YMMV / Mickey Mouse

For the shorts created by Paul Rudish, go here.

---

• Americans Hate Tingle: Mickey is widely disliked in Germany in favor of Donald Duck, as he is considered to be boring and less relatable than Donald. The German paperback format of the Donald Duck comics (which is the most popular Donald Duck or Mickey Mouse medium in Germany) contains some Mickey Mouse comics, further fueling dislike of Mickey since Donald-only fans feel like they're getting cheated out of a Donald story.
• Archive Panic: While not as infamous about this as Donald Duck, Mickey's career in Western Animation, comics, television, video games and merchandise spanning back to 1928 is very tough to manage for a casual fan. And considering that he is the mascot of Disney, they're unlikely to stop making stuff with him anytime soon.
• Audience-Alienating Era: Unlike the "George Geef" era for Goofy, which is merely a Base-Breaking Era, Mickey's post-World War II cartoons from 1946 to 1953 can definitely be considered this. By then, much of Mickey's personality was lost, with co-stars like Donald Duck and Goofy becoming more popular than he, and the shorts that were billed as Mickey Mouse cartoons during that era mostly focused on his dog Pluto instead. Perhaps not surprisingly, Mickey's theatrical career came to an end in early 1953, not to be revived until thirty years later.
• Audience-Coloring Adaptation: The squeaky-clean version of Mickey is by far the most popular and most marketable version of the character. Used in many shorts and shows. Thus, many assume this is how he acts in every piece of media, despite many adaptations/installments diverging from it like Epic Mickey, MM Mickey Mouse Mystery Magazine, Runaway Brain and Mickey Mouse (2013).
• Award Snub: Mickey, despite being one of the most iconic animated mascots in the world, has had terrible luck when it comes to the Academy Awards, and the one time he did win is now considered a snub of its own. ^noteLend a Paw won the Oscar in 1941 but most animation historians agree that it should’ve gone to Fleischer's first Superman cartoon, The Mad Scientist which is now considered an iconic classic whereas this Mickey short is considered to be solid but nothing special
  • Mickey's Christmas Carol, Mickey’s hyped return to animation after 30 years, at the time critically acclaimed and now considered a Christmas classic and one of the most iconic adaptations of A Christmas Carol, lost the Oscar to Sundae In New York, a charming but forgettable Claymation short that’s now become incredibly obscure.
  • The Prince and the Pauper… didn’t even get nominated. Much like the example above, this was touted as Mickey’s grand return to theatrical shorts after almost 10 years in the form of a very lavishly animated short that rivals Disney’s own full-length animated movies… but was completely ignored by the Academy.
  • Get a Horse! is a lavishly animated, passion-filled homage to the old black and white Disney cartoons (to the point where Walt Disney himself reprises his role via archival recordings that they had to meticulously edit to sound authentic) while also incorporating modern CGI seamlessly and also featuring Oswald the Lucky Rabbit’s grand return to the big screen after almost a century... but it lost to Mr. Hublot, a French short that, while well-made, wasn’t considered to be anything special.
• Base-Breaking Character: Mickey's either considered endearing in his endless innocence and optimism, too inoffensive and banal to be of substance to anyone out of grade school, or someone who deserves props for his importance to the History of Animation, albeit a product of his time and not a particularly strong character nowadays. Simplicity is a core facet of Mickey's character, for better or for worse, and having been the face of the biggest entertainment company in the world for decades, it's only natural that Mickey would amass several varying opinions over the years.
• Broken Base:
  • Fred Moore's redesign of Mickey and whether it is better or worse than Mickey's original Pie-Eyed design has been a source of heated debates for years. Some fans despise the redesign, finding it to be bland, corporate, and sanitized compared to his original scrappier design, while others find the redesign to be just fine and consider it to be more appealing than his classic design, arguing that the addition of pupils allows Mickey to have more convincing expressions than his original design.
  • Which personality is better suited for Mickey? His mischievous, scrappier, and swashbuckling personality from his early works? Or the straight-laced and heroic Nice Guy in later works? Some argue the former is far more interesting and engaging than his later personality, which is considered by fans of his original personality to be bland and corporate, while others argue the latter suits Mickey better since he is Disney's mascot (meaning he has a reputation to uphold) and that it allows him to better stand out from the more comedic Goofy and Donald and to act as a Straight Man to them, all while finding his original personality to be too unlikable and cruel by comparison. There is very little middle ground between the two sides.
• Common Knowledge:
  • No, the Mickey who's now in public domain isn't just the version without gloves, pupils or red shorts like many people believe, as this tweet explains this in detail (warning: the post on trademarks is slightly inaccurate). Yes, the Steamboat Willie version of Mickey was like that during most of the short, but (the silent versions of) The Gallopin' Gaucho and Plane Crazy, which are also now in PD, as well as a lot of free promotional material and 1930's Minnie's Yoo Hoo, show Mickey with pupils, red shorts (and even white shorts with red buttons, apparently), gloves (both yellow and white ones) and even yellow shoes◊^note though maybe one could say they're actually either dark yellow or orange instead of his characteristic normal yellow, so better be mindful with this until at least 2028, where he definetly has his iconic yellow shoes in Parade of the Award Nominees (or brown or white). Even Steamboat Willie's title card itself◊, which is the title card for most of the shorts from that era, shows the mouse with pupils and gloves (and striped shorts). Hell, he can even be tailess, as there are some blink-and-you'll-miss errors found in Steamboat Willie where his tail disappears, like this one. The things public Mickey can't have are his pupilled small eyes (not the large ones from Plane Crazy), his pale pinkish face, his "rounder" appearance and probably his iconic voice (though that doesn't mean he can't have a squeaky voice or speak in falsetto like the modern one or have vocals similar to the grunts and screams from Steamboat Willie), along with his signature "Ha-ha!", things that were added to the mouse much later (and also any mention of his complete name, since it's trademarked by Disney, so you'll have to use "Mickey" and "Mouse" separately (you can still say that "Mouse" is his last name, though)).
  • Classic Mickey's eyes are often viewed as Black Bead Eyes. However, his eyes are meant to be conjoined similar to Goofy, with the whole upper area above his snout being his eyes and the black dots being his pupils. This is most evident in Plane Crazy and Gallopin Gaucho, which makes this detail known by having the eyes be large visible circles (similar to Felix the Cat), with old posters also showing a noticeable line◊ around his pupils, shaping the eyes.^note The reason for why the circles were removed early on was to save time and costs on drawing them. The early comics and some of the shorts in Mickey Mouse (2013) (like "The Boiler Room") also make this trait more obvious on occasion. To be fair, given that his whole face is white, it's understandable why it became a common misconception. It's also not helped by his modern design, which gets rid of this aspect by giving him white eyes and black pupils, adding to the misconception.
• Fan Nickname: Mickey himself is so inseparable from his role as Walt Disney's Series Mascot that the nickname "the Mouse" is often used to refer to the Disney company as a whole. This continued even after Mickey finally entered into the Public Domain.
• Fandom-Enraging Misconception:
  • Despite their similar looks, Mickey and Minnie are not related to each other and are especially not twin siblings. The two are an Official Couple, with Walt himself saying they're married outside of the shorts. Making this mistake would not be a wise move.
  • Saying that Mickey has no personality or is nothing more than a bland corporate mascot will not make you many friends with the fandom, who will point to various works like his early shorts, the various Mickey Mouse comics, Runaway Brain, the Epic Mickey games, and the Paul Rudish shorts, amongst other works, as proof that Mickey does have a personality. In all fairness, this is largely thanks to Disney themselves, as they heavily limit what Mickey is allowed to do and not do.
• Harsher in Hindsight: In a 1930 story arc in the comic strip, Mickey becomes despondent when Minnie dumps him for a city slicker and initiates a week of darkly funny halfhearted suicide attempts, one of which is to try to asphyxiate himself by turning on the gas in his house. Eight years later, Walt Disney's mother would die in exactly the same way (although it was accidental and not suicide).
• Mainstream Obscurity: Mickey Mouse is one of the most famous fictional characters in the world and is the de-facto mascot of Disney, but despite this, ask anyone who isn't a fan if they watch any Mickey Mouse media and you're likely going to get blank stares, as Mickey is more widely known in the general public for being a corporate mascot than an actual character. You may get some who are familiar with some of his more "iconic" classic shorts (like Steamboat Willie, The Sorcerer's Apprentice, and Mickey's Christmas Carol, etc), and maybe his later TV works like Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Mickey Mouse (2013), but don't expect most outside of Disney/Mickey fans to know the vast plethora of Mickey's other work.
• Memetic Loser: Mickey Mouse is often used as a shorthand for "something of inferior/childish quality". In fact, this pejorative is rather old, apparently originating as 1930s jazz slang for substandard music. That said, the meaning of "Mickey Mouse" changes based on context as noted below.
  • If a work of fiction is described as being "Mickey Mouse", the implication is that said story uses too many tropes associated with Disney movies, which are usually aimed at a young demographic. In particular, a story tends to get hit by the Mickey Mouse allegations when a fake-out death occurs. Generally, the preschooler show Mickey Mouse Clubhouse is the go-to insult when one wants to denigrate a story as childish.
  • In e-sports and traditional sports, a Mickey Mouse tournament is a tournament deemed noncompetitive due to its entrants' low skill level or the tournament's unusual gimmicks, thereby painting the eventual winner as a fraudulent champion. While it originated as British soccer terminology, it exploded in popularity when the 2020 NBA playoffs took place at Disney World.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • Mickey Mouse Hacks a Military Computer^ExplanationComes from an anonymous VHS tape sent in 1991 to the Italian magazine Decoder. The tape was a recording of two masked hackers, one with a Mickey Mouse Mask and the other going by the pseudonym of "The Iron Man" (not to be confused with the superhero), reportedly hacking into a the US's military database. When the tape was uploaded by a member of the magazine's staff in 2006, it quickly became a staple in Italian memes, especially due to the memorable final line "Ci stanno tracciando! Stacca! STACCA!" ("We have been tracked! Shut everything down").
  • "Father... I Crave Cheddar"^ExplanationA photo of a bizarre, distorted Mickey Mouse sculpture◊ with this sentence written on its base. The Surreal Horror of the image resulted in it catching on among people weary of Disney's dominance of the entertainment industry, with "Father... I Crave Cheddar" being invoked as if it were a catchphrase for Mickey.
  • "Oh boy! My favorite seat!"^ExplanationTaken from a 1991 TV special The Best of Disney: 50 Years of Magic in which Mickey attempts to watch something at a movie theater but sees somebody blocking his view. When this figure reveals itself to be Chernabog from Fantasia, Mickey screams in terror. Typically, Chernabog's reveal is replaced with something else that's seen as scary, and on some occasions Mickey's scream is replaced with other memetic screams (such as the Gangsta's Paradise yell)
  • "Mickey on a railway picking up stones / down came an engine and broke Mickey's bones."^ExplanationAn infamous nursery rhyme about Mickey getting hit by an engine and being told "I don't care!" by the engine driver. It has become popular for the absurdity of it all, and has been reanimated countless times on YouTube.
• Misblamed: Many fans of the older Mickey Mouse cartoons blame Fred Moore's redesign of him for causing his Flanderization as a goody-two-shoes and the subsequent Seasonal Rot of his post-World War II cartoons. As a matter of fact, the Flanderization was the result of the Disney artists and storymen bowing to the complaints of Moral Guardians who demanded that Mickey be put on a pedestal as early as the mid-1930's, as in before the redesign. As for the redesign itself, that was Walt's idea to change Mickey's design, especially the eyes, in 1939 in an effort to update what he saw as an archaic design that was beholden to the limits of animation a mere decade before.
• My Real Daddy:
  • While practically synonymous with Walt Disney, some attribute Mickey more to Ub Iwerks as he was the one who designed him. Others opt for co-creator status (Disney with his personality, Iwerks with his design). There's also Floyd Gottfredson, who retained Mickey's adventurous personality in the comics for several decades and who many credit for better fleshing out his character and world beyond Walt Disney's shorts (similar to what Carl Barks did for Donald Duck).
  • While Ub Iwerks is the one who originally designed Mickey, many credit Fred Moore for refining the design to perfection and giving him more weight and depth, as he is the one who shifted Mickey away from the Rubber-Hose Pie-Eyed design he had back in the late 1920s and early 1930s to the design that he continues to have to this day.
  • This is also the case for voice actors. It's true that Walt himself was the character's voice until the late 1940s. In the modern day, however, most people think specifically of the late Wayne Allwine, who did Mickey's voice from 1977 until his eventual death in 2009.
• Never Live It Down: A twofold example on both spectrums. No matter how many times modern writers try to make Mickey a more engaging and entertaining character in his own right, the Mouse will always be known to the general public as a bland, goody two-shoes mascot character. On the other hand, due to him being inseparable from the company, many see Mickey as a symbol of everything wrong with the company. Many draw the character in a negative light by him making him represent Disney's corruption and greed in editorial cartoons and/or satirical comics/memes. Some even go as far to paint him as the true corrupt leader of Disney's board of directors!
• Pop Culture Holiday: Mickey Mouse Day is November 18th, in honor of his iconic appearance in Steamboat Willie.
• Ron the Death Eater: Mickey Mouse is a Nice Guy, even downright Adorkable on multiple occasions, but since he belongs to one of the most powerful and (in)famous companies in the whole world and is their Mascot to boot, there are many people who portray Mickey as a corrupt capitalist or something worse. There is also the South Park version of him (which is more of a light-hearted parody than anything else), and in many countries that oppose the United States (like Venezuela), putting Mickey ears to any politician the government doesn't like is seen as a sign of a "American bitch".
• Special Effects Failure: In the cartoon "The Duck Hunt", there are two scenes where the background is panning diagonally, and it's really obvious that they just tilted the background — how, you ask? Because you can clearly see the bottom of the background in the bottom right corner of the screen!
• Values Dissonance: The black-and-white incarnation of Mickey engages in some behavior that modern audiences would find questionable. In Steamboat Willie he inflicts violence on a bunch of animals as part of a gag and in Plane Crazy he subjects Minnie to what would be considered sexual assault today. Even back then, however, many audiences and Moral Guardians at the time found his behavior to be objectionable and unlikable (on top of being too similar to Felix the Cat), which played a large role in Disney's decision to sand out his rougher qualities and make him a more strait-laced and heroic Nice Guy in later shorts.
• Vanilla Protagonist: One of the most iconic cases. Mickey's increasingly laid-back personality made him look like a Flat Character compared to more abrasive and emotional co-stars such as Donald, Goofy or even Pluto, thus he slowly ended up Demoted to Extra in the classic shorts. Modern projects attempt with wavering success to make him star material again, even if ultimately, his Straight Man role is still the most iconic. A common portrayal of Mickey in modern projects tends to make him something of a Composite Character of himself, combining the Nice Guy persona with the mischievous adventurer persona, while also trying to engage him in the cartoon slapstick that the later classic shorts slowly weaned him out of in favour of his co-stars (it is at least commonly agreed that Nice Guy Mickey is more entertaining when something or someone is actually challenging it).

---