By The Cover: 30 Years of Simply Mad About The Mouse

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Hi. It’s been a while since I’ve done one of these, hasn’t it? I’ll level with you, on top of the usual burnout, every time I’ve done a By The Cover post, I’m always struck by some kind of bad luck immediately, or something bad happens in the world that affects me personally. Don’t believe me? The last time I did this was in February 2020; do I need to remind you how things went after? Still, I couldn’t resist dragging this series out of mothballs to honor the 30th anniversary of something that’s very much the reason why By The Cover exists at all.

On September 27th 1991, Disney released Simply Mad About The Mouse, a 35-minute collection of music videos featuring some of the most popular artists of the time covering, what else, Disney songs. It’s not the first time a well-known musician has taken Disney classics and made it their own, but none of them ever made a high-profile music video to go with it. These videos were exclusive to the Disney Channel and I remember occasionally hearing the songs on Radio Disney (yeah, remember when Radio Disney was a thing?) The CD version comes with two more songs; En Vogue’s “One Song/Someday My Prince Will Come”, which I already discussed in the first By The Cover, and an instrumental jazz version of “Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf” titled “Mad About The Wolf” by Kirk Whalum – but we’re not here to talk about the CD. I had the VHS tape when I was a kid, and it had me spellbound. Without realizing it, I was introduced to singers who would go on to be some of my all-time favorites. As great as these covers are on their own, each video is a unique experience perfectly tailored to its artists’ genre and style. That tape I had disappeared ages ago, but an acquaintance gifted me a brand-new one after hearing me rave about it, and another friend even ripped me a higher-quality laserdisc copy for my birthday.

As of writing this, the individual songs are available for purchase on most online music stores, but the videos, either as a whole or individually, haven’t been re-released since 1991; it’s not even on Disney Plus. Thankfully, fellow Disney enthusiasts have kept the memory of Simply Mad About The Mouse alive through the magic of YouTube. So come with me as I explore this unearthed musical corner of Disney history and see what makes it worth going mad over.

New Review Schedule!

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abbott and costello meet frankenstein, adventures of tintin, Aladdin, animated, animated feature, animated movie, animated movie review, animated musical, animation, anniversary, bedknobs and broomsticks, cartoon saloon, Comedy, comedy review, Disney, disney review, epic, fievel goes west, Horror, jurassic park, movie review, musical, musical review, Pixar, song of the sea, Steven Spielberg, the incredibles, tintin, Toy Story, triplets of belleville, tv review, twice upon a time, Who Framed Roger Rabbit

Hi everyone! I hope you’re having a great summer so far! You’ve told me about what movies you want me to finally take a look at yourselves, so we’ll be taking a break from the voting system and celebrating six years of Up On The Shelf with a pre-chosen review party that’s going to be over a year long! I want to thank everyone who’s supported the blog for this long by sharing how the new review schedule looks for the time being, as well as who requested what. Mark your calendars and rev up your streaming service/media player of choice, because here’s how things are going down:

August: Song of the Sea (gordhanx)

September: An American Tail: Fievel Goes West (John Dailey)

October: Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (The Animation Commendation)

November: Bedknobs and Broomsticks (Amelia Jones)

December: Christmas vote!

January ’22: Who Framed Roger Rabbit (Tristan Petty)

February ’22: The Incredibles (Mr. B)

March ’22: Toy Story (Rhapsody)

April ’22: The Ten Commandments (Samuel Minden)

May ’22: Twice Upon A Time (julayla)

June ’22: The Adventures of Tintin (Cup Of Joe)

July ’22: Seventh Anniversary Review

August ’22: Jurassic Park (MrXemnas1992)

September ’22: The Triplets of Belleville (Sam Flemming)

October ’22: Halloween vote!

November ’22: Aladdin (MichaelSar12IsBack)

December ’22: Christmas vote!

January ’23: The Little Mermaid (Ben Walderberger)

I’d like to add that in addition to these film reviews, I’ll be posting a review of every episode of Shelley Duvall’s Faerie Tale Theatre each month. Expect the first shortly after this August’s review is done. See you then!

Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue Review

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30th anniversary, alan menken, ALF, alvin, alvin and the cipmunks, animated special, anniversary, anti-drug psa, anti-drug special, anti-drugs, baby gonzo, baby kermit, baby piggy, barbara bush, brainy smurf, bugs bunny, cartoon, cartoon all-stars to the rescue, cartoon review, cartoon-all stars, corey, daffy duck, Dewey, disney review, drug psa, drugs, ducktales, frank welker, fuck ronald reagan, garfield, garfield and friends, george bush, george c. scott, ghostbusters, gonzo, howard ashman, Huey, kermit, kermit the frog, looney tunes, lorenzo music, Louie, Michael, michelangelo, miss piggy, muppet babies, nancy reagan, nephews, papa smurf, piggy, pooh, pooh bear, psa, review, ronald reagan, simon, slimer, smoke, smoking, smurfs, teenage mutant ninja turtles, television review, the real ghostbusters, the smurfs, theodore, tigger, turtles, tv review, tv special, winnie the pooh, wonderful ways to say no

30 years ago today (well, yesterday when I was originally writing this and was meant to go up but couldn’t finish it in time due to carpal tunnel), television history was made…well, for my generation, at least.

You probably already know Cartoon All-Stars To The Rescue from its reputation more than anything else. There’s plenty of online critics who have picked apart this bizarre little PSA before me, and more will with every generation that discovers it. This was an unusual attempt on behalf of the White House, the Ronald McDonald House charity, The Walt Disney Corporation, several powerful television stations, and the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences to get kids to say no to drugs. Did they succeed? Probably not. But in order to understand why, we have to go back to the beginning:

In the 1980s, America was gripped by a crippling epidemic of drug users, urban monsters enticing children off the playgrounds into increasingly dangerous and deadly vices such as smoking and drinking – or so they believed. Ronald Reagan and his First Lady Nancy made headlines by declaring drugs to be the number one problem in the country and signed bills and acts into action that cracked down hard on even the most minute offenders. I don’t know, I could have sworn there was a real worldwide health crisis going on at the time that could have used more attention and early action, but maybe that was just my imagination. It wasn’t like this whole drug narrative was a desperate attempt by Ronald to create his own boogeyman that would distract the American public from a disease that predominantly affected an unfairly maligned group that he and Nancy liked to pretend didn’t exist, someone’s gotta think of the children dammit! THINK OF THE CHILDREN!!

Never forget them. Never EVER forget them.

As nostalgic as it is to look back on the colorful anti-drug PSAs that plagued the airwaves in my day, learning more about why and how they were made as a result of Reagan’s manipulation leaves a bitter aftertaste. They also present blatantly unrealistic scenarios; never in my life has a shady-looking fellow come up to me and my friends in the schoolyard and offered us marijuana or crack. I didn’t even know these drugs existed until my school got a visit from D.A.R.E. In fact, the whole War On Drugs is downright hypocritical if you know anything about the Contra affair. This self-fabricated war mainly targeted African-American and Latino communities, which only served to inflate Reagan’s ego and fuel his open prejudices against minorities when not steering the country towards bankruptcy and the threat of nuclear war through a combination of greed, bloodlust, and encroaching senility. It makes you wonder, what kind of campaign did this old bastard run that got himself elected in the first place?

“…Either I’m on drugs right now or we’re all trapped in a time loop, and I don’t know which one is worse.”

The War On Drugs continued into the Bush administration with George Bush himself pushing this special as a huge step forward into saving children from drugs. He and Barbara Bush even filmed an awkward introduction for the VHS release. Cartoon All-Stars was a shockingly big deal at the time, not just for what it was trying to promote but for the fact that so many characters from a number of different studios were coming together all at once for the first and most likely only time. Roy E. Disney, in particular, played an enormous part in getting the special made. He stepped into the role of Executive Producer, ensured characters from some of Disney’s big Saturday morning cartoons like DuckTales and The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh appeared and had the special distributed through Buena Vista Home Video. Disney’s big name drew in more parties, and the use of other characters like Garfield and the Chipmunks got the personal approval from their creators.

Written and animated in the short time of eight weeks (startlingly quick turnaround time for animation), Cartoon All-Stars was part after-school special, part Who Framed Roger Rabbit/Avengers-style crossover, part commercial. The special was simulcast on four different major TV stations, and also freely distributed in video stores, schools, and libraries. I wasn’t born until after Cartoon All-Stars aired, but I spent my early childhood watching the tape fairly frequently. I enjoyed seeing all these cartoon characters I knew together, and admittedly the anti-drug message hit home pretty hard due to my grandfather passing away from lung cancer around that time. That part stuck with me longer than I care to admit. When you’re a four-year-old kid scolding an adult for smoking, it’s cute. When you’re fourteen? Eh, not so much.

By The Cover: Pinocchio

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80th anniversary, academy awards, anniversary, bibbidi bobbidi bach, bill frisell, billy joel, By The Cover, Christmas star, classic disney, close encounters of the third kind, desolation theme, Disney, disney animated, disney animated feature, disney animated movie, disney animation, disney golden age, disney muppets, disney song, foulfellow, gene simmons, Gepetto, gideon, gipsy kings, Give A Little Whistle, gypsy kings, herb alpert, hi diddle dee dee, honest john, i got no strings, I've Got No Strings, jazz cover, jazz loves disney, jiminy cricket, john williams, julietta novis, ken nordine, Little Wooden Head, mannheim steamroller, michael crawford, Muppets, music, Neverland Orchestra, oscars, Pinocchio, pleasure island, pokemon, ringo starr, sega genesis, Simply Mad About The Mouse, snes, song, song cover, song covers, songs of the stage and screen, Stay Awake, Stay Awake Various Interpretations of Music From Vintage Disney Films, stromboli, the king's men, the muppet show, Walt Disney, wayne horvitz, When You Wish Upon a Star

Yes folks, after a lengthy absence on this blog, we’re returning to the semi-popular recurring series By The Cover, wherein I discuss my favorite covers of songs entirely from movies. This is a particularly special entry as we’re marking the 80th anniversary of the timeless Disney animated feature, Pinocchio!

When people hear the words “animated musical”, movies like Beauty and the Beast or Snow White come to mind quicker than Pinocchio does. It’s a movie where the characters and story come first and the music comes a close second. That’s not a knock on the soundtrack, far from it. The music is the icing on what’s already a perfectly baked dark and delectable dessert. Leigh Harline and Ned Washington gave us some iconic songs ranging from the fun to the inspirational, and artists have stepped up to the overwhelming task of interpreting them time and again for the past fourscore. Let’s pay them some homage.

By The Cover: The Wizard of Oz

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80th anniversary, anniversary, Barbra Streisand, blogathon, boston pops orchestra, broadway, By The Cover, concert, cowardly lion, dainumo, ding dong the witch is dead, dorothy, E.Y. Harburg, eartha kitt, Ella Fitzgerald, eva cassidy, greta matassa, harold arlen, harry connick jr., harry nilsson, if i only had a brain, if i only had a heart, if i only had the nerve, if i were king of the forest, impelliterri, Israel "IZ" Kamakawiwoʻole, Israel Kamakawiwoʻole, Jackson Browne, jazz, jazz cover, jeff beck, john williams, joseph william morgan, josh groban, judy garland, kermit ruffins, king of the forest, madison square garden, mandy patinkin, merry old land of oz, michael crawford, music, musical, natalie cole, nathan lane, off to see the wizard, optimistic voices, over the rainbow, oz blogathon, pentatonix, peter macdonough, phil wilson, Pogo, rock, rock music, scarecrow, somewhere over the rainbow, song, song cover, song covers, straight outta oz, the fifth estate, the jitterbug, the wizard of ahhhs, the wizard of oz, tin man, todrick hall, tony bennett, Trio de Paz, what a wonderful world, wicked witch, wicked witch of the west, witch, witches, wizard of oz, wizard of oz blogathon

To read the first entry of the By The Cover series and see what this is all about, click HERE.

I’ve already discussed at length how much of an impact The Wizard of Oz has made upon the world. Well today I’m doing it again. This time I’m focusing on a big part of what made it such an iconic film – the music. Needless to say a movie that gave us such memorable tunes would ensure decades worth of covers by plenty of voices that are worth revisiting and rediscovering. So, for The Wizard of Oz’s 80th anniversary and as a part of Taking Up Room’s Wizard of Oz Blogathon, we’re taking an audio journey over the rainbow.

MovieBabble: The Magical Underrated Adventures of Baron Munchausen

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Happy 30th anniversary to the incredible fantasy that I’ve praised multiple times before, Terry Gilliam’s The Adventures of Baron Munchausen! I was shocked to see it not come up on the movie anniversary sign-up list for MovieBabble and immediately set out to rectify that.

If you haven’t seen it before or need a reminder as to why it’s a film that deserves more recognition, click HERE to read my article on it. Also, please enjoy this fan-made trailer I made a while back. For glory, adventure, and the defiance of reality!

Updates and Sleeping Beauty’s 60th Anniversary Article

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1950's, anniversary, krimson rogue, moviebabble, sleeping beauty, the book was better, twilight, twilight new moon

I hate being in this position. I pride myself on getting all my work done right on time. I hate to keep you all waiting, especially when this month’s particular review is a long-anticipated reward for an act of generosity. This lateness is something I can’t apologize enough for. I can promise this, however – it’ll be out shortly after February’s review is posted, and those aren’t the only things I have planned for then.

I try not to make excuses when it comes to my writing, but in this instance I do have my reasons. One, I wasn’t kidding at the beginning of the month when I said all that work piled up on me. Not only was I trying to finish my book dummy before a certain deadline, but I got a great job video editing for Krimson Rogue and his awesome review series The Book Was Better, which you should definitely go check out when you’re done reading this. And what masterpiece of literature-based cinema was I tasked with to prove my worth?

“The sparkling…it’s burned into my mind forever…”

All right, to be honest I only covered the last episode of a three-part review of New Moon; but it still meant watching the movie, skimming through it for clips and fighting the urge to roll my eyes back into my skull any time Kristen Stewart’s slackjawed stare cropped up, which was far too often for my sanity. I had plenty of fun ripping into it with Krimson, but now I’m more than ready to wash my hands of that time and soul consuming monstrosity*.

Two, it felt awkward having a review of Disney’s second animated movie come before, without giving too much away, February’s review. It’s a familiar, comforting story I know and feel relief that Miss Stewart has never had anything to do with –

Oh COME ON!!

On a lighter note, this week marks the 60th anniversary of Disney’s Sleeping Beauty, and I’ve written up another article for MovieBabble that covers its artistic merits. Click HERE to check it out! Happy birthday, you beautiful dreamer.

I look forward to sharing the next review in a few days’ time. Until then, I hope the first month of the new year has been promising so far.

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* – And speaking of soul consuming monstrosities, my next job for Krimson will be the video game adaptation of Dante’s Inferno, which will be coming sometime in a few weeks on his channel. I never thought I’d relish the sight of killer demons and painfully bloody ironic tortures, but after sparkly vampires and poorly rendered werewolves with six-packs, it’s like sweet eyewash.