Debuting in 1942 (originally called “Super Mouse”), Mighty Mouse was a spoof of Superman. He would swoop in at the last minute and save the mice and foil the cats. Mighty Mouse had no traits or characteristics; he didn’t even speak - an off-screen narrator was the only voice heard in these cartoons. Moreover, the appeal of Mighty Mouse was derived from his timely appearance at the last minute.
The most significant change in the Mighty Mouse series came in the late 1940’s. The studio began to spoof the serial melodramas where the villain (Oil Can Harry), heroine (Pearl Pureheart) and hero (Mighty Mouse) sung all of their dialogue in operetta fashion and created the signature line for Mighty Mouse, “Here I come to save the day!” They integrated that formula into the Mighty Mouse cartoons.
Mighty Mouse returned in the Filmation series “The New Adventures of Mighty Mouse” and also in the Bakshi series “Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures”. In the latter series, Mighty Mouse speaks conversationally for the first time. He also adopts a secret identity, calling himself Mike Mouse *, and works for Pearl Pureheart in a cat food factory. Pearl remains unaware that Mike Mouse is really Mighty Mouse.
“The Adventures of Mighty Mouse” ran for twelve years on CBS with an average rating of 11.6 and a 45.8% share. The show hold the record as the longest running and most successful cartoon series in network television history.
