As someone who grew up in a Disneyphile household, it’s a pretty special day: Mickey Mouse’s birthday. At least, it’s the day Disney considers to be the day Mickey was born, since it’s the anniversary of the cartoon Steamboat Willie. To honor the little rodent (I say that with love), here are a few facts you may not have known about the Mickster.
1. If Disney was really being accurate, they would consider Mickey’s birthday May 15. That’s the day his first cartoon, Plane Crazy, was released. Plane Crazy didn’t really connect with audiences the way Steamboat did, though, nor did it feature synchronized sound.
2. If things had gone a little differently, the mascot of the Disney company would have been Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. Oswald was created by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks for Universal. He was a pretty popular character, so when Disney and Universal had a spat, Universal seized control of the rabbit. Disney left shortly thereafter and ended up creating Mickey Mouse. You can see the resemblance in the early Oswald poster. Universal later had the rabbit redesigned. There’s been some talk about bringing Oswald back to Disney as of late – in February 2006, they acquired his rights again. Oddly enough, this involved Al Michaels. Here’s the story: when the Disney/ABC deal was signed, Michaels wanted out of his ABC contract to join John Madden at NBC to do Sunday Night Football. Since NBC wanted Michaels, Universal – which owns NBC – said they would return Oswald to Disney in exchange for the sportscaster. It almost sounds like hostage negotiations.
3. Despite what Disney might tell you, Minnie and Mickey are actually married. OK, the cartoon characters aren’t married, but their real-life counterparts were: the people who voiced Minnie and Mickey were a couple in reality. Wayne Allwine was the third person to give Mickey a voice and did so from 1977 until his death in earlier this year. The last Disney product he worked on was the Nintendo DS game Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days. Allwine married Russi Taylor, the current voice of Minnie Mouse, in 1991. She has been Minnie’s voice since 1986 (and was also the voice of Huey, Dewey, Louie and Webby, for fellow DuckTales fans).
4. Mickey hasn’t always been so politically correct. Some earlier cartoons have been edited or completely shelved because of content that wouldn’t exactly go over with the public these days. One is the previously mentioned Steamboat Willie – there’s a scene that involves what would be considered animal cruelty today when Mickey swings a cat around by its tail and using a goose as bagpipes. Then there’s Mickey’s Mellerdrammer, a 1933 short that has Mickey and co. doing Uncle Tom’s Cabin, with Mickey decked out in blackface. Yeah… you don’t really see that one playing when they run classic cartoons these days.
5. He may not have been on the front lines, but Mickey played his own small part during WWII. Intelligence officers used “Mickey Mouse” as a password amongst themselves.
6. Can you imagine “The Mortimer Mouse Club”? Doesn’t really have the best ring to it, does it? We have Walt’s wife Lillian to thank for the mouse’s moniker – when Walt named his new character Mortimer, she told him she thought it sounded pompous and suggested the more kid-friendly “Mickey.”
7. Supposedly, the reason Mickey and his cartoon cohorts wear those white gloves is simple: it’s to distinguish their hands when they were against their bodies.
8. You may have heard that Mickey Mouse is merely copyrighted, which would allow the character to eventually go into the public domain. The Disney lawyers are all over that, of course – Mickey has also been trademarked, which means even when the copyright runs out, he’s a protected class, so to speak, as long as the Disney company continues to use him. And I don’t foresee them exterminating the Mouse any time soon, do you?
9. We know Mickey as a wholesome, lovable little guy with only the best intentions… but that could be changing next year. Disney is working on “Epic Mickey,” a Wii game that would make him a little less nice and a lot more deceptive and “naughty,” says the game’s designer, Warren Spector. “Mickey is never going to be evil or go around killing people,” he said, but, “I wanted him to be able to be naughty — when you’re playing as Mickey you can misbehave and even be a little selfish.” And you know what else? Be prepared to see a “disemboweled” Donald Duck, a “twisted, broken, dangerous” version of “It’s a Small World” (isn’t it already a little twisted?) and the return of our old buddy Oswald the Rabbit. Interesting, no?
10. It’s not just here in the States that Mickey is often a popular write-in vote for various elections – he’s often a candidate for office around the world. In Sweden, though, it’s Donald Duck (AKA Kalle Anka) who is more likely to get voted in. “The Donald Duck Party” is what people write in when they either don’t care or don’t care for any of the candidates. In fact, in 2006, “The Donald Duck Party” came in 21st place out of the 40 represented parties running for office.
Have any Mickey trivia to share? Or maybe you just want to geek out about Epic Mickey (I do). As always, the comments are open!
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Disney reacquired the rights to Oswald the Lucky Rabbit specifically so the character could appear in a video game set to debut next year: Epic Mickey for the Nintendo Wii.
posted by Aaron on 11-18-2009 at 3:54 pm
Disney is creating a new video game that is all about Mickey and Oswald the Rabbit. It plays up the fact that Oswald is jealous of his “little brother” and all he wants is approval from his “dad” Walt. It’s supposed to take Mickey back to his mischievous roots. It looks fascinating. And they did trade Oswald for Al Michaels.
posted by Nathan on 11-18-2009 at 4:06 pm
Next time I’ll read the whole article before I comment
posted by Nathan on 11-18-2009 at 4:10 pm
Nice article, Stacy.
I’m a former Disney cast member. Have always been a huge Walt fan. I listen to themepark background music while I work. I’m looking forward to “Epic Mickey.”
I’m happy fly my geek flag with you, Stacy.
Paul
posted by Paul (from Idea Sandbox) on 11-18-2009 at 5:22 pm
The story also goes that Walt Disney’s wife had a fondness for Mickey Rooney, and that’s where the suggestion of “Mickey” came from.
Interestingly, Mortimer Mouse is Mickey’s nemesis in later cartoons.
posted by Rebecca on 11-18-2009 at 7:02 pm
well its not necessarily about mickey, but the disneyland resort, and walt disney world both get there Coca-cola for free, in exchange for advertisement around the parks, and the ability to be the only drinks sold there.
posted by Ian on 11-18-2009 at 7:23 pm
A few years ago, the company decided to stop celebrating ‘brithdays’ of the characters. Mickey should be timeless, not aged. Today represent Mickey’s film debut, in the eyes of the company anyway.
posted by Chris on 11-18-2009 at 8:42 pm
Mickey Mouse is the officially mascot for J. W. Hallahan’s Girls Catholic High School in Philadelphia!
posted by Chuck on 11-18-2009 at 8:58 pm
Mickey Mouse’s ears always face forward, regardless of which way Mickey is facing.
posted by Kimmy on 11-18-2009 at 9:35 pm
Along the lines of the blackface issue: It’s always bothered me that he has a caucasian face.
posted by itchybrain on 11-18-2009 at 11:36 pm
Mickey had a hand in the postal address for the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim.
The land was all unincorporated orange groves when Walt bought it, and the US Post Office said he could have any address he wanted. So it became 1313 S. Harbor Blvd, code for Mickey’s initials. (M being the 13th letter, it becomes MM)
posted by Matthew on 11-19-2009 at 12:12 am
So many wonderful things happened on May 15: Mickey Mouse “official bday”, founding of Las Vegas, my bday ;-D
posted by Sarah in CA on 11-19-2009 at 12:21 am
The main reason I enjoy a trip to Disneyland nowadays is to search for “Hidden Mickeys”. All park attractions have images of Mickey (or the “three circle” Mickey symbol) hidden in the decor. The wallpaper in the Haunted Mansion is based on the three circle silhouette, for example. There’s also supposed to be a Mickey skeleton in one of the rooms on the Indiana Jones ride, but I’ve never seen it. You can get a book showing where they all are in some of the stores on Main Street, but that’s hardly sporting, is it?
posted by Joe Maz on 11-19-2009 at 12:26 am
I LOVE searching for hidden Mickeys! It gives a whole new element of fun to walking around the park.
posted by Brian on 11-19-2009 at 7:25 am
About the “caucasian face”, I’m pretty sure that has to do with animation of the time (just like the glove thing). If he was a fully black mouse, it would be hard to animate the face since refined shading would be hard to render in the gray scale medium of the time.
posted by Jess on 11-19-2009 at 9:13 am
It was surprising but I knew about the Epic Mickey!
posted by Gayathri on 11-19-2009 at 10:19 am
Doesn’t Russi Taylor also do voices for the Simpsons? I believe she plays (or used to anyways) a bunch of the kids in Bart and Lisa’s classes.
posted by Bert on 11-19-2009 at 10:42 am
Russi Taylor is an incredibly talented voice actress! She has voiced Martin Prince, Sherri and Terri, Uter, and Wendell in The Simpsons, as well as many, many other characters in other productions that are too numerous to list.
posted by Kie on 11-19-2009 at 12:58 pm
It’s interesting that “hidden Mickey’s” started because Disney didn’t want Mickey showing up in Epcot. They thought it needed to be separate from the Magic Kingdom.
Disney’s Imagineers had other ideas and “hid” old Mick in the new park.
posted by Carl on 11-19-2009 at 8:26 pm
Walt Disney himself was the original high-pitched voice of Mickey Mouse. While auditioning actors for the not- yet-famous Mouse’s voice for the Steamboat Willie cartoon, he was showing one what he wanted it to sound like…he liked it so well he decided to do it himself.
posted by Marku on 11-20-2009 at 12:09 am
Great post ! Steamboat Willie was actually Mickey’s third cartoon. The first was the previously mentioned Plane Crazy, and the second was made shortly after and called Gallopin’ Gaucho. Steamboat Willie is most remembered of course because of the sound aspect. It debuted at the Colony Theater in New York on Nov 18,1928.
Incidentally, the name Mortimer didn’t completely disappear. It resurfaced much later as “Morty” , the name of Mickey’s nephew.
posted by Marku on 11-20-2009 at 12:21 am
If the voice of Mickey is dead right after 358/2 days, why didn’t anybody say anything?! Someone should have told KH fans! Or Mickey Mouse fans!
posted by Nino on 11-21-2009 at 10:15 am
Don’t Change Mickey!!!!!!!!!Too much in our world is changing for the worst as it is!! Children “need” to know their favorites will always be the way they remembered, fun and full of love! Mr. Warren Spector needs to remember the majic of Disney and it’s characters before he ruins what’s left of our good childhood memories!!Does this man have children, or does he think more of the growth of his wallet than that of “all” childrens beliefs? So Sad Indeed!!
posted by Sheila on 11-21-2009 at 1:05 pm
I did read another entirely different reason for the white gloves thing: it seems that they came up with that because it’s way easier and faster to put a lonely glove on top of a arm stump than animate a hand with its wrist.
posted by stygyan on 11-22-2009 at 7:03 pm
Ilove Mickey Mouse, I am a Disney Nut.
So all of the trivia posted here I know about. A word to Sheila. Sheila, Mickey is only changing in the Video game. Acording to what I have read about this, The people at Disney have assured everybody as far as things go in the parks, and any upcoming movies,and DVDs, Mickey will stay the Sweet, Kind, Loving mouse we all know and love.
posted by Treena Saka on 11-27-2009 at 11:43 pm
I love Mickey Mouse!!I am the number 1 fan!! I grew up watching him as a kid!!
<3
posted by Kiki Williams on 11-28-2009 at 2:48 pm
Ahahaha That made my Day! (even though I have known about epic mickey for a while now) My Dad says when I was little I never liked the princesses that much. I always wanted to wear the mouse ears :)
posted by Andersam on 3-11-2010 at 11:52 am
DONALD’S NEPHEWS (Kurzbesuch bei Onkel Donald)
GOOD SCOUTS (Tick, Trick und Track, die tüchtigen Pfadfinder)
DONALD’S GOLF GAME (Donald spielt Golf)
THE HOCKEY CHAMP (Der Eishockey-Champion)
SEA SCOUTS (Donald auf grosser Fahrt)
MR. DUCK STEPS OUT (Das Tänzchen mit Daisy)
FIRE CHIEF (Feueralarm!)
THE NIFTY NINETIES (Die schmucken Neunziger)
TRUANT OFFICER DONALD (Donald und die Schulschwänzer)
DONALD’S SNOW FIGHT (Donalds Schneeballschlacht)
HOME DEFENSE (Donald findet keine Ruhe)
DONALD DUCK AND THE GORILLA (Donald und der Gorilla)
DONALD’S OFF DAY (Donalds freier Tag)
DONALD’S CRIME (Donalds Verbrechen)
STRAIGHT SHOOTERS (Tick, Trick und Track, die Meisterschützen)
SOUP’S ON (Donald bittet zu Tisch)
DONALD’S HAPPY BIRTHDAY (Donalds Geburtstag)
LION AROUND (Vorsicht Löwe!)
LUCKY NUMBER (Donald im Glück)
TRICK OR TREAT (Donald, Geister und Gespenster)
DON’S FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH (Donalds Jungbrunnen)
CANVAS BACK DUCK (Donald auf dem Rummelplatz)
SPARE THE ROD (Erziehung leicht gemacht)
DONALD’S DIARY (Donalds Tagebuch)
posted by Klaus Disney on 11-12-2010 at 4:49 am