Chip and Dale

Chip and Dale are a pair of chipmunks who are very popular Disney characters. Although the duo have similar looks and rarely appear separately, they each have distinct personalities and a few distinguishing physical features.

Chip can be identified by his small black "chocolate chip" nose and a single front tooth, whereas Dale has a larger nose which is alternately brown, black or red and two adjacent front teeth. Chip is also usually the more logical and cunning of the two, with Dale being the more dimwitted one who can be smart at times.

While they most frequently appeared in theatrically-released cartoons under the Donald Duck and Pluto series, they were also featured in three shorts under their own banner, "Chip and Dale"-- these were Chicken in the Rough, Two Chips and a Miss and The Lone Chipmunks.

The duo also starred in their own television series, Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers, where Chip is the protagonist and Dale is the deuteragonist.

Background
Chip and Dale first appeared in a 1943 Pluto cartoon titled Private Pluto. In this appearance, they look a lot more like realistic chipmunks and did not have names. The two then-nameless twin chipmunks were never intended to be used again after that short, but when Walt Disney needed new characters to challenge Donald Duck, Walt decided to revive these two chipmunks, leading them to acquire their now-familiar names and personalities. Ever since, they have appeared primarily in Donald Duck and Pluto cartoons.

Chip and Dale became so popular that they were able to star in their own series of cartoons, joining Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Goofy and Pluto. Only three shorts were created in that series. The first was Chicken in the Rough, where Dale becomes trapped in a chicken coop. The next and most famous one was Two Chips and a Miss, where they go out to a night club and battle for the attention of female chipmunk Clarice. The last was The Lone Chipmunks, where Chip 'n' Dale foil the outlaw Pete.

Their names are a pun on the name "Chippendale" (a reference to furniture-maker Thomas Chippendale). This was suggested by Bill "Tex" Henson, a screenwriter at the studio.

Voices
The classic voices of Chip and Dale were mostly provided by Helen Silbert, Dessie Flynn/Dessie Miller and James MacDonald. The earliest voices of the chipmunks were provided by female office staff, without credit.

In Private Pluto, the chipmunks' speech was created by speeding up sound clips of normal speech. In a number of the shorts that followed, many of these same sound clips were re-used again and again, though later shorts used new dialogue specifically recorded for them.

At one point in Winter Storage, Chip and Dale get into an argument while caught in a trap. When the scene switches to an outside view of the box (with Donald Duck sitting on the box), the dialogue being heard is actually a sped-up segment of the voice-over narration from the Goofy short A Knight for a Day.

Since 1988, Chip has been voiced by Tress MacNeille and Dale has been voiced by Corey Burton. However, in Mickey Mouse Works, House of Mouse, the first season of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and the Have a Laugh! versions of the classic shorts, Tress voiced both chipmunks.

Personalities
Chip has darker fur with a small black nose. Chip is the brains of the duo and thus is shown to be clever, fearless and a little bossy. Unlike his best friend, he's a fast thinker and far more active. When dealing with Donald, Chip shows to be much more of a threat than Dale, both mentally and physically. In Rescue Rangers, Chip constantly thinks about being on duty to the point where he is thought to not know how to be fun; because of such, Dale's blundering causes him nothing but headaches.

Dale is much lighter than his partner. He sports two buck teeth as a symbol of stupidity and a seemingly large red nose. He is lazy, dim-witted and clumsy. In earlier appearances, he was completely foolish to the point where he can truly be called an idiot. In later years, that aspect of his personality was toned down to just being carefree and fun-loving. In Rescue Rangers, Dale wears a Hawaiian shirt, possibly to show how relaxed his personality is; he gets along easier with Monterey Jack and Zipper than Chip.

While the two are nearly inseparable and count each other as their closest friends, the one thing that can tear them apart is a romantic interest. They have been known to have feelings for the same girl most of the time and battle each other for the affections of the girl in question. In Rescue Rangers, both are in love with Gadget, but can't seem to be open about their feelings.

Classic shorts
Chip and Dale began their careers in Private Pluto. In that cartoon, Pluto is apart of the army and runs into trouble when it appears that two nameless chipmunks are hanging around the site in a pillbox. In this appearance, the two were completely indistinguishable in terms of both appearance and personalities. Afterwards, the two would later appear in several of Pluto's cartoons, as well as those including Mickey Mouse.

They did not get their names until the short Chip an' Dale. In that short, they meet their new nemesis Donald Duck, whom they would make countless appearances with, even beyond the animated short films. The chipmunks became far more famous for antagonizing Donald and are possibly best known for appearing in his shorts, having gained their trademark appearances and personas when dealing with the hot-tempered duck.

Quite often in these shorts, their tails flicker and sometimes they are both seen running on all fours, much like actual chipmunks. An interesting note is that, in earlier shorts, they had the appearance of more realistic chipmunks (much like the woodland creatures in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs), only to gain their iconic, far more cartoony designs once their popularity and screen-time grew.

Walt Disney anthology series
In a 1959 episode of the anthology series entitled "The Adventures of Chip 'n' Dale", Walt Disney was unable to host the show personally. Instead, he left a message on his tape recorder informing viewers of his arrangements to have Chip and Dale host in his place. The chipmunks use the time to go through an old book which holds memories of their fondest exploits.

Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers
After the success of DuckTales, Chip and Dale starred in their own series, Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers. They were friends of a famous retiring police dog, whose owner was framed by a crime boss for stealing a ruby. Through the adventure to retrieve the ruby and prove the cop's innocence, they met and recruited Gadget Hackwrench, Monterey Jack, and Zipper, forming the Rescue Rangers. They also get new enemies, most notably Fat Cat and Professor Norton Nimnul.

Chip serves as the unspoken leader of the group, while Dale tends to provide most of the comic relief, though Dale does end up becoming the hero at times. Both chipmunks possess a crush on Gadget, becoming rivals for her affections. A running gag in the show has Chip being constantly interrupted when he attempts to tell Gadget his feelings for her. The two have even been love interests themselves. In "Adventures in Squirrelsitting", a squirrel named Tammy falls in love with Chip, and in "Good Times, Bat Times", a bat named Foxglove falls in love with Dale. Both of them apparently don't return these affections.

A live-action/CGI feature film based on the series is currently in development.

Mickey Mouse Works
Chip and Dale are recurring characters in Mickey Mouse Works, where they were recast as enemies of Donald Duck once again.

One of the duo's most notable appearances in the series is in the short "Mickey's Mixed Nuts", where the chipmunks battle Mickey Mouse (someone that they didn't usually pester in past productions) for the last bag of nuts at a super market.

Mickey's Once Upon a Christmas
Chip and Dale appear in the segment Donald Duck: Stuck on Christmas. The two are briefly seen several times throughout the story. At the beginning, they are seen opening their presents. They appear again when they are hit with a snowball by Huey Duck, who then gets hit back by Chip. Their next appearance occurs near the end when an object is thrown into their home and it tuns out to be a bag of nuts wrapped as presents from Huey, Dewey, and Louie. At the end, they are last seen throwing away their Christmas decorations and cleaning up.

House of Mouse
Chip and Dale have recurring roles in House of Mouse, primarily as guests at the club.

Both chipmunks are seen shaking hands with Donald Duck in the show's intro.

The episode "Chip 'n' Dale" is centered around the chipmunks as they spend their evening stealing bags of nuts from the guests while evading Donald. At the end of the episode, an advertisement is shown in which they seem to have their own storage organization where they store "everything you don't need".

In "Ladies' Night", Minnie hires them to perform an act as the "Chip and Dale Dancers".

In "Ask Von Drake", the chipmunks can be briefly seen during Ludwig Von Drake's headcount of all the Disney character guests.

The duo also appear in "House of Turkey", where Donald complains about how he can't understand what they're saying, only for Daisy to retaliate by saying that she can't understand him either.

They also appear briefly in Mickey's Magical Christmas: Snowed in at the House of Mouse. Right after Pluto's Christmas Tree is shown, Chip and Dale pop out of a small artificial tree and catch Pluto's attention. Pluto starts barking at them, but in a reprise of the closing gag from the preceding short, they slap a "Do not open till Christmas" sticker over his mouth.

Mickey Mouse Clubhouse
Chip and Dale are recurring characters in this computer animated series. They are some of Mickey's friends and still hold a rivalry with Donald.

Most of the chipmunks' roles in the series are minor with the exception of the episode "Goofy's Coconutty Monkey". In that episode, they are the culprits behind the mysterious disappearance of the jungle's coconuts. In the end, they returned their stash, thinking they were giant nuts. They play another significant role in the episode "Goofy's Thinking Cap" where Mickey, Donald and Goofy need twelve nuts for Clarabelle's scavenger hunt, to which the chipmunks gladly oblige.

They play the roles of Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum in Mickey's Adventures in Wonderland.

In some episodes where Mickey and the gang take a trip to outer space, their alien counterparts usually appear, acting as sidekicks to Pete's alien counterpart.

Mickey Mouse
Chip and Dale appear in the episode "Space Walkies".

Cameos
In Mickey's Christmas Carol, Chip and Dale make a cameo appearance dancing at Fezziwig's Christmas party in Scrooge's past.

Dale makes a brief cameo appearance in the Quack Pack episode "Hit the Road, Backwater Jack" when a man is trying to empty things in his pockets.

Video Games
Together, Chip and Dale have made many appearances in the world of video games. During the time of Rescue Rangers, they starred in three video games spun off from the show. Chip's likeness was also featured in Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two. They can also be seen, dressed in their Rescue Rangers outfits, in the audience shots at the beginning and end of the Castle of Illusion remake. They also appeared in the Toontown Online game.

Kingdom Hearts series
Chip and Dale are recurring characters in the Kingdom Hearts video game series.

In Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep, Chip and Dale are found in Disney Town, managing the Rumble Race tracks. They complain to Terra that Pete is playing unfairly so Terra takes part in the race and ends up beating Pete.

In Kingdom Hearts, they send Donald, Goofy and Pluto to Traverse Town in the Gummi Ship as they serve as the royal engineers.

In Kingdom Hearts II, the duo are given a considerably larger role as they accompany Sora, Donald and Goofy around to different worlds using two miniature Gummi Ships that fly alongside the main vessel. In Disney Castle, they warn the visitors of a Heartless invasion and later on, they were the ones to have first reported The World That Never Was.

In Kingdom Hearts coded, the two are still royal engineers and were the ones to build the datascape for Jiminy's Journal.

Kinect Disneyland Adventures
Chip and Dale appear as meet-and-greet characters in front of their treehouse in Mickey's Toontown and also dance alongside Mickey's float in the Mickey's Soundsational Parade mini-game. At one point, the duo asks the player to locate some acorns for them to eat.

Disney Magical World
Chip and Dale own a store where they make furniture for the player to use in the cafe.

Disney Parks
In the Disney parks, Chip and Dale are some of the most common and popular characters.

Chip and Dale can be found for meet-and-greets in a wide variety of locations, including Main Street, USA and Mickey's Toontown. They appear in almost every parade and live show, including Mickey's Soundsational Parade, Fantasmic!, One Man's Dream II: The Magic Lives On!, the Festival of Fantasy Parade and many others.

They have a small statue dedicated to them in the central hub, surrounding the "Partners" statue.

Mickey's Toontown features the Chip 'n' Dale's Treehouse attraction.

In Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom, the two have their own spell card called "Chip and Dale's Bag of Tricks". This card was only available to guests that attended Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party in the fall of 2012.

The Disney Afternoon Live!: Plane Crazy
In this stage show that ran at Disneyland in 1991, Chip and Dale are recruited along with Baloo and Launchpad McQuack to recover the X-22 spy jet when it is stolen by Don Karnage and Fat Cat. At one point, Chip has a brief sword fight with Don Karnage, tricking the pirate into believing he's fighting Dale.

Chip 'n' Dale's Cool Service
At Tokyo DisneySea, Chip and Dale are the stars of a water spectacular. They go around the Mediterranean Harbor and get everything soaking wet with water squirters from their boats.

Star Tours: The Adventures Continue
Chip and Dale make a cameo appearance among the baggage claim scans at the ride Star Tours: The Adventures Continue, when they appear on-screen, the robot G2-9T remarks that the two are "clones", although their noses don't make them perfect clones.