Mickey Mouse Works

Mickey MouseWorks is an American television show that features the cartoon character Mickey Mouse and his friends in a series of animated segments. It is the first Disney television animated series to be broadcast in HD.

Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck, Daisy Duck, Goofy, Pluto, and Ludwig Von Drake all star in their own segments. Horace Horsecollar, Clarabelle Cow, Huey, Dewey and Louie, Chip 'n Dale, Scrooge McDuck, Pete, Humphrey the Bear, J. Audubon Woodlore, Dinah the Dachshund, Butch the Bulldog, Mortimer Mouse and Clara Cluck all appear as supporting characters. Musical themes for each character are composed by Stephen James Taylor with a live 12-piece band and extensive use of the fretless guitar. Music was nominated for an Annie Award in both 1999 and 2000. The cartoons on the show were later used in the Disney animated television series House of Mouse.

Premise
Mickey Mouse Works was created to recreate the golden age of Disney's animated shorts, featuring some of Disney’s most popular characters. By using basic colors and the original sound effects, effort was put forth to capture the look and feel of classic Disney.

Each half-hour episode consisted of a variety of cartoons, varying in length from ninety seconds to twelve minutes. These shorts fell into three general types: the brief gag cartoons, the longer character-based cartoons, and the more classically based "Mouse Tales" (usually the show's longest segment). The character-based segments also included "Silly Symphonies", carrying on the tradition of that series of theatrical shorts.

The gag shorts, which lasted 90 seconds each, were shown with the following umbrella titles:


 * Mickey to the Rescue: Mickey tries to rescue Minnie from Pete's trap-laden hideout.
 * Maestro Minnie: Minnie conducts an orchestra of animated, disagreeable, instruments.
 * Goofy's Extreme Sports: Goofy shows off extreme sports to the words of his offscreen narrator.
 * Donald's Dynamite: Donald's activity is interrupted by the appearance of a well-placed bomb.
 * Von Drake's House of Genius: Ludwig Von Drake shows off an invention of his which goes haywire.
 * Pluto Gets the Paper: Pluto goes through a bit of problems trying to fetch the newspaper for Mickey.

With no established schedule or routine, Mickey Mouse Works was designed to look like one spontaneous flow. Adding to that feeling were the show's opening credits, which ended differently each week, the only constant being an elaborate interruption from a spotlight-stealing Donald Duck.

While most skits involved individual characters, some have Mickey, Donald, and Goofy running a special service group. Most Goofy skits have him doing a "how-to" segment, always accompanied by a narrator. Most Donald segments were about him trying to accomplish a certain task which never works out right, frustrating him.

Main

 * Mickey Mouse (voiced by Wayne Allwine; Seasons 1-2, Quinton Flynn; Season 1, few early episodes)
 * Minnie Mouse (voiced by Russi Taylor)
 * Donald Duck (voiced by Tony Anselmo)
 * Daisy Duck (voiced by Diane Michelle and Tress MacNeille)
 * Goofy (voiced by Bill Farmer)
 * Pluto (voiced by Bill Farmer)
 * Ludwig Von Drake (voiced by Corey Burton)

Villains

 * The Phantom Blot (voiced by John O'Hurley)
 * Pete (voiced by Jim Cummings)
 * Mortimer Mouse (voiced by Maurice LaMarche)

Animals

 * Chip 'n' Dale (voiced by Tress MacNeille)
 * Louie the Mountain Lion (voiced by Frank Welker)
 * Dinah the Dachshund (voiced by Frank Welker)
 * Salty the Seal (voiced by Frank Welker)
 * Butch the Bulldog (voiced by Frank Welker)
 * Aracuan Bird (voiced by Frank Welker)
 * Humphrey the Bear (voiced by Jim Cummings)

Other supporting characters

 * Huey, Dewey, and Louie (voiced by Tony Anselmo)
 * Horace Horsecollar (voiced by Bill Farmer)
 * Clarabelle Cow (voiced by April Winchell)
 * Chief O'Hara (introduced) (voiced by Corey Burton)
 * Scrooge McDuck (voiced by Alan Young)
 * J. Audubon Woodlore (voiced by Corey Burton)
 * Clara Cluck (voiced by Russi Taylor)
 * José Carioca (voiced by Rob Paulsen)
 * Mr. Jollyland (voiced by Jeff Bennett)
 * Baby Shelby (voiced by Jeff Bennett)
 * Mrs. Turtle (introduced) (voiced by Estelle Harris)

Production
When the show was replaced by Disney's House of Mouse in January 2001, most of the Mouse Work segments were repeated there, but the original Mouse Work format have never been seen again. However, when the shorts were shown right before and after Toon Disney's Big Movie Show on weekdays, they were shown with the Mickey Mouse Works closing credits. Minnie Takes Care of Pluto and Pluto Gets the Paper: Vending Machine were the only two MouseWorks shorts that were not re-ran in House of Mouse due to their dark content.

Several of the gag cartoons were released theatrically with various 1999 Disney films and released to theaters as commercials for the show. These included:
 * Goofy's Extreme Sports: Skating the Half Pipe with I'll Be Home for Christmas and Mighty Joe Young
 * Pluto Gets the Paper: Spaceship with My Favorite Martian
 * Donald's Dynamite: Opera Box with Doug's 1st Movie

Some shorts are available in Europe on DVD, under the title Mickey's Laugh Factory. While some shorts have the Mickey Mouse Works title card background, others have the House of Mouse version (the Mouse Works version has various mechanics in the background, including a Mickey shaped one and one with the Mouse Works text inside it, but the House of Mouse version has various moving swirls) Cartoons include Hickory Dickory Mickey, Mickey Tries to Cook, Organ Donors, Mickey's Airplane Kit, Street Cleaner, Mickey's New Car, Bubble Gum, Mickey's Big Break and Mickey's Mix-Up.

In Disney's Learning Adventures: Mickey's Seeing the World, there were two cartoons: Around the World in Eighty Days and Mickey's Mechanical House (both as two stories).

On November 11, 2008, the eighth wave of Walt Disney Treasures was released. One of the sets released in this wave, The Chronological Donald, Volume Four, features a handful of Donald-centric shorts from both Mickey Mouse Works and House of Mouse as bonuses, including Bird Brained Donald, Donald and the Big Nut, Donald's Charmed Date, Donald's Dinner Date, Donald's Failed Fourth, Donald's Rocket Ruckus, Donald's Shell Shots, Donald's Valentine Dollar, Music Store Donald and Survival of the Woodchucks.