Mickey Mouse Makeover — Could It Be?

The New York Times brings some startling news, sure to ruffle the feathers of those who grew up watching that beloved, little mouse on Sunday mornings. Mickey's being "re-engineered," an ominous word for redrawn and given a moodier personality. The idea is to help him appeal to a new generation of kids.

"Keeping cartoon characters trapped in amber is one of the surest routes to irrelevancy," writes the Times. "While Mickey remains a superstar in many homes, particularly overseas, his static nature has resulted in a generation of Americans — the one that grew up with Nickelodeon and Pixar — that knows him, but may not love him."

Does it say something about this generation of children that the mouse designed for them will be what the Times calls "cantankerous and cunning, as well as heroic"? Is it that kids these days can't stomach an imperviously cheerful, non-superhero cartoon character? Or is it simply that, like the rest of us, they'd rather watch characters as flawed and "human" as themselves?

Kids these days want, Disney imagines, a character like the mouse that will bravely make his way across a wasteland in the new Mickey video game to come out next year, Epic Mickey. This game is to be the new Mickey's debut, and its release the end of an era.

Photo courtesy of dbking, via Flickr