Meeska Mooska Mickey Mouse! – The Chad Frye

Back in 2005 I was thrilled to be asked to come on board a new show for Disney called Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. I had doodled and painted the mouse just for fun for many years, even subtly sneaking him into the background of boring still life paintings that were required in college. To finally have an opportunity to work on the mouse and his pals every day as a part of my career was a privilege indeed. I put my all into the first two of Mickey‘s five seasons before moving on to other projects.

When I first walked into the party, I thought this was one of the Clubhouse toys, but it was actually a CAKE!

Well, now it’s time to say goodbye to all our company. While the last of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse‘s new episodes are being finished up, production on Clubhouse is ending. Last Wednesday the Disney Channel threw a nice party for those of us that were a part of re-introducing Mickey to a new generation.

However, Mickey is NOT going away! Mickey Mouse Clubhouse will continue to air for some time, as well as new Mickey Mouse short cartoons that are being made in a retro style for the Disney Channel, and I hear rumblings that Disney Feature Animation may be making a big screen Mickey short, too.

For now though, I thought I’d share some pictures with you of the people who were responsible for bringing all that joy to your kids. Hot dog, hot dog, hot diggity dog!

Disney Channel executive Nancy Kanter thanking the troops for a job well done in bringing Mickey back into the consciousness as an entertainer and paving the way for pre-school shows at Disney.

Here I am with Kelly Ward (Putzie from “Grease” who directed the voices for our show and wrote a few episodes) and the great line producer Bradley Bowlen.

Even Mickey and Minnie dropped by for the festivities. (Minnie gave me a smooch when Mickey wasn’t looking. I have that affect on large rodents.)

Series music composer Mike Himelstein and director Sherie Pollack have a discussion in the foreground while Disney Channel’s Emily Hart, story editor and producer Mark Seidenberg and executive producer Rob LaDuca get ready to be filmed for a little flipbook.

There were two really neat gifts that they gave us at the party, the first were those baseball caps. Stitched onto the back of them in small lettering was “Meeska, Mooska, Mickey Mouse!” which is always said on the show to make the Clubhouse appear. The second cool thing was the custom flipbooks! You stood in front of the white screen seen in the picture above, and they film you for seven seconds. They then instantly printed out little flipbooks of you with a special Mickey Mouse Clubhouse cover on them. It was a really great idea for an animation party!

Writer Tom Hart, story editor and producer Mark Seidenberg, composer Mike Himelstein, and writer Brian Swenlin all looking at Mark’s newly minted personal flip book.

Me with Sy Thomas who was really the art director of the series, and one swell guy. Our cubicles were next to each other when I was on the show.

Did I mention it was a bowling party? The Disney Channel rented out an old 8-lane alley in Montrose, CA naturally called Montrose Bowl. The alley looks like it is still in the 1950s, and is a GREAT place for parties of a moderate size! This is where we had our first crew wrap party at the end of season 1!

Bradley Bowlen bowlin’.

Bill Farmer, the voice of Pluto and Goofy, as he gets ready to throw down during a game with me. Bill must have had five or six strikes during our game.

The very talented layout artist (designer of backgrounds) and amazing photographer David Beall who now works on “Family Guy”.

The lovely Carmen Cano, one of the coordinators on “Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.”

Here with editor Reid Kramer, and executive producer Rob LaDuca who I just found out was an effects artist on “Return of the Jedi” when I recently revisited the film!

Parting shot with the affable and extremely talented voice artist Bill Farmer.

“It’s the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse! Come inside, it’s fun inside!” Let me just say that the song don’t lie.

So there you have it, a few shots of some of the crew that brought Mickey Mouse Clubhouse to your television sets. It was a joy to work on, and I hope I have another chance to work with not only members of this crew again, but also with the Mouse himself.

See ya real soon!

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