of mice and ducks

[Wilmer Rivers]

Chris Lawton writes:
> Anyway, my question is: what is about the Ducks that make them so much more 
> popular than all the others?
> 
> I think that it's 'cause they are a "gang" of similar characters.  Whereas
> with Mickey, for example, is alone.  (Well not really alone, but no "gang")
> 
> Or is just the action of the Ducks?  (i.e. Donald is really hyperactive in all
> his shorts where Mickey isn't so much)
> 
I think part of the difference between Mickey and Donald (and the other
ducks) is in their visual appeal.  David Gerstein makes the important
point that
> Also, the potency of Mickey as a merchandising image derives
> from the simplicity of the "classic" (best-selling) Mickey, that of
> the 1930s (or the 1940s one, as long as he only has short pants,
> gloves and shoes on).  Later artists, particularly Murry and Moores,
> obliterated that by dressing Mickey to the nines in a smothering
> layout topped by a boring porkpie hat.
>
When you cover the mouse in "human" clothing from head to foot, there
isn't very much left to distinguish him from anybody else in comics.
None of the duck artists ever made that mistake.  Since Mickey's ears
render his face rather rigid in comparison with the rubbery mugs most
other comics characters posess, it is especially important to use
Mickey's body language fully, and his average-man-in-the-street clothing
makes this difficult to do.  Beyond the visual aspects, however, the
principal problem I have with really getting interested in Mickey is
that no one in his stories has any major character flaws that lead
them into comic situations.  Well, O.K., Goofy is stupid, and Chief
O'Hara is amazingly incompetent, but it's still not the same as with
the inhabitants of Duckburg, where everyone has some trait that can
be counted on to lead to interesting plot developments.  The ducks are
always getting into trouble because Donald is hot-tempered, Scrooge
is stingy, Gladstone shuns working for a living, Gus Goose shuns working
at all, Granny lives 50 years in the past, Gyro never sees any down-to-
earth practical approach to anything, the nephews are always up to
something, etc.  Mickey doesn't have any real personal problems like
these, so whatever happens to him is just random (usually boring)
circumstance.  He needs to have his stories evolve from his own person-
ality, and this won't happen so long as his writers are restrained to
keep him totally likeable.  A mouse should be mischievous, scurrying
around from one self-created predicament to another - any number of
very funny situations could be built around a busy-body Mickey who has
little time or patience for the laws and social rules imposed on human
society.  However, Disney's corporate emblem is constrained to represent
all that is highest, noblest, and least interesting in life, so we will
probably never see Mickey realize his potential as a comics character.
Meanwhile, Donald can commit all manners of atrocity short of serial
axe murders and the readers will love him precisely on account of his
failure to fit in with the sedate world of perfect people.

Wilmer Rivers
rivers at seismo.css.gov