{"id":353,"date":"2016-03-11T09:59:12","date_gmt":"2016-03-11T14:59:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/americanicons\/?p=353"},"modified":"2016-03-11T09:59:12","modified_gmt":"2016-03-11T14:59:12","slug":"how-the-ears-became-the-icon-a-look-at-the-design-of-mickey-mouse-by-keira-c-wingert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/americanicons\/2016\/03\/11\/how-the-ears-became-the-icon-a-look-at-the-design-of-mickey-mouse-by-keira-c-wingert\/","title":{"rendered":"How the Ears Became the Icon: A Look at the Design of Mickey Mouse by Keira C Wingert"},"content":{"rendered":"

When one hears the word \u201cDisney,\u201d one of the first images that may come to mind is the iconic symbol of a large circle with two smaller circles overlapping it like ears\u2014the ubiquitous silhouette of Mickey Mouse, one of animator Walt Disney\u2019s most popular characters. Mickey himself has played many roles in Disney films; he has appeared as a cowboy, a sailor, a pilot, a musician, and even a magician\u2019s assistant. His personality has developed since his conception, going from a lovable scamp to a goof to a hero. As his personality changed, so did his iconic appearance. These changes were mourned by some, such as illustrator Maurice Sendak, who believed that the change in Mickey\u2019s design changed him from a common street mouse to whom kids growing up in the Depression could relate, to a wide-eyed, commercialized character more palatable to a mainstream audience (Sendak, 192). However, despite the many changes to the character\u2019s appearance and the many costumes he has worn, the Mickey Mouse\u2019s famous saucer-like ears have remained consistent in representing the character\u2014and the Disney brand\u2014overall.<\/p>\n

\"RcGyBB84i\"<\/a>\u00a0(The iconic, simply designed Mickey Mouse symbol)<\/p>\n

Before Mickey Mouse was a famous mouse, he was a relatively unknown rabbit\u2014Oswald the Rabbit, to be exact. Oswald made his debut in 1927 in the short Hungry Hobos<\/em>, created by Walt Disney and cartoonist Ub Iwerks (Kindelan, par. 3). The rights to the design on Oswald belonged to Universal Studios, under whom Disney and Iwerks were working at the time. When the studio would not give Disney more money for production, he and his cartoonist decided to work independently. They could no longer use the character Oswald, so they tweaked his appearance to transform him into the mouse we know today (par. 5). The newly created Mickey Mouse was nearly identical to Oswald the Rabbit, save for his new round, disc-like ears.<\/p>\n

(Oswald the Rabbit)<\/p>\n

Mickey Mouse made his debut in 1928 in Steamboat Willie<\/i> and became an instant hit. Soon, more Mickey Mouse shorts were being released, referencing popular culture and other American \"5669cb641900002300789924\"<\/a>icons; for example, in the short Plane Crazy<\/i>, Mickey appears as a cartoon mouse version of the famed and beloved Charles Lindbergh. Mickey\u2019s design soon became all the rage in America, thanks to Walt Disney\u2019s marketing genius; it wasn\u2019t long after these shorts were premiered that a plethora of Mickey Mouse merchandise was released, and a children\u2019s fan club, the Mickey Mouse Club, was founded (Suddath, par. 3).<\/p>\n

1935 became a big year for changes in Mickey\u2019s appearance when Disney animator Fred Moore gave the mouse a pear-shaped body, pupils, white gloves, and a cuter, shortened nose. This new design was a huge improvement for the animators, who found the character\u2019s previously circular body limiting in terms of movement (par. 4). Mickey now had a more human look than in his earlier appearances, in which his eyes were simply black dots and he wore no shoes or gloves (Quindlen, 202). \u00a0The new elements of Mickey\u2019s design also became iconic not only for the Disney brand but for animation at large:\u00a0 many cartoon characters created after Mickey, such as the Warner Brothers\u2019 Bugs Bunny, Universal\u2019s Woody Woodpecker, and even Nintendo\u2019s Mario, mirrored the white gloves first seen on Fred Moore\u2019s revamped Mickey Mouse.<\/p>\n

Mickey\u2019s also made his Technicolor debut that same year in The Band Concert<\/i> (Suddath, par. 4). While Mickey had been drawn in color before, he had never been animated<\/em> in color; this short marked the first time viewers saw the fully conceptualized Mickey Mouse design in motion. In The Band Concert<\/i>, Mickey is wearing an oversized marching band conductor-esque costume rather than his usual shorts, but the animators stuck to the colors they had previously drawn Mickey wearing:\u00a0 gold and red. This color combination worked well together in an animated format, and from then on, Mickey\u2019s traditional costume of just shorts used those colors.<\/p>\n

\"A03f3b-jpe\"<\/a>(Mickey Mouse in The Band Concert<\/i>)<\/p>\n

Since then, Mickey\u2019s appearance has only changed to keep up with new forms of media. The character has begun making appearances in 3D, such as in the 2002\u00a0 Playstation 2 cult classic video game Kingdom Hearts<\/i> or in the 2013 short Get A Horse!\u00a0<\/i>(Suddath, par. 7). Regardless of his new foray into 3D animation, Mickey\u2019s flat, black ears are still representative of his overall character and the brand nostalgia associated with him. While his appearance, outfit, and even personality have changed over the years, the design of Mickey Mouse\u2019s ears has solidified the character as an American cultural icon.<\/p>\n

Works Cited<\/p>\n

Kindelan, Katie. \u201cLost Inspiration for Mickey Mouse Discovered in England Film Archive.\u201d ABC News<\/i>. ABC News, 29 November 2011. Web. 10 March 2016.<\/p>\n

Quindlen, Anna. \u201cModern Museum Celebrates Mickey.\u201d A Mickey Mouse Reader<\/i>. Ed. Garry Apgar. University Press of Mississippi, 2014. 200-203. Print.<\/p>\n

Sendak, Maurice. \u201cGrowing Up with Mickey.\u201d A Mickey Mouse Reader<\/i>. Ed. Garry Apgar. University Press of Mississippi, 2014. 191-194. Print.<\/p>\n

Suddath, Claire. \u201cA Brief History of Mickey Mouse.\u201d Time. Time, Inc., 18 November 2008. 10 March 2016. Web.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When one hears the word \u201cDisney,\u201d one of the first images that may come to mind is the iconic symbol of a large circle with two smaller circles overlapping it like ears\u2014the ubiquitous silhouette of Mickey Mouse, one of animator Walt Disney\u2019s most popular characters. Mickey himself has played many roles in Disney films; he …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1329,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-353","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/americanicons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/americanicons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/americanicons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/americanicons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1329"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/americanicons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=353"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/americanicons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/americanicons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=353"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/americanicons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=353"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/americanicons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=353"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}