Mighty Mouse To Save the Day
Mighty Mouse
I can’t help it. I just love rodents streaking out of the sky to chase my troubles away.
"Here I come, to save the day!" The words of Mighty Mouse still resonate with me. I loved to sing along. This is one of my all-time favorite cartoons because of the moral and the character of the hero (even if he is a mouse) and the fantasy element. It isn't that he is a flying mouse, although that is fun. It's that right and justice win every time. Evil and injustice run but cannot hide from the right and might of truth. In a world where there is so much darkness, injustice, hopelessness, I think we need a reminder that truth will win the day even if it is only in a cartoon about a mouse.
When I was a little girl, I never missed watching Mighty Mouse on Saturday mornings. My sisters and I would sit up close to the TV (too close according to my mother), and sing along the theme song. We were enthralled for half an hour, and all too soon it was over.
My mother, a small, demure woman, was (and is) a formidable, opinionated force to be reckoned with. She volunteered as a den mother for my sister's Brownie troupe. All the leaders had nicknames but they couldn't think of one for my mother, so we helped. As teenagers, we began calling her Mighty Mouse in jest, but it stuck. At the age of 82, she is still a Mighty Mouse.
I also love that women in these cartoons, are depicted as capable and independent but are also saved, admired, helped and defended. We need more of that in a misogynistic world where much of the time women are disparaged and mistreated, both physically and verbally, and treated like objects instead of persons. Often, when the headlines depress and distress me, it is good to know there is a hope-filled escape where right wins in the end.
Do you think 50's cartoons are better than todays?
Played Live In 1989
Mr. Trouble never hangs around,
When he hears this mighty sound...
"Here I come to save the day!"
That means that Mighty Mouse is on the way.
Yes sir, when there is a wrong to right,
Mighty Mouse will join the fight.
On the sea or on the land,
He gets the situation well in hand.
So though we are in danger,
We never despair,
Cause we know that where there's danger,
He is there!
He is there!
On the land!
On the sea!
In the air!
We're not worryin' at all.
We're just listenin' for his call.
"Here I come to save the day!"
That means that Mighty Mouse is on the way!
Mighty Mouse is well worth having in your library of videos. I have it and love it.
You just HAVE to watch Andy Kaufman sing the Mighty Mouse theme. It will give you a good laugh. He is a scream.
Rescue or Not Rescue
I find it amazing that so many women (or perhaps just the ones that speak loudest) seem to hate the idea of women being weak or needing anyone to rescue them. Perhaps I have romanticized the “knight in shining armor” type sweeping in and saving the day, but I for one, just love the superhero scenario. Of course, I’m pretty self-sufficient; carry my own groceries in from the car, pump my own gas, even fix my own squeaky door hinges, but for everyone (male or female) there comes a time when we need help. That’s when I want my superhero to fly in and save me: when I am presented with a problem or dilemma that I just cannot solve by myself. Let’s face it: Sweet Polly Purebred, Lois Lane, or Pearl in Mighty Mouse adventures, these women had a habit of getting into trouble and needed saving. Not too many of us are regularly dangling off 40 story buildings or jumping out of planes. So I don’t think it is anti-feminist of me at all to absolutely love superheroes like Mighty Mouse, Underdog, or Superman. What do you think?
