Discover how, by whom and where Mickey Mouse was created before making his debut on screen in 1928
Mickey Mouse is one of Disney’s oldest characters, as the adorable mouse appeared in 1928 in the animation ‘Plane Crazy’, as well as starring in the first film signed by Walt Disney‘Steamboat Willie’, released the same year.
The character appeared after Walt Disney and the designer and animator Ub Iwerks lose the rights to the first big animated name from the century-old studio: Oswald, the Lucky Rabbit. The iconic figure now belongs to Universal Studios, led by the producer and distributor Charles Mintzwith whom they had entered into a partnership to create Oswald.
So, determined to create a new successful character, they kept the ‘Plane Crazy’ project secret and, as a result, Mickey was made in the garage of Waltas stated by the Disney portal, having Iwerks as designer of all scenes in the film. He did it, alone, in two weeks. So much so, that the designer brought to life 700 drawings a day!
Although Mickey Mouse’s creation story is widely known, do you know how the idea of using a mouse as the studio’s next character came about? The truth is that it all happened on a train!
Mickey Mouse came into my mind on a trip to Hollywood, at a time when my luck and that of my brother, Roy, were not good, and disaster seemed to be approaching,” Walt said in an interview shown in the documentary ‘Mickey: The Story of a Mouse’.
It was on this same train that Walt would have given the name Mickey, who at first was thought to be called ‘Mortimer Mouse’, but which, at a suggestion from Mickey’s wife, Walt, Lilliangained the name by which he is known throughout the world, as revealed in “Walt Disney’s Mickey Mouse, The Ultimate History”, by JB Kaufman It is David Gerstein.
Post-premiere
It is worth remembering that even though he appeared for the first time in ‘Plane Crazy’, many consider that Mickey Mouse’s official debut occurred in ‘Steamboat Willie’, a production in which the mouse gets lines for the first time. turn.
This is because the first film did not catch the attention of distributors, leading Walt to analyze the market and realize that ‘The Jazz Singer’, the first feature-length film with lines, had revolutionized cinema in 1927, making him reach a conclusion: synchronizing lines in an animation could result in the same effect!
In this way, ‘Steamer Willie’ became not only the first sound production by the mouse who wears gloves, but also the first audio cartoon in the United States.
To release our film, I hired a New York orchestra with a famous conductor to record it. I had to put up my car as collateral for a loan, and Roy and I mortgaged our houses to pay for Steam Willie’s sound system,” said Walt in the documentary ‘Mickey: The Story of a Mouse’.
The truth is that the investment was worth it. After all, Mickey Mouse became one of the studio’s icons, opening the door for hundreds of other productions launched over the last century.
Source: Recreio
