Was Mickey Mouse Inspired By The Bible?

You may be surprised to hear but it is possible that Mickey Mouse may have been inspired by the Bible.  When Mickey was first created there were some other anthropomorphic cartoon characters but they usually still looked mostly like the animals they portrayed and often acted like animals.

Mickey Mouse was the first cartoon animal to talk. His ability to talk made him unique at first. This is where we can see the best correlation to Mickey Mouse and a Bible story. You might think that if Mickey was the first talking cartoon animal he might have been the first talking animal. This is not the case. The Biblical book of Numbers talks about Balaam and his talking Donkey.

This is an obscure story for most modern readers. Disney was not a modern reader though. He may very well have heard the story of Balaam as a child. There are even pseudographic writings of the apostles baptizing animals and them walking on 2 legs and preaching about God. It is possible but unlikely he heard this story. But in the past the more obscure Bible stories of today's were more well known.

Disney was raised as Congregationalist and his father even substituted for the local preacher at times. In fact it is this preacher the Walt got his name. Walt's father was very strict and did not allow his children to get presents unless it was a Bible. Walt Disney as an adult considered himself religious but did not attend services. He did not believe church service attendance was necessary. He did not attend service but Disney had a Congregationalist Reverend dedicate Disneyland. It is very likely that Walt would have had some familiarity with the story.

Walt may not have been thinking about Balaam consciously when he made Mickey speak. It is possible though that he was thinking about it subconsciously. After all art is just a mixing of ideas and experiences. Walt's religious upbringing he even admitted was a strong and important influence on him. It is also very likely with a part time preacher father that Walt would have been familiar with the Bible story. We might not be able to prove that Balaam's Donkey was the inspiration for Mickey Mouse but it can't be disproven either.

What do you think? Was Mickey inspired conscious or unconsciously by Balaam? Is this a bit of a stretch? Let us know by commenting below.