Mickey Mouse (film series)
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Mickey Mouse (originally named Mickey Mouse Sound Cartoons) is an American theatrical shorts series created by the late-animator and founder of The Walt Disney Company, Walter Elias "Walt" Disney (who also voiced the titular character of the series until 1947), the series itself ran from November 18th, 1928 to April 18th, 1953, upon it's debut, the series was critically acclaimed and, until 1942, it was the most popular short subject series in cinemas until it was overtaken by Looney Tunes.
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.jpg) For any animated show that has ever been made, thank the mouse.
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The series spawned four spin-offs named Silly Symphonies, Donald Duck, Goofy, and Pluto. Silly Symphonies ran from August 22, 1929 to April 7, 1939, Donald Duck ran from June 9, 1934 to June 21, 1961, Goofy ran from March 17, 1939 to December 20, 1961, and Pluto ran from July 30, 1932 to September 21, 1951.
Plot
The series focuses on the adventures of Mickey Mouse, a mischevious anthropomorphic mouse who, depending on the short, usually spends time with his girlfriend Minnie, his pet dog Pluto, and his two best friends Donald Duck and Goofy, with most of the episodes usually involving wacky scenarios ranging from constructing a boat (with disastrous results) to a band concert.
Why It Can Join The Club That's Made For You And Me
- It's Disney animation at it's finest, with many of the shorts like Steamboat Willie actually being revolutionary for the animation industry in general.
- In fact, it was ironically made because of an incident that happened in 1928, as Walt Disney and Charles Mintz had a contract dispute and Mintz took everything away from Walt and left him almost bankrupt at that point, especially since he had gotten big with Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, which he didn't own by the way. Thus he had to start from stratch and the rest is history.
- Speaking of Oswald, Mickey Mouse serves as his faithful spiritual successor since Oswald's shorts had the same style as Mickey's later ones with more adult humor that the early Mickey shorts also had as well, thus making Mickey Mouse the half-brother of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit since they were from different studios but made by the same man, Walt Disney.
- In fact, both of them were reunited in Epic Mickey, and many fans since have wanted Oswald to appear in new Mickey Mouse material, along with Max Goof and Kat Nipp.
- The titular main character of the show is a very cheerful and normally kind character, whose personality managed to help people overcome the infamous Great Depression of 1929, which happened shortly after the release of the first episode of the series, Steamboat Wilie.
- These shorts have a good balance of fast pacing and meaningful narratives with simplistic premises that are easy to follow and go along with the usual 7 minute runtime of the series, as there is enough action and comedy that are used for the material to work, and the writing in these shorts is so well-executed that it's easy to see why it helped influence many animation legends such as Joseph Barbera, Chuck Jones, Tex Avery and many more alike to expand the medium of animation even further with lots of great slapstick gags and beautiful animation that it defined the Golden Age of Animation during the early 20th century at the time it was running, helping Mickey's status as the King of 2D animation.
- As mentioned in WICJTCTMFYAM#1.1, It helped Walt Disney from going bankrupt after he was fired from Universal Pictures by Charles Mintz from working on Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, which was a series he created for the company and sadly didn't own the rights to, and had his entire staff taken from him and his profits halved as a result, which could've resulted in his studio potentially shutting down. However, both Walt Disney and his fellow animator Ub Iwerks had one trick up their selves, by creating Mickey Mouse and making three shorts: Plane Crazy, Gallopin Gachuo and Steamboat Willie. While the first two bombed at the box office and failed to find a distributor, Steamboat Willie on the other hand was an instant hit and was picked up by Celebrity Pictures for distribution, thus resulted in the short becoming a massive box office success and made Mickey Mouse a household name, and made Walt Disney a celebrity himself and prevented his studio from going under, becoming innovative for implementing sound into cartoons and making the animation medium famous as a result, thus officially starting The Golden Age of Animation as a result.
- In fact, this success was all due to how unique Mickey was from other cartoon characters at the time, since none of them had an established personality and could ever talk with sound, which Mickey had those to make up his entire character, and it helped him to become a relatable role model for children, and Walt knew that everybody didn't want a character too similar to Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, his previous character, thus in later shorts, he became more friendly and kind while still having a bit of mischief in his personality, making Mickey one of the most unique cartoon characters of all time.
- Also worth noting is that Mickey allowed Personality Animation to become more popular and helped cartoons to feel more relatable to the audience, in comparison to other cartoons like Felix the Cat and Koko the Clown, who were more focused on making quick gags for the audience to giggle to, whereas Walt Disney decided to go against that and make the characters unique from each other with emotions and motives, thus allowing cartoons to be more complex and have more of a narrative.
- There are two different versions of Mickey that are equally as likable as each other.
- The Classic Ub Iwerks design, who is very mischevious and can be very naughty at times, but is still kind-hearted and cares about others overall.
- The Modern Fred Moore design, who is very laid-back, and can have his funny side to him and is a very good and kind boyfriend to Minnie and loves his friends Donald and Goofy, but can be expressive and emotional at times, even getting angry when something annoys him or gets on his nerves but is still likable as always.
- Several iconic moments, such as the opening of Steamboat Willie, Mickey saying his first words in the Karnival Kid, the entirety of The Band Concert, Mickey's dance in Thru The Mirror, Minnie and Mortimer's picnic date in Mickey's Rival, Mickey becoming CGI after being thrown out of the film by Pete in Get a Horse, Mickey becoming savage in Runaway Brain and Mickey shredding tears in Mickey's Christmas Carol.
- Speaking of the opening of Steamboat Willie, it has been used for the opening logo of Walt Disney Animation Studios due to how iconic it is, thus proving the legacy of the short is still strong today.
- Many catchy and memorable music tracks, including Minnie's Yoo Hoo, which was actually the series' theme song until the early 1930's.
- Some characters are given unique traits and character motives that make them stand out from others, and gives them a lot of charm, such as Goofy (who is extremely clumsy and silly, but very lovable at the same time), Pete (who is Mickey's rival most of the time but can occasionally be friendly with him in some shorts and TV shows), Mortimer (who is very aggorant and only cares about himself, and often steals Minnie from Mickey just to embarass him as a result, but is actually very charming and a fun character overall).
- It has very fluid hand-drawn animation which looks extremely impressive for the era.
- There are also revolutionary uses of animation that were unique at the time, such as reflective mirror shots, usage of squash and stretch, utilising color, and many more.
- Mickey's iconic popularity status makes him, alongside other characters like Bugs Bunny and Super Mario, be among the most popular fictional characters and all three are prime examples of popular culture icons.
- His earliest versions have even entered the public domain, allowing anybody to use them, which gives fans the opportunity to use him whenever they like, but only the Steamboat Mickey, not the modern version though.
- Various memorable characters like Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Goofy, Minnie Mouse, Pluto, Pete, Chip and Dale, Huey, Dewey and Louie, etc...
- Many of these characters would even gain their own TV shows and comic books, especially with Goofy to the point where he even got his own movie in 1995, A Goofy Movie (which is considered to be an amazing film and a cult classic amongst Disney fans alike).
- It spawned several TV shows such as The Mickey Mouse Club, Mickey Mouse Works and Disney's House of Mouse.
- Speaking of Mouse Works, it is often considered to be one of the best versions of Mickey Mouse to date along with the Paul Rudish version, for how faithful it is to the source material of the Walt Disney shorts.
- The show had a pretty good revival named The Wonderful World of Mickey Mouse (allbeit it once shared it's name with the original series) which ran from 2013 to 2023 and even featured episodes with international themes, where Mickey is shown as an habitant of different countries like Japan, South Korea, Brazil, Monaco, China, Mexico, Russia, France, Spain, Italy and even various US cities, like New York and San Francisco.
- It also helped Mickey Mouse to be seen more of an actual character rather than a corporate mascot that most people saw Mickey as with the release of the infamous Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, which thankfully the revival series helped to redeem, by making Mickey very relatable and funny overall.
- Multiple shorts like the ones where Mickey is accompanied by Donald and Goofy are the proof of subplots done right.
- Unlike other cartoon short series of the era of the era like Looney Tunes and Tom & Jerry, the later Mickey Mouse shorts didn't overuse violence and inappropriate humor, instead using a more lighthearted humor that still comes off as funny in multiple occassions.
- Whenever there are inappropriate jokes though, they're very well-handled and aren't taken seriously like most cartoons at the time, thus proving how unique these cartoons truly were for their time.
- These cartoons introduced numerous staples of most entertainment nowadays, such as Sound, Personality-Driven stories, the four fingered character trope, Love Triangle cliches and many more tropes and cliches that have been used in many pieces of entertainment (either if they are used brilliantly or poorly) today, and media wouldn't be the same without Mickey Mouse, which makes Mickey Mouse an important part of pop culture.
- Phenomenal voice acting, especially with Walt's and Wayne's portrayal as the iconic character, since both voices are amazing and have become associated with Mickey himself. Other performances include Bill Farmer's performance as Goofy and Russi Taylor's performance as Minnie, both of which have become iconic on their own.
- It popularised the iconic rubber-hose animation era of the 30s by being inventive and revolutionary, and inspired numerous animation studios and cartoonists of today and back then, due to the usage of squash and stretch in the later shorts that paved the way for many cartoons in the 40s and 50s, and helped to evolve the animation scene at the time, and helped animation to become a permanent part of pop-culture to this day.
- In fact, the 2013 revival series by Paul Rudish actually utilises the original rubber-hose style of the old cartoons very well and show how faithful they are to the original Walt Disney shorts.
- Some shorts tend to combine elements of dark, horror, action, thriller, comedy and drama together very well and helped to give the Mickey Mouse film series it's own identity, unlike most other cartoons where they're usually more focused on comedy and mostly involve characters doing wacky things, something that Mickey Mouse spices up in a few shorts while still keeping it fresh and exciting for new audiences.
- Steamboat Willie is often considered to be one of the more iconic shorts in the series, due to how it revolutionised the film industry, and helped usher in a new era of cartoons where they were more focused on the character's personality and less on using them for quick gags for a laugh, since it was the first sound cartoon with synchronised sound and had some voice acting implemented into it, a first for 1928 film standards, and the opening is one of the most iconic film openings in cinema history, and since the short has entered the public domain, it means gives opportunities for fans to expand the shorts legacy for a new audience and help introduce them to the original Mickey Mouse, and allow for creative use of the original design of the character, thus making the short a historical landmark within film history, becoming one of the most successful cartoons of all time, and helped Mickey Mouse to become an icon of animation.
- In fact, people have already been making parodies and fan projects based on the short itself, thus proving how Steamboat Willie transends across the generations and how it's still relevant to this day.
Bad Qualities
- In the earlier shorts like Plane Crazy, Mickey can actually be a bit of jerk, especially towards Minnie in the aforementioned short since he actually forced her to kiss him.
- Donald and Pete can also be pretty unlikable at times, especially in the 2013 series in the former's case.
- Most of the later shorts actually don't have Mickey be the protagonist, with the focus being more towards Pluto, Donald and Goofy, albeit there's a reasonable explanation for this (see the Trivia section).
- Some horror-themed cartoons like Haunted House and The Mad Doctor can be scary for younger audiences, in fact, The Mad Doctor, while not a bad cartoon, caused immense controversy due to it's scary tone to the point of some theaters refusing to show it and even getting temporarily banned in the United Kingdom and Nazi Germany. The Mad Doctor even entered the public domain long before the 1928 cartoons due to Disney not renewing the trademark, though Haunted House remained under trademark as it still aired on Walt Disney's anthology show around Halloween.
- The same thing can be said with Pluto's Judgement Day, which had Pluto having a horrific nightmare and being treated as a utter Butt-Monkey for chasing cats, and this time to a much disturbing degree and even becoming one of the darkest cartoons Disney has ever made.
- Some of the episodes like Building A Building slightly copy elements from Oswald the Lucky Rabbit's series (which actually makes a bit of sense because it also was produced by Disney before losing the rights to Universal Studios).
- Some characters like Mammy Two-Shoes (not to be confused with the Tom & Jerry character of the same name), Daisy Duck and Pluto's Kid Brother are pretty bland and forgettable mostly, as they rarely have a lot of personality and come off as jerks at times and can get pretty unlikable sometimes.
- Speaking of Mammy Two-Shoes, she is a rip-off of the character of the same name from Tom & Jerry and only appeared in one short, that's it.
- Thankfully, in Daisy's case, she's gotten more personality in other Mickey Mouse-related media such as Mickey's Once Upon a Christmas, Mickey, Donald, Goofy: The Three Musketeers, Mickey Mouse (2013), The Wonderful World of Mickey Mouse, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Mickey Mouse Mixed-Up Adventures, Mickey Mouse Funhouse Quack Pack and DuckTales (2017) if we ignore her flanderized versions from Mickey Mouse Works, House of Mouse, Mickey's Twice Upon a Christmas and Legend of the Three Caballeros.
- A few of the earlier shorts like Mickey's Mellerdrammer have racial stereotypes against Africans or African-Americans.
- Mickey in Arabia featured stereotypes of Arabians.
- Thankfully, unlike Africans or African-Americans or most cartoons of the time, it didn't feature that many stereotypes of East Asians.
- Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, while a good TV show, wasn't well-received by some Mickey Mouse fans, since it disrespected the source material of the shorts and had a repetitive episode formula of Mickey and his friends solving minor problems in a 22-minute format and the series itself was aimed at toddlers which is not a bad thing, but the show uses Fake Interactivity in a very dumb-downed way (like many preschool shows in that era) and overuses Fourth-Wall Breaking to the point where it gets annoying easily & quickly.
- In fact, the show got extremely popular to the point where it has overshadowed the history of the character and all of the spin-off material featuring the characters and even the film short themselves (both Walt Disney and Paul Rudish) and also Mickey Mouse Works and House of Mouse. And worse, many people have confused Mickey Mouse for being aimed at preschoolers, which clearly isn't the case, and many people nowadays only associate Mickey Mouse with the show in general and tend to overlook most of the other material featuring the character.
- The show is also the reason why Mickey nowadays is usually mocked by many people and always gets depicted in a negative light overall.
- It also ran for way too long, running for 10 years from 2006 to 2016, which makes it the longest running Disney show of all time, and thankfully, Mickey and the Roadster Racers/Mickey Mouse's Mixed Up Adventures and Mickey Mouse Funhouse (to some extent) are improvements over Clubhouse and redeemed the modern version of Mickey Mouse.
Trivia
- The Mickey Mouse franchise was/is not only popular in the United States, it also is popular in Latin America, Japan and Europe (especially in Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, United Kingdom, France and Finland).
- Mickey Mouse himself appeared in the 1934 MGM feature-film Hollywood Party and was set to appear in the 1945 film Anchors Aweigh, but he was replaced by Jerry from Tom & Jerry due to copyright issues
- One of the shorts, Lend a Paw, actually won an Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film in 1942.
- The entirety of the Mickey Mouse brand was supposed to go public domain in 1998, but Disney managed to renew his copyright, however, Steamboat Willie, and therefore Mickey's incarnation in the short, entered the public domain on January 1st, 2024.
- A possible reason for why Mickey doesn't have much screen time on the later shorts is because Mickey was started to be seen as a role model for kids since the mid-1930's, while in the earlier shorts, Mickey was the subject of more crude jokes, meaning that Disney had to limit the amount of side-gags featuring Mickey in order to not teach kids to do that type of stuff, as such, other characters (most notably Donald and Pluto) were handed most of the jokes to keep Mickey's role model.
- Mickey Mouse himself was ranked at the 50th place in the Top 50 Best Animated Movie Characters list by Empire Magazine, the actual reason of his low ranking is because of his only prominent film appearance being in the critically acclaimed Fantasia.
- Due to Disney's infamous current business practices, Mickey has been constantly portrayed negatively in parodic media like South Park and Drawn Together as an often-rude corporate symbol, in fact, many YouTubers like Antoons and SuperMarioLogan have also made evil parodies of Mickey.
- However, Mickey Mouse parodies actually have their origin with a Japanese propaganda series named "Toy Box Series" (which is partially lost), where in the third episode, Mickey (or someone that looks like him) alongside other mice invade an island, until he's defeated by the famous Japanese folklore character Momotaro.
- Multiple copycats of Mickey also exist, most notably Farfour from the infamous Palestinian children's show Tomorrow's Pioneers.
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