It is also easy to tell them apart by their behavior–Dale is portrayed as a total dumbass and Chip is always mad at him for being stupid (at least in the old cartoons–I’m not too familiar with Rescue Rangers).
And Goodman as Baloo? I don’t know if I like that idea. Not that I like the idea of Disney cartoon sequels in the first place.
Just as a further comment, in one of their cartoons Chip and Dale’s tree is cut down, hauled to a factory and made into furniture. They eventually get the furniture back into the forest and stack it up where their tree was.
Now, was the tree made into Chippendale style furniture? That may be the connection.
So who came first, Chip an’ Dale from Disney or the Goofy Gophers (Mac ‘n’ Tosh) from Warner Brothers?
We just came back from Disney World, and I think there was some talk about “Chip ‘n’ Dale Dancers”, which would be Disney riffing on the name similarity. Also a rare tie-in to adult stuff – but if you’ve been to PLeasure Island (with things like Jessica Rabbit’s Lingerie Shop), you know they’ve dabbled in that a bit.
Do they still run around saying “indubitably?”
Oh, and Monterey Jack’s a mouse, by the way, not a chipmunk.
Those are the Warner Brothers chipmunks (I seem to recall they’ve also been classed as gophers). Chip ‘n’ Dale talk in squeaky, sped-up voices while the WB rodents talk like Quentin Crisp.
Possibly… but how else would you interpretively dance cabinetmaking? **
[/QUOTE]
Thy’renot dancing cabinetmaking, they’re dancing furniture refinishing.
You know…
Stripping.
<d&r>
Of course, there’s the lesser-known twin termites, Chip ‘n’ Dale, who terrorize the neighborwood!!! 
But, seriously…
I have a postcard of Chip ‘n’ Dale from Disney Tokyo where they are identifed as Chip and Chop. Why the change in name? Is it just a poor translation? - Jinx
Yeah, Disney picks up in the classic style by attributing these two chipmunks with similar characteristics as the original. But Dale isn’t really a dumbass…you just have to have an appreciation for his carefree nature! - Jinx
How did you come to know the Goofy Gophers on a first name basis? I never knew they had names! Is it mentioned in any cartoon, or just in a book on WB cartoon history like “50 Years and Only One Gray Hare”? - Jinx
There’s more information about the Gophers here, http://members.tripod.com/~Nymh/info.htm
Since the first “real” Goofy Gophers short came out in 1947 (the same year as the first Chip an’ Dale cartoon), I’m wondering which studio was first in coming up with the idea of a rodent duo with a pair of “cute” names. Hence my previous query.
I’ve seen books that listed WB cartoons in order by release date; surely there are similar books for Disney’s cartoons. The best bet would be to compare release dates - if there’s enough of a gap between them, we can be pretty sure who stole from (or parodied) whom.
After some searching, I stumbled across, The Big Cartoon Database at http://www.bcdb.com. According to that source, Goofy Gophers was originally released on January 25, 1947 while Chip an’ Dale was originally released over ten months later, on November 28, 1947.
That makes it look like the Gophers have priority. However, in the “Production Notes” section for Chip an’ Dale it says
So, who knows. Maybe the chipmunks had names prior to '47 which were known only among the animation community in Hollywood (and copied by Warner Brothers).
But the Goofy Gophers had antecedents as well. There was a Leon Schlesinger short, Gopher Goofy, released in 1942 that featured “Virgil” and “Small Gopher” from Brooklyn(!). According to the BCDB,
So at this point, I’ve got no idea who “stole from (or parodied) whom.”
The chipmunks now known as Chip and Dale first appeared in 1943’s Private Pluto. But that still puts them one year behind the Warner gophers as they appeared in Gopher Goofy.
This wasn’t Chip ‘n’ Dale, this was the Goofy Gophers, in Lumber Jerks