A MOUSE OF MANY FACES
Communist Mickey
This first is a Nash car commercial produced by Disney in 1955. The redesign, by Tom Oreb, adapted the mouse and Pluto into a very 50s 'modern' style.
This was the first and only time that Mickey Mouse has ever appeared in this modern style. Apparently, Walt received many letters from a kid blasting Walt's modern art Mickey, calling it Communistic. Walt got so mad that he forbade Mickey from ever appearing in commercials that were not promoting Disney products.
Sputnik Mickey
Based on a Neo-comic style, Mickey exists in a world of transluscent imagery, shape shifting creatures and detailed patterns. With the help of a power-packed Neo-Suit full of gadgets, Mickey encounters extraordinary creatures from many new worlds, with stories and adventures that extend way beyond our galaxy.
This Flash animation was made by Barry Baker and Matt Cruickshank and has wonderful imagery and incredible imagination. I really like this Mickey and I hope that the video game takes off and we see more of this style.
Pac-Man
Pac-Man was created by Namco Games in 1978. Its popularity grew to epic proportions over the next decade and Hanna-Barbera decided to created their own show based on the game. This series lasted 43 episodes from 1982-1983. Originally, Pac-Man was part of a 90 minute programming block in 1982 by Hanna-Barbera called The Pac-Man/Little Rascals/Ritchie Rich Show but then broke of into its own half hour show in 1983.
The other day in my character design class we were discussing our favorite Disney villains. It got me thinking... what makes a great villain? What is it that makes someone truly villainous? I went through the list of Disney villains and discovered there are four basic villain types: Silly, Power-Hungry, Animal Killer, Evil.
The Power-Hungry villains would be Maleficent (Sleeping Beauty), Hades (Hercules) and Jafar (Aladdin). Their motivation is simply that they're not at the top and they'll get rid of anyone who stands in their way of getting there.
The Evil villains are the villains who have no motivation to harm others or do the bad things they do. They're pure evil. We really hate them, even though they're just a bunch of drawings moving quickly in front of us. 
I realize the last three have motivation in that their status or power is being threatened by the main character. But the reason I put the Wicked Witch and Stepmother on there is because they're heartless towards girls who should be treated as their own daughters. The Wicked Witch actually tries to have Snow White killed. And Shere Khan has what I would call the same kind of evil as the Borg from Star Trek. When he shows up, you know you're screwed. All of the animals of the jungle are scared to death at the mention of his name. He rules the jungle because his threatening presence has given him that power. I think he's one of the scariest Disney villains.
My top, most evil, most despicable villain of all time is Judge Claude Frollo. He's racist, judgemental, cruel... and he does it all in the name of God. He judges on appearance. He manipulates. And everything he does is to make him look good before God. We're never really given a real motivation for why is the way he is, other than his religion. To me, he's as evil as they come.
Earthworm Jim
Many of the secondary characters and villains from the games made it to the series, including Jim's sidekick, Peter Puppy and love interest, Princess What's-Her-Name. The regular cast of villains included Professor Monkey-For-A-Head, Psy-Crow, Evil the Cat, Queen Slug-For-A-Butt and Bob the Killer Goldfish. The series also created a bunch of new characters, including Evil Jim who made it into one of the later video games.
A few episode have been released but no DVD is in the works for the near future. But you can guarantee that once the DVD set is announced the cult following will ensure good sales.
The advertising campaign for Dreamworks' upcoming animated feature has been a fairly clever one. Bee Movie, slated for release November 2, stars Jerry Seinfeld as a bee who files a class action lawsuit against humans after he finds out they've been selling the bees' huney. Even though this is an animated movie, the teaser trailers have been live action.
Cartoon Network has agreed to pay $2 million in compensation to the City of Boston over the Aqua Teen Hunger Force 
Apparently there were 38 of these blinking signs in Boston alone! Several other major US cities had these signs distributed but none of their citizens thought they were bombs.
In 1993, a three episode Mega Man series was made. It featured a young boy who accidentally releases Dr. Wiley from a Mega Man 5 video game into the real world. The boy releases Mega Man in order to stop Dr. Wiley and send him back into the game.
The series was quite different from the '93 pilot as well as the video game series. It takes place in the future where robots are reality. Dr. Light has created his ultimate boy robot whom he calls Rock, also known as Mega Man. Mega has two sidekicks: His sister, Roll, and his dog, Rush. Together, they must stop the evil Dr. Wiley who has stolen Mega Man's blueprints, created his own evil robot army and has a new plan to take over the world in every episode.
The series boasted decent animation, terribly laughable jokes and pure Saturday morning fun. It was canecelled after two seasons dispite high ratings, but one episode was produced to tie up contractual obligations. This episode features some of the best animation in the series.
A Canadian animator has been nominated for an Academy Award this year for her film The Danish Poet. It follows the story of a young poet who gets 'poet's block' and goes on a self realization journey in Norway. Events unfold and he finds that everything that happens in his life happens for a reason and it all unfolds in this 15-minute film.
Back in August, Robert Zemeckis was reported to be seriously considering moving his ImageMovers production company to The Walt Disney Co., in a multi-year deal. Now it seems that this romour has become reality. Yesterday, Zemeckis announced that he will be setting up his motion-capture shop in the Mouse House and will direct a number of productions that will be distributed by Disney.
Some of you may remember an episode of The New Batman Adventures that focused on three kids telling each other their own unique interpretations of the Dark Knight. One of those interpretations was a Dark Knight Returns story (pictured to the right). While the style of the show lent itself well to 
The Super Mario Bros Super Show ran Monday to Friday from 1989 to 1990. The highlight of every boy's and girl's week was Friday when the normal Mario Bros episode was replaced with an episode of Legend of Zelda.
