Mickey Mouse Makeover Fail

November 6, 2009 - 12:00 pm By Hillary - Columbia

mickey Beloved female cartoon characters like Strawberry Shortcake and Dora the Explorer have recently been the victims of “makeovers” meant to make them more appealing to today’s tweenagers. In reality, these redesigns just mean that the new versions of Dora and Strawberry have more conventionally pretty features and dress just a little bit sluttier.

And now Disney’s hopping on the makeover bandwagon, re-imagining Mickey Mouse as an angry-eyebrow-sporting curmudgeon who roams around a “cartoon wasteland,” wielding “paint and thinner thrown from a magic paintbrush” as a weapon. Seriously.

I understand why Disney is trying to give Mickey some edge—squeaky clean, anthropomorphic rodents just don’t have the same appeal that they used to. But there are tons of reasons that this gritty new version of their most well known character just isn’t going to work.

First of all, there’s the outfit—Mickey’s trademark red shorts with huge white buttons and silly yellow shoes aren’t exactly going to strike fear into the heart of, well, anyone. And outfitting Mickey in, say, a studded leather jacket and an eyebrow ring would just be wrong.

Then there’s Mickey’s familiar high-pitched voice and signature chuckle. Are they going to make the mouse go through puberty? How weird would it be if Mickey started sounding like this? I don’t see how Mickey could possibly be edgy if he still talks like Mrs. Featherbottom sans English accent, but I also don’t see how Disney could change one of the most recognizable things about Mickey without losing the soul of the character.

And how does Minnie play into all of this? Is Disney going to shorten her polka dotted dress and have her wear intense eyeliner or something? Are the new Mickey and the new Minnie going to have an unhealthy, codependent relationship? Is she going to start cheating on him with Donald, or maybe Goofy?

Okay, maybe the South Park crew managed to make Mickey pretty terrifying on an episode last year. Even so, Disney’s edgification of their mascot seems doomed from the start. Remember when Warner Brothers reimagined Daffy, Bugs and the gang as creepy, menacing “loonatics?”

Of course you don’t. Because it was terrible.

A says:
Fri, 6th Nov 200912:10 pm

No! Epic Mickey sounds awesome.

And it’s not like it’s a totally new concept of Mickey:

“In many ways, it is a return to Mickey at his creation. When the character made its debut in “Steamboat Willie” in 1928, he was the Bart Simpson of his time: an uninhibited rabble-rouser who got into fistfights, played tricks on his friends (pity Clarabelle Cow) and, later, was amorously aggressive with Minnie.”

Su says:
Fri, 6th Nov 20091:22 pm

yea but his name wasn’t mickey then. it was mortimer and then they changed his character to a lovable mouse named Mickey who is always getting oneupped by a mean mouse named Mortimer. so no. mickey wasn’t like that. would you want to go to Disney World and stand between an angry looking mickey and a scared bruised up Minnie? no. I see where Disney’s going with this.

Becca says:
Fri, 6th Nov 20094:39 pm

Mrs. Disney nixed the Mortimer idea before he was the star of any moving picture cartoon. Just watch some of the eeearly (black and white) shorts, where mickey causes all sorts of problems and spends “hours” at a time trying to get minnie to kiss him on dates.

I’m not sure what “bruised up minnie” means, because the whole concept is making Mickey more bad ass through selfish and conceited choices verses good choices, not through violence, and showing that the more responsible you are, even though you have the choice to be bad, making the right choice will often make life easier.

I think this is a totally awesome move because the Disney execs are right. Without a makeover, Mickey is going to become the sentimental equivalent of Mr. Clean. Everyone knows who he is, but who wants a Mr. Clean doll to keep them company at night to keep the monsters at bay when they’re four years old?

Lauren H - The New School says:
Fri, 6th Nov 20094:57 pm

I think that because the whole “epic mickey” concept is knid of “kingdom hearts dark” this doesn’t really bother me, but if became the permanent Mickey persona, I’d be sad

FB @ FabulouslyBroke.com says:
Fri, 6th Nov 20095:52 pm

I like his squeaky clean image

His retro image was so cute too when he first started.

Jean says:
Sat, 7th Nov 20097:25 pm

where did you get this image?

it kinda looks like something from square enix, Kingdom Hearts.

I find it hard to believe that Disney, will change Mickey’s outlook just like that.

Kayla says:
Mon, 9th Nov 20093:58 pm

If they’re going to remake Mickey like this, I doubt Minnie will even be attracted to him. She needs a badass makeover, too. Sort of like what Grease did with Sandy. http://www.newsy.com/videos/mickey_gets_a_makeover

Joe says:
Fri, 4th Dec 20093:56 pm

Yeah, I suppose you never played Kingdom Hearts. Mickey, during the rare moments you see him, has a black cloak and doesn’t often say much. I think that image of him works well in terms of being more “dark.” Yet, he was the newer-looking Mickey, whose whites of his eyes could be seen, etc.

I think that a dark Mickey is not at all silly or even difficult.