Mighty Mouse: Paramount and Nickelodeon Ramp Up for Feature Film

Looks like baby boomers will see another old favorite come to the big screen. With Alvin & the Chipmunks and its sequel being so successful, studios are now looking at other past cartoon favorites to see if they can build on past success. After chipmunks, where better to start than with another rodent, Mighty Mouse.

Originally created as a parody of Superman, the character was referred to as Super Mouse when he first appeared in the 1940’s. To avoid confusion with another Super Mouse that was already in comic books, the character’s name was later changed to Mighty Mouse. His Superman-like costume was eventually changed as well, to yellow with a red cape. He was originally voiced by Roy Halee Sr., and later by Tom Morrison.

The theatrical cartoons were first aired on Saturday morning television in the 1950s. There have been several TV revivals over the years though, most notably The New Adventures of Mighty Mouse and Heckle & Jeckle and Ralph Bakshi’s Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures.

A more modern version of Mighty Mouse has been in the works for several years at Paramount and Nickelodeon. While several have tried writing scripts for it, the project hasn’t gone much further than the early development stage.

But now, Paramount seems to have a fire under them after the success of the Chipmunks, and they’re looking for a new writer and a director as well. Paramount currently has How to Train Your Dragon in theaters right now, a collaboration with DreamWorks Animation. They’ve also had much success working with Nickelodeon on The Spongebob SquarePants Movie.

The other factor going Paramount’s way is the current success of Marvel and DC superheroes in the movies, such as Iron Man, Batman, and Spiderman. Since the mouse started his career as an action hero of sorts, a Mighty Mouse movie could follow that route or embrace the campiness of the later cartoons and the Alvin & the Chipmunks feature. Either way, it looks like a Mighty Mouse revival will soon be coming our way.

What do you think? What kind of Mighty Mouse feature would you like to see? Does it have a chance at being good or is the movie doomed from the start?