The recent Walt Disney American Experience documentary on PBS served as a reminder that Disney was not an overnight success. His animated ambitions were met by failure after failure before animator Ub Iwerks and he finally came up with Mickey Mouse in 1928. After the Disney empire was born, Disney was fond of saying, “I only hope that we don’t lose sight of one thing – that it was all started by a mouse.”

Today, that mouse is a hedgehog…and he’s taking the internet by storm! A reddit user posted the following photo with the caption: “My best friend just sent me this picture of her hedgehog. I told her that the internet was about to break.”

The hedgehog appears to have stuffed itself into a Mickey Mouse mug. While the internet-breaking properties of this picture may have been slightly exaggerated, it is undeniably adorable to see a little cross-species cosplay.

Domesticated hedgehogs are said to enjoy sleeping in boxes as a substitute for burrowing into dark places as they would in the wild. Perhaps this little guy or girl may have just wanted to get comfortable in a tight space when the owner captured this picture.

We have another theory. Look deep into the eyes of that hedgehog. Does that strike you as a creature who has no concept of how cute it is?! Granted, its current sphere of influence only extends to its owner or owners. But once the internet embraces a cute furry animal, the floodgate of pictures will open and it will take the next step towards global domination…much like the animated Mickey Mouse and his parent company!

Nerdist readers, share your thoughts on the Mickey Mouse cosplaying hedgehog in the comment section below please!

Images: Imgur