Clarabelle Cow is a cartoon character created by The Walt Disney Company. As an anthropomorphic cow, Clarabelle is one of Minnie Mouse's best friends. She was once depicted as the girlfriend of Horace Horsecollar, although now she is often paired with Goofy.

Clarabelle Cow
Mickey Mouse & Friends character
First appearanceSteamboat Willie (1928)
Created byUb Iwerks
Walt Disney
Designed byWalt Disney
Voiced byElvia Allman (1933–1935, 1990)
Pinto Colvig (1933)
April Winchell (1996–present)[1]
SpeciesCow
GenderFemale
FamilyMayor Beeble (deceased father)
Mrs. Cow (mother)
Durham Cow (deceased grandfather)
Sarabelle Cow (sister)
Itsy-Betsy (niece)
Miss Bovina (aunt)
Boniface (cousin)
Bertie the Jinx (younger cousin)
Bella (pet dog)
Significant otherHorace Horsecollar
Goofy (occasionally)

Appearances

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Animation

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Clarabelle first appeared as a nonhumanized cow in the Mickey Mouse cartoon Plane Crazy in 1928.[2] Humanized soon afterward, she appeared frequently in cartoons from 1930 to 1932 and less frequently afterwards, taking her final classic-era bow in 1942.[3] As with most Disney characters, she was later given small cameos in the featurettes Mickey's Christmas Carol (1983) and The Prince and the Pauper (1990) and the 1988 feature film Who Framed Roger Rabbit.

Clarabelle mostly played bit-parts in the 30+ films in which she appeared and her character was never as fully developed as Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Donald Duck or Pluto. She and Horace Horsecollar changed from normal farmyard animals into anthropomorphized beings as necessary.

In modern animation, Clarabelle has returned to active use, appearing first in a few segments of Mickey Mouse Works and in a brief scene in Mickey's Once Upon a Christmas. In House of Mouse, she regularly turned up as a gossip columnist with the tagline "Gossip is Always True".

Clarabelle has also made appearances in the preschool series Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and is featured as Goofy's girlfriend (in which she owns a puppy named Bella) and in the direct-to-video movie Mickey, Donald, Goofy: The Three Musketeers as Pete's lieutenant and Goofy's love interest. She also appears in Mickey and the Roadster Racers, where she displays attraction towards both Goofy and Horace.

Filmography

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Short films

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  1. 1928 – Steamboat Willie
  2. 1928 – Plane Crazy
  3. 1929 – The Plowboy
  4. 1929 – Mickey's Choo-Choo
  5. 1929 – The Karnival Kid
  6. 1930 – The Barnyard Concert
  7. 1930 – The Shindig
  8. 1930 – The Chain Gang
  9. 1930 – Pioneer Days
  10. 1931 – The Birthday Party
  11. 1931 – Mother Goose Melodies
  12. 1931 – Blue Rhythm
  13. 1931 – The Barnyard Broadcast
  14. 1931 – The Beach Party
  15. 1932 – The Mad Dog
  16. 1932 – Barnyard Olympics
  17. 1932 – Mickey's Revue
  18. 1932 – Mickey's Nightmare
  19. 1932 – The Whoopee Party
  20. 1932 – Touchdown Mickey
  21. 1932 – Parade of the Award Nominees
  22. 1933 – Mickey's Mellerdrammer
  23. 1933 – Ye Olden Days
  24. 1933 – Mickey's Gala Premiere
  25. 1934 – Camping Out
  26. 1934 – Orphan's Benefit
  27. 1935 – The Band Concert
  28. 1935 – On Ice
  29. 1935 – Mickey's Fire Brigade
  30. 1936 – Mickey's Grand Opera
  31. 1936 – Mickey's Polo Team
  32. 1937 – Mickey's Amateurs
  33. 1941 – Orphan's Benefit (remake)
  34. 1942 – Mickey's Birthday Party
  35. 1942 – Symphony Hour
  36. 1983 – Mickey's Christmas Carol (cameo)
  37. 1990 – Roller Coaster Rabbit (cameo)
  38. 1990 – The Prince and the Pauper
  39. 2013 – Get a Horse!
  40. 2023 - Once Upon a Studio (cameo)

Feature films

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  1. 1988 – Who Framed Roger Rabbit (cameo)
  2. 1999 – Mickey's Once Upon a Christmas (cameo)
  3. 2004 – Mickey, Donald, Goofy: The Three Musketeers
  4. 2018 – Ralph Breaks the Internet (cameo)

Television series

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  1. 1993 – Bonkers (Stork Exchange/Rubber Room Song (Casabonkers))
  2. 1999 – Mickey Mouse Works
  3. 2001 – House of Mouse
  4. 2006 – Mickey Mouse Clubhouse
  5. 2011 – Minnie's Bow-Toons
  6. 2013 – Mickey Mouse
  7. 2017 – Mickey Mouse Mixed-Up Adventures
  8. 2020 – The Wonderful World of Mickey Mouse
  9. 2021 – Mickey Mouse Funhouse
  10. 2025 – Mickey Mouse Clubhouse+

Comics

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When the Disney characters started to feature in comic strips and comic books, Clarabelle Cow was one of the first. Her first appearance was in the Mickey Mouse comic strip for April 2, 1930.[4] Along with Horace Horsecollar, Clara Cluck, Goofy, Minnie, and Mickey, she appeared in comics on a regular basis in the fifties, sixties and seventies.[citation needed]

For a brief time, during the late 1960s, Clarabelle began dating Goofy. During this time, Horace's whereabouts are unknown. Clarabelle's status with Goofy was challenged by a rival named Glory-Bee.[5] In later comics, Clarabelle and Horace were a couple again. Clarabelle also has a young cousin, Bertie the Jinx, a niece, Itsy-Betsy, and a socialite aunt named Miss Bovina, who have appeared in several issues of Walt Disney's Comics and Stories.[citation needed]

From the eighties forward, only a few stories with Clarabelle Cow were made in the United States. In Europe, especially in Italy, the production of stories continued to the present day. In Italian comics, Clarabelle (called Clarabella) is very popular and she is the girlfriend of Horace Horsecollar (Orazio Cavezza).[citation needed]

Disney theme parks

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Clarabelle's, a cold dairy store in Mickey's Toontown.

From September 2006 to September 2008, Clarabelle Cow and Horace Horsecollar appeared together for meet-and-greets in Town Square at the Magic Kingdom in Walt Disney World. Also, they were in the Main Street Family Fun Day Parade. Clarabelle appears seasonally in "Mickey's Boo-to-You Halloween Parade", "Mickey's Once Upon a Christmastime Parade", and the "Mickey's Most Merriest Celebration" castle show. She and Horace both appear in the Hoedown Happening in Frontierland and as featured characters in the "Move It! Shake It! Mousekedance It!" street party, with Clarabelle in particular atop her own party box and with her own dialogue.

Clarabelle also appears (without Horace) at Disneyland Park. She has also appeared in several Disneyland parades and shows over the years, including The World According to Goofy, Light Magic, the Parade of the Stars, Fantasmic, A Christmas Fantasy Parade and Celebrate! A Street Party. Clarabelle and Horace come out for meet-and-greets and appear in parades and shows on a regular basis at Tokyo Disneyland as well. In 2009, Clarabelle played a leading character in the New Year's Greeting at Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo DisneySea.

Clarabelle Cow was chosen to meet and greet for Character Fan Days at Disneyland. She is accompanied by Horace Horsecollar which is his first meet and greet at Disneyland in Anaheim.

At Disney California Adventure at the Disneyland Resort, in the Buena Vista Street area there is an ice cream shop named Clarabelle's Hand-Scooped Ice Cream.

She also features with Horace in Mickey's Halloween Celebration and Goofy's Garden Party in Disneyland Paris. In Christmas 2016, Clarabelle returned to Magic Kingdom for Mickey's Most Merriest Celebration.

Video games

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Clarabelle appeared as the DJ of the song "Miwaku No Tango" in the 2000 Japanese Nintendo 64 game Dance Dance Revolution Disney Dancing Museum.

Clarabelle appears in Disney's Toontown Online. She plays the role of giving the player furniture to decorate their estates, with the catalog players must order from is a "Cattlelog". Her appearance is also somewhat changed to look like an operator.

She also makes a minor appearance in Kingdom Hearts II in the Timeless River World using her old black and white design. She appears with the same design in Kingdom Hearts III in the minigame "The Karnival Kid".

Clarabelle is also seen in the Epic Mickey video games, as one of the forgotten characters that Mickey sees during his journey. She lives in OsTown, one of the games environs, and is known to be romantically involved with Horace Horsecollar.

References

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  1. ^ "Disney's "Clarabelle Cow" on Records |". cartoonresearch.com. Retrieved 5 December 2022.
  2. ^ "Plane Crazy". Archived from the original on 2008-02-24.. "The Encyclopedia of Disney Animated Shorts". Archived from the original on 2008-03-23. Retrieved March 16, 2008.
  3. ^ Don Markstein. "Disney HooZoo". Archived from the original on 2009-01-26. Retrieved March 16, 2008.
  4. ^ Gottfredson, Floyd (2011). Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse, vol 1: Race to Death Valley. Seattle, WA: Fantagraphics Books. p. 21. ISBN 9781606994412.
  5. ^ Glory-Bee Archived 2015-03-13 at the Wayback Machine. Disney's HooZoo Archived 2008-03-13 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved on March 16, 2008.
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