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Mina and the Count

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Mina and the Count
A poster for the Mina and the Count segment on Nickelodeon's Oh Yeah! Cartoons.
Genre
Created byRob Renzetti
Based onDracula
by Bram Stoker
Written byRob Renzetti
Directed byRob Renzetti
Voices of
ComposersThomas Chase
Stephen Rucker
Country of originUnited States
Original languageEnglish
No. of episodes6
Production
Executive producers
Producer
  • Rob Renzetti
Running time7 minutes
Production companies
Original release
NetworkCartoon Network
Nickelodeon
ReleaseNovember 5, 1995 (1995-11-05) –
December 18, 1999 (1999-12-18)
Related
My Life as a Teenage Robot

Mina and the Count is an American animated television series created by Rob Renzetti, which was never brought into development as a full-fledged series. Instead, animated shorts of this series aired on both of Fred Seibert's animation anthology showcases, Cartoon Network's What a Cartoon! and Nickelodeon's Oh Yeah! Cartoons.

Summary

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The original Mina and the Count pilot short, "Interlude with a Vampire," premiered on the What a Cartoon! show on Cartoon Network on November 5, 1995, making it the only short to be featured on both creator-guided short projects guided by Fred Seibert. The short was about a seven-year-old girl named Mina Harper (a play on Dracula character Mina Harker) and her encounters with Vlad, a 700-year-old vampire. The aforementioned further episodes concerned the vampire, known simply as Vlad the Count, his best friend Mina, her older sister Lucy, school bully Nick, Lucy and Mina's father Mr. Harper, a handful of monsters and Vlad's disapproving servant Igor. Everything seems to occur in a little town in North America where Mina's school and house is, including the Count's castle.

Voice Cast and characters

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  • Ashley Johnson (first short only) and Tara Strong (credited as Tara Charendoff) (all subsequent shorts) – Wilhelmina "Mina" Harper: A 7-year-old girl with thick long red hair in a ponytail and red clothes. She likes to go to school and to play with her toys, and she doesn't get along with her sister Lucy. She meets Vlad one night and they become best friends. At school, Nick the school bully picks on her. The squeamish Martha is probably her only human friend. Mina knows how to cook, but unfortunately for Vlad, doesn't know that vampires find garlic hazardous.
  • Mark Hamill – Vlad the Count: A 700-year-old immortal vampire with light blue skin and a blue cape and a black suit. In the past, he made a living drinking young women's blood. Thanks to Mina, he represses his evil tendencies. Vlad has many powers, including the ability to transform into a bat or mist, use telekinesis, and hypnotize people and animals to do his bidding. He finds comics and toys amusing and is very intelligent. Vlad believes that human food is disgusting.
  • Jeff Bennett – Igor: Vlad's Quasimodo-like servant who wears sandals and green clothes and always has a maniacal laugh. He loathes Mina because she turned Vlad into a loving man, though he still tries to do what is best for his master. He hates kisses, hugs, love, and everything near to it. In his free time, he likes to watch television.
  • Michael Bell – Mr. Harper: Lucy and Mina's strict yet loving father with black hair. He is unaware that Vlad is a vampire. He initially believes he is a life-size doll with odd body odor. Later, he believes the Count is Mina's violin teacher and has him over for dinner. He is polite, but bemused by the Count's behavior and dismisses him as a "crazy European."
  • Candi Milo – Lucille "Lucy" Harper: Mina's older sister with long blonde hair. She has a boyfriend named Bobby, who doesn't appear much. She also has a crush on Vlad, and Lucy doesn't know that he's a vampire. Lucy doesn't get along with Mina, but deep down she cares about her little sister.

Episodes

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Note: The original pilot aired on What a Cartoon!, and the rest were animated shorts that aired on Oh Yeah! Cartoons.

According to Rob Renzetti, 6 shorts were initially supposed to be in development for Oh Yeah!, but the Nickelodeon executives canceled the final short as they were uncomfortable with the series' concept later down the line. Seibert convinced Renzetti to use the final slot to develop the pilot of what later became the series, My Life as a Teenage Robot.[1]

No.TitleDirected byWritten byStoryboard byOriginal air date
1"Interlude with a Vampire"C. Miles Thompson (art), Rob Renzetti (direction)Rob RenzettiAlex KirwanNovember 5, 1995 (November 5, 1995)

After a young girl named Mina Harper goes to bed for the night, Vlad the Count visits her. First coming to suck out the blood of a teenage girl. But by Igor's mistake, Vlad ended up in Mina's room.

Note: This is the only Mina and the Count animated short to be produced by Hanna-Barbera, to air as part of What a Cartoon!, and the only time Ashley Johnson voices Mina.
2"My Best Friend"Rob RenzettiRob RenzettiAlex KirwanMarch 18, 1998 (March 18, 1998)

Mina is bullied by Nick at her school, so she asks Vlad for advice against bullies. She tries several things, but nothing worked. And so, Vlad decides to take matter in his own hands.

Note: Beginning with this short, Tara Strong replaces Ashley Johnson as the voice of Mina.
3"FrankenFrog"Rob RenzettiRob RenzettiAlex Kirwan and Rob RenzettiMay 15, 1999 (May 15, 1999)
After Mina and Vlad "revive" Mina's doll, she wants to do the same at dissection day with the frog Nick had cut apart. However, everyone at school is terrified of the frog and chaos ensues. So Vlad heads out so he can stop the frog.
4"The Ghoul's Tribunal"Rob RenzettiRob RenzettiRob Renzetti and Alex KirwanJune 10, 1999 (June 10, 1999)
Vlad's friends come over to play some cards but discover that he hangs around with Mina and drag him for the Ghoul's Tribunal while Igor tries to figure out a way to fix what he had done.
5"The Vampire Who Came to Dinner"Rob RenzettiRob RenzettiAlex Kirwan and Rob RenzettiNovember 7, 1999 (November 7, 1999)
Vlad is invited by Mina to dinner along with her older sister Lucy and her father. But when Vlad meets Lucy, he becomes very tempted with her blood, and she even has a crush on Vlad. And to make things even worse, he has to eat human food too.
6"Playing a Hunch"Rob RenzettiRob RenzettiAndy Bialk and Zac MoncriefDecember 18, 1999 (December 18, 1999)
Vlad had invited Mina over, although Igor didn't want that anymore. So Vlad tries to hide Mina so that Igor won't discover that Mina is in the castle.

References

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  1. ^ Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine: Cartoons VS Cancer - Ep. 4 (The One with Rob Renzetti!). YouTube.
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