Mickey Foils the Phantom Blot

A Mickey Mouse Cartoon

Release Date : November 7, 1999

Synopsis

When Von Drake arrives at Mickey, Donald and Goofy's delivery service with a mysterious package that he wants delivered to himself our heroes smell a mystery. The mystery deepens when the package is stolen by the Phantom Blot.

Characters

Mickey Mouse

Goofy

Donald Duck

Ludwig von Drake

Phantom Blot

Chief O'Hara

Credits

Television

Mickey Mouse Works: Season 2 - Episode 7

House of Mouse: Season 3 - Episode 3

Technical Specification

Comments

From J. D. Weil : This is one for the books. The comic books, or rather the Mickey Mouse Comic Strip. Gottfredson's Phantom Blot appears for the first time in this mystery along with Chief O'Hara. In this story, Professor Von Drake invents a special credit card that the Blot intercepts from Mickey's (along with Donald and Goofy) delivery service and creates financial mayhem with it It's now up to Mickey and co. to stop the Blot's nefarious scheme. I had been hoping for something like this kind of story in MouseWorks because this is the kind of story where Mickey shines best. Adapting the Gottfredson comic strip to TV. C'mon fellas, let's have some more like this!

From Joseph Riccitelli Jr : I just wanted to clarify a remark that J. D. Weil made in his comments. He said "Gottfredson's Phantom Blot appears for the first time in this mystery". I don't know if he meant the first time in a Mouseworks episode, or the first time anywhere. The Phantom Blot was prominently featured in an episode of Ducktales entitled "All Hands On Beck", which also featured Donald Duck.

From Patrick Malone : Yes, yes, yes, yes yes ... a thousand times, yes! This is what I had expected the "Mouse Tails" series to be like. I'm not too familiar with the comic featuring "The Phantom Blot" so I'm working from a small disadvantage in comparing it to that. But as it stands by itself, this one was ... dare I say it ... absolutely perfect. The set-up was good at the beginning with a lot of good silliness. (Watch for a nice throw-away gag at the beginning which you might miss if you're not looking carefully: Goofy accidentally throws his hat into one of the fans which slices it into pieces. Without missing a beat, he merely reaches into his back pocket and pulls out another one and goes on as if nothing had happened. I loved it.)

But the silliness gives way to the drama of the situation and a lot of good excitement as the trio (and specifically Mickey) battle the Blot from outside of his blimp / hot-air balloon. The animation is crisp and clean, and doesn't drag on too long to ruin the spell. There is a nice exciting sequence where Mickey is swinging wildly around the balloon held only by a roll of adhesive tape. And the ending truly did surprise me; I thought they had forgotten something somewhere.

Given the success of this short, may I suggest a modest proposal for the short-shorts? It seems to me that these would be the perfect vehicles for a series comparable to the "cliffhanger" type serials of the 30's and 40's. Maybe an Indiana Jones type adventure series where you had to keep tuning in week after week to see what happens. Any thoughts?

From Davey-kns : The Blot makes Mouse Works!! yesyesyesyesYES!YES!!YES!! Finally Michael Eisner does something RIGHT!! This is straight from the comic books I used to read and love from the Eighties!

Fourteen Minutes is too short for this rivalry. They should make Mouseworks a daily show and then put a new Saturday Morning version with the graphics upped several notices (make them Anime to be daring) where the old comics get special treatment! Have Mickey make a team like Chip'n'Dale's Rescue Rangers--Bring Back Gadget!!--and have Ozzy Ozborne voice act for the Blot so that the Blot will have the 'Disney Villain' status he deserves!

From Lee Suggs : Whoa! Maybe my favorite short of the whole "MouseWorks" series. According to others this one is based on the classic Mickey Mouse comic books. I've seen very few of those, so I can't comment on that. However, this is a wonderful short wherever the idea for it came from. These trio shorts (Mickey, Donald, and Goofy) have been very uneven. Some of them have even been awful. (Turkey Catchers, Ugh!) Here they hit a homerun. Start with a wonderful villain (the apparently non-vertebrate Blot)who really wants to KILL Mickey Mouse, add in a ridiculous plot to steal all the money in the world, and add in non-stop action and gags. Mickey gets to stomp on the Blot, Goofy and Donald provide comedy relief (and save Mickey), and everything works out O.K. in the end. This is how they should handle Mickey's character all the time. So to a fanatical Mickey fan this is one fabulous short.

From Jessie : Loved this episode! Totally funny, and full of gags and humor plus a dab of drama and a little Disney cartoons spirit. This episode kept me on the edge of my seat and applauded at the end. When was the last time we saw Mickey dangling way up in the air on a blimp with the only thing holding him is some tape? Not even in a Mickey saves Minnie cartoon. They should make more shorts like these, and I think they should defiantly have this as a series. I'd be nice to see Minnie and Daisy, and even Pluto appear in some episodes though if they actually did make this a series. The Phantom Blot really is Disney Villain device!