Can an icon still be an icon if its image changes? That’s the question Disney officials are asking themselves as they begin to consider a reinvention of Mickey Mouse. That’s right; the trademark mouse in Disney’s house might be getting a makeover.
Disney executives are concerned that the younger generation doesn’t care about Mickey. In 2009 only 20% of Mickey’s $5 billion merchandise sales came from the United States. Consequently, the folks at Disney fear that Mickey is nothing more than a corporate mascot to American children, and that’s the issue they want to address.
Other than saying considerations are underway to make Mickey relevant for a modern audience, Disney is remaining tight-lipped about future plans for its central figure. The problem with updating an icon is that you run the risk of alienating loyal fans. Disney wants to find a way to design a Mickey that 21st-century children care about, while still maintaining the key elements of a character beloved for generations.
Mickey has undergone major changes in the past. The steady patriarch of the House of Mouse bears little resemblance to the mischievous youth steering “Steamboat Willie.” In early 1920s and 30s cartoons, Mickey was impulsive. He tormented and even sabotaged his friends, and his advances towards Minnie sometimes bordered on harassment.
As the years went by Mickey matured. In the famous “Sorcerer’s Apprentice” segment from 1940’s “Fantasia,” Mickey displays some of his old bad habits, but pays dearly for it and learns the errors of his ways. Such lessons were rarely present in the cartoons from decades past.
Eventually Mickey evolved into the reliable, but sometimes bland head of the Disney family. While Mickey occasionally slipped back into old ways, such as in 1995’s short “Runaway Brain,” he seems to have settled into his quiet and calm father-figure role, as seen on the Disney Channel’s “Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.” Questionable antics are now left to characters like Goofy and Donald Duck.
So what will this latest reinvention be like? Will we see a return to Mickey’s prior incarnations, full of mischief and whimsy, or will Disney go in an entirely new direction? Some point to the game “Epic Mickey,” currently under development for the Wii, as a possible indicator of the future. In the game Mickey is sucked into a dystopian Disneyland of his own making and must battle the sins of his past. Players can go a hero route and develop a knight-in-shining armor figure, or make darker decisions that will leave Mickey twisted and rat-like.
If the spooky promotional art for the game is any indication, this version of Mickey is really only appropriate for teenagers and adults. I don’t see Disney making that Mickey its new standard. Perhaps it can learn from the game, which is embedded with morals on the consequences of good and bad decisions. This is reminiscent of the Mickey from “Sorcerer’s Apprentice,” who in my opinion, is the most engaging of them all. Give Mickey back a bit of his playfulness and spunk, but let him, and the children watching him, learn from his mistakes.
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