Just for the Record....

[I Am Clark Kent]

When it comes to the upcomming Bambi feature next year, we should all realize, that Disney wouldn't make these films if they knew they wouldn't be able to sell it.

And the hard truth is there really isn't anything that we can do about it.

But have no fear! For I am going to one day write at Disney

And it has also been noted that Mickey Mouse hasn't been in theaters in any major capacity for more than 50 years.

Oh sure he had a few shorts in the 80s and 90s. Which were in theaters, but the simple fact is Disney has ignored his bankability.

My question to all of you is...

Would you pay to see Mickey in theaters? If the storyline were good, and the visuals were great. Would you pay to see it. Even if his character was tweaked a bit?

I'm 20 years old and am slowly working my way into the industry. And hopefully within the next ten years, we will see Mickey Mouse return to the theaters.

I'm also the author of this post on the Save Disney Website....

http://www.savedisney.com/letters/wdm/wdm090904.asp

Tell me what you think. Did I nail Mickey's Character down pretty well?

[toonstuff]

I would pay to see Mickey in theaters... But I'm a little concerned about the "tweaking" of his character... I think it would be difficult to tweak Mickey's character without losing that sincere quality.

Time has shown that Mickey plays strongest as the star of featurettes and shorts, and as the straight man to Pluto, Goofy, and Donald. I thought Mickey's Christmas Carol (which used him in the natural role of good guy, albeit a small part) and Prince and the Pauper were great modern uses of Mickey, but Runaway Brain left me a bit cold. (It's great to look at, but Mickey and Minnie are, in my opinion, too hip.)

In the right role, Mickey Mouse is still capable and worthy of box office attention, but I don't think many people are brave enough to keep as he is. There is a tendancy to "update" him, however. He doesn't need updating! He needs his supporting cast!

[shr_fan]

I would pay to see Mickey in theaters!

[RJKD23]

I WOULD definitely PAY to see MICKEY MOUSE BACK in theatres!

Didn't Disney overall start off with Mickey Mouse?
But he's not as popular anymore...

[singerguy04]

i would pay too! "tweaking" scares me, but mickey has been tweaked with since he first appeared. As long as his character stays the same, his image can change. I think it's the idea of mickey mouse that makes him popular. He's a nice guy and good things happen to him... he just has to go through hell to make sure the good things happen to him. What makes us love him, is that he's so human... but he's a mouse.

[Cameron]

fantasia 2000 was the last feature, and that was a rehash

three musketeers could have been a theatrical run....

hope they bring him back....i have a feeling they will go 3-d animation for the next one

[The Monkey's Uncle]

we have the same dream clark kent! maybe one day we'll meet!

[dvdjunkie]

I hope they stay away from the 3-D animation garbage. Just look at "Twice Upon a Christmas".......it was the worst selling Disney DVD since they started putting out DVD's. The characters didn't look like themselves and the animation was poorly done.

If they are going to revitalize the animation industry, they need to leave well enough alone and just make some new cartoons. There must be a lot of story ideas they can use.

I am from the old school, and until Disney takes lessons from Pixar they should leave the 3-D animation alone. They don't know how to do it.

[orestes.]

I would love to see Mickey back in theatres! He's been in theatres a few times in the past 50 years but not a whole lot.
As for tweaking... meh... I don't see how he could really be tweaked that would have me satisfied. I think him and all the characters are great as is. What would you want tweaked?

As for 3D Mickey I say blah. I don't think I would pay to see a 3D Mickey in theatres but I'm sure Disney has that on their minds and maybe they were testing the waters with 'Mickey's Twice Upon a Christmas'. The only 3D Mickey I could possibly live with is if they made a Kingdom Hearts movie.

Anyways I'm babbling here.

[I Am Clark Kent]

One day I'd like to write this for the Disney audiance, if I ever get the blessing by the Disney family to bring Mickey into the 21st century.

"Wow! Didn't think we'd do it? DID YOU!"

But why? You think you know the answer? Crass Commericalism. Everyone Else is doing it. Jump On The Bandwagon.

No. None of the above. For the longest time, we needed....no we wanted a change! Just think, in all the years of Mickey's existence there's been little change if any to his character.

Sure Walt Disney's artists refined his model over 20 years, from a black and white cartoon to a mouse with more human features. But that's as far as it went.

When it came to Mickey, he was either too nice...or a jerk...leaving no lasting impression. Walt Disney himself, who told great stories with the character....admitted that it was hard to tell stories about the character, because there was too much internal resistance to change him.

He feared that audiances would not accept a new Mouse, and he didn't need to because his company was growing! Why fix something which isn't broken.

But in the last 20 years or so. Disney has fallen to its worst level since the death of Walt Disney. Eisner hasn't helped. He's gutted our past. And so in order to bring our audiance back, we've decided to bring Mickey's character into the 21st century.

In time we are going to explore his character, and give him storylines which will enable him to share his inner self with all of us. We're not going to forget his past, we are going to build on the memories and create new ones.

So join us, Mousekeeteers, as we begin anew.

[The Little Merman]

I WOULD definitely PAY to see MICKEY MOUSE BACK in theatres!

EXACT-ALLY!!

[2099net]

I don't think Mickey needs tweaking at all. Look at his appearances with "The Phantom Blot" in the old Mouseworks/House of Mouse cartoons. He works very well against the Blot, who in one of the cartoons has no second thoughts about killing Mickey (Incidently, the Phantom Blot is an old character from the Mickey Mouse comic strip).

I think Mickey will be just as good, if untweaked, but perhaps put up against some "serious" foes. After all, the badder the foes, the more his optimistic and "have a go" character can shine.

I do like how they have made the current Mickey more "self aware" and post-modern though. Its always fun to see Mickey riffing on his and Disney's history.

[Ciaobelli]

Of course I would pay to see him.

By the way, great article, very sad

[I Am Clark Kent]

Here's what I would change Mickey's character so to speak for the 21st century.

1. His voice - sure it's cute. But can you listen to it for more than 2 hours. This will catch many by suprise, but if you read into Mickey's history, Walt Disney himself actually voiced him. And Walt Disney appeared on Television throughout the 1950s and 60s. Meaning he was Mickey and vice versa. So in a way Mickey has two voices. One is the high pitched voice, and the other is that of Walt Disney.

2. Give him some relationship problems with Minnie. In any relationship, your going to have things your going to disagree about. It makes the story more interesting. In some of his early B&W shorts, Minnie breaks up with him. And declares "I HATE ALL MEN!"

3. Let him be more intimate with Minnie. In the B&W shorts he was kissing Minnie almost every time. There's even one short where he takes advantage of her. Geez, and this stuff was done by Walt Disney.


4. Put him back in his red robe from the Scorcerer's Apperentice. Remember he is the source of all that is good within the magic kingdom.

5. Bring another Mouse into Mickey and Minnie's lives. Mousekeeteers all over the world would rejoice.

Some of these points might rub some people the wrong way. But when it comes to Walt Disney's craft, there is something for everyone. Past or present.

If Walt Disney we're around today, he probably would be morally and politically upset with some of the stuff we have on TV. But if he had a choice, he would see that today, is actually better than his era, because its easier to do things today!

In Fantasia for example he had to deal with a lot of church groups, policing the motion picture industry. And because of that Fantasia, didn't turn out exactly the way he wanted it. Now the church's influence in hollywood has greatly dominished. He wouldn't have that to deal with.

I hope you've enjoyed my take on Mickey's character. And what we could do to rejuvanate him.

[pinkrenata]

This will catch many by suprise, but if you read into Mickey's history, Walt Disney himself actually voiced him.

I think you offend most everyone here's intelligence as Disney fans by assuming we'd be surprised by this bit of information that quite well-known.

[akhenaten]

i fear that in order to make mickey hip to the recent younger generations..mickey would have to make drastic makeover.
and im against him having to undergo new designs ala he-man.

i think the reason mickey's no longer appealing and only is cool as a cultural icon is due to the fact that the entertainment industry has lost all sense of innocence and heart.

[singerguy04]

if you were to change his voice i wouldn't make it too human, he is a mouse afterall. i think a relationshoip problem would work somewhat well actually. What if they did break up? i think that would lure people into the story line just to see what happened to them and how that will effect the character's future. Please don't have them do anything other than kissing, please oh please oh please! i love the red robe idea!

i think that it'd be fun to have the entire magic kingdom, along with all the other disney characters, be in mortal danger and it's up to sorceror mickey to save the kingdom. I think a story about that would be awesome. Show mickey going through the stress of having so much weight on his shoulders and have that cause problem with minnie. The story could show many different sides of mickey and make him a more dynamic character! Maybe it shouldn't always be great to be the mouse.

[akhenaten]

it would be fun if they'd take any of the old comics and turn them into an animated feature...i have this really old comic of mickey and goofy on an adventure on a lost island of dinosaurs. and also of mickey joining the foreign legion. sure, its dated but its retro!

[I Am Clark Kent]

Well, just to let everyone know. I'm working a script that would do most of what I've already described above.

The story is about a 1/3 of the way completed but is probably going to go through several re-writes. The story is based on three shorts from Fantasia.

The Scorcer's Apperentice.

A Night on Bald Mountain and the Ava Maria.

I'm trying to link these three shorts together, because I feel they are the most powerful of the entire film. One of the things I'd like to point out in the Sorcerer's Apperentice, is that Mickey never speaks throughout the entire short. Thus it would support my idea of him having a new voice.

I would like to involve Minnie, in the same way that Daisy was in Fantasia 2000.

In Fantasia 2000, Daisy was dressed in Blue. Making it clear to me that Minnie must dress in a blue robe to clash with Mickey's red robe.

And I have the idea of bringing in all of the other Disney worlds symbolically through books. If you ever play the computer games from the MYST series you'll get the idea.

I mean have you ever thought about where all of these worlds come from? Who's responsible for creating them? What is this journey we've been on for the last 70 years and what is it all building towards?

All of those questions will be answered. And you'll like what I've written for it. It will totally change your presepective of disney.

Singerguy04: Please don't have them do anything other than kissing, please oh please oh please! i love the red robe idea!

I have considered the idea. However, I believe that those moments are appropraite for advancing a story and building their characters. Too many times in movies, sex is trivialized, marketed and commericalized. And it does nothing to futher a movie's storyline, and it eventually would lose its audiance.

Take a look at movies such as Eyes Wide Shut, and Barbed Wire. Those films use sex so much that the storylines lose their audiances. When you lose your audiance, you've lost the picture

And when it comes to Mickey and Minnie. I have a very nice build up to that moment. Its not graphic, and its only one part of the story. A footnote in their overall relationship. And don't you worry, Mickey has been married to Minnie for over 75 years. So infidelity isn't an issue.

And to do anything like that, you would have to respect the integrity of their characters. But we have to take risks in the business, or we'll never get Mickey back into theaters!

[singerguy04]

my only problem with mickey and minnie having sex is that this is a movie that will be seen by EVERYONE! not just people our age, and yes taking risks is a part of the buisness, but there is a difference between taking risks and mothers and fathers trying to ban the movie bc mickey and minnie have sex. i think you should work it in as a scene where it's implied that they are about to, but the scene changes. That's what i mean... i guess, lol