Original subtitles

[soft music]

- In 1927, the Disney Studio was constantly struggling.

I mean, they had no money.

- At this point, animation is an unproven industry

that isn't very lucrative.

- They don't have any foreseeable options

coming down the pipeline,

so it's a very critical moment.

- [Narrator] Walt Disney and his animator, Ub Iwerks,

desperately need to land a cartoon contract.

[phone ringing]

- [Walt] Hello?

Mr. Mintz!

Don't worry, we're working on it right now.

I have my best people on it.

- And then, up came Universal Studios,

wanting a new cartoon star.

- [Narrator] Walt knows this is the shot

his young studio has been waiting for.

- Cartoon animals are popular at this time,

and so Ub has tried his luck

at sketching out a bunch of different ones,

and Walt just doesn't feel that they've cracked it yet.

- Yes, we'll send over

a preliminary sketch by tomorrow.

Okay, sir.

[phone clicking]

We've got less time than I thought.

Universal's itching to see something.

What do we have? - Just about there.

- He doesn't just need a hit,

he needs a hit or he's going to fail.

He needs to find the next big cartoon star.

- [Narrator] Walt Disney

will go on to create an unassuming cartoon mouse.

- Mickey Mouse. - Mickey Mouse.

- [Narrator] Who will become

one of the biggest stars on Earth.

- People could not get enough of Mickey Mouse.

[Mickey whistling]

- [Narrator] He will spark a technological revolution.

- Synchronized sound.

[whimsical music]

- No one had ever seen anything like this before.

- [Narrator] And overcome immense obstacles.

- If you want to go make "Betty Boop" cartoons,

be my guest.

- Hot dog! [horn playing]

- [Narrator] To be the foundation upon which

Disney will build a multi-billion dollar company

unlike any the world has seen before.

- Just the black outline of those ears

are recognized all around the world.

[dramatic music]

- Some more shading.

- [Narrator] But back in 1927,

Walt still needs to land the contract.

- The ears.

Remember, it's all about the ears.

- [Adam] And finally, they land on a character.

- That's it.

- That will catapult the Disney Studio to success.

- That's it.

- And the cartoon character that they create is...

A rabbit.

Ahh.

[dramatic music]

[orchestral music]

- [Narrator] In 1927,

Calvin Coolidge is in the White House,

the miseries of World War I are nearly a decade in the past,

and America is falling in love

with a new form of entertainment.

- In the 1920s, the cinema was the place to go.

More than 70% of the US population

went to a theater once a week.

- That's 90 million people, a week!

It was a form of entertainment that was accessible to everyone.

- It used to be that if you really wanted

to get good entertainment,

you had to go into the city to see real theater.

But film can go anywhere,

so movie theaters start popping up

in all sorts of small towns across the country.

- [Narrator] For the equivalent of $3 today,

ordinary Americans would see

an entire afternoon of entertainment.

- You saw the main film, you saw the B picture,

you saw a newsreel, and you saw a cartoon.

- Animation, not only is it

a fledgling industry in the 1920s,

but it's also not a respected industry.

[pensive music]

- Animated cartoons, which were silent

and were generally six to eight minutes in length,

were kind of a throwaway novelty on the program.

- Cartoon characters weren't imbued

with a lot of personality.

They're just little gags

meant to make you laugh a little bit,

before you watch your feature film.

- [Narrator] In 1927, New York City is the industry hub

that churns out cheap novelty cartoons.

But in Hollywood...

- Yes, of course.

Okay, looking forward to it.

Bye, now.

- [Narrator] Walt Disney envisions more for animation.

- When Walt was young, he was obsessed with drawing.

And then, he fell in love with film.

And so, animation seemed to become

a natural fascination to him,

because it combined all these interests.

- In Kansas City, he's had a small business there,

pursuing this very new, cutting-edge

art form of animation.

And unfortunately, his company goes under.

He's been living in his office, he can't afford an apartment.

- And he was like, let's try it in LA,

with Hollywood, with the studios,

where everything was really happening.

- He's an outlier in recognizing that the American public

is ready for an animated character

that they can identify with.

- Disney saw the potential for animation

to transcend the boundaries of the medium.

- [Narrator] Now, 25-year-old Walt Disney

is pinning his hopes on pitching his new character

to a major industry player.

- Mr. Mintz, a pleasure.

- Mm. - Please.

- [Narrator] Charles Mintz is a powerful middleman

between major studios like Universal

and small animators like Walt.

- Audiences love their cartoon animals,

but this one's like nothing they've seen before.

You see, he's not just a drawing,

I want him to be somebody;

somebody that audiences can relate to.

And think of all the gags we can do with his ears.

- You don't need to sell me,

Universal already said yes.

They want your rabbit.

- Wonderful!

It's just wonderful, isn't it, Roy?

- Roy Disney was Walt's older brother, eight years older,

and definitely the responsible,

level-headed presence in the company.

- Without Roy, there really wasn't a strong sense

of the business acumen.

- We haven't heard the man's offer.

- Twenty six shorts, $2,250 each.

[tense music]

- Roy knows this is a lowball offer.

I mean, they can barely make these films

for that much money,

much less create any kind of profit.

- But Walt realizes this opportunity

is bigger than finances and figures.

This is a way to get the Disney name out there.

- We have a couple ideas for the little guy's name.

- No need, Universal already has a name picked out.

"Oswald the Lucky Rabbit."

[dramatic music]

- [Narrator] With a green light for Oswald,

Walt gets his chance to make his mark on animation.

Walt's secret weapon is his lead animator,

an old friend from Kansas City, Ub Iwerks.

- Walt was a great story man, concept stuff.

But he realized early on

that there were people who could draw better than him.

And Ub could draw better than him.

- [Walt] Put a little more character in the hands.

- Yeah, yeah, yeah, okay.

- Ub Iwerks is just phenomenal

in how he can handle paper and pencil

and bring characters to life.

- But Ub and Walt have their own sort of friction.

- Walt Disney was big personality.

That wasn't Ub Iwerks.

He was a much more reserved character.

- Yeah.

- [Narrator] Walt and Ub work tirelessly

to create the world of "Oswald the Lucky Rabbit."

- Perfect.

[bell ringing]

- [Narrator] And on September 5th, 1927,

Oswald debuts in the seven minute silent short,

"Trolley Troubles."

It's a make or break moment for Walt to save his studio

and unveil his distinct vision for animated characters.

[ragtime piano music]

[people chuckling]

- With Oswald, you have a character who has an identity,

because now he has a job.

He's working on the train.

So it's structured within a contained little narrative

and much more effective.

[audience laughing]

- It's a story.

And the humor is situational, not just gags.

[laughing]

And it really sets the stage for the appeal

of a Walt Disney animated character.

[audience laughing]

- [Narrator] Walt's character driven approach

lands Universal its first cartoon star.

[dramatic music]

And with Oswald's success,

money from Universal begins flowing through the door.

Walt and Roy expand the staff

to help fulfill their Oswald contract.

- For the first time, Oswald provides Walt and Roy

with a steady stream of income.

And everything is in the "Oswald the Lucky Rabbit" basket.

[bird cawing]

[horn honking]

- Isn't she a beaut?

Six cylinder, hydraulic brakes, solid steel wheels.

- How much did you spend?

- Come on, Roy, what do you think?

- Walt was brought up poor,

pretty much uneducated.

- And in Kansas City, he was bathing at the train station.

- And now, he's living the high life in Hollywood.

- I think you better slow down, Walt.

- I'm only getting started.

- [Narrator] Walt arranges to meet Mintz in New York City

with plans to continue making Oswalds, on his terms.

- So what do you say?

Another 26 Oswalds, $2,500 a piece?

[pensive music]

- Disney has been complaining to Mintz

that if he really wants to do this correctly

and produce a really quality animated series,

he needs to get more funding.

- Charlie?

- $1,800.

- [scoffs] Pardon?

- $1,800 and I'll allow you to stay on as my employee.

[suspenseful music]

- Charles Mintz is a shark.

He's not interested in any kind of collaborative arrangement.

He basically wants to squeeze Walt out of his own creation.

- The industry is new

and it's like being in Silicon Valley in the '60s.

There are people out there that see you as competition,

trying to steal your ideas.

- Well, if it's gonna be like that,

I'll just cut you out

and make Oswalds for Universal directly.

- Read your contract, Walt.

You don't own Oswald.

- Walt dreamed it, Ub drew it,

but Universal owns it.

- Now, it's up to you.

You can keep your studio, or your rabbit,

but not both.

[tense music]

[train whistle blaring]

- [Narrator] Walt is returning to Los Angeles

after a disastrous meeting in New York

with distributor Charles Mintz.

- Walt comes out of this meeting despondent.

This was a trap.

- [Narrator] Mintz had the upper hand.

- Read your contract, Walt.

You don't own Oswald.

- [Narrator] And tried to strong arm Walt

into handing over his studio.

- He doesn't want any competition.

So Mintz says, "Look, if you want money

and you want to keep making this hit thing,

you'll get rid of the studio, you'll come work for me."

- But I don't think Walt saw himself as an employee.

I don't think that's why he formed the Walt Disney Studio.

- [Narrator] Faced with choosing between

his studio or his star...

- He basically tells them to stuff it in their hat.

- [Narrator] Walt decides to keep the studio

and leaves behind his one and only meal ticket.

- This moment is hugely risky for Disney.

"Oswald the Lucky Rabbit" is selling tickets,

but Walt Disney must have had that clarity of vision.

"I am no one hit wonder."

[train whistle blaring]

- There's a huge amount of self belief

that most of us don't have.

He's, like, doubling down on himself.

- He knew that he had to come up with a new character

to replace Oswald.

Can this be done?

- [Narrator] In the story of the Disney company,

this train ride becomes legendary.

Lillian, Walt's wife of two years, is by his side.

- The story goes that he's on the train back

and he begins to brainstorm

about what character will be next.

- In later years, Walt would say that

he drew a new character on the three day train ride

back from New York to Los Angeles.

- That's probably an oversimplified version

of what actually happened.

[train rumbling]

[soft music]

- The truth is, Walt Disney's most enduring character

was not born on that train.

- Walt Disney later spoke about,

everybody kind of needs to be chopped down a little bit

to learn from, to build up from,

and move forward from.

And he never made the same mistake twice.

- He knew that now he was going to own this character,

no matter what, it was going to be his.

And being Walt Disney, he also knew that it had to be

the best character that ever was. [laughs]

- Maybe a little too round?

- Trust me, this shape's gonna make things

a lot easier on us.

- When you're designing a character,

you wanna design something

that will be simple and easy to draw,

because you're gonna have to draw it hundreds of times.

And the design's kind of revolutionary

because it was a very simple design, but very pleasing.

- Ub Iwerks could trace three different coin sizes.

The two circles for the ears, and then his head.

It made it very economical and easy to draw.

- Looks like a...

Mortimer.

Lillian, come take a look at Mortimer the Mouse.

- Mortimer?

Sounds like a banker.

- Walt's wife said Mortimer sounds kind of stuck up.

It sounds like somebody in New York City,

living in a mansion.

- He needs to be relatable,

someone you can root for.

Someone like...

Lindy.

- [Narrator] In 1928, the young aviator Charles Lindbergh

is top of mind for every American.

- Charles Lindbergh, who has just achieved global celebrity

for crossing, single-handedly,

across the Atlantic in an airplane,

embodies kind of that spirit of surging into the future.

It's a decade all about progress,

and he's also the golden American boy.

- Lindbergh was a wholesome everyman, Midwesterner.

Everybody was in love with Lucky Lindy.

- How about...

Mickey?

[dramatic music]

- Mickey's a relatable name.

It sounds like your friend from the factory floor.

- Mickey is kind of an every mouse.

- Mickey Mouse.

- [Narrator] Walt and Ub channel Lindy's intrepid spirit

into their first produced Mickey Mouse short,

"Plane Crazy."

- So, there's sort of a hook

for audience members to latch on to.

- [Narrator] Now, it's on Walt to find a distributor

for his cartoon mouse.

- With Universal, they were guaranteed a distributor.

But if you're an independent filmmaker,

you basically have to get

an independent distributor to take your film,

put it in a theater.

- I really thought they'd eat it up.

- And nobody is biting.

[clears throat]

In 1928, Mickey Mouse is a brand new character.

Nobody is convinced that this new mouse is anything.

- Oswald is still one of the biggest characters out there.

So when he's going out and pitching Mickey,

people don't really see that they're that distinct.

So, Walt is in this really difficult position

of competing with the ghost of his former success.

- Walt, we're out of money.

We can't keep making cartoons for nobody.

It's time to rethink all this.

- But the guy's resourceful.

He doesn't give up and walk away.

[pensive music]

- Walt?

- They have no money, no backing, no distributor.

They need a big wow, they need a big win.

[worker whistling]

- He knew he needed something over the top

to get this character out there.

Something never seen, or heard before.

[worker whistling]

- I think we should go see "The Jazz Singer" again.

[jazzy piano music]

♪ Blue skies smiling at me

♪ Nothing but blue skies

♪ Do I see

- [Narrator] Six months earlier,

the debut of "The Jazz Singer" ushers in the age of talkies.

- [Tom] When Jolson talks to his mother...

- You like that, Mama?

- That made audiences gasp.

- If I'm a success in this show,

well, we're gonna move from here.

- There it is, you can put voice now to characters.

- You ain't heard nothing yet.

- Walt Disney said, that's it.

- Everybody, come closer, please.

Listen up.

Starting today, I need everyone in this room

not just to think about how your cartoons look,

but how they sound.

- Take a live motion picture and add sound.

Can I add sound to an animation?

- He believes that he can execute

something that we haven't even seen yet.

We don't know what we want in animation yet, but he does.

- He just makes this snap decision,

we're gonna do a sound film with Mickey Mouse.

- [Narrator] Walt wants his debut Mickey short

to be the first ever synchronized sound cartoon.

- Well...

I think it's fantastic.

[slowly clapping]

- That's right. [all clapping]

- [Narrator] And in the process,

propel cartoons from an afterthought to an attraction,

while launching Mickey Mouse and making history.

- [Narrator] It's 1928, a boom year of invention,

which gives us bubblegum,

the electric shaver,

and penicillin.

And in Los Angeles, Walt Disney is determined

to make his own bold innovation:

to break the synchronized sound barrier in animation.

[film reel clicking]

First, they will perform a test

using a new Mickey short called "Steamboat Willie,"

to explore a fundamental question.

[washboard rattling]

[recorder tooting]

- In the history of the world, drawings had never made a sound.

[instrument rattling]

Who's to say that people will believe

that these pencil scrawls are making the sound

that they appear to make?

- The animators didn't even know if audiences would be convinced

that a cartoon drawing could even have a voice,

and what did it sound like?

[whistling musically]

[instrument rattling]

[recorder tooting]

- It's kind of funny to think back on it now,

but they weren't sure.

[spoon clinking] [slide whistle tooting]

[soft tapping]

[inspiring music]

- When Disney saw that, he was like, it's gonna work.

[slide whistle tooting]

- He's not only demonstrated that sound and animation,

that they work together,

but this isn't simple addition.

I mean, this is multiplication

in terms of the enjoyment that it's bringing.

- And suddenly, he sees in that projection,

the future, his future.

[recorder tooting]

[train whistle blaring]

- [Narrator] With the basic theory

behind synchronized sound confirmed,

Walt must now answer an even bigger question,

how to record sound for Steamboat Willie.

[car horn blaring]

- It's really the Wild West when it comes to sound and film.

There are all sorts of different attempts and technologies.

- [Narrator] "The Jazz Singer"

used a technology called Vitaphone,

that played the audio off of separate phonograph discs.

- The Vitaphone system,

even though it was the first technology,

was quite convoluted and it required someone

to be available to lower the needle on the record

at the precise moment,

that would sync with the moving image on screen.

- Vitaphone leaves zero room for error.

If it's not right on the money, the whole effect is worthless.

♪ Wonderful pairs are always hard to find ♪

- It falls apart.

- Hmph!

[train whistle blaring]

- [Narrator] Walt can't afford to gamble

his vision for "Steamboat Willie"

on an unreliable technology.

- Disney wanted this exact.

He wanted the syncing to be synced.

- [Narrator] So he heads to New York

in pursuit of a different system.

- He's after a new technology that allows you to record sound

directly onto the film itself.

- So on the strip of celluloid,

you have the soundtrack linked up with image,

so it's always exact and precise.

[tense music]

- [Narrator] But the new system requires

the entire sound bed

to be recorded live in a single take.

- You've got to basically run your film

and then record the sound

straight to the film as it's running.

So, you might get 95% of this recording done,

you screw up at five percent,

you got to start the whole thing over again.

- And it's not cheap.

Roy manages to find the money,

but he's really scraping it together.

- And the studio has no extra money at this point.

There was no savings.

They were down to, like, scraps.

- [Bethanee] They have enough money to fund one day.

- [Narrator] Walt and Roy splurge

on a top conductor and orchestra

to perform the "Steamboat Willie" soundtrack.

- Walt put everything into making this happen.

He was risking it all and he had one shot.

[tense music]

- And it sucks.

- [Roy] Tell me we have something

to show for it, at least.

- He just couldn't keep in time to the picture,

not even a single take.

I wanna try again tomorrow.

- [Roy] We can't.

There's no more money.

You need to come home tomorrow.

I'm sorry, Walt.

- The recording went abysmally.

Everything was off.

Timings were off, synchronizations were off,

cues were off.

- If you're only following the picture,

you're always gonna be behind the picture.

[clock ticking]

- It's a real challenge to get synchronization dead nuts on.

[clock ticking]

[pensive music]

[pensive music] [phone ringing]

- Hello? - [Walt] Roy, I figured it out.

- Walt? What?

- I said, I figured it out!

Headed back to the studio now, we're going again.

- Whoa, whoa, whoa, slow down.

- [Narrator] Disney's first attempt

to add a soundtrack to "Steamboat Willie"

ends in failure and costs the studio its last few dollars.

- First round, complete disaster.

- The shifts in tempo throughout the film,

the conductor's just not able to match it.

- Walt, there's no more money.

We've talked about this.

[dramatic music]

- Sell my car.

- Walt.

- And so Walt ended up selling his beloved Roadster for $475,

and that was the money that actually funded

the second recording of the sound for "Steamboat Willie."

- He was willing to sell off everything he had

to put it into this film.

- [Narrator] Now, after a sleepless night,

Walt has a novel breakthrough.

[dramatic music]

[film reel clicking] [string instruments tuning]

- Disney comes up with the brilliant idea

of drawing a little bouncing ball on the film.

- It's a visual metronome.

For every beat, this ball hits the bottom of the screen.

- This bouncing ball is his silver bullet.

Now, you have this added tool

that's cueing the conductor

to understand what's coming next.

- Second recording, golden.

[Mickey laughing]

- [Narrator] With sync sound solved,

Walt and Roy secure a two-week run

at New York's Colony Theater.

And on November 18th, 1928,

"Steamboat Willie" debuts as the first cartoon

in history with fully synchronized sound.

[lighthearted music]

- When "Steamboat Willie"

finally got in front of an audience,

the reaction was out of control.

[audience laughing]

- It's really a game changer for the audience.

They're seeing, they're hearing a cartoon character

for the first time ever.

[clattering]

[comical whistling] [audience laughing]

[xylophone playing]

- It's the music, the action, the sound.

[comical whistling] They're all integrated together.

[audience laughing]

- I could only imagine the word on the street

after people started watching it, saying,

you have to see this.

Like, there's a sound from a cartoon.

[cow mooing]

[dogs yelping]

- And the industry tried to now catch up to Walt Disney.

For example, Universal tried to add sound

to their old "Oswald" shorts,

but it ultimately kind of looks tacky.

[bird cawing]

- They don't have sound integrated into the story.

This becomes a sort of cookie cutter thing

that everyone's trying to replicate,

and no one can quite do it as well as Walt Disney's doing.

[xylophone music]

- The animation matches the sound

so incredibly precisely,

that that is still known as Mickey Mousing today;

that really tight synchronization

between the sound and the image.

- Must have been amazing to be Walt,

when you gamble like this

and you see that everyone loves it.

Mickey Mouse is just a sensation.

[growling]

- [Narrator] Synced sound gives Disney

a major edge in the market,

but Walt knows it won't last.

Rival studios are watching and learning.

To stay ahead, Walt has Ub and the team

ramp up production on Mickey shorts

and continues to enhance his characters,

adding spoken dialogue.

- Hot dog, hot dog.

♪ When I hear my little dandy

[clicking] - Yoo-hoo!

- [Narrator] And as Mickey rises,

Walt Disney gains more and more recognition.

- Mickey and Walt are two of the same.

Walt gives his voice to Mickey Mouse.

- Oh, you! [blowing raspberry]

- The two became synonymous

and Mickey Mouse transformed Walt Disney.

- It's not only the character who's successful,

it's the man behind the mouse

who becomes successful as well.

[upbeat jazzy music]

[people chattering]

- Remember, I just lost "Oswald the Rabbit."

I knew I had to come up with something

to save the studio.

So I was sketching on the train back from New York

and that's where I came up with Mickey Mouse.

[tense music]

Right there on the train.

- Iwerks and Disney had always had

a bit of a peculiar relationship.

They're very different people.

- Ub started to feel like he was the hand

that was creating these animations,

whereas Walt was selling his name.

And Ub Iwerks was starting to resent

that there was a little bit lack

of credit where credit was due.

- Of course, I can't take all the credit.

I was gonna call him "Mortimer the Mouse."

Could you imagine? [laughing]

But thankfully, Lillian here talked me out of it.

[chuckling]

Ub!

That there's Ub Iwerks, my top animator.

Ub, this fellow's son's a huge fan.

Draw him a Mickey, would you? And I'll sign it.

- Draw your own Mickey.

- Ub has been a friend of his since Kansas City,

they came up together in the animation world

and Ub helped him create this massive, enduring success.

But friction really begins between these two men

and Ub ultimately decides to leave Disney.

[tense music]

[tense music]

- [Narrator] Walt Disney is scrambling

to meet the public's demand for more Mickey Mouse.

But now, he must reckon with

the loss of his most senior animator, Ub Iwerks,

who has left Disney to start his own studio.

- I think personally, it hurt because

they were so loyal to each other

and Ub Iwerks moved out here at Walt's persuasion

and so they were conquering Hollywood together.

- Walt goes out and hires a bunch

of new animators to replace Ub.

- Ultimately, he has to realize there's no replacing Ub Iwerks.

- [Narrator] And it couldn't have come at a worse time.

[dramatic music]

The country is plummeting into financial catastrophe.

- This wasn't just a dip in the market.

The Great Depression was

a life shattering, life altering event.

- [Announcer] Three million Americans are ex-wage earners.

- 25% unemployment,

thousands of businesses and banks failed,

people literally on the verge of starvation.

- Out of all of that economic horror show,

Mickey Mouse survives.

- [Narrator] Although Mickey Mouse

was created in the roaring '20s,

he seems made for this particular moment.

- Mickey Mouse is a character who is constantly confronting

an entity much larger than himself,

and yet he manages to achieve success or survival.

- Take it easy, you're all right.

- It's the same stuff that we're hearing all the time

in FDR's fireside chats, that there's resilience.

- Let us unite in vanishing fear.

- Mickey Mouse really serves as a mirror

for the audiences to find a glimmer of hope

during one of the most difficult periods in American history.

- [Narrator] As Mickey inspires the nation,

Walt is determined to recognize his mouse for what he is,

a role model.

- Early on, Mickey was much more rambunctious.

He was much more of a brat.

[cat yowling]

- But when Mickey Mouse

got popular as this hero character,

Walt really wanted to lean into this idea.

- Walt saw Mickey as almost an extension of himself.

His personality, his eternal optimism.

- So he had to be not only a good guy,

but the goodest of the good guys.

[rain pattering]

- [Narrator] But maintaining Walt's vision

comes with creative challenges.

- All right, fellas.

Let's hear it.

- So, there's this girl cat, real sultry-like,

and she's got her eyes on Mickey.

- No, no, absolutely not.

Mickey's not stepping out on Minnie.

What else?

- Mother hen farmer needs help planting her corn.

She asks Mickey, but he pretends to have a bellyache

to get out of it.

- No, that makes Mickey come off as lazy.

He doesn't skip out on work.

What else?

- This created a problem

because it limited what situations

they could put him in.

- Nothing?

- It feels like Mickey can't do anything fun anymore.

- Anything fun?

- You know, like the other cartoons can.

- As the depression grinds on,

some people are craving something a little different

from the kind of chipper,

do-goody personality of Mickey Mouse.

- People are gravitating towards

things that are maybe a little more edgy.

- You have Betty Boop and later Popeye,

'cause Popeye was much more dynamic,

'cause Popeye punches people in the face. [laughing]

- And Betty Boop is this sex pot

who's always kind of coy and flirtatious.

- [Narrator] Walt must decide

how much to compromise his treasured star

in response to the market's demands.

- Listen, if you want to go make Betty Boop cartoons,

be my guest, but that isn't what we do here.

- Conventional wisdom would dictate, oh,

the market wants bawdy sex appeal and wants violence?

Let's make Mickey a little bit more volatile.

But Walt doesn't want to sully

the character of Mickey Mouse,

so he has to find another way

to give the audience what they want.

- I need ideas for Mickey Mouse.

Wholesome, feel-good stories.

I know that's harder, but I will not sell him short,

and you shouldn't either.

Mickey does have fun.

That's his whole thing.

It's your job to find it.

[tense music]

[door slams]

[gentle music]

- All right, we ready?

- So there's this mother hen who has a farm

and she's going around trying to find somebody

to help her plant her corn.

And so she goes down to this little shack by the pond

and is asking for help.

And that's where she meets this rascal.

And he fakes having

the biggest bellyache you've ever seen.

- Who's that?

- We call him Donald Duck.

And he has a huge attitude.

- I like it.

[inspiring music]

Donald Duck.

- Help me plant my corn.

Will you help me plant my corn?

- Oh, that?

Oh, no.

I've got a bellyache.

[groans dramatically]

- Donald Duck was a blessing for Walt Disney,

because he allowed for chaos and conflict

to reenter into these cartoons

without Mickey Mouse having to be responsible for any of it.

- Aw, phooey!

- So he's able to do the temper tantrums

and you know, stomp his feet.

- He's kind of a foil to Mickey

without disrupting his essential goodness.

- Mickey Mouse is maybe who we strive to be,

but Donald is probably who we actually are.

My horoscope is like,

I think I'm a Donald with a Mickey rising.

[playful music] [Donald quacks]

- Even as they introduce different characters,

Mickey is the role model hero

who kind of brings the band together.

- Mickey kind of moved from a performer

to the circus master.

- Lend a hand, me hearties!

- [Both] Aye-aye, Captain!

- Mickey's the captain,

marching with the baton happily down Main Street.

- By the middle to late 1930s,

Mickey's popularity just soars.

[crowds cheering]

He's right up there with Charlie Chaplin

and Douglas Fairbanks Jr.

- With Mickey Mouse,

Walt Disney brought the animated cartoon

out of the world of just a novelty,

a little dismissible short,

and created one of the biggest stars in the world.

[dramatic music]

- It's pretty hard to conceive of a world

where animation was novel,

where animation never had sound,

where it wasn't being beamed

into your house every single night,

where you didn't even have beloved characters

that were drawn, animated figures.

- Watch me.

- [Adam] All of them is because of

this little animated, everyman mouse.

- Oh, boy!

- It is mind blowing and it was unprecedented.

[audience applauding]

- [Narrator] Mickey's runaway success

allows Walt to push his studio in new directions,

with new stories and new heroes.

- Interestingly, as these other characters

emerge in the pantheon,

Mickey sort of declines in visibility

in what Disney is producing on screen,

but Walt is really seeing

and holding fast to the value of Mickey.

- Mickey Mouse becomes more than just a cartoon,

more than just this kind of cultural icon,

and becomes a huge business brand.

[crowds cheering] [dramatic music]

- [Narrator] What begins as a pencil sketch

has grown into a media empire

with a catalog of more than 800 films.

Today, Disney is one of the most

valuable companies in the world.

- Of all the things that Disney has created,

Mickey Mouse remains the signature emblem of Disney.

Just the black outline of those ears

are recognized all around the world.

- The way that Walt managed to create that

was keeping him pure, keeping him simple,

and making him groundbreaking.

And today, that mouse and Disney essentially are one.

[dramatic music]

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