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Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures - The Complete Series
Mighty Mouse The New Adventures - The Complete Series
Genres: Kids & Family, Television, Animation
NR     2010     7hr 35min

In this revival of the classic Mighty Mouse cartoon, we follow the humorous, satirical adventures of Mike Mouse (a worker at Pearl Pureheart?s factory) in this Saturday Morning cartoon by Ralph Bakshi.

     
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Movie Details

Creators: Patrick Pinney, Maggie Rosewell, Dana Hill, Mona Marshall
Genres: Kids & Family, Television, Animation
Sub-Genres: Animation, Television, Animation
Studio: Paramount
Format: DVD - Color - Animated
DVD Release Date: 01/05/2010
Release Year: 2010
Run Time: 7hr 35min
Screens: Color
Number of Discs: 3
SwapaDVD Credits: 3
Total Copies: 0
Members Wishing: 3
Edition: Box set
MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Languages: English

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Member Movie Reviews

K. K. (GAMER)
Reviewed on 5/31/2023...
Really poor quality video and audio but these are the That's All Folks classics of Looney Tunes started with U.M.& M TV Corp. produced by Paramount Pictures and then Warner Brothers.
Gil W. (gil) from ROBINSON, IL
Reviewed on 1/6/2010...
It ran for only two glorious seasons in the late-’80s, so it’s possible you’ve forgotten about Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures. But animation nerds have not. That’s because the show’s credits now read like a Who’s Who of Animation Awesomeness: Led by Ralph Bakshi (creator of Fritz the Cat) the staff also included John Kricfalusi (who went on to bring us Ren & Stimpy), Bruce Timm (eventual co-creator of Batman: The Animated Series, Superman: The Animated Series and Batman Beyond) and Andrew Stanton (who directed two tiny films for Pixar called Finding Nemo and Wall-E).
Now is the time for you to whistle slowly in amazement.
Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures (not to be confused with 1979’s The New Adventures of Mighty Mouse) gave America’s favorite super rodent a side-kick and secret identity, all souped-up with a then-revolutionary irreverent sense of humor. Yesterday, the show’s 26 episodes hit DVD for the first time ever. Watch them to bask in the show’s collective brilliance, or cue up the infamous episode entitled “The Littlest Tramp.” That one was pulled off the air after an outraged reverend swore a scene where Mighty Mouse sniffs crushed flowers looks suspiciously as if he’s snorting coke.
Debatable. Although that would explain where Mighty Mouse got all his energy.
1 of 1 member(s) found this review helpful.

Movie Reviews

Brilliant, Except When it Isn't
J. W. Kennedy | Richmond, VA United States | 04/08/2010
(4 out of 5 stars)

"I was in middle-school when this show was on TV, and it stuck in my mind long after other cartoons had been forgotten. Thrilled as I was to see it again on DVD, I approached with some trepidation ... after re-watching TinyToons last year and being disappointed at how poorly THOSE had held up, I was ready for the agony of acknowledging my distorted recollection of another favorite from my youth. Thankfully "Mighty Mouse the New Adventures" is every bit as good as I remember. Mostly.

It's an amazing show. The writing is brilliant and it is full of visual gags that were lacking in most Saturday Morning tripe at that time. The animation renaissance of the early 1990s can be traced directly to this show. It shows clearly the origins of the Spumco style .. Here are the strange, retro/cubist character and background designs, the bizarre story and gag ideas, the emphasis on emoting rather than on constant frenetic movement, and the use of voices that don't sound like typical cartoon characters. Although the production values on "Mighty Mouse" were lower than on "Ren and Stimpy," I think the best episodes of "Mighty Mouse" are better than anything John K did in his later career. The stories are more coherent and rely less on "gross-out" gags and psychotic freak-outs. John K probably hates this expression, but "Mighty Mouse" is a lot more relatable than "Ren and Stimpy."

However, not all the episodes were good. Some of them are atrociously written, with no clear sense of plot direction or motivation. Some of them don't make sense, and some of them are actually painful to watch. "Witch Tricks," the second half of episode 2, is the first bad one, followed by "Catastrophe Cat" in episode 4. The third disk has 6 episodes from the aborted second season; the animation on this disk is noticeably worse, Maxi Burger has inexplicably returned to his fat, evil form (and his voice is different) and most of the episodes are bitter jabs at the network and at television in general. Mighty Mouse is savagely mistreated by the writers in this season. The crew must have known the show was getting cancelled when they made these; the feeling is very different from the first season.

Another weakness is the high percentage of recycled animation. Any kid can tell you that "clip shows" always suck, but it has long been Network TV policy to do one cheap show per season that is a collage of recycled clips. Each episode of "Mighty Mouse" consists of two short cartoons. In season one, out of 26 shorts, four of them consist mainly of clips from old Terrytoons cartoons with what is apparently improvised voice-over dubbed in. It's not at all funny and it comes across as the production crew being lazy and needing to fill time. If they were going to re-use old Terrytoons, I would rather they had presented the classic cartoons uncut and without the voices from the new show talking over them. In season two, out of 12 shorts, two of them are cobbled together out of clips from season one, with new dialogue clumsily dubbed in. Again, not funny, and even a kid could tell the show directors were taking shortcuts.

Yet despite its weaknesses, this collection still contains some of the best TV cartoons ever made. I remember in 7th grade my friends and I used to recite Maxi's freak-out monologue from "The Bag Mouse" (episode 5; "A straw with no paper! MUSTARD .. on the counter!!!") and that episode is just as amazing today as it was 23 years ago. Madame Marsupial in "League of Super Rodents" (episode 8) is still smokin' hot. Bat-Bat is a fiendishly clever parody. The Cow is just as off-kilter hilarious as I remember, with one of the most memorable voices on Saturday morning. And Petey Pate (episode 1) is fascinatingly deranged. There's a lot of prize material in this hit-or-miss collection.

The digital transfer looks great. CBS went back to the original show negatives, so the picture quality on these DVDs is possibly even better than the show looked when it was first broadcast. There's an approximately 30-minute interview documentary with members of the Mighty Mouse crew reminiscing about their work on the show. Only two of the episodes have audio commentary. In both cases John K and Tom Minton comment on the first short, and the second one is commented by Minton, Kent Butterworth and Mike Kazaleh. The comments are not really very elucidatory; it's mostly self-congratulation ("we were the first ones do do this on TV...") so I'm not all that disappointed to see only two episodes with commentary.

All in all, a wonderful show and a very significant artifact in the history of animation. It just has too many flaws for me to award a full five stars. Animation enthusiasts should own this, regardless. It is really that good .. well, MOST of it is."
Mighty Mouse Saves The Day
John Wright | Dixon, Ca | 02/23/2010
(5 out of 5 stars)

"The special feature interview with creators of this program is worth the price of the whole thing. I got a good lesson on the kind of character Ralph Bakshi is. He is a straight-up old school animator from a time when theatrical short re-runs and original cartoons meant the world on Saturday Mornings. That's where he got started before making feature-length movies. This show might seem silly and bizarre on the surface but if you look at it, there are alot of high art influences not seen in that era until The Simpsons appeared over two years later. Not to mention this program gave Mighty Mouse a solid alter-ego, supporting cast, rogues gallery... sheer amazing work! The episodes are all in great, great quality! I love anything with New Wave neon/beach-inspired colors. They induce sheer happiness in me and exude a kind of creative confidence.

*****SPOILER ALERT*****

What I love is that the DVD gives you the option to watch the show with intro teasers or not. That to me is a nice touch. Some people like to watch the whole thing with the intro but new viewers who have never seen the program might find it annoying. Unaware of how each episode were originally broadcast."
REV. DONALD WILDMON: MIGHTY MOUSE IS BACK TO SAVE THE DAY (F
THE BLUEMAHLER | 09/24/2010
(4 out of 5 stars)

"Rev. Donald Wildmon is, thankfully a dinosaur, a dying breed of self-appointed "moral crusader" bullies who blasphemously oppresses in the name of a peasant Jew who hung out with hookers and derelicts, talked a theology of love, understanding, and peace, and was brutally butchered by Wildmon's own type some two thousand years ago. Wildmon bullies in the name of this Jew to masquerade his own ignorance. Each year that passes it becomes increasingly apparent that the world will be better off when he and his type are extinct.

In 1988, Rev. Wildmon saw an episode of Ralph Bakshi's "The New Adventures of Mighty Mouse." The show was imaginative, colorful, and witty. Wildmon's Methodist toupee did a double take and he screamed "The Devil" when he saw something he could not understand, let alone appreciate. (Specifically, Wildmon saw Mighty Mouse happily sniffing a crushed flower, and presumed the scene promoted cocaine use). So Wildmon cocked up his triple chin and let out a Tarzan styled yell to his fellow Neo-Nazi thugs. Wildmon and the brown shirts started their march, taking it all the way to the faceless sponsors of "Mighty Mouse." It's not surprising that Wildmon bedded with money to attack an imaginative kids show. After all, that peasant Jew was killed because he messed with the money system.

So Wildmon and his silly cult bedded with the Pharisees and killed Bakshi's child. This was one of many offenses they perpetrated. I am sure the good Reverend has several trophies on that triple chinned ego of his mantle. With too few exceptions, "Mighty Mouse" was one of the last times in which television has shown any inclination for imagination, creativity and style. In its place we have reality TV and trash TV that dumb down to the lowest common denominator. Thank you, Rev.Wildmon, for your gift. Yes, there might be a few clever television programs among the dreck, some worthwhile dramas, but aesthetically ground-breaking television, especially aesthetically ground-breaking children's television, damn near died away when Bakshi's "Mighty Mouse " went the way of Lenny Bernstein's "Young People's Concerts."

But, that is not the end of the story, Now, finally, "Mighty Mouse" has re-emerged onto a DVD collection to save the day. Hopefully, Wildmon and his worthless kin, who serve no purpose in life except as societal cancer, will go crawl into a hole and die away. The rest of us can celebrate the resurrection of our fearless mouse.

Now, "The New Adventures of Mighty Mouse" is, admittedly, a somewhat mixed bag, even if it did undoubtedly influence shows such as "Ren & Stimpy" and "The Simpsons." Many of the "Mighty Mouse" episodes still retain that irreverent, off-beat style, but some are downright lame. Most of the weaker episodes feature MM's annoying Jimmy Olsen-like sidekick, Scrappy. The best of the Scrappy episodes is "Scrap-Happy", which is not saying much because, at best, it is a mediocre satire on Disney's Pinocchio. There are a surprising number of creatively lazy episodes, which are little more than music video compilations. The first episode is "Night on Bald Pate" which begins spoofing Mussorgsky, Fantasia and Max Fleischer. It sounds better than it actually is. The first masterpiece is "Night of the Bat-Bat." This is an absolute send-up and an even more contemporary, potent antidote to the ultra-noir caped crusader to which we have now grown accustomed to over the last few years. "Night of the Bat-Bat" is the first of many satires which will include references to the Fleischer brothers Superman cartoons, Salvador Dali, vintage Looney Tunes, TerryToons, Tom and Jerry, Tex Avery, Chuck Jones, Crosby and Hope, "The Chipmunks," "Star Trek" episodes, Vincent Price, Peter Lorre, Woody Allen, and DC Comics, to name a scant few. McCarthyism, couch potatoes, and unimaginative television executives are big targets, served up with grand Bakshi absurdism. In this episode Bat-Bat and his sidekick the Bug Wonder tackle The Cow (George C. Scott from Dr. Strangelove in all but name only). Bat-Bat himself is a loving tribute to the true blue Adam West Batman, and Mighty Mouse comes off as a big lug, not for the first or last time.

Still from The New Adventures of Mighty Mouse"Mouse From Another House" and "Catastrophe Cat" play off of the "Adventures of Superman" favorite episodes "Superman on Earth" and "Panic in the Sky", but neither episode really flies. "The Littlest Tramp" is the episode that got the show sacked. It is a clever send-up of Virginia Cherrill's flower girl from City Lights with a dash of "Porky in Wackyland." Seen today, the "offending scene" of MM and the flower simply registers a WTF? disbelief; the scene simply continues in its Chaplineque fantasy.

You can never retire a good villain, so The Cow returns in a delightful spoof of the Justice League of America called `The League of Super-Rodents". "See You in the Funny Papers" is a mile a minute merciless satire in which Dick Tracy-like villains and an out of control fat Elvis balloon wreck havoc in a Macy's Day parade done up Roy Lichenstein style.

It was in its second and final season that The New Adventures of Mighty Mouse hit its creative stride. In "Day of the Mice" a washed-up grotesque Mighty Mouse does battle with a giant Pee Wee Herman. He tells Pee Wee, "I have waited a whole season to do this" (Pee Wee's Playhouse came on right before MM) and then saves the day in a Jimmy Stewart Mr. Smith Goes to Washington climax. In "Mighty's Wedlock Whimsy," Mighty and Pearl marry (in a dream) thanks to two cupids (named Gandy Goose and Sourpuss), who uncannily resemble Mr. Kidd and Mr. Wint from Diamonds are Forever. Suburban hell follows and MM mutates into Jackie Gleason from The Honeymooners. "Anatomy of a Milquetoast" brilliantly satirizes both Perry Mason and the first season's weaker Scrappy episodes. MM becomes victim to a remote control couch potato in the brilliant "Don't Touch that Dial." Here, our hero gets thrown into a series of non-stop misadventures with The Flintstones, The Jetsons, Scooby Do, Rocky and Bullwinkle with Ed Sullivan, Sylvester Stallone and Marlon Brando thrown into good measure. The second season of The New Adventures of Mighty Mouse really does not falter at all,which makes it even more tragic that its life was cut short by Wildmon and his band of thug stormtroopers. God bless America.

A quite good documentary can be found on disc three. It's been twenty two years since The New Adventures of Mighty Mouse has seen the light of day, but it's hard to keep a good hero down. After all, sometimes the good guys do win.

* my review was originally published at 366 weird movies"