Oh boy! Disney+ has just announced that the new crop of Mickey Mouse shorts, which initially debuted on the Disney Channel in the spring of 2013, will continue on the streaming platform. This time around they’ll sport a new name, The Wonderful World of Mickey Mouse, with the first installment premiering on Mickey’s birthday, November 18. We cannot wait.

When the new Mickey Mouse shorts premiered, it felt like a bolt of lightning had struck the character. For so many years, Mickey Mouse had felt hermetically sealed; devoid of personality, he was resigned to a bland corporate symbol. Even in the Oscar-nominated theatrical short “Get a Horse!,” Mickey was used as a kind of antique prop for a new technological gimmick, as the classic characters shifted in and out of 3D space. But the Mickey Mouse shorts, overseen by Genndy Tartakovsky confederate Paul Rudish, had real wit and energy. Mickey was once again a fully formed character, capable of a range of emotions (some of them unpleasant), who was placed in a variety of situations and in a number of exciting new settings. Since 2013 there have been 94 shorts and 2 specials and this version of the character, whose hyper-stylization is both modern and a callback to the classic era of shorts, has been adapted for a wide array of merchandise and his very own attraction, Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway in Disney’s Hollywood Studios at Walt Disney World outside of Orlando, Florida. (A clone of the attraction, earmarked for the Toontown area of Disneyland, recently went vertical for a proposed 2023 opening.)

Which is to say, we are very excited that there are new shorts coming. According to the official release, “the series will include stories inspired by various lands at Disney parks and cameos by classic Disney heritage characters.” While the show has always been very smart about layering in Easter eggs to classic Disney animation and the theme parks, we can’t wait to see what they have in store, especially by explicitly mentioning the parks. Aldo, as for heritage characters, could we get some Oswald the Lucky Rabbit in there? Please?

While the first new short will roll out on Mickey’s birthday, the shorts will officially begin on November 27, with two shorts each Friday. Ten shorts will debut this year, with another ten installments airing summer 2021 (and, we are nearly certain, there will be many more after that). If you haven’t seen this gonzo new version of the character, all previous five “seasons” of the shorts are now available on Disney+ (and some of them make excellent Halloween viewing).