Runaway Brain

I've got a little confession. While I love Disney movie and the shorts with Donald and Goofy, I have never understood the world's love affair with Mickey. Generally, he is a very bland character and lacks the edge and fun of the rest of the Disney gang. I'm sorry, but that's how I've always felt.

However, when I saw RUNAWAY BRAIN, I finally saw a Mickey Mouse cartoon that I absolutely loved. Gone was the sickeningly sweet Mickey and instead this "new Mickey" was like the old one done by the folks who made Ren and Stimpy or Tex Avery!!! The art style was much more "elastic"--with lots more action and weirdness than you'd find in ten traditional Mickey shorts. The new Mickey was also part action-hero and I really liked what I saw. Plus, with a plot involving brain transplants, you know this is definitely NOT your grandpa's generation mouse!!

A wicked sense of humor, fantastic animation and more than anything else FUN--this is the type Mickey Mouse cartoon I would like to see a lot more of in the coming years!

By the way, if you want to see this film, get a copy of "Mickey Mouse in Color: Volume 2"--it's included in this nice collection of Mickey shorts.

My only complaint really of this otherwise excellent cartoon is that some of it was a little too rushed. That said, it is hugely enjoyable. Bizarre yes, with some quite effective freaky imagery, but also very off-the-wall in its humour. The animation is of very good standard, the colours are bold and Mickey looks better than I have seen him in quite some time.

The music just enhances the atmosphere, often exciting, haunting, evocative and nightmarish it suits the tone of Runaway Brain wonderfully. The dialogue is memorable and the story while simple benefits from a great idea and is kept at bay right up until the end. I loved Mickey here, I always have although he can be bland sometimes when he is sidelined, but here we have a completely different side to him and while it mayn't be to everybody's tastes I liked that side to him.

Overall, bizarre yet still excellent. 9/10 Bethany Cox

This short was nominated for an Academy Award when it came out and I can see why. It's hilarious, exciting and the pace is frenetic and unrelenting. There are also quite a few gags pointed at heavy-duty Disney and/or movie fans, starting with the opening shot of Mickey playing a video game. Look at what he's playing. This is not your grandfather's Mickey. The visuals are great and the gags come almost as fast as the average Tex Avery cartoon.

This was recently released on the Disney Treasures Mickey Mouse In Living Color, Volume 2. If you haven't already got it, you probably better hurry. I doubt they'll last too long. The cost on the secondary market will be considerable. The set is great, as are the other Disney Treasures releases. This short is definitely recommended and the Disney Treasures sets cannot be more highly recommended!

You can see and feel in every second of this cartoon that it is a pretty new Mickey Mouse cartoon. It looks and feels to fresh. Mickey (voice of Wayne Allwine) has forgotten his anniversary with Minnie (voice of Russi Taylor) and has to make up for it. By accident he promises her a trip to Hawaii that will cost him a thousand dollars. Pluto (voice of Bill Farmer) shows him an ad where he can make that kind of money. When he arrives on the location he meets a Dr. Frankenollie (voice of Frasier's Kelsey Grammer) and he becomes a test person for a brain switch. He switches brains with a big monster (voice of Jim Cummings) who falls in love with Minnie. Of course Mickey has to solve this problem.

This short has some nice touches. We see how Mickey is playing a video game where he is Dopey and he has to fight the evil Queen from 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs'. Another fine touch is when Mickey shows the monster a picture of him and we see the black and white Mickey from his early cartoons. Besides those moments I didn't think this cartoon was very good. The 'Frankenstein' story is nice but that's it. Personally I think this could have been a lot better.

When I actually had the chance to see this bizarre cartoon, I had one immediate reaction:

WHOA.

It's difficult to describe my reaction to this one apart from that one word. It's usually easy to comment on things I've seen, especially since I have a rep for stating my most precise, honest feelings on any subject you'd care to hand me and making myself perfectly clear. But this is one of the rare things I've ever seen which has put me at a complete loss for words.

The cartoon is easily the weirdest Mickey Mouse cartoon ever made, and it made me feel strange for the longest time after seeing it with my reaction of, "What on earth was THAT?!!"

There's one thing about it which I *can* state, however; my peers in the animation industry and I have loved making jokes about this short featuring the "real" Walt Disney Mickey Mouse being turned into the Michael Eisner Mickey Mouse!