Mickey Mouse plans for a big-screen comeback

(AFP PHOTO / Robyn BECK)

Mickey Mouse, Disney's most iconic cartoon character, may finally make a comeback in his very own feature-length film co-starring Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck and Goofy.

In an interview with BleedingCool.com, Burny Mattinson, a writer, animator, story supervisor, and producer/director with Disney Studios, revealed that he is developing a film with Mickey and the other characters.

Mattinson just completed the upcoming hand-drawn animated film Winnie the Pooh. He has also worked on titles such as The Jungle Book, Robin Hood and Beauty and the Beast.

The Mickey Mouse character has been rebranded to put less emphasis on his cheerful side and reintroduce his more mischievous, adventurous personality. It may be a lengthy process to get the green light and start producing the film.

In 1928, Steamboat Willie was the first film short with sound that Mickey Mouse appeared in. The most renowned was his appearance in the famed "Sorcerer's Apprentice" scene in the full-length 1940 feature Fantasia.

He has been featured in several television series over the years, including The Mickey Mouse Club, which showed his cartoons. There have also been DVD releases of the cartoon shorts, and his last theatrical cartoon short, Runaway Brain, was released in 1995.

Epic Mickey, an action-adventure platformer video game released in 2010, has sold 1.3 million copies. Perhaps this success and the popularity of animated features will encourage the production of Mickey's first full-length feature.

Winnie the Pooh, meanwhile, opens April 15 in the UK and Europe and in North America, Australia and elsewhere in July. It features the voices of John Cleese, Craig Ferguson ( How to Train Your Dragon), and voice actor Jim Cummings as Pooh.

RC