Mickey Mouse Cartoon: New York Weenie

First off, watch the cartoon:


New York Weenie on Disney Video

Disney is well advised to try and resurrect its classic Mickey and Minnie characters in new adventures. After all, there are all sorts of people who may have never seen anything with Mickey Mouse in it, except as a reference to Disneyland.

Typical afternoon in the park with two giant... mice?

In this short, Minnie wants something to eat, and, as they are in a park in New York, hot dogs are on the menu. But, somehow the hot dog escapes. Hijinx ensue.

Let's ignore for the moment that the solution to an escaping (?!) hot dog is to just buy another one. And to marvel at a hot dog escaping.

Wait, no, let's not.

I know this is a cartoon, and therefore real world rules don't apply - suspension of disbelief and so forth - and of course, Minnie and Mickey are talking mice. But in the reality of Mickey Mouse, people are represented as animals. The fact that Minnie and Mickey talk, I've often thought, was because in reality, they are people who if you met them in real life, would kind of remind you of mice. But bringing an inanimate object to life to cause problems? And she was about to eat that thing, which was apparently still alive! Mice aren't carnivores! Why aren't they wearing shirts!

I may be getting old.

Anyway, so we're in silly land, let's go with that.

The art on this is really good. The producers managed to keep the old school Mickey character aesthetic without it seeming dated, by stylizing the rest of the art in a really smart way. It all has a simultaneously vintage, yet modern feel. It's a neat trick, and they should be commended.

There's nothing truly new in the main story line. No feminism being asserted here - Mickey solves Minnie's problems, first by buying her a hot dog, then by chasing it down. To be fair, Minnie never asked for Mickey's help, he just volunteered. Although Mickey does play the stereotype of the man not really paying attention to details when Minnie comments on how this was the nicest walk she can remember. Hint to Mickey: the next time Minnie says "This is the nicest walk I can remember that we've had together, don't you think, Mickey?", just respond "Yes", and try to leave off "it is the nicest walk you remember."

There are a couple of other interesting details. First, there's the situation with the stroller:

What did you do with the baby,
weenie? And it's mother?
WHAT'S IN THE BOX?!

Was it just empty when the hot dog jumped in? Otherwise, where is the baby that should have been there, and where is its mother (or father, whatever)? Oh, wait, no, only mothers have their strollers out today. Mother it is. One wonders what befell them, as we will see later.

Mickey gets beat up by the mothers whose babies he disturbed, then discovers the hot dog in a boat on the lake. Okay, sure. But just as he looks like he's going to win...

Looking for love in a random boat.

He meets up with... cross dressing Goofy? I'm not exactly sure which joke Disney is going for here. Is it that this is a very ugly lady? Way to go, Disney. Or is it that it is in fact Goofy cross dressing, wanting to kiss Mickey, who then freaks out and jumps off the boat. While this is definitely an issue worth exploring, it's clear that Disney doesn't want to take the time to do that. Thus, I guess the message is: gay man in a dress wants to to kiss you, man? Jump in the lake! Ha ha ha! Right? Ha? That joke is really old school, and I'm betting I can find someone that it would offend, if I tried hard enough.

Moving on.

Ah, this hot dog is a criminal. We assume it stole that boat (pockets for money?), and our suspicions are confirmed when the little old (elephant?) lady describes her assailant to an officer. Mickey follows the lead to a poker game with homeless people.

Hot dog bets the purse, the homeless guys don't question it, so they're probably criminals, too. Because homeless people are always criminals.

Ta da! I am protecting you.
From hot dogs.

Then there's a sequence with a lion, that's reasonably tame (ha!), and Mickey presents the hot dog to Minnie. Ew.

Final interesting moment: this guy is apparently Hindu. To me, that's actually pretty cool. A walrus isn't necessarily any ethnicity, so why not Hindu? I guess you could complain about that voice being on a hot dog vender, but since usually that's characterized by a gruff New Yorker accent, and there are no other ethnic voices in the short, I see this as a positive.

Overall, then, what do I think? Very good style of art, very old school story. Thus, it's half good. Disney should allow its writers into the 21st century.

6 out of 10 weenies.