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!)