Chip ’n Dale: Rescue Rangers almost had a very different villain

polygon.com:

Disney’s new Chip ’n Dale movie is like a modern-day Who Framed Roger Rabbit, full of cameos and Easter eggs from the scene-stealing “Ugly Sonic” to a small homage to one of the original Rescue Rangers creators. But while cartoon chipmunks Chip and Dale encounter characters from across media properties, the main villain is a familiar face from the Disney pantheon.

The chipmunks meet that villain after learning that their old castmate, Monterey Jack, owed him money due to Jack’s expensive addiction to illegal super-stinky cheese. So they trek to an unsettling part of Hollywood — the Uncanny Valley — where they encounter a series of the animated characters who just don’t look right (such as the Jellicle cats, as seen in 2019’s cinematic masterpiece Cats, scrounging through the garbage). Among the other animated misfits are the villain’s CG animated henchmen, a Viking named Bob (Seth Rogen) and a polar bear named Jimmy (Da’Vone McDonald). While the villain is a specific, recognizable Disney character, the source and identities of those henchmen were left ambiguous on purpose.

“Is it the Coca-Cola bear? I don’t know, that’s up for you to decide,” says director Akiva Schaffer. “But it’s clearly from a world of that [Uncanny Valley]. And then you have the Beowulf mo-cap, kind of Polar Express style. So it’s clearly people that maybe can’t get jobs in movies anymore, because [their animation styles] become outdated or whatever.”

[Ed. note: Spoilers ahead for the villain’s identity in Chip ’n Dale: Rescue Rangers.]

The Big Bad character Bob and Jimmy work for has his own connection to that idea of being outdated. Initially called “Sweet Pete” by people who have encountered him, their employer turns out to be a middle-aged