Mickey is probably not my favourite character in Disney's stable of classics. He's just such a 'nice guy' that it makes him a little bland as a character. On the other hand, that blandness almost makes him like a blank canvas which has been utilized to create almost off-shoots of his core personality over the years.

Runaway Brain is one such offshoot and watching it I frankly found it to be quite jarring. Mickey Mouse absorbed in a video game? Mickey Mouse forgetting his anniversary with Minnie? Crazy frothing Mickey Mouse? I don't know exactly what it was about this short, but personally I felt its tone just pulled too far away from the Mickey I was used to seeing... so that the end result was akin to watching Tenderheart Bear in a Rambo outfit... okay, possibly not the far, but still...

There's nothing particularly wrong with this short--great animation and some good gags--but overall it just didn't sit right with me.

Great animation, great, pace, good story, and lots of gags, but even more if you're a Disney fan.

Good little short thats is entertaining for everyone!

Mickey hadn’t been in theatres for a while and hadn’t been in a solo outing for decades (okay Minnie and Pluto both appear but you get my point). His last theatrical short, the Prince and the Pauper, had done well, mind you it did ride on the back of the Rescuer’s Down Under, a traditional Disney film.

Here in the UK Runaway Brain appeared with A Goofy Movie, which probably meant it had better success here in the process as it fitted in with its holder; but I didn’t get a chance to see it then, even though I would have loved to have done. Still years later I brought a copy on VHS (the short not suffering the same fate here as in the USA) and eventually got it via those Walt Disney Treasures DVD.

So what we have here is a high budgeted production that pays homage to B-movie horror as well as Disney history (especially Mickey’s). Oh and IMHO it’s about the best theatrical short that Mickey has ever appeared in.

The Fast paced, blink-and-you’ll-miss-something plot is almost on par with that of the Roger Rabbit shorts, although the manic speed of them wouldn’t really suit the mouse. Mickey and Minnie have been retro-modernized back into their original, classic outfits, you know them right: red shorts with yellow buttons and shoes for Mick, pink bow and miniskirt for Min.

The manic-speed story revolving around Mickey forgetting about his first date with Minnie is something that many can relate to, I know I have a habit of forgetting birthdays and the like myself. The short does tells us quite a bit about the two however, firstly Mickey likes playing videogames, quite bizarre ones at that; as he’s beating up the witch Queen of Snow White with Dopey, you can also see that he’s not very good, as he’s on his last life when Minnie calls in anyway. Secondary is that Mickey is a bit of a slob, with his stuff thrown pretty willy-nilly around the place. Third, he’s dangerously impulsive and doesn’t know what an lobotomy is.

What’s the first thing you see Minnie do when thinks she’s going to Hawaii? Well she goes to the swimwear store to get a bikini; eventually getting a really skimpy one, mostly because she can’t afford the one she really wants. Speculating on what Mickey will make of it. Given the fact that she only wears a bow, high heels, a miniskirt and panties for the entire cartoon (her normal classic attire) I don’t see what she's worrying about.

Kelsey Grammer is, as always a pleasure to listen to; filling the doctor with just enough mania and intelligence as is needed for his all-too-brief role, Julius the monster is just good old Pete (he even has his old pegleg) in another bad guy role. Evil Mickey/Julius is as strongly realized as it is just a joke, I mean how much damaged could even an evil Mick do?

Thing is, after seeing a few Mickey shorts, you acknowledge that he isn’t a funny character; he’s too nice. Most of the fun of in his shorts come from the antic of the other characters. Here most of the fun comes from noticing references to Disney’s history. Even though this short isn’t really funny it’s still great; to be honest a short doesn’t need to make me laugh to be successful: there are other things to strive for. IMO this is effectively the best solo short Mickey has ever been in and for one of the oldest cartoon characters in animation’s history; that’s saying something.

(there is a very slight problem with the sound sync on the Treasure DVD, but it’s only noticeable if you’re looking for it).