Disney Great Parodies #1: Mickey's Inferno

by Walt Disney Company, Guido Martina, Angelo Bioletto (Illustrations)

Imagine if you will, a satirical retelling of Dante Aligheri’s Inferno starring Mickey Mouse. This is the very first of the world-famouse, er, famous Great Parodies featuring classic Disney stars in outrageous spoofs of the world’s greatest stories.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Poetry, Fiction, Fantasy

88 pages, Hardcover

Published December 13, 2016

About the author

Note: The decision was made to consolidate all Disney publications under the name Walt Disney Company. This profile is for Walt Disney, the characters he created, and the company he founded. Any questions, please ask in the Librarian's Group.

Walter Elias “Walt” Disney (December 5, 1901 – December 15, 1966) was an American film producer, director, screenwriter, voice actor, animator, entrepreneur, entertainer, international icon, and philanthropist. Disney is famous for his influence in the field of entertainment during the 20th century. As the co-founder (with his brother Roy O. Disney) of Walt Disney Productions, Disney became one of the best-known motion picture producers in the world. The corporation he co-founded, now known as The Walt Disney Company, today has annual revenues of approximately U.S. $35 billion.

Disney is particularly noted for being a film producer and a popular showman, as well as an innovator in animation and theme park design. He and his staff created some of the world's most famous fictional characters including Mickey Mouse, a character for which Disney himself was the original voice. He has been awarded four honorary Academy Awards and has won twenty-two competitive Academy Awards out of fifty-nine nominations, including a record four in one year, giving him more awards and nominations than any other individual. He also won seven Emmy Awards. He is the namesake for Disneyland and Walt Disney World Resort theme parks in the United States, as well as the international resorts Tokyo Disney, Disneyland Paris, and Disneyland Hong Kong.

Disney died of lung cancer in Burbank, California, on December 15, 1966. The following year, construction began on Walt Disney World Resort in Florida. His brother Roy Disney inaugurated the Magic Kingdom on October 1, 1971.

The Walt Disney Company (NYSE: DIS) (commonly referred to as Disney) is the largest media and entertainment conglomerate in the world in terms of revenue. Founded on October 16, 1923, by brothers Walt Disney and Roy Disney as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, the company was reincorporated as Walt Disney Productions in 1929. Walt Disney Productions established itself as a leader in the American animation industry before diversifying into live-action film production, television, and travel. Taking on its current name in 1986, The Walt Disney Company expanded its existing operations and also started divisions focused upon theatre, radio, publishing, and online media. In addition, it has created new divisions of the company in order to market more mature content than it typically associates with its flagship family-oriented brands.

The company is best known for the products of its film studio, the Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group, today one of the largest and best-known studios in Hollywood. Disney also owns and operates the ABC broadcast television network; cable television networks such as Disney Channel, ESPN, and ABC Family; publishing, merchandising, and theatre divisions; and owns and licenses 11 theme parks around the world. On January 23, 2006, it was announced that Disney would purchase Pixar in an all-stock transaction worth $7.4 billion. The deal was finalized on May 5. On December 31, 2009, Disney Company acquired the Marvel Entertainment, Inc. for $4.24 billion. The company has been a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average since May 6, 1991. An early and well-known cartoon creation of the company, Mickey Mouse, is the official mascot of The Walt Disney Company.

--from Wikipedia

Reviews

[Sesana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well, this was bizarre. Yes, it really does have Mickey and Goofy touring Hell, with a heap of cameo appearances by classic Disney characters. It can be pretty funny, and it's an ambitious concept. But mostly, it's just plain weird. The art is really fantastic, but it also makes it all the more jarring when a well-known character acts in a totally out of character way. Like Dopey talking, for example. I'm not sure who I'd recommend this to, to be honest. Anyone with a hefty dose of curiosity about how the premise works out, I suppose, and a tolerance for weird comics with Disney characters.

[Christine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Disclaimer: ARC via Netgalley.

Mickey Mouse meets Dante, how can this work? Strangely, it actually does. This is a reissue of a parody produced in the 1960s. In many ways, it is a good way to introduce a Disney fan of any age to Dante, though some of the funnier bits a child would not fully understand. The set-up works, and it is great fun to see Disney characters in place of Dante’s people. As with most parodies, however, it does seem to go a tad too long.
However, the best part of the graphic novel is the closing panels. Absolutely great! Worth reading for that alone, to be honest. At least, if you like Dante.

[Michael P. · Rating 1 out of 5]

Oh, lordy. I have no idea how good or bad this book is in the original Italian, but Stefan Petrucha's doggerel verse as the worst I have ever seen. This book is simply unreadable.

[Mitticus · Rating 1 out of 5]

*Digital copy gently provided by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review*

Sorry but no. I didn't like it.

Este es un comic realizado originalmente por Guido Martina en 1949, ilustrado por Angelo Bioletti, ahora reimpreso con un script de Stefan Petrucha. Un 'clásico'.

I was curious about this, but it turned out to be much rarer than expected. Maybe there iare a special circle in inferno for bad parodies after all.

We have Mickey and Goofy been targeted by a villain and thinking to be the real Dante and Virgilio, and suddenly they are sucked into the original work and traveling Cantos...
Feels like a really really weird dream with an assortment of other Disney characters.

[Bonnie Kernene · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a parody, a retelling of Dante's Inferno with Mickey and Goofy. While it was interesting, and humorous, I am not sure that most kids would get this (since Mickey is geared towards kids). Maybe junior high. It does gloss over a lot of the original story, which makes it hard for me to decide if I like it or not.

This is not for everyone. It might work for youngsters if it is read with parents who have read Inferno and can explain it to them. Maybe exposure to it at an early age would help get a child to appreciate Homer.

I received a copy from NetGalley for an honest review

[Constantina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Of course it's too early to read the real deal.
But there was this awesome halloween tease that I got on my hands a few days ago. The first pages were awesome, I can't wait too read the whole of it.
(Haven't read the real Inferno though, so I can't say if there are similarities. )

[Josh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting and cute. I feel that if I was a bigger Disney or Dante fan I would have enjoyed it more. I see the appeal of this sort of work, even if this one did not quite hot the mark with me.
Worth a look if you are big Disney fans.

Review copy.

[Zen · Rating 2 out of 5]

This review is for the ComicFest book which covers the first part of the graphic book up until the beginning of Canto Four or about 12 pages. I don't know how much of the graphic book that covers, and I probably never will. The larger book is not something I am going to go out of my way to find.

I found this read to be a bit of a disappointment. For some reason I found if fell a little flat with me.
Maybe it's because I didn't find the "humour" particularly funny for some reason.

The biggest problem I think is that, as a parody, one expects the author to have a particular target they are aiming for, or at least some personal agenda they are pursuing. I found no evidence of either in this excerpt. Which means that by reading the whole book, the target of the authors might eventually be revealed but...well, I'll probably never know. Oh well, (shrugs).

This lack of target was in evidence in Canto 3 where there are a bunch of students (and not demons as should be expected) harassing a bunch of teachers and professors hung up on ropes. Just who the butt of the joke here, the student or the teacher is never made clear.

Same goes in the next episode where philosophers, Homer, Gorgia [Gorgias?] and a female representation of Philosophy [?] are made fun of. Also at this point Julius Caesar is there harassing the Greek philosophers but seriously, none of it makes any comic sense.

Next we on the Canto 4 where there is some slapstick humour in a barber shop/beauty parlour, Here vain, self-centered men are harassed viciously by barbers and beauticians. O.K. funny I guess but what does this have to do with the overall narrative structure of the book.

The problem is that there doesn't seem to be any over all narrative to what I read. Just a serious of jokes slapped together to sell a popular comic. I get the impression that this book was a lot more fun to create and write than it is to read. Wouldn't be the first time that has happened.

Also, for a story specifically situated in the classic "Inferno", there is no real sense of "place" in the story. It all could be happening inside a cardboard box. It just lacks....something...I don't know what to make it just a little more engaging and interesting.

The dialogue was basic and functional and boring!!! The verse part of it was not bad, sorta. It was the most engaging part of the story which would probably have been served better if it had relied solely on the verse to tell the story and kept the dialogue down to a extremely bare minimum. Using it only as exclamation points or short punch lines.

The artwork is, of course, top notch but...it was in service of what?

So again, this was a disappointment to me and is really only interesting as a curiosity. Read the original. It's so much better.

[Wayne McCoy · Rating 3 out of 5]

'Disney Graphic Novels #4: Great Parodies: Mickey's Inferno' by Guido Martina with art by Angelo Bioletti and English translation by Stefan Petrucha is a really weird graphic novel. Sending Mickey Mouse to hell with Goofy seemed like a strange idea to me, so I had to check it out.

I learned from the afterword by Jim Salicrup that this is a reprint from the Il Topolino comics from Italy from the late 1940s and early 1950s. Il Topolino is the Italian name for Mickey Mouse. So, this is an old idea. It was also repeated and condensed in Walt Disney's Comics and Stories #666. Still, it may not be for everyone.

Mickey and Goofy are doing a play of Dante's Inferno, when they are hypnotized into thinking that they are actually Dante and Virgil. They then end up in a weird version of Hell where occasional Disney characters show up. This is all accompanied by bad puns and rhymes in the same scheme as the original Inferno. There are levels of hell that get skipped, but others are populated by new reporters who told false stories, or people swimming in vats of hot chocolate, or teachers being pelted by homework from students. The Big Bad Wolf shows up and ends up getting blown up, and Donald Duck keeps showing up to torment Mickey.

I'm still trying to decide if I like this. Part of me appreciates an English translation of an old comic book artifact like this. I also really liked the art. There are some fabulous full pages that are detailed and interesting. The other part of me just feels like this whole thing seems really wrong. Favorite characters in hell and a really odd parody treatment of a classic book are odd. The thing feels like a weird hallucination, but maybe that's the whole point. The imagery remains cartoony and silly, but there is still a lot of torment happening here, so I have a hard time saying this is for kids.

I received a review copy of this graphic novel from Papercutz and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this graphic novel.

[Jean-Pierre Vidrine · Rating 3 out of 5]

The primary reason to pick this up is, of course, novelty. The idea of Disney characters starring in a spoof of one of the most famous epic poems of all time, one set in Hell no less, is just too weird to pass up. On that front, it does not disappoint. Just glancing through the pages and seeing familiar cartoons in scenes that were once conceived to be gruesome is plenty bizarre and entertaining.
It's in the parody department that it doesn't always work. While some scenes of Mickey and Goofy touring through the Inferno come close to living up to the allegory of Dante's original (not at all undercut by being cartoony), others slip into mere silliness or the simple charm of seeing a beloved character in such an odd story. It's always fun, but isn't always as great as it could be.
A further note on the text: While I can't comment at all on what may or may not have been lost in translation, I can say something about things that were most certainly lost in time. The original copyright date is clearly stated as 1949 on the back of the title page and in the editor's text piece at the end. Despite this, there were a few overt references to things like the internet here and there in the book. I can only guess that the creative team behind the translation found certain references to be archaic and worried that their readers would not understand them, thus they replaced them with more modern items of interest. I've seen this same practice with Archie digests and reprints, and it always irks me. Please, editors, give readers of all ages some credit. If we encounter unfamiliar dated things in older stories, we can look them up or ask an elder. There is no need to outright change an older work.
Overall, this is an enjoyable and strange comic reading experience. It just falls a little short of potential.

[Danielle Klassen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a great idea that ended up being just okay. I will give the writers credit where it was due that it took some creativity to get Mickey and Goofy to Hell without forcing them into any kind of philosophical discussion on the merits of their characters, though that might've been fun. That said, it's part of what makes this kind of lacklustre as a parody. It follows the beats of Dante's Inferno loosely but the rhymes are meant to appeal more to children from the way it reads, but the content is less than childish. There are some questionable depictions of different groups in the book that I would likely pause before I would show it to a child this story, if the content didn't already give me pause to begin with. I think this could've been better if it had stuck specifically to a more adult audience rather than trying to split the difference.

[Beth · Rating 2 out of 5]

So bizarre. A Disney version of Dante's Inferno. Yes, that is Mickey's disembodied head floating in the flames of hell. I'm sure you're curious which layers of hell Pinocchio and Dumbo will be found on, enduring various unending punishments for their sins. And of course, all children are familiar with The Divine Comedy so they'll understand this Disney parody of it. Well, maybe not. The poetry also often doesn't quite rhyme. "Mickey" doesn't rhyme with "kitty", "tense" does not rhyme with "nests". Not sure who this is for other than a serious collector of all things Disney or all things Dante.

[Bunny · Rating 3 out of 5]

Received via Netgalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

This is a very clever collectible item. Mickey and Goofy making their way through Dante's Inferno.

Sadly, I don't see it as much more than a collectible item. It's an odd read. Admittedly, it's been quite some time since I read Dante (and even then, it kind of made my eyes cross), but still. Just a really odd read. Fun, but odd.

[InformationSuperhero · Rating 1 out of 5]

I received a copy of Great Parodies: Mickey's Inferno through NetGalley for an honest review.

DNF. I couldn't go further than page 11. Why was this written? Who was it meant for to read? If this is meant to be a simple text of The Inferno they should look at mangashakespeare.com materials for good examples.

[Oneirosophos · Rating 1 out of 5]

Well, that was an utter headache. This is probably the most absurd and failed Disney parody I've ever read. The only interesting in this parody are some non-Disneylike scenes, taken from the original. Everything in this parody is wrong, avoid it at all costs!

My full review in Greek:
http://www.comicdom.gr/2017/04/02/gre...

[Ben · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dense, even with the English translation and Disney-fied language adaptation, so it's not something I'm likely to read again. But it's funny, clever, and pretty out-there for something with Walt's name on it. The art is great, with wild and occasionally unsettling imagery that avoids ever really crossing any lines.

[Ernest Hogan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is truly bizarre, what happens when cultures and corporate agendas collide.

[Erik · Rating 2 out of 5]

Great art, and I guess the rhyming couplets are a decent parody of the Inferno, but none of the gags were remotely enjoyable or funny to me.

[Theediscerning · Rating 1 out of 5]

This takes the mickey – I had long doubted this book could actually do what it wanted, and it can't. For one it gave no indication it was a reprint of a 1950s Italian twist on Dante, where Mickey and Goofy get to walk through hell. But I could cope with a little dryness in the telling that comes with its age, were it not for the many other problems – the dialogue adding nothing of interest yet interrupting the rhymed triplets so all sense of verse and rhythm are shot; and the necessary turning of the Dante into some anodyne childishness. The original speech bubbles, in their age, don't always correspond with the modern reading order, so it's not as easy to read as the target audience would need it, but whatever age you are it's just not fun. Luridly bright, but not at all entertaining.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

Did you spend a summer reading the original Dante's Inferno? (Well as original as you can get to something that has been translated into English). My mother had a family copy of the book, with the Doré illustrations. It was quite impressive, and quite confusing. And Actually, I read the whole Devine Comedy, that summer, but the Inferno, the journey to hell, was the most interesting, and the most confusing. Dante used his novel to poke at people he didn't like, casting them into hell.

Fun, summer-time reading to be sure.

So, when I saw the there was a Parody, using Mickey Mouse, I thought it might be fun to give it a try.

Now, granted, I read Dante over 35 years ago, or so. Some bits still stand out, but most is a soft blur, so I am not going to rate this book on how good a parody it was, but rather on how easy it is to read and understand this at all.

This story was written in 1949, in Italy. Most things refer to things that were perhaps happening in the world at that time. Some are timeless. (although there was one "joke" about a cell phone. I have no idea what it was before.)

The ending of the graphic novel says that reading this will inspire kids to read the real thing. Perhaps. For me, it was all a jumble and confusing, and not funny or fun. :(

I commend Papercutz for bringing this out, and republishing it, but not sure who it would be for. If it a sort of cliff notes for kids, it doesn't appear to stick close enough to the original story to be much help. Perhaps kids will enjoy it. It feels a bit dated to me, using characters from, of course, cartoons from the 30s and 40s.

Thanks to NetGalley and PaperCutz for making this book available for an honest review.

[Kate · Rating 2 out of 5]

What could be a great concept is hampered by truly appalling rhyming schemes that are all over the place, and ultimately distract the reader away from the comic as a whole.

The art style is loyal to the 40s/50s Disney comics, with bright colouring and a heavy dependence on the red palette to give the comic a dark look without relying too much on greys and blacks. Lettering is strong, and placement adds to it's retro feel.

Obviously, given the content, this isn't a child's comic -merely a new way of telling an old tale.

Such a shame that the re-written version of Dante's most famous section of the Divine Comedy 'trilogy' is such a mess -especially when you consider the translations and versions that have gone before.

[Krzyś Dz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent piece of art. Mickey as Dante and Goofy as a Virgil in parody of Inferno from Divine Comedy. Story surprisingly for adults - due to some explicit scenes for almost 70 years it was reprinted only about dozen times across the world, mostly of them after 2010. Nice poetic view of inferno with well known Disney's characters. Nice writing, nice drawing - worth to read!

[Jeremy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very clever, and actually written in terza rima. It doesn't align perfectly with the cantos, but it's amazing how many Disney characters get pulled in to play the parts of Inferno characters, and it does retain the contrapasso theme (cf. lex talionis [eye for an eye], retributive justice, "let the punishment fit the crime," and reaping what you sow).

6: Mickey (Dante) and Goofy (Virgil) look at an edition of Dante's Inferno (clearly an edition with Doré's woodcut of Dante in the dark wood)
75–77: gets meta (author/illustrator apologize to Dante, but suggest that Mickey fans will be drawn to read the real thing); Dante suggests that they pick on Milton next time ("Disneyland Lost")

Cf. Emerson's version.

[Clarence · Rating 3 out of 5]

Full review: http://mondopaper.com/2017/mickeys-in...
“Mickey Mouse goes to hell” seems like the premise of an underground cartoon, but it’s the basis of a genuine Disney product. Mickey is transported into Inferno by Dante and gets to reenact the cantos “for real.” It’s up to Mickey-as-Dante and Goofy-as-Virgil to use their wits (Virgil is supposed to have wits…) to survive and escape.

The terza rima rhyming narration is faithful to Dante, but I didn’t really get into it. I also had a hard time telling who’s doing the narrating at times. Bioletti’s artwork is fine allowing just enough visual whimsy to not make the story too grim. Mickey’s Inferno is an amusing curiosity, but understanding Dante’s Divine Comedy is needed.

[Joana Bookneeders · Rating 1 out of 5]

Just no. Not for me at all!

[Andréa]

Note: I received a digital review copy of this book through NetGalley.

[Paula Lyle · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was silly and fun. Working other Disney characters in was inventive. I hope they do more.

[Dennis Lynch · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dante, Virgil and updated Disney dialog!