Mickey's Rival

Mickey's Rival is a 1936 Mickey Mouse short film.^[1] It was directed by Wilfred Jackson and produced by Walt Disney. It introduces the character of Mortimer Mouse.

Plot

Mickey Mouse is by his car, getting ready for his girlfriend, Minnie as they are having a picnic together, just the two of them. But then, a Spanish mouse named Mortimer drives a sleek sports car, rushes by, and stops. Mortimer Mouse is one of Minnie's old friends who is also known as the rival of Mickey Mouse. He backs up and crashes his car into Mickey's car, pushing it into a tree. Mortimer starts to make fun of his short rival making Mickey jealous. He takes two of his buttons from his shorts off. One button is hidden in Mickey's hand whilst the other button is thrown away. Mickey grumpily tries to grab Mortimer's buttons from his long trousers, but they electrocute him making him even more jealous.

Then, Mickey's car pushes Mortimer's sports car off and tries to scare it away by rattling its engine, but Mortimer's loud new sports car's horn scares Mickey's old car, making it hide behind a rock nearby.

Afterwards, Minnie, Mortimer, and Mickey, who is still grumpy about Mortimer, are all having a picnic together. Then Mortimer sees a bull in a nearby pen and tries to impress Minnie by doing some bullfighting. Mickey then has his nose caught on a doughnut like a ring. Mickey jealously pulls it off, then becomes a bit nervous as Minnie applauds Mortimer and tells Mickey he is good. But Mickey pouts at Minnie, breaks a teacup and storms off back to his old car.

Minnie is shocked about Mickey's jealous behaviour, but she only says behind Mickey's back: "You're just jealous." Mickey and his car both sit next to each other feeling jealous and grumpy about being teased by Mortimer. Meanwhile, Mortimer is still doing his bullfighting thing. His first attempts went well, mostly by making the bull charge into the fences around its pen, but when Mortimer sees the pen's gate open and as he's about to do a second one, he immediately yelps, runs away and flees in his sports car, leaving Minnie to deal with the bull alone. The bull chases Minnie. Mickey realizes that Minnie is in danger and calls for his car. As soon as his car turns up, Mickey jumps inside and goes off to save Minnie Mouse from the angered bull. He goes round in a circle creating a dust cloud so that it confuses the bull. Minnie sees Mickey driving around in his car and then jumps in where she is safe and sound. Then Mickey asks Minnie if Mortimer is her new boyfriend. But Minnie politely denies this and tells him that he is just one of her old friends who just came for a little while. Then Mickey and Minnie Mouse both shake hands.

References