The movie is a dramatization of Sterling North's 1963 "memoir of a better era." Born near Edgerton, Wisconsin, North was a former literary editor for newspapers in Chicago and New York City. The movie relates a year in the life of young Sterling North and his "ringtailed wonder" pet raccoon, Rascal. Although set in Wisconsin, circa 1918, the movie was filmed in California. The film features the song "Summer Sweet" by Bobby Russell.
In the award-winning book of the same name, all three of Sterling North's real-life siblings are featured in the story: his brother Herschel and his sisters Theodora and the future poet and editor Jessica Nelson North. Theo is the only sibling featured in the film version.
Critical reception
Rascal was the first film given a review in a publication by film criticGene Siskel, appearing in the Chicago Tribune one month before he became the paper's official film critic in 1969. His review of the film was not favorable. Howard Thompson of The New York Times described the film as "genteel, sweet-natured and appealingly frail," but thought the story "gets a little patly philosophical in trying to thrust practical responsibilities on the young hero, Bill Mumy, and his carefree, widowed father, Steve Forrest." Variety noted, "Diverting adaptation of Sterling North book about a boy and his pet raccoon. 'Rascal' will pull younger generation as well as family-groups in to see a clean, well-presented, unashamedly sentimental Disney film." Charles Champlin of the Los Angeles Times wrote that "for the young audience for which it is intended, 'Rascal' is practically perfect hot weather fare, offering a spacious escape to a world of tree-shaded streets and spacious lawns, verandas, woods and ponds, trotting horses and Stanley Steamers." The Monthly Film Bulletin stated, "Routine Disney boy-befriends-animal feature, agreeable enough on its own terms but as mawkishly sentimental as usual and with the additional embarrassment of a commentary by Walter Pidgeon which keeps insisting what a marvellous boyhood summer it all was."
