History Main / YouDirtyRat

* A very strong aversion: [[TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles Master Splinter]] in any incarnation is a wise, gentle, and patient fellow. [[BerzerkButton Just don't]] [[PapaWolf threaten his adoptive sons]].

** In ''{{Enchanted}}'', the rats do a considerable share of the housework while under the influence of[[AFriendToAllLivingThings Giselle's]] "Happy Working Song". Only one mouse is seen to help out, and it's only there because a rat wouldn't fit in the bathtub drainhole.

* ''ChickenRun'' features a rat who peddles junk to the hens in exchange for eggs. He's enterprising, but not evil.

* BikerMiceFromMars: The anthromorphic rat slavers, who are also cronies of Plutonians in the flashback episode.

* The mouse part is Subverted in ''{{The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy}}''. Mice are actually the smartest animals on the planet Earth, which itself was a sort of massive, living distributed computing experiment to determine the Ultimate Question. When Eart is destroyed, they decide that they need to get what data they can salvage by cutting it right out of Arthur Dent's brain.

* A very strong aversion: [[TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles Master Splinter]] in any incarnation is a wise, gentle, and patient fellow. [[BerzerkButton just don't]] [[PapaWolf threaten his adoptive sons]].

* In Art Spiegelman's ''{{Maus}}'', a narrative of the author's father's struggle to survive the Holocaust, the Jews are drawn as mice.

[[quoteright:[[TheSecretOfNIMH 275:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/jenner_8246.jpg]]]]

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** Averted in ''TheBraveLittleToaster Goes to Mars'' and ''TheBraveLittleToster To The Rescue'' with Ratso.

** Averted in ''TheBraveLittleToaster Goes To Mars'' as well.

** Yet another aversion occurs in ''TheWindAndTheWillows'' with Ratty. Sure he's actually a Water Vole, but voles are close enough to rats for government work.

[[caption-width-right:275:Just by looking, you can tell he's a real Rat Bastard.]]

* Defied in ''{{Ratatouille}}'', where the hero is a rat, who must battle against how much humans hate his kind.
* Also subverted in ''Ratatoing'', a cheap knock-off of ''{{Ratatouille}}''. Rats are both heros and villains, [[SoBadItsHorrible but you'll hate the species by the end.]]

* Templeton Rat from ''CharlottesWeb'' isn't actively evil, but he's certainly [[JerkAss selfish, arrogant, and greedy]]. He has to be bribed into helping Wilbur the Pig.

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* MickeyMouse is probably the ultimate example of "mice are nice".
** As far as Disney films go, ''LadyAndTheTramp'' features a rat that threatens the Darlings' baby but is stopped by The Tramp, and ''{{Cinderella}}'' features heroic mice who help the title character deal with her stepmother and stepsisters.
** In ''TheGreatMouseDetective'' heroic detective Basil of Baker Street is a mouse, while his arch-nemesis, Professor Padraic [[MeaningfulName Ratigan]], is a rat, of course (though [[BerserkButton he hates being called that]]).
* Averted in ''{{Ratatouille}}'', where the main character is an intelligent, urbane rat with a gourmand's taste in food and the ability to cook like a classically trained chef. Of course, most of the other rats are classless, tactless layabouts, but at least they aren't ''evil''.
** The same goes in ''TheSecretOfNIMH''. Except for MagnificentBastard Jenner and Brutus (who, to be fair, is only doing his job), all the rats are benevolent.
** Again again in ''FlushedAway'', where the rats are, as a group, no more good or evil than any other random population.
** Yet another aversion occurs in ''TheWindAndTheWillows'' with Ratty. Sure he's actually a Water Vole, but voles are close enough to rats for government work.
* In one adaptation of ''The Country Mouse and City Mouse'', the bad guy was a rat.
* The Mice in ''AnAmericanTail'' are all virtuous, loving immigrants. Warren T. Rat, on the other hand, [[spoiler:isn't even a rat, but [[TheMole a cat]], and one of the bad ones at that]].
* ''{{Chicken Run}}'' features a rat who peddles junk to the hens in exchange for eggs. He's enterprising, but not evil.
* Rattrap from ''{{Transformers}}: BeastWars'' and ''BeastMachines''. Not evil, but easily the weaseliest member of the Maximals.
* Averted in ''TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles'' with Splinter. But then again, there's a villain known as The Rat King who hypnotizes the rats of New York into doing his bidding.
* In ''Coraline'', she's shocked that the cat would kill a mouse like that. Little did she know...
* {{Garfield}} befriends a mouse. On the contrary, one of the villains in USAcres / Orson's Farm is a rat.

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* The Qiqirn in ''FinalFantasyXI'' are a race of beastmen rats who are on not-really-hostile-at-all terms with TheEmpire of Aht Urhgan. That is, [[HonestJohnsDealership they like the "clink-clink" people carry, and will do anything to get it.]] Essentially the Near-Eastern version of [[OurGoblinsAreDifferent Goblins,]] just more peaceful.
** The Burmecians of FinalFantasyIX are anthropomorphic rodents. The word 'Rat' appears to be a derogatory term for them, but they are mostly on the side of good.
* Apparently most of the Rattkin in ''{{Wizardry}}'' are thieves (though there's also Rattkin scientist), and their high-ups are TheMafia, but on the other hand they are generally not worse and no more (or less) prone to generate aggressive RandomEncounter than any other faction present. That's just their ways.
* The rats in ''LittleKingsStory'' appear quite mischievious, and the narrator seems none to fond of them. [[spoiler: In the end, it's [[AttackOfThe50FootWhatever very justified.]]]]
* Don't forget the army of anthropomorphic rats in {{Battletoads}}. These sleazy space pirates fit this trope perfectly.
* Jimmy Two-Teeth in the ''SamAndMax'' games, a small-time ruffian rat who is also the ButtMonkey. He is apparently [[PutOnABus sent on a bus]] in Season 3 -- but not before (it is suggested) causing an outbreak of bubonic plague at Max's bidding.

* Also subverted in ''Ratatoing'', a cheap knock-off of {{Ratatouille}}. Rats are both heros and villains, [[SoBadItsHorrible but you'll hate the species by the end.]]