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Downloaded from
YTS.MX

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<i>During the last few years, we've ventured</i>
<i>into a lot of different fields.</i>

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Official YIFY movies site:
YTS.MX

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<i>We've had the opportunity to meet</i>
<i>and work with a lot of wonderful people.</i>

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I only hope that we never lose sight
of one thing.

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That it was all started by a mouse.

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It's magical
to be able to channel

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all of your energy at this character…

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Mickey!

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…who we can fill with
all of our hopes and dreams

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and all of our love
and all of the innocence

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that we experience and then
eventually lose and would like back.

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Mickey!

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Hi, Mickey. Hi, Mickey! Mickey!

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Mickey was everywhere
when I was a kid.

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He was just, like, part of my DNA.

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He's plastered over every T-shirt,
every billboard.

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He speaks multiple languages.

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- He's everywhere.
- Everywhere!

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It's overwhelming. Like, leave me alone.

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Uh, no.
Okay, let's do that again.

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What is it about Mickey Mouse?

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He started as this simple character.

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But over time, he gets so big

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that he becomes
this reflection of who we are.

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The good and the bad.

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How's that even possible
with this... ...little mouse?

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<i>The life and ventures</i>
<i>of Mickey Mouse</i>

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<i>have been closely bound up</i>

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<i>with my own personal</i>
<i>and professional life.</i>

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<i>He still speaks for me,</i>
<i>and I still speak for him.</i>

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Stop it.

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Wore that one the other day.

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Haven't worn that one in a while.

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When I first got to the studio
to do the Genie in <i>Aladdin</i>,

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I didn't know what to expect with Mickey.

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It felt like he was encased in amber,

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where they don't want to do
anything with him, you know?

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Ah. Here we are. The Hat Building.

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Sometimes people ask,

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"Aren't you unhappy that you're not
on one of the features right now?"

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I said, "I'm getting to animate
Mickey Mouse."

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Walt used to say, "Don't forget.
It was all started by a mouse."

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So, no matter what we're capable
of doing now,

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Mickey takes us back to our origins.

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This process of hand-drawn
hasn't really changed for a century.

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You know, the process of drawing
the characters is exactly the same.

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But back when the great Mickey cartoons
were being made,

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the Disney studio had maybe a hundred
animators to do Mickey and his pals.

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These days, to do
a new hand-drawn Mickey project,

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like the one we're starting now,
we have three.

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Me, Mark Henn and Randy Haycock.

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Randy did characters
like Clayton in <i>Tarzan</i>.

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He did a lot of <i>Pocahontas</i>.

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And then Mark Henn
is really known as the princess guy.

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And the list is endless.

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We've always wanted to do something

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where we see
all the different Mickeys together.

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That's never really been seen
in a film before,

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so that's what we're doing
on this project.

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And we're calling it <i>Mickey in a Minute</i>.

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Where he's walking down the hallways
of Disney Animation,

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and he gets sucked into a whirlwind that
sends him through his most iconic moments

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until, finally, he gets spit out
at the end as <i>Steamboat Willie</i>.

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It's going to be a lot of work.

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I mean, basically we're gonna be making
about 1,500 original drawings of Mickey

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for about one minute's worth
of screen time.

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But trust me.

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It'll be worth it. You'll see.

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And this is Mickey as he was designed by
Walt and Ub Iwerks.

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Not exactly the Mickey we recognize today,
but our kind of proto-Mickey.

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And yes, he still had a tail. Whoop.

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There we go.

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It was a beautiful farm
in Marceline, Missouri.

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Forty-eight acres.

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My chore was to keep the horse going
around the circle

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and then part of it would be
feeding the cane in the squeezer, you see?

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Walt lived here
in Marceline for five years.

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It was a short amount of time.

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But those very few years
were Walt's childhood.

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His family was poor,

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and his father Elias was extremely strict.

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And so art for Walt was an escape.

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Walt would take his drawing materials
and go down to a special tree.

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His dreaming tree.

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He would spend hours
under that tree just laying in the grass.

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A thing that Walt called "Belly Botany."

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I don't know if you've ever laid
in tall grass on a farm,

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but there's a lot that's happening
around you.

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Whatever happened to run
or crawl or fly by,

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he would quickly try to sketch.

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His little sister told me Walt
would do a series of drawings for her.

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And then he would make a really good story
up to go along with it.

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I can just see those creative juices
happening underneath his tree.

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It was that happy place.

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It was where that spark happened.

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- I love it. Yeah, that looks cool.
- It's cool. I like that.

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So, like, all the possibilities of what
you would want on your arm,

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why'd you choose Mickey Mouse?

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I feel like blood, sweat and tears
was put into Mickey Mouse by Walt.

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You know, he was dirt poor.

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Dirt poor with, like, a dream.
Just like, "Nope,

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- I believe in that mouse."
- Right.

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You get a lot of people
coming in here

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asking about Disney and stuff?

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Yeah, there's a few.

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DJ, correct me if I'm wrong.

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This was Walt and Roy's studio
in the early '20s?

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Yeah. This is the place.

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I know way too much
about the history of this now, you know?

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With Walt and his brother
starting the Disney Brothers Studio here.

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Walt was chilling right here.

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Right here.

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And now this little, rad dude

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is so imprinted in everybody's brains.

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Like, we all got a weird,
different feeling about him.

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Mickey Mouse, to me, is light.

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There's, like, a lot of dark in the world.

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Especially nowadays, things do
tend to be getting a little bit darker.

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And he's just keeping hope in the world.

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Yeah!

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So, this is the very first,
officially licensed

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Disney book ever published.

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Imaginatively titled, "<i>Mickey Mouse Book</i>."

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Uh, what you've got in here are games.

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Probably the most interesting, though,
is the story of how Mickey meets Walt.

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Falling from Mouse Fairy Land,
crash-landing on Walt's roof.

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Like Santa Claus,
Mickey hops down the chimney,

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and who does he meet in the house?

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None other than Walt Disney himself.

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Walt loved to tell tall tales
of the story about how Mickey came to be.

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He told it different versions
over the years himself.

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Walt, you're a man
who's famous for many things,

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not the least of which
is building a better mouse.

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Mickey Mouse
hopped out of my mind

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on a train ride from Manhattan
to Hollywood

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at a time when the business fortunes
of my brother, Roy, and myself

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were at lowest ebb and disaster
seemed right around the corner.

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Walt was in trouble.

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Before Mickey Mouse, Walt and his studio
created Oswald the Lucky Rabbit.

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I'd argue that Oswald is
certainly a lucky rabbit,

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but the luck isn't always good.

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The actual Oswald contract does not give
Walt Disney the rights to that character.

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And so, Walt Disney
was pushed out of the equation.

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It's all about that mythological moment
when he's on the train.

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And he's been told his entire studio
has been hired away from him,

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that Oswald doesn't belong to him anymore,
and it's crushing.

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But out of that comes hope.

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He said, "Okay, we've lost everything.
Let's start again."

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Over the years,

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with the retelling of that story
on the train,

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over and over again,
and the different inflections,

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it becomes myth.

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This is mythmaking.

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Walt realizes the importance
of linking himself to that mouse.

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They're developing at the same time.

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Legend has it that,
on that train,

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Walt wanted to call Mickey
"Mortimer Mouse,"

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but his wife, Lillian,
suggested "Mickey Mouse."

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I think that's probably one
of the most important decisions

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anybody ever made for a character.

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But they still had
a few Oswalds to produce,

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so they couldn't necessarily
broadcast it far and wide

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that they were gonna be working on
a new character.

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So that very first Mickey Mouse short
was made in their garage.

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Walt had to turn to the people
that he trusted the most.

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Of course, you have Ub Iwerks,
Walt's lead animator.

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Walt and Ub complemented each other.

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You know, Ub could do things
that Walt could not.

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First of all, animate like a demon.

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It was said
he could do 700 drawings a day,

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which is unbelievable.

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Ub Iwerks, meanwhile,
remembered a different scenario

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where Walt came back on the train
and said, "We need a new character."

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And they tried out various animals
and settled on a mouse.

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Either way, there's this famous sheet
of different designs of Mickey.

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And two of them are circled.

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Does it matter if Mickey was
created on a train

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or at an animator's desk?

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What matters is that
hope-from-despair story

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that we can all resonate with and go,

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"You know what? Yeah, I gotta pick
myself back up by my bootstraps

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and keep going,
because if Walt can do it, I can do it."

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In so precarious a world
of new possibilities

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and increased competition,

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I'd planned to go all out on sound.

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And those plans came very near
spelling a major disaster for us.

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Mickey was not
an overnight success.

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Walt had made two cartoons prior
to <i>Steamboat Willie</i>,

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<i>Plane Crazy</i> and <i>Gallopin' Gaucho.</i>

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And he couldn't find
a distributor for them.

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Then came a very important breakthrough.

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In 1927, as sound came in,

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he set out to make the first sync-sound
cartoon this country had ever seen.

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To launch
our picture impressively,

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I'd hired a full New York orchestra with
a famous director to do the recording.

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The upshot was that I had
to borrow on my automobile,

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and Roy and I had to mortgage
our homes as well,

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to cover the cost of that first
synchronization for <i>Steamboat Willie</i>.

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And everybody had to synchronize.
Hit that thing right on the button.

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And we had--
We had a way of doing it though.

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We had a little-- kind of a little beat
that worked up and down.

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They were all musicians working for me,
so they could follow those beats,

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and when it came to a certain number
of beats, they would go...

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Or they would go bang!

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Or they would go this, or they would pop
one of these popguns, you know?

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And when it was finished,

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the picture wouldn't synchronize
with the sound.

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And we had to do it all over.

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Finally, when all of those
elements came together,

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that put Mickey into the stratosphere.

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It had to be this thing

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that you would never forget
the experience of having.

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It hit. It hit with a bang.
It was a hell of a success.

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And nothing
would ever be the same after that.

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With <i>Steamboat Willie</i>,

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people would probably just be floored
by what they saw, you know?

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When this movie came out,
there was nothing like this ever done.

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And once in a while, in our lifetime,

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we see a movie like that
and it changes everything.

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I mean, for me in my childhood,
it was, like, <i>Star Wars.</i>

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And I think <i>Steamboat Willie</i>
probably had a similar impact.

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Mickey became
a movie star on the same plane

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as Douglas Fairbanks or Charlie Chaplin.

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He was somebody
they went to the movies to see.

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And as his character developed,
he became a rescuer to Minnie Mouse…

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Take it easy. You're all right.

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…a hero stacked up
against Peg Leg Pete…

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and a very resourceful character.

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It's no accident that Walt Disney
was the first voice of Mickey Mouse.

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Yeah. It's me, I guess.

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The optimist.

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The curious kid who never grew up.

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00:18:18,848 --> 00:18:22,560
The guy who was intrepid,
who never let anything stand in his way.

235
00:18:23,144 --> 00:18:27,065
That's Mickey Mouse,
but that's also Walt Disney.

236
00:18:30,068 --> 00:18:31,778
And in a way,

237
00:18:31,861 --> 00:18:38,785
Mickey's earliest cartoons are really
from Walt's memories as a farm boy.

238
00:18:40,787 --> 00:18:42,956
Walt poured himself
into this character,

239
00:18:43,039 --> 00:18:45,917
and the character embodies
Walt Disney himself.

240
00:18:46,668 --> 00:18:49,254
So, you cannot separate the two.

241
00:18:52,549 --> 00:18:56,136
In the early shorts,
there was a sense of adventure.

242
00:18:56,219 --> 00:19:00,849
A sense of Walt doing something exciting
that somebody else wasn't doing.

243
00:19:02,892 --> 00:19:08,023
Fairbanks and Chaplin were such fans
that they both made arrangements

244
00:19:08,106 --> 00:19:13,236
that several of their films be paired with
Mickey Mouse shorts at their premieres.

245
00:19:23,246 --> 00:19:24,414
"What? No Mickey Mouse?"

246
00:19:24,497 --> 00:19:28,168
was the complaint of people going
to a movie theater and realizing,

247
00:19:28,251 --> 00:19:31,004
"They're not showing a Mickey Mouse
cartoon. What's wrong with you people?"

248
00:19:31,755 --> 00:19:33,548
He really was a sensation,

249
00:19:34,382 --> 00:19:36,676
and the merchandise showed up everywhere.

250
00:19:37,719 --> 00:19:39,387
That was a brand-new thing.

251
00:19:39,471 --> 00:19:42,807
And there were a couple of companies
that were on the verge of bankruptcy,

252
00:19:42,891 --> 00:19:46,519
and Mickey Mouse actually saved
those companies from disappearing.

253
00:19:47,354 --> 00:19:50,815
What would another culture
from another planet think of us

254
00:19:50,899 --> 00:19:53,693
seeing Mickey on everything?

255
00:19:53,777 --> 00:19:58,406
They might say, "Take me to your leader,"
and it would be Mickey.

256
00:20:02,786 --> 00:20:05,038
Let me get this out of the way.

257
00:20:06,206 --> 00:20:08,917
And here it is, folks. Mouse Heaven.

258
00:20:11,294 --> 00:20:14,589
I collect images that embody a life force.

259
00:20:16,007 --> 00:20:21,680
Now, the more abstract they are, the more
they're imbued with that life force.

260
00:20:21,763 --> 00:20:24,391
Because often it's just the bare essence.

261
00:20:24,474 --> 00:20:28,478
So you can clothe it in anything
your imagination can bring forth.

262
00:20:29,688 --> 00:20:31,856
Which kind of gets us up to Mickey.

263
00:20:32,440 --> 00:20:38,405
Mickey is pure, absolute geometry,
made up of nothing but circles.

264
00:20:39,489 --> 00:20:41,241
This total abstraction

265
00:20:41,324 --> 00:20:47,539
is probably the most universal symbol
ever created by man or mouse.

266
00:20:48,498 --> 00:20:52,961
Three simple circles,
a quarter and two dimes.

267
00:20:53,044 --> 00:20:56,089
And it's recognizable the world over.

268
00:20:56,798 --> 00:21:00,218
What I've collected is simply
the history of this phenomenon.

269
00:21:00,885 --> 00:21:05,557
So, I think, if an archaeologist was
to find this place

270
00:21:05,640 --> 00:21:07,934
in the far, far distant future,

271
00:21:08,018 --> 00:21:12,355
they would be convinced that this
was a shrine to the great god Mickey.

272
00:21:17,610 --> 00:21:18,862
Welcome to Earth.

273
00:21:18,945 --> 00:21:24,826
I have to tell you about this mouse
that will change your life.

274
00:21:24,909 --> 00:21:27,328
- He's a mouse.
- That wears clothes though.

275
00:21:27,412 --> 00:21:30,415
White gloves, black fur,
I guess it would be.

276
00:21:30,498 --> 00:21:32,625
Red pants. Yellow shoes.

277
00:21:32,709 --> 00:21:35,545
Big ears, you know?
And he's always smiling.

278
00:21:35,628 --> 00:21:38,340
He has a very particular voice.

279
00:21:38,423 --> 00:21:40,717
Oh, boy!

280
00:21:40,800 --> 00:21:42,344
He has a girlfriend, Minnie.

281
00:21:42,427 --> 00:21:44,804
He likes Minnie. I know that.

282
00:21:44,888 --> 00:21:48,725
I think that they're dating
because there's no ring on them.

283
00:21:48,808 --> 00:21:51,478
And then his other friends are Daisy…

284
00:21:51,561 --> 00:21:53,271
Goofy, Donald…

285
00:21:53,355 --> 00:21:55,023
Oh, and he has a dog named Pluto.

286
00:21:55,106 --> 00:21:59,486
Not to be confused with Goofy,
because Goofy is also sort of a dog,

287
00:21:59,569 --> 00:22:01,154
but he's more of a dog-man.

288
00:22:01,237 --> 00:22:03,573
Um, and that's just the world
we're living in.

289
00:22:03,656 --> 00:22:05,909
Ha-ha, everybody.

290
00:22:09,204 --> 00:22:10,372
Mickey Mouse.

291
00:22:10,455 --> 00:22:11,581
Mickey Mouse.

292
00:22:13,124 --> 00:22:15,835
Mickey and I just became inseparable.

293
00:22:15,919 --> 00:22:18,254
We love a mouse. How crazy is that?

294
00:22:18,338 --> 00:22:20,632
That's a little absurd.

295
00:22:24,886 --> 00:22:25,887
Lay down!

296
00:22:27,514 --> 00:22:28,515
Get up!

297
00:22:29,557 --> 00:22:31,935
- Speak!

298
00:22:34,813 --> 00:22:39,275
<i>In the world's film capital</i>
<i>is the studio that stands as a monument</i>

299
00:22:39,359 --> 00:22:44,280
<i>to the great genius of Walt Disney,</i>
<i>master of a new form of popular art that…</i>

300
00:22:44,364 --> 00:22:46,700
That extra revenue
from the Mickey Mouse merchandise

301
00:22:46,783 --> 00:22:51,413
really allowed the studio
to experiment and improve.

302
00:22:52,372 --> 00:22:54,874
First thing I did
when I got a little money,

303
00:22:54,958 --> 00:22:57,085
we set up our own art school.

304
00:22:58,795 --> 00:23:02,674
Art schools that existed then
worked with the static figure.

305
00:23:02,757 --> 00:23:06,469
Now, we were dealing in motion,
movement and the flow of movement.

306
00:23:06,553 --> 00:23:09,723
The flow of things, you know?
Action. Reaction. All of that.

307
00:23:11,516 --> 00:23:13,810
I put all my artists back in school.

308
00:23:15,186 --> 00:23:18,898
And out of that school would come the
artists that now make up my staff here.

309
00:23:18,982 --> 00:23:20,191
And more than that,

310
00:23:20,275 --> 00:23:23,403
the artists that make up most
all of the cartoon outfits in Hollywood.

311
00:23:25,613 --> 00:23:27,699
Mickey has taken the world
by storm.

312
00:23:27,782 --> 00:23:30,410
The great thinkers,
the great artists are all stepping back

313
00:23:30,493 --> 00:23:34,456
and acknowledging that this
is something otherworldly and important.

314
00:23:41,796 --> 00:23:44,758
What is the power behind this character?

315
00:23:45,383 --> 00:23:46,885
Yoo-hoo!

316
00:24:02,442 --> 00:24:06,071
I think Mickey appeals
for a lot of different reasons.

317
00:24:06,571 --> 00:24:11,451
But if I had to pick one,
it's the way he moves.

318
00:24:14,788 --> 00:24:21,127
It's how he does things
that make him compelling to watch.

319
00:24:22,962 --> 00:24:27,634
He has a spirit to him, dating all
the way back to <i>Steamboat Willie</i>,

320
00:24:28,677 --> 00:24:33,556
that is playful, inventive,
resourceful and fun.

321
00:24:34,432 --> 00:24:40,063
But his imperfections are as much
a part of his character as anything else.

322
00:24:44,150 --> 00:24:45,819
Mickey wasn't perfect,

323
00:24:47,195 --> 00:24:51,574
but he would always find a resourceful way
to get out of situations.

324
00:24:54,994 --> 00:24:55,995
Minnie!

325
00:24:57,497 --> 00:25:00,834
His movement is defining
who he is.

326
00:25:00,917 --> 00:25:05,964
And that is what the Disney Studio
has specialized in ever since.

327
00:25:07,966 --> 00:25:11,177
You're not just creating movement
for movement's sake.

328
00:25:12,262 --> 00:25:18,018
You're creating movement that defines
that individual's personality.

329
00:25:38,371 --> 00:25:42,125
People tend to forget that
Mickey Mouse started in the Roaring '20s.

330
00:25:42,208 --> 00:25:45,879
But almost immediately,
the Depression fell on the United States.

331
00:25:47,047 --> 00:25:49,549
<i>America,</i>
<i>the land of shattered dreams.</i>

332
00:25:49,632 --> 00:25:52,802
<i>A place of deep despair and real fear.</i>

333
00:25:53,762 --> 00:25:57,807
<i>Millions of Americans homeless, hungry,</i>
<i>and without hope.</i>

334
00:26:00,769 --> 00:26:02,979
Because of the crisis,
the majority of kids

335
00:26:03,063 --> 00:26:05,315
were spending their time without parents.

336
00:26:06,441 --> 00:26:09,819
They were left free
to do what they wanted during the day.

337
00:26:10,403 --> 00:26:13,823
And movies were the cheapest
entertainment you could get for a child.

338
00:26:14,324 --> 00:26:16,451
So if you're a kid,

339
00:26:16,534 --> 00:26:19,746
the one thing you could
be guaranteed of was a Saturday matinee.

340
00:26:20,914 --> 00:26:22,707
It was the highlight of your week.

341
00:26:24,709 --> 00:26:26,419
Yoo-hoo, Mickey!

342
00:26:27,837 --> 00:26:29,089
Yoo-hoo!

343
00:26:33,593 --> 00:26:36,221
I fell in love with Mickey

344
00:26:36,304 --> 00:26:39,933
because I went to the movies almost
every day with my sister and brother.

345
00:26:40,475 --> 00:26:43,520
And you had a double feature
and a cartoon in the middle,

346
00:26:44,688 --> 00:26:49,192
so you were there for hours
out of the hands of your parents.

347
00:26:51,820 --> 00:26:54,739
And there's the cartoon,
and when I saw that cartoon--

348
00:26:54,823 --> 00:26:58,535
First the big head would appear
with radiant lights coming out of it.

349
00:27:04,541 --> 00:27:05,792
I remember my sister saying,

350
00:27:05,875 --> 00:27:08,712
"We knew it was coming,
and Jackie would grab you by one arm,

351
00:27:08,795 --> 00:27:12,257
and I would grab you by the other arm,
and you went into a frenzy."

352
00:27:37,699 --> 00:27:40,160
Wow.
I get the goose bumps every time.

353
00:27:43,955 --> 00:27:49,753
Mickey becomes the icon of how
to truly survive the Great Depression.

354
00:27:50,587 --> 00:27:52,922
The American dream has suffered.

355
00:27:53,506 --> 00:27:55,842
But Mickey is able to bring that back.

356
00:27:56,634 --> 00:28:01,848
He's able to return us to a sense
of perseverance.

357
00:28:04,309 --> 00:28:08,438
There was no other character
having that grip on a mass conscience.

358
00:28:09,647 --> 00:28:13,026
That popularity spins out into things
like the Mickey Mouse clubs,

359
00:28:13,109 --> 00:28:15,070
where kids could get together

360
00:28:15,153 --> 00:28:17,614
and watch Mickey cartoons together
and laugh together.

361
00:28:34,631 --> 00:28:36,966
<i>And now they're all waiting</i>
<i>for Mickey himself.</i>

362
00:28:38,093 --> 00:28:39,594
<i>Here he comes!</i>

363
00:28:46,059 --> 00:28:50,939
Mickey weathers the Depression,
but he's got to change and transform.

364
00:28:52,440 --> 00:28:55,985
Because America and Mickey,
they change together.

365
00:29:14,879 --> 00:29:17,424
There's almost a hundred years

366
00:29:17,507 --> 00:29:20,093
of Disney Animation history
within this building.

367
00:29:20,969 --> 00:29:24,973
We have approximately 65 million pieces
of art in our collection.

368
00:29:25,890 --> 00:29:30,228
And every box holds a spark of creativity.

369
00:29:31,730 --> 00:29:35,442
So, here you've got <i>Steamboat Willie</i>.

370
00:29:36,359 --> 00:29:38,153
Ah. That's a nice one.

371
00:29:38,236 --> 00:29:41,197
Mickey as he's falling
in the soap bucket.

372
00:29:43,408 --> 00:29:45,493
Yeah, and it's so, so simple.

373
00:29:45,577 --> 00:29:47,287
You look at the hands--

374
00:29:47,370 --> 00:29:49,372
They almost look
like just little pinwheels.

375
00:29:49,456 --> 00:29:50,832
- And just--
- Yeah.

376
00:29:50,915 --> 00:29:56,546
It's the spirit of Mickey,
just really simplified to an essence.

377
00:29:58,548 --> 00:30:02,052
You'll be able to see
an evolution of Mickey here.

378
00:30:03,136 --> 00:30:05,430
- So, we've gone five years later.
- Mm-hmm.

379
00:30:05,513 --> 00:30:06,514
Oh, yeah.

380
00:30:06,598 --> 00:30:08,850
You can see there's
a little bit more to him.

381
00:30:08,933 --> 00:30:14,898
It's the same character, but you can tell
that a different animator did this.

382
00:30:14,981 --> 00:30:15,982
Mm-hmm.

383
00:30:16,941 --> 00:30:19,778
The hands, for example.
They added the white gloves.

384
00:30:23,656 --> 00:30:27,577
And this Mickey
is just that much more

385
00:30:27,660 --> 00:30:30,497
three-dimensional and organic.

386
00:30:31,915 --> 00:30:35,210
You would take an animator's drawing
of Mickey,

387
00:30:35,293 --> 00:30:38,213
put it on your light box,
and then improve it.

388
00:30:38,296 --> 00:30:39,214
Whoop.

389
00:30:39,297 --> 00:30:45,387
Improve it by making that pose stronger,
making that line of action more defined.

390
00:30:46,805 --> 00:30:52,894
But there's still something personal in it
that you're bringing to the table.

391
00:30:55,939 --> 00:31:00,360
The very first animation I did here at
the studio back in 19--

392
00:31:00,443 --> 00:31:02,654
We won't talk about that.
It was a long time ago.

393
00:31:02,737 --> 00:31:05,323
But the very first animation I did
was Mickey Mouse.

394
00:31:06,324 --> 00:31:09,411
I felt it then,
and I feel it now with this short.

395
00:31:09,953 --> 00:31:12,122
And we're able to keep him alive,

396
00:31:12,205 --> 00:31:14,791
and we're doing it in the way
that Mickey should be done.

397
00:31:19,462 --> 00:31:22,215
I don't know if I can flip this
'cause the papers are kind of thin.

398
00:31:24,592 --> 00:31:27,220
The character of Mickey,
the personality of Mickey--

399
00:31:28,346 --> 00:31:30,390
Being hand-drawn is part of who he is.

400
00:31:31,933 --> 00:31:35,270
And if people recognize that, you know,

401
00:31:35,353 --> 00:31:38,481
there will always be a reason for us
to keep drawing him.

402
00:31:41,234 --> 00:31:44,237
And those early animators,
as crude as it was,

403
00:31:44,320 --> 00:31:47,490
they were discovering the language
of animation.

404
00:31:49,159 --> 00:31:50,326
Well, Walt,

405
00:31:50,410 --> 00:31:53,580
how is <i>Snow White</i>
<i>and the Seven Dwarfs</i> coming along?

406
00:31:53,663 --> 00:31:55,457
Oh, it's come along very well.

407
00:31:56,374 --> 00:31:58,251
Going to run for one hour and a half.

408
00:31:58,335 --> 00:32:00,712
No cartoon production
has ever run that long before.

409
00:32:01,296 --> 00:32:04,424
That's why we feel justified
in putting one million dollars into it.

410
00:32:05,050 --> 00:32:06,468
In terms of animation,

411
00:32:06,551 --> 00:32:09,721
Mickey opened a lot of doors for Walt,

412
00:32:09,804 --> 00:32:12,223
and Walt was always looking for new doors.

413
00:32:13,016 --> 00:32:15,852
You know, it makes me dizzy
to think of the millions of drawings

414
00:32:15,935 --> 00:32:17,937
necessary for a production of this kind.

415
00:32:18,688 --> 00:32:21,566
Disney needs to expand hugely.

416
00:32:22,067 --> 00:32:27,197
And so, the studio goes
from a small group to 300 people.

417
00:32:27,280 --> 00:32:30,575
And that change really transforms
the studio.

418
00:32:31,910 --> 00:32:35,538
No longer can Walt be involved
in every Mickey short.

419
00:32:35,622 --> 00:32:38,833
His entire focus shifts over
to <i>Snow White</i>.

420
00:32:39,626 --> 00:32:43,713
<i>Snow White</i> was not taking place
in the same universe that Mickey lived in.

421
00:32:44,881 --> 00:32:47,008
But at the same time,
Mickey never goes away.

422
00:32:47,842 --> 00:32:53,223
He's always right there by Walt's side
whenever he takes on a new enthusiasm.

423
00:33:01,898 --> 00:33:05,485
Mickey Mouse is probably
the most difficult character to ink

424
00:33:05,568 --> 00:33:07,112
because of all the curves.

425
00:33:08,780 --> 00:33:11,658
That's the most difficult part of inking
is inking circles.

426
00:33:11,741 --> 00:33:14,619
And Mickey Mouse is full of circles.

427
00:33:24,754 --> 00:33:29,551
Your job as an inker is translating
the animator's work onto the cel.

428
00:33:29,634 --> 00:33:32,637
You don't have any room
to go outside of that.

429
00:33:32,721 --> 00:33:35,640
Because if you do that,
you change their intention.

430
00:33:35,724 --> 00:33:38,184
You change their work.

431
00:33:41,146 --> 00:33:44,607
They say it takes about 15 years
of consistent inking--

432
00:33:45,108 --> 00:33:49,988
eight hours a day, five times a week,
for 15 years-- to become a master inker.

433
00:33:50,905 --> 00:33:53,908
There's only a few of us
in the Ink and Paint department now,

434
00:33:53,992 --> 00:33:58,079
but it used to be hundreds,
and for a long time, it was all women.

435
00:33:58,163 --> 00:33:59,831
<i>The thousands of pencil drawings</i>

436
00:33:59,914 --> 00:34:01,249
<i>go to the inking department.</i>

437
00:34:01,332 --> 00:34:03,585
<i>Here, hundreds of pretty girls</i>
<i>cover the drawings</i>

438
00:34:03,668 --> 00:34:05,295
<i>with sheets of transparent celluloid.</i>

439
00:34:05,378 --> 00:34:09,132
<i>Then they painstakingly trace every line</i>
<i>of every drawing in ink,</i>

440
00:34:09,215 --> 00:34:12,844
<i>following exactly, in every detail,</i>
<i>the original animation drawing.</i>

441
00:34:12,927 --> 00:34:16,598
The role of the inkers
and painters gets glossed over

442
00:34:16,681 --> 00:34:21,519
into this log-line of pretty girls
who traced and colored.

443
00:34:22,979 --> 00:34:27,442
When what they were accomplishing
was mind-blowing.

444
00:34:28,818 --> 00:34:31,196
These women were artists
in their own right.

445
00:34:31,905 --> 00:34:33,490
<i>In the studio paint laboratory,</i>

446
00:34:33,573 --> 00:34:36,326
<i>all colors used</i>
<i>are made up from secret formulas.</i>

447
00:34:36,409 --> 00:34:40,413
<i>Expert chemists developed more</i>
<i>than 1500 different shades of color</i>

448
00:34:40,497 --> 00:34:42,332
<i>for</i> Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

449
00:34:50,465 --> 00:34:55,387
Color forever transforms
the world of Mickey Mouse.

450
00:34:57,806 --> 00:35:00,767
Pastel is his flesh. His tongue.

451
00:35:00,850 --> 00:35:03,812
Marigold, his shoes. Lobster, his pants.

452
00:35:05,146 --> 00:35:07,315
We are not really brushing.

453
00:35:08,024 --> 00:35:14,406
It's actually dropping a glob of paint,
and then we just push it to the edges,

454
00:35:14,489 --> 00:35:18,493
because we wanna make the paint
look as opaque as possible.

455
00:35:21,663 --> 00:35:23,998
When I'm inking or painting Mickey Mouse,

456
00:35:24,082 --> 00:35:27,836
it just takes me back
to when Walt first created Mickey.

457
00:35:35,176 --> 00:35:38,680
So now that we're done with it,
this is what it looks like from the front.

458
00:35:44,185 --> 00:35:46,146
All ready, Uncle Mickey?

459
00:35:46,229 --> 00:35:47,939
Okay, let's go.

460
00:35:52,569 --> 00:35:55,780
Once Mickey becomes
an international children's star,

461
00:35:55,864 --> 00:35:57,657
there's certain things he cannot do.

462
00:35:59,409 --> 00:36:01,327
Parents of Mickey's
younger viewers

463
00:36:01,411 --> 00:36:05,040
wanted Mickey to clean up his act
and not be as bad an influence.

464
00:36:07,125 --> 00:36:10,378
He can't be a bully.
He can't punch people.

465
00:36:10,462 --> 00:36:15,216
He can't behave in any way
that would be considered bad behavior.

466
00:36:17,093 --> 00:36:19,512
It pushed Mickey
into a straight man role,

467
00:36:20,305 --> 00:36:23,058
where almost any kind of flaw

468
00:36:23,141 --> 00:36:26,936
is seen as out of character.

469
00:36:29,856 --> 00:36:32,984
And so, Donald Duck appears.

470
00:36:38,365 --> 00:36:40,116
Aw, phooey!

471
00:36:40,784 --> 00:36:45,121
The duck came along as a result
of too many taboos put onto Mickey Mouse.

472
00:36:45,789 --> 00:36:48,958
People didn't feel that Mickey
could blow his top like the duck.

473
00:36:49,042 --> 00:36:51,127
He had to maintain a certain dignity.

474
00:36:54,506 --> 00:36:57,258
So, in order to give ourselves a latitude,

475
00:36:57,342 --> 00:36:59,552
we created
this terrible-tempered Mr. Duck.

476
00:37:09,062 --> 00:37:10,814
Get out of here! Get out of here!

477
00:37:10,897 --> 00:37:13,566
Story after story
was rejected for Mickey

478
00:37:13,650 --> 00:37:16,736
because he was perceived
as being a little bit too silly in them.

479
00:37:18,780 --> 00:37:22,450
They found out Mickey is probably
best paired with Donald and Goofy.

480
00:37:22,534 --> 00:37:24,160
A moose!

481
00:37:24,244 --> 00:37:25,245
A moose!

482
00:37:25,328 --> 00:37:26,705
And have this little trio.

483
00:37:26,788 --> 00:37:31,292
Hot dog! Now do your stuff.
I'll take care of the rest.

484
00:37:31,376 --> 00:37:34,421
There are many great ones
that include the three of them

485
00:37:34,504 --> 00:37:38,466
that work well 'cause their
personalities rub off against each other.

486
00:37:38,550 --> 00:37:40,135
Lend a hand, me hearties!

487
00:37:40,218 --> 00:37:41,720
Aye, aye, Captain!

488
00:37:42,846 --> 00:37:44,472
What's the big idea?

489
00:37:44,556 --> 00:37:48,393
But it became evident
that Donald is getting Mickey's anger

490
00:37:49,310 --> 00:37:51,980
and Goofy gets Mickey's silly side.

491
00:37:53,481 --> 00:37:57,485
And if Mickey is the responsible one,
he pretty much has to take a back seat.

492
00:37:59,654 --> 00:38:01,573
But then where does that leave Mickey?

493
00:38:19,132 --> 00:38:21,801
This part of the short
that I'm animating

494
00:38:21,885 --> 00:38:24,304
is from the <i>Brave Little Tailor</i>.

495
00:38:30,935 --> 00:38:33,146
He's trying to get his arm out
of his sleeve.

496
00:38:33,229 --> 00:38:34,272
Can't get it.

497
00:38:34,773 --> 00:38:38,401
And then that's when Mickey
comes in to his arm right here.

498
00:38:40,111 --> 00:38:44,991
Then I gotta get all that done
in 297 frames.

499
00:38:45,075 --> 00:38:48,119
So I've only got a hundred frames
to get the rest of it.

500
00:38:52,374 --> 00:38:56,252
I think I was here 25 years
before I actually animated Mickey.

501
00:38:56,920 --> 00:38:59,798
And it seems a shame because,
you know, if you work at Disney,

502
00:39:00,507 --> 00:39:03,051
you should be animating Mickey
all the time, I'd think.

503
00:39:04,761 --> 00:39:08,640
When Eric gave me the sections
that I was gonna do, I got really excited

504
00:39:08,723 --> 00:39:12,018
because that was my favorite Mickey
that made me wanna be an animator.

505
00:39:12,102 --> 00:39:16,106
They came at me from the right.
Then the left. Right, left, left, right!

506
00:39:16,189 --> 00:39:19,442
So that was exciting
and intimidating all at the same time.

507
00:39:22,237 --> 00:39:27,033
As Mickey evolved,
what used to be his eye,

508
00:39:27,117 --> 00:39:31,788
when you get to <i>Fantasia</i>,
just became this little thing here

509
00:39:31,871 --> 00:39:34,416
and so you would end up with the pupils.

510
00:39:35,417 --> 00:39:36,793
<i>Fantasia</i> Mickey's important

511
00:39:36,876 --> 00:39:40,088
because with the whites of his eyes
like this,

512
00:39:40,171 --> 00:39:42,882
it made him a lot more expressive.

513
00:39:42,966 --> 00:39:45,510
And I'm gonna stretch his ears
a little more here

514
00:39:45,593 --> 00:39:50,390
because he just became
a little more pliable from this point on.

515
00:40:02,944 --> 00:40:09,034
We wouldn't have a <i>Fantasia</i> if it weren't
for Walt's concern for Mickey Mouse.

516
00:40:09,117 --> 00:40:13,872
He was worried that Donald and Goofy
were overtaking Mickey's popularity,

517
00:40:14,706 --> 00:40:20,128
and he wanted a vehicle to bring Mickey
back in the limelight again.

518
00:40:21,588 --> 00:40:27,719
And so originally, <i>Fantasia</i> was just going
to be <i>The Sorcerer's Apprentice</i> short,

519
00:40:27,802 --> 00:40:34,309
and it then blossomed
into an entire innovative feature film

520
00:40:34,392 --> 00:40:36,853
that's still never been equaled.

521
00:40:38,772 --> 00:40:41,149
<i>Fantasia</i> is something
that was a huge gamble.

522
00:40:42,275 --> 00:40:43,985
You have so many different styles.

523
00:40:44,819 --> 00:40:46,863
It's something that,
in theory, shouldn't work.

524
00:40:48,031 --> 00:40:50,241
The greatest thrill
of his acting career happened

525
00:40:50,325 --> 00:40:53,161
on the night of November 13th, 1940

526
00:40:53,244 --> 00:40:57,082
at the same theater where he made
his first appearance as a ragged,

527
00:40:57,165 --> 00:40:59,793
shoeless mouse almost ten years before.

528
00:41:23,066 --> 00:41:27,237
Some of the old animators said that
when they heard that Walt wanted Mickey

529
00:41:27,320 --> 00:41:31,533
to be on this rock conducting
the universe,

530
00:41:31,616 --> 00:41:33,660
they thought he'd gotten kinda crazy

531
00:41:33,743 --> 00:41:35,912
'cause Mickey Mouse, after all,
is a cartoon character.

532
00:41:35,995 --> 00:41:37,414
You don't conduct the universe.

533
00:41:46,631 --> 00:41:49,009
Mickey conducting the universe
you can translate

534
00:41:49,092 --> 00:41:53,471
to Walt conducting his own universe
'cause by that time his company had grown,

535
00:41:53,555 --> 00:41:56,850
and thousands and thousands
of people were working at the studio.

536
00:41:58,810 --> 00:42:00,645
So I think Walt became Mickey then.

537
00:42:12,115 --> 00:42:14,576
There's some scenes
in <i>Sorcerer's Apprentice</i>

538
00:42:14,659 --> 00:42:19,039
where he knows he's screwed up
in front of the sorcerer.

539
00:42:19,122 --> 00:42:22,167
The subtlety that they get on his face,

540
00:42:23,001 --> 00:42:29,507
I think that's where the character
hit his absolute peak of perfection.

541
00:42:32,260 --> 00:42:36,765
Artistically, Walt achieved
everything he wanted to with <i>Fantasia</i>.

542
00:42:38,850 --> 00:42:42,645
But when the movie came out,
it was a failure.

543
00:42:42,729 --> 00:42:45,273
Artistic success, financial failure,
you know?

544
00:42:45,357 --> 00:42:47,609
Certainly an artistic
success. It was a magnificent--

545
00:42:47,692 --> 00:42:50,987
Well, there's-- Some people would,
uh, would question that too.

546
00:42:53,198 --> 00:42:57,702
<i>Fantasia</i> was
Mickey's culmination and his termination.

547
00:42:58,536 --> 00:43:02,791
That sorcerer swatted him with the broom,
and he scurried off of the stage,

548
00:43:02,874 --> 00:43:05,043
and he never quite came back again.

549
00:43:05,877 --> 00:43:08,088
Well, so long! I'll be seeing ya!

550
00:43:21,976 --> 00:43:24,187
The story of Walt and Mickey

551
00:43:24,270 --> 00:43:27,565
wasn't just one continual
success after success.

552
00:43:27,649 --> 00:43:30,568
It was stumble after stumble,
failure after failure.

553
00:43:31,319 --> 00:43:36,074
But Walt believed that if he worked hard
enough, he could overcome every obstacle.

554
00:43:39,828 --> 00:43:42,205
There are two main animators

555
00:43:42,288 --> 00:43:44,791
who were really, really important
in Mickey's life,

556
00:43:45,458 --> 00:43:48,795
Ub Iwerks and Fred Moore.

557
00:43:49,963 --> 00:43:53,967
It was Moore who redesigned
the mouse more than once,

558
00:43:54,801 --> 00:43:59,514
and after <i>Fantasia</i>, the studio
is talking in terms of a comeback.

559
00:43:59,597 --> 00:44:03,935
From <i>Fantasia</i>,
Freddie Moore took him even further

560
00:44:04,019 --> 00:44:06,688
for even more fluidity

561
00:44:07,272 --> 00:44:08,815
and more character.

562
00:44:11,484 --> 00:44:13,695
They gave him a loose,
rangy kind of movement,

563
00:44:13,778 --> 00:44:16,406
and they had him
deliberately clowning around.

564
00:44:16,990 --> 00:44:22,120
Everything's kind of working
to this S curve here.

565
00:44:22,203 --> 00:44:23,955
I'll clean up your yard.

566
00:44:24,039 --> 00:44:26,166
All right. But no more clowning.

567
00:44:26,249 --> 00:44:28,960
They were trying
to make Mickey funny again.

568
00:44:29,044 --> 00:44:31,880
You know? Let him play a clown
once in a while,

569
00:44:31,963 --> 00:44:36,426
like when he's doing his goofy dance
in <i>Mickey's Birthday Party</i>,

570
00:44:36,509 --> 00:44:40,472
or when he's raking up leaves
in <i>The Little Whirlwind</i>, you know?

571
00:44:40,555 --> 00:44:46,895
It's okay for him to make mistakes or
act foolish once in a while in that year.

572
00:44:48,897 --> 00:44:52,859
The movement, the organic qualities,

573
00:44:52,942 --> 00:44:57,030
the fluidity of the animation
was never better.

574
00:44:59,074 --> 00:45:02,452
They could do with Mickey… anything.

575
00:45:07,457 --> 00:45:10,710
This new Mickey seemed
to hold the promise of

576
00:45:10,794 --> 00:45:15,090
freeing him from that role of being
the serious, responsible one all the time.

577
00:45:17,550 --> 00:45:20,470
But that version
of Mickey didn't last long.

578
00:45:41,741 --> 00:45:44,160
<i>The whole world is aflame.</i>

579
00:45:44,244 --> 00:45:48,581
<i>All the peoples of the United Nations are</i>
<i>fighting the savage enemies of freedom.</i>

580
00:45:50,542 --> 00:45:53,044
<i>In Hollywood, Walt Disney has turned over</i>

581
00:45:53,128 --> 00:45:55,588
<i>almost the entire facilities of his studio</i>

582
00:45:55,672 --> 00:45:58,550
<i>for the production</i>
<i>of Army and Navy instructional films.</i>

583
00:45:58,633 --> 00:46:01,094
Four, eight, sequence one. Let her roll.

584
00:46:01,970 --> 00:46:04,055
Walt, being the patriot that he was,

585
00:46:04,139 --> 00:46:06,641
supported whatever the government
and the military wanted…

586
00:46:06,725 --> 00:46:09,060
<i>Don't throw away that bacon grease.</i>

587
00:46:09,144 --> 00:46:12,939
<i>Fats make glycerin</i>
<i>and glycerin makes explosives.</i>

588
00:46:13,440 --> 00:46:17,569
…whether that was creating shorts
for home front or propaganda purposes…

589
00:46:17,652 --> 00:46:20,155
<i>Will our own cities and homes be bombed?</i>

590
00:46:20,739 --> 00:46:23,950
…or training films
and educational films for the military.

591
00:46:24,034 --> 00:46:27,454
<i>If the bolt is pulled back,</i>
<i>the magazine's free…</i>

592
00:46:27,537 --> 00:46:29,330
They were designing insignia

593
00:46:29,414 --> 00:46:32,042
for different military and auxiliary units
around the world.

594
00:46:32,125 --> 00:46:33,793
Over twelve hundred were made.

595
00:46:35,295 --> 00:46:37,505
You have groups writing
to the studio, saying,

596
00:46:37,589 --> 00:46:40,258
"We want Mickey to help
get us through this."

597
00:46:41,968 --> 00:46:44,679
Before the war,
Hitler liked Mickey,

598
00:46:44,763 --> 00:46:48,808
Mussolini loved Mickey,
Hirohito loved Mickey.

599
00:46:48,892 --> 00:46:52,645
But when America enters war,
Mickey ends up banned.

600
00:46:55,106 --> 00:46:58,568
The little fellow's grin
was too infectious for Nazism.

601
00:46:58,651 --> 00:47:00,653
Hitler thunderingly forbade his people

602
00:47:00,737 --> 00:47:05,075
to wear the then-popular Mickey Mouse
button in place of the swastika.

603
00:47:05,575 --> 00:47:07,911
Hitler understood what Mickey symbolized.

604
00:47:09,287 --> 00:47:13,500
Independence, liberty, freedom.

605
00:47:14,125 --> 00:47:16,252
America is Mickey.

606
00:47:21,591 --> 00:47:24,344
Commando Duck, here are your orders.

607
00:47:24,427 --> 00:47:27,347
You'll parachute at position D-4.

608
00:47:28,723 --> 00:47:31,643
But with the wartime shorts
that are produced to create morale,

609
00:47:31,726 --> 00:47:34,729
almost all of those are done
by Donald Duck.

610
00:47:38,650 --> 00:47:42,987
Mickey's presence in World War II
tended to rely on the home front.

611
00:47:43,071 --> 00:47:46,157
You see him on support posters,

612
00:47:46,241 --> 00:47:47,701
getting people to carpool,

613
00:47:47,784 --> 00:47:49,703
rationing, selling war bonds,

614
00:47:50,286 --> 00:47:53,957
supporting the war effort
not from the front line but at home.

615
00:47:54,874 --> 00:47:58,169
If you were a child at that point in time
or a family,

616
00:47:58,253 --> 00:48:02,424
who better to look to than Mickey Mouse
for that sense of comfort?

617
00:48:06,553 --> 00:48:08,221
But you, as a creator,

618
00:48:08,930 --> 00:48:11,099
don't control
what happens to your products.

619
00:48:11,182 --> 00:48:13,435
You don't control what happens
to your characters.

620
00:48:14,436 --> 00:48:18,481
And so, when wartime came,
Mickey was already there.

621
00:48:26,865 --> 00:48:31,703
There was a village in Poland in which the
entire village was destroyed by the Nazis.

622
00:48:33,329 --> 00:48:37,417
And there are images left
from that village

623
00:48:37,500 --> 00:48:42,672
that create a collection of the life
of the village before the horror.

624
00:48:46,468 --> 00:48:49,012
And in one of the photographs is Mickey.

625
00:48:53,183 --> 00:48:56,102
And it's a shocking image
within the Holocaust museum

626
00:48:56,186 --> 00:49:00,523
to see this-- this being, Mickey Mouse,
creating pleasure for this community

627
00:49:00,607 --> 00:49:02,442
right on the cusp of the war.

628
00:49:07,238 --> 00:49:10,825
Children in the camps were dressed up
in Mickey Mouse costume,

629
00:49:11,618 --> 00:49:15,872
staging Mickey Mouse plays,
drawing images of Mickey Mouse.

630
00:49:17,624 --> 00:49:23,046
There was actually a comic strip written
by someone in the camps,

631
00:49:24,255 --> 00:49:28,426
which covered the daily life through
the perspective of Mickey Mouse.

632
00:49:29,761 --> 00:49:36,351
And at the end, he erases Mickey and says,
"Mickey's gone back to America."

633
00:49:36,434 --> 00:49:39,396
And the person who drew
the comic strip was then killed.

634
00:49:41,022 --> 00:49:46,903
Mickey was in the Holocaust because Mickey
represented the possibility of escape,

635
00:49:47,529 --> 00:49:49,489
of joy, of happiness.

636
00:49:50,073 --> 00:49:54,703
And those dictators understood very well
that was not what they were offering.

637
00:50:02,377 --> 00:50:05,296
We kind of have to think
of Mickey as, like, before World War II

638
00:50:05,380 --> 00:50:06,798
and then after World War II.

639
00:50:06,881 --> 00:50:08,717
It's two very different careers.

640
00:50:11,302 --> 00:50:13,013
- Well, here we are, Pluto.

641
00:50:13,096 --> 00:50:15,015
Boy, what a dream place.

642
00:50:15,098 --> 00:50:19,310
Come on, Your Highness.
Utopia is yours.

643
00:50:24,524 --> 00:50:26,735
<i>This migration to the suburbs,</i>

644
00:50:26,818 --> 00:50:30,030
<i>variously estimated as</i>
<i>from 40 to 80 million people.</i>

645
00:50:30,697 --> 00:50:33,700
Many people complain about
the post-war Mickeys

646
00:50:33,783 --> 00:50:37,787
being domesticated, but Walt Disney
is a very different person.

647
00:50:38,455 --> 00:50:43,335
Walt has a suburban house,
has a very set, conservative life, really.

648
00:50:44,669 --> 00:50:48,173
And he's a person now
who's gone through nervous breakdowns,

649
00:50:48,256 --> 00:50:51,384
possibilities of financial ruin, a strike.

650
00:50:51,468 --> 00:50:53,470
He gets involved in HUAC

651
00:50:54,596 --> 00:50:57,057
and that changes the Mickey we know.

652
00:50:57,807 --> 00:51:02,270
It makes him a much more contained
character than he was in the early years.

653
00:51:04,272 --> 00:51:07,192
And America is moving
in that direction too.

654
00:51:09,277 --> 00:51:10,862
We don't want chaos.

655
00:51:12,947 --> 00:51:16,159
We wanna feel safe.
We wanna feel familiar and protected.

656
00:51:16,242 --> 00:51:18,411
Okay, Pluto. Let's get our tree.

657
00:51:19,621 --> 00:51:22,290
- 1953 was his last short,

658
00:51:22,374 --> 00:51:25,835
and I've heard him described
as just being a little-- little man.

659
00:51:26,961 --> 00:51:30,048
He acquired a decent house and a mortgage,

660
00:51:30,131 --> 00:51:34,260
and he just became
your suburban mouse next door.

661
00:51:37,430 --> 00:51:40,350
<i>There is a continuing trend</i>
<i>to more time off,</i>

662
00:51:41,142 --> 00:51:43,019
<i>which means more time to consume.</i>

663
00:51:45,772 --> 00:51:48,274
<i>It's a completely new idea in automobiles.</i>

664
00:51:48,358 --> 00:51:51,277
<i>The daring, dazzling 1955 Rambler.</i>

665
00:51:51,361 --> 00:51:55,448
Come on, Pluto, old boy.
We're going to see the 1955 Nash.

666
00:51:56,199 --> 00:51:57,826
When I first saw these,

667
00:51:57,909 --> 00:52:04,249
I did a complete double take
that Mickey was even drawn this way.

668
00:52:04,332 --> 00:52:08,837
<i>The new 1955 Rambler offers</i>
<i>complete year-round air conditioning.</i>

669
00:52:08,920 --> 00:52:12,340
They're sending the signals
that Mickey and Minnie are married

670
00:52:12,424 --> 00:52:14,509
and they're driving in the front
of the Nash Rambler,

671
00:52:14,592 --> 00:52:18,096
and there are their two kids sitting in
the back. And it's like, "Wait a minute!"

672
00:52:18,179 --> 00:52:19,806
Live a little.

673
00:52:19,889 --> 00:52:21,307
Drive a Rambler.

674
00:52:21,808 --> 00:52:26,312
Apparently, they had made
a few commercials before Walt saw them.

675
00:52:26,396 --> 00:52:30,025
What had happened was,
a fan had written to him saying,

676
00:52:30,108 --> 00:52:32,610
"Dear Walt, what did you do with Mickey?"

677
00:52:34,446 --> 00:52:39,826
And he found these commercials and
looked at them and just went, "Stop!

678
00:52:39,909 --> 00:52:42,912
That's not Mickey.
We're not doing that anymore."

679
00:52:45,999 --> 00:52:47,292
Walt was getting so busy

680
00:52:47,375 --> 00:52:50,170
that he didn't always have time
to stop what he was doing

681
00:52:50,253 --> 00:52:52,881
and go to the soundstage
and record Mickey's voice.

682
00:52:53,465 --> 00:52:57,385
And doing that falsetto voice of Mickey
was becoming harder.

683
00:52:57,469 --> 00:53:00,263
He actually had to go to a doctor
for the vocal strain.

684
00:53:09,814 --> 00:53:11,107
- Hi.
- How are you?

685
00:53:11,191 --> 00:53:12,859
- Nice to meet ya.
- Nice to meet you.

686
00:53:12,942 --> 00:53:14,235
Yeah. I'm excited to work on this.

687
00:53:14,319 --> 00:53:17,906
You know, you could-- you could do this
for a living. You sound just like him.

688
00:53:17,989 --> 00:53:20,283
- I would hope to. Thanks. Thanks.

689
00:53:23,328 --> 00:53:24,996
So, you've read the script.

690
00:53:25,080 --> 00:53:27,791
It's kind of a fanciful trip
through Mickey's career.

691
00:53:27,874 --> 00:53:31,628
Uh, it starts with him walking through
the halls of the animation studio

692
00:53:31,711 --> 00:53:35,757
and he's looking at his past glories
on posters.

693
00:53:35,840 --> 00:53:39,052
So, why don't you go through it,
and we'll see what we get.

694
00:53:39,636 --> 00:53:40,929
- All right.
- Okay.

695
00:53:41,763 --> 00:53:43,223
One. Take one.

696
00:53:43,306 --> 00:53:45,225
Aw, there's Pluto.

697
00:53:45,308 --> 00:53:46,309
It's Minnie.

698
00:53:46,893 --> 00:53:48,812
Pete.

699
00:53:48,895 --> 00:53:51,731
Try another one
where you're just a little more casual,

700
00:53:51,815 --> 00:53:52,982
- a little slower.
- Okay.

701
00:53:53,566 --> 00:53:55,527
Hmm, hmm.

702
00:53:56,152 --> 00:53:58,571
Oh, I remember that.

703
00:53:59,155 --> 00:54:02,534
Those are great.
Try one more that's just a, "Hmm."

704
00:54:03,743 --> 00:54:07,288
Hmm. Hmm. Hmm.

705
00:54:07,372 --> 00:54:09,249
The responsibility is huge,

706
00:54:09,332 --> 00:54:12,711
because I'm just playing a part
in continuing this legacy

707
00:54:12,794 --> 00:54:15,130
that started with Walt back in 1928.

708
00:54:15,630 --> 00:54:17,382
Hey, Pluto. Here she comes.

709
00:54:17,465 --> 00:54:19,634
- Hi, folks.
- Hi, folks!

710
00:54:19,718 --> 00:54:21,636
- This is Mickey.
- I'm Mickey too.

711
00:54:21,720 --> 00:54:23,346
- You are?
- I thought so.

712
00:54:23,430 --> 00:54:26,808
Jimmy Macdonald, the second voice
of Mickey, told Wayne,

713
00:54:26,891 --> 00:54:30,061
"Remember, kid, you're only filling in for
the boss." And that's how I look at it.

714
00:54:30,145 --> 00:54:32,272
Come on. We gotta hurry.

715
00:54:32,355 --> 00:54:34,065
Come on. We gotta hurry.

716
00:54:34,149 --> 00:54:36,234
Ah, gosh.

717
00:54:36,317 --> 00:54:38,653
Gosh! Oh, gosh!

718
00:54:38,737 --> 00:54:40,572
I will never forget that, essentially,

719
00:54:40,655 --> 00:54:42,449
I'm emulating
Walt's performance as Mickey.

720
00:54:42,532 --> 00:54:44,492
Hot dog! Hot dog!

721
00:54:44,576 --> 00:54:45,994
Hot dog!

722
00:54:46,077 --> 00:54:48,371
- Hot dog!
- That last one.

723
00:54:48,455 --> 00:54:49,539
Yeah, nice.

724
00:54:50,290 --> 00:54:53,168
You know, the coal
is floating around him like asteroids,

725
00:54:53,251 --> 00:54:55,295
- so he's trying to grab for them.
- Uh-huh.

726
00:54:56,963 --> 00:54:58,089
Gotcha!

727
00:54:58,173 --> 00:54:59,382
Great.

728
00:55:02,010 --> 00:55:05,513
I'm sitting there and I'm listening
to Bret doing the voice, and I'm thinking,

729
00:55:05,597 --> 00:55:09,434
"Oh, man. He's nailed it.
He's really got him."

730
00:55:09,517 --> 00:55:14,606
And I hope that as well as Bret nails
the voice, we nail the visuals.

731
00:55:16,775 --> 00:55:19,903
Working on this short is kind
of Mickey heaven

732
00:55:19,986 --> 00:55:23,406
because you get to play
with all these different styles,

733
00:55:23,490 --> 00:55:26,201
as do the other animators
who are working on it.

734
00:55:26,993 --> 00:55:32,874
So in this particular case,
this is a Mickey from the 1950s.

735
00:55:33,583 --> 00:55:37,087
And this sequence was animated
by John Lounsbery.

736
00:55:38,254 --> 00:55:39,839
And to be honest,

737
00:55:39,923 --> 00:55:44,636
this is the first time I've drawn
a 1950s Johnny Lounsbery Mickey.

738
00:55:44,719 --> 00:55:48,973
So, you know,
I'm learning as I go.

739
00:55:58,817 --> 00:56:01,820
-<i>Hi, partners!</i>
- <i>Hi, Mickey!</i>

740
00:56:03,029 --> 00:56:06,908
<i>Well, this here's our roundup day,</i>
<i>so, uh, you all pretty nigh ready?</i>

741
00:56:06,991 --> 00:56:09,119
- <i>Sure enough!</i>
-<i>Sure enough.</i>

742
00:56:09,202 --> 00:56:10,620
<i>Then let's get on with it.</i>

743
00:56:10,704 --> 00:56:15,542
Most Hollywood producers
were terrified of television.

744
00:56:16,334 --> 00:56:19,170
<i>Walt Disney and Mickey Mouse present</i>

745
00:56:19,254 --> 00:56:20,755
The Mickey Mouse Club<i>.</i>

746
00:56:20,839 --> 00:56:24,676
Walt goes in the opposite direction
and embraces television.

747
00:56:27,929 --> 00:56:31,391
He relished the idea of getting
into a new field like that.

748
00:56:31,474 --> 00:56:33,184
<i>Hi, Mouseketeers.</i>

749
00:56:33,268 --> 00:56:34,561
<i>Hi, Roy</i>!

750
00:56:35,478 --> 00:56:37,063
<i>What would you like to have me draw?</i>

751
00:56:37,147 --> 00:56:38,356
<i>Mickey Mouse.</i>

752
00:56:38,440 --> 00:56:42,652
It made it a lot easier to have
this audience identification

753
00:56:42,736 --> 00:56:45,030
with a character that they had known
for all those years

754
00:56:45,113 --> 00:56:46,781
and had become a part of their lives.

755
00:56:50,535 --> 00:56:54,330
Once again, Mickey provided the
momentum that made all of that possible.

756
00:56:54,414 --> 00:56:59,711
<i>Yay, Mickey! Yay, Mickey!</i>

757
00:56:59,794 --> 00:57:02,255
<i>Yay, Mickey Mouse Club!</i>

758
00:57:03,465 --> 00:57:09,471
One, two, three, four, five, six, seven.

759
00:57:10,972 --> 00:57:14,434
You know, Walt, I think,
very quickly realized

760
00:57:14,517 --> 00:57:18,480
that the power of his creations
had life beyond the walls of the studio.

761
00:57:19,147 --> 00:57:20,482
And he would get fan mail.

762
00:57:20,565 --> 00:57:22,942
People would ask,
"How can I meet Mickey and Minnie?"

763
00:57:23,026 --> 00:57:24,027
Welcome.

764
00:57:24,611 --> 00:57:26,780
I guess
you all know this little fella here.

765
00:57:27,530 --> 00:57:28,740
It's an old partnership.

766
00:57:29,699 --> 00:57:33,661
Mickey and I started out
the first time many, many years ago.

767
00:57:34,496 --> 00:57:36,498
We've had a lot of our dreams come true.

768
00:57:37,123 --> 00:57:40,335
Now we want you to share with us
our latest and greatest dream.

769
00:57:42,003 --> 00:57:43,672
That's it right here.

770
00:57:44,923 --> 00:57:46,216
Disneyland.

771
00:57:54,891 --> 00:57:56,726
As soon as Walt starts on another path

772
00:57:56,810 --> 00:57:59,646
and focuses his interests on Disneyland,

773
00:57:59,729 --> 00:58:02,023
Mickey goes through
a major transformation as well.

774
00:58:03,358 --> 00:58:07,404
He has to become the kind of icon
that Walt is becoming.

775
00:58:08,988 --> 00:58:10,907
<i>Disneyland is your land.</i>

776
00:58:14,119 --> 00:58:16,746
<i>Here, age relives</i>
<i>fond memories of the past,</i>

777
00:58:17,997 --> 00:58:21,251
<i>and here, youth may savor the challenge</i>
<i>and promise of the future.</i>

778
00:58:23,044 --> 00:58:24,879
There is something very personal

779
00:58:24,963 --> 00:58:28,758
about this whole quest that Walt is on.

780
00:58:28,842 --> 00:58:32,637
Returning to his own sense
of being a child.

781
00:58:35,849 --> 00:58:40,145
And that Mickey Mouse,
the character that existed in his head

782
00:58:40,228 --> 00:58:44,190
and then on paper,
that existed on the big screen,

783
00:58:44,274 --> 00:58:48,528
could now be as close to every visitor
at the park as it was to him.

784
00:58:49,112 --> 00:58:52,365
<i>That's Mickey Mouse,</i>
<i>the inimitable little character</i>

785
00:58:52,449 --> 00:58:56,286
<i>that started this whole story</i>
<i>with Walt Disney 25 years ago.</i>

786
00:58:57,829 --> 00:59:01,082
<i>The real star of it is Mickey Mouse.</i>

787
00:59:01,166 --> 00:59:02,917
I think there's an aura of magic

788
00:59:03,001 --> 00:59:05,337
around Mickey Mouse
that makes you feel safe.

789
00:59:06,546 --> 00:59:10,592
And I think within that bubble,
you are safe.

790
00:59:18,308 --> 00:59:20,769
Mickey connects generations.

791
00:59:25,148 --> 00:59:28,485
He connects our childhood memories
to our adult memories.

792
00:59:30,987 --> 00:59:35,241
And so when you encounter
Mickey in the park, you are not just you.

793
00:59:35,325 --> 00:59:37,452
You are six-year-old you,

794
00:59:38,995 --> 00:59:41,790
and you are 80-year-old you in the future.

795
00:59:44,167 --> 00:59:47,504
And you are with your grandmother,
and you are with your grandchildren,

796
00:59:47,587 --> 00:59:51,341
and you are participating
in a timeless moment.

797
01:00:00,892 --> 01:00:05,313
Mickey is the walking embodiment
of Walt's philosophies.

798
01:00:05,397 --> 01:00:08,858
And you can meet him, still,
in the persona of Mickey.

799
01:00:13,613 --> 01:00:16,282
I do remember, like, driving up to it

800
01:00:16,366 --> 01:00:19,911
and having that feeling that, like,
this is where Mickey lives.

801
01:00:19,994 --> 01:00:22,122
Oh, this is a sacred space.

802
01:00:22,205 --> 01:00:23,665
It's like he made Disneyland.

803
01:00:23,748 --> 01:00:25,458
It's like he used magic to, like--

804
01:00:27,127 --> 01:00:29,129
At that time,
I'm thinking he's like John Wayne

805
01:00:29,212 --> 01:00:30,755
or he's like a real, true movie star.

806
01:00:30,839 --> 01:00:32,090
He spent his money.

807
01:00:32,173 --> 01:00:34,509
He bought this so people
could come visit him.

808
01:00:34,592 --> 01:00:36,094
And I actually got to meet him.

809
01:00:36,177 --> 01:00:38,763
- When I was five years old--
- Five years old.

810
01:00:38,847 --> 01:00:39,973
Maybe ten?

811
01:00:40,056 --> 01:00:44,728
When I saw him in Tokyo Disneyland,
I really believe it's him.

812
01:00:44,811 --> 01:00:46,563
He's right down here.

813
01:00:46,646 --> 01:00:50,442
And actually, I think the sweetest one
is me and Minnie down here.

814
01:00:50,525 --> 01:00:53,153
It's kind of a big deal when I see Mickey.

815
01:00:53,236 --> 01:00:55,947
My husband literally pushed me
out of the way--

816
01:00:56,031 --> 01:00:58,825
Pushed her out of the way
so I could get to Mickey first.

817
01:00:59,826 --> 01:01:02,454
Really happy
when I got Mickey Mouse's signature.

818
01:01:03,038 --> 01:01:05,957
Thank you for all the times
you were there for me.

819
01:01:06,458 --> 01:01:08,585
And you've always been my best friend.

820
01:01:09,085 --> 01:01:10,628
I resonate with Mickey so well

821
01:01:10,712 --> 01:01:14,466
because there's an undeniable piece
of Walt's heart in Mickey Mouse.

822
01:01:24,476 --> 01:01:26,644
Can you still make a noise
like Mickey Mouse?

823
01:01:27,228 --> 01:01:30,065
Well, uh, Mickey used
to talk something like this, you know?

824
01:01:30,148 --> 01:01:31,649
It's kind of a falsetto.

825
01:01:31,733 --> 01:01:35,612
Of course, he's an old mouse now
and the falsetto's getting a little old.

826
01:01:35,695 --> 01:01:36,696
Yeah.

827
01:01:48,667 --> 01:01:52,212
Working with Walt,
nobody had any idea he was ill.

828
01:01:52,879 --> 01:01:55,298
Certainly not to the extent he was.

829
01:01:57,300 --> 01:02:00,720
We simply didn't see it coming.
We never saw it coming.

830
01:02:06,309 --> 01:02:11,523
After Walt's death,
his wife, Lillian, said that

831
01:02:11,606 --> 01:02:16,027
it was difficult for her to watch
or listen to Mickey Mouse

832
01:02:17,529 --> 01:02:19,489
because there was so much of Walt in him.

833
01:02:34,879 --> 01:02:38,383
After his passing,
they pretty much closed up the office.

834
01:02:41,177 --> 01:02:43,430
They'd go in and dust and--
and things like that,

835
01:02:43,513 --> 01:02:45,348
but it-- it looks just the way it did.

836
01:02:48,685 --> 01:02:51,354
We've tried to keep it
as close to Walt as possible.

837
01:03:06,411 --> 01:03:08,663
You know, with the passing of Walt,

838
01:03:08,747 --> 01:03:11,875
the studio honestly did not know
what to do with Mickey.

839
01:03:13,668 --> 01:03:17,589
And for me as a Disney storyteller,
it was kind of eye-opening.

840
01:03:20,717 --> 01:03:23,762
It almost seemed that they wanted
to put the lid on Mickey.

841
01:03:28,099 --> 01:03:32,687
Because Walt's values,
Walt's ideas would be frozen in time.

842
01:03:46,117 --> 01:03:48,078
The world changed. The culture changed.

843
01:03:49,954 --> 01:03:52,957
And Mickey hadn't really changed with it.

844
01:03:54,000 --> 01:03:56,461
<i>Even Mickey Mouse has troubles these days.</i>

845
01:03:56,544 --> 01:03:59,923
<i>A band of yippies threatened trouble</i>
<i>in the park all day yesterday.</i>

846
01:04:01,091 --> 01:04:04,552
<i>The yippies said</i>
<i>they have come to liberate Mickey Mouse.</i>

847
01:04:08,598 --> 01:04:12,352
Mickey Mouse was still
very much alive outside the Disney studio.

848
01:04:13,937 --> 01:04:16,731
You know, you could not escape him.

849
01:04:20,068 --> 01:04:21,945
Just like America splits in the '60s,

850
01:04:22,028 --> 01:04:23,530
Mickey Mouse splits as well.

851
01:04:25,198 --> 01:04:27,242
There's kind of a surface meaning to him.

852
01:04:27,325 --> 01:04:30,036
But the more you look into him,
the more you think about it,

853
01:04:30,120 --> 01:04:32,580
the more levels there are to this symbol.

854
01:04:34,499 --> 01:04:36,292
So there are two Mickeys now.

855
01:04:36,376 --> 01:04:38,753
Mainstream Mickey
and counterculture Mickey.

856
01:04:39,295 --> 01:04:41,423
And those coexist in this one character.

857
01:04:56,980 --> 01:04:58,773
Mickey becomes this irresistible symbol

858
01:04:58,857 --> 01:04:59,899
to the counterculture.

859
01:05:02,736 --> 01:05:06,906
So if you have an issue with your parents,
with authority, with America in general,

860
01:05:06,990 --> 01:05:08,366
Mickey Mouse is your guy.

861
01:05:10,660 --> 01:05:13,788
What Mickey provided was inspiration.

862
01:05:15,331 --> 01:05:16,875
People were starting to use Mickey

863
01:05:16,958 --> 01:05:21,046
to reflect life around them
in all sorts of different ways.

864
01:05:24,132 --> 01:05:27,344
And that really starts to deepen
the character of Mickey Mouse.

865
01:05:31,139 --> 01:05:34,934
I don't know why things persist
in people's minds and memories.

866
01:05:35,018 --> 01:05:37,562
Some things stick, some things don't.

867
01:05:38,146 --> 01:05:39,397
I forgot I did that.

868
01:05:39,481 --> 01:05:44,402
That was <i>Mickey Mouse</i>
<i>by Leonardo da Vinci</i>.

869
01:05:46,363 --> 01:05:53,161
All significant art represents an attempt
to understand reality.

870
01:05:57,082 --> 01:05:59,459
I was against the Vietnam War,

871
01:06:01,252 --> 01:06:07,008
and I thought we could do a little film
on Mickey Mouse in Vietnam.

872
01:06:09,010 --> 01:06:12,263
I was looking for a symbol
that would represent every man.

873
01:06:12,972 --> 01:06:15,433
And Mickey was sort of universal.

874
01:06:16,393 --> 01:06:18,812
And so much a part of the American ethos.

875
01:06:20,313 --> 01:06:23,316
Part of the factor was his innocence.

876
01:06:24,901 --> 01:06:28,988
By that point, Mickey really had become
an emblem of what America stood for.

877
01:06:30,615 --> 01:06:34,452
But America is changing during that time,
and in that short film,

878
01:06:34,536 --> 01:06:38,331
Mickey somehow manages to be
the perfect symbol for that change.

879
01:06:38,415 --> 01:06:40,542
Of innocence lost during that war.

880
01:06:41,793 --> 01:06:44,087
By that point,
we're so identified with Mickey,

881
01:06:44,170 --> 01:06:48,341
Mickey is so close to us,
that there's no other character or symbol

882
01:06:48,425 --> 01:06:50,468
that could sell
that message so effectively.

883
01:07:04,315 --> 01:07:07,694
Every version of Mickey
is a version of all of us.

884
01:07:07,777 --> 01:07:10,530
It's a version of the society
that we have all come from.

885
01:07:12,741 --> 01:07:17,787
And in the 1960s, America began
to ask questions about itself,

886
01:07:19,122 --> 01:07:23,626
questions that many had ignored,
and that included Mickey Mouse.

887
01:07:26,046 --> 01:07:31,301
Just like Mickey's shorts in the '30s
where Mickey's performing in blackface,

888
01:07:31,384 --> 01:07:33,970
popular forms of entertainment show

889
01:07:34,054 --> 01:07:38,183
America has been divided
since the founding of this country.

890
01:07:41,353 --> 01:07:45,857
But it's difficult to see Mickey
part of that conversation.

891
01:07:48,360 --> 01:07:52,447
It's a disconnection that happens
as a viewer when I'm faced with that…

892
01:07:54,699 --> 01:07:56,534
…and those sorts of presentations.

893
01:07:58,411 --> 01:08:00,372
And then, of course, you have Minnie.

894
01:08:02,916 --> 01:08:06,753
It's hard to watch
those Mickey shorts with our eyes today.

895
01:08:07,837 --> 01:08:10,173
- But the last thing we wanna do…
- Don't do that!

896
01:08:10,256 --> 01:08:13,009
…is to ignore, to hide,

897
01:08:13,093 --> 01:08:16,262
to somehow imagine those elements
of our identity don't exist.

898
01:08:17,097 --> 01:08:19,641
That version of Mickey does exist.

899
01:08:20,141 --> 01:08:23,269
He speaks to the racism
within our own society.

900
01:08:24,479 --> 01:08:26,272
It's easy to say, "It is what it is."

901
01:08:26,356 --> 01:08:29,359
It's easy to say that was just Walt
being the man he was at the time.

902
01:08:30,402 --> 01:08:34,155
But given the cultural power
that Walt had,

903
01:08:34,239 --> 01:08:38,451
some of the images he put out there
with Mickey did damage.

904
01:08:40,245 --> 01:08:42,497
Mickey's supposed to love everybody.

905
01:08:44,666 --> 01:08:48,878
Clearly, in these moments,
he's not loving all of us.

906
01:08:48,962 --> 01:08:50,797
He's not loving all of us.

907
01:08:52,590 --> 01:08:56,136
<i>And here is Mickey's official</i>
<i>50th anniversary portrait.</i>

908
01:08:56,219 --> 01:09:01,975
<i>He's a little taller now. More grown-up.</i>
<i>And, at the temples, just a touch of gray.</i>

909
01:09:09,315 --> 01:09:12,068
Mickey's physical appearance
has changed somewhat

910
01:09:12,152 --> 01:09:15,155
since Walt Disney created the mouse
back in 1928.

911
01:09:15,238 --> 01:09:18,324
And over the years,
Mickey's tastes have changed as well.

912
01:09:18,825 --> 01:09:23,329
But Mickey Mouse seems to stay up
with the times, and in the area of music,

913
01:09:23,413 --> 01:09:27,876
it is only natural that Mickey Mouse
would eventually go disco.

914
01:09:39,679 --> 01:09:43,641
Mickey is truly iconic in the sense
that he cannot be beaten.

915
01:09:44,684 --> 01:09:47,187
So, yes, he's gonna have a disco album
that's horrible

916
01:09:47,270 --> 01:09:50,065
and that comes two or three years
after disco's peak.

917
01:09:50,148 --> 01:09:53,068
But it's still gonna be really popular
and successful.

918
01:09:53,151 --> 01:09:56,654
I loved
the <i>Mickey Mouse Disco</i> when I was younger.

919
01:09:56,738 --> 01:09:58,782
And I would just, like,
dance in my living room.

920
01:10:01,493 --> 01:10:02,494
That's cute.

921
01:10:03,787 --> 01:10:07,540
But then on the other side,
we see the punk appropriation of Mickey.

922
01:10:14,172 --> 01:10:17,133
And we see the Ramones
wearing Mickey Mouse T-shirts.

923
01:10:17,217 --> 01:10:18,551
What are they doing?

924
01:10:21,429 --> 01:10:25,475
I, myself, and my friends,
when we were into punk and skateboarding,

925
01:10:25,558 --> 01:10:27,811
would wear Mickey Mouse T-shirts.

926
01:10:27,894 --> 01:10:31,106
It was a mixture of,
"I am making fun of something,

927
01:10:31,189 --> 01:10:33,608
and I am also expressing admiration
for something,

928
01:10:33,692 --> 01:10:35,985
and my parents don't get that."

929
01:10:36,486 --> 01:10:38,780
So it became kind of a secret language.

930
01:10:46,121 --> 01:10:49,749
A lot of artists began to incorporate
Mickey as a way of saying,

931
01:10:49,833 --> 01:10:53,545
"If you're gonna flood the culture
with this kind of imagery,

932
01:10:53,628 --> 01:10:55,505
then it becomes ours at some point."

933
01:11:05,390 --> 01:11:07,058
He becomes the super symbol.

934
01:11:08,184 --> 01:11:09,728
<i>Mickey Mouse, we are told,</i>

935
01:11:09,811 --> 01:11:12,355
<i>is one of the top three icons</i>
<i>of the 20th century.</i>

936
01:11:12,439 --> 01:11:16,234
<i>A distinction he shares with Adolf Hitler</i>
<i>and the Coca-Cola bottle.</i>

937
01:11:16,317 --> 01:11:18,695
<i>Andy Warhol lifted the image straight</i>

938
01:11:18,778 --> 01:11:21,614
<i>as part of a series</i>
<i>of screen prints entitled</i> Myths.

939
01:11:21,698 --> 01:11:24,617
Mickey Mouse is my favorite, uh, image

940
01:11:24,701 --> 01:11:27,662
because, uh, Walt Disney is
my favorite artist.

941
01:11:31,791 --> 01:11:33,960
- I'm Mickey Mouse.
- I'm Minnie Mouse.

942
01:11:34,044 --> 01:11:35,462
I'm Donald Duck.

943
01:11:36,671 --> 01:11:38,214
By the 1980s,

944
01:11:38,298 --> 01:11:40,175
things were getting weird
for Mickey Mouse,

945
01:11:40,842 --> 01:11:47,015
because he had become almost this
divine figure that you didn't mess with.

946
01:11:47,599 --> 01:11:49,184
<i>Recently, The Walt Disney Company</i>

947
01:11:49,267 --> 01:11:51,936
<i>heard about the painted characters</i>
<i>at this day care center</i>

948
01:11:52,020 --> 01:11:54,522
<i>and two others in Hallandale, Florida.</i>

949
01:11:54,606 --> 01:11:57,275
<i>Disney now demanding</i>
<i>the removal of all its characters.</i>

950
01:11:57,359 --> 01:12:00,570
<i>The company charging unauthorized</i>
<i>infringement of its rights</i>

951
01:12:00,653 --> 01:12:02,364
<i>under the US Copyright Act.</i>

952
01:12:03,782 --> 01:12:06,409
Do you know
what they're going to do to Mickey Mouse?

953
01:12:06,493 --> 01:12:08,912
- What?
- They're gonna take him away.

954
01:12:10,205 --> 01:12:12,957
<i>Despite their objections,</i>
<i>the day care centers say</i>

955
01:12:13,041 --> 01:12:15,669
<i>they'll have to paint</i>
<i>over the cartoon characters</i>

956
01:12:15,752 --> 01:12:18,797
<i>because they can't fight the power</i>
<i>of the corporate mouse.</i>

957
01:12:19,964 --> 01:12:22,634
Our legal protection
of Mickey has inevitably led

958
01:12:22,717 --> 01:12:26,554
to some uncomfortable situations
over the course of the company's history.

959
01:12:27,514 --> 01:12:30,475
I wouldn't say that we've handled
every situation perfectly,

960
01:12:30,558 --> 01:12:34,479
but there's really no precedent
for a creation like this

961
01:12:34,562 --> 01:12:36,231
when it comes to copyright.

962
01:12:36,314 --> 01:12:38,525
Mickey's one of the most
popular characters in the world,

963
01:12:38,608 --> 01:12:41,444
and there's really no question
that we've had to learn as we go.

964
01:12:43,780 --> 01:12:45,782
Disney's been very protective of Mickey,

965
01:12:46,324 --> 01:12:49,619
and it's interesting to think about
how Walt's own experience

966
01:12:49,703 --> 01:12:54,416
of losing Oswald early on helps
to define the trajectory of the studio.

967
01:12:54,499 --> 01:12:58,795
You signed this contract.
See this signature there? Walt Disney.

968
01:12:58,878 --> 01:13:03,049
Right here it says that we own
Oswald the Rabbit.

969
01:13:04,259 --> 01:13:07,846
Disney as a company
was created out of tremendous loss,

970
01:13:08,722 --> 01:13:12,684
and I think that will give
some context to why the company

971
01:13:12,767 --> 01:13:15,145
has defended Mickey so carefully
over the years.

972
01:13:16,896 --> 01:13:20,316
And we understand that copyright
is a part of the Mickey Mouse story.

973
01:13:21,401 --> 01:13:24,779
The challenging thing is that
from a practical perspective,

974
01:13:24,863 --> 01:13:28,366
your copyright is only as good
as your ability to enforce it.

975
01:13:29,492 --> 01:13:33,121
It's a balance and one that
we continually work to get right.

976
01:13:36,041 --> 01:13:39,794
I am wholeheartedly against
the infringement of copyright.

977
01:13:39,878 --> 01:13:42,672
So much so,
that I had that phrase trademarked,

978
01:13:42,756 --> 01:13:45,759
and then I had it emblazoned
on a Mickey Mouse doll.

979
01:13:49,637 --> 01:13:53,641
Where does something this big
and this important to society

980
01:13:53,725 --> 01:13:56,353
become just owned by society?

981
01:13:56,436 --> 01:13:59,606
There is a level of Mickey that,
you know, we all own.

982
01:13:59,689 --> 01:14:04,152
Disney the company was very strict
about copyright and legal issues,

983
01:14:04,235 --> 01:14:07,822
but I never personally associated it
with Mickey himself.

984
01:14:07,906 --> 01:14:10,116
There's the
ambassador-of-the-company Mickey,

985
01:14:10,200 --> 01:14:13,286
and then there is that little more
rambunctious nature of Mickey.

986
01:14:13,370 --> 01:14:15,830
There are two Mickeys,
'cause like anybody else would,

987
01:14:15,914 --> 01:14:19,334
Mickey has to act a little bit differently
in different environments.

988
01:14:21,252 --> 01:14:23,630
And how do you not love
<i>Mickey's Christmas Carol</i>?

989
01:14:23,713 --> 01:14:24,714
You know that-- that--

990
01:14:24,798 --> 01:14:27,967
The soul of Mickey in that movie
is still the pure soul of the film.

991
01:14:31,763 --> 01:14:33,556
<i>Walt Disney Studios.</i>

992
01:14:33,640 --> 01:14:38,103
<i>Home to characters and stories spun</i>
<i>from pure cinematic magic.</i>

993
01:14:38,186 --> 01:14:40,730
<i>But up until 1983,</i>

994
01:14:40,814 --> 01:14:44,109
<i>the Disney character who started</i>
<i>the whole enchanted operation</i>

995
01:14:44,192 --> 01:14:46,444
<i>hadn't made a movie in 30 years.</i>

996
01:14:51,241 --> 01:14:52,701
When we created the picture,

997
01:14:52,784 --> 01:14:57,789
there was, amongst us, a sense that we--
we were gonna be able to bring him back.

998
01:15:01,042 --> 01:15:04,087
G-g-g-good morning,
Mr. Scrooge.

999
01:15:04,170 --> 01:15:07,090
<i>Mickey's Christmas Carol</i>
was heralded as Mickey's great comeback.

1000
01:15:08,174 --> 01:15:09,843
But it's really a Scrooge McDuck cartoon.

1001
01:15:09,926 --> 01:15:11,302
What are you doing?

1002
01:15:12,429 --> 01:15:16,057
I was just trying
to keep my hands warm, sir.

1003
01:15:18,101 --> 01:15:20,979
Some of the top people
that used to work here have done Mickey

1004
01:15:21,062 --> 01:15:23,732
and, uh, you know,
things were pretty well established

1005
01:15:23,815 --> 01:15:26,735
as far as what kind of a character,
you know, he is.

1006
01:15:28,695 --> 01:15:33,491
There was a sense that
there was a little bit of a fear, I think,

1007
01:15:33,575 --> 01:15:34,993
that the studio had with Mickey

1008
01:15:35,076 --> 01:15:40,081
'cause they didn't want
to do something that failed.

1009
01:15:41,499 --> 01:15:43,960
He was our corporate symbol.

1010
01:15:44,794 --> 01:15:48,548
So it would've been really difficult
if Mickey's a flop.

1011
01:15:48,631 --> 01:15:52,135
<i>Like Walt always said,</i>
<i>it all started with a mouse.</i>

1012
01:15:52,218 --> 01:15:54,554
So they kind of became very careful

1013
01:15:54,637 --> 01:15:57,640
about what projects
Mickey was involved with.

1014
01:16:01,478 --> 01:16:02,937
<i>Oh! Huh.</i>

1015
01:16:03,021 --> 01:16:04,314
<i>Aw, Minnie and I…</i>

1016
01:16:04,397 --> 01:16:07,484
It's both an honor
and a challenge

1017
01:16:07,567 --> 01:16:09,778
to animate Mickey in the present day.

1018
01:16:09,861 --> 01:16:11,279
<i>Hey!</i>

1019
01:16:12,614 --> 01:16:15,825
You've got this big weight
on your shoulders…

1020
01:16:15,909 --> 01:16:18,078
…like, "I'd better not louse it up."

1021
01:16:19,829 --> 01:16:24,918
But, you know,
I just look at it as a continuum.

1022
01:16:25,794 --> 01:16:28,546
I mean, here we are
almost a hundred years later,

1023
01:16:28,630 --> 01:16:32,300
and we're in the final week
of animating this new short.

1024
01:16:33,134 --> 01:16:36,930
You know, we're still drawing him,
we're still talking about him.

1025
01:16:37,889 --> 01:16:40,767
After all the things that Mickey
has been through…

1026
01:16:41,726 --> 01:16:43,061
he's still here.

1027
01:16:46,189 --> 01:16:47,524
The Disney name evoked

1028
01:16:47,607 --> 01:16:50,151
some of the happiest
and most endearing memories

1029
01:16:50,235 --> 01:16:54,322
in entertainment, but in recent years,
some of that luster has dimmed.

1030
01:16:54,406 --> 01:16:57,075
Even with that legacy
and with those assets,

1031
01:16:57,158 --> 01:17:00,412
everyone would acknowledge
something was wrong.

1032
01:17:00,495 --> 01:17:02,205
What do you think about Mickey Mouse?

1033
01:17:02,288 --> 01:17:03,581
He's okay, but…

1034
01:17:03,665 --> 01:17:07,335
I like Goofy. And Minnie and Goofy.

1035
01:17:08,586 --> 01:17:12,382
In attempting to interact
with as many people as possible,

1036
01:17:12,465 --> 01:17:13,842
Mickey seems lost.

1037
01:17:14,843 --> 01:17:17,053
He's hollow.
There's-- There's nothing there.

1038
01:17:17,637 --> 01:17:20,181
<i>Look in the dictionary. What a definition!</i>

1039
01:17:20,265 --> 01:17:24,060
<i>"Unimportant.</i>
<i>Trivial. Irritatingly petty."</i>

1040
01:17:24,144 --> 01:17:28,314
Let Fredo take care of
some Mickey Mouse nightclub somewhere!

1041
01:17:29,149 --> 01:17:31,067
Do I like new Mickey Mouse?

1042
01:17:31,609 --> 01:17:34,612
Would I sing the Mouseketeer Club song?

1043
01:17:35,196 --> 01:17:37,532
No. No, I'm not a fan of Mickey.

1044
01:17:38,491 --> 01:17:41,327
This is the Mickey that you see today.

1045
01:17:41,411 --> 01:17:43,997
He has nice puffed-out cheeks.

1046
01:17:44,080 --> 01:17:46,499
In other words,
all the kids think he looks cute.

1047
01:17:48,043 --> 01:17:49,794
Guess who's moving to Japan?

1048
01:17:49,878 --> 01:17:52,547
America's best-known mouse, Mickey.

1049
01:17:53,298 --> 01:17:55,133
<i>Not only was Mickey mobbed</i>

1050
01:17:55,216 --> 01:17:56,885
<i>but so was the store selling his ears.</i>

1051
01:17:56,968 --> 01:18:00,096
<i>Fresh supplies had to be flown in</i>
<i>after the hats sold out.</i>

1052
01:18:00,680 --> 01:18:03,558
Mickey stands for Disneyland

1053
01:18:03,641 --> 01:18:06,394
the place where they can go
and have all this fun.

1054
01:18:07,645 --> 01:18:08,772
And spend money.

1055
01:18:09,481 --> 01:18:11,524
<i>We don't just sell Disney.</i>

1056
01:18:11,608 --> 01:18:13,068
<i>We are Disney.</i>

1057
01:18:14,069 --> 01:18:16,738
Mickey in one word? Uh…

1058
01:18:18,239 --> 01:18:19,491
Consumerism.

1059
01:18:20,617 --> 01:18:23,411
I'm the mascot of an evil corporation.

1060
01:18:27,916 --> 01:18:29,209
Take the good with the bad.

1061
01:18:29,292 --> 01:18:31,378
Think of all the laughs I've given you.

1062
01:18:31,961 --> 01:18:34,005
You're supposed to be funny?

1063
01:18:34,089 --> 01:18:36,049
- Yeah.

1064
01:18:49,562 --> 01:18:52,190
I think we confused people.

1065
01:18:52,273 --> 01:18:56,695
So that, in 2005, when you asked people,
uh, who Mickey Mouse was,

1066
01:18:57,320 --> 01:18:58,530
they typically would say

1067
01:18:58,613 --> 01:19:01,950
he's a corporate symbol
of The Walt Disney Company.

1068
01:19:04,244 --> 01:19:09,749
I'm not sure people really knew
who Mickey was or what Mickey was

1069
01:19:09,833 --> 01:19:12,502
because Mickey had been
so many different things

1070
01:19:12,585 --> 01:19:13,962
and not necessarily all good.

1071
01:19:14,045 --> 01:19:16,631
- What's that? You want some more?
- Hey!

1072
01:19:16,715 --> 01:19:18,466
Who's the mouse
that's got the groove?

1073
01:19:18,550 --> 01:19:21,011
He was looked upon, I think,
as commerce versus art.

1074
01:19:22,971 --> 01:19:24,139
Not quite heartless,

1075
01:19:24,222 --> 01:19:30,645
but he didn't have enough of the identity
that Walt created for him originally.

1076
01:19:35,692 --> 01:19:38,528
The last thing Walt would've wanted
would've been for Mickey

1077
01:19:38,611 --> 01:19:42,198
to remain as he was
or to be stuck in some museum case.

1078
01:19:42,824 --> 01:19:46,828
So, we began a process
to bring Mickey forward.

1079
01:19:48,747 --> 01:19:50,540
Most people, when they thought of Mickey,

1080
01:19:50,623 --> 01:19:54,169
besides being a corporate icon,
felt that Mickey was old.

1081
01:19:55,086 --> 01:19:57,714
We asked people,
"How old do you think Mickey is?"

1082
01:19:57,797 --> 01:20:00,383
And everybody said,
"Well, he's over sixty-five."

1083
01:20:01,634 --> 01:20:04,387
And there had been
very little content made

1084
01:20:04,471 --> 01:20:06,890
with Mickey in it for quite some time.

1085
01:20:08,016 --> 01:20:11,144
We prevented anyone
innovating with the character

1086
01:20:11,227 --> 01:20:14,647
or anyone even trying to return Mickey
to his former self.

1087
01:20:15,440 --> 01:20:18,860
We thought we owed it to ourselves
and to the character

1088
01:20:18,943 --> 01:20:21,988
to engage with all sectors of the company.

1089
01:20:22,864 --> 01:20:25,200
And that led to what we called a bake-off.

1090
01:20:25,283 --> 01:20:28,661
We let each of the entities present to us

1091
01:20:28,745 --> 01:20:32,374
a fresh version of Mickey Mouse
that everybody could love again.

1092
01:20:33,041 --> 01:20:35,960
At first, I was like,
"Well, gosh. It sure would be cool

1093
01:20:36,044 --> 01:20:40,256
to just make Mickey Mouse shorts,
but they're not gonna let me do that."

1094
01:20:42,967 --> 01:20:46,763
It was a very interesting time.
For me, it was like,

1095
01:20:46,846 --> 01:20:48,264
"He doesn't need to be a shill.

1096
01:20:48,348 --> 01:20:52,894
He can go back to the time
when he was really active and happy."

1097
01:20:54,396 --> 01:20:57,565
But I felt like Mickey himself had
forgotten his roots.

1098
01:20:57,649 --> 01:20:58,983
Forgotten where he came from.

1099
01:20:59,818 --> 01:21:03,363
Disney had this bible
of what Mickey is and isn't,

1100
01:21:03,446 --> 01:21:07,492
the dos and don'ts,
and they decided not to show me that.

1101
01:21:08,535 --> 01:21:12,539
I wanted to remind him
that he wasn't just a corporate symbol,

1102
01:21:12,622 --> 01:21:14,958
that he wasn't
just a greeter in the parks,

1103
01:21:15,792 --> 01:21:18,169
that he was a cartoon character too.

1104
01:21:24,467 --> 01:21:27,345
The bake-off ultimately led to

1105
01:21:27,429 --> 01:21:30,265
a whole new era
of storytelling with Mickey.

1106
01:21:30,348 --> 01:21:32,142
Hang on, pal. Here we go.

1107
01:21:32,726 --> 01:21:35,729
Holy moly! It's Mickey Mouse!

1108
01:21:39,357 --> 01:21:42,444
They wanted to restore Mickey
to his glory and make sure,

1109
01:21:42,527 --> 01:21:44,904
because Mickey didn't
take himself too seriously,

1110
01:21:44,988 --> 01:21:46,990
we weren't taking Mickey so seriously.

1111
01:21:49,242 --> 01:21:52,037
The new shorts actually,
that version of Mickey, to me,

1112
01:21:52,120 --> 01:21:55,790
is the first time I've seen that kind of
truest version of him in a long time.

1113
01:21:55,874 --> 01:21:58,209
I'm coming, Minnie!

1114
01:21:58,293 --> 01:21:59,502
Fire, fire, fire!

1115
01:21:59,586 --> 01:22:01,379
He's, like, coming into his personality.

1116
01:22:01,463 --> 01:22:04,382
He's not holding back.
The sky is the limit for him.

1117
01:22:05,967 --> 01:22:07,886
He's still allowed to be a goober

1118
01:22:07,969 --> 01:22:12,515
and still allowed to be sad
and happy and angry. All of it.

1119
01:22:15,226 --> 01:22:16,603
Get back here!

1120
01:22:17,854 --> 01:22:21,399
It's been fun to see kids going,
"Wow! These are actually funny!"

1121
01:22:24,527 --> 01:22:27,739
How do you balance the heritage
that created the character,

1122
01:22:27,822 --> 01:22:31,951
that created the company,
with the need to be innovative and modern?

1123
01:22:32,035 --> 01:22:36,873
The trick is to respect the past
but not revere it.

1124
01:22:43,588 --> 01:22:44,964
Hello.

1125
01:22:47,342 --> 01:22:49,344
Oh, my gosh. Red!

1126
01:22:49,427 --> 01:22:53,181
There's only really one Mickey
I want to see.

1127
01:22:53,264 --> 01:22:56,017
And that's that old-time Mickey.

1128
01:22:56,101 --> 01:22:57,102
- Mickey!
- Minnie!

1129
01:22:57,185 --> 01:22:59,771
When he came out of the screen,
we didn't want him to feel like,

1130
01:23:00,271 --> 01:23:02,857
"Oh, he's the new Mickey."
We wanted him to feel like,

1131
01:23:02,941 --> 01:23:05,902
"This is Mickey, just outside of
his black-and-white screen."

1132
01:23:06,945 --> 01:23:09,322
There was a moment on the film
when we were like,

1133
01:23:09,406 --> 01:23:16,413
"Wait. So, all the characters are running
in and out of the screen from 2D to CG,

1134
01:23:16,496 --> 01:23:19,207
and they loop, like, six or seven times?"

1135
01:23:19,290 --> 01:23:20,625
And Lauren's like, "Yeah!"

1136
01:23:20,709 --> 01:23:21,710
And we're like…

1137
01:23:23,211 --> 01:23:25,005
"Okay."

1138
01:23:26,131 --> 01:23:29,342
I think that's something
that Walt established early on

1139
01:23:29,426 --> 01:23:30,927
where you just-- You never say no.

1140
01:23:31,011 --> 01:23:33,346
You always push boundaries.
You're always innovating.

1141
01:23:34,889 --> 01:23:37,767
He would've had us
in hologram animation by now.

1142
01:23:39,310 --> 01:23:41,521
In the same way that the parks

1143
01:23:41,604 --> 01:23:44,274
and the walk-arounds keep
the characters alive,

1144
01:23:45,191 --> 01:23:48,737
new animation helps keep them alive.

1145
01:23:49,404 --> 01:23:53,742
And pencil to paper
is the way that Mickey started.

1146
01:23:53,825 --> 01:23:57,495
And, in many cases,
it's the way he looks the best.

1147
01:24:03,835 --> 01:24:05,587
Well, I just got the short back.

1148
01:24:08,381 --> 01:24:11,676
The thing that I'm really happiest about
in this piece is

1149
01:24:11,760 --> 01:24:13,845
that when you see it all cut together--

1150
01:24:14,679 --> 01:24:18,224
you know, all the Mickeys,
all in one short film--

1151
01:24:19,184 --> 01:24:23,313
it really does feel like
the Mickey that we all love.

1152
01:24:24,522 --> 01:24:26,649
- Good to see you guys!
- Good to see you.

1153
01:24:26,733 --> 01:24:27,942
Good to see you.

1154
01:24:28,026 --> 01:24:29,361
This is gonna be cool.

1155
01:24:29,444 --> 01:24:31,279
Everything looks better in this theater.

1156
01:24:31,363 --> 01:24:33,365
- Yeah, I think it does.

1157
01:24:33,448 --> 01:24:36,201
You know, if Walt and Ub are watching,

1158
01:24:36,868 --> 01:24:43,708
I'd like to think we did our darndest
to honor them and honor their creation.

1159
01:24:51,424 --> 01:24:52,592
Oh! Huh.

1160
01:24:53,385 --> 01:24:54,552
Mm-hmm.

1161
01:24:54,636 --> 01:24:56,179
Oh. And there's Pluto.

1162
01:24:56,971 --> 01:24:58,348
Aw, Minnie and I.

1163
01:25:00,183 --> 01:25:03,186
Wow. That one sure gave me a workout.

1164
01:25:03,853 --> 01:25:04,854
Hey!

1165
01:25:20,120 --> 01:25:21,955
Whoo! Whoo!

1166
01:25:36,761 --> 01:25:38,513
Oh! Gosh.

1167
01:25:43,101 --> 01:25:44,644
Well… …what do you know?

1168
01:25:46,396 --> 01:25:47,814
Okay, roll it!

1169
01:25:48,606 --> 01:25:49,983
Whoa!

1170
01:25:50,567 --> 01:25:51,776
Yeah, that's it.

1171
01:25:51,860 --> 01:25:53,028
All right.

1172
01:25:54,904 --> 01:25:56,906
You guys did a great job.

1173
01:25:56,990 --> 01:25:59,325
- Absolutely great.
- Thank you. It was fun. A lot of fun.

1174
01:25:59,409 --> 01:26:01,036
Walt would be proud.

1175
01:26:01,119 --> 01:26:03,163
- I hope so.

1176
01:26:04,789 --> 01:26:05,832
Can we run it again?

1177
01:26:05,915 --> 01:26:06,916
Yeah.

1178
01:26:14,424 --> 01:26:17,260
Everybody used to say,
"What would Walt think?"

1179
01:26:17,927 --> 01:26:20,013
I actually think about that a lot.

1180
01:26:22,724 --> 01:26:25,518
Walt would say,
"Never lose sight of the fact

1181
01:26:25,602 --> 01:26:27,312
that it was all started with a mouse."

1182
01:26:27,395 --> 01:26:31,274
But before Mickey Mouse,
it all started with Walt Disney.

1183
01:26:41,493 --> 01:26:45,413
One thing that Walt kept
in his office right until the end

1184
01:26:46,039 --> 01:26:50,168
was a hand-drawn map
of the farm here in Marceline.

1185
01:26:57,342 --> 01:27:02,555
And I-- I really like the idea
that even at the end of his life,

1186
01:27:02,639 --> 01:27:08,603
Walt was still thinking about that tree
where he first felt that spark.

1187
01:27:24,994 --> 01:27:27,706
Mickey is a thing we all share.

1188
01:27:28,790 --> 01:27:30,500
There aren't many of those around.

1189
01:27:33,420 --> 01:27:39,217
He's grown into
a necessary character for us.

1190
01:27:47,267 --> 01:27:50,562
Whenever I did chemo,
I had to have my Mickey Mouse shorts.

1191
01:27:50,645 --> 01:27:54,024
And this dark and dreary moment
that I was in--

1192
01:27:54,607 --> 01:27:56,359
I found a little hope, you know?

1193
01:27:56,443 --> 01:27:59,362
And I feel like
that's who Mickey Mouse is.

1194
01:28:01,781 --> 01:28:05,285
When I was 13,
I was granted a Make-A-Wish.

1195
01:28:05,368 --> 01:28:09,873
Then seeing Mickey, he just brought,
like, this, um, happiness out of me,

1196
01:28:09,956 --> 01:28:13,960
and, like, made me, uh, remember
that I was still a child.

1197
01:28:24,554 --> 01:28:26,681
That magical spark…

1198
01:28:27,807 --> 01:28:30,685
I felt it and never forgot it.

1199
01:28:32,312 --> 01:28:33,855
Bye, Mickey!

1200
01:28:33,938 --> 01:28:37,150
At this point, I think Mickey is us.

1201
01:28:39,027 --> 01:28:43,490
So, wherever we're headed next,
he's coming with us.

1202
01:29:07,597 --> 01:29:11,017
I love that Disney
hides Mickey Mouses everywhere.

1203
01:29:11,601 --> 01:29:13,937
All over the park or any sort of property.

1204
01:29:15,105 --> 01:29:16,898
It's a little secret way of saying,

1205
01:29:16,981 --> 01:29:18,900
"Thank you, Mickey.
You still belong here."

1206
01:29:20,902 --> 01:29:23,530
And the cool thing about it is,
it doesn't stop there.

1207
01:29:23,613 --> 01:29:25,907
You'll leave, and then in real life,

1208
01:29:25,990 --> 01:29:28,952
you'll just notice
Mickey heads everywhere.

1209
01:29:30,036 --> 01:29:31,037
It's like, "Oh, my gosh.

1210
01:29:31,121 --> 01:29:33,456
Okay, wait a minute. Mickey, are you--
are you speaking to me?

1211
01:29:33,540 --> 01:29:36,084
Are you communicating to me?
What is happening here?

1212
01:29:36,167 --> 01:29:37,794
Why am I seeing you everywhere?"



