House of Mouse : Season 1 Episode 7
"Unplugged Club"

Air Date March 3, 2001

Synopsis

Pete shuts down the power at the House of Mouse in an attempt to stop the show, Mickey and the gang have to hurry to get everything rolling again.

Characters

Listing provided by Dis-Philip" : Zeus, Mad Hatter, March Hare, the 101 Dalmatians, Magic Mirror, Robin Hood, Timon, Rafiki, Lady, Tramp, Snow White, the 7 Dwarfs, Ariel, Sebastian, Scuttle, Flounder, Cavemen (from "Toot, Whistle, Plunk And Boom"), Pinocchio, Gepetto, Cleo, Figaro, Madame Mim, Little John, Baloo, Bagheera, Hades, Pain, Panic, Pooh, Piglet, Tigger, Pumbaa, Cinderella, Prince Charming, Beast, Lumiere, Cheshire Cat, Cupids (from "Fantasia"), Chip ÔNÕ Dale, Aladdin, Dumbo, Queen (from "Snow White"), Gator (from "Fantasia"), Lady Tremaine, Madame Medusa, Reluctant Dragon, Sir Giles, Kaa, King Louie, Penguins (from "Mary Poppins").

Credits

Writers / Editors

Kevin D. Campbell

Henry Gilroy

Thomas Hart

Directors

Robert Gannaway

Tony Craig

Storyboard Supervisor : Rick Schneider

Storyboard

Cynthia Petrovic

Robert McKnight

Rossen Varbanov

Thomas Bernardo

Additional Storyboard

Robert Griffith

Calvin Suggs

Shorts Shown

Mickey's Cabin

Music Store Donald

Comments

From Juan F. Lara : A weak HoM episode but with a new short that I really liked.

Pete's back with the show's recurring theme of him trying to shut down the club. That's an uninteresting theme that I didn't want to see again. I couldn't get much involved with the plot of this episode. The toon battery was a reminder that in this show's reality all these characters are toons. That's a plotpoint I'd rather forget as well, as the characters would seem diminished if they're just toons. The pun about "charging" the toon battery was outright painful. This episode was notable though for two of the guests having prominent roles in the plot. That's the direction I'd like to see this show take. If the guests just stay in the crowds they become nothing but billboards, and the show becomes pointless. In this episode Zeus and Eeyore had some plot time. But they were underused, probably because the HoM segments had so little time to spare. Eeyore was particularly disappointing. His act lasted less than half-a-minute. One gag I hate myself for laughing at (See the quotes.) but the other gags were witless. The makers of "New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh" came up with great lines for Eeyore in most of that show's eps (not to mention what A.A. Milne could write for Eeyore...) As for Zeus, his appearance wasn't special, but I did like his last scene in the show. And this time I did like the sponser segment. The segment was unusually satirical. It's the first time in years that a Disney show has actually mentioned the name "Disney".

From Lee Suggs : This episode had a great start with Pete using Robin Hood's bow to get rid of Donald. Pete, of course, is trying to shut down the House of Mouse. He manages to do this by "killing" the House of Mouse's battery. {Apparently Mickey and Donald are trying to avoid the high cost of power (in California?) and have their own very Toontown like power source!} Minnie solves the power problem by using Zeus' lightning bolt. (Zeus has some great sight gags in this episode, at the expense of Hades and Pete.) We also get to see Eeyore doing stand-up, (Now that's a creative idea!) and there's finally a new House Band (The Splashing Pumpkins) There were many more sight gags and appearances in this episode, I'll leave it to the experts to list all of those.

This episode ends with a great product ad for "Disney Magic in a Bottle" which makes the saddest (or grumpiest) person happy. Mickey shows the spray's amazing powers by cheering up Eeyore, and by transforming Grumpy. I think each HOM episode has shown the flexibility and potential popularity of the series. Let's hope HOM is around for a long time to come.