Ellsworth Bheezer, also known as Genius, is a mynah bird.
Description[]
Ellsworth is nominally Goofy's pet mynah bird. However, being that mynahs are actually fully sapient, Ellsworth is more of a roommate for the old goof. Moreover, not only is Ellsworth intelligent, but he's very intelligent, putting even the greatest scientific minds of America to shame — the only problem being that he's also obnoxiously aware of how great he is. Although celibate, Ellsworth has adopted a son, Ellroy, who idolizes him. Ellsworth has gone on numerous globe-trotting adventures, with and without Mickey Mouse and Goofy, and often disappears from Goofy's house for months on end (an occurrence Goofy learned to get used to).
Behind the scenes[]
Ellsworth Bheezer first appeared in 1949 in Introducing Ellsworth, and remained a fixture of Bill Walsh and Manuel Gonzales's Sunday pages for years afterwards. He was later picked up by Romano Scarpa, who introduced his adopted son Ellroy.
Another series of one-pagers were produced from 1990 onwards in France, with writing by Michel Piédoue. Interestingly, when these were translated in English in the British The Disney Weekly, the translators were apparently unaware that Ellsworth had debuted in English-language comics, and gave him a "new" English name, Genius, based on his French name "Génius". His German name has led to some confusion too, as he's usually called "Maxi Smart", but the translators (apparently unaware of the differences) applied that name to his son too, so Ellsworth ended up with a couple of different names at times. Once he was called "Gringo, der Gerissene" and once "Moses"!
In the Italian Star Trek spoof series "Star Top", Ellsworth plays a rather important role. At one point Mr. Goofock asks him (non-verbatim) "Are you a type of raven, or rather a blackbird"?