Appearing more like Ebenezer Scrooge than someone from Walt Disney Productions, a representative of the company has asked three day-care centers to remove cartoon figures from their walls.

Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck and Goofy must come down or the centers could face legal action for infringing on copyrights of Walt Disney Productions.

Disney representatives said they must protect their copyright even though they are sympathetic to the children`s affection for the characters.

''If we were to allow them to use the characters, then we would have to allow everyone else to do so,'' said Chuck Champlin, Disney spokesman. ''If we don`t protect our trademarks, we could lose our copyright and be out of business.''

The children at the three centers do not understand copyright law. They are not savvy about city sign ordinances.

But the children in the playground at Very Important Babies Daycare agreed on one thing: Removing Mickey Mouse and other cartoon characters from the walls of their building is unfair.

''It`s not fair at all,'' said Amanda Maysonet, 7.

''Some of the grownups don`t like (the characters) because they say it messes up the wall. But we love them,'' said Atiya Sewell, 9

Many of the children have come to think of Mickey, Minnie and Goofy as their friends and said they will miss the characters.

''If they took them off the wall, I`d be sad,'' said Christopher Bombacie, 5.

The controversy over the cartoon characters began when Hallandale city officials realized the 5-foot-high painted figures violated the city`s sign code.

The cartoons are considered signs by city officials, and as such they cannot cover more than 20 square feet of wall space, Growth Management Director Ron Muscarella said.

None of the schools-Very Important Babies Daycare, Good Godmother Daycare or Temple Messianique on Foster Road-had applied for permits before painting the characters on the walls, Muscarella said.

City officials were going to require the day-care centers to remove the characters to comply with the sign ordinance, but that decision is moot in light of Disney`s action, City Manager R.J. Intindola said.

After learning about the figures from the news media, Disney sent an investigator to photograph the murals. The photographs were reviewed by Disney attorneys, who agreed that the figures too closely resembled Disney`s famous characters, Champlin said.

The day-care center directors said they will try to approach Disney one more time for some sort of compromise, but they concede that is unlikely.

''I think it`s totally ludicrous,'' said Erika Scotti, director of Very Important Babies Daycare. ''I`d rather have everyone`s energy going to developing a new curriculum.''