Walt Disney Studios is in the homestretch of celebrating its 100th year as an entertainment company, but that doesn’t mean they’re slowing down the celebration. Along with a few more upcoming Disney movies lined up for the rest of 2023, the company has just released the first trailer for their highly anticipated short film Once Upon A Studio. It looks even better than I imagined, even if it does make me miss an animated Disney cult-classic: House of Mouse.
The short, which premiered at the Annecy Film Festival back in June, is set to make its broadcast debut on October 15th as part of ABC’s The Wonderful World of Disney: Disney’s 100th Anniversary Celebration special.
Once Upon A Studio Looks Amazing
In the trailer released on the official Disney Animation social media accounts, various Disney animated characters can be seen coming to life after the Walt Disney Studio employees leave the office for the day. After jumping out from a picture on the wall, Mickey Mouse announces to the building that it’s time to take a group photo, and more and more legendary Disney characters come to life. Check it out:
It’s Disney magic at its finest! Especially since original 2-D animated characters are being animated in 2D instead of getting CGI transformations. That’s a big deal for us animation nerds!
Could It’s Success Lead To House of Mouse Joining Disney+?
The Once Upon A Studio short film is definitely going to be iconic and make me emotional — mostly because the short uses archival voice recordings for some characters whose original actors have passed away (like Robin Williams for the Genie). But I’m also excited because the success of the short could finally make Disney realize that fans want to see beloved Disney characters interact with each other.
And the good news for Disney is that it wouldn’t cost them anything to make those dreams and wishes come true. All they have to do is upload the original four seasons of House of Mouse to the streaming service.
For those of you too young to remember, House of Mouse followed Mickey Mouse and his friends as they ran a cartoon dinner theater. The theater regularly showed classic Disney animated shorts while beloved Disney characters mingled in the theater. All the while, Mickey and his friends put out small fires that usually involved Pete trying to shut them down.
Seeing these classic shorts was always fun, but the true highlight of House of Mouse was getting to watch Disney characters interact with each other outside of the constraints of their own movies. I mean, who can forget when Dumbo, Scuttle and even Peter Pan teamed up to help make Donald Duck’s dreams of flying a reality? I certainly can’t.
Ever since Disney+ launched, fans have been begging the studio to upload House of Mouse, and if Once Upon A Studio is successful, I don’t see why it wouldn’t. If we’re really lucky, maybe Disney will realize how lucrative breaking the Disney movie bubble is and reboot House of Mouse into a brand-new series. I, for one, would love to see Mirabel and Moana bond over family expectations or see the chaos that might happen if Olaf crosses paths with Timon and Pumbaa.
For now, I’ll have to wait and see if the success of Once Upon A Studio leads to a House of Mouse revival. Don’t forget to renew your Disney+ subscription just in case Disney surprises us with a House of Mouse addition, and learn what non-Disney movies are left to come out this year with our 2023 release schedule.