The Book of Mouse: A Celebration of Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse Read Online Free Page B
Author: Jim Korkis
Tags: disney, walt disney, Mickey Mouse
night for Don [as he] found himself trying to control a spirited discussion between authorities of varied opinions and even more varied personalities. Some felt the audience would never accept the new design and would wonder what was wrong. Others claimed that people would never notice. Some felt it would be all right to try it for just one picture and see what happened.
As the talk became more heated, one man [animator Bill Tytla] quipped, “Why don’t weust change one eye at a time?”
Society Dog Show (1939) was the last short to feature Mickey’s “dot” eyes.
Officially, The Pointer (1939) was the first short released with Mickey having his now familiar pupils. (When that short started production, the original model sheets had Mickey with the older style eyes but they were soon changed.) However, a commercial short, Mickey’s Surprise Party , created for Nabisco and released months earlier for the 1939 New York’s World Fair and the San Francisco Golden Gate International Exposition, featured Mickey with the new eyes, predating The Pointer .
In a 1975 interview with Disney archivist Dave Smith, Mickey Mouse comic-strip artist Floyd Gottfredson said:
When I first saw the pupils in Mickey’s eyes in model sheets in 1938, I liked it immediately although it was hard for me to do for a while until I got used to it. I’m sure that Fred Moore had more to do with developing it than anybody else.
With the release of Fantasia (1940), Mickey’s new eyes became the accepted standard, and audiences had no difficulty accepting them.
Why Does Mickey Mouse Sometimes Wear Green Shorts?
Green shorts for Mickey Mouse were an alternate coloring variation in the early 1930s. Since Mickey Mouse was portrayed in black-and-white, it had never occurred to Walt Disney what color to make the shorts.
In fact, some of the early title cards for Mickey Mouse films had Mickey occasionally wearing striped shorts or checkered shorts, although he never wore them in the cartoon itself.
Mickey wore shorts as a boy, not an adult, would wear them. In 1928, when Mickey was created, young boys wore shorts (sometimes referred to as “knee-length trousers”) made with three buttons and no zipper. One unseen button secured the waist band. The other two secured a flap. When a boy had to urinate, he’d unbutton the flap rather than take off his shorts. A boy’s shorts usually only had these three buttons.
Mickey’s buttons originally started almost as high as his waist band, just like a child’s shorts, but they have gotten larger and been moved lower over the decades as the inspiration for their original placement was forgotten.
Some have suggested that the buttons were meant for use with suspenders, but Mickey almost never wore suspenders, not even in his earliest rural outings. On the rare occasions when he did wear them, it was clearly with a different set of clothes.
With no official color guide, some of the earliest George Borgfeldt merchandise had Mickey with green shorts (and green shoes). The McCall’s pattern for making a Mickey Mouse doll also had green shorts as the preferred color choice. In fact, the Charlotte Clark Mickey Mouse doll, the Steiff Mickey Mouse doll, and the Dean’s Rag Book (from England) Mickey Mouse doll were all produced with green shorts. Some of these stuffed dolls, such as the ones by Charlotte Clark, also featured red shorts.
When Walt first produced a color version of Mickey Mouse in the special short Parade of the Award Nominees (1932), he put Mickey in green shorts to contrast with the red drum major jacket. Walt did the same thing in the first official Mickey color cartoon, The Band Concert (1935). Mickey wears green shorts to contrast with his oversized red band-leader jacket.
Some items like the Mickey Mouse figural Bisque Toothbrush Holder came in versions with Mickey in green shorts and Mickey in red shorts.
Despite all the merchandise with Mickey in green shorts, he was also appearing more
As the talk became more heated, one man [animator Bill Tytla] quipped, “Why don’t weust change one eye at a time?”
Society Dog Show (1939) was the last short to feature Mickey’s “dot” eyes.
Officially, The Pointer (1939) was the first short released with Mickey having his now familiar pupils. (When that short started production, the original model sheets had Mickey with the older style eyes but they were soon changed.) However, a commercial short, Mickey’s Surprise Party , created for Nabisco and released months earlier for the 1939 New York’s World Fair and the San Francisco Golden Gate International Exposition, featured Mickey with the new eyes, predating The Pointer .
In a 1975 interview with Disney archivist Dave Smith, Mickey Mouse comic-strip artist Floyd Gottfredson said:
When I first saw the pupils in Mickey’s eyes in model sheets in 1938, I liked it immediately although it was hard for me to do for a while until I got used to it. I’m sure that Fred Moore had more to do with developing it than anybody else.
With the release of Fantasia (1940), Mickey’s new eyes became the accepted standard, and audiences had no difficulty accepting them.
Why Does Mickey Mouse Sometimes Wear Green Shorts?
Green shorts for Mickey Mouse were an alternate coloring variation in the early 1930s. Since Mickey Mouse was portrayed in black-and-white, it had never occurred to Walt Disney what color to make the shorts.
In fact, some of the early title cards for Mickey Mouse films had Mickey occasionally wearing striped shorts or checkered shorts, although he never wore them in the cartoon itself.
Mickey wore shorts as a boy, not an adult, would wear them. In 1928, when Mickey was created, young boys wore shorts (sometimes referred to as “knee-length trousers”) made with three buttons and no zipper. One unseen button secured the waist band. The other two secured a flap. When a boy had to urinate, he’d unbutton the flap rather than take off his shorts. A boy’s shorts usually only had these three buttons.
Mickey’s buttons originally started almost as high as his waist band, just like a child’s shorts, but they have gotten larger and been moved lower over the decades as the inspiration for their original placement was forgotten.
Some have suggested that the buttons were meant for use with suspenders, but Mickey almost never wore suspenders, not even in his earliest rural outings. On the rare occasions when he did wear them, it was clearly with a different set of clothes.
With no official color guide, some of the earliest George Borgfeldt merchandise had Mickey with green shorts (and green shoes). The McCall’s pattern for making a Mickey Mouse doll also had green shorts as the preferred color choice. In fact, the Charlotte Clark Mickey Mouse doll, the Steiff Mickey Mouse doll, and the Dean’s Rag Book (from England) Mickey Mouse doll were all produced with green shorts. Some of these stuffed dolls, such as the ones by Charlotte Clark, also featured red shorts.
When Walt first produced a color version of Mickey Mouse in the special short Parade of the Award Nominees (1932), he put Mickey in green shorts to contrast with the red drum major jacket. Walt did the same thing in the first official Mickey color cartoon, The Band Concert (1935). Mickey wears green shorts to contrast with his oversized red band-leader jacket.
Some items like the Mickey Mouse figural Bisque Toothbrush Holder came in versions with Mickey in green shorts and Mickey in red shorts.
Despite all the merchandise with Mickey in green shorts, he was also appearing more
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