The question I have is this

[jamesbowersmt]

The Disney Comics, most notably those from Carl Barks and Don Rosa, are widely praised for greatly expanding on the personalities of classic Disney characters, particularly those like Donald Duck, Scrooge McDuck, and so forth, showing that they're more than just mascots . This also includes Mickey Mouse.



Since the late 1930s, Mickey was greatly changed from a mischievous, scrappy character into a more idealistic, nice guy, with some people thinking he's too boring. The comics have given more of a defined personality, and Mickey Mouse 2013 is generally agreed to be a step in the right direction.


Could the Mickey Mouse comics be adapted into animation in order to show more depth to him, and get across this image to the general public? Both of the Ducktales cartoons are praised for showing more depth to the characters, with those images being ingrained into the public. Can this also apply to Mickey Mouse should his comics be adapted into a full fledged series?

[fredj]

Mickey doesn't have that much depth in the comics either. He's a classical straight man/hero who is dependent on a good story and, for the most of it, a gallery of fun supporting characters. A bit like Tintin. So given that he gets that he could definitely have a successful series.

[Baar Baar Jinx]

Back in the 90's, during the height of the popularity of the Disney Afternoon, Disney launched a merchandising blitz called "Perils of Mickey", meant to showcase and popularize the early Gottfredson comics version of the character. I had hoped and anticipated that it would encompass an animated TV show, but sadly that never happened.

[The KKM]

Too risky. Disney's a giant megacorp. Mickey's a mascot. They might toy with giving him more personality like in the new shorts, but they'll never risk too much, especially after Epic Mickey was a failure.

[Scrooge MacDuck]

Jun 6, 2019 12:01:02 GMT The KKM said:

especially after Epic Mickey was a failure.

Eh? Epic Mickey was no failure — the sequel was. (Largely because it took fewer risks and tried to go back to an exaggeratedly kid-friendly tone that turned away the fans Disney hard earned themselves with the first game;)

[Monkey_Feyerabend]

What do you mean by merchandising blitz?

[The KKM]

Epic Mickey was projected to not only sell better but do better critically. Epic Mickey 2 was the real bomb, but it was clear even back then that Epic Mickey itself'd been a failure when the response had been lukewarm.

[Baar Baar Jinx]

Jun 6, 2019 12:31:22 GMT Monkey_Feyerabend said:

What do you mean by merchandising blitz?

There were bookbags, backpacks, apparel, toys, games, books, comics, video games ... everything except a Disney Afternoon show, which is what I really thought they were building up to. 

[Monkey_Feyerabend]

Ah wait, now I get it. 'Perils of Mickey' is the name of a comics story with vintage Mickey and Horace going back to the Castle that was included in vol.3 of Gottfredson's library. I was not aware that it was part of a larger operation.
 
I don't think they ever planned a Gottfredson's oriented Disney afternoon show. For the simple reason that those writers did not even had that material under their nose. (Yes, a decent number of stories by Gottfredsons's were published in the 80's, yet...). They were planning a sci-fi series featuring Horace, but it was based on the role the character had in the early toons of the 30's.

[Mesterius]

Jun 7, 2019 12:32:12 GMT Monkey_Feyerabend said:

I don't think they ever planned a Gottfredson's oriented Disney afternoon show. For the simple reason that those writers did not even had that material under their nose. (Yes, a decent number of stories by Gottfredsons's were published in the 80's, yet...). They were planning a sci-fi series featuring Horace, but it was based on the role the character had in the early toons of the 30's.

Actually, yes they did. Disney Television Animation was developing an adventure-based cartoon series starring Mickey Mouse for a brief while in the 80s, simultaneously with developing DuckTales. The reason the Mickey show didn't happen was that every executive at Disney had different ideas about how their number one mascot should be handled. (Of course, there was probably also the concern - which was one of the reasons Donald was largely kept out of DuckTales - that they would be accused of cheapening their classic theatrical stars by using them in low-budget TV shows.) Mark Evanier told the story on his blog in 2011:

In the eighties when Disney was first getting into TV animation, I was involved in a meeting to discuss which of their classic characters might make the leap to that marketplace. I suggested that they oughta do a show with Donald Duck and Uncle Scrooge adapting or writing new episodes in the vein of the classic tales by Carl Barks. As it turned out, I was about the three hundredth person to suggest that. Custodians before me had proposed such a show and sure enough, a year or two later they did Duck Tales. But I may have been the first person to tell a Disney exec there — a man who had never heard the name, "Floyd Gottfredson" — that they oughta consider putting Mickey and Goofy into an adventure format based on the first decade or two of the newspaper strip. I also suggested taking a look at the Mickey Mouse serials that ran in the back of Walt Disney's Comics and Stories, the ones drawn mainly by Paul Murry.

Everyone was enthused at the idea and for a few weeks there, it looked like it was going to happen. But then it fell apart and when I asked wha' happened?, I was told that there were simply too many people involved in any decision involving The Mouse. He was such a symbol of the company (and I guess, of Walt) that everybody in the Disney payroll had strident opinions about how Mickey should be depicted…and I don't mean just the folks in the entertainment division. Involved in every Mickey discussion were the merchandising divisions, the theme park operations, the folks who ran the Disney Stores, at least five of the Seven Dwarfs, the robot of Abe Lincoln at the park, past employees who'd been dead less than 25 years, etc. The people I was talking to had soured on the whole idea because of that. They'd realized how complicated it was going to be to do anything with Mickey…and I sure couldn't disagree.

I'm not quite so sure as The KMM that an adventure-based animated series in the Gottfredson vein couldn't happen today, though. Sure, Mickey is still an icon for Disney. But the Mickey shorts they have been producing for TV and streaming since 2013 could never have happened in the 80s or 90s. It seems they have at least realized that for an icon to remain relatable and interesting to people, you need to do something with him. Of course, there's still some way to go from these cartoony shorts to the more serious, mystery-based show that the Gottfredson strip could lay the grounds for. But considering that the new DuckTales seems to be a huge success, who knows what could happen in the future?

[Scrooge MacDuck]

Honestly, I think the DuckTales 2017 crew could conceivably do a smashing job of adapting the eccentric Bill Walsh-era strips, but less so of the earlier, more serious Gottfredson material. 

[Mesterius]

Jun 7, 2019 16:59:25 GMT Scrooge MacDuck said:

Honestly, I think the DuckTales 2017 crew could do a smashing job of adapting the eccentric Bill Walsh-era strips, but less so of the earlier, more serious Gottfredson material. 

I don't think I really WANT an animated-series adaptation of the Bill Walsh Mickey. My mention of DuckTales 2017 was simply because it's a current example of adapting material or concepts from the comics to animation. (I have only seen the first few episodes of it so far, so I can't comment too specifically on its contents.) But a new Mickey show with a more serious feel, as well as a sense of continuity throughout, could be amazing. What I'm hoping is that the success of the new DuckTales might help open some doors toward the notion of a Mickey Mouse adventure series with its own style and feel. Not every show needs the same sensibility.

[Scrooge MacDuck]

Jun 7, 2019 17:28:12 GMT Mesterius said:

I don't think I really WANT an animated-series adaptation of the Bill Walsh Mickey strips. 

Whyever not? They're marvelous, and the visual inventivity (and cartoony sensibilities) seem like they would lend themselves to animation quite well. 

[Monkey_Feyerabend]

Jun 7, 2019 14:30:02 GMT Mesterius said:

In the eighties when Disney was first getting into TV animation, I was involved in a meeting to discuss which of their classic characters might make the leap to that marketplace. I suggested that they oughta do a show with Donald Duck and Uncle Scrooge adapting or writing new episodes in the vein of the classic tales by Carl Barks. As it turned out, I was about the three hundredth person to suggest that. Custodians before me had proposed such a show and sure enough, a year or two later they did Duck Tales. But I may have been the first person to tell a Disney exec there — a man who had never heard the name, "Floyd Gottfredson" — that they oughta consider putting Mickey and Goofy into an adventure format based on the first decade or two of the newspaper strip. I also suggested taking a look at the Mickey Mouse serials that ran in the back of Walt Disney's Comics and Stories, the ones drawn mainly by Paul Murry.

Everyone was enthused at the idea and for a few weeks there, it looked like it was going to happen. But then it fell apart and when I asked wha' happened?, I was told that there were simply too many people involved in any decision involving The Mouse. He was such a symbol of the company (and I guess, of Walt) that everybody in the Disney payroll had strident opinions about how Mickey should be depicted…and I don't mean just the folks in the entertainment division. Involved in every Mickey discussion were the merchandising divisions, the theme park operations, the folks who ran the Disney Stores, at least five of the Seven Dwarfs, the robot of Abe Lincoln at the park, past employees who'd been dead less than 25 years, etc. The people I was talking to had soured on the whole idea because of that. They'd realized how complicated it was going to be to do anything with Mickey…and I sure couldn't disagree.

This was funny to read. 

[Monkey_Feyerabend]

Jun 7, 2019 17:36:46 GMT Scrooge MacDuck said:

Jun 7, 2019 17:28:12 GMT Mesterius said:

I don't think I really WANT an animated-series adaptation of the Bill Walsh Mickey strips. 

Whyever not? They're marvelous, and the visual inventivity (and cartoony sensibilities) seem like they would lend themselves to animation quite well. 

Eega Beeva is  the only classic Disney character that seems to me to come straight out of the weird universe of DT17. Well, in the end he actually was the Man of Tomorrow.  

I wonder if the current authors of DT17 have given a look at the Fantagraphics library, at this point. Can someone ask the dude Angones on the web?