Walt Disney named his first iteration of the character Mortimer Mouse. However, at the urging of Lillian Disney, his wife, the character was renamed Mickey Mouse; reportedly, Lillian disliked the name Mortimer for the mouse and suggested Mickey.
(During his first eight appearances Mickey whistled, laughed, cried and otherwise vocally expressed himself.) Mickey's first spoken line is "Hot dogs! Hot dogs!", the voice being provided by composer Carl W. Stalling instead of Walt Disney.
Steamboat Willie (1928), the first Mickey Mouse cartoon to be publicly released, shows Mickey flirtatiously pursuing Minnie Mouse, playing with animals as if they are instruments, and discovering his curiosity and love of music; Mickey's actions are typified by that of a teenager or young boy.
Who was the original character that Mickey replaced?
The character was co-created by Walt Disney himself and artist Ub Iwerks. The character was meant to be a replacement for Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, an earlier Disney character.
Over the years, Mickey Mouse has gone through several transformations to his physical appearance and personality. In his early years, the impish and mischievous Mickey looked more rat-like, with a long pointy nose, black eyes, a smallish body with spindly legs, and a long tail.
"In 1939, Mickey Mouse, as Ub Iwerks and Disney first created him, turned pink, lost his tummy, tail, and pie-cut eyes, and this once exquisite masterpiece of graphic imagery began his descent into oblivion.
With the release of The Pointer (1939) and Fantasia (1940), Mickey Mouse's look evolved into his familiar modern appearance. Most notably, his eyes developed pupils and changed in shape and size. His body also grew less rat-like; his head grew larger, and his limbs slightly pudgy.
Oswald the Lucky Rabbit was Walt Disney's first break-out cartoon star. Walt unfortunately discovered on a trip to New York to renew his contract for Oswald that the character was the property of Universal. He returned to Hollywood devastated and in need of a new character that he would completely own.
In 1928, copyrights lasted for 28 years, with the option for renewal of another 28 years. As of 2023, Mickey Mouse was published almost 95 years ago. The copyright of the original Mickey Mouse character – as it appeared in “Steamboat Willie” – expires on January 1, 2024.
1. Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. The first-ever character that Walt Disney has introduced to Universal Pictures in 1927 was Oswald, where he starred in animated short films from 1927 to 1938 until Disney Studios lost its connection with Winkler.
Fantasmagorie is considered to be the oldest cartoon in the world. The very short animation is one of the earliest examples of traditional hand-drawn animation. It was created in 1908 by French cartoonist Émile Cohl.
The first clue to Disney's love of the processed junk food came in the 1929 animation The Karnival Kid in which he scripted Mickey Mouse's first words as “Hot dog! Hot dog!”
Oswald preceded Mickey Mouse, one of the most iconic animated figures of all time. Oswald the Lucky Rabbit was featured in 26 different cartoon strips in the 1920's and 30's for Universal, their first cartoon series, Yahoo reported.
What was the first successful Mickey Mouse called?
The success of Steamboat Willie not only led to international fame for Walt Disney but for Mickey as well. Variety (November 21, 1928) wrote: "Not the first animated cartoon to be synchronized with sound effects, but the first to attract favorable attention.
According to US copyright law, the rights for a character expire 95 years after the publication of the original work. Disney will lose the Mickey Mouse copyright for Steamboat Willie in 2024, since the short animated film was produced and distributed in 1928.
While Disney may no longer have copyright protection for Winnie the Pooh, there are still opportunities for legal recourse that Disney can take. Disney still maintains the rights to the Winnie the Pooh characters created after 1926, including Tigger.
(Oswald was created by Disney in 1927. Mickey appeared the following year.) But in their followup outing, they appear as equal partners. Becky Cline, director of the Walt Disney Archives, said despite being the older one, Oswald was much more into technology than his younger brother, Mickey.
For the first time in nearly 95 years, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit has returned to Walt Disney Animation Studios in an all-new animated short. Titled “Oswald the Lucky Rabbit,” the short was created by Disney Animation's hand-drawn animation team in celebration of Disney's 100-year anniversary next year.
They were given an official number in the franchise line-up based on the chronological order in which their films were released, starting with Snow White as the first and original Disney Princess, with Cinderella being the second, followed by Aurora and so on.
Before Mickey Mouse, there was his predecessor: Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. For the first time, we're seeing footage of the first Disney character. The silent film in black and white dates back to 1928, when a young Walt Disney created Oswald.
