Mickey: Fun and Fanci-ful

Mickey and Friends would be a 2023 American live-action/animated buddy fantasy film directed by Steven Spielberg and produced by Walt Disney Pictures, Walt Disney Animation Studios, Amblin Entertainment, Burr! Productions, and TaylorMade Productions. The film would be written by Spielberg, Alex Ross Perry, and Tom McCarthy, while Brigham Taylor, Kristen Burr, and Spielberg would serve as producers for the film. The film would star Tessa Thompson, Kiersey Clemons, and the voices of Chris Diamantopoulos, Grey DeLisle, Bill Farmer, Tony Anselmo, Tress MacNeille and April Winchell. John Williams would compose the film's score.

Development on the film would start in early 2021, with Spielberg being set to direct the film. Thompson and Diamantopoulos would join the film later that year, with Diamantopoulos being set to reprise his role as the voice of Mickey Mouse. Production on the film would begin in late 2022, with the filmmakers using animatronic puppets to represent the animated characters.

Mickey and Friends would be released on November 30, 2023, and would met a positive critical reception, with critics praising the cast's performances, direction, animation, and screenplay. The film would also become a financial success, earning 870 millions at the box office over a budget of 130 millions.

Synopsis
Buisness woman Mary Jones is a girl with success on anything. Wealthy lifestyle, stable business, thousands of butlers, she has everything, except for three things: Friends, family, and imagination. Having built herself with a realistic view on life, Jones thinks nobody should even care for imagination, so she writes a message to The Walt Disney Company asking them to stop featuring fantasy on their productions, and instead develop realistic productions After a debate, the company chooses to send the message to their big boss, Mickey Mouse, in order to determine what to do. Realizing what's the deal with Jones after reading the message, Mickey, alongside her girlfriend Minnie and their friends Donald Duck, Daisy Duck, Clarabelle Cow, Goofy, Pluto, and others, go to her house in order to hep her gain a sense of imagination. Realistic Jones and fanciful Mickey then make a bet, if Mickey can't convince Jones that imagination is good, she will remove her request, but if Mickey fails, then she will replace him as head of Disney in order to make sure the company has realisitc buisness-related productions. Now, Mickey must prove his point and save both Jones' life and his job. As he does that, the mouse finds out what truly Jones has in her heart, and what she truly needs to let go of her unhealthy lifestyle

Cast

 * Tessa Thompson as Mary Jones: A realistic business woman with a lack of imagination who finds her life upside-down when Mickey Mouse and his friends go visit her. Director Steven Spielberg said that the writers wanted to potray Jones as "a perfectly capable woman" yet still "in need of Mickey's visit". Thompson would say that "Mary goes througth a lot in the film. She starts ad this girl who goes only b practical, and that worked for her really well. But when Mickey comes in, she starts to wonder many things: Is she living the right way? It is wrong to believe? and most importantly, is she happy?", and said that "this film makes really deep questions about pursuing happiness and what's possible", ultimately describing the film as "thougth-provoking, yet very simple".
 * Kiersey Clemons as Claire, Jones' butler, who tries to give advice her boss. Clemson would describe her character as "Jones' Jiminy Cricket".

Voice cast

 * Chris Diamantopoulos as Mickey Mouse, a fanciful mouse and the "big boss" of The Walt Disney Company who goes to visit Mary Jones after realizing her life has lack of imagination.
 * Grey DeLisle as Minnie Mouse, a female mouse and Mickey's girlfriend. Producer Kristin Burr would say that Minnie is "the middle point" between Mickey and Jones.
 * Bill Farmer as:
 * Goofy, an antropomorphic dog who is one of Mickey's best friends.
 * Pluto, a dog who is Mickey's pet.
 * Horace Horsecollar, an antropomorphic horse who is Mickey's personal driver.
 * Tony Anselmo as
 * Donald Duck, a short-tempered duck who is one of Mickey's best friends and occasional rival.
 * Huey, Dewey, and Louie, Donald's trouble-making nephews.
 * Tress MacNeille as Daisy Duck, Donald's feisty girlfirend.
 * April Winchell as Clarabelle Cow, a good-hearted-yet-vain cow who is Horace's girlfriend.
 * Corey Burton as Ludwig Von Drake, a brilliant-but-eccentric scientist who is Donald's paternal uncle.
 * Alan Tudyk as Horace's car, a car used by Horace in order to transport Mickey.

Music
Recurring Spielberg collaborator John Williams would compose the film's score. Williams would call his score as "a big nostalgic throwback" to his score for Hook. Most of Williams' themes for the animated characters would consist on the characters' earlier theme songs, with Mickey's theme being an instrumental version of the Mickey Mouse Club theme song. Williams would describe his theme for Mary Jones as "flexible", changing from "very serious" to "very fanciful" to reflect her character arc.

Reception
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film would have an approval rating of 89%, and an average rating of 8/10, basedon on 174 reviews. The website's consensus would read, "A heartwarming effort that combines Steven Spielberg's talent with Disney's biggest strengths, Mickey and Friends is a chaming tale with a sense of wonder that adds another film to the lists of both the best Disney and best Spielberg films". Metacritic would give the film a weighted rating of 77 out of 100, based on 45 reviews, indicating "generally positive reviews".

Trivia

 * The film would be Disney's first fully live-action/animated hybrid film since Enchanted (2007).
 * The film would be the second Disney film to be directed by Steven Spielberg, after The BFG (2016).
 * The filmmakers would watch the Mickey Mouse cartoons from the 20s to the 80s, as an inspiration for Mickey's antics in the film.
 * Tessa Thompson and Kiersey Clemons previously starred on Disney's Lady and the Tramp (2019).