Mickey Mouse is a cartoon character co-created in 1928 by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks. The longtime corporate icon and mascot of the Walt Disney Company, Mickey is an anthropomorphic mouse who typically wears red shorts, large shoes, and white gloves. He is often depicted with a cast of characters including his girlfriend Minnie Mouse, his pet dog Pluto, his best friends Donald Duck and Goofy, and his nemesis Pete.<!-- Please do not add more characters to this list-->
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Mickey was created as a replacement for a prior character created by Disney, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. The character was originally to be named "Mortimer Mouse", until Disney's wife, Lillian, suggested "Mickey". Mickey first appeared in two 1928 shorts Plane Crazy and The Gallopin' Gaucho (which were not picked up for distribution) before his public debut in Steamboat Willie (1928). The character went on to appear in over 130 films, mostly short films. His relatively few feature films include Fantasia (1940). Since 1930, Mickey has been featured extensively in comic strips (including the Mickey Mouse comic strip, which ran for 45 years) and comic books (such as Mickey Mouse). The character has also been featured in television series such as The Mickey Mouse Club (1955–1996).
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Inspired by such silent film personalities as Charlie Chaplin and Douglas Fairbanks, Mickey is traditionally portrayed as a sympathetic underdog who gets by on pluck and ingenuity in the face of challenges bigger than himself. The character's depiction as a small mouse is personified through his diminutive stature and falsetto voice, the latter of which was originally provided by Walt Disney. Though originally characterized as a cheeky lovable rogue, Mickey was rebranded over time as a nice guy, usually seen as a spirited, yet impulsive hero.
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A figurehead of American animation, Mickey is one of the world's most recognizable fictional characters, often described as a global cultural icon and one of the most famous cultural symbols of the 20th and 21st centuries. He also appears in media such as video games as well as merchandising and is a meetable character at the Disney parks. Ten of Mickey's cartoons were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film, one of which, Lend a Paw, won the award in 1941. In 1978, Mickey became the first cartoon character to have a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Creation
thumb|upright=1.45|The earliest known [[concept art of Mickey and Minnie Mouse from early 1928, largely attributed to Ub Iwerks, but speculated to include work from Walt Disney or Les Clark; The Walt Disney Family Museum collection]]
Mickey Mouse was created as a replacement for Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, an earlier cartoon character that was created by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks for Universal Pictures during their time at Winkler Pictures. In an unsuccessful February 1928 meeting with Winkler producer Charles Mintz to negotiate a higher budget, he left in disappointment, only to find that Mintz secretly convinced his staff to move to an in-house studio. Among the few who refused and stayed with him were animator Ub Iwerks, apprentice artist Les Clark, and Wilfred Jackson.
A new character was workshopped out of necessity and in relative secret. Various myths exist of Walt Disney's inspiration for Mickey (including some which were likely ghostwritten), such as that the starving artist drew inspiration from a tame mouse (or pair of mice) at his desk at Laugh-O-Gram Studio in Kansas City, Missouri, or that he undertook a romantic search for inspiration on the train ride home from his disappointing meeting with Mintz. At Disney's behest, Iwerks sketched new character ideas based on various animals such as dogs and cats, but none of these appealed to Disney. A female cow and male horse were rejected, as was a male frog.