Mickey Mouse (2018 film)

Mickey Mouse is an American 3D computer-live-action musical comedy-drama film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios, and was released on April 12, 2023 in Disney Digital 3D, RealD 3D, and traditional 2D formats. The film is based on the Mickey Mouse character originally created in 1928 by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks, and was announced by Walt Disney Company CEO Bob Iger at the 2021 D23 Expo. It is the 58th animated feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics canon, and the first entry in the Mickey Mouse Cinematic Universe. It was written and directed by Stephen J. Anderson and Burny Mattinson, with Jennifer Lee serving as executive producer, with original music provided by Justin Hurwitz of La La Land fame. The movie is rated PG for some rude humor. It is also the very first full-length animated feature from Disney to use Meander, an in-house animation system used to combine 2D and 3D animation. This was the last Walt Disney Animation Studios production that animation veteran Burny Mattinson was involved in before his death from natural causes in 2022. It is also the final credited performance of former Disney Channel star Zendaya before she died from heart cancer. The film is dedicated to their memory.

The film focuses on Mickey as he moves into a small town in California and befriends Donald Duck and Goofy, falls in love with Minnie Mouse, meets Minnie's friend Daisy Duck, and also makes enemies with the notorious criminal Peg Leg Pete. Most of the entire voice cast for Mickey and his friends reprise their respective character roles, while Mandy Moore as the voice of Daisy. Zendaya's rendition of Mickey Mouse March for the film's end credits and soundtrack album was posthumously released following her death. The film was a huge box office success, and was praised by critics, garnering a 98% "Certified Fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes. A sequel, Mickey Mouse 2, was released on November 10, 2025.

Plot
The movie starts with a CGI-animated prologue set in 1941, in which an 8-year-old girl named Diane is using a flashlight, and sneaks into her father's office at their home in Burbank, California. She is mesmerized by the displays of drawings on the wall, which were done by animator Ub Iwerks. A few moments later, Diane's father - who is later revealed to be Walt Disney - turns on the lights in his office, and wonders what she is doing up so late at night. Diane tells Walt that she was wondering how in the world those drawings got him where he is today. Walt then shows his daughter a picture of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, and tells her that he was one of the first creations done by his studio to become popular, and he lost the rights to the character due to a falling out from the motion picture studio he had a contract with the studio distributing his work at the time. Diane then asks the question her father had never answered before... how did Mickey meet all of his friends, let alone his girlfriend Minnie? It is then where Walt Disney conceives a bedtime story regarding Mickey's origins.

In the year of 1928, Mickey, a 20-year-old mouse, decides to expand his horizons and moves from his Missouri home to a tiny town in California. When he gets there, he meets his soon-to-be girlfriend, Minnie Mouse, and his friends Donald Duck who is known for his wild temper, Goofy, who is clumsy but has got a good heart.

In a mid-credit sequence, Mickey puts in his calendar the date for Donald's birthday, and prepares for a trip to Tokyo, hinting at a sequel. Meanwhile, in a post-credit sequence, after Mickey is finished packing, a mysterious figure - which is later confirmed to be Chief Seamus O'Hara of the Burbank Police Department, visits him at his home telling him that Tokyo is not the only adventure he'll be having overseas, and explaining that he wants to discuss hidden treasure stuck in a place called Mythos Island.

Characters
Mickey Mouse (Bret Iwan) - The main protagonist; he is a newcomer to a small town in Southern California after moving out of rural Missouri.

Minnie Mouse (Russi Taylor) - Mickey's next-door neighbor, and soon-to-be girlfriend; When she first meets Mickey she has a crush on him. she is known to be one of the nicest girls in Mickey's neighborhood.

Donald Duck (Tony Anselmo) - Mickey's neighbor and best friend; he is perhaps notorious for his wild temper.

Goofy (Bill Farmer) - Mickey's second best friend; Goofy is incredibly clumsy, and almost never careful about anything.

Pluto (Bill Farmer) - The dog Mickey adopts as a little puppy.

Daisy Duck (Mandy Moore) - Minnie's best friend and Donald's love interest; she is the owner of Daisy's Diner, one of the most popular breakfast spots in town.

Clarabelle Cow (Reba McEntire) - Goofy's love interest; she is only seen in a flashback during the film.

Peg Leg Pete (Jim Cummings) - The main antagonist; he becomes a fugitive after escaping a 2-year prison sentence for robbing a bank.

Mr. Palmer (Alan Tudyk) - Mickey's boss at the pet shop where he works at and adopts Pluto.

Amelia Fieldmouse (Lauren Graham) - Mickey's sister, who was originally mainly in the Mickey Mouse comics, is introduced into an animated work for the first time.

Mandie Mouse (Selena Gomez) - Minnie's sister, and another character from the Mickey universe who was exclusively in the comics, and is now making her animation debut.

Marcus Mouse (Tim Allen) - Minnie's father.

Oswald the Lucky Rabbit (Frank Welker) - Walt Disney's earliest cartoon creation, who he talks about to his daughter in a CG animated prologue.

Walt Disney (Tom Hanks) - The creator of the Mickey Mouse character, who makes a cameo in a CGI animated prologue.

Diane Disney (Violet McGraw) - The daughter of Walt Disney.

Veteran voice actor Tom Kenny and Disney-Pixar's former Chief Creatve Officer and executive producer, John Lasseter, also make brief voice cameos in the film as customers at Daisy's Diner.

Easter eggs
List of Cameos in Mickey Mouse

Production
The idea for a Mickey Mouse feature film came about in 2011 when Disney Animation veteran Burny Mattinson hinted to the British website BleedingCool.com that he was working on an idea for a hand-drawn animated action-adventure film featuring Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, and Goofy, and pitching it to John Lasseter for approval. Lasseter was enthusiastic about the idea of a feature-length Mickey Mouse film, as the character has not been in the limelight on the big screen since 2013's Get a Horse. However, he felt the idea Mattinson had was too dark for the character, and gave Mattinson the task of doing a more light-hearted origin story for the character instead. Stephen J. Anderson, who also directed Meet the Robinsons and co-directed Winnie the Pooh, signed on to direct the film with Mattinson in 2020. The film uses the character designs made famous in the 1940s by legendary Disney animator Fred Moore, and the end credits sequence, using the character designs for the 2013 Mickey Mouse short series for Disney Television Animation, was directed by that series' executive producer, Paul Rudish. The film is also the first to use Meander, a technology used to uniquely combine the techniques of hand-drawn and computer animation; the technology was first used in Disney's Academy Award winning short film, Paperman.

Many of the official voice actors for Mickey and his friends, including Bret Iwan, Russi Taylor, Tony Anselmo and Bill Farmer reprised their respective roles for film, while Christy Carlson Romano, perhaps best known for starting her career at Disney in the fan-favorite Disney Channel original series Even Stevens, takes the role of Daisy Duck from veteran voice artist Tress MacNielle due to MacNielle being busy with other projects.

Music
The songs and score for Mickey Mouse were composed and orchestrated by Justin Hurwitz, who is perhaps best known for orchestrating and composing the music for the 2016 musical La La Land. The lyrics were written by Randy Newman.

Release
The film was originally announced in 2021 during that year's D23 Expo, the film's title and premise were revealed by Disney and Pixar's Chief Creatice Officer, John Lasseter during their Walt Disney Animation Studios panel. The theatrical release was accompanied by the short film, Frozen Ever After, based on - and celebrating the 10th anniversary of - the 2013 film Frozen.

Marketing
The teaser trailer for Mickey Mouse was revealed at the 2021 D23 Expo, The Walt Disney Company's official convention; Disney had also set up meet-and-greets for Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck, and Goofy as a celebration. Disney also released a comic book tie-in from its Marvel Comics subsidiary. The first official trailer later debuted with ''Avatar 3. A second trailer was released on June 11, 2023, coinciding with Curious George, and a third and final trailer was released on August 20, 2023, coinciding with The Sword in the Stone and Father Knows Best.''

Critical
Mickey Mouse received universal critical acclaim. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that 98% of critics gave the film positive reviews, with an average rating of 9.2 out of 10, the consensus saying "With beautiful & innovative animation, a massive amount of heart, and a great musical score to boot, Mickey Mouse breathes new life into Walt Disney's lovable animated character in a film that will win new fans as well as please longtime Disney traditionalists."

Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film four stars out of four, stating "We have seen Mickey go through various phases over the years. Disney's flagship feature animation house gave us Get a Horse! in 2013, while (that same year) Disney Channel has given us two Dora the Explorer-type interative preschool shows and an offensive and obnoxious Ren & Stimpy-like series of TV shorts with grossout humor. I'm happy to say that the theatrical Mickey Mouse reboot is presented in the vein of Get a Horse!, in that it introduces new audiences to the famous rodent in a way that will be appealing to Disney traditionalists as well as general moviegoers." Film critic and animation fan Leonard Maltin stated, "This is the kind of Disney reboot I've been wanting to see. In a day and age when many Disney animated movies are turning into live-action remakes, they luckily do not go this route with their flagship character." Kyle Smith of the New York Post wrote in his column, "The Mouse is back, and it's great that Disney recognizes that they're called the 'Mouse House' for a good reason." Joe Neumaier of the New York Daily News gave the film 5 stars out of 5, and concluded "Mickey Mouse is the best reboot I've ever seen, and is a great example of what happens when an established property is adapted into a movie the proper way."

Awards
The film won Best Original Score and Best Animated Feature at the 95th Academy Awards.

Box office
The film was a massive box office success, grossing over $650,409,594 domestically, and landing at #1 on opening weekend. The film ended up earning $359,583,790 overseas, brining the film's total earnings to $1,009,993,384 worldwide. This makes it the third Disney animated film to reach the $1 billion mark, becoming the fourth highest-grossing animated film of all time behind Frozen, Toy Story 3, and Zootopia.

The film's budget was $150 million.

Sequel
Stephen J. Anderson hinted that if Mickey Mouse was successful at the box office, a sequel would be developed by the same team who helped make the first film possible, as long as they can come up with a story as good as or better than the first. On July 11, 2020, the sequel, titled Mickey Mouse 2, was confirmed by voice actor Bret Iwan at the San Diego Comic-Con International.

In an interview with IGN, Mandy Moore was less definite, saying they had talks about a possible sequel being in development. Stephen J. Anderson also plans to return to directing, while Burny Mattinson has confirmed he will not have any involvement with the sequel. Mickey Mouse 2 was released on November 10, 2028.

Trivia

 * When Mickey and Minnie go out on a date, the movie they see is Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
 * A113 can be seen on the back of Peg Leg Pete's car.
 * In the scene where Mickey does his job interview with Mr. Palmer at the pet store, a Doraemon plush doll can be seen in the toy section of the shop. Doraemon is a Japanese cartoon character that has seen a massive amount of popularity in his home country.
 * In the scene where Mickey goes to Daisy's Diner for breakfast and, in the process, meets Minnie for the first time, Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde from Zootopia can be scene having coffee together.