Reply #11: Mickey Mouse represents the idealized average American [View All]

[0rganism]

So claim some of Walt Disney's many interpretive critics. Mickey Mouse is the avatar of the '20s working man in an archetypal Wonderland. He's the underdog, scrambling against long odds to reach inevitable success. He's the ad persona we can all identify with, young or old, a reliable stamp of approval. He represents normality, safety, a stable way of life. With the help of suburban Everyman Goofy, Mickey Mouse heroically fights the straightman's war against radical countercultures.

And then in 1940 came Fantasia, the Mouse's finest moment, in which we see that America has meddled in forces beyond the control and comprehension of its common people. The sorcerer is far beyond the ken of his simple Mouse-man apprentice, who can only toil sheepishly in the service of greater power and knowledge, dreaming dreams of mastery. (Arguably, ol' Walt inserts himself in the film as the persona of the demon on Bald Mountain, calling forth various grotesqueries from past legends and his own creative fire, only to discard them all in displeasure.)

Later apparations of the Mouse have lost their metaphoric lustre and with it, some of the commercial appeal. The sorcerer's apprentice was lobotimized long ago, with the death of his creator. It's only appropos that a washed-up has-been of a person represent a dying democracy to the world on the birthday of a lost treasure.