The History and Life of Mickey Mouse

1197 Words3 Pages

What many people don’t know is that Mickey Mouse wasn’t always a good influence to not only children but to many others also. Over the years Mickey Mouse has evolved into an icon that is worthy of children’s attention and their parents’ money. Through the use of movies, television shows, video games, theme parks and merchandise Mickey Mouse affects most children’s lives every day even if it isn’t noticeable. Mickey Mouse has also given rise to many big movie productions and sales. While being educational Mickey Mouse also entertains children and teaches them a lesson that children enjoy and find fun. Not only does Mickey Mouse have educational purposes he also tries to form a Utopia environment for all families that use and watch Mickey’s products.

Mickey Mouse wasn’t always known as good and wasn’t always a mouse. Before Mickey there was Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, also created by Walt Disney, who would get into all kinds of trouble no matter how hard he tried and would always remain somewhat happy (Borak). Although Walt was happy and proud of Oswald he realized that he did not own all of the rights of Oswald and Walt did not like the thought of not officially owning the character that he had created so Walt moved on leaving Oswald in the dust (Borak). That was when Walt decided to create his own character and try to use it to get big again and this is where Mickey Mouse came into play. Thinking of the field mouse he befriended in one of his former studios in Kansas City Walt drew a cartoony version of the rodent making him look very much like Oswald and called him “Mickey Mouse” never realizing how much of an impact he would have on the American society (Borak). This was the end of Oswald and the beginning of Mickey and a...

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...funner and more upbeat mouse that anybody couldn't help but love. With the use of video games and theme parks Mickey will remain a pop culture icon for many generations. Like Walt wanted everyone to remember “It all started with a mouse.”

Works Cited

Conner, Micheal. “The Old Mouse.” The Austin Chronicle. May 10, 2002. Website. April 20, 2014.

Kapica, Jack. “Copyright and the Mouse: How Disney’s Mickey Mouse Changed the World.” Digital Journal. October 6, 2004. Journal. April 20, 2014.

Borak, Jamiesan. “A Mickey Mouse Essay: From a Lucky Rabbit to Multi-Billion Dollar Mouse.” Remotely Interesting. June 15, 2011. Website. April 20, 2014.

“Mickey Mouse Serves as an American Icon.” MM Pop Culture. 2009. Website. April 20, 2014.

“ Mickey Mouse Celebrates 75 Years as Pop Culture Icon, Entertainer & Friend.” PR Newswire. 2013. Website. April 16, 2014.

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