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{{trope}}
[[File:
Scoring a segment such that the music punctuates the physical motions occurring. This is a technical term coined in [[The Golden Age of Animation|the early days of animation]], though the practice of synchronizing actions to the rhythm of the music goes back much earlier.
This is not the same as a [[Leitmotif]], which is a particular theme tied to a character, object, or idea. It is also not the same as the use of music to express emotions. It only counts as Mickey Mousing if the music is timed to - and usually similar in contour to - the actions on screen.
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In a slapstick cartoon, this can be used as a complete substitute for the normal sound effects. In live action this is more commonly used alongside the normal sound effects, making it seem like a choreographed dance. In either case the effect is usually comedic, whether this was intentional or not, which is why the term is often used as a pejorative in film scoring circles.
While it was prevalent in the early days of animation due to how efficient it was for the animators to time the animation to, it soon became derided as cliché and corny, and its usage decreased considerably in the following years. That said, it's certainly ''not'' a [[Discredited Trope]]
For [[Video Game|videogames]] where the player can cause
See also [[Mime
{{examples|Examples}}▼
== Anime & Manga ==▼
* This is actually a very rare practice in anime, where shows almost exclusively rely on a library of tracks composed for the show and thrown in where appropriate. Thus it is very glaringly obvious (and audibly jarring) in [[Anime]] that's given an entirely new music track when it's dubbed, especially those handled by [[Four Kids Entertainment|4Kids]]. Then end result gives the show a Tom-and-Jerry-trapped-in-the-eighties feel. This is usually done to save money, but also to remove potential gaps in the original music caused by cuts and edits.▼
* [[Justified Trope|Justified]] with the "Both Of You Dance Like You Want To Win" attack in ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]''. Shinji and Asuka must fight an Angel that splits in two and can only be killed by destroying both pieces simultaneously. It's decided the best way to do this is to have them perform an attack choreographed to the rhythm of a piece of music.▼
▲* This is actually a very rare practice in anime, where shows almost exclusively rely on a library of tracks composed for the show and thrown in where appropriate. Thus it is very glaringly obvious (and audibly jarring) in [[Anime]] that's given an entirely new music track when it's dubbed, especially those handled by [[
** [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENiDiVyqens Reenacted] in [[Super Robot Wars MX]], but with [[Zeorymer (Manga)|Bryst of the Fire]].▼
▲* [[Justified Trope|Justified]] with the "Both Of You Dance Like You Want To Win" attack in ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]''. Shinji and Asuka must fight an Angel that splits in two and can only be killed by destroying both pieces simultaneously. It's decided the best way to do this is to have them perform an attack [[Source Music|choreographed to the rhythm of a piece of music.]]
* ''[[Blue Submarine Number Six]]'' does this. Repeat with me: ''naval battles punctuated with bossanova.''▼
▲** [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENiDiVyqens Reenacted] in [[Super Robot Wars MX]], but with [[Zeorymer
* The [[FU Nimation]] dub of [[Dragonball Z]] did this at times.▼
▲* ''[[Blue Submarine
* [[Spirited Away]] has this when Chihiro is making her way down the rickety stairs to the boiler room.
* ''[[Kimba the White Lion]]'' [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5P9ic9GZoE&list=LL5A68Xz9vd9pNuUOTW6GeBw&index=54 has its moments].
== Eastern Animation ==
* ''[[Nu Pogodi]]'' synchronizes the action with its eclectic soundtrack.
== Film ==
* The absurdly famous "Knife" cue from [[Psycho]] is kind of a funny aversion, compounded with [[Beam Me Up, Scotty]]. If you watch the scene carefully, the music is NOT
▲* The absurdly famous "Knife" cue from [[Psycho]] is kind of a funny aversion, compounded with [[Beam Me Up Scotty]]. If you watch the scene carefully, the music is NOT [[Mickey Mousing]]. However when people mimic the scene by making a stabbing motion and singing "Reent! Reent! Reent! Reent!" they will synchronize it.
* In ''[[The Great Dictator]]'' [[Charlie Chaplin]] shaves a customer in perfect synchronisation with the 5th Hungarian Dance [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCevzLGnrbo See here.]
** Impressively, he also did it in one take.
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** The score as we know it was originally just used by Kubrick as make-shift editing music, so he'd have something to work with. It turned out he liked it so much he threw the entire original score, which had already been written and recorded, out of the window. (And this may have been his plan all along: Also Sprach Zarathustra, in particular, is ''suspiciously'' thematically appropriate.)
** When auto-docking with a space station in the game ''[[Elite]]'', it plays "On the Beautiful Blue Danube", in reference to ''[[2001: A Space Odyssey]]''. (Not all of the versions of ''Elite'' do this, though.)
* Still with Kubrick, in ''[[A Clockwork Orange (
* Used in ''[[The Blues Brothers]]'' when the eponymous duo are trying to sneak into the performance, with the band playing "Minnie the Moocher" as the music (although being heavily musically inclined, the two are doing it on purpose).
** Also used much earlier during the "SCMODS" sequence.
* The original ''[[King Kong]]'' used this. It's most noticeable during the famous "taking off the dress scene", when Jack is climbing on rocks, and when the tribal chief walks (or rather, marches along to the soundtrack) down to greet the film crew.
* ''[[The Cat in
* In ''[[Stardust (
* The pub jukebox left on Random in ''[[Shaun of the Dead]]''. The protagonists beat up a zombie with pool cues in time with [[Queen]]'s "Don't Stop Me Now".
* The film ''[[Black Narcissus]]'' was infamous for its Mickey Mousing, especially with its climactic scene on two nuns fighting on a cliff.
* [[The Court Jester]] - the final swordfighting scene when [[Danny Kaye]]'s character gains [[Implausible Fencing Powers]].
* Occurs in the [[Spider-Man (
* The "garden tool fight" in ''[[Hobgoblins]]'', as pointed out by Crow:
{{quote|
* Pretty much anything with [[Jerry Lewis]] in it incorporates this at some point or another.
* Serious examples do exist - one appears ten minutes into the [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vteImijZQM0 1932 film "The Most Dangerous Game"] (based on [[The Most Dangerous Game|the short story of the same name]]).
* In ''[[The Princess Bride (
** And also during the chatty swordfight duel. The music stops every time a stroke is parried. The music and the dueling both stop to allow the characters to perform acrobatic feats and talk to one another.
* "Eye of the Tiger," written for ''[[Rocky III]]'', was written for precisely this reason
* Featured in the ultra-cheesy ''[[Psycho Cop
* The epic fight scene set to Lucia Di Lammermoor in ''[[The Fifth Element]]''
* In ''[[
* In Orson Welles's preview cut of ''The Lady from Shanghai'', he filled in the spots where music would later go with stock themes from the studio's library, which he thought worked quite well. However, [[Executive Meddling|the studio took the picture out of his hands]] and had an original score composed designed to punctuate the action. This enraged Welles, who dismissed it "a Looney Tunes score".
* In the original ''[[The Last House
* In ''[[
** In ''[[Tron
* Used briefly in ''[[
* Also used in the ''[[
* Jim Henson's Oscar nominated experimental short ''Time Piece'' was about eight and a half minutes of this trope, where everything was done to a rhythm or musical beat.
* In ''[[
* ''[[Johnny English Reborn]]''. During the end credits English cooks a meal for his [[Love Interest]] to the strains of "In the Hall of the Mountain King".
* Two scenes in ''[[Hudson Hawk]]'' features two thieves robbing places while...[[
▲== Live Action TV ==
* Done very often in Latin American soap operas, where, for example, in a scene with dialogue against music with lyrics, speech and singing will alternate, resulting in a pretty neat scene.
* In a rare live action example, ''[[The Dick Van Dyke Show]]'' used it to great
* The '60s ''[[Batman (TV series)|Batman]]'' TV series, along with many other cheesy movies of the decade, tended to feature obnoxious, brass-heavy music during fight scenes, which would provide a stinger chord for every punch that landed.
* In the ''[[Firefly]]'' episode "Safe," the semi-Celtic-style folk music River dances to in one scene happens to synch up beautifully to the fight scene occurring over with Mal and the crew.
** ''[[Firefly]]'' actually does this routinely due to its aversion of [[Space Is Noisy]] requiring something else to punctuate the otherwise silent action onscreen.
* ''[[Malcolm in
* Done during the [[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'s silent episode, Hush, despite also having sound effects.
* Unusual example from ''Your Show of Shows'': Sid Caesar and Nanette Fabray playing a married couple arguing to the tune of [[Ludwig Van Beethoven|Beethoven's]] Fifth Symphony. Watch it [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEhF-7suDsM here.]
* Done once in ''[[Two and A Half Men]]'', with Charlie behind the piano, slowly but surely driving poor Allen insane.
* The absolutely classic [[Morecambe and Wise]] Breakfast sketch.
* Often the music in ''[[Jeeves and Wooster (TV series)|Jeeves and Wooster]]'', particularly during Bertie's schemes, would complement the action quite well.
* Spoofed in ''[[The Facts of Life]]'': The episode, a parody of slasher/horror films, features Tootie sneaking through the house, with pizzicato strings accompanying her every step. Finally she gets fed up and [[Breaking the Fourth Wall|yells at]] [[
* A favorite comedic device of [[Ernie Kovacs]] was having musical interludes in which mundane objects would move in time to the music. E.g. his [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DX5khYGqjPY "Kitchen Symphony"].
* Used many times in ''[[Kamen Rider Hibiki]]'', set to anything from a fight scene to a bike-ride through town.
* In every episode of ''[[The Monkees]]'', slapstick gags are punctuated by the music.
* ''[[
== Radio ==
* As a tourist attraction, a "lover's spat" between [[Elizabeth Taylor]] and Mike Todd is portrayed with trumpets in a short segment of ''[[The Stan Freberg Show]]''.
== Theatre ==
* Cho Chang's introduction in ''[[A Very Potter Musical]]'' is timed to the music (especially the classic "Bitch, I ain't Cho Chang!"/"Racist sister!" exchange).
* The song "Now (It's Just The Gas)" in ''[[Little Shop of Horrors]]'' begins with chords that match the action of Orin struggling to remove his mask.
== Video Games ==
''Games should only be included if their case of Mickey Mousing isn't [[Musical Gameplay]].''
* Happens often in the ''[[Kirby]]'' series, most notably in ''64: The Crystal Shard'''s cutscenes. ''Super Star Ultra'' attempted it in places, but in several occasions, most jarringly in the cutscene that occurs wherein you find Nova, the music is just baaaarely out of sync with the video.
▲* Happens often in the ''[[Kirby]]'' series, most notably in ''64: The Crystal Shard'''s cutscenes. ''Super Star Ultra'' attempted it in places, but in several occasions, most jarringly in the cutscene that occurs wherein you find Nova, the music is just baaaarely out of sync with the video.
* The Moblins in ''Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker'' do this, the music usually beating in time with their footsteps.
* In the ''[[Sly Cooper]]'' series, sneaking up on an enemy would shift the music volume down and play a series of single notes in time with each step the player took.
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*** Actually, it loops when stage scroll stops and Reimu/Marisa/Sakuya approaches the gate to Netherworld, just before the boss battle. The effect of music returning to the slow pace at that moment is epic, to say the least.
** In fact, many stages are scripted to exactly correspond to the music, to the extent where the game will throws out bonus enemies for you to destroy if you kill the midboss quickly, and sometimes skip midboss patterns if you kill them too slowly, all in attempts to perfectly synchronize the stages with their themes (assuming your game isn't running slowly for some reason, that is).
* Inverted in ''[[New Super Mario Bros
** Also, in [[New Super Mario Bros
* In ''[[Sonic Unleashed]]'', specifically in [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=reL293uPEYc "The First Night" cutscene] around 1:25. Please pay no mind to [[Dan Green]] crying.
* ''[[Ikaruga]]'' mickey-mouses its music to the [[Scripted Event|scripted events]] of the levels.
** The most impressive of which is that if you [[Playing Tennis With the Boss|play your tennis]] properly, the final boss dies exactly at the end of the musical phrase.
* [[Winnie the Pooh|Tigger]] does this in Piglet's Big Game, essentially making two areas of the game [[Metal Gear Solid]] with
* Sort of at the end of ''[[
* ''[[Halo]]'' does this several times. In 343 Guilty Spark, a [[Scare Chord]] in the soundtrack is timed to play when a corpse falls through the door during the Pvt. Jenkins cutscene. A certain percussion hit plays when the Athens Station explodes in ''Halo 2'', and another scare chord is used when MC rides the bomb out of the Cairo. During the final [[Escape Sequence]] in ''Halo 3'', the music segues to the final phrase exactly when you make the jump to the ship.
* In the Dark Side Ending of ''[[The Force Unleashed]] II'', the music matches with the lightsaber clashes.
* In the Thunder Plains of [[Final Fantasy X]], the lightning strikes in time with the music.
* An extremely noticable trait in ''[[Hellsinker]]''.
* The final boss of ''[[Ristar]]'' has a soundtrack that starts off slow and ominous while he sits in the background and throws minions at you and makes some preliminary
* The [[Famicom]] puzzle game ''Banana'' plays extra notes over the main theme whenever the mole character is moved around. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGwpuXLwR4c\]
== Web Animation ==
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* Another example found in the Flash Tarboy. The eponymous hero is creeping along in a dark storage facility, tracked by an insect-like robot. Their footsteps and actions mesh with the song pefectly, and are even sound coded.
* An easter egg at the end of an episode of [[Homestar Runner|Teen Girl Squad]] syncs up dialogue in time with the background theme:
{{quote|
''I miss my mom.''
''I miss video games.''
''I--I--I miss my mom.'' }}
* A stick figure animation by the name of Breaking Rust has
* Numerous animations by Youtube user [http://www.youtube.com/user/cyriak Cyriak] feature plenty of Mickey Mousing alongside stacks and stacks of horrific imagery and [[Soundtrack Dissonance]]. Click at your own risk.
== Western Animation ==
* [
* Carl Stalling's work for Warner Brothers (which included many of the classic shorts) deserves some kind of special award. Particularly notable in that the music makes no attempt at coherence on a purely musical level: it's just a disjointed series of glissandos, pizzicatos, runs, and stingers designed to match the action.
* Every episode of most cartoons with any sort of budget. For example, ''[[
* Common in ''[[The Fairly
** Also frequent in its [[Spiritual Successor]], [[Danny Phantom]].
* Subverted/parodied twice in ''[[Family Guy]]''. In "The Story on Page One", Peter provides his own
** Stewie also gets a job following fat guys around with a tuba, playing in time with their steps.
* Also parodied in ''[[The
* Done a lot in ''[[Ed, Edd 'n' Eddy]]''. They played with this in one scene of the episode "Brother, Can You Spare An Ed?", where Edd provided
* The classic opening sequence for ''[[Batman:
** You also didn't notice that it didn't actually ''name the show''. It was just that awesome.
* The BBC/EBU series ''[[The Animals of Farthing Wood]]'' did this extensively. Not only did it play for every single animal in the show, but every animal had its own particular variation, from the whistle-tune of Whistler to the high-end xylophone of the rodents.
* [[Pixar]]'s dialogue-free short ''[[Pixar Shorts|Presto]]'', that screened just before ''[[WALL-E]]'' in theaters, uses
* This is sort of the point of Disney's ''[[Fantasia]]'' and ''Fantasia 2000'', though it was actually [[Inverted Trope|done in reverse]], with animation produced based on existing music.
** Likewise Disney's version of ''[[Peter and The Wolf]]'' in ''[[Make Mine Music]]''.
** As were two episodes of ''[[
* The "Hungarian Dances" are some of the most popular pieces used, especially in Looney Tunes: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nh11A41klL4\]
* In the long-buried Disney film ''[[Song of the South]],'' Mickey Mousing is rampant. However, special mention goes to Br'er Bear, whose inability to keep up with the Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah Leitmotif is a sign that he is [[The Ditz]] of the story.
* ''[[Ruby Gloom]]'' uses this up to a point, but it is particularly notable for the character Doom Kitty, whose every movement and action is punctuated by an appropriate violin chord. It's adorable.
* An episode of ''[[The Schnookums and Meat Funny Cartoon Show]]'' had the eponymous duo gaining super muscles, with their ever step being punctuated with an "AH" sound.
* Used all the time in ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
== Other ==
* The album ''Suspended Animation'' by Fantomas could be described as "children's metal" and was written after Mike Patton realized that you can tell what's going on in a cartoon that's playing in another room simply by listening to the music.
* One very memorable piece of [[Demoscene]] music is an S3M file titled [http://modarchive.org/index.php?request=view_by_moduleid&query=34654 "Catch that goblin!!"] by Skaven of the Future Crew. It's a perfect example of
** Taken to its logical conclusion, naturally, by [http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/212829 this Flash animation] set to it.
* The [[Demoscene]] in general takes
* One of the most common examples of mickey mousing are found in music players themselves where there's usually a set of bars which expand on every beat.
** Technically, that's a [
* Happens almost unnervingly well in [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxJi-si5FRY&feature=related this] [[YouTube]] video. {{spoiler|Who knew ''[[The War of the Worlds (novel)|The War of the Worlds]]'' synchronised so well with Yackety Sax?}}
* And similarly, there's [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGOlevcqxIc this] scene from ''[[No Country for Old Men]]'', set to the theme from ''[[The Life Aquatic]]''.
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmoAA9eob1I This] advertisement [[Lampshade Hanging|hangs a lampshade]] on the idea, by combining it with [[Sorry I Left the BGM On]].
* A stand-up routine by Bill Bailey explains how scoring childrens cartoons is a low point for a session xylophone player.
{{quote|
* Happens a lot in trailers for films with lots of action sequences, normally with bits from lots of different scenes. For example, a trailer for [[Scott Pilgrim]] vs. The World has cuts from a few of the 'boss battles' to the beat of 'Invaders Must Die' by Prodigy.
** [[Scott Pilgrim]] also Mickey Mouses the Universal Studios fanfare with Lucas Lee cricking his neck and skateboarding on set. It's more funny than it sounds.
* Used in [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSnLne4qDn8 this] [[Goblins]] review.
* Andrew Hussie of [[Homestuck]] [[Inverted Trope|inverts]] this trope often. [[Homestuck
** Creates a [[Mood Whiplash|rather hilarious]] scene when [[BLA Mthe|flash inexplicably cuts]] from the Jack's rampage [[Tastes Like Diabetes|the Squiddles]]. This was only included because that leitmotif already existed in the song.
** Best seen when Karkat facepalms in time. (Remember the "give out bunnies like it's Christmas while in a lab" event?)
* Done in the music video (but not the album version) for [["Weird Al" Yankovic]]'s "Fat." Lampshaded at one point when Al realizes it and starts doing random motions just to hear what sounds get made.
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Score and Music Tropes]]
[[Category:Music Tropes]]
[[Category:
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