Mickey Mouse

Mickey Mouse is a cartoon character created in 1928 by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks at The Walt Disney Studio.^[4] Mickey is an anthropomorphic black mouse and typically wears red shorts, large yellow shoes, and white gloves. Mickey is one of the most recognizable cartoon characters in the world and is the mascot of The Walt Disney Company.
Mickey debuted in November 1928 in the animated cartoon Steamboat Willie, after initially appearing in a test screening earlier that year. He went on to appear in about 120 films including The Band Concert (1935), Brave Little Tailor (1938), and Fantasia (1940). Mickey appeared primarily in short films, but also in a few feature-length and direct-to-video films. Eight of Mickey's cartoons have been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film, one of which won the award, Lend a Paw, in 1942. In 1978, Mickey became the first cartoon character to have a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Beginning 1930, Mickey has also been featured extensively as a comic strip character. His self-titled newspaper strip, drawn primarily by Floyd Gottfredson, ran for 25 years. Mickey has also appeared in comic books and in television series such as The Mickey Mouse Club (1955–1996) and others. The character continues to appear regularly as toys, in video games, and as a meetable character at the Disney parks.

Mickey typically appears alongside his girlfriend Minnie Mouse, his pet dog Pluto, his friends Horace Horsecollar, Donald Duck, and Goofy, and his nemesis Pete among others. (see Mickey Mouse universe) Originally characterized as a mischievous anti hero, Mickey's increasing popularity led to his being rebranded as an everyman, usually seen as an ever cheerful, yet shy role model. In 2009, Disney announced that they will begin to rebrand the character again by putting less emphasis on his pleasant, cheerful side and reintroducing the more mischievous and adventurous sides of his personality, starting with the video game Epic Mickey.^[5]

Scoby-Doo

Scooby-Doo is an American media franchise based around several animated television series and related works produced from 1969 to the present day. The original series, Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!, was created for Hanna-Barbera Productions by writers Joe Ruby and Ken Spears in 1969. This Saturday morning cartoon series featured a talking Great Dane named Scooby-Doo and four teenagers — Fred Jones, Daphne Blake, Velma Dinkley, and Norville "Shaggy" Rogers — who solve mysteries by exposing seemingly otherworldly ghosts and monsters as non-supernatural criminals.^[1]
Hanna-Barbera and its successor Warner Bros. Animation have produced numerous follow-up and spin-off animated series and several related works, including television specials and telefilms, a line of direct-to-video films, and two Warner Bros.-produced feature films. Some versions of Scooby-Doo feature different variations on the show's supernatural theme, and include characters such as Scooby's cousin Scooby-Dum and nephew Scrappy-Doo in addition to or instead of some of the original characters.

Scooby-Doo was originally broadcast on CBS from 1970 to 1976 when it moved to ABC. ABC aired the show until canceling it in 1986, and presented a spin-off featuring the characters as children, A Pup Named Scooby-Doo, from 1988 until 1991. The original series format was revived and updated for The WB Network's Kids' WB programming block as What's New, Scooby-Doo, which ran from 2002 to 2006, when another new series, Shaggy & Scooby-Doo Get a Clue!, began running on the The CW network until 2008. The current Scooby-Doo series, Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated, premiered on Cartoon Network in July 2010.^[2] Repeats of the series are broadcasted frequently on Cartoon Network and Boomerang in the United States and other countries.

The Smurfs

The Smurfs (French: Les Schtroumpfs, Dutch: De Smurfen) is a comic and television franchise centred on a group of small blue fictional creatures called Smurfs, created and first introduced as a series of comic strips by the Belgian cartoonist Peyo (pen name of Pierre Culliford) on October 23, 1958. The original term and the accompanying language came during a meal Peyo was having with his colleague and friend André Franquin at the Belgian Coast. Having momentarily forgotten the word "salt", Peyo asked him (in French) to pass the schtroumpf. Franquin jokingly replied: "Here's the Schtroumpf — when you are done schtroumpfing, schtroumpf it back..." and the two spent the rest of that weekend speaking in "schtroumpf language".^[3] The name was later translated into Dutch as Smurf, which was adopted in English.

Sponge bob

SpongeBob SquarePants is a main fictional character in the animated television series SpongeBob SquarePants. He is voiced by Tom Kenny and first appeared on television in the series' pilot episode "Help Wanted" on May 1, 1999. SpongeBob was created and designed by cartoonist Stephen Hillenburg shortly after the cancellation of Rocko's Modern Life in 1996. Hillenburg intended to create a series about an over-optimistic sponge that annoys other characters. Hillenburg compared the concept to Laurel and Hardy and Pee-wee Herman. As he drew the character, he decided that a "squeaky-clean square" (like a kitchen sponge) fits the concept. His name is derived from "Bob the Sponge", the host of Hillenburg's comic strip The Intertidal Zone that he originally drew in 1989 while studying at the California Institute of Arts. SpongeBob is a naïve and goofy sea sponge who works as a fry cook in the fictional underwater town of Bikini Bottom.

SpongeBob has achieved popularity with both children and adults, though he has been involved in public controversy. The character appeared in a We Are Family Foundation video promoting tolerance, which was criticized by James Dobson of Focus on the Family because of the foundation's link to homosexuality.

Shrek 1

Shrek is a 2001 American computer-animated fantasy comedy film directed by Andrew Adamson and Vicky Jenson, featuring the voices ofMike Myers, Eddie Murphy, Cameron Diaz, and John Lithgow. Loosely based on William Steig's 1990 fairy tale picture book Shrek!. Shrekstars Mike Myers as a big, strong, solitude-loving, intimidating ogre named Shrek; Cameron Diaz as the beautiful, feisty, but very down-to-earth Princess Fiona; Eddie Murphy as the talkative Donkey; and John Lithgow as the villain Lord Farquaad.

Commercially successful on release in 2001, it helped establish DreamWorks as a prime competitor to Pixar in the field of feature film animation, particularly in computer animation. The film's success also made DreamWorks Animation create three sequels: Shrek 2, Shrek the Third, and Shrek Forever After. There was also a Christmas special called Shrek the Halls and a Halloween special called Scared Shrekless. Furthermore, Shrek was made the mascot for the company's animation productions. It was critically acclaimed as an animated film worthy of adult interest, with many adult-oriented jokes and themes but a simple enough plot and humor to appeal to children. It made notable use of popular music; the soundtrack includes music by Smash Mouth, Eels, Joan Jett, The Proclaimers, Jason Wade, The Baha Men, and John Cale (covering Leonard Cohen).