A New "Mickey Mouse" Animated Series

[Scrooge MacDuck]

This popped up a few weeks ago on the Disney Channel Asia YouTube Channel:



The cartoon itself's not much, but it's interesting enough that it exists. It's written and paced much like an episode of the Paul Rudish series, but the designs are in a completely different aesthetic — which I like much better, natch, although it doesn't bear the low-cost animation half as well as the Rudish designs do, credit where credit's due. 

[Mesterius]

Aug 23, 2019 23:37:18 GMT Scrooge MacDuck said:

It's written and paced much like an episode of the Paul Rudish series, but the designs are in a completely different aesthetic — which I like much better, natch, although it doesn't bear the low-cost animation half as well as the Rudish designs do, credit where credit's due.

...um, okay? Can't say I do. I think this looks absolutely terrible, design-wise and animation-wise. It feels like a bad fan remake of the Paul Rudish series.

[TheMidgetMoose]

Hm... The designs are okay, I guess. I could get used to them if I had to, but I can't really say I'm a fan. I also have to admit that I didn't really like the short as a whole and didn't find it particularly good. A neat find, but nothing that gets me excited.

What exactly is it, anyway? Are shorts like these going to be released on a regular basis for an Asian audience, or is it just a one-time thing? If it is just a one-time thing, what is the purpose of it? It doesn't seem to be an advertisement or promo for anything. Is this the launch of a new Mickey Mouse series for Asian fans?

On another note, it seems that Clarabelle Cow has brown fur in this short. Interesting. Of course, you could argue that's not actually Clarabelle, which would be a fair argument since it is somewhat off-model; but the clothing clearly indicates that it was intended to be her. Will this choice of brown fur spillover into other appearances, or was it just for this short?

[Baar Baar Jinx]

Aug 24, 2019 0:10:15 GMT Mesterius said:

...um, okay? Can't say I do. I think this looks absolutely terrible, design-wise and animation-wise. It feels like a bad fan remake of the Paul Rudish series.

Agreed. This was awful. Both design-wise and animation-wise, it reminds me of those low-quality knockoff Mickey Mouse YouTube videos. It does look like an amateurish piece of fan work. I'm no great fan of the ugly style and exaggerated animation of the Rudish Mickey cartoons, but I'd take them over this sort of thing any day.

[Scrooge MacDuck]

I dunno… as I said, I quite agree the animation itself is rather lacking. But in terms of designs, I'll still take this over the Rudish ones. The Rudish Mickey's better, mind you, but their Donalds are about evenly-matched, and look, finally giving us a simplified Goofy who doesn't look revolting is earning this show a lot of goodwill in my book. 



At any rate, as you can see, the title of the video includes "Episode 1", so it seems that indeed, a whole series will be made out of this. 

[RobbK1]

Absolutely HORRIBLE character design. I couldn't look at it, no matter how good the stories might have been! BOOOOOOO!!!

[Scrooge MacDuck]

Aug 24, 2019 9:36:42 GMT RobbK1 said:

Absolutely HORRIBLE character design. I couldn't look at it, no matter how good the stories might have been! BOOOOOOO!!!

You didn't miss much, the story's rubbish, at least in this one. I still think the designs (while a bit amateurish) aren't nearly as horrible as the worst of Rudish, though. 

[schizo]

Very bland and generic. Story was meh and the designs looked like something from "Go Animate". While Paul Rudish's style isn't my cup of tea either, it at least looks more distinct and unique.

[Donald Duck34]

Is this an official series by Disney or have fans created it???

[Baar Baar Jinx]

Aug 24, 2019 9:19:41 GMT Scrooge MacDuck said:

I dunno… as I said, I quite agree the animation itself is rather lacking. But in terms of designs, I'll still take this over the Rudish ones. The Rudish Mickey's better, mind you, but their Donalds are about evenly-matched, and look, finally giving us a simplified Goofy who doesn't look revolting is earning this show a lot of goodwill in my book. 



At any rate, as you can see, the title of the video includes "Episode 1", so it seems that indeed, a whole series will be made out of this. 

Strangely enough, as far as Goofy goes, I actually prefer the Rudish design to the bland "Mickey Go Local" one. Unlike Mickey or Donald, cuteness was never an important consideration in Goofy's design. He's tall, gangly, bucktoothed and slouching; his appeal actually lies in his awkwardness and homeliness. What I can't stand about Rudish-Goofy is his pantlessness and bushy tail. Those were transient features of the very early Dippy Dawg appearances, hardly associated with classic Goofy in his prime ... what made the Rudish team think they were good ideas? I agree that the design of both Rudish-Donald and Mickey-Go-Local-Donald are a little *too* cutesy , making him look almost duckling-like.

The Rudish shorts have to be credited for their dynamic, personality-driven animation, which this "Mickey Go Local" short clearly lacks; unfortunately, unlike, say, DuckTales '17, the Rudish Mickey cartoons choose to use their animation skills on grotesque character distortions and ugly exaggeration of facial features, instead of focusing on fluid movements and expressive gestures.

Ultimately, neither the Rudish shorts nor this "Mickey Go Local" cartoon do any justice to the classic shorts; they're both bad in their own different ways, so I guess we have to pick our poison. It's unfortunate that it looks like Disney has no interest in any new TV or theater animation with the "standard" version of these characters, although I recently watched a video showcasing the new Halloween feature that debuted at the Magic Kingdom, where, mercifully, they did indeed decide to go with the standard designs. When I first read the title of this thread, I hoped it was about a new DuckTales-like Mickey adventure series ... I shouldn't have been disappointed when that wasn't the case, but I was.

 

[Scrooge MacDuck]

Aug 24, 2019 18:26:18 GMT Baar Baar Jinx said:

Strangely enough, as far as Goofy goes, I actually prefer the Rudish design to the bland "Mickey Go Local" one. Unlike Mickey or Donald, cuteness was never an important consideration in Goofy's design. He's tall, gangly, bucktoothed and slouching; his appeal actually lies in his awkwardness and homelines.

Fair enough, but (and yes, the trouser-less-ness and pot-belly are part of it) what I can't stand about the Rudish Goofy is that he's just ugly. Revolting was perhaps a slight hyperbole, though not always, but he's not something I want to be looking at. The original Goofy isn't meant to be cute, but he is meant to be appealing in the way that Charlie Chaplin's Tramp, or for that matter Carl Barks's Scrooge, is a funny little fellow to look at, even if they are by no means attractive.

[Mesterius]

Aug 24, 2019 9:19:41 GMT Scrooge MacDuck said:

I dunno… as I said, I quite agree the animation itself is rather lacking. But in terms of designs, I'll still take this over the Rudish ones. The Rudish Mickey's better, mind you, but their Donalds are about evenly-matched, and look, finally giving us a simplified Goofy who doesn't look revolting is earning this show a lot of goodwill in my book. 



At any rate, as you can see, the title of the video includes "Episode 1", so it seems that indeed, a whole series will be made out of this. 

But that left-hand Goofy DOES look revolting to me, simply because he's so badly designed and drawn. There is not an iota of that drawing which holds any kind of appeal for me.

[TheMidgetMoose]

As far as specific designs go, I'll say that I think Donald looks better here than he does in the Rudish shorts. Maybe a little bit too cutesy, but the Rudish design for Donald has never been my cup of tea. On the flip-side, Rudish-Mickey is absolutely superior to this Mickey, who just looks... off. I think, at least in regards to Mickey, Baar Baar Jinx hit the nail on the head when he compared it to the plethora of Elsagate-esque unofficial Mickey Mouse cartoons on YouTube. Not quite as bad, but there is a comparison to be made.

Goofy's design is a mixed bag. It's not particularly appealing, but it's not awful either. I feel the same away about Rudish-Goofy. The best modern Goofy design in animation is probably his Mickey and the Roadster Racers incarnation, even though I generally like the characters better in a style that more closely resembles hand-drawn animation and feels less computer generated.

Daisy and Horace look alright. Minnie and Clarabelle aren't quite there.

[Mesterius]

What really pisses me off about these shorts -- aside from the ugly aesthetic -- is that they're targeted so explicitly towards really small kids. That's why there is no dialogue, only noises (in scenes where dialogue would have been all the more natural for these characters). This sadly reminds me a lot of the god-awful new Popeye cartoons which started coming out last year.

And whatever you think of the designs versus the Paul Rudish ones, the truly bizarre thing is that these shorts are for some reason BASED on those. That's why Mickey's pants look like they do, and Donald too looks closer to the Paul Rudish version than any classic incarnation. It's like someone said, "Hey, let's do a version of the Paul Rudish cartoon, but more child-friendly and with REALLY dumbed-down visuals!" (Actually, that's probably exactly what someone said.)

[TheMidgetMoose]

Aug 24, 2019 22:55:21 GMT Mesterius said:

What really pisses me off about these shorts -- aside from the ugly aesthetic -- is that they're targeted so explicitly towards really small kids. That's why there is no dialogue, only noises (in scenes where dialogue would have been all the more natural for these characters). This sadly reminds me a lot of the god-awful new Popeye cartoons which started coming out last year.

And whatever you think of the designs versus the Paul Rudish ones, the truly bizarre thing is that these shorts are for some reason BASED on those. That's why Mickey's pants look like they do, and Donald too looks closer to the Paul Rudish version than any classic incarnation. It's like someone said, "Hey, let's do a version of the Paul Rudish cartoon, but more child-friendly and with REALLY dumbed-down visuals!" (Actually, that's probably exactly what someone said.)

For me, the problem is less that it is made for young children and more that, other than the designs, there's nothing really original or creative about it. If it was less of a remake of the Rudish shorts and dared to do its own thing, I think it would be more valuable. I'm totally fine with content being made for young children, but I strongly believe said content should be creative and entertaining. Mickey Go Local isn't particularly creative or entertaining. Maybe future installments will show improvement, but this first episode is not a very good start. It lacks entertainment value and any sort of originality. As it currently stands, young children would be better off watching some of the classic shorts from the '30's and '40's easily accessible on YouTube than this.