Tuesday, February 27, 2007

A MOUSE OF MANY FACES


Communist Mickey
Recently, Cartoon Brew has posted two articles about a different type of Mickey Mouse.

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
This second version of Mickey and the video below is a pilot for a video game called Neo-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.

3 comments:

Katie said...

Crazy! First of all, I love the graphic style in the commercial. It's so sweet. I've seen that style in cartoons like Gerald McBoing Boing but it's so strange seeing it on Mickey and Pluto.

That Flash animation is friggin adorable. I love it. I have a hard time really accepting that it's Mickey, but it's cute and it made me giggle, so that's all that matters.

Liz Orbitron said...

I like how in that car commercial the main seller of the car is that it can turn and it stays on the road.

I like both of those mickey's. I think Mickey could be a lot more popular with kids and teenagers if they modernized him like in those clips. There would still be the classic Mickey, but if they had different versions it would be a marketing extravaganza -- like Hello Kitty. I'm surprised they haven't done it already if it means more money.

Kurtis Findlay said...

Me too.