Chip and Dale (also spelled Chip 'n' Dale) are a cartoon duo of anthropomorphic chipmunks created in 1943 by The Walt Disney Company.
Concept
The characters were first drawn by Bill Justice and introduced in the 1943 Pluto short Private Pluto, directed by Clyde Geronimi. In the short, they fight with Pluto about whether they can store their nuts in a military base cannon. Three years later, director Jack Hannah decided to use them as co-stars in Donald Duck shorts. Hannah said:
Of the two, Chip is portrayed as being safe, focused, and having a mind for logical scheming. Dale, by contrast, is more laid-back, dim-witted, and impulsive, and has a very strong sense of humor. Originally the two had a very similar appearance, but as a way to tell them apart, some differences were introduced: Chip has a small black nose and two centered protruding teeth, whereas Dale has a large dark red nose and a prominent gap between his buckteeth. Chip is also depicted as having smooth hair on top of his head while Dale's tends to be ruffled.
In most cartoons, they are paired with Mickey Mouse, or most often, Pluto and Donald Duck, whom they usually battle when they see an activity they do out of curiosity or when they try to get food without getting caught by them. They were given their own series in the 1950s, but only three cartoons resulted under their name: Chicken in the Rough (1951), Two Chips and a Miss (1952) and The Lone Chipmunks (1954). The duo was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film three times in four years: in 1946 for Squatter's Rights (against Mickey and Pluto), in 1947 for Chip an' Dale and in 1949 for Toy Tinkers (both against Donald Duck). In the 1980s, they became the lead characters of a half-hour television series, Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers, in which they have adventures as leaders of a detective agency.
Their names may be a pun on the name of the 18th-century cabinet maker and furniture designer Thomas Chippendale, as suggested by Bill "Tex" Henson, a story artist at the studio.
List of Chip 'n' Dale shorts
Chip and Dale appear in the following 23 animated short films.
Home media
The Adventures of Chip 'n' Dale – Includes Two Chips and a Miss, Chicken in the Rough, Chips Ahoy, Donald Applecore, Up a Tree, and The Lone Chipmunks plus various song scenes in between cartoon shorts sung by Chip 'n' Dale Classic Cartoon Favorites, Vol. 4: Starring Chip 'n' Dale (DVD)– Includes Chicken in the Rough, Chip an' Dale, Out of Scale, Two Chips and a Miss, Food for Feudin''', Working for Peanuts, Out on a Limb, Three for Breakfast and Dragon Around Nuts About Chip 'n' Dale – Includes Food for Feudin', Trailer Horn and Two Chips and a Miss A Tale of Two Chipmunks – Includes Chicken in the Rough, Chips Ahoy and The Lone Chipmunks (Also released on Laserdisc as a double feature along with "The Unsinkable Donald Duck") Disney Cartoon Classics Vol. 9: Starring Chip 'n' Dale – Includes Working for Peanuts, Donald Applecore and Dragon Around plus short scenes in between the cartoon shorts narrated by Jiminy Cricket, and is the only animation where Donald addresses the chipmunks by their names.
Comics series
Chip 'n' Dale also had their own comic book title, first from Dell Comics with Four Color Comics #517, 581, and 636, then their own title for issues #4–30 (1955–62), which was then continued by Gold Key Comics with #1–64 (1967–80), and later under its brand Whitman with #65–83 (1980–84).
TV series
Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers
In 1989, Chip and Dale became the title characters in a new animated television series, Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers, in which they formed a detective agency with new characters created for the show: female mouse inventor Gadget Hackwrench, muscular adventuring Australian mouse Monterey Jack and Zipper the fly. While in the original shorts, the duo is frequent troublemakers who are concerned only with themselves. In Rescue Rangers, they are crime fighters who help them less fortunate.
In this series, the personality differences between the two are more pronounced, with Chip as the serious, heroic leader and Dale as the quick-witted, hard partying reluctant hero. Additionally, they wear clothes in this series which reflect their personalities; Chip wears a leather jacket and fedora (much like Indiana Jones), while Dale wears a Hawaiian shirt (much like Magnum, P.I.).