...fingers.

Mighty Mouse has just jumped the shark.

(And you thought you were about to see that screenshot from 1979, didn't you? Not on my watch!)

January 2010: None of the above, thank goodness (everybody pause now for a huge sigh of relief...it's OK), has anything at all to do with Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures (The Complete Series), the new three-DVD set from CBS Home Entertainment. Collected here, together with three of Mighty Mouse's original Terrytoons theatrical shorts, for the first time on home video, are Bakshi Animation's 19 Mighty Mouse half-hours, also aired on CBS Saturday mornings from 1987-89—a shockingly radical departure from the other 99% of network weekend kidvid then, and still rousing good fun now.

Plus, all the original film elements reproduced herein have been lovingly remastered for both color and sound, something many of us at GAC have awaited for a lot of years (most especially in the case of those three Terrytoons—"He Dood It Again" [1943], featuring MM in his original state as Super Mouse, "Gypsy Life" [1945], and "The Mysterious Package" [1960]—marking their first official appearance ever on DVD)! One minor quibble: It could only be wished that we somehow might have heard the last few bars of the duet that concludes "Gypsy Life," of which only the standard, slightly truncated TV version was apparently available. Someday in a fully realized vintage Terrytoons DVD package, perhaps...!

It's further been stated elsewhere, loud and long, that this show alone raised the bar for creativity in TV animation far beyond most viewers' dreams (let alone the dreams of many then-newly emerging animators in the United States), and I'm not about to disagree. Props for all time go to studio head Ralph Bakshi—whose own career began at Terrytoons, and who first hit the public radar in 1960 as an animator on "The Mysterious Package"—and his late 1980s team of young maverick writers and artists, some of whom were then still visibly and audibly smarting from also having worked on that mind-numbing 1979 version of the Mouse of Tomorrow (little did they suspect at the outset that justice was about to be served on that latter score, and then some).

And now—so I don't have to mention or allude to Filmation here again—let's take a Mighty look back at what the Bakshi crew accomplished in completely reinventing Mouseville's Champion of Justice (and his supporting cast) for what would come to be recalled as a very different era!

We'd Have Had Maybe Half as Many Freshly Minted Supporting Characters to Love or Hate, If It Hadn't Been for Those Meddling Kids

Mighty Mouse (in operatic mode): "You dirty cad! You're really sad! Why don't you give up now?"
The Grand Ruler (likewise): "No, I won't! Oh, no, I won't!" (breaks fourth wall to muse to self) "This is ridiculous! Why are we singing?"

What's the one thing a new viewer needs to know about Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures (hereafter, "MMTNA")? Just that the traditional action/reaction relationship between Mighty Mouse and his supporting cast-plus-generic-bystanders, dating back to the theatrical era, is turned on its ear in this series (not least with the transformation of Pearl Pureheart into Mighty Mouse's boss from 9 to 5—sisters are doin' it for themselves—and, as suggested at least once, something more than a Dear Friend of His after hours!). Once, it was a matter of All the Others reacting to an externally created crisis they couldn't handle, which cued Mighty Mouse to act; here, Everybody Else creates the crisis as one, and Mighty Mouse (or sometimes Mike Mouse, his until-now-unimagined Civilian Other Self) can only react! (Sort of like Bob Newhart's Vermont innkeeper character in his second sitcom, of roughly the same vintage as MMTNA.) The result: A refreshing suspension of logic and serious thoughts, for creators and viewers alike.

And so the door is opened (or, in the case of this DVD set, reopened) for the original characters the Bakshi gang brought to the table.

When Mike Mouse is on Triple Overtime at the Factory, Who're Ya Gonna Call?

The Bat-Bat: "What is this country coming to? How can we maintain the highest standard of living in the world if our ice cream tastes like a garage door?"

Get Away, Kid, You Bother Me

Scrappy: "Why does Farmer Alfalfa always look so guilty?"

The New Rogues' Gallery

Pearl Pureheart: "What is it you want? What are you after?"
Petey Pate: "What am I after? What am I after? I'll tell you what I'm after! I want to own all the left shoes in Mouseville!"

The Cow: "As you can see, Bat-Bat, you are trapped in a milk dehydrating machine!"
The Bat-Bat: "This is an udder mistake!"

Big Murray: "Some people get their kicks stepping on dreams. I love it!"

The Seductresses of MMTNA

Polly Pineblossom: "Don't worry...somebody loves you."
Big Murray: "That's the first act of kindness...in all my life, I've never had that."

Madame Marsupial: "Is there something you'd like to say to me?"
Mighty Mouse: "Um, well...I hope you won't think I'm being too forward, but I'd really like...another helping."

Oh, It's Just Old Bakshi, Terrytoonin' in the Noonday Sun

Gandy Goose: "Nobody remembers me! Why are you still popular?"
Mighty Mouse: "Well...some of us are built to last!"

What's the most important thing a true Terrytoons fan needs to know about MMTNA? Just that, at its core, the show is chock full of classic Terrytoons characters—some as valuable guest stars in their own right, others in gotcha! cameos, and still more in well-chosen clips from throughout the history of the original Terrytoons studio! (See, among other installments, "Scrappy's Playhouse" for the finest use ever of those clips, including some black-and-white ones, and all hilariously skewered with Mystery Science Theater 3000-style barbs from Scrappy.) Here's the more-or-less complete tally:

Guest stars—Gandy Goose and Sourpuss (in "The Ice Goose Cometh" as well as "Mighty's Wedlock Whimsy"); Oil Can Harry ("Still Oily After All These Years"—in which, it must be noted, poor Harry runs afoul of Senator Joseph McCarthy[!]); The Mighty Heroes ("Heroes and Zeroes")

Cameos—Dimwit, Hashimoto, James Hound, Gaston le Crayon, Heckle & Jeckle, Deputy Dawg, Muskie, Vincent van Gopher, Farmer Alfalfa, Tom Terrific (!) (on a living room TV screen...blink and you will miss him!)

Clips—Dimwit, Gandy Goose and Sourpuss, Little Roquefort and Percy, Farmer Alfalfa, Oil Can Harry (in this case, both the original B&W "human" villain of that name and Mighty Mouse's later feline foe), Agnes (Gandy's girlfriend), Heckle & Jeckle, Krakatoa Katy ("she ain't no lady," as Mighty Mouse once happily discovered after the day was saved), Flebus, Strongheart, Clint Clobber, Fanny Zilch

Plus—Hundreds more of the historical "no-name" Terry characters (if you don't forget to count the mice), and plenty of great Jim Tyer animation, all through the clips!

But What Does All That Sneaky Stuff in MMTNA Really Mean?

Glad you asked. Happily, many of the answers also can be found in the commentaries by various Bakshi Animation veterans accompanying Episodes 3 ("Night of the Bat-Bat"/"Scrap-Happy") and 12 ("Mighty's Benefit Plan"/"See You in the Funny Papers"), plus the full-length documentary on Disc 3, "Breaking the Mold: The Re-Making of Mighty Mouse." I'll not even try to do their remarks justice here!

And Where Does All This Futzing Around With Mighty Mouse's History and Legend Ultimately Leave Our Hero Himself?

When all's said and done, I'd like to think this is the answer...

Frozen in Time, 1947: The original Terrytoons Mighty Mouse, embroiled as usual in one more melodramatic theatrical adventure, pauses for just a second to let his mind wander...uses his Mighty Vision to look ahead in time...fixates on 1987, when/where his future self lets drop all restraints on his iconic behavior, and takes on a satisfying blue-collar alter ego in the process...and he smiles.

Then, Mighty Mouse's attention returns to the immediate situation not quite well in hand, his brief smile fades, and the fabric of Mouseville's eternity repairs itself anew.

Narrator: "Is this the end of Mighty Mouse? Will Oil Can Harry's infernal cannon disintegrate our hero with a white-hot blast of Colgate Dental Cream™? Don't miss next week's Saturday matinee, kids! And don't forget to bring your toothbrush!"

Click here to order MIGHTY MOUSE: THE NEW ADVENTURES - THE COMPLETE SERIES