Disney performed all the voices in the short, including Mickey's. Then Disney created a new black-and-white short for Mickey, the iconic ' Steamboat Willie,' which saw Mickey as the captain of a steam river sidewheeler. Finally, it was Walt Disney's wife, Lillian, who suggested that the mouse's name should be changed from 'Mortimer' to 'Mickey,' and thus the legend was born.Īfter conceiving of the character, Disney created two shorts centering around Mickey in 1928 called ' Plane Crazy' and ' The Gallopin' Gaucho.' Unfortunately, neither short managed to generate interest among distributors, and they were quietly shelved. Iwerks reworked and refined the sketch of the mouse that had been handed to him into the iconic design that's today known throughout the world. He took his rough initial sketch to his friend and business partner Ub Iwerks, the legendary animator who was responsible for many future innovations that the Disney company brought about in the industry. 'He popped out of my mind onto a drawing pad 20 years ago on a train ride from Manhattan to Hollywood,' Disney recalled in a 1948 essay. During one of his lowest moments - his studio, Laugh-O-Gram, had gone bankrupt, and his character, Oswald the Rabbit, had been taken from him – Disney conceived of the idea of a mouse character that would eventually become Mickey. So what about the creation of Mickey Mouse? It's a well-known fact that Walt Disney came up with the design for Mickey Mouse during a train ride back from a business meeting that had not gone well.

Mickey mouse with gas mask drawing