House of Mouse : Season 2 Episode 7
"Max's Embarassing Date"

Air Date January 12, 2002

Synopsis

When Max brings Roxanne on a date to the House of Mouse his efforts to keep his dad, Goofy, from embarrassing him fail and end up embarrassing him even more.

Shorts Shown

Pluto's Penthouse Sweet

How to Ride a Bicycle

Comments

From Lee Suggs : House of Mouse opens the New Year with a fun episode on the perils of dating. First the Beast and Jafar show us who not to date. (Cruella De Vil is with The Beast, we know what SHE wants, and Jafar gets "burned" by Maleficent.) We next see a nervous Max waiting for his big date with Roxanne. (Max is afraid his Dad will act goofy and scare Roxanne off. Maybe that's why she wasn't in an "Extremely Goofy Movie". Or maybe she read the script. ;o) Mickey and the Gang assure Max they will keep Goofy away, and let Max and Roxanne be alone.

All the kissing inspires Max and Roxanne until they are interrupted by Minnie's efforts to provide a little candlelight. (Supplied by Lumiere and his whole candlestick family. His mother-in-law is priceless. :o) Next the Gang brings out spaghetti to reprise the scene from Lady and the Tramp. This goes fine until Daisy ruins the moment by taking a picture with a VERY bright flash. Just when Max thinks things can't get worse Mickey introduces a Goofy cartoon by saying Max has liked it since he was in diapers. Of course, a picture of Max in diapers then flashes on the big screen. (My parents did this to me too Max, there must be some rule that all of us have to be embarrassed this way.)

When we return to Max and Roxanne, Mickey is introducing Sebastian who begins singing "Kiss the Girl". (Just a little hint for Max. ;o) Max loses it and demands that everyone leave him and Roxanne alone. Goofy comes to his son's defense and of course makes a mess of things. Everyone thinks the date is ruined, but Roxanne tells Max she adores his Dad, and she gives Max a big hug. (I think Max should watch "A Goofy Movie". The he would have figured all this out at the beginning of the episode.) We end with an ad for "Sebastian's Guide to Romance". It includes a guide on how to "Kiss the Girl" but it may not work as well for those who breathe air.

All in all a fun episode, now if we just could see some new cartoons.

From Juan F. Lara : I was delighted when I found out last year that Roxanne would star in a "House of Mouse" episode. But I was cool to the plot description. It implied that Max would be worried again about his dad embarrassing him, and that's already been done to death in "Goof Troop" and both the "Goofy Movies". But the makers surprised me with a turnabout. It was much more fun seeing the OTHER members of the HoM staff, who all think they're smarter than Goofy , be such busybodies with Max and totallly oblivious to how intrusive they were being. In turn Goofy himself got the last laugh by putting the others in their place.

The HoM staff being fussy over Max also allowed the makers to use Max and Roxanne for some hilarious references to Disney romances. The sponser gag inspiredly cast Max and Roxanne in "The Little Mermaid". I really laughed at the shot of Max protecting Roxanne's voice from a menacing Ursula. That scene reminded me of how Ariel and Eric have one of the most popular human romances among Disney fans, and how Max and Roxanne have one of the most popular furry romances. Speaking of furry, they also cast Max and Roxanne in what I contend is the most referenced scene in animation history, and it's a furry scene. I particularly liked Tony and Joe themselves participating in the scene. This scene is all the funnier when you remember that Max and Roxanne are both dogs.

Roxanne is the first guest created by the TV Animation division to have a starring role in HoM, and she's a personal favorite character of mine. I never expected to see her again after "A Goofy Movie". So I enjoyed watching this episode enough just to see her on screen. But, this was Max's story. All the attention was on Max's reaction to the staff's fussiness, and Max's alone. That very unfortunately left Roxanne with nothing to do but just stare blankly at the screen. It would've been interesting to see Roxanne's reactions right along with Max's, but we gotten very little of that. Roxanne lacked depth. And another problem, Kellie Martin did not voice her. Why not?

Also unfortunately the animation was noticibly worse than usual. Many times characters "froze" when they used just one drawing for a lengthy period of time. That happened to Roxanne a lot. The Horned King was seated behind Max and Roxanne. He never moved, his whole time onscreen. I found that incredibly distracting. Goofy's climactic pratfall didn't quite work because the damage shown after the pratfall looked a lot more severe than the damage he was actually doing during the fall. I guess Toon City couldn't animate very complicated damage. And several characters were poorly drawn. Especially watch for a horribly off-model Snow White who's bustier than Jessica Rabbit.

"Cruella and the Beast" was one of the show's most inspired gags. I didn't think the makers would pair off characters differently from traditional couples. But we immediately knew what Cruella was wanting. ( Poor Belle. The star of the newest Disney Masterpiece nearly beans her and gets fresh with her, and now her s.o. strays behind her back with someone only interested in his outside.

DYN1: Background couples in that early scene included the more rarely seen Robin Hood and Maid Marian and Thomas O'Malley and Duchess, along with Lady and Tramp.

DYN2: Actually, this episode seemed to have a more eclectic guest list than usual, and so I found myself paying more attention to spotting guests than I've usually done. Along with cult figure the Horned King I spotted the Flying Gauchito and Burro, Oliver and Dodger, the Tortoise and Hare, Bambi, Gopher, and Jock and Trusty. This black and white character that I think was created for HoM popped up everywhere. The Mad Hatter provided a funny Disneyland reference. And I thought I saw Basil on the plate of Sir Hiss. Then again, maybe it was oregano instead.

BTW1, before I saw this episode it never occured to me that Sebastian was an expert on romance.

So who was parking the cars during Max's date?

BTW2, I don't think Max and Roxanne ever got to kiss on the lips in "A Goofy Movie". Thanks then to Tony and Bobs and all the others for giving the two that opportunity.

So I did have a great time watching this episode. But it should've been a lot better.