The years have dulled Mickey's personality, a result of him
becoming the corporate face of a multibillion-dollar entertainment
empire. In the process, Mickey also has become a cultural Rorschach
test a symbol of American optimism, resourcefulness and energy or an
icon of cultural commodification and corporate imperialism.
"There are a number of qualities Mickey represents on which people
like to stick their particular view of the world," said Janet Wasko, a
University of Oregon professor and author of "Understanding Disney:
The Manufacture of Fantasy."
For Roy E. Disney, whose uncle, Walt Disney, created the character,
Mickey Mouse is "'this friendly little guy,' which were Walt's words
for describing him."
For Penn State professor Henry Giroux, however, Mickey Mouse
represents the vast reach of American cultural power, symbolizing a
company that has turned childhood into a function of consumerism as
children feel obligated to purchase the latest "Finding Nemo" DVD or
Mickey Mouse watch.
"Mickey Mouse offers up a ... symbol of innocence while hiding the
role it plays in commodifying children's dreams and extending the
logic of the market into all aspects of their lives," said Giroux,
author of "The Mouse That Roared: Disney and the End of Innocence," a
cultural critique of the company.
Mickey wasn't always so complex.
Walt Disney started his animation career in Kansas City, Mo.,
producing films that were a combination of cartoon and live action and
starring an inquisitive little girl named Alice. Hoping for greater
success, he moved to Los Angeles in 1923, joining his brother, Roy.
Once the creative possibilities with the Alice series were exhausted,
Disney started producing films for a new animated character, Oswald
the Lucky Rabbit, in 1927.
Mickey Mouse was conceived the next year during a cross-country
train ride, according to the "official" company history. Walt Disney
had just been forced to give up the Oswald rights to his ruthless New
York distributor, who had exercised copyright control over the
character.
On the ride back home to Los Angeles, Disney conjured up a little
mouse named Mortimer. His wife, Lillian, thought the name too pompous
and suggested Mickey.
But others have argued that Mickey's creation was more likely a
collaboration between Disney and his chief animator, Ub Iwerks, with
Disney taking the credit. Mickey Mouse was first drawn by Iwerks'
hand.
Disney and Iwerks initially produced two silent cartoons for Mickey
Mouse, "Plane Crazy" and "The Gallopin' Gaucho." But in the wake of
the success of the nation's first "talkie," Al Jolson's "The Jazz
Singer" in 1927, Disney decided to produce a cartoon that would be
synchronized to songs, music and sound effects.
"Steamboat Willie" was an instant hit, arriving at a time when
technological advances in motion pictures, radio and the phonograph
were transforming mass culture. By the end of the 1930s, Mickey had
starred in more than 100 cartoons.
Mickey gradually transformed both physically and spiritually. His
face was rounded out and his eyes went from black ovals to white eyes
with pupils in the late 1930s. His face became friendlier, less
rat-like.
"Round things seem to be less belligerent than the angles," said
John Hench, a 95-year-old animator who has been with the Disney
company since 1939.
Mickey Mouse became the face that launched a thousand merchandise
products. Watches. Pencils. Bedsheets. Alarm clocks. Telephones. He is
one of the most merchandised faces ever about $4.5 billion a year in
sales even though he's currently second to Winnie the Pooh for the
Disney company.
Mickey's personality became less edgy, duller and less subversive.
Toward the end of the 1930s and the start of the 1940s, Disney
animators found it harder to create story lines around Mickey as the
character become the face of the company.
"Donald (Duck) became easier to write stories around because his
personality was more varied. Often in that period, they would start a
cartoon with Mickey and it wouldn't work and someone would say 'Use
Donald,'" said David Smith, archives director for the Walt Disney Co.
"You didn't want to do naughty things with your corporate logo. He
suddenly became sacrosanct."
Mickey's popularity may have waned in the 1940s, but he gained new
life in the 1950s with the airing of TV's "Mickey Mouse Club" and the
opening of Disneyland in Anaheim, Calif.
"Mickey got a double shot of invigoration," said Marty Sklar, vice
chairman and principal creative executive at Walt Disney Imagineering.
"The characters live in our park. Mickey is the king of our
characters."
In the succeeding decades, Mickey has been used in less than a
dozen theatrical releases, but is a regular presence on television in
"House of the Mouse" on the Disney Channel and is photographed daily
alongside thousands of tourists at theme parks in California, Florida,
France and Japan.
"Mickey Mouse speaks an international language," Sklar said. "When
I go to Tokyo and see how kids react to Mickey Mouse the same way they
do in Paris. It's reassuring that there are some things that cross
international boundaries."
For others, Mickey Mouse speaks an international language of
commerce and cultural imperialism. That sentiment is embodied in
protesters in Buenos Aires who left behind anti-war graffiti last
February that depicted President Bush as Mickey Mouse. It's also found
in the performance artist Reverend Bill of the Church of Stop
Shopping, who visits Disney Stores in New York and tells shoppers
"Mickey Mouse is the Antichrist."
All from a simple cartoon. Said author Wasko: "Mickey represents a
fascinating interweaving of culture, politics and economics."