Mickey's Mechanical House

    A Mickey Mouse Cartoon

    Release Date : September 11, 1999

    Synopsis

    This story's in the form of a poem. Mickey's old house is ragged and broken. He is fed up! Mickey finds a new house. This one is brand new, just right for our mouse. It's all automatic from the tub to the phone, but Mickey finds out this house isn't home.

    Characters

    Mickey Mouse
    Pluto

    Credits

    DVD

    United States
    Mickey's House of Villians
    Germany
    Verschworung der Superschurken Verschworung der Superschurken
    Italy
    Topolino E I Cattivi Disney

    Television

    Mickey Mouse Works: Season 2 - Episode 6
    Mickey Mouse Works: Season 2 - Episode 1
    House of Mouse: Season 3 - Episode 24

    Technical Specification

    Comments

    From Patrick Malone : Mickey Mouse meets Dr. Suess with John Cleese narrating. Mickey decides to buy a new house with all the newest mechanical gadgets which work just about as well as Donald found in Modern Inventions.

    Once again, the artists take a different stylistic approach with the backgrounds, giving the new house a Art Deco look, and the neighbourhood an almost geometric feeling. Thematically, we're back to the same ground that was covered in Mickey's New Car; the idea that Mickey should stick with the older, more organic lifestyle that he already has rather than try to step into a more modern world. One idea the animators might try, if their going to go over this territory again, is to have Mickey actually step into computer animated world; perhaps even become a computer animated image himself in order to drive the point home. John Cleese's voice talents are well used here, and add a nice counterpoint to the general chaos that is happening when the house begins to fall apart. Well done!

    From J. D. Weil : This is story is done a la Dr. Suess. Lot of good visuals gags here. The robot seems to have borrowed from the Disney TV show "Mars and Beyond". The theme of this short is probably a first for Disney, though I've seen it done in a couple of old Warner shorts. But they're gettin' there.
    From Juan F. Lara : And the episode ended with a different approach to the format of Mickey's cartoons. For this short the artists drew the backgrounds in the flat style of cartoons like Toot, Whistle, Plunk and Boom and UPA's shorts. The skew angles of corners and warped shapes made the backgrounds the most visually interesting of the series so far. What most amazed me was that Mickey himself was drawn with his usual model but he still blended in with the flat art.

    The verse of course is reminiscent of Dr. Seuss, though without Dr. Seuss's trademark nonsense words. Whoever wrote the verse was able to kep the poem's meter consistent and still use phrasing that sounded as natural as normal conversation. John Cleese did the narration, and the verse fit well into his persona.

    The story continued the theme that others have pointed out is signatory for Mickey Mouse shorts. Mickey traded in his old stuff for new high-tech devices but lived to regret it, just like in Mickey's New Car. I expected the gizmos to go haywire. When they did the plot became less interesting. But the artwork and verse was still enough to carry the short for me.

    From Davey-kins : This one's definitely one of my faves: I liked everything about it: The 'Limited Animation' backgrounds, John Cleese Poetic nararation, with Mickey and the weasel's joining in. The 'Roger Rabbit' refrence with that aforementioned weasel. And not to mention the premise of the short as well.

    Which reminds me: When will they bring back that Rabbit. Someone get clearance from Steven Speilberg.

    From Lee Suggs : Another of the top shorts of this series. Mickey becomes fed up with his old broken down house, and moves into a "House Of the Future". It even has a robot to do all the cleaning and cooking. Of course, the new house goes bonkers on Mickey and he ends up back where he started. What makes this short special is that all of the backgrounds are in this weird Art Deco sytle. The short is also entirely in verse, with John Cleese narrating. It is a very different experience seeing Mickey in this environment, and the whole short comes off extremely well.
    From Fidel Stgo : This is one of the best Mickey Mouse cartoons I've seen in the MickeyMouseWorks program. It is funny, witty and a homage to the style of the limited animation used in the 50s for several Disney cartoons and the rhyme used by the popular Dr. Seuss books.

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