Mar 12, 2013

Disney is making new Mickey Mouse shorts, first film premiered today [Updated

Disney today announced a new Mickey Mouse short, "Croissant de Trionf." It is one of 19 new shorts that will air on Disney Channel, Disney.com, and other Disney-branded platforms beginning Friday, June 28.

Paul Rudish ("Dexter's Laboratory," "Sim Bionic Titan," "My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic") will executive produce and direct. Aaron Springer ("SpongeBob," "Corgos of Barbaria") and Clay Morrow ("Dexter's Laboratory," "Chowder," "Camp Laszlo!") will also direct. Joseph Holt is the series' art director. [If the newly released short "Croissant de Triomphe" is anything to go by, it's a film with a cartoon-modern background, '30s-inspired character designs (complete with pie-cut Mickey eyes), and a loose, expressive animation, the series will be a handsome and distinctive mix. It is faithful to the original, but with a fresh visual twist. The three-and-a-half-minute running time of the first short is also perfect. It's great that the studio has woken up to the fact that episodes can be longer than 7 or 11 minutes.

My biggest observation about the first short, "Croissant at the Arc de Triomphe," is that I have a hard time finding the humor in the setting of Mickey riding around Paris on a scooter. Other than a few attempts at tepid gags, such as Minnie's tonsils appearing on a telephone, a nun being knocked into the air and floating like a bowling pin, and the appearance of Cinderella, the animation emphasizes frenetic, game-inspired action scenes over slapstick. Even the obvious gag set-ups, such as Mickey dressing up as a knight and licking a croissant, have no comedic payoff.

Whatever was missing from the classic Mickey shorts, they at least emphasized a sense of personality and humor. Hopefully, as the crew gains a foothold, they will be able to balance the highly accomplished action sequences with a more spirited comic sensibility.

UPDATE: Andy Suriano, who worked on these new shorts, has posted a complete list of everyone who worked on animation at Disney on his blog. It's one hell of a lineup:

Paul Rudish Jenny Gase Baker Aaron Springer Darick Bachman Clay Morrow Chris Roszak Chris Hacker Andy Suriano Joseph Holt Ilya Owens Chris Savino Derek Dressler Alex Kirwan Dave Wasson Robert Racco Steven DeStefano Justin Martin Justin Palpin Nalina Sokolova Rae McCarson Alonso Ramirez Ramos Kari Fontecchio Tara Billinger Jasmine Bocci Todd Popp Steve Leininger John Chang Monica Mitchell Animation produced by Mercury Filmworks (Ottawa)