KLTPZYXM

So now that I sent the imp back to his world for another three months...

Last year for April Fool's Day, I wrote a post about Batman's joke themed villain, the Joker.  So this year, I'm covering Superman's mischievous fifth dimensional foe.

It should be noted that I believe that the imps from the fifth dimensional land of Zrfff on Planet Poppup include Mxyzptlk, sometimes using the alias Mxyztplk, the Impossible Man, Bat-Mite, Quisp, and Larry.  I believe that these beings are what will someday be known as the Q.  It's possible that the Great Gazoo may also come from this world.  Additionally, "witches", as seen on Bewitched, may actually be hybrids created from this race mating with humans at some point in the distant past.  

And before I begin the chronology, I want to point out as a point of pride that I've been able to spell Mxyzptlk without looking it up since I was a wee lad.

There are three different in-story interpretations of the origins of genies.  The original mythology of genies begins with the djinn.  In middle eastern folklore, djinn are demons.  Both our words for demons and genies originates from the folklore of djinn.  Thus, using that interpretation, genies are fallen angels who have been trapped in bottles and lamps, thus being enslaved to do the will of those who possess such items.



A second, more liberal interpretation comes from Grant Morrison's run on JLA.  Though JLA isn't strictly in the TVCU, some of its mythos have permeated the TVCU.  According to Morrison, genies are actually 5th dimensional beings from a world called Zrff.  This is a world of extremely powerful beings who are generally so bored with life that they interfere with lower life forms for fun.  Mr. Mxyzptlk and Bat-Mite are such creatures.  I have theorized in past posts that Zrff may in fact be the Q continuum from Star Trek.

A third interpretation comes from Once Upon a Time, in which genies are humans cursed to be trapped in these objects and granted absolute power but no free will. 

Johnny Thunder--Johnny comes from the land of Badnesia, and is their chosen one. To protect him, he was taken as a baby and sent to America, where he was adopted and raised with no knowledge of his heritage. This included the fact that he was the possessor of a genie, who would do his bidding when he said “cei-u”. Upon discovering the genie, Johnny was able to become the first non-founding member of the JSA. Johnny’s genie has been revealed to be a member of the fifth dimensional Q continuum, one of those cursed long ago to a life of servitude despite their nearly unlimited power.

"Did you honestly believe that a 5th Dimensional sorcerer would resemble a funny little man in a derby hat?"





1919--THE MAGIC OF OZ--A possible inspiration for Mxyzptlk's name may be found in the book The Magic of Oz by L. Frank Baum. A mischievous Munchkin boy named Kiki Aru learns a magical word that allows him and the evil Nome King to cause all manner of problems for the inhabitants of the realm of Princess Ozma until the Wizard of Oz puts an end to their shenanigans. The word, whose pronunciation Baum takes pains not to reveal, is pyrzqxgl.

WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT? (ANIMATED/LIVE ACTION FILM)

Release Date: June 22, 1988 (Setting is 1947)

Series: Roger Rabbit

Animated Series Crosses: Mickey Mouse; Donald Duck; Alice Comedies; Pluto; Bucky Bug (Silly Symphonies); Goofy; The Merry Dwarfs (Silly Symphonies); Flowers and Trees (Silly Symphonies); Babes in the Woods (Silly Symphonies); Father Noah’s Ark (Silly Symphonies); The Three Little Pigs (Silly Symphonies); Toby Tortoise (Silly Symphonies); Water Babies (Silly Symphonies); Who Killed Cock Robin?; Elmer Elephant (Silly Symphonies); Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs; Ferdinand the Bull (Silly Symphonies); Pinocchio; Dance of the Hours (Fantasia); The Pastoral Symphony (Fantasia); The Nutcracker Suite (Fantasia); The Reluctant Dragon; Dumbo; Bambi; Pedro (Saludos Amigos); Reason and Emotion; Chicken Little (1943 Disney short); The Pelican and the Snipe; Peter and the Wolf (Make Mine Music); Song of the South; Johnny Appleseed (Melody Time); So Dear to My Heart; The Wind in the Willows (The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad); Alice in Wonderland; The Little House; Peter Pan; Paul Bunyan (1958 Disney short); Sleeping Beauty; Mary Poppins; The Jungle Book; Winnie the Pooh; Looney Tunes; Bugs Bunny; Daffy Duck; Porky Pig; Tweety and Sylvester; Foghorn Leghorn; Goofy Gophers; Road Runner; Speedy Gonzales; Marc Anthony and Pussyfoot; Ralph Wolf and Sam Sheepdog; Of Fox and Hounds; One Froggy Evening; Dodo and the Frog; Droopy; George and Junior; Screwy Squirrel; Tom and Jerry; Betty Boop; Koko the Clown; Noveltoons; Popeye; Casper; Superman (Fleischer/Famous Studios); The Fox and the Crow; Woody Woodpecker; Andy Panda; Chilly Willy; Dinky Doodle; Mother Goose on the Loose; Mighty Mouse; Heckle and Jeckle; The Temperamental Lion; Garfield; Gandy Goose; Felix the Cat; Li’l Abner; Augie Doggie and Doggie Daddy; Scooby-Doo!

The Story: When Marvin Acme, the owner of Toontown and the Acme Corporation is murdered, animation short star Roger Rabbit becomes the prime suspect, and detective Eddie Valiant must get over his prejudice towards toons to help clear Rabbit’s name and find the real killer.

Notes: In my previous book, the Horror Crossover Encyclopedia, I used Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein as my start point in connecting the dots of the Horror Universe. With this book, it was instantly clear to me that Who Framed Roger Rabbit? must my beginning. This film is a major crossover. Though the first cartoons considered canon for the Cartoon Universe date back decades before this, and there had been many cartoon crossovers before this, Who Framed Roger Rabbit? was the first to be able to so successfully (and legally) combine major characters from so many different classic animation studios. In this section, I will break down the crossovers by the studios they originate. This film also is significant in Cartoon Universe canon. This film explains that Toontown is a town that connects to Hollywood of the Live Action Universe. Clearly, though connected, the two towns are of different realities, as the laws of physics are applied differently in each location. And indeed, those from one reality seem to partially carry the laws of their world over with them to the other. For instance, a person from the Live Action Universe could be killed in the Cartoon Universe by something that a toon would survive from. Likewise, a toon maintains its characteristics in the Live Action Universe. This film also presents a notion seen occasionally in previous animation, in that, though toons are created by artists of the Live Action Universe, they actually live and work in the Live Action Universe. Thus, people in the Live Action Universe seem to know of and accept the existence of the Cartoon Universe, even if they seldom speak of it. This means that the Live Action Universe may seem to be a depiction of the Real Universe, but it is not in actuality. This film is based on a book, but the book lacks the crossovers and is not part of the Cartoon Universe canon.

• As for the crosses, let’s start with Disney. Disney characters can be broken down into four major categories for our purposes. That would be “the Mickey Mouse Universe”, the Disney Princesses, other animated works, and live action properties. I’m excluding from this the Muppets, Star Wars, and Marvel Comics, which were well known long before being acquired by Disney. ABC properties (also owned by Disney now) should also be considered separate, including Once Upon a Time. To discuss Disney, especially in relation to Roger Rabbit and the Cartoon Universe, I have to briefly discuss Kingdom Hearts. See the entry for that video game series for a deeper analysis. But for now, Kingdom Hearts presents a multiverse in which all the various Disney films seem to exist in alternate realities, separated and difficult to travel between. In the series, there are also four different versions of Mickey and friends, in different realities. Kingdom Hearts seems to contradict the Toontown concept introduced in Roger Rabbit and later seen in House of Mouse, Drawn Together, and others. Throughout this book, there are other examples to demonstrate that the Cartoon Universe is part of a larger Cartoon Multiverse. It is my belief, creating a theory relying on in-story information, that the Cartoon Universe is the Central Timeline as part of a multiverse which resembles the Hypertime formerly used by DC Comics, and that the Central Timeline is to the Multiverse as the post-Crisis DC Universe was to the pre-Crisis DC Multiverse. The Central Timeline, aka the Cartoon Universe, combines elements of other realities of the Cartoon Multiverse. Later, Batman: The Brave and the Bold will demonstrate that perhaps my analogy between the DC Multiverse/Hypertime and the Cartoon Multiverse is extremely appropriate. So for now, we will put Kingdom Hearts aside, as existing among other realities of the Cartoon Multiverse, and focus for the remainder of this entry on the proper Cartoon Universe, established by this film and the Toontown concept.
• So getting back to Disney, and it’s first category of Mickey Mouse, let’s discuss the “Mickey Mouse Universe”. This is not meant to imply a separate reality for Mickey, but meaning the group of characters that often are associated with Mickey Mouse. When it comes to the characters from the “Mickey Mouse Universe”, shorts from the early years had less crossovers, and it makes sense to list crossovers between the stars of the various shorts during those early decades. However, in the more modern era, seeing Mickey, Donald, Goofy and others is so common, that listing crossovers between them would be silly. Thus, for the characters of “the Mickey Mouse Universe”, crossovers between them will be listed only up to the debut of television’s Wonderful World of Disney in 1954. After that, appearances of characters from the Mickey Mouse Universe will not be listed as crossovers, but if, for example, a character from the Mickey Mouse Universe crosses with another series, that cross will be listed as a cross for that short character rather than a cross with the entire Mickey Mouse Universe.
• Of course, the first of the Mickey Mouse Universe to discuss would be Mickey Mouse. Mickey appears along other major animation icon Bugs Bunny in a scene involving Eddie falling out of a building. (Note that along with using the official styles of each characters, particularly in their 1947 versions, the characters were also mostly voiced by the voice actors who in 1988 were most known for providing that character’s voice.) Mickey first appeared in the animated short Steamboat Willie in 1928. He has since become the most iconic figure and mascot for Disney. He also shares my birthday. Based on the history of Mickey, there seems to be no indication that Mickey has ever lived outside of Toontown, which seems to have portals connecting it to Hollywood and most Disney theme parks of the Live Action Universe. In fact, you can visit Mickey’s Toontown at most Disney parks. As with the other characters I mention as crosses here, Mickey’s further history and connection to the Cartoon Universe is laid out throughout this book. In his life, he seems to have worked many jobs, including a time working for Interpol, but now seems to run Disney.
• Mickey’s girlfriend Minnie also appears, in a small cameo. She first appeared in Steamboat Willie as well.
• Goofy is a character that first appeared in the Mickey Mouse short Mickey’s Revue, originally called Dippy Dawg. (Perhaps his full name is Goofy Dippy Dawg.) Goofy was popular enough to get his own spin-off series. He would later work with Mickey for Interpol and become the super-heroic Super Goof, before finally settling down and becoming a parent in Goof Troop.
• Pluto is Mickey’s dog. In the Cartoon Universe, there are anthropomorphic animals, and then there are also animals more like those in the Real Universe, though with relatively higher degrees of intelligence. Pluto first appeared in the Chain Gang, but would later get his own spin off series of shorts.
• Horace Horsecollar also appears, who first appeared in the Mickey short The Plow Boy.
• Another of the Mickey Universe to appear is Clarabelle Cow. Clarabelle first appeared in Plane Crazy. Plane Crazy was actually the first Mickey Mouse cartoon created, but it tested poorly in test screenings. It eventually debuted publicly as the fourth official Mickey Mouse short in 1929.
• Clara Cluck, who also appears, first debuted in the Mickey short Orphan’s Benefit. The orphans from Orphan’s Benefit also appear. Note that Orphan’s Benefit has its own entry, as it’s the first time Mickey and Donald are seen together.
• Willie the Giant and the Golden Harp appear, who both originate from Mickey and the Beanstalk, an adaption of the classic Jack and the Beanstalk. This must be one of the numerous divergent timelines as demonstrated from Kingdom Hearts in which Mickey and friends existed in different forms in different time periods. But, they shouldn’t be the same divergent timelines from Kingdom Hearts. Kingdom Hearts demonstrates travel between worlds to be extremely difficult, while Roger Rabbit shows us the exact opposite.
• Donald Duck appears as a musical act partnered with Daffy Duck. Donald first appeared in 1934’s The Wise Little Hen. Though commonly associated as part of the “Mickey Mouse Universe”, he originated in this Silly Symphonies short, as a separate series star, and thus Mickey and Donald are considered two separate series. Donald has lived a large part of his life in Toontown, but seems to have been born in nearby Duckberg (where life is like a hurricane). He also spent some time (off and on) in the Navy.
• Daisy Duck is Donald’s longtime girlfriend. She first appeared in 1940’s Mr. Duck Steps Out.
• Huey, Dewey and Louie also appear in a picture in a newspaper. They are Donald’s triplet nephews, the sons of Donald’s sister Della. They first appeared in the Donald Duck newspaper strip before coming to animation a few months later. They often visited Donald in the shorts, usually driving him crazy. Sometimes a fourth nephew, Phooey, appears. He was drawn by accident. He shouldn’t be canon. Later, it was explained that he was a freak incident of nature. A fourth nephew. Nothing more has been said of him, and it seems the Duck/McDuck family do not like to speak of him. The nephews would later live with Donald, until he left again for the navy in Duck Tales, after which they went to live with Uncle Scrooge McDuck. More recently, they have formed a boy band as seen in House of Mouse. This followed their finally aging to teenhood in the 1990s series Quack Pack.
• Jose Carioca makes a cameo. He was a friend of Donald’s first debuting in Saludos Amigos.
• Peter Pig first appeared in The Wise Little Hen with Donald Duck. He makes a cameo in the closing song from Roger Rabbit.
• Gus Goose is Donald’s cousin, who first appeared in the 1939 short Donald’s Cousin Gus.
• Donald’s flying jalopy from The Flying Jalopy also appears.
• Pete also appears. Pete first appears as a villain in Alice Solves the Puzzle. The Alice Comedies were about Alice, a girl from the Live Action Universe who found her way into the Cartoon Universe. Pete would later go on to be a villainous figure, often a nemesis to Mickey, Donald and Goofy, and later a neighbor of Goofy in Goof Troop.
• Chip ‘n’ Dale also appear in the film. Chip ‘n’ Dale started off as antagonists in Pluto cartoons, before moving on to pester Donald Duck. Eventually, they became the stars of their own shorts. Much later, you younger readers may be more familiar with them when they took on the role of Rescue Rangers. And they should not be confused with Chippendales, the adult entertainment club.
• Bucky Bug was a continuing character from Silly Symphonies whose “adventures” continued in the comic book Walt Disney Comics and Stories.
• Humphrey the Bear was a character who first appeared in a Goofy short, but then became a regular character in a few Donald shorts before getting his own starring spin-off. Though four Humphrey shorts were created, only two were released as Disney discontinued their short animated theatrical films before the remainder made it out.
• Mr. Walker appears in Roger Rabbit. Mr. Walker is actually Goofy, from his “everyman films”, particularly in this case Motor Mania, where Goofy is a Jekyll and Hyde sort, transformed when he gets behind the wheel of a motor vehicle. Roger Rabbit seems to demonstrate Mr. Walker to be a separate character than Goofy, even if they are appear to be the same.
• The Merry Dwarfs also appear, who come from a Silly Symphony.
• The Flowers and Trees of the Silly Symphony of the same name also appear.
• The gnomes from Babes in the Woods, a Silly Symphony version of Hansel and Gretel, appear. There are numerous versions of Hansel and Gretel that make their way into the canon of the Cartoon Universe. So the question is, are they the same pair just portrayed in different interpretations, or are they different sets of siblings. At first, I wanted to cop out for simplicity and say that every interpretations should be the same pair, a theory I could then apply to all fairy tale characters, and by extension, all characters in animation that are based on characters that did not originate in animation. But, as we will soon get to, this very film demonstrates I have to consider them as separate as this film has both Bugs Bunny and the prototype version of Bugs Bunny as two separate characters. If they are different, then we have to consider that the Daffy Duck Robin Hood and the Disney fox Robin Hood are separate, that the Simpsons James Woods is not the James Woods from Family Guy, and that Mighty Mouse and Super Mouse are separate characters. And there is enough evidence to prove that out based on in-story examples.
• The sun seen in Toontown, thus the sun of the Cartoon Universe at least during that period, was the same sun from the Silly Symphony Father Noah’s Ark. Father Noah’s Ark is a retelling of the biblical tale of Noah and the Great Flood, which happened at some point in the past (and I’m not going to debate it on a religious scale). It would seem that this telling would be the official version of the Cartoon Universe. Oddly, though, later another version appears in Fantasia 2000, featuring what should be ancestors of Donald and Daisy. Thanks to Kingdom Hearts, though, we know that Donald exists in multiple realities, some of which place him in other time periods. So his Fantasia version likely exists in the established Fantasia alternate reality seen in Kingdom Hearts. So the Silly Symphony must be the main Cartoon Universe version.
• The Disney Silly Symphony versions of the Three Little Pigs, Zeke “Big Bad” Wolf, and Little Red Riding Hood also appear.
• Toby Tortoise appears, who was a recurring Silly Symphony character.
• The Water Babies also appear, who originate from a 1935 Silly Symphony short about water sprites.
• Jenny Wren (who resembles a bird version of Mae West) appears, who originated from the Silly Symphony Who Killed Cock Robin, based on the nursery rhyme of the same name.
• Elmer Elephant and Joe Giraffe from the Silly Symphony Elmer Elephant also appear.
• Ferdinand the Bull, also from a Silly Symphony, also appears, based on the Story of Ferdinand.
• Many characters from Fantasia also appear, including the broomsticks from the Sorcerer’s Apprentice. Fantasia exists in an alternate reality based on Kingdom Hearts. Thus, that Mickey is a divergent version. It should be noted though that the main Cartoon Universe Mickey is often seen with the famous hat and using its power, specifically in promotions for the Wonderful World of Disney and Disney theme parks. I will argue that perhaps the main Cartoon Universe Mickey may have had a similar experience as his Fantasia counterpart, but they are still different versions from different realities. One of the Fantasia bits that crosses over here is the Nutcracker Suite. This would be the version from the Fantasia reality, which apparently can connect to the main Cartoon Universe as easily as other realities. Other versions of the Nutcracker will also be crossed into this guide, and as we come across each, I will address how they all can coexist.
• Pedro (the Plane) also appears, who originated as a short segment in Saludos Amigos, later rereleased as an independent short.
• Emotion appears. Emotion resembles a caveman, but is in fact part of the human psyche, as seen in the World War II era short Reason and Emotion.
• Chicken Little appears, from the World War II era short of the same name, based on “The Sky is Falling” fable. The 2005 animated film will also get included via a valid cross with Kingdom Hearts. At that point, I’ll discuss further how both can be in, but I’m sure the two stories are different enough to not cause contradiction.
• Monte the Pelican also appears, who originated from the Pelican and the Snipe, a World War II era Silly Symphony.
• Peter from Peter and the Wolf appears. This short is based on the musical composition and fairy tale, and likely takes place in the “Enchanted Forest”. There are other versions that will make it in that likely take place in alternate dimensions.
• The animals from Johnny Appleseed appear, but not Johnny himself. Johnny Appleseed was a short included as a segment in Melody Time. Though the film came out in 1948, the animals could still have existed in 1947, when Roger Rabbit takes place. And in fact, Johnny Appleseed takes place in the 18th Century, so their appearance is not at all anachronistic. If anything, those animals are just very long lived.
• The apartments and skyscrapers from Little House appear. Little House is a short that came out in 1952, but based on a story from 1942.
• Babe the Blue Ox from Disney’s 1958 Paul Bunyan short appears. Since the story of Paul Bunyan comes from folklore that existed prior to his first print appearance in 1916, the appearance is not an anachronism.
• The second Disney category is Disney Princesses. According to Kingdom Hearts, all of the princesses exist in alternate realities which do not interact. However, Toontown based shows (following the Roger Rabbit tradition) such as House of Mouse and Drawn Together, portray the princesses not only living on the same world, but also living contemporary to each other in our present day. We must assume as with Mickey and company that the Kingdom Hearts worlds are divergent realities, while the Cartoon Universe is the main reality. According to Drawn Together, the “Magic Kingdoms” are accessible via portals accesssible at Disney parks, much as Toontown is. Applying what we know from Roger Rabbit, House of Mouse, and Drawn Together, and applying some other Disney based information from similarly themed Kingdom Hearts and Once Upon a Time, we might be able to come to a workable theory, and thus I shall try. Note, this is only a theory, based on what in-story information we have to go on. We already know that the Cartoon Universe itself seems to be made up of several overlapping realities. It could be that the realities of these Disney Princesses indeed exist in separate realities, very much as depicted in Kingdom Hearts, but unlike Kingdom Hearts, they are accessible to each other through a magical “Enchanted Forest” that lies between them all, in a manner that may make them all contemporary with each other as like on Once Upon a Time. This would mean this Fairy Tale Land exists in a separate reality outside the Cartoon Universe, but that connects to the Cartoon Universe in a manner similar to the Live Action Universe. Because time operates differently there in Fairy Tale Land, as it operates differently in the Cartoon Universe, the stories can happen “once upon a time” and in contemporary times. Placing fairy tales in a separate but connecting reality can then also help explain the Hansel and Gretel dilemma above. Perhaps there is more than one version of Fairy Tale Land out there. Surely, if Mickey can exist in multiple realities, so can Snow and Cinderella. Thus, not all versions of fairy tales seen are the same. They are likely all alternate versions from different pocket realities that connect to the Cartoon Universe.
• Snow White, the Evil Queen, the Seven Dwarfs, and the forest animals from Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs appear. In the real world, Snow White was published in 1812, but likely came from earlier folklore. In the world of Disney, it seems as though the story takes place in some ambiguous “once upon a time”, and yet at the same time contemporary with other stories and characters from Disney of the same time as the Disney film release in 1937. (I’m not even going to go into the Once Upon a Time version’s timeline...for now. Shrek is another similar situation that will later be discussed.)
• Pinnochio also appears. Pinnochio, Jiminy Cricket and Lampwick also come from one of the “Magic Kingdoms” of the “Enchanted Forest”.
• Several characters from Wonderland appear. Disney’s Alice likely comes from the main Cartoon Universe, while Wonderland is a pocket reality attached to the Cartoon Universe similar to Fairy Tale Land, but those two realities are clearly different realms.
• Tinkerbell appears at the end, doing her classic Disney film ending, along with John Darling and a rhino from Peter Pan. Peter Pan came out in 1953. But it takes place in 1900. Neverland is another realm like Fairy Tale Land and Wonderland. The Darlings, like Alice, must come from the main Cartoon Universe.
• Some goons and birds from Sleeping Beauty appear. Aurora (who is the Sleeping Beauty) comes from another of the Magic Kingdoms of the Enchanted Forest.
• Next we move to Disney’s third category, for other animated projects.
• The first of which is the Reluctant Dragon. Both the Dragon and Giles appear. The Reluctant Dragon was actually a short animated film that was part of a larger film of the same name that consisted of a live action tour of Disneyland, The Reluctant Dragon film, and three other animated shorts that are all not at all connected.
• Several characters from Dumbo appear in Roger Rabbit, including the flying elephant himself, who in this film is on loan from Disney to Maroon Studios and only works for peanuts. Of course, in this sense, one might wonder if the cartoons these toons were in were considered fictional within the Roger Rabbit film, especially since Roger’s shorts certainly seemed to be. But for the most part, every toon maintains the same characteristics behind the scenes (except for Baby Herman.) Based on later appearances of Toontown, we have to consider that appearances of toons here bring in their main canon, and that they must have made films based upon their real exploits and all starred as themselves in these films.
• Several Bambi characters also appear, including the title character. Bambi appears in his more youthful state, as seen in the bulk of his first animated film. In fact, almost every crossover appearance of Bambi shows him at that age, even in the modern era. We know that toons age differently than we of the real world, or even our fictional counterparts of the Live Action Universe. So it seems as though the ending of Bambi, where he is grown takes place in a future that hasn’t come to pass (and at least in one divergent timeline, doesn’t, thanks to Godzilla!)
• Many of the animated characters from Song of the South appear. Those animated characters for most of Song of the South appear to be fictional stories told by Uncle Remus of the Live Action main portion of the film. But by end, it’s clear they really exist, thus they must be from the Cartoon Universe while Uncle Remus and the live action portions are in the Live Action Universe.
• So Dear to My Heart, though not a sequel, was a follow up to Song of the South in theme. It featured a live action story with animation used in story telling. The animated characters appear in Roger Rabbit, but using Song of the South, we can assume the same relationship between the Cartoon and Live Action Universes apply. Though the film was released in 1949, the story took place in 1903, thus no anachronisms are present in this instance.
• Mr. Toad and Proudbottom appear from Ichabod and Mr. Toad, a film that featured two separate stories that were unrelated. Only the Mr. Toad portion is included here. The film is based on Wind in the Willows and takes place in 1906, even though it came out in 1949.
• A silouhite of Mary Poppins and penguin waiters from the same film appear in Roger Rabbit. Mary Poppins did not come out until 1964, but the story took place in 1910, thus there is no anachronism here. This crossover appearance implies that the animated characters from that film come from the Cartoon Universe while the main story takes place in the Live Action Universe.
• Characters from the Jungle Book also appear. The Jungle Book came out in 1967 but is set in the 19th century, so there are no anachronisms here.
• Piglet appears, from 1966’s Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree. However, since the original story by A.A. Milne takes place in 1926, there isn’t an anachronism.
• So now that we’ve covered Disney, it’s time to move onto their biggest competitor, Warner Brothers and their Looney Tunes characters. As with the Mickey Mouse Universe, there is a cut off when I will stop listing crossovers between individual stars of Looney Tunes shorts. I’m choosing the 1960’s television debut of the Bugs Bunny Show. Any crossovers of Looney Tunes stars with other Looney Tunes stars will be listed if they were before that date, but not after. Before getting into the indvidual Looney Tunes series, first there’s a sort of crossover with Looney Tunes as a whole. Sort of. The song “The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down” is sung twice, with different words, in Roger Rabbit. The first time it is sung by Roger as he entertains in a bar, and the second by Eddie to make the weasels die laughing. You may think you don’t know the song, but it’s the famed theme song for Looney Tunes. It was written in 1937 and became the Looney Tunes theme the same year, and has been associated with the Looney Tunes ever since.
• OK, so now onto the characters, and we start with the number one star of Looney Tunes, Bugs Bunny. Bugs Bunny, as stated earlier, appears with Mickey in one scene. They also appear with a group of toons at the close of the film. Bugs first appeared in the 1940 short A Wild Hare. However, in 1938, a prototype of Bugs appeared in a Porky short called Porky’s Hare Hunt. In Roger Rabbit, the Bugs Bunny prototype also appears, as a separate character, and so we must assume them to be two different individuals with similar appearance and characteristics. So Bugs is not a spin-off character of Porky Pig. But he is. The prototype is named Happy Rabbit, and later got his own shorts where he faced a hunter who was a prototype for Elmer Fudd named Egghead. Egghead first appeared in Egghead rides again. Since Happy and Bugs are considered separate, Egghead is not Elmer, though some shorts with Happy and Egghead have been considered to be Bugs and Elmer. Elmer officially appeared in 1940’s Elmer’s Candid Camera. In that film short, Elmer clashed with Bug’s prototype Happy. This would seem to make Elmer a spin-off of Happy who is a spin-off of Porky, but I think it’s clear that history sees Elmer as a member of the Bugs Bunny Rogues Gallery, and thus any appearances of Elmer is a reference to the Bugs Bunny series.
• Another of Bugs’ rogues to appear is Yosemite Sam, who leaps over the wall dividing Toon Toon from Hollywood after his rear end catches fire. Sam first appeared in Super-Rabbit.
• Mama Bear appears. This is the Looney Tunes Mama Bear from the short Bugs Bunny and the Three Bears. In this short, the three bears are almost identical to the Goldilocks fairy tale, but they are not the same. They are, however, aware of the fairy tale, and through cartoon logic, assume that if they attempt to reenact the classic tale, a little girl will come along for them to eat. But Mama Bear is out of porridge and makes carrot soup instead, which instead lures Bugs.
• Another of Bugs’ rogues to appear is Marvin the Martian. It’s interesting that Marvin would be in Toontown in 1947 when Bugs wouldn’t meet Marvin until 1948 in Haredevil Hare. Though Marvin is most well known for matching wits with Bugs, he would also feature in Daffy’s fictional accounts of Duck Dodgers, and ironically, would later be a foe of Daffy when he actually takes on the role of Duck Dodgers.
• Another rogue to appears is Toro the Bull, from Bully for Bugs, a short from 1953, so at this point in Roger Rabbit, Bugs and Toro have not officially met yet.
• During Roger Rabbit, at one point, Eddie uses Bugs’ famous catchphrase, “What’s up, Doc?”
• Daffy Duck appears with Donald in a dueling pianists scene. Daffy is a spin-off character who comes from Porky’s series, debuting in 1937’s Porky’s Duck Hunt. However, Daffy is such a grandiose character that I feel it would be unbefitting him to not give him his own recognition as a series star in his own right, and so I am not considering his appearance here as a cross with Porky Pig, but with Daffy Duck. Only Daffy could make me break my own rules.
• Speaking of Porky Pig, Porky is one of the older of the famed Looney Tunes. He first debuted in 1935’s I Haven’t Got a Hat. He appears in Roger Rabbit, working in Toontown as a cop, and for seemingly the first time, ends a show with his famous stuttering “That’s all, folks!” This phrase seems to have evolved. Originally, Jerry the Troublesome Tyke’s cartoon’s ended with “And That’s All!” In 1929, Warner Brothers started ending their Bosko with “So long, Folks!” and in 1930, “That’s all, Folks!” was said by Bosko at the end of the short. Other characters used one of the two variations up until the late 1930s at the ends of Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies shorts, but Bugs would usually end with “And dat’s de end!” in his Brooklyn accent. It’s interesting to note Porky has a stutter because his original voice actor, Joe Dougherty, had a stutter, and it was easier to just go with it rather than edit it. Porky’s stutter so defined him that Mel Blanc continued it when he took over as Porky’s voice.
• Yoyo Dodo also appears, who originated from Porky in Wackyland. Wackyland may actually be the same 5th dimensional world that Mr. Mxyzptlk and Bat-Mite come from.
• Tweety and Sylvester both appear. Though I consider Tweety & Sylvester as a single series, the two originally started as separate series. Tweety first appeared in 1942’s a Tale of Two Kitties while Sylvester debuted in 1945’s Life with Feathers. The two first appeared together in 1947’s Tweetie Pie.
• Another Looney Tunes character to appear is Gracie the Fighting Kangaroo. Gracie is the mother of Hippety Hopper, and first appeared in Pop ‘Im Pop. This was also the first appearance of Sylvester’s son, Sylvester Junior, and was part of a series of shorts to team up Sylvester and Hippety Hopper as adversaries, Sylvester mistaking the baby kangaroo for a giant mouse. Hippety first appeared in Hop, Look and Listen. Pop ‘Im Pop debuted in 1950 and Hop, Look and Listen in 1948. Roger Rabbit must take place before Hippety was born.
• Foghorn Leghorn also appears, who first appeared in 1946’s Walky Talky Hawky.
• Also appearing are the Goofy Gophers who first appeared in the short of the same name from 1947.
• The Road Runner appears, along with his nemesis, Wile E. Coyote. Both first appeared in 1949’s Fast and Furry-ous. Though they first appeared two years after Roger Rabbit is set, that doesn’t necessarily make any continuity conflicts. Their first short did not seem to be the first time the two have matched wits, so they may have lived out in the desert near Toontown for some time prior to their first short. One of the main characters of Who Framed Roger Rabbit is Marvin Acme. He is an original character from the film, but his character was the founder of the Acme Corporation, most famously known as the supplier of Wile E. Coyote’s various gadgets. In the real world, Acme first became a popular name for various businesses once the phone book was invented, in order to have their business listed first. Usually, this led to people ordering items, such as anvils, from catalogues that would bear the Acme logo. The first known appearance of Acme in fiction was in the 1920 silent film, Neighbors, with Buster Keaton. It has appeared numerous times in fiction. Since Acme is real, I don’t consider them all to be crossovers, unless it’s a clear crossover reference, such as in the case of Marvin Acme. Acme products have been used by Wile E. Coyote since his first appearance and at that point the name of Acme became most identified with Road Runner cartoons. Another connection between Roger Rabbit and the Road Runner happens at a scene at an Acme warehouse. One of the items is an animated black hole, that when placed on a surface, actually becomes a real hole in that surface. This comes from the common animation gag of drawing a tunnel on a rock and making it a real tunnel, popularized in the Road Runner cartoons.
• Another Looney Tunes toon to appear who has super-speed abilities like the Road Runner is Speedy Gonzalez. Speedy first debuted in 1953’s Cat-Tails for Two, a parody of Of Mice and Men, with cat versions of Lennie and George. Speedy typically lives in Mexico, but apparently lived for a time in Toontown prior to his official debut. Speedy would later become a regular foe/partner in shorts with Daffy Duck and Sylvester.
• Marc Antony also appears. Marc Antony is a big bulldog, who is extremely protective of the cute little kitten Pussyfoot (sometimes also called Kitty or Cleo). The pair first appeared in 1952’s Feed the Kitty. This is when they first met, so it makes sense that Marc Antony is appearing in Roger Rabbit without his cute partner.
• Sam Sheepdog also appears, who was usually partnered up with Ralph Wolf in shorts. Ralph Wolf looks nearly identical to Wile E. Coyote, but they are not the same. They have different accents and speech patterns, and different colored eyes. They also have slightly different personalities. A Looney Tunes comic book from DC Comics revealed that Wile and Ralph are in fact cousins.
• Also appearing in Roger Rabbit is George the Fox, from Of Fox and Hounds. Of Fox and Hounds was also the debut of Willoughby the Dog.
• Michigan J. Frog also appears, who debuted in One Froggy Evening from 1955, thus this is his earliest chronological appearance. However, there is a continuity hiccup. In G.L. Gick’s story “The Werewolf of Rutherford Grange”, it’s revealed that Michigan was placed in that box and trapped in the building when it was built in the 1800s, and then discovered when the building was demolished in 1955. So this can’t be Michigan. One popular fan theory is that the frog seen, though intended to be Michigan, may actually be Fennimore Frog, from DC Comics’ Dodo and the Frog. Fennimore looks nearly identical to Michigan and it would explain away the continuity problem. Fennimore in fact first appeared in DC Comics in 1947, and was one of the more popular “funny stuff” characters at DC. In the 1980s, it was established that Fennimore existed on Earth-C, as part of the DC Multiverse. More recently, Earth-C has been renamed Earth-26, and is shown to still exist as part of DC’s New 52 multiverse. For the purposes of this book, we might assume that the Cartoon Universe and Earth-C/26 are not the same, but the pre-Captain Carrot Dodo and the Frog may have existed in both realities.
• Next we move into the characters who originated from MGM, though I believe they are now owned by Warner Bros.
• The first to discuss is Droopy. Droopy, who appears in Toontown operating an elevator. Droopy debuted in 1943’s Dumb-Hounded. The wolf from Dumb Hounded was meant to appear during the scene where Jessica Rabbit is performing, but it was cut. In Red Hot Riding Hood, it was revealed the wolf who was an adversary of Droopy was also the wolf from one variant version of Little Red Riding Hood that began in the traditional manner but then diverged into an alternate modernized retelling of the story.
• George, one half of the George and Junior team, appears. George and Junior were bears based on George and Lennie from Of Mice and Men. They debuted in 1946’s Henpecked Hoboes. The octopus from the George and Junior short Half-Pint Pygmy also appears in Roger Rabbit, working as a bartender. Since Half-Pint Pygmy was released in 1948, George and Junior have not yet encountered the octopus at this point.
• Screwy Squirrel appears in a framed picture on Lena Hyena’s wall and is also mentioned by a bar patron in Roger Rabbit. Screwy debuted in 1944’s Screwball Squirrel. Screwy’s adversary, Meathead Dog, also appears, sniffing around the Maroon Studios lot.
• Tom and Jerry were originally meant to appear, seen comforting each other at Marvin Acme’s funeral, but that scene was cut. However, since it was the writer’s and director’s intention to include them originally, I’m still counting appearances that were put in then cut as crossovers. Tom and Jerry debuted in 1940’s Puss Gets the Boot (where Tom was named Jasper and Jerry was named Jinx!) Another stronger connection between Tom and Jerry and Roger Rabbit occurs through the appearance of the witch from The Flying Sorceress, a Tom and Jerry short which was released in 1956, meaning the famous cat and mouse have not yet encountered her at this point. Spike also appears in Roger Rabbit. Spike is a supporting character in Tom and Jerry. He is a dog owned by the same family that owns Tom. Sometimes he is called Butch or just Bulldog. He has a son named Tyke. He first appeared in 1942’s Dog Trouble. Interestingly, his temporary name change to Butch occurred when Droopy gained a nemesis in 1949 named Spike who was nearly identical to Tom and Jerry’s Spike. Since that second Spike debuted in 1949, we can be assured that the Spike in Roger Rabbit is the one who debuted in 1942. The second Spike confusingly also was sometimes renamed Butch, and for a time spun off into his own series of shorts. Despite the shared name and appearance, they were separate characters. However, likely due to confusion from the next generation of animators, in the short lived 1980s Tom and Jerry Comedy Show, the two were conflated. Based on that, we could assume that both versions of Spike/Butch were always the same character, if not for Tom and Jerry: The Magic Ring and later Tom and Jerry movies in which the two dogs were again shown to be separate characters. So how then to explain that brief period of two years (1980 - 1982) when they were conflated? Since they were identical in almost every way, perhaps they were indeed identical brothers, one living a domesticated life with Tom and Jerry, while the other a more sinister path as Droopy’s constant adversary. In the Tom and Jerry Show, though seemingly the same character, he appeared in separate Tom and Jerry segments and Droopy segments, so it’s easy to presume the Tom and Jerry segments featured one brother and the Droopy segments featured the other. So which is Spike and which is Butch. It seems they both shared both names, but in the more recent canon, Tom’s pesky nemesis is named Butch and Droopy’s foe is named Spike. However, it’s safe to assume that whatever they were called, the characters they interacted with (Tom and Jerry or Droopy) determines which of the brothers we see. But in the Tom and Jerry films, they make clear that it’s Tom and Jerry’s friend and not Droopy’s foe, despite the bulldog’s interactions with Droopy. So that wraps up MGM.
• Let’s now discuss characters that originated from Paramount Pictures/Fleischer/Famous Studios. The company started off as Fleischer Studios, but when Paramount bought out the company in 1942, it was renamed Famous Studios. In 1956, it became Paramount Cartoon Studios.
• The first to discuss is Betty Boop. Boop oop a doop. (Sorry, couldn’t resist.) Betty Boop first appeared in 1930’s Dizzy Dishes. In Roger Rabbit, she is now working as a cigarette girl because she didn’t make the transition to color like other toons and so she has a hard time finding work in cartoons. In Roger Rabbit, she is still in black and white. Eddie Valiant, who prior to 1942, worked regularly in Toontown, seemed to be old friends with Betty, and though he hated most toons (due to one killing his brother), he was still extremely friendly to Betty. Wiffle Piffle also appears, who was one of the recurring antagonists in Betty Boop cartoons.
• Koko the Clown also appears, a character who debuted in 1919! His debut was in Out of the Inkwell, where the character would interact with his creator, Max Fleischer, another demonstration that toons were once aware of their fictionality, and that indeed the Cartoon Universe is a tulpa type reality brought to life based on the imaginations of people from the Live Action Universe. In the modern era, it seems that toons have lost their awareness of their relationship to the Live Action Universe, or at least they don’t talk about it as much.
• One very interesting cameo is that of the Noveltoons Joker, a jack-in-the-box that became the mascot of Noveltoons, and later Harvey Comics, starting in 1943. What’s interesting is the mascot only appeared as the opening logo for the cartoons, and on Harvey covers and in ads. Roger Rabbit is its only actual story appearance that I have found. Technically, though, and later entries will prove this point, even television commercials and print advertising has a place in the Cartoon Universe canon.
• Popeye also appears in the deleted scene at the funeral, along with Olive and Bluto. Popeye originated from the comic strip called Thimble Theatre. Thimble Theatre was a comic strip created in 1919, in which Popeye was first introduced in 1929. He soon became the star due to his popularity, and the strip was renamed after him. His first appearance in a cartoon was actually in the Betty Boop short Popeye the Sailor, in which Popeye literally came out to the comics and into the cartoon world. This would make the animated Popeye both an adaption of the comic strip, and a spin-off of Betty Boop, but due to his popularity and being the longest lived of the Fleischer Studios series, he does not get treated as a spin-off in this reference guide. The strip and cartoon, though similar, had enough differences to maintain that while the animated Popeye may exists in the Cartoon Universe, his comic version likely takes place in some alternate reality. In fact, his first animated appearance may have been that of his comic counterpart, considering the circumstances, with all his other animated appearances being that of the Cartoon Universe counterpart.
• Casper was also cut from his appearance at the funeral. The animated Casper is based on a children’s book from 1939. His first animated debut was in 1945. The cartoons made some changes from the book, so that we must consider the book to exist in some alternate reality. The Casper of the Cartoon Universe lives with other ghosts in a haunted house in the woods outside a community which is probably Toontown. He is actually not a dead human. In this case, ghosts are a separate supernatural species. Casper’s parents were also ghosts. The later Harvey Comics version is also a different reality. There, Casper lives in an Enchanted Forest, where fairytale characters exist. Likewise, the later live action films portray Casper as a dead boy named Casper McFadden, so these also take place in an alternate universe. (Note in the latter’s case, the live action films are referenced in my last book, the Horror Crossover Encyclopedia, as existing in the Horror Universe due to a crossover in the first of those films with Ghostbusters.)
• Superman also appears at the deleted funeral scene, comforting Mighty Mouse. This is the Fleischer Studios version of Superman. For the purposes of this reference guide, every different variation of Superman will be considered as a separate series, whether in animation or other mediums. Roger Rabbit only brings in at this time the version from the 1940s Fleischer/Famous shorts. This version of Superman originally could not fly, but by the end of the series could. He operated out of Manhattan rather than Metropolis. Other later entries (meaning post 1940s era, so you may have already read them if you are reading this in release date order) will reveal other versions of Superman existing in the same Cartoon Universe, while others seem to exist in alternate realities. The Superman of the various series tied to the main Cartoon Universe, whether it be from the Fleischer shorts, the New Adventures of Superman, the Super Friends, the 1988 Superman, or various cameos and guest appearances in other cartoons, are all the same Superman. While in my previous work with the Horror Universe (and before that the Television Crossover Universe), continuity was very important, in the Cartoon Universe, it’s been demonstrated that this is a reality with very flexible rules. Thus, it’s very possible that the characteristics of Superman could change over time, and seem different when viewed from the perspectives of different characters and communities of the Cartoon Universe. So the Superman appearing (almost) in Roger Rabbit could indeed be the same Superman who pops up from time to time in Family Guy! As we get to more Superman cartoon appearances, I will explore this issue some more.
• The Fox and the Crow are the only crossover from Columbia Pictures...and their scene was cut. They were to appear in Toontown when Eddie is looking for Jessica. But the crossover is still valid, so we can discuss them. They first appeared in 1941 in a modernized adaptation of the Aesop fairy tale. The duo continued to appear in shorts until 1950, but their legacy lasted even longer in comics. DC Comics gained the license for the characters and started the Fox and Crow as a comic series starting in 1945, when the golden age of super-heroes was dying down and being replaced by funny animals and westerns. The characters continued to be published by DC well into the 1960s. They would still continue to be referenced (as fictional) within the main DC Universe for decades after. Unlike with Popeye and Casper, the Fox and the Crow comic does seem to be the same version as the cartoons and so fits nicely in the Cartoon Universe. It should be noted that while DC Comics has established Earth-C (later Earth-26) as the home of their funny animal characters, the Fox and the Crow were never actually demonstrated to exist on Earth-C (26) until the Captain Carrot mini-series The Final Arc, a tie in to their Final Crisis series. There, they were shown to be part of Earth-26, the New 52 version of Earth-C. Earth-26 still exists as demonstrated by the recent Multiversity mini-series. Since the New 52 is a self-contained multiverse with a specific group of 52 alternate realities, it does not necessarily work with the Cartoon Multiverse, which is good, because Earth-C/26 is a demonstratively different reality than the Cartoon Universe. Likely, the Cartoon Multiverse and DC’s New 52 are both multiverses within a larger Omniverse.
• Moving on to Universal Studios/Walter Lantz, we have an appearance by Woody Woodpecker, who first debuted in 1940’s Knock Knock. Buzz Buzzard is also seen. Though a recurring foe of Woody, at the time in which Roger Rabbit is set, Woody and Buzz (hey, Woody and Buzz, get it? Toy Story) have not yet crossed paths. Buzz first appeared in the 1948 Woody short Wet Blanket Policy.
• Papa Panda also appears, the father of Andy Panda. Both Andy and Papa debuted in Life Begins for Andy Panda in 1939.
• Chilly Willy is also mentioned by a man in the bar who is mocking Eddie’s clientele. Chilly Willy didn’t debut until 1953, but apparently he was still well known in Hollywood in 1947 to get referenced by the man in the bar. The bar patron also mentions Dinky Doodle, who first appeared in 1924. He also refers to Bo Peep. Bo Peep is of course a nursery rhyme, but since he’s referring to toons, it’s likely he means the Bo Peep from 1942’s Mother Goose on the Loose.
• Next we move on to Terrytoons, starting with Mighty Mouse, who was part of the cut funeral scene, where he was comforting Superman. Technically, Mighty Mouse first appeared, as Super Mouse, in 1942’s Mouse of Tomorrow. He was renamed Mighty Mouse in 1944’s The Wreck of the Hesperus. The Mighty Mouse comic book from Marvel Comics in the 1990s however made canon that Super Mouse was actually an alternate Earth doppelganger of Mighty Mouse. They were two distinct characters, much like the difference between the golden age/Earth-2 Superman and his later silver age/Earth-1 counterpart. Super Mouse is nicknamed Terry the First, and he doesn’t talk, while on the other hand, Mighty Mouse tends to sing...a lot. Both characters have had numerous varied origin stories, any of which could be correct given the nature of how the Cartoon Universe works.
• Heckle and Jeckle also appear, and debuted in 1946’s The Talking Magpies.
• The Temperamental Lion, from the 1939 short of the same name, appears in the final scene of Roger Rabbit.
• Thus far, all the crosses we’ve discussed make sense for an animated crossover story set in 1947. The next crossover to discuss seems more forced than logical. It’s like they said, “Hey, they gave us permission, so let’s do it. Who cares if it makes sense.” I’m talking about Garfield, who makes a “blink and you’ll miss him” cameo. Garfield. Yes, Garfield. He hates Mondays and historical continuity. He loves lasagna and illogical cameos. Garfield first appeared in a comic strip by Jim Davis in 1978. His leap to animation was 1982’s Here Comes Garfield. His animated appearances mostly fit perfectly in the same continuity as the comic strip, so both are considered part of the same canon. So why is Garfield in 1947 Toontown? How is Garfield in 1947 Toontown? Toons do age much slower than people in the real world, or even the Live Action Universe, so it could be Garfield is that old, and this is his earliest chronological appearance. But time travel seems to at times be relatively easy in the Cartoon Universe as well. And it doesn’t even have to make sense. So this may be 1988 Garfield popping back to 1947 for the sole purpose of making a cameo? So which is it? Doesn’t matter. All that matters is that Garfield is there, and thus Garfield is brought into the Cartoon Universe.
• Finally from Terry Toons is Gandy Goose. Gandy first appeared in 1938’s The Owl and the Pussycat and was often teamed with Sourpuss.
• From King Features Syndicate, only Felix the Cat is representing. Felix first appeared in 1919’s Feline Follies.
• United Features Syndicate also only has one representative, and that is Li’l Abner. Li’l Abner started as a comic strip, created by Al Capp, that began in 1934. In 1944, he transitioned to animated shorts that didn’t contradict the comic strip, thus we can conclude his appearance brings in both the strip and shorts as part of the same canon.
• The final group to discuss are the characters from Hanna-Barbera. Only two make it into Roger Rabbit, and both anachronistic.
• The first is Yakky Doodle. Yakky did have his own series, but he was a spin-off character, first appearing in an Augie Doggie and Doggie Daddy segment of the Quick Draw McGraw Show in 1959.
• The other is Scooby-Doo! (Exclamation point apparently required.) Scooby first appeared in 1969 in television’s Scooby-Doo, Where are You! The same explanations apply as for Garfield. I do understand that Hanna-Barbera did not take off as a studio in its own right until 1957, but is one of the major classic animation studios, and so they felt it needed some representation.

Years Ago--Justice League of America #220 (11.83), Secret Origins #50 (Aug. 1990), Justice League: Year One #1 (1.98)--Dinah Laurel Lance is born to Dinah Drake and Larry Lance. Dinah's "canary cry" does not appear until she is an adolescent. NOTES: After a curse by the Wizard, Dinah is given her canary cry. She is sent to the 5th dimensional limbo to protect her. There she aged faster than she would in our world, and returned to Earth, in control of her power, during her adolescence, around 1955.

Years Ago--Black Canary v.2 #1 (1.93)--15-year-old Dinah Laurel Lance succeeds her mother as Black Canary II and investigates a poll-fixing scandal.NOTE: First chronological appearance; she does yet possess her "canary cry." Note: In fact, she had been cursed with the canary cry as a baby, but while living in the 5th dimension, she had learned to suppress it. It would return soon after, with her gaining stronger control of it.

1959--SANTA CLAUS--Santa travels through the 5th Dimension, which is how he travels to all the houses in the world in one night.

1959 to 1964--TWILIGHT ZONE--Watching the Twilight Zone marathon on SyFy, and because fans are voting each half hour on which show to play next, they are bouncing around between seasons. I never noticed before, but different seasons had different openings, and in one opening, Serling claims the Twilight Zone exists in the 5th Dimension.

1962--TWILIGHT ZONE--"Little Girl Lost"--Two parents, the Millers, hear their little girl Tina calling for them. Chris lightheartedly goes to comfort his little girl, only to find her missing. He and his wife Ruth search for Tina, and eventually call in Bill, a physicist friend. They realize Tina has ended up in the fifth dimension via a strange portal, and must get her out before the portal closes.

February 1963--FANTASTIC FOUR # 11--"Krisis of the Krimson Kryptonite"--Mxyzptlk goes back in time from 1990, where is he assisting Luthor in messing with Superman, to take the form of the Impossible Man and mess with the Fantastic Four.

1969--MEN IN BLACK III--From Ivan:  Yesterday I watched MEN IN BLACK III, part of a franchise with ties to the TVCU. One of the aliens they encountered was a 5th Dimensional being. His relationship with reality was such that he could see all possible futures as being real, and knew that it was always just a matter of seeing which of these infinite possibles wound up coalescing as the present that everyone lived it.  My conclusion: Robert Wronski of the TVCU is a 5th Dimensional being.

Spring to Summer 1973--SUPER FRIENDS--Batman II (Dick Grayson) becomes an instructor along with Robin II (Bruce Wayne Junior), Superman (Kal-El/Clark Joseph Kent), Wonder Woman, and Aquaman to train new heroes Marvin and Wendy (and later Zan and Jayna).  They also work as part of the Justice League of America.  The team is nick-named the Super Friends, and later will be code named the Super Powers Team.  The team works secretly for the U.S. Government and the United Nations.  The team was actually founded in 1967 and disbanded in 1985.  It's entire roster over it's long run included:  Aquaman, Batman II, Robin II/Batman III, Robin III, Superman (Kal-El/Clark Joseph Kent), Wonder Woman, Atom II, Cyborg, Firestorm, Flash II, Green Lantern Hal Jordan, Hawkgirl II, Hawkman II, Apache Chief, Black Vulcan, El Dorado, Rima the Jungle Girl, Samurai, Green Arrow II, Plastic Man, Wendy Harris, Marvin White, Wonderdog, Zan, Jayna, Gleek, Captain Marvel I, Huntress II, Black Canary II.  See the end of this blog, where I will go through all the super-heroes (and villains I have brought in so far with little bio info on each.  I want to make clear that even though the shows for the most part appear just like you see them, in general the public isn't aware or clear of the activities of these heroes.  The primary foes of the Super Friends would be the Legion of Doom:  Bizarro, Black Manta, Brainiac, Captain Cold, Cheetah, Giganta, Gorilla Grodd, Solomon Grundy, Lex Luthor, Doctor Natas, the Riddler I, the Scarecrow II, Sinestro, the Toyman II, Mordru, and Dr. Sivana.  During their final years, they mostly fought Darkseid and his minions.  Additional bad guys they faced were:  Bizarra, Joe Chill, the Crime Syndicate of America, Felix Faust, Gentleman Ghost, Joker Junior, Mirror Master, Mr. Mxyzptlk, Penguin II, Royal Flush Gang, the Shark, Dracula, Frankenstein, Orville Gump, the Phantom Zone villains, and Zy-Kree.

Summer 1976--THE NEW ADVENTURES OF BATMAN--A continuation of the show. Batman is now bothered by Bat-Mite, a member of the 5th Dimensional Q Continuum of Zrff.



November 1979--THE WORLD'S GREATEST SUPER FRIENDS--"The Planet of Oz"--Mister Mxyzptlk abducts Superman, Wonder Woman and Aquaman to his version of Oz and manipulates them to find the wizard for his own ends.

Probably early 1980s from a TVCU point of view--SCOOBY-DOO TEAM-UP # 3--From Ivan: SCOOBY DOO TEAM UP #3, the Scooby / Batman series by DC (and the ONLY comic by DC I actually read) features Bat-Mite, but sadly Mystery Inc does not recognize him (which doesn't mean the animated crossover didn't happen; imps have a way of screwing with continuity). Bat-Mite does confirm that he's from the 5th Dimension, as is Scooby-Mite, the 5th Dimension's biggest Scooby Doo fan. As this artwork shows, Scooby-Mite had some interesting ideas on how to make Scooby Doo more exciting; MASH-UPS!

As a bonus, as the end of the mag, we have a cameo by Larry, the imp who claims to be Robin's biggest fan, from the TEEN TITANS cartoon.

October 1980--SUPER FRIENDS--"Mxyzptlk Strikes Again"--



October 1981--SUPER FRIENDS--"Mxyzptlk's Flick"--



September 1983--SUPER FRIENDS--"Mxyzptlk's Revenge"--

September to October 1984--SUPER FRIENDS:  THE LEGENDARY SUPER POWERS SHOW--Mxyzptlk appears in five episodes in a two month period.

After Crisis on Infinite Earths, there was no place for alternate realities, although they could exist in the form of ephemeral timelines (Hypertime), dimensions (such as the fifth dimension or the Fourth World) or Universes inside the Universe (Legion of Super-Heroes' Pocket Universe, Amalgam Universe).



September to November 1985--THE SUPER POWERS TEAM:  GALACTIC GUARDIANS--Mxyzptlk appears seven times in a three month period.  

1995--BLOODWULF # 2--From Matt Hickman: In issue 2 of BloodWulf, a comic book about a pretty blatant Lobo rip off form the 90's. After accidentally exposing Ogo to the vacuum of space and blowing him up in the process in issue one, Bloodwulf has to make a pit stop at the Pleasure Plaza, which is a space brothel or get what is left of Ogo (his head grafted onto a new body) Why does this matter? Well, the Pleasure Plaza is filled with cameos: Mr. Fantastic, Plastic Man, Elongated Man, Adam Strange, Mr. Mxyzptlk, a Wookie, Supergirl in her pre crisis outfit, Gleek the Space Monkey, the Wonder Twins, William Riker, a Ferengi bartender, the Phantom, Space Ghost, Spawn, Violator, Cruella de Vil, Groo, Cerebus, Stimpy, Lobo, Megaton Man, Maxx, Glinda the Good Witch of the South, Martian Manhunter, Impossible Man, Hammer of God, a Hutt, Jambi the Genie, John Carter Style Green Martian, Lex Luthor in his Superfriends outfit, and Humpty Dumpty all show up in the background. At the end, Bloodwulf and friends have to fight off an army of aliens who look just like the the Jabberwocky. One of the rules of Pleasure Plaza is no Tribbles. A few Federation Starships show up docked at the Pleasure Plaza and the ship the Bloodwulf passes at the start of the issue is clearly a Galaxy class Starship named the the U.S. S. Intercourse. This is also the ship the Jabberwockys come from after they burst out of the Captain's belly as his shuttle lands at the Pleasure Plaza. And finally the Pleasure Plaza is the same type of Space Station as DS9. [From Rob:  Though it may seem as though it would make more sense to place this in the 24th century, from what I gathered, the series takes place in a contemporary period in outer space.  Perhaps this station is at some nexus of time and space?]

September 1997--AMAZING SPIDER-MAN # 426--In The Amazing Spider-Man #426, Peter Parker mumbles "Mxyzptlk" in his sleep. Similarly, his daughter from the MC2 Universe, Spider-Girl mutters "Kltpzyxm" as she is roused from her sleep.

SUPERMAN & BUGS BUNNY # 1 - 4 (DC COMICS)

Release Date: July - October 2000

Series: Superman (Post-Crisis); Bugs Bunny

Animated Series Crosses: Looney Tunes; Porky Pig; Road Runner; Speedy Gonzales; Tweety and Sylvester; Foghorn Leghorn; Daffy Duck; Pepe Le Pew; One Froggy Evening

Other Crosses: JLA; Martian Manhunter; Flash; Batman (Post-Crisis); Wonder Woman (Post-Crisis); Plastic Man; Green Lantern; Aquaman (Post-Crisis); Green Arrow

The Story: While Mr. Mxyzptlk is being sent back to his 5th dimension from the DC Universe, he encounters the Dodo, who is returning to Wackyland from the Looniverse. The two conspire to team-up and merge the universe of Superman and his Justice League with that of the Looney Tunes. The Justice League and Looney Tunes work Together to save both worlds.

Notes: When this was published, it was official canon for both the DC Universe and Looney Tunes. DC was operating under the Hypertime concept where the main DC Universe was the central timeline and other realities were part of Hypertime. This series first used the term ”Looniverse” to describe the reality of the Looney Tunes. In 2001, an unreleased Tiny Toon Adventures video game would also use the term, cementing it as official canon. A lot of useful information comes from this series. We learn that DC Comics are published as fiction in the Looniverse. We learn that Looney Tunes shorts set in historical settings actually feature the ancestors of the Looney Tunes characters. We learn that both Speedy Gonzales and the Road Runner are faster than the Flash even when he uses the Speed Force. When the story ends, everyone returns to their proper settings, except for the Dodo and Michigan J. Frog, who both stay in the DC Universe! Michigan would die in 2005, and had been working for the WB Network as mascot since 1995, so there are two possibilities. Either his stay in the DCU didn’t last long, or else he actually had migrated to the DCU much earlier, perhaps in 1994’s reality altering Zero Hour event, and his work for the WB had been in the DC Universe all along! In 2011, this version of the DC Universe (and Hypertime) allegedly ceased to exist, but DC continued to publish Looney Tunes comics, which continued to fit with the Looney Tunes canon of the Looniverse, which at this point you may have figured we have been calling the Cartoon Universe. Recently, the universe in which the Superman and Justice League of this team-up existed has been shown to still exist as part of the New 52 multiverse, with other DC titles, like Looney Tunes, said to exist “beyond the 52”. So it seems like from DC’s perspective, this story could still have happened. And it doesn’t make sense for us to consider our Cartoon Universe version to not be the same Looniverse. My theory is that the Looniverse of this story was indeed the Cartoon Universe, of the greater Cartoon Multiverse, a multiverse that exists “beyond the 52” in a larger “megaverse” and “omniverse”. So Bugs and pals in this case interacted with one of the universes of DC’s New 52 multiverse.



June 2007--FAMILY GUY--"I Take Thee Quagmire"--In the animated TV series Family Guy episode "I Take Thee Quagmire", Adam West tricks Alex Trebek into saying his own name backwards, sending him back to the fifth dimension. On the June 15, 2007 airing of Jeopardy!, contestant Jared Cohen wrote Trebek's name backwards as the response to the Final Jeopardy! answer, so that Trebek would say it aloud. Cohen says that he had heard that this would cause Trebek to return to his own dimension. Trebek pronounced it differently from in Family Guy, "keebert" instead of "kebbert". (See a transcript of the incident.)

2017--ACTION COMICS--It was recently revealed that all the versions of Mxy, including the ones listed below in the AU section are all the same person.  Whenever he gets banished from one reality, he just goes and bothers another version of Superman.

TELEVISION CROSSOVER MULTIVERSE--Free movement in the fifth dimension, or "time squared", is usually seen as jumping sideways from branch to branch within the tree of choices and alternate events that make up the multiverse- so called alternate universes. Basically, if you've ever ended up in an Earth where Hitler won the war, you've travelled in the fifth dimension. 

The multiverse comprises countless parallel universes, diverging timelines, and alternate dimensions. For most individuals, existence is perceived within just one of these. A single being may have endless doppelgangers spread across those universes, but each incarnation lives a separate life. And if one were ever to cross dimensions and meet an alternate self, they would perceive each other as distinct persons. At one point, there were a rare few beings whose existence were not so divided by the boundaries between universes. Known as multiversal singularities, these entities had a single identity and perception that spanned the multiverse, with the ability to move between dimensions more or less at will.

Multiversal singularities ceased to exist thanks to the efforts of Nexus Prime, who used the powers of the Star Saber and Terminus Blade in concert to solidify the walls between realities, limiting dimensional travel and splintering all known singularities into infinite alternate variations of themselves, nullifying the concept.

ANTI-MATTER UNIVERSE: The Elder Gods are a race of cold, alien, and evil intelligences that exist in the non-spacetime of swirling anti-matter "outside" our universe. Possibly dwarfing even Unicron in terms of power, their limitless abilities are checked only by their inscrutable motivations and indifference to the affairs of lesser egregores that grow in the warm and wet hothouse of time and space we so arrogantly call "reality". This is also where the Timelord Omega was exiled. DC used Crisis on Infinite Earths to simplify its complex continuity and multiverse into a single narrative set on a single universe, not counting the antimatter universe which was integral to the story of how the Green Lantern villain Sinestro acquired his powers. Editorial mandate initially meant stories featuring the Crime Syndicate were entirely unavailable to writers, but DC later attempted to reintroduce the Crime Syndicate without the setting of Earth-Three in 1992's Justice League Quarterly #8, which featured a group of aliens from the planet Qward (the antimatter counterpart of Oa) who functioned as "more powerful" Justice League analogues. This first attempt at bringing back the Crime Syndicate did not stick, and the principal concept behind Earth-Three would be revisited in Grant Morrison's JLA: Earth 2. Morrison recast much of Earth-Three's history as that of the Antimatter Universe's own version of Earth, which is home to the Crime Syndicate of America. He makes notable departures to this formula however, by presenting this world as the product of an alternate history and by reimagining various Crime Syndicate members (for example, by recasting Owlman as Batman's brother Thomas Wayne, and by recasting Ultraman not as the alien Kal-El but a human astronaut who acquires Kryptonian abilities). At the end of JLA: Earth-2, Amerika had launched a nuclear strike on London, against Britain's independence movement. In Superman/Batman Annual #1, three members of this Crime Syndicate of Amerika—Ultraman, Owlman, and Superwoman—appear on the main DC Earth, along with an unnamed antimatter doppelganger of Deathstroke (whose behavior, including humorous breaking of the fourth wall, and powers are exactly the same as Marvel Comics' Deathstroke parody Deadpool) hired to protect Bruce Wayne. The story supposedly takes place as the first time Superman and Batman figure out each other's identities and matches Batman, Superman, and Deathstroke against their respective antimatter selves. It should be noted, however, that the story is being told by Mr. Mxyzptlk, and may therefore be completely untrue. In the final issue of the 52-issue weekly series 52 in 2007, a new Multiverse is revealed, originally consisting of 52 parallel realities. Among the parallel realities shown is one designated "Earth-3". As a result of Mister Mind "eating" aspects of this reality, it takes on visual aspects of the pre-Crisis Earth-Three. The Earth-3 concept was not heavily explored after this, but does figure in a couple of issues of 52's follow-up weekly series, Countdown to Final Crisis (2007–8). The name of the new Earth-3 team is revealed to be the Crime Society of America. The Crime Society are considered to be evil versions of the heroes of Earth-2, acting as a new Golden Age counterpart to the Antimatter Earth. A hero known as the Jokester operates in this universe, as later do the Riddler, Three-Face (Evelyn Dent), and Duela Dent. In Countdown #31 the version of Zatanna (Annataz Arataz) from this world was used by Superman-Prime to keep Mister Mxyzptlk in check. Based on comments by Grant Morrison, this alternate universe is not the pre-Crisis Earth-Three. Despite the return of the DC Multiverse and the creation of a new Earth-3, the Antimatter Earth still exists in Qward, acting as an inverted microcosm of New Earth. The pre-established Crime Syndicate of Amerika from the Antimatter Universe were then featured heavily in Trinity, DC's third year-long weekly series.

DC Universe and The Megaverse--15 billion years ago, a single Universe with a single timestream was created. 4.4 billion years ago, Krona, the renegade Maltusian (a race of highly evolved beings) creates the Antimatter Universe and releases entropy in the universe by linking the beginning and the end of the timeline in his attempts to reveal the secrets of the creation of the universe. In this single universe, the timeline was destroyed in the early 1990s by Hal Jordan (possessed by Parallax) and created a slightly changed timeline (Zero Hour, 1994). It was later revealed that this Central Timeline was like a river with branches. These branches were like different realities, the history of Earth was different in every branch and everything could be possible in them. They could affect the Central Timeline as they return to the mainstream and the heroes could encounter with different versions of themselves. However, they where somewhat ephemeral as the Central Timeline is the only one that could prevail (The Kingdom, 1999). After Crisis on Infinite Earths, there was no place for alternate realities, although they could exist in the form of ephemeral timelines (Hypertime), dimensions (such as the fifth dimension or the Fourth World) or Universes inside the Universe (Legion of Super-Heroes' Pocket Universe, Amalgam Universe). However, there was contact with realities that existed outside the Universe such as those from Marvel, Milestone and Wildstorm. The collection of universes, multiverses and others that are unrelated, is most of the times called Megaverse. Some also call it the Omniverse but tend to include the Real World when using this denomination. The contact of these worlds usually brought cataclysms, being the most common, the amalgamation. Traveling between these realities was extremely hard, only two characters were capable of doing so with natural abilities: Rift, who existed in both the DC and Milestone Universes, and Access, who had the task of keeping DC and Marvel separated to prevent amalgamation. Most of the times, these events were either forgotten (as shown in the Unlimited Access miniseries as Access has the power to annul or restore the memories of heroes) or believed to be "dreams" (as shown in DC/Milestone: Worlds Collide and DC/Wildstorm: Dreamwar), which in the end left few traces of the events in the respective continuities. The Wildstorm Universe was part of a larger multiverse but was separated after a multiversal cataclysm, forming a multiverse of its own (Shattered Image). Organizations known as Planetary and The Authority were capable of traveling across the Multiverse and were also able to map it. Its structure was described as a web of 196,833 universes arranged in a pattern resembling a snowflake, each universe separated from its neighbors by a medium called the Bleed. The Bleed prevented the Universes from colliding and was inhabited by "fauna" that despised all different Earths.



Cartoon Universe 28--Robot Chicken Universe--In Robot Chicken, Superman disguises himself as a coffee shop worker and mispronounces Mxyzptlk's name backwards, causing Mxyzptlk, voiced by Seth Green, to correct him but get sent back to his home dimension.

Earth-12--DCAU



Earth-12B--In the novel Super-Folks by Robert Mayer, the imp from the 5th dimension is named Pxyzsyzygy, foe of the novel's Superman analogue, David Brinkley. His face is revealed to be that of the smiley face.

Earth-23--Mxyzptlk also appears on Brave and the Bold.  

Earth-35--Alan Moore's Supreme includes a version of Mxyzptlk called Szasz, the Sprite Supreme from the 19th dimension.

Earth-38--A magical imp called Mr. Mxyzptlk arrives on Earth* and wreaks havoc on National City when Kara doesn't reciprocate his feelings. 

Earth-988--1989 to 1992--ADVENTURES OF SUPERBOY--Clark Kent and Lana Lang head off to college, and a new Superboy encounters some foes for the first time, such as Lex Luthor, Mr. Mxyzptlk, and Bizarro (his clone.) 



Earth-616--In a New Avengers comic, Spider-Man cracks a joke about how someone might "say the magic word, like 'Mxyzptlk'..."

EARTH-74425--Significant Inhabitants: Action Jackson, Aquaman, Bat-Girl, Batman, Kit Carson, Captain America, Catwoman, Dracula, the Frankenstein monster, Joker, the Mummy, Mr. Mxyzptik, Penguin, Riddler, Robin, Spider-Man, Captain Marvel, Supergirl, Superman, Tiger Jack, Werewolf, Kit and Tex Willer, Wonder Woman.  (Albi Super-Eroi I#43/Capitan America I#44/L'Uomo Ragno I#121) - The criminals Mr. Mxyzptik, Penguin, Riddler and Joker joined their forces and, using some deadly laser handguns, tried to disintegrate Action Jackson. He easily avoided them.

TVCU-2--In 'Lois & Clark', the imp from the 5th Dimension no longer resembled the comic book version.  Instead, he looked more like a Yackov Smirnov Wannabe.  



TVCU-3--The only thing remaining from the original was the name - as the surname of a Russian with mind control powers.  Why even bother wasting such a great name for someone totally different?



TVCU-47--47-Mr. Sweet's Broadway Musical Universe --In Holy Musical B@man!, a 2012 Batman parody musical by StarKid Productions, Mister Mxyzptlk is mentioned and portrayed as one of Superman's lesser known villains.

Matt Hickman has provided this extensive list of characters who appear to be multiversal singularities.  This means that there is only one of them that exists within the entire multiverse, so whenever we see those characters in different realities, it's the same being.

TransFormers Canon
Primus
Unicron
Vector Sigma
The Prime Spark
The Thirteen original Transformers, including:
Prima
Vector Prime
Nexus Prime
Skyfall
Landquake
Breakaway
Topspin
Heatwave
The Fallen
Maccadam's Old Oil House

Marvel comics
The Living Tribunal
Immortus
MojoWorld Residents(Mojo, Spiral, Longshot, Arize, Major Domo, Minor Domo, Warwolves, , Quark,Jackson)
The Shadow King
The Time Variance Authority
Time Keepers?
Time Twisters?
The M'Kraan Crystal
The Negative Zone

DC Comics
Qwsp
Yz
Mixyezpitelik
Maggie Mxyzptlk
Nosyarg Kcid
Vyndktvx
Miss Gsptlsnz
Bat-mite
Mister Mxyzptlk
Anti-Monitor
The Limbo Cell?
Batman?
Brainiac
Time Trapper

Marvel/ DC
The Brothers

Star Trek
Q
Species 8472
Captain's Table

Stephen King's Dark Tower Multiverse:
Jack Sawyer
Randall Flagg
It?
the Crimson King

Dragon Ball Franchise
Supreme Kais(Old Kai,Grand Supreme Kai,Northern Supreme Kai,Eastern Supreme Kai,Kibito Kai,Western Supreme Kai,Southern Supreme Kai,Supreme Kai of Time)
Gods of Destruction(Beerus and Whis)

TMNT
Cudley the Cowlick
Galactose
Dimension X
Stump and Sling

Soul Series
Soul Edge
Soul Calibur

Hack Slash
Mary Shelley Lovecraft?

IDW
Undermind
Britt?

Evil Dead/Army of Darkness
Necronomicon Ex-Mortis
Hell(Same for every reality)

Cthulhu Mythos
Elder Gods/Great Old Ones,
Randolph Carter

Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem
The Ancients(Ulyaoth,Xel'lotath, Chattur'gha,Mantorok)

Legacy of Kain
Kain?
Raziel?
Elder God

Kamen Rider Franchise
Kamen Rider Decade

Irredeemable
The Plutonian?

Terminator Series
SkyNet

Public Domain
Jenny Everywhere

Wanted
Imp

Extreme comics/Maximum Press/Awesome Comics/ Arcade Comics
Szasz, the Sprite Supreme
Nite-Mite
Qyrk
the Supremacy
Daxia

GrimJack Universe
Cynosure

Savage Dragon universe
The Void (implied to be the same place as The Negative Zone and Dimension X)

Atop The 4th Wall
The Entity
The King Of Worms

Dungeons & Dragons
Sigil
The Lady of Pain
World Serpent Inn

Michael Moorcock's Books
Tanelorn
Eternal Champion

Kiss Comics
The Destroyer Cult
The Unholy

Buffy the Vampire Slayer
First Evil

Brian Keene Books
The Thirteen

BioShock Universe
Elizabeth from BioShock Infinite
Zachary Hale Comstock Of The Earth Where Rapture was built (Used to have Counterparts but BioShock Burial at Sea reveals that Following the Events seen in BioShock Infinite they are the only Versions left in the Multiverse)

Magic the Gathering
The Planeswalkers all of them

Nightmare Cafe
The Nightmare Cafe?

Sentinels Of The Multiverse
Realm of Discord
The Block
The Final Wasteland

Twisted Metal Franchise
Calypso
Black?
Mr. Ash?
Jebediah?

Multiversal singularity - Transformers Wiki

The multiverse comprises countless parallel universes, diverging timelines, and alternate dimensions. For most individuals, existence is perceived within just one of these. A single being may have endless…

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