While waiting for my Thunderbean orders to arrive, I dug out Mickey Mouse in B&W and watched Plane Crazy and Steamboat Willie for the first time in many years, which reminded me that Mickey's a slapstick wannabe date-raper in the former and a musically sadistic animal abuser in the latter. Wow. Classic, entertaining, and disturbing. I wish these would all get remastered in HD for Blu-ray.

While waiting for my Thunderbean orders to arrive, I dug out Mickey Mouse in B&W and watched Plane Crazy and Steamboat Willie for the first time in many years, which reminded me that Mickey's a slapstick wannabe date-raper in the former and a musically sadistic animal abuser in the latter. Wow. Classic, entertaining, and disturbing. I wish these would all get remastered in HD for Blu-ray.

Okay, so calling him either a date-raper or an animal abuser would be stretching it (this was before the Hays Code cracked down on cartoons, after all), but quite frankly, this is (in my opinion) why Mickey is one of my favorite characters - instead of playing second fiddle to a mute dog tangling with another animal, he actually used to have an edge. The Cartoon Review Website's analysis of Mickey's nasty behavior in Plane Crazy describes this version of him best:

While 🇮🇹 certainly isn't the shining moment of this short, it's not entirely surprising to anyone who's aware of what it meant in 1928 to be an everyman (which is what Mickey is famous for being) knows that his ruthless behavior here is well within that classic definition, which is based directly on Charlie Chaplin's famed character, The Little Tramp.

And while The Little Tramp was a hero (especially to the working class), he had an attitude that belied his rough-hewn roots. So when Mickey acts crassly around Minnie, it's a reflection of that character, and Mickey's status as Chaplin's equal.
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I think [this] is proof that Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks didn't particularly condone Mickey's behavior; they simply thought that it would be funny (which it is, but it's not within Mickey's character, even at this early point in the series). Mickey treating his love interest poorly is really not that offensive when one considers the consequences of such treatment. Not only is he ditched by a justifiably offended Minnie, but Mickey's plane crashes.
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The truly surprising result of Mickey's ungentlemanly behavior is his ultimate loss in this short, something that would actually recur frequently in the first two years of the series. While the great cartoons of the Golden Age were not adverse to having established stars end up on the losing side of a short (and even hinged on it in certain circumstances), it's not within Mickey's character to lose in this manner, as the character directly responsible for his own loss. But with Mickey, there was no template - the characters preceding him (even successful ones like Felix and Koko) never achieved the level of depth Mickey reached from the get-go. Part of this is, naturally, because of the synchronized soundtracks. But another part of this is because Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks put all their [effort?] creating Mickey Mouse - a character created out of desperation, and animated in secret as the staff that Charles Mintz had stolen away from Walt (along with the entire Oswald series) finished the final shorts that Disney had been contracted to produce. So refining Mickey was a rougher process than any cartoon character before or since - and Plane Crazy is a stark reminder of this.

The Mickey of Plane Crazy and Gallopin Gaucho actually went much further than Oswald, because Mickey was clearly presented as aggressive and vulgar, unlike Oswald, who was always presented as a good guy and never abused Ortensia. But I guess Walt wanted to stand out from the competition at the time, which partly explains Mickey's behavior.

I am very disturbed what has happened to Mickey. Now there's a horror movie, called Mickey's Mouse Trap.

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I am very disturbed what has happened to Mickey. Now there's a horror movie, called Mickey's Mouse Trap.

This horror movie looks really good, and it's an interesting way of using Mickey's first drawing.

I am very disturbed what has happened to Mickey. Now there's a horror movie, called Mickey's Mouse Trap.

I wonder if this has anything to do with Mickey Mouse becoming public domain in 2024?

P.S. Another necroposter!

While waiting for my Thunderbean orders to arrive, I dug out Mickey Mouse in B&W and watched Plane Crazy and Steamboat Willie for the first time in many years, which reminded me that Mickey's a slapstick wannabe date-raper in the former and a musically sadistic animal abuser in the latter. Wow. Classic, entertaining, and disturbing. I wish these would all get remastered in HD for Blu-ray.

Well, anyway, yeah, I much more prefer niceguy Mickey and Fun and Fancy Free's cocky Mickey, especially when Fred Moore gave him belivable--if not realistic--proportions. Even though he was never a comedy character on a par with Donald or Daffy or Bugs, who doesn't like charming?

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I am very disturbed what has happened to Mickey. Now there's a horror movie, called Mickey's Mouse Trap.

This horror movie looks really good, and it's an interesting way of using Mickey's first drawing.

Never a horror movie fan, but I hope you all see it. I'm curious how all the cartoon kids on here will feel when it's released.

Here's my blogpost on the whole ordeal:
https://thegoldenageofan...ws-for-mickey-mouse.html 

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Honestly, the used of a trademark name in a unauthorized film equals a trip to Lawsuitland.

Maybe they thought that they could get away with it because of The Banana Splits Movie. But The Banana Splits Movie was made by WB, if you can believe that.

Also Mickey Mouse becoming public domain and this horror movie were mentioned on the local news today. (Of course Walt Disney World isn't that far away from here.)

Maybe they thought that they could get away with it because of The Banana Splits Movie. But The Banana Splits Movie was made by WB, if you can believe that.

Also Mickey Mouse becoming public domain and this horror movie were mentioned on the local news today. (Of course Walt Disney World isn't that far away from here.)

I'm in Florida, but I missed the local part. My grandpa saw it, though.

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In fact, I really like this first version of Mickey, as he was portrayed as something of an anti-hero, which was something of a novelty for a cartoon character at the time, especially as Ub Iwerks did an excellent job with his clever use of perspective to give the illusion of camera movement, techniques which would unfortunately not be used again in later films in the series. What's more, Mickey is a very funny character here, in contrast to the bland one he would become later in the thirties.

In short, these early Mickey films are all excellent, and have nothing to envy of modern TV cartoons.

Maybe they thought that they could get away with it because of The Banana Splits Movie. But The Banana Splits Movie was made by WB, if you can believe that.

Also Mickey Mouse becoming public domain and this horror movie were mentioned on the local news today. (Of course Walt Disney World isn't that far away from here.)

I'm in Florida, but I missed the local part. My grandpa saw it, though.

I'm in the Tampa Bay area (Apollo Beach). It aired on WTVT 13 during the afternoon news.

I am very disturbed what has happened to Mickey. Now there's a horror movie, called Mickey's Mouse Trap.

This horror movie looks really good, and it's an interesting way of using Mickey's first drawing.

Never a horror movie fan, but I hope you all see it. I'm curious how all the cartoon kids on here will feel when it's released.

Here's my blogpost on the whole ordeal:
https://thegoldenageofan...ws-for-mickey-mouse.html 

Honestly, the fact that Mickey's design is in the public domain seems to me to be a fair return, especially when you consider all the dirty tricks Walt used to prevent his competitors from using Mickey's design. Disney even went so far as to sue the Van Beuren studio because they used a similar Mickey character in two of their cartoons, and Walt also sent numerous threatening letters to Rudolf Ising asking him to remove the main character of his Merries Melodies, Foxy, on the grounds that he resembled Mickey.
Charles Mintz also used a Minnie clone in some of his Krazy Kat cartoons, a clone that was mysteriously replaced by a dog with no apparent explanation.

In any case, it's great news that any artist can now freely use Mickey's first design without risking lawsuits and threats from Disney Studios.

But relations between Hugh Harman and Rudy Ising and their former boss Walt Disney must have remained more than cordial because some of the inking and painting on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was outsourced to the Harman-Ising studio. And "Merbabies" was made by the Harman-Ising studio but was released as a Disney Silly Symphony.

But relations between Hugh Harman and Rudy Ising and their former boss Walt Disney must have remained more than cordial because some of the inking and painting on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was outsourced to the Harman-Ising studio. And "Merbabies" was made by the Harman-Ising studio but was released as a Disney Silly Symphony.

True, but that doesn't change the fact that Walt's actions towards his competitors have been more than malicious.

I am very disturbed what has happened to Mickey. Now there's a horror movie, called Mickey's Mouse Trap.

This horror movie looks really good, and it's an interesting way of using Mickey's first drawing.

Never a horror movie fan, but I hope you all see it. I'm curious how all the cartoon kids on here will feel when it's released.

Here's my blogpost on the whole ordeal:
https://thegoldenageofan...ws-for-mickey-mouse.html 

Honestly, the fact that Mickey's design is in the public domain seems to me to be a fair return, especially when you consider all the dirty tricks Walt used to prevent his competitors from using Mickey's design. Disney even went so far as to sue the Van Beuren studio because they used a similar Mickey character in two of their cartoons, and Walt also sent numerous threatening letters to Rudolf Ising asking him to remove the main character of his Merries Melodies, Foxy, on the grounds that he resembled Mickey.
Charles Mintz also used a Minnie clone in some of his Krazy Kat cartoons, a clone that was mysteriously replaced by a dog with no apparent explanation.

In any case, it's great news that any artist can now freely use Mickey's first design without risking lawsuits and threats from Disney Studios.

So, I guess Walt was supposed to be okay with ripoffs? Interesting do-as-I-say logic.

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Walt also sent numerous threatening letters to Rudolf Ising asking him to remove the main character of his Merries Melodies, Foxy, on the grounds that he resembled Mickey.

Where'd you hear about this? I knew Walt had told Rudy to stop using the character of Foxy for legal reasons, but I'm not familiar with the "threatening letter" aspect to the tale.

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One of the Foxy cartoons borrowed its plot, and even some of its gags, from an Oswald cartoon (which Hugh Harman, Rudy Ising and Friz Freleng had probably worked on):



(In the 1990's Pat Ventura borrowed the "deflating a fat person" gag from this Foxy cartoon in one of his World Premiere Toons with Yuckie Duck.)

Walt also sent numerous threatening letters to Rudolf Ising asking him to remove the main character of his Merries Melodies, Foxy, on the grounds that he resembled Mickey.

I think you may be confusing elements of the Van Burean story as I don't think Disney was that hard with Ising as the Foxy shorts weren't as plagiarizing as those Aseop's Fables.