Mickey's Rival is a 1936 Mickey Mouse cartoon, directed by Wilfred Jackson.
One day, Mickey and Minnie Mouse are out having a picnic in the countryside, when an old flame of Minnie's, Mortimer Mouse, arrives on the scene, and quickly steals the spotlight with his practical jokes and charisma, much to Minnie's delight and Mickey's envy. But when he accidentally sets an angry bull on Minnie, guess who ends up being the true hero?
Tropes:
- Ax-Crazy: The bull is always seen angry, berserk, and unstoppable.
- Big Bad: Initially Mortimer, who is stealing Minnie's affection, and then the bull, who Mickey and his car must rescue Minnie from.
- Big Damn Heroes: When Mickey is overwhelmed by the bull, his car comes to the rescue.
- Brutish Bulls: The bull who serves as the final antagonist is portrayed as a typical real life vicious and ferocious one who seems to be always enraged for no particular reasons.
- Bull Seeing Red: Mortimer uses the red picnic blanket to goad the bull into fighting. Then, when the bull threatens Minnie, Mickey uses the blanket to distract the bull away from her. Then, Mickey's jalopy tries to distract the bull by flashing its red taillights at it and going after it instead of Mickey and Minnie.
- Butt-Monkey: Mickey. He repeatedly falls victim to Mortimer's pranks and actions which Minnie doesn't even seem to notice or care about. Thankfully, he gets better in the second half.
- Determinator: The angry bull at the end though in one scene it stops to run to take a breath.
- Dirty Coward: When Mortimer notices the bull's gate is open, he flees the scene, leaving Minnie to fend for herself against the bull. Thankfully, Mickey and his car are there to save her.
- Electric Joy Buzzer: A variation. After Mortimer pulls off the buttons of his pants, Mickey tries to return the favor, but Mortimer was Crazy-Prepared and had his buttons hooked up to batteries in his pockets, so Mickey gets a shock instead.
- Establishing Character Moment: Mortimer's very first scene establishes him as a rude, obnoxious Hate Sink of a mouse who flaunts himself as being better than Mickey in every way. Case in point, his car is more modern than Mickey's old-fashioned car, yet he drives so recklessly and destructively that Mickey's picnic is completely ruined thanks to him.
- Fake Arm Disarm: Mortimer shakes hands with Mickey using a fake hand. What's more, the hand is spring-loaded to hit Mickey in the nose.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Mickey becomes quite jealous of Minnie flirting with Mortimer.
- Jerkass: Mortimer. He's a pretentious creep who torments Mickey with obnoxious practical jokes, puts the moves on Minnie, who is currently Mickey's girlfriend, and drives off to save his own skin after accidentally setting an angry bull upon Minnie. His sentient sports car is also this towards Mickey's old-fashioned one by scaring it with its loud horn.
- Karma Houdini: Mortimer, again. After playing cruel jokes on poor Mickey and leaving Minnie in the dust after the bull's escape from the pen, he gets away safe and sound without an appropriate comeuppance. The only consolation is that Minnie's definitely lost all the admiration she had for him.
- Lean and Mean: Mortimer is taller and skinnier than Mickey, and he's an obnoxious jerk.
- Lightning Bruiser: The bull is very fast and rapid despite its large size.
- Miles Gloriosus: To impress Minnie, Mortimer pretends to be a bull fighter, using the red picnic blanket to taunt a bull in a nearby pen. He’s waving the blanket and laughing obnoxiously at the bull as it tries to ram him. This bravado is dropped when Mortimer realises the gate is open. He bails on Minnie, draping her with the offending blanket and leaving her to the mercy of the now furious bull.
- Mythology Gag: Mortimer was something of a caricature of Walt himself, who in the 1930s was decidedly ferret-faced.
- Non-Standard Character Design: Compared to Mickey and Minnie, who at the time still had white faces and completely black eyes, Mortimer has a flesh colored face and eyes with sclera and small pupils.
- Picnic Episode: Starts with Mickey and Minnie having a picnic, which is disrupted by Mortimer.
- The Prankster: Mortimer, to Mickey.
- Sentient Vehicle: Both Mickey's jalopy and Mortimer's snazzy roadster.
- You're Just Jealous: Said by Minnie word for word when Mickey scoffs at Mortimer. While he is jealous, he's also right that Mortimer is full of himself.
