This original hand-painted production cel from Walt Disney's "The Rescuers" captures Orville the albatross mid-flight through a driving snowstorm above the JFK airport rooftop, with Bernard and Miss Bianca huddled together in his makeshift sardine-can seat. Orville is rendered in classic form, complete with his red stocking cap, pink woolen scarf, and dark green aviator boots, his beak open wide as he strains against the wind that is visibly pushing him backward. The rich indigo and violet night sky, paired with the snow-covered rooftop and wooden shed rendered in the background, beautifully conveys the wintry chaos of this beloved sequence, which closes the film on the whimsical, bittersweet note of Shelby Flint's song "Tomorrow Is Another Day."
"The Rescuers" was produced by Walt Disney Productions and released on June 22, 1977 by Buena Vista Distribution. Based on a series of books by Margery Sharp, most notably "The Rescuers and Miss Bianca," the film was the 23rd entry in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series and centers on the Rescue Aid Society, an international mouse organization headquartered in New York that operates in the shadow of the United Nations, dedicated to helping abduction victims around the world. Two of its agents, jittery janitor Bernard (voiced by Bob Newhart) and his elegant co-agent Miss Bianca (voiced by Eva Gabor), set out to rescue Penny, an orphan girl held captive in Devil's Bayou by treasure huntress Madame Medusa. Bernard, the Society's unlikely hero, works as its janitor in New York City, the mouse-world stand-in for the United Nations; when a message in a bottle arrives, he is assigned to remove it and accidentally tumbles in himself, discovering Penny's plea for help. Miss Bianca, the Society's Hungarian representative, immediately claims the assignment, and after Bernard points out the danger of going it alone, she invites him to join her on the mission. Bernard was animated by Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston, while Miss Bianca was designed by Ken Anderson and animated by Mark Henn.
Orville the albatross was voiced by radio legend Jim Jordan, best known as Fibber McGee of "Fibber McGee and Molly," who came out of retirement at age 80 for the role; it would prove to be his final public performance, as he had not worked since the 1961 death of his wife and longtime comedic partner, Marian. Orville's blustery, accident-prone character grew out of an idea from veteran animator Ollie Johnston, who recalled watching a Disney True-Life Adventures nature documentary featuring albatrosses and their famously clumsy takeoffs and landings, and suggested the ungainly bird as the perfect means of transportation for Bernard and Bianca after an earlier idea involving a catapulted pigeon was scrapped. Orville's animation came together during a pivotal transitional moment for the studio, as "The Rescuers" marked the first Disney feature on which Don Bluth worked as a directing animator, alongside the studio's celebrated veterans Milt Kahl, Frank Thomas, and Ollie Johnston, in what would be the last film these members of Disney's "Nine Old Men" worked on together.
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