Mickey Mouse

Mickey Mouse is a funny animal cartoon character and the mascot of The Walt Disney Company. He was created by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks at the Walt Disney Studios in 1928. An anthropomorphic mouse whose face can be drawn as three black circles. Often he wears red shorts, large yellow shoes, and white gloves, Mickey is one of the world's most recognisable characters.


Swedish postcard by Scandecor, 1985, no. 3865. Image: Disney. Caption: Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse, now in Technicolor.


British postcard in the Picturegoer series. Image: Walt Disney. Collection: Marlene Pilaete.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 5227/1, 1930-1931. Image: Walt Disney. Collection: Marlene Pilaete.


French postcard by Tobler. Image: The Walt Disney Company.


French postcard by Tobler. Image: The Walt Disney Company.


French postcard by Tobler. Image: The Walt Disney Company.


Vintage postcard. In 1932, Walt Disney received an honorary Academy Award for creating Mickey Mouse.

A mouse called Mortimer

Mickey Mouse was created as a replacement for a prior Disney character, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. Walt Disney got the idea for the character from a mouse he saw in his Kansas City office. Initially, the character was to be named Mortimer Mouse, but Disney's wife Lillian Marie Bounds thought that name was too serious and not representative of the weaker members of the population. Therefore, the name Mickey was chosen.

The character's depiction as a small mouse is personified through his diminutive stature and falsetto voice. Mickey's voice was originally provided by Walt Disney. Mickey debuted publicly in the short film Steamboat Willie (1928), one of the first sound cartoons. It was co-directed by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks. Iwerks again served as the head animator, assisted by Les Clark, Johnny Cannon, Wilfred Jackson and Dick Lundy.

This short was a nod to Buster Keaton's Steamboat Bill, Jr. (Charles Reisner, Buster Keaton, 1928) released earlier that year. Although it was the third Mickey cartoon produced, it was the first to find a distributor and thus is considered by The Disney Company as Mickey's debut. Mickey Mouse went on to appear in over 130 films, including The Band Concert (Wilfred Jackson, 1935), Brave Little Tailor (Burt Gillett, Bill Roberts, 1938), and the feature Fantasia (James Algar, a.o., 1940).

The Band Concert (Wilfred Jackson, 1935) was Mickey's official first colour film. In 1932, he first appeared animated in colour in Parade of the Award Nominees. This film strip was created for the 5th Academy Awards ceremony and was not released to the public. In the production of The Band Concert (Wilfred Jackson, 1935), the Technicolor film process was used. Here Mickey conducted the 'William Tell Overture', but the band is swept up by a tornado.

By colourising and partially redesigning Mickey, Walt Disney put Mickey back on top once again. Mickey reached new heights of popularity. Brave Little Tailor (Burt Gillett, Bill Roberts, 1938), was an adaptation of the fairy tale 'The Valiant Little Tailor', which was nominated for an Academy Award. In total, ten of Mickey's cartoons were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film, one of which, Lend a Paw (Clyde Geronimi, 1941), won the award in 1942.


French poster postcard by Sonis, no. A 33. Image: The Walt Disney Company. Poster for Mickey Mouse in Steamboat Willie (Ub Iwerks, Walt Disney, 1928).


English poster postcard by Cinema. Image: Pathé Nathan / Roger Cartier / Paris Consortium Cinéma. French poster for Mickey Mouse in Mickey Laboureur/The Plowboy (Walt Disney, 1929).


French poster postcard by Sonis, no. A 27. Image: The Walt Disney Company. Poster by United Artists for Mickey Mouse in Mickey's Good Deed (Burt Gillett, 1932).


English poster postcard by Athena International, no. 334259. Image: The Walt Disney Co. Poster by United Artists for Mickey Mouse in Mickey's Nightmare (Clyde Geronimi, 1932).


Vintage poster postcard by European Greetings, no. 535517. Image: Disney. Poster by United Artists for Mickey Mouse in The Whoopee Party (Burt Gillett, Wilfred Jackson, 1932).


French poster postcard by EuroDisney, sent by mail in 1992. Image: Disney. Poster by United Artists for Mickey Mouse in Buidling a Building (David Hand, 1933).


French poster postcard by Editions F. Nugeron, no. BD 26. Sent by mail in 1984. Image: Walt Disney. Poster by United Artists for Mickey Mouse and Pluto in Mickey's Pal Pluto (Burt Gillett, 1933).

A body of circles

Mickey Mouse's original design strongly resembled Oswald the Rabbit. Ub Iwerks designed Mickey's body out of circles (distinctly, the ears) to make the character easy to animate. Over the years, Mickey's appearance changed considerably. Pretty soon, Disney managed to give Mickey a friendlier face. In the oldest comics, Mickey wears red shorts with big buttons. In later versions, he dresses ‘normally’. Furthermore, he wears gloves that he never takes off.

In the 1930s, animator Fred Moore tried giving Mickey's body more of a pear shape to increase his acting range. Walt Disney liked this adaptation and declared, "That's the way I want Mickey to be drawn from now on." Mickey's character also changed quite a lot. In the first stories, he is predominantly a wanton little fellow who often plays strange pranks. Later, Mickey becomes much more serious and also quite sensible. Mickey is often the one who knows the right solution in difficult situations.

Mickey generally appears alongside his steady girlfriend Minnie Mouse, and his friends Donald Duck and Goofy. Remarkably, his pet dog Pluto behaves completely animal-like in every way, being the only one of the regular characters in the Mickey Mouse stories. Together, Mickey, Donald Duck, and Goofy would go on several adventures. Several of the films by the comic trio are some of Mickey's most critically acclaimed films.

These included Mickey's Fire Brigade (Ben Sharpsteen, 1935), Moose Hunters (Ben Sharpsteen, 1937), Clock Cleaners (Ben Sharpsteen, 1937), Lonesome Ghosts (Burt Gillett, 1937), Boat Builders (Ben Sharpsteen, 1938), and Mickey's Trailer (Ben Sharpsteen, 1938). In 1939, Mickey appeared in Mickey's Surprise Party (Hamilton Luske, 1939), along with Minnie, with a new design, which included pupils. Later on, in 1940, the character appeared in his first feature-length film, Fantasia (James Algar, a.o., 1940).

Fantasia (James Algar, a.o., 1940) used the redesigned version of Mickey with the pupils. His screen role as The Sorcerer's Apprentice set to the symphonic poem of the same name by Paul Dukas, is perhaps the most famous segment of the film and one of Mickey's most iconic roles. The apprentice (Mickey), not willing to do his chores, puts on the sorcerer's magic hat after the sorcerer goes to bed and casts a spell on a broom, which causes the broom to come to life and perform the most tiring chore—filling up a deep well using two buckets of water. When the well eventually overflows, Mickey finds himself unable to control the broom, leading to a near-flood. After the segment ends, Mickey is seen in silhouette shaking hands with conductor Leopold Stokowski. Mickey has often been pictured in the red robe and blue sorcerer's hat in merchandising.


English poster postcard by Athena International, no. 334277. Image: The Walt Disney Co. Poster for Mickey Mouse in Tugboat Mickey (Clyde Geronimi, 1940).


American poster postcard by Classico San Francisco Inc., no. 511-068. Image: The Walt Disney Company. Poster by RKO Radio Pictures for Mickey Mouse in Symphony Hour (Burt Gillett, 1942).


French postcard by Allain. Image: Walt Disney Productions. Mickey Mouse as the sorcerer's apprentice in Fantasia (James Algar, Wilfred Jackson, Hamilton Luske, Ben Sharpsteen, a.o., 1940).


French postcard in the series The Wonderful World of Walt Disney by Editions Kroma, Caissargues, no. 5. Image: Walt Disney Productions. Mickey Mouse as the sorcerer's apprentice in Fantasia (James Algar, Wilfred Jackson, Hamilton Luske, Ben Sharpsteen, a.o., 1940).


American postcard by Classico San Francisco, no. 328-008. Image: Walt Disney Productions. Mickey Mouse as the sorcerer's apprentice in Fantasia (James Algar, Wilfred Jackson, Hamilton Luske, Ben Sharpsteen, a.o., 1940).


American postcard by Classico San Francisco, no. 328-009. Image: Walt Disney Productions. Mickey Mouse as the sorcerer's apprentice in Fantasia (James Algar, Wilfred Jackson, Hamilton Luske, Ben Sharpsteen, a.o., 1940).


American postcard by Classico San Francisco, no. 328-0. Mickey Mouse as the sorcerer's apprentice in Fantasia (James Algar, Wilfred Jackson, Hamilton Luske, Ben Sharpsteen, a.o., 1940).


South Korean postcard by Disney Enterprises Inc, 2014. Image from 'The Art of Disney: The Golden Age (1937-1961)'. Sketch for Fantasia (James Algar, a.o., 1940).

Generation Mickey

Since 1930, Mickey Mouse has been featured extensively in comic strips and comic books. From 13 January 1930 to 29 July 1995, Mickey Mouse existed as a newspaper comic strip, published in numerous countries around the world. After 1940, Mickey's popularity declined until his 1955 re-emergence as a daily children's television personality.

Despite this, the character continued to appear regularly in animated shorts until 1943 (winning his only competitive Academy Award—with canine companion Pluto — for the short subject Lend a Paw) and again from 1946 to 1952. In these later cartoons, Mickey was often just a supporting character in his shorts. Pluto was instead used as the main character.

The character was featured in television series such as The Mickey Mouse Club (1955–1996). The last regular installment of the Mickey Mouse film series came in 1953 with The Simple Things in which Mickey and Pluto go fishing and are pestered by a flock of seagulls. A fan club for Mickey Mouse was founded in the 1960s, which is unprecedentedly popular and has thousands of members worldwide.

Mickey returned to theatrical animation with Mickey's Christmas Carol (Burny Mattinson, 1983) an adaptation of Charles Dickens' 'A Christmas Carol' in which Mickey played Bob Cratchit. This was followed up with The Prince and the Pauper (George Scribner, 1990). His most recent theatrical cartoon short was Get a Horse! (Lauren MacMullan, 2013) which was preceded by Runaway Brain (Chris Bailey, 1995).

From 1999 to 2004, he appeared in direct-to-video features like Mickey's Once Upon a Christmas (Jun Falkenstein, a.o., 1999), Mickey, Donald, Goofy: The Three Musketeers (Donovan Cook, 2004) and Mickey's Twice Upon a Christmas (Theresa Cullen, a.o., 2004). Mickey also appears in media such as video games as well as merchandising and is a meetable character at the Disney parks. He is one of the world's most recognisable and universally acclaimed fictional characters. In 1978, Mickey Mouse became the first cartoon character to have a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.


British postcard by The Art Group Ltd., no. 8780. Image: Disney. Original sketch of Mickey Mouse from On Ice (Ben Sharpsteen, 1935).


British postcard by The Art Group Ltd., no. 8262. Image: Disney. Original story sketch of Mickey Mouse and Pluto from Pluto's Purchase (Charles Nichols, Jack Kinney, 1948).


French postcard by Editions F. Nugeron, no. BD 16. Image: Walt Disney. Caption: Mickey Mouse 1937. Mickey Mouse Magazine, May 1937, Vol. 2, no. 8.


American postcard by The OSP Line - Lawson Mardon Post Card, Sparks, NV, no. HSC-614 (PC 709). Image: The Walt Disney Company. Caption: Mickey Filmography.


American postcard by Lawson Mardon Post Card, Sparks, NV / The O.S.P. Line, no. HSC-615 (PC 709). Image: The Walt Disney Company. Caption: Memories of Mickey. Generation Mickey.


Italian postcard by Grafiche Biondetti srl, Verona, no. 133/4. Illustration: Walt Disney Productions. Film image of Mickey's Christmas Carol (Burny Mattinson, 1983). Sent by mail in 1988.


French collector card by Chocolat Poulain, Blois, series 42, no. 23. Image: Walt Disney Productions. Caption: Disney Channel.


Vintage postcard by Animated Animations Company / Edition Size, no. 500. Image: Walt Disney Animation Art. Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and Goofy in The Three Musketeers (Donovan Cook, 2004).


Vintage postcard by Animated Animations Company / Edition Size, no. 2000. Image: Walt Disney Animation Art. Postcard to promote a limited sericel of Mickey and Minnie as Romeo and Juliet.

Sources: Wikipedia (English and Dutch) and IMDb.