Mouse in the House! Trivia Quiz

Answer: Vera

These stories simply have to be read. They're a delight for children and adults alike. They feature titles such as "Vera the Mouse", "Vera and Her Friends", "Vera in the Kitchen", "Vera in the Garden" and the like. The illustrations are perfect, full of little images of nature, and all centred around the character of Vera in her little house in the country, her friends, her clothes, her little dog and her doll.

As well as these works, Vera starred in an animated film in 2000. This is called "Vera the Mouse: Mr Mole's Surprise".

As far as the images go in particular, these are a rival for the Beatrix Potter series of stories on Peter Rabbit. Like the Peter Rabbit series, Vera the Mouse's products can also be purchased as cards, stationery, clocks, dinnerware, quilt covers and other items.

Answer: Yes

Walt and his studio had been producing a cartoon known as Oswald the Lucky Rabbit for Universal Studios for a couple of years back in the 1920s when Disney approached the organisation to ask for an increase in his budget. Charles Mintz, the arrogant head of Universal's cartoon department, laughed in Disney's face and demanded instead that Disney take a twenty percent budget cut! The angry Disney refused, finished the cartoons he was obliged to under the term of his contract with Universal, and then walked away, determined to start again from scratch. Mintz promptly offered all Disney's staff work at Universal so that Walt would have nobody to assist him. All but one left him.

On Disney's long train ride back home to his family following this disagreement, the idea of the feisty little rodent cartoon, who would eventuate into Mickey Mouse, was born. Given the shabby way Mintz had treated him, it's somewhat surprising that Disney didn't make Mickey a rat - and name him Charles instead.

Answer: Chews through the ropes of its net

Aesop's Fables were thought to have been compiled in Ancient Greece some time between 620 and 560 BC, by a slave named, what else, Aesop. "The Lion and the Mouse", one of these tales, centres around the story of how a mouse accidentally wakes a sleeping lion one day. The lion, apparently a distant ancestor of mine, is enraged by having its sleep interrupted, and traps the small creature, with the intent of killing it. The wily mouse, however, points out to the grumpy lion that he wouldn't be worth killing. The lion, quite possibly having had a cup of tea or coffee in the meantime, good-humouredly agrees and lets the mouse go.

Some time later, the mouse finds the lion trapped in a large net set there by hunters. This is obviously a metaphor for our large electricity bills in this country. The honourable little rodent, remembering how the lion spared its life, accordingly chews through the ropes of the net and sets the lion free. Another metaphor, one that represents the fulfillment of my daydream that I will one day win the Lotto.

Answer: Spike

Developed by Pyro Studios and published by Eidos Interactive in 2001, this video game is replete with various heroes with assorted skills who have to move through twenty-one different missions set during the time period of World War II. Spike is a trained mouse which has been given to the commando, Lupin Toledo, by a holy man from Burma.

His mousy mission is to distract enemies long enough to enable the commandos to either defeat them, or evade their clutches.

Answer: Jasper

"Tom and Jerry" were created by Hanna and Barbera for MGM Studios in 1940, and have entertained millions of people all over the world since then, albeit with different cartoonists taking over the reins from time to time. Tom's original name was Jasper and Jerry was called Jinx, but over time these names evolved into the Tom and Jerry we grew to know and love.

The plot of each cartoon revolves around an ongoing battle of wits between Tom, a house cat I'm rather fond of, and Jerry, his miniature arch-enemy mouse. Jerry, with far more brains than poor old Tom, always defeats the lovable bumbling tomcat. Occasionally the two call a truce in their modern day 100 year war, but it's far more entertaining when they're trying to outfox one another. Looked at objectively, the battles between the pair are rather violent to say the least, so let's hope the do-gooders leave this most well loved cartoon series alone and don't try to have it removed from our screens, to replace it with another endless cooking series instead.

Answer: Mr Jingles

"The Green Mile" is a horribly depressing tale about a group of prison inmates on death row at the Cold Mountain Penitentiary, Louisiana, and of the warders who guard them. Both groups of men come with varying degrees of humanity and ghastliness. One of the inmates, John Coffey (played by Michael Clark Duncan), possesses the power to heal illnesses and injuries.

He has been accused of a crime he did not commit and is ultimately executed for same. Before he dies however, he passes on part of his power to the retired warden, Paul Edgecombe (played by Tom Hanks), who is narrating the entire tale many years later, at the incredible age of 108. Mr Jingles is a small mouse that was injured badly during the course of this tale, but brought back to life by John Coffey.

In doing so, Mr Jingles is also given the power of a very long life. He too is shown alive, long past his normal time for dying, at the close of this engrossing, but definitely very depressing movie.

Answer: The Nutcracker and the Mouse King

Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893) wrote some of the most exquisite, hauntingly beautiful music that has ever been created. Its beauty can actually bring tears to the eyes. His two-act ballet "The Nutcracker" (1892) is based on the story "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King" (1816) by E.T.A. Hoffmann. The ballet relates the Christmas story of a dream by Clara, a doll, where toys and a nutcracker come to life, with a battle ensuing between gingerbread and tin soldiers versus an army of mice led by the Mouse King. The nutcracker transforms into a handsome prince. He is saved by Clara the doll from the wicked Mouse King, and the pair then take a magical tour of many countries, all with their own particular dance styles and costumes.

The story itself is a lot darker, with the heroine being the doll's owner rather than the doll herself. The Mouse King has seven heads, and tries to murder a Mouse Queen and her children because they ate his dinner. There are cats and monsters and a long journey involved, a magic nut that has to be found but that cannot be cracked by all who strive to do so, and so on. Very complicated plot that must have just about scared children witless at the time. It more or less ends happily however. The ballet is much, much lighter fortunately.

Answer: Turnip

"The Giant Turnip", also known as "The Enormous Turnip" was published as a collection of stories in the 1863 "Russian Folk Tales" by Aleksandr Afanas'ev. This delightful work tells of a farmer who plants a turnip which grows so large that he doesn't have the strength to pull it out by himself. Not even with his wife, his granddaughter, his female dog and his female cat all tugging as well can the group remove that turnip from the ground in which it is fixed. It is only when a little female mouse happens along that her tiny added strength finally succeeds in the vegetable being uprooted at last.

All the names rhyme in this lovely and humorous story, so it acts not only as a straight narration, but as a kind of lengthy poem as well. The cast of characters comprises Repka (the turnip), Dedka (the grandfather), Babka (the grandmother), Vnuchka (the granddaughter), Shuchka (the dog), (Koska (the cat), and the heroine of the piece, Myshka, the tiny little mouse who saved the day.

Answer: Mary

Elizabeth I only had the one living, legitimate sister. Mary was the only surviving child of Henry VIII's first marriage to the Spanish princess, Catherine of Aragon, who had been the young wife of his older brother Arthur. When Arthur died, Henry not only went on to eventually inherit the throne, but married Arthur's widow as well. The marriage was one of love, but when Catherine failed to produce a living male heir after many years, Henry divorced her to marry Anne Boleyn, the mother of Elizabeth (1533-1603). Henry also split with the Roman Catholic church over this issue and went on to establish the Church of England.

Mary (1516-1558) was brought up a devout Catholic by her mother. Elizabeth, however, was brought up a Protestant. This relationship symbolised the overall relationship in England at the time, as pitched and bloody battles were fought between the two groups of religious supporters. During the Catholic Mary's reign, Protestants were persecuted heavily. She became known as Bloody Mary as a result, a somewhat unfairly earned title. The nursery rhyme "Three Blind Mice" is supposedly referring to Mary as the farmer's wife. The three blind mice in this rhyme are said to represent three Protestant bishops that Mary had executed. I'd be very wary of quoting this as historical fact, however. It makes a great "tail" but its accuracy is up for challenge.

Answer: Mouse

How unoriginal. "MouseHunt" stars Nathan Lane and Lee Evans as a pair of bumbling brothers trying to repair their inherited dilapidated mansion in order to make a killing when they sell it. Unfortunately for the pair, however, a mouse has been living in the house for some time.

It resists every single attempt of the clumsy brothers to remove it. This movie is funny, but only if you're in the right mood to appreciate it. Otherwise, it fails to hit the mark. Perhaps the most comical incident that occurs is when the brothers decide to mail the mouse to Fidel Castro in Cuba - only to have the parcel returned because of insufficient postage.