Mickey Mouse Short: Locked in Love

Season 4, Episode 4: “Locked in Love” 7/28/17 
Starring: Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse
Appearances by: Donald Duck and Daisy Duck
Setting: Seoul, South Korea
 
Plot: Mickey and Minnie, having been locked together during a date, barrel their way through Seoul’s Namsan Park and into some nearby woods.  

Short Stuff:
 
This is the fourth episode to take place on the continent of Asia (Tokyo Go, Japan; Panda-monium, China; Mumbai Madness, India)
 
The short’s setting and premise are taken from real life locale, Seoul’s Namsan Park, which features the Namsan Tower where the “Locks of Love” is located.
 
That’s the same female hippo from all the way back in Season One’s O’ Sole Minnie. This time, the once jilted semiaquatic mammal finds love with a fanny packed beau.
 
Mickey and Minnie parody common K-Drama tropes as a captain, a geisha and a Pilgrim(?).
 
The short has a decidedly K-Pop vibe with both its music and dynamic visual elements – particularly when Mickey and Minnie stumble down the zigzag, hillside steps.

It’s fitting that a wild boar makes off with the key since the animal’s growing population has proven itself to be a nuisance in South Korea as of late.
 
The view of Mickey’s agonized face from inside the beehive is cringe inducing.
 
If the manner in which Mickey being stuck in a log is familiar, it’s because it also happened in Season One’s Ghoul Friend.
 
The rock pile Mickey and Minnie crash into is no random thing.  Cairns or human-made piles of stones are commonplace in South Korea.  They can often be found on roadsides, hiking trails, and/or adjacent to Buddhist Temples.  People stack them for good luck.
 
From what we know of Donald and Daisy’s relationship, their experience being locked together may be a tad more combustible or “spirited” than that of Mickey and Minnie’s. 

Final Grade: A-
Mickey’s destination shorts almost always receive high marks.  Before this, I knew next to nothing about South Korea and its culture.  Inasmuch, I had a lot of fun learning about things like Namsan Tower, K-Pop, as well as the country’s wild boar problem.  The music and visual style really worked well in creating a setting as alive and distinct as Mickey and Minnie themselves.