The Rise And Fall Of Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse

Mickey Mouse is an iconic cartoon character for people of all ages. The mouse has been adored since its creation in 1928 after appearing in countless movies, television shows, games, and toys. Mickey has not always been such a hit, however. The creators went through plenty of trial and error before perfecting their beloved Mickey Mouse. After some adjustments, criticism, and a great deal of hard work, thanks to Walt Disney, Mickey Mouse was created and his legacy continues still today. Walt Disney’s success began at a young age and carried on throughout the rest of his life. He was born in 1901 and began his work as a newspaper artist in 1919. He moved on to commercial animation by experimenting with hand-drawn cell animation. It was at this

The character’s title was originally Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. The character gained a lot of popularity and Universal took ownership of its rights. They hired away all of Disney’s employees and only wished Disney to stay for a lower salary. At this point, Disney declined and separated along with devoted animator Ub Iwerks to start development of their new character (Suddath). On the train ride to Hollywood, Disney altered the appearance of the rabbit and his ideas came to be the famous mouse, which is ironic considering Walt Disney’s known fear of mice (“Walt Disney Biography”). After fiddling with many ideas and names such as Mortimer, Mickey Mouse was created. Disney’s wife Lilly said, “I don’t think that would be good for a mouse’s name. Let’s call it Mickey.” From there, Mickey’s story began (Gluck). The creation of Mickey led to his big debut with the

Many people took stances in favor of the brilliantly used sound effects. Esther Leslie said in her discussion of modernism and animation, “The films demonstrate Disney’s accomplished sell-out of the quintessence of cartoons, their modernistic dissolution of conventional reality.” Disney’s use of space brings up further conversation with his current animation’s relationship with modernism. A critic, Leonard Maltin said that there was nothing special or different about the Mickey cartoons. It was speculated that they were too similar to the previous silent cartoons of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit (Telotte). Disney did not take the criticism personally as his cartoons’ popularity exploded around the world and continued to