|
|
Mr. Trouble never hangs around,
When he hears this Mighty sound,
"Here I come to save the day!"
That means that Mighty Mouse is on the way!
Yes sir, when there is a wrong to right,
Mighty Mouse will join the fight!
On the sea or on the land,
He's got the situation well in hand!
So though we are in danger
We never despair
'Cause we know that where there's danger
He is there
He is there
On the land, in the sea, in the air
We're not worrying at all
We're just listening for his call
"Here I come to save the day!"
That means that Mighty Mouse is on the way!
- The lyrics to "The Mighty Mouse Playhouse", 1955 -
The Mouse of Tomorrow
He was created by storyman Izzy Klein as a super-powered housefly named "Superfly," but studio head Paul Terry changed the character into a toon mouse instead, and in 1942 "Super Mouse" was born. His first appearance was in "The Mouse of Tomorrow", released Oct. 16th of that year. Before it even hit theaters, the second, "Frankenstein's Cat", was in production, for release on November 27th. By that time, the character was already being used to promote non-series Terrytoons releases, appearing with Gandy Goose on the poster for Ickle Meets Pickle.
Even before the Terrytoons character's initial release, however, another character named Supermouse was in the works. October, 1942 was also the cover date of the first issue of Coo Coo Comics, published by Nedor Publishing Co., but in the usual manner of comic books, it's likely to have gone on sale a couple of months earlier. That comic contained a completely different hero, one that Nedor and its successors, Standard Comics and Pines Comics, continued to publish regularly until 1958. Seeing no reason to promote another company's product, in 1943, Terry changed the name of his character to Mighty Mouse, the name by which he is known today. The 1942 and '43 releases were altered in rerelease to reflect the change.
In 1955, Paul Terry sold his studio to CBS, and CBS packaged the old Mighty Mouse cartoons, along with non-series Terrytoons, as a Saturday morning half-hour, and Mighty Mouse became the first cartoon character ever to appear on Saturday mornings, appearing on CBS on December 10th 1955 as part of "The Mighty Mouse Playhouse". The show ran for eleven years, from 1955, till 1967.which broke another record - it's the longest lasting Saturday morning cartoon series. Through this run the voice of Mighty Mouse was provided by Roy Halee, who also did the voice of Oilcan Harry, and the Announcer. Afterward, they dropped the "Terrytoons Classics" segments, added two new ones, "Luno" (about a time-traveling horse) and "The Mighty Heroes" (a superhero parody even broader than Mighty Mouse), and syndicated it.
Terrytoons officially closed it's doors in 1971. The FCC decided that the major networks could no longer sell programming to independent TV stations. CBS Films was spun off and became Viacom. In an effort to cut costs, Viacom ceased Terrytoons animation production, content to just sell their inventory in syndication.
In 1979, Viacom licensed the old characters to Filmation Associates for an hour-long series on CBS, "The New Adventures of Mighty Mouse and Heckle and Jeckle". In addition to new shorts featuring Mighty Mouse and Heckle and Jeckle, this series included Mighty Mouse Environmental Bullitens and cartoons featuring a new character, Quacula, created by Filmation. But even in the darkest days of his theatrical release, the late '50s, Mighty Mouse had never been animated as cheaply as Filmation did him. The show was canceled after only 16 episodes.
In 1987, animator Ralph Bakshi a former Terrytoons director who had gone on to produce such well-received animated features as Fritz the Cat and Wizards, returned to his roots and licensed the character for a new CBS-TV series, "Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures". The new series fleshed out his personality, gave him a secret identity (Mike Mouse), and let imagination and good writing compensate for low TV budgets. The show pitted Mighty Mouse against such new adversaries as the Cow and Petey Pate, and had him join forces with other new characters including Bat-Bat and Tick the Bug in the fight against crime. The Mighty Heroes even returned for a guest role. Unfortunately the series didn't last, thanks to a parents group which falsely accused Mighty Mouse of drug use. In one scene Mighty Mouse was seen sniffing some flowers, and the group claimed it was cocaine. CBS-TV bowed to pressure and removed it from the air. It did turn up again, briefly, in the 1990's on FOX.
Mighty Mouse the Movie
So what's next for Mighty Mouse? Maurice Chauvet ("Owning Mahowny"), and Christopher Vail have been asked to write the Mighty Mouse film. The CGI animated film will be produced by John Woo, and Terence Chang for Nickelodeon Films, and will be directed by John Woo ("Mission: Impossible II" & "Face Off"), with a theatrical release date, some time in 2010. The film will poke fun at the last 60 years of superheroes while still delivering on the genre of an action packed, satirical, irreverent and edgy film that is fun for the whole family. The distributor will be Paramount Pictures.
Look for Mighty Mouse at Amazon.com
Return to Superman
This is an unofficial fan site. It is not sponsored, licensed, or approved by Viacom International, Inc..
"Mighty Mouse" and all related characters, names and indicia are copyright © of Viacom International, Inc.
|
|
| |
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||