Mythology Gag / Mickey Mouse (2013)

"I only hope that we never lose sight of one thing — that it was all started by a… monkey?"

This show manages to really dive into pretty much everything involving Mickey Mouse, as well as Disney in general.

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• "New York Weenie" has two:
  • Mickey also dealt with a living hot dog that was meant for Minnie waaaay back in the 1929 short, The Karnival Kid.
  • Oswald the Lucky Rabbit also dealt with a similar anthropomorphic hot dog in his short "All Wet".
• "Tokyo Go" and its focus on Bullet Trains pays homage to Walt Disney being a massive rail enthusiast. Mickey's job as a miniature railroad conductor at the end references the Carolwood Pacific Railroad that Walt ran out of his backyard, complete with barn and a sentient train modeled after the Lilly Belle, the main Locomotive for the CPRR.
• In "Stayin' Cool" the iconic whistling music from "Steamboat Willie" is arranged and appears as Background Music throughout the short.
• In "Bad Ear Day", the parts where Minnie calls a napping Mickey to remind him about their date and Mickey running around in the city are a homage to the 1947 short Mickey's Delayed Date.
• The 1939 Mickey short Society Dog Show, where Mickey also enters Pluto in a dog show, can be viewed as this for the episode "Dog Show".
• Potato Land, both the theme park and name of the episode, is one big Affectionate Parody of Disneyland and the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World. At points we see parodies of Main Street (featuring potatoes) and The Haunted Mansion (featuring potato ghosts), and lots of background references. It's definitely fitting for a short released on Mickey's 85th birthday .
• In "Sleepwalkin' ", Goofy dreaming that he's an athlete harkens back to his sport-themed shorts from the 1940s.
• In "The Adorable Couple", Goofy, Horace and Clarabelle performing in a band is reminiscent to "The Band Concert".
• Two early Mickey cartoons "The Fire Fighters" and "Mickey's Fire Brigade" might be viewed as this, with Mickey (and Goofy in the latter cartoon) trying to stop a fire in a building. It is subverted, however, as in the episode "Fire Escape" as neither Mickey nor Goofy are actually firemen here, nor is there any real fire danger here.
• In "Eau De Minnie", the old Mickey Mouse theme song "Minnie's Yoo-Hoo" is heard throughout the short. Without the lyrics, of course.
  • When deciding which outfit she wants to wear, Minnie briefly changes into her outfit from Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and declares it "too young".
• In "Space Walkies", Mickey's rocket has the letters TVA on it. TVA is the abbreviation of (Disney) Television Animation, the studio that made this very short. It's also a reference to Trans World Airlines (TWA), whose nearly-identical logo appeared on the fuselage of the Moonliner at Disneyland's Rocket to the Moon attraction, on which Mickey's rocket is based.
• "Mickey Monkey", which aired on his 86th birthday, has a few:
  • Mickey pilots a boat down the river, which is based on the Disney Theme Parks attraction, the Jungle Cruise.
  • Mickey piloting a boat also refers to "Steamboat Willie".
  • Mickey swinging on the vines while hollering also refers to Tarzan.
  • The title of the cartoon could also be a Shout-Out to the song "Mickey's Monkey," by Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, which was used as a Disney Channel DTV.
• A possible one is in "Goofy's First Love", where according to Minnie, this wasn't the first time Mickey was playing around with her makeup.It might be a reference to a House of Mouse short where Mickey and Donald dressed as Minnie and Daisy respectively to carry out a Zany Scheme.
• There are two in "Doggone Biscuits":
  • In the brief second Pete is on screen, he's wearing the same dog catcher's outfit he wore in the classic Mickey short "The Worm Turns".
  • Minnie also tries to make Pluto wear a sweater, similar to the one he wears in the 1949 Short Pluto's Sweater.
• In "Bottle Shocked", Mickey's ringtone when Minnie calls him near the end of the short is "Minnie's Yoo-Hoo".
• There are two in "Movie Time":
  • The method of showing the movie is reminiscent of how Donald puts the first third of The Three Caballeros in motion, with a roll-down screen and old-fashioned projector.
  • There's also the floating tub from that movie's Pablo The Penguin sequence, except Mickey uses a bicycle to steer it before the hail sinks it. A palm tree from Pablo's final destination also shows up after the tub.
• In "Ku'u Lei Melody", the Akua is introduced controlling the waves in a manner similar to another Mickey Mouse cartoon centered around music.
• "Entombed" has two:
  • As Mickey gets smashed by stone blocks, he briefly takes on Tom Oreb's character design used in 1955 Nash Automobile commercials, and then a Picasso-inspired design from Ward Kimball's model sheet spoof The Mouse Club.
  • The hallway scene and the spider that Mickey finds there are based on the Silly Symphony short "Egyptian Melodies".
• At one point in "Split Decisions", the Nice-Donald starts singing the theme to The Mickey Mouse Club.
• The fact that all the characters, except for Mickey, in "Good Sports" are Goofy and the short being sports-themed is a throwback to the classic Goofy shorts.
• There are two in "Canned":
  • The steamboat from Steamboat Willie is among the garbage that gets shoveled.
  • An old school Mickey Mouse telephone is also among the garbage.
• At the very end of "Bee Inspired" , when Minnie shows Mickey the painting she's made, we see the scene zoom out to show the painting being observed by various older incarnations of Mickey and Minnie, all the way back to their appearances in Plane Crazy .
• The ship's design in "Shipped Out" is an obvious nod to those of the Disney Cruise Line.
• There are quite a few in "Nature's Wonderland":
  • When Mickey can't find the Rainbow Caverns with his map, he complains about how somebody "put a big thundering mountain on top of it". This is a reference to how Big Thunder Mountain Railroad replaced the Mine Train Through Nature's Wonderland ride that the Rainbow Caverns come from.
  • The scene in the Rainbow Caverns utilizes the original musical score for the scene in the attraction.
  • The attraction poster◊ for the Disneyland Railroad's Grand Canyon Diorama is recreated in one shot.
  • The drawing of Walt Disney on the map comes from the "Disneyland Fun Maps", poster-sized souvenir maps that have been released every few years since the 1960s.
  • The map itself is an actual historical item from the original promotions for the attraction.
• "The Scariest Story Ever" has three:
  • Goofy is dressed as Super Goof.
  • Huey, Dewey and Louie are wearing the Halloween costumes they wore in the classic short Trick or Treat (and it's confirmed Huey is the one dressed as the Devil, Dewey the Warlock, and Louie the ghost). The town is also designed to resemble the one from the same short.
  • Goofy tells Mickey that he can't be scary because he "comes from the happiest place on Earth."
• Mickey and Minnie's dream costumes in "The Perfect Dream" are based on theirs from the classic short "Brave Little Tailor".
• There are four in "Feed The Birds":
  • Tuppence, the little bird, is based on the baby bird Snow White befriends in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
  • The pigeons' laughter sounds similar to that of Max Hare from the Silly Symphonies short The Tortoise and the Hare.
  • A pigeon flips through Mickey's TV channels, showing stills of two scenes from the Disneyland episode "Mars and Beyond," an image of Walt Disney and an image of Jafar from Aladdin.
  • Mickey's welcome to the pigeons as they flock to "Birdland" is based directly on Walt Disney's dedication to the opening of Disneyland.
• Pluto's role as a stray in "Year Of The Dog" is a reference to his earliest appearances such as his debut cartoon The Chain Gang, as he didn't originally start off as Mickey's pet dog.
• As mentioned in the example for Butt-Monkey for "New Shoes": Goofy, In Donald's body, quotes word for word the last two lines of the old Donald Duck Cartoons.
• Minnie's dress in "Springtime" is similar to that of Persephone in the Silly Symphony "Goddess of Spring".
• "Flushed!" has two:
  • The castle Mickey gets for Gubbles' bowl is based on Sleeping Beauty's Castle in Disneyland.
  • When Mickey realizes too late that Gubbles is alive, the image of him resembles his title card from the old theatrical cartoons.
• "Surprise!" has two:
  • Donald's houseboat has a picture of his distant relative Malcolm McDuck.
  • The fact that this focuses on Mickey and Minnie is a clever nod to how they both turned 90 when this was released.
• "Hats Enough" has two:
  • One of the hats Mickey tries is the boat captain hat from Steamboat Willie and briefly re-enacts the iconic scene from it before being punched out by Pete.
  • Another hat Mickey tries is the sorcerer's cap from Fantasia.
• "Safari So Goodie" has two:
  • Much of the music is reminiscent of The Lion King (1994).
    • A deleted scene has the mother elephant crashing into the log scene from said movie.
  • The baby elephant resembles Bobo from the classic short Mickey's Elephant.
•  In the first shot of the Goofy dinosaurs in "Outta Time", the original "Goofy holler" can be heard.
• The plot of "My Little Garden" is similar to the classic cartoon "Mickey's Garden". Both feature Mickey and Pluto getting lost in an overgrown garden with giant insects. Unlike that cartoon, in which the giant garden is the result of a Mushroom Samba from Mickey getting sprayed in the face by his own bug spray, the garden in this short is overgrown due to not having been properly maintained for two and a half years.
• Several Silly Symphonies characters appear in "Carried Away", including the Three Little Wolves, Max Hare, and Toby Tortoise.
• "Touchdown and Out" features at least two references to How to Play Football.
  • Donald tries to block an extra point kick by leaping into its path and accidentally catching the ball in his mouth like in the classic short, though this time the attempt fails horrendously.
  • When the Beagle Boys are closing in on Goofy, they run in the exact same way as the Anthropology A&M tacklers.
• "Cheese Wranglers" mainly takes place in Big Thunder Valley, home of Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. Near the end, the Mark Twain riverboat can be seen in the background. Also, Pete's gang is composed of the weasels from The Wind and the Willows segment of The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad.
• "House of Tomorrow":
  • The design of the house of tommorow is heavily based off of the Monsanto House of the Future walkthrough attraction that existed in Disneyland from 1957 to 1967.
  • Mickey reads the book version of Bambi, and the computer spoils that his mom dies.
  • Mickey sings a song by the Sherman Brothers, "There's A Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow". The computer later gives it a Dark Reprise.
  • The computer frightens Mickey when it shows him a picture of a creepy Minnie Mouse doll, one of the first pieces of merchandise made for the character in real life in the 1930s.
• "Hard to Swallow":
  • Pluto's entrance music is the music that opened his cartoon shorts in the 1940s.
  • Mickey has a framed photo of the steamboat from Steamboat Willie.
  • Fifi the Peke makes her second appearance in the series.
• "School of Fish":
  • In Mickey's flashback, he is pursued by Butch the Bulldog, one of Pluto's rivals.
  • Gubbles' teacher is Merlin in fish form from the "That's What Makes the World Go 'Round" sequence of The Sword in the Stone.
• "Keep on Rollin' ":
  • The entire short is an homage to the album Mickey Mouse Disco from 1979.
  • Members of Pete's crew include one of the Beagle Boys and Ursula from The Little Mermaid (1989), who is first seen in her Vanessa disguise. Pat Carroll also reprises her role from the film.
  • Yen Sid, the Sorcerer from "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" sequence in Fantasia appears as the DJ.
  • One of the ballrooms the gang try out is the one from Beauty and the Beast. Mickey mentions Chip and the Beast makes a cameo.
• "The Big Good Wolf":
  • The Big Bad Wolf from The Three Little Pigs plays a prominent role, as does the song "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf".
  • One of the senior citizens is Dippy Dawg's original appearance in Mickey's Revue, as well as one of the skeletons from The Skeleton Dance.
  • Among the characters the Wolf eats alive include Timothy and the title character from Dumbo, as well as the Prince of Jazz from the Silly Symphonies short Music Land.
• "The Brave Little Squire":
  • The title and Mickey's costume are references to the short Brave Little Tailor.
  • Mad Madame Mim from The Sword in the Stone appears in an illustration.
  • Lady Kluck and several other characters from Robin Hood (1973) make cameo appearances.
  • Maleficent's goons from Sleeping Beauty also make appearances.
• "An Ordinary Date":
  • The deer are designed after the ones seen in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
• "Supermarket Scramble"
  • Flounder from The Little Mermaid (1989) is seen under the seafood sign.
• "Houseghosts":
  • Several to the Haunted Mansion in the scene where Mickey goes home after bowling.
    • Madam Leota's floating instruments
    • The infamous wallpaper (or something very close to it) is used in the background when the Lonely ghosts are sitting watching tv.
• The Enchanting hut:
  • Several for the The Enchanted Tiki Room
• "The Wonderful Winter of Mickey Mouse"
  • Melvin the Moose, Buff the Buffalo & Max the Stag, the three talking animal heads from Country Bear Jamboree, appear as decorations in the cabin Mickey, Donald and Goofy stay in.
    • The cabin is at a ski resort called Mineral King, in reference to Walt Disney's unbuilt ski resort where the Bear Jamboree would've made its debut.
• "The Wonderful Spring of Mickey Mouse"
  • In the third segment, Minnie stumbles upon all sorts of things while trying to clean up Mickey's house, including the Kingdom Key D Keyblade from Kingdom Hearts and Yen Sid's magic hat from "The Sorcerer's Apprentice".

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