It’s been a decade since Disney‘s last Mickey Mouse short film was released in theaters, following an 85-year run. The Disney mascot and undisputed symbol of Disney, Mickey Mouse, is also one of the most famous and iconic characters of all time. He is quintessential Disney and has been around almost as long as the Walt Disney Company itself. After multiple attempts to introduce him in previous shorts failed, Mickey Mouse, whose original name was Mortimer Mouse, made his first official appearance in the animated short film, Steamboat Willie, in 1928.
From there, Disney continued to release Mickey Mouse shorts in theaters on-and-off for 85 years. Between 1928-2013, Disney created a number of shorts featuring Mickey as part of the Mickey Mouse film series, originally called Mickey Mouse Sound Cartoons. Some of the most famous of these include Mickey’s Rival, Thru The Mirror, and Canine Caddy, and many of them were screened for the first time before some of Disney’s best animated movies.
Mickey Mouse’s Get A Horse! Ran Before Frozen In 2013
After a decades-long run, Disney released its last Mickey Mouse short film in theatres a decade ago. Get A Horse! was first released in the summer of 2013, but later ran before theatrical screenings of Frozen when the latter premiered on November 27, 2013. Get A Horse! was the first Disney animated film solo-directed by a woman, Lauren Macmillan, who was heavily inspired by the classic black-and-white Mickey Mouse shorts of the 1920s.
Earlier that year, a television series comprised of Mickey Mouse shorts was released on Disney Channel. This series was later revived and released on Disney+ in 2020 under the name The Wonderful World of Mickey Mouse. However, there has not been a theatrically released Mickey Mouse short film since Get A Horse! since 2013.
Why Disney Hasn’t Made Any Mickey Mouse Movies Since Then
There doesn’t seem to be an official reason for Disney’s retirement of these once-beloved Mickey Mouse theatrical shorts. It’s possible that the famous mouse’s popularity with the public is waning, and that the current generation of children aren’t as attached to the mouse man or his films as generations past. Mickey and his movies also appeal to adults for nostalgic reasons, but nostalgia can only go so far. Disney’s upcoming schedule shows that they’re already relying too much on sequels and revivals of iconic characters and franchises, which is why not releasing Mickey films every so often might be a good strategy.
However, it’s important to note that there have been release gaps like this in the nearly 100-year-old Mickey Mouse film series before. Until Get A Horse! in 2013, Disney hadn’t released an original Mickey Mouse theatrical short since Runaway Brain in 1995. This 18-year pause wasn’t even the longest break in this particular film series. Disney had previously taken a 30-year hiatus from producing Mickey Mouse movies between The Simple Things in 1953 to Mickey’s Christmas Carol in 1983. As such, another Mickey Mouse theatrical short is not completely off the table.
