Did you know that, before being called Mickey Mouse, the famous mouse had another name? Find out which one and how it was changed!
In the year 1927, Walt Disney It is Ub Iwerks lost the rights to their first successful character Oswald the Lucky Rabbit to Universal, led by producer and distributor Charles Mintzwith whom they had a partnership.
Thus, the duo decided that they needed to create a new character that was as famous as Oswald — that’s how, after several prototypes, Mickey Mouse emerged.
According to the documentary “Mickey: The Story of a Mouse”, available on Disney+, Walt has already told different versions of how the famous mouse came to be, however, the most popular is that it was created during a train journey.
“Mickey Mouse came to me on a train ride from Manhattan to Hollywood, at a time when my brother Roy’s business and mine were so bad that disaster seemed just around the corner,” says Walt Disney in the documentary.
However, unlike what many imagine, the name we know today was not the mouse’s first. Initially, Walt wanted the character to be called Mortimer Mouse, however, as pointed out in the book “Walt Disney’s Mickey Mouse, The Ultimate History”, by JB Kaufman It is David GersteinDisney’s wife, Lillianwould have been against the idea, suggesting that the name be Mickey Mouse.
The renowned filmmaker accepted his beloved’s idea and, according to Eric GoldbergDisney animator, during the documentary “Mickey: The Story of a Mouse”, this became one of the most important decisions in creating a character in history.
Mortimer’s return
However, anyone who imagines that Mortimer Mouse ended up just being discarded for Walt Disney. Mickey Mouse’s almost first name ended up appearing in his animations, however, giving life to the enemy of the most famous mouse in the world.
His debut came in the short “Mickey’s Rival” (“Mickey’s Rival”, in Portuguese), from 1936, being portrayed as an arrogant and cowardly mouse, who tried to win over Minnie Mouse before Mickey — but with his plans going completely wrong. In the Portuguese dub, however, Mortimer appears under another name: Ranolfo.
After his first appearance, Mortimer appeared in some comic books between the 1940s and 1950s, and only returned to the big screen in 1999, in the film “It Happened at Mickey’s Christmas”, as Minnie’s greedy boss at the department store. where he worked.
Source: Recreio
