House of Mouse : Season 2 Episode 9
"Where's Minnie?"

Air Date January 26, 2002

Synopsis

Minnie sneaks down into the prop basement to find Mickey a surprise birthday present. When she doesn't return, Mickey fears that she's lost and organizes a rescue party.

Shorts Shown

Mickey and the Color Caper

Donald's Pool

Comments

From Lee Suggs : I liked this episode because of its clever premise and because it has a new cartoon! :o) We start off with Mickey asking who turned off the lights. This cues a great series of cameos {Three Disney owls (who, who, who!), Chernabog (He speaks! and expresses fondness for the dark.), and Snow White who doesn't feel quite the same way. (It could be because of those creepy trees. ;o)} Mickey goes to find Minnie (to find out why the lights weren't on) and finds Goofy DRESSED as Minnie. (LOL) Goofy is filling in for Minnie while she searches the Prop Basement. Minnie wants to find a special surprise to celebrate Mickey's Birthday. Since EVERYONE gets lost in the Prop Basement Mickey decides that if Minnie isn't back after the first cartoon the rest of the Fab Five are going looking for her.

When we return to the club the Fab Five (minus one) are leaving to rescue Miss Mouse. After leaving Daisy in charge (telling her "no SILLY acts") they're off to the Prop Basement. (This is one of those spaces within a space that's actually larger than the space it....oh you know what I mean. ;o) Their search (done to the accompaniment of a rather odd rap song by the Muses) features many Disney sight gags. (The best being when Mickey, Donald, Pluto, and Goofy are transformed into their original forms as they cross Simba's fallen tree.) Finally they spot fireworks, (released by Minnie from a box marked "Disney Magic")and decide that's where Minnie must be. We then switch back to the House of Mouse where Daisy is trying to pre-empt a cartoon for a "silly act".

After the cartoon we switch back to the basement where Mickey has found Minnie. She is insulted that he thought she needed rescuing. (Minnie is VERY competent :o) She is also disappointed that Mickey has seen her birthday surprise, and she is APPALLED that he left Daisy in charge of the House of Mouse. Most likely at Minnie's insistence the Fab Five rush back to the House of Mouse just in time to catch the end of Daisy "Crockett's" VERY silly act. (LOL) The episode concludes with an ad for "Scuttle's Lost and Found" where you can it is quite possible you'll find "a part of your world". :o) We fade out to everyone wishing Mickey a Happy Birthday and those Magical Disney Fireworks. (Anyone else get the feeling this episode was suppose to air in November.

From Juan F. Lara : This was a middling episode, featuring a new middling short.

Return to the Prop Room. Spotting all the props can be fun. But most of the short was just that: Listing off various Disney film props. Beyond recognizing the props the episode was pointless. Also, the signs with the film titles made the props too obvious.

Tacked in the middle was a cheesy hiphop song by the Muses. The muses sang about Minnie. But the scenes only showed Mickey, Donald, and Goofy, making more movie references (like they were doing already) that had nothing to do with the song. I thought that this song might not have been written for this episode but was instead tacked on with a tenuous connection to Minnie's plight.

But one gag I really liked was the "Disney Magic" present. It's rare that this series actually uses the word "Disney" in an episode, and that never happens for any other series. Those fireworks made me nostalgic for when "Wonderful World of Disney" was on the networks. (Still, I hope there's more to Disney Magic than just loud noises and flashing lights.)

Daisy's zany. That characterization is a little redundant, since Goofy acts zany already (like at the start.) But I still liked Daisy's puckish behavior this time. I really liked her singing for the Davey Crockett song, but I went "huh" at the shopping references. I don't get the joke.

The ep featured two new crowd scenes. The setting looked like computer animation, while the animation looked like it was done on ones, or motion captured. But the character movement looked very unnatural.

BTW: For paints, aren't the basic colors red, yellow and blue instead of red, green and blue?

Minnie was really indignant that the others thought she was lost. It felt like the makers were being politically correct with her.

Daisy sure wasn't zany in "Quack Pack".