Mickey Mouse

Mickey Mouse is an animated anthropomorphic mouse created by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks in 1928  Arguably by far its most famous character, Mickey serves as the mascot for The Walt Disney Company.
 * "When people laugh at Mickey Mouse, it's because he's so human; and that is the secret of his popularity. I only hope that we don't lose sight of one thing that It a lt all started with a mouse".
 * — Walt Disney

Fancifully estimated as standing 2 ft. 3 in. (69 cm) and weighing 23 pounds (10 kg), Mickey rapidly rose to the pinnacle of American culture, being more widely recognized overseas than any other American icon but the U.S. flag. For over 80 years, he has signified he Walt Disney Company, animation, goodwill, fun, laughter and most of all Walt Disney himself. It was said by Lillian Disney, his wife, that over the years, Mickey and Walt grew together and were mirrors of each other's personality. They both started off mischievous and cheeky, but as they grew older preferred to step out of the spotlight and observe others work their magic. President Jimmy Carter once said; "Mickey Mouse is the symbol of goodwill, surpassing all languages and cultures. When one sees Mickey Mouse, they see happiness". Mickey also shares the same birthday with Minnie Mouse, his girlfriend.

Mickey's 3-circle silhouette serves as the logo for most of Disney's subsidiaries, save for the ones that don't carry the 'Disney' or 'Walt Disney' label. Andy Warhol's portrait The Art of Mickey Mouse used Warhol's famous pop art techniques on the classic mouse. Mickey is often cited as the world's most famous cartoon character of all time.

Personality
Mickey is easily recognized by his red shorts with white (sometimes yellow or golden) buttons on it, white gloves and large yellow shoes as well as his round mouse ears. He often gets himself into trouble as a result of his mischief and the fact that he can be forgetful and extremely imaginative.

Mickey sometimes chooses fun and adventure over working, a trait disliked by Minnie Mouse. While usually always having the better amount of luck, when teamed with his pals Donald and Goofy, he and his friends often end their day in failure and all three are the faults. Even so, Mickey has, on many occasions, proven to be the most reliable of the three being that, he has far better control over his temper than Donald, and more common sense than Goofy.

Mickey stands as a father figure for Pluto and has grounded him on many occasions as if he is a young boy. He also counts Pluto as his best pal and usually puts him before nearly everything else. Mickey describes himself as a good sport but on occasion has lost his temper on both enemies and friends. He is usually dumbstruck by the mere sight of Minnie Mouse giving her many titles such as "his best girl" and constantly goes out of his way to impress her. Mickey loves her with all his heart and Minnie loves him in return. From experience, Mickey believes there is at least a small dose of kindness in everyone's heart (except maybe for Malificent), resulting in him being quite forgiving. He is also understanding and sympathetic.

Mickey is very brave. Many cartoons begin with Mickey and Minnie enjoying each other's company until a villain (usually Pete) kidnaps her and the takes her away, resulting to Mickey battling the villain and proclaiming his love. Mickey can be competitive and never backs down even when his opponent is twice his size. In many situations, Mickey has shown to be a trickster and enjoys pranking his enemies to get the better of them. Despite being very heroic, Mickey prefers to lay back and relax. He is optimistic and hardworking during harsh times and often encourages his friends to keep going, but on rare events has given up hope and even doubted himself. Its times like these when Mickey's friends, such as Donald and Goofy are optimistic and encourage him in return. Mickey is incredibly noble and generally puts the people he loves in front of his own well being. He has even been able to set aside differences with his foes when necessary.

In spite of being an anthropomorphic mouse, Mickey has the tendencies to act with his animal nature including the fact that, being a mouse, he loves cheese. In the television series House of Mouse, Mickey being a mouse is made fun of when he is shown to exercise on a hamster wheel and drink from a rodent drinking bottle (like the ones found in a hamster cage). These particular facts seem to only exist in the House of Mou''se. ''

Creation and Debut
Mickey was originally created as a replacement for Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, an earlier star created by the Disney studio. Oswald had been created by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks for Charles Mintz of Universal Studios. In fact, Mickey closely resembled Oswald in his early appearances. However, Disney received an unpleasant lesson when he asked Mintz for a larger budget for his popular Oswald series: in reply, Mintz fired Disney and Iwerks and taken all of Disney's artists to draw Oswald, to which Mintz and Universal owned the rights. From that point on, Disney made sure that he owned all rights to the characters produced by his company. Oswald would eventually return to the Disney fold in 2006 as part of a trade between NBC Universal and Disney, with NBC getting the contract of sports announcer Al Michaels as compensation.

In order for Walt and his older brother and business partner Roy to keep their company active, new characters had to be created to star in their subsequent animated shorts. One day, during a train ride, Walt desperately wanted to come up with a money-making character to replace the one he lost, Oswald, whom he loved dearly. He had visions of a mouse in the back of his head (he had previously made silent cartoon shorts with animated mice). He wanted to name his new creation Mortimer Mouse, but his wife Lillian Marie Bounds thought the name was too pretentious, so she suggested he change it to Mickey Mouse which he did. The name Mortimer would later be used for a character in a Mickey cartoon, that oddly enough, became a new rival for Mickey. It has been suggested that Walt Disney was influenced by an actual mouse that he almost tamed by feeding it crumbs on his desk at the Laugh-O-Gram Studio.

Mickey and Minnie Mouse (Mickey's flapper girlfriend) debuted in the cartoon short Plane Crazy, first released on May 15, 1928. The short was co-directed by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks. Iwerks was also the main animator for this short, and reportedly spent six weeks working on it. Hugh Harman and Rudolf Ising were credited for assisting him; these two had already signed their contracts with Charles Mintz, but he was still in the process of forming his new studio and so for the time being they were still employed by Disney. This short would be the last they animated under this somewhat awkward situation.

The plot of Plane Crazy was fairly simple. Mickey is apparently trying to become an aviator in emulation of Charles Lindbergh. After building his own aircraft, he proceeds to ask Minnie to join him for its first flight, during which he repeatedly and unsuccessfully attempts to kiss her, eventually resorting to force. Minnie then parachutes out of the plane. While distracted by her, Mickey loses control of the plane. This becomes the beginning of an out-of-control flight that results in a series of humorous situations and eventually in the crash-landing of the aircraft. A non-anthropomorphic cow that briefly becomes a passenger in the aircraft is believed to be Caroline Cow making her debut.

Plane Crazy apparently failed to impress audiences, and to add insult to injury, Walt could not find a distributor. Though understandably disappointed, Walt went on to produce a second Mickey short: The Gallopin' Gaucho. It would not be until Mickey's third, probably most famous, and first sound cartoon Steamboat Willie, that Mickey began to gain the popularity that he has today. The short's original release date - November 18, 1928 - was later declared to be Mickey's official birthday in the early 1970s.

The Great Depression era
The twelfth and last Mickey short released during the year was Jungle Rhythm, first released on November 15, 1929. Mickey is seen in a safari somewhere in Africa. He rides on an elephant and is armed with a shotgun. But the later proves to be problematic soon after Mickey finds himself standing in between of a lion and a bear. Mickey proceeds to play music to calm them down. During the rest of the short, various jungle animals dance to Mickey's tunes. The tunes vary from the previously mentioned "Yankee Doodle" and "Turkey in the Straw" to Robert Burns' "Auld Lang Syne" (1788), Johann Strauss' "The Blue Danube" (An der schönen, blauen Donau - 1867) and Queen Liliuokalani of Hawaii's Aloha `Oe - 1878. This was the first Mickey short to be released during the Great Depression. Mickey's efforts as an entertainer to the jungle can be seen as representative of a function often credited to him. To provide relatively cheap but much needed entertainment to the audiences of the period of Jimmy Durante.