Totally Minnie

Totally Minnie is a musical television special hosted by Suzanne Somers and Robert Carradine and starring Minnie Mouse. It first aired February 25, 1988 on NBC.^[1]

The story centers saxophone player Maxwell Dweeb, a nerdy loner who keeps getting rejected on dates and is friendless. He is also the owner of a fashion boutique. One day he sees a group of singing girls at his job, he tries to impress them, but they find him too nerdy and only cares about himself. Upset over being rejected, Maxwell returns home to his dog who's behavior Maxwell always disapproves, the dog is watching a music video in Roy Orbison-Esque sunglasses, Maxwell takes them off the dog and tries to take the remote but the dog has it. Fed up with the dog, Maxwell plays his saxophone to annoy the dog and take the remote. Maxwell then sees an infomercial starring Minnie Mouse plugging her headquarters The Minnie Mouse Center for the Totally Unhip and Maxwell is seen in the commercial being rejected by the singing girls and it's revealed that the singing girls work at the center. The dog thinks that Maxwell needs to change his behavior by going to the center and the dog gets with the phone for Maxwell to call the center, NBC announcer Don Pardo appears and gives Maxwell the number to the center and Pardo calls Maxwell a nerd which the dog agrees.

When Maxwell arrives at the Center he encounters a women who raps a song to him and discovers that he has no rhythm, wears a pocket protector and needs a full crash course. She then introduces herself as the Director and takes him to begin to be hip. On the way he sees Donald as a wardrobe manager and meets Philip Michael Thomas, then meets Vanna White and Pluto in an indoor drive-thru room where she tells Pluto to watch the movie and he licks her.

Maxwell is then pulled away as the Director tells him that if he follows Minnie's instructions, his dull life will be upside down. Then he sees Goofy as a fitness instructor, who places him in a room with a lot of TV sets. Maxwell is all alone until he sees the owner of the center, Minnie Mouse, who keeps asking him if he wants to be hip, which frightens Maxwell at first. He says he doesn't want to be hip anymore, until the real Minnie Mouse shows up and kicks the screen, which surprises Maxwell as he is shown a flashback video from a time when Minnie wasn't hip. Having seen the video, the Director arrives and after seeing Maxwell falling on the ground, she shows him clips of her friends as clumsy as him, which makes him laugh.

Maxwell's next lesson is how to do the "Neutron Dance". Afterwards, as he is about to kiss the Director, Minnie appears and tells Maxwell that nasty boys are not hip, while showing clips of Peg-Leg Pete to the song "Nasty Boys". Maxwell laughs at first but then stops when clips of other Disney Characters at their worst are shown.

After being asked how he feels after seeing the video, Maxwell can't come up with the right words to explain how he feels, then is asked to sing but it turns out he can't sing, so Minnie and the Director told Maxwell he needs confidence. After seeing a brief clip of Minnie and Mickey singing, he is shown a music video of Minnie and Sir Elton John and is told his next lesson is romance. The Director changes from her geeky self to an attractive look and takes him to the drive-in room, and Maxwell keeps talking about this being his first date, but the Director stops him and gives him instructions of how to act on a date, but he keeps ruining the course, until they watch more Disney clips about dating. He then asks if he could go out with her again, but she informs him that the policy of the Center is that Employees are not allowed to date clients. As Maxwell plans to give up on romance, the Director tells him to keep watching, as the best is yet to come. After seeing clips of couples getting back with the song "Jealousy & Making Up" (played in the beginning of the special), Maxwell calls the Director beautiful and says that she looks like Suzanne Somers (who she really is).

Later Maxwell comes out wearing the same clothing as Elton John while singing "Don't Go Breaking My Heart", saying he has a new look, but the Director disapproves, saying that it may work for Elton John, but not for Maxwell. She orders the female employees to give Maxwell the ultimate makeover, to the song 'Shopping'. After coming out looking like a new person, Maxwell realizes he's done with the lessons and is ready to start his new life, but admits that he's afraid to go because even though he looks hip, he's still the same nerd. But after seeing a video of Donald and Walt Disney, Maxwell now learns to be himself (after making a joke about talking like Donald). Afterwards, he receives his diploma and graduates as the Director, the female employees and Maxwell dance to the song 'I'm so Excited' while more Disney clips play as he leaves the center to start his new life as a cool, hip guy.

• Russi Taylor – Minnie Mouse (voice)
• Wayne Allwine – Mickey Mouse (voice)
• Tony Anselmo – Donald Duck (voice)
• Patricia Parris – Daisy Duck (voice)
• Will Ryan – Goofy/Pete (voice)
• Don Pardo – Announcer (voice)

• Robert Carradine – Maxwell Dweeb
• Suzanne Somers – The Director
• Elton John – Himself
• Vanna White – Herself
• Philip Michael Thomas – Himself

It was the first production to feature Minnie Mouse in the lead role and up until the premiere of Mickey Mouse Works in 1999, where she starred several shorts.^[2] Russi Taylor, the original voice of Minnie at the time, actually met her future husband, Wayne Allwine, then voicing Mickey, while recording this special.^[3][4][5]

The film is intershot with various musical numbers including the duet "Don't Go Breaking My Heart" with Elton John (lip syncing to the original 1976 version) and Minnie (replacing Kiki Dee). Originally Roy Orbison who was in the middle of his career resurgence at the time was to appear and sing "Oh, Pretty Woman" to Minnie Mouse, but Orbison declined because he was busy recording his album Mystery Girl. Robert Carradine suggested his good friend Elton John appear and Elton agreed.

Excerpts from early Disney shorts, including a D-TV The Pointer Sisters’ Neutron Dance & number of Janet Jackson's "Nasty" with a montage of male Disney villains such as Black Pete and Captain Hook shown.

• Totally Minnie at the Internet Movie Data Base