"Dennis the Duck" is the twenty-sixth episode of House of Mouse, it originally aired on ABC on May 18, 2002. It is notably the last episode to air on Disney's One Saturday Morning before the show moved to the Disney Channel and Toon Disney that September.
Synopsis[]
It's Black-and-White Day at the House of Mouse, and the club is packed with old black and white cartoon characters. Donald doesn't think that black-and-white cartoons are funny, but Daisy thinks they are, with one particular favorite black-and-white cartoon character being Dennis the Duck, who arrives soon later. He tries to impress Donald with his "have-a-sandwich" routine, where the smacks his victims with a black-and-white sandwich. Daisy thinks it's funny, but Donald is less than impressed. In the meantime, Mickey shows the audience an old cartoon during the rubber-hose days.
Mickey later has the Rubber Hose band he hired to entertain the guests as he plays a clip of another old cartoon while Dennis continues to follow Donald and try to impress him with his sandwich routine. Having had enough, the annoyed colored duck exclaims that he doesn't think Dennis is funny, so Dennis dejectedly leaves Donald alone. Donald feels bad at first for upsetting Dennis, but he brushes it off as he sits in a chair. Daisy tells Donald that Dennis is his biggest fan and she hopes that Donald didn't upset the poor duckling. Mickey then shows another cartoon.
Mickey and Minnie ask Donald if he's seen Dennis anywhere, to which the colored duck denies. Mickey tells Donald that Dennis is the president, vice-president, and treasurer of the Donald Duck fan club (as well as the only member). An exasperated Donald agrees to look for Dennis, and he finds him trying to suicide by erasing himself. Donald tries to stop him and performs the sandwich routine on himself in order to make Dennis laugh, but the black-and-white duck says you're not supposed to hit yourself with the sandwich. Donald then hits Daisy with a sandwich, and he finds it funny with Dennis. The two ducks reconcile as Mickey closes the show.
Featured shorts[]
Sponsor[]
Accommodations for today's black and white toons provided by: "Inkwell Springs Resort"
Trivia[]
- The guest character, Dennis the Duck, is most likely a reference to the prototype version of Donald seen in the 1931 poem More HooZoo, character design-wise.
- He very likely served as a stand-in for Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, Walt Disney's first ever cartoon star of the 1920s, which was still under ownership of Universal and therefore didn't have the rights to at the time this show came out. Co-incidentally, Disney would successfully regain the rights to Oswald from Universal in 2006.
- Despite being billed as a classic cartoon character, Dennis the Duck is in fact not and was a parody of classic cartoon characters created specifically for the House of Mouse.
- The goat that was in the Rubber Hose Band was fed the music sheets and had its tail turned like a crank to start the music, like the one in Steamboat Willie.
- In addition, the music that the Rubber Hose Band perform is "Turkey in the Straw", which is also from that same cartoon.
- This episode has a dark moment in which Dennis tries to erase himself only to be saved by Donald. This is close to a suicide attempt, which is rather a dark moment for a show like this.
- The animation of Mickey arriving onstage in his Steamboat Willie design was reused "Not So Goofy".
Censorship[]
In the B&W Mickey Mouse cartoon The Whoopee Party, there is a stereotypical scene in which matches burn themselves, which they then appear as if they have blackface, and then they say "Mammy". In this episode, this blackface matches gag is edited with repeated footage of the dancing matches plastered over it.
Voice cast[]
- Wayne Allwine as Mickey Mouse
- Tony Anselmo as Donald Duck
- Michael Bell as Pongo
- Jeff Bennett as Dennis the Duck
- Corey Burton as Mad Hatter, Goatman
- Bill Farmer as Goofy
- Maurice LaMarche as Mortimer Mouse, March Hare
- Tress MacNeille as Daisy Duck
- Jason Marsden as Max Goof
- Rod Roddy as Mike
- Russi Taylor as Minnie Mouse
- April Winchell as Clarabelle Cow
Gallery[]
_-_Dennis_The_Duck2.jpg "House Of Mouse - (Ep. 26) - Dennis The Duck2.jpg (157 KB)")
