Mickey Mouse turns 80...

Mickey Mouse turns 80

The Walt Disney Company celebrates its Academy Award-winning comic animal cartoon character’s birth upon the release of “Steamboat Willie,” the first synchronized sound cartoon.




16.11.2008 19:47:21 UTC
The character of "Mickey Mouse" made his screen debut in the cartoon feature “Steamboat Willie” on November 18, 1928. Mickey Mouse, who was originally voiced by Walt Disney himself, has become a symbol for The Walt Disney Company.

Actually, the character was created by Walt Disney and Disney’s chief animator, Ub Iwerks and it was Iwerks, who drew the first “Mickey Mouse.” Disney's original name for the character was “Mortimer Mouse," but then his wife, Lillian convinced him to change it to “Mickey Mouse.”

On May 15, 1928, Mickey and his girlfriend Minnie Mouse debuted in the short cartoon “Plane Crazy,” and then the second short “The Gallopin' Gaucho” came. Other cartoon characters including Minnie Mouse, his dog Pluto, and his best friends, Goofy and Donald Duck improved his success all over the world.

In 1929, Disney created the original “Mickey Mouse Club” for fans of his character and cartoons.

In honor of his 50th anniversary, on November 18, 1978, “Mickey Mouse” became the first cartoon character to have a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Star of over 120 short cartoons, “Mickey Mouse” has become synonymous with the Disney brand and also become one of the most recognizable symbols in the world.

 

happy birthday mickey,,,,,,,thanks for the info

 

I remember when he turned 50. I wrote an article about Mickey's milestone for the school paper.

 

Sure hope I can make it to eighty ;D ;D

 

Story from TIME!! He's really getting the coverage!

http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0 ... 35,00.html

Brief History Of
Mickey Mouse
By Claire Suddath Tuesday, Nov. 18, 2008

Mickey Mouse turns 80 years old today, and there's not a gray hair on him. Sure, he's a little rounder, a little squatter, and he's been wearing the same clothes for decades, but all in all he looks pretty good. Sure, Mickey hasn't had a movie in two years (his last one went direct-to-video), but his cheerful face remains one of the most recognizable images in the world, even beating out Santa Claus. Disney threw a big party for the mouse's 75th birthday, so this year's festivities will be comparatively subdued. But TIME has been following the adorable mouse since the beginning, and 80 years is still a big number to us. (Read TIME's 1937 cover story on Walt Disney)


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Mickey's story, however, starts with a rabbit. Disney Brothers Studio was just another cog in Universal Pictures' animation machine when, in 1927, Walt Disney created a character called Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. With his round, white face, big button nose and floppy black ears, the smiling Oswald was an instant hit and Universal ordered a series of shorts. When Disney met with executives to negotiate another contract in 1928, the rabbit was still riding high and the animator thought he had the upper hand. Instead, the studio told him that it had hired away all of his employeees and retained the rights to Oswald. Univesral offered to keep Disney if he took a lower salary, but he refused. He and Ub Iwerks — the one loyal animator who stayed with Disney Bros. — returned to work and held a series of hair-pulling, late-night brainstorming sessions for Oswald's replacement. They shortened the ears, added some extra padding around the middle, and turned the rabbit into a mouse. Named Mortimer. The moniker didn't last; there are a number of tales attempting to explain how and why — the most popular being that Disney's wife hated the name and suggested its replacement — but soon he was ready for his debut as Mickey.

The first two Mickey shorts drew no attention, but then came Steamboat Willie, the first animation to feature synchronized music and sound effects, hit the screen. The film premiered in New York on Nov. 18, 1928 and was an instant hit. A series of Mickey Mouse shorts appeared within a matter of months — including Plane Crazy, a short that predated Steamboat Willie in which Mickey plays a rodent Charles Lindbergh. The mouse was a national fad by the end of the year, and it wasn't long before the real genius of Walt Disney kicked in: marketing. Walt quickly started up a line of Mickey merchandise, and within two years the Mickey Mouse Club, a fan club for children, was up and running.

In 1935, a young animator named Fred Moore gave Mickey his first makeover. Earlier animators had drawn the mouse as a series of circles, which limited his movement. Moore — who later animated Fantasia's Sorcerer's Apprentice segment — gave him a pear-shaped body, pupils, white gloves and a shortened nose, to make him cuter. Mickey also appeared in color for the first time that year; The Band Concert's use of Technicolor was so innovative that critics still consider it to be a masterpiece. (Click here for a list of the All-TIME 100 Movies)

By 1937, Disney Studios was producing about 12 Mickey shorts a year, with Disney himself providing the mouse's high-pitched voice. Mickey became a football hero, a hunter, a tailor, and a symphony conductor. He accidentally sprayed himself with insecticide, rescued Pluto from the dogcatcher, crashed a car into a barn, fell behind on his rent, enlisted in the army, had his house repossessed, and lost Minnie to an innumerable string of muscular bad boys (although he always won her back in the end). The cartoons' vaudevillian overtones made liberal use of slapstick and puns, and Mickey's close association with children required that he always remain upstanding and moral (leaving the cantankerous Donald Duck to get into all the trouble).

By the 1950s, Mickey had theme park, a newspaper comic strip, and The Mickey Mouse Club, the hit television variety show that has launched the careers of teen stars from Annette Funicello to Justin Timberlake. But soon Disney feature films like Bambi and Sleeping Beauty began to rake in the accolades — and box office receipts — the mouse faded into the background. Between his last 1953 cartoon short, The Simple Things, and the 1983 Christmas special Mickey's Christmas Carol, the mouse that built the house of Disney would remain out of work for 30 years.

Yet despite Mickey's semi-retirement, his ears are still one of the most famous cultural icons of the 20th and 21st centuries. He has posed for photographs with every U.S. President since Harry Truman, save one (Lyndon Johnson never visited a Disney theme park). Disney claims that Mickey had a 98% awareness rate among children between ages 3-11 worldwide. Mouse-related merchandise sales have declined from their 1997 high, but they still make up about 40% of the company's consumer products revenue. Mickey returned to the big screen for a cameo in 1988's Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Warner Brothers' Bugs Bunny was also in the film and the two companies demanded that each character receive the same amount of screen time, down to the very last second. A semi-secret 2001 image revamp put Mickey's logo in trendy places: on celebrities, in a Sex and the City episode — he was printed on a t-shirt and stretched across Sarah Jessica Parker's chest — as well as in high-end boutiques. In 2002, he appeared in the PlayStation2 video game Kingdom Hearts. And in 2006, he became 3-D for the very first time. Now you can see him on Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, an early morning Disney Channel show designed for children ages 2-6. Or you can book a flight to Disney World and shake his oversized glove yourself.

 

Mickey Milestones - there's more coverage everywhere you look today

Mickey Milestones

http://www.kansascity.com/238/story/891167.html


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Mickey Milestones
•Nov. 18, 1928: Mickey Mouse debuts in “Steamboat Willie” at the Colony Theater in New York. Directed by Walt Disney, the film is the first cartoon to have synchronized sound. The soundtrack was recorded with a 15-piece band, and Disney provided Mickey’s voice.

•1929: For the first time, Mickey appears with gloves in “The Opry House.”

•1930: The Mickey Mouse comic strip debuts in newspapers. It was written by Disney and illustrated by Ub Iwerks.

•1932: Walt Disney receives a special Academy Award for creating Mickey Mouse.

•1933: The first Mickey Mouse watch is sold for $3.25. A Mickey pocket watch was also available for $1.50.

•1935: “The Band Concert” is Mickey’s first color cartoon. In the film Mickey is a band leader who must deal with a rebellious flute player — Donald Duck.

•1939: Mickey is redesigned for the cartoon “The Pointer.” For the first time, his eyes have pupils and his body is more pear-shaped.

•1940: Mickey makes his first feature film as the sorcerer’s apprentice in “Fantasia.”

•1955: The TV series “The Mickey Mouse Club” airs on ABC and becomes one of the most popular children’s shows of all time. The young cast of “Mouseketeers” includes actress Annette Funicello.

•1970s: American Telephone Corp. chooses Mickey as the star of its first character phone.

•1978: Mickey celebrates his 50th birthday with a TV special.

•1983: In “Mickey’s Christmas Carol,” Mickey returns to cartoons after a 30-year break. This retelling of Charles Dickens’ classic casts Mickey as Bob Cratchit.

•1995: Mickey’s theatrical short, “Runaway Brain,” is released and is nominated for an Academy Award.

•2002: Mickey plays a prominent role in “Kingdom Hearts,” a best-selling video game for PlayStation 2 that combines Disney characters with characters from the popular “Final Fantasy” role-playing game.

•2006: Playhouse Disney introduces the show “Mickey Mouse Clubhouse,” which takes kids along on problem-solving adventures with Mickey and friends like Minnie, Donald, Daisy, Goofy and Pluto.




| From staff and wire reports

 

The Manchester Guardian has a look back over Mickey's 80 years. ;
80 pictures not all positive about our favorite mouse.
Image #66 may be considered NSFW.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/gallery/ ... =339648766

 

nice article, though

 

oops - meant nice collection - albeit bizarre in places... certainly, the one you noted, but also the ones of soldiers in front of daycare, etc. - very jarring.