Characters / MouseHunt

The mouse

Ernie: He's Hitler with a tail, this is The Omen with whiskers. Nostradamus didn't see this thing coming!

• The Ace: The mouse is such a genius that he manages to run circles around the brothers and counter everything they throw at him.
• Amplified Animal Aptitude: The mouse is almost as clever and capable as Jerry — it's the whole premise of the movie, with the two brothers essentially being Tom. Lars initially lampshades this, which Ernie promptly mocks, though he later agrees.
  Ernie: "I don't think we're dealing with an ordinary mouse."
• Anti-Villain: He's more or less the main antagonist of the movie but at the end he's just protecting his territory from two intruders (from his perspective) and he's actually quite tame if not disturbed. Though some if his tricks are quite malicious.
• Big Bad: If we count him as an Anti-Villain he's basically the only thing closer to the movie's main antagonist.
• Badass Adorable: The eponymous rodent is as cute as a mouse can be and clever beyond anything in the animal realm.
• Because You Were Nice to Me: It's possible that the mouse helps Ernie and Lars make a huge breakthrough by inventing string cheese because they didn't kill him when they had the chance.
• Big Eater: He loves to eat a lot, expecially, of course, cheese.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: So far, he's made two Aside Glances to the audience.
  • Once when he notices a pipe with a tag saying "Sewage Line" while he was being sucked in the vacuum.
  • Then again when he watches Caesar eat one of his droppings; with a tilted head to indicate his confusion.
• Cold-Blooded Torture: It's disturbingly implied that he tortured Caesar to insanity, judging by the recorder's sounds.
• Everyone Has Standards: He seems to be quite confused and maybe a little disgusted by Casear eating one of his feces. He also presumably called the police so they can take Caesar away when he's been locked in a trunk in the attic (just like the previous house's owner).
• Good Is Not Soft: When left to his own devices, the mouse doesn't really bother the brothers beyond stealing their food, and most of the mishaps in the film are the brothers' own faults. As they start trying harder, though, the mouse starts getting mean in retaliation. At one point he turns on the gas and hands one of the unwitting brothers a match.
• Heel–Face Turn: After the house is completely destroyed, the mouse helps set the brothers off on a new future in making cheese string.
• Hidden Depths: There are hints throughout the film that not only is the mouse very old but also more than just a trickster. Notably, Ernie comments on his culinary expertise in properly toasting a sandwich (thinking Caesar had made it).
• Karmic Trickster: As Lars notes early on, the mouse's tactics against the brothers' attempts to dispose of him are elaborate beyond just coincidental, and at some points, he even seems to be mocking them in a cocksure way.
• Killer Rabbit: The last owner of the house before Rudolf Smuntz was found dead locked in a trunk in the attic. Later, the ambulance picks up Caesar the exterminator halfway through the film. He was found the same way, except it's implied this time the mouse called 911. Not to mention the rest of the stuff he does to Caesar and the Smuntz brothers.
• Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: The fact that he's so incredibly smart and intelligent may suggest that he may or not may have some supernatural background. Ernie even says that he doesn't think he's an ordinary mouse.
• Never Given a Name: The mouse doesn't seem to have a name.
• Nice Mice: But not until the very end of the movie.
• Not So Invincible After All: The mouse evades all of the brothers' traps and even a mass explosion that takes out a large chunk of the house fails to faze it. As the brothers argue over their losses, however, Lars throws an orange at Ernie, which instead hits the mouse, knocking him out cold.
  Ernie: "Just think of all the trouble we coulda saved ourselves if he just threw fruit at him in the first place."
• Really 700 Years Old: There are a lot of hints that the mouse is far, far older than your ordinary mouse, most prominently that Caesar was found in a locked trunk exactly like the man who owned the house before Rudolf Smuntz.
• Wolverine Publicity: The mouse has gotten more posters of himself than the Smuntz brothers. He even has his spot on the DVD cover.
• You Don't Look Like You: On the home◊ video◊ covers◊, the mouse is depicted as overweight and with gray fur rather than thin and with tan brown fur in the actual movie.

Smuntz family

Lars

Lars after his run in with the string factory.

Portrayed by Lee Evans

Rudolf's well-meaning and optimistic son.

• All Cloth Unravels: Lars ends up naked when he tries to run the family string factory singlehandedly (and breaks the fuse box by pulling one of the two fuses out, which he tries to put back in, to no avail). For the practical effect to work, the clothing unraveling had to be knit and knit upside down. See here for pictures.
• Beware the Nice Ones: He puts up with a lot of Ernie's cynicism and pushiness. However after finding out Ernie tried to sell the factory behind his back and getting berated for trying to keep Ernie unwittingly tied to the dying business in response, he fires back with equal anger, calling out Ernie's eagerness to blame him and their father for every single misgiving in his life, and that he isn't the only one who wanted to make a living outside of string (and that Ernie can't cook anyway). He is also the first to turn violent in their argument, throwing an orange at Ernie. It misses, however, and ends up being the brothers' one winning shot against the mouse.
• Blown Across the Room: He's blown into a glass cabinet after the mouse caused a gas leak which lead to an explosion.
• Clothing Damage: Turned up to 11 with Lars in the factory, when his clothing is ripped off completely, leaving him running naked around a freezing cold factory.
• The Dutiful Son
• Fat and Skinny: Lars is the Skinny (but also muscular) to Ernie's Fat.
• Henpecked Husband: Lars is seen a bit spineless when it comes to his Jerkass wife, April.
• Horrible Judge of Character: Lars doesn't make the connection between April showing up at the factory in nothing but lingerie around the same time he and Ernie are putting up the mansion for auction. Ernie is quick to point this 'coincidence' out to him.
• Moral Myopia: Despite being the nicer of the two, Ernie does call him out on this during their big argument, pointing out he has no right to berate him for going behind his brother's back about the factory since he refused the client's deal behind Ernie's back in the first place. When Lars fires back that he proved irresponsible enough when he detonated their house, Ernie fires back he was the one who yelled "SHOOT! SHOOT!"
  Lars: Y-yeah, well, you never listened to me before!
• Mr. Fanservice: Has a scene in which he gets his knitted clothes caught in factory machinery, unwinding them until he's rendered totally naked. He (barely) covers himself with balls of yarn which used to be his clothes.
• Nice Guy: Lars, who is the more approachable and mild-mannered of the brothers and is determined to keep Rudolf Smuntz's legacy alive while also wanting to be a good husband for April.
• Screaming Warrior: Played for Laughs. He screams maniacally while chasing the mouse with a mallet.
• Screams Like a Little Girl: Lars screams in a very high-pitched tone.
• Stripping Snag: Happens when Lars's knitted clothing gets caught in the string machine, which removes all of his clothes, leaving him completely naked and running around the factory.
• Third-Act Misunderstanding: When Lars finds out about Ernie's intentions for the factory.
• Undying Loyalty: While he was well aware of his father's eccentricities and had dreams of his own, he worked dutifully for Rudolph and refused to sell his livelihood. This causes a rift between him and Ernie, who perceived Lars as Rudolph's favorite because of this, since because of this trope, Lars didn't even bother telling Ernie about an offer to buy the factory, and considers it betrayal that Ernie even wanted to when the latter calls him out on it.

Ernie

Portrayed by Nathan Lane

Rudolf's cynical son who became a chef to distinguish himself from the string business.

• Berserk Button: When Lars mocks Ernie for being unable to cook, Ernie understandably gets upset since he used to be a well-known chef.
• Godzilla Threshold: Or rather Catzilla Threshold. After failing numerous times to catch or kill the mouse, Ernie has a breakdown and opts to just shoot the mouse with a double barreled shotgun, with no regard for the structural damage he's inflicting on the house. And then later tries to flush out the mouse by flooding the house with water, which doesn't really work out.
• Consolation Backfire: At the climax, the Smuntz's last attempts to drive the mouse away result in the house getting flooded and several walls being destroyed. And this happens in the middle of the auction to sell the house. All the would-be buyers start to leave...
  Ernie: Hey! Don't go! [waves an arm at the flooded house] The water was just a demonstration of how durable a LaRue really is! How 'bout that?! Now you know this house will last forever!
  [As if on cue, the house collapses.]
• Deadpan Snarker: While we've seen several Nathan Lane characters with this trait, Ernie probably shines at this.
• Distracted by the Sexy: While waiting for the ZeppCo investors in the park, Ernie sees the Belgium models smiling at him and goes over to chat, only for his hat to blow off into the busy street, where he goes after it. Cue incoming bus.
• Evil Laugh: A rare "good guy" example: Ernie does this every time he chases the mouse or when he thinks he has got him.
• Fat and Skinny: The Fat to Lars's Skinny. While Ernie's not exactly fat, he's quite larger than Lars.
• Heroic BSoD: He suffers one during the cockroach accident who leads to the Mayor's death and the permanent closure of his restaurant.
• Jerkass Has a Point: Compared to Lars, Ernie is cynical, abrasive, and makes no effort to hide his contempt for their late father Rudolf and their family's string-manufacturing business. Harsh as he is, the film makes it clear that Ernie has legitimate reasons to resent his dad seeing as how Rudolf never acknowledged his son's talent as a chef and expected him to continue running the family business with Lars after his death even when Ernie had his own responsibilities to his restaurant. Furthermore, while his desire to sell the Smuntz family's string factory may have been going against Rudolf's dying wish, he correctly points out that the factory is a shell of its former glory that doesn't make anywhere near as much money as it did when Rudolf was alive and running it, and that Lars's determination to keep the family business going isn't doing him any good, especially since his refusal to sell the factory results in his wife furiously kicking him to the curb for choosing his loyalty to his late father over common sense.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Despite his cynism, he seems to care about Lars and his late father, he hasn't like Lars the gut to finish off the mouse while he's unconcious and at the end he even becomes friend with him as they both share passion for cooking.
• Laser-Guided Karma: Ernie, smarting from years of having his culinary pursuits dismissed by his father and learning Rudolf's will has left him with only a ruined mansion and an only slightly-more-valuable string factory, storms out, taking only his father's old cigar box. It's from this box that the cockroach comes, ruining his restaurant and setting off the whole plot.
• Look Both Ways: Non-fatal example, when Ernie gets hit by a bus when he's Distracted by the Sexy, see above.
• No Indoor Voice: Ernie's prone to yelling, even when he's excited. Nathan Lane's voice actor in Brazil said the movie was his hardest work ever because Ernie yells so much he barely had a voice after each day recording the dubbing.
• Sadist: Ernie is the most eager one to kill the mouse compared to Lars and he's always seen laughing evilly or at least being in a happy mood while trying to do it.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy: Ernie views his relationship with his father Rudolf as such, never managing to gain much approval for his cooking profession, outside the string that ties the food together, of course.

Rudolf

Portrayed by William Hickey

Lars and Ernie's late father who was once a wealthy string magnate.

• Companion Cube: His lucky string. Held onto it for 60 long years. Before his death, he gave it to his sons.
• Creepy Changing Painting: His portrait will change his expression in some scenes.
• Died Happily Ever After: The last time his portrait is smiling as his sons have reconciled and run the factory together.
• Posthumous Character: Rudolf Smuntz is already dead by the time the movie begins. There's a flashback from when he was alive.
• Self-Made Man

Secondary characters

Alexander Falko

Portrayed by Maury Chaykin

• Collector of the Strange: He is an Eccentric Millionaire who is the world’s most famous collector of items relating to Charles Lyle LaRue, who proudly boasts that he possesses the man’s books, is sure that LaRue would have liked his shoes, and wants to make the building Lars and Ernie have just found his forty-third LaRue house.
• Eccentric Millionaire: Not only is Alexander Falko a Collector of the Strange (see above), but he also has such interesting dietary tastes as a taste for cucumbers as a snack and demanding a glass of rainwater on a sunny day.

April Smuntz

Portrayed by Vicki Lewis

• Fair-Weather Ex: When April hears that Lars turned down a huge sum of money for the string factory that he and his brother Ernie recently inherited (because Lars promised his father he would never sell the factory), she kicks him out of the house. But when she hears Lars and Ernie also inherited a house that turned out to be of great value and is expected to make them both millionaires once sold, she immediately seduces Lars into taking her back again. And once the auction goes south and the house is destroyed, she promptly leaves him again.
• Gold Digger: She leaves Lars after learning his late father left him nothing but a string factory in his will and that Lars didn't want to sell the place. But she returns and seduces him after learning about the house auction. In the end though, she runs off with a wealthy Texan with at least 22 million dollars kicking around, (which she learns from his bidding on the house).
• Hate Sink: April is a borderline example of such, clearly expecting more from her husband due to his once-lucrative inheritance and being more concerned with herself than with his own well-being. She even had the gall to chew out Ernie for not seizing the opportunity for more money on the house at the auction while Mr. Falko, who was betting hugely on the house was choking right in front of her. You’ll likely be laughing with Ernie when she ends up choking herself.
• It's All About Me: April outright states that she is not content being "middle class" and angrily tosses Lars out of the house when he refuses an offer for his father's string factory. She only comes back to him upon learning of the auction for the valuable house he's staying at, having the audacity to cuss out Ernie when the house nearly sells for eight million just before the bid goes up; she ultimately makes off with one of the millionaires, not giving a second thought of Lars.
• Karma Houdini: A Gold Digger bitch who in the end got to make off with one of the millionaires that attended the auction. To be fair though, said millionaire did save her life from choking, which she seemed really thankful for.
• Ms. Fanservice: At the factory, she wears a corset under her coat to seduce an already naked Lars, with her hair loose and a little hat which she keeps on her head after removing the coat. And it's seen for only seven seconds.
  (Lars has had all of his clothes ripped off by the string factory, and after covering himself with the balls of the string that used to be his clothes, enters the office naked)
  April: (sexily) Careful, Lars, you might catch a cold.
  (Lars turns around to see her)
  Lars: April!
  April: (dropping her coat to reveal her sexy corset while jazzy music plays) You look like you could use some warming up.
  (Lars drops his balls as April looks on)

Hilde and Ingrid

Portrayed by Camilla Søeberg (Hilde) and Debra Christofferson (Ingrid)

• Fat and Skinny: Ingrid serves as the Fat while Hilde serves as the Skinny.
• Misplaced Accent: The Belgian sisters, Ingrid and Hilde, who sound nothing like Dutch, Flemish or French (depending on which part of Belgium they're from).
• Second Love: Hilde becomes this to Lars by the end of the film.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: While Hilde has a brief appearance near the end as Lars' new girlfriend, her sister Ingrid is absent.

Caesar

Portrayed by Christopher Walken

• Eccentric Exterminator: He has an almost supernatural intuition to pests, and maintains an overly dramatic log report about his work. Eventually, he gets Driven to Madness by the mouse he's trying to catch.
• Heroic BSoD: Caesar after his run in with the mouse.
  Ernie: Caesar, what happened? Did you catch the mouse?
  Cesar: What's that? Horse? Fiendish!!! I WON'T EAT IT!! AAAAAAHHHHHH!!!! (chatters like a mouse)
• Large Ham: Caesar the exterminator (being played by Christopher Walken, this shouldn't be a surprise).
• Nothing Is Scarier: Whatever the mouse did to him mustn't be any pleasant.
• Non Sequitur, *Thud*: This happens to Caesar after the mouse made a fool of him, sending him careening through the house and effectively driving him to madness. He is then being taken out on a hospital stretcher when the brothers return to check up on things.
• Sanity Slippage: His encounter with the mouse drove him crazy.
• Scarily Competent Tracker: It still doesn't help.
• Sniff Sniff Nom: He does this with some droppings to judge the dietary habits of the mouse.
• Thousand-Yard Stare: He has this look after being violently dragged off the mansion by his own cable the mouse activated.
• Throw the Dog a Bone: In a Deleted Scene during the ending, he is seen working at the cheese string factory, having seemingly recovered from his scarring defeat.

Catzilla

• Ax-Crazy: Catzilla is portrayed as being such a good mouse hunter because he's psychotic.
• Badass Adorable: He may be a bit monstrous in behavior, but... he's still a cute kitty cat.
• Cats Are Mean: He is the pet of your nightmares. He's apparently unkillable (they tried gassing him at least once in the animal shelter), permanently kept in a sealed container because he's so vicious and is portrayed as a Godzilla-like monster from the mouse's perspective. In fact, when Ernie puts the box down Catzilla's paws punch through the wood with ease and walk around with Catzilla still inside, just so he can hide outside the mousehole. When the mouse investigates, he breaks out of his container, and roars like Godzilla. Making it all the more impressive when the mouse proceeds to Break the Badass.
• Fluffy the Terrible: The pound manager mentions that the Smuntzes could call the vicious cat they just bought "Fluffy" if they'd like.
• Freudian Excuse: The reason why Catzilla is so ferocious is that he's probably been mistreated and maybe even physically abused (his right eye is blind.)
• Made of Iron: Maury offhandedly mentions how Catzilla had already been gassed at one point.
• Riddle for the Ages: It's never known if he survived his encounter with the mouse or not.
• Uncertain Doom: After being sent down the laundry shaft, we don't see Catzilla again, though a faint groan after the fall implies he didn't die.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: He's never seen again after falling down the laundry shaft. Though he could have survived (we can hear him meowing in pain) he certainly would have been in bad conditions and thus not being able to chase the mouse anymore.