Mickey Mouse Works

Mickey Mouse Works (also known as Disney's Mickey Mouse Works or simply Mouse Works) is an American animated television series produced by Walt Disney Television Animation featuring Mickey Mouse and his friends in a series of animated shorts. Roy Disney (chairman of the board of directors of The Walt Disney Company in that moment), working closely with Disney Television's Los Angeles-based senior vice president, Barry Blumberg, and executive producers Roberts Gannaway and Tony Craig, created an opening sequence in which music would be played by the characters, similar to the early Mickey Mouse cartoons. Production began in January 1998, and Mickey Mouse Works, a weekly half-hour series scheduled to premiere in January 1999, was produced by an animation team assigned exclusively to create new adventures for Disney's most famous characters. The first Disney television animated series to be produced in widescreen high definition, it is formatted as a variety show, with skits starring Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck, Daisy Duck, Goofy, Pluto and Ludwig Von Drake while other characters from the Mickey Mouse universe appear as supporting or minor characters. Musical themes for each character were composed by Stephen James Taylor with a live 12-piece band and extensive use of the fretless guitar to which the music of the series was nominated for an Annie Award in both 1999 and 2001. Most of the shorts from the series were later used in House of Mouse.