How was Mickey Mouse created?

On May 15, 1928, in a theater in Los Angeles, the animation ‘O Maluco do Avião’ (Plane Crazy) was shown to a small audience, a short film in black and white, silent, of only 6 minutes in duration, which shows Mickey trying to build an airplane.

The inspiration was the historic flight of Charles Lindbergh, which had crossed the Atlantic Ocean from Paris to New York the previous year. Minnie, who also first appeared in the short, agrees to fly with Mickey while he tries to impress her.

Directed by walt disney It is ub Iwerks, the animation was only on display for a single day. It was an experiment: waltz sat in the back of the theater and watched the spectators’ reaction. She realized it was almost unanimous: Everyone loved the black rat. And so, without almost anyone noticing, the greatest icon of the modern cultural industry was born.

The creation

mickey was born in a curious way. In 1927, walt disney It is ub Iwerks lost the rights to the character Oswaldo, the Lucky Rabbit, to the producer and distributor Charles Mintz, with whom they had a partnership. Decided to create a character as successful as Oswaldo, disney It is Iwerks began work on the film that would become Plane Crazy.

The new project was kept secret and Iwerks worked in an isolated room, hidden from the other animators. He drew all the scenes for ‘Plane Crazy’ in two weeks. He made 700 drawings a day.

But not everything went as they imagined. Although Mickey won over audiences at its premiere in Los Angeles, the silent film failed to capture the attention of distributors. disneythen, decided that synchronized speech was the future of animation – The Jazz Singer (The Jazz Singer), the first feature film with lines, had revolutionized cinema in 1927.

Instead of adding lines to ‘Plane Crazy’, disney used the new technique in the film his team was producing at the time, ‘Steamboat Willie’. The new short premiered in New York on November 18, 1928, as Mickey Mouse’s first sound film — which is why it is generally considered the mouse’s true debut.

On March 17, 1929, ‘Plane Crazy’ was re-released, this time with sound. It was the fourth Mickey sound film to be released, after ‘Steamboat Willie’, ‘The Galloping Gaucho’ (The Gallopin’ Gaucho, August 7, 1928) and ‘A Dança no Celeiro’ (The Barn Dance, March 14 from 1929).