Mickey Mouse
Mickey Mouse is an iconic animated character created by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks, first introduced to the public in 1928. He emerged as a replacement for Oswald the Lucky Rabbit after Disney lost rights to the character, leading him to develop a new mouse character during a challenging period. Initially named "Mortimer," he was later renamed Mickey, and gained fame with the release of the synchronized sound short film "Steamboat Willie." Over the years, Mickey evolved from a mischievous trickster to a symbol of innocence and virtue.
Mickey's popularity skyrocketed throughout the 1930s, with numerous cartoon shorts showcasing his diverse roles and character traits, often highlighted through humor and moral lessons. His iconic status led to significant commercial success, making him a driving force behind various products and marketing ventures. Additionally, the formation of the Mickey Mouse Club in 1929 and its subsequent revivals in the mid-20th century further solidified his cultural impact. Recognized globally, Mickey Mouse is one of the most recognizable corporate icons, with a lasting influence on the entertainment industry and the creation of a worldwide entertainment corporation.
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Mickey Mouse
Identification Cartoon character and corporate icon
Creators Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks
Date Debuted May 15, 1928
Mickey Mouse, the two-dimensional mouse in red velvet pants, became an immediate multimedia success, and his creators parlayed that success to make the mouse the representative of the first international entertainment conglomerate. Mickey also proved to be an important economic engine during the Great Depression.
Mickey Mouse came to be because Walt Disney lost control of his rabbit. Walt Disney’s animation studio was a tiny shop, among many that worked for film-making giant Universal Studios. Disney’s studio had garnered attention from the studio heads with the success of a character Disney had created, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. When Disney went to negotiate a new contract with Universal for more Oswald films, he discovered that Universal had taken control of the character and of many of Disney’s employees.
Disney, along with Ub Iwerks, the only one of his animators who did not jump ship and leave with Universal, decided to come up with a replacement character that could not be stolen from them. After a number of late-night work sessions, Disney got the idea to make the Mickey Mouse character, based on a pet mouse he once owned, during a sleepless five-day train trip. The mouse was originally to be named “Mortimer,” but clearer thinking prevailed, and the world was introduced to Mickey Mouse on May 15, 1928, in the unsuccessful film Plane Crazy.
The movie-going public did not begin to show interest in Mickey until November 18, 1928, with the release of the third Mickey Mouse short film, Steamboat Willie, which had a synchronized sound track added in postproduction. In 1929’s The Karnival Kid, Mickey spoke his first words, “Hot dog!” on the silver screen. In his early days, Mickey was more the impish trickster than the symbol of childish innocence that he came to represent by the 1930s.
Mickey became so popular that theater managers displayed as many posters advertising the Mickey Mouse cartoons as they did advertising the feature films with which the shorts were playing. In 1932, the film industry took notice as Walt Disney won a Special Oscar for his role in the creation of Mickey Mouse. During the 1930s, the mouse became a superstar; Disney Studios made eighty-seven Mickey Mouse shorts in which he played a range of characters, including a giant killer, a detective, and a football hero. These short films relied on wordplay and slapstick for their humor; since Mickey was so popular with children, he always displayed solid character traits and a proper morality.
Despite the Great Depression, a veritable industry grew up around Mickey. His short films were commercial successes, and the marketing that they spawned proved to be a commercial phenomenon. His adventures were chronicled in books and comic strips. His image was licensed and plastered, worldwide, on products ranging from soap and phonographs to hot-water bottles and the ubiquitous Mickey Mouse watch. Mickey also served as a pitchman for a variety of products. Mickey’s commercial impact was so prominent that it is credited with single-handedly saving both the Ingersoll-Waterbury Clock Company and Lionel Trains from bankruptcy.
In September 1929, a theater manager named Harry Woodin proposed the Mickey Mouse Club to Walt Disney. By 1932, club membership topped one million. By 1935, the number of clubs meeting in theaters worldwide had grown so large that Disney had to phase them out. The concept was revived in 1955 with the variety television show The Mickey Mouse Club, which aired fro 1955 to 1959, 1977 to 1979, and 1989 to 1996. Even without the clubs, by the end of the 1930s, Mickey Mouse had gone from a series of sketches to become an economic engine and the most recognizable corporate icon in the country.
Impact
The Disney Corporation claims that Mickey Mouse, as a character, is recognized by upwards of 98 percent of the world’s children aged three to eleven, and his image is the most reproduced icon in the world. During the 1930s, the success of Mickey Mouse not only had a strong positive effect on the American economy but also created the first worldwide entertainment corporation. The Mickey Mouse shorts also paved the way for Disney’s groundbreaking full-length animated films, beginning with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1937. These films changed the way the world looked at animation and filmmaking.
Bibliography
Apgar, Garry. Mickey Mouse: Emblem of the American Spirit. Walt Disney Family Foundation Press, 2015.
Gabler, Neal. Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination. Random House, 2006.
Heide, Robert, and John Gilman. Mickey Mouse: The Evolution, the Legend. Disney Editions, 2003.
Tieman, Robert. Mickey Mouse Treasures. Disney Editions, 2007.