Disneyland's Mickey Mouse Penthouse Is Shagadelic

I was pretty excited when I heard about the Mickey Mouse Penthouse planned for the Disneyland Hotel. I imagined how I would decorate such a penthouse, drawing heavily on bright colors and happy characters and kid-friendly knick-knacks. Now I don't have to imagine because Heather Hust Rivera of the Disney Parks Blog published pictures yesterday.

Does anyone remember the Debbie Downer character from Saturday Night Live and the sound effect they played whenever she said something depressing and inappropriate? Wah-wahhhh.

I heard that sound effect when I saw the photos for the Mickey Mouse Penthouse.

I'm not a chronic downer. I love Disney's new Haunted Mansion rooms. But the Mickey Mouse Penthouse - from Heather's pictures, anyway - is a pale ghost compared to the Mansion rooms and lacks Mickey's trademark warmth and friendliness. His Penthouse looks to me like an Austin Powers Junior set with leather chairs, funky geometric floor designs, and overhead bluish lights that I really hope don't turn into a strobe after midnight when Minnie (or Daisy, if you believe the rumors) turns up.

Even the kid's bedroom seems austere, though at least it comes with a DVD player and video games. The bathroom, however, is beautiful, and it's a shame that the light, happy touch employed there wasn't replicated in the main room and bedrooms.

Judging from the positive, gushingly positive, reader comments about the Penthouse pictures, I'm not sure you should trust my opinion, which is based on a total lack of design savvy. Check out the pictures yourself. And then try, try real hard, to imagine Mickey Mouse in that room.