Editing Mickey Mouse (section)

===Censorship===
In 1930, the German Board of Film Censors prohibited any presentations of the 1929 Mickey Mouse cartoon ''[[The Barnyard Battle]]''. The animated short, which features the mouse as a [[kepi]]-wearing soldier fighting cat enemies in German-style helmets, was viewed by censors as a negative portrayal of Germany.<ref>The full 1929 cartoon [https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=isHDIoSSl-s ''The Barnyard Battle''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231129185545/https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=isHDIoSSl-s |date=November 29, 2023 }} (7:48) is available for viewing on YouTube. Retrieved June 16, 2017.</ref> It was claimed by the board that the film would "reawaken the latest anti-German feeling existing abroad since the War".<ref>The Times (July 14, 1930). [http://archive.timesonline.co.uk/tol/viewArticle.arc?articleId=ARCHIVE-The_Times-1930-07-14-12-015&pageId=ARCHIVE-The_Times-1930-07-14-12&pageId=undefined "Mickey Mouse in Trouble (German Censorship)"] {{Webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20120707101859/http://archive.timesonline.co.uk/tol/viewArticle.arc?articleId=ARCHIVE-The_Times-1930-07-14-12-015&pageId=ARCHIVE-The_Times-1930-07-14-12&pageId=undefined |date=July 7, 2012 }}, ''The Times Archive'' (archive.timesonline.co.uk). Retrieved November 19, 2008.</ref> The ''Barnyard Battle'' incident did not incite wider anti-Mickey sentiment in Germany in 1930; however, after [[Adolf Hitler]] came to power several years later, the Nazi regime unambiguously propagandized against Disney. A mid-1930s German newspaper article read:

{{quote frame|Mickey Mouse is the most miserable ideal ever revealed. Healthy emotions tell every independent young man and every honorable youth that the dirty and filth-covered vermin, the greatest bacteria carrier in the animal kingdom, cannot be the ideal type of animal. Away with Jewish brutalization of the people! Down with Mickey Mouse! Wear the [[Nazi swastika|Swastika Cross]]!<ref name="HungerfordAmy">{{Cite book|last=Hungerford|first=Amy|title=The Holocaust of Texts|page=206|publisher=University Of Chicago Press|date=January 15, 2003|isbn=0-226-36076-8|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hQaoyehtkBgC&q=%22Mickey+Mouse+is+the+most+miserable+ideal+ever+revealed%22&pg=PA87|access-date=October 20, 2020|archive-date=November 29, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231129190146/https://books.google.com/books?id=hQaoyehtkBgC&q=%22Mickey+Mouse+is+the+most+miserable+ideal+ever+revealed%22&pg=PA87#v=snippet&q=%22Mickey%20Mouse%20is%20the%20most%20miserable%20ideal%20ever%20revealed%22&f=false|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="LaCapraDominick">{{Cite book|last=LaCapra|first=Dominick|title=History and Memory After Auschwitz|publisher=Cornell University Press|date=March 1998|page=214|isbn=0-8014-8496-0|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pBhow2EcLHwC&q=%22Mickey+Mouse+is+the+most+miserable+ideal+ever+revealed%22&pg=PA159|access-date=October 20, 2020|archive-date=November 29, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231129190126/https://books.google.com/books?id=pBhow2EcLHwC&q=%22Mickey+Mouse+is+the+most+miserable+ideal+ever+revealed%22&pg=PA159#v=snippet&q=%22Mickey%20Mouse%20is%20the%20most%20miserable%20ideal%20ever%20revealed%22&f=false|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Mickey-Mousing">{{Cite news|url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E0CE5DB1339F931A3575BC0A964958260|title=On language; Mickey-Mousing|last=Rosenthal|first=Jack|date=August 2, 1992|work=[[The New York Times]]|access-date=December 30, 2008|archive-date=November 29, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231129190146/https://www.nytimes.com/1992/08/02/magazine/on-language-mickey-mousing.html|url-status=live}}</ref>}}

American cartoonist and writer [[Art Spiegelman]] would later use this quote on the opening page of the second volume of his graphic novel ''[[Maus]]''.

In 1935, Romanian authorities also [[ban (legal)|banned]] Mickey Mouse films from cinemas, purportedly fearing that children would be "scared to see a ten-foot mouse in the movie theatre".<ref>{{cite book |last=Conner|first=Floyd|title=Hollywood's Most Wanted: The Top 10 Book of Lucky Breaks, Prima Donnas, Box Office Bombs, and Other Oddities. illustrated.|publisher=Brassey's Inc.|year=2002|page=243}}</ref> In 1938, based on the [[Ministry of Popular Culture]]'s recommendation that a reform was necessary "to raise children in the firm and imperialist spirit of the Fascist revolution", the [[Italian Government]] banned foreign children's literature<ref>{{Cite news|author=The Times|date=November 16, 1938|url=http://archive.timesonline.co.uk/tol/viewArticle.arc?articleId=ARCHIVE-The_Times-1938-11-16-15-005&pageId=ARCHIVE-The_Times-1938-11-16-15&pageId=undefined|page=15|title=The Banning of a Mouse|publisher=The Times Archive|work=[[The Times]]|access-date=July 27, 2010|location=London|archive-date=July 1, 2012|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120701114928/http://archive.timesonline.co.uk/tol/viewArticle.arc?articleId=ARCHIVE-The_Times-1938-11-16-15-005&pageId=ARCHIVE-The_Times-1938-11-16-15&pageId=undefined|url-status=dead}}</ref> except Mickey; Disney characters were exempted from the decree for the "acknowledged artistic merit" of Disney's work.<ref>{{Cite news |title=Italian Decree: Mickey Mouse Reprieved |url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/evening-post/1938/12/23/16 |work=[[The Evening Post (New Zealand)|The Evening Post]] |location=Wellington, New Zealand |volume=CXXVI |issue=151 |date=December 23, 1938 |page=16, column 3 |access-date=August 26, 2010 |archive-date=January 24, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190124103616/https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/evening-post/1938/12/23/16 |url-status=live }}</ref> Actually, Mussolini's children were fond of Mickey Mouse, so they managed to delay his ban as long as possible.<ref>Francesco De Giacomo, ''Quando il duce salvò Topolino'', IF terza serie, n. 4, 1995.</ref> In 1942, after Italy declared war on the United States, Italian publishers were forced to stop printing any Disney stories. Mickey's stories were replaced by the adventures of ''[[Topolino|Tuffolino]]'', a new human character that looked like Mickey, created by [[Federico Pedrocchi]] (script) and [[Pier Lorenzo De Vita]] (art). After the downfall of Italy's fascist government in 1945, the ban was removed.