Mouse World: Difference between revisions

{{quote box|[[File:mice1_2084mice1 2084.jpg|link=The Rescuers (Disney film)|rightframe]]}}

{{quote|''"For behind the wooden wainscots of all the old houses of Gloucester, there are little mouse staircases and secret trap-doors; and the mice run from house to house through those long narrow passages; they can run all over the town without going into the streets."''|''[[Beatrix Potter|The Tailor of Gloucester]]''}}

Similar in many ways to [[Beneath the Earth]], [['''Mouse World]]''' exists in secret on the fringes of human society; the difference is scale. This is an entire class of stories built around tiny protagonists operating just out of sight in the human world. These come in a few flavors, but all share some important common elements. In any case, the lives of the little folk draw eerie parallels to the lives of the big-folk.

In an urban setting, the characters most often act like rats, even when they aren't actual [[Talking Animal|Talking Animals]]s in the 3- to 6-inch range. They live in [[Mouse Hole|Mouse Holes]]s using adapted or cobbled-together [[Bamboo Technology]] made from human trash, with the odd toys and models thrown in.

If they deal with human opponents directly, expect clever trickery, stealth and the odd [[Colossus Climb]]. They may become [[Dinky Drivers]] to operate human vehicles. If humans aren't aware of them in the slightest (as in most cases), it's usually because they either have a strong [[Weirdness Censor]], the tiny species is keeping a complex and clever [[The Masquerade|masquerade]], or they simply regard talking and/or clothed [[Funny Animal|Funny Animals]]s or tiny humanoids as an [[Unusually Uninteresting Sight]]. In some cases one lucky human (usually a child) [[Speaks Fluent Animal]] and is the only human character in the story aware of the tiny species. In combination with an [[Incredible Shrinking Man]], you can have a [[Trapped in Another World]] plot. Other slightly larger animals such as cats and dogs may also play a role in this world, but expect [[Animal Jingoism]] to come into play, along with examples of [[Cats Are Mean]].

May have begun with the Lilliputians, and later Gulliver's time with the Brobdignagian giants, in ''[[Gullivers Travels|Gulliver's Travels]]'' by Jonathan Swift. The best-known recent version is probably the ''Borrowers'' books.

{{examples|Examples:}}

=== [[Newspaper Comics]] ===

=== Western Animation ===

* ''[[Madagascar]]'', its sequel, and ''[[The Penguins of Madagascar (Animation)|The Penguins of Madagascar]]''

* The dogs in ''[[All Dogs Go to Heaven (Animation)|All Dogs Go to Heaven]]'' have a whole culture with gambling casinos and all.

* ''[[Father of the Pride (Animation)|Father of the Pride]]''

* ''[[One Hundred and One101 Dalmatians (Disney)|One Hundred and One Dalmatians]]: The Series''

* ''[[Krypto the Superdog (Animationanimation)|Krypto the Superdog]]''

* Kokomo, IN, was actually portrayed as one of these in ''[[Cats Don't Dance (Animation)|Cats Don't Dance]]''.

=== [[Anime]]Comic and [[MangaBooks]] ===

=== [[Film]] ===

* The scene in ''[[Mousehunt (Filmfilm)|Mousehunt]]'' in which the mouse's room is shown, consisting of a postcard as a poster and a little bed made up of a tin box and cotton balls.

=== [[Literature]] ===

* ''Firmin'' by Sam Savage is a novel about a rat who lives in a bookstore and is a consumer of great literature (literally -- heliterally—he finds it quite tasty).

* The ''Christopher Curchmouse'' series of biblically-oriented short stories, written by a Barbra Davoll, is set in a church where mice live much the same lives that humans do in secret, even including attending the preacher's sermons.

* Margery Sharp's ''[[The Rescuers (Literaturenovel)|The Rescuers]]'' series, source material for the two [[Disney Animated Canon]] films.

=== [[Tabletop Games]] ===

* The [[Burning Wheel]]-[https://web.archive.org/web/20131207065610/http://www.burningwheel.org/forum/forumdisplay.php?41-Mouse-Guard-RPG based] ''[[Mouse Guard]]'' game.

=== [[Western Animation]] ===

* ''[[Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers (Animationanimation)|Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers]]''

* ''[[Capitol Critters (Animation)|Capitol Critters]]''

* ''[[An American Tail (Animation)|An American Tail]]'', films and series. Theirs comes complete with animal [[Expy]]'s of actual human historical figures, and the mice themselves are essentially metaphors for [[Fantastic Racism|oppressed minorities]].

* ''[[The Great Mouse Detective (Disney)|The Great Mouse Detective]]'' (which was based on a series of books by Eve Titus, ''[[Basil of Baker Street (Literature)|Basil of Baker Street]]'')

** Exaggerated in that while set in London, the mouse version of London is almost exactly the same as the human, without [[Bamboo Technology|bamboo technology]]. They have clockwork, ''guns'', functioning cabarets and (bizarrely) even Queen Mousetoria, who's an identical mouse version of Queen Victoria. Also, living directly under [[Sherlock Holmes]]' house is Basil, a mouse who's an amazingly clear if Disney-fied [[Expy]] of Holmes himself.

* ''[[The Rescuers (Disney film)|The Rescuers]]'' and ''[[The Rescuers Down Under]]'', two animated Disney features based on [[The Rescuers (Literaturenovel)|the aforementioned series of books]] by Margery Sharp.

** And ''[[Cinderella (Disney film)|Cinderella]]'''s mouse-friends, though not the center of the story, have significantly adapted the house so they can move about freely inside it.

* The novel ''[[Mrs. Frisby and The Rats of NIMH (Literature)|Mrs. Frisby and Thethe Rats of NIMH]]'', or [[The Film of the Book]] ''[[The Secret of NIMH (Animation)|The Secret of NIMH]]''.

* The computer-animated film ''[[Flushed Away (Animation)|Flushed Away]]''

* ''[[Danger Mouse (Animation)|Danger Mouse]]'', although the scale is not kept consistent.

* ''[[Once Upon a Forest (Animation)|Once Upon a Forest]]'', though it takes place mostly in the wilderness where humans are seen as [[Humans Are Cthulhu|mythical, frightening and destructive monsters]], their encounter with 'the yellow dragons', aka construction equipment, as well as other human inventions such as streets and animal traps qualifies it. They also live in houses built into trees.

* Most ''[[Tom and Jerry (Animation)|Tom and Jerry]]'' and ''[[Tom and Jerry Tales (Animation)|Tom and Jerry Tales]]'' cartoons and episodes.

* Most of ''[[Pinky and The Brain (Animation)|Pinky and The Brain]]'' is set in a "normal" human world; however, the episode "The Third Mouse" (a parody of ''[[The Third Man]]'') is set inexplicably in a 1940's [[Mouse World]].

* The [[Rankin /Bass Productions|Rankin/Bass]] special ''[[Twas the Night Before Christmas]]'' involves a family of mice living with the family of a human clockmaker. Unusually for the trope, the human is not only aware of his counterpart's existence but actually interacts and works with him.

=== [[Real Life]] ===

=== Comics[[Literature]] ===

* ''[[The Wind in Thethe Willows]]'' sort of waffles between this and the typical cartoon-animal approach. Sometimes the small animals seem to be the correct size, but sometimes they interact with [[Furry Confusion|scaled-down horses and other such non-anthropomorphic animals that really ought to be a lot bigger]]

* In ''[[Redwall]]'', animals live in a medieval sort of world, and they do have tables, ovens, swords, clothing, etc. They don't live in a realistic way, it's very humanlike. However, they do retain characteristics of being animals... moles are good at digging, squirrels are champion climbers, otters are naturals at swimming, some animals are mentioned as being carnivorous (most animals in the series eat only fish and eggs, as far as non-plants go).

* The mock epic ''[[Batrachomyomachia (Literature)|Batrachomyomachia]]'' makes this [[Older Than Feudalism]]: it parodies epics like ''[[The Iliad (Literature)|The Iliad]]'' by replacing the heroic figures with warrior mice and frogs, fighting each other complete with miniature armor and weapons.

=== [[Live-Action TV]] ===

* ''[[Fraggle Rock]]'' has a wide range of scales to it, but includes a limited interaction between the little Fraggles and the big "Doc", as well as between Uncle Travelling Matt and the [[Humans Byby Any Other Name|Silly Creatures]] [[Humans Through Alien Eyes|from Outer Space]].

=== [[Western Animation]] ===

* ''[[Littlest Pet Shop (Animationanimation)|Littlest Pet Shop]]'' features a multispecies cast of miniature animals.

* Most ''[[Tom and Jerry (Animation)|Tom and Jerry]]'' and ''[[Tom and Jerry Tales]]'' cartoons and episodes.

* The alley cats in ''[[The Aristocats (Disney)|The Aristocats]]''.

* The penguins in ''[[The Pebble and Thethe Penguin]]''

=== Comic Books ===

* The Snorks are a [[Franco Belgian Comics|French-language]] comic featuring rockpool-based Smurf ripoffs.

* ''[[The Littl' Bits]]''

* ''[[Kabu no Isaki]]'' by [[Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou|Hitoshi Ashinano]]. The story is set in a world where everything except humans is 10 times larger (in ''linear'' size), but apparently the Earth surface gravity force is ''not'' 10 times stronger. Result: Japan appears huge and sparsely populated, humans are piloting what looks like toy airplanes, landing on fuki (butterbur) leaves and such.

=== [[Film]] ===

=== [[Literature]] ===

* Michael de Larrabeiti's [http://www.theborribles.co.uk/[The Borribles|Borribles]] and their enemies the Rumbles are a bit bigger than the usual [[Mouse World]] inhabitants, but otherwise seem to fit the trope nicely.

* ''[[Mistress Mashams Repose|Mistress Masham's Repose]]''

* A classic of British fantasy literature, ''The Little Grey Men'' features four gnomes who presumably had a [[Mouse World]] culture once, but now are the [[Last of Their Kind]].

=== [[Live-Action TV]] ===

* ''[[Land of the Giants (TV)|Land of the Giants]]'' (Inversion: regular humans trapped in a world filled with -- guess what --with—guess giantswhat—giants.)

=== [[Video Games]] ===

* ''[[The Legend of Zelda]]: [[The Legend of Zelda: theThe Minish Cap|The Minish Cap]]''.

* ''[[Mario Party (Video Game)|Mario Party]] DS''.

* ''[[Final Fantasy III (Video Game)|Final Fantasy III]]'': Tozas

=== [[Western Animation]] ===

=== [[Comic Books]] ===

=== [[Literature]] ===

=== [[Western Animation]] ===

* ''[[Maya the Bee (Literature)|The Adventures of Maya the Bee]]''

* ''[[A BugsBug's Life (Animation)|A Bugs Life]]''

* ''[[Antz (Animation)|Antz]]''

* ''[[The Buzz On Maggie (Animation)|The Buzz Onon Maggie]]'', short-lived Disney show about a teenage fly.

* ''[[Miss SpidersSpider's Sunny Patch Friends]]''

=== [[Tabletop RPG]] ===

* ''[[Pluesch Power Und Plunder|Plüsch, Power & Plunder]]'' is a German game about [[Living Toys|sapient, living]] [[EverythingsEverything's Better Withwith Plushies|plushies]] who have to keep up the [[Masquerade]] from the [[Humans Through Alien Eyes|"tramplers"]].

=== Western Animation ===

* ''[[Toy Story (franchise)|Toy Story]]''

* The tiny stitchpunks of ''[[Nine (Animation)9|Nine]]'' live in a [[Scavenger World|Scavenger]] [[Mouse World]] [[After the End]]. Noticing everything they've used for their technology, such as a sextant for a telescope, is a lot of fun.