It Was All Started By a Rabbit
If you’re a Disney addict like I am, you may have heard the phrase “It Was All Started By a Mouse,” but that isn’t entirely true. Yes, Walt Disney built his entire empire of magic and imagination on the success Mickey Mouse. But that didn’t happen until after a number of other projects he created when he first started out in the film/animation industry.
His first project was referred to as “The Laugh-O-Gram” series, which he produced at his first studio in Kansas City, MO all throughout 1922. After the studio declared bankruptcy in 1923, Disney began work on the “Alice Comedies,” which he produced in Los Angeles, CA after relocating there with his uncle, Robert Disney, and older brother, Roy. The series lasted from 1924-1927. (He completed the very first “Alice” comedy back in Kansas City before the studio went bankrupt and produced the rest in L.A.). And then…there was Oswald the Lucky Rabbit.
In 1927 Walt signed a contract with Universal Pictures to distribute a new character that he and his long-term business partner, Ub Iwerks, came up with named Oswald. The head of animation distribution at Universal was a man named Charles Mintz, who married Margaret J. Winkler in 1924. (Winkler had been Walt’s previous distributor for the “Alice Comedies” series.) Oswald’s first appearance was in a short called Poor Papa (1927). Displeased with the short, Mintz requested Walt and Ub create a younger version of Oswald. They did so for Oswald’s next short, Trolley Troubles (1927), and the series began to gain success. In the midst of that success, however, Walt asked Mintz for an increased budget for the series, but Mintz unfortunately refused and took Oswald for himself. (Walt had refused a new agreement with Mintz that would have given him a much smaller portion of the “Oswald” profits.) Mintz hired all of Walt’s staff at that time as well, except for Ub Iwerks and Les Clark, who would go on to become one of Walt’s Nine Old Men. There was nothing Walt could do after that, but he refused to give up hope, He and Ub got an idea for a new character deciding to create a mischievous and clumsy, though kind-hearted and loyal, mouse to be named Mortimer. Walt’s wife, Lillian Disney, suggested the name Mickey, believing it to have a much better ring than Mortimer.
Walt auditioned several actors to provide Mickey’s voice, but ultimately decided to do the voice himself. He would go on to voice Mickey from his first appearance in a short called Plane Crazy (1928) to the film Fun and Fancy Free (1947). When Walt became too busy with running the studio he handed the role over to James MacDonald. MacDonald served as the original head of the sound effects department for the Disney studios from 1934-1977. In addition to Mickey’s voice, he also provided the voices of Gus, Jaq, and Bruno in Cinderella (1950), the Doormouse in Alice in Wonderland (1951), the snapping voice of Tick-Tock Crocodile in Peter Pan (1953), the Wolf in The Sword in the Stone (1963), the Bees in the short, Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree (1966), and Evinrude the Dragonfly in The Rescuers (1977). He also briefly provided the voices for Goofy, Pluto, and Chip the Chipmunk. Since MacDonald’s retirement in 1977, 10 other actors have all taken on the “voice” of Mickey Mouse. The role is currently shared by Bret Iwan who does the voice for the Disney Junior Show Mickey Mouse Clubhouse (2006-present) and Chris Diamantopoulos who does the voice for the Disney Channel Show Mickey Mouse (2013-present).
Mickey Mouse eclipsed Oswald the Lucky Rabbit’s popularity at Universal Studios in the late 1920s, but Disney reacquired the rights to him in 2006, and since then he has made cameos in the short Get a Horse (2013) and the movie Big Hero 6 (2014) as well as various Disney video games. Today it is impossible to imagine Disney without Mickey Mouse or any of his friends for that matter, but had it not been for Charles Mintz, Walt Disney’s foundation of entertainment would have begun with Oswald. As sad as it was for Mintz to steal Oswald from Walt, in a way it was one of the greatest “blessings-in-disguise” that Walt received throughout his life. It gave him the opportunity to create his most popular and most beloved character
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