Shorts Review: Mickey Mouse – Fire Escape

While this episode was uploaded to the DisneyShorts YouTube account last week, it didn’t air on the Disney  channel until tonight. It was on the schedule for last Friday night. I think Disney just wants to screw with me. Well, let’s take a look at the episode now that it has aired.

Fire Escape starts out on a bit of a weird note. Mickey is headed to Minnie’s apartment for dinner. On his way, he comes upon Goofy sitting on a bench. Goofy then proceeds to tell Mickey that Minnie is “smoking” and “on fire.” Just before Mickey can really get angry at his friend for checking out his girl, Goofy points out the thick, black smoke pouring out of Minnie’s window. He yells at Goofy, telling him to call for help, before rushing over to Minnie’s building. Dutifully, Mickey prevents an old woman from entering the burning building then he rushes up the fire escape, making sure all of the residents (and their babies) have safely evacuated.

Before he can race back up to save Minnie, the entire fire escape collapses, leaving only a short ladder hanging from Minnie’s window. All of the residents form a huge pile to get Mickey up to Minnie’s ladder. I’m not sure what Mickey’s plan was. After all, he wouldn’t be able to get back down once he got up there.

He finally climbs through Minnie’s window…only to find that the black smoke was a result of Minnie’s awful cooking skills. Minnie has not only burned to death whatever she was cooking, she has also made a huge mess of the entire kitchen. Cheerfully, Minnie tries to feed Mickey her homemade dinner. Mickey tries his best to avoid the blackened bite being forced towards his mouth.

Just in the nick of time, Goofy rushes through the door with two firemen in tow. The firefighters turn their hoses on full blast, washing away Minnie’s meal entirely. Mickey giggles in relief.

I was a bit confused by Fire Escape. First and foremost, Mickey gets offended by the mere thought of his best friend thinking his girlfriend is hot. It seems completely out of character for the mouse. You’d think he would know by now that the words that come out of Goofy’s mouth aren’t the words he actually intends to say. Then there was the weird pile of neighbors. I understand what the concept was but it didn’t seem to fully work when brought to life. Especially when Goofy and the firemen ran through Minnie’s front door and not through the window via a fire truck ladder or something. Finally, finishing off with a joke about Minnie’s cooking skills and her lack of noticing the black smoke emanating from her pan was completely wrong. I would have been fine with one of those. Perhaps Minnie burned the food because she was distracted by another dish but to have her holding the pan while black smoke covered everything? I’m disappointed since Minnie was so awesome in the last episode. It’s 2014. Bring back awesome Minnie. Leave 1950s Minnie on the cutting room floor. Thank you.