''Mickey's Rival'' is a 1936

Mickey Mouse Mickey Mouse is an animated cartoon Character (arts), character co-created in 1928 by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks. The longtime mascot of The Walt Disney Company, Mickey is an Anthropomorphism, anthropomorphic mouse who typically wears red sho ...

short film. It was directed by

Wilfred Jackson Wilfred Jackson (January 24, 1906 – August 7, 1988) was an American animator, arranger, composer and director best known for his work on the ''Mickey Mouse'' and ''Silly Symphonies'' series of cartoons and the ''Night on Bald Mountain''/''Ave M ...

and produced by

Walt Disney Walter Elias Disney (; December 5, 1901December 15, 1966) was an American animator, film producer and entrepreneur. A pioneer of the American animation industry, he introduced several developments in the production of cartoons. As a film p ...

. It introduces the character of

Mortimer Mouse The Mickey Mouse universe is a fictional shared universe which is the setting for stories involving Disney cartoon characters Mickey and Minnie Mouse, Pluto, Goofy, and many other characters. The universe originated from the ''Mickey Mouse'' an ...

. It was the 84th Mickey Mouse short film to be released, the fifth of that year.

Plot

Mickey Mouse is by his sentient car, getting ready for his girlfriend, Minnie, as they have a

picnic A picnic is a meal taken outdoors ( ''al fresco'') as part of an excursion, especially in scenic surroundings, such as a park, lakeside, or other place affording an interesting view, or else in conjunction with a public event such as preceding ...

together. A mouse named Mortimer, who drives a sleek sports car (who is also sentient), deliberately rushes by and stops. Mortimer Mouse is one of Minnie's old friends who is also known as the rival of Mickey Mouse. He backs up and deliberately crashes his car into Mickey's car, pushing it into a tree. He and Minnie do a dance while Mickey gets the scattered food off of himself. Mortimer starts to make fun of his short rival, making Mickey overtly jealous, frustrated, and mad. He shakes hands with Mickey, only to reveal a fake arm sleeve. He deliberately takes two of his buttons off from his shorts, much to Mickey's chagrin and annoyance- one button is hidden in Mickey's hand whilst the other button is thrown away. Mickey grumpily tries to grab Mortimer's buttons from his long

trousers Trousers (British English), slacks, or pants are an item of clothing worn from the waist to anywhere between the knees and the ankles, covering both legs separately (rather than with cloth extending across both legs as in robes, skirts, and dr ...

, but they are connected to batteries and electrocute him. Mortimer laughs at his expense, saying, "Never a dull moment!", making Mickey even more madder. Mickey's car pushes Mortimer's sports car off and tries to scare it away by rattling its

engine An engine or motor is a machine designed to convert one or more forms of energy into mechanical energy. Available energy sources include potential energy (e.g. energy of the Earth's gravitational field as exploited in hydroelectric power gen ...

, but Mortimer's sports car loudly honks its horn, pushing Mickey's car to hide behind a rock nearby. Afterwards, Minnie, Mortimer, and Mickey, who is still grumpy about Mortimer, are all having the picnic together. Then Mortimer sees a

bull A bull is an intact (i.e., not castrated) adult male of the species ''Bos taurus'' (cattle). More muscular and aggressive than the females of the same species (i.e., cows), bulls have long been an important symbol in many religions, includin ...

in a nearby pen and tries to impress Minnie by doing some

bullfighting Bullfighting is a physical contest that involves a bullfighter attempting to subdue, immobilize, or kill a bull, usually according to a set of rules, guidelines, or cultural expectations. There are several variations, including some forms wh ...

. He grabs the red picnic blanket, causing Mickey to dip his nose into a drink in the process, to use to fight the bull. Mickey pulls it off, then becomes a bit nervous as Minnie applauds Mortimer and asks Mickey if he is good. However, Mickey simply pouts at Minnie, breaks a teacup, calling Mortimer a "perfect scream", and storms off back to his old car. Minnie is shocked about Mickey's jealous behavior, saying behind Mickey's back, "You're just jealous." Mickey and his car both sit next to each other, where they both kick a rock while being upset by Mortimer and his car. Meanwhile, Mortimer is still occupied with taunting the bull. His first two attempts went well, mostly by making the bull charge into the wooden fences of its pen, but when Mortimer sees the pen's gate open, and as he's about to do a third one, he immediately yelps, scared out of his wits, and runs away, and the bull ends up on the

warpath Warpath may refer to: *Great Indian Warpath, a network of trails in eastern North America used by Native Americans Games * ''Warpath'' (video game), a 2006 FPS video game by Digital Extremes for the PC and Xbox *'' Warpath: Jurassic Park'', a 199 ...

against him. Mortimer drops the blanket over Minnie and flees in his sports car, leaving Minnie to deal with the bull alone, which does not go well at all (in fact, bulls will charge at anyone or anything in red). The bull then changes its warpath against Minnie, who, realizing that Mortimer's toreador routine has angered the bull, runs away with the blanket still over her and panickedly climbs up a tree. Mickey and his car notice this and, while Mickey's car hides again, Mickey manages to stop the bull, getting stuck under it in the process. Mickey bites the bull's tail, making it jump and allowing him to get out. While trying to get Minnie down from the tree, the bull charges at them again. Mickey manages to get out of the way as it rams into the tree, making Minnie fall back down before she immediately climbs back up. Mickey then fights the bull with the red blanket, only to get wrapped up in it and is unable to run fast enough to get away. He does manage to avoid the bull by grabbing a branch with his mouth, but he is forced to retreat again as the bull turns around, crawling to get away. Mickey's car suddenly sees his owner in danger and saves him by pushing the bull aside, but the bull immediately begins chasing the car. The car once again hides while the bull turns its attention back to Mickey. The car quickly saves Mickey again by biting the bull's tail and getting it to chase it using its red taillight, tiring it out. After luring the bull towards it again, it then uses its back wheels to splash mud over the bull. Meanwhile, Mickey tries to get a still frightened Minnie down from the tree, only for them to both fall. Their car catches them with the bull still in pursuit. The car then creates a cloud of dust around the bull, confusing it and allowing them to escape. While on their way home, Mickey asks Minnie if Mortimer is still funny ("So you still think that guy's funny?"). The episode ends with Minnie politely denying this ("Who, Mortimer? No!"), and them both shaking hands, resulting in the two making up.

Voice cast

Minnie Mouse Minnie Mouse is a cartoon character created by The Walt Disney Company. As the longtime sweetheart of Mickey Mouse, she is an anthropomorphic mouse with white gloves, a bow, polka-dotted dress, white bloomers, and low-heeled shoes occasionally w ...

Marcellite Garner Edna Marcellite Garner ( ; July 3, 1910 – July 26, 1993) was an American artist and voice actress. She is most remembered as the first regular voice of Minnie Mouse during her time working at Walt Disney Productions and has been partially c ...

Sonny Dawson Sonny is a common nickname and occasional given name. Often it can be a derivative of the English word "Son", a name derived from the Ancient Germanic element *sunn meaning "sun", a nickname derived from the Italian name Salvatore (especially in N ...

* Leone Le Doux (uncredited)

Home media

VHS

* The short was released on November 18, 1996, on ''Mickey's Greatest Hits''.

DVD

* The short was released on December 4, 2001, on '' Walt Disney Treasures: Mickey Mouse in Living Color''. * The short was released in 2004 on
Disney's Mickey & Minnies Sweetheart Stories
'.

Blu-ray

* The short was released on October 23, 2018, on

'.

Streaming Services

* The short was released on

'.

References

External links

* {{Wilfred Jackson 1936 films 1930s color films 1936 animated films Mickey Mouse short films 1930s Disney animated short films Films directed by Wilfred Jackson Films produced by Walt Disney 1930s American films