Disney's House of Mouse

Last updated

House of Mouse
Houseofmousecdcover.jpg
Mickey Mouse and his friends run the House of Mouse nightclub together.
Created by
  • Roberts Gannaway
  • Tony Craig
Based onCharacters
by Walt Disney Animation Studios
Directed by
Presented by Wayne Allwine
Voices of
Narrated by Rod Roddy
Theme music composer Brian Setzer
Country of originUnited States
No. of seasons3
No. of episodes52 (list of episodes)
Production
Running time20 minutes (Shorts 10 minutes approx.)
Production company(s) Walt Disney Television Animation
Distributor Buena Vista Television
Release
Original network
Picture format
Audio formatStereo
Original releaseJanuary 13, 2001 (2001-01-13) 
October 24, 2003 (2003-10-24)
External links
Website

Disney's House of Mouse or simply House of Mouse is an American animated television series, produced by Walt Disney Television Animation (now Disney Television Animation), that originally aired for three seasons from 13 January 2001, to its finale on 24 October 2003. The show focuses on Mickey Mouse and his friends running a cartoon theater dinner club in the fictional ToonTown, catering to many characters from Disney cartoons and animated movies while showcasing a variety of their cartoon shorts. The animated series is a spin off of the popular short-lived Disney series Mickey Mouse Works , and featured many Mouse Works shorts as well as selection of brand new shorts; classic Mickey Mouse, Goofy and Donald Duck shorts from the 1930s–50s were also occasionally seen, particularly towards the end of the series' run when the finite amount of Mouse Works shorts had almost been exhausted.

Animation Method of creating moving pictures

Animation is a method in which pictures are manipulated to appear as moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Today, most animations are made with computer-generated imagery (CGI). Computer animation can be very detailed 3D animation, while 2D computer animation can be used for stylistic reasons, low bandwidth or faster real-time renderings. Other common animation methods apply a stop motion technique to two and three-dimensional objects like paper cutouts, puppets or clay figures.

Disney Television Animation Television animation production arm of Disney Channels Worldwide

Disney Television Animation (DTVA) is an American animation studio that creates, develops and produces animated television series, films, specials and other projects. It is a division of the Disney Channels Worldwide, ultimately owned by The Walt Disney Company.

<i>Mickey Mouse</i> Disney cartoon character

Mickey Mouse is a funny animal cartoon character and the mascot of The Walt Disney Company. He was created by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks at the Walt Disney Studios in 1928. An anthropomorphic mouse who typically wears red shorts, large yellow shoes, and white gloves, Mickey is one of the world's most recognizable characters.

Contents

During its time, the animated series held two nominations for awards, while select cast members won two awards for their performances as characters in House of Mouse. The series featured two special films – Mickey's Magical Christmas: Snowed in at the House of Mouse and Mickey's House of Villains – along with an all-night marathon of the House of Mouse, aired on Toon Disney in September 2002 under the title "Night of 1,000 Toons".

<i>Mickeys Magical Christmas: Snowed in at the House of Mouse</i> 2001 film by Tony Craig

Mickey's Magical Christmas: Snowed in at the House of Mouse is a 2001 American direct-to-video animated film produced by Walt Disney Television Animation, with the animation production being done at Toon City Animation in Manila, Philippines. It is the first of two direct-to-video films spin off from the Disney Channel animated television series Disney's House of Mouse. The events of the film take place during the second season of Disney's House of Mouse.

<i>Mickeys House of Villains</i> 2002 film by Tony Craig, Rick Schneider

Mickey's House of Villains is a 2002 direct-to-video animated film produced by Walt Disney Television Animation. It is based on the animated television series, Disney's House of Mouse and a sequel to the direct-to-video animated film Mickey's Magical Christmas: Snowed in at the House of Mouse, starring Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Minnie Mouse, Goofy, Daisy Duck and Disney Villains that have appeared in past Disney productions. It was released on both VHS and DVD by Walt Disney Home Entertainment on September 3, 2002. It was followed by a 2004 direct-to-video animated film, Mickey, Donald, Goofy: The Three Musketeers and Mickey's Twice Upon a Christmas, produced by DisneyToon Studios. The events of the film take place during the third and final season of Disney's House of Mouse.

Toon Disney International pay television kids network

Toon Disney was an international pay television channel which was owned by the Disney Channels Worldwide, a subsidiary of Disney–ABC Television Group. A spin-off of the Disney Channel, the channel mostly aired children's animated series and some live action programming. Its format had similarities to those of Discovery Kids, Cartoon Network, and Nicktoons. The channel's target audience was children ages 2–12, and children ages 7–14 during its nighttime block called Jetix. The US version of Toon Disney shut down on February 13, 2009, after nearly 11 years, and was succeeded by Disney XD, which has carried some programs previously seen on Toon Disney. The final channel bearing the Toon Disney moniker was in Italy, and was discontinued in 2011.

Premise

The basic premise of the show focuses on Mickey Mouse and his friends operating a dinner theater club in downtown ToonTown. Considered a popular venue by the residents, the club is frequented by a host of character from Disney animated properties – every character from cartoons and films produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios are featured in the episodes, with the exception of those made after 2001–2003 (such as Lilo & Stitch ). Such characters mostly appear as paying guests of the club, with a few voiced in episodes depending on the scripts provided to voice actors, although a number sometimes operate as performers for the club. The animated series is more notable for including many relatively obscure and otherwise rarely used Disney characters, often with speaking parts for the very first time - for example, Li'l Bad Wolf and April, May and June, who had appeared very often in Disney comic books but never before in an animated cartoon, finally made their animated debuts on House of Mouse. The show also featured some cameos by characters created for other television cartoons and theme park attractions, but these appearances were few and far between.

Dinner theater is a form of entertainment in the United States that combines a restaurant meal with a staged play or musical. Sometimes the play is incidental entertainment, secondary to the meal, in the style of a night club, or the play may be the main feature of the evening, with dinner less important or, in some cases, optional. Dinner theater requires the management of three distinct entities: a live theater, a restaurant and, usually, a bar.

The Walt Disney Company American mass media corporation

The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney, is an American diversified multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California.

Walt Disney Animation Studios Walt Disney Company animation studio

Walt Disney Animation Studios (WDAS), sometimes shortened to Disney Animation, is an American animation studio that creates animated feature and short films for The Walt Disney Company. Founded on October 16, 1923 by brothers Walt Disney and Roy O. Disney, it is one of the oldest-running animation studios in the world and currently acts as a division of Walt Disney Studios, being headquartered at the Roy E. Disney Animation Building at the Walt Disney Studios lot in Burbank, California. Since its foundation, the studio has produced 57 feature films, from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) to Ralph Breaks the Internet (2018), and hundreds of short films.

Each episode focuses on a story involving Mickey and his associates facing an issue during an evening's operation of the club, and their efforts to overcome it – the most common plot for episodes involves the group dealing with a serious problem caused by Pete in his attempts to shut down the club and use it for his own gains. These stories, often involving farcical mishaps, tended to act as a wraparound for the cartoon shorts played in between scenes, the theme of the story contributing towards the story-lines of the cartoon shorts shown in the episode. [1] Cartoon shorts played in episodes focused on elements from classic theatrical cartoons of the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s, though most were reruns from Mickey Mouse Works , and featured a simple story. Some stories were set to a specific theme for a specific character, but with differing scenarios – for example, one set focused on Mickey seeking to rescue Minnie from Pete, against a different obstacle in each short, while another set focused on Pluto's efforts to get Mickey his paper while facing a different problem.

Pete (Disney) animal cartoon character, generally an antagonist of Mickey Mouse

Pete is an anthropomorphic cartoon character created in 1925 by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks. He is a character of The Walt Disney Company and often appears as a nemesis and the main antagonist in Mickey Mouse universe stories. He was originally an anthropomorphic bear but with the advent of Mickey Mouse in 1928, he was defined as a cat. Pete is the oldest continuing Disney character, having debuted three years before Mickey Mouse in the cartoon Alice Solves the Puzzle (1925). Pete wasn't named in the first year of Mickey Mouse cartoons, and in the 1929 short When the Cat's Away, he signs his name as "Tom Cat". In an introductory strip for the Mickey Mouse comic strip in early 1930, he was announced as "Terrible Tom - The Vile Villain", but this name was never used afterwards. In the April 24, 1930 strip, Mickey refers to him as "Pegleg Pete", and the name sticks.

Farce Comedy genre

In theatre, a farce is a comedy that aims at entertaining the audience through situations that are highly exaggerated, extravagant, and thus improbable. Farce is also characterized by physical humor, the use of deliberate absurdity or nonsense, and broadly stylized performances. It is also often set in one particular location, where all events occur. Farces have been written for the stage and film.

<i>Mickey Mouse Works</i> television series

Mickey Mouse Works is an American animated television series produced by Walt Disney Television Animation featuring Mickey Mouse and his friends in a series of animated shorts. It is the first Disney television animated series to be broadcast in widescreen High Definition.

Characters

Wayne Allwine American voice actor

Wayne Anthony Allwine was an American voice actor, sound effects editor and foley artist for The Walt Disney Company. He is best remembered as the voice of Mickey Mouse for 32 years, narrowly the longest to date, and was married to voice actress Russi Taylor, who voiced Minnie Mouse from 1986 to 2019.

A general manager or GM is an executive who has overall responsibility for managing both the revenue and cost elements of a company's income statement, known as profit & loss (P&L) responsibility. A general manager usually oversees most or all of the firm's marketing and sales functions as well as the day-to-day operations of the business. Frequently, the general manager is responsible for effective planning, delegating, coordinating, staffing, organizing, and decision making to attain desirable profit making results for an organization.

In property law, a concurrent estate or co-tenancy is any of various ways in which property is owned by more than one person at a time. If more than one person owns the same property, they are commonly referred to as co-owners. Legal terminology for co-owners of real estate is either co-tenants or joint tenants, with the latter phrase signifying a right of survivorship. Most common law jurisdictions recognize tenancies in common and joint tenancies.

Production

The show was produced by Walt Disney Television, and originally aired from 2001 to 2003, running for 52 episodes. The show is one of many Disney cartoon series made in the widescreen HD format. Like with Mickey Mouse Works, the animation was outsourced to Toon City in the Philippines. Unlike that series, it was also outsourced to Walt Disney Animation Australia and Walt Disney Animation Japan.

Walt Disney Television is a subsidiary of Disney Media Networks that oversees television assets owned and operated by The Walt Disney Company. It was formerly called Disney–ABC Television Group, until Disney's acquisition of 21st Century Fox on March 20, 2019. Assets in the group include the ABC network; cable networks: Freeform, Disney Channels, FX and National Geographic channels; Disney Television Studios: ABC Studios, 20th Century Fox Television and Fox 21 Television Studios; ABC News; and ABC Owned Television Stations. The division also manages Disney's 50% equity stake in A&E Networks. Along with ESPN, Walt Disney Television are the two primary subsidiaries of Disney Media Networks.

Widescreen aspect ratio with a width of 1.85 units and height of 1 unit

Widescreen images are images that are displayed within a set of aspect ratios used in film, television and computer screens. In film, a widescreen film is any film image with a width-to-height aspect ratio greater than the standard 1.37:1 Academy aspect ratio provided by 35 mm film.

High-definition television (HDTV) is a television system providing an image resolution that is of substantially higher resolution than that of standard-definition television (SDTV). This can be either analog or digital television. HDTV is the current standard video format used in most broadcasts: terrestrial broadcast television, cable television, satellite television, Blu-rays, and streaming video.

House of Mouse aired on One Saturday Morning on ABC. It reran from September 3, 2002 to February 4, 2006 on Disney Channel. The show ceased broadcast on U.S. television on February 6, 2009, after being aired for the last time on Toon Disney before becoming Disney XD.

The theme song is performed by Brian Setzer.

Episodes

Awards and nominations

YearNominee / workAwardResult
2001House of MouseAnnie Award for Outstanding Achievement in a Daytime Animated Television ProductionNominated
2002Chris Roszak (background artist) at American Broadcasting Company (ABC)Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Individual in AnimationWon
2002Jason Oliver (music editor) and Liz Lachman (scoring editor) for episodes "Pit Crew" and "Golf Nut Donald".Motion Picture Sound Editors Golden Reel Award for Best Sound Editing in Television - Music, Episodic AnimationNominated
2003Corey Burton as the voice of "Ludwig Von Drake".Annie Award for Outstanding Voice Acting in an Animated Television ProductionWon

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References

  1. Ken Tucker (January 26, 2001). "Bob The Builder; Disney's House Of Mouse; Jackie Chan Adventures; Static Shock; X-Men: Evolution". Entertainment Weekly . Retrieved February 11, 2019.