Q : I recently purchased the Mickey Mouse Club Days of the Week five-piece ornament set from the Disney Store. They are being added to our Walt Disney Classic Collection Mickey Mouse Club figurines—images I felt had been missing from the collection. The ornaments are painted in color. I watched the Mickey Mouse Club in 1955 through 1959 in black and white, and I know that the opening sequence was filmed in color, which we have on DVD.  Were Mickey’s “Days of the Week” greetings also filmed in color? I am curious about where the designers of the ornaments got the color references for Mickey’s five different costumes.
Clark, Lakeville, Minnesota
A: The days-of-the-week intros were filmed in color; you can see the color versions on the Walt Disney Treasures DVD Mickey Mouse in Living Color, Volume 2.  Walt Disney often filmed his early television shows, especially animation segments, in color, believing that they might have some future use.
Q : I am interested to know, for television shows such as 101 Dalmatians the Series, Hercules: The Animated Series and The Little Mermaid, was there as much research done as for the original films, and to what extent were the characters made to be like themselves in the originals?
Jay, Los Angeles, California
A: The writers would have to do research for the stories, but the characters and their personalities are already established in the animated features. For television series, the aim is always to have the characters look like and act like the ones in the original features, but sometimes a few revisions have to be made.