Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures

Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures
Mighty Mouse in Ralph Bakshi's adaptation
Created by	Ralph Bakshi
Starring	Patrick Pinney Maggie Roswell Dana Hill Charles Adler Michael Pataki
Country of origin	USA
No. of seasons	2
No. of episodes	19 (48 segments)
Production
Executive producer(s)	John W. Hyde (Season 1) Tom Klein (Season 2)
Producer(s)	Ralph Bakshi
Running time	30 minutes
Production company(s)	Bakshi-Hyde Ventures Terrytoons
Distributor	CBS Television Distribution
Release
Original network	CBS
Picture format	4:3
Audio format	Stereo
Original release	September 19, 1987 – October 22, 1988

Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures is a 1987 revival of the Mighty Mouse cartoon character. Produced by Bakshi-Hyde Ventures (a joint venture of animator Ralph Bakshi and producer John W. Hyde) and Terrytoons, it aired on CBS on Saturday mornings from fall 1987 through the 1988–89 season. It was briefly rerun on Saturday mornings on Fox Kids in November 1992.

The series was a commercial half-hour format (22 minutes plus commercials), and each episode contained two self-contained 11 minute cartoon segments. It differed from the earlier incarnations of Mighty Mouse in many ways. It gave Mighty Mouse the secret identity of Mike Mouse, a sidekick in the form of the orphan Scrappy Mouse (who knows the hero's secret identity), heroic colleagues such as the Bat-Bat and his sidekick Tick the Bug Wonder, and the League of Super-Rodents, as well as introduced antagonists like Petey Pate, Big Murray, Madame Marsupial and The Cow (actually a bull, because he is Madame Marsupial's boyfriend and he possesses male traits). The original Mighty Mouse villain Oil Can Harry made a couple of appearances. Pearl Pureheart was not always the damsel in distress, and many episodes did not feature her at all. Mighty Mouse's light-operatic singing was eliminated except for his trademark, "Here I come to save the day!", which was sometimes interrupted.

Unlike other American animated TV shows of the time (and Mighty Mouse's past theatrical shorts) the show's format was loose and episodes did not follow a particular formula. Episodes varied from superhero type stories to parodies of shows like The Honeymooners ("Mighty's Wedlock Whimsy") and the 1960s Batman series ("Night of the Bat-Bat" and "Bat With a Golden Tongue"), movies like Fantastic Voyage ("Mundane Voyage") and Japanese monster films (the opening of "Mighty's Wedlock Whimsy"), comic books ("See You in the Funny Papers"), and even lampooned other cartoons ("Don't Touch That Dial!") and specifically Alvin and the Chipmunks ("Mighty's Benefit Plan").