MICKEY MOUSE HISTORY AND A LITTLE ABOUT MINNIE MOUSE HISTORY The world renowned Walt Disney is the creator of Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse, as well as the founder of Disneyland and Walt Disney World. Mickey Mouse receives credit for launching Walt Disney’s career in 1928 and is the official greeter of Disneyland and Walt Disney World. As Walt Disney once said, “ I hope that we never lose site of one thing: that it was all started by a Mouse.” Walt Elias Disney was born in Chicago, IL in 1901. Disney’s early years were spent on a farm in Missouri. He began drawing at an early age and sold his first sketches to neighbors at the age of seven. In high school, his drawing and photography skills were used for the school paper. At night he attended the Chicago Institute of Art. Disney began his career as an advertising cartoonist in Kansas City in 1920. Back then, cartoon making was in its infancy and films were jerky, and in black and white. Disney wanted to improve upon the methods, so he read books to learn how leading New York animators worked. Shortly afterwards, he quit his job, formed a company called Laugh-O-gram and started making his own animated cartoons. When Disney’s main client declared bankruptcy, Disney was unable to pay his employees or the rent. In fact, he barely had enough money to feed himself and was forced to also declare bankruptcy. In 1923, Walt Disney arrived in Hollywood with $40 in his pocket and a sketchbook. Walt Disney convinced his brother, Roy Disney, to join him as a partner in his new business. Roy’s job was to manage the financial side of the business and Walt’s job was to provide the creative talent. The Disney Brothers Studio was launched with $200 Roy had saved, $500 borrowed from an uncle, and $2,500 contributed by their parents. Their parents even had to mortgage their house to come up with the funds! A New York film distributor by the name of M.J. Winkler, bought Disney’s early cartoons, which were the original versions of “Alice in Wonderland”. When the demand waned for the Alice series, Walt created a new character, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. As Oswald’s popularity grew, Walt decided to negotiate a higher price for the contract. Unbeknownst to Walt, Charlie Mintz (M.J. Winkler’s husband) had recruited most of Walt’s staff by offering them more money and creative freedom. Walt also did not know that Charlie Mintz and Universal Pictures owned the legal rights to Oswald. Mintz demanded that Walt Disney give up his business and go to work for him, but Walt refused. It was on this train ride back to Los Angeles from New York City that Walt Disney created Mickey Mouse. He knew he had to come up with a new character and created a mouse. (It is interesting to note that this mouse looked quite similar to Oswald the Rabbit. The main differences being Mickey Mouse had short round ears instead of long bunny ears, a longer nose, a long skinny mouse tail instead of a bunny tail, and skinnier legs and arms. The face, eyes, mouth and hairline were very similar.) Walt wanted to name the mouse character “Mortimer”, but his wife, Lilly, didn’t like that name and suggested “Mickey Mouse”. Mickey Mouse made his debut to the general public in a film named “Steamboat Willie” on November 19, 1928, at the Colony Theatre in New York. This film also featured the first appearance of Minnie Mouse, as well as the world’s first use of fully synchronized sound in cartoons. Mickey and Minnie were instant hits. In fact, Mickey Mouse was so popular that over a million children joined the original Mickey Mouse Club between 1929 and 1932. The “Mickey Mouse Club” later became a popular children’s television series that aired on ABC from 1955 to 1959. The show featured talented kids called Mouseketeers who sang, danced, performed skits, and introduced special guests and Disney cartoons. Other interesting Mickey Mouse historical tidbits: The original voice of Mickey Mouse was Walt Disney. The first Mickey Mouse comic strips were drawn by Ub Iweks and published in 1930. A special Academy Award was given to Walt Disney for the creation of Mickey Mouse in 1932. The first Mickey Mouse cartoon in color was “The Band Concert” in 1935. The League of Nations awarded Walt Disney a medal for the creation of Mickey Mouse in 1935. The League of Nations presented Walt Disney with a special medal in 1935, in recognition of the fact that Mickey Mouse was “a symbol of universal goodwill.” Mickey Mouse’s favorite sayings were “Oh boy!”, “That sure is swell!”, “Gosh!”, “Aw, gee”, and “See ya soon!”. Some famous quotes of Walt Disney on Mickey Mouse: “Mickey Mouse, to me, is a symbol of independence. He was the means to an end. He popped out of my mind onto a drawing pad 20 years ago on a train ride from Manhattan to Hollywood at a time when business fortunes of my brother Roy and myself were at a lowest ebb, and disaster seemed right around the corner. Born of necessity, the little fellow literally freed us of immediate worry. He provided the means for expanding our organization to its present dimensions and for extending the medium of cartoon animation toward new entertainment levels. He spelled production liberation for us.” “All we ever intended for him, or expected of him, was that he should continue to make people everywhere chuckle with him and at him. We didn’t burden him with any social symbolism, we made him no mouth piece for frustrations or harsh satire. Mickey was simply a little personality assigned to the purposes of laughter.” Mickey Mouse is now a symbol of laughter and joy throughout the world. He is also one of the most well known, well loved characters of all times. We are all thankful to Walt Disney, America’s folk hero of the 20th century, for Mickey Mouse and all that Mickey represents. | ||||||||||||||||||
Disney Tidbits **** ALWAYS UNDER CONSTRUCTION !! UPDATED *Sunday, April 3, 2005 MOVIE RELEASE UPDATES : Cars: Disney/Pixar - 2005 TO DVD 2005: Future Releases~ *Disney's POCAHONTAS: April, 2005 *Disney's Lilo and Stitch 2: Stitch Has a Glitch: Augest, 2005 *Disney's CINDERELLA October - Disney DVD Platinum Series. Release Date: Fall 2005.** **All Dates are Subject to Change** -------------------------------------------------- THE PROCESS OF ANIMATION 1. A storyboard is made, all the animators and directors come together to discuss the entire film. 2. The storyboards are presented as the story 3. Once the story is laid out, the dialogue is recorded. This is done before animation, so the animators know what the characters will say. 4. After the dialogue is recorded, the animators can make rough sketches of just the characters. Usually these drawings are quite messy, there is still no color, or background. Some animated films have used over 50,000 individual drawings. At most animation studios, the best animators only sketched a few animation drawings, leaving gaps in between. Later on, a person called an "inbetweener" would finish the scenes, by drawing in between the areas that the animator had left. 5. Once the entire film has been drawn on paper, the animation drawings go to the inking department. There, the inkers copy the animation drawings on to a clear celluloid acetate, sometimes called a Cel. 6. After the outline of the characters has been made, the unfinished Cel's go to the Painting Department. The painters flip the Cel over, and paint the colors on the back. They paint on the back so the characters appear crisp, and have an outline. 7. Before the Animation Cels get photographed a background must be added. Because a Cel is clear, and it only has the painted character on it, if a background is made, it will show through. Usually backgrounds are painted with Tempera or Water Color paint. Although, in some Disney productions, the background was painted on glass, and combined with other glass painted backgrounds to create the illusion of extreme movement. (This technique is use in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.) 8. Now all the combined elements (the Cel and the background) can be photographed. Although, the final product is not filmed with a normal projector, or camera. A special device, with a lens mounted facing down on to a <a href="table%20top" onmouseover="window.stat us='table top'; return true;" onmouseout="window.statu s=''; return true;">table top</a> captures each frame of the animated feature. Usually, the background is placed into a special mount, then covered with the Cel, then covered with a large piece of glass, then photographed. 9. After all the drawings have been filmed, the dialogue is added. Sometimes the film is edited at this step. 10. The animated film is released, and the general public may view it. | ||||||||||||||||||
CHEAT SHEET : THIS WEB PAGE WILL BE ALWAYS UNDER CONSTRUCTION :) This WEB PAGE is for the people who want or SPECIFICALLY NEED certain LINKS to my ENTIRE Walt Disney WEBSITE. Along with a few OFFICIAL links for you to explore too. Feel free to explore my pages, and IM or Email me if you have a chance. Please SIGN MY guest books in the EXPAGE portions of my site ! Other than that, HAPPY SURFING ! -------------------------------------------------- Jiminy Cricket's Yellow Brick Road To Oz 100 Years of Mickey Mouse, Behind the Scenes of Animated Features & Beyond GLITTER AND GOLD: All About Me | ||||||||||||||||||
This is a little part of Minnie story. 
Minnie
Minnie s movies.
Minnie Mouse was in her first movie 1928 in Steamboat Willie with her boyfriend Mickey mouse. The second movie same year was Plane crazy then Minnie was the star. Then comes Klond**e kid 1932, Shan shark 1934, Hawaii holiday 1937, Mickey’s nightmare 1932, the big bath day 1946, Mickey’s surprise party 1939.
Minnie s popularity.
Minnie has always been very popular even if Mickey often is pupils favourite mouse. In the 1986 Totally Minnie started .The shows made Minnie very popular. Totally Minnie was a show with Minnie mouse and different stars who she sign with. Stars like Britney Speers, Elton John , Phil Collins and many more. The most popular was when Minnie sings with Elton John in Don’t you breaking my heart. Totally Minnie ends in the end of 1990. But Minnie is still Disney’s most popular girl. In the 1990 also Minnie and me comes.
The voice behind Minnie.
The voice have makes of many but Minnie s first voice made Walt Disney himself in Steam boat Willie. Minnie doesn’t talked at a long time. Just in the team park when also a man did Minnie s voice. The wonderfully Jack Wagner and the amazing women Bernett Ricci who was the one behind Fantasymic. None knows that Minnie really talks in Mickey s Christmas carol . So they decided to give her voice life with Totally Minnie. Then they had a competition with 160 pupils who wanted Minnie’s voice . The winner was Russi Taylor. Russi Taylor had Minnie’s voice in Totally Minnie and She still have Minnie’s voice.
Minnie and Mickey.
Minnie and Mickey has been a couple from the start. Actually they married once but it shows it was in Mickey’s nightmare 1932. They say none love each other so much as they do.
Minnie mouse.
Minnie mouse always care about everyone. She’s both The pupils and the animals friend. She lives in Toomtown outside Duck burg. She’s best friends are Clarabelle and Daisy duck . Minnie also care much about fashion and cloths . Minnie’s favourite colours is red and pink. Minnie has often dots cloths to. Minnie’s biggest dream is to dance Tango one hole night with a movie star. Minnie also love children and she love to bake sweets and even food. Minnie also love adventure but in some movies as The olden days and the three musketeers when she is a princess she show how really girly she is. Minnie is adorable and more sweet then 100,000000 bottles of sugar.
/ Camilla
Minerva "Minnie" Mouse is a fictional character of the Mickey Mouse universe featured in animated cartoons, comic strips and comic book by The Walt Disney Company. The comic strip story "The Gleam" (published January 19-May 2, 1942) by Merrill De Maris and Floyd Gottfredson first gave her full name as Minerva Mouse. Minerva has since been a recurring alias for her.
The comic strip story "Mr. Slicker and the Egg Robbers" (published September 22–December 26, 1930) introduced her father Marcus Mouse and her unnamed mother, both farmers. The same story featured photographs of her grandparents Marshall Mouse and Matilda Mouse. Her best known relatives however remains her uncle Mortimer Mouse and her twin nieces, Millie and Melody, though most often a single niece, Melody, appears. In many appearances, Minnie is presented as a close friend of Daisy Duck, and occasionally to Clarabelle Cow.
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In 1928, Walt Disney created Mickey Mouse to act as a replacement to his previous star Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. But Mickey could not fill the void alone. Among the few consistent character traits Oswald had developed before moving on to Universal Studios was his near-constant pursuit of potential sweethearts. So for Mickey to have a chance to emulate his predecessor at flirting, someone had to replace Oswald's many love interests. This replacement to Miss Rabbit, Miss Cottontail, Fanny and an uncertain number of unnamed nurses and dancers was to become Minnie Mouse.
Minnie, who at the time was not yet named, was designed in the fashion of a "flapper" girl. She was so probably intended to follow the trends of then-modern youth culture in an effort to add to her audience appeal.
Mickey and Minnie debuted together in Plane Crazy, first released on May 15, 1928. Minnie is invited to join Mickey in the first flight of his aircraft. She accepts the invitation but not his request for a kiss in mid-flight. Mickey eventually forces Minnie into a kiss but this only results in her parachuting out of the plane. This first film depicted Minnie as somewhat resistant to the demanding affection of her potential boyfriend and capable of escaping his grasp.
Their debut however featured the couple already familiar to each other. The next film featuring them was The Gallopin' Gaucho. The film was the second of their series to be produced, but the third to be released, and was released on December 30, 1928. We find Minnie employed as the barmaid and dancer of Cantina Argentina, a bar and restaurant established in the Pampas of Argentina. She performs the Tango for Mickey the gaucho and Black Pete the outlaw. Both flirt with her but the latter intends to abduct her while the former obliges in saving the Damsel in Distress from the villain. All three characters acted as strangers first being introduced to each other.
They appear together again in Steamboat Willie, the third short of the series to be produced but released second on November 18, 1928. Pete was featured as the Captain of the steamboat, Mickey as a crew of one and Minnie as their single passenger. The two anthropomorphic mice first star in a sound film and spend most of its duration playing music to the tune of "Turkey in the Straw".
The commercial success of Steamboat Willie helped introduce Mickey and Minnie into the audience. Twelve more films featuring Mickey were produced in 1929. But Minnie only co-starred in seven of them and was mentioned in an eighth.
The first of them was The Barn Dance, first released on March 14, 1929. Minnie stands at the center of attention as Mickey and Pete rival each other in order to win her favor. Both offer to pick her up for the dance but she chooses Pete's newly purchased automobile over Mickey's horse-cart. When the automobile breaks down she resorts to go with Mickey. The latter proves a clumsy dancing parter, repeatedly stepping on her feet, and so she turns to Pete again. She is surprised when Mickey asks for another dance and seems to be light on his feet. However she is disgusted when Pete points that his rival had placed a balloon in his shorts. She resumed dancing with Pete while Mickey is reduced to crying on the dance floor. Minnie proves to be rather demanding as a partner in a romantic relationship. Mickey obviously has yet to claim her as his girlfriend by this point.
The Opry House, first released on March 28, 1929, was the first short to feature Mickey but not Minnie. A poster, however, mentions Minnie as being member to the Yankee Doodle Girls. The later group of female performers remained unseen characters and were apparently short-lived. Minnie appears again in When the Cat's Away, first released on April 11, 1929. She is attending a party with Mickey along with several other mice. The short was unusual in the depiction of Mickey and Minnie with the size and part of the behavior common in regular mice. The set standard both before and after this short was to depict them as having the size of a rather short human being.
Minnie was seen again in The Plow Boy, first released on May 9, 1929, where she is featured as a farm girl. However she gets Mickey to milk her cow Clarabelle for her. When Mickey presents her with a bucket full of milk and proceeds to kiss her, Minnie answers by knocking the bucket on his head. This in front of his horse Horace Horsecollar who is just making his debut. Minnie obviously was not very appreciative of Mickey's affection at the time. Minnie starred in many shows and movies whether black and white or in color.
Their attempt at farming life would prove short-lived. Their next appearance in The Karnival Kid (May 23, 1929) casted Mickey as a hot dog vendor and Minnie as a carnival Shimmy Dancer. Minnie then appears as a fiddle player in Mickey's Choo Choo (June 26, 1929).
She also Starred in the Movie The Mickey Mouse cartoons. She also stars in the Mickey Mouse comic cartoon books. The cartoon books are a big hit and they are about different scenes of the Mickey Mouse TV series.
Her next appearance was arguably more significant. Mickey's Follies (June 26, 1929), featured the first performance of the song "Minnie's Yoo Hoo." "The guy they call little Mickey Mouse" for the first time addresses an audience to explain that he has "Got a sweetie" who is "Neither fat nor skinny" and proudly proclaims that "She's my little Minnie Mouse". Mickey then proceeds in explaining his reaction to Minnie's call.
The song firmly establishes Mickey and Minnie as a couple and expresses the importance Minnie holds for her male partner. Soon it would become the theme song to their series.
Her final appearance for the year was in Wild Waves, carried by a wave into the sea. She panics and seems to start drowning. Mickey uses a row boat to rescue her and return her to the shore but Minnie is still visibly shaken from the experience. Mickey starts singing the tune of "Rocked in the Cradle of the Deep,", a maritime ballad, in an apparent effort to cheer her up. Minnie cheers up and the short ends. This is arguably the first time Minnie is placed in danger and then saved by her new boyfriend. It would not be the last.
In fact this was the case with her next appearance in The Cactus Kid (April 12, 1930). As the title implies the short was intended as a Western movie parody, but it is considered to be more or less a remake of The Gallopin' Gaucho set in Mexico instead of Argentina. Minnie was again cast as the local tavern dancer who is abducted by Peg-Leg Pedro (Black Pete in his first appearance with a peg-leg). Mickey again comes to the rescue. The short is considered significant for being the last short featuring Mickey and Minnie to be animated by Ub Iwerks.
The Shindig (July 11, 1930) featured Minnie joining Mickey, Horace and Clarabelle in a barn dance. Among them Clarabelle seems to be the actual star of the short. Director Burton Gillett turned in another enjoyable entry in the series, proved that production could go on without Iwerks. This was arguably the first time Minnie was upstaged by a female co-star.
In The Fire Fighters (August 6, 1930) Minnie is trapped in a hotel during a fire. She spends the duration of the short in mortal peril but is rescued by firefighters under chief Mickey Mouse. Horace Horsecollar is among the firefighters. An unnamed cow in the background is possibly Clarabelle making a cameo. The music of the short was, appropriately, the tune of "There'll Be A Hot Time In The Old Town Tonight."
The next entry in the series is considered curious: The Gorilla Mystery (October 1, 1930). The short starts with Beppo the Gorilla escaping from a zoo. Mickey learns of it and panics. He phones Minnie to warn her about the dangerous gorilla wandering about. Minnie is unconcerned and plays tunes on her piano for Mickey to hear over the phone and know she is not afraid. Her tunes are interrupted by her scream and Mickey rushes to her house to save her. Meanwhile Beppo has wrapped up Minnie in rope and holds her hostage. Mickey confronts the gorilla and once again rescues the damsel in distress. The short ends with Minnie and Mickey jointly wrapping up the gorilla in rope. Modern audiences have commented on elements of bondage apparent in the short and the mysterious motivation of Beppo. Note that the theme of kidnapping by a gorilla is present here three years prior to the King Kong film of 1933.
In The Picnic (November 14, 1930) , Minnie introduces her boyfriend to her new pet dog Rover. This is actually Pluto making his first appearance as an individual character. Two unnamed bloodhound guard dogs strikingly similar to him had previously appeared in The Chain Gang (August 18, 1930) which featured Mickey incarcerated in prison without Minnie at his side. Otherwise the short features a typical picnic excursion harassed by forest animals and brought to a premature end by a sudden rain.
The final appearance of Minnie during the year was Pioneer Days (animated short film) (December 10, 1930). The short featured Minnie and her mate as pioneer settlers heading to the American Old West driving a covered wagon in a wagon train. They are unsurprisingly attacked by Native Americans on their way, a stock plot of Western movies at the time. While their fellows are either subjected to scalping or running for their lives, Minnie is captured by the attackers. Mickey attempts to rescue her only to be captured himself. In a reversal of their usual roles , Minnie escapes her captors and rescues her mate. They then dress as soldiers of the United States Army. Their mere appearance proves sufficient to have the entire tribe running for the hills. The Mouse couple stands triumphant at the end. The short has been criticized for its unflattering depiction of Native Americans as rather bestial predators. Their depiction as being part Jewish is not particularly fondly seen by modern audiences either. The finale has been edited out in recent viewings for depicting the "braves" submitting to cowardice.
Since then she has been co-starring with Mickey Mouse, Pluto, and Figaro, Minnie's own cat who debuted in Pinocchio.
She starred in a television special called Totally Minnie and she also appeared in a line of merchandise called "Minnie 'n Me".
In Mickey Mouse Works, she finally appeared in her own segments. Occasionally, she starred in "Maestro Minnie" shorts, in which she conducts an orchestra of living instruments that she usually has to tame. In House of Mouse Minnie is in charge of running the nightclub, while Mickey primarily serves as the host, and appears in the Playhouse Disney children's television series Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.
She appears in the Kingdom Hearts game series as the Queen of Disney Castle, with Mickey serving as the King and her husband. She, at the suggestion of a letter left by the missing King, sends Donald Duck and Goofy on their mission to find Mickey and the Keyblade Master. In the second game in the series, Kingdom Hearts II, there is a mission where the main characters must travel through Disney Castle while serving as the Queen's bodyguard. During this time, Minnie shows prowess as a sorceress, casting a holy-looking white light on the Heartless that attack as well as a powerful combination with Sora that unleashes a huge beam of light all around her.
In the 2004 direct-to-video movie Mickey, Donald, Goofy: The Three Musketeers, Minnie plays the role of the princess of France, who continually daydreams about her true love, Mickey. She's also the only monarch getting in the way of the plans of Pete, who can't take over the kingdom if he cannot get rid of her. Interestingly, for this particular film, Minnie is drawn with hair bangs, which do not appear in any later cartoons.
In the "Disney on Ice" play Disney Presents Pixar's The Incredibles in a Magic Kingdom Adventure, Mickey and Minnie are both taken hostage by an android replica of Syndrome, who seeks to construct "his" own idea of The Happiest Place on Earth in Walt Disney World's place. They are briefly imprisoned in the Pirates of the Caribbean attraction's prison cell before an assault on the robot Syndrome by the Incredible Family forces "him" to lock them up in LASER prisons, but not without using a flamethrower in a botched attempt to incinerate their would-be superhuman saviors. After the robot Syndrome is congealed by Frozone, Mickey and Minnie are finally liberated, the Walt Disney World Resort is restored to its former glory, and the Incredibles become Mickey and Minnie's newest friends.
Minnie Mouse
| GENUS PEDIGREE: | Mouseear | ||
| KNOWN ALIASES: | Princess Minnie; [?] Minuet or Minerva | ||
| KNOWN RELATIVES: | Mickey Mouse (husband/boyfriend); Melody & Millicent (nieces); Manfred (nephew); Mortimer (uncle); Marissa, Millicent, Matilda, Minerva (aunts). | ||
| KNOWN PETS: | Fifi the Peke; Figaro the Kitten; Frankie the Canary; Cleo the Goldfish (?); Hoppy the Kangaroo. | ||
| CITIZENSHIP: | Mouseton, USA | ||
| KNOWN CONFIDANTS: | Mickey Mouse; Daisy Duck; Clarabelle Cow; Clara Cluck; Penny, Patty, T.J., Heather & Lilly (from "Minnie 'n Me"). | ||
| KNOWN RIVALS: | Bad Pete; Sylvester Shyster. | ||
| PARAPHERNALIA: | unknown | ||
| 1st PRINT APPEARANCE: | "Mickey Mouse" serial "Lost on a Desert Island" (Jan. 13, 1930). | ||
| 1st FILM APPEARANCE: | "Steamboat Willie" (Nov. 18, 1928) | ||
| VOICE ACTOR: | Marcellite Garner (1928 - 1940); Thelma Boardman (1940 - 1942); Ruth Clifford (1942 - 1952); and Russi Taylor (since 1986). Walt Disney, himself, even did Minnie's voice in some of the very early films. | ||
| SIGNATURE: | "Yoo-hoo" (her melodic call to Mickey). | ||
| BIOGRAPHICAL DETAILS: | Mickey's longtime inamorata. Minnie has several pet, among whom are Figaro, Fifi and Frankie. Occassionally Minnie's twin Nieces, Millie and Melody, appear in stories in which she also appears. In the late 1960s and early 1970s another young girl named Millie, was also a companion of Minnie's in the "Mickey Mouse" daily newspaper strips. A preteen Minnie and her girl friends are featured in Disney's line of merchandise called "Minnie 'n Me." (See also: D.T.A.) | ||
| HISTORICAL FACTS: | Last of the Fab 5. While she has appeared in approximately 70 cartoons and regularly co-stars with Mickey in his comics, of the Fab 5, Minnie is the only one never to have headlined in her own film, nor has she ever had her own comic book title, like Daisy has. Even Figaro fared better. Perhaps the one-shot television special called "Disney's Totally Minnie" (Feb. 21, 1988) was a minor attempt, when Minnie helps a nerd learn how to be cool and Minnie does a duet with Elton John, or maybe the merchandising line called "Minnie 'n Me" tried to rectify this sad oversight, along with the recent publishing of several short stories by Golden Books under the heading of "Minnie Mysteries" (1997) which feature Minnie as the lead character solving little "crimes." However, without any comics or films behind these efforts, this faux pas oversight is still not corrected. Not withstanding, she is still a mighty icon at the Disney company and still maintains her regal position next to Mickey. | ||
| LITTLE KNOWN SECRETS: | Officially, Walt stated about Mickey and Minnie, when he once wrote in the Film Pictorial (1933), "In private life, Mickey is married to Minnie. A lot of people have written to him asking this question, because sometimes he appears to be married to her in his films and other times still courting her. What it really amounts to is that Minnie is, for screen purposes, his leading lady. If the story calls for a romantic courtship, then Minnie is the girl; but when the story requires a married couple, then they appear as man and wife. In the studio we have decided that they are married, really." In 1997 Russi Taylor, the current voice of Minnie married Wayne Allwine, the current voice of Mickey after a five year courtship. Russi's theory about Mickey and Minnie's public image, "The characters aren't going to get married, because children relate to Mickey and Minnie at their own levels. They don't know how old Mickey and Minnie are; but if they were to get married, they would become adults, and it would spoil the illusion." | ||
| WORKING THEORIES: | none |
MICKEY MOUSE HISTORY AND A LITTLE ABOUT MINNIE MOUSE HISTORY The world renowned Walt Disney is the creator of Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse, as well as the founder of Disneyland and Walt Disney World. Mickey Mouse receives credit for launching Walt Disney’s career in 1928 and is the official greeter of Disneyland and Walt Disney World. As Walt Disney once said, “ I hope that we never lose site of one thing: that it was all started by a Mouse.” Walt Elias Disney was born in Chicago, IL in 1901. Disney’s early years were spent on a farm in Missouri. He began drawing at an early age and sold his first sketches to neighbors at the age of seven. In high school, his drawing and photography skills were used for the school paper. At night he attended the Chicago Institute of Art. Disney began his career as an advertising cartoonist in Kansas City in 1920. Back then, cartoon making was in its infancy and films were jerky, and in black and white. Disney wanted to improve upon the methods, so he read books to learn how leading New York animators worked. Shortly afterwards, he quit his job, formed a company called Laugh-O-gram and started making his own animated cartoons. When Disney’s main client declared bankruptcy, Disney was unable to pay his employees or the rent. In fact, he barely had enough money to feed himself and was forced to also declare bankruptcy. In 1923, Walt Disney arrived in Hollywood with $40 in his pocket and a sketchbook. Walt Disney convinced his brother, Roy Disney, to join him as a partner in his new business. Roy’s job was to manage the financial side of the business and Walt’s job was to provide the creative talent. The Disney Brothers Studio was launched with $200 Roy had saved, $500 borrowed from an uncle, and $2,500 contributed by their parents. Their parents even had to mortgage their house to come up with the funds! A New York film distributor by the name of M.J. Winkler, bought Disney’s early cartoons, which were the original versions of “Alice in Wonderland”. When the demand waned for the Alice series, Walt created a new character, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. As Oswald’s popularity grew, Walt decided to negotiate a higher price for the contract. Unbeknownst to Walt, Charlie Mintz (M.J. Winkler’s husband) had recruited most of Walt’s staff by offering them more money and creative freedom. Walt also did not know that Charlie Mintz and Universal Pictures owned the legal rights to Oswald. Mintz demanded that Walt Disney give up his business and go to work for him, but Walt refused. It was on this train ride back to Los Angeles from New York City that Walt Disney created Mickey Mouse. He knew he had to come up with a new character and created a mouse. (It is interesting to note that this mouse looked quite similar to Oswald the Rabbit. The main differences being Mickey Mouse had short round ears instead of long bunny ears, a longer nose, a long skinny mouse tail instead of a bunny tail, and skinnier legs and arms. The face, eyes, mouth and hairline were very similar.) Walt wanted to name the mouse character “Mortimer”, but his wife, Lilly, didn’t like that name and suggested “Mickey Mouse”. Mickey Mouse made his debut to the general public in a film named “Steamboat Willie” on November 19, 1928, at the Colony Theatre in New York. This film also featured the first appearance of Minnie Mouse, as well as the world’s first use of |
