The Rescuers Down Under had the familiar characters from the first Rescuers movie, the mice Bernard (Bob Newhart) and Bianca (Eva Gabor). New characters included the albatross Wilbur (John Candy), brother of the albatross played by the late Jim Jordan in the original; Jake the kangaroo mouse (Tristan Rogers); and the movie's villain, an animal smuggler (George C. Scott).
The Rescuers Down Under is notable for its firsts for Disney: it was the first Disney animated movie to use computers to assist production, and it was the first sequel made by Disney to one of its animated films.