Keskustelujen arkisto

Here's an interesting bit from Maurice Sendak (R.I.P.) on the subject of Mickey vs. Donald...
Sendak: I adored Mickey Mouse when I was a child. He was the emblem of happiness and funniness. You went to the movies then, you saw two movies and a short. When Mickey Mouse came on the screen and there was his big head, my sister said she had to hold onto me. I went berserk. I stood on the chair screaming, "My hero! My hero!" He had a lot of guts when he was young. We're both about the same age; we're about a month apart. He was the little brother I always wanted.
Jonze: What was he like when he was young?
Sendak: He had teeth.
Jonze: Literally?
Sendak: He had literally teeth. I have toys in the other room.
Jonze: Was he more dangerous?
Sendak: Yes. He was more dangerous. He did things to Minnie that were not nice. I think what happened, was that he became so popular??this is my own theory??they gave his cruelty and his toughness to Donald Duck. And they made Mickey a fat nothing. He's too important for products. They want him to be placid and nice and adorable. He turned into a schmaltzer. I despised him after a point.
Ouch!
Source: http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2008/10/08/where-the-wild-things-are.html

That's right. It's a real shame to lose him.

Odd to read this piece from him, though: in comparison with other statements from Sendak, he really overdoes the description of early Mickey's "cruelty." I only know three cartoons in which Mickey does anything that could be considered "not nice" to Minnie, and Minnie slaps him all three times.
Mickey remains pretty tough in the comics when he has to be, but that's not cruelty.
OTOH, modern Mickey still has teeth??but they're helpful, you know, for chewing food and such. (-:

Quote from user: Mr. MMickey in comics is more of goody-goody boy scout which can be boring for some readers.
He hasn't been portrayed like that in Egmont comics for more than a decade. Possibly two.

Speaking of Mickey, there's a character like him who is in my eyes even worse: L'il Bad Wolf. This kid is so kind and nice and sweet and all that, that he oversells it almost every time he appears. He's such a good kid that it's just unreal. When I read those stories, I almost side with Zeke Wolf because he's just portrayed more realistically. Poor guy never seems to catch a break. Hey, I know he's the villain and that he must never win and all, but nine out of ten stories have him being chased by Brer Bear with a shotgun at some point. Heck, he can't even try to be nice and he's being shot at. I can't be the only one who thinks this, right? And no, Grandma Wolf and the Foulfellows Club aren't helping.

Quote from user: Dutch Duckfan Down UnderSpeaking of Mickey, there's a character like him who is in my eyes even worse: L'il Bad Wolf. This kid is so kind and nice and sweet and all that, that he oversells it almost every time he appears. He's such a good kid that it's just unreal. When I read those stories, I almost side with Zeke Wolf because he's just portrayed more realistically. Poor guy never seems to catch a break. Hey, I know he's the villain and that he must never win and all, but nine out of ten stories have him being chased by Brer Bear with a shotgun at some point. Heck, he can't even try to be nice and he's being shot at. I can't be the only one who thinks this, right? And no, Grandma Wolf and the Foulfellows Club aren't helping.
Yes, Li'l Bad Wolf is a very nice boy. That's the point of the character. And here are three reasons why:

1. The Big Bad Wolf and the Three Little Pigs come from a fairy tale. In fairy tales, things are usually black or white. In this case, the Big Bad Wolf is evil and the Pigs are innocents. Therefore, Li'l Bad Wolf needs to be a goodie-goodie. Or, alternatively, a baddie like his father. There's no room to make his morals somewhere in-between.

2. For storytelling purposes, it works very well to have a goodie (Li'l Bad Wolf) be the son of a baddie (Big Bad Wolf), be friends with other goodies (the Pigs)... and having to protect his friends from his father without hurting his father's feelings. Imagine the conflicted emotions Li'l Bad Wolf must experience every day: it's the classic story of a son who loves his father but cannot bring himself to live according to his father's wishes... while the father secretly loves his son, but cannot accept the son's failure to live according to those wishes. And somewhere in the mix, we have two stupid but good-hearted pigs, a third pig who's clever and has a way with anti-wolf contraptions and an easily irritated bear who has easy access to a shotgun and dislikes being taken advantage of by Big Bad Wolf.

3. At one point, I discussed Li'l Bad Wolf's immense niceness with David Gerstein and whether it worked against the character. David told me: "I think Li'l Wolf often is a [goody-goody], but he's funny BECAUSE he is. To an exaggerated degree. It's the only thing that can make me sympathize with Zeke in spite of myself, and at least for many of the better modern writers, I think that's the point!"