First television showing : March 31, 2001

Synopsis

It's April Fools day and when Mickey's joke on Mortimer backfires when he inherits a million bucks, he has to prove his identity.

Characters

Mickey Mouse (Voice : Wayne Allwine)

Goofy (cameo)

Minnie Mouse

Mortimer

Donald Duck (cameo)

Weasel lawyer

Credits

Writer : Jess Winfield

Editor : Thomas Hart

Television

House of Mouse : "Donald's Pumbaa Prank"

Comments

From Lee Suggs : Minnie arrives at Mickey's House for a big surprise. Mickey greets her with candlelight, music, and then drops to one knee. He hands her a ring sized box and..... a loud horn blows Minnie's bow off her head. We're then off and running on a wild April Fools' Day romp. As Mickey tries to start his car, so he can take Minnie to a brunch, (to obtain forgiveness for his VERY mean spirited joke) he is suddenly buried in a mountain of popcorn. This is, of course, the work of Mortimer. Mickey retaliates by convincing Mortimer he's run The Mouse over and killed him. That seems the end of the jokes, and we flash to Mickey receiving a letter informing him that he has inherited a million dollars. (Mickey has apparently forgotten about taking Minnie to a brunch, more on that later!) Mickey rushes down to the law office to claim his money, only to find he can't because he's DEAD. Mickey then sets out to prove he's still kicking by his appearance, ("See my ears, they're round from every direction, isn't that neat?!" LOL) and by his ability to revive his old roles, (This is a wonderful sequence where Mickey becomes Steamboat Willie, The Band Director, The Brave Little Tailor, and Disco Mickey.) None of this convinces the lawyer. (Who's a weasel, BTW.) Mickey brings in Donald and Goofy, who both fail him. (Donald imagines taking over Donaldland, replacing Mickey in Fantasia, and riding with the Princesses in a parade. He tells the weasel that he's never seen Mickey. Goofy is well, just Goofy.) Finally the weasel makes a speech about the real Mickey being an American icon, and ties Mickey to the Flag to test him. He then reveals himself to be Mortimer, who has REALLY gotten back at Mickey this time. Suddenly the door opens and the "real" weasel (lawyer) comes in, saying "I have a million "bucks" for Mickey Mouse." Mortimer pretends to be Mickey, (Using the role playing device Mickey did earlier, he's quite amusing as Steamboat Willie! :o) Mortimer then receives a million bucks (as in deer) who trample him for about two days. The new lawyer turns out to be Minnie who has not only made a fool out of Mortimer, but then leaves Mickey tied up, for forgetting about their date. In case it doesn't read like it, I LOVED this cartoon, and its become my new Mickey Mouse favorite. It was WONDERFUL from start to finish.

From Juan F. Lara : This was an inspired short that had an unusually daring treatment of Mickey's persona. Mickey was playing the micshief maker role, and he wasn't the sympathetic character in this story. In fact, his pranks on Minnie and Mortimer were surprisingly mean. ( I didn't think Disney Co. would allow this show to put Mickey in that death scene. ) Mickey was still believable. He acted more immature than malicious, not realizing how hurtful he was. But this short was unique for "Mickey MouseWorks" in that Mickey's the one we're routing against this time. Mickey's prank on Minnie was a skewering of the fact that Mickey and Minnie will never marry. A running theme in this short was parodying the Mickey myth, which I thought was done cleverly. The highlights were the Mickey roles Donald thought he could assume with Mickey out of the way, and the morphs Mickey does. The latter I liked especially: Mickey went through the roles from his most famous shorts, and if you were my age you'd remember the Disco Mickey Mouse he morphed to at the end. Just one among several less than fondly remembered versions Disney has cast Mickey in ( Anyone like La Vida Mickey? ;-) The only misgiving I had was that to work this short had to cast Mickey as a toon. I don't think the Roger-Rabbit reality fits well on Mickey or the other MouseWorks characters. In the shorts Mickey's more appealing as a mouse-furry and an everyman character, than a superpowered toon who's known worldwide. Seeing Mickey take off his ears, that was unsettling. I did laugh at Disco Mickey, but it's strange to see Mickey have morphing powers in the first place. This short was still funny enough for me to ignore my misgiving, but I'd rather not see a toon Mickey all that often. DYN: The shocked look on Mortimer's face when he thought he killed Mickey, and the evil grin Donald had after his dream. Great artwork in both cases. "Mickey's April Fools" is one of the best of the MouseWorks shorts, and it's the second best new short "House of Mouse" has shown so far.

From Matthew Cooper : This cartoon is awsome! My favourite parts are when Mickey changes into the different roles he's played over the years to prove his identity and when Donald goes through his imagining sequences (I think this is the only Classic Character Cartoon that the Disney Princesses have been in.) Although this short made me more dissapointed about something I have been bugged by for years. Here it is: in this cartoon they showed Mortimer doing Steamboat Willie and they showed Goofy doing it in another cartoon called How to be a Waiter, but they haven't done that with Donald yet.

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