Around the World in Eighty Days

    A Mickey Mouse Cartoon

    Release Date : June 5, 1999

    Synopsis

    Based on Jules Verne's classic novel, in this adaptation Mickey Mouse must circumnavigate the globe in 80 days in order to receive his inheritance and save an orphanage.

    Characters

    Mickey Mouse
    Minnie Mouse
    Goofy
    Scrooge McDuck

    Credits

    Television

    Mickey Mouse Works: Season 1 - Episode 6
    House of Mouse: Season 3 - Episode 4

    Technical Specification

    Comments

    From Rich Bellacera : YAY!!!! I really like this format! I could probably do without some of the background music which seems to detract from the mood of the toon. I liked seeing Scrooge McDuck. Scrooge is back to his more "greedy" attitude. The gags were cute and the use of Minnie, while predictable, was "classic." The overall feel of the cartoon was similar in atmosphere to Mickey's Christmas Carol (1983), right down to the cameos! Toby Turtle and Sister Bunny (Robin Hood); Huey and Dewey (wearing red and blue shirts); Morty and Melody (Mickey's nephew and niece); and, except for the fact that she wasn't actually named, I'd say the elephant was Delores (Tiger Trouble, 1945; The Big Wash, 1948; Working For Peanuts, 1953), especially because of the closeness displayed by her and Goofy at the end. Scrooge's two advisors appear to be new characters, but I had a special fondness for the wealthy pelican woman since she was voiced by April Winchell! I look forward to seeing more MOUSETALES cartoons in the future! They're mini-classics so far! I hope John Cleese continues to narrate them as well.
    From Patrick Malone : A BIG surprise! Mickey hasn't looked this good in a short since the days of Mickey's Christmas Carol. In fact, it looked as if some of his facial expressions were taken from that featurette. It was wonderful to see an ensemble piece as well, with Scrooge back as well as (as Rich noticed) some of the more minor characters from the feature films. The story strays from Jules Verne's story a bit except for the subplot featuring Minnie, and the way the plot is resolved. A few minor complaints; firstly, it was too short! Hopefully, sometime in the future, the artists will have the courage of their material and extend shorts like this out to a full show. Secondly, I wish they had done more with the narraration by John Cleese (especially after the beginning "Before there were airplanes ... I said before there were ... thank you!") But these are minor complaints when looking at the short as a whole. Wonderful work!
    From J. D. Weil : I'm pretty sure that Jules Verne didn't write the book quite like this, but at least the gist of the story is preserved. This short is twice the length of the the regular character shorts but I still feel that the writers were just skimming over it. Perhaps the whole program should have been devoted to just this one story.
    From Jon Cooke : Overall it was a pretty fun short. Great use of Scrooge. I will agree that the music wasn't that great in spots. It sounded especially cheesey during the scene where Mickey is saving Minnie.
    From Juan F. Lara : Eh. Setting a cartoon in an orphanage immediately turns me off to it. I cringed at the bills gags that inevitably followed. As head of the orphanage Mickey here was the 100% impeccibly good Mickey that most people imagined Mickey as before "MouseWorks". The Mickey who wouldn't lose his temper at the orphans' doodles, and whom that ostrich and pelican would adamantly route for. This is the Mickey that nowadays gets ridiculed by everyone, and one that the "MouseWorks" people have been trying to get away from in their other shorts. So the scenes in Act 2 where they tried to do pathos just came off as melodramatic and lacking any real emotional power. The ostrich and pelican's rantings only made Mickey's saintliness all the more obnoxious. (What WERE they supposed to be doing anyway? Were they Scrooge's coworkers? Fellow club members? Busybodies?) This short wound up with the same moralistic tone that Airplane Kit and Mistake had.

    I agree with everyone else that a double-length short had too little time for this story. (Actually, I think even a whole half-hour would still be too short for this story.) As a result, they didn't shown an extended scene on the trip until Day #26. I was so astonished that they skimmed through the trip all the way to that day. And then they didn't have another extended scene until Day #71, and that turned out to be the last of only two scenes. With so little of the action shown on screen the plot felt very empty.

    The makers dressed Mickey up in his Mickey's Christmas Carol costume and brought in a lot of characters from that theatrical short. As a result "Around the World..." made it Nostalgia Day on MMW.) It was cool to hear Alan Young again as Scrooge, but his role here didn't work. Mickey and Goofy can play everyman characters, but I couldn't accept the World's Richest Duck as a run-of-the-mill executor. OTOH, I really lighted up when I saw the kids from "Robin Hood". I never expected to see any feature animation characters on this series, and these furries are personal favorite characters of mine. The kids were the only positive thing about the orphanage premise.

    The short kept two major plotpoints from the novel. The twist at the end that enabled Mickey to win the test was the same as in the novel. And Minnie was playing the role of Mlle. Aouoda, though in the novel it was a suttee (She was about to be burned with her recently deceased husband) instead of a wedding.

    John Cleese playe the narrator. He had a funny line at the start, but for the rest of the time he just played his role straight.

    DYN: Those looked like meerkats the elephant nearly stepped on.

    From Chris K. : While I enjoyed this cartoon, I did not like the placement of Scrooge McDuck in the greedy benefactor role. In Scrooge's comics and cartoon shorts, and his series Ducktales, his is most of the time merely vain about his money, taking swims in it and such. But in this short, as in Mickey's Christmas Carol, he seemed truly mean and greedy. I think the placing of Scrooge in Mickey's Christmas Carol was a good move, but the greediness Disney had Scrooge display in "80 Days" kind of ruined his Ducktales "hero" image. Otherwise, I think that the rest of the cartoon was wonderful, and hope to see more Mousetales in the future.

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