"The Fancy Gentleman" is the 15th episode of Season 4 of the new Mickey Mouse (2013) series created by Paul Rudish for the Disney Channel and Disney.com. It's the 73rd in the series.
Minnie tries to make Mickey a gentlemouse by enrolling him in finishing school lessons.
Tropes
- All There in the Script: Lady Rochester's name is never spoken in the short, and is only seen in the subtitles.
- Annoying Laugh: The first thing that visibly irritates Michel about Minnie is that she laughs in a giggly snort. As the Book Ends, the "Everybody Laughs" Ending has everyone laugh the exact same way.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: Minnie's goal is to recreate something of a classy date with Mickey like in the period drama she watched, so she gets him private finishing school lessons. Unfortunately, it ends up backfiring when Mickey ends up becoming too snobby to be with her.
- Big "WHAT?!": Michel pulls the rare Indignation variant when he hears Minnie doesn't have a butler.
- Eye Scream: Mickey accidentally pokes himself in the eye (with his upraised pinky!) and spills tea on it during the Training Montage.
- Formal Full Array of Cutlery: During his Lessons in Sophistication, Mickey must notably recognize which fork to use. Each time he points the wrong one, Wadsworth slaps his hand with a riding crop.
- Gone Horribly Right: The lessons Mickey takes pay off in the end, becoming a higher class gentleman that Minnie first envisioned. Unfortunately, all the work backfires when "Michel" breaks up with her, believing that she doesn't meet his standards of class (i.e., serving him baloney sandwiches and not having a butler).
- Imagine Spot: Minnie briefly sees the just-crawled-out-of-bed Mickey as the well-dressed, classy protagonist of the movie she's watching.
- Jerkass Ball: While the finishing lessons make him classier and more sophisticated, "Michel" is no longer the friendly/upbeat/excitable Mickey that Minnie loved and is instead a stuck-up snob whose standards are too high to want to date Minnie anymore.
- My God, What Have I Done?: When Michel ends their relationship, Minnie is forlorn, realizing that she's erased the Mickey she loved.
- Naked People Are Funny: Mickey is briefly naked when Wadsworth takes away his clothes to make him wear fancier apparel as part of his training to be a gentleman.
- Noodle Implements: Minnie brings a box of stuff that Goofy and Donald requested for curing Mickey, including plungers, pies, feather dusters and whoopee cushions.
- No Matter How Much I Beg: Goofy warns Minnie to not open the door "no matter what you hear" while he and Donald "reprogram" Mickey.
- Outgrowing the Childish Name: The fancy new Mickey calls himself "Michel", and also calls Minnie "Minifred".
- Preppy Name: After his finishing classes are over, Mickey is renamed "Michel Francois Mouse". Mickey's teacher's name is Wadsworth Thorndyke III.
- Pygmalion Plot: A figurative example, with Mickey (or "Michel") playing the Galatea to Minnie's Pygmalion, being taught how to be a proper gentleman.
- Rags to Riches: Deconstructed. Mickey is transformed from an everyday modest mouse, into a high class gentleman. The only problem is that "Michel's" standards are now so high that he can't date Minnie anymore.
- Shout-Out: The movie Minnie is watching appears to be based on Wuthering Heights.
- Show Within a Show: The short begins with Minnie watching a movie.
- Sudden Name Change: Mickey's full name is normally Michael Theodore Mouse, but here, Wadsworth refers to him as "Michel Francois Mouse" (which may be justified as a fake Preppy Name). Similarly, Minnie's real name is Minerva Mouse, but here, "Michel" calls her "Minifred" (which might just be a name change).
- Title Drop: When Minnie first sees Mickey as "Michel," she does a mild one:Minnie: Oh, such a fancy gentleman!
- Token Human: Rex and Lady Rochester, characters in a movie Minnie is watching, are the only human characters seen in the short.
- Training from Hell: Mickey's instructor, Wadsworth Thorndyke III, really gets down to brass tacks with training him into becoming the perfect gentleman.
- You Didn't See That: Goofy and Donald kidnap "Michel" while at a club, with Goofy telling the other members to "just pretend we was never here".
