Mickey Mouse

Mickey Mouse turns 80 years old today, and there's not a gray hair on him. Sure, he's a little rounder, a little squatter, and he's been wearing the same clothes for decades, but all in all he looks pretty good. Sure, Mickey hasn't had a movie in two years (his last one went direct-to-video), but his cheerful face remains one of the most recognizable images in the world, even beating out Santa Claus. Disney threw a big party for the mouse's 75th birthday, so this year's festivities will be comparatively subdued. But TIME has been following the adorable mouse since the beginning, and 80 years is still a big number to us.

Mickey's story, however, starts with a rabbit. Disney Brothers Studio was just another cog in Universal Pictures' animation machine when, in 1927, Walt Disney created a character called Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. With his round, white face, big button nose and floppy black ears, the smiling Oswald was an instant hit and Universal ordered a series of shorts. When Disney met with executives to negotiate another contract in 1928, the rabbit was still riding high and the animator thought he had the upper hand. Instead, the studio told him that it had hired away all of his employeees and retained the rights to Oswald. Univesral offered to keep Disney if he took a lower salary, but he refused. He and Ub Iwerks — the one loyal animator who stayed with Disney Bros. — returned to work and held a series of hair-pulling, late-night brainstorming sessions for Oswald's replacement. They shortened the ears, added some extra padding around the middle, and turned the rabbit into a mouse. Named Mortimer. The moniker didn't last; there are a number of tales attempting to explain how and why — the most popular being that Disney's wife hated the name and suggested its replacement — but soon he was ready for his debut as Mickey.

The first two Mickey shorts drew no attention, but then came Steamboat Willie, the first animation to feature synchronized music and sound effects, hit the screen. The film premiered in New York on Nov. 18, 1928 and was an instant hit. A series of Mickey Mouse shorts appeared within a matter of months — including Plane Crazy, a short that predated Steamboat Willie in which Mickey plays a rodent Charles Lindbergh. The mouse was a national fad by the end of the year, and it wasn't long before the real genius of Walt Disney kicked in: marketing. Walt quickly started up a line of Mickey merchandise, and within two years the Mickey Mouse Club, a fan club for children, was up and running.

In 1935, a young animator named Fred Moore gave Mickey his first makeover. Earlier animators had drawn the mouse as a series of circles, which limited his movement. Moore — who later animated Fantasia's Sorcerer's Apprentice segment — gave him a pear-shaped body, pupils, white gloves and a shortened nose, to make him cuter. Mickey also appeared in color for the first time that year; The Band Concert's use of Technicolor was so innovative that critics still consider it to be a masterpiece.

By 1937, Disney Studios was producing about 12 Mickey shorts a year, with Disney himself providing the mouse's high-pitched voice. Mickey became a football hero, a hunter, a tailor, and a symphony conductor. He accidentally sprayed himself with insecticide, rescued Pluto from the dogcatcher, crashed a car into a barn, fell behind on his rent, enlisted in the army, had his house repossessed, and lost Minnie to an innumerable string of muscular bad boys (although he always won her back in the end). The cartoons' vaudevillian overtones made liberal use of slapstick and puns, and Mickey's close association with children required that he always remain upstanding and moral (leaving the cantankerous Donald Duck to get into all the trouble).

By the 1950s, Mickey had theme park, a newspaper comic strip, and The Mickey Mouse Club, the hit television variety show that has launched the careers of teen stars from Annette Funicello to Justin Timberlake. But soon Disney feature films like Bambi and Sleeping Beauty began to rake in the accolades — and box office receipts — the mouse faded into the background. Between his last 1953 cartoon short, The Simple Things, and the 1983 Christmas special Mickey's Christmas Carol, the mouse that built the house of Disney would remain out of work for 30 years.

Yet despite Mickey's semi-retirement, his ears are still one of the most famous cultural icons of the 20th and 21st centuries. He has posed for photographs with every U.S. President since Harry Truman, save one (Lyndon Johnson never visited a Disney theme park). Disney claims that Mickey had a 98% awareness rate among children between ages 3-11 worldwide. Mouse-related merchandise sales have declined from their 1997 high, but they still make up about 40% of the company's consumer products revenue. Mickey returned to the big screen for a cameo in 1988's Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Warner Brothers' Bugs Bunny was also in the film and the two companies demanded that each character receive the same amount of screen time, down to the very last second. A semi-secret 2001 image revamp put Mickey's logo in trendy places: on celebrities, in a Sex and the City episode — he was printed on a t-shirt and stretched across Sarah Jessica Parker's chest — as well as in high-end boutiques. In 2002, he appeared in the PlayStation2 video game Kingdom Hearts. And in 2006, he became 3-D for the very first time. Now you can see him on Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, an early morning Disney Channel show designed for children ages 2-6. Or you can book a flight to Disney World and shake his oversized glove yourself.

Happy Birthday, Mickey Mouse! A Look at the Mouse That Built an Empire

Today in 1928 Mickey Mouse made his official debut in “Steamboat Willie.” To celebrate Mickey’s 86th birthday, here’s a look at how Walt Disney created America’s favorite mouse.

 

Walt Disney with Mickey Mouse, circa 1930. (Photo: United Artists/Photofest) 

Two different people have taken credit for giving Mickey Mouse his first name. History has it that Walt Disney’s wife Lillian came up with it because she thought his original name, Mortimer, was too pompous. But child-star-turned-movie-star Mickey Rooney frequently claimed that it was his meeting with Walt in 1920 that provided the inspiration. Walt, being a very smart man, sided with his wife on that one. 

Whether it was Lillian Disney or Mickey Rooney, it doesn’t matter: to this day, Mickey Mouse is one of the most well-known characters around the globe, surpassing even Santa Claus in recognizability here in the United States. He’s also the most frequently used write-in candidate in American local elections, still topping the list as recently as November of 2014. (Cohort Donald Duck is a close second.) By 1987, the state of Georgia actually had to make it illegal to vote for Mickey, and Wisconsin is apparently considering similar legislation. Good luck! Despite his tiny size and falsetto voice, Mickey Mouse is an unstoppable force.

Walt Disney - Mini Biography (TV-14; 4:15) Walt Disney loved drawing at an early age and opened an animation studio in 1923. In 1928, his animated short film "Steamboat Willie" was released and introduced Mickey Mouse, who would become the mascot of The Walt Disney Company.

Oh Mickey, You’re So Fine…

Before there was Mickey, Walt Disney created another character, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, for film producer Charles Mintz. Oswald’s ears were longer than Mickey’s (as befitting a rabbit), as was his nose, and his feet were black and shoeless, but his face bore an unmistakable resemblance to what would become the Walt Disney Company’s most iconic image. While Oswald was Disney's creation, Universal legally owned him. When the Disney Brothers Studio asked for more money, Mintz refused and took ownership of the character, and retained almost all of Disney’s employees. 

Determined not to make the mistake of giving up the rights to one of his creations again, Walt and his remaining animator, Ub Iwerks, went back to the drawing board, and transformed their rabbit into a mouse. They produced a few shorts that didn’t get much attention, but that changed when Steamboat Willie premiered in 1928. Named after Buster Keaton’s Steamboat Bill, Jr. and inspired by the very first “talkie” The Jazz Singer, it was the first cartoon with synchronized sound, and became an instant hit. With Disney’s genius for marketing, Mickey became a national fad by the end of the year, with his own line of merchandise. His cartoons ran before the main features in movie theaters and he became so popular that moviegoers would often sit through a movie twice to see him again, or would check before buying their tickets to make sure that “a Mickey” was going to play at the beginning.

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Interestingly, Mickey didn’t actually speak until 1929’s The Karnival Kid. His first words were, “Hot dogs! Hot dogs!” and his voice was provided by Carl Stalling, the composer and arranger now known for his work on the legendary Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons. After that, Walt Disney himself provided Mickey’s voice, up until 1946 when he could no longer squeeze it into his schedule.

In January of 1930, the now legendary Mickey Mouse Club was created. Within a few months there were 60 theaters hosting clubs across the country, and within two years, there were over a million members enjoying the club song, secret handshakes, a special greeting, and even a code of behavior. 

The TV series, basically a variety show for kids, didn’t launch until the 1950s, but clearly it resonated, returning multiple times across the decades. Famous on-screen members included Dennis Day, Annette Funicello, Don Grady (of My Three Sons), Keri Russell, Christina Aguilera, Ryan Gosling, Britney Spears, and Justin Timberlake.

Famous Mousketeer Annette Funicello sings along with Mickey Mouse Club emcee Jimmie Dodd, who also wrote the show's popular theme song. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Hollywood quickly knew it had a star in its midst, and in 1932, awarded Walt Disney an honorary Oscar for creating Mickey. Disney would win three more Honorary Awards, plus 22 Competitive “regular” Oscars, one of them posthumous; he still holds the record for the most nominations and wins by an individual, ever.

But Mickey made enemies as well as friends. A Nazi newspaper in Germany printed this in the mid-1930s, which would later be featured on the opening page of author Art Spiegelman’s second volume of his graphic novel, “Maus”:

“Mickey Mouse is the most miserable ideal ever revealed...Healthy emotions tell every independent young man and every honorable youth that the dirty and filth-covered vermin, the greatest bacteria carrier in the animal kingdom, cannot be the ideal type of animal...Away with Jewish brutalization of the people! Down with Mickey Mouse! Wear the Swastika Cross!”

Being an enemy of the Nazis hardly hurt him. In 1935, popular as ever, Mickey got his first makeover courtesy of animator Fred Moore, who shortened his nose, reshaped his body, added pupils to his eyes, and gave him his white gloves to help distinguish his hands from the rest of his body. These changes were all prominent in 1940’s Fantasia, in which Mickey, now tail-less, starred as the Sorcerer’s Apprentice. A feat of animation genius, the movie featured animation and sound techniques that are still considered artistically unmatched.

Mickey as the Sorcerer's Apprentice in 1940's "Fantasia." (Photo: Walt Disney Productions/Photofest)

Always one of the good guys, Mickey became a patriot during World War II. He appeared on posters advertising war bonds and promoting national security, but according to multiple sources (and frequently denied by others), his biggest contribution came on D-Day itself, when his name was allegedly the password used among the senior officers in the Allied Forces. 

Once the war was over, things lightened up, and Mickey was free to focus on his cartoon adventures with Donald Duck, Goofy, and Pluto. His star has shone brightly ever since. In 1978, in honor of his 50th anniversary, he became the first animated character to get his own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

While Disney Studios are now famous for full-length features like Aladdin, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Cinderella, Frozen, The Princess and The Frog, and dozens more, Mickey is still the image most closely associated with the company and remains the official mascot of all Disney theme parks. The next generation of fans is watching him on TV on Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, and he’s appeared in video games, comic books, feature films, endless varieties of merchandise, and has had cameos, either as himself or as a hidden Easter egg, in multiple movies and television shows. The Walt Disney Company has morphed from an animation studio into an unrivaled empire, but the man who started it all never forgot its origins:

R..I.P. Disney Channel (1983-2006)

The Walt Disney Company is perhaps one of the most well-known names in entertainment today. Everyone has probably seen a Disney animated movie (or a CG animated flick from sister company Pixar), visited Disneyland or Walt Disney World, or probably even wanted to work for the company someday. No matter the obstacles they faced, no matter the mistakes they have made, there is no question that they are still a very powerful name in show business. Their theme parks are fantastic. Their animated movies (Pixar included), with one or two exceptions, are great. Their live action movies, well... let's just say they're hit or miss to me. However, I will be talking about the network that is now what I consider the black sheep of the Disney Company. A network that had so much potential of being the Hallmark Channel of its time before it decided to change its format and cater to the teenyboppers of today. That network? The Disney Channel.

Before I start my article, let me ask this. If the network is called Disney Channel, what's "Disney" on there? Nothing on their regular lineup, that's for sure. They do have two Disney-related shows on their new sister-channel Disney Junior (Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Jake & the Neverland Pirates), but the problem is they're both Dora the Explorer knock-offs. It still baffles my mind that there is nothing "Disney" about the Disney Channel anymore (except for the logo). However that wasn't the case when Disney Channel first launched.

The channel first launched in 1983, at a time when the company seemed to be on its last legs. Its original concept was to air movies, shows, and specials aimed at the entire family, not just kids. Some examples of Disney Channel's earliest programs are [italic]Welcome to Pooh Corner[/italic], [italic]You & Me, Kid[italic][/italic], [italic]Good Morning Mickey![/italic], and [italic]Donald Duck Presents[/italic] (the latter two were showcases of classic Disney cartoons). Not to mention it aired a lot of Disney's animated and live-action catalog made when Walt himself was still alive, and it also aired reruns of [italic]The Mickey Mouse Club[/italic].

Now, I don't really know much about the Disney Channel's early days (I was born in 1991, 8 years after the network's official launch), but from what I've looked up, at the time it really did seem like what the Hallmark Channel is today, with the exception of the kids' shows I mentioned. Then in 1996 (around the time Walt Disney Animation Studios was still having its second golden age), they began to tank in the ratings when Nickelodeon became the #1 network for kids 6-14. As a result, Disney decided to re-format the network into a basic-cable service and make it focus more and more on kids. They still had classic Disney cartoons airing on the channel at the time, and they had a late-night block of vintage Disney material called Vault Disney as well (pretty much their answer to Nick at Nite). In 2002, Vault Disney was discontinued, but the classic Disney characters were still able to call Disney Channel home once House of Mouse moved there from ABC later that year.

It was around 2003 when my family finally got Disney Channel in our basic cable lineup. But, outside of a few exceptions (House of Mouse, Kim Possible), I began to lose interest thanks to tween shows like Lizzie McGuire (shown above) and That's So Raven being popular at the time. It was also around that time when Disney as a whole was entering a very dark age, which it is still trying to recover from today. What I find disturbing about this time was the channel was the only part of the Disney Company that was turning a profit. The reason being was in 2004, a woman by the name of Anne Sweeney joined the Disney-ABC television group and successfully turned Disney Channel into the "major profit driver for the (Walt Disney) company", and in the process slowly got rid of all the remaining Disneyness that made the network a household name and phased in more and more tween shows.

As a result of Anne Sweeney's new business model for Disney Channel, Hannah Montana and High School Musical was born... or at least that's what I think happened, I don't know. Anyway, since Disney Channel was changing its format into an MTV for little kids, they decided to move Mickey and the gang to Playhouse Disney in a [italic]Dora the Explorer[/italic]-style show called [italic]Mickey Mouse Clubhouse[/italic]. What's frightening about these changes at the network is this was also around that time Disney was in the process of acquiring Pixar, 2006 to the exact. Please note, I'm not blaming Disney as a whole for what's happening right now (I don't think their CEO, Bob Iger, could even control that since he doesn't micromanage the company like his predecessor did during his last of his tenure), but I can tell you right now that as a result of teenybopper trash like Hannah Montana, High School Musical, and Wizards of Waverly Place has aired on the Disney Channel, I officially turned away from the network as of 2007.

Poor Mickey (left), ever since Disney Channel kicked him out, he's now stuck on preschool television while more and more trash for teenyboppers like [italic]Shake It Up[/italic] (pictured on the right), [italic]A.N.T. Farm[/italic], [italic]Austin & Ally[/italic], and [italic]Let It Shine[/italic] are being spewed out by greedy network executives wanting to make a quick buck. As a result, I believe the network has become the black sheep of The Walt Disney Company as a whole, just like what Paris Hilton is to the family of Conrad Hilton (founder of Hilton Hotels Worldwide). Luckily for Mickey, Disney says they have a feature-length film with him in development right now. I hope it gets approved by John Lasseter (which I'm sure you all know is the founder of Pixar, and is trying his best to make Disney Animation Studios follow tradition), because a huge 2D animated comeback is what Mickey really needs these days. It will probably be awesome news for traditional Disney fans like myself, as it will be a great distraction from the epitome of awfulness that is today's Disney Channel.

Disney: How a Mouse Built a Media Empire

Mickey Mouse and the gang, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Fantasia, Disneyland, Davy Crockett, Annette Funicello, Tinker Bell, Mary Poppins, one name comes to mind whenever all of these topics are brought up… Walt Disney. He was a beloved visionary who transformed a single animated cartoon studio into the global media empire it is today. What was once the home of lovable cartoon characters like Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, and Goofy, has now expanded into a multimedia giant, owning a large family of eight movie studios, four vacation resorts, nine theme parks, several video game publishers and developers, two book publishers, six music and record labels, several comic book franchises, eleven television networks, and one broadcast network. For over 90 years, The Walt Disney Company has been associated with a name people can trust, from the wholesome family-oriented animated movies by both Walt Disney Animation Studios and Pixar Animation Studios to the high-octane action and thrills from Marvel Entertainment and Lucasfilm Ltd., to the magic of their wide variety of theme parks and resorts in locations around the world. 

The company’s stock is a favorite for investors, appearing in the Fortune 500 almost every single year. As times have changed, and trends come and go, Disney has always outweighed them all. Retailers Blockbuster Video and Borders Books and Music, and photography companies like Kodak have faded into obscurity over the years, while Disney was able to change with media consumption trends and was left unscathed. The question is how did a tiny little cartoon studio founded by two brothers become the household name that everybody in the world knows today? How was what is now the world’s largest media and entertainment empire able to survive as trends changed to reflect the changing time?

When we talk about Disney, it’s very important about the events and businesses that made the company what it is today, from Theme Parks and Movies, to Television and Music. However, perhaps the most important topic to learn about is the company’s never-ending legacy, and its impact on the world… not to mention the fantastic history it has, dates back to the humble beginnings of Walt Disney himself.

Walter Elias Disney was born in Chicago, Illinois on December 5, 1901. His mother, Flora Call Disney, was of English descent, while his father, Elias Disney, was of Irish-Canadian descent. When Walt was a little boy, he and his family moved to Marceline, Missouri, where he would spend most of his early childhood. In 1911, the Disney family moved to Kansas City, where he and his younger sister Ruth would attend the Benton Grammar School. In 1921, a 22-year-old Walt moved back to Kansas City to start up the Laugh-O-Gram Studio as a result of a contract by a man named Milton Feld to animate 12 cartoon shorts he called “Laugh-O-Grams”. Walt incorporated the studio using remaining assets of a previous company he folded earlier that year, Disney-Iwerks, which he co-founded and co-owned with his friend, fellow artist and animator Ub Iwerks. The studio became well know for producing the Alice Comedies, a series of silent films that used a live-action child actress in an animated setting. However, that success didn’t last. In July 1923, the Laugh-O-Gram studio filed for bankruptcy after only two years in operation.

After the bankruptcy of the Laugh-O-Gram studio, Disney decided to move to Hollywood to join his brother Roy. Together, they formed what would later be called Walt Disney Productions. The new studio later formed a contract with film producer Margaret J. Winkler and Universal Studios to continue producing the Alice Comedies, and would later move on to create their very first successful animated character, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. This character would later serve as the basis of other rabbit-like cartoon characters, including Bugs Bunny of the popular Warner Bros. cartoon series, Looney Tunes. However, the success of Oswald didn’t last. In February 1928, the Disney studio lost its contract with Universal, and Oswald along with it. Devastated, Disney had no choice but to start from scratch.

Nine months later, a screen legend was born, Mickey Mouse. Many people think the first cartoon starring that character was Steamboat Willie, which drove Mickey to stardom. However, that’s not the case. His first cartoon was actually Plane Crazy, a silent film that was first seen in a test screening. After the success of Steamboat Willie, Mickey Mouse became the most popular cartoon character in the United States, at the time beating the popularity of Paramount’s Felix the Cat. The character starred in over 200 short subjects until 1953, and later spawned other memorable characters, including Donald Duck, Goofy, and Pluto.

In 1937, 9 years after the debut of Mickey Mouse, Walt Disney premiered what would later become a company milestone (and one of my favorite Disney movies of all time) at the Carthay Circle Theatre in Los Angeles, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. It is a milestone for many reasons. Two examples are the fact that it’s the first full-length animated feature to be produced in the United States, and the fact that it took full advantage of a new technology Disney developed for animation called the Multiplane camera, which used multiple planes to make a realistic background for animated features. This technology was first tested in a 1937 Silly Symphony called The Old Mill.

After the success of Snow White, Disney decided to do other ambitious animated projects to push the envelope on what the art form can do, and separate them from the cartoon shorts that were in production at the time. Pinocchio and Fantasia both premiered in 1940.

 Pinocchio’s budget was double to that of its predecessor, but unfortunately didn’t grab as many movie tickets as Snow White did in 1937. Fantasia ended up becoming a much bigger flop from the studio, mainly due to the fact that nobody thought there was an actual story being told in the film. Not to mention the fact that World War II was taking place in Europe, and the Great Depression was still affecting all of the United States. In 1941, Dumbo was released, and became the most financially successful Disney film of its time. In fact, it became so popular that the titular character was set to be on the cover ofTIME magazine.

 However, one event stopped all of that from happening… the bombing of Pearl Harbor by the Japanese. As a result, the US joined in World War II. America’s involvement in WWII also caused the Disney Studios’ 4th feature film, Bambi, fail during its release in 1942.

It was from then on that the studio was taken over by the US Army, and as a result, they had to make Propaganda shorts to get the armed forces ready to fight the war, and compilation movies featuring short form stories; all of which have bombed at the box office when they were released (i.e. Saludos Amigos, The Three Caballeros, Fun & Fancy Free, Melody Time, etc.). Some of these so-called compilation films, case in point Make Mine Music and The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad, featured big name music stars at the time, including Bing Crosby and clarinetist Benny Goodman. In 1945, World War II ended, and it started an era where Disney Animation would be able to break free from US military rule, and make the next big box-office smash.

In 1950, Cinderella was released as Disney’s first full-length movie in 9 years that wasn’t a compilation of shorts; and was also its first film based on a fairy tale since Snow White. It was an instant success, officially bringing Disney Animation back in full force. Other hits would follow, such as Peter Pan and Lady and the Tramp. The 1950’s would also mark an era where Disney would get into other businesses, the first business they would get into was television with the anthology series Disneyland, and later the Mickey Mouse Club children’s program, which would launch the career of many child stars, including the late Annette Funicello. However, their biggest achievement in the 50’s would perhaps be one of their most well known non-movie ventures yet.

It all started when Walt took her two daughters Diane and Sharon to Griffith Park in Los Angeles. In a 1963 interview, Walt recounted this particular event and how it got him the idea of creating a theme park where both kids and families could have fun together. On August 31, 1948, development began on what is now called Disneyland, named after the anthology series. The project was a joint venture between Walt Disney Productions and the ABC Television Network (ABC was the first network to air the Disney anthology show, and would later be part of the Disney media empire in 1995). In 1955, Disneyland officially opened to the public with 20 attractions and rides to choose from. However, the opening didn’t go as planned. The number of guests that came to the park on its opening day exceeded the anticipated number Disney was expecting. Indeed, opening day was a disaster, but that didn’t stop Disneyland from being a big success.

In the 1960’s, Walt Disney introduced another ambitious project; a second amusement property in Orlando, Florida simply called the Florida project, which would later be called Disney World. This project included what he called the Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow (EPCOT). Unfortunately, he wouldn’t be able to live long enough to see this dream get realized, because on December 15, 1966, Walt Disney passed away as a result of suffering from lung cancer at the age of 65. The last ever project he was involved in was the 1967 animated adaptation of Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book. Roy O. Disney continued with the Disney World project, which was completed in 1971. However, Roy decided to change the name of this new Florida facility to Walt Disney World in memoriam of his brother.

Today, The Walt Disney Company is a media powerhouse, and continues to follow the legacy of its namesake. However, Disney doesn’t just do theme parks, movies, and TV anymore. They own a slew of video game developers, websites, and yes, even magazines. More recently, they acquired some of the biggest names in modern entertainment, including Pixar Animation Studios in 2006 (perhaps best known for creating the CG-animated Toy Story series), Marvel Comics in 2009, andStar Wars creator Lucasfilm Ltd. in 2012. They’re big, and growing, and their legacy in both entertainment and amusements lives on. Walt Disney’s dream has definitely made an impact on American culture, and will live on with future generations of Disney fans.

Is Hand-Drawn Animation Really Dead at Disney?

I know what you're thinking. Why is this on Retro Junk? Well, the reason is because when you think of retro, nowadays you think of an animation method rarely used in theatrical features these days.. traditional hand-drawn animation. Walt Disney Animation Studios has been trying to keep it alive, but they weren't completely successful in doing so in terms of feature films.

You may remember back in April 2013 when Walt Disney Animation Studios laid off 9 of their hand-drawn animators as a result of this, among them being a guy named Nik Ranieri, the supervising animator for Lumiere in Beauty and the Beast. Among the hand-drawn animators left include Eric Goldberg and Mark Henn. Because of this unfortunate event, the animation blog Cartoon Brew actually stated that Disney "gutted" their hand-drawn animation division. Leaving one to question. Is hand-drawn animation really dead at Disney?

The answer is an optimistic "No". Just because 9 hand-drawn animators were laid off doesn't mean the technique is dead, especially not at Disney. Cartoon Brew's article about the hand-drawn animation unit at Disney was nothing but pure hyperbole. It's still alive and well at the studio. However, they're only doing 2D animated shorts for theatres. Case in point, Get a Horse!. Speaking of which, let's talk about it real quick.

This 2013 Mickey Mouse short, which I assume was made to celebrate the character's 85th birthday (although I would have preferred a feature film, but I can't complain), was released beforeFrozen, which is by far my favorite of Disney's CG fare. The short begins as what appears to be a 1920's Mickey cartoon, but then as he tries to rescue his sweetheart Minnie, Pete throws him out of a movie screen, revealing a CG Mickey Mouse, now in color. The rest of the short is just Mickey and his friends trying to rescue Minnie from Pete, and it's executed very well in a hilarious hijinks they get into while turning from hand-drawn to CG and back again.

The short was unbelievably cool. It's a lot better than the Disney Television Animation series of shorts they started that same year, which were good at first, but then ended up being Disney Channel's usual over-the-top tweens' fare. If you ask me, I'd prefer Disney's flagship feature animation division doing Mickey Mouse-related content, because they're a lot better at executing the character (after all, he did start in theatrical shorts), not to mention the DTVA shorts resemble the crass toons you'd see on Nickelodeon or Cartoon Network nowadays more than anything, which is NOT a good thing... especially if you want to bring back a classic cartoon character like Mickey Mouse.

Now with that out of the way, let's talk about a short that came right before it... Paperman.

This short utilizes a technology called Meander, which was actually created by accident. This system uniquely combines the techniques of traditional hand-drawn animation with modern computer animation. When the short was first released, there was no doubt that the way they combined two fields was totally cool. People loved it, and since it was released with Wreck-it Ralphin 2012, that was even better. Shorts like this are proof that people want to see more hand-drawn animation in theatres.

Well, those are just two examples of how hand-drawn animation is still being kept alive at Disney nowadays. There are also more 2D or 2D-style shorts in production or development. One short that's already complete, Feast, is being released this year with the animated Marvel comic adaptation, Big Hero 6. Sadly, I have to warn you not to expect a full-length 2D animated feature from them anytime soon. One reason is the obvious, execs in Hollywood still don't see 2D animation as bankable outside of films based on recent TV shows (i.e. SpongeBob, The Simpsons), and another reason (and this is just a theory I have), is Disney tried to revive 2D animation as a theatrical method by themselves. What they should have done was wait until a new startup company takes a hand at doing a traditionally-animated feature (Laika, the stop-motion studio perhaps known for Coraline, could be that since they want to do a hand-drawn film), wait if it does extremely well at the box-office, and then try to do it themselves just to compete with that startup. It's what happened when Don Bluth came to the picture in the 1980's, and it may as well happen again if Disney really wants hand-drawn to truly return as a theatrical method.

With that said, Disney Animation's CG movies have certainly gotten better since Frozen came out, and I'm not shutting them out just because they don't have any 2D feature films in development at the moment. As for the future of 2D at the studio, like I said, it's still alive and well. Just don't count on them on doing any features as of now. Who knows? Things may change, and Disney could one day take a stab at 2D animation again (but only if a 2D movie from a new startup does well). We shall see.

The History of Mickey Mouse

He is one of the most well-known animated characters in the world. If you've been in any store here in the states (or in the world for that matter), you've seen his face in many products. If you've been to any Disney park, you've probably gotten a big bear hug from him. He's Mickey Mouse! ...And he will be the focus of my second article here on Retro Junk. I will (hopefully not going into TOO much detail, thus that could make this an extremely boring post) talk about the highlights of Mickey's past career, what the lovable cartoon rodent is up to nowadays, and what plans Disney holds for him in the future.

Before I get started, let's review what I talked about on "R..I.P. Disney Channel 1983-2006" (which unfortunately got criticized by some RJ users as one of those infamous "this channel sucks now" posts that invaded this site over the past decade). In that article, I talked about how in 2006, the Disney Channel became the black sheep of The Walt Disney Company as a whole, meaning that it transformed itself (not exactly for the better, and to the dismay of "traditionalist" Disney fans like myself) from what could have been Disney's version of what the Hallmark Channel is today, to an MTV for little girls that spews out teenybopper starlets who may eventually become future versions of Lindsay Lohan in a few years (with the exceptions of Selena Gomez, Demi Lovato, and Bridgit Mendler, they turned out pretty decent despite Demi's brief meltdown in 2010). However, that won't stop Mickey from remaining the face of Disney for years to come. Plus, in this day and age (especially the tough times we're in right now), the world needs Mickey more than ever.

And now, we invite you to relax. Let us put up a chair, as Retro Junk proudly presents, The History of Mickey Mouse!

The year was 1928, and during a trip to New York City, 27-year-old Walter Elias Disney found out by Charles Mintz that he had lost the right to produce anymore cartoons starring the character that served as his first success, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. To make matters worse, all of Walt's artists had been hired away by Universal Studios (who owned the Oswald character the whole time). Devastated, Walt now had to start from scratch and create a new character, one that he would own the rights to. He asked his friend Ub Iwerks to draw up some ideas for new original characters. Walt got the idea for a character inspired by a pet mouse he owned back when he was a child living in a farm in rural Missouri. Walt insisted on naming this new mouse "Mortimer", but his wife Lillian insisted on renaming him into something cuter than "Mortimer", and thus... Mickey Mouse was born.

Later that year, the cartoon "Steamboat Willie" premiered to rave reviews. The cartoon achieved it share of innovations as well. It was one the first sound-cartoons ever made, and the first cartoon to introduce Mickey and his girlfriend Minnie to the public. However, it's not the first Mickey Mouse cartoon ever made. Mickey's first on-screen appearance was actually Plane Crazy, which wouldn't be released to the public until the success of "Steamboat Willie".

Due to the success of "Willie"in '28, and the huge success of Walt's first color cartoon "Flowers and Trees" (a Silly Symphony), the Disney Studio asked themselves, "What will the next step be?", and then they had a brainstorm. They decided to let Mickey hop on the color bandwagon as well, and in 1935, "The Band Concert was born.

Yes, "The Band Concert", the first ever Mickey Mouse cartoon presented in Technicolor. In the cartoon, Mickey has an orchestra he formed perform a concert at a local park. This is also the first Mickey cartoon Donald Duck (who first appeared in the Silly Symphony, The Wise Little Hen) made an appearance in. This cartoon was just a test for what was to come for the Disney studio. "The Band Concert", along with another groundbreaking cartoon short (A Silly Symphony titled "The Old Mill") gave way to a feature film that many thought could never be done, but ended up being a surprise success, 1937's "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs".

In 1940, three years after Snow White came out. Mickey was declining in popularity. He and Donald were overshadowed by cartoon series created by rival studios such as Warner Bros.' "Looney Tunes", and Paramount's "Popeye" series. Walt was desperate to have his favorite character back in the spotlight again. His solution, a Silly Symphony with Mickey called "The Sorcerer's Apprentice". That idea evolved into a feature film called "Fantasia", and "The Sorcerer's Apprentice became the third segment of that film, making it Mickey's first feature film role. Unfortunately, Fantasia didn't do so well at the box office when it first premiered, but it did somewhat succeed in making Mickey popular again (although not quite surpassing his friend Donald at the time).

In 1941, Disney released a Mickey Mouse and Pluto cartoon called "Lend a Paw", a remake of the 1933 black-and-white Mickey cartoon, "Mickey's Pal Pluto". In the cartoon, Pluto rescues a kitten from cold weather, and later feels jealous of him after Mickey takes him in and decides to keep him as a pet. The short became the first Mickey Mouse cartoon to win an Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film in 1942.



Well, those are all the big Theatrical achievements, now we move to the 1950s, where television started to rule. Mickey and Donald were starting to be overshadowed by TV cartoons created by Hanna-Barbera such as Yogi Bear and Huckleberry Hound. However, Walt Disney had bigger plans for the medium. Along with a new anthology series called "Disneyland" (which would later be called "Walt Disney Presents, and after that, "Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color"), he had another plan for Mickey Mouse. Not exactly a cartoon show per say, but a show that makes him the leader of the club that's made for you and me. That's right, in 1955, "The Mickey Mouse Club" was born. The group of kids who presented this show were called "Mouseketeers", and they were let by a man named Jimmie Dodd. Perhaps the two most-well known Mouseketeers on the show are Annette Funicello and Frankie Avalon (both pictured above), with Annette being the only Mouseketeer personally picked by Walt himself. Unfortunately, Mickey was only seen very rarely in the show itself (except for the opening sequences), but even bigger things were in store for the big cheese... the opening of Disneyland, also in 1955.

Disneyland is not only a place where the young and old alike can have fun together, it's a place where Mickey and all his friends can meet all their fans 365 days a year. Parks similar to Disneyland later invaded the globe as well (Walt Disney World in 1971, Tokyo Disneyland in 1983, Disneyland Paris in 1992, Hong Kong Disneyland in 2006, and coming soon... Shanghai Disney Resort). Although Walt Disney was never able to see any of them open to the public due to his death in 1966, there's no question that Mickey will still be there to see us all around the world, and his magic will still live on in all of them.

Now we fast forward to 1983, where Disney began having its "dark" period. Although they began to lose their innovation in their then-stagnating animation department (When Pixar's John Lasseter joined Disney in the early 80's, he noticed they were trying to cheapen the budget of their animated movies instead of being innovative, which bothered him, and he would later be terminated for pitching an idea using computer technology). However, there were a few good things ahead for Mickey during these times. The Disney Channel launched (which at the time hoped to give him a permanent television home), Tokyo Disneyland opened (marking what I like to call Mickey's first ever business trip to Japan), and he returned to the big screen just in time for his 55th birthday in "Mickey's Christmas Carol".

 

However, despite the title, Mickey only had a supporting role as Bob Cratchitt (he wouldn't have an actual starring role until 1990's The Prince and the Pauper and 1995's Runaway Brain), and Donald Duck only had a supporting role as Fred Scrooge. The starring role actually was given to Scrooge McDuck (who would later star in DuckTales), in the role he was born to play, Ebenezer Scrooge. It also marked a big comeback for Mickey, despite features like The Black Cauldron and The Great Mouse Detective not doing so well at the time (when Michael Eisner joined Disney in 1984, he wanted to shut down the animation division after the failure of "Cauldron", but changed his mind once "Mouse Detective" did better).

Now we fast forward even further to the 90's and today. The 90's was when Mickey would have it big. Disney was having its renaissance, "The Prince and the Pauper" and "Runaway Brain" let him have starring roles in animation again, and two even bigger things were in store... his 70th birthday. His presents? A direct-to-video compilation film featuring his best cartoon shorts, The Spirit of Mickey, and the first TV show to solely focus on him "Mickey Mouse Works" (which would eventually be retooled as House of Mouse in 2001). In 2002, he became the focus of an ongoing video game series co-produced by Disney and the Japanese RPG developer SquareSoft (now Square Enix) called "Kingdom Hearts".

2003 was Mickey's 75th birthday, and he once again got two special presents, 2004's direct-to-DVD adaptation of The Three Musketeers (also starring his friends Donald and Goofy), and "Mickey Mouse Clubhouse" (the second TV show to focus solely on Mickey and Friends), which premiered in 2006. This time, "Clubhouse" was a CG animated preschool show on Playhouse Disney (now Disney Junior) in the vein of "Dora the Explorer" and "Blue's Clues". If you ask me, It wasn't the best idea for Disney to do a show like this. A CG preschool show in the vein of Dora is not a very good fit for Mickey (I don't think it would be a very good fit for any character that was originally animated in 2D, let alone originally meant for young and old alike), but it does its job for reintroducing a new generation of kids to the character.

In 2010, Mickey starred in his first non-"Mickey Mouse Clubhouse" and non-"Kingdom Hearts" property in 4 years, the video game "Epic Mickey". The game also reintroduces Oswald the Lucky Rabbit to the Disney Universe. Mickey has also been announced to be the focus of an idea for a full-length theatrical feature being pitched by Walt Disney Animation Studios veteran Burny Mattinson. If it gets the greenlight, it could be one of Disney Animation's major releases, and the first film in the Disney Animated Classics canon starring Mickey and his friends. I personally think Dan Povenmire and Jeff "Swampy" Marsh (the creators of Phineas and Ferb) should direct the film with Burny and write the script, with John Lasseter overseeing the film as both executive producer and creative consultant. I also think this could be more akin to "The Muppets" and "Winnie the Pooh" (both released last year), in other words, brining back the character and what made him popular, rather than drastically and soullessly re-inventing the characters into live-action/CGI abominations that spew out pop-culture references and fart jokes, not to mention making them "hip" (I'm looking directly at YOU "Alvin and the Chipmunks"!!!). More importantly, I see this potential film also being 2D animated, as it should be because 2D characters in 3D animation just don't work in my honest opinion (Mickey Mouse Clubhouse is an example).


In the years to come, there is no doubt in the world that no matter what talentless teenyboppers are being spewed out by greedy TV execs, no matter what uncertainties we have to face, we will see more and more of this cute and lovable cartoon rodent in the future. Whether he's in movies or TV, books or theme parks, Mickey Mouse will always be there to cheer us up, and will always be the face of, not just Disney, but the world.

The First Success of Mickey Mouse

Mickey Mouse was a replacement player.

That's right. He wasn't a star from the very beginning.

Walt Disney had created, along with two other men, the animated character of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. After a few cartoons, Disney asked for more money to be able to draw more and better Oswald cartoons. The studio that Disney was working for fired him and hired other people to draw the animated rabbit. Unfortunately for Disney, he didn't own the rights to his creation.

In a moment of inspiration, Disney created a cartoon mouse that he wanted to call Mortimer. Walt's wife talked him out of it, and the mouse got the name Mickey. A legend was born. (One story says that Disney got the idea for a cartoon mouse from a real mouse that he had trained.)

Mickey Mouse first appeared in comics in Plane Crazy, a short animated film that also starred Minnie Mouse and Clarabelle Cow. Audiences were not impressed, and neither were distributors. Undaunted, Disney went back to the drawing board and produced another short film, this one called The Gallopin' Gaucho. The response was the same, however, mainly because most people seemed to think that Mickey Mouse looked so much like Oswald the Lucky Rabbit that they weren't seeing anything new.

Frustrated but not willing to give up, Disney again went back to the drawing board. This time, he delivered something that audiences liked. This time, he gave us Mickey Mouse, a Mickey Mouse that we would recognize (sort of).

The vehicle for the first real introduction of Mickey Mouse was Steamboat Willie, and it was a resounding success. Audiences loved it, critics loved it, and Mickey was off and running.

This was not the first film made with Mickey Mouse as the star, but it was the first film that made Mickey Mouse a star. It was also the first movie that totally combined and had sound, music, and dialogue all together in one neat package. We moviegoers of today take that kind of thing for granted; back then, it was a huge deal, something that had never been done before.

Minnie Mouse appeared in this film as well, and Walt Disney provided the voice for both mouse characters. This is the film in which Mickey and Minnie dance to the famous song "Turkey in the Straw." It also features Mickey playing various animals as musical instruments.

Today, the name of Mickey Mouse is familiar to people around the world. The mouse ears symbol is a symbol of success. It all started in 1928, with Steamboat Willie.