It is often forgotten that Mickey Mouse, which brought an honorary Oscar to its creator, was created as a replacement for Oswald the Rabbit. Inexperienced Walt Disney lost his rights due to unfavorable contracts with the studio he previously worked for. Irritated by the sneaky tricks, he decided to continue working in his own name. So he came up with a contingency plan. Although almost the entire animation department left him after the loss of his flagship character, with a handful of faithful collaborators he created an alternative character – a mouse, which was initially supposed to be called Mortimer. However, Disney was saved from this by his wife, who explained to him that it was a rather unsympathetic and inflated name. So did Mickey.
The first Mickey Mouse animations were a flop
On May 15, 1928, the first viewers saw Mickey Mouse in action during a test screening of the short and silent animation “Plane Crazy”. It was also there that Minnie Mouse and Klarabella appeared for the first time. While the characters were unique, they had yet to take on a form that would be sufficiently appealing to viewers. The film was not a success, according to the IMDb website. Walt Disney was also unable to find a willing distributor.
History repeated itself in the case of the next production of “The Gallopin’ Gaucho” – again nobody wanted to become a distributor of a silent film. The fledgling Disney studio even stopped working on the project to focus on another animation. And this one turned out to be a breakthrough.
It was called “Steamboat Willie” and was a pioneering example in the world of animation using sound precisely synchronized with the movements of the characters on the screen. Because although it was not the first animation with sound, it was the first film in which the sound and the events on the screen did not diverge due to technical imperfections. Disney specifically looked for a suitable sound recording technique – it settled on the “click track” method, which helped to synchronize the soundtrack with the moving picture.
It is worth noting that the production of sound animation was a really risky move – subsequent productions did not bring any profit, most of the team fled to the competition, and there was no experience in creating sound animations. But Disney understood well after the screening of “The Jazz Singer” (the first sound film in the history of cinema) that it is thanks to the animated cartoon that it has a chance to achieve the desired success. Also, Walt Disney himself dubbed both Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse until 1946 – later replaced by Jimmy MacDonald. However, this was not a final parting, Disney voiced Mickey one more time – from 1955 to 1959 – for the “Mickey Mouse Club” program, which was broadcast by ABC.
Another thing is that in the very design of Mickey Mouse before the premiere of “Steamboat Willie” there were theoretically minor but significant changes. The most important of them was the simplification of the eye design – in the first animations, the eyes of the mouse had whites and black pupils. This time they have been simplified and reduced to black dots. This canon then remained in force for many years. The mouse literally gained colors and new features only in 1935 – then it was also colored in the animation “The Band Concert” – but the eyes were still black. This changed only in 1939 – the animator Fred Moore drew Mickey’s eyes with whites, introduced a color resembling human skin on the face and added a pear-shaped silhouette.
Subsequent changes were introduced gradually: the red shorts and tail were abandoned, a more realistic shape of the ears was introduced, and the anatomy of the body was changed. Nevertheless, the outline of this character’s head is still an iconic sign permanently associated with the history of the Disney studio – Micky will be 100 years old in 2028. And the first two Mickey Mouse animations also gained a soundtrack after some time and today they are an important part of the world’s pop culture.
Source: Gazeta
Bruce is a talented author and journalist with a passion for entertainment . He currently works as a writer at the 247 News Agency, where he has established himself as a respected voice in the industry.
