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Why doesn't Disney make a Mickey Mouse movie?
Posted: Thu Jul 07, 2005 10:12 pm
by cobra
make a mickey mouse movie? if you think about disney barely has any movies about mickey mouse. they made the goofy movie why not make a mickey movie?
Posted: Thu Jul 07, 2005 10:14 pm
by Prince Eric
Maybe it's just me, but I like the mysterious aura Mickey Mouse has by not having a movie specifically dedicated to him and his life/backstory. He's always a supporting player OR he's in an ensemble OR he's playing a character that is not himself (such as The Prince and the Pauper). OR I may not be that well-versed in old Disney knowledge enough to know that Mickey Mouse has a rich history already on film.

Posted: Thu Jul 07, 2005 10:25 pm
by cobra
did you know mickey mouse isnt the first disney charactor? the first charactor created by walt disney is oswald the lucky bunny.
Posted: Thu Jul 07, 2005 10:49 pm
by Little Red Henski
The 1st recurring character Disney created was Julius Alice's cat in the Alice comedies. He also created Pete before Oswald.
The modern Mickey is too safe and boring to star in his own movie.

Posted: Thu Jul 07, 2005 10:51 pm
by Kram Nebuer
cobra wrote:did you know mickey mouse isnt the first disney charactor? the first charactor created by walt disney is oswald the lucky bunny.
Actually, it's Oswald the Lucky
Rabbit 
and he wasn't the first. Well he didn't create Alice for his Alice Comedies (Live girl in animated world a la Mary Poppins), but her sidekick Julius the cat was an animated character (lol, Lil Red Henski, you beat me by 2 minutes!). Though even before that were his characters from his Laugh-o-grams from the 1920s with the Kansas City Film Ad company. Though you are still right in saying Oswald the Lucky Rabbit is the first character as I guess he was the first animated character Disney/Ub Iwerks created for his own cartoon series. For more information, you might want to read Walt Disney: An American Original by Bob Thomas. The beginning is all about the Laugh-o-grams and Alice and Oswald. It's a fantastic story that's both entertaining and informative.
Oswald the Lucky Rabbit (

very Mickey looking)

Posted: Thu Jul 07, 2005 10:51 pm
by Hogi Bear
cobra wrote:did you know mickey mouse isnt the first disney charactor? the first charactor created by walt disney is oswald the lucky bunny.
He's a Universal character unfortunately.
http://disney.go.com/vault/archives/cha ... swald.html
Posted: Thu Jul 07, 2005 10:55 pm
by cobra
wow. i thought oswald was the first. if oswald wasnt the first why is mickey mouse so popular?
Posted: Thu Jul 07, 2005 10:58 pm
by Little Red Henski
Oswald is also making a comeback in Japan.
Posted: Thu Jul 07, 2005 11:02 pm
by Kram Nebuer
cobra wrote:wow. i thought oswald was the first. if oswald wasnt the first why is mickey mouse so popular?
There are many answers to this question. It could be that he was the first to have a cartoon short featuring syncronized sound rather than a silent cartoon with a live music accompaniment. Perhaps at that time ppl decided to love Mickey Mouse after that crucial, famous first squeak heaerd by an animated character. Or maybe it's just because Mickey is a lovable, charming, timeless character.
Anyhow, back to the topic, didn't MIckey get his own feature length movie for the first time with the Three Musketeers? At least that's what it was advertised as: Mickey's first full-length feature film.
If you mean a movie with JUST Mickey, I think that would be too difficult. Walt Disney realized really wasn't all that funny by himself so he often put him with Pluto, Goofy, and Donald for a great, comedic cartoon. I guess Disney's animators now know that too and will always put MIckey with his best buddies. I think its a winning solution b/c all the Mickey, Donald, and Goofy shorts (from the 1930s to the recent Mouseworks and House of Mouse episodes)are my favorites and the funniest IMO.
Posted: Thu Jul 07, 2005 11:12 pm
by cobra
i know it would be hard to make a movie with just mickey i mean a movie as mickey the main charactor. it also should have donald, goofy, minnie, pluto and daisy.
Posted: Thu Jul 07, 2005 11:27 pm
by Little Red Henski
cobra wrote:i know it would be hard to make a movie with just mickey i mean a movie as mickey the main charactor. it also should have donald, goofy, minnie, pluto and daisy.
They already have one it's called the 3 Musketeers.
You can checkout more cool Japanese Oswald stuff here.
http://www.cartoonresearch.com/lantz2.html
Posted: Fri Jul 08, 2005 3:03 am
by drnilescrane
Little Red Henski wrote:cobra wrote:i know it would be hard to make a movie with just mickey i mean a movie as mickey the main charactor. it also should have donald, goofy, minnie, pluto and daisy.
They already have one it's called the 3 Musketeers.
We can write that one off... I want a movie showing the REAL Mickey (ok, I want one for Daisy more...)
Posted: Fri Jul 08, 2005 1:45 pm
by orestes.
Little Red Henski wrote:Oswald is also making a comeback in Japan.
That's pretty cool.

What kind of a comeback? (on clothing? rare collectibles? DVDs in public domain?)
(Ah no need to reply, I see that picture now... it was a broken link to me before oddly)
Posted: Fri Jul 08, 2005 1:49 pm
by orestes.
I would like to see a Mickey Mouse movie just like how Goofy got his own movie and how I want Donald to get his own (see:
http://www.ultimatedisney.com/forum/vie ... onald+duck)
I think Mickey could handle his own movie... with Minnie and cameos or supporting roles from Donald, Goofy, Daisy and the rest of the gang.
Posted: Fri Jul 08, 2005 2:30 pm
by Little Red Henski
orestes. wrote:Little Red Henski wrote:Oswald is also making a comeback in Japan.
That's pretty cool.

What kind of a comeback? (on clothing? rare collectibles? DVDs in public domain?)
(Ah no need to reply, I see that picture now... it was a broken link to me before oddly)
His old shorts also air on the Japanese Cartoon Network's "Late Night in Black in White" program.
Posted: Fri Jul 08, 2005 3:03 pm
by danamichelle
Maybe the Disney writers are working on a script for a Mickey Movie. They may think it has to be so perfect that it is taking years and years of re-writes to get the final script.
Think of how high peoples expectations would be for a full length movie dedicated to Mickey.

Posted: Fri Jul 08, 2005 3:32 pm
by MinnieMe
Exactly. That's why Mickey was created. Oswald was stolen from Walt and thus he lost the rights to his character and the shorts he starred in.
Posted: Fri Jul 08, 2005 6:29 pm
by SuicideSeaside

When I read "MM" in the thread title, I thought you meant Marilyn Manson. ROFL. I'm a fan of him but I think it's obvious why Disney won't make a movie.
Hmm. Oswald is very interesting. I've never heard of the character before.
Posted: Fri Jul 08, 2005 7:04 pm
by MK Sharp
MinnieMe wrote:That's why Mickey was created. Oswald was stolen from Walt and thus he lost the rights to his character and the shorts he starred in.
I think "stolen" is a bit harsh. Disney was contracted to Universal (via Winkler/Mintz) to make the Oswald series, so even when the films were made by Disney, Universal owned the films and the characters.
If anything, it was Disney's staff who were stolen away. During the production of the Oswalds, most of them signed contracts with Charles Mintz - without Walt's knowledge. So Mintz gave Walt an ultimatum - be paid less for producing the next series of Oswalds, or I'll take your staff away from you and produce them myself. Walt took the latter option, and the rest is history.
The final twist in the story is that a year later Universal got fed up with Mintz, and set up their own studio to produce Oswalds, headed by Walter Lantz (who had been working for Mintz at that time). The former Disney employees - people like Hugh Harman, Rudolf Ising, Rollin Hamilton and Isadore Freleng - ended up starting a studio supplying Looney Tunes to Warners...
But back to the topic of the thread.
I'd like to see a Mickey feature - but only if there's a decent role for Horace Horsecollar! You only need to look at "The Beach Party" or "Camping Out" to see how well the Mickey/Minnie/Horace/Clarabelle quartet can work.
I thought "The Three Musketeers" was a bit of a wasted opportunity - not only was Goofy romancing Clarabelle (for shame!), but Donald was very subdued. The whole point of Donald's character is to have him bursting into uncontrollable rage, so the decision to turn him into a simpering sook was an odd one. Or is it un-PC to have Donald blowing his stack these days? Does it set a bad example for children?

Posted: Fri Jul 08, 2005 7:13 pm
by Mario
Kram Nebuer wrote:
There are many answers to this question. It could be that he was the first to have a cartoon short featuring syncronized sound rather than a silent cartoon with a live music accompaniment. Perhaps at that time ppl decided to love Mickey Mouse after that crucial, famous first squeak heaerd by an animated character. Or maybe it's just because Mickey is a lovable, charming, timeless character.
Anyhow, back to the topic, didn't MIckey get his own feature length movie for the first time with the Three Musketeers? At least that's what it was advertised as: Mickey's first full-length feature film.
If you mean a movie with JUST Mickey, I think that would be too difficult. Walt Disney realized really wasn't all that funny by himself so he often put him with Pluto, Goofy, and Donald for a great, comedic cartoon. I guess Disney's animators now know that too and will always put MIckey with his best buddies. I think its a winning solution b/c all the Mickey, Donald, and Goofy shorts (from the 1930s to the recent Mouseworks and House of Mouse episodes)are my favorites and the funniest IMO.
Other suggested reasons behind Mickey's popularity is his almost completely spherical or cylindrical form, except for his tail. (Which was removed later anyways because the animators realized that by removing that one line, it would save a lot of time and money.) Psychiatrists believe that the circles make us think of simple earthly things like, well, boobs for example. That might be why characters with similar features but sharp hair and long ears such as Felix the Cat and Oswald weren't as popular. Of course design isn't everything, but it does play a very big subconscious affect on us.
Also, it wasn't so much that Walt realized he wasn't funny, as that when Mickey would play jokes and pull on cow's utters, for which one short was banned from the state of Ohio, parents were outraged. They felt that Mickey had become such a strong role model for their children that he couldn't run around doing things like that anymore. So, in came Donald and Goofy. (One last tidbit and I promise I'll get off my soap box haha) As we know, in Steamboat Willie, Mickey played "Turkey in the Straw" with Minnie on several barnyard animals. The short, The Band Concert, signaled Donald's take over of the spotlight when he in fact interrupted Mickey's concert by playing, what else but, "Turkey in the Straw."