Category — Mickey Mouse

Few animated characters have been as influential or as long lived as Mickey Mouse. If you’re going to be in the Bay Area on November 18, you’re encouraged to make an appointment to visit The Walt Disney Family Museum and celebrate Mickey Mouse’s birthday.

Although he had appeared in the animated short Plane Crazy six months earlier, November 18, 1928 is widely recognized as Mickey Mouse’s birthday as it was the day that Steamboat Willie—the first Mickey Mouse cartoon with synchronized sound—was released.

Explore the galleries and discover the Earliest Known Drawings of Mickey Mouse and so much more, including vintage Mickey merchandise, the creation of Mickey’s friends, an interactive station that demonstrates how sound is synchronized to animation, and a special section dedicated to the Mickey Mouse Club. Come celebrate and learn about the birth, history and life of the leader of the club that’s made for you and me: M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E!

The Museum is open from 10AM to 6PM, Wednesday through Monday. For more information, visit www.waltdisney.org or call 415-345-6800.

An article in the Boston Globe states that Mickey Mouse has gotten a little stale, boring even.

The mischievous sorcerer’s apprentice of “Fantasia’’ has become an empty vessel, devoid of any of the sharp edges that might define his character.

I have to say I don’t agree at all. Going back to Runaway Brain, attempts to reinvigorate Mickey have inevitably ended back at the original Mickey Mouse – an adventurer, a ladies man, and a funny guy. As always, a reflection of his creator. Epic Mickey is going to be more of the same.

What Mickey does need is to be relevant. He’s at his best when he’s doing some sort of commentary on society, usually with a humorous angle. His role as an entrepreneur in the House of Mouse series was a step in the right direction. While not really commentary, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse has also done a good job reacquainting a whole new generation of kids with the character.

The direction I would take Mickey in is to put him in situations we’re all dealing with. In today’s economy Mickey should be championing the little people. Give him an electric car, send him to the mall, the unemployment line, make him a doctor, send him back to school. Some of Mickey’s best moments in his early career involved spoofing celebrity. That would fit in today too.

Where would you like to see Mickey Mouse go from here?

It’s no secret that UP is doing well, and it should, it’s awesome.  Yes, that about sums it up: AWESOME.

My wife and I took the boys (ages 3 and 5, respectively) to an advanced screening at the beautiful El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood, CA, which begs the question why did it take this long to write a review?  Eh, it’s a long story and it can’t compete with anything PIXAR is offering so we’ll just skip the excuses and get straight to the heart of the matter, which happens to be just that, the heart of the matter.  UP is about heart and lots of it.

Sure, the same can be argued for just about anything that Disney-PIXAR has created, and it would all be true, but UP takes the idea to new heights – and I’m not talking balloons here.  It’s an epic love story wrapped in a layer of silly, sweet fun, the likes of which haven’t been seen on screen since, well, WALL-E.

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Via designer and illustrator @JoeyEllis comes a set of ‘cute’ Disney themed twitter emoticons. Click to see the whole set.

Previously we saw Joey’s amazing 1933 Mickey Mouse themed mural for his son’s bedroom.

After learning about the very sad news of Wayne Allwine’s passing via twitter (via@aprilwinchell who does some voice work for Disney as Clarabelle Cow), I wrote my tribute last night. Of course, there is so much more to Wayne than I could sum up in a few grief inspired words. For instance, I totally forgot about his mission to keep the unique talents of the Ukulele and spirit of Cliff Edwards (voice of Jiminy Cricket) alive.

Perhaps the best tribute is how Mickey Mouse has recently been re-invigorated for the Walt Disney Company by “Mickey Mouse Clubhouse” on The Disney Channel. I know that Wayne and Russi worked with the show’s producers to make sure that Mickey and Minnie stayed true to their characters even while making themselves available to a new generation. I also know that they were working with Disney to make sure there was someone ready to step into Mickey’s shoes if needed. There has even been talk of another animated feature with Mickey and the gang.

I know that many more tributes will pour in from those who knew Wayne better and I be adding them here as the days go on.

• April Winchell
• Mark Evanier
• Andy De Maertelaere
• Cartoon Brew (read the comments)
• Voice Actors in the News
• Will Scott
• LaughingPlace.com
• Jim Hill
• Kate at Cholula Red
• John Matthews
• Rich Koster of DisneyEcho
• The AP’s Obit
• LA Times

To add your tribute drop me an email with the link.

Update: Clip of Wayne on Ukelele with Russi at an NFFC convention (via LaughingPlace.com) below the cut:

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You go Mickey. When I’m your age, I want to look as young as you do today.

These last 80 years have been quite transformative for you. You’ve gone from a sweet and unpretentious little rascal to a modern day role model for the young. The next 80 are sure to be as transformative, especially as more images of you begin to enter the public domain. Sure there will be fights, huge ones, for control of your future. You have become a part of us. And now you belong to all of us as much as you ever belonged to Walt and the company he set up with his brother. I only hope you’re up to the task.

Happy Birthday Mickey Mouse.

We’ve always known there is a bit of a dark side to Mickey Mouse. Usually he was just being his mischievous self, but sometimes, as in Runaway Brain, he seemed like a completely different mouse. Okay. Maybe he was a completely different mouse. But he’s always been fairly squeaky clean when it comes to consumer products. In the last few years, however, we’ve been treated to some wider extremes of Walt’s most famous creation.

Walt Disney’s influence as a creative visionary and artist has inspired generations and BLOC28 by Disney is a new label that uniquely connects today’s street art and contemporary art culture with Disney’s most iconic character, Mickey Mouse. BLOC28 by Disney – Series 2, builds on the phenomenal success of the first series with well-known urban artists Aroe, Chaz Bojorquez, Ewok, Rime, Suiko and Tenga.

Each artist developed a one-of-a-kind piece of Mickey–themed art in their signature style which serves as the inspiration for a line of limited-edition product. And in celebration of the contemporary art community, Disney is kicking off a ten-day auction of limited edition BLOC28 product with eBay Giving Works to benefit Art Share Los Angeles – a community arts incubator whose mission is to shape lives through art, education and community action.

If you don’t live in New York or Los Angeles it can be incredibly difficult to get your hands on the BLOC28 line of products. So this auction is probably your best chance. Plus it supports a good cause. So everyone is a winner.

More information on the auction is available at eBay.

This weekend you’ll want to make sure to head over to South Korean artist Hyungkoo Lee’s “Animatus” exhibit to see his wild creations that peel the skin off your favorite animated characters to reveal the skeleton’s inside. This Mickey Mouse is just a taste.

If you’re Basel, Switzerland you can catch the exhibition at the natural history museum. Otherwise, Michael Sporn has pictures.