"Tokyo Go" is one of the season 1 shorts of the new Mickey Mouse (2013) series created by Paul Rudish for the Disney Channel and Disney.com. It's the fifth to both air on the Disney Channel and to be put up on Disney.
In Tokyo, Japan, Mickey tries to enter the blue bullet train on his way to work, but busy passengers hamper his efforts in getting to his train, forcing Mickey to brave through the crowds and the dangerous moving environments to arrive at work on time.
Tropes:
- The Cameo: Casey Jr. from Dumbo appears at the end.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: While Mickey is on his way to his working station, a picture of Walt Disney can be seen. It's appropriate because Walt was an avid rail enthusiast.
- Gross-Up Close-Up: The sumo wrestler's teeth.
- Musical Nod: An 8-bit version of the song Casey Jr. plays during the train tunnel scene. Bits and pieces of the song are played throughout the short.
- No-Dialogue Episode: With the exception of a lady talking through a speaker in Japanese in the beginning.
- Pun-Based Title: The Japanese word for five is "go". This is the fifth Mickey short.
- Shout-Out:
- Sound effects from Super Mario Bros. can be heard during the 8-bit section in the train tunnel.
- The blue bullet train, as it makes the turn makes the same sound as a TIE Fighter.
- Mickey's job as a live steam train conductor is a reference to Walt Disney's Carolwood Pacific Railroad
. - The horn sounds for the bullet trains are taken from the Disneyland Monorail horns (best heard if passing the Matterhorn and Teacups before Tomorrowland Station).
- Part of the escape sequence (like the bit where Mickey jumps to another train) with a funky/jazzy soundtrack blaring might lead some people to think of Lupin III
- Or Cowboy Bebop. While Mickey is falling to the blue train, GREEN BIRDS are seen flying, possibly referencing the title of a song that played while Spike fell from the church in "Ballad of Fallen Angels".
- Sudden Video-Game Moment: Inside the train tunnel, everything becomes a 8-bit video game complete with Mickey jumping and collecting coins.
- Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo: Downplayed, as the only futuristic thing about the trains is how cartoonishly fast they are (and even then, it's hardly exaggerated).
- Truth in Television: In Japan, there are actually people who are hired to push people into the overcrowded trains. They're called Pushers.
