Higglytown Heroes: How To Make Your Formulaic Baby Show Good

10:31 PM · Feb 2, 2021 "kip's dad lives in a hot dog cart..... divorce theories lemme have em"
10:31 PM · Feb 2, 2021 "newest higglytown hero: divorce lawyer"

Content Warning: This blogpost will discuss natural disasters, both in general and specifically Hurricane Katrina.

Higglytown Heroes suffers from a lot of the same issues Playhouse Disney shows suffered from through the past and continue to suffer from to this day: It's formulaic down to the letter, and it brings down the show.

4:25 PM · Feb 2, 2021 "im gonna hate higglytown heroes i can feel it"

The difference is Higglytown Heroes actually pulls it off.

Usually when you think of a formulaic show that does it well, your mind goes to Phineas and Ferb, which spent half a season creating a formula only to spend the remaining three and a half seasons ripping it to shreds. That kind of subversion in the formula is great. It's something I really like about Phineas and Ferb, but about 80-90% of the time, Higglytown Heroes plays it straight so I wanna get into the knitty gritty of "Why does this show out, of all of them, work for me?" It can't be the music. The songs outside of the theme and Someone Special range from decent to hilariously bad. It isn't story. The show doesn't have much other than episodic plots. The characters are fun, but most of them are pretty flat. So what is it?

I think it has to do with the mood of the show. Everyone in the show is very excited and happy, and it sort of catches. You can usually see positivity in baby shows pretty often. I'm currently making my way through Alice's Wonderland Bakery for example, and you can see Alice showing a lot of unconditional positive regard for others (Something also present in Higglytown Heroes that I'll get back to). Mickey Mouse Clubhouse was an interactive show, so it made sense that Mickey and the others would show you, the toddler viewer, their best face. Jojo's Circus (which btw, makes a cameo in Higglytown Heroes) also has a lot of goofball positivity, that comes from the setting of a circus town.

 Hate this btw.

The excitement from the Higglytown Heroes kids on the other hand, feels like a genuine childish excitement. It's not motivated by kindness or setting. They're just like this. You see these kids so excited to do all these great things and you don't really care that one of the things they're excited about is wearing seatbelts and getting their parents' permission. Like, no. It makes sense. They're excited about anything and everything!

One of the things that makes the Higgly kids so excited is to see their good friend Pizza Guy. Their excitement toward seeing him was catching, but he's ultimately the best character in the show.

6:21 PM · Feb 2, 2021 "you have done so much for the lgbt community"

I originally got the idea that Pizza Guy was a cool dude and role model for the kids, and while this is true, I realized he was a lot more. He has the same infectious enthusiasm the kids do, and unironically shares their overactive imagination. He cries at the end of picture books. He loves pizza more than anything. He can be kind of clueless and goofy sometimes. Yet, he's also a capable adult, making him simultaneously the comic relief and a role model for the kids.

6:27 PM · Feb 2, 2021 "list of oomfs i can see kinning pizza guy"
8:22 PM · Feb 2, 2021 "pizza guy....... makes me want pizza........"
10:11 PM · Feb 2, 2021 "guys im so happy to see pizza guy..... :-)"
8:08 AM · Feb 3, 2021 "you're so talented...."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

8:49 AM · Feb 3, 2021 "if pizza guy invited me to his mountain cabin i would go bc i love mountain cabins and pizza guy is a great guy"

And throughout season 1, I had one thought about Pizza Guy. When is this guy going to be a Higglytown Hero?

6:05 PM · Feb 2, 2021 "IM REALLY UPSET I THOUGHT THE HERO WAS GONNA BE THE PIZZA GUY BUT IT'S THE DENTIST"
6:17 PM · Feb 2, 2021 "rob paulsen is the barber.... when will pizza guy get the respect he deserves"

Finally, in season 2, we got "A Totally Secret Valentine," Pizza Guy's hero episode. In the episode, everyone in Higglytown gets these personalized Valentine cards from a Secret Valentine Friend. Eventually the kids find out that Pizza Guy sent out all the Valentines, and he sings his hero song about how Valentine's Day is about making your friends feel special by reminding them you care about them. It's really sweet.

6:50 PM · Jul 27, 2022 "genuinely though i've been thinking a lot about pizza guy at first he seemed like a cool dude who is full of unconditional positive regard toward others and he is that! he is! but also he has some desperation in his heart and some nothing in his brain."
6:57 PM · Jul 27, 2022 "pizza guy may just be the most fascinating character in all of higglytown. he is a higglytown hero, but not for being the pizza guy. he's a higglytown hero because he reminds every person in higglytown that they are loved and they have special qualities about them."

Also worth noting, Fran the Squirrel was the Higglytown Hero in the other half of the Valentine's Day episode, "A Valentine for Miss Fern," which focuses on romantic love rather than platonic love.

Also Miss Fern's fiance is the Electrician Hero, played by Lance Bass.

8:06 PM · Feb 5, 2021 "LANCE BASS?????????????"
8:06 PM · Feb 5, 2021 "FROM ON THE LINE?????????????????? 2001??????????????????????"

The casting choices for Higglytown Heroes are something. Some of them are voice actors, while others are Disney showing off their money by getting musicians, sports stars, and... televangelists?

11:55 AM · Feb 7, 2021 "1. the higglytown hero sounds familiar.
2. i look on the cast list
3. it's a popular celebrity/singer from the aughts
4. disney?"

Honestly, it's a delight to watch while high, because it feels like a celebrity guided meditation, especially with the Twinkle idea bits.

6:03 PM · Feb 2, 2021 "dislike that the girl's personality is Girl but she's voiced by panini from chowder"

My first impression was so foolish. Twinkle was literally the best character other than Pizza Guy. But yeah, Twinkle's character is essentially the girl who likes pink sparkly things. In addition, she has the most overactive imagination of the bunch, coming up with wild solutions to problems and having Fran bring her back down to earth. In fact, one season 3 episode has Fran cut Twinkle off before she gives her big idea, which was pretty funny.

As for the other kids...

6:02 PM · Feb 2, 2021 "man the height difference like i know they're nesting dolls and the joke is they fit into one another but still this is like two 6 year olds"

 

 

 

 

 

8:02 AM · Feb 3, 2021 "i think all the higglytown heroes kids are trans."
1:57 PM · Feb 5, 2021 "i dont think the higglytown kids really have set in stone personalities except eubie has depression, wayne is kinda nervous, twinkle is crazy, and kip is like 2 feet tall"

Eubie is sort of a quiet kid, who lives with his Aunt Mellie and Uncle Zooter, who speak like a hivemind and complete each others sentences. Eubie and his entire family are obsessed with birds. Wayne is Twinkle's brother, who likes clowns and toast (especially toast), and he's always well prepared for any situation. He also tends to believe Twinkle's stories are possible, which is kind of funny to me. Twinkle and Wayne both live with their mom, and occasionally hang out at their Uncle Lemmo's diner. Finally there's Kip. He's kind of the most normal of the bunch, interested in robots and superheroes. He has two older sisters (Wiki and Tini) and one younger sister, and he lives with both his parents, who were rarely if ever on screen together at first, but I assure you they probably love each other.

I think behind Pizza Guy and Twinkle, Fripp (Kip's dad) takes yet another favorite character spot. He's a bit of goofball like Pizza Guy, and he gets a lot of focus later on in the show.

Another fun aspect of the show is trying to guess what hero the episode is going to be about. Sometimes it's painfully obvious, and other times the hero comes out of left field.

10:07 PM · Feb 2, 2021 "dang they had me for a second. today's higglytown hero is a dog"
8:07 AM · Feb 3, 2021 "for the record it's hard to tell what higglytown hero will show up in one episode. twinkle lost her tooth and i was like "oh she's gonna go to the dentist" but no.... it's a plumber......"
8:11 AM · Feb 3, 2021 "the episode is called soup with stars. they have to make soup and they forgot to help cook.... our hero will be either an EMT or a chef i bet!"
8:13 AM · Feb 3, 2021 "ok they're going to the grocery store... could we finally be getting the retail hero we need?"
8:17 AM · Feb 3, 2021 "GROCERY CLERK HERO"

Fun fact: The plumber hero was featured as a hero twice (or perhaps even thrice, depending on how you look at it), suggesting they were running out of episodes.

The show is also very fun to get no context screencaps of.

One more episode I want to talk about is what I assume was meant to be the series finale, but ultimately aired with three episodes left, "Calling All Heroes." The episode aired in August of 2007, two years after Hurricane Katrina. I don't want to say this was necessarily inspired by Hurricane Katrina, but I think the topics in the episode were really important to cover in the aftermath of Katrina. Especially since, to this day, people in Louisiana still talk about Hurricane Katrina, the less than ideal response to it, the trauma that it caused, and things we can learn from it.

Anyway, "Calling All Heroes" is about the kids dealing with a natural disaster. It's raining pizza dough and it's too dangerous to go outside. In addition, the power lines and the phones are out of commission, so now all the Higglytown Heroes have to help save the day and come together to rebuild the town in the wake of the pizza dough storm. It's idealistic, yes, but it's the sort of thing that might help make a kid feel hopeful for the future after a natural disaster.

Overall Rating for Higglytown Heroes: A Tier

The Ghost and Molly McGee: A Duo Character of the Times (Right Now)

I think this is kind of a turning point in the Disney Watch. So much I've done has lead up to this point. 

I've watched Darkwing Duck, learning that Megavolt was actually Elmo Sputterspark, an alum from Drake Mallard's high school.

I've watched Quack Pack, finding out about Donald's new neighbors who were secretly military grade robots on the run.

I've watched Brandy and Mr. Whiskers, and saw the animals of the Amazon Rainforest hilariously mistake Mr. Whiskers for a fashion icon.

I've watched Phineas and Ferb, and witnessed Candace lament her height as she wasn't tall enough to model, and then became 50 feet tall to remedy this.

I've watched Big Hero 6: The Series, sitting through Fred try to snatch a comic from a preteen in order to save the day.

I've watched various straight to video Disney movies which were entertaining in their own right, but did not hold a candle to the originals.

And as I watched The Ghost and Molly McGee, I thought... yeah this is something that was made by the folks who made all that stuff.

Bill Motz and Bob Roth, the creators of this show go way back in the Disney timeline, so I was kind of expecting this to be more of something putting all the pieces together, and really it was more just me nodding my head and going "Yeah. This is a show."

The Ghost and Molly McGee brings to mind, not just the shows I've mentioned, but other shows as well, particularly The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy & Jimmy Two Shoes. Grim Adventures has the similarity of being about a cranky undead creature with a job of varying plot importance forced to hang out with some kids. Jimmy Two Shoes has the similarity of monsters trying to make the city much more miserable while dealing with an optimistic kid. Hell, it even reminds me of Whose Line is it Anyway, with the theme being reminiscent of the Satan and the Schoolgirl bit.

Now I don't think a show being too similar to other shows makes it worse or anything. I really enjoy shows like Billy and Mandy and Jimmy Two Shoes, and I'd be happy to see more shows like those. I just don't think The Ghost and Molly McGee works as well as those two, and the reason it doesn't is because it's a show being released in 2022.

I haven't talked quite as much about recent Disney Cartoons, but if you recall discussions about Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure and Amphibia, these are both incredibly lore heavy shows. Sure they have their episodic stories, but there's essentially an overarching plot to them both. The Ghost and Molly McGee is not different, as Scratch (the titular ghost) has to keep the city he haunts miserable, less he ends up in the Flow of Failed Phantoms. Like sure it's a conflict that keeps people on their toes throughout season 1, but does it really need to be there? It feels like something holding back the show in order to keep it relevant with modern cartoon fans. The thing is we've seen this before, and it's been done a lot better as an episodic format. We don't really need conflict past "They are funny supernatural creatures with jobs to spread misery." We all understand that.

Despite all that, there's definitely a sort of adaptability you can see through this show. It could be anything, but it kind of comes at the cost of not bringing anything new to the table, and the old things it brings have been done better both by supernatural episodic cartoons like The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, and by story focused cartoons like Amphibia.

There is one thing this show has going for it though, and that's that it's funny. Unlike the last two shows which I described as hit or miss, Ghost and Molly McGee is almost all hits. You have a lot of good jokes in every episode, especially from Scratch and Molly's best friend Libby. The two of them becoming friends I think started to make episodes a lot more fun. "Festival of Lights," the Hanukkah special of the series, has some really great moments from the both of them including an intense dreidel game and the gang listing miracles that happened to them this year. Honestly, the shortform hour-by-hour style of the episode kept my attention so much, I kind of wish the rest of the show was just like that. It'd probably be to the show's benefit!

Really, I'd honestly watch a show about Libby and Scratch rather than Molly and Scratch, or even just a show about Libby. Or maybe I'd put Libby in a better show where she could shine through more properly. If it wasn't evident, I do think Libby is the funniest and best character on this show.

I doubt the show will go into the more silly and macabre side like its predecessors, but even if it doesn't, I can always just watch Jimmy Two Shoes again.

Overall Rating for The Ghost and Molly McGee: B Tier

Guess I gotta post that thing again.

Brandy and Mr. Whiskers: A Duo Character of the Times (Mid Aughts)

Hey, I finished The Ghost and Molly McGee, or at least, the 13 episodes that I force myself to watch. Pretty good timing on my end, because I can talk about that show right after I talk about this other duo character show that Bill Motz and Bob Roth served as executive producers on.

They also wrote a few episodes which I KNOW I watched, but were ultimately pretty weak episodes with plots you see before. Brandy saves Mr. Whiskers' life and now Mr. Whiskers is devoting himself to him. The duo get jobs but only Mr. Whiskers is taking his seriously. Mr. Whiskers has to fight a bully. It's stuff you've seen before. Honestly, the whole show is kind of like that too.

Brandy and Mr. Whiskers. Kind of like Dave the Barbarian, it feels like more of the same. Like Dave the Barbarian, I also watched this show when I was a kid. I actually remember catching it at 4 in the morning back when I had trouble sleeping. It almost makes you think this cartoony mid-aughts era of Disney is here to stay, except it doesn't, really. Because while Brandy and Mr. Whiskers was more successful than Dave the Barbarian, it was also infinitely more hit or miss.

6:01 PM · Feb 1, 2021 "the thing about this era of cartoons is they had a habit of like. still marketing the teen girl from it. so like. dave the barbarian generally advertised candy. brandy and mr whiskers advertised brandy... phineas and ferb did this with candace too"
6:48 PM · Feb 1, 2021 "i think it's funny when whiskers decides to be fucked up but this is the first time in four eps that i laughed"
6:52 PM · Feb 1, 2021 "the use of stock images is trying to do something but i dont think it lands as much as it should"
4:24 PM · Feb 2, 2021 "i think what ails brandy and mr whiskers as well as dave the barbarian is that they are trying too hard. like it's supposed to be funny but im not laughing as much as i should"
5:12 PM · Feb 2, 2021 "i have never oscillated while watching a show so much...."

It's one of those shows where you can see what it's trying to do and how it's trying to be funny, kind of like Shnookums and Meat, but unlike Shnookums and Meat, it tends to be pretty successful at times. While Brandy and Mr. Whiskers had a lot of cringey jokes, such as the ending...

 6:59 PM · Feb 1, 2021 "the end of brandy and mr whiskers has this fucking scary big eye cat i hate seeing it..."

It also had some clever lines and even some of those bad influence morals you see in season 1 of the Simpsons. Also I'm currently rewatching season 1 of the Simpsons. Some of the humor was also pretty ahead of its time, with weird png-style jokes I saw a lot of in the late 2010s and even now.

Brandy and Mr. Whiskers also reminds me of another show that aired a bit later, My Gym Partner's a Monkey.

4:24 PM · Feb 2, 2021 "brandy is a little bit of an adam lyon actually"

Both shows have the put upon protagonist trying to survive is an animalistic world, while also bringing their own ideals before eventually giving up and going with it. I guess in Brandy's case it isn't nearly as sad because she can ultimately cope with Amazon life and is still, forgive the figure of speech, top dog.

You notice a lot of these changes in season 2, and they're somewhat subtle, as the main characters are falling into their own, accepting that they will never leave the jungle. But also there's a mall now. And the mall has been there the whole time. Capitalism has existed in the jungle from long before Brandy introduced it. Or perhaps Brandy introduced capitalism to a society that had its own economic system in place and ruined everything. Thanks, Brandy!

Surprisingly, one of the characters I really liked in the show was Brandy's friend-slash-rival, Margo. Usually I'm not one to stan the mean girl characters, but considering she is usually only a mean girl to Brandy, I think she does a good job working as a sort of foil to her in places Mr. Whiskers can't.

6:32 PM · Feb 1, 2021 "i like the way some of the characters look. i think they work well in the world together"

 

 

 

 

 

 

6:32 PM · Feb 1, 2021 "also bug girl is cool"
6:38 PM · Feb 1, 2021 "i haven't rlly kept track of faves but i think margo is my fave brandy and mr whiskers character idr her at all but she's cool... i like her design"

 

 

 

 

 

3:47 PM · Feb 2, 2021 "i really like margo and her disrespect of men...."

Of course there's also Mr. Whiskers, the surrogate little brother to Brandy and the comic relief of the show. I think ultimately, Whiskers is kind of more what Disney would have wanted than, say, Dave and Fang. A typical annoying younger sibling who wants to be included, makes a lot of stupid jokes, and is annoying to the older sisters watching while funny to the younger brothers in a way that's sort of relatable. 

9:02 AM · Feb 2, 2021 "Mr whiskers bpd head canon"
5:01 PM · Feb 2, 2021 "mr whiskers explaining edgar allen poe to me is.... weird."

 Does it really work? I dunno. I don't have a younger brother. 

But compare that to Dave the Barbarian, which is less focused on the teen girl character Candy, and more focused on Dave. Dave's not exactly, annoying, but he is a coward, and I think that's more likely to annoy Fang than it is Candy. Candy and Fang do butt heads pretty often, in a sort of way that would reflect my sister and I if our ages had swapped. Still I never really considered it to be "relatable" in any way either, even if it is a more realistic family dynamic. 

I guess what I'm trying to say is maybe that over the top relatability of Brandy and Mr. Whiskers did something for it? Even though I, personally, think Brandy and Mr. Whiskers is the worse show.

As for other characters there's Lola, Brandy's best friend, who is just that. Ed, Whiskers' best friend who is decidedly weirder than Mr. Whiskers. Sheryl and Meryl, a couple of twin toucans who are about to fight each other to the death at any given moment (maybe not the best characters). And of course Gaspard Le Gecko, the world's horniest lizard. That's all I'm saying about him fuck that guy.

Also there was a character named Wolfy in an episode it's very fun when that happens.

4:52 PM · Feb 2, 2021 "points at the screen because i heard yet another one of my friends' names in a disney show"

Overall Rating for Brandy and Mr. Whiskers: C Tier

Dave the Barbarian: Recognition of Self Through the Lousy 2000s Cartoon

3:33 PM · Feb 1, 2021 "nichijou"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm not exactly sure what to call this era of Disney cartoons. They weren't on One Saturday Morning anymore. There were some on Jetix, but I'm gonna ignore those. The six shows spanning Dave The Barbarian to The Replacements feel so out snyc. 

Many of them aren't the slice of life shows we saw prior, instead going for a comedy angle. In addition, most, if not all of the shows had one character that Disney milked for girl appeal, usually resulting in things like fashion driven games on the Disney Channel website. Honestly, other than it being another show by Doug Langdale, I feel like Candy may have been the appeal for Disney. Which, honestly, I'm fine with, as Candy was probably one of my favorite characters in Dave the Barbarian.

5:50 PM · Jan 31, 2021 "me: why does candy sound so familiar? [looks up the wikipedia page] oh."

Whenever I tried watching this show as an adult, I always had a little bit of trouble getting back into it, which I never really understood. Like this was the guy who made The Weekenders, one of my favorite Disney shows, so what's the deal? But at the same time, as I mentioned in my Weekenders post, I think my humor, which was pulled from the Weekenders resulted in me making jokes that were like those in Dave the Barbarian.

2:08 PM · Feb 1, 2021 "the thing about dave the barbarian is like..... im sitting here and it feels like the show is making jokes i would make and idk how to feel about that. i dont think dave the barbarian was much of a comedic inspiration for me...."

A lot of lines like "All my dollies are in there, I mean weapons!" and "You only have ten toes" felt like jokes I would make, which sucks because they didn't really land. Dave the Barbarian as a whole is such a hit or miss show. It kind of made me feel seen in a really bad way. Aware of my flaws almost.

 Also Dave the Barbarian had a lot of kind of mean jokes about gender.

4:08 PM · Feb 1, 2021 "it's not like other shows haven't had transphobic or homophobic jokes but the ones in dave the barbarian are starting to get to me"
4:14 PM · Feb 1, 2021 "there's probably been like3 jokes about a characters gender and hmmm idk...."

Like okay I can deal with homophobic and transphobic jokes in cartoons but man at least have the cartoon be consistently funny. Damn. 

I'm actually kind of surprised Dave the Barbarian didn't have that many episodes. It felt like it was advertised a whole bunch, and I remember watching it for the first time in the fourth grade before going to some school event. But no, it only had 21. Maybe it was because Dave the Barbarian was so out of sync. Disney was still transitioning into its next era, so eh

4:14 PM · Feb 1, 2021 "dave the barbarian is straight and has catholic guilt"

Though it still stayed pretty cartoony throughout the mid aughts, and the next show is a huge example of that.

 Overall Rating for Dave the Barbarian: C Tier 

Ducks Part Whatever Except It's Hardly Ducks and Mostly Mice (House of Mouse and the Mickey Mouse baby shows)

12:56 PM · Jun 8, 2021 "infinity train book 4"

 

 

 

 

 

 

The ducks are pretty easy to talk about, but the rats... They can be a bit of a challenge. Donaldism was a bit of a fandom of mine, though I never really went out of my way to read the Mickey Mouse comics. Sure I read the ones with mice and ducks like Ultraheroes, Spy Power, and some of the parody comics, and every so often I'd read a French or Danish mouse story in JDM that caught my eye, but I was never super interested in them.

I played a bit of the first Epic Mickey game, though I ended up moving out of my apartment before I could finish.

In terms of the shorts, I watched a lot of classics from Spirit of Mickey, some of the darker ones like The Mad Doctor and the one where Pluto goes to hell. I've seen a bit of the newer shorts (which btw, I will not be covering in this post or on this blog). But what I really was raised on was Mouseworks shorts on House of Mouse.

Though there's no one true Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy, Daisy, et cetera, House of Mouse was kind of the blueprint for me. It showed off the character these guys could have, put in a bunch of fun self aware jokes (though never too cynical, just right for a little kid), gave them a bunch of crossover characters to bounce off of. Really it was kind of a dream come true sort of show for someone like me who loved cartoons. It's actually something I still watch regularly, and it still hits as much as it did back in the day.

And while I don't hate the baby shows by any means, I do feel a little bit upset with what we got for some of them. Something I kind of noticed during this was that some of its shows which were aimed for kids of all ages ended up on the Playhouse Disney block. Stuff like Little Mermaid, Winnie the Pooh, and Jungle Cubs all ended up here. Winnie the Pooh in particular I was very "this is a baby show" about, and while I wasn't super keen on New Adventures, that simply isn't the case. It's just a kid show that didn't appeal to me. But it does make me wonder, why does Disney push their most popular properties are so baby-ish? And then wonder why everyone thinks they're for babies and try to make them hip again?

Mickey Mouse Clubhouse is the first of these baby shows, and one of the weaker ones. 

7:15 AM · Mar 3, 2021 "WAIT IS THE MICKEY MOUSE CLUBHOUSE LIKE A PLAY ON THE MICKEY MOUSE CLUB"
8:19 AM · Mar 3, 2021 "why does mickey mouse clubhouse have a fucking anime opening"

It came out in 2006 and this was around the time when Playhouse Disney cartoons were a lot more structured. You saw it a bit with Stanley, and you'd see it with Higglytown Heroes, My Friends Tigger and Pooh, and Special Agent Oso, but Mickey Mouse Clubhouse was where it sort of became solidified as a Playhouse Disney thing in my eyes, and it would even last into the Disney Junior era for a little bit.

Mickey Mouse Clubhouse gave its viewers a problem and various "mousekatools" to help solve the problem, helping to develop concrete problem solving skills (as opposed to the abstract ones we saw in PB&J Otter). One special feature of this set of tools is that it always included the Mystery Mousekatool, a surprise tool that would help us later. This caught on.

7:22 AM · Mar 3, 2021 "wait does the mystery mousekatool show up every ep"
4:28 PM · Mar 6, 2021 "the mystery mousekatool this ep should be a gun"
4:41 PM · Mar 6, 2021 "sad news about the mystery mousekatool"

The keeper of the mousekatools was Toodles. As I watched my 13 episodes of this show out of order, I noticed some episodes Toodles had no face and was silent and other episodes he had a face and was voiced by Rob Paulsen (something I was warned about but didn't quite feel prepared for). 

7:47 AM · Mar 3, 2021 "why does he speak now."
7:55 AM · Mar 3, 2021 "i like that toodles has a face now but i dont like that he can speak"
8:07 AM · Mar 3, 2021 "who gave toodles sentience???"
7:53 AM · Mar 4, 2021 "toodles is being incredibly cryptic today"

I kind of assumed that it was a decision made at the start of a later season, but no. This is a plot point. He gets sentience and a face as a present from his dear old dad... Von Drake.

8:25 AM · Mar 3, 2021 "VON DRAKE IS TOODLE'S DAD?"
8:25 AM · Mar 3, 2021 "von drake is either my best friend or worst enemy depending on the adaptation. mmc he's an enemy."
8:26 AM · Mar 3, 2021 "HE GAVE TOODLES SENTIENCE AS A BIRTHDAY PRESENT."

Also like many of the baby shows it didn't try a bunch in terms of character. Usually it only focused on the main traits of the characters. I do think that Mixed Up Adventures improved on this... and Funhouse... uh... I'll get to that.

7:19 AM · Mar 3, 2021 "donald wants so much stuff but it's little things like a sandwich"
7:53 AM · Mar 3, 2021 "lmfao comics stans getting pissed at the donald characterization in mmc"
7:54 AM · Mar 4, 2021 "ARIZONA GOOF ALREADY EXISTS WHY IS THERE KANSAS CITY MICKEY"
7:54 AM · Mar 4, 2021 "oh it's regular mickey ok lol"

One of the episodes I really enjoyed from this show however was "Super Adventure," in which the gang becomes superheroes. It's notable as it includes Mortimer, the ha-cha-cha-ing bastard from House of Mouse. They also keep a lot of his behavior from House of Mouse which always interests me. I like when Disney Channel cartoons affect what is essentially the overall canon of something. It also includes comics fave, Super Goof! (Who is also in House of Mouse but let me have this.)

6:49 AM · Mar 4, 2021 "keep forgetting he isn't a comics exclusive i still want paperinik tho"

And uh.... Paperinik if you want to play pretend?

6:50 AM · Mar 4, 2021 "we just have to sit down and admit this is the closest thing to paperinik we're ever gonna get outside that one italian animation"

 

 

 

 

 

  

But yeah they get superpowers and have to stop Mortimer from shrinking everything!

6:59 AM · Mar 4, 2021 "one piece"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

7:27 AM · Mar 4, 2021 "i think mortimer's trans but like. specifically mickey mouse clubhouse mortimer"
7:29 AM · Mar 4, 2021 "house of mouse takes place in the cis mortimer universe"

They also have a song at the end I would like to point out where Minnie and Daisy says they're girlfriends and gals. Love wins...

12:25 PM · Jun 8, 2021 "i like that roadster racers (+ other mickey shows) is insistent on using phrases like galpal"

Another ep I wanna talk about is "Mickey's Art Show." It's about Goofy not knowing what to put in the art show so Mickey, and by extension, us the audience, have to help him learn how to do art. I like it because it's got a good theme that the mouse shows tend to keep.

8:05 AM · Mar 3, 2021 "mickey mouse thinks i'm qualified enough to help goofy make art...."
8:08 AM · Mar 3, 2021 "mickey mouse says there is no right or wrong to making art, this combined with his faith in my own art means he supports uneven evan yaoi"

Disregarding that pencil doodle the creator of the short film may have been thanking me for this whole time, the idea that there is no right or wrong way to make art is really good lesson to teach kids and I even saw it again in the Funhouse episode "Crayon World." In that one specifically, it focused on Donald and how insecure he was in his drawing ability, but he was still able to make good art that he could be proud of. It's a very neat theme to keep consistent.

Unfortunately, I don't remember seeing it in the next show.

Mickey and the Roadster Racers, also known as Mickey's Mixed Up Adventures (because they're the same show no matter what Disney+ tells you), is kind of an interesting one. When I first heard about it, it was around my 22nd birthday and I thought it was the dumbest idea for a show. I hated NASCAR due to the oversaturation of it in the Bible Belt and I thought "Okay this is way too niche a market."

But after a year or two, people were... into it? I saw memes about the new character, Cuckoo Loca, and various clips of it on Twitter back when I gave a shit about Ducktales. Or Twitter. I watched an episode or two before the Disney Watch on a plane ride somewhere and found it pretty cute, and could understand why people liked it, but I don't think I properly understood how good it was until I got to it in the Disney Watch. Partially due to a different crew.

6:05 PM · Jun 6, 2021 "roadster racers is already so much better than clubhouse, and i noticed sherri stoner did the writing on some the eps so that could be part of it."

I think if you didn't know the crew of Roadster Racers/Mixed Up Adventures was different, you'd probably get a really good idea that it was just from the way characters talk and how often modern references are brought up

5:55 PM · Jun 6, 2021 "daisy has spent the entire ep talking about podcasts and it is... jarring...."
1:06 PM · Jun 8, 2021 "daisy get iphone"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Probably the most notable part of Mixed-Up Adventures is how they write Daisy. The Mixed Up Adventures crew seems like they have taken a lot of cues from the Mouseworks era, particularly the cartoon "Daisy's Road Trip," where Daisy bothers Mickey and Minnie while on a car trip with them. I bring this up because in Mixed-Up Adventures, Daisy is annoying, stupid, completely insane, and all the better for it.

2:06 AM · Jun 9, 2021 "daisy really is the strongest part of mixed up adventures she's just so unhinged it's so funny..."

 

They actually keep this characterization for Daisy in Funhouse somewhat, which made me very happy.

This is great because Daisy gets a lot of focus in the Happy Helpers segments, which focus on her, Minnie, and Cuckoo Loca doing various odd jobs in Hot Dog Hills and beyond.

 

Early on, the Happy Helper episodes were accompanied by Mickey and the gang participating in some big automotive (Roadster) race, which soon just became Mickey and the gang doing whatever the hell they wanted, and frankly, all the better, because the Roadster Racer segments were weak as hell. Sometimes they had good moments, but I ultimately found myself wondering when we were going to see the Happy Helpers again.

10:40 AM · Jun 9, 2021 "happy helpers ep where they work at the weed store
minnie and daisy: happy helpers are on the way. we're on the job because today WE'RE dispensary workers!
cuckoo loca, who is zooted out of her goddamn mind: how long is this fucking song"
12:58 PM · Jun 8, 2021 "you know what im gonna say it the happy helper segments are leagues better than the roadster racers ones"

Two episodes with the Roadsters stood out to me. One episode, "The Grand Food Truck Rally" had all the Roadster Racers in Paris racing their food trucks and making food for a famous food critic with a very noteworthy voice.

2:12 PM · Jun 7, 2021 "TIM GUNN OF PROJECT RUNWAY FAME??????"
2:14 PM · Jun 7, 2021 "he's such a hater in this ep but he sounds so nice."

2:17 PM · Jun 7, 2021 "another rat wins the race episode"

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mickey ultimately won the race (he tended to win.... a lot of them), but it was kind of a fun episode, even if the rules of a race-slash-cooking contest are somewhat unclear This wasn't Tim Gunn's first time on Disney Junior either, so it was nice to see him again. 

Another episode I really enjoyed was "Daisy's Grande Goal," a season 2 episode. (Also called Super Charged I guess. I don't remember ever seeing it called Super Charged outside wikipedia.) In this episode, the gang goes to Brazil to play Roadster Futbol. Where they meet a bunch of friends and Family

2:31 AM · Jun 9, 2021 "I don’t know why I was under the assumption almanda showed up in anything beside roadster racers perhaps it was kin memories"

This guy too and man he looks bald.

Ignoring the Roadsters for a bit, there's also "Wheelchair Buddies," an episode where Goofy breaks his leg and hangs out with Chester, a disabled kid. We don't see Chester after this, sadly. 

2:37 PM · Jun 8, 2021 "man they put goofy in a medical wheelchair but they drew the kid in a more ergonomic one so huh"
2:43 PM · Jun 8, 2021 "ok there is something really whiplashy about an episode about being disabled and unable to stand being followed by a workout that asks kids to jump up and get up....."

In addition, the episode is a first parter, so after it fades to black, it immediately cuts to the Mouse's call to get kids to get on their legs. Honestly it seems kind of dark, even though I know they had their best intentions. At the very least it isn't as bad as some of the stuff in Jojo's Circus?

Also Guillermo del Toro shows up for a bit I watched that episode with my friend Alice.

 

I guess the problem with Mixed Up Adventures may have been that it constantly changed what it wanted to be, because it only lasted four years compared to Mickey Mouse Clubhouse's ten, and what it was replaced with went back to structure.

Mickey Mouse Funhouse is.... surprisingly hard to find illegally. To the point I could only find 7-8 episodes. I eventually had to wait until I was back in America to watch it legally. I think people just don't care about it that much... But it's for babies so that goes without saying.

Mickey Mouse Funhouse is about the gang going to visit their friend Funny, a talking funhouse voiced by Harvey Guillén if you're a WWDITS fan (and still voiced by Harvey Guillén if you aren't one). Funny is full of portals to various other worlds in his upper level, which he can pop in and out of at will. Funny kind of reminds me of Genie from Aladdin, especially what Disney was trying to do with him in the aughts. Maybe it could also be that he's blue. Who knows? Lord knows no one else is going to have watched this show.

The characterization from Roadster Racers has taken a step back. With Roadsters being more character driven, this seems more plot and story driven. However... What I will give Funhouse is that it makes Mickey a pretty compelling character.

Like he's the main protagonist. The nice boy who does no wrong. But you'll see in episodes like "Mickey and the Cornstalk," he's pretty introverted. In "King Mickey," you see that he refuses help from others. Other episodes show him to be a massive people pleaser. Instead of this sort of face of a corporation, you see this sort of quiet and friendly guy who goes out of his way to make sure everyone is happy. The Damn Rat Corp Made Me Give A Shit About Their Mascot.

It's actually kind of wild actually, I have a different favorite character from each of these shows featuring nearly the same cast.

10:25 AM · Jun 9, 2021 "rlly interesting how in each piece of media so far with sensational 6 characters i've had a different fave. in ducktales it's launchpad. in goof troop it's peggy. in quackpack it's donald. in house of mouse it's mortimer. in mmc it's goofy. in roadster racers it's daisy."
10:30 AM · Jun 9, 2021 "ftr dt17 fave is obviously penny and lot3c fave is obviously jose in case any donald or daisy fans were wondering. unless dalmatian street has spot those should be the last shows where characters show up again"

Another episode I would like to bring up that has Mickey as this people pleaser is "Maybe I'm A Maze," which features Mortimer Mouse, with one notable exception compared to prior experiences. Mickey and Mortimer are friends, and Mortimer is a bad influence on Mickey. Mortimer suggests going to Ancient Greece instead of the beach like everyone planned, and gets himself and Mickey trapped in a minotaur labyrinth. Ultimately he learns his actions have consequences and Mickey learns not to get carried away around Mortimer.

 

Basically what I'm getting at is they are gay.

Other than how the show does Mickey, nothing particularly sticks out about Funhouse. It's not a bad show, it's just a lot more infantile than Mixed Up Adventures (and even Clubhouse in some regards). However, there's only one season with 19 episodes out so far, so perhaps I'll get back to this one feeling different about out when season 2 drops.

Overall Rating for House of Mouse: A Tier

Overall Rating for Mickey Mouse Clubhouse: C Tier

Overall Rating for Mickey Mouse's Mixed Up Adventures: B Tier

Rating for Mickey Mouse Funhouse: C Tier 

(I'll post the rankings when I make the blog post for The Ghost and Molly McGee!)