History Main / RodentCellmates

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[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]

* {{Parodied}} in ''Literature/AdventuresOfHuckleberryFinn''. After Jim, Huck's foster mother's escaped slave, is captured, Tom Sawyer's ZanyScheme to help Huck break him out includes an insistence that any good prisoner should befriend the rats they share their cell with, so Jim does so. It bears mentioning here that [[WrongGenreSavvy Tom has an overactive imagination and has read way too many adventure novels]].
* In ''Literature/ALittlePrincess'', Sarah names, feeds, and befriends the rat who lives in the wall of her attic room.

-->--''WebOriginal/LoomingGaia'', "Lost Scriptures of Love and Light"

* ''WebOriginal/LoomingGaia'': When Karenza was sentenced to the dungeon for making a too ugly statue of the king of Alqamah, she shared her food with the dungeon rats, and in turn they didn't gnaw at her fingers and toes. A beast nymph named the Vermin Queen blessed her soul for her kindness to the animals so that no beast could harm her.

* ''WebOriginal/LoomingGaia'': When Karenza was sentenced to the dungeon for making a too ugly statue of the king of Alqamah, she shared her food with the dungeon rats, and in turn they didn't gnaw at her fingers and toes. A beast nymph named the Vermin Queen blessed her soul for her kindness to the animals so that no veast could harm her.

* ''WebOriginal/LoomingGaia'': When Karenza was sentenced to the dungeon for making a too ugly statue of the king of Alqamah, she shared her food with the dungeon rats, and in turn they didn't gnaw at her fingers and toes.

In short, when you're TooDesperateToBePicky for company, rats' (somewhat undeserved) [[YouDirtyRat bad rap]] may stop looking so bad. Especially if you were NotGoodWithPeople in the first place.

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There are only so many TallyMarksOnThePrisonWall you can make, and CaptivityHarmonica may let you express yourself, but won't provide any warmth in the rat-infested hole you found yourself in.

And you really don't want to GoMadFromTheIsolation. And playing chess with your ImaginaryFriend goes stale after a while.

** In "[[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Recap/TheSimpsonsS13E21TheFryingGame The Frying Game]]", a violent prisoner attempts to strangle Homer right before the latter is about to be executed. After the two are broken up, the prisoner asks a mouse in the cell if he wants some cornbread, [[IllKillYou only to threaten to kill the mouse]].

** In "The Frying Game," a violent prisoner attempts to strangle Homer right before the latter is about to be executed. After the two are broken up, the prisoner asks a mouse in the cell if he wants some cornbread, [[IllKillYou only to threaten to kill the mouse]].

-->'''Homer''': ''(To the mouse in his hands)'' Oh, little mouse! You are the only thing that keeps me sane! ''(Beat, glances around, eats the mouse)'' Now I have nothing!

* ''Series/ItsAlwaysSunnyInPhiladelphia'': Spoofed in "Charlie's Home Alone." Charlie, alone in the pub and with his leg caught in a bear trap (it's a long story), befriends a rat that he finds so he can have someone to talk to... until he remembers his ritual to help the Eagles win the Super Bowl, which involves eating something brown. Cut to Charlie eating the rat minutes later.

* In ''Literature/TheEyeOfArgon'', when BarbarianHero Grignr is locked in the dungeons of TheEvilPrince, he is attacked by a ''[[RodentsOfUnusualSize giant]]'' rat. He kills it, and then makes a shiv from its pelvis.

* The 2003 version of ''Film/{{Willard}}'' The main character is a social misfit who is mistreated at his job and lives with his abusive, ill mother in a decaying house. He eventually befriends the rat colony that resides there and learns to order them around, with disastrous consequences.

* Parodied in ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' during a retelling of ''Literature/TheCountOfMonteCristo'', while Homer is locked up in prison.
-->'''Homer''': ''(To the mouse in his hands)'' Oh, little mouse! You are the only thing that keeps me sane! ''(Beat, glances around, eats the mouse)'' Now I have nothing!

* WesternAnimation/TotalDrama World Tour: [[DetrimentalDetermination Refusing to give up on the prize money, even after being voted out]], Ezekiel becomes a stowaway on the jumbo jet. In this time, he befriends the rats hiding in the cargo hold, helping them escape when the plane is about to crash.

[[folder:Films - Animated]]

[[folder:Films - Live-Action]]

* ''Film/IslandOfFire'': Andrew, a nerdy bespectacled NiceGuy who voluntarily had himself sentenced to prison to investigate the murder of his father-in-law, eventually realizes the harshness of prison life, where the only friend and MoralityPet he has is a mouse he "adopts". [[spoiler: He ultimately loses his mind when the corrupt prison system, in order to break him, serves him lunch, rice with ''his'' dead mouse buried in it.]]

* ''Film/TheSuicideSquad'': Cleo Cazo was the daughter of a man called the Ratcatcher, a drug addict who nonetheless believed in the power of rats and taught her how to befriend and control them with various gadgetry. After her father's death, Cleo was left to fend for herself with only the rats for company, committing thefts until she ended up in Belle Reve.

But! Rats (and, at least in cartoons, mice) are quite social, friendly, {{Resourceful Rodent}}s, and they eat pretty much everything humans eat, so you can [[TastesLikeFriendship share your meagre rations with them]]. And they will reward you with a [[LivingEmotionalCrutch tail to cry on]].

* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Encanto}}'', the Casita rats [[spoiler: are Bruno's friends during his self-imposed exile and helpers in his ongoing task of keeping the prophecy secret and patching the walls]]. They're smart enough to keep their human well-informed and even to operate a camera. And the human in question has not even been blessed with the gift of speaking with animals like Antonio.

* ''Film/TheSuicideSquad'': Cleo Cazo was the daughter of a man called the Ratcatcher, a drug addict who nonetheless believed in the power of rats and taught her how to befriend and control them with various gadgetry. After her father's death Cleo was left to fend for herself with only the rats for company, committing thefts until she ended up in Belle Reve.

* In ''Literature/GuardsGuards'' the temporarily deposed and imprisoned Lord Vetinari is thrown into his own rat-infested dungeon. Unknown to his jailers, the rats are [[IntellectualAnimal sapient]] and happy to bring him news from outside in return for advice on how resolve their conflict with the palace's other vermin.

* ''Series/{{Blackadder}}'': In the first season finale, Prince Edmund finds himself locked up in a small dungeon by his rival Phillip of Burgundy, convicted to a CruelAndUnusualDeath (being eaten by snails for 15 years), where he meets another prisoner called Mad Gerald (who is, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin as his name implies]], [[TheMadHatter mad]]), whose only friend is [[FormallyNamedPet Mr. Rat]], whom he treats with genuine affection and tells lenghty anecdotes about his endearing little nose and squeaks. That said, Edmund is a lot more interested in Mad Gerald's ''other'' friend, Mr. Key.

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* ''WesternAnimation/TotalDrama World Tour: [[DetrimentalDetermination Refusing to give up on the prize money, even after being voted out]], Ezekiel becomes a stowaway on the jumbo jet. In this time, he befriends the rats hiding in the cargo hold, helping them escape when the plane is about to crash.