Mickey Mouse (1928)

Mickey Mouse is an Academy Award-winning series of theatrical animated short films created by the late-animator Walter Elias "Walt" Disney, the series ran from November 18th, 1928 to April 18, 1953. Upon it's debut, the series has been critically aclaimed, and, from it's debut to 1942, it was the most popular series of short films in cinemas.

The series stars the titular character, who is an big-eared rodent named Mickey that has adventures with the help of his two best friends, a sailor domestical duck named Donald and a dog named Goofy, Mickey is also the owner of a mutt named Pluto, and Mickey also has a girlfriend, which is named Minnie. The series had four spin-offs named Silly Symphonies, Donald Duck, Goofy and Pluto, Silly Symphonies ran from August 22, 1929 to April 7, 1939, Donald Duck ran from June 9, 1934 to June 21, 1961, Goofy ran from March 17, 1939 to December 20, 1961, and Pluto ran from July 30, 1932 to September 21, 1951.

Why It's Considered A Hot Dog

 * 1) The titular character, Mickey Mouse, is very cheerful and even helped to end the Great Depression, which happened shortly after the release of Mickey's first cartoon and most famous one, Steamboat Willie.
 * 2) Several memorable and likable characters aside from Mickey such as Donald Duck, Pluto, Minnie Mouse, Goofy, Pete, Horace Horsecollar, Clarabelle Cow, and several others.
 * 3) Pioneering cartoon industry to became a major parts of Media industries.
 * 4) The aforementioned short mentioned on the first point is often considered to be the best short film of all time and is recognized as the start of a whole new era of short films.
 * 5) Very fluid hand-drawn animations.
 * 6) Many catchy and memorable music tracks.
 * 7) Unlike many of the cartoon shorts from the era (such as the Looney Tunes and Tom and Jerry shorts), the Mickey Mouse shorts didn't use excessive use of violence and inappropiate humor, instead using light hearted yet funny humor, similarly to Nickelodeon's Harvey Beaks.
 * 8) Mickey's popularity makes him became one of the most iconic American cartoon character, or even the most iconic character of all time alongside Mario (main character of the Japanese videogame series of the same name) and both of them are considered a prime example of a pop culture icon.
 * 9) Spawned several other TV shows such as The Mickey Mouse Club, Good Morning Mickey, Mickey's Mouse Tracks, Mickey Mouse Works, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, and Disney's House of Mouse.
 * 10) The series had a pretty good revival in 2013, which continues to the present day (albeit it's currently in hiatus (with rumors saying it was cancelled) due to the death of Russi Taylor, Minnie's former voice actor).
 * 11) The revival also features awesome shorts where Mickey goes into many foreign countries, such as Japan, South Korea, Brazil, Monaco, China, Mexico, Russia, France, Spain, Italy and even cities from the USA like San Francisco and New York.
 * 12) Shorts such as Clock Cleaners are the proof of sub-plots done right.
 * 13) Along with many other cartoons, it served as the inspiration for games like Cuphead , Bendy and the Ink Machine, Enchanted Portals, and for the Skullgirls character Peacock.
 * 14) Despite all fascist countries in Europe ban Mickey Mouse like Germany and Romania, Italy, until 1942, was the only fascist country who never ban Mickey Mouse because Benito Mussolini, a fascist dictator of Italy, knows that his children love the cartoon.
 * 15) Many memorable cartoons such as;
 * 16) * Steamboat Willie
 * 17) * Ye Olden Days
 * 18) * The Mad Doctor (depending on your view)
 * 19) * Through the Mirror
 * 20) * The Little Whirlwind
 * 21) * Mickey's Service Station
 * 22) * Clock Cleaners
 * 23) * Pluto's Christmas Tree
 * 24) * The Nifty Nineties
 * 25) * Building a Building
 * 26) * Lonesome Ghosts
 * 27) * Giantland
 * 28) * The Band Concert (the first ever color Mickey cartoon)
 * 29) * Plane Crazy
 * 30) * Mickey's Garden
 * 31) * Mickey's Trailer
 * 32) * Lend a Paw
 * 33) * The Brave Little Tailor
 * 34) * Moving Day
 * 35) * Canine Caddy
 * 36) * Mr. Mouse Takes a Trip
 * 37) * Pluto's Judgement Day
 * 38) * Triangle of Mickey

Bad Qualities

 * 1) The shorts from the 1940's and 1950's seem to focus much more on other characters (most notably Pluto) than Mickey himself. In fact, The Little Whirlwind is one of the only shorts in that era where Mickey is the main star.
 * 2) * A possible reason why Mickey doesn't have much screen time in the later shorts is because he became a role model for kids in the late 1930's. In the earlier shorts, Mickey was the subject of more crude jokes. At this point, Disney had to limit the amount of side-gags featuring Mickey in order to not teach kids to do that type of stuff. That's why other characters (most notably Donald and Pluto) were handed most of the jokes to keep Mickey's reputation as a role model.
 * 3) Some horror-themed cartoons like Haunted House and The Mad Doctor can be scary for younger audiences, in fact, The Mad Doctor, while not a bad cartoon, caused inmense controversy due to it's scary tone to the point of some theaters refusing to show it and even getting temporarily banned in the United Kingdom.
 * 4) * Speaking of controversial shorts, there's a controversial cartoon named Mickey's Mellerdrammer, which has scenes where Mickey is shown in blackface due to it being a spoof of Uncle Tom's Cabin, as well as The Barnyard Battle, which features a really uncomfortable scene where Mickey is given physical examination and it also parodies German soldiers, which caused it to get banned in 1930 in Germany.
 * 5) Some earlier shorts copied some elements from Oswald The Lucky Rabbit, Mickey's predecessor (or in Epic Mickey's case, his half-brother). Examples include the hot dogs from The Karnival Kid and the animal phonograph from Steamboat Willie, not to mention some recycled animation.
 * 6) Due to Disney's current practices, Mickey has been constantly portrayed negatively in other media, most notably in South Park, Drawn Together, Family Guy, and The Simpsons (mostly from The first movie and that was before Fox was brought by Disney a decade later).
 * 7) * Even YouTubers such as Saberspark (for "Remake Your World" video) and Filmento (for "The Rise of Skywalker - How to fail at Endgame" video) mock the iconic character for no good reason!
 * 8) * The first ever negative portrayal of Mickey ever made was actually in a 1934 Japanese propaganda short film where he (or someone that looks like him) alongside other mice invade an island, until he's defeated by the famous Japanese folklore character Momotaro.

Trivia

 * Even though the caption in the image says "It was all started by a mouse in 1928", it wasn't the first cartoon ever made, it is actually just a reference to one of Walt Disney's quotes.
 * Mickey generally appears alongside his girlfriend Minnie Mouse, his pet dog Pluto, his friends Donald Duck and Goofy, and his nemesis Pete, among others.
 * Mickey's first appearance in the short Plane Crazy, which was test screened on May 15, 1928 before publicly debuting in the 1928 short film Steamboat Willie.
 * Mickey Mouse was the first fictional character to recieve a star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame.
 * Mickey Mouse himself was ranked at the 50th place in the Top 50 Best Animated Movie Characters by Empire Magazine, the actual reason of his low ranking is because of his only prominent film appearence being in the critically acclaimed Fantasia.
 * The entirety of the Mickey Mouse brand was supposed to go public domain in 1998, but Disney managed to renew his copyright. The Mickey Mouse brand is also planned to go public domain in 2024 as well, which has yet to be renewed.
 * Mickey was originally going to appear in the 1945 MGM musical Anchors Aweigh, but he was replaced by Jerry from Tom and Jerry for copyright issue reasons, as well as how the Disney studio was financially struggling and debt-ridden due to World War II at the time.