Maisy The Mutt
✦
Maisy The Mutt ✦
The miracle hound, the marvelous Mutt, Maisy M Mutt is perhaps the most famous character archived on our database. A storied character with a love for the creepy, the ghostly, and the ghoulish - her stories have ranged from playful follies to slapstick nightmares. Making her debut in the 30s, Maisy was a quick hit with audiences and soon would blaze a trail of success for her studio, Liquid Laff Pictures. She has appeared in multiple cartoon spin-offs, series, movies, and has, of course, launched the creation of Maisyland theme park.
As a character, Maisy made her first appearance in the episode “Dizzy Divots” as a background character. Head artist Ivan Hoth liked her design so much that he reused her design again in “Maybell Braybells” as a co-protagonist to Hobble the Hound. However, as time went on, Maisy would overshadow Hobble and become the central face of Liquid Laff Pictures.
Abandoned in a graveyard, adopted by a living haunted house, raised by hundreds of ghosts… Maisy the Mutt is probably the most morbid cartoon character hosted on this website, although such elements were not uncommon in older cartoons. However, Maisies fictional backstory was definitely more fleshed out than characters like Webby Webster, Mr Leeds, or Hobble the Hound. Maisy's association with the supernatural has always been strong, playing a gravedigger in her original background appearance. While most characters of the time were running away from monsters and being menaced by trumpet-playing ghosts, Maisy could often be found tagging along for the ride and being great pals with similarly ghoulish characters.
Above: Red Writhing Gloves poster
Top of page: Illustration from Maisy and the Lonely Ghost picture book
Maisy is a bit of an anomaly in how her early cartoons portrayed her, since interchangeable roles were not uncommon in early cartoons. However, Maisy would just as often play the villain as she would the hero during her original run. Most famously in the first episode with her as the protagonist “Red Writhing Gloves,” Maisy played a devil-like figure, selling a down-on-their-luck musician her pair of magic gloves...for a terrible price. In another episode, “White Whittling Shears,” Maisy the Mutt would menace a local farmer by shearing his sheep until being caught and banished to the dark forest. However, throughout her run, Maisy has ultimately been a force for good: antagonizing the haughty and mighty of her cartoon world and being a sympathizer to any creep, goblin, or otherwise outcast creature.
Over time the association that Maisy the Mutt had with rituals, the occult, and the forces of the underworld would be phased out by her owners, instead being replaced with the element of her magic hat providing her powers. Indeed, Maisy’s image has changed significantly over the years, not only in visual design but in surroundings and tone as well. Throughout it all however, Maisy has retained the same traits: free spiritedness, gravitation towards outsiders, and being prone to making any situation worse.
Although an immensely popular character, the details of Maisy the Mutts history are difficult to parse, as a character with so much fame she has equally as many varying accounts from individuals and organizations. We are dedicated to helping you understand the true Maisy, the Maisy of all sides and angles.