WesternAnimation I know this is an unpopular opinion...
This series as a whole is mediocre, at best. While remembering (and sometimes watching) some episodes (like, say, "Wish Upon a Coin" and "Feliz Cumpleanos") can be joyous to me, the memory of most doesn't make me so much as smile, let alone laugh.
Let's go with the writing: most of it is just bland and unfunny, and relies too much on annoying screaming, ugly faces, repeated storylines and characters getting tortured for little to no reason for its own good. I'll admit, the Shout Outs to other Disney properties and the World Tour idea are clever, but that's about it for most episodes.
Then, the characters: Most of the time, most of them are caricatures of their former versions.
- Mickey, Minnie and Pluto are mostly as flat as a piece of paper, and while they're the most sympathetic characters, they get the Designated Monkey treatment the most. Mickey was also portrayed as unable to say "No" in an episode.
- Daisy's attitude is upped and she's basically a combination of Donald and Minnie.
- Donald, who's normally ill-tempered, but has a good heart beneath it all, often becomes a Jerkass who has little to no good qualities and sometimes expresses sadistic glee in others' pain. He was also portrayed as a big tantrum thrower in that episode.
- Goofy goes from The Ditz, which he normally is, to a virtually brain-dead burden to everyone around him in certain episodes of this show. He also becomes more of a Jerkass on occasion.
- The BG characters can be very unlikeable.
The artstyle is actually very good, but some of the face expressions can be very annoying. Same goes with the acting: mostly good, but the screams can be very grating. And finally, most of these episodes can be easily fixed.
There you have it, this show's not that good for me.
WesternAnimation Sometimes, dreams you never even knew you should have wished for come true.
Can you really blame me for instantly writing off the House of Mouse's early 2010s announcement of a new series of animations based on the classic shorts of the '30s and '40s that not only served as the foundation of their entire entertainment empire, but endure as true classics of cartooning to this day? I suppose I could shoulder some blame for having a negative outlook from the start, but that's more the fruit of Disney's effort, or lack thereof, for a considerable timeframe. After all, at the time of writing you'd have to go back to the '90s to find a Disney original series that felt true to the Disney spirit... let alone one that wasn't a soulless, modern cash-grab.
Moreover, Mickey's 1/3 of the Power Trio of Mickey/Donald/Goofy shorts—at least after the neutering of Mickey's character to an inoffensive corporate mascot— were always the more bland and forgettable of the three, even if mostly by virtue of inevitable comparison. Anyways, after a night of binging on the classic badass Mickey shorts, I felt generous enough to give Disney's new offering a chance. 'Cause I'm a nice guy.
...Holy shit, sometimes it feels really good to be wrong, and, err, have your lack of faith rewarded? Let's go with that.
Yessir, from the word "go", Mickey Mouse achieves everything it sets out to do and more, and makes it look easy. Rather than unceremoniously snapping Mickey back to his badass trickster roots now that his squeaky-clean mascot persona has long since attained indelible iconic status and thus risk creating a feeling of insincerity, the new shorts' third option is to play up Mickey's non-giving-up-mouse-guy traits. Granted, that runs the risk of turning him into every other industrious-but-clumsy cartoon protagonist, but he retains an inimitable level of cheesy Disney optimism that is as true to the character as anything.
The backgrounds are bright and painterly like nothing Disney has done before, perfectly fitting the more frenetic style of comedy. For long-time Disney fans there are in-jokes and easter eggs aplenty, and the show's tone is suffused with a deliciously tongue-in-cheek take on Disney's particular brand of perceiveed "cheesiness", while remaining true to the company's ethos all the same. Truly the best of both worlds, right here.
And Chris Diamantopoulos is probably the best guy to voice Mickey since good ol' Uncle Walt himself. He inundates the character with a hypnotically manic energy and tackles more challenging tasks such as singing and pitch control with the ease of a veteran. Even years on since Allwine's passing, Iwan still sounds stilted and uncomfortable in the role; Disney should just wisen up and full-on replace him with Chris D. already.
The whole freakin' series is free to watch on YouTube at time of writing. Stop pretending like you've got anything better to do; sit your ass down, watch Mickey Mouse right now, and be a part of a classic in the making! Sometimes, the future is indeed now.
WesternAnimation Beautiful series.
I enjoy watching this series. It's a brand new Cartoon Classics for this generation. Check it out.
WesternAnimation Tapped Out
Honestly, a brief blurb isn't enough to describe my utter disgust towards this episode. And no, I'm not just talking about Pete beating Mickey to an inch of his life. My issues are more: First of all, if you laugh at your friends' suffering you are a terrible person and I'm not going to bend on that. Donald here is one of those people. But his reaction to Mickey touching his nachos unintentionally is chewing him out because Donald only cares about his nachos and not his OWN FRIEND. That's true friendship there, folks. Even worse, it's Donald, not Mickey, who gets to defeat Pete, and the latter could've won fair and square. All I can say is Donald does't deserve it. But maybe this wouldn't be so bad IF MICKEY HADN'T HELPED DONALD LITERALLY THE PREVIOUS EPISODE. There's a reason this episode is No. 3 on my list for most hated episodes.