Special Announcement & Review

My dear readers,  I've come to the conclusion that I've spent too much time reviewing Disney and today, I have decided to cancel A Look at Disney and turn my attention to Warner Brothers.    From now on,  the new title of this blog will be A Wink at WB.   I've brought along my asstiant, Joey to help me out.   (Joey whispers) Oh, according to Joey, the first review is Looney Tunes:  Back In Action.

Hmm, yeah!   I don't think so.     I think I'll just stick to Disney instead of watching that film but thankfully, there is a short that I can watch for this occasion.   Mickey's  April Fools.



The Plot


The plot of this  short is rather simple,  in April first and  Mickey and his rival, Mortimer end up playing
pranks on each other. Although Mickey makes a huge mistake of  pranking Minnie with a fake engagement. Dude, Mickey never trick a woman like that.   This naturally upsets Minnie and she plans to get revenge for being scorned like that.   Her plan pretend to  be someone that has a million bucks that Mickey has inherited them but this backfires after Mickey thinks that his rival Mortimer killed him.  Geese, Mickey!    You know the more I think about it, this does seem more Looney Tune esque than Disney. Granted, it came out in 2001 and that might explain some of it. Still, it's fun especially trying  to see Mickey prove that he's not dead and he asks for Donald and Goofy's help but Donald thinks about it and thinks that he can become the main star and says that he had never heard of him and Goofy honestly thinks that Mickey is dead.   It is first revealed to be Mortimer that is posing as the person that is to give the money and then we see  who we assume the real person is and Mortimer says that he is Mickey and  he is given the million bucks.  Which happen to be a million deer. It's revealed at the end, it was Minnie and I think that was a nice touch and Mickey deserved it because  he should have never done that to Minnie. One of my favorite moments when Mickey is trying to prove that it is really him is  by going through all the different variations of Mickey through the year such as Steamboat Willie. Which is later repeated by Mortimer.

Characters


Now I won't be breaking it down any further, then this because there is no need to.


Mickey voiced by Wayne Allwine

I get that this was an April Fools short and that Mickey and Mortimer are rivals but this seemed really out of character for Mickey of today. Now let me clarify something, Mickey has gone through personality changes and when he first came onto the scene, he was bit of a scrapper and the old Mickey would do something like that and it would make sense but not for the Mickey of this generation.   Maybe his personality in this short was supposed to be a callback to that but he seemed really out of character and quite honestly, I think he deserved what he got because Mickey in one of the few times was unlikable.  I mean I honestly think his fake death was a little much for Mortimer just planting popcorn that popped in Mickey's jalopy once he and Minnie got in it.   He deserved everything that happened to him and I hate saying that about Mickey because he's my favorite character but this is not how he should be. Now I don't want the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Mickey either.  There's need to be a good balance and this just felt out of place for Mickey.



Mortimer Mouse voiced by Maurice LaMarche

I've never been a real big of Mortimer.   I'm find him annoying more than anything else and that most certainly comes through in this short. Though I must admit that I did get a chuckled out of seeing him be trampled by a million bucks, even if  this short is one of the few times, where I thought Mickey deserved it.   Mortimer was okay in this short and he served his purpose as Mickey's foil rather well but he works best when he's trying to woo Minnie away from Mickey. Sort of  like Popeye and Bluto(Brutus)   with Olive Oyl.




Minnie Mouse voiced by Russi Taylor

Okay,  first things the fake proposal is funny if only for the fact that Russi Taylor was married to Wayne Allwine, the voice of Mickey at the time of this short's release but that's about it.   Minnie was probably the most sympathetic in this short and yeah, it may seem like she can't take a joke but you never fake a proposal.  That is just wrong!    Mickey deserved what he had coming to him and Minnie was right to do it to him and it was great.





My Final Thoughts




This short at best is okay.  I have a lot of problems with it, mainly that Mickey seems inconsistent to the Mickey of this period.   The jokes are funny and I love the Steamboat Willie reference but as stated up top for a Mickey Mouse short, it feels more like a Looney Tunes short.  That's part of the problem, right there,  I could see Bugs and Daffy doing this because it's in character for them.   I mean just look at What's Opera, Doc.   Where Bugs fakes a death, that's funny and Bugs Bunny is known for stuff like that but for Mickey it just seems extremely out of character.   While not a bad short per se,  it's not one I'd hunt down.