Mickey Mouse Works - Premise

Premise

Mickey Mouse Works was created to recreate the golden age of Disney's animated shorts, featuring some of Disney’s most popular characters. By using basic colors and the original sound effects, effort was put forth to capture the look and feel of classic Disney.

Each half-hour episode consisted of a variety of cartoons, varying in length from ninety seconds to twelve minutes. These shorts fell into three general types: the brief gag cartoons, the longer character-based cartoons, and the more classically-based "Mouse Tales" (usually the show's longest segment). The character-based segments also included "Silly Symphonies", carrying on the tradition of that series of theatrical shorts.

The gag shorts, which lasted 90 seconds each, were shown with the following umbrella titles:

• Mickey to the Rescue: Mickey tries to rescue Minnie from Pete's trap-laden hideout.
• Maestro Minnie: Minnie conducts an orchestra of animated, disagreeable, instruments.
• Goofy's Extreme Sports: Goofy shows off extreme sports to the words of his offscreen narrator.
• Donald's Dynamite: Donald's activity is interrupted by the appearance of a well-placed bomb.
• Von Drake's House of Genius: Ludwig Von Drake shows off an invention of his which goes haywire.
• Pluto Gets the Paper: Pluto goes through a bit of problems trying to fetch the newspaper for Mickey.

With no established schedule or routine, Mickey Mouse Works was designed to look like one spontaneous flow. Adding to that feeling were the show's opening credits, which ended differently each week, the only constant being an elaborate interruption from a spotlight-stealing Donald Duck.

While most skits involved individual characters, some have Mickey, Donald, and Goofy running a special service group. Most Goofy skits have him doing a "how-to" segment, always accompanied by a narrator. Most Donald segments were about him trying to accomplish a certain task which never works out right, frustrating him.