Mickey Mouse Works


Mickey Mouse Works is an American animated television series produced by Walt Disney Television Animation featuring Mickey Mouse and his friends in a series of animated shorts. Roy Disney, working closely with Disney Television's Los Angeles-based senior vice president, Barry Blumberg, and executive producers Roberts Gannaway and Tony Craig, created an opening sequence in which music would be played by the characters, similar to the early Mickey Mouse cartoons. Production began in January 1998, and Mickey Mouse Works, a weekly half-hour series scheduled to premiere in January 1999, was produced by an animation team assigned exclusively to create new adventures for Disney's most famous characters.
The first Disney television animated series to be produced in widescreen high definition, it is formatted as a variety show, with skits starring Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck, Daisy Duck, Goofy, Pluto and Ludwig Von Drake while other characters from the Mickey Mouse universe appear as supporting or minor characters. Musical themes for each character were composed by Stephen James Taylor with a live 12-piece band and extensive use of the fretless guitar to which the music of the series was nominated for an Annie Award in both 1999 and 2001. Most of the shorts from the series were later used in House of Mouse.

Overview

As Mickey Mouse's first revival series, Mickey Mouse Works was produced to recreate the golden age of Disney's animated shorts featuring Disney's most popular characters. By using basic colors and the original sound effects, effort was put forth to capture the look and feel of "classic" Disney.
Each half-hour episode consisted of various short cartoons that fell into three general types: 90-second gag cartoons, 7-and-a-half-minute character cartoons, and 12-minute "Mouse Tales" based on famous stories. The character-based segments also included "Silly Symphonies", carrying on the tradition of that series of theatrical shorts.
The gag shorts, which lasted 90 seconds each, were shown with the following umbrella titles:
  • Mickey to the Rescue: Mickey tries to rescue Minnie from Pete's trap-laden hideout.
  • Maestro Minnie: Minnie conducts an orchestra of anthropomorphic rebellious musical instruments.
  • Donald's Dynamite: Donald's activity is interrupted by the appearance of a well-placed bomb.
  • Goofy's Extreme Sports: Goofy shows off extreme sports in the words of his off-screen narrator.
  • Pluto Gets the Paper: Pluto goes through a bit of problems trying to fetch the newspaper for Mickey.
  • Von Drake's House of Genius: Ludwig Von Drake shows off an invention of his which goes haywire.
With no established schedule or routine, Mickey Mouse Works was designed to look like one spontaneous flow. Adding to that feeling were the show's opening credits which ended differently each week, the only constant being an elaborate interruption from a spotlight-stealing Donald Duck.
While most skits involved individual characters, some have Mickey, Donald and Goofy running a special service group. Most Goofy skits have him doing a "how-to" segment always accompanied by a narrator. Most Donald segments were about him trying to accomplish a certain task which never works out right, frustrating him. Some stories were set to a specific theme for a specific character, but with differing scenarios – for example, one set focused on Mickey seeking to rescue Minnie from Pete, against a different obstacle in each short, while another set focused on Pluto's efforts to get Mickey his paper while facing a different problem.

Characters

Main

  • Mickey Mouse is the main protagonist of the series. He gets himself entangled in many farcical situations due to his guilelessness, but is overall a calm character.
  • Minnie Mouse is Mickey's girlfriend; like how Donald gets frustrated, Minnie is often peeved by Mickey's impulsiveness and Daisy's loudmouth, though she is sweet and mature for her age.
  • Donald Duck is one of Mickey's friends; he is well-known for his bad temper, impatience, and self-righteousness.
  • Daisy Duck is Donald's girlfriend; though they both have hot tempers, Daisy is shown to be more aloof, selfish and dull-witted in this show.
  • Goofy is one of Mickey's friends; he isn't the smartest character on the show, and his idiocy usually irritates his friends.
  • Pluto is Mickey's loyal dog who is often combative towards some animals.
  • Ludwig Von Drake is a scientist duck who is shown to be highly intelligent, but insane. He is Donald's uncle and Huey, Dewey, and Louie's great-uncle.

    Supporting

  • Pete is Mickey's rival. He is intimidating and aggressive, but extremely gullible.
  • Huey, Dewey, and Louie, Donald's naughty nephews.
  • Chip 'n' Dale, two chipmunks, common rivals of Donald and Pluto.
  • Narrator, serves as a guide narrating the cartoons starring Goofy.
  • Mortimer Mouse is Mickey's sleazy rival who is charming, but in a condescending and harmful manner; he often flirts with Minnie Mouse and/or Daisy, and his most famous catchphrase is "I CHACHA!".
  • Clarabelle Cow, a friend of Mickey's gang. She is Horace's girlfriend.
  • Chief O'Hara, police chief in the town.
  • Louie the Mountain Lion, a mountain lion who wants to eat Goofy.
  • Butch the Bulldog, a big bulldog, rival of Pluto.
  • Dinah the Dachshund, Pluto's love interest.
  • Phantom Blot is the mysterious shadow in the distance, who wants to steal all the colors for himself and leave the real world stuck in black and white.
  • Salty the Seal, a playful seal.
  • Figaro, Minnie's pet cat.
  • Humphrey the Bear, a bear of the forest.
  • J. Audubon Woodlore, a ranger in charge of Humphrey.
  • Aracuan Bird
  • Horace Horsecollar
  • Clara Cluck
  • Scrooge McDuck, is Donald's uncle and Huey, Dewey, and Louie's great-uncle.
  • José Carioca, an old friend of Donald.
  • Baby Shelby , a small turtle who always torments Donald.
  • Mrs. Turtle , Shelby's mother.
  • Mr. Jollyland

    Legacy

When the show was replaced by House of Mouse in January 2001, most of the Mouse Works segments were repeated there but the original Mickey Mouse Works format has never been seen again.
Four of the gag cartoons were released theatrically with various Disney films during 1998 and 1999 and released to theaters as commercials for the show. The cartoons included:

Series overview

Season 1 (1999)

Season 2 (1999–00)

Home media

While the series has not seen an official VHS or DVD release, several shorts have been featured on other releases.
In April 2005, Disney released a DVD in European, Latin American and Asian territories entitled Mickey's Laugh Factory, which contained nine selected shorts taken from this series as well as those from House of Mouse with jokes told by various children used as framing material. While some shorts have the Mickey Mouse Works title card background, others have the House of Mouse version. Cartoons include Hickory Dickory Mickey, Mickey Tries to Cook, Organ Donors, Mickey's Airplane Kit, Street Cleaner, Mickey's New Car, Bubble Gum, Mickey's Big Break and Mickey's Mix-Up.
The DVD Disney's Learning Adventures: Mickey's Seeing the World includes the cartoons Around the World in Eighty Days and Mickey's Mechanical House slightly abridged to fit in with the documentary nature of the DVD.
On November 11, 2008, the eighth wave of Walt Disney Treasures was released. One of the sets released in this wave, The Chronological Donald, Volume Four, features a handful of Donald-centric shorts from both Mickey Mouse Works and House of Mouse as bonuses, including Bird Brained Donald, Donald and the Big Nut, Donald's Charmed Date, Donald's Dinner Date, Donald's Failed Fourth, Donald's Rocket Ruckus, Donald's Shell Shots, Donald's Valentine Dollar, Music Store Donald and Survival of the Woodchucks.