AS MICKEY TURNS 90 HOW DID A CARTOON ROD It was starte a mou Walt Disney on his most fa
Artist Ub Iwerks modifies the Oswald rabbit character, turning him into Mickey Mouse and begins to work on the first Mickey Cartoon produced by Walt Disney.
The Colony Theater in New York debuts the Mickey Mouse film Steamboat Willie prior to the main feature Gang War. This is Mickey’s sound debut with Minnie Mouse, then unnamed, as co-star.
First official theatre-based Mickey Mouse Club starts at Fox Dome Theatre in Ocean Park, California. Mickey appears in a comic strip, his own books and his toys are made.
More Mickey movies are released and we meet Pluto for the first time, in the film The Moose Hunt, and Donald Duck in the book The Adventures of Mickey Mouse.
General Foods pays $1.5 million to put Mickey on the front of Post Toasties Cereal packs making him the first licensed character to appear on a cereal box.
The first Technicolor Mickey Mouse film is released the Band Concert. He plays a conductor struggling to control musicians.
Mickey makes his first feature film debut in Fantasia which introduced stereophonic sounds and cost $2.28 million.
Sound-effects man Jimmy Mcdonald takes over from Walt Disney as Mickey’s voice.
Disneyland opens on a 160 acre plot of former orange groves in Anaheim, California.
Lung cancer sufferer Walt Disney dies on December 15, ten days after his 65th birthday. His ashes were interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California.
Disney World opens in Florida. One of its first attractions is the Mickey Mouse Revue animatronics musical attraction.
Mickey gets his own golden star on Hollywood Boulevard’s Walk of Fame. He is the first fictional character to be given the honour.
After three decades, Mickey returns to the cinemas in the short film Mickey’s Christmas Carol. The Disney Cable Channel also launches.
Mickey is back on the big screen for a cameo in Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Warner Brothers’ Bugs Bunny was also in the film. The two companies demanded each character receive the same amount of screen time, down to the very last second.
Mickey gets his own money at the Disney theme parks called Disney Dollars.
Mickey joins the 21st century by going CGI with a 3D Mickey appearing in his new TV show Mickey House Club.
Our favourite mouse appears in Mickey and the Roadster Racers, a computer-animated kids’ TV series produced by Disney Television Animation.
Disney dedicates the year to celebrating Mickey’s 90th birthday. We say: “Many happy returns.” AS the world’s No1 entertainment firm, Disney is rightfully proud of being a Mickey Mouse outfit. Generations of people have loved their films, parks, resorts and merchandise. In 2017 the corporation, which also owns five film studios, a cruise liner and media franchises, had global revenues of £41billion. But creator Walt Disney himself was in no doubt about the debt owed to Mickey. He said: “I only hope that we never lose sight of one thing, that it was all started by a mouse.” This year Mickey reaches the venerable age of 90 and is still the most popular character in the world. One poll found he was more recognisable than Santa Claus. The lovable rodent has been on quite a journey – but it almost never happened. He started life as rabbit called Oswald but animator Walt, who was working at Universal Pictures, discovered that he had lost the rights to the character. Walt revealed in 1948 that Mickey appeared in his imagination when “disaster seemed right around the corner” and he feared losing everything. He recalled: “He popped out of my mind on to a drawing pad 20 years ago on a train ride from Manhattan to Hollywood at a time when the business fortunes of my brother Roy and myself were at lowest ebb. “Born of necessity, the little fellow literally freed us of immediate worry. He provided the means for extending our organisation to its present dimensions and for extending the medium of cartoon animation to new entertainment levels. He spelled production liberation for us.” Oswald’s transformation from rabbit to mouse, aided by Walt’s oldest friend – animator Ub Iwerks – meant his ears were shortened and made round, making it easier for the animators to draw. Walt named him Mortimer Mouse but his artist wife Lillian never liked that and pleaded with him to change it to Mickey.
The mouse was an instant sensation after appearing in November 1928 in the cartoon short Steamboat Willie. It was shown at New York’s Colony Theatre before a feature film and caused a real stir, especially as it was one of the first cartoons to successfully synchronize sound.
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As Mickey’s popularity soared, so did his screen appearances. Within months a series of Mickey Mouse shorts were released – all voiced by Walt Disney himself.
He was the first talking cartoon character, exclaiming: “Hot dogs” in 1929’s The Karnival K i d . T h r e e years later Disney won an Oscar for creating Mickey. His partner Minnie Mouse, who also debuted in Steamboat Willie, was by his side, or at least nearby as he tried to defend her from numerous inappropriate suitors. Over the years Mickey’s band of pals grew to include Donald Duck, Goofy and Pluto. In 1935 animator Fred Moore shortened Mickey’s nose to make him cuter and gave him white gloves to distinguish his hands from his black body. This is the Mickey we still know today. Five years later Mickey played the Sorcere Apprentice in Fantasia. Explaining his enduri acclaim, Walt explained: “When peop laugh at Mickey Mouse it’s becau he’s so human. That is the secret his popularity. “All we ever intended for him expected of him was that he shou continue to make people everywhe chuckle with him and at him. “We didn’t burden him with a social symbolism, we made him mouthpiece for frustrations or har satire. Mickey was simply a litt personality assigned to the purpos of laughter.” Disney won 22 Oscars. Perhaps h true genius was not in animation drawing but in marketing. He said: never called my work an art. It’s pa of show business, the business of buil ing entertainment.” There was Mickey merchandise a