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1
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During the last few years, we've
ventured into a lot of different fields.
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00:00:09,218 --> 00:00:12,555
We've had the opportunity to meet and
work with a lot of wonderful people.
3
00:00:13,181 --> 00:00:15,933
I only hope that we never
lose sight of one thing.
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00:00:16,017 --> 00:00:18,186
That it was all
started by a mouse.
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00:00:20,000 --> 00:00:26,074
-== [ www.OpenSubtitles.org ] ==-
6
00:00:34,952 --> 00:00:37,371
It's magical
to be able to channel
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00:00:37,455 --> 00:00:39,707
all of your energy
at this character…
8
00:00:39,791 --> 00:00:41,125
Mickey!
9
00:00:41,209 --> 00:00:45,421
…who we can fill
with all of our hopes and dreams
10
00:00:45,505 --> 00:00:48,925
and all of our love and
all of the innocence
11
00:00:49,008 --> 00:00:53,888
that we experience and then
eventually lose and would like back.
12
00:00:55,098 --> 00:00:56,391
Mickey!
13
00:00:59,519 --> 00:01:03,731
Hi, Mickey. Hi, Mickey! Mickey!
14
00:01:24,210 --> 00:01:26,713
Mickey was
everywhere when I was a kid.
15
00:01:26,796 --> 00:01:29,173
He was just, like,
part of my DNA.
16
00:01:31,676 --> 00:01:35,680
He's plastered over
every T-shirt, every billboard.
17
00:01:35,763 --> 00:01:38,057
He speaks multiple languages.
18
00:01:38,141 --> 00:01:40,351
- He's everywhere.
- Everywhere!
19
00:01:40,435 --> 00:01:42,979
It's overwhelming.
Like, leave me alone.
20
00:01:45,106 --> 00:01:46,941
Uh, no. Okay, let's do
that again.
21
00:01:48,192 --> 00:01:50,361
What is it about Mickey Mouse?
22
00:01:51,362 --> 00:01:53,281
He started as this
simple character.
23
00:01:54,949 --> 00:01:56,701
But over time, he gets so big
24
00:01:56,784 --> 00:02:01,164
that he becomes this
reflection of who we are.
25
00:02:01,789 --> 00:02:02,915
The good and the bad.
26
00:02:07,587 --> 00:02:11,632
How's that even possible with
this... ...little mouse?
27
00:02:53,841 --> 00:02:55,527
The life and
ventures of Mickey Mouse
28
00:02:55,551 --> 00:02:56,761
have been closely bound up
29
00:02:56,844 --> 00:02:59,597
with my own personal
and professional life.
30
00:03:04,977 --> 00:03:08,564
He still speaks for me,
and I still speak for him.
31
00:03:53,609 --> 00:03:54,902
Stop it.
32
00:03:59,741 --> 00:04:01,492
Wore that one the other day.
33
00:04:02,034 --> 00:04:04,036
Haven't worn that
one in a while.
34
00:04:06,873 --> 00:04:12,086
When I first got to the
studio to do the Genie in Aladdin,
35
00:04:12,170 --> 00:04:14,922
I didn't know what to
expect with Mickey.
36
00:04:16,883 --> 00:04:19,927
It felt like he was
encased in amber,
37
00:04:20,511 --> 00:04:23,347
where they don't want to do
anything with him, you know?
38
00:04:25,099 --> 00:04:28,561
Ah. Here we are.
The Hat Building.
39
00:04:36,360 --> 00:04:38,488
Sometimes people ask,
40
00:04:38,571 --> 00:04:41,741
"Aren't you unhappy that you're not
on one of the features right now?"
41
00:04:41,824 --> 00:04:44,577
I said, "I'm getting to
animate Mickey Mouse."
42
00:04:48,206 --> 00:04:51,334
Walt used to say, "Don't forget.
It was all started by a mouse."
43
00:04:52,210 --> 00:04:55,713
So, no matter what we're
capable of doing now,
44
00:04:56,547 --> 00:04:59,717
Mickey takes us
back to our origins.
45
00:05:11,479 --> 00:05:17,151
This process of hand-drawn hasn't
really changed for a century.
46
00:05:17,944 --> 00:05:23,825
You know, the process of drawing
the characters is exactly the same.
47
00:05:25,493 --> 00:05:28,746
But back when the great Mickey
cartoons were being made,
48
00:05:28,830 --> 00:05:35,253
the Disney studio had maybe a hundred
animators to do Mickey and his pals.
49
00:05:36,421 --> 00:05:39,799
These days, to do a new
hand-drawn Mickey project,
50
00:05:39,882 --> 00:05:43,386
like the one we're starting
now, we have three.
51
00:05:44,595 --> 00:05:47,390
Me, Mark Henn and Randy Haycock.
52
00:05:47,974 --> 00:05:51,352
Randy did characters
like Clayton in Tarzan.
53
00:05:52,520 --> 00:05:54,647
He did a lot of Pocahontas.
54
00:05:54,731 --> 00:05:59,610
And then Mark Henn is really
known as the princess guy.
55
00:06:01,779 --> 00:06:04,115
And the list is endless.
56
00:06:05,700 --> 00:06:07,285
We've always wanted
to do something
57
00:06:07,368 --> 00:06:10,413
where we see all the
different Mickeys together.
58
00:06:10,496 --> 00:06:13,875
That's never really been
seen in a film before,
59
00:06:13,958 --> 00:06:16,794
so that's what we're
doing on this project.
60
00:06:17,420 --> 00:06:20,173
And we're calling it
Mickey in a Minute.
61
00:06:20,840 --> 00:06:24,469
Where he's walking down the
hallways of Disney Animation,
62
00:06:24,552 --> 00:06:30,558
and he gets sucked into a whirlwind that
sends him through his most iconic moments
63
00:06:31,184 --> 00:06:35,605
until, finally, he gets spit out
at the end as Steamboat Willie.
64
00:06:36,981 --> 00:06:38,524
It's going to be a lot of work.
65
00:06:38,608 --> 00:06:44,530
I mean, basically we're gonna be making
about 1,500 original drawings of Mickey
66
00:06:44,614 --> 00:06:47,784
for about one minute's
worth of screen time.
67
00:06:48,284 --> 00:06:49,869
But trust me.
68
00:06:49,952 --> 00:06:51,746
It'll be worth it. You'll see.
69
00:06:54,499 --> 00:07:00,004
And this is Mickey as he was
designed by Walt and Ub Iwerks.
70
00:07:02,006 --> 00:07:07,595
Not exactly the Mickey we recognize
today, but our kind of proto-Mickey.
71
00:07:08,471 --> 00:07:11,432
And yes, he still
had a tail. Whoop.
72
00:07:11,516 --> 00:07:12,558
There we go.
73
00:07:17,480 --> 00:07:20,191
It was a beautiful
farm in Marceline, Missouri.
74
00:07:20,274 --> 00:07:21,692
Forty-eight acres.
75
00:07:22,610 --> 00:07:25,154
My chore was to keep the
horse going around the circle
76
00:07:25,238 --> 00:07:29,450
and then part of it would be feeding
the cane in the squeezer, you see?
77
00:07:29,534 --> 00:07:32,829
Walt lived here in
Marceline for five years.
78
00:07:32,912 --> 00:07:34,914
It was a short amount of time.
79
00:07:34,997 --> 00:07:38,459
But those very few years
were Walt's childhood.
80
00:07:39,711 --> 00:07:41,754
His family was poor,
81
00:07:41,838 --> 00:07:46,175
and his father Elias
was extremely strict.
82
00:07:46,259 --> 00:07:50,346
And so art for
Walt was an escape.
83
00:07:55,226 --> 00:08:00,481
Walt would take his drawing materials
and go down to a special tree.
84
00:08:01,983 --> 00:08:03,151
His dreaming tree.
85
00:08:05,027 --> 00:08:08,781
He would spend hours under
that tree just laying in the grass.
86
00:08:08,865 --> 00:08:11,451
A thing that Walt
called "Belly Botany."
87
00:08:12,368 --> 00:08:17,373
I don't know if you've
ever laid in tall grass on a farm,
88
00:08:17,457 --> 00:08:20,126
but there's a lot that's
happening around you.
89
00:08:21,753 --> 00:08:24,964
Whatever happened
to run or crawl or fly by,
90
00:08:25,048 --> 00:08:26,841
he would quickly try to sketch.
91
00:08:32,889 --> 00:08:37,769
His little sister told me Walt
would do a series of drawings for her.
92
00:08:37,852 --> 00:08:40,855
And then he would make a really
good story up to go along with it.
93
00:08:44,150 --> 00:08:50,156
I can just see those creative juices
happening underneath his tree.
94
00:08:53,076 --> 00:08:55,703
It was that happy place.
95
00:08:57,413 --> 00:09:00,541
It was where that
spark happened.
96
00:09:11,844 --> 00:09:14,972
- I love it. Yeah, that looks cool.
- It's cool. I like that.
97
00:09:17,892 --> 00:09:21,562
So, like, all the possibilities of
what you would want on your arm,
98
00:09:22,188 --> 00:09:23,815
why'd you choose Mickey Mouse?
99
00:09:23,898 --> 00:09:28,361
I feel like blood, sweat and tears
was put into Mickey Mouse by Walt.
100
00:09:28,444 --> 00:09:30,655
You know, he was dirt poor.
101
00:09:30,738 --> 00:09:33,491
Dirt poor with, like, a
dream. Just like, "Nope,
102
00:09:33,574 --> 00:09:35,334
- I believe in that mouse."
- Right.
103
00:09:35,368 --> 00:09:37,179
You get a lot
of people coming in here
104
00:09:37,203 --> 00:09:38,746
asking about Disney and stuff?
105
00:09:38,830 --> 00:09:40,248
Yeah, there's a few.
106
00:09:40,331 --> 00:09:41,999
DJ, correct me if I'm wrong.
107
00:09:42,083 --> 00:09:45,044
This was Walt and Roy's
studio in the early '20s?
108
00:09:45,128 --> 00:09:47,630
Yeah. This is the place.
109
00:09:49,132 --> 00:09:53,052
I know way too much about the
history of this now, you know?
110
00:09:53,136 --> 00:09:57,515
With Walt and his brother starting
the Disney Brothers Studio here.
111
00:09:59,642 --> 00:10:02,019
Walt was chilling right here.
112
00:10:02,770 --> 00:10:04,689
Right here.
113
00:10:05,273 --> 00:10:09,902
And now this little, rad dude
114
00:10:09,986 --> 00:10:13,990
is so imprinted in
everybody's brains.
115
00:10:14,073 --> 00:10:16,909
Like, we all got a weird,
different feeling about him.
116
00:10:18,161 --> 00:10:20,246
Mickey
Mouse, to me, is light.
117
00:10:20,329 --> 00:10:22,415
There's, like, a lot
of dark in the world.
118
00:10:22,498 --> 00:10:26,210
Especially nowadays, things do tend
to be getting a little bit darker.
119
00:10:26,961 --> 00:10:29,297
And he's just keeping
hope in the world.
120
00:10:30,256 --> 00:10:31,799
Yeah!
121
00:10:35,470 --> 00:10:37,322
So, this is the very
first, officially licensed
122
00:10:37,346 --> 00:10:39,057
Disney book ever published.
123
00:10:39,140 --> 00:10:41,684
Imaginatively titled,
"Mickey Mouse Book."
124
00:10:41,768 --> 00:10:44,353
Uh, what you've got
in here are games.
125
00:10:44,437 --> 00:10:49,609
Probably the most interesting, though,
is the story of how Mickey meets Walt.
126
00:10:49,692 --> 00:10:54,363
Falling from Mouse Fairy Land,
crash-landing on Walt's roof.
127
00:10:54,947 --> 00:10:57,325
Like Santa Claus, Mickey
hops down the chimney,
128
00:10:57,909 --> 00:10:59,535
and who does he
meet in the house?
129
00:10:59,619 --> 00:11:01,370
None other than
Walt Disney himself.
130
00:11:03,206 --> 00:11:06,542
Walt loved to tell tall tales of
the story about how Mickey came to be.
131
00:11:06,626 --> 00:11:09,212
He told it different versions
over the years himself.
132
00:11:09,295 --> 00:11:12,757
Walt, you're a man
who's famous for many things,
133
00:11:12,840 --> 00:11:15,426
not the least of which is
building a better mouse.
134
00:11:15,510 --> 00:11:17,762
Mickey Mouse
hopped out of my mind
135
00:11:17,845 --> 00:11:20,598
on a train ride from
Manhattan to Hollywood
136
00:11:20,681 --> 00:11:24,519
at a time when the business fortunes
of my brother, Roy, and myself
137
00:11:24,602 --> 00:11:27,814
were at lowest ebb and disaster
seemed right around the corner.
138
00:11:30,149 --> 00:11:31,389
Walt was in trouble.
139
00:11:32,360 --> 00:11:37,615
Before Mickey Mouse, Walt and his
studio created Oswald the Lucky Rabbit.
140
00:11:38,491 --> 00:11:40,910
I'd argue that Oswald is
certainly a lucky rabbit,
141
00:11:40,993 --> 00:11:42,787
but the luck isn't always good.
142
00:11:44,288 --> 00:11:48,668
The actual Oswald contract does not give
Walt Disney the rights to that character.
143
00:11:49,711 --> 00:11:52,714
And so, Walt Disney was
pushed out of the equation.
144
00:11:55,174 --> 00:11:58,845
It's all about that mythological
moment when he's on the train.
145
00:11:59,512 --> 00:12:03,725
And he's been told his entire
studio has been hired away from him,
146
00:12:04,308 --> 00:12:07,520
that Oswald doesn't belong to
him anymore, and it's crushing.
147
00:12:08,980 --> 00:12:11,190
But out of that comes hope.
148
00:12:12,066 --> 00:12:15,153
He said, "Okay, we've lost
everything. Let's start again."
149
00:12:22,744 --> 00:12:24,078
Over the years,
150
00:12:24,162 --> 00:12:27,457
with the retelling of
that story on the train,
151
00:12:27,540 --> 00:12:30,543
over and over again, and
the different inflections,
152
00:12:30,626 --> 00:12:32,045
it becomes myth.
153
00:12:33,129 --> 00:12:34,672
This is mythmaking.
154
00:12:37,425 --> 00:12:41,596
Walt realizes the importance of
linking himself to that mouse.
155
00:12:41,679 --> 00:12:43,931
They're developing
at the same time.
156
00:12:45,808 --> 00:12:49,187
Legend has
it that, on that train,
157
00:12:49,270 --> 00:12:52,523
Walt wanted to call
Mickey "Mortimer Mouse,"
158
00:12:52,607 --> 00:12:56,069
but his wife, Lillian,
suggested "Mickey Mouse."
159
00:12:58,738 --> 00:13:01,866
I think that's probably one of
the most important decisions
160
00:13:01,949 --> 00:13:04,619
anybody ever made
for a character.
161
00:13:05,745 --> 00:13:07,914
But they still had a
few Oswalds to produce,
162
00:13:07,997 --> 00:13:10,792
so they couldn't necessarily
broadcast it far and wide
163
00:13:10,875 --> 00:13:12,875
that they were gonna be
working on a new character.
164
00:13:14,379 --> 00:13:17,590
So that very first Mickey Mouse
short was made in their garage.
165
00:13:19,550 --> 00:13:22,595
Walt had to turn to the people
that he trusted the most.
166
00:13:22,678 --> 00:13:26,182
Of course, you have Ub
Iwerks, Walt's lead animator.
167
00:13:26,265 --> 00:13:29,602
Walt and Ub
complemented each other.
168
00:13:30,311 --> 00:13:33,689
You know, Ub could do
things that Walt could not.
169
00:13:33,773 --> 00:13:36,526
First of all,
animate like a demon.
170
00:13:36,609 --> 00:13:39,112
It was said he could
do 700 drawings a day,
171
00:13:39,195 --> 00:13:41,239
which is unbelievable.
172
00:13:42,198 --> 00:13:44,909
Ub Iwerks, meanwhile,
remembered a different scenario
173
00:13:44,992 --> 00:13:49,038
where Walt came back on the train
and said, "We need a new character."
174
00:13:49,122 --> 00:13:51,874
And they tried out various
animals and settled on a mouse.
175
00:13:53,042 --> 00:13:58,673
Either way, there's this famous
sheet of different designs of Mickey.
176
00:14:05,847 --> 00:14:07,557
And two of them are circled.
177
00:14:09,517 --> 00:14:12,854
Does it matter if
Mickey was created on a train
178
00:14:12,937 --> 00:14:14,647
or at an animator's desk?
179
00:14:15,440 --> 00:14:18,818
What matters is that
hope-from-despair story
180
00:14:18,901 --> 00:14:20,778
that we can all
resonate with and go,
181
00:14:20,862 --> 00:14:24,449
"You know what? Yeah, I gotta pick
myself back up by my bootstraps
182
00:14:24,532 --> 00:14:28,035
and keep going, because if
Walt can do it, I can do it."
183
00:14:34,333 --> 00:14:37,003
In so precarious a
world of new possibilities
184
00:14:37,086 --> 00:14:39,005
and increased competition,
185
00:14:39,088 --> 00:14:40,882
I'd planned to go
all out on sound.
186
00:14:40,965 --> 00:14:45,178
And those plans came very near
spelling a major disaster for us.
187
00:14:46,721 --> 00:14:49,974
Mickey was
not an overnight success.
188
00:14:52,060 --> 00:14:54,896
Walt had made two cartoons
prior to Steamboat Willie,
189
00:14:54,979 --> 00:14:57,106
Plane Crazy and
Gallopin' Gaucho.
190
00:14:57,190 --> 00:15:00,193
And he couldn't find a
distributor for them.
191
00:15:00,860 --> 00:15:03,905
Then came a very
important breakthrough.
192
00:15:03,988 --> 00:15:07,325
In 1927,
as sound came in,
193
00:15:07,950 --> 00:15:13,498
he set out to make the first sync-sound
cartoon this country had ever seen.
194
00:15:16,084 --> 00:15:17,960
To launch our
picture impressively,
195
00:15:18,044 --> 00:15:22,715
I'd hired a full New York orchestra with
a famous director to do the recording.
196
00:15:23,800 --> 00:15:27,011
The upshot was that I had
to borrow on my automobile,
197
00:15:27,095 --> 00:15:29,597
and Roy and I had to
mortgage our homes as well,
198
00:15:29,680 --> 00:15:33,393
to cover the cost of that first
synchronization for Steamboat Willie.
199
00:15:33,476 --> 00:15:37,146
And everybody had to synchronize.
Hit that thing right on the button.
200
00:15:37,230 --> 00:15:39,148
And we had... We had a
way of doing it though.
201
00:15:39,232 --> 00:15:42,693
We had a little... kind of a little
beat that worked up and down.
202
00:15:42,777 --> 00:15:46,155
They were all musicians working for
me, so they could follow those beats,
203
00:15:46,239 --> 00:15:49,075
and when it came to a certain number
of beats, they would go...
204
00:15:49,158 --> 00:15:50,451
Or they would go bang!
205
00:15:50,535 --> 00:15:53,375
Or they would go this, or they would
pop one of these popguns, you know?
206
00:15:55,373 --> 00:15:56,916
And when
it was finished,
207
00:15:56,999 --> 00:15:59,168
the picture wouldn't
synchronize with the sound.
208
00:16:00,253 --> 00:16:02,255
And we had to do it all over.
209
00:16:03,715 --> 00:16:07,927
Finally, when all of those
elements came together,
210
00:16:09,554 --> 00:16:11,514
that put Mickey into
the stratosphere.
211
00:16:33,578 --> 00:16:35,538
It
had to be this thing
212
00:16:35,621 --> 00:16:38,833
that you would never forget
the experience of having.
213
00:16:41,836 --> 00:16:46,758
It hit. It hit with a
bang. It was a hell of a success.
214
00:16:49,343 --> 00:16:52,597
And nothing would
ever be the same after that.
215
00:16:56,142 --> 00:16:57,894
With Steamboat Willie,
216
00:16:57,977 --> 00:17:01,689
people would probably just be
floored by what they saw, you know?
217
00:17:01,773 --> 00:17:05,860
When this movie came out, there
was nothing like this ever done.
218
00:17:06,611 --> 00:17:09,572
And once in a while,
in our lifetime,
219
00:17:09,655 --> 00:17:12,658
we see a movie like that
and it changes everything.
220
00:17:12,742 --> 00:17:15,787
I mean, for me in my childhood,
it was, like, Star Wars.
221
00:17:17,872 --> 00:17:22,293
And I think Steamboat Willie
probably had a similar impact.
222
00:17:27,507 --> 00:17:30,968
Mickey became a
movie star on the same plane
223
00:17:31,052 --> 00:17:33,429
as Douglas Fairbanks
or Charlie Chaplin.
224
00:17:37,809 --> 00:17:41,479
He was somebody they went
to the movies to see.
225
00:17:48,736 --> 00:17:54,117
And as his character developed, he
became a rescuer to Minnie Mouse…
226
00:17:54,200 --> 00:17:56,327
Take it easy. You're all right.
227
00:17:56,411 --> 00:17:59,956
…a hero stacked
up against Peg Leg Pete…
228
00:18:01,165 --> 00:18:03,084
and a very
resourceful character.
229
00:18:05,878 --> 00:18:10,508
It's no accident that Walt Disney
was the first voice of Mickey Mouse.
230
00:18:10,591 --> 00:18:13,302
Yeah.
It's me, I guess.
231
00:18:13,928 --> 00:18:14,971
The optimist.
232
00:18:15,596 --> 00:18:18,141
The curious kid
who never grew up.
233
00:18:18,891 --> 00:18:22,603
The guy who was intrepid, who never
let anything stand in his way.
234
00:18:23,187 --> 00:18:27,108
That's Mickey Mouse, but
that's also Walt Disney.
235
00:18:30,111 --> 00:18:31,821
And in a way,
236
00:18:31,904 --> 00:18:38,828
Mickey's earliest cartoons are really
from Walt's memories as a farm boy.
237
00:18:40,830 --> 00:18:42,999
Walt poured
himself into this character,
238
00:18:43,082 --> 00:18:45,960
and the character embodies
Walt Disney himself.
239
00:18:46,711 --> 00:18:49,297
So, you cannot separate the two.
240
00:18:52,592 --> 00:18:56,179
In the early shorts,
there was a sense of adventure.
241
00:18:56,262 --> 00:19:00,892
A sense of Walt doing something exciting
that somebody else wasn't doing.
242
00:19:02,935 --> 00:19:08,066
Fairbanks and Chaplin were such fans
that they both made arrangements
243
00:19:08,149 --> 00:19:13,279
that several of their films be paired with
Mickey Mouse shorts at their premieres.
244
00:19:23,289 --> 00:19:24,516
"What?
No Mickey Mouse?"
245
00:19:24,540 --> 00:19:28,211
was the complaint of people going
to a movie theater and realizing,
246
00:19:28,294 --> 00:19:31,254
"They're not showing a Mickey Mouse
cartoon. What's wrong with you people?"
247
00:19:31,798 --> 00:19:33,591
He really
was a sensation,
248
00:19:34,425 --> 00:19:36,719
and the merchandise
showed up everywhere.
249
00:19:37,762 --> 00:19:39,430
That was a brand-new thing.
250
00:19:39,514 --> 00:19:42,850
And there were a couple of companies
that were on the verge of bankruptcy,
251
00:19:42,934 --> 00:19:46,562
and Mickey Mouse actually saved
those companies from disappearing.
252
00:19:47,397 --> 00:19:50,858
What would another culture
from another planet think of us
253
00:19:50,942 --> 00:19:53,736
seeing Mickey on everything?
254
00:19:53,820 --> 00:19:58,449
They might say, "Take me to your
leader," and it would be Mickey.
255
00:20:02,829 --> 00:20:05,081
Let me get this out of the way.
256
00:20:06,249 --> 00:20:08,960
And here it is,
folks. Mouse Heaven.
257
00:20:11,337 --> 00:20:14,632
I collect images that
embody a life force.
258
00:20:16,050 --> 00:20:21,723
Now, the more abstract they are, the
more they're imbued with that life force.
259
00:20:21,806 --> 00:20:24,434
Because often it's
just the bare essence.
260
00:20:24,517 --> 00:20:28,521
So you can clothe it in anything
your imagination can bring forth.
261
00:20:29,731 --> 00:20:31,899
Which kind of gets
us up to Mickey.
262
00:20:32,483 --> 00:20:38,448
Mickey is pure, absolute geometry,
made up of nothing but circles.
263
00:20:39,532 --> 00:20:41,284
This total abstraction
264
00:20:41,367 --> 00:20:47,582
is probably the most universal
symbol ever created by man or mouse.
265
00:20:48,541 --> 00:20:53,004
Three simple circles, a
quarter and two dimes.
266
00:20:53,087 --> 00:20:56,132
And it's recognizable
the world over.
267
00:20:56,841 --> 00:21:00,261
What I've collected is simply
the history of this phenomenon.
268
00:21:00,928 --> 00:21:05,600
So, I think, if an archaeologist
was to find this place
269
00:21:05,683 --> 00:21:07,977
in the far, far distant future,
270
00:21:08,061 --> 00:21:12,398
they would be convinced that this
was a shrine to the great god Mickey.
271
00:21:17,653 --> 00:21:18,905
Welcome to Earth.
272
00:21:18,988 --> 00:21:24,869
I have to tell you about this
mouse that will change your life.
273
00:21:24,952 --> 00:21:27,371
- He's a mouse.
- That wears clothes though.
274
00:21:27,455 --> 00:21:30,458
White gloves, black fur,
I guess it would be.
275
00:21:30,541 --> 00:21:32,668
Red pants. Yellow shoes.
276
00:21:32,752 --> 00:21:35,588
Big ears, you know? And
he's always smiling.
277
00:21:35,671 --> 00:21:38,383
He has a very particular voice.
278
00:21:38,466 --> 00:21:40,760
Oh, boy!
279
00:21:40,843 --> 00:21:42,387
He has a girlfriend, Minnie.
280
00:21:42,470 --> 00:21:44,847
He likes Minnie. I
know that.
281
00:21:44,931 --> 00:21:48,768
I think that they're dating
because there's no ring on them.
282
00:21:48,851 --> 00:21:51,521
And then his other
friends are Daisy…
283
00:21:51,604 --> 00:21:53,314
Goofy, Donald…
284
00:21:53,398 --> 00:21:55,066
Oh, and he has a
dog named Pluto.
285
00:21:55,149 --> 00:21:59,529
Not to be confused with Goofy,
because Goofy is also sort of a dog,
286
00:21:59,612 --> 00:22:01,197
but he's more of a dog-man.
287
00:22:01,280 --> 00:22:03,616
Um, and that's just the
world we're living in.
288
00:22:03,699 --> 00:22:05,952
Ha-ha, everybody.
289
00:22:09,247 --> 00:22:10,415
Mickey Mouse.
290
00:22:10,498 --> 00:22:11,624
Mickey Mouse.
291
00:22:13,167 --> 00:22:15,878
Mickey and I
just became inseparable.
292
00:22:15,962 --> 00:22:18,297
We love a mouse.
How crazy is that?
293
00:22:18,381 --> 00:22:20,675
That's a little absurd.
294
00:22:24,929 --> 00:22:25,930
Lay down!
295
00:22:27,557 --> 00:22:28,558
Get up!
296
00:22:29,600 --> 00:22:31,978
Speak!
297
00:22:34,856 --> 00:22:39,318
In the world's film capital
is the studio that stands as a monument
298
00:22:39,402 --> 00:22:44,323
to the great genius of Walt Disney,
master of a new form of popular art that…
299
00:22:44,407 --> 00:22:46,743
That extra revenue from the
Mickey Mouse merchandise
300
00:22:46,826 --> 00:22:51,456
really allowed the studio
to experiment and improve.
301
00:22:52,415 --> 00:22:54,917
First thing I did
when I got a little money,
302
00:22:55,001 --> 00:22:57,128
we set up our own art school.
303
00:22:58,838 --> 00:23:02,717
Art schools that existed then
worked with the static figure.
304
00:23:02,800 --> 00:23:06,512
Now, we were dealing in motion,
movement and the flow of movement.
305
00:23:06,596 --> 00:23:09,766
The flow of things, you know?
Action. Reaction. All of that.
306
00:23:11,559 --> 00:23:13,853
I put all my artists
back in school.
307
00:23:15,229 --> 00:23:18,941
And out of that school would come the
artists that now make up my staff here.
308
00:23:19,025 --> 00:23:20,234
And more than that,
309
00:23:20,318 --> 00:23:23,446
the artists that make up most all
of the cartoon outfits in Hollywood.
310
00:23:25,656 --> 00:23:27,742
Mickey has taken
the world by storm.
311
00:23:27,825 --> 00:23:30,453
The great thinkers, the great
artists are all stepping back
312
00:23:30,536 --> 00:23:34,499
and acknowledging that this is
something otherworldly and important.
313
00:23:41,839 --> 00:23:44,801
What is the power
behind this character?
314
00:23:45,426 --> 00:23:46,928
Yoo-hoo!
315
00:24:02,485 --> 00:24:06,114
I think Mickey appeals
for a lot of different reasons.
316
00:24:06,614 --> 00:24:11,494
But if I had to pick one,
it's the way he moves.
317
00:24:14,831 --> 00:24:21,170
It's how he does things that
make him compelling to watch.
318
00:24:23,005 --> 00:24:27,677
He has a spirit to him, dating all
the way back to Steamboat Willie,
319
00:24:28,720 --> 00:24:33,599
that is playful, inventive,
resourceful and fun.
320
00:24:34,475 --> 00:24:40,106
But his imperfections are as much a
part of his character as anything else.
321
00:24:44,193 --> 00:24:45,862
Mickey wasn't perfect,
322
00:24:47,238 --> 00:24:51,617
but he would always find a resourceful
way to get out of situations.
323
00:24:55,037 --> 00:24:56,038
Minnie!
324
00:24:57,540 --> 00:25:00,877
His movement
is defining who he is.
325
00:25:00,960 --> 00:25:06,007
And that is what the Disney Studio
has specialized in ever since.
326
00:25:08,009 --> 00:25:11,220
You're not just creating
movement for movement's sake.
327
00:25:12,305 --> 00:25:18,061
You're creating movement that defines
that individual's personality.
328
00:25:38,414 --> 00:25:42,168
People tend to forget that
Mickey Mouse started in the Roaring '20s.
329
00:25:42,251 --> 00:25:45,922
But almost immediately, the
Depression fell on the United States.
330
00:25:47,090 --> 00:25:49,592
America, the
land of shattered dreams.
331
00:25:49,675 --> 00:25:52,845
A place of deep
despair and real fear.
332
00:25:53,805 --> 00:25:57,850
Millions of Americans homeless,
hungry, and without hope.
333
00:26:00,812 --> 00:26:03,022
Because of the crisis,
the majority of kids
334
00:26:03,106 --> 00:26:05,358
were spending their
time without parents.
335
00:26:06,484 --> 00:26:09,862
They were left free to do what
they wanted during the day.
336
00:26:10,446 --> 00:26:13,866
And movies were the cheapest
entertainment you could get for a child.
337
00:26:14,367 --> 00:26:16,494
So if you're a kid,
338
00:26:16,577 --> 00:26:19,789
the one thing you could be
guaranteed of was a Saturday matinee.
339
00:26:20,957 --> 00:26:22,750
It was the highlight
of your week.
340
00:26:24,752 --> 00:26:26,462
Yoo-hoo, Mickey!
341
00:26:27,880 --> 00:26:29,132
Yoo-hoo!
342
00:26:33,636 --> 00:26:36,264
I fell in
love with Mickey
343
00:26:36,347 --> 00:26:39,976
because I went to the movies almost
every day with my sister and brother.
344
00:26:40,518 --> 00:26:43,563
And you had a double feature
and a cartoon in the middle,
345
00:26:44,731 --> 00:26:49,235
so you were there for hours out
of the hands of your parents.
346
00:26:51,863 --> 00:26:54,782
And there's the cartoon, and
when I saw that cartoon...
347
00:26:54,866 --> 00:26:58,578
First the big head would appear with
radiant lights coming out of it.
348
00:27:04,584 --> 00:27:05,835
I remember my sister saying,
349
00:27:05,918 --> 00:27:08,755
"We knew it was coming, and
Jackie would grab you by one arm,
350
00:27:08,838 --> 00:27:12,300
and I would grab you by the other
arm, and you went into a frenzy."
351
00:27:37,742 --> 00:27:40,203
Wow. I get the
goose bumps every time.
352
00:27:43,998 --> 00:27:49,796
Mickey becomes the icon of how to
truly survive the Great Depression.
353
00:27:50,630 --> 00:27:52,965
The American dream has suffered.
354
00:27:53,549 --> 00:27:55,885
But Mickey is able
to bring that back.
355
00:27:56,677 --> 00:28:01,891
He's able to return us to
a sense of perseverance.
356
00:28:04,352 --> 00:28:08,481
There was no other character
having that grip on a mass conscience.
357
00:28:09,690 --> 00:28:13,069
That popularity spins out into
things like the Mickey Mouse clubs,
358
00:28:13,152 --> 00:28:15,113
where kids could get together
359
00:28:15,196 --> 00:28:17,657
and watch Mickey cartoons
together and laugh together.
360
00:28:34,674 --> 00:28:37,009
And now they're
all waiting for Mickey himself.
361
00:28:38,136 --> 00:28:39,637
Here he comes!
362
00:28:46,102 --> 00:28:50,982
Mickey weathers the Depression, but
he's got to change and transform.
363
00:28:52,483 --> 00:28:56,028
Because America and Mickey,
they change together.
364
00:29:14,922 --> 00:29:17,467
There's
almost a hundred years
365
00:29:17,550 --> 00:29:20,136
of Disney Animation history
within this building.
366
00:29:21,012 --> 00:29:25,016
We have approximately 65 million
pieces of art in our collection.
367
00:29:25,933 --> 00:29:30,271
And every box holds a
spark of creativity.
368
00:29:31,773 --> 00:29:35,485
So, here you've got
Steamboat Willie.
369
00:29:36,402 --> 00:29:38,196
Ah. That's a nice one.
370
00:29:38,279 --> 00:29:41,240
Mickey as he's
falling in the soap bucket.
371
00:29:43,451 --> 00:29:45,536
Yeah, and it's so, so simple.
372
00:29:45,620 --> 00:29:47,330
You look at the hands...
373
00:29:47,413 --> 00:29:49,415
They almost look like
just little pinwheels.
374
00:29:49,499 --> 00:29:50,875
- And just...
- Yeah.
375
00:29:50,958 --> 00:29:56,589
It's the spirit of Mickey, just
really simplified to an essence.
376
00:29:58,591 --> 00:30:02,095
You'll be able to see
an evolution of Mickey here.
377
00:30:03,179 --> 00:30:05,473
- So, we've gone five years later.
- Mm-hmm.
378
00:30:05,556 --> 00:30:06,557
Oh, yeah.
379
00:30:06,641 --> 00:30:08,893
You can see there's
a little bit more to him.
380
00:30:08,976 --> 00:30:14,941
It's the same character, but you can
tell that a different animator did this.
381
00:30:15,024 --> 00:30:16,025
Mm-hmm.
382
00:30:16,984 --> 00:30:19,821
The hands, for example.
They added the white gloves.
383
00:30:23,699 --> 00:30:27,620
And this Mickey
is just that much more
384
00:30:27,703 --> 00:30:30,540
three-dimensional and organic.
385
00:30:31,958 --> 00:30:35,253
You would take an animator's
drawing of Mickey,
386
00:30:35,336 --> 00:30:38,256
put it on your light
box, and then improve it.
387
00:30:38,339 --> 00:30:39,257
Whoop.
388
00:30:39,340 --> 00:30:45,430
Improve it by making that pose stronger,
making that line of action more defined.
389
00:30:46,848 --> 00:30:52,937
But there's still something personal in
it that you're bringing to the table.
390
00:30:55,982 --> 00:31:00,403
The very first animation I did here
at the studio back in 19...
391
00:31:00,486 --> 00:31:02,697
We won't talk about that.
It was a long time ago.
392
00:31:02,780 --> 00:31:05,366
But the very first animation
I did was Mickey Mouse.
393
00:31:06,367 --> 00:31:09,454
I felt it then, and I feel
it now with this short.
394
00:31:09,996 --> 00:31:12,165
And we're able to
keep him alive,
395
00:31:12,248 --> 00:31:14,834
and we're doing it in the way
that Mickey should be done.
396
00:31:19,505 --> 00:31:22,258
I don't know if I can flip this
'cause the papers are kind of thin.
397
00:31:24,635 --> 00:31:27,263
The character of Mickey,
the personality of Mickey...
398
00:31:28,389 --> 00:31:30,433
Being hand-drawn is
part of who he is.
399
00:31:31,976 --> 00:31:35,313
And if people recognize
that, you know,
400
00:31:35,396 --> 00:31:38,524
there will always be a reason
for us to keep drawing him.
401
00:31:41,277 --> 00:31:44,280
And those early animators,
as crude as it was,
402
00:31:44,363 --> 00:31:47,533
they were discovering the
language of animation.
403
00:31:49,202 --> 00:31:50,369
Well, Walt,
404
00:31:50,453 --> 00:31:53,623
how is Snow White and the
Seven Dwarfs coming along?
405
00:31:53,706 --> 00:31:55,500
Oh, it's
come along very well.
406
00:31:56,417 --> 00:31:58,294
Going to run for
one hour and a half.
407
00:31:58,378 --> 00:32:00,755
No cartoon production has
ever run that long before.
408
00:32:01,339 --> 00:32:04,467
That's why we feel justified in
putting one million dollars into it.
409
00:32:05,093 --> 00:32:06,511
In terms of animation,
410
00:32:06,594 --> 00:32:09,764
Mickey opened a lot
of doors for Walt,
411
00:32:09,847 --> 00:32:12,266
and Walt was always
looking for new doors.
412
00:32:13,059 --> 00:32:15,954
You know, it makes me dizzy
to think of the millions of drawings
413
00:32:15,978 --> 00:32:17,980
necessary for a
production of this kind.
414
00:32:18,731 --> 00:32:21,609
Disney needs
to expand hugely.
415
00:32:22,110 --> 00:32:27,240
And so, the studio goes from
a small group to 300 people.
416
00:32:27,323 --> 00:32:30,618
And that change really
transforms the studio.
417
00:32:31,953 --> 00:32:35,581
No longer can Walt be involved
in every Mickey short.
418
00:32:35,665 --> 00:32:38,876
His entire focus shifts
over to Snow White.
419
00:32:39,669 --> 00:32:43,756
Snow White was not taking place
in the same universe that Mickey lived in.
420
00:32:44,924 --> 00:32:47,051
But at the same time,
Mickey never goes away.
421
00:32:47,885 --> 00:32:53,266
He's always right there by Walt's side
whenever he takes on a new enthusiasm.
422
00:33:01,941 --> 00:33:05,528
Mickey Mouse is probably
the most difficult character to ink
423
00:33:05,611 --> 00:33:07,155
because of all the curves.
424
00:33:08,823 --> 00:33:11,701
That's the most difficult part
of inking is inking circles.
425
00:33:11,784 --> 00:33:14,662
And Mickey Mouse
is full of circles.
426
00:33:24,797 --> 00:33:29,594
Your job as an inker is translating
the animator's work onto the cel.
427
00:33:29,677 --> 00:33:32,680
You don't have any room
to go outside of that.
428
00:33:32,764 --> 00:33:35,683
Because if you do that,
you change their intention.
429
00:33:35,767 --> 00:33:38,227
You change their work.
430
00:33:41,189 --> 00:33:44,650
They say it takes about 15
years of consistent inking...
431
00:33:45,151 --> 00:33:50,031
Eight hours a day, five times a week,
for 15 years... to become a master inker.
432
00:33:50,948 --> 00:33:53,951
There's only a few of us in the
Ink and Paint department now,
433
00:33:54,035 --> 00:33:58,122
but it used to be hundreds, and
for a long time, it was all women.
434
00:33:58,206 --> 00:33:59,886
The thousands
of pencil drawings
435
00:33:59,957 --> 00:34:01,292
go to the inking department.
436
00:34:01,375 --> 00:34:03,628
Here, hundreds of pretty
girls cover the drawings
437
00:34:03,711 --> 00:34:05,338
with sheets of
transparent celluloid.
438
00:34:05,421 --> 00:34:09,175
Then they painstakingly trace
every line of every drawing in ink,
439
00:34:09,258 --> 00:34:12,887
following exactly, in every detail,
the original animation drawing.
440
00:34:12,970 --> 00:34:16,641
The role of the inkers
and painters gets glossed over
441
00:34:16,724 --> 00:34:21,562
into this log-line of pretty
girls who traced and colored.
442
00:34:23,022 --> 00:34:27,485
When what they were
accomplishing was mind-blowing.
443
00:34:28,861 --> 00:34:31,239
These women were artists
in their own right.
444
00:34:31,948 --> 00:34:33,592
In the
studio paint laboratory,
445
00:34:33,616 --> 00:34:36,369
all colors used are made
up from secret formulas.
446
00:34:36,452 --> 00:34:40,456
Expert chemists developed more
than 1500 different shades of color
447
00:34:40,540 --> 00:34:42,375
for Snow White and
the Seven Dwarfs.
448
00:34:50,508 --> 00:34:55,430
Color forever transforms
the world of Mickey Mouse.
449
00:34:57,849 --> 00:35:00,810
Pastel is
his flesh. His tongue.
450
00:35:00,893 --> 00:35:03,855
Marigold, his shoes.
Lobster, his pants.
451
00:35:05,189 --> 00:35:07,358
We are not really brushing.
452
00:35:08,067 --> 00:35:14,449
It's actually dropping a glob of paint,
and then we just push it to the edges,
453
00:35:14,532 --> 00:35:18,536
because we wanna make the paint
look as opaque as possible.
454
00:35:21,706 --> 00:35:24,041
When I'm inking or
painting Mickey Mouse,
455
00:35:24,125 --> 00:35:27,879
it just takes me back to when
Walt first created Mickey.
456
00:35:35,219 --> 00:35:38,723
So now that we're done with it, this
is what it looks like from the front.
457
00:35:44,228 --> 00:35:46,189
All ready, Uncle Mickey?
458
00:35:46,272 --> 00:35:47,982
Okay, let's go.
459
00:35:52,612 --> 00:35:55,823
Once Mickey becomes an
international children's star,
460
00:35:55,907 --> 00:35:57,700
there's certain
things he cannot do.
461
00:35:59,452 --> 00:36:01,370
Parents of
Mickey's younger viewers
462
00:36:01,454 --> 00:36:05,083
wanted Mickey to clean up his act
and not be as bad an influence.
463
00:36:07,168 --> 00:36:10,421
He can't be a
bully. He can't punch people.
464
00:36:10,505 --> 00:36:15,259
He can't behave in any way that
would be considered bad behavior.
465
00:36:17,136 --> 00:36:19,555
It pushed Mickey
into a straight man role,
466
00:36:20,348 --> 00:36:23,101
where almost any kind of flaw
467
00:36:23,184 --> 00:36:26,979
is seen as out of character.
468
00:36:29,899 --> 00:36:33,027
And so, Donald Duck appears.
469
00:36:38,408 --> 00:36:40,159
Aw, phooey!
470
00:36:40,827 --> 00:36:45,164
The duck came along as a result
of too many taboos put onto Mickey Mouse.
471
00:36:45,832 --> 00:36:49,001
People didn't feel that Mickey
could blow his top like the duck.
472
00:36:49,085 --> 00:36:51,170
He had to maintain
a certain dignity.
473
00:36:54,549 --> 00:36:57,301
So, in order to give
ourselves a latitude,
474
00:36:57,385 --> 00:36:59,595
we created this
terrible-tempered Mr. Duck.
475
00:37:09,105 --> 00:37:10,857
Get out of here!
Get out of here!
476
00:37:10,940 --> 00:37:13,609
Story after story
was rejected for Mickey
477
00:37:13,693 --> 00:37:16,779
because he was perceived as being
a little bit too silly in them.
478
00:37:18,823 --> 00:37:22,493
They found out Mickey is probably
best paired with Donald and Goofy.
479
00:37:22,577 --> 00:37:24,203
A moose!
480
00:37:24,287 --> 00:37:25,288
A moose!
481
00:37:25,371 --> 00:37:26,748
And have this little trio.
482
00:37:26,831 --> 00:37:31,335
Hot dog! Now do your stuff.
I'll take care of the rest.
483
00:37:31,419 --> 00:37:34,464
There are many great ones
that include the three of them
484
00:37:34,547 --> 00:37:38,509
that work well 'cause their
personalities rub off against each other.
485
00:37:38,593 --> 00:37:40,178
Lend a hand, me hearties!
486
00:37:40,261 --> 00:37:41,763
Aye, aye, Captain!
487
00:37:42,889 --> 00:37:44,515
What's the big idea?
488
00:37:44,599 --> 00:37:48,436
But it became evident that
Donald is getting Mickey's anger
489
00:37:49,353 --> 00:37:52,023
and Goofy gets
Mickey's silly side.
490
00:37:53,524 --> 00:37:57,528
And if Mickey is the responsible one,
he pretty much has to take a back seat.
491
00:37:59,697 --> 00:38:01,616
But then where does
that leave Mickey?
492
00:38:19,175 --> 00:38:21,844
This part of the
short that I'm animating
493
00:38:21,928 --> 00:38:24,347
is from the Brave Little Tailor.
494
00:38:30,978 --> 00:38:33,189
He's trying to get his
arm out of his sleeve.
495
00:38:33,272 --> 00:38:34,315
Can't get it.
496
00:38:34,816 --> 00:38:38,444
And then that's when Mickey
comes in to his arm right here.
497
00:38:40,154 --> 00:38:45,034
Then I gotta get all
that done in 297 frames.
498
00:38:45,118 --> 00:38:48,162
So I've only got a hundred frames
to get the rest of it.
499
00:38:52,417 --> 00:38:56,295
I think I was here 25 years
before I actually animated Mickey.
500
00:38:56,963 --> 00:38:59,841
And it seems a shame because,
you know, if you work at Disney,
501
00:39:00,550 --> 00:39:03,094
you should be animating Mickey
all the time, I'd think.
502
00:39:04,804 --> 00:39:08,683
When Eric gave me the sections that
I was gonna do, I got really excited
503
00:39:08,766 --> 00:39:12,061
because that was my favorite Mickey
that made me wanna be an animator.
504
00:39:12,145 --> 00:39:16,149
They came at me from the right. Then
the left. Right, left, left, right!
505
00:39:16,232 --> 00:39:19,485
So that was exciting and
intimidating all at the same time.
506
00:39:22,280 --> 00:39:27,076
As Mickey evolved,
what used to be his eye,
507
00:39:27,160 --> 00:39:31,831
when you get to Fantasia, just
became this little thing here
508
00:39:31,914 --> 00:39:34,459
and so you would end
up with the pupils.
509
00:39:35,460 --> 00:39:36,895
Fantasia
Mickey's important
510
00:39:36,919 --> 00:39:40,131
because with the whites
of his eyes like this,
511
00:39:40,214 --> 00:39:42,925
it made him a lot
more expressive.
512
00:39:43,009 --> 00:39:45,553
And I'm gonna stretch his
ears a little more here
513
00:39:45,636 --> 00:39:50,433
because he just became a little
more pliable from this point on.
514
00:40:02,987 --> 00:40:09,077
We wouldn't have a Fantasia if it weren't
for Walt's concern for Mickey Mouse.
515
00:40:09,160 --> 00:40:13,915
He was worried that Donald and Goofy
were overtaking Mickey's popularity,
516
00:40:14,749 --> 00:40:20,171
and he wanted a vehicle to bring
Mickey back in the limelight again.
517
00:40:21,631 --> 00:40:27,762
And so originally, Fantasia was just going
to be The Sorcerer's Apprentice short,
518
00:40:27,845 --> 00:40:34,352
and it then blossomed into an
entire innovative feature film
519
00:40:34,435 --> 00:40:36,896
that's still never been equaled.
520
00:40:38,815 --> 00:40:41,192
Fantasia is something
that was a huge gamble.
521
00:40:42,318 --> 00:40:44,028
You have so many
different styles.
522
00:40:44,862 --> 00:40:46,906
It's something that, in
theory, shouldn't work.
523
00:40:48,074 --> 00:40:50,344
The greatest thrill
of his acting career happened
524
00:40:50,368 --> 00:40:53,204
on the night of
November 13th, 1940
525
00:40:53,287 --> 00:40:57,125
at the same theater where he made
his first appearance as a ragged,
526
00:40:57,208 --> 00:40:59,836
shoeless mouse almost
ten years before.
527
00:41:23,109 --> 00:41:27,280
Some of the old animators said that
when they heard that Walt wanted Mickey
528
00:41:27,363 --> 00:41:31,576
to be on this rock
conducting the universe,
529
00:41:31,659 --> 00:41:33,703
they thought he'd
gotten kinda crazy
530
00:41:33,786 --> 00:41:35,955
'cause Mickey Mouse, after
all, is a cartoon character.
531
00:41:36,038 --> 00:41:37,457
You don't conduct the universe.
532
00:41:46,674 --> 00:41:49,052
Mickey conducting the
universe you can translate
533
00:41:49,135 --> 00:41:53,514
to Walt conducting his own universe
'cause by that time his company had grown,
534
00:41:53,598 --> 00:41:56,893
and thousands and thousands of
people were working at the studio.
535
00:41:58,853 --> 00:42:00,688
So I think Walt
became Mickey then.
536
00:42:12,158 --> 00:42:14,619
There's some scenes
in Sorcerer's Apprentice
537
00:42:14,702 --> 00:42:19,082
where he knows he's screwed
up in front of the sorcerer.
538
00:42:19,165 --> 00:42:22,210
The subtlety that
they get on his face,
539
00:42:23,044 --> 00:42:29,550
I think that's where the character
hit his absolute peak of perfection.
540
00:42:32,303 --> 00:42:36,808
Artistically, Walt achieved
everything he wanted to with Fantasia.
541
00:42:38,893 --> 00:42:42,688
But when the movie came
out, it was a failure.
542
00:42:42,772 --> 00:42:45,316
Artistic success, financial
failure, you know?
543
00:42:45,400 --> 00:42:47,711
Certainly an artistic
success. It was a magnificent...
544
00:42:47,735 --> 00:42:51,030
Well, there's... Some people
would, uh, would question that too.
545
00:42:53,241 --> 00:42:57,745
Fantasia was Mickey's
culmination and his termination.
546
00:42:58,579 --> 00:43:02,834
That sorcerer swatted him with the
broom, and he scurried off of the stage,
547
00:43:02,917 --> 00:43:05,086
and he never quite
came back again.
548
00:43:05,920 --> 00:43:08,131
Well, so long!
I'll be seeing ya!
549
00:43:22,019 --> 00:43:24,230
The story
of Walt and Mickey
550
00:43:24,313 --> 00:43:27,608
wasn't just one continual
success after success.
551
00:43:27,692 --> 00:43:30,611
It was stumble after stumble,
failure after failure.
552
00:43:31,362 --> 00:43:36,117
But Walt believed that if he worked hard
enough, he could overcome every obstacle.
553
00:43:39,871 --> 00:43:42,248
There are
two main animators
554
00:43:42,331 --> 00:43:44,834
who were really, really
important in Mickey's life,
555
00:43:45,501 --> 00:43:48,838
Ub Iwerks and Fred Moore.
556
00:43:50,006 --> 00:43:54,010
It was Moore who redesigned
the mouse more than once,
557
00:43:54,844 --> 00:43:59,557
and after Fantasia, the studio is
talking in terms of a comeback.
558
00:43:59,640 --> 00:44:03,978
From Fantasia, Freddie
Moore took him even further
559
00:44:04,062 --> 00:44:06,731
for even more fluidity
560
00:44:07,315 --> 00:44:08,858
and more character.
561
00:44:11,527 --> 00:44:13,738
They gave him a
loose, rangy kind of movement,
562
00:44:13,821 --> 00:44:16,449
and they had him
deliberately clowning around.
563
00:44:17,033 --> 00:44:22,163
Everything's kind of working
to this S curve here.
564
00:44:22,246 --> 00:44:23,998
I'll clean up your
yard.
565
00:44:24,082 --> 00:44:26,209
All right. But no more clowning.
566
00:44:26,292 --> 00:44:29,003
They were trying to
make Mickey funny again.
567
00:44:29,087 --> 00:44:31,923
You know? Let him play
a clown once in a while,
568
00:44:32,006 --> 00:44:36,469
like when he's doing his goofy
dance in Mickey's Birthday Party,
569
00:44:36,552 --> 00:44:40,515
or when he's raking up leaves in
The Little Whirlwind, you know?
570
00:44:40,598 --> 00:44:46,938
It's okay for him to make mistakes or
act foolish once in a while in that year.
571
00:44:48,940 --> 00:44:52,902
The movement, the
organic qualities,
572
00:44:52,985 --> 00:44:57,073
the fluidity of the
animation was never better.
573
00:44:59,117 --> 00:45:02,495
They could do with
Mickey… anything.
574
00:45:07,500 --> 00:45:10,753
This new Mickey
seemed to hold the promise of
575
00:45:10,837 --> 00:45:15,133
freeing him from that role of being the
serious, responsible one all the time.
576
00:45:17,593 --> 00:45:20,513
But that version
of Mickey didn't last long.
577
00:45:41,784 --> 00:45:44,203
The
whole world is aflame.
578
00:45:44,287 --> 00:45:48,624
All the peoples of the United Nations are
fighting the savage enemies of freedom.
579
00:45:50,585 --> 00:45:53,087
In Hollywood,
Walt Disney has turned over
580
00:45:53,171 --> 00:45:55,631
almost the entire
facilities of his studio
581
00:45:55,715 --> 00:45:58,593
for the production of Army
and Navy instructional films.
582
00:45:58,676 --> 00:46:01,137
Four, eight, sequence
one. Let her roll.
583
00:46:02,013 --> 00:46:04,098
Walt, being the
patriot that he was,
584
00:46:04,182 --> 00:46:06,684
supported whatever the government
and the military wanted…
585
00:46:06,768 --> 00:46:09,103
Don't throw
away that bacon grease.
586
00:46:09,187 --> 00:46:12,982
Fats make glycerin and
glycerin makes explosives.
587
00:46:13,483 --> 00:46:17,612
…whether that was creating shorts
for home front or propaganda purposes…
588
00:46:17,695 --> 00:46:20,198
Will our own
cities and homes be bombed?
589
00:46:20,782 --> 00:46:23,993
…or training films and
educational films for the military.
590
00:46:24,077 --> 00:46:27,497
If the bolt is
pulled back, the magazine's free…
591
00:46:27,580 --> 00:46:29,373
They were
designing insignia
592
00:46:29,457 --> 00:46:32,085
for different military and
auxiliary units around the world.
593
00:46:32,168 --> 00:46:33,836
Over twelve hundred were made.
594
00:46:35,338 --> 00:46:37,548
You have groups writing
to the studio, saying,
595
00:46:37,632 --> 00:46:40,301
"We want Mickey to help
get us through this."
596
00:46:42,011 --> 00:46:44,722
Before the war,
Hitler liked Mickey,
597
00:46:44,806 --> 00:46:48,851
Mussolini loved Mickey,
Hirohito loved Mickey.
598
00:46:48,935 --> 00:46:52,688
But when America enters
war, Mickey ends up banned.
599
00:46:55,149 --> 00:46:58,611
The little fellow's grin
was too infectious for Nazism.
600
00:46:58,694 --> 00:47:00,696
Hitler thunderingly
forbade his people
601
00:47:00,780 --> 00:47:05,118
to wear the then-popular Mickey Mouse
button in place of the swastika.
602
00:47:05,618 --> 00:47:07,954
Hitler understood
what Mickey symbolized.
603
00:47:09,330 --> 00:47:13,543
Independence, liberty, freedom.
604
00:47:14,168 --> 00:47:16,295
America is Mickey.
605
00:47:21,634 --> 00:47:24,387
Commando Duck,
here are your orders.
606
00:47:24,470 --> 00:47:27,390
You'll parachute
at position D-4.
607
00:47:28,766 --> 00:47:31,686
But with the wartime shorts
that are produced to create morale,
608
00:47:31,769 --> 00:47:34,772
almost all of those are
done by Donald Duck.
609
00:47:38,693 --> 00:47:43,030
Mickey's presence in World War
II tended to rely on the home front.
610
00:47:43,114 --> 00:47:46,200
You see him on support posters,
611
00:47:46,284 --> 00:47:47,744
getting people to carpool,
612
00:47:47,827 --> 00:47:49,746
rationing, selling war bonds,
613
00:47:50,329 --> 00:47:54,000
supporting the war effort not
from the front line but at home.
614
00:47:54,917 --> 00:47:58,212
If you were a child at that
point in time or a family,
615
00:47:58,296 --> 00:48:02,467
who better to look to than Mickey
Mouse for that sense of comfort?
616
00:48:06,596 --> 00:48:08,264
But you, as a creator,
617
00:48:08,973 --> 00:48:11,142
don't control what
happens to your products.
618
00:48:11,225 --> 00:48:13,478
You don't control what
happens to your characters.
619
00:48:14,479 --> 00:48:18,524
And so, when wartime came,
Mickey was already there.
620
00:48:26,908 --> 00:48:31,746
There was a village in Poland in which the
entire village was destroyed by the Nazis.
621
00:48:33,372 --> 00:48:37,460
And there are images
left from that village
622
00:48:37,543 --> 00:48:42,715
that create a collection of the life
of the village before the horror.
623
00:48:46,511 --> 00:48:49,055
And in one of the
photographs is Mickey.
624
00:48:53,226 --> 00:48:56,145
And it's a shocking image
within the Holocaust museum
625
00:48:56,229 --> 00:49:00,566
to see this... this being, Mickey Mouse,
creating pleasure for this community
626
00:49:00,650 --> 00:49:02,485
right on the cusp of the war.
627
00:49:07,281 --> 00:49:10,868
Children in the camps were dressed
up in Mickey Mouse costume,
628
00:49:11,661 --> 00:49:15,915
staging Mickey Mouse plays,
drawing images of Mickey Mouse.
629
00:49:17,667 --> 00:49:23,089
There was actually a comic strip
written by someone in the camps,
630
00:49:24,298 --> 00:49:28,469
which covered the daily life through
the perspective of Mickey Mouse.
631
00:49:29,804 --> 00:49:36,394
And at the end, he erases Mickey and
says, "Mickey's gone back to America."
632
00:49:36,477 --> 00:49:39,439
And the person who drew the
comic strip was then killed.
633
00:49:41,065 --> 00:49:46,946
Mickey was in the Holocaust because Mickey
represented the possibility of escape,
634
00:49:47,572 --> 00:49:49,532
of joy, of happiness.
635
00:49:50,116 --> 00:49:54,746
And those dictators understood very well
that was not what they were offering.
636
00:50:02,420 --> 00:50:05,339
We kind of have to think of
Mickey as, like, before World War II
637
00:50:05,423 --> 00:50:06,841
and then after World War II.
638
00:50:06,924 --> 00:50:08,760
It's two very different careers.
639
00:50:11,345 --> 00:50:13,056
Well, here we are, Pluto.
640
00:50:13,139 --> 00:50:15,058
Boy, what a dream place.
641
00:50:15,141 --> 00:50:19,353
Come on, Your Highness.
Utopia is yours.
642
00:50:24,567 --> 00:50:26,778
This
migration to the suburbs,
643
00:50:26,861 --> 00:50:30,073
variously estimated as from
40 to 80 million people.
644
00:50:30,740 --> 00:50:33,743
Many people complain
about the post-war Mickeys
645
00:50:33,826 --> 00:50:37,830
being domesticated, but Walt
Disney is a very different person.
646
00:50:38,498 --> 00:50:43,378
Walt has a suburban house, has a
very set, conservative life, really.
647
00:50:44,712 --> 00:50:48,216
And he's a person now who's
gone through nervous breakdowns,
648
00:50:48,299 --> 00:50:51,427
possibilities of
financial ruin, a strike.
649
00:50:51,511 --> 00:50:53,513
He gets involved in HUAC
650
00:50:54,639 --> 00:50:57,100
and that changes
the Mickey we know.
651
00:50:57,850 --> 00:51:02,313
It makes him a much more contained
character than he was in the early years.
652
00:51:04,315 --> 00:51:07,235
And America is moving
in that direction too.
653
00:51:09,320 --> 00:51:10,905
We don't want chaos.
654
00:51:12,990 --> 00:51:16,202
We wanna feel safe. We wanna
feel familiar and protected.
655
00:51:16,285 --> 00:51:18,454
Okay, Pluto. Let's get our tree.
656
00:51:19,664 --> 00:51:22,333
1953 was his last short,
657
00:51:22,417 --> 00:51:25,878
and I've heard him described as
just being a little... little man.
658
00:51:27,004 --> 00:51:30,091
He acquired a
decent house and a mortgage,
659
00:51:30,174 --> 00:51:34,303
and he just became your
suburban mouse next door.
660
00:51:37,473 --> 00:51:40,393
There is a
continuing trend to more time off,
661
00:51:41,185 --> 00:51:43,062
which means more
time to consume.
662
00:51:45,815 --> 00:51:48,317
It's a completely
new idea in automobiles.
663
00:51:48,401 --> 00:51:51,320
The daring, dazzling
1955 Rambler.
664
00:51:51,404 --> 00:51:55,491
Come on, Pluto, old boy. We're
going to see the 1955 Nash.
665
00:51:56,242 --> 00:51:57,869
When I
first saw these,
666
00:51:57,952 --> 00:52:04,292
I did a complete double take that
Mickey was even drawn this way.
667
00:52:04,375 --> 00:52:08,880
The new 1955 Rambler offers
complete year-round air conditioning.
668
00:52:08,963 --> 00:52:12,383
They're sending the signals
that Mickey and Minnie are married
669
00:52:12,467 --> 00:52:14,552
and they're driving in the
front of the Nash Rambler,
670
00:52:14,635 --> 00:52:18,139
and there are their two kids sitting in
the back. And it's like, "Wait a minute!"
671
00:52:18,222 --> 00:52:19,849
Live a little.
672
00:52:19,932 --> 00:52:21,350
Drive a Rambler.
673
00:52:21,851 --> 00:52:26,355
Apparently, they had made a few
commercials before Walt saw them.
674
00:52:26,439 --> 00:52:30,068
What had happened was, a fan
had written to him saying,
675
00:52:30,151 --> 00:52:32,653
"Dear Walt, what did
you do with Mickey?"
676
00:52:34,489 --> 00:52:39,869
And he found these commercials and
looked at them and just went, "Stop!
677
00:52:39,952 --> 00:52:42,955
That's not Mickey. We're
not doing that anymore."
678
00:52:46,042 --> 00:52:47,362
Walt was
getting so busy
679
00:52:47,418 --> 00:52:50,213
that he didn't always have
time to stop what he was doing
680
00:52:50,296 --> 00:52:52,924
and go to the soundstage
and record Mickey's voice.
681
00:52:53,508 --> 00:52:57,428
And doing that falsetto voice
of Mickey was becoming harder.
682
00:52:57,512 --> 00:53:00,306
He actually had to go to a
doctor for the vocal strain.
683
00:53:09,857 --> 00:53:11,210
- Hi.
- How are you?
684
00:53:11,234 --> 00:53:12,902
- Nice to meet ya.
- Nice to meet you.
685
00:53:12,985 --> 00:53:14,338
Yeah. I'm excited
to work on this.
686
00:53:14,362 --> 00:53:17,949
You know, you could... you could do this
for a living. You sound just like him.
687
00:53:18,032 --> 00:53:20,326
I would hope to. Thanks. Thanks.
688
00:53:23,371 --> 00:53:25,039
So, you've
read the script.
689
00:53:25,123 --> 00:53:27,834
It's kind of a fanciful trip
through Mickey's career.
690
00:53:27,917 --> 00:53:31,671
Uh, it starts with him walking through
the halls of the animation studio
691
00:53:31,754 --> 00:53:35,800
and he's looking at his
past glories on posters.
692
00:53:35,883 --> 00:53:39,095
So, why don't you go through
it, and we'll see what we get.
693
00:53:39,679 --> 00:53:40,972
- All right.
- Okay.
694
00:53:41,806 --> 00:53:43,266
One. Take one.
695
00:53:43,349 --> 00:53:45,268
Aw, there's Pluto.
696
00:53:45,351 --> 00:53:46,352
It's Minnie.
697
00:53:46,936 --> 00:53:48,855
Pete.
698
00:53:48,938 --> 00:53:51,774
Try another one where
you're just a little more casual,
699
00:53:51,858 --> 00:53:53,025
- a little slower.
- Okay.
700
00:53:53,609 --> 00:53:55,570
Hmm, hmm.
701
00:53:56,195 --> 00:53:58,614
Oh, I remember that.
702
00:53:59,198 --> 00:54:02,577
Those are great. Try
one more that's just a, "Hmm."
703
00:54:03,786 --> 00:54:07,331
Hmm. Hmm. Hmm.
704
00:54:07,415 --> 00:54:09,292
The
responsibility is huge,
705
00:54:09,375 --> 00:54:12,754
because I'm just playing a
part in continuing this legacy
706
00:54:12,837 --> 00:54:15,173
that started with
Walt back in 1928.
707
00:54:15,673 --> 00:54:17,425
Hey,
Pluto. Here she comes.
708
00:54:17,508 --> 00:54:19,677
- Hi, folks.
- Hi, folks!
709
00:54:19,761 --> 00:54:21,679
- This is Mickey.
- I'm Mickey too.
710
00:54:21,763 --> 00:54:23,389
- You are?
- I thought so.
711
00:54:23,473 --> 00:54:26,851
Jimmy Macdonald, the second
voice of Mickey, told Wayne,
712
00:54:26,934 --> 00:54:30,164
"Remember, kid, you're only filling in for
the boss." And that's how I look at it.
713
00:54:30,188 --> 00:54:32,315
Come
on. We gotta hurry.
714
00:54:32,398 --> 00:54:34,108
Come on. We gotta hurry.
715
00:54:34,192 --> 00:54:36,277
Ah, gosh.
716
00:54:36,360 --> 00:54:38,696
Gosh! Oh, gosh!
717
00:54:38,780 --> 00:54:40,620
I will never
forget that, essentially,
718
00:54:40,698 --> 00:54:42,492
I'm emulating Walt's
performance as Mickey.
719
00:54:42,575 --> 00:54:44,535
Hot dog! Hot dog!
720
00:54:44,619 --> 00:54:46,037
Hot dog!
721
00:54:46,120 --> 00:54:48,414
- Hot dog!
- That last one.
722
00:54:48,498 --> 00:54:49,582
Yeah, nice.
723
00:54:50,333 --> 00:54:53,211
You know, the coal is floating
around him like asteroids,
724
00:54:53,294 --> 00:54:55,338
- so he's trying to grab for them.
- Uh-huh.
725
00:54:57,006 --> 00:54:58,132
Gotcha!
726
00:54:58,216 --> 00:54:59,425
Great.
727
00:55:02,053 --> 00:55:05,556
I'm sitting there and I'm listening to
Bret doing the voice, and I'm thinking,
728
00:55:05,640 --> 00:55:09,477
"Oh, man. He's nailed it.
He's really got him."
729
00:55:09,560 --> 00:55:14,649
And I hope that as well as Bret nails
the voice, we nail the visuals.
730
00:55:16,818 --> 00:55:19,946
Working on this short
is kind of Mickey heaven
731
00:55:20,029 --> 00:55:23,449
because you get to play with
all these different styles,
732
00:55:23,533 --> 00:55:26,244
as do the other animators
who are working on it.
733
00:55:27,036 --> 00:55:32,917
So in this particular case,
this is a Mickey from the 1950s.
734
00:55:33,626 --> 00:55:37,130
And this sequence was
animated by John Lounsbery.
735
00:55:38,297 --> 00:55:39,882
And to be honest,
736
00:55:39,966 --> 00:55:44,679
this is the first time I've drawn
a 1950s Johnny Lounsbery Mickey.
737
00:55:44,762 --> 00:55:49,016
So, you know,
I'm learning as I go.
738
00:55:58,860 --> 00:56:01,863
- Hi, partners!- Hi, Mickey!
739
00:56:03,072 --> 00:56:06,951
Well, this here's our roundup day,
so, uh, you all pretty nigh ready?
740
00:56:07,034 --> 00:56:09,162
- Sure enough!- Sure enough.
741
00:56:09,245 --> 00:56:10,663
Then let's get on with it.
742
00:56:10,747 --> 00:56:15,585
Most Hollywood producers
were terrified of television.
743
00:56:16,377 --> 00:56:19,213
Walt Disney
and Mickey Mouse present
744
00:56:19,297 --> 00:56:20,798
The Mickey Mouse Club.
745
00:56:20,882 --> 00:56:24,719
Walt goes in the opposite
direction and embraces television.
746
00:56:27,972 --> 00:56:31,434
He relished the idea of getting
into a new field like that.
747
00:56:31,517 --> 00:56:33,227
Hi, Mouseketeers.
748
00:56:33,311 --> 00:56:34,604
Hi, Roy!
749
00:56:35,521 --> 00:56:37,106
What would you like
to have me draw?
750
00:56:37,190 --> 00:56:38,399
Mickey Mouse.
751
00:56:38,483 --> 00:56:42,695
It made it a lot easier
to have this audience identification
752
00:56:42,779 --> 00:56:45,073
with a character that they
had known for all those years
753
00:56:45,156 --> 00:56:46,824
and had become a
part of their lives.
754
00:56:50,578 --> 00:56:54,373
Once again, Mickey provided the
momentum that made all of that possible.
755
00:56:54,457 --> 00:56:59,754
Yay,
Mickey! Yay, Mickey!
756
00:56:59,837 --> 00:57:02,298
Yay, Mickey Mouse Club!
757
00:57:03,508 --> 00:57:09,514
One, two, three, four,
five, six, seven.
758
00:57:11,015 --> 00:57:14,477
You know, Walt, I
think, very quickly realized
759
00:57:14,560 --> 00:57:18,523
that the power of his creations had
life beyond the walls of the studio.
760
00:57:19,190 --> 00:57:20,525
And he would get fan mail.
761
00:57:20,608 --> 00:57:22,985
People would ask, "How can
I meet Mickey and Minnie?"
762
00:57:23,069 --> 00:57:24,070
Welcome.
763
00:57:24,654 --> 00:57:26,823
I guess you all know
this little fella here.
764
00:57:27,573 --> 00:57:28,783
It's an old partnership.
765
00:57:29,742 --> 00:57:33,704
Mickey and I started out the
first time many, many years ago.
766
00:57:34,539 --> 00:57:36,541
We've had a lot of
our dreams come true.
767
00:57:37,166 --> 00:57:40,378
Now we want you to share with us
our latest and greatest dream.
768
00:57:42,046 --> 00:57:43,715
That's it right here.
769
00:57:44,966 --> 00:57:46,259
Disneyland.
770
00:57:54,934 --> 00:57:56,829
As soon as
Walt starts on another path
771
00:57:56,853 --> 00:57:59,689
and focuses his
interests on Disneyland,
772
00:57:59,772 --> 00:58:02,066
Mickey goes through a major
transformation as well.
773
00:58:03,401 --> 00:58:07,447
He has to become the kind of
icon that Walt is becoming.
774
00:58:09,031 --> 00:58:10,950
Disneyland
is your land.
775
00:58:14,162 --> 00:58:16,789
Here, age relives fond
memories of the past,
776
00:58:18,040 --> 00:58:21,294
and here, youth may savor the
challenge and promise of the future.
777
00:58:23,087 --> 00:58:24,927
There is
something very personal
778
00:58:25,006 --> 00:58:28,801
about this whole
quest that Walt is on.
779
00:58:28,885 --> 00:58:32,680
Returning to his own
sense of being a child.
780
00:58:35,892 --> 00:58:40,188
And that Mickey Mouse, the
character that existed in his head
781
00:58:40,271 --> 00:58:44,233
and then on paper, that
existed on the big screen,
782
00:58:44,317 --> 00:58:48,571
could now be as close to every
visitor at the park as it was to him.
783
00:58:49,155 --> 00:58:52,408
That's Mickey Mouse,
the inimitable little character
784
00:58:52,492 --> 00:58:56,329
that started this whole story
with Walt Disney 25 years ago.
785
00:58:57,872 --> 00:59:01,125
The real star
of it is Mickey Mouse.
786
00:59:01,209 --> 00:59:02,960
I think there's
an aura of magic
787
00:59:03,044 --> 00:59:05,380
around Mickey Mouse that
makes you feel safe.
788
00:59:06,589 --> 00:59:10,635
And I think within that
bubble, you are safe.
789
00:59:18,351 --> 00:59:20,812
Mickey
connects generations.
790
00:59:25,191 --> 00:59:28,528
He connects our childhood
memories to our adult memories.
791
00:59:31,030 --> 00:59:35,284
And so when you encounter Mickey
in the park, you are not just you.
792
00:59:35,368 --> 00:59:37,495
You are six-year-old you,
793
00:59:39,038 --> 00:59:41,833
and you are 80-year-old
you in the future.
794
00:59:44,210 --> 00:59:47,547
And you are with your grandmother,
and you are with your grandchildren,
795
00:59:47,630 --> 00:59:51,384
and you are participating
in a timeless moment.
796
01:00:00,935 --> 01:00:05,356
Mickey is the walking embodiment
of Walt's philosophies.
797
01:00:05,440 --> 01:00:08,901
And you can meet him, still,
in the persona of Mickey.
798
01:00:13,656 --> 01:00:16,325
I do remember,
like, driving up to it
799
01:00:16,409 --> 01:00:19,954
and having that feeling that,
like, this is where Mickey lives.
800
01:00:20,037 --> 01:00:22,165
Oh, this is a sacred space.
801
01:00:22,248 --> 01:00:23,708
It's like he made Disneyland.
802
01:00:23,791 --> 01:00:25,501
It's like he used
magic to, like...
803
01:00:27,170 --> 01:00:29,172
At that time, I'm thinking
he's like John Wayne
804
01:00:29,255 --> 01:00:30,798
or he's like a real,
true movie star.
805
01:00:30,882 --> 01:00:32,133
He spent his money.
806
01:00:32,216 --> 01:00:34,552
He bought this so people
could come visit him.
807
01:00:34,635 --> 01:00:36,137
And I actually got to meet him.
808
01:00:36,220 --> 01:00:38,806
- When I was five years old...
- Five years old.
809
01:00:38,890 --> 01:00:40,016
Maybe ten?
810
01:00:40,099 --> 01:00:44,771
When I saw him in Tokyo Disneyland,
I really believe it's him.
811
01:00:44,854 --> 01:00:46,606
He's right down here.
812
01:00:46,689 --> 01:00:50,485
And actually, I think the sweetest
one is me and Minnie down here.
813
01:00:50,568 --> 01:00:53,196
It's kind of a big
deal when I see Mickey.
814
01:00:53,279 --> 01:00:55,990
My husband literally
pushed me out of the way...
815
01:00:56,074 --> 01:00:58,868
Pushed her out of the way so
I could get to Mickey first.
816
01:00:59,869 --> 01:01:02,497
Really happy when I got
Mickey Mouse's signature.
817
01:01:03,081 --> 01:01:06,000
Thank you for all the times
you were there for me.
818
01:01:06,501 --> 01:01:08,628
And you've always
been my best friend.
819
01:01:09,128 --> 01:01:10,671
I resonate
with Mickey so well
820
01:01:10,755 --> 01:01:14,509
because there's an undeniable piece
of Walt's heart in Mickey Mouse.
821
01:01:24,519 --> 01:01:26,839
Can you still
make a noise like Mickey Mouse?
822
01:01:27,271 --> 01:01:30,111
Well, uh, Mickey used to
talk something like this, you know?
823
01:01:30,191 --> 01:01:31,692
It's kind of a falsetto.
824
01:01:31,776 --> 01:01:35,655
Of course, he's an old mouse now and
the falsetto's getting a little old.
825
01:01:35,738 --> 01:01:36,739
Yeah.
826
01:01:48,710 --> 01:01:52,255
Working with Walt,
nobody had any idea he was ill.
827
01:01:52,922 --> 01:01:55,341
Certainly not to
the extent he was.
828
01:01:57,343 --> 01:02:00,763
We simply didn't see it
coming. We never saw it coming.
829
01:02:06,352 --> 01:02:11,566
After Walt's death, his
wife, Lillian, said that
830
01:02:11,649 --> 01:02:16,070
it was difficult for her to
watch or listen to Mickey Mouse
831
01:02:17,572 --> 01:02:19,532
because there was so
much of Walt in him.
832
01:02:34,922 --> 01:02:38,426
After his passing, they pretty
much closed up the office.
833
01:02:41,220 --> 01:02:43,473
They'd go in and dust
and... And things like that,
834
01:02:43,556 --> 01:02:45,391
but it... it looks
just the way it did.
835
01:02:48,728 --> 01:02:51,397
We've tried to keep it as
close to Walt as possible.
836
01:03:06,454 --> 01:03:08,706
You know, with
the passing of Walt,
837
01:03:08,790 --> 01:03:11,918
the studio honestly did not
know what to do with Mickey.
838
01:03:13,711 --> 01:03:17,632
And for me as a Disney storyteller,
it was kind of eye-opening.
839
01:03:20,760 --> 01:03:23,805
It almost seemed that they
wanted to put the lid on Mickey.
840
01:03:28,142 --> 01:03:32,730
Because Walt's values, Walt's
ideas would be frozen in time.
841
01:03:46,160 --> 01:03:48,121
The world changed.
The culture changed.
842
01:03:49,997 --> 01:03:53,000
And Mickey hadn't
really changed with it.
843
01:03:54,043 --> 01:03:56,504
Even Mickey
Mouse has troubles these days.
844
01:03:56,587 --> 01:03:59,966
A band of yippies threatened trouble
in the park all day yesterday.
845
01:04:01,134 --> 01:04:04,595
The yippies said they
have come to liberate Mickey Mouse.
846
01:04:08,641 --> 01:04:12,395
Mickey Mouse was still very
much alive outside the Disney studio.
847
01:04:13,980 --> 01:04:16,774
You know, you
could not escape him.
848
01:04:20,111 --> 01:04:21,988
Just like America
splits in the '60s,
849
01:04:22,071 --> 01:04:23,573
Mickey Mouse splits as well.
850
01:04:25,241 --> 01:04:27,285
There's kind of a
surface meaning to him.
851
01:04:27,368 --> 01:04:30,079
But the more you look into him,
the more you think about it,
852
01:04:30,163 --> 01:04:32,623
the more levels there
are to this symbol.
853
01:04:34,542 --> 01:04:36,335
So there are two Mickeys now.
854
01:04:36,419 --> 01:04:38,796
Mainstream Mickey and
counterculture Mickey.
855
01:04:39,338 --> 01:04:41,466
And those coexist in
this one character.
856
01:04:57,023 --> 01:04:58,863
Mickey becomes
this irresistible symbol
857
01:04:58,900 --> 01:04:59,942
to the counterculture.
858
01:05:02,779 --> 01:05:06,949
So if you have an issue with your parents,
with authority, with America in general,
859
01:05:07,033 --> 01:05:08,409
Mickey Mouse is your guy.
860
01:05:10,703 --> 01:05:13,831
What Mickey provided
was inspiration.
861
01:05:15,374 --> 01:05:16,918
People were starting
to use Mickey
862
01:05:17,001 --> 01:05:21,089
to reflect life around them in
all sorts of different ways.
863
01:05:24,175 --> 01:05:27,387
And that really starts to deepen
the character of Mickey Mouse.
864
01:05:31,182 --> 01:05:34,977
I don't know why things
persist in people's minds and memories.
865
01:05:35,061 --> 01:05:37,605
Some things stick,
some things don't.
866
01:05:38,189 --> 01:05:39,440
I forgot I did that.
867
01:05:39,524 --> 01:05:44,445
That was Mickey Mouse
by Leonardo da Vinci.
868
01:05:46,406 --> 01:05:53,204
All significant art represents
an attempt to understand reality.
869
01:05:57,125 --> 01:05:59,502
I was against the Vietnam War,
870
01:06:01,295 --> 01:06:07,051
and I thought we could do a little
film on Mickey Mouse in Vietnam.
871
01:06:09,053 --> 01:06:12,306
I was looking for a symbol
that would represent every man.
872
01:06:13,015 --> 01:06:15,476
And Mickey was
sort of universal.
873
01:06:16,436 --> 01:06:18,855
And so much a part of
the American ethos.
874
01:06:20,356 --> 01:06:23,359
Part of the factor
was his innocence.
875
01:06:24,944 --> 01:06:29,031
By that point, Mickey really had become
an emblem of what America stood for.
876
01:06:30,658 --> 01:06:34,495
But America is changing during
that time, and in that short film,
877
01:06:34,579 --> 01:06:38,374
Mickey somehow manages to be the
perfect symbol for that change.
878
01:06:38,458 --> 01:06:40,585
Of innocence lost
during that war.
879
01:06:41,836 --> 01:06:44,130
By that point, we're so
identified with Mickey,
880
01:06:44,213 --> 01:06:48,384
Mickey is so close to us, that
there's no other character or symbol
881
01:06:48,468 --> 01:06:50,511
that could sell that
message so effectively.
882
01:07:04,358 --> 01:07:07,737
Every version of Mickey
is a version of all of us.
883
01:07:07,820 --> 01:07:10,573
It's a version of the society
that we have all come from.
884
01:07:12,784 --> 01:07:17,830
And in the 1960s, America began
to ask questions about itself,
885
01:07:19,165 --> 01:07:23,669
questions that many had ignored,
and that included Mickey Mouse.
886
01:07:26,089 --> 01:07:31,344
Just like Mickey's shorts in the '30s
where Mickey's performing in blackface,
887
01:07:31,427 --> 01:07:34,013
popular forms of
entertainment show
888
01:07:34,097 --> 01:07:38,226
America has been divided since
the founding of this country.
889
01:07:41,396 --> 01:07:45,900
But it's difficult to see Mickey
part of that conversation.
890
01:07:48,403 --> 01:07:52,490
It's a disconnection that happens as
a viewer when I'm faced with that…
891
01:07:54,742 --> 01:07:56,577
…and those sorts
of presentations.
892
01:07:58,454 --> 01:08:00,415
And then, of course,
you have Minnie.
893
01:08:02,959 --> 01:08:06,796
It's hard to watch those
Mickey shorts with our eyes today.
894
01:08:07,880 --> 01:08:10,216
- But the last thing we wanna do…
- Don't do that!
895
01:08:10,299 --> 01:08:13,052
…is to ignore, to hide,
896
01:08:13,136 --> 01:08:16,305
to somehow imagine those elements
of our identity don't exist.
897
01:08:17,140 --> 01:08:19,684
That version of
Mickey does exist.
898
01:08:20,184 --> 01:08:23,312
He speaks to the racism
within our own society.
899
01:08:24,522 --> 01:08:26,375
It's easy
to say, "It is what it is."
900
01:08:26,399 --> 01:08:29,402
It's easy to say that was just Walt
being the man he was at the time.
901
01:08:30,445 --> 01:08:34,198
But given the cultural
power that Walt had,
902
01:08:34,282 --> 01:08:38,494
some of the images he put out
there with Mickey did damage.
903
01:08:40,288 --> 01:08:42,540
Mickey's supposed
to love everybody.
904
01:08:44,709 --> 01:08:48,921
Clearly, in these moments,
he's not loving all of us.
905
01:08:49,005 --> 01:08:50,840
He's not loving all of us.
906
01:08:52,633 --> 01:08:56,179
And here is Mickey's official
50th anniversary portrait.
907
01:08:56,262 --> 01:09:02,018
He's a little taller now. More grown-up.
And, at the temples, just a touch of gray.
908
01:09:09,358 --> 01:09:12,111
Mickey's physical
appearance has changed somewhat
909
01:09:12,195 --> 01:09:15,198
since Walt Disney created
the mouse back in 1928.
910
01:09:15,281 --> 01:09:18,367
And over the years, Mickey's
tastes have changed as well.
911
01:09:18,868 --> 01:09:23,372
But Mickey Mouse seems to stay up with
the times, and in the area of music,
912
01:09:23,456 --> 01:09:27,919
it is only natural that Mickey
Mouse would eventually go disco.
913
01:09:39,722 --> 01:09:43,684
Mickey is truly iconic in the
sense that he cannot be beaten.
914
01:09:44,727 --> 01:09:47,230
So, yes, he's gonna have a
disco album that's horrible
915
01:09:47,313 --> 01:09:50,108
and that comes two or three
years after disco's peak.
916
01:09:50,191 --> 01:09:53,111
But it's still gonna be
really popular and successful.
917
01:09:53,194 --> 01:09:56,697
I loved the Mickey Mouse
Disco when I was younger.
918
01:09:56,781 --> 01:09:58,825
And I would just, like,
dance in my living room.
919
01:10:01,536 --> 01:10:02,537
That's cute.
920
01:10:03,830 --> 01:10:07,583
But then on the other side, we
see the punk appropriation of Mickey.
921
01:10:10,837 --> 01:10:14,132
♪ 'Cause people got too serious
They planned out what they said… ♪
922
01:10:14,215 --> 01:10:17,176
And we see the Ramones
wearing Mickey Mouse T-shirts.
923
01:10:17,260 --> 01:10:18,594
What are they doing?
924
01:10:21,472 --> 01:10:25,518
I, myself, and my friends, when we
were into punk and skateboarding,
925
01:10:25,601 --> 01:10:27,854
would wear Mickey
Mouse T-shirts.
926
01:10:27,937 --> 01:10:31,149
It was a mixture of, "I am
making fun of something,
927
01:10:31,232 --> 01:10:33,651
and I am also expressing
admiration for something,
928
01:10:33,735 --> 01:10:36,028
and my parents don't get that."
929
01:10:36,529 --> 01:10:38,823
So it became kind of
a secret language.
930
01:10:46,164 --> 01:10:49,792
A lot of artists began to incorporate
Mickey as a way of saying,
931
01:10:49,876 --> 01:10:53,588
"If you're gonna flood the
culture with this kind of imagery,
932
01:10:53,671 --> 01:10:55,548
then it becomes
ours at some point."
933
01:11:05,433 --> 01:11:07,101
He becomes the super symbol.
934
01:11:08,227 --> 01:11:09,771
Mickey
Mouse, we are told,
935
01:11:09,854 --> 01:11:12,398
is one of the top three
icons of the 20th century.
936
01:11:12,482 --> 01:11:16,277
A distinction he shares with Adolf
Hitler and the Coca-Cola bottle.
937
01:11:16,360 --> 01:11:18,738
Andy Warhol lifted
the image straight
938
01:11:18,821 --> 01:11:21,657
as part of a series of
screen prints entitled Myths.
939
01:11:21,741 --> 01:11:24,660
Mickey Mouse is my
favorite, uh, image
940
01:11:24,744 --> 01:11:27,705
because, uh, Walt Disney
is my favorite artist.
941
01:11:31,834 --> 01:11:34,063
- I'm Mickey Mouse.
- I'm Minnie Mouse.
942
01:11:34,087 --> 01:11:35,505
I'm Donald Duck.
943
01:11:36,714 --> 01:11:38,257
By the 1980s,
944
01:11:38,341 --> 01:11:40,218
things were getting
weird for Mickey Mouse,
945
01:11:40,885 --> 01:11:47,058
because he had become almost this
divine figure that you didn't mess with.
946
01:11:47,642 --> 01:11:49,286
Recently,
The Walt Disney Company
947
01:11:49,310 --> 01:11:51,979
heard about the painted
characters at this day care center
948
01:11:52,063 --> 01:11:54,565
and two others in
Hallandale, Florida.
949
01:11:54,649 --> 01:11:57,329
Disney now demanding
the removal of all its characters.
950
01:11:57,402 --> 01:12:00,613
The company charging unauthorized
infringement of its rights
951
01:12:00,696 --> 01:12:02,407
under the US Copyright Act.
952
01:12:03,825 --> 01:12:06,452
Do you know what
they're going to do to Mickey Mouse?
953
01:12:06,536 --> 01:12:08,955
- What?
- They're gonna take him away.
954
01:12:10,248 --> 01:12:13,000
Despite their
objections, the day care centers say
955
01:12:13,084 --> 01:12:15,712
they'll have to paint over
the cartoon characters
956
01:12:15,795 --> 01:12:18,840
because they can't fight the
power of the corporate mouse.
957
01:12:20,007 --> 01:12:22,677
Our legal protection of
Mickey has inevitably led
958
01:12:22,760 --> 01:12:26,597
to some uncomfortable situations over
the course of the company's history.
959
01:12:27,557 --> 01:12:30,518
I wouldn't say that we've handled
every situation perfectly,
960
01:12:30,601 --> 01:12:34,522
but there's really no precedent
for a creation like this
961
01:12:34,605 --> 01:12:36,274
when it comes to copyright.
962
01:12:36,357 --> 01:12:38,597
Mickey's one of the most
popular characters in the world,
963
01:12:38,651 --> 01:12:41,487
and there's really no question
that we've had to learn as we go.
964
01:12:43,823 --> 01:12:45,825
Disney's been very
protective of Mickey,
965
01:12:46,367 --> 01:12:49,662
and it's interesting to think
about how Walt's own experience
966
01:12:49,746 --> 01:12:54,459
of losing Oswald early on helps to
define the trajectory of the studio.
967
01:12:54,542 --> 01:12:58,838
You signed this contract. See
this signature there? Walt Disney.
968
01:12:58,921 --> 01:13:03,092
Right here it says that
we own Oswald the Rabbit.
969
01:13:04,302 --> 01:13:07,889
Disney as a company was
created out of tremendous loss,
970
01:13:08,765 --> 01:13:12,727
and I think that will give
some context to why the company
971
01:13:12,810 --> 01:13:15,188
has defended Mickey so
carefully over the years.
972
01:13:16,939 --> 01:13:20,359
And we understand that copyright is
a part of the Mickey Mouse story.
973
01:13:21,444 --> 01:13:24,822
The challenging thing is that
from a practical perspective,
974
01:13:24,906 --> 01:13:28,409
your copyright is only as good
as your ability to enforce it.
975
01:13:29,535 --> 01:13:33,164
It's a balance and one that we
continually work to get right.
976
01:13:36,084 --> 01:13:39,837
I am wholeheartedly against
the infringement of copyright.
977
01:13:39,921 --> 01:13:42,715
So much so, that I had
that phrase trademarked,
978
01:13:42,799 --> 01:13:45,802
and then I had it emblazoned
on a Mickey Mouse doll.
979
01:13:49,680 --> 01:13:53,684
Where does something this big
and this important to society
980
01:13:53,768 --> 01:13:56,396
become just owned by society?
981
01:13:56,479 --> 01:13:59,649
There is a level of Mickey
that, you know, we all own.
982
01:13:59,732 --> 01:14:04,195
Disney the company was very strict
about copyright and legal issues,
983
01:14:04,278 --> 01:14:07,865
but I never personally associated
it with Mickey himself.
984
01:14:07,949 --> 01:14:10,159
There's the
ambassador-of-the-company Mickey,
985
01:14:10,243 --> 01:14:13,329
and then there is that little more
rambunctious nature of Mickey.
986
01:14:13,413 --> 01:14:15,873
There are two Mickeys, 'cause
like anybody else would,
987
01:14:15,957 --> 01:14:19,377
Mickey has to act a little bit
differently in different environments.
988
01:14:21,295 --> 01:14:23,673
And how do you not love
Mickey's Christmas Carol?
989
01:14:23,756 --> 01:14:24,757
You know that... that...
990
01:14:24,841 --> 01:14:28,010
The soul of Mickey in that movie
is still the pure soul of the film.
991
01:14:31,806 --> 01:14:33,599
Walt Disney Studios.
992
01:14:33,683 --> 01:14:38,146
Home to characters and stories
spun from pure cinematic magic.
993
01:14:38,229 --> 01:14:40,773
But up until 1983,
994
01:14:40,857 --> 01:14:44,152
the Disney character who started
the whole enchanted operation
995
01:14:44,235 --> 01:14:46,487
hadn't made a movie in 30 years.
996
01:14:51,284 --> 01:14:52,803
When we
created the picture,
997
01:14:52,827 --> 01:14:57,832
there was, amongst us, a sense that we...
We were gonna be able to bring him back.
998
01:15:01,085 --> 01:15:04,130
G-g-g-good
morning, Mr. Scrooge.
999
01:15:04,213 --> 01:15:07,213
Mickey's Christmas Carol was
heralded as Mickey's great comeback.
1000
01:15:08,217 --> 01:15:09,886
But it's really a
Scrooge McDuck cartoon.
1001
01:15:09,969 --> 01:15:11,345
What are you doing?
1002
01:15:12,472 --> 01:15:16,100
I was just trying
to keep my hands warm, sir.
1003
01:15:18,144 --> 01:15:21,022
Some of the top people that
used to work here have done Mickey
1004
01:15:21,105 --> 01:15:23,775
and, uh, you know, things
were pretty well established
1005
01:15:23,858 --> 01:15:26,778
as far as what kind of a
character, you know, he is.
1006
01:15:28,738 --> 01:15:33,534
There was a sense that there was
a little bit of a fear, I think,
1007
01:15:33,618 --> 01:15:35,036
that the studio had with Mickey
1008
01:15:35,119 --> 01:15:40,124
'cause they didn't want to
do something that failed.
1009
01:15:41,542 --> 01:15:44,003
He was our corporate symbol.
1010
01:15:44,837 --> 01:15:48,591
So it would've been really
difficult if Mickey's a flop.
1011
01:15:48,674 --> 01:15:52,178
Like Walt always said,
it all started with a mouse.
1012
01:15:52,261 --> 01:15:54,597
So they kind
of became very careful
1013
01:15:54,680 --> 01:15:57,683
about what projects
Mickey was involved with.
1014
01:16:01,521 --> 01:16:02,980
Oh! Huh.
1015
01:16:03,064 --> 01:16:04,357
Aw, Minnie and I…
1016
01:16:04,440 --> 01:16:07,527
It's both an
honor and a challenge
1017
01:16:07,610 --> 01:16:09,821
to animate Mickey
in the present day.
1018
01:16:09,904 --> 01:16:11,322
Hey!
1019
01:16:12,657 --> 01:16:15,868
You've got this big weight
on your shoulders…
1020
01:16:15,952 --> 01:16:18,121
…like, "I'd better
not louse it up."
1021
01:16:19,872 --> 01:16:24,961
But, you know, I just
look at it as a continuum.
1022
01:16:25,837 --> 01:16:28,589
I mean, here we are almost
a hundred years later,
1023
01:16:28,673 --> 01:16:32,343
and we're in the final week
of animating this new short.
1024
01:16:33,177 --> 01:16:36,973
You know, we're still drawing him,
we're still talking about him.
1025
01:16:37,932 --> 01:16:40,810
After all the things that
Mickey has been through…
1026
01:16:41,769 --> 01:16:43,104
he's still here.
1027
01:16:46,232 --> 01:16:47,626
The
Disney name evoked
1028
01:16:47,650 --> 01:16:50,194
some of the happiest and
most endearing memories
1029
01:16:50,278 --> 01:16:54,365
in entertainment, but in recent
years, some of that luster has dimmed.
1030
01:16:54,449 --> 01:16:57,118
Even with that legacy
and with those assets,
1031
01:16:57,201 --> 01:17:00,455
everyone would acknowledge
something was wrong.
1032
01:17:00,538 --> 01:17:02,307
What do you
think about Mickey Mouse?
1033
01:17:02,331 --> 01:17:03,624
He's okay, but…
1034
01:17:03,708 --> 01:17:07,378
I like Goofy. And
Minnie and Goofy.
1035
01:17:08,629 --> 01:17:12,425
In attempting to interact
with as many people as possible,
1036
01:17:12,508 --> 01:17:13,885
Mickey seems lost.
1037
01:17:14,886 --> 01:17:17,096
He's hollow. There's...
There's nothing there.
1038
01:17:17,680 --> 01:17:20,224
Look in the
dictionary. What a definition!
1039
01:17:20,308 --> 01:17:24,103
"Unimportant. Trivial.
Irritatingly petty."
1040
01:17:24,187 --> 01:17:28,357
Let Fredo take care of some
Mickey Mouse nightclub somewhere!
1041
01:17:29,192 --> 01:17:31,110
Do I like
new Mickey Mouse?
1042
01:17:31,652 --> 01:17:34,655
Would I sing the
Mouseketeer Club song?
1043
01:17:35,239 --> 01:17:37,575
No. No, I'm not a fan of Mickey.
1044
01:17:38,534 --> 01:17:41,370
This is the
Mickey that you see today.
1045
01:17:41,454 --> 01:17:44,040
He has nice puffed-out cheeks.
1046
01:17:44,123 --> 01:17:46,542
In other words, all the
kids think he looks cute.
1047
01:17:48,086 --> 01:17:49,837
Guess who's
moving to Japan?
1048
01:17:49,921 --> 01:17:52,590
America's best-known
mouse, Mickey.
1049
01:17:53,341 --> 01:17:55,176
Not only
was Mickey mobbed
1050
01:17:55,259 --> 01:17:56,928
but so was the store
selling his ears.
1051
01:17:57,011 --> 01:18:00,139
Fresh supplies had to be flown
in after the hats sold out.
1052
01:18:00,723 --> 01:18:03,601
Mickey
stands for Disneyland
1053
01:18:03,684 --> 01:18:06,437
the place where they can
go and have all this fun.
1054
01:18:07,688 --> 01:18:08,815
And spend money.
1055
01:18:09,524 --> 01:18:11,567
We don't
just sell Disney.
1056
01:18:11,651 --> 01:18:13,111
We are Disney.
1057
01:18:14,112 --> 01:18:16,781
Mickey in one word? Uh…
1058
01:18:18,282 --> 01:18:19,534
Consumerism.
1059
01:18:20,660 --> 01:18:23,454
I'm the mascot of an evil
corporation.
1060
01:18:27,959 --> 01:18:29,311
Take the
good with the bad.
1061
01:18:29,335 --> 01:18:31,421
Think of all the
laughs I've given you.
1062
01:18:32,004 --> 01:18:34,048
You're supposed to be funny?
1063
01:18:34,132 --> 01:18:36,092
Yeah.
1064
01:18:49,605 --> 01:18:52,233
I think we confused people.
1065
01:18:52,316 --> 01:18:56,738
So that, in 2005, when you asked
people, uh, who Mickey Mouse was,
1066
01:18:57,363 --> 01:18:58,573
they typically would say
1067
01:18:58,656 --> 01:19:01,993
he's a corporate symbol of
The Walt Disney Company.
1068
01:19:04,287 --> 01:19:09,792
I'm not sure people really knew
who Mickey was or what Mickey was
1069
01:19:09,876 --> 01:19:12,545
because Mickey had been
so many different things
1070
01:19:12,628 --> 01:19:14,005
and not necessarily all good.
1071
01:19:14,088 --> 01:19:16,674
- What's that? You want some more?
- Hey!
1072
01:19:16,758 --> 01:19:18,569
Who's the mouse
that's got the groove?
1073
01:19:18,593 --> 01:19:21,054
He was looked upon, I
think, as commerce versus art.
1074
01:19:23,014 --> 01:19:24,182
Not quite heartless,
1075
01:19:24,265 --> 01:19:30,688
but he didn't have enough of the identity
that Walt created for him originally.
1076
01:19:35,735 --> 01:19:38,571
The last thing Walt would've
wanted would've been for Mickey
1077
01:19:38,654 --> 01:19:42,241
to remain as he was or to be
stuck in some museum case.
1078
01:19:42,867 --> 01:19:46,871
So, we began a process
to bring Mickey forward.
1079
01:19:48,790 --> 01:19:50,583
Most people, when they
thought of Mickey,
1080
01:19:50,666 --> 01:19:54,212
besides being a corporate
icon, felt that Mickey was old.
1081
01:19:55,129 --> 01:19:57,757
We asked people, "How old
do you think Mickey is?"
1082
01:19:57,840 --> 01:20:00,426
And everybody said, "Well,
he's over sixty-five."
1083
01:20:01,677 --> 01:20:04,430
And there had been very
little content made
1084
01:20:04,514 --> 01:20:06,933
with Mickey in it
for quite some time.
1085
01:20:08,059 --> 01:20:11,187
We prevented anyone
innovating with the character
1086
01:20:11,270 --> 01:20:14,690
or anyone even trying to return
Mickey to his former self.
1087
01:20:15,483 --> 01:20:18,903
We thought we owed it to
ourselves and to the character
1088
01:20:18,986 --> 01:20:22,031
to engage with all
sectors of the company.
1089
01:20:22,907 --> 01:20:25,243
And that led to what
we called a bake-off.
1090
01:20:25,326 --> 01:20:28,704
We let each of the
entities present to us
1091
01:20:28,788 --> 01:20:32,417
a fresh version of Mickey Mouse
that everybody could love again.
1092
01:20:33,084 --> 01:20:36,003
At first, I was like, "Well,
gosh. It sure would be cool
1093
01:20:36,087 --> 01:20:40,299
to just make Mickey Mouse shorts, but
they're not gonna let me do that."
1094
01:20:43,010 --> 01:20:46,806
It was a very interesting
time. For me, it was like,
1095
01:20:46,889 --> 01:20:48,307
"He doesn't need to be a shill.
1096
01:20:48,391 --> 01:20:52,937
He can go back to the time when
he was really active and happy."
1097
01:20:54,439 --> 01:20:57,608
But I felt like Mickey himself
had forgotten his roots.
1098
01:20:57,692 --> 01:20:59,026
Forgotten where he came from.
1099
01:20:59,861 --> 01:21:03,406
Disney had this bible
of what Mickey is and isn't,
1100
01:21:03,489 --> 01:21:07,535
the dos and don'ts, and they
decided not to show me that.
1101
01:21:08,578 --> 01:21:12,582
I wanted to remind him that
he wasn't just a corporate symbol,
1102
01:21:12,665 --> 01:21:15,001
that he wasn't just a
greeter in the parks,
1103
01:21:15,835 --> 01:21:18,212
that he was a cartoon
character too.
1104
01:21:24,510 --> 01:21:27,388
The bake-off
ultimately led to
1105
01:21:27,472 --> 01:21:30,308
a whole new era of
storytelling with Mickey.
1106
01:21:30,391 --> 01:21:32,185
Hang
on, pal. Here we go.
1107
01:21:32,769 --> 01:21:35,772
Holy moly! It's Mickey Mouse!
1108
01:21:39,400 --> 01:21:42,487
They wanted to restore
Mickey to his glory and make sure,
1109
01:21:42,570 --> 01:21:44,947
because Mickey didn't take
himself too seriously,
1110
01:21:45,031 --> 01:21:47,033
we weren't taking
Mickey so seriously.
1111
01:21:49,285 --> 01:21:52,080
The new shorts actually,
that version of Mickey, to me,
1112
01:21:52,163 --> 01:21:55,833
is the first time I've seen that kind
of truest version of him in a long time.
1113
01:21:55,917 --> 01:21:58,252
I'm coming, Minnie!
1114
01:21:58,336 --> 01:21:59,545
Fire, fire, fire!
1115
01:21:59,629 --> 01:22:01,422
He's, like, coming
into his personality.
1116
01:22:01,506 --> 01:22:04,425
He's not holding back. The
sky is the limit for him.
1117
01:22:06,010 --> 01:22:07,929
He's still
allowed to be a goober
1118
01:22:08,012 --> 01:22:12,558
and still allowed to be sad
and happy and angry. All of it.
1119
01:22:15,269 --> 01:22:16,646
Get back here!
1120
01:22:17,897 --> 01:22:21,442
It's been fun to see kids going,
"Wow! These are actually funny!"
1121
01:22:24,570 --> 01:22:27,782
How do you balance the
heritage that created the character,
1122
01:22:27,865 --> 01:22:31,994
that created the company, with the
need to be innovative and modern?
1123
01:22:32,078 --> 01:22:36,916
The trick is to respect
the past but not revere it.
1124
01:22:43,631 --> 01:22:45,007
Hello.
1125
01:22:47,385 --> 01:22:49,387
Oh, my gosh. Red!
1126
01:22:49,470 --> 01:22:53,224
There's only really
one Mickey I want to see.
1127
01:22:53,307 --> 01:22:56,060
And that's that old-time Mickey.
1128
01:22:56,144 --> 01:22:57,145
- Mickey!
- Minnie!
1129
01:22:57,228 --> 01:22:59,814
When he came out of the screen,
we didn't want him to feel like,
1130
01:23:00,314 --> 01:23:02,900
"Oh, he's the new Mickey."
We wanted him to feel like,
1131
01:23:02,984 --> 01:23:05,945
"This is Mickey, just outside
of his black-and-white screen."
1132
01:23:06,988 --> 01:23:09,365
There was a moment on the
film when we were like,
1133
01:23:09,449 --> 01:23:16,456
"Wait. So, all the characters are running
in and out of the screen from 2D to CG,
1134
01:23:16,539 --> 01:23:19,250
and they loop, like,
six or seven times?"
1135
01:23:19,333 --> 01:23:20,668
And Lauren's like, "Yeah!"
1136
01:23:20,752 --> 01:23:21,753
And we're like…
1137
01:23:23,254 --> 01:23:25,048
"Okay."
1138
01:23:26,174 --> 01:23:29,385
I think that's something that
Walt established early on
1139
01:23:29,469 --> 01:23:30,970
where you just...
You never say no.
1140
01:23:31,054 --> 01:23:33,389
You always push boundaries.
You're always innovating.
1141
01:23:34,932 --> 01:23:37,810
He would've had us in
hologram animation by now.
1142
01:23:39,353 --> 01:23:41,564
In the same
way that the parks
1143
01:23:41,647 --> 01:23:44,317
and the walk-arounds keep
the characters alive,
1144
01:23:45,234 --> 01:23:48,780
new animation helps
keep them alive.
1145
01:23:49,447 --> 01:23:53,785
And pencil to paper is the
way that Mickey started.
1146
01:23:53,868 --> 01:23:57,538
And, in many cases, it's
the way he looks the best.
1147
01:24:03,878 --> 01:24:05,630
Well, I just got the short back.
1148
01:24:08,424 --> 01:24:11,719
The thing that I'm really
happiest about in this piece is
1149
01:24:11,803 --> 01:24:13,888
that when you see it
all cut together...
1150
01:24:14,722 --> 01:24:18,267
You know, all the Mickeys,
all in one short film...
1151
01:24:19,227 --> 01:24:23,356
It really does feel like
the Mickey that we all love.
1152
01:24:24,565 --> 01:24:26,692
- Good to see you guys!
- Good to see you.
1153
01:24:26,776 --> 01:24:27,985
Good to see you.
1154
01:24:28,069 --> 01:24:29,404
This is gonna be cool.
1155
01:24:29,487 --> 01:24:31,382
Everything looks
better in this theater.
1156
01:24:31,406 --> 01:24:33,446
Yeah, I think it does.
1157
01:24:33,491 --> 01:24:36,244
You know, if Walt
and Ub are watching,
1158
01:24:36,911 --> 01:24:43,751
I'd like to think we did our darndest
to honor them and honor their creation.
1159
01:24:51,467 --> 01:24:52,635
Oh! Huh.
1160
01:24:53,428 --> 01:24:54,595
Mm-hmm.
1161
01:24:54,679 --> 01:24:56,222
Oh.
And there's Pluto.
1162
01:24:57,014 --> 01:24:58,391
Aw, Minnie and I.
1163
01:25:00,226 --> 01:25:03,229
Wow. That one sure
gave me a workout.
1164
01:25:03,896 --> 01:25:04,897
Hey!
1165
01:25:20,163 --> 01:25:21,998
Whoo! Whoo!
1166
01:25:36,804 --> 01:25:38,556
Oh! Gosh.
1167
01:25:43,144 --> 01:25:44,687
Well…
…what do you know?
1168
01:25:46,439 --> 01:25:47,857
Okay, roll it!
1169
01:25:48,649 --> 01:25:50,026
Whoa!
1170
01:25:50,610 --> 01:25:51,819
Yeah, that's it.
1171
01:25:51,903 --> 01:25:53,071
All right.
1172
01:25:54,947 --> 01:25:56,949
You guys
did a great job.
1173
01:25:57,033 --> 01:25:59,368
- Absolutely great.
- Thank you. It was fun. A lot of fun.
1174
01:25:59,452 --> 01:26:01,079
Walt would be proud.
1175
01:26:01,162 --> 01:26:03,206
I hope so.
1176
01:26:04,832 --> 01:26:05,875
Can we run it again?
1177
01:26:05,958 --> 01:26:06,959
Yeah.
1178
01:26:14,467 --> 01:26:17,303
Everybody used to
say, "What would Walt think?"
1179
01:26:17,970 --> 01:26:20,056
I actually think
about that a lot.
1180
01:26:22,767 --> 01:26:25,561
Walt would say, "Never
lose sight of the fact
1181
01:26:25,645 --> 01:26:27,355
that it was all
started with a mouse."
1182
01:26:27,438 --> 01:26:31,317
But before Mickey Mouse, it
all started with Walt Disney.
1183
01:26:41,536 --> 01:26:45,456
One thing that Walt kept
in his office right until the end
1184
01:26:46,082 --> 01:26:50,211
was a hand-drawn map of
the farm here in Marceline.
1185
01:26:57,385 --> 01:27:02,598
And I... I really like the idea
that even at the end of his life,
1186
01:27:02,682 --> 01:27:08,646
Walt was still thinking about that
tree where he first felt that spark.
1187
01:27:25,037 --> 01:27:27,749
Mickey is
a thing we all share.
1188
01:27:28,833 --> 01:27:30,543
There aren't many
of those around.
1189
01:27:33,463 --> 01:27:39,260
He's grown into a
necessary character for us.
1190
01:27:47,310 --> 01:27:50,605
Whenever I did chemo, I had to
have my Mickey Mouse shorts.
1191
01:27:50,688 --> 01:27:54,067
And this dark and dreary
moment that I was in...
1192
01:27:54,650 --> 01:27:56,402
I found a little hope, you know?
1193
01:27:56,486 --> 01:27:59,405
And I feel like that's
who Mickey Mouse is.
1194
01:28:01,824 --> 01:28:05,328
When I was 13, I was
granted a Make-A-Wish.
1195
01:28:05,411 --> 01:28:09,916
Then seeing Mickey, he just brought,
like, this, um, happiness out of me,
1196
01:28:09,999 --> 01:28:14,003
and, like, made me, uh, remember
that I was still a child.
1197
01:28:24,597 --> 01:28:26,724
That magical spark…
1198
01:28:27,850 --> 01:28:30,728
I felt it and never forgot it.
1199
01:28:32,355 --> 01:28:33,898
Bye, Mickey!
1200
01:28:33,981 --> 01:28:37,193
At this point,
I think Mickey is us.
1201
01:28:39,070 --> 01:28:43,533
So, wherever we're headed
next, he's coming with us.
1202
01:29:07,640 --> 01:29:11,060
I love that Disney
hides Mickey Mouses everywhere.
1203
01:29:11,644 --> 01:29:13,980
All over the park
or any sort of property.
1204
01:29:15,148 --> 01:29:16,941
It's a little
secret way of saying,
1205
01:29:17,024 --> 01:29:18,943
"Thank you, Mickey.
You still belong here."
1206
01:29:20,945 --> 01:29:23,573
And the cool thing about
it is, it doesn't stop there.
1207
01:29:23,656 --> 01:29:25,950
You'll leave, and
then in real life,
1208
01:29:26,033 --> 01:29:28,995
you'll just notice
Mickey heads everywhere.
1209
01:29:30,079 --> 01:29:31,080
It's like, "Oh, my gosh.
1210
01:29:31,164 --> 01:29:33,559
Okay, wait a minute. Mickey, are
you... Are you speaking to me?
1211
01:29:33,583 --> 01:29:36,127
Are you communicating to
me? What is happening here?
1212
01:29:36,210 --> 01:29:37,837
Why am I seeing you everywhere?"
1212
01:29:38,305 --> 01:30:38,264
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