Disney Navigates An Urban Jungle
 |
| The Disney Crowd Evidently Had This Thing About Cow Udders --- Can Someone Explain? |
Mickey Still Raw and Ready In Traffic Troubles (1931)
 |
| In a Chaney-Like Show Of Versatility, Peg-Leg Pete Also Plays a Character With Both Limbs Intact |
 |
| The Pig Merely Happened By --- and Look What Mickey's Done To Him ... |
 |
| ... But Mickey Admonishes His Taxi For Biting Another That Is Parked Too Close. |
posted by John McElwee at 10:00 AM
6 Comments:
These "ramshackle" Mickeys represent the mouse at his peak of popularity.
When we read books like THE DISNEY ART OF ANIMATION it is important to remember that many of the films spoken of most highly in its pages are ones audiences did not care that much about.
In improving the technical aspects of their craft the Disney artists lost something much more important;the pulse of the public.
By the way RUNAWAY TRAIN et al (AMERICAN TREASURES FROM NEW ZEALAND) just arrived. Lives up to my expectations. Great fun. Thanks.tomy expectations
Donald Benson considers the corporate progress of Mickey Mouse:
Another factor, frequented noted, is that Mickey's popularity with kids brought parental pressure. So to reassure grownups -- and to protect a fast-growing merchandise empire -- Mickey had to be a consistently positive role model.
Responsible Mickey set the stage for the rise of Donald Duck. Mickey became a straight mouse, usually Pluto's master once the Duck and Goofy got their own cartoons. Then came the 50s, when he went from being an imaginary character to an imaginary celebrity. He'd talk directly to kids on TV, and at Disneyland he'd sign autographs and pose for pictures. Other characters did as much, but it became Mickey's full-time gig.
The comic strip version of Mickey, now in a series of handsome books, followed a slightly different path. Like Donald Duck in comic books, Mickey Mouse in the daily funnies found himself having longer, more elaborate adventures totally removed from his animated activities. Somewhere after WWII the strip reverted to basic gagging, locking Mickey in as a suit-wearing suburbanite to match his corporate spokesman persona.
Mickey could not have been more colorless circa 1957! Boring!
My 17 year-old daughter has been a Mickey fan her whole life, especially his early incarnations. But everything in that still featuring the pig scares her.
Chris U. sends along a link to a really clever video parody based on "Taxi Driver" and Mickey Mouse. Thanks, Chris!
Hi John,
The references in your recent post regarding udders and animal cruelty in early Disney shorts reminded me of this wonderful Bryan Boyce "homage":
http://vimeo.com/37154658
If any of your readers have not seen it before, I'm sure they will enjoy it (of course, like everything else, it's most fun when viewed with an audience!).
Keep up the great work with your blog. I read it every day.
Best,
Chris U.
Columnist Terry Ramsaye reported in the MOTION PICTURE HERALD of February 28, 1931: “Mickey Mouse, the artistic offspring of Walt Disney, has fallen afoul of the censors in a big way, largely because of his amazing success. Papas and Mamas, especially Mamas, have spoken vigorously to censor boards and elsewhere about what a devilish, naughty little mouse Mickey turned out to be. Now we find that Mickey is not to drink, smoke, or tease the stock in the barnyard. Mickey has been spanked. It is the old, old story. If nobody knows you, you can do anything, and if everybody knows you, you can’t do anything – except what every one approves, which is very little of anything. It has happened often enough among the human stars of the screen and now it gets even the little fellow in black and white who is no thicker than a pencil mark and exists solely in a state of mind.”
Post a Comment
<< Home