Tuesday 4 February 2014

Mickey Drinks

Proof that Mickey Mouse was actually a fun character at one time.



Mickey drinks beer in “Gallopin’ Gaucho” (1928).

4 comments:

  1. Nice one, Yowp. It just goes to show you Mickey had a lot of potential. I wonder why Walt Disney toned him down. Joe Barbera once wrote that Mickey Mouse is more of a symbol than an actual character, and, as usual, he was right on the money. I wonder if Disney came to see Mickey that way, too. After all, he did once say that he created Mickey when his business fortunes "were at lowest ebb and disaster seemed right around the corner." So maybe Disney came to see Mickey as the symbol for one of the main themes of his life: that your dreams can come true through perseverance and hard work. I'd be curious to hear your take on the toning down of Mickey. The cartoons with the toned down Mickey plus Donald and Goofy are still great fun, in any case.

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  2. My impression, Sergio, is Disney decided to make his cartoons more kid-friendly, therefore, stuff like beer drinking was out.

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    1. Makes sense to me, Yowp. As far as I can tell, the only Mickey-related work that airs on TV on a regular basis nowadays is Playhouse Disney's "Mickey Mouse Clubhouse." Needless to say, I don't think an animation art cel of a beer-drinking Mickey is a product Disney would license today, so I did a double take when I saw this picture. It is a real gem. Thanks for sharing, and thank you very much for your response.

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  3. There's also an early comic strip in which Mickey exclaims "I wish I had an ice-cold bottle of beer!".

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