Young cartoonist Walter Elias Disney had just lost his animated creation, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, to his distributor, Charles Mintz, and Universal Pictures, through a copyright maneuver. It was the spring of 1928 when he traveled to New York City from his Los Angeles studio to receive the bad news that unless he agreed to a 20 percent cut in royalties, the rabbit was Mintz's. With just a skeleton staff of animators left after Mintz had slowly picked off his artists one by one by offering higher salaries, Disney surrendered Oswald. During the long train ride home, he was determined to find a replacement for the rabbit.
Reminded of a friendly rodent that shared his small Kansas City office years earlier, Walt sketched out a mouse on his notepad. Once back in L. A., he presented the drawings to his loyal head artist, Ub Iwerks. Since his studio was still obligated to churn out a few more Oswald cartoons under the old contract, Disney had Iwerks ensconced secretly in his office churning over 700 drawings a day to create a six-minute cartoon. For two weeks Iwerks, with the help of two other animators and Walt's wife Lillian and his sister-in-law Edna as inkers, the team on May 15, 1928, gathered an audience in a local theater that included some movie distributors and a MGM executive to view the mouse's movie debut, "Plane Crazy."
The mouse in the cartoon was Mickey. Disney originally called the critter Mortimer, but his wife Lillian suggested the name Mickey had a better sound to it. But Mickey's first animation didn't impress those in the movie industry in attendance. All agreed there was some nifty artwork, including containing camera movements, a first in cartoons. The innovative sequence appears when Mickey, dreaming to be the next Charles Lindbergh by flying his own airplane, chases Clarabelle the Cow down the street. The point of view of Mickey the pilot approaching the scampering cow from behind was made possible by Iwerks stacking up books closer to the camera with each frame. "Plane Crazy" also had the added bonus of showcasing for the first time Minnie Mouse, Mickey's girlfriend. When viewed by the regular viewers in the audience, they expressed their love for the short film. But Walt was told afterwards that the distributers and especially MGM's representative wasn't interested in it.
Reminded of a friendly rodent that shared his small Kansas City office years earlier, Walt sketched out a mouse on his notepad. Once back in L. A., he presented the drawings to his loyal head artist, Ub Iwerks. Since his studio was still obligated to churn out a few more Oswald cartoons under the old contract, Disney had Iwerks ensconced secretly in his office churning over 700 drawings a day to create a six-minute cartoon. For two weeks Iwerks, with the help of two other animators and Walt's wife Lillian and his sister-in-law Edna as inkers, the team on May 15, 1928, gathered an audience in a local theater that included some movie distributors and a MGM executive to view the mouse's movie debut, "Plane Crazy."
The mouse in the cartoon was Mickey. Disney originally called the critter Mortimer, but his wife Lillian suggested the name Mickey had a better sound to it. But Mickey's first animation didn't impress those in the movie industry in attendance. All agreed there was some nifty artwork, including containing camera movements, a first in cartoons. The innovative sequence appears when Mickey, dreaming to be the next Charles Lindbergh by flying his own airplane, chases Clarabelle the Cow down the street. The point of view of Mickey the pilot approaching the scampering cow from behind was made possible by Iwerks stacking up books closer to the camera with each frame. "Plane Crazy" also had the added bonus of showcasing for the first time Minnie Mouse, Mickey's girlfriend. When viewed by the regular viewers in the audience, they expressed their love for the short film. But Walt was told afterwards that the distributers and especially MGM's representative wasn't interested in it.