Say Cheese

Are they vermin or pets? Pests or pals? The mouse has a long history in movies, whether serving as a source of fright (for women and elephants) or one of comedy (beginning with Mickey Mouse and expanding from there). Mice figure prominently in a couple of the year’s most visible movie projects: Mr. Jingles in “The Green Mile” and the title character in “Stuart Little.” They join a long line of mice who have grabbed center stage in movies over the years.

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Film: “Fantasia” (1940)

Character name: Mickey

Real or animated?: Animated

Talking or non-talking?: Talking

Clothed or unclothed?: Clothed, in wizard hat and robe (though he usually wears shorts, gloves and shoes)

Hero or vermin?: Bumbling hero

Plot: When sorcerer leaves his apprentice to clean up the lab, the apprentice attempts to use the sorcerer’s magic spells to make work easier, resulting in disaster

Quotable quote: “Mr. Stokowski, ha, my congratulations, sir.”--Mickey

Redeeming feature: Superbly imaginative animation, beautifully set to music

Fun fact: The apprentice scene is the only segment retained from the original in upcoming “Fantasia 2000”

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Film: “Quiet, Please!” (1945 Oscar, animated short)

Character name: Jerry

Real or animated?: Animated

Talking or non-talking?: Non-talking

Clothed or unclothed?: Unclothed

Hero or vermin?: Violent comic hero

Plot: Bulldog threatens Tom the cat with death if Tom’s chasing of Jerry around the living room disturbs dog’s nap

Quotable quote: “Yeeeow!”--Tom, when Jerry sticks Tom’s tail in light socket

Redeeming feature: Pointlessly violent Tom & Jerry series may have inspired incredibly violent Itchy & Scratchy on “The Simpsons”

Fun fact: Tom attacks Jerry with hammer, mallet, ax, rifle, shotgun and dynamite--and misses with all of them

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Film: Various shorts (starting in mid-’50s)

Character name: Speedy Gonzalez

Real or animated?: Animated

Talking or non-talking?: Talking

Clothed or unclothed?: Clothed in Mexican peasant garb and sombrero

Hero or vermin?: Hero

Plot: Fastest mouse in Mexico invariably comes to the rescue of fellow rodents, who are repeatedly besieged by Sylvester the Cat, Daffy Duck or variations thereof

Quotable quote: “Hey, Senor Pussy-gato, here I am!”--Speedy, at least once per cartoon

Redeeming feature: Speedy was voiced by the late, great Mel Blanc

Fun fact: Speedy is so fast that when swallowed by Sylvester, he zooms through cat’s gastrointestinal tract and bursts out the end of his tail, defying all laws of anatomy

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Film: “The Rescuers” (1977)

Character name: Bernard and Miss Bianca

Real or animated?: Animated

Talking or non-talking?: Talking

Clothed or unclothed?: Clothed, he in cap and coat, she in Paris couture

Hero or vermin?: Heroes

Plot: Rescue Aid Society, mouse-centric U.N. offshoot, sends Bernard and Miss Bianca from New York to Louisiana bayou to rescue captive little girl

Quotable quote: “Two little mice, what can they do?”--An aging cat, who helps them

Redeeming feature: Led to much better sequel, “The Rescuers Down Under”

Fun fact: Where else can you find odd-couple pairing of Bob Newhart and Eva Gabor, who voiced the lead mice?

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Film: “The Secret of NIMH” (1982)

Character name: Mrs. Brisby and the rats of NIMH

Real or animated?: Animated

Talking or non-talking?: Talking

Clothed or unclothed?: Clothed, with Mrs. Brisby in kerchief, shawl and skirt, rats in shirts and trousers

Hero or vermin?: Heroes

Plot: Widowed field mouse must move house out of way of spring plowing and turns to super-intelligent escaped lab rats for help

Quotable quote: “We can no longer live as rats; we know too much”--Nicodemus, head NIMH rat

Redeeming feature: Rats of NIMH promote literacy with their own ability to read

Fun fact: First film by director Don Bluth, a former Disney animator who will go on to produce a string of mediocre feature-length cartoons

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Film: “An American Tail” (1986)

Character name: Fievel

Real or animated?: Animated

Talking or non-talking?: Talking

Clothed or unclothed?: Clothed, in Russian peasant clothes and cutesy oversized hat

Hero or vermin?: Hero

Plot: When Jewish mice flee czarist Russia for 1887 New York, young Fievel is separated from his parents and must search the Lower East Side to find them

Quotable quote: “In America, there are no cats”--Fievel’s father, shortly before being proved wrong

Redeeming feature: May have helped put producer Steven Spielberg in touch with his own heritage

Fun fact: As in “Secret of NIMH,” director Bluth finds supporting voice role for annoying Dom DeLuise

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Film: “Babe” (1995)

Character name: Mouse chorus

Real or animated?: Real (with computer and animatronic assistance)

Talking or non-talking?: Talking (and singing)

Clothed or unclothed?: Unclothed

Hero or vermin?: Greek chorus

Plot: Story of talking pig who learns to herd sheep features mice reading title cards (and giggling) or singing

Quotable quote: “Pork is a sweet meat”--Mice reading title card

Redeeming feature: Gee, they’re so cute--and those funny high-pitched harmonies!

Fun fact: Were the best thing about darker sequel, “Babe--Pig in the City”

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Film: “Mouse Hunt” (1997)

Character name: The mouse

Real or animated?: Real (with computer and animatronic assistance)

Talking or non-talking?: Non-talking

Clothed or unclothed?: Unclothed (but he sleeps in a matchbox bed)

Hero or vermin?: Vermin, then hero

Plot: The dopey Smuntz brothers inherit decrepit mansion worth millions, then destroy it trying to rid it of single mouse

Quotable quote: “This is no ordinary mouse”--Nathan Lane as Ernie Smuntz

Redeeming feature: The hilarious slapstick interplay between stars Lane and Lee Evans when they get trapped in roomful of mousetraps

Fun fact: Mice were specially bred and trained to play the main mouse

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Film: “Stuart Little” (1999)

Character name: Stuart

Real or animated?: Computer-generated character in live-action film

Talking or non-talking?: Talking

Clothed or unclothed?: Clothed in cute little jacket, jeans and shoes

Hero or vermin?: Hero

Plot: Human family adopts talking mouse and raises it as its second child

Quotable quote: “We do not eat family members”--Pa Little, after making family cat spit Stuart out

Redeeming feature: Provokes hilarious ad libs from Nathan Lane as voice of the cat

Fun fact: Stuart is voiced by Michael J. Fox

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Film: “The Green Mile” (1999)

Character name: Mr. Jingles

Real or animated?: Real

Talking or non-talking?: Non-talking

Clothed or unclothed?: Unclothed

Hero or vermin?: Hero

Plot: In Stephen King drama on death row, mouse befriends guards, becomes pet of inmate and is involved in a miracle

Quotable quote: “Look, Cap’n! I done tame me a mouse!”--Cajun death row inmate Eduard Delacroix (Michael Jeter) to head guard Paul Edgecomb (Tom Hanks)

Redeeming feature: Mouse has even softer eyes than Tom Hanks

Fun fact: What could be more fun than a mouse on death row?