Thursday, October 28, 2010

Saturday Morning's Forgotten Heroes: Mighty Mouse (1955)

After a less than stellar run in theatres, Terrytoons took a chance on moving Mighty Mouse to television in 1955. Of course, they had their entire library of shorts to work from, and, at the time, they were a subsidiary of CBS, which was the home network for Mighty Mouse throughout his television run. Today, CBS-Paramount owns the rights to the Terrytoons library, but they don't seem to be in any hurry to reintroduce the "Mouse of Tomorrow" to viewers.

Edit, 2/13/21: The video has been deleted. In its place is a syndicated print of "Mighty Mouse & The Pirates" from 1945.



In 1979, Filmation obtained a license to bring our hero back in The New Adventures of Mighty Mouse. Heckle & Jeckle shared space with Mighty Mouse in this series, but since we're focusing on Mighty Mouse, Filmationarchive has the episode, "Haunted House Mouse":



Semmel uploaded the open to Bakshi's 1987 series, Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures, which was cut short after Rev. Donald Wildmon, head honcho of the American Family Association, made the baseless accusation that Mighty was snorting cocaine instead of flowers. Maverick animator John Kricfalusi (Ren & Stimpy) worked on this particular series.



Here, Mighty is finally given a dual identity, to complete the parody of Superman which he was created as in the first place. Unfortunately, Wildmon's tunnel-vision-fueled rant forced CBS to pull the series.

The original, though, was the best. If only someone had the gumption to bring Mighty Mouse back for a new generation. Paging Nickelodeon.......!

Ratings:

Mighty Mouse Playhouse: A-.
The New Adventures of Mighty Mouse: B-.
Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures: B.

2 comments:

KARTOON-KOMPANY said...

I had heard in the breeze that there was to be a new Mighty Mouse movie which was to have come out in 2010. There's even some CGI designs. I wonder what has happened to the project? I hope it happens....

hobbyfan said...

I must've caught the same breeze you did, 'cause I'd heard similar rumors. Unfortunately, as I wrote, Nickelodeon and CBS are in no hurry to bring Mighty Mouse back for a new audience. Their loss.