Minnie Mouse

"Gosh, Minnie, you've always been a princess to me."

- Mickey Mouse. Minnie Mouse (full name first revealed as Minerva Mouse in the comic strip storyThe Gleam) is one of Walt Disney's cartoon characters, she is the girlfriend of Mickey Mouse, and first appeared in the short Plane Crazy along with him.

Minnie is sweet in nature and fun-loving. She is widely recognized by her pink or red polka-dot hair bow.

In most appearances, Minnie is presented as a best friend of Daisy Duck. Her favorite hobbies are cooking, dancing, gardening, shopping, music, fashion and spending time with Mickey.

Personality
"Just imagine... He'll stride into the room; a light will glow from him. I'll hear music, he'll bring me flowers,and he'll sweep me off my feet! And, I'll know he's the one, when he makes me laugh."

- Minnie dreamily fantasizing of her dream lover; giving an example of her romantic personality. 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 Mickey 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 naive.

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 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.

Appearance
Minnie's trademark outfit is usually a dress revealing her white bloomers with a large matching bow and high heel shoes that all are one color (depending on the cartoon). Like Mickey and Goofy, Minnie also wears white gloves for fashion. Her outfit is sometimes red with white polka dots. It has sometimes been a blue outfit with a pink bow and shoes. In earlier cartoons, she wore a hat with a flower in place of her bow. In some cartoons, Minnie was shirtless with only a skirt, bow, bloomers and her high heels.

Voices of Minnie Mouse
Minnie was first voiced by Walt Disney, who was also the original voice of Mickey Mouse. Marjorie Ralston, a Disney inker, voiced her in one cartoon in 1929. Then, from 1929 up until 1939, she was voiced by Marcellite Garner. Then from 1941 to 1942, and on the radio program, The Mickey Mouse Theater of the Air, she was voiced by Thelma Boardman. Following this, from 1942 up to 1952 Ruth Clifford provided the character's voice. Currently, Russi Taylor has voiced Minnie since 1987.

Minnie's Japanese voice is provided by Yūko Mizutani.

Creation
In 1928, Walt Disney created Mickey Mouse to act as a replacement for his previous star, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. But Mickey could not fill the void alone. Among the few consistent character traits Oswald had developed before moving on and capable of escaping his grasp.

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 December 30, 1928. 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 second 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.

Minnie as a co-star
The first of them was The Barn Dance, first released on March 14, 1929. 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 go 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.

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).

Minnie's Signature
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 to 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.

Damsel in Distress
At one point of her career, Minnie would serve as a damsel-in-distress supporting character, popularized during the 20's and 30's of both animated and live-action films. In these storylines, Minnie would be kidnapped by the dreading Pete, mostly out of affection for the mouse and envy of Mickey, which would result in the latter rushing out to rescue her. In spite of being the one in danger, Minnie recurringly played a part in defeating the villain, often taking matters into her own hands (surprisingly brutally in most shorts) whenever she sees Mickey losing control of the battle. This staple would continue to appear in shorts such as Shanghaied, Two-Gun Mickey, Runaway Brain, Get A Horse!, and various other incarnations of the characters in modern animation and media.

1940's era-present
Once Mickey became an Everyman character in the late 30's throughout the rest of his original career, Minnie's significance would somewhat diminish, becoming a mere love interest or supporting character that drives the plot for other characters such as Mickey, Pluto, and Figaro, who famously became her pet cat after his popular demand grew from the 1940 feature, Pinocchio. After a long hiatus from animation, Minnie would reappear in Mickey's Christmas Carol, though in an extremely minor role as Bob Crachit's (played by Mickey) wife. Even so, the short resurfaced the original characters and restored their rightful place in the world as cultural and entertainment icons. She would also have her first starring role in the 1988 special, Totally Minnie. Minnie also starred in the 2012 animated short, Electric Holiday, where a beautiful dress leads her to daydream of a life in Paris as a prospering supermodel.

Today, Minnie is one of the most popular, as well as recognizable Disney characters of all time. She appears in all forms of media (including television, video games, and feature films), various forms of merchandising, and is prominently featured as one of the six major stars of the Walt Disney Company, the others being Mickey, Donald, Goofy, Daisy, and Pluto.

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 and 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 afterwards.

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 over doing 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.

Mickey Mouse Works
In Mickey Mouse Works, she finally appeared in her own segments and cartoons. Here, she portrayed as Mickey's intelligent, mature, and beloved girlfriend. Occasionally, she starred in the "Maestro Minnie" shorts, 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 costarred 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 fails. After Mickey saves the day, Minnie and the others celebrate.

Mickey Mouse Clubhouse
Minnie also appears in the children television series, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. Minnie is apart 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. Minnie is also a major character in the spin-off series, Mickey Mousekersize.

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

Minnie's Bow-Toons
Minnie is the central character of the Disney Junior short series, 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 has 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 (2013 TV series)
Along with the rest of the gang, Minnie returns in the animated series. Like many of Mickey's classic shorts of the 20's and 30's, Minnie proves to be the driving force of some of Mickey's wacky adventures.

In "No Service", Mickey and Donald went through comical mayhem to order take-out for a planned picnic with Minnie and Daisy.

In "Yodelberg", Minnie is an enchanting Swiss yodeler who owns a mountaintop home. Mickey, of course, is ecstatic to meet her at the top and goes through a perilous journey to do so.

In "New York Weenie", Mickey and Minnie are enjoying a date in New York's Central Park when a hot dog they ordered bounces off the bun and runs off into the rest of the large park, causing Mickey to chase after it.

Like many previous incarnations, Minnie is shown as Daisy's closest friend and vise versa. They are shown together in the episodes "No Service" and "Croissant de Triomphe", with the latter showing them in business together in Paris.

She played a more 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 main 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.

Cameos and other roles
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 Mickey Mouse Club, Minnie was seen in the animated opening of the series alongside Daisy in go-go boots.

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.

Printed material
In Mickey's comic universe, Minnie plays key roles, much like in her animated appearances. The comic strip story The Gleam by Merrill De Maris and Floyd Gottfredson first gave her full name as Minerva Mouse. "Minerva" has since been a recurring alias for her.

Wizards of Mickey
Minnie appears as a character in the comic series, as usual playing the role of Mickey's love interest. In the comics, she is a sorceress and princess whose people were turned to stone, leading her to seek a magical gemstone to restore them. In her quest, she partners with Daisy and Clarabelle as Team Diamond Moon, eventually meeting Mickey's group.

Kingdom Keepers
Minnie appears in the fourth book, Power Play. Here, she along with Pluto, help Finn and Amanda to get to Tom Sawyer Island. She knocks out a pirate guard and navigate the raft in order to get to the island. When asked about Mickey, she seems sad, suggesting something bad happened to him.

Video games
Minnie has appeared in many video games alongside Mickey. Often, she either has to be rescued by Mickey (such as in Castle of Illusion starring Mickey Mouse and Mickey Mouse: Magic Wands!), or she joins him on his adventures (such as in Mickey Mousecapade, The Great Circus Mystery starring Mickey and Minnie, and Hide &amp; Sneak). A costume of Minnie is also available in Disney Universe and she also appears in Epic Mickey: Power of Illusion.

Kingdom Hearts series
In the Kingdom Hearts series, Minnie is the queen of Disney Castle, a world of classic Disney characters with Mickey as its king. When Mickey disappears in the first game, at Mickey's request, she sends Donald and Goofy to find him. She also sends Jiminy Cricket to accompany them, and she ruled the kingdom during the King's absence.

In Kingdom Hearts II, Maleficent and Pete use a special door to threaten Disney Castle by changing the past in Timeless River. Minnie finds a solution in Sora, Donald, and Goofy, who go to the Timeless River and undo the changes done. During the end credits, Minnie is finally reunited with Mickey when he returns.

In Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance, a past incarnation of Minnie is found in the Country of Musketeers, where she is the princess taken hostage by Pete. She has a similar role to the film, but this time she is rescued by Sora, Riku, Mickey, Donald, and Goofy. In the real world Minnie is taken hostage by Maleficent and Pete to lure Mickey back to the castle, but this scheme is thwarted by Lea, which allows Minnie to escape them.

Toontown
Minnie can be found strolling in the Minnie's Melodyland playground. She also has her own Trolley Game called "Match Minnie". The players must correctly copy some dance moves Minnie makes by pressing the arrow keys. The fastest player wins the round. Minnie can be found in old Disney shows also.

Kinect Disneyland Adventures
Minnie appears as a meet-and-greet character in the game near the entrance to Frontierland on Main Street USA and in front of her house in Mickey's Toontown. She and Daisy are given the task of decorating and organizing Toontown City Hall for the upcoming mayor election. One of the tasks that she gives to the player involves finding flowers for her decorations. Minnie also takes part in the Mickey's Soundsational Parade mini-game, dancing on Mickey's float.

Disney Parks
Minnie Mouse is the most common Disney character in the Disney Parks after Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck. She is the third most requested character at Disney theme parks, behind Mickey and Winnie the Pooh.

In the Magic Kingdom there is a statue of Minnie sitting next to Roy O. Disney on a bench. This represents their supporting roles helping Mickey and Walt.

She has a starring role in a handful of shows especially at the Tokyo Disney Resort.

Minnie's House is available for a tour in Disneyland and Tokyo Disneyland. She also makes meet and greet appearances in her Disneyland home.

Minnie can be spotted in several entertainment entries including: Fantasmic!, Mickey's PhilharMagic, Dream Along with Mickey, Mickey's Soundsational Parade and others.

Similar to Mickey now being able to talk and blink, the same mechanisms are being used for Minnie too.

Minnie Oh! Minnie!
In Tokyo Disneyland, Minnie is the central character in the high-energy musical show using the Latin American flavor to make Disney style entertainment.

Twas the Night Before Christmas
Minnie was one of the main stars in the Christmas show in Walt Disney World. In the middle of the show, Minnie performs a solo number; her version of 'Santa Baby'.

Disney Cruise Line
Minnie is an active character on the Disney Cruise Line ships. She is also the head statue in the atrium of the Disney Fantasy and can be seen flying in the Toon Plane in the magical portholes on board the Dream and Fantasy. In 2011, along with Karl Holz, Minnie laid the keel for the Disney Fantasy.

Trivia

 * Like Mickey, Minnie's ears always face the same way, no matter which direction she is facing.
 * According to Mortimer Mouse, Minnie is his former girlfriend who left him.
 * Minnie's voice actress, Russi Taylor, was married to Mickey's voice actor, Wayne Allwine. Due to Allwine's death in 2009, she is now widowed.
 * After Wayne's death, Russi was said to have an extremely difficult time returning to recording sessions for Minnie during the first few recordings following his departure.
 * Minnie is often cited as an unofficial member of the Disney Princesses and has been included in some of the franchise's material.
 * 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 longer and wider than Mickey's, while her smile is slightly shorter and more closed than his.
 * 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 lead to Aesop's Fables ending in 1933.
 * In the Pucca episode "Tame That Toon", the classic cartoon version of Pucca strongly resembles Minnie Mouse.
 * In fact, one of Pucca's inspirations could possibly be Minnie Mouse.
 * It has been officially stated that Minnie shares the same birthday as Mickey Mouse (November 18th). 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.
 * Compared to Daisy, Minnie acts more proper and lady-like.
 * Minnie appears to not have a hot temper, but is angered easily.
 * In Japanese Disney theme parks, it is more likely to find Minnie Mouse ears instead of Mickey Mouse ears.