HoM Review: "The Stolen Cartoons"
Juan F. Lara
Storyboard Supervisor: Rick Schneider
Storyboard by: Sean Bishop, Rossen Varbanov, Todd Kurosawa,
Edward Baker, Robert McKnight, Thomas Bernardo,
Monica Tomoya
Additional Storyboard by: Calvin Suggs, Robert Griffith, Dublin Evans
Disney's "House of Mouse" finally reached Austin on 1/27. The premiere
episode featured an excellent short among its "Mickey MouseWorks" cartoons.
But I'm not convinced that the premise of the show itself can work.
SPOILER WARNING
Written and Edited by: Kevin D. Campbell, Henry Gilroy, Thomas Hart
We got lots of pans of the House audience. Lots of chances to play "Spot
the character" which will be the main reason many people will watch. The
problem is that in TV shows characters in crowds are never animated. So we got
lots of scenes of familiar characters as still as billboards. Normally leaving
crowds unanimated doesn't make any difference. But as I said the point of the
show is looking for who's in the crowd. So I couldn't help but notice the
limitations TV budgets put on crowd scenes: lack of movement, and also a lack
of any interaction between the characters. The audience members looked like
they were staring blankly in front of each other, making the scenes look
unconvincing. When characters did move their movement tended to be very
simplified. I think that some scenes, like Ariel and Meeko in the opener, are
reused animation taken from their original films. In one scene Lady Tremaine
and the Evil Queen applauded as robotically as animatronics. The wicked
stepmother and the queen were animated in styles very distinct from one another
in their original films, but they have to move the exact same way here. The
show need to find a way to make all these different kinds of characters with
different artistic styles interact believably, but a TV project works against
that goal because of limitations that come from making episodes on schedule and
within budget.
I liked the gag about Donald messing up the orders of Ariel, Belle and
Snow White. Seeing that trio get aghast was funny, and the heroines were
animatedly fluidly enough to not clash with Donald. Likewise, seeing some of
the guests get roped into Pete's chase scene at the end was good for some
laughs. But most guest gags were groaners: "Hey, Lumiere, thanks for being MY
guest!", "Forget the bag, just give me the doggy!" The makers didn't have much
time to spend on each guest. That compelled them to usually make the most
obvious and punniest gag for each guest. What I'd like to see are plots that
get a handful of the guests significantly involved, allowing the makers to have
deeper characterizations of people other than the main cast.
Compared to the guests' groaners I thought Pete's bombast and Donald's
remodelling were fun to watch. My favorite moment was Donald's attempt to
impersonate Mickey when the crowd demanded Mickey. There was pathos in seeing
Donald concede so completely to Mickey's popularity through those desparate
impersonations. :-) I also liked the tongue-in-cheek portrayal of the crowd's
adulation of Mickey. ( "Hey, look! Mickey's back!" ) Still, the main plots
were very familiar. Pete's scheme seemed taken from the "101 Dalmatians" TV
show: Steal the club now instead of the farm. That recurring plot can get
really tiring. Donald's envy of Mickey is also old hat.
RATING: 6
SHORTS
This episode featured two new shorts along with a rerun of "Magic Act".
PLUTO GETS THE PAPER: "Wet Cement"
Edited by: Kevin D. Campbell
Written by: Jess Winfield
Another cartoon where they rattled off a list of certain things. People
will recognize the various statues Pluto turned into, but there's nothing
really funny about them.
RATING: 4
That short was typical. In contrast...:
A MICKEY MOUSE CARTOON: "Hickory Dickory Mickey"
Written by: Roberts Gannaway
Gannaway created his trademark scenario of a world built to work against
the main character. Mickey tried to drown out the clock's ticking. But the
radio played only "the all-Tick station" and "the all-Tock station", while the
TV had only "the Tick-Tock channel". In that same spirit everyone to whom
Mickey would send that clock sent it back. The best gags in that funny
sequence were the returns from Mars and from "Hades", because the returnees
were off-stage. That left their appearances to your imagination, and made them
menacing. Particularly the "Hades" one ( I'm surprised the censors let that
gag through. :-).
Most people have felt like the world was working against you once or more
times. So it was easy to empathize with Mickey. The gags played off of
Mickey's straightman persona very well. Mickey was a cypher trapped by things
beyond his control. The setup also worked well because it played off of
Mickey's reputation as the ultimate good guy. It's funny then to see Mickey
caught in that embarrassing favor he owes Goofy. ( Mickey was probably wrongly
incarcerated in that flashback, but they left it open to speculate otherwise.
:-)
Most of the gags were of Mickey trying to get rid of the clock. But twice
they broke off from those gags for Mickey's nightmare sequences. Those scenes
kept the short interesting to watch, and featured imaginative imagery. I liked
the squash-and-stretch of the noisemakers that came in pairs, and the
fluorescent colors used in Mickey's second nightmare. The alarm at the end of
that nightmare fit Mickey's role as someone trapped and helpless from outside
forces.
This short and "Donald's Halloweeen Scare" are the best MouseWorks shorts
shown so far.
RATING: 10
MISCELLANEOUS
Being a furry fan I liked Mickey's water feeder gag. I'd love to see more
gags that point out the ignored fact that Mickey is a mouse. But I do realize
that these gags might not work well for long on a mouse as anthropomorphized as
Mickey.
Daisy was changed from the selfish and idiotic version in "Mickey
Mouseworks" to a more sensible characterization similar to her "Quack Pack"
version. I liked Daisy a lot in this episode. Cool new hairdo as well. :-)
Horace Horsecollar's voice and character design is too similar to Goofy's.
I often thought he was Goofy even when I knew he was Horace. His voice needs
to be changed, and I think him wearing the collar again might be all that he
needs to make his design distinct.
I was pleasantly surprised to see Max in the main cast. I thought he had
the coolest job of them all. :-) He was able to greet even the villains Jafar
and Ursula with a casual smile.
Kevin Schon and Cam Clarke reprised their "Timon and Pumbaa" roles as
Timon and Simba, and Timon had a lot of speaking time. Tony Craig and Roberts
Gannaway produced the best of the "Timon and Pumbaa" episodes. They also
coproduced the 101D show with Jim Jinkins. They must've loved being finally
allowed to have Cruella hunt dogs. :-)
Disney may be burying "Song of the South", but it's cool that Craig and
Gannaway put the Br'er characters in a cameo.
Pete: As of now you're all tresspassing. So get your stuff and GIT.
Goofy: Yahoo! Now >I< can be the host!
Pete: Me? What makes you think it's me? This isn't my rope. I don't
even know Horace Horsecollar.
Horace: Hi, Pete.
Pete: Hey, Horace.
Pete: So, think you're hot cheese, eh?
Lydia: Don't touch the villain, dear.
[ Among the guests, Pepper Ann and her mom were the only original TV
animation characters to appear. Ironically, both characters are badly
off-model. ] :-)
I think maybe after watching this show for several weeks I'll get used to
the premise enough for it to work for me.
- Juan F. Lara
http://ccwf.cc.utexas.edu/~jfl/intro.html
Christopher E. Barat
and the biggest disappointment of what has been a delightful show is the
continuing absence of any "classic" made-for-TV characters (apart from Max,
whose teenage status was actually glommed from the 2 "Goofy Movie" projects).
There doesn't seem to be any compelling reason why we couldn't have a crowd
shot of, say, Launchpad, Darkwing, or Rebecca Cunningham. I fear the
"second-class citizen" stigma has been applied to the TV characters. A pity,
since there would BE no HofM without the success of these earlier shows.
A curious philosophical point re this show: Since Toons make up the HofM
audience, they are watching what are, to them, LIVE-ACTION shorts -- their
equivalent of the Laurel & Hardy and Keystone Kops shorts. Remember the old
(in this area, at least) Shakey's pizza chain, which showed old silent films on
the walls while you awaited your pizza? HofM is serving as their Shakey's!
:-)
Wonder what the audience thought when they saw Daisy appear in a short with her
"old-style" hairdo. Probably something like, "Hey Daisy, whatever possessed
you to don that windsock?"
Christopher E. Barat
ceb...@aol.com
HOMEPAGE:
http://members.aol.com/cebarat/home.htm
POSTSEASON TOURNAMENT RECORDS INDEX:
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Charles Buchanan
(Christopher E. Barat) wrote:
> Didn't see today's HofM ep due to a taping snafu... I've seen 2 eps thus far
> and the biggest disappointment of what has been a delightful show is the
> continuing absence of any "classic" made-for-TV characters (apart from Max,
> whose teenage status was actually glommed from the 2 "Goofy Movie" projects).
> There doesn't seem to be any compelling reason why we couldn't have a crowd
> shot of, say, Launchpad, Darkwing, or Rebecca Cunningham. I fear the
> "second-class citizen" stigma has been applied to the TV characters. A pity,
> since there would BE no HofM without the success of these earlier shows.
I saw my first HoM episode yesterday, and I was wondering when we might
see Darkwing show up in the crowd. I was pleased to see that hyperactive
flamingo from Fantasia 2000 applauding in the audience. Looked like he was
on a date with Clara Cluck. :)
> A curious philosophical point re this show: Since Toons make up the HofM
> audience, they are watching what are, to them, LIVE-ACTION shorts -- their
> equivalent of the Laurel & Hardy and Keystone Kops shorts.
Good point! BTW, I take it the House of Mouse club is located in Toontown?
So I wonder if we'll ever see any of the characters out of character--if
they were just playing a role in their films, that is.
> Wonder what the audience thought when they saw Daisy appear in a short
with her
> "old-style" hairdo. Probably something like, "Hey Daisy, whatever possessed
> you to don that windsock?"
Yes, it's very Madonna--of 10 years ago. I suppose this is the "Blonde
Ambition" Daisy? :)
--Charles Buchanan
Zach Baker
> Didn't see today's HofM ep due to a taping snafu... I've seen 2 eps thus far
> and the biggest disappointment of what has been a delightful show is the
> continuing absence of any "classic" made-for-TV characters (apart from Max,
> whose teenage status was actually glommed from the 2 "Goofy Movie" projects).
Ehh, I don't see what the point would be of including made-for-TV
characters (or those from theme parks, comics, etc.) as regulars.
To me Mouseworks, and now House of Mouse, has been pretty clearly
focused on bringing an entire set of characters -- first from the
classic shorts, now from movies -- to a modern TV series. To me,
that seems like a great setup. Throwing TV characters into the
same pot doesn't seem to me like it would strengthen that premise.
However, I think it would be great if TV characters made a cameo
appearance now and then...
---
Zach Baker <za...@zachbaker.com>
"Recession: bring it on, baby!"
o.baca
i have yet to see HOM, do to it not shown in the
Co Springs/pueblo area at all
>===== Original Message From c...@hiwaay.net (Charles Buchanan) =====
>In article <20010203212505...@ng-cf1.aol.com>, ceb...@aol.com
>(Christopher E. Barat) wrote:
>
>> Didn't see today's HofM ep due to a taping snafu... I've seen 2 eps thus
far
>> and the biggest disappointment of what has been a delightful show is the
>> continuing absence of any "classic" made-for-TV characters (apart from Max,
>> whose teenage status was actually glommed from the 2 "Goofy Movie"
projects).
>> There doesn't seem to be any compelling reason why we couldn't have a crowd
>> shot of, say, Launchpad, Darkwing, or Rebecca Cunningham. I fear the
>> "second-class citizen" stigma has been applied to the TV characters. A
pity,
>> since there would BE no HofM without the success of these earlier shows.
>
>I saw my first HoM episode yesterday, and I was wondering when we might
>see Darkwing show up in the crowd. I was pleased to see that hyperactive
>flamingo from Fantasia 2000 applauding in the audience. Looked like he was
>on a date with Clara Cluck. :)
>
>> A curious philosophical point re this show: Since Toons make up the HofM
>> audience, they are watching what are, to them, LIVE-ACTION shorts -- their
>> equivalent of the Laurel & Hardy and Keystone Kops shorts.
>
>Good point! BTW, I take it the House of Mouse club is located in Toontown?
>So I wonder if we'll ever see any of the characters out of character--if
>they were just playing a role in their films, that is.
>
>> Wonder what the audience thought when they saw Daisy appear in a short
>with her
>> "old-style" hairdo. Probably something like, "Hey Daisy, whatever
possessed
>> you to don that windsock?"
>
>Yes, it's very Madonna--of 10 years ago. I suppose this is the "Blonde
>Ambition" Daisy? :)
>
>--Charles Buchanan
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o.baca
i not seen the show due to KRDO not
showing it at all.
please if you can keep me informed on when they will
show cubbi or another bear on hom
Whatsits Galore
<a
href=http://www.freetown.com/Picadilly/Buckingham/1033/mice.html>Disney's
Mouse Tales </a>
Juan F. Lara
Christopher E. Barat <ceb...@aol.com> wrote:
> Probably something like, "Hey Daisy, whatever possessed you to don that
> windsock?"
Daisy was such a fangirl for the Big Bad Wolf in the second episode.
Maybe the Wolf was the inspiration for her new 'do. :-)