Clarabelle Cow is a Disney cartoon character within the Mickey Mouse universe of characters. Clarabelle Cow was created by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks in 1928. Clarabelle is one of Minnie Mouse's best friends and is usually depicted as the girlfriend of Horace Horsecollar, although she has also been paired with Goofy occasionally. Clarabelle has remained a supporting character in the United States; only in Italy has she been treated as a major character.
Appearances
Animation
Clarabelle first appeared as a farm cow in the cartoon Steamboat Willie in 1928. She appeared frequently in cartoons from 1930 to 1932 and less frequently afterwards, taking her final classic-era bow in 1942. As with most Disney characters, she was later given small cameos in the featurettes Mickey's Christmas Carol and The Prince and the Pauper and the 1988 feature filmWho 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 Disney's 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 and in the direct-to-video movie as Pete'slieutenant and Goofy's love interest. She also appears in Mickey and the Roadster Racers, where she displays attraction towards both Goofy and Horace.
When the Disney characters started to feature in comics, Clarabelle Cow was one of the first. Her first appearance was in the Mickey Mousecomic stripApril 2, 1930. Along with Horace Horsecollar, Clara Cluck, Goofy, Minnie and Mickey she appeared in comics on a regular basis in the fifties, sixties and seventies. For a brief time, during the late 1960s, Clarabelle began dating Goofy, perhaps in an attempt to give Goofy a girlfriend. During this time Horace's whereabouts are unknown. Clarabelle's status with Goofy was challenged by another gal named Glory-Bee. 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. From the eighties forward only a few stories with Clarabelle Cow were made in USA. In Europe on the other hand, especially in Italy, the production of stories continued and is still going strong today. In Italian comics Clarabelle is very popular and she is the girlfriend of Horace Horsecollar
Disney theme parks
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. Since Family Fun Day's ending, the two haven't been easy to see outside "Mickey's Boo-to-You Halloween Parade", "Mickey's Once Upon a Christmastime Parade" and the occasional special event. Currently, you will find them dancing in the Frontierland Hoedown in the Magic Kingdom. Clarabelle also appears 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's 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 just to appear in Mickey's Most Merriest Celebration.
Video games
Though Clarabelle is now very rarely seen in animation today, she is a character 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. 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.
