HoM Review: "Big Bad Wolf Daddy"
Juan F. Lara
Storyboard Supervisor: Rick Schneider
Storyboard by: William Austin, Rossen Varbanov, Robert
McKnight, Edward Baker, Robert Briggs, Nichole
Lang, Larry Scholl, Cynthia Petrovic, Todd
Kurosawa
Additional Storyboard by: Robert Griffith, Calvin Suggs, Gregory Peters
I was lukewarm to the premise when I read it in the synopsis, but this
episode still had a few great moments.
SPOILER WARNING
Written and Edited by: Kevin D. Campbell, Henry Gilroy, Thomas Hart
I thought the highlight of the HoM scenes was the Censor Monkey scene.
The Monkeys' comments actually sounded the gripes you'd expect from BS&P
monkey: ...and in the end he is unharmed.
monkey: In truth he would at least have multiple broken bones.
monkey: Or worse.
Mickey: We gotta show Donald with broken bones, or worse?!
monkey: Absolutely not.
monkey: That would be inappropriate...
In the end, the Monkeys even insisted on "comical" sound effects for the
rollercoaster scene. That showed how the censorship process can lead to BS&P
outright rewriting shows and making artistic judgements. The revised "Charmed
Date" scene, with the funny sounds and the happy music, did have a different
feel from before ( The revisions also enabled Donald to avoid the shooting
gallery altogether. ) I really wanna know, was this short made for "House of
Mouse" with the Censor Monkey scene in mind, or was it a short already made
that the makers then went back and did all new footage for the Monkey gag?
Written by: Randy Rogel
The song: I liked the horn solo part of the song. The mayhem the Wolf
caused with the horn was really funny. The room and the guests all got
trashed, and in the end they loved it. :-) They also had inspired casting for
the Wolf's backup chorus. :-) But I didn't think "Who's afraid..." adapted very
well to a swing version. The reprise sounded silly. The Wolf and the Pigs:
more than just the different clothes, I would've never recognized them to be
Zeke Wolf and the Three Little Pigs. I found that I liked this sketch more if
I thought of them as completely different characters from the originals. I'm
very uneasy about the idea of changing a character as completely as they did
with these four.
I'd rather they not use the characters for cultural references. The O.J.
Simpson reference at the start made me wince. I've been feeling the same way
about the nephew's "Quackstreet Boys" routine ( What's with the recycled
animation? At least they don't sing. ). One thing I really appreciated about
"Mickey Mouseworks" was that the show generally avoided using contemporary
references for laughs. Any reference is going to come off as a self-conscious
attempt to be "hip", and characters always look bad doing that.
Among the regular cast members Daisy was the funniest in this ep. It was
really cute seeing her shamelessly fawn over the Wolf. Fawning for a Disney
villain no less. :-) Her tranquility was a good counterbalance to Mickey, who
spent the whole episode stressed out.
Donald: Well, so far, so good.
Mickey: Maybe for you. >I< had to cancel O'Malley and the Alley Cats.
You have any idea how mad cats get when a mouse fires them?
O'Malley: Showbiz. It happens...
RATING: 7
SHORTS
Along with a rerun of "Pluto Gets the Paper: Mortimer" this episode
featured
A DONALD DUCK CARTOON: "Donald's Charmed Date"
Edited by: Thomas Hart
Written by: Brian Swenlin
The premise was that Donald got jinxed with a streak of bad luck. That
was the excuse to do lots of nasty stuff to Donald. :-) First they took their
leisurely time on that long sequences of wrecks from the rollercoaster to the
shooting gallery to the bumper cars and more. I thought the short was over
when Daisy changed her mind about luck. But then the makers put Donald through
ANOTHER gauntlet of violently bad luck. They made the Haunted House ride worth
the while by drawing the inside in the same gruesome style as was scene in
"Donald's Halloween Scare". I especially loved the black cat robot. :-)
Daisy: "Everything is fate, dear duck. / Bad or good, there is no luck."
Well, if the fortune teller says it, it must be true.
RATING: 9
A GOOFY CARTOON: "How to be Groovy, Cool, and Fly"
Edited by: Henry Gilroy
Written by: Jymn Magon
Kind of appropriate to show this particular short in the episode featuring
the updated Big Bag Wolf. :-) Actually this short was fun to watch. Goofy was
used as a clotheshorse here, and he reverted to his "everyman" personality like
he was in George Geef cartoons. Goofy wasn't the star of this short, the
clothes were. The artists came up with dead-on renditions of each decade's
fashions. I was a teen in Miami during the '80's. So the Miami Vice outfit
brought back memories about how the local media went so crazy for the pastel
suits. A short that was about being in style was actually fun for its
nostalgic value. :-)
RATING: 7
- Juan F. Lara
http://ccwf.cc.utexas.edu/~jfl/intro.html
monkey: We prefer comic sound effects.
[ Honk! ]
Mickey: Was that comical enough?
Christopher E. Barat
(1) Disney has had all sorts of trouble finding a successor to Ed Gilbert as
the voice of Baloo and the other Phil Harris-voiced characters. O'Malley's
voice was mediocre at best; the voice used for Baloo in the Toon Disney bumper
segments is even worse.
(2) "Donald's Charmed Date" would have been the PERFECT place to give a
walk-on to Gladstone Gander. Strange, isn't it -- the video game "Goin'
Quackers" apparently features Gladstone prominently (at least according to the
ad), but given a near-perfect excuse to use him in a TV ep, the writers passed.
(3) "How to be Groovy..." perfectly demonstrated how misguided "An Extremely
Goofy Movie" was to anchor Goofy's "college career" in the 70s. THIS is how
Goofy should be "hooked" to contemporary culture -- in this case, clothing
styles across the decades! This was one of the best "How To" shorts in many
years.
Christopher E. Barat
ceb...@aol.com
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Juan F. Lara
Christopher E. Barat <ceb...@aol.com> wrote:
> (1) Disney has had all sorts of trouble finding a successor to Ed Gilbert as
> the voice of Baloo and the other Phil Harris-voiced characters.
O'Malley. Neither O'Malley nor Baloo in those Toon Disney commercials sound
anything like Phil Harris.
BTW: I also thought Timothy Mouse's voice in "Stolen Cartoons" was really
off.
> (2) "Donald's Charmed Date" would have been the PERFECT place to give a
> walk-on to Gladstone Gander.
Maybe they were restricting themselves to only characters that have
appeared in shorts when they were making "Mickey MouseWorks". The one
exception was the Phantom Blot, and I noticed that Blot cartoon had a very
different feel from the rest of MMW. Isn't "Goin' Quackers" based on the Carl
Barks stories?
DYN: Anyone on the newsgroups spot Sister Bunny and Minnie's nieces in
the roller coaster? That got a lot of talk on the message board.
> THIS is how Goofy should be "hooked" to contemporary culture -- in this case,
> clothing styles across the decades!
I noticed that they made a Disco Duck reference. Did Disney ever try any
legal action against Rick Dees over that song? When I was around five I really
did think that voice in the song was supposed to be Donald's. :-)
Was that girl at the end who said "Pretty fly for a goofy guy" someone in
particular, or just an extra?
Favorite cameo this week: the cavemen from "Toot, Whistle, Plunk and
Boom".
- Juan F. Lara
http://ccwf.cc.utexas.edu/~jfl/intro.html
Goofy: I've got a bad feeling about this...
Christopher E. Barat
>Isn't "Goin' Quackers" based on the Carl
>Barks stories?
You'd think so, given the appearances of Gyro, Gladstone, and the Beagle Boys.
But Merlock (from "DuckTales: The Movie") is used as a villain, so perhaps they
drew their inspiration from several different sources.
>Was that girl at the end who said "Pretty fly for a goofy guy" someone in
>particular, or just an extra?
I originally thought it was the "talk to the hand" girl, but having seen the
short a few more times, I'm not really sure...