Mickey: The Story of a Mouse (2022)
Mickey: The Story of a Mouse is a documentary film directed by Jeff Malmberg. The documentary had its world premiere at the South by Southwest film festival on March 19, 2022, and had its worldwide release on November 18, 2022, on Disney+, on the same day as Mickey Mouse's 94th birthday.
Category
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Short filmTranscript
00:00:00 [ Music ]
00:00:05 >> During the last few years, we've ventured into a lot of different fields.
00:00:09 We've had the opportunity to meet and work with a lot of wonderful people.
00:00:13 I only hope that we never lose sight of one thing, that it was all started by a mouse.
00:00:18 [ Music ]
00:00:35 >> It's magical to be able to channel all of your energy at this character.
00:00:40 We can fill with all of our hopes and dreams and all of our love and all of the innocence that we experience and then eventually lose and would like back.
00:00:54 [ Music ]
00:00:59 >> Hi Maggie. Hi Maggie. Maggie.
00:01:04 [ Music ]
00:01:24 >> Mickey was everywhere when I was a kid. He was just like part of my DNA.
00:01:29 [ Music ]
00:01:32 >> He's plastered over every T-shirt, every billboard. He speaks multiple languages.
00:01:38 >> He's everywhere.
00:01:39 >> Everywhere.
00:01:40 >> It's overwhelming. Like leave me alone.
00:01:43 >> Who's a little -- oh no. Okay, let's do that again.
00:01:46 [ Music ]
00:01:48 >> What is it about Mickey Mouse?
00:01:51 >> He started as this simple character, but over time he gets so big that he becomes this reflection of who we are, the good and the bad.
00:02:07 >> How is that even possible with this little mouse?
00:02:25 [ Music ]
00:02:53 >> The life and ventures of Mickey Mouse have been closely bound up with my own personal and professional life.
00:03:05 He still speaks for me and I still speak for him.
00:03:23 [ Music ]
00:03:52 >> Stop it.
00:03:55 [ Music ]
00:03:59 >> Where's that one the other day? I haven't worn that in a while.
00:04:06 >> When I first got to the studio to do the genie in Aladdin, I didn't know what to expect with Mickey.
00:04:16 It felt like he was encased in amber where they don't want to do anything with him, you know.
00:04:25 There we are.
00:04:36 >> Sometimes people ask, aren't you unhappy that you're not on one of the features right now?
00:04:43 I said, I'm getting to animate Mickey Mouse.
00:04:49 >> Walt used to say, don't forget, it was all started by a mouse.
00:04:53 >> No matter what we're capable of doing now, Mickey takes us back to our origins.
00:05:12 >> This process of hand-drawn hasn't really changed for a century.
00:05:18 You know, the process of drawing the characters is exactly the same.
00:05:25 But back when the great Mickey cartoons were being made, the Disney studio had maybe 100 animators to do Mickey and his pals.
00:05:36 These days, to do a new hand-drawn Mickey project like the one we're starting now, we have three.
00:05:44 Me, Mark Han and Randy Haycock.
00:05:48 Randy did characters like Clayton and Tarzan.
00:05:52 He did a lot of Pocahontas.
00:05:55 And then Mark Han is really known as the princess guy.
00:06:01 And the list is endless.
00:06:05 We've always wanted to do something where we see all the different Mickeys together.
00:06:10 That's never really been seen in a film before.
00:06:14 So that's what we're doing on this project.
00:06:17 And we're calling it Mickey in a Minute.
00:06:21 Where he's walking down the hallways of Disney animation and he gets sucked into a whirlwind that kind of sends him through his most iconic moments.
00:06:31 Until finally he gets spit out at the end as Spoonboat Willie.
00:06:37 It's going to be a lot of work. I mean, basically we're going to be making about 1,500 original drawings of Mickey for about one minute's worth of screen time.
00:06:48 But trust me, it'll be worth it. You'll see.
00:06:54 And this is Mickey as he was designed by Walt and Ub Iwerks.
00:07:02 Not exactly the Mickey we recognize today, but our kind of proto-Mickey.
00:07:08 And yes, he still had a tail.
00:07:10 Whoop! There we go.
00:07:17 It was a beautiful farm in Marceline, Missouri. 48 acres.
00:07:22 My chore was to keep the horse going around in a circle and then part of it would be feeding the cane in the squeezer. You see?
00:07:29 Walt lived here in Marceline for five years.
00:07:33 It was a short amount of time.
00:07:35 But those very few years were Walt's childhood.
00:07:39 His family was poor and his father, Elias, was extremely strict.
00:07:46 And so art for Walt was an escape.
00:07:55 Walt would take his drawing materials and go down to a special tree.
00:08:02 His dreaming tree.
00:08:05 He would spend hours under that tree.
00:08:07 He was just laying in the grass, a thing that Walt called belly botany.
00:08:12 I don't know if you've ever laid in tall grass on a farm, but there's a lot that's happening around you.
00:08:21 Whatever happened to run or crawl or fly by, he would quickly try to sketch.
00:08:32 His little sister told me Walt would do a series of drawings for her and then he would make a really good story up to go along with it.
00:08:44 I can just see those gray juices happening underneath his tree.
00:08:53 It was that happy place.
00:08:57 It was where that spark happened.
00:09:12 I love it.
00:09:14 That's cool.
00:09:15 I like that.
00:09:19 All the possibilities of what you would want on your arm.
00:09:22 Why did you choose Mickey Mouse?
00:09:24 I feel like blood, sweat and tears was put into Mickey Mouse by Walt.
00:09:29 He was dirt poor.
00:09:31 Dirt poor with a dream.
00:09:33 Just like, nope, I believe in that mouse.
00:09:35 Right.
00:09:36 You get a lot of people coming in here asking about Disney and stuff.
00:09:39 Yeah, there's a few.
00:09:41 Correct me if I'm wrong.
00:09:42 This was Walt and Roy's studio in the early 20s?
00:09:45 Yeah.
00:09:46 This is the place.
00:09:49 I know way too much about the history of this now, you know, with Walt and his brother starting the Disney Brothers studio here.
00:09:59 Walt was chilling right here.
00:10:02 Right here.
00:10:05 And now this little rad dude is so imprinted in everybody's brains, like we all got a weird different feeling about it.
00:10:18 Mickey Mouse to me is light.
00:10:20 There's like a lot of dark in the world.
00:10:22 Especially nowadays things tend to be getting a little bit darker.
00:10:27 And he's just keeping hope in the world.
00:10:35 So this is the very first officially licensed Disney book ever published.
00:10:39 Imaginatively titled Mickey Mouse book.
00:10:42 What you've got in here are games.
00:10:45 Probably the most interesting though is the story of how Mickey meets Walt.
00:10:50 Falling from Mouse Fairyland, crash landing on Walt's roof.
00:10:55 Santa Claus, Mickey hops down the chimney.
00:10:58 Who does he meet in the house?
00:11:00 None other than Walt Disney himself.
00:11:03 Walt loved to tell tall tales and the story about how Mickey came to be.
00:11:07 He told it in different versions over the years himself.
00:11:10 Walt, you're a man who's famous for many things.
00:11:13 Not the least of which is building a better mouse.
00:11:16 Mickey Mouse popped out of my mind on a train ride from Manhattan to Hollywood.
00:11:21 At a time when the business fortunes of my brother Roy and myself were at lowest ebb.
00:11:26 And disaster seemed right around the corner.
00:11:30 Walt was in trouble.
00:11:33 Before Mickey Mouse, Walt and his studio created Oswald the Lucky Rabbit.
00:11:38 I'd argue that Oswald is certainly a lucky rabbit but the luck isn't always good.
00:11:44 The actual Oswald contract does not give Walt Disney the rights to that character.
00:11:50 So Walt Disney was pushed out of the equation.
00:11:55 It was all about that mythological moment when he's on the train and he's been told his entire studio has been hired away from him.
00:12:04 That Oswald doesn't belong to him anymore and it's crushing.
00:12:09 But out of that comes hope.
00:12:12 He said, "Okay, we've lost everything. Let's start again."
00:12:17 [music]
00:12:19 Over the years, with the retelling of that story on the train, over and over again, and the different inflections, it becomes myth.
00:12:33 This is myth-making.
00:12:35 Walt realizes the importance of linking himself to that mouse.
00:12:42 They're developing at the same time.
00:12:45 Legend has it that on that train, Walt wanted to call Mickey Mortimer Mouse, but his wife Lillian suggested Mickey Mouse.
00:12:56 I think that's probably one of the most important decisions anybody ever made for a character.
00:13:04 But they still had a few Oswalds to produce, so they couldn't necessarily broadcast it far and wide that they were going to be working on a new character.
00:13:14 So that very first Mickey Mouse short was made in their garage.
00:13:18 Walt had to turn to the people that he trusted the most.
00:13:22 Of course, you have Ub Iwerks, Walt's lead animator.
00:13:26 Walt and Ub complimented each other.
00:13:30 You know, Ub could do things that Walt could not.
00:13:33 First of all, animate like a demon.
00:13:36 It was said he could do 700 drawings a day, which is unbelievable.
00:13:42 Ub Iwerks, meanwhile, remembered a different scenario where Walt came back on the train and said, "We need a new character."
00:13:49 And they tried out various animals and settled on a mouse.
00:13:52 Either way, there's this famous sheet of different designs of Mickey.
00:13:59 And two of them are circled.
00:14:09 Does it matter if Mickey was created on a train or at an animator's desk?
00:14:14 What matters is that hope from despair story that we can all resonate with and go, "You know what? Yeah, I've got to pick myself back up by my bootstraps and keep going because if Walt can do it, I can do it."
00:14:34 In so precarious a world of new possibilities and increased competition, I had planned to go all out unsound, and those plans came very near spelling a major disaster for us.
00:14:45 Mickey was not an overnight success.
00:14:50 Walt had made two cartoons prior to Steamboat Willie, Plane Crazy and Gallop and Goucho, and he couldn't find a distributor for them.
00:15:01 And then came a very important breakthrough in 1927.
00:15:05 As sound came in, he set out to make the first sync sound cartoon this country had ever seen.
00:15:13 To launch our picture impressively, I'd hired a full New York orchestra with a famous director to do the recording.
00:15:23 The upshot was that I had to borrow on my automobile and Roy and I had to mortgage our homes as well to cover the cost of that first synchronization for Steamboat Willie.
00:15:32 And everybody had to synchronize. Hit that thing right on the button. And we had a way of doing it, though. We had a little kind of a little beat that worked up and down.
00:15:42 And they were all musicians working for me, so they could follow those beats. And when it came to a certain number of beats, they would go, "Ah!" or they would go, "Bang!" or they would go this or they would pop one of these pop guns, you know.
00:15:53 And when it was finished, the picture wouldn't synchronize with the sound. And we had to do it all over.
00:16:03 Finally, when all of those elements came together, that put Mickey into the stratosphere.
00:16:13 [MUSIC]
00:16:17 It had to be this thing that you would never forget the experience of having.
00:16:41 The kid, if it was a bang, it was a hell of a success.
00:16:46 And nothing would ever be the same after that.
00:16:52 With Steamboat Willie, people would probably just be floored by what they saw. You know, when this movie came out, there was nothing like this ever done.
00:17:06 And once in a while in our lifetime, we see a movie like that, and it changes everything. I mean, for me, in my childhood, it was like Star Wars.
00:17:15 And I think Steamboat Willie probably had a similar impact.
00:17:21 Mickey became a movie star on the same plane as Douglas Fairbanks or Charlie Chaplin.
00:17:34 [MUSIC]
00:17:36 He was somebody they went to the movies to see.
00:17:40 And as his character developed, he became a rescuer to Minnie Mouse.
00:17:53 A hero stacked up against Peg Leg Pete.
00:18:00 And a very resourceful character.
00:18:03 It's no accident that Walt Disney was the first voice of Mickey Mouse.
00:18:10 Yeah, me I guess.
00:18:12 The optimist. The curious kid who never grew up.
00:18:17 The guy who was intrepid, who never let anything stand in his way.
00:18:22 That's Mickey Mouse. But that's also Walt Disney.
00:18:27 [MUSIC]
00:18:30 And in a way, Mickey's earliest cartoons are really from Walt's memories as a farm boy.
00:18:39 Walt poured himself into this character, and the character embodies Walt Disney himself.
00:18:46 So you cannot separate the two.
00:18:52 In the early shorts, there was a sense of adventure.
00:18:55 A sense of Walt doing something exciting that somebody else wasn't doing.
00:19:01 Fairbanks and Chaplin were such fans that they both made arrangements that several of their films be paired with Mickey Mouse shorts at their premieres.
00:19:13 [MUSIC]
00:19:17 [MUSIC]
00:19:19 "What? No Mickey Mouse?" was the complaint of people going to a movie theater and realizing they're not showing a Mickey Mouse cartoon.
00:19:29 What's wrong with you people?
00:19:31 He really was a sensation. And the merchandise showed up everywhere.
00:19:37 And that was a brand new thing.
00:19:39 And there were a couple companies that were on the verge of bankruptcy, and Mickey Mouse actually saved those companies from disappearing.
00:19:46 What would another culture from another planet think of us?
00:19:51 Seeing Mickey on everything.
00:19:53 They might say, "Take me to your leader," and it would be Mickey.
00:19:57 [LAUGHS]
00:19:58 [MUSIC]
00:20:00 Let me get this out of the way.
00:20:06 And here it is, folks. Mouse heaven.
00:20:09 I collect images that embody a life force.
00:20:15 Now, the more abstract they are, the more they are imbued with that life force.
00:20:21 Because you offer just a bare essence, so you can clothe it in anything your imagination can bring forth.
00:20:28 Which kind of gets us up to Mickey.
00:20:32 Mickey is pure, absolute geometry made up of nothing but circles.
00:20:38 This total abstraction is probably the most universal symbol ever created by man or mouse.
00:20:47 Three simple circles, a quarter and two dimes, and it's recognizable the world over.
00:20:55 What I've collected is simply the history of this phenomenon.
00:21:00 So, I think if an archaeologist was to find this place in the far, far distant future,
00:21:07 they would be convinced that this was a shrine to the great god Mickey.
00:21:12 [DRUM ROLL]
00:21:16 Welcome to Earth. I have to tell you about this mouse that will change your life.
00:21:24 He's a mouse. What that wears clothes, though?
00:21:27 White gloves, black fur, I guess it would be. Red pants, yellow shoes.
00:21:32 Big ears, you know, and he's always smiling.
00:21:35 He has a very particular voice.
00:21:38 Oh, boy!
00:21:40 He has a girlfriend, Minnie.
00:21:42 He likes Minnie, I know that.
00:21:44 I think that they're dating because there's no ring on them.
00:21:48 And then his other friends are Daisy, Goofy, Donald.
00:21:53 And he has a dog named Pluto.
00:21:55 Not to be confused with Goofy because Goofy is also sort of a dog, but he's more of a dog man.
00:22:01 And that's just the world we're living in.
00:22:04 Everybody!
00:22:06 In Spain, the name Mickey Mouse is Mickey Mouse.
00:22:09 Mickey Mouse, yes.
00:22:11 The same.
00:22:13 Mickey and I just became inseparable.
00:22:16 We love a mouse. How crazy is that? That's a little absurd.
00:22:21 [music]
00:22:24 Head out.
00:22:27 Head out.
00:22:29 Feet.
00:22:31 [dog barking]
00:22:33 [music]
00:22:35 In the world's film capital is the studio that stands as a monument to the great genius of Walt Disney,
00:22:41 master of a new form of popular art.
00:22:44 That extra revenue from the Mickey Mouse merchandise really allowed the studio to experiment and improve.
00:22:52 First thing I did when I got a little money, we set up our own art school.
00:22:59 Art schools that existed then worked with the static figure.
00:23:03 Now we were dealing in motion, movement, and the flow of movement, the flow of things, you know.
00:23:08 Action, reaction, all of that.
00:23:11 I put all my artists back in school.
00:23:15 And out of that school have come the artists that now make up my staff here,
00:23:19 and more than that, the artists that make up most all of the cartoon outfits in Hollywood.
00:23:25 Mickey has taken the world by storm.
00:23:28 The great thinkers, the great artists are all stepping back and acknowledging
00:23:32 that this is something otherworldly and important.
00:23:35 [music]
00:23:42 What is the power behind this character?
00:23:45 [music]
00:24:02 I think Mickey appeals for a lot of different reasons.
00:24:06 But if I had to pick one, it's the way he moves.
00:24:11 [music]
00:24:14 It's how he does things that make him compelling to watch.
00:24:21 [music]
00:24:23 He has a spirit to him dating all the way back to Steamboat Willie
00:24:28 that is playful, inventive, resourceful, and fun.
00:24:34 But his imperfections are as much a part of his character as anything else.
00:24:40 [music]
00:24:44 Mickey wasn't perfect, but he would always find a resourceful way to get out of situations.
00:24:52 [music]
00:24:57 His movement is defining who he is,
00:25:01 and that is what the Disney Studio has specialized in ever since.
00:25:08 You're not just creating movement for movement's sake.
00:25:12 You're creating movement that defines that individual's personality.
00:25:18 [music]
00:25:25 Mickey, Moo-moo, la-la-la-la-la-la.
00:25:30 [music]
00:25:35 [crying]
00:25:38 People tend to forget that Mickey Mouse started in the Roaring Twenties,
00:25:42 but almost immediately a depression fell on the United States.
00:25:47 America, the land of shattered dreams, a place of deep despair and real fear.
00:25:54 Millions of Americans homeless, hungry, and without hope.
00:26:01 Because of the crisis, the majority of kids were spending their time without parents.
00:26:06 They were left free to do what they wanted during the day,
00:26:10 and movies were the cheapest entertainment you could get for a child.
00:26:14 So if you're a kid, the one thing you could be guaranteed of was a Saturday matinee.
00:26:21 That's the highlight of your week.
00:26:24 [music]
00:26:33 I fell in love with Mickey because I went to the movies almost every day
00:26:38 with my sister and brother, and you had a double feature and a cartoon in the middle.
00:26:44 So you were there for hours out of the hands of your parents.
00:26:51 And there was a cartoon, and when I saw that cartoon,
00:26:54 first a big head would appear with radiant lights coming out of it.
00:26:59 [music]
00:27:04 I remember my sister saying, "We knew it was coming,"
00:27:06 and Jackie would grab you by one arm and I would grab you by the other arm,
00:27:10 and you went into a frenzy.
00:27:14 [music]
00:27:38 I get the goosebumps every time.
00:27:40 [music]
00:27:44 Mickey becomes the icon of how to truly survive the Great Depression.
00:27:50 The American dream has suffered, but Mickey is able to bring that back.
00:27:56 He's able to return us to a sense of perseverance.
00:28:02 [music]
00:28:04 There's no other character having that grip on a mass conscience.
00:28:09 That popularity spins out into things like the Mickey Mouse clubs,
00:28:13 where kids could get together and watch Mickey cartoons together and laugh together.
00:28:18 [music]
00:28:34 And now they're all waiting for Mickey himself.
00:28:38 Here he comes.
00:28:40 [music]
00:28:46 Mickey weathers the Depression, but he's got to change and transform,
00:28:52 because America and Mickey, they change together.
00:28:56 [music]
00:29:15 There's almost 100 years of Disney animation history within this building.
00:29:21 We have approximately 65 million pieces of art in our collection,
00:29:26 and every box holds a spark of creativity.
00:29:32 So, here we've got Steamboat Willie.
00:29:36 Ah, that's a nice one.
00:29:38 Mickey as he's falling in the soap bucket.
00:29:43 It's so simple. You look at the hands.
00:29:47 They almost look like just little pinwheels.
00:29:50 Yeah, it's the spirit of Mickey, just really simplified to an essence.
00:29:58 You'll be able to see an evolution of Mickey here.
00:30:03 So we're going five years later.
00:30:05 So you can see there's a little bit more to him.
00:30:08 It's the same character, but you can tell that a different animator did this.
00:30:16 The hands, for example, they're out of the white gloves.
00:30:23 And this Mickey is just that much more three-dimensional and organic.
00:30:32 You would take an animator's drawing of Mickey,
00:30:35 put it on your light box, and then improve it.
00:30:39 Improve it by making that pose stronger,
00:30:43 making that line of action more defined.
00:30:47 But there's still something personal in it that you're bringing to the table.
00:30:56 The very first animation I did here at the studio back in 19--
00:31:00 we won't talk about that. It was a long time ago.
00:31:02 But the very first animation I did was Mickey Mouse.
00:31:06 I felt it then, and I feel it now with this short.
00:31:10 And we're able to keep him alive, and we're doing it in the way Mickey should be done.
00:31:19 I don't know if I can flip these because the papers are kind of thin.
00:31:24 The character of Mickey, the personality of Mickey,
00:31:28 being hand-drawn is part of who he is.
00:31:31 And if people recognize that, you know,
00:31:35 there will always be a reason for us to keep drawing him.
00:31:41 And those early animators, as crude as it was,
00:31:44 they were discovering the language of animation.
00:31:49 Well, Walt, how is Snow White of the Seven Dwarfs coming along?
00:31:53 Oh, it's come along very well.
00:31:56 It's going to run for one hour and a half.
00:31:58 No cartoon production has ever run that long before.
00:32:01 That's why we feel justified in putting $1 million into it.
00:32:05 In terms of animation, Mickey opened a lot of doors for Walt,
00:32:10 and Walt was always looking for new doors.
00:32:13 You know, it makes me dizzy to think of the millions of drawings
00:32:16 necessary for a production of this kind.
00:32:19 Disney needs to expand hugely.
00:32:22 And so the studio goes from a small group to 300 people.
00:32:27 And that change really transforms the studio.
00:32:32 No longer can Walt be involved in every Mickey short.
00:32:36 His entire focus shifts over to Snow White.
00:32:39 Snow White was not taking place in the same universe that Mickey lived in.
00:32:45 But at the same time, Mickey never goes away.
00:32:48 He's always right there by Walt's side
00:32:50 whenever he takes on a new enthusiasm.
00:32:55 [pages turning]
00:32:58 Mickey Mouse is probably the most difficult character to ink
00:33:06 because of all the curves.
00:33:09 That's the most difficult part of inking is inking circles.
00:33:12 And Mickey Mouse is full of circles.
00:33:15 [music playing]
00:33:19 [music playing]
00:33:22 Your job as an inker is translating the animator's work onto the cell.
00:33:30 You don't have any room to go outside of that
00:33:33 because if you do that, you change their intention.
00:33:36 You change their work.
00:33:39 They say it takes about 15 years of consistent inking.
00:33:45 Eight hours a day, five times a week for 15 years to become a master inker.
00:33:51 There's only a few of us in the ink and paint department now,
00:33:54 but it used to be hundreds, and for a long time, it was all women.
00:33:58 The thousands of pencil drawings go to the inking department.
00:34:01 Here, hundreds of pretty girls cover the drawings
00:34:03 with sheets of transparent celluloid.
00:34:05 Then they painstakingly trace every line of every drawing in ink,
00:34:09 following exactly in every detail the original animation drawing.
00:34:13 The role of the inkers and painters gets glossed over
00:34:17 into this log line of pretty girls who traced and colored.
00:34:23 When what they were accomplishing was mind-blowing,
00:34:29 these women were artists in their own right.
00:34:32 In the studio paint laboratory,
00:34:34 all colors used are made up from secret formulas.
00:34:37 Expert chemists develop more than 1,500 different shades of color
00:34:41 to paint the seventh wall.
00:34:43 Color forever transforms the world of Mickey Mouse.
00:34:55 Pastel is his flesh, his tongue,
00:35:01 marigold his shoes, lobster his pants.
00:35:05 We are not really brushing.
00:35:08 It's actually dropping a glob of paint,
00:35:11 and then we just push it to the edges
00:35:14 because we want to make the paint look as opaque as possible.
00:35:18 When I'm inking or painting Mickey Mouse,
00:35:24 it just takes me back to when Walt first created Mickey.
00:35:35 So now that we're done with it, this is what it looks like from the front.
00:35:39 All ready?
00:35:46 Okay, let's go!
00:35:48 Once Mickey becomes an international children's star,
00:35:56 there's certain things he cannot do.
00:35:59 Parents of Mickey's younger viewers wanted Mickey to clean up his act
00:36:03 and not be as bad an influence.
00:36:06 He can't be a bully, he can't punch people,
00:36:10 he can't behave in any way that would be considered bad behavior.
00:36:15 It pushed Mickey into a straight man role
00:36:21 where almost any kind of flaw is seen as out of character.
00:36:30 So Donald Duck appears.
00:36:33 The duck came along as a result of too many taboos put onto Mickey Mouse.
00:36:45 People didn't feel that Mickey could blow his top like the duck.
00:36:49 He had to maintain a certain dignity.
00:36:52 So in order to give ourselves a latitude,
00:36:57 we created this terrible-tempered Mr. Duck.
00:37:00 Who gets stuck with all the bad luck?
00:37:03 No one but Donald Duck!
00:37:06 Story after story was rejected from Mickey
00:37:13 because he was perceived as being a little bit too silly in them.
00:37:17 They found out Mickey is probably best paired with Donald and Goofy.
00:37:22 A moose!
00:37:24 A moose!
00:37:25 And have this little trio.
00:37:27 Hot dog! Now do your stuff! I'll take care of the rest!
00:37:31 There are many, many great ones that include the three of them
00:37:35 that work really well because their personalities rub off against each other.
00:37:38 Lend a hand, me hearties!
00:37:40 Quack, quack!
00:37:42 Quack, quack, quack, quack!
00:37:45 But it became evident that Donald is getting Mickey's anger
00:37:49 and Goofy gets Mickey's silly side.
00:37:53 And if Mickey is the responsible one, he pretty much has to take a back seat.
00:37:58 But then where does that leave Mickey?
00:38:19 This part of the short that I'm animating is from The Brave Little Tailor.
00:38:24 He's trying to get his arm out of his sleeve, can't get it.
00:38:34 And then Mickey comes into his arm right here.
00:38:38 And I've got to get all that done in 297 frames,
00:38:45 so I've only got 100 frames to get the rest of it.
00:38:49 (CAMERA SHUTTER CLICKING)
00:38:51 I think I was here 25 years before I actually animated Mickey.
00:38:56 It's a shame, because, you know, you work at Disney.
00:38:59 You should be animating Mickey all the time, I think.
00:39:03 When Eric gave me the sections that I was going to do,
00:39:07 I got really excited because that was my favorite Mickey
00:39:10 that made me want to be an animator.
00:39:12 It came at me from the right, from the left, right, left, left, right!
00:39:15 So that was exciting and intimidating all at the same time.
00:39:19 As Mickey evolved, what used to be his eye,
00:39:26 when you get to Fantasia, just became this little thing here.
00:39:31 And so you would end up with the pupils.
00:39:34 Fantasia Mickey's important because with the whites of his eyes like this,
00:39:39 it made him a lot more expressive.
00:39:43 And I'm going to stretch his ears a little more here,
00:39:46 because he just became a little more pliable from this point on.
00:39:50 We wouldn't have a Fantasia if it weren't for Walt's concern for Mickey Mouse.
00:40:09 He was worried that Donald and Goofy were overtaking Mickey's popularity.
00:40:13 And he wanted a vehicle to bring Mickey back in the limelight again.
00:40:19 And so originally Fantasia was just going to be the sorcerer's apprentice short.
00:40:27 And it then blossomed into an entire innovative feature film
00:40:34 that's still never been equaled.
00:40:38 Fantasia is something that was a huge gamble.
00:40:41 You have so many different styles.
00:40:44 It's something that in theory shouldn't work.
00:40:47 The greatest thrill of his acting career happened on the night of November 13, 1940,
00:40:53 at the same theater where he made his first appearance
00:40:56 as a ragged, shoeless mouse almost ten years before.
00:41:00 [Music]
00:41:22 Some of the old animators said that when they heard that Walt wanted Mickey
00:41:27 to be on this rock conducting the universe,
00:41:31 they thought he'd gotten kind of crazy.
00:41:33 Because Mickey Mouse, after all, is a cartoon character.
00:41:35 You don't conduct the universe.
00:41:37 [Music]
00:41:46 Mickey conducting the universe, you can translate to Walt conducting his own universe.
00:41:51 Because by that time his company had grown.
00:41:53 Thousands and thousands of people were working at the studio.
00:41:56 [Music]
00:41:58 So I think Walt became Mickey then.
00:42:00 [Music]
00:42:12 There's some scenes in Sorcerer's Apprentice where he knows he's screwed up
00:42:16 in front of the sorcerer.
00:42:18 The subtlety that they get on his face, I think that's worth a character.
00:42:25 It is absolute peak of perfection.
00:42:29 [Music]
00:42:32 Artistically, Walt achieved everything he wanted to with Fantasia.
00:42:36 [Music]
00:42:38 But when the movie came out, it was a failure.
00:42:42 Artistic success, financial failure.
00:42:44 Certainly an artistic success. It was a magnificent feature.
00:42:47 Well, some people would question that too.
00:42:51 [Music]
00:42:53 Fantasia was Mickey's culmination and his termination.
00:42:58 That sorcerer swatted him with the broom and he scurried off of the stage
00:43:02 and he never quite came back again.
00:43:05 Well, so long. I'll be seeing you.
00:43:08 [Music]
00:43:22 The story of Walt and Mickey wasn't just one continual success after success.
00:43:28 It was stumble after stumble, failure after failure.
00:43:31 But Walt believed that if he worked hard enough, he could overcome every obstacle.
00:43:36 [Music]
00:43:40 There are two main animators who were really, really important in Mickey's life.
00:43:45 Ub Iwerks and Fred Moore.
00:43:49 It was Moore who redesigned the mouse more than once.
00:43:54 And after Fantasia, the studio is talking in terms of a comeback.
00:43:59 From Fantasia, Freddie Moore took him even further for even more fluidity and more character.
00:44:09 [Music]
00:44:11 They gave him a loose, rangy kind of movement and they had him deliberately clowning around.
00:44:16 Everything's kind of working to this S curve here.
00:44:22 I'll clean up your yard.
00:44:23 All right, but no more clowning.
00:44:26 They were trying to make Mickey funny again, you know.
00:44:29 Let him play a clown once in a while, like when he's doing his goofy dance in Mickey's birthday party
00:44:36 or when he's raking up leaves in the little whirlwind, you know.
00:44:40 It's okay for him to make mistakes or act foolish once in a while in that year.
00:44:48 The movement, the organic qualities, the fluidity of the animation was never better.
00:44:58 They could do with Mickey anything.
00:45:02 [Music]
00:45:07 This new Mickey seemed to hold the promise of freeing him from that role of being the serious, responsible one all the time.
00:45:17 But that version of Mickey didn't last long.
00:45:21 [Music]
00:45:41 The whole world is aflame.
00:45:44 All the peoples of the United Nations are fighting the savage enemies of freedom.
00:45:50 In Hollywood, Walt Disney has turned over almost the entire facilities of his studio
00:45:55 for the production of army and navy instructional films.
00:45:58 Four, eight, sequence one, let her roll.
00:46:01 Walt, being the patriot that he was, supported whatever the government and the military wanted.
00:46:06 Don't throw away that bacon grease.
00:46:08 Fats make glycerin and glycerin makes explosives.
00:46:13 Whether that was creating shorts for home front or propaganda purposes.
00:46:17 Will our own cities and homes be bombed?
00:46:20 Or training films and educational films for the military.
00:46:24 As the boat is pulled back, the magazine spring.
00:46:27 They were designing insignia for different military and auxiliary units around the world.
00:46:32 Over 1,200 were made.
00:46:35 You have groups writing to the studio saying, "We want Mickey to help get us through this."
00:46:41 Before the war, Hitler liked Mickey, Mussolini loved Mickey, Hirohito loved Mickey.
00:46:48 But when America enters the war, Mickey ends up banned.
00:46:54 The little fellow's grin was too infectious for Nazism.
00:46:58 Hitler thunderingly forbade his people to wear the then popular Mickey Mouse button in place of the swastika.
00:47:05 Hitler understood what Mickey symbolized.
00:47:09 Independence, liberty, freedom.
00:47:14 America is Mickey.
00:47:17 Commando Duck, here are your orders.
00:47:24 You will parachute at position B4.
00:47:28 But with the wartime shorts that are produced to create morale,
00:47:32 almost all of those are done by Donald Duck.
00:47:38 Mickey's presence in World War II tended to rely on the home front.
00:47:43 You see him on support posters, getting people to carpool, rationing, selling war bonds,
00:47:50 supporting the war effort, not from the front line, but at home.
00:47:54 If you were a child at that point in time or a family,
00:47:58 who better to look to than Mickey Mouse for that sense of comfort?
00:48:06 But you as a creator don't control what happens to your products.
00:48:11 You don't control what happens to your characters.
00:48:14 And so when wartime came, Mickey was already there.
00:48:19 There was a village in Poland in which the entire village was destroyed by the Nazis.
00:48:33 And there are images left from that village
00:48:37 that create a collection of the life of the village before the horror.
00:48:43 And in one of the photographs is Mickey.
00:48:49 And it's a shocking image within the Holocaust Museum to see this being Mickey Mouse
00:48:58 creating pleasure for this community right on the cusp of the war.
00:49:03 Children in the camps were dressed up in Mickey Mouse costume,
00:49:11 staging Mickey Mouse plays, drawing images of Mickey Mouse.
00:49:16 There was actually a comic strip written by someone in the camps
00:49:23 which covered the daily life through the perspective of Mickey Mouse.
00:49:28 And at the end he erases Mickey and says, "Mickey's gone, back to America."
00:49:36 And the person who drew the comic strip was then killed.
00:49:39 Mickey was in the Holocaust because Mickey represented a possibility of escape,
00:49:47 of joy, of happiness.
00:49:49 And those dictators understood very well that was not what they were offering.
00:49:54 You kind of have to think of Mickey as before World War II and then after World War II.
00:50:06 It's two very different careers.
00:50:08 Well, here we are, Pluto.
00:50:12 Oh, boy, what a green place.
00:50:14 Come on, Your Highness.
00:50:16 Utopia is yours!
00:50:19 This migration to the suburbs, variously estimated as from 40 to 80 million people.
00:50:30 Many people complain about the post-war Mickeys being domesticated.
00:50:35 But Walt Disney is a very different person.
00:50:38 Walt has a suburban house, has a very set conservative life, really.
00:50:44 And he's a person now who's gone through nervous breakdowns,
00:50:47 possibilities of financial ruin, a strike.
00:50:51 He gets involved in HUAC.
00:50:53 And that changes the Mickey we know.
00:50:57 It makes him a much more contained character than he was in the early years.
00:51:02 And America is moving in that direction, too.
00:51:07 We don't want chaos.
00:51:12 We want to feel safe.
00:51:14 We want to feel familiar and protected.
00:51:16 Okay, Pluto, let's get our drink.
00:51:18 1953 was his last short, and I've heard him described as just being a little man.
00:51:25 He acquired a decent house and a mortgage,
00:51:29 and he just became your suburban mouse next door.
00:51:34 There is a continuing trend to more time off,
00:51:40 which means more time to consume.
00:51:43 It's a completely new idea in automobiles,
00:51:48 the daring, dazzling 1955 Rambler.
00:51:51 Come on, Pluto, boy! We're going to see the 1955 Nash!
00:51:55 When I first saw these, I did a complete double-take.
00:52:00 Mickey was even drawn this way.
00:52:04 The new 1955 Rambler offers complete year-round air conditioning.
00:52:08 They're sending the signals that Mickey and Minnie are married,
00:52:11 and they're driving in the front of the Nash Rambler,
00:52:13 and there are their two kids sitting in the back,
00:52:15 and it's like, "Wait a minute!"
00:52:17 Live a little, drive a Rambler.
00:52:20 Apparently, they had made a few commercials before Walt saw them.
00:52:25 What had happened was a fan had written to him,
00:52:28 saying, "Dear Walt, what did you do with Mickey?"
00:52:32 And he found these commercials and looked at them,
00:52:37 and just went, "Stop. That's not Mickey.
00:52:41 We're not doing that anymore."
00:52:44 Walt was getting so busy that he didn't always have time
00:52:48 to stop what he was doing and go to the soundstage
00:52:51 and record Mickey's voice.
00:52:53 Doing that falsetto voice of Mickey was becoming harder.
00:52:57 He actually had to go to a doctor for the vocal strain.
00:53:04 Go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go.
00:53:07 - Hi. - How are you?
00:53:11 - Nice to meet you. - Nice to meet you.
00:53:13 Yeah, I'm excited to work on this.
00:53:14 You know, you could do this for a living.
00:53:16 - You sound just like him. - I would hope to.
00:53:19 Thanks, thanks.
00:53:21 So you've read the script.
00:53:25 It's kind of a fanciful trip through Mickey's career.
00:53:28 It starts with him walking through the halls of the animation studio,
00:53:32 and he's looking at his past glories on posters.
00:53:36 So why don't you go through it and we'll see what we get.
00:53:39 - All right. - Okay.
00:53:41 One, take one.
00:53:43 Aw, there's Pluto.
00:53:45 It's Minnie!
00:53:47 Ha, Pete.
00:53:49 Try another one where you're just a little more casual,
00:53:52 a little slower.
00:53:54 Hmm. Hmm.
00:53:56 Hmm, I remember that.
00:53:59 Those are great. Try one more that's just a...
00:54:02 Hmm. Hmm.
00:54:05 Hmm. Hmm.
00:54:07 The responsibility is huge
00:54:09 because I'm just playing a part in continuing this legacy
00:54:12 that started with Walt back in 1928.
00:54:15 Hey, Pluto, here she comes!
00:54:17 Hi, folks. Hi, folks.
00:54:19 This is Mickey. I'm Mickey, too.
00:54:21 You are? I thought so.
00:54:23 Jimmy McDonald, the second voice of Mickey, told Wayne,
00:54:26 "Remember, kid, you're only filling in for the boss."
00:54:28 And that's how I look at it.
00:54:30 Come on! We gotta hurry!
00:54:32 Come on! We gotta hurry!
00:54:34 Ha-ha! Ha-ha! Ha-ha! Gosh! Gosh!
00:54:37 Oh, gosh!
00:54:39 I will never forget that, essentially,
00:54:41 I'm emulating Walt's performance as Mickey.
00:54:43 Hot dog! Hot dog! Hot dog!
00:54:46 Hot dog!
00:54:48 - Last one. - Okay, nice.
00:54:50 You know, the coal is floating around him like asteroids,
00:54:53 so he's trying to grab for them.
00:54:55 Ha! Ha! Gotcha!
00:54:58 Great.
00:55:00 I'm sitting there, and I'm listening to Brett doing the voice,
00:55:04 and I'm thinking, "Oh, man, he's nailed it."
00:55:07 He's really got him.
00:55:09 And I hope that as well as Brett nails the voice,
00:55:12 we nail the visuals.
00:55:15 Working on this short is kind of Mickey heaven
00:55:19 because you get to play with all these different styles,
00:55:23 as do the other animators who are working on it.
00:55:26 So in this particular case,
00:55:28 this is a Mickey from the 1950s,
00:55:33 and this sequence was animated by John Lounsbury.
00:55:37 And to be honest,
00:55:39 this is the first time I've drawn a 1950s Johnny Lounsbury Mickey.
00:55:44 So, you know, I'm learning as I go.
00:55:48 [jazz music]
00:55:53 Yee-hee! Yee-hee!
00:55:58 - Hi, partners! - Hi, Mickey!
00:56:01 [laughs]
00:56:02 Well, this here's our roundup day,
00:56:04 so you all pretty much ready?
00:56:06 - Shown up! - Shown up.
00:56:09 Now, let's get along.
00:56:10 Most Hollywood producers were terrified of television.
00:56:15 Walt Disney and Mickey Mouse present the Mickey Mouse Club.
00:56:20 Walt goes in the opposite direction
00:56:23 and embraces television.
00:56:25 [chanting]
00:56:27 He relished the idea of getting into a new field like that.
00:56:31 Hi, Mouseketeers!
00:56:33 Hi!
00:56:35 What would you like to have me draw?
00:56:37 Mickey Mouse!
00:56:38 It made it a lot easier to have this audience identification
00:56:42 with a character that they had known for all those years
00:56:45 and had become a part of their lives.
00:56:47 [chanting]
00:56:50 Once again, Mickey provided the momentum
00:56:53 that made all of that possible.
00:56:55 Yay, Mickey!
00:56:57 Yay, Mickey!
00:57:00 Yay, Mickey Mouse!
00:57:03 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7.
00:57:10 Walt, I think, very quickly realized
00:57:14 that the power of his creations
00:57:16 had life beyond the walls of the studio.
00:57:18 And he would get fan mail.
00:57:20 People would ask, "How can I meet Mickey and Minnie?"
00:57:23 Welcome.
00:57:24 I guess you all know this little fella here.
00:57:27 It's an old partnership.
00:57:29 Mickey and I started out the first time many, many years ago.
00:57:34 We've had a lot of our dreams come true.
00:57:36 Now we want you to share with us
00:57:38 our latest and greatest dream.
00:57:41 That's it, right here.
00:57:44 Disneyland.
00:57:46 As soon as Walt starts on another path
00:57:56 and focuses his interest on Disneyland,
00:57:59 Mickey goes through a major transformation as well.
00:58:02 He has to become the kind of icon that Walt is becoming.
00:58:08 Disneyland is your land.
00:58:11 Here age relives fond memories of the past.
00:58:17 And here youth may savor the challenge and promise of the future.
00:58:22 There is something very personal about this whole quest
00:58:26 that Walt is on,
00:58:28 returning to his own sense of being a child.
00:58:35 And that Mickey Mouse,
00:58:38 the character that existed in his head and then on paper,
00:58:42 that existed on the big screen,
00:58:44 could now be as close to every visitor at the park as it was to him.
00:58:49 That's Mickey Mouse,
00:58:51 the inimitable little character that started this whole story
00:58:54 with Walt Disney 25 years ago.
00:58:57 The real star of it is Mickey Mouse.
00:59:01 I think there's an aura of magic around Mickey Mouse
00:59:04 that makes you feel safe.
00:59:06 And I think within that bubble, you are safe.
00:59:11 Mickey connects generations.
00:59:21 He connects our childhood memories to our adult memories.
00:59:30 And so when you encounter Mickey in the park,
00:59:34 you are not just you, you are six-year-old you.
00:59:38 And you are 80-year-old you in the future.
00:59:42 And you are with your grandmother and you are with your grandchildren
00:59:48 and you are participating in a timeless moment.
00:59:53 [music]
00:59:56 Mickey is the walking embodiment of Walt's philosophies,
01:00:05 and you can meet him still in the persona of Mickey.
01:00:09 I do remember driving up to it and having that feeling
01:00:17 that this is where Mickey lives.
01:00:20 Oh, this is the sacred space.
01:00:22 It's like he made Disneyland.
01:00:24 It's like he just smashed it, like, whoomp, whoomp.
01:00:27 At that time, I'm thinking he's like John Wayne
01:00:29 or he's like a real true movie star.
01:00:31 He spent his money, he bought this so people can come visit him.
01:00:34 And I actually got to meet him.
01:00:36 When I was five years old...
01:00:38 Five years old.
01:00:39 Maybe ten.
01:00:40 When I saw him in Tokyo Disneyland,
01:00:42 I really believed it's him.
01:00:45 He's right down here.
01:00:47 Actually, I think the sweetest one is me and Minnie down here.
01:00:50 It's kind of a big deal when I see Mickey.
01:00:53 My husband literally pushed me out of the way.
01:00:56 Push her out of the way so I can get to Mickey first.
01:00:59 Really happy when I got Mickey Mouse's signature.
01:01:03 Thank you for all the times you were there for me.
01:01:06 And you've always been my best friend.
01:01:09 I resonate with Mickey so well because there's an undeniable
01:01:12 piece of Walt's heart in Mickey Mouse.
01:01:16 [music fades]
01:01:19 Can you still make a noise like Mickey Mouse?
01:01:27 Well, Mickey used to talk like this, you know,
01:01:30 kind of a falsetto.
01:01:32 Of course, he's an old mouse now, and the falsetto's getting a little old.
01:01:36 [music]
01:01:40 [music]
01:01:43 Working with Walt, nobody had any idea he was ill.
01:01:52 Certainly not to the extent he was.
01:01:56 We simply didn't see it coming.
01:01:59 We never saw it coming.
01:02:06 After Walt's death, his wife Lillian said that
01:02:11 it was difficult for her to watch or listen to Mickey Mouse
01:02:16 because there was so much of Walt in him.
01:02:20 [music]
01:02:34 After his passing, they pretty much just closed up the office.
01:02:39 They'd go in and dust and things like that,
01:02:44 but it looks just the way it did.
01:02:47 We've tried to keep it as close to Walt as possible.
01:02:52 [music]
01:02:59 [music]
01:03:02 You know, with the passing of Walt,
01:03:09 the studio honestly did not know what to do with Mickey.
01:03:13 And for me, as a Disney storyteller, it was kind of eye-opening.
01:03:18 It almost seemed that they wanted to put the lid on Mickey.
01:03:27 Because Walt's values, Walt's ideas would be frozen in time.
01:03:33 The world changed, the culture changed,
01:03:49 and Mickey hadn't really changed with it.
01:03:53 Even Mickey Mouse has troubles these days.
01:03:56 A band of yippies threatened trouble in the park all day yesterday.
01:04:00 The yippies said they had come to liberate Mickey Mouse.
01:04:05 Mickey Mouse was still very much alive outside the Disney studio.
01:04:13 You know, you could not escape him.
01:04:20 Just like America splits in the '60s, Mickey Mouse splits as well.
01:04:25 There's kind of a surface meaning to him,
01:04:27 but the more you look into it and the more you think about it,
01:04:30 the more levels there are to this symbol.
01:04:34 So there are two Mickeys now--
01:04:36 mainstream Mickey and counterculture Mickey--
01:04:39 and those coexist in this one character.
01:04:45 # It's on America's tortured brow
01:04:49 # That Mickey Mouse has grown up a cow
01:04:53 # Now the workers have struck for fame... #
01:04:57 Mickey becomes this irresistible symbol to the counterculture.
01:05:01 So if you have an issue with your parents,
01:05:04 with authority, with America in general,
01:05:07 Mickey Mouse is your guide.
01:05:10 What Mickey provided was inspiration.
01:05:14 People were starting to use Mickey to reflect life around him
01:05:19 in all sorts of different ways.
01:05:22 And that really starts to deepen the character of Mickey Mouse.
01:05:28 I don't know why things persist in people's minds and memories.
01:05:35 Some things stick, some things don't.
01:05:38 I forgot I did that.
01:05:40 Mickey Mouse by Leonardo da Vinci.
01:05:44 All significant art represents an attempt to understand reality.
01:05:53 I was against the Vietnam War,
01:06:01 and I thought we could do a little film on Mickey Mouse in Vietnam.
01:06:09 I was looking for a symbol that would represent every man.
01:06:13 And Mickey was sort of universal,
01:06:16 and so much a part of the American ethos.
01:06:20 Part of the factor was his innocence.
01:06:24 By that point, Mickey really had become an emblem
01:06:27 of what America stood for.
01:06:30 But America is changing during that time,
01:06:33 and in that short film, Mickey somehow manages
01:06:36 to be the perfect symbol for that change,
01:06:39 of innocence lost during that war.
01:06:42 By that point, we're so identified with Mickey,
01:06:45 Mickey is so close to us, that there's no other character
01:06:48 or symbol that could sell that message so effectively.
01:06:52 [chanting]
01:06:55 ♪ M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E ♪
01:07:00 ♪ Mickey Mouse, Mickey Mouse, Mickey Mouse, Mickey Mouse ♪
01:07:04 Every version of Mickey is a version of all of us.
01:07:08 It's a version of the society that we have all come from.
01:07:12 And in the 1960s, America began to ask questions about itself,
01:07:18 questions that many had ignored,
01:07:22 and that included Mickey Mouse.
01:07:25 Just like Mickey Shorts in the '30s,
01:07:28 where Mickey's performing in blackface,
01:07:31 popular forms of entertainment show America
01:07:34 has been divided since the founding of this country.
01:07:38 ♪ And we're going out of town, we're going to war ♪
01:07:41 But it's difficult to see Mickey part of that conversation.
01:07:46 ♪ ♪
01:07:48 It's a disconnection that happens as a viewer
01:07:51 when I'm faced with that.
01:07:53 [screaming]
01:07:55 And those sorts of presentations.
01:07:58 And then, of course, you have many.
01:08:01 [chirping]
01:08:03 It's hard to watch those Mickey Shorts with our eyes today.
01:08:07 But the last thing we want to do is to ignore, to hide,
01:08:13 to somehow imagine those elements of our identity don't exist.
01:08:17 That version of Mickey doesn't exist.
01:08:20 He speaks to the racism within our own society.
01:08:24 It's easy to say it is what it is.
01:08:26 It's easy to say that it was just Walt being the man he was at the time.
01:08:30 But given the cultural power that Walt had,
01:08:34 some of the images he put out there with Mickey did damage.
01:08:39 Mickey's supposed to love everybody.
01:08:44 Clearly in these moments, he's not loving all of us.
01:08:48 He's not loving all of us.
01:08:52 And here is Mickey's official 50th anniversary portrait.
01:08:56 He's a little taller now, more grown up,
01:08:58 and at the temples, just a touch of gray.
01:09:02 ♪ Happy birthday, dear Mickey ♪
01:09:09 Mickey's physical appearance has changed somewhat
01:09:12 since Walt Disney created the mouse back in 1928.
01:09:15 And over the years, Mickey's tastes have changed as well.
01:09:18 But Mickey Mouse seems to stay up with the times,
01:09:21 and in the area of music, it is only natural
01:09:24 that Mickey Mouse would eventually go disco.
01:09:28 ♪ And the dancing people move in ♪
01:09:31 ♪ And you always bring down the house ♪
01:09:34 ♪ Disco Mickey Mouse ♪
01:09:39 Mickey is truly iconic in the sense that he cannot be beaten.
01:09:44 So yes, he's going to have a disco album that's horrible
01:09:47 and that comes 2 or 3 years after disco's peak,
01:09:50 but it's still going to be really popular and successful.
01:09:53 I loved the Mickey Mouse disco when I was younger,
01:09:56 and I would just, like, dance in my living room.
01:09:59 ♪ Watch out, watch out for Goofy ♪
01:10:01 ♪ Watch out for Goofy ♪
01:10:03 But then on the other side,
01:10:05 we see the punk appropriation of Mickey.
01:10:08 ♪ Mickey Mouse is dead, got kids in the head ♪
01:10:11 ♪ 'Cause people got too serious, they burned out what they said ♪
01:10:14 And we see the Ramones wearing Mickey Mouse T-shirts.
01:10:17 What are they doing?
01:10:19 ♪ 'Cause pleasure comes in halves ♪
01:10:21 I, myself, and my friends, when we were into punk and skateboarding,
01:10:25 would wear Mickey Mouse T-shirts.
01:10:27 There was a mixture of I am making fun of something,
01:10:31 I am also expressing admiration for something,
01:10:34 and my parents don't get that.
01:10:36 So it became kind of a secret language.
01:10:39 ♪ ...like friends of all, people, and animals ♪
01:10:43 ♪ Basically everything is a secret ♪
01:10:46 A lot of artists are beginning to incorporate Mickey as a way of saying,
01:10:50 if you're going to flood the culture with this kind of imagery,
01:10:53 then it becomes ours at some point.
01:10:55 ♪ And my name is Mickey Mouse ♪
01:10:58 ♪ To my right is Minnie Mouse ♪
01:11:01 ♪ And we all belong a place ♪
01:11:03 ♪ In Disneyland California ♪
01:11:05 He becomes a super symbol.
01:11:07 Mickey Mouse, we are told,
01:11:09 is one of the top three icons of the 20th century,
01:11:12 the distinction he shares with Adolf Hitler and the Coca-Cola bottle.
01:11:16 Andy Warhol lifted the image straight
01:11:18 as part of a series of screen prints entitled "Myths."
01:11:21 Mickey Mouse is my favorite image
01:11:24 because Walt Disney is my favorite artist.
01:11:27 ♪ ...my name is Minnie Mouse ♪
01:11:30 ♪ I'm Minnie Mouse ♪
01:11:32 I'm Minnie Mouse.
01:11:34 I'm Donald Duck.
01:11:36 By the 1980s, things were getting weird for Mickey Mouse
01:11:40 because he had become almost this divine figure
01:11:45 that you didn't mess with.
01:11:47 Recently, the Walt Disney Company heard about the painted characters
01:11:50 at this daycare center and two others in Hallandale, Florida.
01:11:54 Disney now demanding the removal of all its characters,
01:11:57 the company charging unauthorized infringement of its rights
01:12:00 under the U.S. Copyright Act.
01:12:03 Do you know what they're going to do to Mickey Mouse?
01:12:06 What?
01:12:07 They're going to take him away.
01:12:10 Despite their objections, the daycare centers say
01:12:13 they'll have to paint over the cartoon characters
01:12:16 because they can't fight the power of the corporate mouse.
01:12:20 Our legal protection of Mickey has inevitably led
01:12:23 to some uncomfortable situations
01:12:25 over the course of the company's history.
01:12:27 I wouldn't say that we've handled every situation perfectly,
01:12:31 but there's really no precedent for a creation like this
01:12:35 when it comes to copyright.
01:12:37 Mickey's one of the most popular characters in the world,
01:12:40 and there's really no question that we've had to learn as we go.
01:12:44 Disney's been very protective of Mickey,
01:12:46 and it's interesting to think about how Walt's own experience
01:12:50 of losing Oswald early on
01:12:52 helps to define the trajectory of the studio.
01:12:55 You sign this contract.
01:12:57 See the signature there? Walt Disney.
01:12:59 And right here, it says that we own Oswald the rabbit.
01:13:04 Disney as a company was created out of tremendous loss,
01:13:08 and I think that will give some context
01:13:11 to why the company has defended Mickey so carefully over the years.
01:13:16 You know, we understand that copyright
01:13:18 is a part of the Mickey Mouse story.
01:13:21 The challenging thing is that from a practical perspective,
01:13:24 your copyright is only as good as your ability to enforce it.
01:13:29 It's a balance.
01:13:30 It's one that we continually work to get right.
01:13:35 I am wholeheartedly against the infringement of copyright,
01:13:39 so much so that I had that phrase trademarked,
01:13:42 and then I had it emblazoned on a Mickey Mouse dome.
01:13:46 [applause]
01:13:48 Where does something this big and this important to society
01:13:53 become just owned by society?
01:13:56 There is a level of Mickey that, you know, we all own.
01:13:59 Disney the company was very strict about copyright and legal issues,
01:14:04 but I never personally associated it with Mickey himself.
01:14:08 There's the ambassador of the company, Mickey,
01:14:10 and then there is that little more rambunctious nature of Mickey.
01:14:13 There are two Mickeys, 'cause like anybody else would,
01:14:16 Mickey has to act a little bit differently in different environments.
01:14:21 And how do you not love Mickey's Christmas Carol?
01:14:24 The soul of Mickey in that movie is still the pure soul of the film.
01:14:28 [typewriter ding]
01:14:30 [music]
01:14:32 Walt Disney Studios,
01:14:34 home to characters and stories spun from pure cinematic magic.
01:14:39 But up until 1983, the Disney character who started
01:14:42 the whole enchanted operation hadn't made a movie in 30 years.
01:14:47 [music]
01:14:51 When we created the picture, there was amongst us a sense
01:14:55 that we were going to be able to bring him back.
01:14:58 [music]
01:15:01 Ha ha! G-g-good morning, Mr. Scrooge!
01:15:04 Mickey's Christmas Carol was heralded as Mickey's great comeback,
01:15:08 but it's really a Scrooge McDuck cartoon.
01:15:10 What are you doing?
01:15:12 Ha ha! I was just trying to keep my hands warm, sir.
01:15:18 Some of the top people that used to work here have done Mickey,
01:15:21 and things were pretty well established
01:15:23 as far as what kind of a character he is.
01:15:28 There was a sense that there was a little bit of a fear,
01:15:33 I think, that the studio had with Mickey,
01:15:35 because they didn't want to do something that failed.
01:15:41 He was our corporate symbol,
01:15:44 so it would have been really difficult if Mickey's a flop.
01:15:48 Like Walt always said, it all started with a mouse.
01:15:52 So they kind of became very careful
01:15:54 about what projects Mickey was involved with.
01:15:58 [singing]
01:16:04 It's both an honor and a challenge
01:16:07 to animate Mickey in the present day.
01:16:10 Hey!
01:16:12 You've got this big weight on your shoulders.
01:16:16 Like, I better not louse it up.
01:16:19 But, you know, I just look at it as a continuum.
01:16:25 I mean, here we are, almost 100 years later,
01:16:28 and we're in the final week of animating this new short.
01:16:33 You know, we're still drawing him,
01:16:35 we're still talking about him.
01:16:37 After all the things that Mickey has been through,
01:16:41 he's still here.
01:16:43 [upbeat music]
01:16:45 The Disney name evokes some of the happiest
01:16:48 and most endearing memories in entertainment,
01:16:50 but in recent years, some of that Disney luster has dimmed.
01:16:54 Even with that legacy and with those assets,
01:16:56 everyone would acknowledge something was wrong.
01:17:00 What do you think about Mickey Mouse?
01:17:02 He's okay.
01:17:03 I like Mickey.
01:17:05 And Minnie and Cookie.
01:17:08 In attempting to interact with as many people as possible,
01:17:12 Mickey seems lost.
01:17:14 He's hollow. There's nothing there.
01:17:17 Look in the dictionary.
01:17:19 What a definition.
01:17:20 Unimportant, trivial, irritatingly petty.
01:17:24 Let Fredo take care of some Mickey Mouse nightclub somewhere.
01:17:29 Do I like new Mickey Mouse?
01:17:31 Would I sing the Mouseketeer Club song?
01:17:35 No, no, I'm not a fan of Mickey.
01:17:38 This is the Mickey that you see today.
01:17:41 He has nice puffed-out cheeks.
01:17:44 In other words, all the kids think he looks cute.
01:17:48 Guess who's moving to Japan?
01:17:50 America's best-known mouse, Mickey.
01:17:53 Not only was Mickey mobbed,
01:17:55 but so was the store selling his ears.
01:17:57 Fresh supplies had to be flown in after the hats sold out.
01:18:01 Mickey stands for Disneyland,
01:18:03 the place where they can go and have all this fun
01:18:07 and spend money.
01:18:09 We don't just sell Disney, we are Disney.
01:18:13 Mickey, I want one word.
01:18:15 Uh...
01:18:17 consumerism.
01:18:19 I'm the mascot of an evil corporation.
01:18:23 Take the good with the bad.
01:18:29 Think of all the laughs I've given you.
01:18:31 You're supposed to be funny?
01:18:34 [laughter]
01:18:36 I think we confused people so that in 2005,
01:18:54 when you asked people who Mickey Mouse was,
01:18:57 they typically would say he's a corporate symbol
01:19:00 of the Walt Disney Company.
01:19:03 I'm not sure people really knew who Mickey was
01:19:08 or what Mickey was,
01:19:09 because Mickey had been so many different things
01:19:12 and not necessarily all good.
01:19:14 What's that?
01:19:15 What's that?
01:19:16 Hey!
01:19:17 Who's the mouse that's got the mouse?
01:19:19 He was looked upon, I think, as commerce versus art.
01:19:22 Not quite heartless, but he didn't have enough
01:19:26 of the identity that Walt created for him originally.
01:19:31 The last thing Walt would have wanted
01:19:37 would have been for Mickey to remain as he was
01:19:40 or to be stuck in some museum case.
01:19:42 So we began a process to bring Mickey forward.
01:19:47 Most people, when they thought of Mickey,
01:19:50 besides being a corporate icon, felt that Mickey was old.
01:19:54 We asked people, "Well, how old do you think Mickey is?"
01:19:57 And everybody said, "Well, he's over 65."
01:20:00 And there had been very little content made
01:20:04 with Mickey in it for quite some time.
01:20:07 We prevented anyone innovating with the character
01:20:10 or anyone even trying to return Mickey to his former self.
01:20:14 I thought we owed it to ourselves and to the character
01:20:18 to engage with all sectors of the company.
01:20:22 And that led to what we called a bake-off.
01:20:25 We let each of the entities present to us
01:20:28 the fresh version of Mickey Mouse
01:20:30 that everybody could love again.
01:20:32 At first, I was like, "Gosh, it sure would be cool
01:20:35 to just make Mickey Mouse shorts,
01:20:38 but they're not gonna let me do that."
01:20:41 It was a very interesting time.
01:20:45 For me, it was like, he doesn't need to be a shill.
01:20:48 He can go back to the time when he was really active
01:20:51 and happy.
01:20:53 But I felt like Mickey himself had forgotten his roots,
01:20:57 forgotten where he came from.
01:20:59 Disney had this Bible of what Mickey is and isn't,
01:21:03 the do's and don'ts,
01:21:05 and they decided not to show me that.
01:21:08 I wanted to remind him that he wasn't just a corporate symbol,
01:21:12 that he wasn't just a greeter in the parks,
01:21:15 that he was a cartoon character, too.
01:21:19 [tires screech]
01:21:21 The bake-off ultimately led to
01:21:27 a whole new era of storytelling with Mickey.
01:21:30 Hang on, pal, here we go!
01:21:32 Holy moly! It's Mickey Mouse!
01:21:36 [cheering]
01:21:38 They wanted to restore Mickey to his glory
01:21:41 and make sure, because Mickey didn't take himself too seriously,
01:21:45 they were taking Mickey so seriously.
01:21:48 The new shorts, actually, that version of Mickey to me
01:21:52 is the first time I've seen that kind of truest version of him
01:21:56 in a long time.
01:21:58 I'm coming, Mickey!
01:22:00 He's like coming into his personality, he's not holding back.
01:22:04 The sky's the limit for him.
01:22:06 He's still allowed to be a goober
01:22:09 and still allowed to be sad and happy and angry, all of it.
01:22:14 Get back here!
01:22:16 It's been fun to see kids going, "Wow, these are actually funny!"
01:22:21 [laughs]
01:22:23 How do you balance the heritage that created the character,
01:22:27 that created the company,
01:22:29 with the need to be innovative and modern?
01:22:32 The trick is to respect the past, but not revere it.
01:22:36 [neighing]
01:22:38 [neighing]
01:22:41 [neighing]
01:22:43 [neighing]
01:22:45 Oh, my gosh!
01:22:47 There's only really one Mickey I want to see,
01:22:51 and that's that old-time Mickey.
01:22:54 Mickey, Mickey, Mickey!
01:22:56 When he came out of the screen, we didn't want him to feel like,
01:22:59 "Oh, he's the new Mickey."
01:23:01 We wanted him to feel like this is Mickey
01:23:03 just outside of his black-and-white screen.
01:23:06 There was a moment on the film, we were like,
01:23:09 "Wait, so all the characters are running in and out of the screen
01:23:14 from 2D to CG, and they loop like six or seven times?"
01:23:19 And Lauren's like, "Yeah!"
01:23:21 And we're like, "Okay." [laughs]
01:23:25 I think that's something that Walt established early on,
01:23:29 where you just never say no, you always push boundaries,
01:23:32 you're always innovating.
01:23:34 He would have had us in hologram animation by now.
01:23:39 In the same way that the parks and the walkarounds
01:23:42 keep the characters alive,
01:23:45 new animation helps keep them alive.
01:23:49 And pencil-to-paper is the way that Mickey started,
01:23:53 and in many cases, it's the way he looks the best.
01:23:58 Well, I just got the short back.
01:24:07 And the thing that I'm really happiest about in this piece
01:24:11 is that when you see it all cut together,
01:24:14 you know, all the Mickeys all in one short film,
01:24:18 it really does feel like the Mickey that we all love.
01:24:23 Good to see you guys.
01:24:25 Good to see you. Good to see you.
01:24:27 This is gonna be cool.
01:24:29 Everything looks better in this theater.
01:24:31 [laughter]
01:24:33 You know, if Walt and Ub are watching,
01:24:36 I'd like to think we did our darndest to honor them
01:24:41 and honor their creation.
01:24:44 [humming]
01:24:51 Oh, huh.
01:24:53 Mm-hmm.
01:24:54 Oh, and there's Pluto.
01:24:56 Aw, Minnie and I.
01:25:00 Wow, that one sure gave me a workout.
01:25:04 [tires screeching]
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01:25:08 [horn honking]
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01:27:16 [horn honking]
01:27:18 [tires screeching]
01:27:20 [crowd chattering]
01:27:22 [upbeat music]
01:27:24 - Mickey is a thing we all share.
01:27:28 There aren't many of those in the world.
01:27:30 [crowd cheering]
01:27:32 - He has grown into
01:27:36 a necessary character for us.
01:27:39 - ♪ Who's the leader of the club? ♪
01:27:42 ♪ That's made for you and me ♪
01:27:46 - Whenever I did chemo,
01:27:48 I had to have my Mickey Mouse shorts.
01:27:50 And this dark and dreary moment that I was in,
01:27:54 I found a little hope, you know?
01:27:56 And I feel like that's who Mickey Mouse is.
01:27:59 ♪ ♪
01:28:01 - When I was 13, I was granted a make-a-wish.
01:28:05 And then seeing Mickey, he just brought, like,
01:28:07 this, um, happiness out of me,
01:28:09 and, like, made me, uh,
01:28:12 remember that I was still a child.
01:28:14 [crowd cheering]
01:28:17 ♪ ♪
01:28:24 - That magical spark,
01:28:27 I felt it and never forgot it.
01:28:31 ♪ ♪
01:28:33 At this point, I think Mickey is us.
01:28:37 [laughs]
01:28:38 So wherever we're headed next,
01:28:42 he's coming with us.
01:28:44 ♪ ♪
01:28:47 [upbeat music]
01:28:52 ♪ ♪
01:28:59 - I love that Disney hides Mickey Mouses everywhere.
01:29:11 All over the park or any sort of property.
01:29:14 - It's a little secret way of saying,
01:29:16 "Thank you, Mickey, you still belong here."
01:29:18 ♪ ♪
01:29:20 - And the cool thing about it is, it doesn't stop there.
01:29:23 You'll leave, and then in real life,
01:29:25 you'll just notice Mickey heads everywhere.
01:29:29 It's like, "Oh, my gosh, okay, wait a minute.
01:29:31 "Mickey, are you--are you--are you speaking to me?
01:29:33 "Are you communicating to me? What is happening here?
01:29:36 Why am I seeing you everywhere?"
01:29:38 [laughs]
01:29:39 ♪ ♪
01:29:41 ♪ ♪
01:29:43 ♪ ♪
01:29:45 ♪ ♪
01:29:47 ♪ ♪
01:29:49 [BLANK_AUDIO]