Day 5: Scary Mouse!
October 5, 2022
Dear Disney,
In 1995, Jim’s father, took Jim to see A Kid in King Arthur’s Court, little did Jim’s father know but he would be introducing Jim to one of the creepiest Mickey Mouse shorts that he had ever seen.
“Runaway Brain” is a 1995 Oscar-nominated Mickey Mouse short that was directed by Chris Bailey and written by Tim Hauser. “Runaway Brain” is the story of Mickey Mouse, attempting to convince Minnie that he had not forgotten their anniversary, accidently promises to take Minnie on a Hawaiian Romantic Vacation. In order to raise the money to go on a trip, Mickey answers an advertisement that will pay him $999.99 for one day’s work. However, that one day’s work is to be part of an experiment where Mickey’s brain is switched with a Frenkstein’s monster brain. The experiment is a success and Mickey finds himself in the body of the monster and the monster in the body of Mickey. The monster falls in love, or lust, with Minnie mouse and attempts to take Minnie against her will. Eventually Mickey switches back into his own body and takes Minnie to Hawaii, traveling on the back of the monster who is being motivated by a picture of Minnie mouse on a stick, similar to hanging a carrot on a stick to move the pig or horse forward.
As hard as this short is to find, it has only ever been released on one box set released in 2004, Mickey Mouse in Living Color; volume 2, I love it. In order for me to watch it, I had to scour the internet for clips and pieces. Darling did not like watching the short this way and thinks she has seen it in the past, but does not remember much except it creeped her out at the time. This short is snapshot of a time that will never come back. Walt Disney Animated Studios was going through a change. The President of the company, Franks Wells, had recently passed away unexpectedly. The President of Walt Disney Animated Studios, Jeffrey Katzenberg, had recently been terminated. The Walt Disney Animated Studio wanted to re-brand Mickey Mouse to the newer, hipper, generation.
Their hope, was this short would be the element that would bridge the gap from the earlier, “uncool’ Mickey Mouse of the 50’s and reach the teenage demographic of the 90’s. In reality, it probably enticed as many teenagers as frightened.
The things I like about this short is all the allusion to other works. There is a seen of Mickey outside the Mad Scientist office (whose name is Dr. Frankenollie, itself an allusion to one of the original animators of the 9 old men Frank and Ollie) that is almost an exact replica from The Exorcist. Or the scene where the monster has Mickey that is cut directly from King Kong. These allusions that I saw re-watching it, and there are likely many more, were missed by 10-year-old Jim.
I understand why Disney is not super excited about re-releasing this short, but I do hope they are able to release it eventually. I think that it is culturally important to see this short as it is a perfect example of Mid-90’s society and others thought so as well as it was Oscar-nominated and showed at the Cannes Film Festival.
Until that does, I guess I will be supporting Disney by purchasing the DVD set that I discussed earlier.
Sincerely,
Jim Dear
