This morning on the BBC World Service I heard (while writhing in agony from my ailment) our blogging friend Brian Sibley talking about Mickey Mouse’s 80th birthday. There’s audio of Brian talking about Mickey, that’s a bit different from what I heard this morning, at this link. And over at this link, Brian has an essay about the significance of the mouse, all these years later.
3 thoughts on “Sibley on Mickey’s Birthday”
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My favorite cartoons have always been of Bugs Bunny. I like the fact there are adult references to things that go above your head as a kid. The last time I saw a Bugs Bunny collection/marathon I picked up on quite a few. Of newer cartoons I find the Arthur cartoon does that, albeit not as politically as Bugs Bunny, except for the Arthur spinoff Postcards From Buster that featured a Vermont episode with 2 lesbian parents. How liberal is PBS? Well, only one of the 3 affiliates we get carried it but at least the conservative president of PBS left over that.
Mickey’s peak popularity actually was already over by the mid-30’s, when Popeye took over as the #1 animated character. Mickey needed something to punch up his cartoons, and that something was Donald Duck.
Some of the Donald Duck cartoons in the 30’s are very funny, and invariably they’re the ones that had Carl Barks contributing gags. After Barks left the animation studio in the early 40’s to draw Donald Duck comic books, Donald’s cartoons became as bland as Mickey’s. Yet I enjoy all of the Disney cartoons. I can’t say the same, however, about Tom and Jerry. I simply have no appreciation for them at all. Something about MGM’s cartoons, other than Tex Avery’s, leaves me cold.
I must admit that I have never been a fan of Mickey Mouse, although I was always intrigued by the very early Disney cartoons, like “Steamboat Willie,” and others. Mickey was so … BLAND! The irreverent Bob Smigel, former writer for SNL and creator of the infamous Triumph the Insult Comedy Dog, did a short animated piece that was QUITE nasty where two kids dream they are in the Disney Vault. They meet Mickey and demand answers to some vexing problems we’ve all harbored about Disney cartoons. At one point, the little boy says to Mickey, “You mean … YOU’RE supposed to be FUNNY?” That was one of the biggest laughs I got out of that piece, but I did feel guilty. For me, it’s always been Warner Brothers, and more specifically the Termite Terrace days, with Bob Clampett. It doesn’t get any better than that!