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The second paragraph describes mice as being characterized as "mischievous, scheming, and greedy", and how they often antagonize cats, whether they are provoked or not. It then says that this may involve ResourcefulRodent if he mice are clever and resourceful, but there isn't a obvious transition. It then switches back to talking about how mice like to scare people for laughs. The next section also mentions ElephantsAreScaredOfMice.
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The second paragraph describes mice as being characterized as "mischievous, scheming, and greedy", and how they often antagonize cats, whether they are provoked or not. It then says that this may involve ResourcefulRodent if he the mice are clever and resourceful, but there isn't a obvious transition. It then switches back to talking about how mice like to scare people for laughs. The next section also mentions ElephantsAreScaredOfMice.
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* The WesternAnimation.PinkPanther cartoon "Pink-A-Boo" has a pesky mouse abscond some supplies from Pink's home, often right under his nose. Later, this mouse is joined by a platoon of guest mice, and they start a loud party in the MouseHole in the panther's living room.
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* The WesternAnimation.PinkPanther ThePinkPanther: The cartoon "Pink-A-Boo" has a pesky mouse abscond some supplies from Pink's home, often right under his nose. Later, this mouse is joined by a platoon of guest mice, and they start a loud party in the MouseHole in the panther's living room.
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AMischiefOfMice:
The description, to being with, seems to try to contain several unrelated subjects. It starts by saying that "mice are more often than not portrayed as the [[NiceMice good guys]]" and then, immediately after, that "mice are also likely to be portrayed in fiction as antagonists, or at least as very unwelcome pests". The first paragraph then mostly talks about ways in which mice are viewed as unwelcome, gross or frightening, and mentions the trope EekAMouse and real-life mouse phobias as evidence of this.
The second paragraph describes mice as being characterized as "mischievous, scheming, and greedy", and how they often antagonize cats, whether they are provoked or not. It then says that this may involve ResourcefulRodent if he mice are clever and resourceful, but there isn't a obvious transition. It then switches back to talking about how mice like to scare people for laughs. The next section also mentions ElephantsAreScaredOfMice.
The laconic is "Mice are troublemakers, pranksters, or generally annoying."
Given the description and laconic, the trope seems to have some difficulty deciding whether it's about mice being pranksters and tricksters, mice being evil, or mice being seen as gross.
The example check comes out thus:
[[foldercontrol]]
[[folder:Mice are serious villains or explicitly evil]]
* Manga.{{Beastars}}: A bunch of mice decide to join together to form one big super mouse and become a feared criminal. They were defeated by [[BigGood Yafya]] and are now some of his most trusted subordinates.
* Anime.GregoryHorrorShow: Gregory and his family are anthropomorphic mice, and most of them fit this trope to some degree.
** PlayedForHorror with Gregory himself. He is the owner of a HellHotel, which is basically {{Purgatory}}, and he uses psychological manipulation, and his violent hotel guests, to keep anyone from leaving. He is also physically and verbally abusive to Neko Zombie, a cat who he keeps locked up in the hotel. Despite this, his attitude is usually very whimsical. He likes to speak [[FauxAffablyEvil in a very formal way, as if he was just a regular hotel owner]]. His dialogue is often cryptic as if he knows a lot more than he lets on. His SignatureLaugh is high-pitched and sneaky as well.
** Also PlayedForHorror with James, Gregory's BrattyHalfPint grandson. He hates the Second Guest so much that he attempts [[DeadlyPrank deadly pranks]] on her, such as giving her a box containing [[PerversePuppet Lost Doll]]. And he does it all with the attitude of [[KidsAreCruel an annoying, petulant child]].
** Averted with Gregory Mama, who is straight-up malevolent with few trickster qualities, if any. She's a WickedWitch who collects people's souls. She claims that she does this to stay young-looking, although it's debatable how effective this is, as she still looks like a deranged old lady.
* Animation.PakdamPakdai: Charly, Marly, and Larry are a trio of mice who, much like the titular cockroaches from WesternAnimation.OggyAndTheCockroaches, constantly make the life of Don the dog a living hell on a regular basis.
* WesternAnimation.TheGreatMouseDetective: {{Invoked|Trope}}; Ratigan [[BerserkButton loathes]] being called a rat and [[InsistentTerminology insists that he's just a "big mouse"]] (which he actually was in the original book). He really is a rat, though, and he's a {{sadist}} who's proud of the fact that he has drowned widows and [[WouldHurtAChild orphans]].
* Music.TheAquabats: "Idiot Box!" from Return of the Aquabats! features an unflattering reference to Mickey Mouse.
-->Children, I wanna warn ya\\
'Cause I've been to California\\
Where Mickey Mouse is a demon!
* Theatre.TheNutcracker: The primary antagonist is the Mouse King. In some versions, he is changed to the [[YouDirtyRat Rat King]], presumably to conform better to the audience's expectations.
* VideoGame.BonkersSeg: [[MisterBig Mr. Big]] (from the [[WesternAnimation.{{Bonkers}} TV series]] episode "Hamster Houseguest") is a mouse who is one of ToonTown's four most wanted criminals. He has set up a bomb set to explode in the warehouse, and since Fall-Apart Rabbit is trying to defuse the bomb, Mr. Big has hidden Fall-Apart's pieces in crates. He also has mouse henchmen who try to stop Bonkers from collecting Fall-Apart's pieces.
* VideoGame.SlyCooperThievesInTime: [[spoiler:[[BitchInSheepsClothing Penelope]], [[EvilAllAlong Penelope]], '[[TheSociopath Penelope]]'. Murder, greed, manipulation, warmongering, and, of course, treason, makes her one of the most odious enemies the Cooper Gang has faced.]]
[[folder:Western Animation]]
* WesternAnimation.LooneyTunes:
** In "We, The Animals... Squeak!", a guest on Porky Pig's radio show is a cat known as "Kansas City Kitty" who relates how she had to deal with some ruthless gangster mice who held her son hostage in order to force her to let them have the run of the house.
** "WesternAnimation.CannedFeud" features a sadistic mouse who tries everything he can to deprive Sylvester of the can opener needed to open some cat food, [[TheBadGuyWins and ultimately succeeds]]. Why? [[ForTheEvulz Because he can]].
** "WesternAnimation.ScaredyCat" and "WesternAnimation.ClawsForAlarm", both directed by Chuck Jones, feature evil mice who try to kill Porky and Sylvester. The former cartoon provides the page image.
* WesternAnimation.PinkyAndTheBrain: The Brain, has, well, a genetically-enhanced brain and plots to [[WorldDomination take over the world]]. One zany plot involved Brain operating a giant human-suit robot and getting onto a quiz show, hoping to win cash to fund his latest weapon. However, [[EvenEvilHasStandards even he has some lines he won't cross]].
* WesternAnimation.TheSimpsons: Itchy, one of the titular characters from the ShowWithinAShow, WesternAnimation.TheItchyAndScratchyShow, is a heartless and mischievous little bastard who gets a kick out of mutilating or killing Scratchy in ways that would make [[WesternAnimation.TomAndJerry Jerry]] or even [[WesternAnimation.HermanAndKatnip Herman]] sick to their stomachs.
* WesternAnimation.SouthPark: WesternAnimation.MickeyMouse is portrayed as a CorruptCorporateExecutive that doesn't see anything wrong in selling sex to underage girls. And when Music.TheJonasBrothers start getting cold feet, [[BadBoss he beats the crap out of them]].
* WesternAnimation.WonderPets: In "Save the Nutcracker!", [[Theatre.TheNutcracker the Mouse King]] steals the Wonder Pets' nutcracker out of greed. [[HeelFaceTurn He apologizes and returns it to them]] once they show him that he's already got a lot to be grateful for.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Mice are jerks or otherwise personally unpleasant]]
* ComicStrip.KrazyKat: Ignatz isn't the friendliest mouse you'll meet. He has a personal dislike of Krazy, who has a crush on him and is unaware of what he truly feels about the cat, and tosses bricks at Krazy's head which the latter takes as a sign of affection. This usually results in him getting arrested by Officer Bull Pupp.
* WesternAnimation.TheSecretOfNIMH: Martin is a mouse, as well as a BrattyHalfPint who has no trouble mouthing off to Auntie Shrew. [[WesternAnimation.TheSecretOfNIMH2TimmyToTheRescue The sequel]] even has him [[BeingTorturedMakesYouEvil suffer experiments that lead to him becoming a villain]] who desires to have the whole of Thorn Valley destroyed ForTheEvulz, though [[spoiler:his brainwashing is undone at the end]].
* WesternAnimation.TomAndJerryTheMagicRing: Freddie and Joey are mice who are [[TheBully bullies]]. In their [[EstablishingCharacterMoment very first scene]], they frighten Nibbles with a picture of a cat [[ItAmusedMe for fun]].
* Film.{{Babe}}: Downplayed with the three singing mice who serve as a GreekChorus to the movie. They don't affect the plot but tend to giggle mischievously when Babe is about to get in trouble (although they are sad and respectful when introducing the chapter when Ma dies).
* Tiktoker [[https:..www.tiktok.com.@tal_on Talon-tal]] portrays WesternAnimation.MickeyMouse as a complete {{jerkass}} with a mouth full of ClusterFBomb and a HairTriggerTemper that can hit hard to the ones who bother him, like Goofy, Donald and even his girlfriend Minnie, becoming a sensation on the internet with videos like [[https:..www.tiktok.com.@tal_on.video.6987479591120047365 this one]].
* WesternAnimation.GarfieldAndFriends: In "[[Recap.GarfieldAndFriendsS3E11 Rodent Rampage]]", Floyd's cousin Tyrone comes to visit and is surprised when he discovers that Garfield doesn't chase mice, so he takes advantage of this by taking over Jon's house. Once Jon discovers Tyrone, he tries to get Garfield to catch him by [[FoodAsBribe bribing him with sausage lasagna]]. Tryone takes every step to ensure that Garfield doesn't catch him, such as putting him through traps and even feeding him [[BlazingInfernoHellfireSauce tabasco sauce]]. Even Floyd, who is usually nice to Garfield, understanding of his predicaments, and has defended him against the Kitty Council and mice who were taking advantage of him in the past, [[JerkassBall does nothing to stop Tyrone and even goes along with him]].
* WesternAnimation.HermanAndKatnip: Herman. A majority of the things that he commits towards Katnip are much more over-the-top, mean-spirited, and brutal than [[WesternAnimation.TomAndJerry Jerry]]'s brand of retaliation.
* WesternAnimation.MickeyMouse: Mortimer Mouse, one of Mickey's rivals, is everything the latter is not: arrogant, rude, cocky, sexist, and scheming.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Mice are thieves]]
* ComicBook.TheBeano: The Nibblers are a group of anthropomorphous mice who like stealing food. Their home's owner Porky and his cat would try and fail to stop them every time.
* ComicBook.TheDandy: Korky the Cat sometimes has to deal with mice who keep raiding his larder and stealing food.
* WesternAnimation.RobinRobin has a slightly more benevolent example than most. Dad Mouse and his four mouse children often steal food from human homes. They're not greedy, they only take what they need to survive, but they do take pride in how good they are at sneaking around. They even sing a musical number about it called "[[https:..youtu.be.tRHHZ_oyJE4 The Sneak Song]]". The protagonist, Robin, is a robin adopted by the Mouse family. She is terrible at being stealthy, which makes her feel bad. She wishes she was more like the mice until she learns to [[BeYourself be herself]] at the end.
* The Squeaks from VideoGame.KirbySqueakSquad are a group of thieving mice responsible for kicking off the plot by purloining Kirby's slice of strawberry shortcake. [[HeelFaceTurn They do realize the error of their ways]], though, and make amends with Kirby by giving him another slice at the end of the game and assisting him in VideoGame.KirbyMassAttack.
* Literature.{{Redwall}}: Gonff the self-titled Prince of Mousethieves, while not evil by any stretch of the imagination, is a LovableRogue who was first introduced in the book Mossflower stealing food from the antagonists, JustLikeRobinHood. In a later book, it is revealed that he has an entire tribe of descendants who are all also thieves.
* Franchise.SuperMarioBros:
** Little Mousers are a masked species of mice, with roles often involving some form of theft.
** VideoGame.PaperMarioTheThousandYearDoor: Ms. Mowz is a flirtatious and highly effective badge thief. In battle, one of her moves allows her to steal an enemy's items.
** VideoGame.MarioParty8: Mowz appears on King Boo's Haunted Hideaway, running a roulette-like game. If the player successfully pockets a ball in either the star, coin, or candy slot, Mowz will steal the corresponding asset from another player. He also appears on Shy Guy's Perplex Express as a suspect in stealing Holly Koopa's Candy, hiding in one of the three-to-five train cars.
* The VideoGame.RhythmHeaven game "Rat Race" features three mice who make their way across a large table in order to get at a giant piece of cheese seemingly left unguarded. They have to be careful not to let a very watchful black cat catch them.
* VideoGame.YoshisIsland: Little Mousers are a masked species of mice. In most appearances, their role is to steal eggs (or balls of yarn) from the player character.
* [[WesternAnimation.JoeOrioloFelixTheCat Felix the Cat]]: The episode, "[[Recap.JoeOrioloFelixTheCat1x34TheMouseAndFelix The Mouse and Felix]]", features a mouse who ransacks Felix's house to steal his food and outsmarts him at every chance he gets. [[spoiler:However, it's revealed that he's been taking Felix's food to care for his children, so Felix makes him feel welcome into his home]].
* WesternAnimation.GarfieldAndFriends: In "Trial and Error", two mice named Elmo and Ferd love to steal food. They nab Garfield's pie, which Odie gets blamed for.
[[folder:Western Animation]]
* WesternAnimation.LooneyTunes:
** "Stooge for a Mouse" has a mouse who tries to get some cheese from a nearby table. How? By sabotaging the friendship between Sylvester and a bulldog named Mike. Unlike the mouse in "Canned Feud", who [[KarmaHoudini got away scot-free with starving Sylvester to death]], he gets his comeuppance in the end.
** Creator.TexAvery's early short Ain't We Got Fun revolves around mice who raid an old man's pantry and then frame it on his cat.
* The WesternAnimation.PinkPanther cartoon "Pink-A-Boo" has a pesky mouse abscond some supplies from Pink's home, often right under his nose. Later, this mouse is joined by a platoon of guest mice, and they start a loud party in the MouseHole in the panther's living room.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Mice are tricksters, pranksters or troublemakers]]
* Anime.{{Voltron}}: The Space Mice were a heroic version of this. They would very much play tricks on the space explorers, particularly liking to harass Pidge. This actually becomes a plot point at the start of the series when Pidge realizes the mice are able to move around the castle at will and most likely were the ones who pilfered the Black Lion's activation key. Once they return it, they become a lot more tame, but their mischievous natures do allow them to cause the occasional amount of trouble for Zarkon's forces when they manage to get into the Castle of Lions from time to time.
* ComicStrip.{{Garfield}}: While Garfield is actually more into befriending mice rather than chasing and eating them, sometimes the mice will actually mess with him, such as giving him a makeover when he sticks his head in their mouse hole.
* Literature.ThereIsNoEpicLootHereOnlyPuns: One of Delta's puzzles involves a mess-making mouse.
* Film.MouseHunt: The titular rodent is the source of all of Lars and Ernie's problems and outsmarts them at every turn. [[spoiler:He reforms at the end of the film when he gets a new job as a cheese tester in the brothers' new cheese factory]].
* Film.StayTuned zigzags the trope. At one point, Roy and Helen Knable, jumping around on Hellivision's channels, find themselves in an animated show as cartoon mice. At that point, Roy helps himself to a donut "the size of a Buick". Then they're pursued by a cartoon robot cat, and they spend their time dodging, evading, and using every cartoon trope in the books, from dropping a dryer in a bathtub with the robot feline to saying "Don't Try This At Home." Much of what they do, though, is drawn from their own knowledge of cartoon mice, so that it's not that they're being deliberately mischievous, but that they're just doing what they know. All of it was done by the great Creator.ChuckJones.
* Literature.{{Anatole}}: Anatole the mouse is most upset when he overhears a family talking about how terrible mice are for scrounging food, so he secretly sets himself up as taster at a cheese factory, leaving little signs on the different cheeses. With Anatole's cunning methods, business booms at the factory; but he keeps his identity as a mouse very secret.
* A traditional Irish song, "The Mice Are At It Again", is about a guy who lives in a run-down rooming house, and is bedeviled by the resident mice. Not-entirely-accurate lyrics [[https:..mudcat.org.@displaysong.cfm?SongID=6706 can be found at mudcat.org]].
--> "Well last week I earned some overtime and like a big fat-head
--> I hung my trousers at the foot when I got into bed.
--> The next morning when I awoke I found I had been dunned.
--> I asked the Mrs. about it and she says "it's ten to one
--> That the mice are at it again, oh, been up to their tricks."
--> I said "they must have been hungry for to chaw up seven-and-six.
--> For I knew I'd half a sovereign." "That's right," says Mary Jane,
--> "And they chawed it down to half-a-crown, oh the mice are at it again."
* VideoGame.{{Toonstruck}}: There is a pesky mouse running around and causing trouble in the tavern. It even nibbles on the Barman (who is an [[AnthropomorphicFood anthropomorphic hunk of cheese]].) The Barman hates the idea of hurting the mouse, but he's still so fed up with it that he offers a reward to anyone who can get rid of it.
* The WesternAnimation.ChipNDaleRescueRangers episode "Catteries Not Included" has Dale and Monty dare to visit Cat Alley to see if any cat knows the whereabouts of the missing kitten Spunky. To their great surprise, Dale and Monty find that Cat Alley is overrun by mice, who have turned it into a party-land playground. The most intel the two Rangers glean from these mice is that all the cats disappeared two nights ago, and have been unseen since.
* WesternAnimation.HeyDuggee: [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin True to their title]], the Naughty Mice often purloin things and play practical jokes on others. They also dress and talk like stereotypical "bad boys".
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Mouse-based videogame enemies]]
* VideoGame.CoolSpot: In "Off the Wall" and "Back to the Wall", there are pajama-clad mouse enemies who attack Spot by [[EdibleAmmunition tossing pieces of cheese at him]].
* The final biome in VideoGame.{{Hades}} features mice both big and small as enemies. The small mice attack as a swarm but take little damage to kill, making them a soft check on whether or not the player has a dash boon. The large mice have a fair amount of health, attack, and drop poison on the ground when they are attacked that does not damage to the player.
** This section also has a mini-boss called "Tiny Vermin" that is as small as the normal mice but has a bite equivalent to the big mice. It also can summon big mice to fight against you. It is arguably the hardest mini-boss in the biome.
* Several mouse-based Franchise.{{Pokemon}} tend to fit this bill according to their Pokedex entries. [[ComMons Rattata-line]] having rather annoying reputation, and [[SeriesMascot Pikachu-line]] having tendencies to [[ShockAndAwe shock people literally]] are two of these.
* The Franchise.SonicTheHedgehog games have various robot mice enemies created by [[BigBad Dr. Eggman]]. Specifically:
** In [[VideoGame.Sonic3AndKnuckles Sonic and Knuckles]], the Technosqueek enemy resembles a computer mouse and inhabits [[AirborneAircraftCarrier Flying Battery Zone]]. He scurries back and forth across the floor or ceiling.
** In [[VideoGame.Sonic3DFlickiesIsland Sonic 3D Blast]], the Mouse enemy inhabits [[EternalEngine Gene Gadget Zone]]. He [[OneWheeledWonder stands on one wheel]] and moves around in an erratic motion, only harming Sonic if the hedgehog runs into him.
** In VideoGame.SonicAdvance2, the Mouse enemy inhabits [[SpaceStation Egg Utopia]] if the game is set to the normal difficulty. He scurries back and forth, charging at the player if they get close to him.
* Franchise.SuperMarioBros: One of the bosses from VideoGame.SuperMarioBros2 is a mouse named Mouser who tosses [[CartoonBomb bombs]] at the player. To defeat him, the player must catch the bombs and [[HoistByHisOwnPetard toss them right back at him]] [[RuleOfThree thrice]].
* VideoGame.WarioLand4: One of the bosses, Aerodent, is a mouse ghost that pilots a giant floating teddy bear. It drops pin enemies to attack Wario.
* VideoGame.YokaiWatch: Phantasmurai (and its recolor Spooklunk) is a boss fight who attacks the player. Whenever it's weakened, it's revealed that it's actually being controlled by a mouse.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Other mice in antagonistic roles]]
* WesternAnimation.{{Epic}}: After she shrinks to Leafman height, MJ discovers the dangers of the forest when she and Nod are both attacked by a deer mouse, which is giant from their perspective.
* Literature.TheGruffalo: Invoked. In the first book, the mouse lies that he's TheDreaded so he can scare the Gruffalo off, and it works when he claims that he loves to eat Gruffalo crumble. By the second book, the Gruffalo has given him the moniker "the Big Bad Mouse". Subverted, however, as the mouse is actually harmless.
* WesternAnimation.GoliathII: [[ElephantsAreScaredOfMice All elephants fear mice]], which one particular mouse exploits for [[ItAmusedMe a cheap laugh]] because he thinks it's hilarious to scare people.
[[folder:Western Animation]]
* WesternAnimation.LooneyTunes:
** Hubie and Bertie, a duo of mice created by Creator.ChuckJones, have psychologically manipulated Claude the Cat in two cartoons; "WesternAnimation.MouseWreckers" (playing pranks on him to drive him insane to the point of leaving) and "The Hypo-Chondri-Cat" (where they trick him into thinking that he has gotten sick).
** "Snow Business" features a starving mouse who attempts to eat Sylvester in a reversal of the "cat trying to eat a mouse" cliché.
** The Unexpected Pest has Sylvester [[MonsterProtectionRacket catching the same mouse over and over again]] to prove that he's still of use to his owners. The mouse eventually catches on to the fact that Sylvester needs him to stay alive, and he starts [[StopOrIShootMyself intentionally endangering himself]] (hopping into Sylvester's mouth, jumping off of a shelf, etc.) and otherwise breaking things around the house just to sabotage Sylvester's efforts.
* WesternAnimation.TheTwistedTalesOfFelixTheCat: Skidoo the mouse is a real troublemaker. Depending on the episode, he can be a mischievous trickster or even an outright antagonist. For example, in "The Maltese Milkshake," when Felix says [[LeaningOnTheFourthWall he has a dream sequence coming up]], Skidoo is more than eager to knock him unconscious with a mallet.
* WesternAnimation.{{Superfriends}}: The episode "Professor Goodfellow's G.E.E.C." has an inventor create a supercomputer that can automate any machine normally operated by humans. The Super Friends are skeptical at first, but the device demonstrates itself more than capable of any task. Things go wrong when a mouse gets into the circuitry, generating increasingly worrisome errors that cause automated machines to go haywire.
* The titular Jerry from WesternAnimation.TomAndJerry tends to flip flop between NiceMice[[note]](dealing with Tom's bad behavior, helping out others, etc.)[[.note]] to this trope [[note]](harassing Tom and making him suffer just for his own sick kicks, which is more apparent in the infamous Creator.GeneDeitch cartoons)[[.note]] on a regular basis.
[[/folder]]
* Mice as villains: 17/69 = 24.6%
* Mice as jerks: 8/69 = 11.6%
* Mice as thieves: 15/69 = 21.7%
* Mice as pranksters: 10/69 = 14.5%
* Mice as game enemies: 10/69 = 14.5%
* Other mice: 9/69 = 13%
Only 21 crosswicks have been made, so I checked all except for the laconic and Image Source. They break down thusly:
[[folder:Thusly:]]
* EekAMouse: Zero-context see-also.
* HiddenEvil: Zero context or description.
* RodentTropes: "Mice that are often depicted as troublemakers or even outright villains."
* ScaryAnimalsIndex: "Mice that are portrayed in a more antagonistic light than NiceMice."
* SubvertedInnocence: Restates above description and describes mice as potentially "mischievous, scheming, greedy, sneaky or even evil."
* TheJerkIndex: Mice stealing food.
* TheTrickster: Zero context or description.
* YouDirtyRat: Zero-context see-also.
* ComicBook.TreceRueDelPercebe: Sadist mouse who tortures a cat.
* Literature.TheStoryOfMissMoppet: A mouse makes fun of a cat.
* PlayingWith.NiceMice: Stated to be an inversion, no context, beyond that.
* Recap.GarfieldAndFriendsS3E11: A mouse torments a cat without causing serious harm.
* Recap.GarfieldAndFriendsS4E02: Mice steal food.
* VideoGame.BonkersSega: A mouse villain tries to set off a bomb, listed under YouDirtyRat as "a mean mouse example".
* VideoGame.CoolSpot: Mouse-based game enemies, attack by throwing cheese.
* VideoGame.Grow: "There's a mouse acting like a thief." No further context.
* VideoGame.Sonic3AndKnuckles: Game enemies resembling computer mice, patrol ledges.
* VideoGame.Sonic3DFlickiesIsland: Game enemies resembling mice, move inside wheels and cause collision damage.
* WesternAnimation/ScaredyCat: Mice are "vicious, heartless murderers".
[[/folder]]
Since there are only nineteen examples here and four lack any context to work with, there isn't really enough material to analyze beyond noting the same erratic spread of content ranging from "ledge-patrolling game enemies" to "food thieves" to "vicious, heartless murderers".
There are some obvious identity problems going on here. First off, the scope of this trope as-is is extremely varied, covering things like "mouse serving as a major antagonistic who is trying to take over the world/kill the heroes", "mouse who is abrasive and personally unpleasant", "mouse who is a mischievous prankster", "mouse who is a heroic thief", "wild mouse is dangerous to lilliputian people", and "mouse-based video game enemy who moves back and forth on a ledge". There really isn't any unifying thread here beyond "this mouse serves as some kind of opponent or obstacle for some entity in the story". Additionally, a number of examples, such as WesternAnimation/TheGreatMouseDetective, WesternAnimation/TheSecretOfNIMH, WesternAnimation/TomAndJerryTheMagicRing and WesternAnimation/MickeyMouse, are of works where all or most characters are mice or similar rodents, which makes them seem less like some form of deliberate animal-personality association and a more a coincidental case where a cast composed primarily of a given type of animals will end up having multiple personality types and characterizations among those animals. Is it really all that notable, for instance, that Ratigan is an evil mouse when every other character in the movie is also a mouse, including the explicitly non-evil ones? It just doesn't strike me as a valid example of a theoretical "mice are evil" trope than the presence of a human villain in all-human cast is a valid example of HumansAreBastards.
My suggestion is to just ditch the moral aspect entirely. "This animal but evil and/or antagonistic and/or inconvenient" is not a trope, and this kind of wastebasket taxonomy has been a definite issue with animal tropes recently. The examples describing mice as food thieves or wily tricksters do seems to describe a valid trope, but we'd first need to decide how much it overlaps with ResourcefulRodent, and specifically whether or not it's worth keeping separate. If we decide that yes, the two things are worth keeping apart, then I'd say to cut out all of the examples from the "Mice as villains", "Mice as jerks", "Mice as game enemies" and "Mice as random opponents" sections and refocus this around the "Mice as thieves" and "Mice as pranksters" ones. If we decide that no, this should be folded under ResourcefulRodent, then we can just move the relevant examples there and redirect or disambig the page.
----
The description, to being with, seems to try to contain several unrelated subjects. It starts by saying that "mice are more often than not portrayed as the [[NiceMice good guys]]" and then, immediately after, that "mice are also likely to be portrayed in fiction as antagonists, or at least as very unwelcome pests". The first paragraph then mostly talks about ways in which mice are viewed as unwelcome, gross or frightening, and mentions the trope EekAMouse and real-life mouse phobias as evidence of this.
The second paragraph describes mice as being characterized as "mischievous, scheming, and greedy", and how they often antagonize cats, whether they are provoked or not. It then says that this may involve ResourcefulRodent if he mice are clever and resourceful, but there isn't a obvious transition. It then switches back to talking about how mice like to scare people for laughs. The next section also mentions ElephantsAreScaredOfMice.
The laconic is "Mice are troublemakers, pranksters, or generally annoying."
Given the description and laconic, the trope seems to have some difficulty deciding whether it's about mice being pranksters and tricksters, mice being evil, or mice being seen as gross.
The example check comes out thus:
[[foldercontrol]]
[[folder:Mice are serious villains or explicitly evil]]
* Manga.{{Beastars}}: A bunch of mice decide to join together to form one big super mouse and become a feared criminal. They were defeated by [[BigGood Yafya]] and are now some of his most trusted subordinates.
* Anime.GregoryHorrorShow: Gregory and his family are anthropomorphic mice, and most of them fit this trope to some degree.
** PlayedForHorror with Gregory himself. He is the owner of a HellHotel, which is basically {{Purgatory}}, and he uses psychological manipulation, and his violent hotel guests, to keep anyone from leaving. He is also physically and verbally abusive to Neko Zombie, a cat who he keeps locked up in the hotel. Despite this, his attitude is usually very whimsical. He likes to speak [[FauxAffablyEvil in a very formal way, as if he was just a regular hotel owner]]. His dialogue is often cryptic as if he knows a lot more than he lets on. His SignatureLaugh is high-pitched and sneaky as well.
** Also PlayedForHorror with James, Gregory's BrattyHalfPint grandson. He hates the Second Guest so much that he attempts [[DeadlyPrank deadly pranks]] on her, such as giving her a box containing [[PerversePuppet Lost Doll]]. And he does it all with the attitude of [[KidsAreCruel an annoying, petulant child]].
** Averted with Gregory Mama, who is straight-up malevolent with few trickster qualities, if any. She's a WickedWitch who collects people's souls. She claims that she does this to stay young-looking, although it's debatable how effective this is, as she still looks like a deranged old lady.
* Animation.PakdamPakdai: Charly, Marly, and Larry are a trio of mice who, much like the titular cockroaches from WesternAnimation.OggyAndTheCockroaches, constantly make the life of Don the dog a living hell on a regular basis.
* WesternAnimation.TheGreatMouseDetective: {{Invoked|Trope}}; Ratigan [[BerserkButton loathes]] being called a rat and [[InsistentTerminology insists that he's just a "big mouse"]] (which he actually was in the original book). He really is a rat, though, and he's a {{sadist}} who's proud of the fact that he has drowned widows and [[WouldHurtAChild orphans]].
* Music.TheAquabats: "Idiot Box!" from Return of the Aquabats! features an unflattering reference to Mickey Mouse.
-->Children, I wanna warn ya\\
'Cause I've been to California\\
Where Mickey Mouse is a demon!
* Theatre.TheNutcracker: The primary antagonist is the Mouse King. In some versions, he is changed to the [[YouDirtyRat Rat King]], presumably to conform better to the audience's expectations.
* VideoGame.BonkersSeg: [[MisterBig Mr. Big]] (from the [[WesternAnimation.{{Bonkers}} TV series]] episode "Hamster Houseguest") is a mouse who is one of ToonTown's four most wanted criminals. He has set up a bomb set to explode in the warehouse, and since Fall-Apart Rabbit is trying to defuse the bomb, Mr. Big has hidden Fall-Apart's pieces in crates. He also has mouse henchmen who try to stop Bonkers from collecting Fall-Apart's pieces.
* VideoGame.SlyCooperThievesInTime: [[spoiler:[[BitchInSheepsClothing Penelope]], [[EvilAllAlong Penelope]], '[[TheSociopath Penelope]]'. Murder, greed, manipulation, warmongering, and, of course, treason, makes her one of the most odious enemies the Cooper Gang has faced.]]
[[folder:Western Animation]]
* WesternAnimation.LooneyTunes:
** In "We, The Animals... Squeak!", a guest on Porky Pig's radio show is a cat known as "Kansas City Kitty" who relates how she had to deal with some ruthless gangster mice who held her son hostage in order to force her to let them have the run of the house.
** "WesternAnimation.CannedFeud" features a sadistic mouse who tries everything he can to deprive Sylvester of the can opener needed to open some cat food, [[TheBadGuyWins and ultimately succeeds]]. Why? [[ForTheEvulz Because he can]].
** "WesternAnimation.ScaredyCat" and "WesternAnimation.ClawsForAlarm", both directed by Chuck Jones, feature evil mice who try to kill Porky and Sylvester. The former cartoon provides the page image.
* WesternAnimation.PinkyAndTheBrain: The Brain, has, well, a genetically-enhanced brain and plots to [[WorldDomination take over the world]]. One zany plot involved Brain operating a giant human-suit robot and getting onto a quiz show, hoping to win cash to fund his latest weapon. However, [[EvenEvilHasStandards even he has some lines he won't cross]].
* WesternAnimation.TheSimpsons: Itchy, one of the titular characters from the ShowWithinAShow, WesternAnimation.TheItchyAndScratchyShow, is a heartless and mischievous little bastard who gets a kick out of mutilating or killing Scratchy in ways that would make [[WesternAnimation.TomAndJerry Jerry]] or even [[WesternAnimation.HermanAndKatnip Herman]] sick to their stomachs.
* WesternAnimation.SouthPark: WesternAnimation.MickeyMouse is portrayed as a CorruptCorporateExecutive that doesn't see anything wrong in selling sex to underage girls. And when Music.TheJonasBrothers start getting cold feet, [[BadBoss he beats the crap out of them]].
* WesternAnimation.WonderPets: In "Save the Nutcracker!", [[Theatre.TheNutcracker the Mouse King]] steals the Wonder Pets' nutcracker out of greed. [[HeelFaceTurn He apologizes and returns it to them]] once they show him that he's already got a lot to be grateful for.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Mice are jerks or otherwise personally unpleasant]]
* ComicStrip.KrazyKat: Ignatz isn't the friendliest mouse you'll meet. He has a personal dislike of Krazy, who has a crush on him and is unaware of what he truly feels about the cat, and tosses bricks at Krazy's head which the latter takes as a sign of affection. This usually results in him getting arrested by Officer Bull Pupp.
* WesternAnimation.TheSecretOfNIMH: Martin is a mouse, as well as a BrattyHalfPint who has no trouble mouthing off to Auntie Shrew. [[WesternAnimation.TheSecretOfNIMH2TimmyToTheRescue The sequel]] even has him [[BeingTorturedMakesYouEvil suffer experiments that lead to him becoming a villain]] who desires to have the whole of Thorn Valley destroyed ForTheEvulz, though [[spoiler:his brainwashing is undone at the end]].
* WesternAnimation.TomAndJerryTheMagicRing: Freddie and Joey are mice who are [[TheBully bullies]]. In their [[EstablishingCharacterMoment very first scene]], they frighten Nibbles with a picture of a cat [[ItAmusedMe for fun]].
* Film.{{Babe}}: Downplayed with the three singing mice who serve as a GreekChorus to the movie. They don't affect the plot but tend to giggle mischievously when Babe is about to get in trouble (although they are sad and respectful when introducing the chapter when Ma dies).
* Tiktoker [[https:..www.tiktok.com.@tal_on Talon-tal]] portrays WesternAnimation.MickeyMouse as a complete {{jerkass}} with a mouth full of ClusterFBomb and a HairTriggerTemper that can hit hard to the ones who bother him, like Goofy, Donald and even his girlfriend Minnie, becoming a sensation on the internet with videos like [[https:..www.tiktok.com.@tal_on.video.6987479591120047365 this one]].
* WesternAnimation.GarfieldAndFriends: In "[[Recap.GarfieldAndFriendsS3E11 Rodent Rampage]]", Floyd's cousin Tyrone comes to visit and is surprised when he discovers that Garfield doesn't chase mice, so he takes advantage of this by taking over Jon's house. Once Jon discovers Tyrone, he tries to get Garfield to catch him by [[FoodAsBribe bribing him with sausage lasagna]]. Tryone takes every step to ensure that Garfield doesn't catch him, such as putting him through traps and even feeding him [[BlazingInfernoHellfireSauce tabasco sauce]]. Even Floyd, who is usually nice to Garfield, understanding of his predicaments, and has defended him against the Kitty Council and mice who were taking advantage of him in the past, [[JerkassBall does nothing to stop Tyrone and even goes along with him]].
* WesternAnimation.HermanAndKatnip: Herman. A majority of the things that he commits towards Katnip are much more over-the-top, mean-spirited, and brutal than [[WesternAnimation.TomAndJerry Jerry]]'s brand of retaliation.
* WesternAnimation.MickeyMouse: Mortimer Mouse, one of Mickey's rivals, is everything the latter is not: arrogant, rude, cocky, sexist, and scheming.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Mice are thieves]]
* ComicBook.TheBeano: The Nibblers are a group of anthropomorphous mice who like stealing food. Their home's owner Porky and his cat would try and fail to stop them every time.
* ComicBook.TheDandy: Korky the Cat sometimes has to deal with mice who keep raiding his larder and stealing food.
* WesternAnimation.RobinRobin has a slightly more benevolent example than most. Dad Mouse and his four mouse children often steal food from human homes. They're not greedy, they only take what they need to survive, but they do take pride in how good they are at sneaking around. They even sing a musical number about it called "[[https:..youtu.be.tRHHZ_oyJE4 The Sneak Song]]". The protagonist, Robin, is a robin adopted by the Mouse family. She is terrible at being stealthy, which makes her feel bad. She wishes she was more like the mice until she learns to [[BeYourself be herself]] at the end.
* The Squeaks from VideoGame.KirbySqueakSquad are a group of thieving mice responsible for kicking off the plot by purloining Kirby's slice of strawberry shortcake. [[HeelFaceTurn They do realize the error of their ways]], though, and make amends with Kirby by giving him another slice at the end of the game and assisting him in VideoGame.KirbyMassAttack.
* Literature.{{Redwall}}: Gonff the self-titled Prince of Mousethieves, while not evil by any stretch of the imagination, is a LovableRogue who was first introduced in the book Mossflower stealing food from the antagonists, JustLikeRobinHood. In a later book, it is revealed that he has an entire tribe of descendants who are all also thieves.
* Franchise.SuperMarioBros:
** Little Mousers are a masked species of mice, with roles often involving some form of theft.
** VideoGame.PaperMarioTheThousandYearDoor: Ms. Mowz is a flirtatious and highly effective badge thief. In battle, one of her moves allows her to steal an enemy's items.
** VideoGame.MarioParty8: Mowz appears on King Boo's Haunted Hideaway, running a roulette-like game. If the player successfully pockets a ball in either the star, coin, or candy slot, Mowz will steal the corresponding asset from another player. He also appears on Shy Guy's Perplex Express as a suspect in stealing Holly Koopa's Candy, hiding in one of the three-to-five train cars.
* The VideoGame.RhythmHeaven game "Rat Race" features three mice who make their way across a large table in order to get at a giant piece of cheese seemingly left unguarded. They have to be careful not to let a very watchful black cat catch them.
* VideoGame.YoshisIsland: Little Mousers are a masked species of mice. In most appearances, their role is to steal eggs (or balls of yarn) from the player character.
* [[WesternAnimation.JoeOrioloFelixTheCat Felix the Cat]]: The episode, "[[Recap.JoeOrioloFelixTheCat1x34TheMouseAndFelix The Mouse and Felix]]", features a mouse who ransacks Felix's house to steal his food and outsmarts him at every chance he gets. [[spoiler:However, it's revealed that he's been taking Felix's food to care for his children, so Felix makes him feel welcome into his home]].
* WesternAnimation.GarfieldAndFriends: In "Trial and Error", two mice named Elmo and Ferd love to steal food. They nab Garfield's pie, which Odie gets blamed for.
[[folder:Western Animation]]
* WesternAnimation.LooneyTunes:
** "Stooge for a Mouse" has a mouse who tries to get some cheese from a nearby table. How? By sabotaging the friendship between Sylvester and a bulldog named Mike. Unlike the mouse in "Canned Feud", who [[KarmaHoudini got away scot-free with starving Sylvester to death]], he gets his comeuppance in the end.
** Creator.TexAvery's early short Ain't We Got Fun revolves around mice who raid an old man's pantry and then frame it on his cat.
* The WesternAnimation.PinkPanther cartoon "Pink-A-Boo" has a pesky mouse abscond some supplies from Pink's home, often right under his nose. Later, this mouse is joined by a platoon of guest mice, and they start a loud party in the MouseHole in the panther's living room.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Mice are tricksters, pranksters or troublemakers]]
* Anime.{{Voltron}}: The Space Mice were a heroic version of this. They would very much play tricks on the space explorers, particularly liking to harass Pidge. This actually becomes a plot point at the start of the series when Pidge realizes the mice are able to move around the castle at will and most likely were the ones who pilfered the Black Lion's activation key. Once they return it, they become a lot more tame, but their mischievous natures do allow them to cause the occasional amount of trouble for Zarkon's forces when they manage to get into the Castle of Lions from time to time.
* ComicStrip.{{Garfield}}: While Garfield is actually more into befriending mice rather than chasing and eating them, sometimes the mice will actually mess with him, such as giving him a makeover when he sticks his head in their mouse hole.
* Literature.ThereIsNoEpicLootHereOnlyPuns: One of Delta's puzzles involves a mess-making mouse.
* Film.MouseHunt: The titular rodent is the source of all of Lars and Ernie's problems and outsmarts them at every turn. [[spoiler:He reforms at the end of the film when he gets a new job as a cheese tester in the brothers' new cheese factory]].
* Film.StayTuned zigzags the trope. At one point, Roy and Helen Knable, jumping around on Hellivision's channels, find themselves in an animated show as cartoon mice. At that point, Roy helps himself to a donut "the size of a Buick". Then they're pursued by a cartoon robot cat, and they spend their time dodging, evading, and using every cartoon trope in the books, from dropping a dryer in a bathtub with the robot feline to saying "Don't Try This At Home." Much of what they do, though, is drawn from their own knowledge of cartoon mice, so that it's not that they're being deliberately mischievous, but that they're just doing what they know. All of it was done by the great Creator.ChuckJones.
* Literature.{{Anatole}}: Anatole the mouse is most upset when he overhears a family talking about how terrible mice are for scrounging food, so he secretly sets himself up as taster at a cheese factory, leaving little signs on the different cheeses. With Anatole's cunning methods, business booms at the factory; but he keeps his identity as a mouse very secret.
* A traditional Irish song, "The Mice Are At It Again", is about a guy who lives in a run-down rooming house, and is bedeviled by the resident mice. Not-entirely-accurate lyrics [[https:..mudcat.org.@displaysong.cfm?SongID=6706 can be found at mudcat.org]].
--> "Well last week I earned some overtime and like a big fat-head
--> I hung my trousers at the foot when I got into bed.
--> The next morning when I awoke I found I had been dunned.
--> I asked the Mrs. about it and she says "it's ten to one
--> That the mice are at it again, oh, been up to their tricks."
--> I said "they must have been hungry for to chaw up seven-and-six.
--> For I knew I'd half a sovereign." "That's right," says Mary Jane,
--> "And they chawed it down to half-a-crown, oh the mice are at it again."
* VideoGame.{{Toonstruck}}: There is a pesky mouse running around and causing trouble in the tavern. It even nibbles on the Barman (who is an [[AnthropomorphicFood anthropomorphic hunk of cheese]].) The Barman hates the idea of hurting the mouse, but he's still so fed up with it that he offers a reward to anyone who can get rid of it.
* The WesternAnimation.ChipNDaleRescueRangers episode "Catteries Not Included" has Dale and Monty dare to visit Cat Alley to see if any cat knows the whereabouts of the missing kitten Spunky. To their great surprise, Dale and Monty find that Cat Alley is overrun by mice, who have turned it into a party-land playground. The most intel the two Rangers glean from these mice is that all the cats disappeared two nights ago, and have been unseen since.
* WesternAnimation.HeyDuggee: [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin True to their title]], the Naughty Mice often purloin things and play practical jokes on others. They also dress and talk like stereotypical "bad boys".
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Mouse-based videogame enemies]]
* VideoGame.CoolSpot: In "Off the Wall" and "Back to the Wall", there are pajama-clad mouse enemies who attack Spot by [[EdibleAmmunition tossing pieces of cheese at him]].
* The final biome in VideoGame.{{Hades}} features mice both big and small as enemies. The small mice attack as a swarm but take little damage to kill, making them a soft check on whether or not the player has a dash boon. The large mice have a fair amount of health, attack, and drop poison on the ground when they are attacked that does not damage to the player.
** This section also has a mini-boss called "Tiny Vermin" that is as small as the normal mice but has a bite equivalent to the big mice. It also can summon big mice to fight against you. It is arguably the hardest mini-boss in the biome.
* Several mouse-based Franchise.{{Pokemon}} tend to fit this bill according to their Pokedex entries. [[ComMons Rattata-line]] having rather annoying reputation, and [[SeriesMascot Pikachu-line]] having tendencies to [[ShockAndAwe shock people literally]] are two of these.
* The Franchise.SonicTheHedgehog games have various robot mice enemies created by [[BigBad Dr. Eggman]]. Specifically:
** In [[VideoGame.Sonic3AndKnuckles Sonic and Knuckles]], the Technosqueek enemy resembles a computer mouse and inhabits [[AirborneAircraftCarrier Flying Battery Zone]]. He scurries back and forth across the floor or ceiling.
** In [[VideoGame.Sonic3DFlickiesIsland Sonic 3D Blast]], the Mouse enemy inhabits [[EternalEngine Gene Gadget Zone]]. He [[OneWheeledWonder stands on one wheel]] and moves around in an erratic motion, only harming Sonic if the hedgehog runs into him.
** In VideoGame.SonicAdvance2, the Mouse enemy inhabits [[SpaceStation Egg Utopia]] if the game is set to the normal difficulty. He scurries back and forth, charging at the player if they get close to him.
* Franchise.SuperMarioBros: One of the bosses from VideoGame.SuperMarioBros2 is a mouse named Mouser who tosses [[CartoonBomb bombs]] at the player. To defeat him, the player must catch the bombs and [[HoistByHisOwnPetard toss them right back at him]] [[RuleOfThree thrice]].
* VideoGame.WarioLand4: One of the bosses, Aerodent, is a mouse ghost that pilots a giant floating teddy bear. It drops pin enemies to attack Wario.
* VideoGame.YokaiWatch: Phantasmurai (and its recolor Spooklunk) is a boss fight who attacks the player. Whenever it's weakened, it's revealed that it's actually being controlled by a mouse.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Other mice in antagonistic roles]]
* WesternAnimation.{{Epic}}: After she shrinks to Leafman height, MJ discovers the dangers of the forest when she and Nod are both attacked by a deer mouse, which is giant from their perspective.
* Literature.TheGruffalo: Invoked. In the first book, the mouse lies that he's TheDreaded so he can scare the Gruffalo off, and it works when he claims that he loves to eat Gruffalo crumble. By the second book, the Gruffalo has given him the moniker "the Big Bad Mouse". Subverted, however, as the mouse is actually harmless.
* WesternAnimation.GoliathII: [[ElephantsAreScaredOfMice All elephants fear mice]], which one particular mouse exploits for [[ItAmusedMe a cheap laugh]] because he thinks it's hilarious to scare people.
[[folder:Western Animation]]
* WesternAnimation.LooneyTunes:
** Hubie and Bertie, a duo of mice created by Creator.ChuckJones, have psychologically manipulated Claude the Cat in two cartoons; "WesternAnimation.MouseWreckers" (playing pranks on him to drive him insane to the point of leaving) and "The Hypo-Chondri-Cat" (where they trick him into thinking that he has gotten sick).
** "Snow Business" features a starving mouse who attempts to eat Sylvester in a reversal of the "cat trying to eat a mouse" cliché.
** The Unexpected Pest has Sylvester [[MonsterProtectionRacket catching the same mouse over and over again]] to prove that he's still of use to his owners. The mouse eventually catches on to the fact that Sylvester needs him to stay alive, and he starts [[StopOrIShootMyself intentionally endangering himself]] (hopping into Sylvester's mouth, jumping off of a shelf, etc.) and otherwise breaking things around the house just to sabotage Sylvester's efforts.
* WesternAnimation.TheTwistedTalesOfFelixTheCat: Skidoo the mouse is a real troublemaker. Depending on the episode, he can be a mischievous trickster or even an outright antagonist. For example, in "The Maltese Milkshake," when Felix says [[LeaningOnTheFourthWall he has a dream sequence coming up]], Skidoo is more than eager to knock him unconscious with a mallet.
* WesternAnimation.{{Superfriends}}: The episode "Professor Goodfellow's G.E.E.C." has an inventor create a supercomputer that can automate any machine normally operated by humans. The Super Friends are skeptical at first, but the device demonstrates itself more than capable of any task. Things go wrong when a mouse gets into the circuitry, generating increasingly worrisome errors that cause automated machines to go haywire.
* The titular Jerry from WesternAnimation.TomAndJerry tends to flip flop between NiceMice[[note]](dealing with Tom's bad behavior, helping out others, etc.)[[.note]] to this trope [[note]](harassing Tom and making him suffer just for his own sick kicks, which is more apparent in the infamous Creator.GeneDeitch cartoons)[[.note]] on a regular basis.
[[/folder]]
* Mice as villains: 17/69 = 24.6%
* Mice as jerks: 8/69 = 11.6%
* Mice as thieves: 15/69 = 21.7%
* Mice as pranksters: 10/69 = 14.5%
* Mice as game enemies: 10/69 = 14.5%
* Other mice: 9/69 = 13%
Only 21 crosswicks have been made, so I checked all except for the laconic and Image Source. They break down thusly:
[[folder:Thusly:]]
* EekAMouse: Zero-context see-also.
* HiddenEvil: Zero context or description.
* RodentTropes: "Mice that are often depicted as troublemakers or even outright villains."
* ScaryAnimalsIndex: "Mice that are portrayed in a more antagonistic light than NiceMice."
* SubvertedInnocence: Restates above description and describes mice as potentially "mischievous, scheming, greedy, sneaky or even evil."
* TheJerkIndex: Mice stealing food.
* TheTrickster: Zero context or description.
* YouDirtyRat: Zero-context see-also.
* ComicBook.TreceRueDelPercebe: Sadist mouse who tortures a cat.
* Literature.TheStoryOfMissMoppet: A mouse makes fun of a cat.
* PlayingWith.NiceMice: Stated to be an inversion, no context, beyond that.
* Recap.GarfieldAndFriendsS3E11: A mouse torments a cat without causing serious harm.
* Recap.GarfieldAndFriendsS4E02: Mice steal food.
* VideoGame.BonkersSega: A mouse villain tries to set off a bomb, listed under YouDirtyRat as "a mean mouse example".
* VideoGame.CoolSpot: Mouse-based game enemies, attack by throwing cheese.
* VideoGame.Grow: "There's a mouse acting like a thief." No further context.
* VideoGame.Sonic3AndKnuckles: Game enemies resembling computer mice, patrol ledges.
* VideoGame.Sonic3DFlickiesIsland: Game enemies resembling mice, move inside wheels and cause collision damage.
* WesternAnimation/ScaredyCat: Mice are "vicious, heartless murderers".
[[/folder]]
Since there are only nineteen examples here and four lack any context to work with, there isn't really enough material to analyze beyond noting the same erratic spread of content ranging from "ledge-patrolling game enemies" to "food thieves" to "vicious, heartless murderers".
There are some obvious identity problems going on here. First off, the scope of this trope as-is is extremely varied, covering things like "mouse serving as a major antagonistic who is trying to take over the world/kill the heroes", "mouse who is abrasive and personally unpleasant", "mouse who is a mischievous prankster", "mouse who is a heroic thief", "wild mouse is dangerous to lilliputian people", and "mouse-based video game enemy who moves back and forth on a ledge". There really isn't any unifying thread here beyond "this mouse serves as some kind of opponent or obstacle for some entity in the story". Additionally, a number of examples, such as WesternAnimation/TheGreatMouseDetective, WesternAnimation/TheSecretOfNIMH, WesternAnimation/TomAndJerryTheMagicRing and WesternAnimation/MickeyMouse, are of works where all or most characters are mice or similar rodents, which makes them seem less like some form of deliberate animal-personality association and a more a coincidental case where a cast composed primarily of a given type of animals will end up having multiple personality types and characterizations among those animals. Is it really all that notable, for instance, that Ratigan is an evil mouse when every other character in the movie is also a mouse, including the explicitly non-evil ones? It just doesn't strike me as a valid example of a theoretical "mice are evil" trope than the presence of a human villain in all-human cast is a valid example of HumansAreBastards.
My suggestion is to just ditch the moral aspect entirely. "This animal but evil and/or antagonistic and/or inconvenient" is not a trope, and this kind of wastebasket taxonomy has been a definite issue with animal tropes recently. The examples describing mice as food thieves or wily tricksters do seems to describe a valid trope, but we'd first need to decide how much it overlaps with ResourcefulRodent, and specifically whether or not it's worth keeping separate. If we decide that yes, the two things are worth keeping apart, then I'd say to cut out all of the examples from the "Mice as villains", "Mice as jerks", "Mice as game enemies" and "Mice as random opponents" sections and refocus this around the "Mice as thieves" and "Mice as pranksters" ones. If we decide that no, this should be folded under ResourcefulRodent, then we can just move the relevant examples there and redirect or disambig the page.
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