| “ | Ha-cha-cha! | „ |
| ~ Mortimer Mouse’s catchphrase and most famous and memetic quote. |
Mortimer Mouse is the secondary antagonist of the Mickey Mouse franchise.
He is Mickey Mouse's pompous and egotistical rival, and he is also one of his generally more recurring enemies. Unlike Mickey's other rivals, like Peg Leg Pete or the Phantom Blot, Mortimer only specifically rivals Mickey for Minnie Mouse's affections (though, through different incarnations, he has had other antagonistic roles over the years).
He was voiced by Maurice LaMarche, who also voices Lrrr, the Donbot, Francis X. Clampazzo, the Big Brain, and Leonardo da Vinci in Futurama, Father in Codename: Kids Next Door, Dr. Nitrus Brio in the Crash Bandicoot framnchise, Mr. Big in Zootopia, Alec Baldwin in Team America: World Police, The Brain in Animaniacs, and Yosemite Sam in the Looney Tunes franchise.
Appearance[]
Mortimer is essentially a taller version of Mickey Mouse, and he seems a bit more human-like. Unlike his rival, Mortimer has whiskers, perhaps referencing how he has a ratlike persona. 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 rat. He is usually wearing jeans and a shirt, but sometimes he also wears a hat. He often has two large teeth, though there are exceptions such as in House Of Mouse.
Personality[]
Mortimer is very obnoxious, argumentative, egotistical, arrogant, snooty and rude, the total opposite of his rival. Mortimer is said in his youth to be Minnie's ex-boyfriend and she possibly left him due to his nature. While he claims he loves Minnie very much, he is shown to be an incredibly selfish narcissist, 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 the screen which might also indicate the reason the relationship between him and Minnie was abolished. Mortimer can also be rather sexist and discriminatory, as seen in "Mickey's Rival Returns" where he feels that Minnie is only a prize to be won. It is unknown what he does but as well as being cocky and intransigent, he can also be rather annoying and vituperative.
History[]
Mickey's Rival[]
In his first appearance, Mortimer was driving by and noticed Mickey and Minnie as they were having a picnic. Minnie is thrilled to see Mortimer once again. As soon as Mortimer walks up, Mickey already knows he is bad news, just as Mortimer does not like Mickey at all. He attempts to humiliate Mickey and when Mickey shows Minnie how upset he is, Minnie states that he is just jealous. Mortimer then tries to impress Minnie by annoying a bull that is over a fence. The plan works until the bull finds a way out. Mortimer rushes and drives away in his car and leaves Mickey to rescue Minnie who eventually remembers why she left Mortimer in the first place.
Mickey's Once Upon a Christmas[]
Mortimer makes a brief appearance in the direct-to-video film Mickey's Once Upon a Christmas. Here, Mortimer is the snooty, profound and wealthy owner of Mortimer's Department Store, and he speaks with a profound tone. Minnie Mouse and Daisy Duck are notable employees of the store, and judging by Minnie's low-budget lifestyle, he does not pay well. In his scene, Minnie hopes to earn the Christmas bonus for her extra-hard work, so that she may pay for a wonderful present for Mickey. However, Mortimer only gives her a fruitcake, leaving Minnie without money to buy the gift. He is voiced by Jeff Bennett.
Mickey Mouse Works[]
In this series, Mortimer is once again the main antagonist along with Pete. Here, Mortimer is Mickey's neighbor and is still competing with Mickey to win Minnie Mouse's heart. In the series, Mortimer is apparently wealthy having far more advanced technology than his rival. One of Mortimer's most villainous roles was in the cartoon Big House Mickey where he accused Mickey of robbing his house, having Mickey sent to prison. Mortimer made a guest appearance in the Pluto segment 'Pluto Gets the Paper".
Mortimer's first appearance in the series was the cartoon "Mickey's Rival Returns'. In this cartoon, Mortimer and Mickey compete with each other in volleyball. The winner gets to ask Minnie on a date. Originally, Mickey refused the idea being that it would be using Minnie as "some kind of trophy", but Mortimer's arrogance angers Mickey into competing. Mickey wins, but Mortimer reveals the competition prize to Minnie having her believe Mickey thought of her as a prize. Minnie instead leaves with Mortimer but at the date, he begins to harass her for a kiss. Fortunately, she is saved by Mickey who she apologizes to and has a beach dinner with. He was voiced by Maurice LaMarche.
House of Mouse[]
In the television series House of Mouse, Mortimer gets a role as a recurring character. Mortimer appears many times as a guest and tries to trick Mickey or Minnie into breaking up. Despite his attraction to Minnie, in the series pilot episode, Mortimer appears but is seen flirting with Donald Duck's girlfriend Daisy Duck instead, implying that he tends to do this with most of the women in the club, which is confirmed in later episodes as he is seen also trying to flirt with Meg and the Ugly Stepsisters.
Mortimer proves to be hated by mostly all of the guests at the club, ranging from heroes to princesses and villains, despite Mortimer being one himself; it is even indicated in the episode "Pete's Christmas Caper" that the cruel Pete has a disliking towards Mortimer for his obnoxious behavior. The hatred Mortimer receives from the other guests likely comes from his rude failed attempts to woo various female guests and from the lack of respect he gives to the Club's hosts, particularly Mickey, as shown in "Everybody Loves Mickey", in which he makes various rude and unfunny jokes about Mickey on Open Mic Night and is booed and frowned upon by everyone in the club. Even Donald (who is jealous over the attention that Mickey's having) can't stand listening to Mortimer's jokes and literally throws him out of the stage, earning a lot of praise from the audience.
Arguably, Mortimer's most notable appearance in the series is "The Mouse Who Came to Dinner", in which he tricked Mickey and friends into believing he was a restaurant critic, and he forced them to treat him like a prince or he'd give them a negative review which could close the club. Mortimer is foiled when Lumière is revealed to be the actual critic and he is severely beaten by him, Gaston, and Willie the Giant, and kicked out of the club during his "Celebrity Roast". He was voiced by Maurice LaMarche.
Mickey Mouse Clubhouse[]
Mortimer appears in the CGI animated series Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. He has a non-speaking role in Minnie's Birthday seen sitting beneath a tree, playing the guitar. In this appearance, Mortimer wears the orange shirt from Mouse Works with yellow polka dots, blue pants, and yellow shoes. He was also seen sleeping and sunbathing on the ground.
Mortimer makes his first proper appearance on the series in the special "Super Adventure!" as the main antagonist. Here, he has a supervillain alter ego named Megamort, who plots to take over the Clubhouse by shrinking all the landmarks and storing them within his zeppelin lair. During some time of plotting, Mortimer forced humble Pete to act as his minion, ordering him to go around and proceed with his bidding. When the problem reaches Mickey and Friends' attention, Professor Ludwig Von Drake creates a machine that transforms the clubhouse gang into a team of superheroes.
Together, they head out and are able to defeat Pete. However, Pete reveals he was forced to fulfill such evil deeds, under the control of "the big boss", who threatened to shrink Pete should he refuse to follow orders. Just then, Megamort arrives and does just that, due to Pete's failure. And with Pete no longer serving him, Megamort goes ahead and wreaks havoc amongst the world himself, leading to everything, including Mickey himself being shrunk and imprisoned. Under their hero egos, Donald, Goofy, Minnie, Daisy, and Pluto travel to Megamort's zeppelin where a battle ensues. Where Donald and Goofy saved Mickey and got the shrunken landmarks back, Pete using an anchor to stop the blimp, causing Mickey falling out, but being saved by Goofy, with Megamort trying to kick Goofy and Donald out of his blimp to make them fall to their deaths, only for Pete smashing his foot, and making their escape.
Successfully, they retrieve the shrunken landmarks but causes Megamort's blimp to go haywire in the process, putting Megamort in great peril. Mickey concocts a plan to save the villainous mouse, and Megamort, being eternally grateful, apologizes and redeems himself, revealing that his real name is Mortimer Mouse, and that he's the clubhouse's newest neighbor. He was voiced by Maurice LaMarche.
Strangely, Mortimer's appearance in "Minnie's Birthday" seems to have been forgotten here, as he was featured in Super Adventure! as the Clubhouse's new neighbor, as if Mickey and the gang had never known him before the events. It could be Super Adventure! chronologically, it takes place first, despite being filmed years later.
Mickey Mouse (2013)[]
In the Mickey Mouse shorts, Mortimer makes a brief cameo in the short entitled "No". In the short, when Mickey begins to realize that he quite literally can't say no to anyone, Mortimer takes advantage of the situation by asking Mickey if he can have his girlfriend and disappears before Mickey can respond. Later, as all of the people Mickey helped out return the favor, Mortimer, while using crutches, returns with Minnie and tells Mickey that he can keep her, implying that he was severely beaten by her.
He reappeared in "A Pete Scorned", when Pete thought that Mortimer took his place as Mickey's most hated bully, causing Pete to fall into a depressed state. Mickey tries to help Pete, but Mortimer sabotages Mickey's plans by continuing to bully him. When Mickey boasts that Pete is a better bully than Mortimer, Mortimer begins insulting Pete while continuing to pick on Mickey, causing Pete to angrily punch Mortimer into the sky, thus reclaiming his place as Mickey's archenemy.
He was voiced by Paul Rudish in "No", and by Jeff Bennett in "A Pete Scorned".
Mickey and the Roadster Racers[]
Mortimer appears in the episode "Daredevil Goofy!", although this incarnation is the famous actor known as Morty McCool. He is adored and adored by most of the people of Hot Dog Hills, including Minnie, Daisy, and Goofy, with the exception of Donald, who points out that he is just an actor and his on-screen persona is different than in real life. While participating in the town race was supposed to promote teamwork and good sportsmanship, it turns out that Morty's heroic persona on TV is just an act, as in reality he is a selfish, heartless and arrogant man. At first, Goofy is too naive to see this, but he starts when Daisy points out that Mortimer didn't even thank Goofy for saving his life. Mortimer technically wins the race, but since Goofy was the only one who showed good sportsmanship and heart (considered the true measure of a hero), he was the one who ended up receiving the race's grand prize, which gave him face. on Mr. Bigby's Daredevil Hero Motor Oil. He was voiced by Maurice LaMarche.
The Wonderful World of Mickey Mouse[]
Mortimer Mouse appears in the episode "The Brave Little Squire" as a knight in the Middle Ages who chooses Mickey as his squire. However, it is then revealed that Mortimer is a coward who lets others do the work for him while taking all the credit. When a dragon appears and attacks the castle, Mortimer runs away, thus showing his true colors to everyone. He is then stripped of his knighthood while Mickey is knighted for driving away the dragon. Jeff Bennett once again provided his voice.
Mickey Mouse Funhouse[]
Mortimer is a recurring character in the series and first appeared in the episode "Maybe I'm a Maze". Mortimer is portrayed here as a good friend of Mickey's with a generally kind demeanor despite some exaggerated flaws. Minnie expresses discomfort when Mortimer visits the gang at the funhouse because Mortimer is a bad influence on the impressionable Mickey. Mortimer occasionally joins Mickey and friends on their adventures, though his arrogance tends to cause trouble. He was voiced by Maurice LaMarche.
In other media[]
Comic books[]
Mortimer was called Montmorency Rodent in many older comics, before settling on Mortimer.
Mr. Slicker[]
Mr. Slicker was Mortimer's prototype.
Predating Mortimer Mouse's appearance in animation by six years, was his prototype, Mr. Slicker, who featured in the comic serial Mr. Slicker and the Egg Robbers. Mr Slicker was as a suave and sophisticated city mouse who comes to Minnie's country home, impressing her and her family with his wit and wealth.
Slicker was extremely rude to most of the country people, especially Mickey treating them as ignorant bumpkins and skirting a restaurant bill, but kept this behavior away from Minnie and pretended to be a gentleman around her. Despite Slicker managing to make Mickey look bad in front of Minnie and getting her to think well of him, Minnie thought of Slicker as a friend and still loved Mickey, resulting in Slicker taking a different approach.
When Minnie Mouse's father, Marcus is in danger of losing his ranch due to a series of egg thefts, Mr. Slicker offers financial aid, but only in return for Minnie's hand in marriage. Slicker's plan is put in hold when Mickey plans to lends her family a loan from some money he had recently acquired, but the bank, the money was deposited in was mysteriously robbed. Making matters worse, when Mickey investigates the Minnie's farm at night, the unidentified egg robbers escape and when Mickey is found by Minnie's father, Slicker convinces him that Mickey is the egg thief.
Mickey is forced to go on the run with Slicker also convincing the authorities that Mickey robbed the bank as well. Whilst on the run Mickey manages to follow Mr. Slicker to a hidden cabin in the woods, finding out that Slicker is actually the boss of a band of robbers and is the true mastermind behind the egg thefts and the bank robbery. Mickey also finds out that Slicker has secret plans to frame his gang as Mickey's accomplices and have them arrested as well, whilst he retired with both his new bride and all of their ill gotten gains.
As a sad Minnie reluctantly prepares to marry Slicker to save her family, Mickey manages to befriend Slicker's minions, particularly his second in command, Butch, and reveals that Slicker is plotting betray them. Together with them, Mickey manages to crash the wedding and reveal Slicker was behind the thefts. Afterwards Slicker was arrested along with Butch and his gang were arrested, though Mickey promised to get Butch and his friends, reduced prison sentences for confessing.
Eventually Butch finished his prison sentence and became a recurring character to the strip.
Regular identity[]
The cartoon short Mickey's Rival was also made into a comic book. In the comic book version, the story is different. Mickey goes over to Minnie's house to visit, only to be greeted by Montmorency Rodent (Mortimer), who is also visiting Minnie and is seemingly wealthy. After Minnie introduces him to Mickey, Montmorency proceeds to make Mickey look like a fool in front of her. Each day, he keeps pulling pranks on Mickey in hopes of getting rid of him. In the end, though, Mickey got the better of him and Minnie kicked Montmorency out whom is revealed to be not as rich as he seemed.
Though treated as a separate character, the resemblance between Montmorency and Mr. Slicker is noted in story and some foreign translations make the two similar characters one and the same. By the 70s, Montmorency had been reintroduced as Mortimer just like his animated counterpart.
Mortimer sometimes teamed up with Sylvester Shyster and Pete the Bad, who, like Mortimer, also wants to win the love of Minnie. In some of the Disney Comics both out of state and the US it was shown that Mortimer is rich and lives in a mansion, and he can also fly a plane, sometimes he plays an anti heroic role instead of fully villainous one.
Video Games[]
Mortimer appeared in the GameCube game Disney Sports Soccer, Football and Basketball. He is also in Disney's Golf as a secret character.
Disney Parks[]
Mortimer has not yet made any live appearances in the Disney theme parks. However, a mural with several classic Disney characters during the Disney California Adventure expansion was seen with Mortimer being one of the characters featured. Also at the park, Mortimer's namesake is featured in the shop Mortimer's Market which is located on Buena Vista Street.
Gallery[]
Images[]
_-_Donald%27s_Pumbaa_Prank.jpg "House Of Mouse - (Ep. 11) - Donald's Pumbaa Prank.jpg (36 KB)")
Videos[]
Trivia[]
- Walt Disney initially planned to name Mickey Mouse Mortimer, however, his wife Lillian insisted on a new name, feeling that the name "Mortimer" sounded too pompous and suggested a name which was more suitable with Walt's home in Midwestern: Mickey.
- His name itself derives from the name of Disney's former pet mouse, Mortimer.
- Although Mortimer has not been used that much in the cartoons, he has been used a lot in the comics particularly the comics from overseas, the most popular ones being Brazil, Italy, and France.
- Mortimer bears resemblance to an obscure character, Ruffhouse Rat, who is a cousin of Minnie's and Mickey had to help train in boxing in one of his earlier comics.
- In the Berke Breathed strip Bloom County, there is a Mortimer Mouse who is a stubbly, surly mouse who wears the same outfit as Mickey's, but more disheveled. He is annoyed that he was drafted during the Second World War, during one battle he suffered an injury where a Panzer tank ran over his foot, while at the same time Mickey went on to fame and fortune. This parody was ended after Breathed was threatened with a lawsuit from Disney for unauthorized parody in 1988. Interestingly, Disney had better relations with Berke Breathed 20 years later when they based a film on his children's book Mars Needs Moms.
- His appearance in Mickey Mouse Clubhouse as MegaMort has caused Mortimer to gain massive popularity and become a Internet meme in 2024, most of the memes of which containing him using his shrinking glove to kill other characters while singing his song "Take It All", or contain him interacting with other powerful characters and using his shrinking glove to kill them.
