“Mickey Go Local” features satay & laksa
Image adapted from: Disney Channel Asia
Many of us grew up watching Disney, but we wouldn’t have imagined a day we’d see Mickey Mouse selling satay onscreen.
Enter Mickey Go Local, a mini-series Disney Channel Asia has released to show how Mickey and the gang explore our local food, clothes and architecture. According to Malay Mail, the cartoon is set in Malaysia/Singapore and all our favourite childhood characters, including Goofy and Donald, will be visiting this part of the world for the first time. Malaysian viewers will definitely recognise familiar backdrops in the show.
Locals are shook upon hearing the news, as it’s not everyday that we see such familiar influences in a Disney cartoon.
Visiting a hawker centre
The first episode was uploaded on Disney Channel Asia’s Youtube channel on Wednesday (Jul 24). The 2-minute short titled “Master Hawker” stars Goofy as a tourist who’s eager to try hawker food for the first time.
Image adapted from: Disney Channel Asia
On Goofy’s food crawl, some local favourites like cucur udang and asam laksa can be spotted. Disney has even added details like tiny rooster motifs on the laksa bowls that you often find when you order noodle dishes at nearly every hawker stall in Malaysia.
Image adapted from: Disney Channel Asia
We later see Mickey Mouse manning a satay stall, happily grilling skewers. He even uses a traditional satay fan while doing it — something that’s usually done by satay sellers to fan the flames.
Image adapted from: Disney Channel Asia
We then find Donald Duck at the roti canai stall next to Mickey’s. Donald’s stall even comes complete with typical ingredients you’d expect to find at a mamak place: a ton of eggs, a big tub of margarine, and bananas to make roti pisang.
Satay vs Roti Canai
Malaysians often find themselves in a daily dilemma, especially during lunch hours where we don’t know what to eat as we’re surrounded by good food. Goofy got to share this very Malaysian experience in the cartoon where he’s torn between having satay or roti canai.
In an attempt to win Goofy over, Mickey and Donald end up in a food battle.
Image adapted from: Disney Channel Asia
We then see Mickey and Donald trying to prepare their fares in the tastiest way possible, hoping Goofy will choose to buy their food.
Mickey presents his satay celup to Goofy
Image adapted from: Disney Channel Asia
Donald, in turn, creates a special roti-curry cake any Malaysian would be tempted to try in real life.
Image adapted from: Disney Channel Asia
The intense, but delicious battle eventually ends with neither of them emerging the winner, mainly because Goofy had come with no money in his pockets.
Goofy showing his empty pockets to Donald and Mickey
Image adapted from: Disney Channel Asia
Malaysians are all praise for Disney
Malaysians showered Disney with praises for the “Mickey Go Local” series. They supported the media giant’s endeavours in exploring local cultures from other parts of the world.
This user with a cute Pikachu profile picture thanked Disney for introducing Malaysian culture to the world.
Image credit: Ashy Stars
Another user Brandon warmly welcomed Mickey and the gang to Malaysia and hoped that they would enjoy their time here.
Image credit: Brandon gaming TV
This commenter expressed her pride in being a Malaysian and feels happy that our culture is getting more recognition.
Image credit: KM Chin
Disney exploring local cultures
Image adapted from: Disney Channel Asia
With a whole series dedicated to local culture, Disney is steadily becoming more culturally inclusive. They’re taking a great step towards ensuring Southeast Asian culture is represented in the media too.
Now that they have an animated series dedicated to this corner of the earth under the belt, hopefully there’ll come a day when we’ll be going to the cinema to watch Disney’s first Southeast Asian princess.
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