Mickey Mouse

I’ve never been a fan of Mickey Mouse. I’ve actually never felt too much of an affinity for any Disney character, aside from a deep sympathy for Donald Duck’s impossible bad luck. Disney, like Star Wars, has always been very protective over their properties and usually unwilling to allow any kind of non-canonical interpretations of their characters. However, also like Star Wars, Disney has recently relented in the unstoppable face of the DIY movement and allowed a variety of interesting interpretations of their most famous property.

I first started noticing these interpretations with this ‘Runaway Brain’ Mickey Mouse, which was probably the first time that I’d seen Mickey portrayed in a manner that wasn’t pristine and heroic, and ultimately, saccharine. I liked it, even if it is canonical and fits into an actual cartoon.

Of course there are the obligatory Mickey Mouse statues that dress him up as alternate Disney characters, like TRON, Jack Sparrow or Jack Skellington – a whole bunch of Disney things that ultimately feed right back into the juggernaut of the Disney machine – but Disney has started to stretch their horizons beyond obvious interpretations.

Most notable for me is this ‘Bloc 28 Mickey’ from Suiko and MINDStyle Toys, which is a fairly radical and incredible re-imagining of the Mickey character. Because he’s so culturally iconic, he only requires minimal key visual elements in any image to reflect the fact that you’re looking at Mickey Mouse. In this case, the artist has completely done away with the bulbous pair of ears and the distinctive pants and buttons – but the color recognizability is still there. That’s a testament to the power of an icon. This particular piece is limited to 500 pieces and costs $125, standing at a full foot tall.

Even more bizarre is this piece by MINDStyle and Tenga, which only retains the signature spherical pants and the recognizable buttons, but includes some completely non-Mickey wings, blue gloves, and general surrealist weirdness. Disney is still comfortable calling it ‘Mickey’, so kudos to Disney for embracing the piece. They did, after all, work with Salvador Dali once.

Also released is this Span Of Sunset and Bloc 28 piece, which realizes Mickey as some kind of vector-y, angular creature that fell out of a Max Headroom nightmare.

There’s also this unlikely Mickey Mouse / Transformers crossover from Tomy, for what it’s worth.

A little over a year ago, designers BAPE released this $223 designer Minnie doll, which is apparently very special due to the fact that it is made in a grey camo pattern. While some designer stuff just seems like cheap regurgitation of a simplistic, artificial theme to me, I still love that distorted, twisted up Mickey from Suiko.

While this is by no means a comprehensive list of the strange Mickeys that are now, and will be, available, it’s a fairly awesome bridge between ‘art’ and the world of Disney, which is working hard to shed its pristine, kid-centric image – enough to get me interested.

We had the grandkids here over the holidays and they played their CD’s, and raved about the tunes in their iPods. Papa and I listened to some of the songs and except for the ‘rap’, enjoyed the variety and talented artists. It did bring back some memories of ’simpler times’, when we were growing up and listened to vinyls, some with incredible cover art. The best examples were found on the Walt Disney albums.

One of our favorites was Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, from United Artists. Who could resist the fantastic flying car on the cover? The family was all together and no one was watching a DVD in the back seat either.

The Ugly Dachshund cover shows Dean Jones and Suzanne Pleshette (one of hubby’s favorites of all time) leaning forward to smooch over the doghouse. I was somewhat surprised to see that Fred MacMurray was a ‘guest saxophonist’ on this album, who knew? This was from 1965 and not only did you get the ’story/soundtrack’ from that movie but a collection of Shaggie Dog Numbers as well.

Our youngest granddaughter loves the movie The Aristocats and this record sleeve (copyright of 1970) does such a good job of displaying its wide range of characters. From the cool cats in the band (oh-yeah!!!), to the cats’ owner and her lawyer friend, to the geese in hats, they are all a delight.

What vintage Disney album collection would be worth its salt without some songs from Mickey Mouse. We found this colorful cover from the Mouse Factory with Mickey and his Friends. And they are all accounted for, Pluto, Donald, Goofy too. This one has a copyright of 1972.

But the real show-stopper is this album from 1979 – called Mickey Mouse Disco! Mickey is dressed so well, at first we thought he was John Travolta! You can almost see the spinning disco ball, huh?

Now, with all these great graphics, you’d think these albums were quite expensive. But they are not. We checked internet sites and found that many were listed, and few sold and those that did were under $10. If you are considering re-decorating the kids’ rooms, a guest room, office, TV room or bar, why not put some of these in a frame? They are colorful, have characters we all know and love, and bring back fond memories for us old-fogies. And most of the younger kids would love them as well. And they sell for less for less than record-breaking prices.