Runaway Brain

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!

Not many people know this, but Runaway Brain is actually being released by Disney on DVD! It's included on the Disney Treasures Mickey in living colors volume 2 DVD box. I love the quality of the animation, which is far much better than 3 Musketeers or Mickey's House of Mouse. Although this movie isn't suitable for very young children, it will be funny for the older ones and especially adults who will adore the spoofs to other movies. The hardcore Disney fan will adore this short too, mostly because it shows Mickey in a whole different way we know him. My advice is: get the Treasures box and enjoy one of the best Mickey shorts of the past years.

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.

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.

As the second Mickey in Color DVD collection shows, after the release of the Brave Little Tailor Mickey's screen career was on a steady slide into the toilet. Outside of his feature appearances Mickey's films were dull. It wasn't until the 1980's with Mickey's Christmas Carol and The Prince and the Pauper that the animators knew what to do with the Disney symbol.

In 1995 they released this gem and it simply is one of the best Disney shorts ever produced. Mickey in need of money to buy a gift for Minnie gets mixed up with a mad scientist and mayhem that previously was only witnessed in Warner cartoons occurs. Its every horror movie cliche turned on its head.

What can I say? This is funny funny stuff, that Disney, attached to some live action box office dog, so odds are you've never seen it, which is a shame because its so good that it almost single handedly makes the Price of the Mickey Mouse in Color Volume Two DVD set worth buying.

Go track it down. Its only seven minutes long so you'll be able to watch it three or four times in a row with out feeling like you've wasted too much time.

This is a true Disney classic.