Hey, here’s an idea Disney hasn’t really tried in a while — trotting out a character from their archives for something new. As they’ve been acquiring properties left and right, rebooting fairy tales, sequel-izing Pixar movies and more, it’s easy to forget this is same place that birthed the beloved Mickey Mouse. Now a worldwide icon, it’s not surprising that Disney would go back to the well, we’re just surprised it took this long. But, it looks like they’ve got a blitzkrieg of Mickey on the way.
Today, Disney announced they would be delivering 19 new 2D shorts that will be available on pretty much every platform they have. The concept is simple: each short will be set in an exotic location — Santa Monica, New York, Beijing, Tokyo, Venice and the Alps are among them — with a wacky situation Mickey must overcome. And in the first to arrive, “Croissant De Triomphe,” we see Mickey in Paris on a quest to get some of the titular pastry for Minnie, who has run out of them at her café.
What ensues is a pretty tedious chase sequence that is rarely clever and it’s undercut by Disney being unable to help themselves by smashing in a quick shot of the Magic Kingdom and Cinderella for the hell of it. Cross-pollinate! Guess you have to imprint those things on a young child’s mind early, whenever you can. It’s pretty laborious but we’re sure devotees will a get a kick out of the aesthetics at the very least, which are pretty retro-future to some degree of success.
Anyway, you can start watching the rest on July 28th. Watch below. [Slashfilm/Deadline]