Nice Mice: Difference between revisions

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[[You Dirty Rat|Unlike rats]], mice are often portrayed as nice and heroic even though they are common household pests.

Being very small and cute, yet traditionally wild, the mouse is an animal often used as a metaphor for someone easily underestimated. Thus, mouse characters and humanoid mouse races tent to be heroic and really good people, yet easily underestimated. In many works, this last trait is something they have grown to deeply resent. It's hard to demand respect from someone when you can't even reach his knees and your voice is very squeaky - no matter how brave you are.

These mice characters designed to be likable one way or another. Some are heroic, some are nice, and some are both.

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{{examples|Examples: }}

* [[Chuck E Cheese]]

* In Art Spiegelman's ''[[Maus]]'', a narrative of the author's father's struggle to survive the Holocaust, the Jews are drawn as mice. [[Cats Are Mean|Nazis are drawn as cats]], and the Allied troops (particularly Americans) are drawn as dogs.

* The mice in ''[[Cinderella (Disney film)|Cinderella]]'' are not just nice, they are ultimately responsible for helping Cinderella's dream come true.

* Roquefort from ''[[The Aristocats]]''

* The mice in ''[[The Rescuers (Disney film)|The Rescuers]]'' and ''[[The Rescuers Down Under]]'' are nice.

** Basil [[Good Is Not Nice|may not be nice, but he's still good]].

* Fievel and the mice from the ''[[An American Tail]]'' movies are all nice. They're also stand-ins for poor oppressed minorities in the human world.

** The villains from the third movie are also mice, however.

* ''[[Mousehunt (film)|Mousehunt]]'''s mouse counts, but it's a more blurred example due to [[Alternate Character Interpretation]]. Obviously the audience is supposed to feel sorry for him, being hunted so ruthlessly by two humans, but he outsmarts them so often that it's clear he's not an ordinary mouse. So, if he's capable of understanding that, perhaps he's capable of understanding what a nuisance he is to two humans who consider the house their property.

* In ''[[The Chronicles of Narnia]]'', mice is the most [[Badass]] race, and the only race that gets a racial storyline of its own. All other races of talking animals are given speech as a divine gift at [[The MagiciansMagician's Nephew|the dawn of time]]. The mice, however, are so small and insignificant that they are overlooked by [[Crystal Dragon Jesus|Aslan]] himself. However...

** Moving on to ''[[The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe]]'', the mice ''earn'' their rank among the ascended animals by making a heroic attempt at [[Save Your Deity]].

*** In that story, mice chew off the ropes that bind {{spoiler|The body of Aslan}}. As a result, mice are promoted to that rank of talking animal, and many years latter the mice are considered among the most bravest and honorable of all the animals. The chief of the mice, Reepicheep features in ''[[Prince Caspian]]'' and ''[[Voyage of the Dawn Treader]]'' as one of the main heroes of the books.

** In ''[[Prince Caspian]]'' the mouse militia fearlessly go up against far larger enemies, routinely taking them out by being ignored in the fray and chopping them from underneath. Culminating in the [[Heroic Sacrifice]] of their commander Reepicheep and his army's quite special way of dealing with that situation.

** In ''[[Voyage of the Dawn Treader]]'', Reepicheep is one of the main charactes, and arguably the bravest of them all. Lucy works quite hard to resist her urge of cuddling him, since she understand that such behavior from her would hurt his pride. The local [[Jerkass]] human taunts him for his size, but he quickly teaches the far larger human to fear him. Also, while the other heroes just happen to be on that journey for miscellaneous reasons, Reepicheep is the one doing the journey as a [[Heaven Seeker|holy quest]].

* In ''[[The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy|The Hitchhikers Guide to The Galaxy]]'', mice are revealed to be highly intelligent pan-dimensional beings; the little furry squeaky things we see are just their avatars in this dimension. Millions of years ago, they built the [[super Computer]] Deep Thought as a means of discovering the Answer to the Great Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything. [[Gone Horribly Right|They succeeded.]]

* Despereaux and the other mice in ''[[The Tale of Despereaux]]'' (rats are bad, except for Chiarascuro, who is good)

* In ''[[The Wonderful Wizard of Oz]]'' fieldmice rescue Dorothy, Lion, and Toto from the poppy field by dragging them away. (In the film ''[[The Wizard of Oz (film)|The Wizard of Oz]]'' Glinda makes it snow to rescue them.)

* Video game: Pipsy Mouse from ''[[Diddy Kong Racing]]''.

** Pikachu is ''somewhat'' of a subversion in that it can be [[Tsundere|moody]], but otherwise plays the trope straight (Ash's Pikachu in particular.)

* ''[[Pinky and The Brain]]'': Pinky is nice, if completely cracked. The Brain -- notBrain—not so much, but he's a [[Jerk with a Heart of Gold]].

* [[Mickey Mouse]] and [[Minnie Mouse]]: Both are nice. Hands down.

** Subverted with Mortimer Mouse though.

* ''[[Looney Tunes]]'': [[Speedy Gonzales]] is a mouse who pretty much only steals cheese to help his compadres. Sniffles is well-meaning, if annoying.

* The mice from ''[[Capitol Critters]]'' were nice.