Taking the Mickey

A marvelous proliferation of Mickey’s meaning.

Nobrow Mickey

“It’s on America’s tortured brow / that Mickey Mouse has grown up a cow.”

“I’m the Mouse”

The origins of today's rich, imaginative Mickey-scape.

Sixties Backlash

Parody is an art form for "children who have had imposed upon them a meaningless iconography."

Fifties Backlash

"Disney sold him into slavery, and he’s nothing. He's nothing."

Disney Co. Mascot

"He’s so much of an institution that we’re limited in what we can do with him."

Forties Backlash

"A degenerate 'middlebrow' horror, mass-produced for profit."

Mickey’s Dork Age

From 1944–1953, Mickey was a Mouse Without Qualities.

Donald Steals the Show

Mickey’s repressed characteristics had returned… in a deformed (duckbilled) fashion!

Neotonic Mickey

Over time, Mickey became progressively more juvenile in appearance.

Iconic Mickey

Mickey had become a cash cow.

High-Lowbrow Mickey

"He is the voice and personification of the weltschmerz to the sophisticate."

Trickster Mickey

"Mickey! Mickey! Tricky Mickey Mouse!”

Minstrel Mickey

A black body and head, large eyeballs, and a partially white face.