Happy Birthday, Mickey Mouse! Iconic Disney mascot turns 94 today

ORLANDO– Happy Birthday Mickey Mouse! That’s right, the little mouse known all over the world celebrates her birthday on Friday November 18th.

Artists who have drawn Mickey over the years have referred to him as Walt Disney’s “alter ego” and said he “represents the world of animation”.

Here are 11 facts about the famous mouse we all know and love:

Mickey debut

Mickey Mouse made his debut in the animated short “Steamboat Willie” on November 18, 1928 at the Colony Theater in New York City. This film was also Minnie Mouse’s public debut. Both Minnie and Mickey had previously appeared in Plane Crazy, a short film that was distributed after Steamboat Willie.

world first

“Steamboat Willie” was the world’s first animated feature film with dubbed sound and featured Walt Disney’s own voice for Mickey’s squeak.

Hard work

In the past, a Mickey Mouse cartoon could contain more than 10,000 drawings for a seven and a half minute film and take anywhere from six months to two years to complete.

Mickey fever

More than 100 Mickey Mouse cartoons were produced in the 1930s and released in cinemas along with feature films, newsreels, serial dramas and comedies. Disney’s short films were so popular that moviegoers often asked if a Mickey cartoon would be part of the show before buying a ticket, according to Robert Tieman, author of The Mickey Mouse Treasures.

hit the mouse

Mickey Mouse made his first personal live appearance on March 12, 1931 in Los Angeles in a live stage show called “Mickey Mouse Idea”.

The cult watch

Arguably the most successful piece of Mickey merchandise was the iconic Mickey Mouse watch. When it premiered in June 1933, more than 2.5 million watches were sold in the first two years of production, and a Mickey Watch was even part of the time capsule at the 1939 New York World’s Fair.

Bring color in!

Mickey made his color film debut in The Band Concert in 1935.

Salutation of the white gloves

Mickey’s white gloves first appeared in 1929’s When the Cat’s Away.

Everyone in the family

Even if you know Mickey’s friends like Donald and Goofy, he has quite a big family too! His nephews Morty and Ferdie are perhaps the best known, but Mickey also has more than a dozen cousins, uncles, and grandparents, including Uncle Maxwell, a college professor, Cousin Digger, an Australian rancher, and Uncle Louie, a French chef.

A place in history

In honor of his 60th birthday, Mickey Mouse was given a place at the Smithsonian Institution. In 1988, Walt Disney Studios donated six original “Steamboat Willie” animation drawings to the National Museum of American History.

From Charlie to Mickey

Walt Disney has said that silent film star Charlie Chaplin was one of the inspirations for the character of Mickey Mouse. “We wanted something appealing, and we were thinking of a little mouse that has some of that Chaplin nostalgia … a little guy trying to do his best,” Disney said in The Mickey Mouse Treasures, according to Tieman. Ub Iwerks, the artist who helped Disney with the initial design of Mickey, said of the character, “People accepted him as an iconic figure, and even though he looked like a mouse, he was accepted as dashing and heroic.”

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