Western Animation / Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures

Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures is a Denser and Wackier take on the Mighty Mouse series created in the late 1980's for CBS' Saturday morning cartoon block, and helmed by famed animator Ralph Bakshi.

The show follows the same basic premise as the original show - Mighty Mouse saves the day, the world, and/or his girlfriend - but is notable for a pioneering the insane pop-culture-obsessed young adult-attracting style of television cartoons that flourished in the 1990s. Many of those who worked, created, or had a major impact on those later shows originally found writing and animation jobs for Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures including Bakshi's long-time friend and protegé John Kricfalusi, Bruce Timm, Jim Reardon, and Tom Minton.

Sadly, if remembered at all by casual viewers, it's usually for the controversy surrounding a scene in which Mighty Mouse sniffed some crushed flowers that looked a heck of a lot like cocaine. The creators contend to this day that it was unintentional; even John Kricfalusi found that the outrage over the flower-sniffing scene was blown out of proportion — especially since that episode also had the Kirk Douglas-looking man deep kissing Polly Pineblossom and the two driving off into the sunset, only for their car to explode into a mushroom cloud, which, to John, felt more like scenes that would get them in trouble with the censors.

The series aired from 1987 to 1988 for a total of 19 episodes.

---

Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures provides examples of:

• Affectionate Parody:
  • Bat-Bat and The League of Super-Rodents are affectionate parodies of DC and Marvel superheroes.
  • Mighty Mouse himself was given an origin similar to Superman's.
• Animal Gender-Bender: Recurring villain The Cow, who is male (but has udders).
• Appropriated Appellation: The Origins Episode "Mouse from Another House" establishes that Mighty Mouse got his name from a remark made about his powers by his adoptive father.
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: In the fourth issue of the Marvel comic, Mighty answers Pearl Pureheart's call for help and asks whether the trouble is an army of carnivorous cats, a fiendishly vile villain, or the F.C.C.
• Author Tract: The message of the episode "Don't Touch That Dial" can best be described as "This show's awesome and all other cartoons are bland garbage" and "Television is bad, do something more productive than watching cartoons and game shows".

• The Cameo: From the Terrytoons studio, by episode:
  • "Night On Bald Pate"—Tom Terrific makes a split second appearance on TV set.
  • "The Ice Goose Cometh"—Gandy Goose, Sourpuss, Hashimoto San, Deputy Dawg
  • "Still Oily After All These Years"—Oil Can Harry, Gaston Le Crayon
  • "Mighty's Wedlock Whimsy"—Gandy Goose, Sourpuss, James Hound, Deputy Dawg, Muskie, Vincent Van Gopher, Heckle and Jeckle
  • "Mighty's Tone Poem"—Oil Can Harry
• Clip Show: Despite lasting 19 episodes, there are several shorts comprised almost entirely clips from old Terrytoons (i.e. "Mighty's Musical Classics", "Scrappy's Playhouse", "Animation Concerto" and "Stress for Success") and earlier episodes of the show. This was due to budget reasons (the key animation was done in-house, which is very expensive for a low-budget series such as this)
• Comedic Spanking: In "The Littlest Tramp", Mighty Mouse attempts to punish Big Murray for tormenting Polly Pineblossom by spanking him, but Polly insists that he stop after a few smacks.
• Creator Cameo: Ralph Bakshi's likeness makes cameo appearances in "Night on Bald Pate" and "Snow White and the Motor City Dwarfs".
• Crossover: With The Mighty Heroes in "Heroes and Zeroes". The Heroes are older now, and have given up superheroing to become accountants, but Mighty Mouse calls them back into action one more time.
• Death Is Cheap: Lampshaded and defied in the fourth issue of the Marvel comic. After Mighty Mousette gets killed, Mighty Mouse begs the Minotaur to bring her back to life, bringing up that dead characters always come back in comics. The Minotaur denies Mighty Mouse's request and tells him that he must accept that Mighty Mousette is gone for good.
• Demoted to Extra: Scrappy appears less frequently in the second season. In fact, "Anatomy of a Milquetoast" (his only season 2 appearance other than a cameo in "Mighty's Tone Poem") is one giant lampshade of this, with Mighty Mouse being put on trial because he's blamed for being responsible for Scrappy's disappearance.

• Didn't Think This Through: Big Murray ends up learning that it pays to think your schemes through in "Heroes and Zeroes", where he attempts to hold all the numbers in Mouseville for ransom. The flaw in his plan is that without numbers, no one is able to tell if they have enough money to pay his ransom.
• Distaff Counterpart: Issue 4 of the Marvel comic (part one of a parody of Crisis on Infinite Earths, of all things) introduces Mighty Mousette. Of course, considering what happened to her kryptonian inspiration in the original story, this didn't last long...
• Donut Mess with a Cop: Alluded to in "Mighty's Tone Poem", where Petey Pate remarks to caricatures of Siskel and Ebert that they can find the nearest donut shop by following the trail of cops.
• Dreaming of Things to Come: "Mighty's Wedlock Whimsy" has Mighty Mouse dream of being married to Pearl Pureheart, with the Cow being reformed and his best friend. While it seems out of whack because of the same dream having Pearl become obese and unpleasant, the Cow is also depicted as reformed in the later episode "The Bride of Mighty Mouse", which shows Pearl as still being attractive and amiable.
• Dream Within a Dream: The ending of "Anatomy of a Milquetoast" became one due to executive meddling. Originally the episode was going to end on Scrappy turning into a crab, but CBS didn't like the idea of such ending. So they made that part of a dream, recycling the same animation of him waking up from just few seconds before (note that the episode fades out just before he removes the bed cover, revealing his changed body).
• Evil Counterpart: Mighty gets an evil counterpart named Mangy Mouse in the aforementioned Crisis on Infinite Earths spoof.
• Fantastic Racism: Touched upon in "Me-Yowww!", where Mighty Mouse befriends a cat named Durf and ends up ostracized, fired from his day job, and evicted from his own home because of the association.
• "Fantastic Voyage" Plot: The story of "Mundane Voyage", where Mighty Mouse and Pearl Pureheart shrink down and go into the President's body to save his life.
• Fish out of Temporal Water: "The Ice Goose Cometh" is centered around the old Terrytoons star Gandy Goose, who was frozen in ice in 1944 and thaws out in 1987, having to adjust to the fact that no one remembers him anymore while finding his old partner Sourpuss.
• From Beyond the Fourth Wall: The Bakshi episode "Mighty's Wedlock Whimsy" (billed as a cautionary tale), Mighty Mouse is getting married to Pearl Pureheart. But he's getting cold feet just as he's about to take his vow, just stammering "I...I...I...", then it cuts to a pencil drawing of him on an animator's table. The animator cops out and can't go through with it. It ends with the cartoon characters at the wedding all laughing as everything is up in flames.
• Genre Shift: The Bakshi revival shifted the series from a straight Funny Animal / Superhero series to a Satire of those cartoons, among other topics contemporary to the 80's.
• Glad I Thought of It: Used in "Pirates with Dirty Faces" when the three young mice give the suggestion that they can get the pirate captain to sleep and thereby start a mutiny by holding a slumber party. The first mate finds it a good idea and says "Glad I thought of it".
• Heel–Face Turn: In Mighty Mouse's dream of being married in "Mighty's Wedlock Whimsy" and the possible future of "Bride of Mighty Mouse", the Cow isn't just reformed, he's treated like family.

• Interspecies Romance: Big Murray (human man) and Polly Pineblossom (girl mouse) end up married at the end of "The Littlest Tramp".
• Klaatu Barada Nikto: Bat-Bat fractures the phrase in "Bat With A Golden Tongue" by replacing the last word with "Nicotine".
• Lorre Lookalike:
  • The series features recurring antagonists in the form of three mice in a street gang: Bub, Moe, and Frawley. Bub has Dreary Half-Lidded Eyes and speaks with a Peter Lorre impression.
  • In the episode "Mundane Voyage," Pearl Pureheart is tortured by the Mad Scientist Cardigan in a method similar to "The Pit and the Pendulum"—but instead of a blade on the end, it's a creepy Lorre Lookalike who's trying to grope Pearl as he swings by. He even whistles "In the Hall of the Mountain King" like Hans Beckert in M.
• Marilyn Maneuver: "The Littlest Tramp" at one point has Polly Pineblossom's skirt blowing up when she's standing on an air vent.
• Meaningful Background Event: While the Cow battles the League of Super Rodents, what seems to be a statue of a sloth posing is occasionally seen in the background. This is actually the Rampaging Sloth winding up and throwing his punch at the Cow.
• Mighty Glacier: The Rampaging Sloth of the League of Super-Rodents. It takes over five minutes for his punch to reach its target, but once it arrives, it's devastating, blasting the Cow through over a dozen walls and trees right into prison.
• Mythology Gag:
  • In Mighty's Wedlock Whimsy, Mighty Mouse is being goaded into proposing marriage to Pearl, when James Hound (an obscure Terrytoons character from the mid 60s) appears as his conscience:
    Mighty Mouse: Hey! How come my conscience is James Hound? Don't I rate a cute cricket?
  • In the episode "Witch Tricks," Scrappy sings the Mighty Mouse Playhouse theme.
  • In the Marvel comic's Crisis on Infinite Earths parody "Mices on Infinite Earths," Mighty himself is saved by Supermouse, the Silent Protagonist proto-version of him from the original "The Mouse of Tomorrow" Terrytoon!
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: Big Murray is a clear caricature of Kirk Douglas.
• Not-So-Forgotten Birthday: The premise of a character's friends pretending to forget their birthday for the sake of surprising them later is used in the episode "It's Scrappy's Birthday", where Scrappy is so incensed by the people of Mouseville forgetting about his birthday that he runs away. In the end, he returns home and discovers everyone greeting him with open arms and presenting a big cake.
• Origins Episode:
  • "Mouse from Another House" has Pearl Pureheart explain Mighty Mouse's origins to Scrappy.
  • "Scrap-Happy" establishes the first meeting of Mighty Mouse and Scrappy.
• Paper-Thin Disguise:
  • In "Day of the Mice", Petey Pate disguises himself as a mouse by wearing Mickey Mouse ears.
  • The Cow disguises himself in "Still Oily After All These Years" by wearing a purple suit and a fake mustache.

• Shipper on Deck: "Mighty's Wedlock Whimsy" has Gandy Goose and Sourpuss both eager to get Mighty Mouse and Pearl Pureheart together.
• Shout-Out: Has a page for it.
• Speak Now or Forever Hold Your Peace: Hilariously inverted. In Mighty's Wedlock Whimsy, a cautionary tale where Mighty Mouse proposes to Pearl, Deputy Dawg is conducting the wedding and starts it with "You have the right to remain silent...anything you say can be used against you..."
• Stock Footage: The high-quality animation came at a cost. To keep down costs, some episodes are comprised entirely of old footage of Mighty Mouse cartoons (along with other misc. Terrytoons shorts) with a new soundtrack.
  • "Mighty's Musical Classics" is a long music video made entirely of old TerryToons clips. Same goes with "Animation Concerto".
  • The bulk of "Scrappy's Playhouse" has Scrappy watching several old Mighty Mouse cartoons (such as "Krakatoa", "Goons from the Moon", "The First Snow") with some footage from other Terrytoons, such as "Farmer Al Falfa's 20th Anniversary" and "Flebus".
  • "The Ice Goose Cometh" uses this when Gandy Goose is undergoing separation anxiety, flashing back to footage of the old Terrytoons cartoons starring him and Sourpuss.
  • "Stress for Success" uses footage from four TerryToons for Mighty's dreams, including "The Owl and the Pussycat" (the first Sourpuss cartoon), "Prehistoric Perils" and "Beauty on the Beach".
• Superpowerful Genetics: "The Bride of Mighty Mouse" shows Mighty Mouse and Pearl Pureheart having an infant son who inherits his father's powers.
• Take That!:
  • "Don't Touch That Dial" is a particularly biting satire of Hanna-Barbera, Anime (with a hint of The Real Ghostbusters), the The Dark Age of Animation and television of the 1980's in general.
  • Season 2 episode "Day of The Mice" has Mighty Mouse knocking a ginormous Pee-wee Herman on his back.
    Mighty Mouse: I've waited a whole season to do this!
  • "Anatomy of a Milquetoast" bites the hand that feeds it: using footage from season 1 with the dialogue altered, most notably from "It's Scrappy's Birthday," the hobo chums of Scrappy's hobo companion appear in their train boxcar. The hobo's new line is "Hey, look...the network boards are here!"
  • "The Bride of Mighty Mouse" features a villainous parody of Howard Roark.
  • The third issue of the Marvel comic has the Bug Wonder state that they need to stop the Emperor Penguin before the government is run by a power-crazed looney tune. Bat-Bat's butler Belfry remarks "So what else is new?"
  • The tenth and final issue of the Marvel Comic has the cover depict Mighty Mouse giving ten reasons why it is imperative the reader buy this issue. Reason number one is "No teenagers, no mutants, no ninjas, no turtles". Within the issue is a dig at Andrew "Dice" Clay, who appears as a caricature named Andrew "Mice" Clay and is depicted as not very well-received. Pearl Pureheart even boycotts the rest of the issue due to not liking his sense of humor.
  • The entire episode "Mighty's Benefit Plan" is this to Alvin and the Chipmunks and Ross Bagdasarian Jr., due to animator Bob Jaques being denied screen credit for his work on The Chipmunk Adventure. Jaques came up with the idea for this episode in retaliation, which takes many vicious swipes at the Chipmunks and Bagdasarian, lampooning the movie's Product Placement for Honey Nut Cheerios (the Dave Seville expy constantly has a mouth full of cereal, and a box of "Ohoorids" is prominently featured in the background of one scene) as well as Bagdasarian's dead dog Tiger Lilly (the cartoon is narrated by a piece of roadkill named "Mashy The Pup").
• Token Heroic Orc: Sourpuss (Gandy Goose’s best friend) appears to be the only cat who not only not antagonize mice but actually gets along with Pearl Pureheart.
• Two Shorts: Every episode consisted of two ten-minute stories.

• Wedding Episode: The episode "Mighty's Wedlock Whimsy" is billed as a cautionary tale of Mighty Mouse marrying Pearl Pureheart. After a dream sequence he'd like to forget, Mighty Mouse is about to make his vows when he gets cold feet. The wedding is averted as the animator himself is unable to go through with it.
• Went to the Great X in the Sky: Used in "Aqua-Guppy", where Captain A. Crab attempts to get himself and Pearl Pureheart hit by a train when she keeps rejecting his proposal to marry her (he confused her with an old flame of his also named Pearl) and states that he'll join Pearl in the great coral reef in the sky.
• You're Insane!: In "Night on Bald Pate", Pearl Pureheart responds to Petey Pate boasting about his scheme of stealing every left shoe in Mouseville by calling him mad.

---