THE SECOND COMING
BY the mid-Nineties, Mickey had become a bit of a problem. He was still Disney’s prize asset – far too big to be discarded – but it would be a brave executive who tried to modernise or tinker with him.
Long gone was the roguish scamp that charmed his way to stardom – Nineties Mickey was a theme-park mascot and nostalgia piece.
When Andy Mooney arrived as Disney’s head of consumer products in 2003, he couldn’t believe how little the company was using the face of their franchise. “Mickey is our swoosh”, he remarked, referring to the omnipresent tick that Nike uses.
There followed perhaps the grandest marketing campaign in Disney’s history – its goal to make Mickey cool again. Mickey cartoons appeared in 3D, the video game series Kingdom Hearts gave Mickey a rare ensemble role, and a giant graffiti mural of the mouse appeared on the corner of Sunset Boulevard. Some Mickey purists were horrified, but Disney’s bank accounts purred.
T-shirts made up the thrust of the campaign, and Mickey appeared splashed across the chests of Jennifer Aniston, Lenny Kravitz, and Sarah Jessica Parker on Sex And The City.
The result was a Mickey for a new age. The release of video game Epic Mickey in 2009 brought a darker, moodier Mickey, who could be cantankerous and calculating. The game initially received average reviews, but has since gained a sequel and a cult following.
MORE THAN A MOUSE
MICKEY may have begun life just as a mouse (or indeed, a rabbit), but for some, he symbolised the American dream. He rose from the ashes of the Great Depression (“he has helped us laugh away our troubles, forget our creditors and keep our chins up”, wrote the Boston Globe), and Walt Disney had endured years of rejections and bankruptcy before striking mouseshaped gold.
But representing America could be a double-edged sword. As Mickey moved from films to retail outlets, he became known as the cutesy face of capitalism, and shows like South Park presented him as a bullying jaded executive.
Mickey began life as an alter-ego for his creator, but grew to become, in the words of novelist John Updike, “the most persistent and most pervasive figure of American popular culture in this century”.