Customer Reviews

Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures - The Complete Series

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

First of all... This is NOT the Mighty Mouse most people are familiar with. It's not the TerryToons Mighty Mouse you can find on any public domain DVD of "50 classic cartoons", nor is it the 70's Filmation Mighty Mouse that was so bad it was funny... This Mighty Mouse IS funny!

From the depraved mind of Ralph Bakshi and the animation genius of John Kricfalusi, this cartoon remains to be one of the funniest cartoons of the 80's. It featured a satirical approach to the superhero genre blending wackiness, weirdness and often social parody.

This is THE cartoon that was forcibly removed from the airways because an overzealous Kentucky soccer mom accused Mighty Mouse of snorting cocaine (when in reality the morally conscious mouse was simply stopping to smell the flowers).

This cartoon is wild! Classic Mighty Mouse characters such as girlfriend Pearl Pureheart and villain Oil Can Harry return, but not quite as we remember them. The series introduces newcomers Bat-Bat (A take on the Dark Knight), Tick the Bug Wonder, The Cow and Petey Pate.

The set will include all 19 episodes of the series, and if the Ren & Stimpy box sets are any indication then we can likely expect production art galore and interviews with Ralph, John K. and other writers/animators from the show.

From the creators of Ren & Stimpy comes the return of a fantastically funny animated series! Don't Miss it!

I was in middle-school when this show was on TV, and it stuck in my mind long after other cartoons had been forgotten. Thrilled as I was to see it again on DVD, I approached with some trepidation ... after re-watching TinyToons last year and being disappointed at how poorly THOSE had held up, I was ready for the agony of acknowledging my distorted recollection of another favorite from my youth. Thankfully "Mighty Mouse the New Adventures" is every bit as good as I remember. Mostly.

It's an amazing show. The writing is brilliant and it is full of visual gags that were lacking in most Saturday Morning tripe at that time. The animation renaissance of the early 1990s can be traced directly to this show. It shows clearly the origins of the Spumco style .. Here are the strange, retro/cubist character and background designs, the bizarre story and gag ideas, the emphasis on emoting rather than on constant frenetic movement, and the use of voices that don't sound like typical cartoon characters. Although the production values on "Mighty Mouse" were lower than on "Ren and Stimpy," I think the best episodes of "Mighty Mouse" are better than anything John K did in his later career. The stories are more coherent and rely less on "gross-out" gags and psychotic freak-outs. John K probably hates this expression, but "Mighty Mouse" is a lot more relatable than "Ren and Stimpy."

However, not all the episodes were good. Some of them are atrociously written, with no clear sense of plot direction or motivation. Some of them don't make sense, and some of them are actually painful to watch. "Witch Tricks," the second half of episode 2, is the first bad one, followed by "Catastrophe Cat" in episode 4. The third disk has 6 episodes from the aborted second season; the animation on this disk is noticeably worse, Maxi Burger has inexplicably returned to his fat, evil form (and his voice is different) and most of the episodes are bitter jabs at the network and at television in general. Mighty Mouse is savagely mistreated by the writers in this season. The crew must have known the show was getting cancelled when they made these; the feeling is very different from the first season.

Another weakness is the high percentage of recycled animation. Any kid can tell you that "clip shows" always suck, but it has long been Network TV policy to do one cheap show per season that is a collage of recycled clips. Each episode of "Mighty Mouse" consists of two short cartoons. In season one, out of 26 shorts, four of them consist mainly of clips from old Terrytoons cartoons with what is apparently improvised voice-over dubbed in. It's not at all funny and it comes across as the production crew being lazy and needing to fill time. If they were going to re-use old Terrytoons, I would rather they had presented the classic cartoons uncut and without the voices from the new show talking over them. In season two, out of 12 shorts, two of them are cobbled together out of clips from season one, with new dialogue clumsily dubbed in. Again, not funny, and even a kid could tell the show directors were taking shortcuts.

Yet despite its weaknesses, this collection still contains some of the best TV cartoons ever made. I remember in 7th grade my friends and I used to recite Maxi's freak-out monologue from "The Bag Mouse" (episode 5; "A straw with no paper! MUSTARD .. on the counter!!!") and that episode is just as amazing today as it was 23 years ago. Madame Marsupial in "League of Super Rodents" (episode 8) is still smokin' hot. Bat-Bat is a fiendishly clever parody. The Cow is just as off-kilter hilarious as I remember, with one of the most memorable voices on Saturday morning. And Petey Pate (episode 1) is fascinatingly deranged. There's a lot of prize material in this hit-or-miss collection.

The digital transfer looks great. CBS went back to the original show negatives, so the picture quality on these DVDs is possibly even better than the show looked when it was first broadcast. There's an approximately 30-minute interview documentary with members of the Mighty Mouse crew reminiscing about their work on the show. Only two of the episodes have audio commentary. In both cases John K and Tom Minton comment on the first short, and the second one is commented by Minton, Kent Butterworth and Mike Kazaleh. The comments are not really very elucidatory; it's mostly self-congratulation ("we were the first ones do do this on TV...") so I'm not all that disappointed to see only two episodes with commentary.

All in all, a wonderful show and a very significant artifact in the history of animation. It just has too many flaws for me to award a full five stars. Animation enthusiasts should own this, regardless. It is really that good .. well, MOST of it is.

In watching these for the first time in many, many years, I realize that, like a lot of cartoons, much of it is hit and miss. But this is a very fast-paced 'toon, and there are tons of pop culture send-ups and references, sexual innuendos and throw-away lines that need your attention and do, in fact, remain pretty hilarious. Some of it verges on greatness. And also keep in mind that this particular cartoon in large part ushered in the era of Ren and Stimpy, et. al. that has ultimately led to Adult Swim. In that regard, it's influence cannot be overstated.

Saturday morning once was a beautiful thing, before the onslaught of PC aware cartoons and the need to make everything educational. There was an era of awkward leg stretching where creators got to create for inspirations sake, we had Pee Wee's Playhouse in its wonderful irreverancy, Ed Grimley (in a way). And the rockstar of the late 80s' cartoon world MIGHTY MOUSES NEW ADVENTURES helmed by the master of adult animation Ralph B. He put together a crack team of young animators and writers whom he called the unemployables and animation history was made. Besides the wonderful hand drawn animation the hyper realized voice acting and storylines meshed together in sometimes brilliant and often jarring ways. The humor can be hard to catch as it is either whizzing past or some kind of reference or in joke aimed at basically other cartoonists and culutural hawks. We get all 19 episodes and 3 bonus TERRY TOON MM shorts (6 mins each) from '43, '45 and '60. The first one He Dood it Again still has mighty named SUPER MOUSE with both featuring some cool musical numbers. Gypsy Life really shows where they went artistically with the new series in some respects. The included bonus documentary (30 min) is well executed and entertaining itself with terrific and funny interviews featuring Ralph Bakshi, Andrew Stanton, Johnk K, and more which shed light on the whole story behind the scenes of this groundbreaking toon.The image and sound is impeccable in these episodes and looks terrific on the HD upconvert as well with colors absolutely popping, a far cry from the shoddy boots that floated around for years. I would have loved more of Bakshi's work from Terry Toons(MIGHTY HEROS) as an extra as well, but the main course is more than enough here as 3 discs crammed with this much social insight and saturday morning shenanigans should probably be illegal.

This was the Saturday Morning show that got this Cynical, jaded animator out of bed on Saturday Mornings for the first time since I was a kid.

Hilarious, artistic, unexpected, and very different. Definitely a John K. warm-up for Ren & Stimpy. Never thought I'd see this unknown gem on disc...and I'm SO glad they are releasing it! Now, i can ditch the very last of my mouldering VHS tapes!

Rev. Donald Wildmon is, thankfully a dinosaur, a dying breed of self-appointed "moral crusader" bullies who blasphemously oppresses in the name of a peasant Jew who hung out with hookers and derelicts, talked a theology of love, understanding, and peace, and was brutally butchered by Wildmon's own type some two thousand years ago. Wildmon bullies in the name of this Jew to masquerade his own ignorance. Each year that passes it becomes increasingly apparent that the world will be better off when he and his type are extinct.

In 1988, Rev. Wildmon saw an episode of Ralph Bakshi's "The New Adventures of Mighty Mouse." The show was imaginative, colorful, and witty. Wildmon's Methodist toupee did a double take and he screamed "The Devil" when he saw something he could not understand, let alone appreciate. (Specifically, Wildmon saw Mighty Mouse happily sniffing a crushed flower, and presumed the scene promoted cocaine use). So Wildmon cocked up his triple chin and let out a Tarzan styled yell to his fellow Neo-Nazi thugs. Wildmon and the brown shirts started their march, taking it all the way to the faceless sponsors of "Mighty Mouse." It's not surprising that Wildmon bedded with money to attack an imaginative kids show. After all, that peasant Jew was killed because he messed with the money system.

So Wildmon and his silly cult bedded with the Pharisees and killed Bakshi's child. This was one of many offenses they perpetrated. I am sure the good Reverend has several trophies on that triple chinned ego of his mantle. With too few exceptions, "Mighty Mouse" was one of the last times in which television has shown any inclination for imagination, creativity and style. In its place we have reality TV and trash TV that dumb down to the lowest common denominator. Thank you, Rev.Wildmon, for your gift. Yes, there might be a few clever television programs among the dreck, some worthwhile dramas, but aesthetically ground-breaking television, especially aesthetically ground-breaking children's television, damn near died away when Bakshi's "Mighty Mouse " went the way of Lenny Bernstein's "Young People's Concerts."

But, that is not the end of the story, Now, finally, "Mighty Mouse" has re-emerged onto a DVD collection to save the day. Hopefully, Wildmon and his worthless kin, who serve no purpose in life except as societal cancer, will go crawl into a hole and die away. The rest of us can celebrate the resurrection of our fearless mouse.

Now, "The New Adventures of Mighty Mouse" is, admittedly, a somewhat mixed bag, even if it did undoubtedly influence shows such as "Ren & Stimpy" and "The Simpsons." Many of the "Mighty Mouse" episodes still retain that irreverent, off-beat style, but some are downright lame. Most of the weaker episodes feature MM's annoying Jimmy Olsen-like sidekick, Scrappy. The best of the Scrappy episodes is "Scrap-Happy", which is not saying much because, at best, it is a mediocre satire on Disney's Pinocchio. There are a surprising number of creatively lazy episodes, which are little more than music video compilations. The first episode is "Night on Bald Pate" which begins spoofing Mussorgsky, Fantasia and Max Fleischer. It sounds better than it actually is. The first masterpiece is "Night of the Bat-Bat." This is an absolute send-up and an even more contemporary, potent antidote to the ultra-noir caped crusader to which we have now grown accustomed to over the last few years. "Night of the Bat-Bat" is the first of many satires which will include references to the Fleischer brothers Superman cartoons, Salvador Dali, vintage Looney Tunes, TerryToons, Tom and Jerry, Tex Avery, Chuck Jones, Crosby and Hope, "The Chipmunks," "Star Trek" episodes, Vincent Price, Peter Lorre, Woody Allen, and DC Comics, to name a scant few. McCarthyism, couch potatoes, and unimaginative television executives are big targets, served up with grand Bakshi absurdism. In this episode Bat-Bat and his sidekick the Bug Wonder tackle The Cow (George C. Scott from Dr. Strangelove in all but name only). Bat-Bat himself is a loving tribute to the true blue Adam West Batman, and Mighty Mouse comes off as a big lug, not for the first or last time.

"Mouse From Another House" and "Catastrophe Cat" play off of the "Adventures of Superman" favorite episodes "Superman on Earth" and "Panic in the Sky", but neither episode really flies. "The Littlest Tramp" is the episode that got the show sacked. It is a clever send-up of Virginia Cherrill's flower girl from City Lights with a dash of "Porky in Wackyland." Seen today, the "offending scene" of MM and the flower simply registers a WTF? disbelief; the scene simply continues in its Chaplineque fantasy.

You can never retire a good villain, so The Cow returns in a delightful spoof of the Justice League of America called `The League of Super-Rodents". "See You in the Funny Papers" is a mile a minute merciless satire in which Dick Tracy-like villains and an out of control fat Elvis balloon wreck havoc in a Macy's Day parade done up Roy Lichenstein style.

It was in its second and final season that The New Adventures of Mighty Mouse hit its creative stride. In "Day of the Mice" a washed-up grotesque Mighty Mouse does battle with a giant Pee Wee Herman. He tells Pee Wee, "I have waited a whole season to do this" (Pee Wee's Playhouse came on right before MM) and then saves the day in a Jimmy Stewart Mr. Smith Goes to Washington climax. In "Mighty's Wedlock Whimsy," Mighty and Pearl marry (in a dream) thanks to two cupids (named Gandy Goose and Sourpuss), who uncannily resemble Mr. Kidd and Mr. Wint from Diamonds are Forever. Suburban hell follows and MM mutates into Jackie Gleason from The Honeymooners. "Anatomy of a Milquetoast" brilliantly satirizes both Perry Mason and the first season's weaker Scrappy episodes. MM becomes victim to a remote control couch potato in the brilliant "Don't Touch that Dial." Here, our hero gets thrown into a series of non-stop misadventures with The Flintstones, The Jetsons, Scooby Do, Rocky and Bullwinkle with Ed Sullivan, Sylvester Stallone and Marlon Brando thrown into good measure. The second season of The New Adventures of Mighty Mouse really does not falter at all,which makes it even more tragic that its life was cut short by Wildmon and his band of thug stormtroopers. God bless America.

A quite good documentary can be found on disc three. It's been twenty two years since The New Adventures of Mighty Mouse has seen the light of day, but it's hard to keep a good hero down. After all, sometimes the good guys do win.

* my review was originally published at 366 weird movies

i wish the dvd set would of included more special features and more interviews. the biggest unanswered question to this day
is why was sandy bottomfeeder constantly shown with a mouth full of cheerios is not addressed in the commentary track. sigh
while its nice of them to air the episodes unedited (as they claim) for the littlest tramp, i pretty much recognized a cut scene right away
in episode 3 "night of the bat-bat". there was a small merv griffin bit in that episode as far as i can remember, and if you watch
episode 19 b (mighty's tone problem), which was a clip episode, you can see the merv griffin scene as it was in episode 3

Yes it's been along time ago, but the Saturday mornings of 1987 and 88 were almost saved permanently by the efforts of Bakshi and his co-hort of maverick animators.
What I love most about this DVD is the teasers were included.
That always clinched it for me, that old feeling of nostalgia that they brought. And was one the key reasons I bought this collection.
And of course these cartoons are still funny.
Pure and simply funny, yes there are times they do get weird but it was light years ahead of the unimaginative crap that was on Saturday mornings back at the time.
Yeah I was getting too old for toons back then, or at least I thought I was.
But Ralph Bakshi and Mighty Mouse fought a losing battle that was heartfelt and well earned.
And you own it to yourself to check this collection out.
And I DARE YOU TO NOT SING THE THEME SONG!
Go on just try not to!

The special feature interview with creators of this program is worth the price of the whole thing. I got a good lesson on the kind of character Ralph Bakshi is. He is a straight-up old school animator from a time when theatrical short re-runs and original cartoons meant the world on Saturday Mornings. That's where he got started before making feature-length movies. This show might seem silly and bizarre on the surface but if you look at it, there are alot of high art influences not seen in that era until The Simpsons appeared over two years later. Not to mention this program gave Mighty Mouse a solid alter-ego, supporting cast, rogues gallery... sheer amazing work! The episodes are all in great, great quality! I love anything with New Wave neon/beach-inspired colors. They induce sheer happiness in me and exude a kind of creative confidence.

*****SPOILER ALERT*****

What I love is that the DVD gives you the option to watch the show with intro teasers or not. That to me is a nice touch. Some people like to watch the whole thing with the intro but new viewers who have never seen the program might find it annoying. Unaware of how each episode were originally broadcast.

This came on just before PeeWee's playhouse and made the dynamic duo of comedic Saturday morning cartoons. Sure they were both a bit hit and miss, but sometimes it was comedy magic. Truely extreamly hillarious. I've been looking for it ever since. It might dissapoint me when I see it again. But probably not since it was so unlike anything that existed before and since.