Mickey’s Rival Review

Mickey’s Rival is a 1936 Mickey Mouse cartoon. It is a pretty good entry.

Mickey and Minnie are on a picnic with her new friend Mortimer the mouse who quickly becomes Mickey’s rival as he is so jealous of his many talents to impress Minnie. This is a killer premise for a great cartoon which never really becomes great and only stays in the good territory because the entire second half sees some not that fun action with the bull and somehow Mortimer is nowhere to be seen again.

But the first half is absolutely terrific. The film’s animation is great and I really liked Mortimer’s look. He is a terrific rival for our protagonist and a very effective character. Minnie is memorable here, the film has some amusing humor here and there and Mickey is particularly great at being imperfect which I love. His immense jealousy led to the greatest line in the movie – “You’re just jealous” – so beautifully delivered by funny Minnie.

Mickey’s Rival isn’t great, but it surely is a lot of fun thanks to Mickey’s jealousy and a memorable titular character.