Do we like Mickey Mouse?
A character from Steamboat Willie (1928–present)
Our score: 8 out of 10. Yes, we'd back him. He's loyal, optimistic and brave for his size, and his biggest crime is the odd bit of mischief. We'd just ask him to look before he leaps.
Mickey is a small, good-natured mouse who first appeared in the animated short Steamboat Willie in 1928. He's a deckhand on a riverboat run by a bullying cat, and he whistles and plays his way through the job. It was the first widely released Mickey cartoon, and it made him a star.
Over nearly a century of shorts, features and TV, Mickey has been a scrappy troublemaker, a fixer, a detective, a sorcerer's apprentice and the leader of a gang of friends. He keeps an optimistic streak whatever the job. Disney itself has described him as an everyman who struggles like the rest of us but copes with optimism and has fun doing it.
Our score is high because he's likeable and loyal, and he keeps trying. He loses a few points because he's more of an icon than a deep character. His early cheekiness and occasional over-confidence get him into trouble, and the people around him sometimes have to rescue him.