Mickey perd la tête

Not many people know this, but Runaway Brain is actually being released by Disney on DVD! It's included on the Disney Treasures Mickey in living colors volume 2 DVD box. I love the quality of the animation, which is far much better than 3 Musketeers or Mickey's House of Mouse. Although this movie isn't suitable for very young children, it will be funny for the older ones and especially adults who will adore the spoofs to other movies. The hardcore Disney fan will adore this short too, mostly because it shows Mickey in a whole different way we know him. My advice is: get the Treasures box and enjoy one of the best Mickey shorts of the past years.

I've got a little confession. While I love Disney movie and the shorts with Donald and Goofy, I have never understood the world's love affair with Mickey. Generally, he is a very bland character and lacks the edge and fun of the rest of the Disney gang. I'm sorry, but that's how I've always felt.

However, when I saw RUNAWAY BRAIN, I finally saw a Mickey Mouse cartoon that I absolutely loved. Gone was the sickeningly sweet Mickey and instead this "new Mickey" was like the old one done by the folks who made Ren and Stimpy or Tex Avery!!! The art style was much more "elastic"--with lots more action and weirdness than you'd find in ten traditional Mickey shorts. The new Mickey was also part action-hero and I really liked what I saw. Plus, with a plot involving brain transplants, you know this is definitely NOT your grandpa's generation mouse!!

A wicked sense of humor, fantastic animation and more than anything else FUN--this is the type Mickey Mouse cartoon I would like to see a lot more of in the coming years!

By the way, if you want to see this film, get a copy of "Mickey Mouse in Color: Volume 2"--it's included in this nice collection of Mickey shorts.

This is the first time I comment on a film I haven't seen.

Not that I didn't want to. I bought the Disney Treasures/Mickey in Color 2 DVD set, official edition (not some bootleg) here in Germany. I watched Leonard Maltin announce it in his intro, including a second of snippet.. I watched all 5 hours of the DVDs, bonuses and all.. tried all the menus for hidden Easter eggs.. no luck.

As I've met possible censorship on another Treasures DVD just some days ago (Der Fuehrer's Face was missing from Chronological Donald 2 - possibly because displaying swastikas is illegal in today's Germany), I suspect a somewhat similar reason here.. not law, but viewer clearance. The whole Disney cartoons are cleared for age 0 and up. Now if a DVD contains just one item with a higher limit (6/12/16/18), it must display that clearance for the whole bundle.. I suspect that marketing considerations led the German distributor to self-censor and remove Runaway Brain, even though announced by Maltin. I'm really frustrated.

Update, July 11, 2011: Now I've watched the film, on YouTube. A nice combination of modern-day dynamics in cartoons with many 1930s themes: the ancient looks of Mickey and Minnie, the King-Kong, mad scientist, brain transplantation themes and so on... very likable! I was surprised that it was produced in France, but hey, that's globalisation...

So I'm softening my above point on censorship, too. It certainly exists, but given the Net, there just as certainly are ways around it. By the way: some weeks ago, I also located The Fuehrer's Face on archive.org.

When I actually had the chance to see this bizarre cartoon, I had one immediate reaction:

WHOA.

It's difficult to describe my reaction to this one apart from that one word. It's usually easy to comment on things I've seen, especially since I have a rep for stating my most precise, honest feelings on any subject you'd care to hand me and making myself perfectly clear. But this is one of the rare things I've ever seen which has put me at a complete loss for words.

The cartoon is easily the weirdest Mickey Mouse cartoon ever made, and it made me feel strange for the longest time after seeing it with my reaction of, "What on earth was THAT?!!"

There's one thing about it which I *can* state, however; my peers in the animation industry and I have loved making jokes about this short featuring the "real" Walt Disney Mickey Mouse being turned into the Michael Eisner Mickey Mouse!

I have come across a few criticisms over this short, but even those didn't ruin if when I finally saw it. First off, the animation was great. I love the way they did. They basically kept Minnie and Mickey's designs and freshened them up. The only thing I can complain about was the pace, since it did move a little too fast. But I think it is a great way to evolve Mickey into current trends and it'll still appeal to teenagers. Honestly, when the classic Mickeys were put out, do you think that the time was and trends were the same? I think not.

Also, for the people that say it's too scary. I find that hard to believe. I showed this to a 7 year old, and they like it. Played three times more. I also showed it to my pops, who seemed to enjoy it and laughed at the references. So I think this was a success.

The only reason I think some didn't enjoy it was because it came as a surprise as how dark this was. I guess some people didn't catch the commercials that were being shown on Disney channel that I saw when I was like...7 or 8. Anyway, this was a great way get put Mickey in the current time. And I see they're doing the same with "House of Mouse". They actually do have some good jokes in the show.