Over its centennial existence, The Walt Disney Company has held a tradition of producing a catalog of wholesome, family-friendly films, especially when it came to the company’s biggest icon, Mickey Mouse. Since his debut in 1928, Walt Disney’s famous mouse has become synonymous with the company. Although Mickey had been well-established as the company mascot by the ’90s, cartoons starring him were few and far between. Recognizing this, Disney made a push to revitalize him, starting with The Prince and the Pauper, which was a featurette the company felt so strongly toward that it released theatrically to bring favor to The Rescuers Down Under.

As that movie fell a bit short of expectations and Mickey had become too bland to carry a movie on his own, the studios’ hunt for Mickey’s reemergence via shorts continued. Then-Disney-Studio-President, Jeffrey Katzenberg, and the studio’s Animation Executives, Thomas Schumacher and Peter Schneider, tasked Disney Creative Executive Kathleen Gavin and her team to come up with the perfect short for their leading mouse. After several ideas were pitched, Katzenberg greenlit the pitch made by Chris Bailey for what would eventually become Mickey Mouse and the Runaway Brain.

What is ‘Mickey Mouse and the Runaway Brain’ About?
Image via Disney

The plot of Runaway Brain, written by Tim Hauser and directed by Bailey, finds Mickey (Wayne Allwine) at home playing a Snow White-based fighting game. When Minnie (Russi Taylor) comes home, we learn that our hero has committed the heinous act of forgetting about the anniversary of their first date. Mickey’s attempt to sidestep the gaffe leads him to mistakenly promise her an extravagant cruise to Hawaii. Ever the loving spouse, Mickey takes on a gig from the Wanted Ads “mindless work” that pays the exact amount needed to make it happen. When he shows up for the job, he’s kidnapped by Dr. Frankenollie (Kelsey Grammar), a mad scientist who switches Mickey’s brain with that of Julius (Jim Cummings) — which is best described as a Frankenstein’s monster version of his arch nemesis Pete — leaving the beloved hero’s body as a deranged creature.

If there were ever a way for Walt Disney to reintroduce Mickey to the general audience, putting him in the starring role of a horror story would be the way to do it. Runaway Brain subverts what fans knew of Mickey Mouse by placing him in the body of his longtime antagonist and turning his body into an animalistic, Id-centric creature. Within the film’s seven minutes, it fits in an entertaining caper that parodies the classic Frankenstein story and other aspects of the horror genre while also fitting in as part of it.

Has Mickey Mouse Ever Starred in Horror Before?
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Although the Mouse House has given Mickey more suburban adventures in recent years, he’s no stranger to the less wholesome genres. Mickey’s initial characteristics were that of a scamp who would commonly find himself in off kilter adventures. Since 1929, he’s had firsthand encounters with several horror elements such as the undead, mad scientists and haunted houses. In fact, Lonesome Ghosts, a spooky short in which Mickey, Donald and Goofy are ghost exterminators for-hire is such an adventure and can still be watched on Disney+. Runaway Brain isn’t Mickey’s first bout with a mad scientist, either. In the 1933 short, Mickey and the Mad Doctor, Mickey must brave a scary mansion that houses Dr. XXX’s laboratory in order to save his dog, Pluto, from being experimented on. It’s also worth noting that Mickey Mouse and the Mad Doctor had its share of conflict with audiences and censors. Upon release, the classic short was deemed too scary for children in some countries and thusly banned in the UK and Nazi Germany.

The company may have been divided on the movie due to its tones and depiction of Mickey, but Runaway Brain is hardly their first time venturing into darker, scary territory. Cinematic predecessors like Fantasia, The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad and The Black Cauldron preceded the short and touched upon much scarier elements as each film had stories involving death, evil spirits, monsters and dark magic. The Night on Bald Mountain segment from Fantasia even features Chernabog, a massive scary demon, who summons nightmarish ghosts which he unleashes upon the village which Bald Mountain overlooks.

Related: 28 Newly-Restored Classic Disney Shorts Are Coming to Disney+ This Summer

What Happened to ‘Runaway Brain?’
Image via Disney

Following its theatrical debut, Runaway Brain was generally well-received by fans and was even nominated for The Best Animated Short Film at the 68th Academy Awards, only to be beaten by the Wallace and Gromit short, A Close Shave. Despite this, Chris Bailey and the production team faced challenges behind the scenes. Polygon sheds some light on the matter via interviews with many of those involved in one of the few, and arguably the most in-depth, articles covering Runaway Brain. According to Bailey, there was internal conflict concerning the cartoon, stating, “Jeffrey wanted it to be really aggressive and didn’t want anybody to mistake it for anything that had been dug out of the vault and Tom and Peter were more protective of the classic Mickey and more conservative.”

Bailey ended up getting the support of Jeffrey Katzenberg, but the short would lose its champion, with Katzenberg gone by 1994. This allowed the more traditionally minded Schumacher and Schneider to make their desired changes and soften the movie. Most notably, the final version nixes a moment in which Mickey is violently electrocuted, as well as substituting a pillow sculpture of Minnie being used as bait for Julius to chase with a wallet photo instead when the couple use him as transportation to finally get to Hawaii at the end of the cartoon.

Although Runaway Brain was even nominated for the prestigious Academy Award, it seems like Disney makes an effort to not acknowledge the cartoon. According to that same Polygon article, the crew felt the studio’s support starting to slip during its production. On top of not having the Animation Executives’ support due to the unsavory depiction of Mickey, Kathleen Gavin was quoted as knowing “the studio had abandoned it” when they attached its premiere to A Kid in King Arthur’s Court. One could infer the movie’s expected success based on her statement alone, but to better put this in perspective: the 1995 live-action, medieval family feature is generally regarded unfavorably by sites like MetaCritic and holds a 5% Critics Rating and a 27% Audience Rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Runaway Brain is only available directly by the company as either a digital exclusive with Movies Anywhere’s Walt Disney Animated Short Films Collection or as part of Walt Disney’s 2004 release of Walt Disney Treasures: Mickey Mouse in Living Color Vol. 2: 1939 – Today.

While Disney may distance itself from Runaway Brain, and it may not have revitalized Mickey how they wanted, it still stands as a well-executed short. Although it’s not included as part of the company’s Classic Disney Shorts Collection on Disney+, it can still be found elsewhere online. Given the positive reception of the current Paul Rudish era of shorts and the understanding that Runaway Brain doesn’t differ much in both tone and humor, now would be the perfect time for Disney to revisit the short and embrace Runaway Brain with the modern audience.

The Big Picture

Runaway Brain was an attempt by Disney to revitalize Mickey Mouse, placing him in a horror story and subverting his wholesome image. Mickey Mouse has had previous encounters with horror elements in older shorts like Lonesome Ghosts and Mickey and the Mad Doctor. Despite facing internal conflicts and not receiving much support from the studio, Runaway Brain was well-received and even nominated for an Academy Award.