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Mickey Mouse has become one of the most recognized characters in the world. Mickey Mouse was created in 1928 by Walt Disney. Mickey was originally made out of desperation for a new cartoon character after Walt Disney discovered he had no rights to a character called “Oswald the Lucky Rabbit”. Mickey was primarily named Mortimer, but Walt’s wife Lillian decided it was too pompous. So Mortimer became Mickey and was headed for stardom at first site. Walt Disney provided the voice of Mickey from 1928 until 1946, when he became to busy to continue. Walt then assigned the sound effects man, Jim MacDonald, to take over. Since 1983, Wayne Allwine, MacDonald’s former apprentice, voiced Mickey. |
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Mickey made his first appearances in comics and animated silent cartoons. Later, he also appeared in short, silent movies. Over the years, he worked his way up to full-length, colored films with sound and music. His first silent, black-and-white cartoon was titled “Plane Crazy”. But before the movie was released, sound came out on the movie screen. Mickey’s next film, “Steamboat Willie”, was released on November 18, 1928, and was meant to be a parody of Buster Keaton’s “Steamboat Bill Jr.”, which was released on May 12 of the same year. Some consider “Steamboat Willie” as Mickey’s true debut, and was recorded in history as the first animated film ever to feature a synchronized sound, music, and dialogue track. Mickey’s golden age is considered to be the thirties, where he starred in 87 cartoon shorts playing anything from a fireman to a giant killer, a cowboy to an inventor, a detective to a plumber. |
| Over the years, Mickey has been joined by various friends such as Pluto, Minnie Mouse, Goofy, and Donald Duck. Mickey’s peak during his golden age is said to be his starring role in the major artistic innovation, Fantasia, as the Sorcerer’s Apprentice in the year 1940. |
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Pluto was first introduced in the 1930 film, “The Chain Gang” as one of the bloodhounds who try to sniff out a prison escapee (who is played by Mickey). In Pluto’s next movie, he was Minnie’s dog, not Mickey’s, and was named Rover. But after that, he was dubbed Pluto and became Mickey’s beloved dog and faithful friend. |
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Right from the beginning, Mickey had a romantic counterpart: Minnie Mouse. Although Mickey and Minnie were in love, they never got married. Minnie played mostly traditional female roles, characters such as princesses and damsels in distress that needed saving. Of course, anybody can guess, Mickey always managed to rescue her in the nick of time! |
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Even though Goofy has been through numerous character changes, he continues to have the public’s love and affection as the foolish dog who can’t seem to do anything right. Goofy’s debut was as annoying and noisy audience member in “Mickey’s Revue” in 1932. Originally, he was to be called Dippy Dawg or Dippy the Goof. But his hiccupping laugh headed him straight to stardom as one of Mickey’s pals, Goofy. Goofy also has a son named Max who is always trying to get away from his crazy dad. |
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Donald Duck started out as just a character in a 1934 film, “The Wise Little Hen”. Most of the other characters faded from the spotlight shortly after, but Donald Duck wouldn’t give up without a fight. He became Disney’s most loud-mouthed, argumentative, incoherent, and unlucky character. Donald is constantly surrounded by life’s frustrations and confusions, but he never gives up or goes quietly. Almost always Donald meets his match in battles, and it seems the smaller the opponent, the bigger his downfall is. Some of his most well-known enemies are the chipmunks Chip ‘n’ Dale and Peg-Leg Pete. He also has three triplets for nephews, Huey, Dewey, and Louie, who are always stirring up trouble. But no matter how bad life can get, Donald can count on his sweet and charming- though hot-tempered at times- girlfriend Daisy to cheer him up. |
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