Why is the mouse always the good guy?

B

blood shedder

New member
Why is it that in most cartoons like tom and jerry, herman and katnip, and others, the mice are always portrayed as being smarter and nicer while the cats are always portrayed as the bullies for trying to catch the mouse? The only main exception is Heathclif but even then he was friendly to the mice.
 
I agree. That's basically what I've seen in most movies and animated series where they have animals as the main characters. The only exception that comes to mind right now is the Lion King since Simba, a carnivore, was the good guy, but of course, Scar was still the main villain so it was kind of different from the regular formula in that case.

Besides that, I'm thinking that in the case of a mouse, the people in charge might want to write him as the underdog of the story, depending on the situation of course.
 
I once saw a cartoon with a cat as a Jame Bond-like hero and a mouse as the villain. I think it was called Cheesefinger or something.

So there ya go :)
 
My best answer would be that mice are usually (not always) innocent. If Jerry was minding his business by taking a bath before Tom tortures him, then it pays for Jerry to win the battle.
 
I'd think that Garfield would be placed in the same category as Heathcliff. Aside from letting the mice do their thing, he considers them to be unworthy as food. Only act of creulty he did towards them would be giving them bad cooking.
 
Yeah, but once Simba was banished from his kingdom he became...a vegetarian (or do bugs count as meat? :confused:).

To make matters worse, herbivorous animals are always portrayed as speaking english, wearing clothes, walking on their hind legs, ect., while carnivores are shrieking, drooling monsters who never say a word. See Sharptooth in The Land Before Time, Dragon the cat in The Secret Of NIMH, those raptor things in Dinosaur, ect.

And, ironically, these vegetarian heroes usually show up in some fast food promotion, where their images are used to sell dead cow and chicken meat to kids. :eek:
 
It's because mice destroy clothing, furniture, crops, cause famine, spread diseases, invade homes, and carry fleas, and cats bully them for no good reason.
 
Ya know, there was actually a Garfield cartoon that dealt with this issue. Garfield questions the fact that they're making heroes out of mice when he reads that they have been known to spread diseases.
 
Well, Jinks the cat won a few rounds with the "miserable meeces." He didn't always lose. I really don't think he's a bad cat, and the meeces have hatched some evil schemes against him too. You know, I really like it whenever Jinksy would smile or wink at the viewers. I think that's what made him so loveable like.

And Snooper and Blabber were probably the first cat and mouse team to work together rather than against eachother.

And cats are generally good guys in shows that don't involve mice like Top Cat and Cattanooga Cats.
 
Basically any mouse that attempts to steal food is already on the wrong side, even if he is starving. The cat is like the police, the mouse is somewhat of a robin hood character.
 
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