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The whole world … except the Disney Company … wants to wish you a Happy Birthday, Mickey Mouse!

Wade Sampson returns with a look at why the Disney Company isn’t exactly celebrating Mickey’s milestone birthday, but instead is just looking back at “75 Years with Mickey.”

Published

21 years ago

on

The Disney Company is not celebrating Mickey Mouse’s birthday today.

According to Chris Curtin of Synergy and Special Projects: “We particularly worry about this when it comes to children, whose understanding and appreciation of our characters can be undermined by suggesting they have real-world ages. As a company, we feel our characters are timeless and therefore don’t mark the passage of time. We do, however, celebrate anniversaries of real-world events, as they can be effective marketing tools — especially with adult fans who like the idea that Disney has been around a long time.” (examples: the 100th anniversary of Walt Disney’s birth in 2001, Animal Kingdom’s 5th anniversary, etc.).

That is why the Disney Company is saying that it is not Mickey Mouse’s 75th birthday but that the Company in a smaller fashion is celebrating “75 Years WITH Mickey”. That was not always the case. During the past seventy-five years, celebrating Mickey’s birthday was a major event for the Disney Company and resulted in much publicity and many financial rewards and of course, many appreciative Disney fans.

In the September 30, 1933 edition of FILM PICTORIAL, Walt Disney stated “Mickey Mouse will be five years old on Sunday. He was born on October 1, 1928. That was the date on which his first picture started so we have allowed him to claim this day as his birthday.”

Mickey Mouse’s seventh birthday was celebrated on September 28, 1935 and his fortieth on October 28, 1968. Up until the 1970s, Mickey’s birthday was celebrated anywhere between September and December whenever there was a new Disney cartoon being released or to stage a birthday party event at a theater which usually included the theater booking a program of several previously released Disney cartoons.

Dave Smith established the Disney Archives in 1970 and with Mickey’s Fiftieth birthday coming up in 1978, it was Dave who determined that the official date should be the premiere of STEAMBOAT WILLIE at the Colony Theater in New York. After checking through correspondence, reviews from New York newspapers and finally finding a program from the Colony Theater listing the Mickey Mouse cartoon, it was determined that Mickey’s official birthday would be November 18, 1928. (That also makes it Minnie’s official birthday as well.)

In 1933, Mickey’s fifth birthday was celebrated by a Hollywood testimonial party where the speakers included Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford and Will Rogers. Mickey’s seventh birthday was promoted as “Mickey Mouse’s Lucky Seventh Birthday” and the Disney Studio encouraged theaters to book Mickey Mouse and Silly Symphony cartoons as a special program. In fact, every available print of Disney cartoons were in use during the celebration. Theaters served birthday cake, held costume parties (with free admission for any patron dressed as a Disney character), and there were even adult dinner parties held in cities like New York and London.

Disney historian Jim Fanning has pointed out that for Mickey’s seventh birthday that “a special song-a fox trot-was composed in honor of the birthday boy: MICKEY MOUSE’S BIRTHDAY PARTY. (‘There’s Minnie dressed in her Sunday best, and Donald Duck with his quack, quack, quack…’). It was recorded by Guy Lombardo and his orchestra.”

Mickey’s eighth birthday was also a big celebration with theaters offering prizes for Disney costumes, coloring and essay contests. The prizes? Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck dolls from Charlotte Clark and her crew personally autographed by Walt Disney! Radio City Music Hall hosted a week long salute by running three Disney cartoons as part of every show.

Over the years, it addition to birthday celebrations at theaters, the Disney Studios produced two animated shorts spotlighting Mickey Mouse’s birthday.

In THE BIRTHDAY PARTY (January 7, 1931) directed by Bert Gillett, this black and white cartoon finds Mickey’s friends (including Minnie, Horace Horsecollar and Clarabelle Cow) surprising Mickey with the gift of a piano for his birthday. Mickey and Minnie sing “I Can’t Give You Anything But Love, Baby” and there is some wild dancing. Lots of generic animal friends join in the celebration.

In MICKEY’S BIRTHDAY PARTY (February 7, 1942) directed by Riley Thompson in beautiful technicolor and featuring some classic Mickey animation by Freddie Moore has Minnie and the gang throwing a surprise birthday party for Mickey. This time Mickey receives an organ instead of a piano and there is a wild rhumba dance and besides Horace and Clarabelle, Donald and Goofy (neither of whom existed at the time of the original 1931 short join the festivities) join the festivities. This is the cartoon with Goofy struggling to bake a cake using “volcano heat” on the oven.

In 1953, Capitol Records produced a “record-reader” entitled MICKEY MOUSE’S BIRTHDAY PARTY (DBX 3165) to celebrate Mickey’s Silver Anniversary of being twenty-five years young. A “record-reader” was a two record set accompanied by a storybook and some cue like the sound of a bell or a horn let a child know when to turn the page so that the sounds on the record would match the story. (In this case, Mickey Mouse coaxed Donald Duck to give the signal to turn the page.) Donald’s voice was done by Clarence Nash and Goofy’s voice was done by Pinto Colvig who even though he had left the Disney Studio was connected with Capitol Records as he was then the current voice of Bozo the Clown who appeared on several “record-readers”. Colvig also recreated the voice of Practical Pig on the album. Jimmy MacDonald gave voice to Cinderella’s mice, Jaq and Gus Gus as well as supplying the barks for Pluto (who does a “soft paw” dance rather than soft shoe for Mickey’s celebration).

And of course, the voice of Mickey Mouse was provided by…Stan Freberg. Yes, satirist Stan Freberg who was also well known in the industry for his cartoon voice work (especially for Warner Brothers) did Mickey’s voice which sounded like Mickey Mouse with a cold since Freberg wasn’t able to reach the right falsetto range for the famous mouse. Freberg also did a killer imitation on the record of Ed Wynn’s Mad Hatter and Jerry Colonna’s March Hare among other voices.

Back in 1996, Stan told me, “Walt Disney was always the voice of Mickey, when he was alive, but when he was too busy, his sound effects wizard Jimmy MacDonald did it. Once, when Capitol Records was recording a children’s album called MICKEY MOUSE’S BIRTHDAY PARTY and both Walt and Jimmy were busy, Walt asked me to record Mickey’s voice: ‘Hi, Minnie, hi Pluto, Happy Birthday! Ha-ha, ha-ha, ha-ha!'”

Since Jimmy MacDonald was there at the recording session, it is more likely that Stan wanted to do Mickey’s voice and Walt and Jimmy graciously allowed him to do so. It is an odd album with the Three Little Pigs, B’rer Rabbit, B’rer Fox, B’rer Bear, Dumbo, Thumper, Bambi, Joe Carioca, Cinderella, Alice, the White Rabbit, Peter Pan (and the infamous crocodile even stops chasing Captain Hook long enough to sing “Never Smile at a Crocodile” which was a song written for PETER PAN but never used) and many more.

In September 1953, DELL Comics even printed a special one hundred page comic book “giant” entitled MICKEY MOUSE BIRTHDAY PARTY with *** Moores drawing a cover of Mickey Mouse by a birthday cake where the candles were actually Disney characters. The interior included reprints from several FOUR COLOR issues (#181, #27 and #79) as well as some reformatted Mickey Mouse comic strips from 1941 by Gottfredson and Bill Wright.

Mickey’s Silver Anniversary in 1953 was also the first time that Imagineer John Hench painted a “formal portrait” for Mickey. Hench also painted the official Mickey Mouse portraits for Mickey’s 50th (1978) and 60th (1988) and 75th birthdays (2003). (Walt Disney Art Classics, the art and collectibles division of The Walt Disney Company, commissioned Hench to render Mickey in an official portrait commemorating his 70th birthday. The portrait was published as a limited edition print in December of 1998 and was an instant sell-out.)

Mickey’s 50th birthday was a year long celebration in 1978 and generated not only an official “Happy Birthday, Mickey” logo but a variety of commemorative merchandise. There were retrospective screenings of Mickey’s cartoons at several venues from the New York Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art to the American Film Institute to the Chicago Film Festival. Animator Ward Kimball accompanied Mickey on a special Amtrak train for a fifty-seven city tour. The tour ended at the Broadway Theater (formerly the Colony Theater) where a plaque designating the theater as the official birthplace of Mickey Mouse was installed. (Seven huge scrapbooks in the Disney Archives are filled with newspaper clippings from the year long event.) In addition, Mickey received his star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame, making him the first cartoon character to ever receive a star. People were singing a specially written song: “The Whole World Wants to Wish You Happy Birthday, Mickey Mouse.”

Disney also saluted Mickey’s birthday on television. MICKEY MOUSE ANNIVERSARY SHOW (12/22/68) had Dean Jones hosting Mickey’s 40th birthday along with the original Mouseketeers. MICKEY’S 50th (11/19/78) had celebrities like Johnny Carson and Jonathan Winters honoring Walt’s mouse and MICKEY’S 60th (11/13/88) had Mickey fooling with a sorcerer’s hat and disappearing, forcing Roger Rabbit to try and find him, while “news reporter” John Ritter offered commentary and updates.

In fact, Mickey’s Sixtieth birthday rivaled Mickey’s Fiftieth.

From Summer 1988 through Spring 1990, as the Walt Disney World railroad trains steamed toward their newest train station just past Fantasyland, guests would have heard:

“We’re rolling, we’re rolling on the Express!
We’re rolling on Mickey’s Birthdayland Express!
We’re going off to Mickey’s Birthdayland!
And we’re so glad that you could come along and join the gang!

[Donald]
We’ll have a whole lot of fun! (laughs)

[Chip & Dale]
So come on everyone!
We’ve got a big surprise for Mickey Mouse!
It’s all aboard the express bound for Birthdayland!
We have a date with Mickey Mouse’s Birthdayland!
We’ll have a whole lot of fun!
So come on everyone!
We’ve got a big surprise for Mickey Mouse!
We’ve got a big surprise for Mickey!
A birthday bash for Mickey!
Big surprise for Mickey Mouse!
We’re rolling, we’re rolling on the Express!”

This station originally opened in 1988 as Mickey’s Birthdayland Station. Featuring a covered waiting platform, the open-air station provided guests easy access to the new land, Mickey’s Birthdayland, celebrating Mickey Mouse’s 60th birthday. (The station was renamed Mickey’s Starland Station in 1990, and Mickey’s Toontown Fair Station in 1996, in keeping with the new names for this area of the park.) Mickey’s Birthdayland was the first new “land” added to Walt Disney World since its opening and was built in less than a year as a temporary location to meet Mickey Mouse and his friends and get autographs. The area was themed as if it was part of Duckburg with small store front facades hiding the colored tents. A show took place there as well, with Mickey as the unsuspecting guest of honor at his very own surprise party.

A sixty-eight page slick magazine (MICKEY IS SIXTY) with a special edition “cel” of Mickey as the Sorcerer’s Apprentice was published with excerpts from this magazine appearing in TIME, LIFE, PEOPLE and more. Ear Force One (a hot air balloon in the shape of Mickey’s head) toured the United States. The Disney Company planted a 520 acre cornfield in Sheffield, Iowa in the shape of Mickey Mouse’s head. The concept was that when the field was seen from an airplane overhead it would look like a birthday card for Mickey from Minnie. (This idea was the brainchild of Jack Linquist who was then Disney creative marketing vice president.) Again, a special Mickey Mouse birthday logo was created and a flood of nicely done commemorative merchandise honoring both the classic Mickey and the modern Mickey.

Today (November 18) in a private ceremony, Michael Eisner will unveil for the media seventy-five Mickey Mouse statues that each stand six feet tall and weigh seven hundred pounds. They were designed by a mix of celebrities including Tom Hanks, John Travolta, Ben Affleck, Susan Lucci,etc. Those who participated in the design created the Mickey Mouse statues to fit one of six themes: heritage, adventure, magic and fantasy, fun and laughter, friendship, and the future.

The statues will be displayed at various locations on Walt Disney World property through April 2004 and then will travel to twelve U.S. cities on an eighteen month tour sponsored by The Coca-Cola Company. After the tour, the statues will be auctioned off with the proceeds benefiting a charity of each artist’s choice. The program is called “Celebrate Mickey: 75 InspEARations”.

There have always been rumors that Disney hates the “graying of the Mouse” (the aging of its top executives who have been encouraged to leave the Disney Company during the last few years) and poor Mickey Mouse seems like he may be the latest victim. Hopefully, the weak treatment of Mickey’s milestone birthday is not a foreshadowing of the upcoming Disneyland Golden Celebration in 2005. Happy birthday, Mickey! You are seventy-five years YOUNG.

I would like to acknowledge the previous research on this subject by Jim Fanning, John Cawley (the most under-rated man in the animation business) and the ever amazing Jim Korkis. Speaking of Jim Korkis, I would like to publicly apologize to Jim for borrowing some of his research on Emile Kuri in my previous column without crediting him. And for those of you who miss Jim’s writing on things Disney, make sure you track down a member of the Disney Vacation Club. Jim writes a monthly exclusive column on all things Disney for the DVC e-mail newsletter including a series on the stories behind the names on the Main Street windows!

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General

Seward Johnson bronzes add a surreal, artistic touch to NYC’s Garment District

Published

9 years ago

on

June 23, 2015

By

Greetings from NYC. Nancy and I drove down from New
Hampshire yesterday because we'll be checking out
Disney Consumer Products' annual Holiday Showcase later today.

Anyway … After checking into our hotel (i.e., The Paul.
Which is located down in NYC's NoMad district), we decided to grab some dinner.
Which is how we wound up at the Melt Shop.


Photo by Jim Hill

Which is this restaurant that only sells grilled cheese sandwiches.
This comfort food was delicious, but kind of on the heavy side.


Photo by Jim Hill

Which is why — given that it was a beautiful summer night
— we'd then try and walk off our meals. We started our stroll down by the Empire
State Building
…


Photo by Jim Hill

… and eventually wound up just below Times
Square (right behind where the Waterford Crystal Times Square New
Year's Eve Ball is kept).


Photo by Jim Hill

But you know what we discovered en route? Right in the heart
of Manhattan's Garment District
along Broadway between 36th and 41st? This incredibly cool series of life-like
and life-sized sculptures that Seward
Johnson has created.


Photo by Jim Hill

And — yes — that is Abraham Lincoln (who seems to have
slipped out of WDW's Hall of Presidents when no one was looking and is now
leading tourists around Times Square). These 18 painted
bronze pieces (which were just installed late this past Sunday night / early
Monday morning) range from the surreal to the all-too-real.


Photo by Jim Hill

Some of these pieces look like typical New Yorkers. Like the
business woman planning out her day …


Photo by Jim Hill

… the postman delivering the mail …


Photo by Jim Hill

… the hot dog vendor working at his cart …


Photo by Jim Hill


Photo by Jim Hill

… the street musician playing for tourists …


Photo by Jim Hill

Not to mention the tourists themselves.


Photo by Jim Hill

But right alongside the bronze businessmen …


Photo by Jim Hill

… and the tired grandmother hauling her groceries home …


Photo by Jim Hill

… there were also statues representing people who were
from out-of-town …


Photo by Jim Hill

… or — for that matter — out-of-time.


Photo by Jim Hill

These were the Seward Johnson pieces that genuinely beguiled. Famous impressionist paintings brought to life in three dimensions.


Note the out-of-period water bottle that some tourist left
behind. Photo by Jim Hill 

Some of them so lifelike that you actually had to pause for
a moment (especially as day gave way to night in the city) and say to yourself
"Is that one of the bronzes? Or just someone pretending to be one of these
bronzes?"

Mind you, for those of you who aren't big fans of the
impressionists …


Photo by Jim Hill

… there's also an array of American icons. Among them
Marilyn Monroe …


Photo by Jim Hill

… and that farmer couple from Grant Wood's "American
Gothic."


Photo by Jim Hill

But for those of you who know your NYC history, it's hard to
beat that piece which recreates Alfred Eisenstaedt's famous photograph of V-J Day in Times Square.


Photo by Jim Hill

By the way, a 25-foot-tall version of this particular Seward
Johnson piece ( which — FYI — is entitled "Embracing Peace") will actually
be placed in Times Square for a few days on or around  August 14th to commemorate the 70th
anniversary of Victory Over Japan Day (V-J Day).


Photo by Jim Hill

By the way, if you'd like to check these Seward Johnson bronzes in
person (which — it should be noted — are part of the part of the Garment
District Alliance's new public art offering) — you'd best schedule a trip to
the City sometime over the next three months. For these pieces will only be on
display now through September 15th. 

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General

Wondering what you should “Boldly Go” see at the movies next year? The 2015 Licensing Expo offers you some clues

Published

9 years ago

on

June 10, 2015

By

Greeting from the 2015 Licensing Expo, which is being held
at the Mandalay Bay
Convention Center in Las
Vegas.


Photo by Jim Hill

I have to admit that I enjoy covering the Licensing Expo.
Mostly becomes it allows bloggers & entertainment writers like myself to
get a peek over the horizon. Scope out some of the major motion pictures &
TV shows that today's vertically integrated entertainment conglomerates
(Remember when these companies used to be called movie studios?) will be
sending our way over the next two years or so.


Photo by Jim Hill

Take — for example — all of "The Secret Life of
Pets" banners that greeted Expo attendees as they made their way to the
show floor today. I actually got to see some footage from this new Illumination
Entertainment production (which will hit theaters on July 8, 2016) the last time I was in Vegas. Which
was for CinemaCon back in April. And the five or so minutes of film that I viewed
suggested that "The Secret Life of Pets" will be a really funny
animated feature.


Photo by Jim Hill

Mind you, Universal Pictures wanted to make sure that Expo
attendees remembered that there was another Illumination Entertainment production
coming-to-a-theater-near-them before "The Secret Life of Pets" (And
that's "Minions," the "Despicable Me" prequel. Which
premieres at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival next week but
won't be screened stateside 'til July 10th of this year). Which is why they had
three minions who were made entirely out of LEGOS loitering out in the lobby.


Photo by Jim Hill

And Warner Bros. — because they wanted "Batman v
Superman: Dawn of Justice" to start trending on Twitter today — brought
the Batmobile to Las Vegas.


Photo by Jim Hill

Not to mention full-sized macquettes of Batman, Superman and
Wonder Woman. Just so conventioneers could then see what these DC superheroes
would actually look like in this eagerly anticipated, March 25, 2016 release.


Photo by Jim Hill

That's the thing that can sometimes be a wee bit frustrating
about the Licensing Expo. It's all about delayed gratification. You'll come
around a corner and see this 100 foot-long ad for "The Peanuts Movie"
and think "Hey, that looks great. I want to see that Blue Sky Studios production
right now." It's only then that you notice the fine print and realize that
"The Peanuts Movie" doesn't actually open in theaters 'til November
6th of this year.


Photo by Jim Hill

And fan of Blue Sky's "Ice Age" film franchise are in for an even
longer wait. Given that the latest installment in that top grossing series
doesn't arrive in theaters 'til July
15, 2016.


Photo by Jim Hill

Of course, if you're one of those people who needs immediate
gratification when it comes to your entertainment, there was stuff like that to
be found at this year's Licensing Expo. Take — for example — how the WWE
booth was actually shaped like a wrestling ring. Which — I'm guessing — meant
that if the executives of World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. didn't like
the offer that you were making, they were then allowed to toss you out over the
top rope, Royal Rumble-style.


Photo by Jim Hill

I also have to admit that — as a longtime Star Trek fan —
it was cool to see the enormous Starship Enterprise that hung in place over the
CBS booth. Not to mention getting a glimpse of the official Star Trek 50th
Anniversary logo.


Photo by Jim Hill

I was also pleased to see lots of activity in The Jim Henson
Company booth. Which suggests that JHC has actually finally carved out a
post-Muppets identity for itself.


Photo by Jim Hill

Likewise for all of us who were getting a little concerned
about DreamWorks Animation (what with all the layoffs & write-downs &
projects that were put into turnaround or outright cancelled last year), it was
nice to see that booth bustling.


Photo by Jim Hill

Every so often, you'd come across some people who were
promoting a movie that you weren't entirely sure that you actually wanted to
see (EX: "Angry Birds," which Sony Pictures Entertainment / Columbia
Pictures will be releasing to theaters on May 20, 2016). But then you remembered that Clay Kaytis —
who's this hugely talented former Walt Disney Animation Studios animator — is
riding herd on "Angry Birds" with Fergal Reilly. And you'd think
"Well, if Clay's working on 'Angry Birds,' I'm sure this animated feature
will turn out fine."


Photo by Jim Hill

Mind you, there were reminders at this year's Licensing Expo
of great animated features that we're never going to get to see now. I still
can't believe — especially after that brilliant proof-of-concept footage
popped up online last year — that Sony execs decided not to go forward
with  production of Genndy Tartakovsky's
"Popeye" movie.  But that's the
cruel thing about the entertainment business, folks. It will sometime break
your heart.


Photo by Jim Hill

And make no mistake about this. The Licensing Expo is all
about business. That point was clearly driven home at this year's show when —
as you walked through the doors of the Mandalay
Bay Convention Center
— the first thing that you saw was the Hasbros Booth. Which was this gleaming,
sleek two story-tall affair full of people who were negotiating deals &
signing contracts for all of the would-be summer blockbusters that have already
announced release dates for 2019 & beyond.


Photo by Jim Hill

"But what about The Walt Disney Company?," you
ask. "Weren't they represented on the show floor at this year's Licensing
Expo?" Not really, not. I mean, sure. There were a few companies there hyping
Disney-related products. Take — for example — the Disney Wikkeez people.


Photo by Jim Hill

I'm assuming that some Disney Consumer Products exec is
hoping that Wikkeez will eventually become the new Tsum Tsum. But to be blunt,
these little hard plastic figures don't seem to have the same huggable charm
that those stackable plush do. But I've been wrong before. So let's see what
happens with Disney Wikkeez once they start showing up on the shelves of the
Company's North American retail partners.


Photo by Jim Hill

And speaking of Disney's retail partners … They were
meeting with Mouse House executives behind closed doors one floor down from the
official show floor for this year's Licensing Expo.


Photo by Jim Hill

And the theme for this year's invitation-only Disney shindig? "Timeless
Stories" involving the Disney, Pixar, Marvel & Lucasfilm brands that
would then appeal to "tomorrow's consumer."


Photo by Jim Hill

And just to sort of hammer home the idea that Disney is no
longer the Company which cornered the market when it comes to little girls
(i.e., its Disney Princess and Disney Fairies franchises), check out this
wall-sized Star Wars-related image that DCP put up just outside of one of its
many private meeting rooms. "See?," this carefully crafted photo
screams. "It isn't just little boys who want to wield the Force. Little
girls also want to grow up and be Lords of the Sith."


Photo by Jim Hill

One final, kind-of-ironic note: According to this banner,
Paramount Pictures will be releasing a movie called "Amusement Park"
to theaters sometime in 2017.  


Photo by Jim Hill

Well, given all the "Blackfish" -related issues
that have been dogged SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment over the past two years, I'm
just hoping that they'll still be in the amusement park business come 2017.

Your thoughts?

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General

It takes more than three circles to craft a Classic version of Mickey Mouse

Published

9 years ago

on

June 9, 2015

By

You know what Mickey Mouse looks like, right? Little guy,
big ears?

Truth be told, Disney's corporate symbol has a lot of
different looks. If Mickey's interacting with Guests at Disneyland
Park (especially this summer, when
the Happiest Place on Earth
is celebrating its 60th anniversary), he looks & dresses like this.


Copyright Disney Enterprises,
Inc.
All rights reserved

Or when he's appearing in one of those Emmy Award-winning shorts that Disney
Television Animation has produced (EX: "Bronco Busted," which debuts
on the Disney Channel tonight at 8 p.m. ET / PT), Mickey is drawn in a such a
way that he looks hip, cool, edgy & retro all at the same time.


Copyright Disney Enterprises, Inc. All rights
reserved

Looking ahead to 2017 now, when Disney Junior rolls out "Mickey and the
Roadster Racers," this brand-new animated series will feature a sportier version
of Disney's corporate symbol. One that Mouse House managers hope will persuade
preschool boys to more fully embrace this now 86 year-old character.


Copyright Disney Enterprises,
Inc. All rights reserved

That's what most people don't realize about the Mouse. The
Walt Disney Company deliberately tailors Mickey's look, even his style of
movement, depending on what sort of project / production he's appearing in.

Take — for example — Disney
California Adventure
Park's "World of Color:
Celebrate!" Because Disney's main mouse would be co-hosting this new
nighttime lagoon show with ace emcee Neil Patrick Harris, Eric Goldberg really had
to step up Mickey's game. Which is why this master Disney animator created
several minutes of all-new Mouse animation which then showed that Mickey was
just as skilled a showman as Neil was.


Copyright Disney Enterprises,
Inc.
All rights reserved

Better yet, let's take a look at what the folks at Avalanche Studios just went
through as they attempted to create a Classic version of Mickey & Minnie.
One that would then allow this popular pair to become part of Disney Infinity
3.0.

"I won't lie to you. We were under a lot of pressure to
get the look of this particular version of Mickey — he's called Red Pants
Mickey around here — just right," said Jeff Bunker, the VP of Art
Development at Avalanche Studios, during a recent phone interview. "When
we brought Sorcerer Mickey into Disney Infinity 1.0 back in January of 2014,
that one was relatively easy because … Well, everyone knows what Mickey Mouse
looked like when he appeared in 'Fantasia.' "


Copyright Disney Enterprises,
Inc. All rights reserved

"But this time around, we were being asked to design
THE Mickey & Minnie," Bunker continued. "And given that these Classic
Disney characters have been around in various different forms for the better
part of the last century … Well, which look was the right look?"

Which is why Jeff and his team at Avalanche Studios began watching hours &
hours of Mickey Mouse shorts. As they tried to get a handle on which look would
work best for these characters in Disney Infinity 3.0.


Copyright Disney
Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved

"And we went all the way back to the very start of Mickey's career. We began
with 'Steamboat Willie' and then watched all of those black & white Mickey shorts
that Walt made back in the late 1920s & early 1930s. From there, we
transitioned to his Technicolor shorts. Which is when Mickey went from being
this pie-eyed, really feisty character to more of a well-behaved leading
man," Bunker recalled. "We then finished out our Mouse marathon by
watching all of those new Mickey shorts that Paul Rudish & his team have
been creating for Disney Television Animation. Those cartoons really recapture
a lot of the spirit and wild slapstick fun that Mickey's early, black &
white shorts had."

But given that the specific assignment that Avalanche Studios had been handed
was to create the most appealing looking, likeable version of Mickey Mouse
possible … In the end, Jeff and his team wound up borrowing bits & pieces
from a lot of different versions of the world's most famous mouse. So that
Classic Mickey would then look & move in a way that best fit the sort of
gameplay which people would soon be able to experience with Disney Infinity
3.0.


Copyright Disney Enterprises,
Inc. All rights reserved

"That — in a lot of ways — was actually the toughest
part of the Classic Mickey design project. You have to remember that one of the
key creative conceits of  Disney Infinity
is that all the characters which appear in this game are toys," Bunker
stated. "Okay. So they're beautifully detailed, highly stylized toy
versions of beloved Disney, Pixar, Marvel & Lucasfilm characters. But
they're still supposed to be toys. So our Classic versions of Mickey &
Minnie have the same sort of thickness & sturdiness to them that toys have.
So that they'll then be able to fit right in with all of the rest of the
characters that Avalanche Studios had previously designed for Disney Infinity."

And then there was the matter of coming up with just the
right pose for Classic Mickey & Minnie. Which — to hear Jeff tell the
story — involved input from a lot of Disney upper management.


Copyright Disney Enterprises,
Inc. All rights reserved

"Everyone within the Company seemed to have an opinion
about how Mickey & Minnie should be posed. More to the point, if you Google
Mickey, you then discover that there are literally thousands of poses out there
for these two. Though — truth be told — a lot of those kind of play off the
way Mickey poses when he's being Disney's corporate symbol," Bunker said.
"But what I was most concerned about was that Mickey's pose had to work
with Minnie's pose. Because we were bringing the Classic versions of these
characters up into Disney Infinity 3.0 at the exact same time. And we wanted to
make sure — especially for those fans who like to put their Disney Infinity
figures on display — that Mickey's pose would then complement Minnie.

Which is why Jeff & the crew at Avalanche Studios
decided — when it came to Classic Mickey & Minnie's pose — that they
should go all the way back to the beginning. Which is why these two Disney icons
are sculpted in such a way that it almost seems as though you're witnessing the
very first time Mickey set eyes on Minnie.


Copyright Disney Enterprises,
Inc. All rights reserved

"And what was really great about that was — as soon as
we began showing people within the Company this pose — everyone at Disney
quickly got on board with the idea. I mean, the Classic Mickey that we sculpted
for Disney Infinity 3.0 is clearly a very playful, spunky character. But at the
same time, he's obviously got eyes for Minnie," Bunker concluded. "So
in the end, we were able to come up with Classic versions of these characters
that will work well within the creative confines of Disney Infinity 3.0 but at
the same time please those Disney fans who just collect these figures because
they like the way the Disney Infinity characters look."

So now that this particular design project is over, does
Jeff regret that Mouse House upper management was so hands-on when it came to
making sure that the Classic versions of Mickey & Minnie were specifically
tailored to fit the look & style of gameplay found in Disney Infinity 3.0?


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Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved

"To be blunt, we go through this every time we add a new character to the
game. The folks at Lucasfilm were just as hands-on when we were designing the
versions of Darth Vader and Yoda that will also soon be appearing in Disney
Infinity 3.0," Bunker laughed. "So in the end, if the character's
creators AND the fans are happy, then I'm happy."

This article was originally posted on the Huffington Post's Entertainment page on Tuesday, June 9, 2015

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