Saturday Morning Mouse

Saturday Morning Mouse is an American animated comedy television series created and developed by Paul Rudish and produced by Walt Disney Pictures. The series is animated by Mercury Filmworks and Walt Disney Feature Animation and is a sequel series to the Mickey Mouse series (2013) and it's other sequel titled The Wonderful World of Mickey Mouse (2020), both created by Rudish too.

The series features a collection of 9-minute 2D animated episodes featuring more adventures from Mickey Mouse and his friends Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck, Goofy, and the others and is based off of Walt Disney's character of the same name. The series stars the voices of Bret Iwan, Kaitlyn Robrock, Bill Farmer, Tony Anselmo, and Tress MacNeille reprising their roles from previous Mickey Mouse media.

Though having Iwan to voice Mickey, this is the first series in the Paul Rudish franchise to not have Chris Diamantopoulos voice Mickey. Iwan was also the person who took the role of Mickey after Wayne Allwine died in May 2009. The series was announced in October 2021 in the 2021 Comic-Con and officially released on Disney Channel and Peacock on March 17, 2022. The series follows the more adventures of Mickey and his friends. Russi Taylor does not reprise her role as Minnie due to her death in July 2019.

Episodes
Main article: List of Saturday Morning Mouse episodes

Voice cast

 * Bret Iwan as Mickey Mouse
 * Kaitlyn Robrock as Minnie Mouse
 * Bill Farmer as Goofy, Pluto
 * Tony Anselmo as Donald Duck
 * Tress MacNeille as Daisy Duck, Chip
 * Jim Cummings as Peg-Leg Pete
 * David Tennant as Scrooge McDuck
 * Corey Burton as Ludwig Von Drake, Dale

Development
A teaser trailer for the series was first shown at the 2021 Comic-Con with Paul Rudish set to create and develop the show again. Chris Diamantopoulos confirmed that he will not reprise his role as Mickey Mouse. Instead, Mickey's current voice actor since 2009 Bret Iwan reprised his role. Art director Jenny Gase-Baker returned for her role while Eric Goldberg who also works at Disney and Warner Bros. directed the episodes while they were executive produced by Goldberg, Tom McGrath, Doug Lawrence, and Rudish. It was also announced that Mercury Filmworks would once again be doing the animation along with Walt Disney Feature Animation.

Animation
One of the show's storyboard artist Teddy Newton said that "It takes around 46 people to animate an episode of Saturday Morning Mouse." The storyboard team also consists of Pierre Coffin, Mike Rianda, Matt Braly, Eric Goldberg, and more. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it's animation stuido Disney Television Animation temporarily shut down, causing all of the animators and workers to work remotely at home. Mercury Filmworks also helped.

Music
British composer Christopher Willis returned as the composer for the series. To celebrate the 93rd birthday of Mickey Mouse, Willis released the first episode for the series titled "Boy Scout Mickey". Willis confirmed that composing the episodes took around 3-5 months.

Broadcast
In January 2022, Bret Iwan confirmed that the series would be set for an release in September. However, it was delayed for unknown reasons and was delayed to March 17, 2022, in which it released two months later on that same day too. The series released on Disney Channel. Also releasing on the streaming service Peacock.

Critical response
On Rotten Tomatoes, it has a 93% with it saying "Following the more adventures of Mickey Mouse & friends, the show has many heartfelt moments and slapstick violence. Although, some scenes have toliet humor and adult jokes which may not be suitable for kids." For IMDb, it has an 6.7/10. One of the app's users say: "Ever since this series popped up on Disney Channel and Peacock, me and my little brother has watched it various times on the weekends and the summertimes. Funny humor, slapstick comedy and violence, potty humor (sometimes we don't like it), and many good musical moments. Disney has really outdone theirselves this time!"

Meanwhile, Rating Graph gives it an 5.5/10.