This Disney collectable Tin Collection is, as they say, for the collectors. Of all the Disney creations Mickey was the one character who basically went stale because he meant so much to the company's image that he couldn't change or really do anything particularly interesting. He's beautifully animated in many of these latter-day short subjects but with certain exceptions he's more than a bit dull. Pluto carries the ball in many of the cartoons and when they run into foes like the charismatic Chip 'n Dale, Mickey ends up being a straight man.

Disc one has an impressive pile of cartoons dating from 1939 to 1953 when Mickey finally bowed out. For decades later he retreated to the safety of comic books and brief snippets on The Mickey Mouse Club TV show. His lively costumed interpreters at Disneyland insured his immortality; and just because they stopped making new short subjects doesn't mean that he wasn't a favorite at kiddie matinees, the kind that routinely strung together cartoon shorts from a variety of sources.

As Leonard Maltin practically apologizes in his nice standup intros, Mickey stopped being the spunky wild-card maniac of his earlier cartoons and settled into an all-purpose everyday Joe character. He lives in a house and does domestic things like interact with the dog and court the ever-elusive Minnie. (Actually, if Goofy's a dog too, things get a bit complicated, according to Stephen King). Romance is implied but Morty and Ferdie never show up so Mickey doesn't attract the raised eyebrows Donald and Daisy got over Huey, Dewey and Louie, the little (word deleted). Of course, Donald never even wore pants, and we all know things happen when you party (rest of sentence deleted).

What's distressing is how bland the cartoons are. Mickey will go on a trip with Pluto, and the story never progresses beyond getting on a train. The gags are drawn out and obvious. There are good jokes, often character generated, but nothing particularly inspired. Mickey and the Seal has some amusing moments in a bathtub with an amiable seal character (with Pluto vainly signalling through the window) but really goes nowhere. The Birthday Party cartoon just marks time with unfunny business until Mickey gets clobbered with the cake goofy has repeatedly tried to bake. Mickey then smiles through the candles and icing as if to say, "Sorry folks, it's the best we can do." No joy in Mudville there.

The cartoons are high technical polish. The illusion of character dimension is excellent and the background work is beautiful. There's often a clever song in the titles, sung in a swing harmony. Only Mickey's last 50s cartoon The Simple Things uses inferior animation that makes mush of the Mickey character template. Walt must have seen it and said "That's enough. Mouse to back burner - full speed ahead on the park and the big feature work."

Leonard Maltin's intros are limited almost exclusively to smiling disclaimers and nervous damage control. For every cartoon with the slightest racially insensitive moment - even the villain Pete speaking with an Italian accent or Mickey disguising himself for two seconds in an Indian blanket - there's a preemtive acknowledgement of the PC offense. It's entirely acceptable to Savant because the bottom line is that the cartoons don't appear to be censored. That's actually a giant step forward for Disney DVD.  ¹ But Maltin goes on to say debatable things like "we're much more enlightened now," the kind of mental pampering that can only come from a PR committee. We long for the days when Mickey reached over and snapped the elastic on Minnie's underwear, twice, without the slightest hint of a responsible attitude.

Footnote:

1. Although we shouldn't expect Song of the South very soon, Disney was very good about not buttering over PC dimples in its The War Years compilation. Savant once edited a collection of racy Warners cartoons, but had to cut out every offensive bit to please the Cartoon Network people. But Warner's racist humor was a lot nastier than Uncle Walt's, by a long shot. We saw one cartoon where a buck-toothed, kimono'ed Tokyo Rose was caught sitting on a toilet!
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