January 31, 2014, it was announced that The Walt Disney Company was developing a live-action movie based on the Disney Afternoon animated series Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers with CGI special effects, similar to 20th Century Fox' Alvin & the Chipmunks film series. David Hoberman and Todd Lieberman signed on as its producers, while Robert Rugan was hired to write and direct the film. It would have followed an origin story for the Rescue Rangers. In May 2019, Akiva Schaffer, known for the 2007 cult classic Hot Rod, became the film's new director, replacing Rugan, while Dan Gregor and Doug Mand became its new writers and claimed that the film would follow a "meta, something self-referential and cool" take on the characters. David Hoberman and Todd Lieberman returned as its producers, and the project became a co-production between Walt Disney Pictures and Mandeville Films. Gregor and Mand had started the new script as a spiritual successor to Who Framed Roger Rabbit, taking into account the changes in animation techniques in the four decades since Roger Rabbit had been made. They wanted to keep what they felt made Roger Rabbit successful, being that the film "is not talking down to the animated characters [and] playing it real and to the top of your intelligence." Schaffer said they were further influenced by buddy cop films of the 1990s such as the Lethal Weapon series, while including more comedic elements. Schaffer agreed to direct the film after he was sent Gregor and Mand's script; he agreed due to the film's self-referential humor, his love for both the original series and Roger Rabbit, and an interest in working on animated films. The film features cameos from several non-Disney animated properties due to Schaffer wanting the film to be "a love letter celebration of animation", similar to Roger Rabbit, and felt including only Disney characters would instead make the film "just a celebration of Disney animation". Schaffer did not want to go overboard on such cameos, going by the rule "Don’t put in a cameo unless it’s forwarding the story or putting a button on a really good laugh". Schaffer used the example of the donut cops from Wreck-It Ralph, who not only served as recognizable characters for younger audiences, but also played on the popular concept of police officers loving to eat donuts as a joke for those that had not seen the film.