The Playing Cards are characters featured in the 1936 Mickey Mouse animated short Thru the Mirror. They are anthropomorphic cards that Mickey Mouse encounters when he travels via mirror.
Background
Physical appearance
Most playing cards have a transparent white coloration on the front view of their body; however, their back views have a dark blue coloration. Hence their names, most of the playing cards are shown with the common symbols (ace, heart, diamond, or spade) and colors (black or red) seen on the cards with number values printed on them. While most cards have these symbols or values on their body, other card types can contain illustrations of humans engraved on them such as a Queen Card, Joker Card, or King Card. Like most of the residents that Mickey encounters when he travels via mirror, they are shown to have anthropomorphic characteristics in having human-like arms and legs.
Appearances
Thru the Mirror
Amongst the various objects Mickey Mouse encounters are a set of playing cards after a Telephone flings him to the area where the cards are lying down. All of a sudden, the cards come to life, marching and following Mickey's commands, just as they dance and shuffle together. As Mickey happily interacts with the cards, he encounters a Queen Card where he dances with her. Later, a Joker Card warns a King Card that Mickey is dancing with the Queen, much to the King's shock. As the King sees Mickey dance with the Queen, he approaches Mickey and confronts him, arming himself with a pair of swords, trying to fight him off. Mickey then grabs a needle which he uses as a weapon to fight against the King in combat, which he back him into ink but not before a rubber stamp rubs the ink out of him, much to the King's shock. Both illustrations of the King began shouting, "Call out the cards!", just as the Radio gives out an alert that the cards are being summoned under the King's orders.
All of a sudden, the cards hear the alerts given by the King and the Radio's reports - those on the throne and on a drawer coming to life, chasing Mickey in the form of a mob. Seeing the cards nearby, Mickey uses a fountain pen as a weapon to spray ink onto the incoming cards to repel them. As they get too close, they pile him together, only for Mickey to evade the cards. Just the cards continue to chase after Mickey, they begin to use their symbols as weapons by throwing them at him in an all-out ambush. Mickey later turns on a fan to blow them away while the Telephone is calling for the police, only for Mickey to escape the mirror and back to his bedroom, causing him to escape from the rushing cards. The cards are not seen again afterwards.
Video game appearances
Epic Mickey/Epic Mickey: Rebrushed
The Playing Cards appear in the Thru the Mirror projector screen in the first Epic Mickey game and its 2024 remastered version Epic Mickey: Rebrushed. The first deck of cards the player encounters serve as platforms for Mickey to use as an elevator (the player must be quick while jumping on these cards to reach to the shelf before they reach to the bottom part; additionally, the player can also obtain a film reel within said area by using the cards for support). In addition to this, the King Card also appears as an obstacle which the player must avoid as touching his sword can cause the player to lose a health point. The Queen Card also appears in this same spot where the King appears, where jumping on her causes her to twirl. Additionally, another set of anthropomorphic playing cards also appears during the part where Mickey is about to reach the projector screen leading to OsTown. Although the said deck of cards seem quite harmless to Mickey (which does not cause him to receive damage), touching them will cause Mickey to be bounced backwards.
Aside from appearing in the Thru the Mirror projector screen, the Playing Cards also play a major part in the game, appearing as entities that the player can talk to in hub areas. In this game, the cards serve as residents of Mickeyjunk Mountain where they assist Oswald in guarding his sanctuary as well as guarding the bottle containing the Blot. Notable cards that appear in the game include Decker (a five of spades), Jack Trade (a three of spades), and the Ace of Spades (an anthropomorphic ace card) respectively.
Mickey encounters Decker operating a crane planning to open the Mickey Mouse Lunch Box leading to the Piles. He tells the Mickey that the crane where he operates is powered down. In order to power the crane, the player must restore three televisions using Paint. Decker also reminds Mickey that the Bunny Children are not his enemies, despite being obstacles that can slow down the player. Once the player has painted the aforementioned televisions, Decker's crane becomes powered up, just as he opens the Lunch Box for him. Alternatively, the player can also free Gremlin Kip who will help fix the crane which Decker operates, causing him to open the Lunch Box. Either way, neither of these options are bad choices. Once done so, the player will be able to access the projector screen leading to the Piles.
Mickey then encounters Jack Trade who gives Mickey a quest titled "Knock Knock" where he must open a large door leading to Oswald's Sanctuary at Mickeyjunk Mountain. In order to complete the quest, Mickey must either take care of a group of Blotlings using Paint or Thinner to redeem/defeat them or paint in two TV Sketches to provide power in the sanctuary. Either of these two options are neither bad choices. Once done so, Jack opens the door, leading Mickey to said sanctuary.
Furthermore, Mickey encounters the Ace of Spades who serves as Oswald's guard. During his encounter, he tells Mickey that he will not be able to see Oswald unless he completes three tests part of the "Three Challenges" quest (represented by three projector screens of Trolley Troubles, Great Guns, and Oh What a Knight respectively). Once Mickey has done so, the Ace allows Mickey to meet Oswald. Afterwards, the other cards within the Sanctuary cheer for Mickey who completed all three challenges.
Gallery
Trivia
- The only card that spoke in Thru the Mirror is the King Card who shouts, "Call out the cards!".
- When Thru the Mirror was featured in Have a Laugh!, the following scenes where the cards appear were deleted from the short due to time constraints:
- All scenes with Mickey's march with the cards are cut; it shows the radio starting to play the lively number and then cuts to Mickey dancing with the Queen of Hearts card.
- Mickey's duel with the King of Hearts card is cut completely, as well as the latter calling his army of cards; it cuts from the King drawing his swords to the radio "calling all cards".
- Mickey's run from the cards is partially edited: his colliding with a book, his trying to fend them off with a fountain pen, and his trying to hide from them in a sock are all cut.
- Prior to their actual debut in the short Thru the Mirror, the playing cards appeared in a January 1936 issue of a Good Housekeeping magazine as a preview to promote the upcoming short where they appeared in the Thru the Mirror section of the magazine. However, unlike in the short itself, the King Card whom Mickey fought was the King of Spades instead of the King of Hearts.[1]
- The Playing Cards in Epic Mickey originate in the Thru the Mirror short (which in turn became a Projector Screen level); the ones that Mickey talks to in hub areas are the same size as him. Unlike in Thru the Mirror, most of the Playing Cards themselves are equipped with spears resembling that of the Card Soldiers from Alice in Wonderland.
- The crane that Decker uses in the original Wii version of Epic Mickey resembles the one from the 1932 animated short Building a Building, which in turn become a projector screen level in the sequel. The crane Decker was using was slightly redesigned in the Rebrushed version to a more generic-looking crane, making it no longer resemble the crane from Building a Building.
- A few of the cards that appear in Epic Mickey seem to have a dislike on Mickey, which is possibly due to Oswald's influence.
- In Epic Mickey if Mickey uses Paint Thinner on a Playing Card (including the Ace of Spades) and then uses Paint on it to restore to its normal size, either card may change symbols on its body.
References
- ↑ Good Housekeeping January 1936 magazine (Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse in "Thru the Mirror" section; page 37)
External links
