Here is a new insightful article by Drew Taylor about the troubled production of the Mickey Mouse 1995 short film Runaway Brain. I have nothing but great memories working on this project in Paris, out of all places. The French animation crew was fantastic, so talented and enthusiastic.
https://www.polygon.com/features/22738384/runaway-brain-evil-mickey-short-streaming
I did a post on Runaway Brain a while ago:
https://andreasdeja.blogspot.com/2012/12/runaway-brain.html
It's no coincidence that the people who usually don't like Mickey as a character loved him in this one. I personally like him, but this is easily my favourite of all his short films. As a child, I always felt a slight sense of uneasiness watching this (the scene where it's shown that Mickey has brain in his ears? Yikes.), but at the same time I kept coming back to it,and now it's one of my all-time favorites. I think it's a real treat and as far as I can see it's still pretty popular among those who remember it.
ReplyDeleteI don't know if the old guard ever gave you guys feedback on this one, but this feels like the sort of thing that they wouldn't have liked.
I really hated that article. Clearly the 'writer' had more one-sided opinions than facts but wasn't gonna let that stop him from submitting it. This was the line that killed me: "...the short has certain aura of maliciousness to its unavailability". If it only 'seems' like it, how can you prove it? And why talk about it from jump?
ReplyDeleteSay Andreas, did you speak French while you were working at the Paris studio?
ReplyDeleteQuite a few of the French artists spoke English. But I do speak simple conversational French.
DeleteOh ok. Thanks.
DeleteI think with Katzenberg gone, not just this animation, but all Disney stories lost their depth.
ReplyDeleteThis mickey is best, after 9 old men.
ReplyDeleteI seen in that the spirit of best mickies.
like brave little tailor. By 🙏frank thomas🙏 animate.
I remember being a little kid and watching the film in the theater with my parents and sister. I don't remember what it played with, but I remember the short being promoted on television and I think I had been more interested in the short than in the film. After seeing it, my parents remarked a lot about what a weird cartoon that had been. At some point, something in the credits either had a French name or said something about the French production, and my dad remarked along the lines of, "Oh, it's French. That explains it."
ReplyDelete