Sunday, May 15, 2022

RUNAWAY BRAIN (1995)

 

(Director: Chris Bailey. Screenwriter/story source: Tim Hauser.)

Plot: Mickey Mouse, having forgotten about his first date-with-Minnie anniversary, must come up with a lot of money fast to purchase that Hawaiian trip-for-two Minnie thinks they’re going on. Mickey, unaware that the ad he responded to was run by a mad, primate scientist, finds himself trying to dodge a lobotomy and a giant, slavering monster named Julius who’s tearing up the town, and after Minnie as well.

 

Review

Originally shown before theatrical showings of A GOOFY MOVIE in 1995, some in those audiences found the horror-tinged (but still goreless, light and silly) seven-minute animated short too macabre for their taste, so RUNAWAY was largely trimmed from prints of other films released at the time. At the 68th Academy Awards, RUNAWAY was nominated for Best Animated Short, an award that was ultimately given to Wallace and Gromit’s A CLOSE SHAVE (1995).

RUNAWAY is a fun, excellent, twisty, and action-oriented cartoon, deftly moving from one frenetic scenario to another, with some good Disney in-jokes and references thrown in as well as horror references (e.g., THE EXORCIST, 1973, when Mickey stands under a streetlight outside Dr. Frankenollie’s house, and Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley’s 1818 novel Frankenstein). This being a Disney product, of course there’s great animation and a happy ending.

The voice talent is as follows: Wayne Allwine voiced Mickey Mouse; Russi Taylor (WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT, 1988) voiced Minnie Mouse; Bill Farmer (MINIONS, 2015) voiced Pluto; Kelsey Grammer voiced Dr. Frankenollie; Jim Cummings (ALADDIN, 1992) voiced the Monster.


Deeper film(ic) dive

RUNAWAY is available. . .

. . . by purchasing the 2004 DVD set WALT DISNEY TREASURES: MICKEY MOUSE IN LIVING COLOR, VOLUMETWO: 1939-TODAY

and

. . . as a Movies-Anywhere exclusive digital download bonus in the Walt Disney Animation Studios Short Films Collection, though it isn’t part of the Blu-Ray/DVD set.



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