Mighty Mouse is an animation superhero mouse character created by the Terrytoons studio for 20th Century Fox.
The character was created by story man Izzy Klein as a super-powered housefly named "Superfly." Studio head Paul Terry changed the character into a toon mouse instead. Originally created as a parody of Superman, he first appeared in 1942 in a theatrical animated short entitled The Mouse of Tomorrow. The original name of the character was Super Mouse, but it was soon changed to Mighty Mouse when Paul Terry learned that another character with the same name was being published in comic books. Super Mouse appeared briefly in the Marvel comic book interpretation of the character, and was nicknamed "Terry the First", as he was the first version of the character.
Mighty Mouse originally had a blue costume with a red cape, like Superman, but over time this outfit changed to a yellow costume with a red cape.[1] As with other imitations of Superman, Mighty Mouse's super powers allow him to fly, to be incredibly strong, in short, to be invulnerable. He has demonstrated the use of "X-ray vision" in at least one episode, while during several cartoons he used a form of telekinesis that allowed him to command inanimate objects and turn back time (as in the cartoons The Johnstown Flood and Krakatoa). Other cartoons have him leaving a red contrail during flight which he can manipulate like a band of solid flexible matter at will.
The initial formula consisted of an extended setup of a crisis which needs extraordinary help to resolve; Mighty Mouse appears to save the day.
Mighty Mouse was originally voiced by Roy Halee, Sr.; later Tom Morrison provided the character's voice in some cartoons.
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Filmation made TV cartoons starring Mighty Mouse and fellow Terrytoon characters Heckle and Jeckle in a show called The New Adventures of Mighty Mouse and Heckle & Jeckle where two new characters were created: a vampire duck named Quacula (not to be confused with Count Duckula), and Harry's bumbling, overweight but swift-running henchman, Swifty. The show premiered in 1979 and lasted for about 2 seasons. It even spawned a limited-theatrical-release matinee movie, Mighty Mouse in the Great Space Chase, released December 10, 1982. In the Filmation series and movies, Mighty Mouse and Oil Can Harry were voiced by veteran voice artist Alan Oppenheimer, and Pearl Pureheart was voiced by Diane Pershing.
During the 1980s, animator Ralph Bakshi (who got his start at Terrytoons) created a new series of Mighty Mouse cartoons, entitled Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures. In this series, Mighty Mouse had a real identity, Mike Mouse (Patrick Pinney voiced both identities of the character in this series), and a sidekick: Scrappy Mouse (voiced by actress Dana Hill), the little orphan. Its heavy satirical tone and humor makes it a collector's item even today; many collectors of older TV series seek out episodes of the Bakshi Mighty Mouse. The series was cancelled after two seasons, due to the controversy surrounding an episode in which Mighty Mouse sniffed a white powder that resembled cocaine.[citation needed] Media watchdog Reverend Donald Wildmon asserted that he was actually snorting cocaine.[citation needed] CBS and Bakshi denied this assertion. At first they claimed Mighty Mouse was sniffing his "lucky chunk of cheese", but later said the substance was "crushed flowers."