The Mad Doctor
Encyclopedia
The Mad Doctor is a classic Mickey Mouse
Mickey Mouse
Mickey Mouse is a cartoon character created in 1928 by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks at The Walt Disney Studio. Mickey is an anthropomorphic black mouse and typically wears red shorts, large yellow shoes, and white gloves...

 cartoon which was released in 1933.

Plot

The plot centers on the title character, a mad scientist
Mad scientist
A mad scientist is a stock character of popular fiction, specifically science fiction. The mad scientist may be villainous or antagonistic, benign or neutral, and whether insane, eccentric, or simply bumbling, mad scientists often work with fictional technology in order to forward their schemes, if...

, Dr. XXX, who has captured Mickey's dog, Pluto
Pluto (Disney)
Pluto, also called Pluto the Pup, is a cartoon character created in 1930 by Walt Disney Productions. He is a light brown , medium-sized, short-haired dog. Unlike Goofy, Pluto is not anthropomorphic beyond some characteristics such as facial expression...

. Mickey tries to rescue him before the doctor can perform his grotesque experiment: attaching Pluto's head to the body of a chicken in order to "find out if the end result will bark or crow or cackle". Mickey battles his way through booby traps and animated skeletons
Skeleton (undead)
A Skeleton is a type of physically manifested undead often found in fantasy, gothic and horror fiction, and mythical art. Most are human skeletons, but they can also be from any creature or race found on Earth or in the fantasy world.- Myth and folklore :...

 before eventually getting caught and strapped onto a table to get cut open by a buzzsaw. The audience then find Mickey in bed and woken up by a fly, whose buzzing resembles the whirring of the spinning blade. Not yet realizing the episode was only a nightmare, Mickey shouts for Pluto, who eagerly jumps onto Mickey's bed.

Allusions

The short uses the same gag that appears in "Haunted House" (1929), which has the door lock itself after Mickey enters the house.

Reception and Legacy

The short's horror
Horror film
Horror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres...

 overtones made it unusual for a Mickey Mouse cartoon. Some theaters refused to show it, believing it to be too scary for kids.

The Mad Doctor was also the basis for, and title of the second level in the game, Mickey Mania: The Timeless Adventures of Mickey Mouse (for Super Nintendo
Super Nintendo Entertainment System
The Super Nintendo Entertainment System is a 16-bit video game console that was released by Nintendo in North America, Europe, Australasia , and South America between 1990 and 1993. In Japan and Southeast Asia, the system is called the , or SFC for short...

, Sega Genesis, Sega CD and PlayStation
PlayStation
The is a 32-bit fifth-generation video game console first released by Sony Computer Entertainment in Japan on December 3, .The PlayStation was the first of the PlayStation series of consoles and handheld game devices. The PlayStation 2 was the console's successor in 2000...

 (as Mickey's Wild Adventure); a depiction of the Mad Doctor level is used as the cover art for the game.

The Mad Doctor returns in the Wii
Wii
The Wii is a home video game console released by Nintendo on November 19, 2006. As a seventh-generation console, the Wii primarily competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3. Nintendo states that its console targets a broader demographic than that of the two others...

 game, Epic Mickey
Epic Mickey
Epic Mickey is a 2010 Mickey Mouse action-adventure platforming video game designed by Warren Spector and developed by Junction Point Studios for the Wii console...

as the secondary villain. For a long time, he was an ally of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit
Oswald the Lucky Rabbit
Oswald the Lucky Rabbit is an anthropomorphic rabbit and animated cartoon character created by Ub Iwerks and Walt Disney for films distributed by Universal Pictures in the 1920s and 1930s...

 and constructed him animatronic sidekicks based on Donald Duck
Donald Duck
Donald Fauntleroy Duck is a cartoon character created in 1934 at Walt Disney Productions and licensed by The Walt Disney Company. Donald is an anthropomorphic white duck with a yellow-orange bill, legs, and feet. He typically wears a sailor suit with a cap and a black or red bow tie. Donald is most...

, Daisy Duck
Daisy Duck
Daisy Duck is a cartoon character created in 1940 by Walt Disney Productions as the girlfriend of Donald Duck. Like Donald, Daisy is an anthropomorphic white duck, but has large eyelashes and ruffled tail feathers to suggest a skirt. She is often seen wearing a hair bow, blouse, and shoes...

 and Goofy
Goofy
Goofy is a cartoon character created in 1932 at Walt Disney Productions. Goofy is a tall, anthropomorphic dog, and typically wears a turtle neck and vest, with pants, shoes, white gloves, and a tall hat originally designed as a rumpled fedora. Goofy is a close friend of Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck...

. But when the thinner disaster that created the Shadow Blot
Phantom Blot
The Phantom Blot is a fictional character featured in various media by The Walt Disney Company. He is an enemy of Mickey Mouse. He first appeared in the Mickey Mouse comic strip adventure Mickey Mouse Outwits The Phantom Blot by Floyd Gottfredson, which was published in the form of daily strips...

 ravaged Wasteland, he betrayed Oswald and became the Blot's right hand man, using the Beetleworx, former construction robots he built for Oswald, as shock troopers
Shock Troopers
is an arcade game developed by Saurus. Gameplay involves taking command of one or three commandos in an 8-way shooter through 6 stages of opposing forces, weaponry, and power-ups.-Story:...

 for the Blot's army. He convinces the Blot to kidnap Mickey Mouse in order to steal his heart and become a cartoon star, though the Mad Doctor has plans to rule over the Wasteland. He is the boss of the Lonesome Manor stage, where Mickey needs to shut down the generators with either paint thinner or the combined assistance of two Gremlins and a speeding Doom Buggy. Either way, the doctor is revealed to be a Beetleworx himself, revealing his plan to rule the Wasteland before a malfunctioning pod blasts him into the stratosphere, leaving behind a part for the Moonliner Rockets. His cartoon also appears as a transition level and the full cartoon is even available to unlock.

This cartoon is in the public domain
Public domain
Works are in the public domain if the intellectual property rights have expired, if the intellectual property rights are forfeited, or if they are not covered by intellectual property rights at all...

, and can be found on many low budget VHS tapes and DVDs, usually paired with "Minnie's Yoo Hoo" and "The Spirit of '43
The Spirit of '43
The Spirit of '43 is an American animated World War II propaganda film created by Walt Disney Studios in 1943 and starring Donald Duck. It is a sequel to The New Spirit. The purpose of the film is to encourage patriotic Americans to file and pay their income taxes faithfully every 3 months in order...

". It was also released on DVD in 2002 as part of Walt Disney Treasures: Mickey Mouse In Black and White.
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