November 13th, 2020 
Jackson Murphy 
Paul Rudish is the executive producer of The Wonderful World of Mickey Mouse. The new series starring the classic gang premieres this Wednesday November 18th (Mickey’s Birthday) on Disney+. Rudish’s connections to the Mouse (and the House of Mouse) are pretty swell.
Jackson Murphy: What is your first memory of Mickey Mouse?
Paul Rudish: My first memory of Mickey Mouse is growing up and watching The Wonderful World of Disney on Sunday nights. Next to Saturday morning cartoons, the Sunday night cartoons we got in my early childhood were definitely a staple in my household. Always fun.
JM: You’ve been a part of these Mickey Mouse shorts over the last several years that have been so successful. What were your goals in transitioning from that show into this new Mickey series?
PR: The goal was to still continue the fun and sense of humor and style of the shorts we had previously done. But with this iteration, we’re doing seven-minute cartoons, as opposed to being three and a half minutes as we had done in the previous series. Having that extra elbow room, we were able to involve a larger cast of the characters. And we had more opportunities to use Mickey, Donald and Goofy as the three stooges super triangle combo, and that’s always a fun dynamic to play with. Those three guys messing things up.
And also in the three minute cartoons, we often found it had to be so concise that we didn’t really get to feature too many characters. And most of the time Mickey ended-up being his own antagonist, where he would have a situation that he would stumble into and become his own problem and then have to fix it. Whereas with this new series, we’re able to actually use more antagonists and set-up their wants and desires. We have Pete and Mortimer being featured in various episodes as actual villains to the rest of the gang.
And another thing we were dipping into was the subconscious thought of playing in the different lands of Disneyland. ‘Here’s an idea that could exist in Frontierland… or Fantasyland’, so there’s a little bit more genre-hopping in this latest iteration that we didn’t do before.
JM: You bring-in so many characters and there are some big surprises. I grew-up with House of Mouse, so I love that certain characters from the Disney vault… make some special appearances. Were there risks involved in bringing back some iconic characters, even for little bitty cameos?
PR: Not really, actually. Once we started dipping our toes into the usage of cameo characters in the earlier seasons, it was well-received by the higher-ups and the fans. It’s fun for us to do. Originally, we had to be very sensitive about how we treated the Princesses. There were a couple jokes where… we couldn’t throw a pie in Cinderella’s face. And we were like, ‘Okay, we can tame that down to protect the preciousness of our Princesses.’ But we’ve still been able to use all kinds of characters and find ways to have fun with them.
JM: In the episode “Keep On Rollin’”, there’s a moment where the gang goes to a certain ballroom from my all-time favorite movie. Do you and your team go back to some of these Disney classics like this one and do the research and make sure, visually, that you’ve got the look down right.
PR: Yeah. There’s been instances where we’ve referenced a very specific scene of animation and talked to our animation directors and go, ‘You know that one part in Snow White – there’s that little run that she does. Can you guys make sure you do that?’ Or in that episode you just mentioned, there’s a character that transforms, and we definitely reference her transformation from the film.
JM: Another episode I watched is “Cheese Wranglers”. It’s a western-themed episode. How did you decide on cheese to be the cattle for Mickey, Donald and Goofy.
PR: We were wanting to do a western-flavored episode. We were mulling over story ideas, and then our director Eddie Trigueros had just recently been to some cheese tastings. He came in and was like, ‘Hey – what if instead of cattle we do a herd of cheese wheels?’ And we’re all like, ‘That’s stupid – well then that’s exactly what we have to do!’ It’s such a silly, out-there idea!
JM: But it works! You grew-up just outside of Kansas City, which is also where Walt Disney spent a lot of his childhood. The fact that you’re handling the next moves of Walt’s precious character… is it a little surreal to you?
PR: Honestly, it is. Yeah. When I was a child, Walt was a very inspirational figure. And learning about his story: being a little country boy from a small town in Missouri that had dreams of showing folks what he could do with his talent. And then he moved out to Los Angeles to the big, big city and made things happen. That was always an inspiring story from me coming from a similar place and having similar wants. Finding myself shepherding Mickey Mouse, his original creation, is very surreal and an honor. As a Mickey Mouse fan, it’s definitely quite an honor.
JM: Your dad Rich was an illustrator and a director at Hallmark Cards. I just went to Hallmark recently to take a look at the 2020 ornaments. When you walk into a Hallmark store and you see all the Mickey-themed cards and all the Mickey ornaments (there are so many this year, including one for the Jungle Cruise ride), what feelings do they give you?
PR: It gives me a warm remembrance of home. My dad worked for Hallmark for many years. As a youngster, he would take me to work with him. Once a year, I’d go in with him for the day and see how the processes worked and meet all the other artists he worked with and got to see that there’s this functioning place where commercial arts is made by groups of artists. That was inspiring and gave me the confidence that this was something that I could do when I grew up. Anytime I see anything Hallmark, it brings me back to being at Hallmark and meeting all the great people that I met back then and all my dad’s friends that were artists.
JM: So many kids love looking at the new ornaments – so many generations, really. Mickey just keeps getting new generations of fans. He’s such a timeless character. Over these years of working on the Mickey shows, what has surprised you the most about animating him and creating stories around him?
PR: Honestly, the freedom that we were given when we first launched these cartoons. There always seemed to be a very precious energy around Mickey, and what can you do and what can’t you do. And I really loved the cartoons from the ‘30s… and all the surreal insanity of those early cartoons. I wanted to take a page from the playbook and play with Mickey in that space – back when he was a little bit more of a rascal and had a full set of emotions. I just kind of went ahead and gave it a shot, and I was surprised at how little pushback I got. Everyone at the company seemed very accepting of it. And then as we went forward, we continued to try to push our jokes and push the boundaries a little bit, and it was always well-received. I was expecting a little bit more safety and a little bit more restraint from the company in general, but it turned out not to be true and we’ve been able to just keep pushing and make stuff sillier.
JM: We’ve got 10 episodes for Season 1 and another 10 episodes are planned to air in 2021. Are you currently in production on those?
PR: Yes. We are delivering our last half of the episodes.
JM: Cool. We’ll all be looking forward to those. And you know, in just eight years’ time, Mickey will turn 100 years old. And I’m sure it’s going to be a huge celebration. There will be marketing campaigns and TV events and maybe in-person events galore. If you had the opportunity to work on some of Mickey’s 100th Year Celebration… whatever that may be, how would that feel to you and do you already have something in mind you would want to do for his 100th?
PR: (laughs) Not specifically. We’re still working on what’s on our plate right now. I honestly haven’t thought too hard about the future. Just trying to keep up with what we’re doing with him today. But yeah, that 100th Anniversary is right around the corner and it would certainly be fun to do something big or something special – something shiny. Who knows? As we get closer, maybe there’s an opportunity for some sort of Mickey jamboree.
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