“I only hope that we don’t lose sight of one thing – that it was all started by a mouse” – Walt Disney
Today, November 18th, is Mickey Mouse’s birthday. He made his debut on this day in 1928 in ‘Steamboat Willie’. This was a first for animation as it was the first time that an animated short had been shown with a synchronated sound track. This means that when Mickey whistled, the sound was there as well. Most people are familiar with this animation purely because it tends to feature at the start of a lot of Disney movies.
The story of Mickey Mouse (or Mortimer as he was originally called) is well known. Disney had previously created Oswald the Rabbit but lost complete control of him. Unsure where to take his fledgling animated company he was on a train and came up with the idea for a mouse. The rest, as they say, is history.
So why has Mickey lasted so long? Originally voiced by Walt Disney himself, Mickey soon became a hit and went from appearing in animation shorts to appearing in his own movies. He is a staple at all Disney parks all over the world.
People often ask me who my favourite Disney character is and it has to be the one and only Mickey Mouse. You only have to look at the faces of children when they see Mickey in the parks. And adults too. There is something endurable about him. When we go to the parks or on a cruise he is the one character that we HAVE to meet. Our children are more interested in rides these days than meet and greets, but we all make an exception for Mickey. Today I looked back over our photos with Mickey from 2012 to 2018. I saw my children grow up in those photos, but the smiles remained the same.
So today I ordered my November ‘Mickey Memories’ and watched some Mickey Mouse on TV.
Happy birthday, Mickey!
Check them out on the link below.