Mickey's New Car

    A Mickey Mouse Cartoon

    Release Date : February 13, 1999

    Synopsis

    Mickey's old car is a klunker. So in order to get to a date with Minnie on time, he trades it in on a fancy new one with all the accessories. The new car then sends him on a wild ride when the accessories start to take over.

    Characters

    Mickey Mouse
    Minnie Mouse
    Bert

    Credits

    DVD

    Germany
    Mickeys Spassfabrik
    France
    Walt Disney's Rigolons avec Mickey
    United Kingdom
    Walt Disney's Laugh Factory with Mickey

    Television

    Mickey Mouse Works: Season 1 - Episode 2
    House of Mouse: Season 2 - Episode 5

    Technical Specification

    Comments

    From Patrick Malone : Mickey seems a little talky at the beginning; he seems to be unnecessarily saying things that should be obvious in the situation. But once the action gets going, this one is truly hilarious. My favorite part; the road signs that Mickey drives through. They go past quickly so try to catch what they say as he is driving through them.

    I think the fluidity of Mickey contrasted against the solid straight lines of the car was probably intentional. It brings across the point that the old car, which matches Mickey and has a more "organic" feel than the new car, is the car that Mickey really belongs in. It also brings to light a sub-text that runs through a few other shorts; that technology misused would eventually begin to take over. I think this theme can be traced back as far as 1937's Modern Inventions.

    From Rich Bellacera : The Mickey short seemed the closest to the older shorts, and the background art and the objects had a beautiful 3D feel in a 2D medium. And there were some breif spurts of wonderful special effects! It appears that in some portions the animation was redrawn from/over actual computer 3D animation. Quality wise, this was probably the more superior of the three.
    From Joe Klemm : The short was a little bit like a old short that can be found on public domain. Luckily, the plots for later shorts will be better when it comes to the longer cartoons.
    From John Renard : Obviously the highlight of the preview. I hope they all are somewhat like this. I didn't really like the sounds the old car made, but that's my personal, stupid opinion.
    From Juan F. Lara : I wondered how believable a Mickey Mouse with a range of emotions would be. But when I actually saw this short I forgot all my doubts. His facial expressions were believable, and I especially liked how they drew Mickey when he frowned. My favorite moment was when he switched from smile to harumph when that hen drove away, after he stopped on the dime. The color scheme looked better here than in the Pluto short. OTOH the squash-and-stretch was more extreme here. Mickey looked like a rubber doll when he walked down the stairway. Also, I thought the new car's movement clashed with the rest of the cartoon. The car moved as one rigid unit ( its wheels almost never turned ) and the doors and roof looked like pieces were vanishing/appearing in each frame rather than objects moving.

    Mickey's speech to Burt reminded us of the short's central conflict. But aside from that I have to agree with Patrick Malone. Most of Mickey's other lines weren't necessary. This could've easily been made as a mute short. I'm encouraged that all three shorts indicate that "MouseWorks" deemphasizes dialogue in order to get jokes from sight gags instead. That's more like the classic shorts, where either no one but a narrator talked or the characters had voices so cartoony that the makers didn't bother trying to convey anything with their lines.

    Mickey's troubles with the new car went on a little too long. I got bored with the gags after the first time he met the hen, though I really liked the dime scene. Also, the happy ending was lame. But I thought they handled the short's pathos very well. The short needed just a couple of references to Mickey's sadness over his old car brief enough to not get maudlin.

    I loved Stephen James Taylor's music. The music was always low key and quiet. The score never made a big loud deal whenever a gag occured. I think that approach to scoring makes the gags funnier. My favorite music came with the dime scene.

    What really excited me was that the extras were furries. I didn't know whether or not "MouseWorks" would be set in a furry world. Now I really want to see what talking animals the MW universe has to offer.

    From Tom : This short was not without his problems. The thing I found most annoying was the unecessary dialog. For example Mickey saying "A dime. Stopped on it" when it was blatantly obvious to the viewer. But still this short was delightful.
    From Yoruame Kuroishiro : The short was good, with a classic 1950s feel to it. However, one small annoyance was that Mickey kept stating the obvious. After a while, that got redundant.
    From Aaron : AWESOME! It was EXCELLENT from beginning to end.
    From Baruch Weiss : While it seems to be a fact that Disney is creating garbage these days, I disagree when it comes to these kinds of cartoons. The animators worked day and night to make these cartoons as great as they were during Walt Disney's days. Anyway, I've been off topic long enough and must get back to the cartoon. I really enjoyed this one. It's so great to see Mickey going modern. I hope these mouse works cartoons will be released to blue ray and/or DVD.

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