TV REVIEW : A ‘Mickey’ on Disney Channel

Although it’s more intelligent and tasteful than NBC’s tribute last Sunday, “Here’s to You, Mickey Mouse” (airing at 8 tonight on the Disney Channel) doesn’t tell viewers very much about the world’s most famous cartoon character or the artists who created him.

Hosts Mark Linn-Baker and Soleil Moon Frye “accidentally” meet in Mickey’s dressing room just before a big birthday celebration. After some labored repartee, Frye persuades Linn-Baker to show her a tape he’s supposedly compiled from contributions by Mickey’s friends. The program consists of the rather choppy montages on tape, taken from more than three dozen Mickey cartoons.

Except for a few brief comments about Walt Disney’s personal contributions, the viewer learns nothing about the animators, writers, designers and voice artists who developed the character.

Mickey’s appearance changes radically within the montages--from the rubbery-limbed black and white mouse in “Steamboat Willie” to Minnie’s genial, Technicolor suitor in “Nifty Nineties” (1941). But no explanation is given of when those changes took place, or why, or who initiated them.

Describing an animated character as if he were a real person (“Walt and Mickey made friends easily”) denigrates the work of the artists who made him seem real, and should be relegated to the scrap heap of inapt cliches.

“Here’s to You, Mickey Mouse” is the latest excrescence of the gargantuan media campaign Disney has orchestrated around the 60th anniversary of the character’s debut. Maybe when he turns 70, his fans will get to hear the fascinating story of how Mickey evolved over the decades--instead of inane comments about how nervous he gets before a public appearance.