The
series has been created by producer Bobs Gannaway,
producer and director of the Emmy Award-winning Disney's
Mickey Mouse Works. The series later evolved
into Disney's House of Mouse, that featured
not just Mickey, but virtually all of the Disney animated
characters.
Although
the character designs are referential to 1940s drawings,
the show has 3D computer animation, a logical next
step for the characters that have evolved, along with
film technology, from black and white, to color and
now to digitally rendered 3D.
In
order to ensure that each episode is entertaining
and comprehensible to this core audience, Disney Channel
writers and researchers visited preschools where they
read story books based on the shows to students to
see if they enjoyed it, if they understood the concepts
and were engaged enough to participate.
"The
shows that have worked best with young kids are interactive
ones, where the audience feels they're playing along
as opposed to just sitting back and watching. It's
always been Mickey's way to connect one-to-one with
kids, making him the perfect choice to further develop
a close relationship with kids in a preschool learning
environment," said Walt Disney Television International
(India) director programming and production Nachiket
Pantvaidya.
"The
show helps to broaden the definition of math skills
to include not just counting, but learning shapes,
patterns, colors and fractions. Early math skills
are key to preschoolers' development because if it
is embedded right from the beginning, kids will embrace
the subject. The wonderful thing is that kids of this
age love to count and master skills. They don't see
it as a chore or a lesson, they're really proud of
being able tell you what's bigger and what's smaller,
what's near and what's far. It's not work to them,
it's really fun," he added.
Mickey
Mouse Clubhouse will help define the series' educational
goals and have an age-appropriate curriculum with
the help of the Sensational Six: Mickey, Minnie, Pluto,
Goofy, Daisy and Donald.