Mickey Mouse is getting an auspicious boost of popularity (not that he needed much help in that department to begin with) this Chinese New Year because 2020 is the Year of the Rat! Okay, he’s a mouse, but same difference, since people tend to mix these two anyway. To usher in a prosperous new year, why don’t we take a look at some of the most famous mouse/rat characters that have ever graced the big and small screens? Grab your cheese and munch away!
Remy (“Ratatouille”)
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| Don’t you just hate it when a human interrupts you while you’re cooking? |
Let’s start off with a uniquely talented rat who is the star of Pixar’s 2007 movie, “Ratatouille”. Good thing Remy is animated because there is no way in real life anyone would willingly let a rodent go anywhere near the kitchen stove, no matter how great it is at making the French dish – or any dish, for that matter. Befitting the Year of the Metal Rat (that’s 2020), Remy is pretty handy with steel appliances. (That’s close enough to metal).
Stuart Little
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| This tiny little thing is the big star of “Stuart Little”. |
The eponymous star of “Stuart Little” is not a rat but a mouse, a type that’s typically seen in laboratories but in this movie, the mouse is living happily in a big house. Not as a pet, mind you, but as one of the adopted family members. (Ah, the simple film days of the 1990s). Since he’s a teen mouse, his adoptive brother is technically younger than him and the chagrined boy will have much to learn before he accepts little Stuart as his older brother.
Scabbers ("Harry Potter")
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| No, not the one with the red hair. (JK! We love you, Ron). |
The creepiest rat on this list, for sure. He’s not even a real rat – but a human pretending to be a rat! To those unfortunate enough to have never read or watched the “Harry Potter” series, let us explain. (Also, don’t cry spoiler, the book series ended more than a decade ago). Peter Pettigrew is a wizard, an Animagus, who disguises himself as a rat in order to escape Death Eaters. As a rat, he spent more than a decade snuggling up with little boys – we mean, he happily played the part of pet rat to the oblivious Percy, then Ron, Weasley. We did say he’s creepy.
Tom & Jerry
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| Jerry the mouse makes up one half of this comedic (and very savage) cartoon duo. |
Tom the cat and Jerry the mouse hate each other to the point that they will go the extra mile just to come up with creative ideas to kill each other (don’t worry, they’re cartoons, their lives reset after every fatal execution) but they’ve also got each other’s backs when they face real danger, that is any threat that comes from a third party. Such best frenemies goal.
Mickey & Minnie Mouse
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| Kids, this is how Mickey and Minnie originally looked like before evolving to their current wide-eyed looks. |
The most famous anthropomorphic mice in history, Mickey and Minnie made their debut in 1928. Having been around for decades, their looks have gone through several alterations; even going from black-and-white to colour and 2D to 3D. By the way, if you’ve always looked up to these two as your couple goal, here’s a must-know romantic trivia about them: the man and woman who provided their voices, Wayne Allwine and Russi Taylor, got married in real life in 1991 and stayed married until Wayne’s death in 2009. Aww…
(Photo source: Disney)