House of Mouse

Disney's House of Mouse (or simply House of Mouse) is an American

The animated series is a spin off of the series Mickey Mouse Works, and featured many of the series' shorts as well as selection of brand new shorts, and classic Mickey Mouse, Goofy and Donald Duck shorts from the 1930s–50s.

During its time, the animated series held two nominations for awards, while select cast members won two awards for their performances as characters in House of Mouse. The series featured two direct-to-video films – Mickey's Magical Christmas: Snowed in at the House of Mouse and Mickey's House of Villains – along with an all-night marathon of the House of Mouse, aired on Toon Disney in September 2002 under the title "Night of 1,000 Toons".

Premise

The basic premise of the show focuses on

Each episode focuses on a story involving Mickey and his associates facing an issue during an evening's operation of the club, and their efforts to overcome it – the most common plot for episodes involves the group dealing with a serious problem caused by Pete in his attempts to shut down the club and use it for his own gains. These stories, often involving farcical mishaps, tended to act as a wraparound for the cartoon shorts played in between scenes, the theme of the story contributing towards the story-lines of the cartoon shorts shown in the episode.^[5] Cartoon shorts played in episodes focused on elements from classic theatrical cartoons of the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s, though most were reruns from Mickey Mouse Works, and featured a simple story. Some stories were set to a specific theme for a specific character, but with differing scenarios – for example, one set focused on Mickey seeking to rescue Minnie from Pete, against a different obstacle in each short, while another set focused on Pluto's efforts to get Mickey his paper while facing a different problem.

Episodes

Voice cast

• Mickey Mouse (voiced by Wayne Allwine^[6]): Mickey operates the club as general manager and co-owner, but leaves the club's management to his friends. His main role in the club is hosting the evening's entertainment as its showbiz superstar.
• Minnie Mouse (voiced by Russi Taylor^[7]): Minnie operates as the club's show planner and bookkeeper, and is responsible for the club's day-to-day administration. Her performance at keeping the club running well makes her a pillar of support in times of crisis, especially in keeping Mickey calm when he panics over a situation.
• VIP
  guests. Although a co-owner in the club, he is envious of Mickey's fame and position and tends to want to run the club himself, though his efforts are usually thwarted by his conscience preventing him betraying his friendship with Mickey.
• Daisy Duck (voiced by Tress MacNeille^[9]): Daisy operates as the reservation clerk for the club, but often dreams of being a star in her own right, which often sees her attempting to try out a new act in the club that often backfires.
• head waiter, managing the club's restaurant
  operations with his usual accident-prone yet genial manner of work. Despite this difficulty, Goofy manages to ensure guests receive their meals without issues.
• Pluto (voiced by Bill Farmer^[11]): Pluto operates as both the club's mascot, and as a personal assistant to both Mickey and Minnie.
• Horace Horsecollar (voiced by Bill Farmer^[12]): Horace operates as the club's technical engineer, in charge of the lighting, loudspeakers, and video players. A recurring gag in the animated series is his habit of literally doing as told and hitting his equipment to get them working, and a tendency to state about what is wrong in general life, rather than specifically on something that just happened when asked.
• Clarabelle Cow (voiced by April Winchell^[13]): Clarabelle operates as the club's gossip monger with her own show, collecting and spreading rumours about characters all over ToonTown, although her gossip tends to occasionally cause problems as a result.
• Max Goof (voiced by Jason Marsden^[14]): Max operates as the club's valet parking attendant. He tends to enjoy his work, though a number of episodes feature stories about him debating over things he witnesses or wishes to enjoy.
• Huey, Dewey, and Louie (all voiced by Tony Anselmo^[15][16][17]): Huey, Dewey and Louie operate as the club's house band. Throughout the course of the animated series' run, the trio operated under different names and genres of music, parodying noted music bands of the time - "The Quackstreet Boys", "Quackwerk", "Kid Duck" and "The Splashing Pumpkins".
• Gus Goose (voiced by Frank Welker^[18]): Gus operates as the club's chef, but his notorious gluttony tends to cause him to eat the food he prepares for guests before it is served.
• Magic Mirror (voiced by Tony Jay^[19]): Magic Mirror acts as the club's on-site consultant, often providing advice when asked by Mickey and his friends, as well as answering queries about the club's guests.
• Mic (pronounced "Mike") (voiced by Rod Roddy^[20]): Mic is a talking microphone, who operates as the club's announcer. The character is mainly involved at the beginning and end of the episodes, the latter often involving him providing a fictional advert connected to one of Disney's characters, cartoons, or animated films.
• Pete (voiced by Jim Cummings^[21]): Commonly referred to as Bad Pete by others, is the show's main antagonist and the club's shady landlord. Episodes featuring him tend to involve him seeking a way to shut down the club – per a contract he made with Mickey at the start of the animated series to own the House of Mouse, the club can only be shut down if there is no show going on. His efforts to do so always backfire.

Production

Then vice president of Disney Television Animation at the time, Barry Blumberg, wanted to produce a series that worked as a better format for Mickey Mouse Works. Roberts "Bobs" Gannaway and Tony Craig aimed to have the series reintroduce Disney characters to a new generation who were only familiar with them via marketing and "homogenized theme-park figures". They wanted to avoid making Mickey Mouse "hip" or "edgy" and retain the characters' personalities as closely as possible. The series was notable in that it allowed the characters to be played with more loosely as Craig stated, "Everybody thought it was really funny to loosen up a bit and let the characters be who they were and have some fun, instead of being so stiff". The crew was not allowed to use any of the characters from Tarzan due to licensing issues. Gannaway and Craig also deliberately tried to avoid using characters from The Hunchback of Notre Dame due to them being "inherently dramatic",^[22] nevertheless, Tantor, Quasimodo and a few other characters from The Hunchback of Notre Dame would make a couple of cameos in the series.

The show was produced by

The theme song is performed by Brian Setzer.

Broadcast

House of Mouse aired on

Reception

Critical response

Noah Bell of Collider stated, "For Disney fans growing up in the 2000s, House of Mouse was like a dream brought to life. Taking place primarily in a dinner club owned by Mickey, the show featured characters from virtually every Disney film made at that point interacting on a scale never seen before or since. With people's love of crossovers only growing since the series ended, an updated House of Mouse could have a lot going for it."^[23] Gabriel Stanford-Reisinger of FanSided asserted, "While it didn't last as long as others, it proved to be a fan-favorite."^[24]

Rafael Sarmiento of

• Once Upon a Studio, a live-action/animated short film that also serves as a crossover of many characters from Disney's animated features and shorts.

References