Line #115 Main/MouseWorld


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3	%% Administrivia/ZeroContextExample entries are not allowed on wiki pages. All such entries have been commented out. Do not uncomment them without expanding them to explain them properly. A trope name with no description has no context to be understood by. How does the trope apply?
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6
7	[[quoteright:350:[[WesternAnimation/TheRescuersDownUnder https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mice_2.png]]]]
8	[[caption-width-right:350:You should see them check their email.]]
9
10	->''"For behind the wooden wainscots of all the old houses of Gloucester, there are little mouse staircases and secret trap-doors; and the mice run from house to house through those long narrow passages; they can run all over the town without going into the streets."''
11	-->-- ''Literature/TheTailorOfGloucester''
12
13	Similar in many ways to BeneathTheEarth, the Mouse World exists in secret on the fringes of human society; the difference is scale. This is an entire class of stories built around tiny protagonists operating just out of sight in the human world. These come in a few flavors, but all share some important common elements. In any case, the lives of the little folk draw eerie parallels to the lives of the big-folk.
14
15	In an {{urban\| Fantasy}} setting, the characters most often act like rats, even when they aren't actual {{Talking Animal}}s in the 3- to 6-inch range. They live in {{Mouse Hole}}s using adapted or cobbled-together materials made from human trash with the odd toys and models thrown in, usually making it ScavengedPunk.
16
17	If they deal with human opponents directly, [[ResourcefulRodent expect clever trickery, stealth]] and the odd ColossusClimb or GulliverTieDown. They may become DinkyDrivers to operate human vehicles. In more rural or wilderness settings, they may live in {{Mushroom House}}s. If humans aren't aware of them in the slightest (as in most cases), it's usually because they either have a strong WeirdnessCensor, the tiny species is keeping a complex and clever [[TheMasquerade masquerade]], they operate a MobileSuitHuman or two, or they simply regard talking and/or clothed {{Funny Animal}}s or tiny humanoids as an UnusuallyUninterestingSight. In some cases one lucky human ([[ChildrenAreSpecial usually a child]]) SpeaksFluentAnimal and is the only human character in the story aware of the tiny species. In combination with an IncredibleShrinkingMan, you can have a TrappedInAnotherWorld plot. Other slightly larger animals such as cats and dogs may also play a role in this world, but expect AnimalJingoism to come into play, along with examples of CatsAreMean.
18
19	The trope may have begun with the original Lilliputians, and later Gulliver's time with the Brobdignagian giants, in ''Literature/GulliversTravels'' by Jonathan Swift (although there were a few very small beings in some cultures' version of the OralTradition, long before Swift's time). The best-known recent version is probably ''Literature/TheBorrowers'' books and their adaptations to other media.
20
21	The Mouse World is almost always a WainscotSociety, more or less literally. ("Wainscot" is wooden panelling on interior walls, and small beings might live behind the wainscot in houses; mice often do in the real world.) However, the Mouse World ''may'' not feature a fully-developed society. Hence, this is a SisterTrope and often functionally a {{Subtrope}} to that one. Not to be confused with the Ride/DisneyThemeParks. If you're looking for little people who don't necessarily live in one of these worlds, head over to {{Lilliputians}}.
22
23	Sister trope to KneeHighPerspective.
24	-----
25
26	!!!Examples:
27
28	[[foldercontrol]]
29
30	[[folder:General]]
31	[[AC:ComicStrips]]
32	* ''ComicStrip/TheFarSide'': There have been cartoons featuring rodents, fish, arthropods and even microbes whose behaviour mirrors (and of course satirises) that of humans.
33
34	[[AC:{{Literature}}]]
35	* A society of monkeys in ''Literature/TheJungleBook'', called the Bandar-Log, live in the treetops, while most other animals live on the jungle floor, hence the two groups rarely interact. They also inhabit human ruins, which other animals stay away from, due to the human connection.
36	* In ''Literature/{{Incarceron}}'' [[spoiler: anyone who enters the Prison is shrunk down to fit into it. Said Prison is, in fact, a silver cube set on the Warden's pocketwatch.]]
37	* In ''Literature/HayvenCelestia'' the 12 meter tall krakun build on a scale that makes human-scale species seem mouse-like. They keep slaves of smaller species as household cleaning staff but leave them to fend for themselves, raiding the pantry and hunting bugs for food and trading with the sourang tribes infesting the walls like 4-meter tall rats.
38	* Inverted in a satirical sci-fi novel called ''Of Men And Monsters''. As its ParodyName suggests, it takes place in a world where giant aliens known only as "Monsters" have taken over the world and built massive houses, where humans live in tunnels in the insulation.
39
40	[[AC:WesternAnimation]]
41	* ''WesternAnimation/AlphaAndOmega'' focuses on wolves dealing with each others packs alongside other animals, and they occasionally have to deal with humans that get involve in their environment.
42	%%* ''WesternAnimation/{{Madagascar}}'', its sequel, and ''WesternAnimation/ThePenguinsOfMadagascar''
43	* The dogs in ''WesternAnimation/AllDogsGoToHeaven'' have a whole culture with gambling casinos and all.
44	%%* ''WesternAnimation/FatherOfThePride''
45	%%* ''WesternAnimation/OneHundredAndOneDalmatiansTheSeries''
46	%%* ''WesternAnimation/KryptoTheSuperdog''
47	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Rango}}'' is set primarily in a small desert town inhabited by various desert animals. Humans do exist in the setting, as Rango himself used to be a housepet. However, this does result in some AnimalsNotToScale confusion.
48	%%* The island of Namboombu from ''Film/BedknobsandBroomsticks''.
49	* The animals in the first ''WesternAnimation/IceAge1'' film, and ''only'' in the first film. The sequels actually changed this so that they are now the ''only'' inhabitants of Earth.
50	* The forest in ''WesternAnimation/Epic2013'' is inhabited by tiny people--essentially wingless fairies--who are currently engaged in a war between the forces of growth and decay. Some animals are able to talk to them, like a snail and a slug, but most are just giant-sized versions of their real-world counterparts to them--including an actual mouse who's big enough to be a threat.
51	[[/folder]]
52
53	[[folder:Rodents]]
54	[[AC:{{Anime}} and {{Manga}}]]
55	* ''Anime/{{Hamtaro}}'' is set in a world of talking hamsters.
56	* ''[[http://myanimelist.net/anime/30738/Gamba__Gamba_to_Nakama-tachi Gamba: Gamba to Nakama-tachi (Adventures Of Gamba)]]'' stars a group of talking mice. The film is also an adaptation of the 1975 anime ''Ganba no Boken''.
57	* ''Nezumi Monogatari'' is a 2007 kids anime film created by [[Creator/{{Sanrio}} Sanrio Company]] which focuses on two mice George and Gerald who live in the abandoned house with their other mouse friends and their elder mouse who sends them on a journey to find the dragon in the waterfall.
58
59	[[AC:{{Art}}]]
60	* A Swedish urban art collective called [[PunnyName Anonymouse]] decorates cities with [[https://www.boredpanda.com/little-mouse-shop-sweden/ shops]] for [[https://www.instagram.com/anonymouse_mmx/ mice]], including a restaurant serving cheese and crackers and a record store featuring the works of [[Music/AmyWinehouse Amy Winemouse]], [[Music/RageAgainstTheMachine Rats Against The Machine]] and, er, Music/ModestMouse.
61
62	[[AC:ComicBooks]]
63	* ''ComicBook/MouseGuard'': Featuring mice in a medieval setting, much like the ''Literature/{{Redwall}}'' series.
64
65	[[AC:{{Film}} -- Animation]]
66
67	* ''WesternAnimation/AnAmericanTail'', films and series. Theirs comes complete with animal {{Expy}}s of actual human historical figures, and the mice themselves are essentially metaphors for [[FantasticRacism oppressed immigrants]], with cats as the oppressors.
68	* ''WesternAnimation/TheGreatMouseDetective'' (which was based on a series of books by Eve Titus, ''Literature/BasilOfBakerStreet''). Exaggerated in that while set in London, the mouse version of London is almost exactly the same as the human, without BambooTechnology. They have clockwork, ''guns'', functioning cabarets and (bizarrely) even Queen Mousetoria, who's an identical mouse version of Queen Victoria. Also, living directly under Literature/SherlockHolmes' house is Basil, a mouse who's an amazingly clear if Disney-fied {{Expy}} of Holmes himself.
69	* ''WesternAnimation/TheRescuers'' and ''WesternAnimation/TheRescuersDownUnder'', two animated Disney features based on [[Literature/TheRescuers the aforementioned series of books]] by Margery Sharp.
70	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Cinderella}}'''s mouse-friends, though not the center of the story, have significantly adapted the house so they can move about freely inside it.
71	* The novel ''Literature/MrsFrisbyAndTheRatsOfNIMH'', or TheFilmOfTheBook ''WesternAnimation/TheSecretOfNIMH''.
72	** The movie took it far further, though; the mice have tables, chairs, a bed, separate rooms and curtains in the doorways of their home, whereas in the original it was just a two-opening cinderblock.
73	** The novel (and the later sequels) ''did'' state that the Rats of NIMH had made their tunnels surprisingly human-like (and it only got more so, after they moved to the valley, including a statue of one of the rats who died near the end of the first book). ''Racso'' even has some of the younger rats figuring out how to make ''candy''. And Mrs. Frisby was married to [[spoiler: one of the mice from NIMH. So her husband might have been partial to human-like amenities, and Mrs. Frisby humoured him.]]
74	* The movie version of ''WesternAnimation/ErnestEtCelestine'' (but not the books that inspired it) has a full-fledged mouse society living in sewers beneath a nation of bears. In French, the tooth fairy is called "the little mouse" and so the mice, because they must replace their oft-worn incisors, judge each others' worth by how proficient they are at collecting bears' teeth for mouse use.
75	* The computer-animated film ''WesternAnimation/FlushedAway'' has a rat-sized recreation on London made out of junk in the AbsurdlySpaciousSewer, with its own Tower Bridge, Picadilly Circus (complete with not-so-big screens) and Big Ben.
76	* The titular giant magical beard in ''WesternAnimation/TheKingsBeard'' turns out to be home to a society of talking mice. They are seen to use human objects for their own purposes, such as a broken cup being cushioned and used as a prop throne in the play.
77	* Played quite realistically in ''WesternAnimation/{{Ratatouille}}'', where the most BambooTechnology utilized by the rats is their musical instruments. Other than that, they're quadruped rodents. Remy, who engages in more humanlike behavior like walking on his hind legs and reading, is considered an oddity by the others.
78	** The rat-adapted kitchen of the bistro at the end of the film expands upon its Mouse World elements, with tiny ladders granting Remy's colony-mates access to high shelves and kitchen appliances arranged so teams of rats can manipulate them.
79	** Also used, of course, in Creator/VideoBrinquedo's [[TheMockbuster Mockbuster]] of this movie, ''WesternAnimation/{{Ratatoing}}''.
80	* ''WesternAnimation/OnceUponAForest'', though it takes place mostly in the wilderness where humans are seen as [[HumansAreCthulhu mythical, frightening and destructive monsters]], the WoodlandCreatures' encounter with "the yellow dragons", aka construction equipment, as well as other human inventions such as streets and animal traps qualifies it. They also live in houses built into trees.
81
82	[[AC:{{Film}} -- Live-Action]]
83	* The scene in ''Film/MouseHunt'' in which the mouse's room is shown, consisting of a postcard as a poster and a little bed made up of a tin box and cotton balls.
84
85	[[AC:{{Literature}}]]
86	* ''Literature/BasilOfBakerStreet'', which as previously mentioned was adapted into ''WesternAnimation/TheGreatMouseDetective''.
87	* The young adult ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' novel ''The Amazing Maurice And His Educated Rodents'': although the sapient rats are an unusual case, not the norm.
88	* Played quite straight in the novel ''Literature/ThePrinceOfDarkness'', about a Rat-Machiavelli eventually being overthrown by a communist revolution...
89	* Creator/ChinaMieville's ''Literature/KingRat'' plays this with gritty realism. Organized rats are real city rats living in the sewers.
90	* The ''Literature/DeptfordMice'' books by Creator/RobinJarvis feature a community of mice living in an old empty house in the London borough of Deptford. They are divided into two sections, the Skirtings and the Landings, with the inhabitants of the latter being seen as uppity by Skirtings-dwellers. Beneath them in the sewers, the villainous rats have their own society governed by their living GodOfEvil, [[BigBad Jupiter]]. There are also squirrels and bats, who are mostly weird mystics. The {{Prequel}} ''Thomas'' is largely set in Asia and features a loris, a jerboa, and a mongoose.
91	* ''Literature/TheTaleOfDespereaux'' has one for mice (the TropeNamer), who live in hiding in the main castle, and one for rats, who live in the lightless dungeon. They all have to stay hidden because, after the queen died of a heart attack after a rat fell in her soup, the king essential declared war on the rats, and on the mice by association, forcing them all into hiding.
92	* The ''Literature/{{Redwall}}'' books started out with a few elements of this, which were later {{Retcon}}ned away.
93	** The most obvious example of this is the horse and human-sized cart Cluny and his horde first show up in. Horses are never seen again in the series. Then there's the stampede of cows through a village, a dog, and an abandoned barn.
94	** There's also St. Ninian's church, which was burned down in ''Pearls of Lutra'', and a mention of the (human) country of Portugal in the first book.
95	* ''Firmin'' by Sam Savage is a novel about a rat who lives in a bookstore and is a consumer of great literature (literally -- he finds it quite tasty).
96	* The ''Christopher Churchmouse'' series of biblically-oriented short stories, written by a Barbra Davoll, is set in a church where mice live much the same lives that humans do in secret, even including attending the preacher's sermons.
97	** One has to wonder what those mice would think if, in this universe, God made only humans in his image and favours them over other species -— including the mice themselves. Probably best not to dwell on it.
98	* Margery Sharp's ''Literature/TheRescuers'' series, source material for the two Franchise/DisneyAnimatedCanon films.
99	* In the book, ''Literature/HouseOfTribes''. It shows life entirely from the perspective of rodents. It is a very well done example, that fits this trope to the T.
100	* The Aeslin mice in ''Literature/InCryptid''.
101	* This is one of the central tropes of ''Literature/TheMouseWatch'', a SequelSeries to ''WesternAnimation/ChipNDaleRescueRangers''. The titular team is an international HeroesRUs organization of mice who protect both the human and animal worlds while taking care to maintain TheMasquerade and stay unseen.
102	* The children's book ''Literature/{{Anatole}}'' and its sequel ''Anatole and the Cat'', by Eve Titus, creator of the aforementioned ''Literature/BasilOfBakerStreet'', focus on a mouse working as an anonymous cheese taster for a cheese factory in Paris.
103	* ''Literature/BenAndMe'': Amos the mouse resides in a world of mice that intersects heavily with the revolutionary movements of late 18th century United States and France.
104	* In the ''Literature/RalphSMouse'' trilogy by ''Creator/BeverlyCleary'', Ralph rides around on a matchbox motorcycle and can talk to children who also love motorcycles.
105
106	[[AC:LiveActionTV]]
107	* ''Series/{{Portlandia}}'' has a skit about a trio of rats living in UsefulNotes/{{Portland}} voiced by Fred and Carrie.
108
109	[[AC:TabletopGames]]
110	* The TabletopGame/BurningWheel-[[http://www.burningwheel.org/forum/forumdisplay.php?41-Mouse-Guard-RPG based]] ''ComicBook/MouseGuard'' game.
111	%%* ''Big Ears, Small Mouse'', a supplement for ''TabletopGame/BigEyesSmallMouth''.
112	* ''TabletopGame/MiceAndMystics'', an RPG-based board game similar to ''Descent''.
113
114	[[AC: Theme Parks]]
115	* The ''Ratatouille'' ride at [[Ride/DisneyThemeParks Disneyland Paris]] takes guests through the Mouse World experience, traveling on rat-themed carts under furniture and through spaces between walls.
116	* ''Fievel's Playland'' at Ride/UniversalStudios, based on the ''WesternAnimation/AnAmericanTail'' franchise, is a playground designed entirely from a mouse's point of view.
117
118	[[AC: {{Toys}}]]
119	* Pet supply companies put out a variety of toys for rodents that emulate this trope, such as hamster-sized plastic cars or model huts made of gnaw-friendly materials.
120
121
122	[[AC: Webcomics]]
123	* ''Webcomic/{{Housepets}}'' occassionally alludes to one existing, although we only see glimpses of it. In one comic Squeak and Spo, a pair of mice, have dinner underneath the tables of an outside dining area. All around them, similar mice eat on tiny tables and try to avoid being stepped on.
124	* ''Webcomic/{{Scurry}}'', where the main characters are talking mice who inhabit in a ruined human house and live by scavenging human food -- though, as fitting the tone of the (possibly) post-apocalyptic setting, they have very little of the usual comforts of the trope.
125	* ''Webcomic/{{XKCD}}'' has field mice [[https://xkcd.com/2641/ erecting tiny wind turbines]] that one of the humans initially mistakes for dandelions.
126
127	[[AC:WesternAnimation]]
128	* ''WesternAnimation/ChipNDaleRescueRangers'', although one not exclusive to rodents. Dogs, cats, arthropods, fish, birds, and pretty much every other sort of animal is an active part of the Mouse World.
129	* ''WesternAnimation/CapitolCritters'' has a society of mice, rats, and roaches living in the cellar of the White House
130	* A trio of ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' shorts parodied ''Series/TheHoneymooners'' by reimagining that show's characters as mice. Another short, "The Mouse That Jack Built", did the same thing with ''Series/TheJackBennyProgram''.
131	* Most ''WesternAnimation/TomAndJerry'' and ''WesternAnimation/TomAndJerryTales'' cartoons and episodes. Jerry's home usually varied from one cartoon to the next between this and having mini-sized versions of human furniture and items. Sometimes even between objects in the same cartoon, such as a normal pillow and sheets on a sardine-can bed.
132	* Most of ''WesternAnimation/PinkyAndTheBrain'' is set in a "normal" human world; however, the episode "The Third Mouse" (a parody of ''Film/TheThirdMan'') is set inexplicably in a 1940's Mouse World.
133	** The episode "When Mice Ruled the Earth" has Pinky and the Brain trying to create one of these, and succeeding at the end. Unfortunately, [[spoiler:all the mice look and act like Pinky]].
134	--> '''Brain:''' Quickly, Pinky! We must return to the past! I must change it all back again!\
135	'''Pinky:''' But why, Brain? It'd be easier to rule the world with mice like them!\
136	'''Brain:''' Yes, Pinky, but who would ''want'' to?
137	* The [[Creator/RankinBassProductions Rankin/Bass]] special ''WesternAnimation/TwasTheNightBeforeChristmas'' involves a family of mice living with the family of a human clockmaker. Unusually for the trope, the human is not only aware of his counterpart's existence but actually interacts and works with him.
138	* One episode of the second season of ''WesternAnimation/{{Flash Gordon\|1979}}'' establishes that, along with all the other animal-themed races on Mongo, there is a race called the Mouse Folk, who are ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin.
139	* ''Tube Mice'' a Creator/{{CITV}} series about mice living beneath a UsefulNotes/LondonUnderground station, who even have their own MP -- Mouse of Parliament.
140	* ''WesternAnimation/DangerMouse'', although the scale is not kept consistent. Abandoned in TheRemake, which is simply a WorldOfFunnyAnimals.
141	* ''WesternAnimation/NatureCat'': Usually averted -- animals either live naturally or use human-style technology... except in the Christmas special, in which the Scratchetts, a family of wild mice, decorate a pine cone as a Christmas tree.
142	* ''WesternAnimation/UrbanVermin'' is set in the alleys and sewers of a human city, with the characters being various kinds of rodents and other small mammals, like skunks, possums, moles, and raccoons.
143	[[/folder]]
144
145	[[folder:Small Creatures]]
146	[[AC:{{Comics}}]]
147	* Professor Schimauski by German artist Creator/WalterMoers discovered that his toaster actually worked because there's [[OurDragonsAreDifferent a little dragon]] living in it.
148
149	[[AC:{{Literature}}]]
150	* ''Literature/WatershipDown'' is halfway between this and {{Xenofiction}}. The rabbits live pretty much like real rabbits and regard the human world as a mystery beyond a few things they've gradually figured out over the generations. They do, however, have rather humanlike heirarchies within their warrens.
151	* ''Literature/TheMouseAndHisChild'' includes both small creatures and non-living things.
152	* ''Literature/TheWindInTheWillows'' sort of waffles between this and the typical cartoon-animal approach. Sometimes the small animals seem to be the correct size, but sometimes they interact with [[FurryConfusion scaled-down horses and other such non-anthropomorphic animals that really ought to be a lot bigger]]
153	* In ''Literature/{{Redwall}}'', animals live in a medieval sort of world, and they do have tables, ovens, swords, clothing, etc. They don't live in a realistic way, it's very humanlike. However, they do retain characteristics of being animals... moles are good at digging, squirrels are champion climbers, otters are naturals at swimming, some animals are mentioned as being carnivorous (most animals in the series eat only fish and eggs, as far as non-plants go).
154	* The mock epic ''Literature/{{Batrachomyomachia}}'' makes this OlderThanFeudalism: it parodies epics like ''Literature/TheIliad'' by replacing the heroic figures with warrior mice and frogs, fighting each other complete with miniature armor and weapons.
155	* ''Literature/TheButterflyBallAndTheGrasshoppersFeast'': It's not always clear, but it ''seems'' as if the animal world is meant to be in the edges of ours, ''Literature/PeterRabbit'' style. There are two sticking points, one being Sir Maximus Mouse having "a secret flat" in the Cheddar Bank, but even that can be interpreted as an over-selling of living in the wainscotting. Slightly harder to explain is the animal-sized steam train in "The Rodents' Express" and "Punchinello", especially the suggestion in the former that the Princess of Wales has also travelled on it, implying a WorldOfFunnyAnimals.
156	* ''The Wombles'' in the books by Elizabeth Beresford live on the fringes of the human world (specifically under Wimbledon Common, although there are other Womble families across the world), scavenging things we've carelessly thrown away. As the [[SecondVerseCurse forgotten second verse]] of the [[WesternAnimation/TheWombles TV series]] says:
157	-->''People don't notice us, they never see,\
158	Under their noses a Womble may be.''
159
160	[[AC:LiveActionTV]]
161	* ''Series/FraggleRock'' has a wide range of scales to it, but includes a limited interaction between the little Fraggles and the big "Doc", as well as between Uncle Travelling Matt and the [[HumansByAnyOtherName Silly Creatures]] [[HumansThroughAlienEyes from Outer Space]].
162
163	[[AC:TabletopGames]]
164	* ''TabletopGame/BunniesAndBurrows'', loosely inspired by ''Literature/WatershipDown''.
165
166	[[AC:WebComics]]
167	* The world of ''Webcomic/CrossedClaws'' certainly looks this way, what with the field of grass that goes up far past the characters heads, and a kind, playful cat wanting her new rabbit friend to meet her caretakers which she can only describe as "tall things". [[spoiler: It's actually a straight up fantasy world with its own history, and the "Tall Things" are shapeshifting bug monsters.]]
168	* In ''Webcomic/TheBirdFeeder'', in general, the birds have their own society, with their own odd technology, customs, calendar, holidays, and such. Played both ways in [[http://thebirdfeeder.com/comic/21 "Relative Size,"]] as Josh wonders whether ants realize how small they are, and a human wonders whether Josh realizes how small he is.
169	* ''Webcomic/BreakingCatNews'' does this with the Robber Mice, who appear (especially right at first) as a WainscotSociety ''within the cats' world''. That's right, Georgia Dunn created a Mouse World ''and'' a Cat World. (Snakes appear around St. Patrick's Day[[note]]Dunn never liked the story of St. Patrick driving the snakes out of Ireland, so she has the cats and mice welcome them to the party[[/note]], and a civilization of Raccoons is occasionally shown.)
170
171	[[AC:WesternAnimation]]
172	* ''WesternAnimation/LittlestPetShop1995'' features a multispecies cast of miniature animals.
173	* In ''WesternAnimation/GayPurree'', there is a cat society existing alongside humans (including a Mewlon Rouge next to its famous counterpart) which no one seems to notice. It seems to be an accepted fact that cats can hold money, however.
174	%%* Most ''WesternAnimation/TomAndJerry'' and ''WesternAnimation/TomAndJerryTales'' cartoons and episodes.
175	%%* The alley cats in ''WesternAnimation/TheAristocats''.
176	%%* The penguins in ''WesternAnimation/ThePebbleAndThePenguin''.
177	%%* The birds from ''WesternAnimation/{{Rio}}''.
178	[[/folder]]
179
180	[[folder:Fish and Sea Creatures]]
181
182
183	[[AC:WesternAnimation]]
184	* The merpeople and fish in ''WesternAnimation/{{The Little Mermaid\|1989}}'' which depicts life in King Triton's underwater kingdom.
185	%%* ''WesternAnimation/FindingNemo''
186	* ''WesternAnimation/SharkTale'': The setting is an underwater society where fish and other sea creatures live in an underwater New York. With the sharks acting as the mafia.
187	* ''WesternAnimation/FishHooks'': Which set in a pet store, and the characters live in a society inside an aquarium.
188	* ''WesternAnimation/SpongebobSquarepants'': Bikini Bottom is inhabited by fish other sea creatures no bigger than regular fish, have their own society with many water-based themes. Most buildings seem to be made from objects of human origin that fall to the bottom of the ocean, such as car mufflers and lobster traps.
189
190	[[AC:ComicBooks]]
191	* ''WesternAnimation/TheSnorks'' are a [[FrancoBelgianComics French-language]] comic featuring rockpool-based Smurf ripoffs.
192	[[/folder]]
193
194	[[folder:Small Humanoids]]
195	[[AC:AnimeAndManga]]
196	* ''[[Anime/{{Arrietty}} The Secret World of Arrietty]]'', Creator/StudioGhibli's film adaptation of ''Literature/TheBorrowers'', features miniature humanoids living in a small house beneath the floorboards of a human house, living by "borrowing" (stealing) small necessities from the humans. [[spoiler:One of the older humans who used to live in the house had built a dollhouse for the borrowers to live in, and in the end they leave down a creek in a boat made from a teapot.]]
197	%%* ''Anime/TheLittlBits''
198	* ''Manga/KabuNoIsaki'' by [[Manga/YokohamaKaidashiKikou Hitoshi Ashinano]]. The story is set in a world where everything except humans is 10 times larger (in ''linear'' size), but apparently the Earth surface gravity force is ''not'' 10 times stronger. Result: Japan appears huge and sparsely populated, humans are piloting what looks like toy airplanes, landing on fuki (butterbur) leaves and such.
199	** There is also an old one-shot called Kuma-bachi no Koto ("something about carpenter-bees") by Ashinano in which small humanoid(s) and standard-size people co-exist.
200	* ''Anime/BusouShinki''. Humans are perfectly aware of the sentient girl-shaped toys equipped with lethal weapons, but it's not regarded as something special. There ''is'' a [[WretchedHive fringe Shinki society]] that few know of, however.
201	* ''Manga/IchigekiSacchuHoihoiSan'' is also about little dolls battling but instead of each other, the dolls exterminating the rising plague of vermin that have become immune to all pesticides.
202	* ''Manga/HakumeiAndMikochi'', which follows a gnome-like race that lives secluded in the woods and interacts with animals.
203	* ''Anime/TheLittlBits'', an anime about a small race of humanoids living in the forest. When imported to the United States the characters were all given themed-names rhyming with "Little bit" in an effort to make it more like ''The Smurfs''.
204
205	[[AC:ComicBooks]]
206	* ''ComicBook/TheAdventuresOfPeterWheat'': The comic is about [[{{Lilliputians}} tiny humans]] who live alongside anthropomorphic bugs in a wheat field, ruling it as their kingdom, and keeping it safe from the Hornet Kingdom.
207	* ''ComicBook/TheSmurfs'': The titular Smurfs are a race of tiny blue humanoids who live in mushrooms.
208
209	[[AC:FanWorks]]
210	* ''Fanfic/RiseOfTheMinisukas'': Because of their being eight-inch-tall, the Minisukas sneak around through air vents, drive RC cars, helicopters and boats, hold meetings in mezzanine floors, and are stalked by rats.
211	%%* ''Fanfic/EmpathTheLuckiestSmurf'': The Psyches and their city-village Psychelia from.
212
213	[[AC: {{Film}}]]
214	* The Polish film ''Film/{{Kingsajz}}'' is set in such a world, inhabited by gnomes. The title is a phonetic rendition of "king size", here a normal human's size which can be temporarily achieved through a magic potion.
215	* ''WesternAnimation/StrangeMagic'': The movie's fairy protagonists are small enough to ride armored squirrels as mounts.
216	* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Trolls}}'' the eponymous beings are the about the same size as the toys are in real life. Flowers tower over them as they use creatures like insects in place of appliances for conveniences like transport and lighting. They live in colorful pods that hang from trees in a way that resemble fruit.
217
218	[[AC:{{Literature}}]]
219	* ''Literature/TheLittles'' is a similar series to the more famous ''The Borrowers'', focusing on a WainscotSociety of tiny humanoids ([[LittleBitBeastly with mouse tails]]). The titular family live in houses, but others live in trees or underground burrows, and one book even introduces tiny cats and livestock kept by some. It was adapted as an animated TV series and feature film in the 1980s.
220	* ''Literature/TheBorrowers'', one of the more famous examples involving tiny humanoids, focuses on little humanoids that live inside the houses of normal-sized humans and "borrow" their household objects to create ScavengedPunk technology.
221	* Terry Pratchett's Nac Mac Feegle (aka the Pictsies) in ''Wee Free Men'' and other ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' books, finger-sized blue people who live in human burial mounds. His earlier children's books, ''Literature/TheCarpetPeople'' (fantasy creatures living on a carpet and to whom a carpet hair is as large as a tree) and ''[[Literature/NomesTrilogy The Bromeliad Trilogy]]'' (''Truckers'', ''Diggers'', and ''Wings'', whose characters are 6-inches tall creatures living ten time faster than humans) are a more obvious example.
222	%%* ''Literature/MistressMashamsRepose''
223	%%* The Gallivespians in ''Literature/HisDarkMaterials''
224	* Possibly the tiniest example is the Protozoan World of the microscopic people in the short story "Surface Tension". Just barely qualifies as interacting with the macro-scale human world, due to the etched metal documents left behind for them.
225	* {{Literature/Gnomes}} is a wonderfully detailed illustration on how six-inch humanoids might survive in the wild. For the most part they live InHarmonyWithNature but they do occasionally scavenge things from human beings and their domestic animals. There's also depictions of acorns used as cups and pinecone scales as roof tiles and of how gnomes keep field mice as pets and crickets as watchdogs, and there's a wonderful illustration of a gnome in his garden with flowers and nettles towering over him.
226	* This is how Pauline Clarke figured the Young Men would handle it in ''Return of the Twelves''. The Young Men were a set of (actual) wooden soldiers owned by Branwell Bronte and his sisters Charlotte, Emily and Anne. Taking off on the Bronte kids' idea that the soldiers would see themselves as normal sized and perceive the kids as giant ''Arabian Nights''-type "Genii", Clarke's idea was that the soldiers came to life and moved around when nobody was looking. She describes them navigating the huge everyday world with intelligence and aplomb.
227	* ''Literature/TobyAlone'': The Tree people and the Grass people, as the names suggest, are tiny humanoids living in the tree and in the grass, respectively.
228	* ''Literature/SmallWorldTabithaKingNovel'': Played with in surprising ways. For example, one of the reasons for Leyna's prolonged confusion -- and why she believes herself to be insane rather than catching on sooner -- is that as a tiny person, her perception is forcibly twisted: the weave of a bedsheet is as large as a web of closely woven ropes to her, and goes on for miles in all directions; landmarks like walls and ceilings are literally too far away for her to focus on them, giving the impression that she is simply standing in a WhiteVoidRoom whenever she is out of the Doll's White House. Also played with more mundanely by the miniature enthusiasts. Hey, did you know you can make a doll's table lamp from a coffee creamer container? You will after you've done reading this!
229
230	[[AC:LiveActionTV]]
231	* ''Series/LandOfTheGiants'' is an inversion: regular humans are trapped in a world filled with -- guess what -- giants.
232	* ''Series/KabouterPlop'' (''Plop the Gnome'') focuses on four (later six) small gnomes that live inside {{Mushroom House}}s in Kabouterland. The franchise later gained a series of movies and television specials.
233
234	[[AC:TabletopGames]]
235	* ''TabletopGame/TheSmallFolk'' are {{Lilliputian\|s}} humanoids hiding in [[UrbanFantasy the margins of the modern human world]].
236
237	[[AC:VideoGames]]
238	* ''VideoGame/{{Chipmonk}}'' is an action game where every single character is a rodent, with your playable characters being a trio of chipmunks. Each and every stage are set in worlds made for rodents, like toadstool houses, holes in trees, and tunnels made by moles.
239	* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheMinishCap'' has the Minish (also known as the Picori), a race of tiny beings that live in mouse holes, mushrooms, and the occasional vase or boot. Link can shrink himself down to their size to visit them with the help of Ezlo ([[spoiler:a transformed Minish himself]]). The game implies that they are the reason that Link can obtain helpful items by cutting grass or throwing rocks throughout the games.
240	* ''VideoGame/MarioPartyDS'' has this as a major theme. The plot of the story mode involves Bowser shrinking the player characters to mouse size, and the boards and even the minigames reflect this by using various everyday objects at relatively-giant sizes.
241	%%* ''VideoGame/MushroomMen''
242	%%* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIII'': Tozas
243	* ''VideoGame/{{Pikmin}}'' from Olimar's point of view, although only on the Distant Planet, where grasses are as tall as trees, trees tower out of sight, many areas closely resemble wrecked human bathrooms and playrooms and the like, and most of the "treasures" he collects are things like bottlecaps, dentures and seashells that seem gigantic next to him. His home world is just right for the dominant race's size.
244	* ''VideoGame/LittleBigPlanet'''s Sackpeople are 8cm tall. This becomes obvious when you compare them to the backgrounds, and some of the real-world objects (e.g. the ruler).
245	* ''VideoGame/AmongTheSleep'' is a SurvivalHorror game where you play as a toddler. Naturally, this greatly restricts your movement, as obstacles that adults may not even notice are almost insurmountable in your much smaller form.
246
247	[[AC:WesternAnimation]]
248	* ''WesternAnimation/TheWorldOfDavidTheGnome'', a Spanish-animated series about gnomes and their lives in the woods, going up against evil trolls and helping out the forest creatures. David, the title character, is a doctor who helps injured animals.
249	%%* ''WesternAnimation/TheLittleTwins''
250	* ''The Wisdom of the Gnomes'', a SequelSeries to ''David the Gnome''.
251	* ''WesternAnimation/TeamUmizoomi'' , depending on the episode. Mostly a subversion, since the humans interact with the team.
252	* The 80s SaturdayMorningCartoon ''The Trollkins'' which managed to combine ''Franchise/TheSmurfs'' with ''Series/TheDukesOfHazzard.'' No, seriously.
253	%%* ''WesternAnimation/MrBogus''
254	* Oms (humans trapped in a land of giants) in ''Animation/FantasticPlanet''.
255	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Rugrats}}'', in a sense. Even though the protagonists are humans, they're also toddlers having adventures in an oversized world built for adults, who [[HumansAreCthulhu are practically Cthulhu to them]].
256	* In ''WesternAnimation/SolarOpposites'' the secondary storyline of the series follows humans shrunken by Jesse and Yumyulack and put into a terrarium in their room, in which they've built a society of items they've scavenged or anything the aliens give them..
257	[[/folder]]
258
259	[[folder:Insects and Arachnids]]
260	[[AC:{{Anime}}]]
261	* ''Anime/TwilightOfTheCockroaches'' revolves around a human-like society of cockroaches living in the shabby apartment of a depressed bachelor, only for their world to be turned upside-down when their [[HumansAreCthulhu "god"]] meets a girl who decides the filth and bugs have got to go.
262	* ''[[Manga/{{Gokicha}} Gokicha!! Cockroach Girls]]'' is about the life of Gokicha, a LittleBitBeastly cockroach living in an apartment building in Hokkaido with her friend Chaba while trying to deal with humans, who just see the girls as ordinary cockroaches.
263
264	[[AC:ComicBooks]]
265	* Junkville, the setting of a series of Disney comic books starring Bucky Bug.
266
267	[[AC:Film]]
268	* ''WesternAnimation/TheAntBully'': When a young boy named Lucas takes out his frustration with some bullies on an anthill, the ants retaliate by shrinking him down to their size and forcing him to live among them.
269	* ''WesternAnimation/MinusculeValleyOfTheLostAnts'', except for the opening scene with humans.
270	* ''WesternAnimation/MrBugGoesToTown'', a feature-length Fleischer cartoon. The bugs attempt to co-exist with a [[HumansThroughAlienEyes human couple]] who have a parallel story, after people accidentally endanger them in a park in Central Park their village is built in.[[spoiler: They end up finding their garden as a new home.]] .
271
272	[[AC:{{Literature}}]]
273	* ''A Rustle in the Grass'' by Robin Hawdon is a novel about ants told in a HeroicFantasy style.
274	* ''The City Under the Back Steps'' by Evelyn Sibley Lampman, in which two children are shrunk down to ant size and have adventures in/with an ant colony.
275
276	[[AC:VideoGames]]
277	* In ''VideoGame/{{Bugdom}}'' you take control of a rolly polly, travelling across the lands rescuing captured insects. Grass and other plants seem as tall as trees, anthills and beehives are spacious caverns, and giant human feet can crush you on the fourth level.
278	* ''VideoGame/BugFables'' is set in the continent of Bugaria, which is populated entirely by arthropods. Bugaria is also set in the human house's backyard, given the presence of many human objects like giant soda cans, cardboard boxes, and etc. Furthermore, Lost Sands were shown to be set in an ordinary sandbox, while the Rubber Prison is made of car tire, and Metal Island is made of a hubcap. The humans themselves do not appear, and it's implied that [[spoiler:they either went extinct or otherwise went elsewhere after the [[AfterTheEnd mysterious cataclysm]], the same one that gave bugs sapience]].
279	* ''VideoGame/HollowKnight'' is a possible example of this. All the characters are either bugs, arachnids, worms, mollusks, or some other invertebrate, and although we never see any giant objects or animals to compare them to, there's nothing like trees, rivers, or mountains to compare them to either. The wilderness areas are made up of moss and fungus instead of trees, and all wielded weapons are nails except for Hornet's sewing needle and Zote's wooden weapon. There's a definite possibility that the characters are supposed to be the size of actual bugs.
280	* Zigzagged in ''VideoGame/{{Zapper}}''. Many parts of the game world are perfectly scaled to the bugs that call it home. On the other hand, things like the vegetable garden in Half Acre Wood and the dinosaur skeleton in Raptor Cavern are life-sized as one would expect for this trope.
281
282
283	[[AC:WesternAnimation]]
284	* The cartoon for ''Literature/MayaTheBee'', featuring various insects such as grasshoppers and honeybees living in a meadow.
285	* ''WesternAnimation/ABugsLife'': Interestingly, humans never directly appear, but their existence is obvious through the use of garbage as buildings for the bugs in Bug City and at least a trailer-park with a lantern. Also, a beggar cricket has a tablet that says that a kid pulled his wings off.
286	* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Antz}}'' insects exist in a human-like society, though signs of humans do exist. An unnamed and [[HumansThroughAlienEyes unseen boy]] serves as a minor antagonist, and Insectopia is made out of trash. The end-reveal, which isn't much of a reveal thanks to the poster, shows that Z's whole adventure happened in [[spoiler: Central Park]] making it more specific than usual about the human world.
287	* ''WesternAnimation/BeeMovie'' is centered around a human-like civilization inside a bee hive.
288	* ''WesternAnimation/TheBuzzOnMaggie'': A short-lived Disney show about a teenage fly.
289	* ''WesternAnimation/MissSpidersSunnyPatchFriends'' features a community of talking insects and arachnids living in a meadow.
290	* The ''WesternAnimation/OhYeahCartoons'' short "The Feelers" was about a rock band of anthropomorphic insects consisting of a lead singer named Mitzi Moth, an ant drummer named Max, a bee bassist named Stinger, and a mosquito guitarist named Mo Skito. They find their way into a recording studio, where a spider named Legs helps them record a song so that the humans will notice them.
291	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Roboroach}}'' has the cockroach city of Vexburg, which is situated in the walls of a laboratory.
292	* ''WesternAnimation/SantoBugito'' is Klasky Csupo's CBS series about a southern border town where 64 million insects live.
293	* The early ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' cartoon ''WesternAnimation/HoneymoonHotel1934'' is set in one of these. Bugtown is populated entirely by insects, with buildings made out of objects like cans, lunch boxes, and tea kettles.
294	[[/folder]]
295
296	[[folder:Sapient Nonliving Things]]
297	[[AC:{{Literature}}]]
298	* ''Literature/TheDollPeople'' features dolls that take an oath upon being made which allows them to keep their sapience. Oddly, Barbie dolls are not alive, although fictional brands of dolls are.
299	** Barbies could be alive. For some reason, they mostly choose not to take the oath.
300
301	[[AC:TabletopRPG]]
302	* ''TabletopGame/PlueschPowerUndPlunder'' is a German game about [[LivingToys sapient, living]] plushies who have to keep up the {{Masquerade}} from the [[HumansThroughAlienEyes "tramplers"]].
303
304	[[AC:VideoGame]]
305	* ''VideoGame/ChibiRobo'' is about a few-inches-tall robot navigating a human world, spreading happiness any way he can.
306	* ''VideoGame/ToyOdysseyTheLostAndFound'' is set in a world where children's toys have lives of their own, and navigate the world of humans.
307
308	[[AC:WesternAnimation]]
309	* The ''Franchise/ToyStory'' films are set in a world where children's toys are sentient and live their own lives when humans (who they see as almost godlike figures) aren't looking. Their adventures are complicated by the fact that they are miniature versions of humans and animals; getting dumped into a cardboard box and left to be forgotten in the attic may as well be a FateWorseThanDeath for them.
310	* The tiny stitchpunks of ''WesternAnimation/{{Nine}}'' live in a [[ScavengerWorld Scavenger]] Mouse World AfterTheEnd. Noticing everything they've used for their technology, such as a sextant for a telescope, is a lot of fun.
311	%%* ''WesternAnimation/TheBraveLittleToaster''
312	* ''Film/OsmosisJones'' (technically, body cells are living things, but not in its everyday sense.)
313	%%* ''Literature/TheVelveteenRabbit''
314	%%* ''WesternAnimation/GnomeoAndJuliet'' (gnomes and other garden ornaments).
315	* The ''WesternAnimation/SummerCampIsland'' episode "Popular Banana Split" revolves around Hedgehog and Max accidentally being turned small and finding a high school for AnthropomorphicFood.
316	* ''WesternAnimation/TheMightyOnes'' stars an anthropomorphic cast of various common garden debris (sticks, stones, leaves, and fallen fruit) and details their adventures in the garden of a group of humans.
317	[[/folder]]
318

Context Main / MouseWorld