Mortimer Mouse

**Mortimer Mouse** is an anthropomorphic mouse and Mickey Mouse’s longtime rival. Portrayed as an arrogant, lecherous, yet charismatic shyster, Mortimer made his animated debut in the 1936 short, *Mickey's Rival*, in which he vied for Minnie Mouse’s affections against a jealous Mickey. A precursor to the character known as **Mr. Slicker**appeared six years prior in the Floyd Gottfredson comic *Mr. Slicker and the Egg Robbers*.

With a tall, slim physique and overbearing personality, Mortimer is the polar opposite of the stout and earnest Mickey. Mortimer’s whiskers, elongated snout, and prominent front teeth made him out to be more of a rat than a mouse, contrast to his name. Though *Mickey's Rival* was his only appearance in the theatrical shorts, Mortimer was reinvigorated in the early 2000s with prominent roles in *Mickey Mouse Works* and *House of Mouse*, in which he coined his catchphrase, "Ha-cha-cha!".

## Appearance

Mortimer is essentially a taller version of Mickey, and seems a bit more human-like. Unlike his rival, Mortimer has whiskers, and ears that are longer than Mickey's, perhaps to give him a more rodent-like appearance. He has feet the size of Goofy's. Unlike most of the other mouse characters, however, you can see two large teeth close together, like a real rodent. Mortimer usually wears a long-sleeved shirt and baggy pants with two buttons in the front (like Mickey's), but sometimes he also wears a porkpie hat.

In Sora's Adventures in Kingdom Hearts, he is dressed in an outfit similar to his rival's KH2 outfit, but it is more fitting of his tall, skinny physique, and is black, purple and icy blue rather than white, red and yellow. Once he joins the Horned King, he also has a black cape with a collar.

## Personality

Mortimer is said to be Minnie's ex-boyfriend. He is very arrogant and rude, the total opposite of his rival. While he claims he loves Minnie very much (even after she broke up with him due to her strong relationship with Mickey), he is shown to be incredibly selfish as seen in the cartoon, *Mickey's Rival*, where he leaves Minnie to be attacked by a bull that he provoked. Not only that, he attempts to flirt with any female character on screen, which might also indicate the reason the relationship between him and Minnie was abolished. Also, Mortimer can be rather sexist as seen in "Mickey's Rival Returns" where he feels that Minnie is only a prize to be won.

Aside from his cocky and sexist attitude, Mortimer proves to be, time and time again, rather intelligent and crafty. On many occasions, he's managed to manipulate Mickey into a scheme that'd end in the downfall of his relationship with Minnie. For instance, in "Big House Mickey", Mortimer managed to fool the town's government into arresting Mickey. In *House of Mouse* episode, "Mickey and the Culture Clash", he manipulated Mickey into believing Minnie desires a more sophisticated boyfriend, resulting in the mouse changing his persona to the point where Minnie believes he's out of her league, leaving her in the hands of Mortimer.

Interestingly, a different side of Mortimer was showcased in the cartoon, "Mickey's Mix-Up", where Mickey accidentally sent a heartwarming fax to Mortimer (which was actually meant for Minnie) having Mortimer believe Mickey wanted to make amends, which he immediately agreed to.

This shows that perhaps Mortimer does hold a softer side, and wouldn't mind becoming friends with Mickey if the latter also wanted to let bygones be bygones. However, this softer side was never revealed again, due to either Mickey revealing the truth about the mix up, infuriating Mortimer, or more likely because the entire thing was used as a comical gag. He also showed remorse when he thought he had run over Mickey in the cartoon, *Mickey's April Fools*.

Mortimer has one catchphrase, "Ha-cha-cha," which he has used since his reintroduction in *Mickey Mouse Works*. In some of the comics he says it differently; "Hot-Cha-Cha."

## Powers and Abilities

Being he is the Horned King's lieutenant, Mortimer has many dark powers, including controlling Heartless. His main weapon, rather than a Keyblade, is a Soul Eater sword, and he uses dark magic commands such as Dark Firaga, Chaos Blade, Sacrifice, Limit Storm and Dark Aura. Many of those powers are used by Terra and Riku.

## Role in Sora’s Adventures

Mortimer appears in the series as a lieutenant to the Horned King and the sidekick of the Coachman. Prior to the series, he was a student of Yen Sid not long before Mickey was, but was rejected to become a Keyblader when the Dreamfinder (Yen Sid, Merlin and Fairy Godmother's teacher and Keyblade Master) and Figment sensed darkness in his heart, thereby banishing him to the Wasteland where he was found by the Horned King.

He debuts in Sora's Adventures in the Wasteland after being mentioned in some episodes, where he is found by Maleficent and the Horned King, the latter of which welcomes his apprentice back. He becomes instrumental in convincing the Mad Doctor that Mickey and Oswald are the enemies, alongside Sora and friends, and by the end rejoins his master.