Think what you may about Disney’s recent string of films, but the company’s mascot, Mickey Mouse, has been enjoying a resurgence these past few years. There was a time in the early 2000s when the famous mouse was starting to lose his stardom and other Disney characters were coming to fill the spotlight. But, ever the stalwart, Mickey welcomed his 90th anniversary with a bevy of quality comics and the phenomenal Mickey Mouse TV series. As part of that celebration, Mickey Mouse: The Quest for the Missing Memories, an eight-part miniseries, was released in late April of 2019.
Now collected as a trade paperback, the full story is available in one place for the first time. It focuses on the titular mouse having his memory wiped by the villainous Phantom Blot and the adventure to restore said memories. In each issue, Mickey teams up with one of his pals and restores one fragment of his personality.
As to be expected, the plot is straightforward, and each issue serves as a little vignette that highlights one of Mickey’s positive traits. The stories vary in how engaging they are; the highlights for me being Scrooge’s adventure involving the Fountain of Youth. Conversely, I’ve never found Eega Beeva to be a particularly thrilling character, and while I was excited to see the tragically underused Horace Horsecollar and Clarabelle Cow, I felt like their story was one of the weakest in the book.
The visual style of the book was a bit unexpected. It reminded me of the ’90s-era Disney cartoons like Goof Troop and Ducktales. The backgrounds and main cast looked great (even if I do prefer the red shorts Mickey Mouse to the polo and belt style). My complaints overall are pretty minor: panel layout is virtually the same on every page, and designs for tertiary characters were a bit bland and felt out of place compared to Mickey’s round, exaggerated look.
This might be the mother of all nitpicks, but I’ve read a significant amount of Disney comics at this point, and it’s weird that Donald Duck doesn’t have a unique font or text bubble to show his voice is different. I realize that I’m arguing against nearly 100 years of publishing here, but his voice is so unique that seeing his text the same as everyone else’s is distracting. This specific, duck-related hill is the hill I will die on.
Mickey Mouse: The Quest for the Missing Memories is a fun story that won’t eat up too much of your time. If you have kids who are new to Disney, it might even be a good place to start when it comes to introducing them to the characters, especially more obscure members of the group like Horace, Chief O’Hara, or Phantom Blot.
Creative Team: Francesco Artibani (Writer), Giorgio Cavazzano (Artist), Marco Gervasio (Artist), Andrea Freccero (Artist), Marco Mazzarello (Artist), Stefano Intini (Artist), Claudio Sciarrone (Artist), Lorenzo Pastrovicchio (Artist), Corrado Mastantuono (Artist)
Publisher: IDW
Click here to purchase.