Mickey Mouse Games & Toys

Great Cartoon Video Games

Here's a list I put together for my other blog...

Hey! Did you know that I like classic cartoon characters!? I like them in my movies, I like them on my breakfast cereal, and I like them in my video games. More often than not, a cartoon based video game is slapped together quickly - sometimes the game doesn't even have anything to do with the cartoon. For instance, Snoopy's Silly Sports Spectacular where you have to help Snoopy and his brother Spike carry a stack of pizzas over a finish line...in Italy?! Other times, cartoon gaming experiences are pure joy! Here's some of the best video games based on cartoon properties that I've ever played...

The Little Mermaid (NES) Here's a game where you'd think it was going to be only for four year old girls. But instead, the great game developer Capcom created this multi-level intricate platform game where you swim Ariel through six levels of undersea peril. This was the first video that I played all the way through and beat. That was about 20 years ago and I still talk about it...pretty sad, eh?

Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers (NES) Here's another Capcom Disney game that I beat. Based on the Disney Afternoon series of the same name, this game allowed two players at the same time running through the city and picking up and trowing everything in sight. This was a fast paced game with alot of tricky obstacles and challenging enemies. Even though the cartoon show took some liberties with the Chip `n Dale characters, the video game stayed very true to the spirit of the show. Just don't get me started on how we all got gypped out of a Rescue Rangers movie.

Popeye (Arcade) This might be the first arcade video game to feature a classic animated character and I think most video game aficionados would agree that Popeye is one of the all-time classic old school games. Popeye has to catch the little hearts that Olive Oil is tossing out. He's got to catch them before they reach the water at the bottom of the screen. Standing in Popeye's way is his ol' nemesis Bluto. Luckily, Popeye can always grab a can of spinach and punch Bluto square in the face, or he can hit a punching bag and drop a bucket on Bluto's head. The game even works the obscure Sea Hag character into the mix! Even the cartoons forgot about the Sea Hag!

Donald Duck in Goin' Quackers (Playstation/PS2) This game really blew me away because it's just as challenging and complex as any Mario Bros. game you'll ever play. There's level after level of frustrating situations to make Donald mad. One of the neatest features of this game is that they worked in the animation of Donald's trademark temper tantrum. There's also a full cast of supporting characters from Donald's hometown of Duckburg. An all around really well-done game that took me months to beat...but I did it!

B.C.'s Quest For Tires (Commadore 64) Perhaps the best game ever that you can play with the arrow keys on your keyboard. Thor the caveman must ride his stone unicycle while jumping over rocks, animals and holes in the ground all on his way to save his girlfriend from an evil dinosaur. Good times! A better game has never been put on one of those gigantic black floppy discs.

Sorcerer's Apprentice (Atari 2600) Mickey Mouse has starred in at least a dozen video games over the past few decades, this is one of the earliest and the only one I've ever really gotten into. Based on the sequence from the 1940 film Fantasia, this primitive game was made up of two screens. The first, pictured here, involves Mickey shooting and catching stars. I never really got this stage and never spent much time playing it, but if you exit the screen to either side you got to the meat of the game. On the other screen you had to stop the walking brooms from making their way to the bottom of a staircase and dump their bucket of water. The more brooms you missed, the higher the water lever rose in the room. Quick, simple game play that was also addictive and fun. (There's a new Wii game around the corner called Epic Mickey that looks pretty darn cool!)

Smurf: Rescue in Gargamel's Castle (Colecovision/Atari 2600) You have no idea how bad I wanted this game when I was younger! After years of lusting over it, I finally got to play it on a neighbor's Colecovision. It was pure video gaming heaven for this young Smurf fan. Not only does this game incorporate the world of the Smurfs into it, the game is made up of the greatest basic objective in all of video game history: run through a forest, jump over things, collect things. It's all as simple as that! Later on in high school, somebody mentioned that they had this game and I made them dig out their old Atari games and find it for me so I could finally sit and play it. Another check-off on my bucket list! (Here's a link to the old commercial.)

The Simpsons: Road Rage (PS2/Game Cube) The Simpsons have had a long career in video games since the show debuted 20 years ago. I remember playing a game called Bart vs. the Space Mutants quite feverishly back in the day, and The Simpsons arcade game stands out as a classic. But I really loved this 2003 variation of the hit game Crazy Taxi. Road Rage is almost the same game except that it's filled with The Simspsons brand of humor and wonderful cast of characters. The game looks an awful lot like the TV show and you get to drive around town exploring all the nooks and crannies of Springfield. Probably one of the games I've logged the most hours on in my adult years.

Tiny Toons 2: Trouble in Wackyland (NES) In my book, when you mix amusement parks with video games there is much goodness to be had. Using a theme park as it's center, this game was a collection of mini-games based on different theme park rides. There was a roller coaster game, bumper cars, a train ride, and a log flume. They were all pretty addictive, if I recall correctly. I'm not sure how well the game captured the spirit of the Tiny Toons cartoon but it sure was a fun game.

The Flintstones: Rescue of Dino & Hoppy (NES) Like others on the list, The Flintstones have popped up in more than one video game. This Nintendo game was my favorite as it was built around the simple side-scrolling platform engine that I've come to adore in video games. Of course you've got Fred and Wilma and the whole cast of characters from one of my all-time favorite TV shows and there's lots of rocks and boulders to smash. I don't think I ever got past the end of level 2 where you had to beat Joe Rockhead at a game of basketball. Thanks Joe Rockhead!

Darkwing Duck (NES) Finally one last fantastic Disney Afternoon inspired game from the folks at Capcom. Darkwing Duck was a show I really enjoyed and I loved the video game just as much. I consider this one of my all-time favorite video games. The game play is so smooth and fun, with lots of things to shoot at and grab hold to and jump on and over...it's just alot of fun. The game also incorporated the entire world of the show very nicely. I easily burned way too many hours playing this in my Community College days. Tell well spent if you ask me!

Please share with us any toon games you've loved over the years...

Have A Drink With Mickey

I'm guessing from the early 80's:

Mickey Mouse Disco Record Offer

We Don't Need No Stinkin' Badges!

When you're on Disney property you just never know who's going to stop you and spread a little magic. While walking back to our car from the World of Disney store (with $300 less than we went in with) a Walt Disney World Security office pulled up to my family in his patrol car. Instead of having the kind of experience you usually have when a security guard stops you, this cast member reaches out of his car and hands both my kids Mickey Mouse Junior Security badge stickers. Of course, I had to persuade my children to not stick the stickers on their shirts and instead let Daddy save them for his collection of everything from Disney World...but it was a nice surprise and a magical touch that you wouldn't expect in a Disney parking lot.

The Blog Wore Tennis Shoes will be putting on it's flip-flops as we close our offices and spend the week and the beach with the family. The Blog will be on auto-pilot until next week. We'll have some light posts throughout this week.

Surprise For Mickey Mouse

This 1971 Little Golden Book is not only a Surprise for Mickey Mouse but it's also a surprise for readers. With no indication on the front cover, this book is actually about one of the original attractions at Walt Disney World. The story starts off with Mickey Mouse receiving a telegram informing him that he is to conduct the orchestra at Walt Disney World's new Mickey Mouse Review. Mickey is so excited that he rushes to tell Minnie the good news. However, Minnie doesn't seem all that interested in Mickey's good news. When Mickey bumps into some of his other friends like Horace Horsecollar, the Three Little Pigs, Geppetto and Donald Duck, none of them seem to find much interest in Mickey's new gig either.

Sometimes when you pick up older kids books like this one you'll find a few words or phrases that have dropped off the "vocabulary radar" in more recent times. In this book my two favorite sentences are: "Mickey walked on feeling terribly forlorn..." and "...Mickey brooded all the way to Florida." They crack me up every time. I also like the part: "Good luck," said Practical Pig calmly, "And don't touch my new wall. The mortar's still wet." Just an odd word that you don't see often in a Little Golden Book.

In the end, Mickey and his nephews make their way to Walt Disney World and the Magic Kingdom...

...and all of Mickey's friends surprise him by being part of the Mickey Mouse Revue.
In case you're not familiar with the Mickey Mouse Review, it was an audio-animatronic show featuring dozens of Disney characters singing a medley of tunes from Disney films. The show ran in Fantasyland (where Mickey's Philharmagic now runs) from opening day until September 1980. The stage show got a second life when it was moved to Tokyo Disneyland in 1983.

I can imagine how exciting it must have been to have had this book as a child in the 70's, read it a thousand times and then to get to Walt Disney World and see that the Mickey Mouse Review was actually there waiting for you beyond the castle walls. That must have been very magical!

Summer Fun with Mickey & the Gang

Here's Mickey and friends enjoying their summer in a handful of children's books...

1983, Random House/Wonderful World of Reading Book Club

Originally published 1950, Golden Book/Western Publishing

1991, Disney Books by Mail

1974, Golden Book/Western Publishing

2007, Disney Press

Odyssey Memories

This picture was taken in May of 1991 inside Epcot's Odyssey restaurant. That's a 17 year old me on the right -with my Touchstone Pictures ballcap and Disneyland 35th Anniversary watch. On the other side of Mickey is my best friend Grant (who recently designed this blog's new banner.) In the middle of course is Mickey Mouse, sporting his futuristic space age metallic rainbow jumpsuit from Epcot's earlier days. I have a feeling that suit eventually went missing from Disney's wardrobe department and ended up in a Gay Pride parade somewhere...but I digress...

I have a great memory from my visit to the Odyssey. In 1991 I was lucky enough to attend Grad Nite at Walt Disney World. About 20-30 of us from the senior class flew from Baltimore to Orlando on a Friday afternoon. That evening we attended the Grad Nite festivities at the Magic Kingdom from 11:00pm to 5:00am. Saturday, we were whisked back to WDW for a day at Epcot Center. Between being 17 years old and not having the invention of the internet, I was pretty sure I was the world's foremost expert on everything Walt Disney World. Therefore, I was personally offended when some members of my class chose to tour Epcot on their own instead of having me as their tour guide.

After spending the better part of the day taking in all the headlining attractions at Epcot Center, my group and I had diner at the Odyssey. We had a teenager approved meal of hamburgers, chicken strips and whatever other fast food delights we wanted. We were also, unexpectedly, treated to a live stage show featuring Mickey Mouse and friends singing and dancing around the restaurant. As many members of the group had never been to Walt Disney World before, meeting Mickey and the gang face to face was a real highlight of the trip. After our meal and show we headed back into the park and sampled more attractions.

As the park closed, we headed back to our bus and met up with the rest of our classmates. The rest of the class couldn't have been more disappointed in how their day had gone. It seems without my "expert" knowledge they decided to have dinner at Les Chefs de France. They ended up waiting a long time for a table, a longer time for their food, and then they were served the kind of food that didn't exactly fill the tummies of a group of high school seniors on a field trip. Meanwhile, everyone in my group went on and on about how they got to meet Mickey and Donald and we got our pictures with them and the food was really good and we rode all the rides...

My honor had been vindicated!

Mickey Mouse's Truck Book

I realize I've already covered one kids book this week here on the blog, but yesterday we dug this great little book up from the bottom of a basket of books in our living room. It's honestly been a couple of years since I've seen it. Mickey Mouse's Truck Book is a simple little board book from 1984 that shows Mickey doing different jobs all with the help of a truck. I guess it's supposed to tap into that natural fascination that little boys have with trucks. As I was reading the book to one of my kids I was appreciating how simple and low-key the illustrations were. I guess I'm getting used to Mickey books being rendered in the new Mickey Mouse Clubhouse style. The pictures here seem almost old fashioned and then I noticed that the book is only 24 years old...and then I felt old! Anyhow, I thought some of you guys might also have the same appreciation for these quiet drawings so since the book is only 10 pages long, I scanned the whole thing.

The National Toy Train Museum

Last month we looked at Geppi's Entertainment Museum, in Baltimore, which is overflowing with Disney history on every wall of the building. The next stop in our "Disney Outside of Disney" series doesn't offer an overwhelming amount of Disneyana but it does offer a subject near and dear to Walt's heart as well as a few fun touches of Disney.

The small town of Strasburg, PA offers quite a number of world class railroading attractions from full size historic locomotives to the only officially licenced Thomas the Tank Engine Store. There's even a hotel where you can spend the night in an actual caboose. Strasburg is also home to the national headquarters of the Train Collectors Association and their National Toy Train Museum. The museum houses five detailed toy train layouts with plenty of buttons to operate trains and various other elements within the layouts. While the subject of Walt Disney and his love of trains is not a subject explored at the museum, where ever you find an exploration into pop culture you're bound to find a little Disney magic somewhere.

Here's some pics of great Disney items that me and my one track mind (pun intended) took while visiting the museum.

The name Lionel is synonymous with model railroading but in their early days they produced an assortment of children's playthings. Some of those items are on display at the museum including this vintage Mickey Mouse Club record player. If you look slightly to the left of the top of the needle arm you'll see the Lionel "L" logo.

Here's a wall of handcars featuring some famous friends of ours.

These Mickey & Minnie handcars debuted at Christmas 1934. They were produced in orange, red, green and maroon by the Lionel Corporation. They sold for $1.00 each which ended up being the perfect price for families who couldn't afford an electric train during the Great Depression. Sales of the handcars were so astronomical that Mickey Mouse is credited with saving the Lionel Corp. from bankruptcy.

One of the layouts has a train that travels into a mine. If you follow the tracks you'll find an opening in the side of the mine where you can spot this vintage Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs mine train set.

Last we have a few snapshots of some engines and cars on display. These are mostly from a large series of models produced in the mid-90's. At a nearby attraction, Choo-Choo Barn, you can see many of these pieces in action.

Not Just Any Disney Joke Book

Get ready for some big time comedy, folks! This isn't just any ol' joke book - this is The ULTIMATE Disney Joke Book by Chip Lovitt (1995, Disney Press). I dug this out of a used book store this weekend. It's 64 pages of zingers and puns featuring a who's who of Disney animated characters. Most of these jokes have probably been printed 1,000 times before in slightly different forms in books like 101 Best Hamburger Jokes and Super Silly Sports Riddles. But ya gotta give this book credit for including characters from just about all the classic Disney animated features. A good deal of Disney's output in the mid-90's centered on "the new Disney" characters from The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and The Lion King. You'll find all them here along with Mickey and the gang, Snow White, Pinocchio and even Prince Philip.

Get ready to dust off your funny bone for a sampling of comedy Disney-style:

What's Mickey's favorite type of TV show?

A Minnie-series.

Why is the movie Bambi like ninety-nine cents?

Both are about a buck.

Why won't Cinderella ever be a great soccer player?

She runs away from the ball.

One more...

What has sixteen legs and catches flies?

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs playing baseball.

You can go get a tissue now to wipe the tears of laughter from your eyes.

Mickey Is Happy

Here's another one of those great used book store finds! MICKEY IS HAPPY (1992, Disney Press) is a very simple book made up of only five sentences. Each sentence tells how one of the Fab Five is feeling, and each feeling is accompanied by a fabulous illustration by Richard Buerrstein. The pictures are bold, colorful and full of expression! My kids love this book and even though it's only 12 pages long we spend quite a bit of time with this book when we read it. Each of the kids shows off their happy, sad or scared face with the turn of every page.
I could easily scan the whole book, but I'll just share with you a few of the wonderful graphics that make this book special in our home:

There's two other books in this series; In-Out A Disney Book of Opposites and One Mickey Mouse A Disney Book of Numbers.

Happy Easter!

One of my favorite parts of any holiday is working Disney into the picture somehow. There's always lots of Disney decorations and sometimes even Disney candy to go around. One of the nice things about being so obsessed with Disney and in particular Mickey Mouse, is that people give me Disney stuff all the time. My mother-in-law found this old Mickey Mouse Easter Egg Color Kit at an antique mall and picked it up for me a few years back. This item was produced by SunHill Industries of Stamford, CT. There's no date on it, but I'm guessing it's from the early 80's based on the artwork and the old Walt Disney Productions copyright on the back.
All the box contains is four standard dye tablets and the traditional "egg dipper". The Disney fun comes on the back of the box where you can cut out two pairs of nifty little Mickey Mouse Club hats for your eggs, and the two Egg Holders. At the most, you would have had two Mickey eared eggs and two more eggs sitting on the little cardboard rings. Still, a fun item and a reminder of more innocent times.

SunHill also produced these Little Mermaid Instant Egg Art beauties. Sadly, my ownership of this item does not come from a flea market or antique store. My mom recently found this tucked away somewhere from when I had bought it sometime in the early 90's. And yes, I made a batch of Little Mermaid eggs back then too. But these suckers were cool. This kit comes with 12 egg wrappers which are basically little plastic sleeves that you put the eggs into and then you dunk the eggs into boiling water for 3 seconds and the wrapper shrinks around the egg making very clear and pretty eggs with different characters from the movie. The package doesn't lie..."Prettiest Eggs in Only 3 Seconds!" Then when you cracked the egg the picture just came apart with the shell as if you had hand painted it on the egg! Very cool item! I remember taking some over to my friend Chris' house for dinner Easter night. I'm sure his parents and their other guests thought I was out of my mind...seeing as how I was 19 years old at the time.

This entry into the Disney Easter Egg Decorating Kit cannon is from a couple of years ago. I found them at Dollar Tree of all places! These bad boys come to us from The Paper Magic Company of Scranton, PA. (Rivals of Dunder Mifflin, no doubt!) Here we get FIVE dyes and the bent coat hanger...I mean, egg dipper, plus we get 48 stickers featuring all the four wheeled friends from the CARS movie. The package also promises "9 Fun Tops" and a "Punch Out Drying Tray". The tray, is the box itself with little perforated circles that you can punch out on the back to lay your wet eggs in. The "Fun Tops" are the little cardboard circles that you punched out to make the tray. The box instructs you to "Punch out the circles from the back of the box and push a toothpick into the center, then spin like a top!" Wow...how lame is that? I'm sure our CARS eggs impressed the Easter Bunny though!

Thanks for checking in with The Blog Wore Tennis Shoes and have a safe and happy Easter weekend!