6 fun facts about the Walt Disney-Mickey Mouse Partners statue

The first Partners statue depicting Walt Disney holding Mickey Mouse’s hand was a Mickey birthday present.

The original copper statue first debuted on Mickey’s birthday, Nov. 18, 1993, at Disneyland. The one at the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World debuted on June 19, 1995. The statue sits in the center of the hub at the Magic Kingdom with Cinderella Castle as the backdrop.

Others are in Tokyo Disney Resort, Walt Disney Studios in Burbank and Disneyland Paris.

Here are six fun facts about the statute:

1. The statue is 6 feet 5 inches tall, which is seven inches taller than Walt Disney himself.

2. The statue was created by Blaine Gibson, a former Disney animator and Imagineer. It took him a year to create the sculpture.

3. For Walt’s face, Gibson used a bust that was originally created in the 1960s, but “chose to depict Walt as he was in 1954. I think that was when Walt was in his prime. It was tough trying to match the media image of Walt Disney, the one the public knows, to the real Walt, the one we knew. I think Walt is admiring the park and saying to Mickey, ‘Look what we’ve accomplished together,’ because truly they were very much a team through it all. ‘Look at all the happy people who have come to visit us today,’ ” Gibson said.

4. To help him with Mickey holding Walt’s hand, Gibson used footage from the film “Fantasia,” in which Mickey shakes the hand of orchestra conductor Leopold Stokowski as a reference.

5. The initials on Walt’s tie are “STR,” and stand for “Smoke Tree Ranch,” an area in Palm Springs where Walt once owned a vacation home.

6. An early sketch of the Partners Statue featured Mickey holding an ice cream cone in one hand.