The anatomy of Mickey Mouse
Every one knows that Mickey Mouse was created by Walt Disney while he was on a train. We also know that Mickey received his name from Disney’s wife, Lillian.
But when it came to the simplicity of Mickey, much of the fine-tuning is attributed to Ub Iwerks, the famed animator, cartoonist and character designer.
Iwerks was probably Walt Disney’s oldest friend and spent most of his career with Disney. He was with Disney at the start and would often take Disney’s vision and smooth it out a bit.
Mickey was a special creation. Walt was the heart and sole of the character, but when it came to describing the specifics of drawing Mickey, one can hear the businessman in Walt.
Here’s the clinical description Walt used on drawing Mickey Mouse:
“His head was a circle with an oblong circle for a snout. The ears were circles so they could be drawn the same no matter how he turned his head. His body was like a pear and he had a long tail.
“His legs were pipestems and we stuck them in big shows to give him the look of a kid wearing his father’s shoes. We didn’t want him to have mouse hands, because he was supposed to be more human. So we gave him gloves. Five fingers looked like too much on such a little figure, so we took one away. That was just one less finger to animate.”
