Post #588047 by Bruddah Bear on Fri, May 6, 2011 4:03 AM

John-O,

Yes, I know all about Ub, and that he probably did ALL the principle drawing on "Plane Crazy" (the very first Mickey Mouse cartoon) over a period of 2 days (an insane number of individual drawings). Ub designed Mickey after Walt described to Ub the kind of character he wanted and had him rework sketches of a mouse Walt made on a train ride back out to Los Angeles with Lillian. I'm well aware that Ub was a valued creative contributor for the studio, especially in those early days. But the fact remains that Mickey was Walt's idea, also it was Walt's studio, and Mickey was Walt's property. Walt made sure his studio (which was Walt) had the full rights to all of the characters it produced, after Charles Mintz screwed Walt out of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit and most of his animators the way he did, could you really blame him?

Be sure to check out Walt Disney's page as well. Pay attention to this passage in particular;

After losing the rights to Oswald, Disney felt the need to develop a new character to replace him. He based the character on a mouse he had adopted as a pet while working in his Laugh-O-Gram studio in Kansas City. Ub Iwerks reworked the sketches made by Disney so the character was easier to animate. However, Mickey's voice and personality was provided by Disney until 1947. In the words of a Disney employee, "Ub designed Mickey's physical appearance, but Walt gave him his soul."

Who created Mickey is far less important than the fact that Walt's studio disseminated that little guy all over the world and created a mania for the mouse, fan clubs sprang up all over the place, many with members sporting homemade Mickey costumes. I believe the influence of the mouse is even greater today than it was then.

Bear