The Rescuers is an old book that's been overshadowed a little by the Disney adaptation of it. The Disney adaptation captured my imagination as a kid, both through its excellent soundtrack and its "haunted bayou" imagery. It suggested to me that buried treasure and skull-shaped caverns cound be anywhere, and that adventure could be found just by waiting for a message in a bottle to wash up on shore. The book is nothing like the movie, but it's good, and it's part of a larger series so there's still more for me to discover.
No spoilers here aside from what you'd read on the back of the book. The main character of the book series (bearing in mind that as of this writing I've only read this one bssk) is Ms. Bianca, who is the pet mouse of a diplomat's little boy. Ms. Bianca is, by association, an aristocrat among mice, but she's involved in the Rescue Aid Society. She lives a life of luxury though, so when she herself is called upon to go rescue a wrongfully imprsoned man in a dark tower, it's her first foray out of a support role and into a real adventure. Luckily, a mouse named Bernard volunteers to accompany her.
One thing you notice quickly when reading is that the mice in this book are, well, mice. It can be hard to remember, in a post-Disney world, that animals in fantasy fiction at one time were not anthropomorphised. These mice, like the mice of Secret of Nimm and the animals of Narnia or in Beorn's house in the Lord of the Rings, are the animals they're meant to represent. They don't stand up and walk around on 2 feet, they don't look like deformed human-mouse hybrids, and they don't have a human diet. It's strangely refreshing to read fiction that imagined a fantasy world for real animals, rather than create a fantasy animal.
Ms. Bianca, and the world around her for that matter, is definitely a product of her time in this book, but not atrociously. I found the book quaint, and Ms. Bianca impossibly charming. The book managed to win me over in that uncommon (for me) way that allows both the book and the movie to co-exist, as their own unique works of fiction. I don't think I'll ever truly understand that method of filmmaking that just buys the title and barest premise, and then makes a completely separate work of fiction, but it's still common today so I guess it must make sense to somebody.
Nostalgia is strong enough for me to appreiciate the movie as its own setting and story, and now I'm happy to have discovered the charm of the source material. Whether you're a fan of the movie or not, the book is worth checking out if you do enjoy old urban fantasy. Ms. Bianca's world isn't magical, but it is whimsical in the sense that it's impossible, but it's also a little dark, as it deals with people in need. The world is presented as a dangerous place that an individual, human or mouse, must help to improve. It's a good, quick read, and I look forward to reading more of Ms. Bianca's adventures in the other books.