Unauthorized Fun: Hidden Mickeys

You don't hear as much about Hidden Mickeys as you used to. Hunting down these subtle images of or references to Mickey Mouse placed around Disney theme parks used to be a major pastime of Annual Passholders and other major fans, but the furor seems to have died down. In all probability, the phenomenon was a victim of its own success—it caught on to the extent that several guidebooks were published, taking away much of the joy of discovery. It's hard to get excited about a “secret” that a million people are privy to by virtue of having spent twelve dollars on a book. Not to mention, having access to such resources sped up the process immensely. Many people probably feel there's no point in continuing to look once you've gone through the entire list.

I still find some entertainment value in seeking them out, possibly because I eschew those same guidebooks. For one thing, it's impossible for them to stay up-to-date—a waggish Cast Member can create a new, semi-permanent Hidden Mickey in a matter of minutes, while a minor renovation can obliterate a long-standing one in a day. No book can come out with new editions that fast. For another thing...even to the extent that they are current, I find such books a little untrustworthy—there is too much of a tendency to take fan consensus for granted instead of “vetting” individual Hidden Mickeys for plausibility.

Allow me to use an example. Consider this well-known “Hidden Mickey” from Tarzan's Treehouse:

You'll see this one mentioned everywhere, from official guides to unofficial guides to websites. But in my estimation, it cannot be a genuine Hidden Mickey. The proportions are entirely wrong. An intentional case would have the “ear” brackets farther apart, and wrapped with more rope coils to plump out their size.

And then there are all the variations on “In this cluster/repeating pattern of rounded shapes, three of the rounded shapes make Mickey.” Some of these are probably genuine, but...I want to see some photos. Mash together enough rounded shapes, and you're bound to see three of them group up in such a way as to suggest Mickey Mouse, just by chance. The resemblance has to be pretty dang close and stand out from the background for me to take those seriously.

At the other end of the scale are all those instances of Mickey Mouse silhouettes that are clearly deliberate...so clearly that they don't count as hidden by any stretch of the imagination. Here's a stellar example:

Any subtlety here is limited to the fact that the icon is tipped on its side. You can't possibly miss it if you can see the side of the bench at all, and on top of that, there are lots of these benches in the Esplanade. (A second one is visible in the background of this same photo.) These Mickeys are décor for the masses, not rewards for the eagle-eyed few.

So yeah, I'm a bit jaded when it comes to what might be called the Hidden Mickey community, to the extent that such a thing exists anymore. But I definitely get a little tickle when I do spot one that meets my fairly exacting standards. And there are enough “real” ones out there that you could make an entire day's or weekend's game out of finding as many as possible. To that end, you could go with a guidebook or online checklist, but given the above caveats, you'd surely end up wasting time tracking down spurious cases.

Better to trust your friendly neighborhood Disneyland Dilettante. For your enjoyment, I offer this partial list of real, confirmed Hidden Mickeys I have personally spotted over the years. As of this writing, all of them are a) permanent (i.e. not likely to be removed in the near future), b) year-round (i.e. not part of a seasonal attraction or show), and c) relatively stationary (i.e. not attached to a ride vehicle). If you go to the right place, you will be able to see these.

Because I respect your intelligence, rather than just tell you straight out how to find them, I present them as clues that must be deciphered. Because I respect my intelligence and creativity, I additionally phrase the clues in the form of poetry, wordplay, and assorted linguistic tricks. It makes the whole thing more quest-like, don't you think? Besides, as they are, Hidden Mickeys are very much authorized fun, so some extra spin is needed in order to fit the post category.

Main Street, USA

Closer to Town Square than the Hub,

A window displays a Mickey Mouse club.

Adventureland

Deep within the temple, on a pillar square

No image will you find, but tricky letters there

New Orleans Square

An overcoat of metal

That often proves its mettle

Where e'en the dead have breath enough

A birthday candle flame to snuff

Critter Country

I hope you've slept well, my silly old friend

But now your dreams of gold must end

Frontierland

On the slope of a hill in a landscape bleak

Teeth of iron are what you seek

Fantasyland

Per fess Gules and Argent, a key paleways counterchanged*

An ironically heartless Queen

Demands red, which splashes on green

Mickey's Toontown

Surprisingly—or perhaps not—there are very few bona-fide “hidden” Mickeys in Toontown. We're primed to expect to see Mickey Mouse everywhere by virtue of the land's theme, and thus the standards for hidden-ness are much higher than they are elsewhere in the park. Nonetheless, there are a few that I consider sufficiently inconspicuous to count. Here's one:

Visit the place where yogurt is “frozed”

But only when the counter is closed

Tomorrowland

The planets charted for our games

Are playful things of little sense

Mind not their colors or their names

But pay heed to their continents

And, because I'm not excluding the Other Park from the sandbox anymore:

Cars Land

Waiting in the sun

Roars of racers passing by

Three barrel cacti**

Grizzly Peak

A stream runs near a cave where spirits meet

Mind you step careful and wet not your feet

Alas, that's about all the poetry I have in me for now. Hopefully, I'll have something better for you next week. Until then...keep your eyes open!

* Okay...not so much poetry as heraldic blazon. This makes it probably the most Googleable of all these clues.

** Ooooh, haiku!