Mickey Mousing: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
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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-and-Music-Only Cartoon]], [[Musical Chores]], [[Standard Snippet]], [[Theme Music Power-Up]], [[Record Needle Scratch]]. Compare [[Variable Mix]]. May be used in conjunction with [[Sorry I Left the BGM On]].
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== 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
* 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 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 the Hat]]'' movie. While attempting to get back the pet dog, Nevins, the two main protagonists attempt to sneak in, all the while the sound of their footsteps punctuated by the Cat playing on his whiskers. The children both look at him, and he replies "I thought the moment needed something."
* In ''[[Stardust (film)|Stardust]]'', an absolutely epic fight scene is set to the Can-
* 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.
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* In ''[[The Princess Bride (film)|The Princess Bride]]'', seen (heard?) during the famous "you killed my father" scene.
** 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
* Featured in the ultra-cheesy ''[[Psycho Cop|Pyscho Cop Returns]]'', making the film even funnier.
* The epic fight scene set to Lucia Di Lammermoor in ''[[The Fifth Element]]''
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== 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.
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* ''[[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 ''[[Team Fortress 2]]'' "Meet the Spy"; you can hear his stabs in time with the theme music!
* ''[[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.
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* 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\]
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''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.
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* 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, ''[[Animaniacs]]'', ''[[Freakazoid]]'', ''[[House of Mouse]]'', you name it.
* Common in ''[[The Fairly Odd Parents]]'', so much so that in one episode, [[The Kid with the Remote Control|Timmy]] wished for all noise to be removed from the world. The
** 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 Emperor's New Groove|The Emperors New Groove]]'', when Kronk provides his own theme music.
* 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: The Animated Series]]'' was composed entirely of the serious version of this. Done so well that you don't realize that the jet engine of the Batmobile turning on is actually a cymbal roll.
** 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]]''.
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* ''[[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|My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic]]'', mixed seamlessly with some [[Leitmotif
== 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 [[wikipedia:Fourier transform|Fourier Transform]] of the last fraction of a second of audio data, with the bar lengths corresponding to intensity of sound frequencies present in the audio.
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** [[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/Awesome Music|The music from the artists]] is composed ahead of time, then Andrew picks one piece and animates the Flash sequences to its beats and any [[Leitmotif
** 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?)
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