The Mice Issue

A fish, a cat, a mouse. I draw these three canvases recently, as a homage to Perry's three favorite animals. Cats and fish are kind of obvious ones, but I want to focus for a moment on the mouse. Oh yes...The mouse issue that has been bothering me for a while.

Cat, Mouse and Fish (Acrylic on Canvas)

Think about that - how is it that mice became so popular in kid movies and books while in real life people in general find them so repulsive? This is not the case for cats and fish that many like both as an image and in reality.

Geronimo Stilton

What a gourmet mouse

I too, just love all these movies and books for kids that focus on mice: Angelina Ballerina, Stuart Little, Geronimo Stilton, Tom and Jerry and of course - Mickey Mouse.

Tom and Jerry

Picture from commons.wikimedia.org

In Tom and Jerry - the cat is the "bad gay" - but honestly, in
real life who do you prefer sitting on your lap or
sleeping in your bed? a cat or a mouse?

Trying to solve this issue I thought that maybe people have to clean their conscious regarding mice. We, human beings, treat mice so badly in real life - poison them, trap them, make scientific tests on them - so maybe we have in the back of our common heads a drive to do something nice for the mice - to blur our guilt. So we create an alternative image that we and our children will like and even fall in love with, a side way to block this huge black hole in our behavior.

Love Boats - Fun Greeting Cards

Even though I've never personally harmed a mouse I also joined this "correcting trend", when I created this love scene between the two beloved images of a bird and a mouse.

See - birds are such beloved animals and their image is very popular and still they don't appear so frequently in kids' cartoons and books but do appear a lot in items for grown ups. Maybe the thing is that adults feel that between themselves they can save the games. No apologize and "correcting" needed here, and you can use a realistic image of birds, cats and fish too - without any problem.

It might be because she is a female and a dancer and very honest, unique and real - however my favorite mouse character is Angelina Ballerina. What a beutiful story and what fabulous illustrations. But I must share it with you ...... recently, when I tried to watch one of Angelina Ballerina chapters on my "on demand" kids programs... and I just find it impossible to forgive....each time I can't believe it !How could they do it?! How could they change a brilliant and lively 2d Angelina Ballerina animation into a "dead", mechanic 3d plastic animation?! they just killed all the magic with these new air-blown characters!

Angelina Ballerina 2d version

Isn't it awful?

Angelina Ballerina 3d version

I feel so miserable and angry....It's not the only cartoon they "upgraded" into so-called 3d animation but in this case, you see, I'm a big fan and the pain is very real.