1001 Animations: Mumbai Madness

Show: Mickey Mouse (2013)
Episode: 26
Year: 2014

Writer(s): David Bachman, Alanzo Ramirez Ramos, Paul Rudish

A good charm of many of these new Mickey Mouse shorts, specifically those that utilize a foreign language and setting is that you don't need to know the language being spoken to understand what's going on. You can easily the gist of the foreign dialouge. And given the fact that this epsiode also barely uses any dialouge beyond Indian it is very impressive. As Mickey guides this mysterious elephant in his taxi throughout Mumbai we see the animation and how although it is meant to emulate a similar style to the early Mickey cartoons, it's far superior to them in terms of quality. Beyond how Mickey ride the roads of  annoying cows through the majesty of Bollywood music we also get an amazing reference to Dumbo and a cameo by The Jungle Book's vultures, and yes The Jungle Book did take place in India and not Africa, just to clarify. And I'm not entirely sure but I think Mickey using the spicy curry to fuel his taxi also doubles as a fart joke, since Indian food also gives people the runs.

To me, what I find most interesting is my reaction to the elephant patron. Despite my fears, I never felt nervous or anxious while he was on screen, he wasn't loud or obnoxious and as such he only barely trumpeted, which is mainly why I fear elephants to begin with and why they make me cry. I suppose my good feelings towards this pachyderm come from the fact that he may or may not have been Ganesh, who is a very loving Indian God. Or not, I dunno shit about Hindu Mytholgy. This is definitely a short deserving of an Emmy nomination!

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