My critique of Disney shorts on the Disney+ streaming service continues...
In a previous article, I had hinted that I might post a list of all the black-and-white Mickey Mouse cartoons to see which ones could be shown on Disney+. As it stands now, only two such shorts are available on the streaming service: Steamboat Willie (for obvious reasons) and 1933's Ye Olden Days. In any case, Mickey's early career is worth taking a look at.
The problem, however, is that many of them have questionable content, from racial or ethnic stereotypes and antisocial behavior (such as smoking or drinking) to violence and just plain crude behavior, which came under the heading of "barnyard humor".
One way to separate things out is to look at the series of black-and-white Mickey cartoons which, when shown on the Disney Treasures line of DVDs, often were preceded by introductions by the host, film historian Leonard Maltin, who explained that the cartoons were a product of their time and would be unacceptable today. On the first black-and-white Mickey set, released in 2002, the cartoons simply had intros in front of them, but the second set, released in 2004, actually separated out such questionable cartoons from everything else (and they didn't even do a good job there, as The Mad Dog and Trader Mickey are not separated out and are part of the regular lineup). Presented below are all the shorts which were given specific intros on both sets (along with a handful that don't), and as such, would not be seen on Disney+:
The Gallopin' Gaucho (1928; Mickey smoking and drinking)
The Barnyard Battle (1929; the cats all wear German helmets, violence)
The Haunted House (1929; Mickey cries "Mammy!" at one point)
Pioneer Days (1930; racial stereotypes)
The Moose Hunt (1931; gun violence, alleged animal abuse)
The Delivery Boy (1931; a Yiddish-dancing turtle, suggestive behavior at the end)
Mickey Steps Out (1931; blackface gags at the end)
The Grocery Boy (1932; a Napoleon statue is blackfaced after crashing into some fireplace ash)
The Mad Dog (1932; racial stereotypes, gun violence)
Mickey In Arabia (1932; racial stereotypes)
Trader Mickey (1932; racial stereotypes)
The Whoopee Party (1932; a blackface gag)
The Klondike Kid (1932; drinking, gun violence)
Mickey's Good Deed (1932; a "black" toy, animal abuse)
Shanghaied (1934; Pete becomes blackfaced after crashing into a stove's ashes)
Gulliver Mickey (1934; a Lilliputian is blackfaced from getting hit with ink from Mickey's fountain pen)
The Dognapper (1934; animal abuse, gunplay)
Two-Gun Mickey (1934; smoking, gun violence)
Mickey's Man Friday (1935; racial stereotypes)
Those are pretty much all the cartoons that would probably not be included on the list because of questionable content. All those not on the list, as far as I know, should be fairly acceptable for the streaming service, so I really would like Disney to include those someday. A guy can dream, can he not?
Evidently, given other things going on in my life, I didn't get the memo until I found out about this last week: a new Mickey Mouse cartoon series (or rather, a continuation of the 2010s series) to air on Disney+ on November 18, Mickey and Minnie's birthday, known as The Wonderful World of Mickey Mouse:
Out of curiosity, after Russi Taylor's passing last year, I asked around who would voice Minnie now. While they didn't know for sure, they thought that it would be the one who voices her now on Mickey Mouse's Mixed-Up Adventures: Kaitlyn Robrock, who took over as the voice on July 17:
You can hear a snippet of Robrock's dialogue as Minnie in the link to this Tweet here.
In all honesty, I think Robrock's Minnie sounds rather like Bernadette from The Big Bang Theory (maybe it's just the way she says "Sheldon doesn't have a spot" that does it for me (or maybe it's just that I love that clip so much)):
It's not known at this point yet, but chances are, Robrock is probably going to play Minnie in the new Mickey Mouse cartoon series coming up.
From what little I know about Robrock, it is revealed that she was born on December 30, 1983, so she's about a year younger than Bret Iwan, the current voice of Mickey. It's nice to know that Mickey and Minnie are now once again voiced by people who are relatively close to each other in age, just as Wayne Allwine and Russi Taylor were (almost) close in age (although chances are, Mickey will be voiced again by Chris Diamantopoulos in this new series, as it's a continuation of the 2010s series).
Personally, I have always thought there was something off-putting about Taylor continuing to voice Minnie while Mickey was voiced by someone much, much younger, so young that Taylor could easily have been Iwan's (or Diamantopoulos') mother in another life!
Anyway, I hope Kaitlyn Robrock continues to voice Minnie for a while to come.
In the first part of my wish list for Disney cartoon shorts on Disney+, I had listed out all the rest of the cartoons shown on Disney+ in Japan, which included pretty much all of the shorts in the "Have a Laugh" lineup (except for the Goofy short Tennis Racquet, which I would also like to see).
The second part involves various other parts of the Disney shorts series that should be included. For instance, it would be nice to get various other black-and-white Mickey cartoons, of which there are only two available: Steamboat Willie (which is there for obvious reasons) and 1933's Ye Olden Days. The main problem with these cartoons is content seen as questionable today, such as ethnic/racial stereotypes, antisocial behaviors like smoking or chewing tobacco, or just plain crude behavior, which came under the heading of "barnyard humor". According to Leonard Maltin, who hosted the Walt Disney Treasures line, which featured these cartoons, they were a product of their times; they were acceptable in the 1930s, but not today.
Maybe a good idea would be to avoid those with special intros by Maltin on the DVDs and focus on those that don't have them, while also taking out a few that did get listed with "regular" shorts (The Mad Dog and Trader Mickey have racial stereotypes, but they were inexplicably included with "regular" shorts). The list is so long, however, that it may warrant its own page here, of what's acceptable and not acceptable. At the very least, it would be nice to get 1930's The Chain Gang and 1932's Mickey's Revue, the respective debuts of Pluto and Goofy. Speaking of...
The second criterion involves non-sports-themed Goofy cartoons. As it stands now, the only such cartoon is 1946's A Knight For a Day. Several of Goofy's roles as an everyman in the 1950s would be nice, for starters, including Fathers Are People (with a tobacco warning at the start), Man's Best Friend, Two Weeks Vacation, Father's Day Off, Father's Weekend, How To Dance, and How To Sleep. And then there are the "miscellaneous" shorts that don't fall into the "sports" or "everyman" shorts. For instance, it would be nice to include Goofy's premiere solo short, Goofy and Wilbur, as well as other shorts like Goofy's Glider, Baggage Buster, The Big Wash, Lion Down, and Home Made Home. Also, it would be nice to get in some cartoons with Goofy paired with Donald. I had previously mentioned Polar Trappers, one of the cartoons available in Japan, but not the U.S., but there should be others like Billposters and No Sail.
The third criterion is pre-1947 Pluto cartoons, back when the dog's theme went like this:
(Incidentally, it would be nice if they actually used the original title cards for all of these cartoons that actually had the correct years on them.)
And yes, The Legend of Coyote Rock would be one of the several cartoons that I would like to see.
As it stands now, most of Pluto's pre-1947 appearances are in other cartoons, mainly those with Mickey and/or Donald. In addition to Coyote Rock, it would also be nice to include Pluto's first solo appearance in Pluto's Quin-Puplets, as well as others like Bone Trouble, Pluto's Playmate, The Sleepwalker, Pluto At the Zoo, Springtime For Pluto, Canine Casanova, In Dutch, and Pluto's Housewarming, all of which feature that pre-1947 theme in the video above.
Finally, it would be good to get some other shorts in here as well. For example, a smattering of Silly Symphonies is shown, but not one of my most favorites, Music Land. In addition, some more "special" cartoons would be nice as well. Disney+ does have Ferdinand the Bull and Lambert the Sheepish Lion, but it would be nice to get some more in there, such as Ben and Me (which is kind of available already as part of "The Liberty Story", an episode of the Disneyland show, in black and white) and the cult classic, Toot, Whistle, Plunk and Boom. And of course, more Donald cartoons like Donald and Pluto, Modern Inventions (these two, I believe, were in the beta version of Disney+ in the Netherlands), The Eyes Have It, and Donald's Double Trouble.
The main challenge with these cartoons, again, is questionable content, so, in the case of Goofy, cartoons like Californy'er Bust (Indians), African Diary (gunplay and African stereotypes), and No Smoking (Goofy struggling to quit smoking) would probably not make the cut, nor would the war shorts, such as Pluto's The Army Mascot and Private Pluto and Goofy's How To Be a Sailor (which contains Japanese stereotypes). They would probably too big for the obligatory "outdated cultural standards" disclaimer. The cartoons I had mentioned have few, if any, such questionable content in there.
But anyway, that's my take on this. What are your thoughts? Maybe at a later time, I will post the whole list of black-and-white Mickey cartoons to see which ones can or cannot be shown on Disney+.
Overall, I would say that Disney+ has been a relative success in terms of content.
Truly, it is worthy of the Disney Channel's original slogan: "Everything you've ever imagined. And more":
In a previous post, I had talked about the desire for more anthology episodes on the service. While they have included more of such episodes, including "Man In Space", "The Story of the Animated Drawing", "The Liberty Story", "Mars and Beyond", and even several two-part episodes merged into a single movie, such as "Sammy the Way-Out Seal" and "The Boy Who Talked To Badgers", they still haven't put up the stuff I truly would like, such as "An Adventure In Color/Mathmagicland". But I digress.
Another thing about Disney that I really enjoy are the old cartoon shorts, starring Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and the rest. They have been around since the service's launch, with a small handful available at first, but adding on more and more as time went on. However, here again, it would be nice if we could get more, lots more.
There are five things I would like to see:
Pretty much all cartoons released on the "Have a Laugh" line, which ran on the Disney Channel from 2009 to 2012 (and which comprise much of the content on Disney+anyway)
Several pre-1947 Pluto cartoons
Several non-sports-themed Goofy cartoons (the only there is A Knight For a Day)
A lot more black-and-white Mickey cartoons, of which there are only two: Steamboat Willie (for obvious reasons) and 1933's Ye Olden Days
Various miscellaneous shorts, like the Silly Symphony Music Land
I think one reason why they haven't released more cartoons is possibly because some of them have questionable content on them that would never fly today, such as racial or ethic stereotypes, smoking, or just crude behavior. Obviously, those would not be acceptable for inclusion, so half the black-and-white Mickey shorts would be out.
But what about the rest of the criteria? In this first section (like I said, this is a two-part post), I would like to talk about the first of the four things: the remainder of old cartoons from the "Have a Laugh" line, which are included on the Japanese Disney+, but not the U.S. I think one reason why more cartoons from the "Have a Laugh" line haven't been released, such as those involving hunting animals (such as Moose Hunters, Polar Trappers and The Whalers) may be because people, at least in the U.S. have been sensitive to the plight of animals, or they involve, in any way, shape or form, guns and gunplay.
As I have said, some of these cartoons were released on the Japanese Disney+ (based on some of the images above), but not on the American one. Here's the full list of cartoons on their Disney+ that should be on ours (in chronological order):
Mickey's Polo Team (1936)
Moose Hunters (1937)
Polar Trappers (1938)
Good Scouts (1938)
The Whalers (1938)
Mickey's Parrot (1938)
How To Play Golf (1944)
How To Hook Up Your Home Theater (2007)
Incidentally, it's rather amusing to see Goofy's name and not Mickey's displayed on the Whalers title, though to be fair, Goofy was kind of the scene-stealer in these "trio" cartoons.
So, that's the first of the criteria they can start with in terms of adding more cartoons to the streaming service: the rest of those on the "Have a Laugh" line. And while we're at it, they should release the rest of the cartoons in the Shorts Film Collection as well, which as far as I know is available only on Netflix for some reason. As far as I know, they are also available on the French Disney+ (or at least they will be soon if they haven't already).
More great news on park reopenings: at long last, Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, CA, has now joined Walt Disney World and Shanghai Disneyland in setting a reopening date:
The plan is to reopen Downtown Disney first, which I thought they would do all along, given how Disneytown and Disney Springs reopened first at their respective resorts. And Disneyland Park itself will reopen on July 17, right on its 65th anniversary! Some have thought that 65 is not that great a number, but in this case, it's quite meaningful now. Here's the full schedule of reopenings in California:
Oddly enough, I would think they would reopen the hotels first before the parks. And also just as oddly, the Disneyland Hotel seems to be missing from the reopening schedule. Either it's part of Downtown Disney or it won't be reopening until much later.
The rules of social distancing will obviously be in place and things will be different, at least in the near-term. But the most significant part is that everyone must now make online reservations in order to come to the park. I hope it's only temporary and not a permanent thing.
Also, the other resorts in the world (Tokyo, Paris and Hong Kong) have not yet announced their reopening dates, but it shouldn't be too much longer now.
In any case, welcome back, Disneyland! You were sorely missed!
The plan now is that the Magic and Animal Kingdoms will reopen on July 11, followed by Epcot and Hollywood Studios four days later:
Things are really starting to move in the right direction!
In other news, I have also heard that the Disney resorts in Japan and France are starting their processes of reopening as well, with Ikspiari in Tokyo reopening on June 1 and Villages Nature in Paris on June 22.
Now, if only we can hear what they have to say about Disneyland in California (which will likely start with Downtown Disney)...
In November 2019, I went once more to MouseCon (probably the last I will be able to attend in a long time if the COVID-19 situation doesn't pan out by November, which I doubt), held once again in Concord, CA. I went cosplaying as Mickey Mouse, with a small Pluto doll for a prop when I posed for pictures. As always, there were booths, galleries, other cosplayers, and guest celebrities. This year, they included Linda Larkin (the voice of Jasmine in Aladdin, whom I saw at a presentation on the film at D23), Mary Gibbs (the voice of Boo in Monsters, Inc.), and former Mouseketeer Sharon Baird (who would later appear in several Sid and Marty Krofft shows).
I tried to enter this year's costume contest, but I went in too late, so I simply watched, which was too bad, as I was one of the few cosplayers who was not in the show. In any case, here now are some shots of other cosplayers I got from this year's MouseCon:
Here are some pics of the aforementioned celebrities' booths, including Sharon...
...and Mary:
Finally, here are some pics of me posing with these celebrities:
I really love that second image of me with Linda Larkin and Mary Gibbs. For good measure, here is one last picture of Larkin and Gibbs, but without me:
Anyway, assuming when this whole COVID-19 situation ends (preferably without having to wear masks or anything), I will definitely be back to MouseCon when it can be held again. Hopefully, it will be this November, but I have no idea.
