Google Groups no longer supports new Usenet posts or subscriptions. Historical content remains viewable.
Dismiss

Whither -Runaway Brain-?

522 views
Skip to first unread message

Guy Incognito

unread,
Dec 1, 1996, 3:00:00 AM12/1/96
to

Wasn't -Runaway Brain- supposed to be playing with -101 Dalmatians-?
Anyone? Anyone?

-jon
--

jyo...@pobox.com | We gotta get new agents. We're gettin'
http://www.pobox.com/~jyoung/ | screwed. Daffy Duck, -Space Jam-

LiveLetDie

unread,
Dec 2, 1996, 3:00:00 AM12/2/96
to

jyo...@luna.cas.usf.edu (Guy Incognito) wrote:

>Wasn't -Runaway Brain- supposed to be playing with -101 Dalmatians-?
>Anyone? Anyone?
>
>-jon

Yes, it was _supposed_ to be playing with 101. It was even sent to
theaters that way. At the _very_last_ minute, Disney called theaters
and told them to pull the trailer. Nobody seems to know why. Some
people have said that they saw 101 on opening day with Runaway Brain.
Obviously, they didn't get ahold of all the theaters in time. I'd
assume, though, that by now, all copies of Runaway Brain have been
removed from the films. Oh, sadness! I was lucky, I work at a
theater and got to see Runaway Brain when it was on A Kid in King
Arthur's Court without having to sit through the (dippy) movie.
Actually, I saw it many times! (: P)

LiveLetDie

"When I die, I want to be cremated and have my ashes put in an Etch-a-sketch."

Guy Incognito

unread,
Dec 5, 1996, 3:00:00 AM12/5/96
to

Oddly enough, I'm now able to post the answer to my own question about
-Runaway Brain- and why it wasn't on -101 Dalmatians-. It was pulled at
the last minute to ensure screen time for the four trailers attached to
-101- (-Hercules-, -That Darn Cat-, -Jungle2Jungle-, -George of the
Jungle-). Ah, the perks of Disney interning...

-jon (that and free T-shirts -- ooh, aah)

jse...@ime.net

unread,
Dec 6, 1996, 3:00:00 AM12/6/96
to

Guy Incognito (jyo...@luna.cas.usf.edu) wrote:
: Oddly enough, I'm now able to post the answer to my own question about
: -Runaway Brain- and why it wasn't on -101 Dalmatians-. It was pulled at
: the last minute to ensure screen time for the four trailers attached to
: -101- (-Hercules-, -That Darn Cat-, -Jungle2Jungle-, -George of the
: Jungle-). Ah, the perks of Disney interning...

I'm guessing they might also want to stick it onto the "Little
Mermaid" re-release; it's tough getting people to come see a movie they
can rent for less.


bret...@aol.com

unread,
Dec 8, 1996, 3:00:00 AM12/8/96
to

What is "Runaway Brain" exactly?

BB

Carol Koster

unread,
Dec 8, 1996, 3:00:00 AM12/8/96
to bret...@aol.com

Yoo Hoo, BB!

On 8 Dec 1996 bret...@aol.com wrote:

> Date: 8 Dec 1996 07:00:26 GMT
> From: bret...@aol.com
> Newsgroups: rec.arts.disney.animation
> Subject: Re: Whither -Runaway Brain-?


>
> What is "Runaway Brain" exactly?

A very well done Mickey/Minnie Mouse short cartoon, released in theatres
in the US in Summer 1995 with a rather poor Disney live action movie "A
Kid in King Arthur's Court". Mickey promises to take Minnie minature
golfing, but she misinterprets which ad in the newspaper he is pointing
to, and thinks he is going to take her to Hawaii. To earn the money for
the trip to Hawaii, Mickey decides to work for a laboratory which needs an
assistant. He applies for the job but through a series of mishaps he
winds up as the lab experimental mouse where his brain gets switched.
The action follows the mayhem erupting from the switched identities. RB
has never been seen other than with that particular live action movie, and
there was word RB would show along with the live action version of 101D
and hence get much wider and more well-deserved exposure to audiences.
However, word here on the newsgroup has it that Disney decided to pull the
cartoon short before 101D started showing nationally. Hope this helps.
:-)

--Carol Koster ()~() FidoNet Disney Echo Moderator
FDC Walk-Around Minnie Mouse (_) FidoNet E-mail to Rich Koster
1994 FDC Rookie of the Year at 1:3828/1.3
Minnie on EntertainMuck & FDCMuck
"....Scourge of Whispering Canyon..." --Graham Allan, Dis' 'n' Dat,
October 1994, Volume 2 Number 10, Page 6 "A Life in the Day of
rec.arts.disney"

rama...@ix.netcom.com

unread,
Dec 8, 1996, 3:00:00 AM12/8/96
to

Peter Papazoglou asked, "NE1 else out there miss Mickey and the
gang?"
Ah, do I ever. It seems a shame that characters so visible on
merchandise of every kind are so hard to find in their actual animated
appearances, be it in theatres, on television, or in video release.
The characters could easily become as popular as the Warner Bros.
characters again, but it would take a large-scale effort to show the
old shorts in every venue possible.
Hey, it's worked in Europe. Why not here? While Bugs, Daffy, etc.
remain Warners' bread and butter in the U. S., Mickey, Minnie, and the
classic Donald are simply... there. You can't see the cartoons
outside of the Disney Channel, the video releases are few and far
between (with very few cartoons on each, again as opposed to the
European situation).
The result of all this is that in America, Disney is only identified
with animated features now -- no longer with shorts. The shorts have
been neglected for so long, in fact, that the present breed of Disney
animation historians tend to write large volumes only about the
features, since they haven't seen the shorts enough to build up a
fondness for their artistry. (John Canemaker's otherwise brilliant
new book, _Before the Animation Begins_, casts off the shorts in a
handful of pages. If he's reading this post, perhaps he'd like to use
his considerable skills to write a volume on the shorts sometime
soon.)
In the meantime, a real re-release of "Runaway Brain" would be nice.
So would a new series of classic cartoon videos with six cartoons, not
three, to a tape.

D. Gerstein

Heckboy

unread,
Dec 8, 1996, 3:00:00 AM12/8/96
to

In article <19961208070...@ladder01.news.aol.com>,
bret...@aol.com wrote:

> What is "Runaway Brain" exactly?

A new Mickey Mouse short released last year. Mickey gets his brain
switched with a giant, Frankensteinian Peg Leg Pete.

Heckboy
"Shop smart, shop 'S' Mart."

www.smartlink.net/~crash/

Panagiotis P Papazoglou

unread,
Dec 9, 1996, 3:00:00 AM12/9/96
to

Carol Koster (cko...@neosoft.com) wrote:
: Yoo Hoo, BB!

: On 8 Dec 1996 bret...@aol.com wrote:

: > Date: 8 Dec 1996 07:00:26 GMT
: > From: bret...@aol.com
: > Newsgroups: rec.arts.disney.animation
: > Subject: Re: Whither -Runaway Brain-?

: >
: > What is "Runaway Brain" exactly?

: A very well done Mickey/Minnie Mouse short cartoon, released in theatres


: in the US in Summer 1995 with a rather poor Disney live action movie "A
: Kid in King Arthur's Court". Mickey promises to take Minnie minature
: golfing, but she misinterprets which ad in the newspaper he is pointing
: to, and thinks he is going to take her to Hawaii. To earn the money for
: the trip to Hawaii, Mickey decides to work for a laboratory which needs an
: assistant. He applies for the job but through a series of mishaps he
: winds up as the lab experimental mouse where his brain gets switched.
: The action follows the mayhem erupting from the switched identities. RB
: has never been seen other than with that particular live action movie, and
: there was word RB would show along with the live action version of 101D
: and hence get much wider and more well-deserved exposure to audiences.
: However, word here on the newsgroup has it that Disney decided to pull the
: cartoon short before 101D started showing nationally. Hope this helps.
: :-)

: --Carol Koster ()~() FidoNet Disney Echo Moderator
: FDC Walk-Around Minnie Mouse (_) FidoNet E-mail to Rich Koster
: 1994 FDC Rookie of the Year at 1:3828/1.3
: Minnie on EntertainMuck & FDCMuck
: "....Scourge of Whispering Canyon..." --Graham Allan, Dis' 'n' Dat,
: October 1994, Volume 2 Number 10, Page 6 "A Life in the Day of
: rec.arts.disney"

Thanx for the info, Carol! I, personally, have never seen that short (I had absolutely no intention to sit through KiKAC for it but did see commercials for it on TV. A little tidbit here is that the mad scientist was an old villain from the Mickey Mouse comic strip...I can't remember his name right now (Professor Ecks...does that ring a bell, NE1?). Anyway, in the strips, he had threatened to switch Horace Horsecollar's brain, as well as Mickey's but their whole plan backfired and everyone lived happily
ever after until Mickey's next adventure. I hope I get to see this soon and hop desperately that cartoons based on the classic Disney characters and even new ones start getting released before most Disney movies. Prince and the Pauper was such a wonderful short (OK, it was a featurette but...). NE1 else out there miss Mickey and the gang?

Peter Papazoglou


Charles P. Buchanan

unread,
Dec 10, 1996, 3:00:00 AM12/10/96
to

In article <32AB8E...@ix.netcom.com>, rama...@ix.netcom.com wrote:

> Peter Papazoglou asked, "NE1 else out there miss Mickey and the
> gang?"

MEMEME!



> Ah, do I ever. It seems a shame that characters so visible on
> merchandise of every kind are so hard to find in their actual animated
> appearances, be it in theatres, on television, or in video release.
> The characters could easily become as popular as the Warner Bros.
> characters again, but it would take a large-scale effort to show the
> old shorts in every venue possible.

And I'd love to see new shorts based on some of the old Mickey comic
strips, with the wonderful villains like Professor Ecks (who became Dr.
Frankenollie in Runaway Brain) and my personal favorite, the Phantom Blot.
And whither Donald? I want the Duck back in shorts in theatres. Maybe even
Scrooge shorts, or the Nephews. Base them on comic book stories. I don't
know, but Disney has tons of options in that area.

> Hey, it's worked in Europe. Why not here? While Bugs, Daffy, etc.
> remain Warners' bread and butter in the U. S., Mickey, Minnie, and the
> classic Donald are simply... there. You can't see the cartoons
> outside of the Disney Channel, the video releases are few and far
> between (with very few cartoons on each, again as opposed to the
> European situation).

Yeah, they released a huge amount of shorts, including gems like Plane
Crazy and The Band Concert (one of my favorites), on video around 1984,
but not since. This time around I would buy the videos if Disney
re-released them.

> In the meantime, a real re-release of "Runaway Brain" would be nice.
> So would a new series of classic cartoon videos with six cartoons, not
> three, to a tape.
>
> D. Gerstein

Glad to see you back here, David. :)

--Charles Buchanan
FDC Official Duck (WAK!)
Duck on FDCMuck

Ralph Daniel

unread,
Dec 10, 1996, 3:00:00 AM12/10/96
to

The professor in "Runaway Brain" was called "Dr. Frankenollie",
an inside joke-tribute to Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston, two of
the grand old team of animators that made Disney what it is
today. There were seen together so much that their names became
linked - "Frankenollie" = "Frank & Ollie".

--
RWD

Panagiotis P Papazoglou

unread,
Dec 10, 1996, 3:00:00 AM12/10/96
to

Ralph Daniel (10457...@CompuServe.COM) wrote:
: The professor in "Runaway Brain" was called "Dr. Frankenollie",

: --
: RWD

Yeah, but the character is practically lifted out of an old comic strip with 3 mad professors...at least he looked that way on the commercial/previews. Can someone remember what Dr. Frankenollie used to be called? What about his sidekicks?

Peter Papazoglou

Heckboy

unread,
Dec 11, 1996, 3:00:00 AM12/11/96
to

In article <58k819$l...@netnews.upenn.edu>, pppa...@red.seas.upenn.edu
(Panagiotis P Papazoglou) wrote:

> Yeah, but the character is practically lifted out of an old comic strip
with 3 mad professors...at least he looked that way on the
commercial/previews. Can someone remember what Dr. Frankenollie used to be
called? What about his sidekicks?
>
> Peter Papazoglou


The skinny one was Dr. Ecks, the stockey one was Double Ecks and the fat
one was Triple Ecks. The studio wouldn't let me use the name "Ecks"( they
thought it was too old fashioned, same with the design), so we came up with
"Frankenollie."

0 new messages