Mickey Mouse

"I only hope that we never lose sight of one thing–that it was all started by a mouse."

- Walt Disney

Mickey Mouse is the most famous and popular of all Disney characters. Over the years Mickey has become an icon and the symbol of the Walt Disney Company.

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 eighty years, he has signified The 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's three-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. Ever since his creation, Mickey Mouse has been known as the world's most famous cartoon character.

Personality
Mickey's personality has had one of the biggest changes in Disney history. In his first cartoon, Plane Crazy, Mickey was mischievous, rude and foolish. Walt's character was unpopular to this and was changed to a more heroic character. As a result, Mickey became heroic and comical. Mickey will save almost anyone in danger, especially Minnie Mouse, his leading lady. Mickey and Minnie's relationship has had many troubles in it throughout the years, but the duo always seem to work things out. Although his personality changed, Mickey still kept his aggresive personality shown mostly in the presence of his rival, Mortimer Mouse. Mortimer was Minnie's love before Mickey and will do anything to get her back. Mickey and Mortimer both hate each other and usually battle for Minnie's affections. Mickey's popularity led to a rivalry with Donald Duck. Mickey has no clue about the rilvary and always counts Donald as one of his best friends. Mickey sees Goofy as a close friend and personal sidekick. Mickey and Goofy both have forgetful personalities which usually land the two in much trouble. Mickey's absoulute best friend is his dog Pluto. Mickey and Pluto had much trouble in their relationship mostly due to Pluto's sneakyness.

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 compinsation.

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 enogh, 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 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, probaly most famous, and first sound cartoon Steamboat Willie, that Mickey began to gain the popularity that he has today. In fact, Steamboat Willie was so popular that Walt made it's release date, November 18, 1928, Mickey's birthday.

Mickey Mouse entering 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.

1930-1950
In his earliest cartoons Mickey was often mischievous and the cartoons sometimes used outhouse humor. As the series became more popular, Disney decided to change his best-known character into a well meaning everyman, and creating mischief was thereafter left to other characters.

From 1930 until 1950, though the numbers of the comic creators that worked on Mickey increased, the most popular version (considered the "classic" version today) was that of Floyd Gottfredson, who developed Mickey's character, adopted characters from the cartoons, and created many others. Since 1950 the most popular version of Mickey has been that of Italian creator Romano Scarpa, who has further developed Gottfredson's characters and has added many of his own.

Mickey's most well known supporting characters are his girlfriend, Minnie Mouse; his dog, Pluto; and his best friends, Goofy and Donald Duck and his girlfriend Daisy Duck.

By his older sister Amelia Fieldmouse Mickey has two nephews, Morty and Ferdie Fieldmouse.

In 1929, Disney created the original Mickey Mouse Club for fans of his character and cartoons, which later formed the basis for a popular 1950's television show (with follow-ups of the same name in the 1977 and 1989).

Mickey has starred in the theatrical feature film: the "Mickey and the Beanstalk" segment of Fun and Fancy Free (1947). He has also starred in two half-hour theatrical featurettes, Mickey's Christmas Carol (1983, screened in front of a re-issue of The Rescuers) (1990, screened in front of The Rescuers Down Under).

Many television programs have centered around Mickey, such as the recent shows Mickey Mouse Works and House of Mouse.

For many years, Mickey Mouse has served as the mascot for The Walt Disney Company, alongside Jiminy Cricket and Tinkerbell.

Recent Popularity
On November 18, 1978, in honor of his 50th anniversary, he became the first cartoon character to have a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The star is located on 6925 Hollywood Blvd.

Throughout the decades, Mickey Mouse competed with Warner Bros.' Bugs Bunny for animated popularity. But in 1988, in a historic moment in motion picture history, the two rivals finally shared screen time in the Robert Zemeckis film Who Framed Roger Rabbit.

Only three people have regularly provided the voice for Mickey (not including theme park attractions and parades), Walt Disney from 1928 to 1947, James MacDonald from 1948 to 1983, and Wayne Allwine, from 1977 until his death in 2009, who first voiced the Mouse in Mickey's Christmas Carol in 1983. Hallmark greeting card illustrator Bret Iwan was chosen to represent the new voice of Mickey, starting with a Mickey toy. He has also done Mickey for Disney Cruise Line promotions, and he is featured in the Disney On Ice: Celebrations ice show. Mickey's most recent theatrical cartoon was 1995's short Runaway Brain, while in 2004 he appeared in the made-for-video features The Three Musketeers and the computer-animated Mickey's Twice Upon a Christmas. As of 2010, Mickey is the star of Disney Channel's Playhouse Disney series Disney's Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.

Mickey served as the Grand Marshal of the Tournament of Roses Parade on New Year's Day 2005, as part of the kickoff of the "Happiest Homecoming on Earth", celebrating Disneyland's 50th Anniversary. In 2009 Mickey has reappeared in balloon form in the famous Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, dressed as the captain of the Disney Cruise Line.

In 2010, three dozen Mickey statues were used to promote the Major League Baseball All-Star Game, which was played in Anaheim, California, adorned with insignias of the teams.

Before Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep
When he was young, Mickey worked as a deck hand with his captain, Pete. He and Pete sailed the steamboat Willie throughout Timeless River. This past association causes Pete to refer to Mickey as "the Boat-Boy King."

Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep
While Terra, Ventus, and Aqua search for Master Xehanort and Vanitas, King Mickey trains under Yen Sid at the Mysterious Tower to be a Keyblade master accompanied by Donald and Goofy, by which he uses the Star Seeker Keyblade. Later on, Mickey runs away without Yen Sid´s permission, using a Star Fragment that allows him to travel throughout other worlds, however, it works rather randomly. Terra witnesses the King's leave when he first visits the tower.

At the end of the game, he helps Aqua battle Ventus, who is possessed by Vanitas, and eventually guides them to the Mysterious Tower, where they discover that Ventus's heart has left his body. At the end of the game, Mickey sorrowfully hands in the Star Fragment and his Star Seeker Keyblade, thinking he has failed to reach his goal, and begins to leave. Before he departs, however, Master Yen Sid hands him back the Keyblade with a smile. Mickey happily accepts.

Between Birth by Sleep and Kingdom Hearts
Upon realizing the threat the darkness presented, Mickey sought out help for his concerns, and the danger he seemed to expect. By using the barrier's material itself to make a Gummi Ship, Mickey traveled to Radiant Garden and met Ansem the Wise. Mickey befriended Ansem, and told Ansem of his concern of the growing darkness between the worlds. It was also here that Mickey met Xehanort. Meeting him seemed to disturb the King.

Kingdom Hearts
Kingdom Hearts marks the first appearance of Mickey in the series. Before actually appearing onscreen, Mickey gives instructions to his subjects through a message from Pluto. Not seen until the end of the game, in Kingdom Hearts, King Mickey left his home, Disney Castle, leaving a note instructing Donald and Goofy to "find the Key". In his journeys, King Mickey had passed the Corridor of Darkness at Traverse Town and found the Keyblade of the Realm of Darkness. Within the realm of darkness, he meets Riku, asking him about his heart. At the end of Kingdom Hearts, he helps Sora to seal Kingdom Hearts to prevent the Heartless from escaping it. It was the choice of Mickey and Riku to stay behind in the Realm of Darkness that started Sora, Donald and Goofy on their quests in Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories and Kingdom Hearts II.

Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories
Sora, Donald and Goofy initially enter Castle Oblivion believing the King to be there, but that is not the case until Riku follows. He appears many times to Riku while he battles his inner darkness as his light, until they come face to face. Meeting DiZ, Mickey begins to suspect his true identity.

After leaving the Castle, the King and Riku eventually part ways.

Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days
King Mickey appears in the Twilight Town woods facing Riku, who has taken on the form of Xehanort's Heartless. Mickey readies to attack as Riku calmly ties his blindfold into place, and looks shocked at Riku changing appearance. Then they make a promise not to tell Sora what happened to him when he wakes up.

King Mickey is playable in Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days's Mission Mode, wearing his Organization XIII cloak. To unlock him, complete every mission, which will make the item "Return of the King" available from the Moogle shop.

Kingdom Hearts II
In Kingdom Hearts II, Mickey appears far more often then he had in the previous Kingdom Hearts games. He is a playable character under certain circumstances.

Sometime after Riku left DiZ's employ, he encounters Mickey and gives him the munny pouch that he had stolen from Roxas in the Simulated Twilight Town. Not wanting Sora and Kairi to know about his condition, Riku pleads with Mickey not to reveal his whereabouts or his condition to Sora, and Mickey reluctantly agrees.

Mickey later arrives to help Sora fend off the Nobodies that attacked them in Twilight Town posing as somewhat of a fake Organization XIII member. After the battle, he hands Sora the pouch of munny Riku gave him and instructs him to visit his mentor, Yen Sid, running off afterward. Yen Sid reveals that Mickey's reasons for leaving Disney Castle in the first game was to investigate the mysterious outbreak of Heartless and the more mysterious Organization. Mickey makes several appearances throughout the game, and is even playable when Sora is defeated in certain boss battles; if Sora is defeated in these boss battles, Mickey appears and fights the boss until he himself is defeated or Sora is revived; in either event, he leaves the battlefield as quickly as he arrived.

If someone examines the books on one of Yen Sid's shelves, it will say: All the mischief the King did years ago is recorded here.

At Hollow Bastion, Mickey reveals the truth about Ansem, but is reluctant to reveal any information on Riku. He then aides the group in fending off the Heartless that Maleficent has summoned to destroy Radiant Garden. Initially, he orders Sora, Donald, and Goofy to leave Hollow Bastion and leave the Heartless to them, but Donald and Goofy go against his orders when they realize how desperate Sora is to help Leon. He later confronts them after they defeat Demyx, at first appearing angry, but soon simply decides to allow them to help.

When Goofy apparently dies after taking a nasty blow to the head while saving Mickey from the same fate, Mickey swears that the Heartless would pay and permanently discards his Organization XIII disguise, and they are all relieved to discover that Goofy was only unconscious. When he and Sora confront Xemnas, he jumps after Xemnas into a corridor of darkness before it closed, thus preventing Sora, Donald and Goofy from going after him, but since he appears later in Twilight Town, it is apparent that he could not follow Xemnas all the way.

Sora and the others meet him in Twilight Town, where they find a way into The World That Never Was through the Simulated Twilight Town DiZ had created. When they enter the world, Mickey goes ahead of Sora to look for Ansem the Wise. He eventually finds him, and rescues him from death. Ansem then attempts to use his machine to convert Kingdom Hearts into data, but was unsuccessful and vanishes when the machine explodes.

Mickey then confronts Xemnas with Sora, Riku, Kairi, Donald and Goofy, and watches as Xemnas opens Kingdom Hearts. Xemnas then blocks out King Mickey and Kairi from participating in the final fight, first by launching a building at him and Kairi, closing Kingdom Hearts, and then closing the dark portal to the Destiny Islands, preventing Mickey, Kairi, Donald, and Goofy from returning to aid Sora and Riku.

After Sora and Riku end the Organization's plot, Mickey waits with Donald, Goofy, and Kairi on Destiny Islands for their return. Once they do, he runs to Riku and congratulates them both for defeating Organization XIII. During the end credits, King Mickey is seen returning with Donald, Goofy, Scrooge McDuck, Huey, Dewey and Louie, Pluto, and Jiminy to Disney Castle, where he reunites with his wife Queen Minnie.

They then share a cartoonish kiss, ending the sequence for Disney Castle. After the credits, it is revealed that he has sent Sora, Riku and Kairi a bottled letter.

Kingdom Hearts coded
In Kingdom Hearts coded, Mickey digitizes Jiminy's Journal to unfold a mysterious message saying: "We must return to free them from their torment". When the digital system gets blocked, he decides to create a data version of Sora to solve the problem.

Following the digital Sora's time in Traverse Town, he is attacked by Heartless. After disposing of them with the Star Seeker Keyblade, he tries to leave the library to check the castle, but finds himself locked in, along with Jiminy, Donald, and Goofy. It is later revealed that, in fact, the quartet have somehow been transported into the digital journal itself. While in the journal, he joins forces with data Sora and the journal itself (in the form of Riku) to dispatch the Heartless and debug the digital world. At the game's climax, Mickey and his friends are returned to the real world when the debugging is completed, but a message claiming that a door to a new world has opened appears on the screen. Preparing for another adventure, Mickey requests to be taken into the digital world again to solve this new mystery.

Inside, he escorts Data Sora throughout Castle Oblivion until they encounter the data version of Naminé who tells them about Terra, Ventus and Aqua and the reason behind the Bug Block Corruption, which was caused by the real Naminé when she removed Sora's memories and later restored them. After everything in the journal was restored, Mickey returns to the real world to write the letter to Sora to tell him about Terra, Ventus and Aqua; and a new journey begins.

Mickey Mousecapade
Mickey Mousecapade (released as simply Mickey Mouse in Japan) on the Nintendo Entertainment System marked Mickey's first starring role on a home console video game. In it, he and Minnie embark on a mission to rescue Alice from either the Queen of Hearts (in the Japanese version) or Maleficent (in the American version).

The Illusion series
On Sega's video game systems, Mickey starred in games that went with the title [Place] of Illusion. These include Castle of Illusion starring Mickey Mouse on the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive and Master System, Land of Illusion starring Mickey Mouse on the Game Gear, and World of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck on the Genesis.

The Magical Quest series
Mickey also starred in a trilogy of games produced by Capcom for the Super Nintendo in the mid-1990s. These are The Magical Quest Starring Mickey Mouse in 1993, The Great Circus Mystery Starring Mickey and Minnie in 1994, and a third game starring Mickey and Donald, released only in Japan in 1995. All three games were later ported to the Game Boy Advance nine years after their original releases.

Epic Mickey
Epic Mickey will be released for the Nintendo Wii in the fall of 2010.

Disney Parks
Ever since Disneyland first opened in 1955, Mickey and the gang have been an important part of the Disney theme park experience. Today, they can be seen everyday in shows, parades, and meet-and-greet opportunities at all 11 Disney theme parks worldwide. Classic cartoons staring the beloved characters are also screened in the Main Street Cinema at Disneyland and the Town Square Exposition Hall at Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom. Back in Disneyland's old Adventure Thru Inner Space, most of the molecules were shaped around Mickey heads. In 2010, Disneyland experemented with a new meetable Mickey character with a high tech voice changer inside and moveable eyes and mouth.

Fantasmic!
Mickey appears in the nightime spectacular Fantasmic! In the show Mickey is the hero and must save the world of Disney from a group of Disney Villains led by The Queen. Mickey first appears at the very beginning as he is conducting water and expressing his powerful magic. Mickey is then taken into the cave of Wonders by Jafar, who turns into a snake in order to kill Mickey. Mickey then rubs the lamp (believing Genie will come and help) and it turns Jafar into a powerful Genie. Next Mickey must battle Maleficent as a dragon. Mickey uses the sword in the stone to defeat Maleficnet and the villains. Mickey then transforms into a sorcerer and express fireworks and water. Mickey then says Some imagination huh?, and with Mickey's famous laugh he disappears and the show ends.

Mickey's PhilharMagic
In Mickey's Philharmagic Mickey conducts an orchestra with the help of his sorcerer hat. Donald Duck accidntally lose the hat and goes through some of Disney's most famous films. Mickey retrieves the hat and puts an end to the trouble Donald starts.

Dream Along with Mickey
Mickey appears as the main character in Dream Along with Mickey. Mickey and Friends celebrate the world of dreams and try to help Donald relize people do believe in dreams. In the end Donald help Mickey defeat Maleficent along with her henchmen Captain Hook and Smee.

Catchphrases
Mickey like Donald and Goofy has many catchphrases. Some of Mickey's most famous catchphrases are Hey Everybody, See ya Real Soon and Hot Dog. Some of his other well known catchphrases are Golly and Oh my gosh!.

Filmography
List of Mickey Mouse Appearances