Disney+’s new documentary dares to ask, “How great is Mickey Mouse?”
In the trailer for the daring documentary Mickey: The Story Of A Mouse, Disney gets people on the record saying how much they like the Disney mascot
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While they aren’t known for their documentaries, Disney is making a statement with their latest, Mickey: The Story Of A Mouse. Using new interviews from brave sources, director Jeff Malmberg exposes the cultural phenomenon that’s plagued sociologists, anthropologists, and zoologists for the better part of a decade: Why the fuck do people like Mickey Mouse so much?
Surely skirting the controversial copyright practices that made Disney the multi-billion dollar operation people know and love today, Mickey: The Story Of A Mouse leans into the positive associations with the beloved rodent. Tracking the character’s evolution, from Oswald the Lucky Rabbit to Steamboat Willie, Mickey explores the artistic innovations, cultural events, and emotional bonds that made the character such an indelible part of life on Earth.
Here’s the synopsis:
One of the world’s most beloved icons, Mickey Mouse is recognized as a symbol of joy and childhood innocence in virtually every corner of the globe. Dreamed up at a low point in Walt Disney’s burgeoning career, Mickey became an overnight sensation when he starred in the first synch-sound animated short, Steamboat Willie. Through the decades that followed, the character evolved into strikingly different versions of himself that reflect both his creator’s remarkable career and dramatic societal shifts in the nation he came to represent. In the fascinating documentary Mickey: The Story Of A Mouse, director Jeff Malmberg and Oscar-winning producer Morgan Neville (who previously teamed up together for Won’t You Be My Neighbor?) examine the cultural significance of the nearly 100-year-old cartoon mouse.
And what more could you expect from Disney+? It’s not like the company is going to make a case against Father Walt. Mickey is a strange character, especially considering he was more of a mascot than a cartoon-leading man for the better part of a century.
Mickey: The Story Of A Mouse streams on Disney+ on November 18.
40 Comments
Maybe it’s because I’m based in the UK, but I can’t think of anyone that I know who thinks Mickey Mouse is anything but a slightly annoying (and rarely seen) Disney character, and the only time I’ve ever liked the character was his appearance in Fantasia.
Those new shorts they’ve been doing for the past few years are terrific though. Like, as well done as the new Looney Tunes shorts on HBO Max are, in terms of comedy, these new Mickey shorts blow them out of the water, which is a total inverse of how it used to be.
For real. To several consecutive generations, Mickey Mouse is a corporate logo, not a character.No one gives a shit about Mickey Mouse.
I think you’re leaving out the Mickey Mouse Club, which a lot of people now of parenting age watched as children.But yeah, for the most part today he’s a (very effective) hype man for the parks.
Was he featured prominently on that? Neither I nor anyone I knew growing up watched that garbage. Never seen one second.
Where I lived only the snooty rich kids watched it because Disney Channel cost extra per month like HBO
Wow.
That’s a good point. And there were several incarnations of the Mickey Mouse Club. There was the original 1950s one, the 1970s one, and the 1990s one. I was a bit too young for the 1970s one and was already in university by the 1990s, but as I recall the Mickey connection was mostly in the theme song and the hats the cast wore.
What? Is what I was going to say? Because I forgot about the 1990s version with Justin and Britney. At least, that’s what I hope you are referring too…The 1950s version viewers are elderly.The 1970s version viewers did not care, I think I watched it once or twice.
I think the 90s version was the least popular of the three. I also fell between generations and never watched it, but there’s no doubt the show was an early springboard for Spears, Aguilera, Timberlake and Gosling.
Yes. The transformation of Mickey from the old ink-and-paint look to modern Caucasian Michael Mouse is an art crime. In the process, he was also stripped of any personality or dimension – you can’t think of Mickey as a character, you can only think of him as a stand-in for Disney, the all-encompassing entertainment corporation.Maybe they’ve pivoted away from that in recent years? But the damage is done.
Tell that to the 50 new people I see every day covered in Mickey gear.
Where do you live? That sounds terrible. Even still, isn’t that more like a brand name than a character?
The older stuff like Mickey and the Beanstalk and, yeah, Fantasia are good, but then he became a corporate mascot, which is bad.
The black and white stuff, especially the early ones when Walt still let him misbehave, are fun. But hardly in the mainstream consciousness. That said, people still like to get their pics with him at the theme parks (and I LIKE the theme parks, but even as a kid did not understand the meet and greet desire…)
There is a Mickey Christmas cartoon that came out a few years ago, the one where Donald refuses to fly south for the winter. In it there is a part where Mickey tells the story of all his old time family Christmasas. There is a flashback, and at one point Mickey starts speaking with a British accent, and it is really funny.
The reason he’s rarely seen these days is that he will fall into the public domain in 2024 – unless someone can get all those lovable tykes in Congress to clap real hard – so they have been phasing the character out over the past few decades instead of developing new content. I presume that the intended audience for this documentary is, in fact, members of the US Congress, to generate a little public sentimentality before the inevitable push to extend copyright protections for yet another decade in the next year or two.
I think it’s generational. As a GenXer, I had no idea who Mickey was (other than as a mascot for Disney) until an adult. I didn’t know about the classic Disney cartoons of the 1920s and 1930s nor even seen Fantasia where he was a character in the “Sorceror’s Apprentice” segment. I also only knew vaguely who Donald Duck was. Instead, the Warner Brothers characters like Bugs Bunny and Daffty Duck were far more present in my youth. I think it was the 1990s with the Disney Channel that Disney revitalized its classic characters, first with Donald Duck and then Mickey.
Under Chapsuck, Disney is going to completely mess up the 100th anniversary of the creation of Mickey Mouse, arnt they?
Of course they are! Just like they did the 50th anniversary of Disney World.
Bugs Bunny could kick his ass and will if fucked with.
Any WB character could, just about any Hanna Barbera character … Shit, even most of Mickey’s supporting cast (Donald, Goofy, etc.) are way cooler and more popular than the mouse.No one gives a shit about Mickey Mouse.
Old school Daffy would just shoot him in the face unprovoked for a laugh
Still thinking of the Mad sketch where the kids say to Mickey “wait, you’re supposed to be funny?”
You mean Smigel’s “Disney Vault” TV Funhouse segment on SNL?
Yeah, sure, I don’t expect this to be very objective at all, but it will have a new animated short by Eric Goldberg, and any chance for today’s Disney to try out some old-fashioned 2D animation is welcomed.
Meh I will stick with Tex Avery and Droopy DogI mean, he is pretty much me in a cartoon version.
“Why is Mickey Mouse so enduringly popular” is actually a really interesting question to ask. If someone would offer an actual deep-dive explanation rather than a corporate-sponsored puff piece, I’d be interested in watching it.
They’ll never top this.
Mickey Mouse: Great mascot, or the greatest mascot?
He’s too big to fail at this point. A more interesting question is who takes second place.Maybe Mr. Clean or the little PBS man?
Is anyone asking the question: Is there anyone Nicole Kidman won’t shill for?
Somehow, shilling for a corporate mascot feels good in a place like this.
Who’s stonewalling this investigation?
It’s because he was more or less the face of Disney for decades, and people love Disney, even though they as a company have done so really sketchy shit over the years.
Yeah this could be a really short documentary if so desired. Not to mention the parks are indeed pretty incredible, so there’s a hugely positive association.
Yeah the parks have a huge positive rating, but as a company especially their cable channel they have a reputation of exploiting kids for all their worth, especially the girls. So you have a hit Disney Channel show, ok then, now you have to make a pop album and tour relentlessly to promote it while also filming your show.
Mickey Mouse (and Donald Duck and Goofy) led to Howard Waldrop’s 1985 story Heirs of the Perisphere. So all is forgiven.
Why the fuck do people like Mickey Mouse so much?they do?