Minnie Mouse

Thomas and the Magic Railroad Diesel 199     Minerva Mouse, also known as Minnie Mouse, is a classic Disney character. Created in 1928 by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks, her first appearance was in Plane Crazy, which was created before Steamboat Willie as a silent film but not distrubuted until 1929 with sound added.

Minnie Mouse has, over the years, grown into a strong, rather complex, and easily identifiable character in the Disney universe. Her many personality traits are more than noticeable, as well as consistent, in every incarnation of the character.

Generally speaking, Minnie is incredibly sweet, often tame, and highly intelligent. More so than Mickey half the time. Because of this, she tends to be the one to keep ordinance in her circle of friends, as well as in the life of Mickey, who's constant mischief leads to chaos, ranging in relevance and danger. This also gives a motherly persona, which is seen whenever she's dealing with animals or children. Her nature, kindness, and tendency to see the good in others also ties into the fact that she's a hopeless romantic, as well as deeply affectionate. She takes love and loyalty very seriously, and is quite possibly the most dependable character, as well as the most loving, in the Minnie Mouse franchise.

Despite the various reasons Minnie stands out as a perfect being, she's not without her flaws. Unlike Mickey, who is usually laid-back no matter the situation, Minnie has a habit of becoming easily frustrated, can be impulsive, obsessive, and occasionally naïve.

In spite of the popular belief that the character of Minnie is passive, she is outspoken and has been shown to openly lose her temper due to Mickey's forgetfulness, Daisy's diva persona, and Goofy's tomfoolery. Her temper can also be stemmed from any amount of rudeness, as well as a lack of order. She's also shown dislike and hatred towards flirtatious men, selfishness, and narcissism. Additionally, she refuses to let these factors go on without a word, no matter how harsh or brutally honest her opinions are. Exceptions to this fact come into play whenever she's dealing with a close fried, such as the aforementioned Daisy, who she cares a great deal for, despite her few annoying tendencies.

Minnie is often described as "feisty" by other characters. Being as strong-willed as she is, Minnie has no problem assisting Mickey in battling an enemy, no matter their size or power. She can be a key part in saving the day because of this.

She has appeared in many shorts, specials and movies, often a damsel-in-distress, often kidnapped by Pete or someone else.

1928
In 1928, Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks created Mickey Mouse to act as a replacement for his previous star, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. But Mickey could not fill the void alone. In Plane Crazy, released on May 15, 1928, Minnie and Mickey take a flight on the latter's makeshift aircraft. In during which, Mickey repeatedly tries to romance Minnie but she politely refuses these particular advances.

The next film featuring the couple was The Gallopin' Gaucho. It was the second of their series to be produced but only the third to be released on March 14, 1929. In it, Minnie was employed as the barmaid and dancer of Cantina Argentina, a bar and restaurant established in the pampas of Argentina. She performs the tango for Mickey the gaucho and Black Pete the outlaw. Both flirt with her but the latter intends to abduct her while the former obliges in saving the "damsel in distress" from the villain. All three characters acted as strangers first being introduced to each other.

They appear together again in Steamboat Willie, the third short of the series to be produced but released first on November 18, 1928. Pete was featured as the captain of the steamboat, Mickey as a crew of one and Minnie as their single passenger.

The commercial success of Steamboat Willie helped introduce Mickey and Minnie into the audience. Twelve more films featuring Mickey were produced in 1929, but Minnie only co-starred in seven of them and was mentioned in an eighth.

The first of them was The Barn Dance, first released on December 30, 1928. Minnie stands at the center of attention as Mickey and Pete rival each other in order to win her favor. Both offer to pick her up for the dance but she chooses Pete's newly purchased automobile over Mickey's horse-cart. When the automobile breaks down she resorts to going with Mickey. The latter proves a clumsy dancing partner, repeatedly stepping on her feet, and so she turns to Pete again. She is surprised when Mickey asks for another dance and seems to be light on his feet. However, she is disgusted when Pete points that his rival had placed a balloon in his shorts. She resumed dancing with Pete while Mickey is reduced to crying on the dance floor. Minnie proves to be rather demanding as a partner in a romantic relationship. Mickey obviously has yet to claim her as his girlfriend by this point.

1929-1940
The Opry House, first released on March 28, 1929, was the first short to feature Mickey but not Minnie. A poster, however, mentions Minnie as being a member of the "Yankee Doodle Girls". This later group of female performers remained as unseen characters and were apparently short-lived. Minnie appears again in When the Cat's Away, first released on April 11, 1929. She is attending a party with Mickey along with several other mice. The short was unusual in the depiction of Mickey and Minnie with the size and part of the behavior common in regular mice. The set standard both before and after this short was to depict them as having the size of a rather short human being.

Minnie was seen again in The Plowboy, first released on May 9, 1929, where she is featured as a farm girl and gets Mickey to milk her cow Clarabelle for her. When Mickey presents her with a bucket full of milk and proceeds to kiss her, Minnie answers by knocking the bucket on his head. This in front of his horse Horace Horsecollar who is just making his debut. Minnie obviously was not very appreciative of Mickey's affection at the time.

Their attempt at farming life would prove short-lived. Their next appearance in The Karnival Kid (May 23, 1929) cast Mickey as a hot dog vendor and Minnie as a carnival "shimmy" Dancer. Minnie then appears as a fiddle player in Mickey's Choo-Choo (June 26, 1929).

Her next appearance was arguably more significant. Mickey's Follies(June 26, 1929), featured the first performance of the song "Minnie's Yoo Hoo". "The guy they call little Mickey Mouse" for the first time addresses an audience to explain that he has "Got a sweetie" who is "Neither fat nor skinny" and proudly proclaims that "She's my little Minnie Mouse". Mickey then proceeds in explaining his reaction to Minnie's call. The song firmly establishes Mickey and Minnie as a couple and expresses the importance Minnie holds for her partner. The song would go on to become the theme song for their series as well as the theme to a Disney prime-time television series, The Mouse Factory and Mickey Mouse Works (which also featured the song as a recurring theme in many of its shorts).

Minnie would appear in a number of shorts throughout the 1930's, co-starring alongside Mickey. In 1935, she appeared in the short On Ice, which was her first appearance in a color cartoon. The 1938 short The Fox Huntwas the final appearance of Minnie's early, Ub Iwerks design in the original theatrical run.

1940-1990
In the late 1930s and early 1940s, Minnie was redesigned alongside Mickey, given full eyes, a pear-shaped body as opposed her round body in previous shorts, and a cream face replacing the white tone previously used. The first short to show Minnie's new design was 1939's Mickey's Surprise Party, which was one of the few theatrical shorts that focused more on Minnie than Mickey.

Around this time, Mickey became less of a rascally adventurer, and more of an Everyman character. As this shift in personality became increasingly utilized by Walt Disney and the animators, Minnie's significance would start to diminish. She would continue to appear sporadically as either Mickey's love interest or a supporting character that sets the plot for other characters such as Pluto and Figaro (who famously became her pet cat after his popular demand grew from the 1940 animated feature, Pinocchio). Her last appearance in the original theatrical run of Disney animated shorts would be a brief cameo at the end of 1952's Pluto's Christmas Tree. In the following decades, Minnie would make occasional appearances on Walt Disney's television series and at the Disneyland theme park (and later Walt Disney World) as a mascot alongside Mickey.

After a long hiatus from animation, Minnie would reappear in Mickey's Christmas Carol in 1983, though in an extremely minor role as Bob Cratchit's (played by Mickey) wife.

In 1988, Minnie was given her first starring role in the television special, Totally Minnie. This also marked the debut of Russi Taylor, who would go on to voice Minnie for decades. She also made brief appearances in the television special Mickey's 60th Birthday. Also in 1988, Minnie made a non-speaking appearance as a guest at the 60th Academy Awards ceremony, sitting alongside Donald and Daisy as Mickey announces the winner of Best Animated Short.

1990-present
In 1995, Minnie played a more significant role as the co-star in Runaway Brain. In the short, a monstrous creature called Julius fell for her, forcing Mickey to come to her rescue.

1999 saw the television premiere of Mickey Mouse Works, which gave Minnie her first starring role in standalone cartoons. One such cartoon had Mickey once again dreaming that Minnie became his wife (he had dream this previously in Mickey's Nightmare) while the others were having a picnic.

Minnie was given a starring role in the 2012 animated short, Electric Holiday. In this story, Minnie spotted a beautiful dress in a store window, and this lead to a daydream where Minnie envisions herself as a prospering supermodel living in the city of Paris.

In 2013, Minnie appeared in the theatrical short Get A Horse!, where she had to be rescued by Mickey after being kidnapped by the villainous Pete. The short utilized a combination of archived dialogue from Marcellite Garner and new dialogue courtesy of Russi Taylor. Also in 2013, a new series of Mickey Mouse shorts premiered, with several episodes starring Minnie in her own solo cartoons.

On January 23, 2016, Minnie served as the inspiration for the "Rock the Dots" art and fashion show, taking place in Downtown Los Angeles, California. To coincide with National Polka Dot Day, the interactive exhibit celebrated the aesthetics of Minnie's signature look by displaying an array of apparel designed by various artists around the world, all inspired by Minnie.

On September 27, 2016, Disney released The Art of Minnie Mouse, a book centering Minnie that features reinterpretations of her character design courtesy of various Disney artists, designers, illustrators, and animators from around the world. The book also features an extensive look at Minnie's filmography with a visual timeline.

On June 22, 2017, the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce announced that Minnie Mouse will receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2018, forty years after Mickey, and on the year of her 90th anniversary. The star was implemented on January 22, 2018, and is located at 6835 Hollywood Boulvard in front of the El Capitan Theatre. President and CEO of the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, Leron Gubler, also declared January 22nd as "Minnie Mouse Day" in Hollywood, to further honor the character. Also in 2018, Minnie appeared in the ABC television special Mickey's 90th Spectacular where she joined Mickey Mouse in honor of their 90th anniversary celebrated by several celebrities live on stage at the Shrine Auditorium.

Mickey's Once Upon a Christmas
In Mickey's Once Upon a Christmas, Minnie is Mickey's hard-working girlfriend who, despite her hard work, is in debt with bills and tries not to let Mickey know. She works a large store owned by Mortimer Mouse. She plans to use her Christmas bonus to buy a gift for Mickey, but she ends up receiving a fruitcake. She ends up trading her prized watch for a case for Mickey's beloved harmonica, but Mickey trades his harmonica for a chain for Minnie's watch. In the end, though, they realize their love is enough and they enjoy Christmas together.

Mickey, Donald, Goofy: The Three Musketeers
In the 2004 direct-to-video movie Mickey, Donald, Goofy: The Three Musketeers, Minnie plays the role of the princess of France, who continually daydreams about her true love, Mickey. She's also the only monarch getting in the way of the plans of Pete, who can't take over the kingdom if he cannot get rid of her. Interestingly, for this particular film, Minnie is drawn with hair bangs, which do not appear in any later cartoons.

In this film, Princess Minnie wants nothing more than to find her true love, however, she must put this dream on hold after she escapes a murder plot by the Beagle Boys. She demands that her captain of the musketeers Pete, find her bodyguards. Unknowing to Minnie, Pete is the mastermind behind the murder plot and desires to rule France as king. To avoid a threat to his plan, Pete hires three janitors, Mickey, Donald, and Goofy, to be the musketeer bodyguards, believing they'll do a terrible job. Minnie quickly falls in love with Mickey. After being rescued from a kidnapping scheme, Mickey and Minnie embrace their forbidden love on an evening date across the kingdom. That night, Mickey, Donald, and Goofy are kidnapped by Pete and his minions. The next night, Minnie and Daisy head over to the Grand Opera. There, she learns Pete's plans and is captured. However, over the course of the show, Minnie and Daisy are rescued. Minnie dubs the trio royal musketeers and presumably marries Mickey afterward.

Mickey's Twice Upon a Christmas
In Mickey's Twice Upon a Christmas, Minnie and Daisy enter an ice skating competition. While excited, Minnie is concerned with the fact that she may not be as good as the other contestants. Minnie begins her performance, with the alligators from Fantasia to assist her, and is quickly praised. Daisy becomes jealous and jumps in to steal the spotlight. To further her performance, Daisy has the hippos from Fantasia to assists her. A rival battle follows. Eventually, Daisy pulls off an impressive stunt. Minnie decides to do her own but injures herself in the process. Daisy rushes to her side to comfort her friend. They make up and finish the performance together in a grand finale.

In Mickey and Pluto's segment, Minnie hopes Mickey decides to pull off a simple Christmas party instead of overdoing it like he does every year. When Pluto goes missing, Minnie is the first to be notified. She takes the news to her friends including Scrooge McDuck who volunteers to buy a snow plow company to search the city for Pluto. Minnie, Scrooge, Donald, Daisy, Goofy, Max, Huey, Dewey, and Louie spend the entire day searching in the snow plow. In the end, they reach Mickey's house where Pluto has been found. They all enter the house to sing a carol and celebrate their Christmas.

Other movies
Although Minnie did not officially appear in Fun and Fancy Free, a scene with her, as Happy Valley's queen, was planned to be included in the Mickey and the Beanstalk segment before the decision was made to drop it from the film. In the scene, Mickey came before her to sell her his cow and in exchange, she gave him the magic beans.

In the live-action/animated hybrid film Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Minnie made a small non-speaking cameo appearance at the very end of the film with Mickey and a crowd of many other cartoon characters.

Mickey Mouse Works
In Mickey Mouse Works, she finally appeared in her own segments and cartoons. Here, she is portrayed as Mickey's intelligent, mature, and beloved girlfriend. Occasionally, she starred in the "Maestro Minnie" shorts, and she dressed in a tuxedo, in which she conducts an orchestra of living instruments that she usually has to tame. In most of her starring cartoons, Minnie would be paired up with Daisy who, in contrast to her, is very wacky and talkative. Some of her other cartoons would involve her getting into her own mischief such as when she accidentally turned Pluto's fur purple with dye. When she appeared in Mickey's cartoons, she was often the main subject with Mickey usually trying to find grand ways to impress her. She was also the focus in most cartoons with Mortimer Mouse. She also co-starred with Mickey in his short segments "Mickey to the Rescue" where she plays the role of some of her early cartoons: getting kidnapped by Pete, taken to his lair, and being rescued by Mickey.

House of Mouse
In House of Mouse, Minnie is in charge of planning the show and the club's bookkeeper. Her outfit, black and white undershirt with a skirt and with boots and a purple bow on her ear. She is often annoyed by Clarabelle's gossip, Daisy's wackiness, and Mickey's mischief. Minnie is often responsible for saving the club in times of crises using her cool and rational personality to calm things down.

Minnie appears in Mickey's Magical Christmas: Snowed in at the House of Mouse. Minnie, along with Mickey and the Disney guests, are snowed in at the club. Mickey advises the plan to have a Christmas party while Minnie finds a box of the gang's Christmas stories.

Minnie also appears in Mickey's House of Villains. In it, Minnie is worried about the large number of villains in the club on Halloween night, thinking that they might be up to something, but Mickey isn't worried about it. Unfortunately, Minnie is correct and the club is taken over by the Disney Villains. During their reign, Minnie threatens the leader Jafar to leave the club and change it back to normal, but this backfires when Captain Hook throws her out. After Mickey saves the day, Minnie and the others celebrate.

Mickey Mouse Clubhouse
Minnie also appears in the children's television series, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. Minnie is part of the clubhouse pals and Mickey's girlfriend. Like other appearances, Minnie enjoys cooking, gardening, singing, and dancing. Minnie also has an alter-ego known as Detective Minnie famous for solving mysteries in the clubhouse. Detective Minnie often teams up with Daisy's alias Secret Spy Daisy to solve major issues. Together they're known as The Friendship Team. Minnie has become the star of the most recent of the show's specials most notably Minnie's Bowtique where she opens a boutique selling all forms of bows.

She was notably the central character of several specials, including Minnie's Bow-Tique and Minnie's Winter Bow Show.

Minnie is also a major character in the spin-off series, Mickey Mousekersize.

Minnie is also the central character of Minnie's Bow-Toons. Here, Minnie and Daisy open a store selling all types of bows. They are accompanied by her kitten Figaro, Minnie's nieces Millie and Melody, and a living cuckoo clock figure named Coca Loca. Like her previous television role, Minnie wears a pink dress with white polka dots, white bloomers, pink heels, and pink bow also with white polka dots. Minnie's skills with bows have also been used to solve problems for her friends. At the end of every short, Minnie states the store policy: "There's no business like bow business!"

Mickey Mouse
Along with the rest of the gang, Minnie returns in the animated series. Like many of Mickey's classic shorts of the 1920s and 1930s, Minnie proves to be the driving force of some of Mickey's wacky adventures. She is the only character to star in her own shorts without even the presence or mention of Mickey. The song "Minnie's Yoo Hoo" serves as Minnie's theme throughout the series, and more specifically in her standalone episodes.

She played her first active role in "Cable Car Chaos", where she and Mickey are exploring San Francisco until a runaway cable car spoils the day, forcing Minnie to save herself and the other passengers.

Minnie plays her first role as the protagonist in "Eau de Minnie", where a special perfume Minnie obsesses over enchants the entire city.

She would play another lead role as a Dutch mouse in "Clogged", where she must fix her broken windmill in order to generate water for her garden.

Minnie also stars, alongside Pluto, in the episode "Doggone Biscuits", where she recklessly feeds the latter a bag of fattening dog treats despite Mickey's warnings, resulting in Pluto becoming massive in weight. For the remainder of the episode, Minnie tries to restore Pluto's health and figure. She also reveals that she used to be overweight herself before going into a sauna.

In "Sock Burglar", Minnie took the lead by appointing herself responsible for uncovering a mysterious series of thefts involving missing socks. She turns herself into a detective, and later a ninja, eventually discovering the thief to be Pete.

In "No Reservations", Minnie, Daisy, and Clarabelle butt heads with a snooty maître'd, who viewed the trio as too uncultured to be allowed entry into his restaurant, despite Minnie having made reservations far in advance.

Mickey and the Roadster Racers
In the series, Minnie is an employee of Mickey's local car garage in Hot Dog Hills. Her transforming roadster is known as "Pink Thunder", which was designed to pay tribute to her bow. Outside of the races, Minnie and Daisy star in their own series of exploits as they try to run the "Happy Helpers" hotline business.

Other shows
In The Mickey Mouse Club, Minnie was seen in the animated opening of the series alongside Daisy in go-go boots.

Trivia

 * Minnie appeared in concept art for Epic Mickey, but did not appear in the actual game herself (nor is she ever mentioned by Mickey). There was also no mention of her in Epic Mickey 2, but she did appear in Epic Mickey: Power of Illusion and appeared in one of the projectors at the end of the second Epic Mickey.
 * According to Walt Disney, Mickey and Minnie Mouse have never been married on screen. But, in 1933, during an interview with Film Pictorial, Walt said, “In private life, Mickey is married to Minnie... What it really amounts to is that Minnie is, for screen purposes, his leading lady.”
 * Minnie's eyes are usually longer and wider than Mickey's, while her smile is slightly shorter and more closed than his. However, these details weren't used in the earliest cartoon and some comic stories.
 * In the popular ABC television series Once Upon a Time, several figurines of Minnie and Mickey can be seen, most notably in Mr. Gold's pawn shop.
 * Minnie was used along with Mickey in a 1930 Aesop's Fables cartoon called "The Office Boy" and again in a 1931 Aesop's Fables cartoon called "Red Riding Hood" after Walt Disney admitted influence from this cartoon series which had been around even before Mickey was even created. But Walt sued its creator Paul Terry for "plagiarizing" his character which led to Aesop's Fables ending in 1933.
 * In the Pucca episode "Tame That Toon", the classic cartoon version of Pucca strongly resembles Minnie Mouse.
 * It has been officially stated that Minnie shares the same birthday as Mickey Mouse (November 18). However, this is debatable, as numerous stories that take place on Mickey's birthday do not mention that it is also Minnie's birthday, and vice-versa.
 * In Japanese Disney theme parks, it is more likely to find Minnie Mouse ears instead of Mickey Mouse ears.
 * Minnie has over two-hundred outfits.
 * Bob Iger once referred to Minnie as "the official First Lady of the Walt Disney company".