The "Totally" Animated History of Minnie Mouse

Everyone's favorite sweetheart from the Disney cartoons is getting her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame as part of Mickey and Minnie's 90th birthday.  To help celebrate, here is a nice little history about Minnie Mouse.  Keep in mind that this blog is objective, unlike Oh My Disney, which I don't recommend.  These are facts, not biased "OMG I love Disney" comments, with some opinions here and there (but don't worry, most of them are good opinions).

Minnie, along side Mickey Mouse, debuted in Steamboat Willie in 1928.  It was the first animated cartoon to use complete synchronized sound.  It also put Walt Disney on the map.

In 1929, the cartoon The Karnival Kid revealed Minnie's name for the first time "Minnie the Shimmy Dancer".  This also marks the first time both Minnie and Mickey spoke.  Walt Disney originally voiced the two, but in 1930, an inker named Marcellite Garner took over as the voice of Minnie.  She's that high pitched voice we all remember her for.

For the most part of the 1930's, Minnie Mouse would co-star with Mickey as his lover.  Mickey would always try to find ways to woo her and almost always in the end he gets his girl.  As a matter of fact, Mickey's first theme song was all about Minnie (Minnie's Yoo Hoo).

As new characters such as Donald and Goofy came in, Minnie's presence became less and less.  She still was Mickey's sweetheart, but with the popularity of The Three Stooges, it was only natural to just have Mickey, Donald, and Goofy together in the shorts.

As the Disney cartoons became more refined, so did Mickey and Minnie.  They were given more detailed pupils in 1939 (though at times realistic mouse ears and mouse teeth would appear in the first few years).  Sadly, this would become Minnie's final curtain call for now.  With the success of other cartoon studios' new style of popular characters like Bugs Bunny, Woody Woodpecker, and Tom and Jerry, Mickey Mouse would be used even less to make way for more Donald Duck, Goofy, and Pluto cartoons, let alone Minnie being used less.

Minnie would appear in a few Pluto cartoons as his caretaker, but there was never any Minnie Mouse series theatrically, so her appearances were limited to Pluto, a handful of Mickeys, and a rarely seen series called Figaro (the kitty cat in Pinocchio).  Her last co starring role was in 1950.

It wasn't totally the end of Minnie though.  Repeats of Mickey's older adventures continued to be released.  Minnie was also with Mickey in the Ice Capades, Disneyland, and merchandise such as toys and comic books.  Sadly, that's all we saw of Minnie.  She was considered old hat because cartoons were changing.  In fact during the 70's, all of Disney was considered ancient despite trying to make new product.  Oh sure, the characters were still iconic, but not as much exposure as they were back then and what they are today.  Mickey would come back, but Minnie was still just a background character.

But then came the 80's.  As part of Disney's new way of coming back, they decided to bring Minnie back for a new generation of girls with the Totally Minnie line.  This includes new toys, new shows at theme parks, new fashion sense for Minnie, a new special, and since it's been a long time since she spoke, a new voice.  Already voicing Miss Piggy and Gonzo for Muppet Babies, Rusi Taylor auditioned for the role and got the part which she continues to play to this day.  At one point when she started working with Wayne Alwyne who was voicing Mickey Mouse at the time.  It went from a mutual friendship into one of Disney's sweetest stories ever: they were married and remained married until Alwyne's death in 2009; Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse were a real life couple for a long while.

Minnie had since been featured in many Disney merchandise geared towards girls and women, and always wasn't too far behind when it came to any animated reboots of Mickey and his friends just like it was in the 1930's.  A handful of series had Minnie in a starring role for the first time ever.  She had a few of her own cartoons for Mickey Mouse Works and the House of Mouse.  There's also been a few Minnie Mouse cartoons as part of the recent Paul Rudish Mickey Mouse short series in the 2010's.  Minnie's Bow Toons showcases Minnie selling and making her bows and help problem solve, and more recently Minnie's Happy Helpers which consists of the second half of Mickey and the Roadsters.

90 years after the debut of Steamboat Willie, Mickey and Minnie are still as iconic as they were in their heyday.  Times have changed, the Disney company has changed, and Minnie and Mickey changed a lot too in order to help better represent the company, but as Walt said, "I hope we never lose sight on one thing, that it was all started by a mouse", and Minnie, along side Mickey, represents that important piece of Disney, animation, and even American...no....WORLD history.  It took some time for Minnie to get her star, but at long last her dream come true.  Congratulations Minnie Mouse!!  You deserve it!

The Best (and some worst) of 2017

It's time again to take a look back at some of the best (and in some cases worst) animated properties of 2017.  It had its ups and downs this year

Best animated feature

This award goes to the best feature of the year based on reviews, popularity, and box office numbers.  This year's winner is.....

This was Coco's to lose naturally.  Let's be honest, this was not a good year in animated features.  So this film, hands down, is pretty much the best one.  Plus, it sparked numerous positive reviews, so we can't really call it that bad of a movie.  There were very few runner ups.  Some include My Little Pony and Boss Baby.

Worst animated feature

The dishonorable mention goes to.....

Ugh......why does this even exist.  With the popularity of emojis, it was only natural to make a movie out of them right?  Well, except for the fact that NOBODY ASKED FOR THIS!!!!!!  This was another cash grab for Sony.  What's worse is that some rumors claim this is why the Popeye feature and more importantly Lauren Faust's feature couldn't be made (Faust could not even release artwork done because Sony held the copyrights.  That is the definition of a hoarder).  So many dishonorable mentions this year includes The Star, Ferdinand, and Leap.  This year was also the year for movies more aimed at children such as The Smurfs and Despicable Me 3.  Don't feel too awful bad if you didn't hit the movies much this year.  We hear the Oscars have changed some rules for Best Animated Feature.  Please for the love of God DON'T NOMINATE THIS FILM!

Best animated TV series

This category is for the best TV cartoon series of the year. This year's winner is

DUCKTALES REBOOT

I must admit, this went beyond people's expectations when it came to a reboot of Disney Television's most popular series.  I tend to cringe at some of the voice work (Rusi Taylor is still alive and well to do the three nephews.  Sorry, that's the truth), but since it's the style of the recent Mickey Mouse shorts, it became easily likable.  Plus it retained the iconic theme song.  Samuri Jack came pretty close, but it was the generational value of Ducktales that claimed the prize

Worst animated TV series

Without hesitation the worst series must be

Again, why does this exist when I know NOBODY that watches or even likes it.  It's just bad designs, lazy writing, and all corporate BS.  The Powerpuff Girls almost won for the second year in the row thanks to the 4th Powerpuff Girl (though I guess I may have to eat some crow since a it looks like it was for one episode only), but what makes TTG worse the PPG......IT TAKES UP THE WHOLE FRIGGIN CHANNEL!!!  You turn on Cartoon Network....that's all you'll see on there.  TONS of material owned by Turner such as Looney Tunes, Tom and Jerry, Scooby-Doo, and originals like Powerpuff Girls, Dexter, Ed Edd n Eddy, and more, and that's all we get???  Makes people smarter to cut the cord.  Imagineary Mary also comes in as runner up

Best animated streaming content

Speaking of cutting the cord, this new subject looks at the best cartoons you could stream this year since it is a more viable candidate.  It has grown out of infancy, though still just a child.  This year's winner has to be......

Ok...I cheated by giving a whole website the winner, but that's because they are the first to stream the classic WB cartoon library.  This is a controversial one because there are still many cartoons yet to be streamed, but you get Looney Tunes, MGM cartoons (not just Tom and Jerry), Hanna-Barbera cartoons, Popeye, and new shows such as New Looney Tunes (the best new show on there) and Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz which was very faithful to the original 1939 classic.  They did go back in many cases to the best available copies for the most part (Jetsons look horrible).  Copies used for both the Golden and Platinum Collections are used, and in the case of Tom and Jerry, many of the copies were supposed to be used for volume 2 of the Golden Collection, but was canceled due to the out cry of 2 cartoons that wouldn't be on the set (that's another story).  For best original streaming content, it would have to be the new Equestria Girls shorts.  Some runner ups include Hanazuki, new material before mentioned on the Boomerang app, and the hard work that the Berenstains did on digitizing The Berenstain Bears 80's series for Youtube.  Really though, it was the older stuff that were the true winners.

Worst animated streaming content

The biggest loser there goes to

ELSA GATE

I also cheated on this one since they are no way official cartoons, but please hear me out.  These cartoons possibly made in another country such as China feature characters like Mickey Mouse, Paw Patrol, Minions, and more often than not Elsa from Frozen and Spider-Man (hence the term, Elsa Gate).  They feature very violent content with some people claiming it is to get fetishes started both for kids and sadly adults.  What made it to the list is the kids tag in these videos.  That means that despite the violent imagery, these were aimed at kids, so even in safe mode on Youtube, they would still come across these.  There's a difference between what we saw on adult swim with Robot Chicken parodies and this.  Parodies of shows like He-Man, Big Bird and others were made for us adults.  These are not parodies.  These are mind tricks on kids thinking it's an episode of their favorite show.  This comes with a strong warning to parents about always being aware of what your kids watch.

Best anime series

This next category goes to an anime series being made in Japan.  It must be made specifically for Japan first in order to qualify in this category.  This year's winner is......

Yeah this one was pretty obvious.  Attack on Titan is huge ever since it debuted in 2013.  The second season just premiered this year, and it is still among the top anime series of this decade along side Sword Art Online.  I personally could never get into it, and many anime fans that like their own unique titles not as popular like Yuuki Yuna are tired of hearing about it, but due to the popularity, and considering it was made at the right place and right time when "bingeworthy shows" were coming out similar to it like The Walking Dead and Game of Thrones, it's only natural to give this anime the hit of the year.  Other shows for this year include Dragonball Super and Little Witch Academa to name a few.  I will admit, I did not watch a lot of anime this year.  Maybe next year......

Best anime film

Like the previous subject, this award goes to a film made specifically for Japan.  This year's winner would be.......

Like last year's winner, Your Name, this isn't your traditional anime that has big robots, cute creatures like Pokemon, magical girls, Super Sayans, or anything like that.  In fact, it hardly acts like an anime at all.  This story takes place around the time when we were fighting against the Japanese during WWII.  While this piece is fictional, the time is all too real.  You may have seen America's side of the story how we defeated Japan with the Atomic Bomb and how we won the war.  If you watched cartoons made around that time, you may have noticed depictions of Japanese people as the villains and how we should "Scrap the Japs and destroy Tokyo in order to win the war."  This shows a different side to it showing normal people in Japan just like you and me during the time of war set in a sort of romantic style of storytelling.  We have since become close with Japan ever since.  President Obama recently made an apology tour, and we have shared different cultures they have such as karaoke, karate, and of course.....anime.  Runners up include the anime Godzilla film, Sword Art Online Ordinance Scale, and Pokemon I Choose You

Worse anime film

Was there one?  Well...not really, but this year couldn't go without mentioning the live action Ghost in the Shell movie.  Yes it was made here in the states, but was based on the anime and manga.  From the get go, fans knew that this was going to be a disaster.  White washing all around, no real story, just blowing things up, nothing special, confusing for newcomers, and bad box office numbers.  What's worse is that Scarlet Johanson made rounds as if she was an anime freak like our favorite dub voice overs like Chistina Vee and Erica Mendez........she was not.  Not even close...not ever.  This movie was a failure.  We hope nothing like this happens again (Pokemon live action Pikachu movie and he talks.......AUUGGGHHHHH!!!!!!!!)

Best anime dub

This year really couldn't go out to just one winner because there were not only so many, but also, I haven't gotten around to watch much this year.  So I'm going with familiarity here.

LITTLE WITCH ACADEMA

It's got a tremendous cast already with Erica Mendez in the lead along side Stephanie Shea, Laura Post, Lucien Doge, and others.  And with the help of Trigger who previously did Kill la Kill with practically the same cast, it sounds like it could be old times.  I need to watch this, it's only a matter of when.  As I said, tons of new dubs came out for Sailor Moon Crystal (and S), Dragonball Super, Gundam, Sword Art Online Ordinance Scale, and Dragonball Z Kai.

One special mention is the brand new dub for the Sailor Moon R movie.  While the dub was no different than recent Sailor Moon redubbings.....seeing this on the big screen gave me chills.  The cast recorded in such a way faithful to the original intent of the film (not that Cloverway's wasn't, it was just trying to mix that in with what the original dub's intent was).  It would be too biased of me to pick that as the winner for this category and also wrong to pick for best film as it was made in 1993, but I cannot let this part go without talking about.  I'm sorry, but I stinkin LOVE Sailor Moon so much.

Worst anime dub

Despite how far we've come with anime adaptations, there are still a hand full out there that makes you wanna go...why....  This year's biggest loser is.....

For the third year in a row, the Glitter Force franchise wins (or in this case loses) in this category.  Backstory....this franchise is actually called Pretty Cure and spans many seasons with many series featuring different characters.  Pretty Cure was once adapted as Pretty Cure over 10 years ago, but recently Saban got license from Toei of Pretty Cure and took Smile Pretty Cure and this one, Doki Doki Pretty Cure, and made them become Glitter Force.  As part of Netflix, this series had several changes and deleted episodes making this a bad adaptation.  The dubbing itself is not all bad since talent is there, but we blame the company Saban, not the actors, for messing things up.  Of course, this is a kids show, and we are not the main demographic.

Best DVD/Blu-ray release

This category is for the best release that is made for collectors or is based on content, quality, and bonus features.  DVD sales continue to fall as streaming goes up, but there are still some wheels spinning here and there.  The real winner, however, must go to....

PORKY PIG 101

Now, before you nit-picky Looney Tunes fans say, "Yeah but the quality is horrible" or "Yeah but the music changes....there's no excuse" here's why.  Sure we had some interesting releases this year, but if you are collecting cartoons (especially WB cartoons), there are definitely some cartoons on here that haven't been seen or screened for years.  Perhaps you saw these on Nickelodeon computer colorized.  Perhaps you saw the horrible redrawn colorized versions even.  Or maybe on old public domain tapes in various yet dubious quality (you don't wanna buy anything unauthorized).  This collection contains all the black and white Porky Pig cartoons (plus 2 color cartoons...hence the 101) using the best possible copies Warner Archive can use since they don't have the money to do full blown restorations like the home video division did on the Golden or Platinum collections.  Many of these titles are new to home video (giving this collection top billing for the year).  Other releases include Samurai Jack, Revolutionary Girl Utena, Sailor Moon (many releases both here and in Japan), Speed Racer, and more.

Worst DVD/Blu-ray release

Given that Porky Pig 101 is a DVD set, some of these mistakes could pass through as well as quality.  Blu-ray, on the other hand, is much more expensive and uses more pix-elation, so more care has to be taken to the material, and I think they let everybody down with......

This collection uses nothing but upscales of standard def copies of each episode.  I suppose it could be a lot worse in terms of no openings, closing, or bumpers, but a reviewer stated that several episodes are MISSING (????) and not just the banned episodes.  We hope these carry on to a volume 2 if there is one, but for now, stick with your DVDs...there's no difference in quality.  New Hanna-Barbera re-releases came a close second because it's material already released but also without any bonus features.

2018 has high hopes for many with new movies, TV shows, and streaming series, so stay tuned and Happy New Year