The Mickey Mouse universe is a fictional shared universe which is the setting for stories involving Disney cartoon characters Mickey and Minnie Mouse, Pluto, Goofy, and many other characters. The universe originated from the Mickey Mouse animated short films produced by Disney starting in 1928. Still, its first consistent version was created by Floyd Gottfredson in the Mickey Mouse newspaper comic strip. Real-world versions also exist in Disneyland and Tokyo Disneyland, called Mickey’s Toontown.
Since 1990, the city in which Mickey lives is typically called Mouseton in American comics. In modern continuity, Mouseton is often depicted as being located in the fictional U.S. state of Calisota, analogous to Northern California. This fictional state was invented by comics writer Carl Barks in 1952 as the location for Donald Duck‘s home city, Duckburg.
The most consistent aspect of the Mickey Mouse universe is the characters. The most well-known include Mickey’s girlfriend Minnie, pet dog Pluto, friends Goofy, Horace Horsecollar, Clarabelle Cow, and nemesis Pete. Some Disney productions incorporate characters from Disney’s animated feature films, such as Bath Day (1946; in which Figaro from Pinocchio appears as Minnie’s cat), Mickey’s Christmas Carol (1983), and – most extensively – Disney’s House of Mouse (2001–2003).
