Mickey Mousing

MICKEY MOUSING

In animation and film, Mickey Mousing, is a technique that syncs the accompanying music with the actions on screen. eg. playing ascending xylophone as a character runs up the stairs. This is very common in cartoons such as Tom and Jerry and Looney Toons. 


Mickey mousing is used at the start when the dog jumps onto Tom and when he is falling down through the air (descending), there is a woodwind instrument and it goes from a high pitch to a low pitch and stops when the dog hits Tom. This effective because the music imitates the actions that are happening on the screen so it emphasises the movements of the characters. This is mainly used in cartoons such as Tom and Jerrys it gives comedy effect in which case it can be used in any comedy sketches or scenes in films and it would have the same effect.

The same applies to this looney toons clip as Daffy duck throws bugs Bunny back down the rabbit hole. As he I

is falling/descending, there is a sort of woodwind instrument playing from a high pitch to a low pitch (descending notes). Almost exactly the same concept as the first example. 

This mickey mouse clip is another example of mickey mousing from where it originally came from. In this clip the caravan drives along the fence and you hear a xylophone playing at the same time. This time in ascending order perhaps to build excitement. This also adds a comedic effect and makes it more appealing to the younger audiences.