Mortimer Mouse

"Ha-cha-cha, ladies' night! Where ladies get everything they want! And what they want, is to adore me."

- Mortimer Mortimer Mouse is Mickey Mouse's rival and secondary arch-nemesis in animation, after Pete. He is a sleazy, obnoxious rat who openly berates Mickey, constantly antagonizing him for years. Mortimer first appeared in the Mickey short Mickey's Rival and ever since he has been battling Mickey for Minnie's affections. He is voiced by Maurice LaMarche.

History
When Walt Disney was in the process of creating Mickey Mouse, he suggested the name of his new character to be Mortimer Mouse. However, his wife, Lillian Disney, felt the name sounded too pompous, and suggested Mickey, instead. Years later, when developing a new short, the name Mortimer was put to use for a new character, an antagonistic rival of Mickey's for Minnie's affections. Mortimer only appeared in the cartoon "Mickey's Rival" and was never seen in animation again until 2000, when his popularity skyrocketed and landed him roles in several Mickey Mouse related material.

Since then, in all animated appearances, Mortimer's voice has been provided by Maurice LaMarche, which is said to be an exaggerated impression of comedian Jon Lovitz.

Design
Mortimer is essentially a taller version of Mickey Mouse, and seems a bit more human-like. Unlike his rival, Mortimer has whiskers, perhaps referencing how he has a ratlike persona. He has feet the size of Goofy's. Unlike most of the other mouse characters, however, you can see two large teeth close together, like a rat. He is usually wearing jeans and a shirt, but sometimes he also wears a hat.

Personality
He is said to be Minnie's ex-boyfriend and she possibly left him due to his nature. He is very arrogant and rude, the total opposite of his rival. While he claims he loves Minnie very much, he shows to be incredibly selfish as seen in the cartoon "Mickey's Rival" where he leaves Minnie to be attacked by a bull that he provoked. Not only that, he attempts to flirt with any female character on screen which might also indicate the reason the relationship between him and Minnie was abolished. Also, Mortimer can be rather sexist as seen in "Mickey's Rival Returns" where he feels that Minnie is only a prize to be won. When he's not tiring to get Minnie affections he tries to flirt with other female characters in "House of Mouse".

Interestingly, a different side of Mortimer was showcased in the cartoon Mickey's Mix-Up, where Mickey accidentally sent a heartwarming FAQs to Mortimer (which was actually meant for Minnie) having the rat believe Mickey wanted to make amends, which he immediately agreed to. This shows that, perhaps, Mortimer does hold a softer side, and wouldn't mind becoming friends with Mickey if the latter also wanted to let bygones be bygones. However, this softer side was never revealed again, due to either Mickey revealing the truth about the mix up, infuriating Mortimer, or more likely because the entire thing was used as a comical gag.

Aside from his cocky and sexist attitude, Mortimer proves to be, time and time again, rather intelligent and crafty. He's, on many occasions, managed to manipulate Mickey into a scheme that'd end in the downfall of his relationship with Minnie. For instance, in Big House Mickey, Mortimer managed to fool the town's government into arresting Mickey. In Mickey and the Culture Clash, he manipulated Mickey into believing Minnie desires a more sophisticated boyfriend, resulting in the mouse changing his persona to the point where Minnie believes he's out of her league, leaving her in the hands of Mortimer.

Mickey's Rival
In his first appearance, Mortimer was driving by and notice Mickey and Minnie as they were having a picnic. Minnie is thrilled to see Mortimer once again. As soon as Mortimer walks up, Mickey already knows he is bad news just as Mortimer does not like Mickey at all so he attempts to humiliate Mickey and when Mickey shows Minnie how upset he is Minnie states that he is just jealous. Mortimer then tries to impress Minnie by annoying a bull that is over a fence. The plan works until the bull finds a way out. Mortimer rushes and drives away in his car and leaves Mickey to rescue Minnie who eventually remembers why she left Mortimer in the first place.

Mickey's Once Upon a Christmas
Mortimer makes a brief appearance in the direct-to-video film Mickey's Once Upon a Christmas. Here, Mortimer is the snooty, profound and wealthy owner of Mortimer's Department Store, and he speaks with a profound tone. His design is noticeably different here; he does not have hiss buck teeth and is drawn with a mustache instead of his usual whiskers. Minnie Mouse and Daisy Duck are notable employees of the store, and judging by Minnie's low-budget lifestyle, he does not pay well. In Mortimer's brief scene, Minnie hopes to earn the Christmas bonus for her extra hard work, so that she may pay for a wonderful present for Mickey. However, Mortimer only gives her a fruitcake, leaving Minnie without money to buy the gift.

Mickey Mouse Works
In this series, Mortimer returned to animation as a recurring antagonist to Mickey. Mortimer's first appearance in the series was the cartoon Mickey's Rival Returns. In this cartoon, Mortimer and Mickey compete with each other in volleyball. The winner gets to ask Minnie on a date. Originally, Mickey refused the idea being that it would be using Minnie as "some kind of trophy", but Mortimer's arrogance and mocking angers Mickey into competing. Mickey wins, but Mortimer reveals the competition prize to Minnie, causing her to believe Mickey thought of her as a prize. Minnie instead leaves with Mortimer but at the date, he begins to harass her for a kiss. Fortunately, she is saved by Mickey who she forgives and has a beach dinner with.

In later episodes, Mortimer is Mickey's neighbor and is still competing with Mickey to win Minnie Mouse's heart. He is apparently wealthy, as he is shown to own far more advanced technology than his rival. One of Mortimer's most villainous roles was in the cartoon Big House Mickey where he accused Mickey of robbing his house, having Mickey sent to prison, and even lied under oath. Mortimer made a guest appearance in the Pluto segment, Pluto Gets the Paper: Mortimer, here he steals the newspaper Pluto was about to get for Mickey, and after a long chase, the dog finally gets back at him by making him bring the paper to Mickey like a dog.

House of Mouse


In the television series House of Mouse, Mortimer gets a role as a recurring character. Mortimer appears many times as a guest and tries to trick Mickey or Minnie into breaking up. In the series' pilot episode, Mortimer appears briefly, but is seen flirting with Donald Duck's girlfriend Daisy Duck instead. He would go on try to have both Minnie and Daisy all to himself in later episodes. Mortimer proves to be hated by mostly all of the guests at the club, including villains such as Ursula and Gaston. It is even indicated in the episode "Pete's Christmas Caper" that the cruel Pete might even have a disliking towards him.

Whenever he's not flirting with Minnie or Daisy, Mortimer's seen flirting with dozens of females in the audience, such as Anastasia and Drizella from Cinderella, Laverne from The Hunchback of Notre Dame, or even The Queen of Hearts from Alice in Wonderland. However, he does not seem to like Clarabelle Cow at all.

Mortimer's most prominent appearance in the series is "The Mouse Who Came to Dinner", in which he tricks Mickey and friends into believing he is a restaurant critic, and he forces them to treat him like a prince or he will give them a negative review which could close the club. Mortimer is foiled when Lumière is revealed to be the actual critic.

Mickey Mouse Clubhouse
Mortimer's most recent appearance is in the CG animated series Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. He has a non-speaking role in "Minnie's Birthday" seen sitting beneath a tree, playing a guitar. In this appearance, Mortimer wears the orange shirt from Mouse Works with yellow polka dots, blue pants and yellow shoes. He was also seen sleeping and sunbathing on the ground. Unlike his normals self, he does not try to steal Minnie from Mickey.

Mortimer makes his on,y proper appearance on the series in the special "Super Adventure!" as the main antagonist. Here, he has a supervillain ego named Megamort, who plots to take control over the Clubhouse World by shrinking all the landmarks and storing them within his zeppelin lair. During some time of the plotting, Mortimer forced the humble Pete to act as his minion, ordering him to go around to proceed with his bidding. When the problem reaches Mickey and friends' attention, Ludwig Von Drake creates a machine that transforms the clubhouse gang into a team of superheroes.

Together, they head out and are able to defeat Pete. However, Pete reveals he was forced to fulfill such evil deeds, under the control of "the big boss", who threatened to shrink Pete should he refuse to follow orders. Just then, Megamort arrives and does just that, due to Pete's failure. And with Pete no longer serving him, Megamort goes ahead and wrecks havoc amongst the world himself, leading to everything, including Mickey himself being shrinked and imprisoned. Under their hero egos, Donald, Goofy, Minnie, Daisy, and Pluto travel to Megamort's zeppelin where a battle ensues.

Successfully, they retrieve the shrunken landmarks, but causes Megamort's blimp to go haywire in the process, putting Megamort in great peril. Mickey concocts a plan to successfully save the villainous rat, and Megamort, being eternally grateful, apologizes and redeems himself, revealing that his true name is Mortimer Mouse, and that he's the Clubhouse' newest neighbor. With his villainy in the past, Mortimer restores the peace in the Clubhouse world and is welcomed by Mickey and the gang into their circle of friends.

Strangely, Mortimer's appearance in "Minnie's Birthday" seems to have been forgotten here, as he was showcased in "Super Adventure" as the Clubhouse's new neighbor, as if Mickey and the gang had never known him prior to those events. It could be that "Superhero Adventure" chronologically takes place first, despite having been made years later.

Minnie's Bow-Toons
Mortimer Mouse made a cameo appearance in the Minnie's Bow-Toons episode Slumber Party when Minnie, Daisy, Clarabelle, Millie and Melody are watching a scary film on TV.

Comics
Mortimer actually seems to originate in comics, as he (or a reasonable facsimile) made his first appearance in that medium six years before his animated debut. In this first incarnation, he was called Mr. Slicker and appeared in Floyd Gottfredson's first full Mickey Mouse newspaper comic serial, Mr. Slicker and the Egg Robbers. When Minnie Mouse's father, Marcus is in danger of losing his ranch eggs, Mr. Slicker offers aid financial return for Minnie's hand in marriage, and Mickey suspects him. In the end, Mickey proves it was Slicker who was behind the thefts.

Around the time the cartoon short Mickey's Rival came out, Gottfredson adapted it into a storyline in the Mickey Mouse Sunday strip, but with a noticeably different plot. Mickey goes over to Minnie's house to visit, only to be greeted by Mortimer, who is also visiting Minnie. After Minnie introduces him to Mickey, Mortimer proceeds to make Mickey look like a fool in front of her. Each day, he keep pulling pranks on Mickey in hopes of getting rid of him. In the end, Mickey got the better of him, and Minnie kicked Mortimer out.

Five years later, Mortimer returned to the daily comic strip as Montmorency Rodent in Gottfredson's storyline "Love Trouble". In later comic appearances under other writers, Mortimer sometimes teamed up with Pete the Bad and Sylvester Shyster, who, like Mortimer, also wants to win the love of Minnie. In some of the Disney comics, it was shown that Mortimer is rich and lives in a mansion, and he can also fly a plane.

Video games
Mortimer appeared in the GameCube game Disney Sports Soccer, Football and Basketball. He is also in Disney's Golf as a secret character.

Disney Parks
Mortimer has not yet made any live appearances in the Disney theme parks. However, a mural with several classic Disney characters during the Disney California Adventure expansion was seen with Mortimer being one of the characters featured. Also at the park, Mortimer's namesake is featured in the shop Mortimer's Market which is located on Buena Vista Street.

Catchphrases
Mortimer has one catchphrase which is "Ha-Cha-Cha". Which he says in Mickey Mouse Works and House of Mouse. In some of the comics he says it different "Hot-Cha-Cha".

Trivia

 * Walt was originally going to name Mickey Mortimer, but his wife insisted on a new name. Mrs. Disney felt that the name was not good enough and suggested a name which was more suitable with Walt’s home in Midwestern: Mickey.
 * The name itself derives from the name of Disney's former pet mouse, Mortimer.
 * Although Mortimer hasn’t been used that much in the cartoons, he has been used a lot in the comics particularly the comics from overseas, the most popular ones being Brazil, Italy and France.
 * Mortimer bears resemblance to an obscure character, Ruffhouse Rat, who is a cousin of Minnie's and Mickey had to help train in boxing in one of his earlier comics.
 * In the Berke Breathed strip Bloom County, there is a Mortimer Mouse, who is a stubbly, surly mouse who wears the same outfit as Mickey's, but more disheveled. He is annoyed that he was drafted during the Second World War, during one battle he suffered an injury where a Panzer tank ran over his foot, while at the same time Mickey went on to fame and fortune. This parody was ended after Breathed was threatened with a lawsuit from Disney for unauthorized parody in 1988. Interestingly, Disney had better relations with Berke Breathed twenty years later when they based a film on his children's book Mars Needs Moms.
 * Like Gaston and Chi-Fu, Mortimer has very negative opinions towards women and girls that border on misogyny.