When the Cat's Away Trivia Quiz

Answer: Fantasia

Arguably the most famous fictional mouse of all time, Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse has appeared in well over one hundred films, short films and cartoons. Disney's 1940 film 'Fantasia' consisted of a total of eight short animations, including 'The Sorcerer's Apprentice', which were all set to pieces of classical music conducted by Leopold Stokowski. It also included some live action introductory elements featuring the orchestra.

The musical accompaniment to Mickey Mouse's starring role in the film was Paul Dukas' 1897 symphonic poem also called 'The Sorcerer's Apprentice'. The incorrect options were all Disney films of the late 1940s.

Answer: Hunca Munca

Beatrix Potter's 'The Tale of Two Bad Mice' was first published in 1904. It was written during the time of Potter's developing relationship with her publisher Norman Warne; the doll's house that was vandalised by Hunca Munca and Tom Thumb in the tale was based on one that Warne had built for his niece. Other murine characters created by Beatrix Potter include Johnny Town-Mouse, Timmy Willie and Mrs. Tittlemouse.

The incorrect options are the sisters of Peter Rabbit from another of Beatrix Potter's tales.

Answer: Reepicheep

Reepicheep appeared in three of the seven children's novels that make up C. S. Lewis' 'Chronicles of Narnia' - 'Prince Caspian', 'The Voyage of the Dawn Treader' and 'The Last Battle'. He has the ability to speak and is characterised by his skill with a sword and his stubborn, yet loyal, nature. After helping Prince Caspian to regain his throne as King Caspian X, Reepicheep joins him on a voyage of discovery to find the lost Lords of Narnia. He then paddled away in his coracle in search of Aslan's Country - an adventure at which he must have succeeded, as he was one of the many characters from the novels who was waiting to greet the main protagonists when they reached Aslan's Country at the end of 'The Last Battle'.

Mr. Tumnus was the faun that Lucy Pevensie met on her first visit to Narnia in 'The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe'; Bricklethumb was a dwarf who appeared in 'The Horse and His Boy'; and Puzzle the donkey was tricked by an ape in 'The Last Battle'.

Answer: Mars

In 'The Biker Mice from Mars', the Martian mice had achieved something that their Earthly counterparts have so far proved unable to - the ability to both manufacture and ride motorcycles. The three friends crash-landed in the US city of Chicago after escaping a Plutarkian invasion of their home planet and quickly proceeded to help save the Earth from the same fate. The show was the basis for a spin-off comic strip and video game and was also remade in 2006.

The Biker Mice would have had a hard time living on Mercury, the hottest planet in the solar system. The planet Mongo was the setting for the 'Flash Gordon' comic strips and Mondas was the home of the Cybermen in the British sci-fi show 'Doctor Who'.

Answer: Central Park

In the 1999 film 'Stuart Little', the eponymous character became a member of the human Little family and moved into their home in New York. In order to bond with his new 'brother', George, Stuart helped him to build a remote-controlled boat and enter it in a race on a lake in Central Park. In the end though, Stuart had to actually get in the boat and sail it himself as the remote-control function broke down before the start.

The film is based on a 1945 book of the same name by E.B. White, who also authored 'Charlotte's Web'.

Lincoln Park is in Chicago, Piedmont Park is in the city of Atlanta and Mission Bay Park can be found in San Diego.

Answer: Mighty Mouse

Mighty Mouse was created by Paul Terry of the Terrytoons studio and first appeared in 1942 under the name of 'Super Mouse'. It was the 1944 short film 'The Wreck of the Hesperus' that introduced him as 'Mighty Mouse' instead. Mighty Mouse's costume consisted of a yellow suit with red shorts and cape, although this colour scheme was sometimes reversed in a few of the films. His superpowers were similar to those displayed by Superman, the famous DC Comics character. They included flight, invulnerability, X-Ray vision and great strength and were often used during his battles with his arch-enemy - a cat named Oil Can Harry.

Danger Mouse was a secret agent created for a British TV cartoon series in 1981. Daniel Mouse was a musician in a Canadian cartoon named 'The Devil and Daniel Mouse'. Mortimer Mouse was the original name planned for Disney's famous Mickey Mouse as well as several other mice in those stories.

Answer: Sombrero

Speedy Gonzales, also known as "The Fastest Mouse in all Mexico", wore a traditional Mexican sombrero hat on his head. His first main appearance in a 'Looney Tunes' cartoon was in 1955 when he led a band of hungry Mexican mice in a raid on a cheese factory guarded by Sylvester the Cat. Over the course of dozens of other short films, Speedy continued to outwit and generally humiliate Sylvester before later crossing (metaphorical) swords with Daffy Duck - which just goes to prove that cats are not a mouse's only adversary, although battles between ducks and mice definitely aren't as common...

You are more likely to have seen a bicorne on the head of the former French Emperor, Napoleon Bonaparte than on a cartoon mouse. A cloche is a woman's hat popular during the 1920s and a deerstalker has become synonymous with the character of Sherlock Holmes.

Answer: D'Arty

The title for DC Comics' 'The Three Mouseketeers' was a play on that of the Alexandre Dumas novel 'The Three Musketeers'. The three mice in question were named Fatsy, Patsy and Minus. As their names might suggest, they weren't a particularly swashbuckling group - Fatsy was an overweight sailor, Patsy was somewhat foolish and Minus wore a baseball cap at a jaunty angle. Their days tended to consist of hanging around the tin can that housed their club, dealing with humans and avoiding Hamilton the Hawk.

The series was originally published between 1956 and 1960 and was briefly revived in 1970. It should not be confused with an earlier publication of the same name in DC's 'Funny Stuff' - those mouseketeers bore a much stronger resemblance to Dumas' characters.

D'Artagnan wasn't one of Dumas' original musketeers, but he was a major character in the novel. However no character named "D'Arty" ever appeared in the 'The Three Mouseketeers'.

Answer: Pipsy

'Diddy Kong Racing' was first released in 1997 for the Nintendo 64 games system. Although primarily a racing game, it also had a storyline and adventure element as the player was ultimately competing to help the inhabitants of Timber's Island to regain control of their home from an evil wizard-pig called, imaginatively, the Wizpig. Pipsy the mouse was one of the animals from Timber's Island that competed in the series of races using either a car, a hovercraft or an aeroplane. The character of Diddy Kong originated from Nintendo's 'Donkey Kong' series of video games.

The eponymous Diddy Kong is a spider monkey, Conker is a squirrel and Banjo is a bear.

Answer: Puss Gets the Boot

'Tom and Jerry' is probably one of the best-known cartoon series produced in the 20th century. The characters were created by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera in 1939 and made their debut in 'Puss Gets the Boot' in 1940, although Tom was named Jasper and Jerry was known as Jinx. Hanna and Barbera made a total of 114 short 'Tom and Jerry' films between 1940 and 1958, which between them won seven Academy Awards for Best Animated Short Film (and were nominated for six more). However, since then there have been numerous new animations, remakes and spin-off shows produced, including a film, 'Tom and Jerry: The Movie', in 1992.

The incorrect options are made up titles based on a whip known as a "cat o' nine tails", the Tennessee Williams' play 'Cat on a Hot Tin Roof' and the 1965 Disney film 'That Darn Cat!'.