A mom has taken to TikTok to reveal a disturbing observation she had made about Minnie Mouse’s ears. Have you noticed the unsettling animation? Let’s find out why Minnie’s ears do that.
Did you use to watch Mickey Mouse’s Club House as a kid or maybe you watch it now with your own children? If you do have you ever paid any attention to Minnie or Mickey Mouses’ ears?
A mom, while watching Mickey Mouses Clubhouse with her daughter, has noticed the disturbing detail about the animation and has taken to TikTok to share her discovery.
The video has now gone viral and people are now questioning why the ears of the beloved character act in such a peculiar way. Keep reading to find out why.
Unsettling Minnie Mouse ear animation goes viral
Meghan Davis (@meghan.j.davis) gained over 500,000 views, 100,000 likes, and 1,500 comments after she uploaded her unsettling discovery about Minnie Mouse’s ear to her TikTok account.
In the video, which is captioned, “Disney, why do [you] make these choices?”, starts off with Meghan warning viewers not to scream at what she’s about to reveal.
Her video then cuts to a clip from Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, in which Minnie Mouse is singing as she walks toward a decorated Christmas tree. But it’s Minnie’s iconic ears that take center stage, which Megan highlights.
The ears seem to orbit Minnie’s head as the camera moves to different angles. So no matter which way Minnie is facing her ears either orbit her head or face the camera.
Megan goes on to say: “My daughter watches a lot of ‘Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, it drives me bonkers that their ears do that.”
Why do Minnie’s ears do that in Mickey Mouse Clubhouse?
Now that you won’t be able to unsee this detail about Minnie’s ears you are probably asking yourself why they actually do that.
Mickey and Minnie Mouse have distinct three-circle shapes, it’s what makes them instantly recognizable. In the show, Minnie and Mickey’s ears seem to orbit their heads and always remain 2D.
As it turns out this was not part of an initial design and only came about when the silhouette became so widely known. Disney decided that their ears would always remain in 2D rather than appear more realistic. This means that no matter where Mickey or Minnie are facing their ears always appear flat.
The reason the ears seem to orbit their head is that as the camera moves around, their ears have to remain flat and face the camera. So it looks like Minnie and Mickey’s ears orbit their heads.
Minnie and Mickey Mouse: An iconic silhouette
Minnie and Mickey Mouse are beloved children’s characters created by Walt Disney. They are known worldwide and are instantly recognizable through their iconic silhouette.
The man behind Mickey and Minnie’s iconic shape was Ub Iwerks who designed Mickey’s shape out of circles in order to make the character simpler to animate.
Disney employees John Hench and Marc Davis believed that this simple design was part of Mickey’s success as it made him instantly recognizable. Mickey’s circular design is most noticeable in his ears, which in traditional animation, always appear circular no matter which way Mickey faces.
Mickey’s ears have been used as a symbol to present him, even today. The dilemma came when it came time to create a 3D rendering of the character. In animation, in the 1940s, Mickey’s ears were animated in a more realistic perspective but he wasn’t as recognizable so animators made the decision to keep Mickey and Minnie’s ears 2D no matter which way they were facing the camera.
The end result is that Mickey and Minnie always look like Mickey and Minnie, even if their ears don’t quite act how you’d expect them to – i.e orbiting their heads.
Disney react to Minnie ear animation controversy
Disney hasn’t addressed Davis’ TikTok, as of yet, but they have addressed the issue of Mickey Mouses’ ears and why they behave in such a strange manner in the past.
In 2010 when Disney created a video game with Mickey Mouse, Epic Mickey, they ran into trouble with keeping the iconic shape of the mouse’s ears.
John Ford, an animator on the Epic Mickey video game, said: “We did some tests with Mickey without ears that were facing the camera and it just didn’t hold up.”
Audiences were clearly too used to seeing the iconic ears in 2D so this created a problem for animators.
Discussing the solution Ford said: “So we decided to go with the facing ears. We had some really smart programmers write code that would always make sure that no matter which way Mickey was facing, you would have ears that not only faced the camera correctly but also oriented correctly on his head.”
The end result is that Mickey and Minnie Mouse always look like Mickey and Minnie, even if their ears don’t look or act realistic. For example, the rotating ears around Minnie’s head as the camera moves around. But it works for Mickey and Minnie, it’s always been done. It preserves the iconic shape of the mouse’s ears, keeping the magic going for generations to come.