A Toronto artist is recreating famous film scenes in miniature, and the stars are mice

Nestled in a glass display on Crawford Street in Little Italy, a troupe of felt mice are reenacting the magic of the movies in miniature. Since 2024, artist Brie Dixon has recreated scenes from films like Jaws, Forrest Gump, and Beetlejuice.

Dixon’s project, Tiny Film Things, was inspired by fifteen years in the industry as an assistant director. The name first took hold in 2021, when she was creating miniature props of VFX mice in a remake of Ghostwriter, the kids’ TV series. The crew found her miniatures so charming that they encouraged her to document her process. She didn’t, but in 2022, Dixon sustained a brain injury on set that left her unable to work. A few years later, determined to continue building new creative skills, she began creating miniature rodent-themed movie sets in a display box outside her house on Crawford Street and sharing them on Instagram.

Movie Mice Theatre, as the marquee proclaims, is a testament to Dixon’s ingenuity. To create each tableau, she uses materials like papier mâché and polymer clay, rigs electrical wiring, and hand-sews costumes. The sidewalk display, which resembles a Little Free Library, is made from a glass fish tank she found on the side of the road. She often picks up items from the dollar store that remind her of props in a film, like the doll clothes that serve as Glinda’s gown in her Wicked display. “Sometimes I find things and it’s like, That’s just what I’ve been putting out into the universe that I need: an oblong piece of plastic!”

The displays are updated on a monthly basis, each requiring two to three weeks to create. When it comes to inspiration, Dixon says she “follows the dopamine,” choosing scenes from her favourite films as well as classic crowd-pleasers. Last Halloween, she initially planned to recreate the elevator scene from The Shining (complete with a pump mechanism spurting out fake blood) but instead pivoted to a more kid-friendly Beetlejuice scene. In between movie scenes, the mice still live in the display case, hard at work with tiny brooms, lawnmowers and mops.

Here, Dixon shares a behind-the-scenes look at some of the Movie Mice Theatre’s most notable productions.

E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial

“The moon in this display is actually a takeaway container flipped upside down with some papier mâché on the other side. When I first started doing the lighting, it was just plug-in fairy lights. I’d take the roof inside, rework the lighting into the display I was doing, and then carry the whole thing back out again. Now it’s easier that I can design the lighting inside and plug it in. Some of the displays look better at night.”

Beetlejuice

“Making miniature houses for miniatures was ambitious, but I was going away for a few weeks, so I wanted to leave something that would keep people entertained. I used a Cricut, which is essentially a printer but with a blade for cutting and embossing. I mainly use the cutting feature for plastic, cardboard or thin wood up to two millimetres. It’s been fun using new tools to figure out how I can make things a little bit cleaner.”

The Exorcist

“I chose one of the few scenes in the movie without any blood to keep the display child-friendly. The hardest part was wiring the spotlight that shines on Regan. I learned a lot about voltage and getting the right amount of it, along with the right regulators for the lights you have. The lights ended up flashing and flickering intermittently, which wasn’t what I was originally going for, but I think it actually added to the effect.”

Wicked

“I currently have six movie mice in rotation, including a green one, which I’ve used as both the Grinch and Elphaba. There were a lot of failures involved with this one, and I’ve still got superglue all over my coffee table from attempting to make the wands. I really wanted to make Glinda’s wand light up, but I couldn’t figure out an electrical component that would work. It was also a challenge to make Glinda’s crown, which I cut out of shrink wrap, then used a heat gun to shrink down to size.”

The Phantom of the Opera

“I didn’t realize it would still be around 30 degrees last October, and I used real wax to make the tiny candles. Half of them ended up melting in the display, which was sad because I spent so much time making them. My upstairs neighbour helped me with the electrical wiring on this one. Making these displays has been a good connector of the community. It’s really nice to overhear someone admiring the display or particular details—that took a really long time, thank you for noticing!”

The Sound of Music

“I picked this one because I used to watch the movie with my nanna when I was younger. I thought it could be a nice display for spring because it’s always nice to see some greenery and flowers after a long winter. A month later, when this film was replaced by the mice positioned ‘at work’ in the display, a passer-by pulled a tool out of his bag and smashed the glass. I was devastated that someone would try to destroy the display. I was away that weekend, and during the eight hours I was stuck at the Calgary airport, a supporter started a GoFundMe to raise funds for a repair. The goal was $500, but we far exceeded it in a few days. The funds meant I could not only re-stage the display but afford new tools for finer details, like magnifying glasses. I met so many more people in the neighbourhood because of the vandalism, which was a nice silver lining.”