Mickey's a mouse, Donald's a duck, Pluto's a dog, Goofy's a sentient (but still subnormal) dog... what the f**k is Pete?

Alice Solves The Puzzle (1925)

In his first appearance (3 years before Mickey's creation) Pete is quite obviously a bear. He appears around 2 minutes into the film. Also check out the Felix-like cat character. Extremely Felix-like. I could probably pass this off to my kids as an actual Felix cartoon.

(Yes, my kids know who Felix the cat is.. thanks to a $.99 DVD from Wal-Mart of mostly later "sound" Felix cartoons, the ones that flopped and ended his now-forgotten reign as America's favorite toon)

Check out some of the other "Alice Comedies" on youtube for lots of proto-Mickey mice.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHFTvJKl5PM