mae and the other local animals who loathe Medusa, which he accepts. However, in the middle of his quest, Evinrude is thwarted by a flock of hungry bats, delaying him. The following morning, Medusa and Mr Snoops send Penny down into a pirate's cave to find the gem, with Miss Bianca and Bernard hiding in her skirt pocket. The three soon find the Devil's Eye within a pirate skull; as Penny pries the mouth open with a sword, the mice push it out from within, but soon the oceanic tide rises and floods the cave. Miss Bianca, Penny, and Bernard barely manage to retrieve the diamond and escape.

Medusa steals the diamond for herself, attempting to run off with the diamond, leaving Snoops without any shares, and hides it in Penny's teddy bear. When she trips over a cable set as a trap by Bernard and Bianca, Medusa loses the bear to Penny, who runs away with it. After a struggle with Snoops who already turned to her, Medusa retaliates with gunfire, causing the mice to flee until they are met by Brutus and Nero. With help from Ellie Mae and the other animals, Bernard and Miss Bianca trick them into entering a cage-like elevator, trapping them.

Two of the gang set off Mr. Snoops's fireworks, making the boat sink. Meanwhile Penny and the mice commandeer Medusa's "Swampmobile", a motor-boat used by Medusa to travel in the swamp and resembling the front clip Ford Model T body mounted to a small boat, with a single tractor seat for the driver. They get it moving using Luke's homemade moonshine as fuel, while Medusa unsuccessfully pursues them, and is left clinging to the boat's smoke stacks with Brutus and Nero trying to eat her below (because she whipped them while she was chasing Penny) while Snoops is seen rafting away while laughing.

Back in New York, the Rescue Aid Society watch TV to hear that the Devil's Eye is given to the Smithsonian Institution and Penny is adopted by a new father and mother. Bernard and Miss Bianca remain partners in the Rescue Aid Society's Missions. Soon there is another call for help and they depart on Orville, accompanied by Evinrude, to a new rescue mission.