Sunday, February 6, 2022

Saturtainment: Series premiere of Disney's House of Mouse (2001)

 If there was a real reason Disney flopped with Disney's House of Mouse, ending the series a month into its 3rd season, it might've been because they opted to create a running storyline instead of making this a straight variety show, which would've been waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay better.

In the opener, "Stolen Cartoons", Pete (Jim Cummings), the landlord, steals a number of toons from the library in a vain effort to force Mickey (Wayne Allwine) to close the club. As toon villains are wont to do, Pete is foiled at the end because his own arrogance and vanity get in the way.


At least they had "prize plugs" to make announcer Rod Roddy (The Price is Right, ex-Soap) feel right at home. Theme song performed by ex-Stray Cats frontman Brian Setzer and his orchestra.

We're going to see if we can find the Quackstreet Boys (Huey, Dewey, & Louie) doing a number.

Rating: B.

4 comments:

Silverstar said...

Thing is, the cartoons which aired on House of Mouse were just recycled from Mickey Mouse Works (with the odd theatrical short tossed in), which premiered on ABC previously. So HoM was really just a rehashed Mickey Mouse Works with new wraparounds.

hobbyfan said...

In other words, they had the material in the can, and, rather than go into the archives for shorts that would otherwise air on Disney Channel (i.e. Vault Disney), or go with the variety show format, they went with the MouseWorks left overs. That, plus Mickey getting stuck in the lunch hour death zone, prone to frequent pre-emption for college football back then, sealed the show's fate.

Steven Dolce said...

This episode was featured as a bonus feature on the Mickey's Magical Christmas: Snowed in at the House of Mouse DVD. This was the only episode to get a home video release. Good times.

hobbyfan said...

Wimps. Should've done a full DVD release.