House of Mouse Week: House of Crime

Hello & welcome back to House of Mouse Week.  Today,  I'm taking a look at another personal favorite episode of mine, House of Crime.  This episode is just so much fun and so funny and another reason, I love this one is because of the appearance by The Phantom Blot who is this episode's villain.  Now unlike the Vs. from yesterday, I won't be looking at the short featured in this episode as I'll be reviewing that later down the line.   

The Plot

Everything has gone missing at the House of Mouse everything is being stolen from bread by Aladdin to the puppies from 101 Dalmatians. At one point,  the villains are stolen and this after they're all rounded up by Mickey and the staff. After a nice little joke where Goofy goes around asking villains in disguise if they'd seen anyone in disguise and this includes the The Evil Queen as the Old Hag, Ursula as Vanessa,   Pain and Panic as the little boys.  Von Drake  then says that he has a new device that can help solve the case, his Crime-Puter.   This machine proves to be helpful as it spits out clues revealing who the culprit is.  At one point,  after everyone but Mickey, Donald, & Goofy had been stolen,  a clue comes out saying that the culprit is the person you least suspect and at that point, Donald and Goofy  think  that Mickey is the mastermind culprit and then we see Chief O'Hara come to arrest Mickey and then Mickey puts all of the clues together and figures out that the true villain is The Phantom Blot and then we get a short chase but it was a fun watch.

Episode Title

House of Crime

I have to say that I really like this title. It's very simple and ominous. It doesn't spoil the story but it gives you an idea of what the episode is. 

Plot Device

Crime-Puter 

The professor's machine, the Crime-Puter was very crucial to this episode as it helped to solve the case and figure out who was the true culprit.   As you can see, it was The Phantom Blot, he had been hiding in it the whole time.  Now I do have to laugh at the fact  that the Crime-Puter looked like a big honking computer that you'd see in a lab.  

Characters

I'll be breaking this down into Main,  & Villain.   With that out of the way, let's begin.    Just so you know, I won't be talking about Daisy or Minnie as it didn't seem they were given much to do as they were taken off screen and we weren't given any hints to their disappearances. Now this isn't a bad thing but unlike some of the other characters, I feel that their disappearances just come out of nowhere as there is no build up.  

Main Characters

Mickey voiced by Wayne Allwine

Mickey really got to show off his detective skills in this episode when everything was being stolen and it was he who solved the case and it was a nice touch and I had a bit of a chuckle when he was about to be arrested as seen in this pic and everything and I mean everything was stolen from the club even the clothes off of Mickey's back and how did Mickey figure out The Blot was behind it. Well, when O'Hara was about to take him in,  he had to sign a confessional and O'Hara told him to be careful as hi pen blots and that is when it hit Mickey that it was The Phantom Blot behind it.   A nice touch.  

Ludwig Von Drake voiced by Corey Burton

Now this picture isn't from this episode but a different one but it's good quality. Anyways as I said Von Drake invented the Crime-Puter and really, his invention was more important than he was but  part of that comes from the fact that he was kidnapped at one point along with basically everyone else.

Donald voiced by Tony Anselmo 

Donald is his usual self and I love how the clues in this episode trick the audience even though you know it's not one of the staff, it plants that seed in their minds because one of the clues that comes out of the crime-puter is something about someone holding a grudge and well, that fits Donald.  So Goofy locks him up until the next clue says it's a criminal mastermind and Goofy realizes that can't be Donald.  A little jab at his friend. but funny nonetheless.

Goofy voiced by Bill Farmer

Goofy was great in this episode as he always his and I swear he had the best line, it came after the Crime-Puter printed out a clue saying that the culprit is the person you least suspect. Goofy had this line.

Mickey,  I  always suspected I didn't suspect it was you 

Only Goofy could pull off a line like that.

Villain

The Phantom Blot voiced by John O'Hurley 

The Blot was awesome in this episode as throughout the entire episode, you don't know who the culprit is and sure, if your familiar with this character, you may think of him but really he's an obscure character and I also love the fact that all of the villains that are in attendance at the House of Mouse are ruled out as they are the first ones to go.  Also I'd be remiss if I didn't mention some of the villains that appear, I mean sure you've got your obvious ones like Hades, Jafar and Cruella but you also see other villains that rarely appear such as  Frollo and McLeach.     I can't list all of the villains that appeared as this would make the review longer than needed and sadly, there isn't a screenshot of this yet.   Back to The Blot,  he was so much fun with how he messed with everyone  and I love how this episode showed him as a villain that works behind the scenes and doesn't reveal himself until he is either found out or he feels that it's time.   I also think that while Pete is still my favorite villain, The Phantom Blot  imposes a bigger threat to Mickey.   

My  Final Thoughts

Now I realize that this review isn't as through as yesterday's article but these are two different articles.   Again, this is an awesome episode and while I didn't touch on the short, it is also a fun watch as well but just the main story alone is enough to be enticed into this show.  If you like these kind of stories,  check it out. If you haven't seen this show, this is a great first episode.  Just go watch it,  this is one of the best  episodes of the one of the greatest series.  Okay, so that was a little overboard but seriously, this is a fun episode and the mystery while simple is fun for a children's show. Join me next time as I take a look at a short made just for this show as I look at Mickey and The Goat Man.