Mickey Mouse

Mickey Mouse is a cartoon character who serves as the mascot of the Walt Disney Company. The character was created in 1928 by Ub Iwerks and Walt Disney at The Walt Disney Studios. An anthropomorphic mouse who typically wears red shorts, large yellow shoes, and white gloves, Mickey is one of the world's most recognizable fictional characters.
The Mickey Mouse & Friends franchise is the fourth-highest grossing franchise of all time, after Pokémon, Hello Kitty, and Winnie-the-Pooh.
Mickey Mouse appears as a Keyblade-wielding warrior-king in the Kingdom Hearts series. 
Mickey Mouse as an intellectual property has been a legal and cultural battleground between corporate entities pushing for copyright law, and creators of unlicensed transformative works pushing for free expression. 
==Fandom==
Mickey is appreciated for being a friendly, neighborly, welcoming, adventurous rascal.
On the other hand, Mickey is also a symbol of the "dark side" of The Walt Disney Company and of American culture—representing corporate monopoly, copyright privilege, cultural and economic imperialism, and industries screwing over artists (such as Ub Iwerks). This interpretation of Mickey is featured in "Mickey Mouse in Vietnam", Rat Fink media, The Simpsons, South Park, and other works. He is often portrayed as such in memes and fanworks within fandom and the wider internet.
[[File:Notabeethescribbler duck-fisney.jpg|thumb|right|duck fisney (Feb 2021) by NotaBeethescribbler, featuring Scrat, the mascot of Blue Sky Studios, hitting Mickey, mascot of Disney, in the head with his acorn, drawn in response to Disney announcing they were shutting the former studio after its acquisition.]] 
In the Kingdom Hearts fandom, fans see King Mickey as embodying the absurdity of the series, due to him being a cartoon-stylized rodent playing a serious role among somewhat more realistically proportioned, animesque human teenagers in an epic conflict between light and darkness spanning all existence (and non-existence). 
===Legal issues===
The earliest depiction of Mickey Mouse is due to enter the public domain in 2024, namely the Steamboat Willie cartoon. Later versions will remain protected. Furthermore, the company holds various trademarks on the character, which don't expire.New York Times: Mickey’s Copyright Adventure: Early Disney Creation Will Soon Be Public Property
====Use in copyright defense====
The copyrights and trademarks on Mickey Mouse have been used to combat copyright abuse. There are bots that crawl Twitter for popular artwork to put on t-shirts without permissions. Some people have struck back by tricking these maligned bots into taking Disney's assets, hoping to unleash Disney's lawyers on them.
*Artwork in which the text explicitly invites legal action, with a write-up in the Columbia Journal of Law & the Arts and an overview on Tumblr.
*Tumblr posts featuring other examples
*Another write-up on Tumblr
===Shipping===
As a cartoon anthropomorphic rodent, Mickey Mouse may lack the sex appeal that would normally pique the interest of shippers as a community. 
In both official materials and fan works, he is often portrayed in romantic contexts with his canon love interest, Minnie Mouse (despite sharing the same surname, no officially acknowledged consanguinity). Real-life couples often wear matching Mickey-and-Minnie merchandise. 
Within the Kingdom Hearts fandom, MickeyRiku is a popular crack pairing. 
==Fan works==
===Meta===
*"Mickey Mouse marries", or the story that will never be reprinted on :/r/hobbydrama
===Memes===
*Buff Mokey Mouse on Know Your Meme
*Father… I Crave Cheddar on Know Your Meme
*It's a Surprise Tool That Will Help Us Later on Know Your Meme
*Suicide Mouse on Know Your Meme
*Will You Fight? Or Will You Perish Like A Dog? on Know Your Meme
*Abandoned by Disney on Know Your Meme
===Fan art===
:See also Gorefield-style depictions of Mickey Mouse
*Jorge Gutierrez - Mouse
===Animation===
*"Short Subject" AKA "Mickey Mouse in Vietnam" 
*Animations by Ethereal Snake
===Fan fiction===
These are the three main AO3 fandom tags for Mickey Mouse, despite there being many more.
* Mickey Mouse (2013 cartoon) 
* Mickey Mouse and Friends (1994 cartoon) 
* Mickey Mouse Sound Cartoons (Short Films)
There are several relevant categories on FanFiction.Net
*Mickey Mouse & Friends stories and crossovers
** Curated list of stories featuring Mickey Mouse and Friends.
*Epic Mickey stories and crossovers 
*House of Mouse stories and crossovers
*Mickey, Donald, Goofy: The Three Musketeers stories and crossovers
=== Minute Mickey / Quickie Mickey ===
Minute Mickey or Quickie Mickey is an art challenge started by Jerrod Maruyama. The goal is to draw Mickey Mouse in one's own style.
* #QuickieMickey on Twitter 
* A Quickie Mickey by Jerrod Maruyama on Instagram
* A Quickie Mickey on MattCanDraw
==External Links==
===Fan Communities and Archives===
*ミッキーマウス (Mikkīmausu) on Pixiv
*r/MickeyMouse on Reddit
===Fan sites===
===Resources===
*Mickey Mouse on Wikipedia
*Mickey Mouse on Kingdom Hearts Wiki
*Mickey Mouse on TV Tropes
==References==
Category:Disney Characters
Category:Mickey Mouse & Friends