Disney/Pixar In General

Talk about Didn't Think This Through. x_x

I mean, what else would they air during that time, though? They're on the air 24/7 (if we think of Adult Swim as a programming block rather than its own channel), so they've gotta air something then, why not old properties that aren't the current biggest draw?

Well they already have something else: Teen Titans Go.

But this isn't the Cartoon Network thread, so this is starting to feel off topic.

Well, apparently the writers of the "Lustige Taschenbücher" (the comics which are published in paperback format over here in Germany) always liked to write Duckburg stories better, I guess because they allowed more variety and had more characters to play with. You usually only get one or two Mickey stories in every issue, the overwhelming number of stories are either about Donald or a side character from his universe. But it would be wrong to claim that Mickey hasn't been present....he constantly has, with old and new content. He is to this day the Disney character who turned up in more movies than any other unless you count the numerous cameo's of Bambi's mother, he is also in every single one of the features (you know, those stories which are longer than a short but not long enough for movie length) and his name is on most of the TV shows. It's House of MOUSE, Mickey MOUSE works, MICKEY's Clubhouse aso.

BTW, I recently watch the Disney take on "Gift of the Magi" with Mickey and Minnie and I loooooved it. It was so old school. I also liked the two other shorts in the special, especially the first one, in which there is Christmas every day.

How many Disney Christmas specials are there? I think there is this one, snowed in the House of Mouse, and I used to have one on VHS which consisted of all the classic Winter and Christmas shorts Disney had done at this point plus Mickey's Christmas Carol.....And I guess there is The Little one (I really need to watch that one at one point) and you could count the Little Matchstick girl, since it is a classic Christmas story.

Everyone besides America likes Donald and Duckburg better than Mickey and Mouseton. Okay, that's hyperbole, but the Duck verse is still way more popular in general. It's uncanny.

But despite that, yeah - Mickey hasn't exactly been absent, just put on the backburner and used less than you might expect. I'd call it a bit of Mascot-Itis, where the character becomes a mascot but gets pulled out of rotation for a while as a result of being the "image" of the company. It happens a lot, though Mickey is by far the most visible example.

edited 2nd Dec '16 12:36:14 AM by KnownUnknown

Technically "The Little Match Girl" takes place at New Year's Eve and thus isn't really a Christmas story. But otherwise, I could mention this, a tradition in Sweden...

Each Disney TV show had its own Christmas special as well, so those count.

Has it ever been confirmed that's Bambi's actual mother and not just a generic deer in each case, much like the clones of Captain Hook's crocodile?

Yes, but she always dreams about Christmas, so it kind of counts....

Duck Tales (WOOHOO) is probably the main reason. But when I grew up (so, when kids still bought magazines /oldfart), I remember that Picsou Magazine was much more comic-focused than Le Journal de Mickey. And there also were smaller Donald books (in which you sometimes had, for examples, the adventures of Superhero!Donald who was called Fantomiald if memory serves).

Factor in Don Rosa's work on Scrooge, and it's not a surprise Donald's EU is the most popular - I think it's actually Scrooge's universe more than Donald's at that point. Even without reading it in a long time, I remember Picsou having two billionnaire nemeses ^note I won't mention their names, I only know them in French, one sorceress chasing after his one coin, one nephew, three smaller nephews, an inventor pal, a family of robbers after him led by a matriarch, and Donald had a girlfriend, at least two cousins including one living in...his grandmother's farm? Anyway, all these characters I know of, and I know how they relate to each other.

Compared to that, I know Mickey has a girlfriend, a dog, Goofy, and a fat nemesis. That's it.

Also Horace and Clarabelle.

And the Phantom Blot. Can't forget the Phantom Blot.

Mickey actually had a lot more supporting characters in his comic strip, who for whatever reason didn't often make it into the comic books, regardless of where they were published.

The " Black Phantom" you speak of, the guy who looks like a black blot, is the Phantom Blot I mentioned above.

edited 2nd Dec '16 9:40:14 AM by Robbery

Mickey's villain gallery is actually bigger, with Pete, Peg Leg Pete (not that there is much of a difference between those two) and the ....black blot? It's the black Phantom in Germany....the guy who looks like black ghost...being the more prominent ones. But there is also Pete's wife (Trudy in Germany) and uncle (Kralle...Claw), Doctor Kranz (who is actually the nemesis of Indiana Goof, but since Mickey is always in those stories....), Schnauz (I think Scuttle in English) and naturally Mortimer.

He's called the Phantom Blot here in the US.

Isn't Pegleg Pete just Pete when the artists decide portraying him without a leg? I'd kinda like to think either he uses a really good prothesis whenever he looks like he has two feet, or he loses the leg at some point of his conflicts with Mickey, meaning you can split their clashes between Pre-and Post-Peg Leg.

Then again, for all I know it's just another Bluto/Brutus tangle yet again. Maybe we need a Petes story like the multiple Bluto/Brutus tale they did for Popeye, and while they're at it addressing Peg vs. Trudy.

Personally, as far as Comics!Mickey's supporing cast goes, I've always liked Eega Beeva, but I think it's unfair to let Chief O'Hara go unmentioned. I wonder if he was inspired by the Batman TV character?

edited 2nd Dec '16 5:19:03 PM by NapoleonDeCheese

Mickey's supporting cast in the comics is pretty big - not anywhere as big as Donald's - but still a decent size. Basically every classic short character that's not a bird is considered a Mickey character, and he has his comics cast as well.

For villains, there's also Sylvester Shyster.

edited 2nd Dec '16 5:24:35 PM by KnownUnknown

Even though it's not technically a Disney film, but released under its subsidiary Touchstone Pictures, I'd thought I'd bring it up since, technically, it was up for consideration as part of the Disney Animated Canon for the 1993 release schedule (in fact, I still have my copy of the Aladdin Black Diamond Edition VHS with the behind-the-scenes teaser in the promo reel still claiming it as such), but I've been noticing some subtle details that I haven't noticed before...like the three random elves that Jack first sees in Christmastown riding a clearly wooden/mechanical wind-up polar bear toy as transport. That's a cute little detail that I've never noticed before.

Also, how hard is it to make convincing painting-like wisps of wind or ghosts in stop motion?

And, how ballsy would it have been of Micheal Eisner if he went through with the initial plans and included Nightmare in the Disney Animated Canon as planned?

They promote it under the Disney name nowadays since it's so very popular.

Had Eisner put it in the canon it might have led to a little less formula in the Renaissance movies; if not in plots then in style at least.

(Myself... I have to wonder if Tim Burton ever saw Mad Monster Party when he was a kid...)

Hard to tell considering that the follow up movie wasn't half as successful. But then, Roald Dahl is always a little bit difficult to get right, if you keep the weirdness, too many people are weirded out, if you remove it, you often get empty whimsy as a result.

But I certainly would have preferred to have Nightmare in the official Canon over Dinosaurs. Though I guess since Disney went CGI eventually anyway, it makes sense to include Dinosaurs.

Even better might have been to allow Winnie the Pooh the 50th movie in the line-up instead of Tangled. Tangled really didn't need the extra boost. But then, a Disney Princess movie is more fitting....

edited 15th Dec '16 6:34:51 AM by Swanpride

I don't know about that last part. Even though the film itself was good, I remember a lot of fans being disappointed that Winnie the Pooh was Disney's big cartoon for the year.

Why the disappointment?

EDIT: It was fifty years ago today that Uncle Walt died.

edited 15th Dec '16 11:42:15 AM by Aldo930

Presumably because it's aimed primarily at kids (as opposed to something like Frozen or Zootopia for the whole family), especially since a film with such a restricted target audience had no chance against its competition.

edited 15th Dec '16 11:51:35 AM by Spinosegnosaurus77

Let us not forget that Frozen and Zootopia are kids' films as well.

Most "family films" are just "for kids but not annoying to adults."

There's a good reason why many of the Disney movies are marketed as "family movies" and not "kids movies," because good family movies has this everlasting appeal for all ages, while kids movies would sometimes get worse as you get older (at the most it'll become so bad it's good).

According to Wikipedia…

By that definition, Zootopia at least is unequivocally a family film.

Zootopia, the movie about racial prejudice, systematic racism, and affirmative action, is a kid's film.

What.