Howdy. This is Phantom Strider.
Let's dive into the world of the... *OVERGOD* of animation!
Mickey Mouse!
Since 1928, Mickey's been popping up all over the place. Often to overlook his Disney underlings.
Though, nowadays, he seems to spend most of his time helping Sora, Donald, and Goofy fight the Agents of Darkness!
Which is like... The *COOLEST* thing ever!
Donald: Your majesty? (Shushed by Mickey)
Strider: You gotta admit, for a 90 year-old, this guy's looking pretty good.
But very occasionally, Mickey will do cartoons that are listless, boring, annoying, out of character, or even outright cash-ins!
So now let's check out the "Top 5 *worst* Mickey Cartoons!"
And as always, if you do like these cartoons, that's great! As well as just being my silly personal opinion, I have a lot of respect for Mickey Mouse, and Disney.
Some of these cartoons were made when Walt was on a tight budget, or.. even during a strike!
So take this list with a pinch of salt.
Anyway, onto the countdown!
Number Five...
"Mickey's Magical Christmas"
Snowed in at the House of Mouse....
Welcome to the one and only *FILLER* Mickey cartoon I could find!
Apparently, the heroes, and villains, of Disney have all come together to.. celebrate... Christmas...
Really!?
Mickey: We can have our own Christmas party right here!
Minnie: Oh, that's a wonderful idea!
Strider: We've got all our favorite characters brought to us in Direct-to-DVD, bargain basement, Disney sequel quality!
I don't mind the Disney characters coming together, but not only do they look cheap, but their dialogue is filler as well!
Ursula: Your voice will do nicely! (Evil laugh)
Kuzco: (Cries) I wish I wasn't a dumb old llama anymore!
Strider: The characters all spea in what I call "Filler Dialogue."
Where the character's only purpose in speaking is to announce their existence in the cartoon.
Everyone's happy, and enjoying the party. Even Jafar. Even the Step-Mothers here in cheap, CG, plastic-y glory!
And she looks about as thrilled with the cartoon as I am!
The recycled Mickey shorts they show aren't outright bad, but this cartoon has no new material except these low quality intermissions with flimsy excuses to reminisce on old times with.
Our excuse? Donald's in a bad mood!
Jeebus! That's a shocker!
Donald: Aaah-HUMGUB!
Strider: So Mickey and Minnie play these recycled cartoons to try and bring his Christmas spirit back!
In fact, Mickey is so intent on flying through the filler, that he literally cuts off Donald with shorts before he even has a chance to cheer up!
Donald: Oooh... I dunno...
Mickey: Now why don't you take a look at how I decorated my house!
Strider: I actually find "Mickey Mouse Clubhouse" more intellectually stimulating than this!
A lot of times, we're just watching a lot of characters yammer on about nothing, or we're just watching toys dancing!
At least "Clubhouse" interacts with the kids and asks them to solve problems!
This whole cartoon feels cheap, and thrown together in an afternoon!
And for a cartoon staring Mickey, who actually very rarely comes out of the shadows, it feels like a real letdown!
And for number four...
"Orphan's Benefit"
Mickey: And, introducing Donald Duck, reciting "Mary Had a Little Lamb."
Strider: This is a *really* shabby Mickey cartoon!
So Mickey's putting on a benefit for the orphans...
Where we get Donald, Goofy, and Clarabelle Cow performing the most humdrum 5 minute of performances Disney's ever given us!
Donald starts the benefit by performing the most dingy, half-job voice performance I've ever heard from him!
Donald: (Half-job performance) Wah wah wah wah wah wah~! (Shushed by Mickey)
Strider: *This* is what angry Donald sounds like!
Donald: I'll show you a temper! (Classic angry Donald shouting)
Strider: This performance doesn't sound angry or emotional in any way!
It almost sounds like Clarence Nash is on strike and purposefully giving a bad voice performance!
Which is... entirely possible actually.
At the time of making this, Walt Disney was dealing with a massive strike amongst his staff.
And a large portion of his staff just outright walked out on him and started their own animation studio.
We then watch Clarabelle Cow dance for what feels like *eons*!
Maybe this was made in a time where cows dancing on screen was just considered comic gold!
"Orphan's Benefit" has no conflict, no interest. It has zero complexity, or investments.
It's definitely among the most lackluster Mickey cartoons I've *ever* seen!
And the third *worst* Mickey cartoon is...
"Mickey Down Under"
How do you combine the *ruthless* outback of my home country, and Disney's Mickey Mouse to result in such a tedious, annoying, time filler cartoon?
This entire cartoon is made basically made up of watching Pluto bark angrily at a boomerang while Mickey gets unpleasantly harassed by an Emu.
(Mickey timidly mumbles)
Strider: I would say more about this episode, but we mostly just watch this boomerang annoy Pluto while he barks obnoxiously the whole way.
Then we get this aggressive emu continually trying to trample Mickey.
Emus aren't actually that bad in Australia!
It's the snakes, and spiders, and scorpions, and (sped up) stingrays, and jellyfish, and, uh, the koalas are aggressive and scratch, Raz once got bitten but a wombat, uh..
(Back to normal) In fact, everything else in Australia is incredibly aggressive, but the Emus are fine!
But anyway, this is an incredibly forgettable Mickey cartoon.
And the second worst Mickey Mouse cartoon is...
"Pluto's Party"
I didn't even crack a smile during this lousy Mickey cartoon
I just felt frustrated for Pluto!
Throughout the entire cartoon, all Pluto wants is his cake!
But he spends the whole episode being tormented by Mickey's nephews!
Everything Pluto wants in this cartoon is dangled in his face and then snatched away!
We're just continually watching Pluto agonize over being deprived of any cake the whole episode as Mickey and his nephews torment him!
He gets smashed into a tree, mobbed by the nephews, they pull his tail, they toss him in the air, and he *smashes* into the ground!
And all the way, Mickey's acting... surprisingly mean to him!
And when *finally* it comes time to eat the cake, Mickey's greedy nephews scarf the whole thing down before Pluto even has a chance to sit down! Leaving him with nothing!
And after being deprived of *everything* the whole episode, this scene is just heartbreaking.
(Pluto cries, and plates smash)
Strider: He gets one slice in the last few seconds of the cartoon, but even that feels like a let down.
"Pluto's Party" is never funny at all. It's like endlessly dangling a carrot just out of the donkey's reach. I personally just feel bad for the donkey.
And before we get to number one, let's get through some quick honourable mentions.
"Mickey Mouse: The Perfect Dream"
Oh come on! This is the lowest rated modern Mickey Mouse short I could find, and it's fine! I've always found these shorts clever, funny, and sometimes a little creepy.
They give relatable problems and always give the stories a little twist.
Three years later, and I've still yet to see an episode of this modern Mickey Mouse series I didn't like.
In case you're curious, I've attached a link in the description.
"Mickey Mouse Clubhouse"
Why does this show get such *bad* reviews? It's fine!
Even the lowest rated episodes of this show are fine!
From the episodes I've seen, I personally could not find a single offensively bad episode of "Mickey Mouse Clubhouse."
Yes, it's not intellectually stimulating to adults, but this is an educational show for toddlers.
Of course it's not going to be!
And it's still very tolerable to watch for adults!
To me, "Mickey Mouse Clubhouse" is "Dora the Explorer" done well!
Anyway... Onto number one!
And the number 1, *WORST* Mickey Mouse cartoon is...
"Mickey's Twice Upon a Christmas"
How...?
How does the animation in this Mickey cartoon get so much praise!?
It looks hideous!
The plastic-y designs don't look like Disney characters, they look like sun-melted plastic toys!
And I guess while it ticks all the shareholder charts for appropriate, there is just no heart to this Mickey cartoon.
This is one of those Mickey films that when we look deeper, we see how soulless, generic, safe, and deflated it is.
Many of these Disney characters we know well feel off, and surprisingly cruel.
Mickey: I mean it Pluto! Get out, and stay out!
Strider: Daisy, for example! While I understand Daisy is a character who has limits on her patience, she is surprisingly demanding and nasty to Donald in this one.
She even sabotages Minnie for some reason!
Was that ever a thing? I thought they were friends!
One of the worst parts is Donald feels like a whipping boy for a lot of this movie.
All throughout this story, Donald is just, basically, suffering.
Echo: Now where's your Christmas spirit!?
(Donald groans in pain)
Nephew: Nooo, never seen it before.
Strider: And the entire thing just feels so pro-commercialism and sell-out generic.
It's got all the cliche sleigh bells, snow, and carols with no unique twist on it whatsoever.
I guess it'll help little kids get into the Christmas spirit, but is this really the best the most powerful animation company in the world can do?
Dialogue will often feel awkward and out of place--
Daisy: Donald, say something.
(Donald belches loudly)
Strider: --but probably the most annoying part is Huey, Dewey, and Louie.
Jeebus, are they annoying in this one!
I'm really glad we get a remake of these characters in the new "Duck Tales" because this is the most annoying version of the characters *ever*!
They're just... *ROTTEN BRATS* in this cartoon!
And their story just involves them going to the North Pole to meet a generic Santa to weasel their way off the Naughty-List!
The only part I thought was *passable* was when Max brings his girlfriend home to meet Goofy.
Goofy: You wearing the scarf I knitted for ya?
Max: Yeah dad, every day.
There's a somewhat honest, warm affection between Goofy, Max, and his girlfriend that far more matches the spirit of Christmas
Max's song is a bit hokey and cliche, but at least I enjoy the feel of this one. Unfortunately, there are *four* other bad stories we have to get through!
Mickey: This is just terrible!
Strider: But over all, I just don't get how so many people rate this Mickey cartoon so highly.
The animation looks plastic and outright creepy at times, the dialogue is sub-par at best, everything that happens is your typical Christmas special affair, and it just feels horribly consumerist.
Personally, I found "Mickey's Twice Upon a Christmas" the most phoned in, *HACK* Mickey cartoon I've ever seen! I personally consider it the *worst* Mickey cartoon.
This was a pretty tough list though, because even in the 1930's, Mickey was very rarely outright bad. I mean, they practically started Western animation.
We wouldn't have animation like it is today without these Mickey cartoons.
Normally, when Mickey comes out to show his face, great time, care, and effort is put into his appearances.
And even if Mickey very rarely makes me laugh, like Warner Brothers did, a lot of the time, I'm just cheered up by seeing Mickey on screen.
And I'm glad he's still around, if only for brief cameos in Disney movies or to lead the fight against Darkness!
And if you liked a particular Mickey cartoon I mentioned, that's great! And I'd love to hear what makes it special to you. Or if you think I did miss a particularly bad Mickey cartoon, feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments.
And as always, thanks for watching, and I'll see you next time!
Welcome to the end of the video!
Have you ever noticed that Mickey mostly appears in cartoons that are for the really young? I get the feeling Disney does this because they're trying to reach the new generation at a very young age. It's kind of insidious really, but also very clever.
Subtitled by Jadrek Myers. Commissioned by Phantom Strider