These are probably the most famous animated characters ever created, but what do they do besides march around on screen and look cute? What are they like as characters? Granted, I’m not familiar with much of Disneyana, but compared to the Warner Brothers’ cartoon characters, it seems like Disney’s are, ahem, flat and two dimensional.
I doubt that I’m right in this opinion. Care to clue me in?
This is the way I see it…
Mickey Mouse is the Everyman. He tries to do what is good, but often ends up bumbling along the way.
Donald Duck is the complete opposite of Mickey. Whereas Mickey will attempt to work around, and often laugh at, his own mistakes, if something wrong happens to Donald, he’ll throw a tantrum, making it even worse.
They also aren’t really used as cartoon characters to the extent they used to be. They transcended cartoon and moved into pop culture icon level. Now, you see the two, you think of Disney as a whole.
Disney used to make cartoons featuring Mickey, Donald, etc., that were very much like the WB cartoons. If you see those, you’ll undersand a lot more.
I liked the Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck comic books because both of them almost continually featured the two in various adventures in various far-away locations. The Barks-drawn ones always had meticulously researched and rendered portrayals of some of the most exotic places on earth. There were differences – Mickey was usually called in to do good (partnered in Walt Disney’s Comics and Stories serials with Goofy) and Donald either went for a get-rich-quick scheme or got dragged in by Unca Scrooge – but the stories themselves were always great. I never was a fan of the animated cartoons but the classic Disney comics are some of the best ever.
They usually starred in their own cartoon shorts… Mickey was more or less the straight man, with no horribly unique qualities. Donald Duck was the nigh-incomprehensible, very hot tempered duck who ran around trying quite a lot. The Daffy Duck/Donald Duck scene in Who Framed Roger Rabbit is one of the highlights of both of their careers, IMHO.
Donald’s maybe, but Daffy’s? Nah. That would be Duck Dodgers.
[Daffy]This is the latht time I work with thomeone with a thpeech impediment![/Daffy]
Well, the way I see it, Donald is Everyman too, but fate has thrown a curveball at him. He’s oppressed…by society and the world itself. His attempts at happiness are thrown back at him, and he’s doomed to do nothing but bemoan, with incoherant, impotent rage, his contempt for the uncaring, hateful world.
Mickey has become more reclusive since his unusual relationship with Goofy was discovered in the late 70’s.
Gawrsh.
I vaguely remember a Donald and the nephews (a whole ‘nother story) in an Unca’ Scrooge story. Some scheme went bad (surprise!) and Donald and the boys had to count Scrooge’s chick-peas. I remember wondering, what the heck are chick-peas? And why would you count them?
Another difference - Donald never wore pants, and would get ‘cover his privates’ embarassed if he was without his shirt (vest), that didn’t cover ‘down there’ anyway. Mickey wore pants and a shirt, all the time.
Mickey’s obsessive compulsive behavior concerning clothing is yet another aspect of his troubled “Steamboat Willie” days.
Let’s just say you really don’t want to know. k?
Another traumatic episode was when Mickey had to explain to his divorce lawyer not that Minnie was insane, but that she was “fucking Goofy”.
Another traumatic episode was when Mickey had to explain to his divorce lawyer not that Minnie was insane, but that she was “fucking Goofy”.
I apologize for the double post. As if things weren’t bad enough already for Mickey with the drug problem, having his private life kicked about on a public forum.
Again, I’m sorry.
carnivorousplant: are you sorry for your double post or for Mickey’s troubled life? 
And Goofy’s a married man!..errr dog!
Another sad example of how mammilian social mores are imposed on the cold blooded species in the Disney universe. Duck POWER!
Ranchoth