Cultural: Story of a Black Mouse

By Lorena Solari


He is part of our childhood. Who doesn´t remember this little mouse and his friends? His is known by our parents, grandparents, and so on. He has been everything one can imagine, a sportsman, farmer, sailor, cowboy, pianist, car driver, and has even met Santa Clause! He is Mickey Mouse, created in 1928 by Walt Disney, and has traveled by the entire world.

Some stories affirm that Walt Disney was in a train when he created this humanized body mouse, and his real name was Mortimer Mouse, but his wife preferred to name it Mickey. He made only a draft of Mickey Mouse, and his friend, Ub Iwerks was in charge of making the final design of the cartoon. “Its head was a circle with another circle like a snout. Its body was like a pear and had a long tale; its feet where pipe tubes and we put them in big shoes to give it the aspect of a boy wearing its father footwear.” (Walt Disney).

At first, Mickey was just Black, with black dots as eyes, it had no gloves, and he wore short pants. Mickey Mouse´s first appearance was “Plane Crazy” in May1928, with the appearance of Mickey and Minnie, its girlfriend. It was co-directed by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks. “Plane Crazy”, had duration of just 6 minutes, was mute (the sound was added years later), and did not succeed as it was expected. Disney made two more short films “The Gallopin´ Gaucho”, and Mickey´s first succeed, “Steamboat Willie,” made in November 1928. Disney then created “The Opry House” where he added the white gloves, that at first where made to distinguish the hands of his characters, who were all black. By the year 1930, Mickey was the idol from kids and adults, President Roosevelt and King George V of England demanded Mickey´s short films previous to their private film sessions. 

While the years past, Disney industry kept growing and growing: during the year of the Great Depression, Walt Disney created Mickey´s short film: “Jungle Rhythm”, situated in Africa. Mickey´s first appearance in colors was in 1935, in the film “The Band Concert,” it was as good that the League of Nations declared Mickey Mouse “international symbol of good will.” Mickey became more popular every day around the 5 continents. But this popularity started to decay: around the last years of the 1930s people started to prefer long films, and Mickey´s friend, Donald Duck, started to steal Mickey´s popularity; reason why, Walt Disney created Mickey´s short film “Fantasy,” which defined Mickey as the most important icon of Disney´s study.

With the passing of the years, Mickey has changed a lot. He has been everything one can imagine, and has taught us many things. It´s impossible to forget the magic films we have seen since we were kids. Mickey Mouse has been in more than 120 animations, and is nowadays the principal character of Disneyland, Disney World, and Disney Channel. He has been the image of lots of brands. Walt Disney has proved us that dreams really do come true: "I only hope that we never lose sight of one thing – that it was all started by a mouse." (Walt Disney).


Video Plane Crazy Mickey Mouse Classic Walt Disney 1928 Sound Cartoon