Mickey Mouse (2013) Mondays: Tapped Out/Third Wheel/The Adorable Couple

Hello  and welcome  back  to A Look at  Disney  and  the Mickey Mouse (2013) Mondays  and guess,  what, after these three shorts,   I'm free.  I'm done. And  I never have to watch another one of these shorts ever again.  Now let's clarify,  yes this series did get renewed for a second season but as I said when I started this,  I was only going to look at the shorts from season one.  Well, I ever go back and look at season 2.

With that out of the way, let's start this finale by taking a look at Tapped  Out.

The  Plot

We  open  the short with Mickey, Donald, and Goofy  watching a wrestling match in a live studio audience as they see the world champion has just obliterated his latest opponent to smithereens and Mickey calls the champ, a bully and wants to teach him a lesson.   So, he says and the champs  hears all of the booing and asks who in the audience wants to take him on and Goofy volunteers Mickey.  Oh,  and did I forget to mention that  the champ is Pete.   

Man, it took them long enough to introduce Pete into this series.   And I gotta say that  I love seeing Pete with his peg leg again and  this  is how you do  a Mickey  Vs.  Pete short.   Pete  is a big ole bully, who Mickey has to use his wits to defeat and here it just so happens that the key to defeating Pete was tearing off his hair and it landed in Donald's nachos and that made the fine feathered fowl  angry.   Yeah, there was a subplot  of Donald being overly protective of his nachos and not wanting anyone else to touch them, well,  Mickey's chase in the ring caused Pete to land in them and  Donald unleashed his fury on ole Pete and it was a fire-y explosion and a sight to behold.  And it ends  with Mickey,  Donald, and Goofy  being declared the new champs  and Goofy asking who wants  to take them on.  All  in all, this was a decent little short that was a lot  of fun to watch.

Characters

Main Character

Mickey  voiced by  Chris  Diamantopoulos

Mickey  was a lot of fun  in this short and it was  a nice touch to see him having to use his wits to win the fight against Pete as his stature was clearly taken into consideration and Mickey knew that brute force was not on his side.



Supporting Characters

Goofy  voiced by Bill Farmer

I don't  really feel like  Goofy  got that much to do after he volunteered Mickey to fight in the ring and seeing how this series has mishandled his character in the past, maybe that's a good thing.


Donald  voiced by  Tony  Anselmo 

Donald  really seemed to be a one note joke in this short as they  only used him for the nacho gag and nothing more.  


Villain 


Pete  voiced  by Jim Cummings

Honestly,  a wrestling setting  was  perfect place to introduce Pete into this new series as it works so well with his personality of being a big bully and this short got that down to a tee.   They  understand that Pete is a bully and a jerk and  that  is why  he works so well against  Mickey's  kindness.   Because  Mickey vs.  Pete is the ultimate  nice guy  vs.  bully  in terms of Disney characters facing off.


My  Final Thoughts


All in all, this was a really  good short.  I really liked it.    It was simple but fun.   Let's see that streak can keep going with  Third Wheel.

The  Plot


This short  is okay  but  I can't  say that I'm the biggest fan of it.  The basic gist of this short is that Mickey and Minnie are trying to have a romantic  dinner for two at a fancy restaurant but Goofy  invited himself  along.  (No joke,  I've had a similar  experience.   Last week after my Dad and I got done with our hike,  my Mom picked us up and took us to a Pizza  Hut in the local town to get lunch and we were talking about the trail and some guy  heard us talking about our hike and pulled his chair on over and invited himself to sit down at our table with his pizza, while we were still eating our salads. The entire time, I wanted to ask the guy to leave because he was making me uncomfortable and I'm sure that's what Mickey was feeling).   Back to the review at hand,  it is full of a lot of silly shenanigans on Goofy's part such as setting fire to Mickey and Minnie's table or trying to set the mood with the music but not knowing how to play or tying them up with a noodle that he took off the plate of Lady and The Tramp.   I guess the No Dogs Allowed thing does not apply here.

And when the dinner is brought,  Goofy goes crazy and eats everything in sight including the table and Minnie. EWE!!!!!!!!!    Eventually,  Mickey and Minnie do get some peace and quiet in Goofy's stomach. WHAT?!?!?!?!?!?!??!?!?!?!?!?!?!?  I... I... I... uh... I... I don't get it.  This short is weird.   I just don't get it.



Characters

Mickey  &  Minnie  voiced  by  Chris  Diamantopoulos &  Russi  Taylor 

Man,I really sympathized  with these two.  They were just trying to have a romantic dinner but it was ruined by Goofy being super annoying and as we will talk about with Goofy,  annoying characters aren't always funny characters.



Goofy  voiced by  Bill Farmer

Y'know  guys,  annoying doesn't always equal funny and  there here turned up the annoyance level of Goofy to 10.  Now this does remind of a short from House of Mouse, where Goofy was a waiter serving Donald and Daisy but for some reason, Goofy  annoying Donald works better than it does with Mickey.  Maybe, if this had been Donald and Goofy, the short would've worked better as Mickey's anger doesn't reach the same humorous heights as Donald's  but even then,  the way Goofy  was portrayed here, I won't say it was out of character but it felt like they dialed up this character to put his worst traits on display.


My  Final  Thoughts


I don't hate this short but I'm left wondering why,  they decided to make Goofy so annoying in it.  Was this a bad call?  Perhaps  not but again,  I feel like I've seen this done better and with Goofy being less annoying.   Alright join me below  as I close this sucker out with The Adorable Couple.

The Plot

Yeah,  your going to watch this one for yourself. Words cannot fully describe what this short is but I'm gonna try.   This  short decides  once to exaggerate  and almost flanderize  these  characters.  They  show  Mickey and Minnie   such as a lovey-dovey  couple   that gum drops and sunshine follow them, wherever they go and that they  don't  like seeing  Donald and Daisy fight  and that is the only  attribute  of  that couple , they focused on and the entire short  revolves  around Mickey and Minnie  trying to cheer  Donald and Daisy up  and in the end, learning that they enjoying fighting with each other.  WHAT?!?!?!?  No,  yes,  Donald  and Daisy  do fight with each  other but  not because they enjoy it but because they are a real couple that have real emotions that can set each other off but they will always be there for one another and at the end of the day, they'll always have one another's back and oh, this short goes so far as to show Mickey and Minnie love each other that they can't even have a fight with one another. No.   That is.......     Elsa, do  ya mind.

Thank you, your  majesty  and best of luck on Once Upon A Time.    That isn't true at all,  Mickey and Minnie have been shown to fight before.  Yes,  it's  not on the level of Donald and Daisy but Minnie in particular has been shown that she can sometimes be impatient with Mickey.  So to portray as so sickly sweet in love made this feel more like a parody of Disney than anything else.  Oh,  I should also mention that Beast and Belle show up dancing and Donald accidentally bumps into Beast while dancing and that causes Beast to lose his temper.

I know this is just a cameo  and this shouldn't bug me but doesn't that joke kinda go against what Beast learned in the movie about controlling his temper.   Alas,  I have to say  I'm not a fan of this short.


Characters

Mickey  & Minnie   voiced by  Chris  Diamantopoulos  & Russi  Taylor

This short decided to exaggerate the love these two have for each other and pretty much turned it into a joke.  I get what they were going for but this take on Mickey and Minnie  just rings hollow to me.  


Donald and Daisy voiced by Tony Anselmo  & Tress MacNeille

This short did the same thing to Donald and Daisy but  decided to only focus on their bickering and  acted as if that was the only part of their relationship and forgetting until the very end, that y'know these two actually love each other.

Yes, they may have their disagreements but through thick and thin, they will always love one another and when it really counts, they can look past the bickering and remember why, they love each other.  Sure, their  relationship may be difficult and complicated but there is more to it than just bickering.


My  Final Thoughts

In many respects,  the more I think about this short, I more I find it kinda insulting to these couples and how much it undermines what their relationships are really like.  It isn't the worst short from the 2013 series, that would be a tie between Dog Show and Gasp! but I can't say that I liked it either.     Before we close out,  I should give my thoughts on this series as a whole.



My Overall Thoughts on Mickey Mouse (2013)


The question, I keep asking myself is "Do I still hate these shorts?"  And the answer is for the most part is no, not as much as when I started.  Are these shorts as bad as I thought?  Well, they are a mixed bag.  You get some really good ones like Bad Ear Day but then you also have trite like Dog Show and Gasp!  And The Adorable Couple didn't help much either  but I don't know,  maybe these  just aren't  meant for me.   Maybe, these Mickey shorts are meant for a new generation and that's fine but  I almost feel like in the process of watching these shorts, it felt as though the creators behind them were so intent on making sure that today's youth liked Mickey that they forgot about the fans that grew up with Mickey.   Are these the worst shorts, I ever watched?   Some of them, yes they are but   while I'm still not the biggest fan of this new incarnation of Mickey Mouse,  I can't say that I hold the same hatred that you saw in the Gasp! review for this series.     Now if you don't  mind me, I'm going to watch Sofia The First.  Piece!