Walt Disney – Under The Harvest Moon

The famous Walt Disney (Walter Elias Disney) was born in Chicago on December 5, 1901. However, the talented Disney we know did not emerge until 1919, when he began his career as an illustrator. In 1928, Disney created Mickey Mouse, a character he sketched on a bus. Can you imagine one of the most famous characters in the world being created like that? Today, the cartoon character is the centerpiece of the entire Disney brand.

However, things weren’t always so easy for Disney. In 1923, his first business venture, Laugh-O-Gram Studios, went bankrupt. At the time, he had only $20 to start over, so Disney decided to head to Hollywood, where he created a few cartoon characters with his brother. Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to attain legal copyright for them. Then Mickey Mouse and other memorable characters such as Minnie Mouse, Pluto, Goofy, and Donald Duck arrived. From thereon, there was no turning back.

After a few years, Disney began developing feature-length cartoons such as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Pinocchio, Fantasia, Dumbo, Bambi, Cinderella, and Mary Poppins. Disney made these animated creations during the 1940s to 1960s. Due to the success of these cartoons, it was not a surprise when Disney won 22 Oscars for his role as an American animator, film producer, and voice actor. But as we know, Disney didn’t stop there. He also opened theme parks in 1955. The Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, was under construction when Disney passed away. In 2018, the theme parks had already hosted over 157,3 million guests worldwide.

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Mickey Mouse at the “Festival of Fantasy Parade in Walt Disney World in 2015

Mickey Mouse is more than just a character; he’s an iconic figure for the Disney brand. But he almost didn’t exist. Mickey Mouse was only created to replace Walt Disney’s original successful creation, Oswald the Rabbit. Oswald was made by the Disney studio for Charles Mintz, a film producer and distributor through Universal Studios. With so much success from Oswald, Disney asked Mintz to increase the studio’s budget, but instead, Mintz demanded Walt take a 20 percent cut. He then reminded Disney that Universal owned Oswald and that he had already signed most of Disney’s current employees to his new contract. Disney refused to sign the new contract, finished the final Oswald comic of his contract, and ended his work with Universal.

With just himself and two loyal animators, Ub Iwerks and Les Clark, Disney had to start from scratch. From this experience, he learned to ensure he owned all the rights to characters produced by his company. His inspiration for Mickey came from a tame mouse at his desk at Laugh-O-Gram Studio in Kansas City, Missouri. The original name for the character was Mortimer Mouse until his wife, Lillian, convinced him to change it, ultimately creating Mickey Mouse.

On May 14, 1928, Mickey appeared in a test screening of the cartoon short “Plane Crazy”, but failed to impress audiences and attract distributors. Walt then produced a second Mickey short called “The Gallopin’ Gaucho”, which also suffered from a lack of distributor interest. “Steamboat Willy”, first released on November 18, 1928, in New York, was co-directed by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks. Intended as a parody of Buster Keaton’s “Steamboat Bill, Jr.”, it was the third Mickey film produced and the first to find a distributor, serving as Mickey’s debut.