Oswald the Lucky Rabbit
Main article: Oswald the Lucky Rabbit
In 1926 producer Charles Mintz ordered a new, all-animated series to be put into production for distribution through Universal Pictures, and signed Disney's studio to produce it.[52] Oswald the Lucky Rabbit was an almost instant success, and was praised as "exceptionally clever" and showing "fine cartoon ingenuity". Its main character, Oswald—created and drawn by Iwerks—became a popular figure, with high merchandise performance.[53]
In February 1928 Disney went to New York to negotiate a higher fee for producing the Oswald series. He was shocked when Mintz proposed reducing Disney's compensation. Furthermore, most of Disney's animators—including Harman, Ising, Maxwell, and Freleng—were under contract to Mintz, and Universal owned the Oswald trademark; Mintz threatened to start his own studio and produce the series himself if Disney refused to accept the reductions. Disney declined Mintz's ultimatum, lost most of his animation staff—except Iwerks, who refused to switch allegiances—and found himself on his own again.[54]
In 2006 the Walt Disney Company finally acquired Oswald the Lucky Rabbit when its subsidiary ESPN purchased rights to the character, along with other properties, from NBC Universal, in return for relinquishing the services of longtime ABC sports commentator Al Michaels. “Oswald is definitely worth more than a fourth-round draft choice," quipped Michaels. "I'm going to be a trivia answer someday.”[55]
Mickey Mouse
Main article: Mickey Mouse
After losing the rights to Oswald, Disney felt the need to develop a new character to replace him, which was based on a mouse he had adopted as a pet while working in his Laugh-O-Gram studio in Kansas City.[56] Iwerks reworked the sketches made by Disney to make the character easier to animate, although Mickey's voice and personality were provided by Disney himself until 1947. In the words of one Disney employee, "Ub designed Mickey's physical appearance, but Walt gave him his soul."[56] Besides Oswald and Mickey, a similar mouse-character is seen in the Alice Comedies, which featured "Ike the Mouse". Moreover, the first Flip the Frog cartoon called Fiddlesticks showed a Mickey Mouse look-alike playing fiddle. The initial films were animated by Iwerks, with his name prominently featured on the title cards. Originally named "Mortimer", the mouse was later renamed "Mickey" by Lillian Disney, who thought that the name Mortimer did not sound appealing.[57][58] Mortimer eventually became the name of Mickey's rival for Minnie—taller than his renowned adversary and speaking with a Brooklyn accent.[59]
The first animated short to feature Mickey, Plane Crazy, was a silent film like all of Disney's previous works. After failing to find a distributor for the short and its follow-up, The Gallopin' Gaucho, Disney created a Mickey cartoon with sound called Steamboat Willie. A businessperson named Pat Powers provided Disney with both distribution and Cinephone, a sound-synchronization process. Steamboat Willie became an instant success.[60] Plane Crazy, The Galloping Gaucho, and all subsequent Mickey cartoons were released with soundtracks. After the release of Steamboat Willie, Disney successfully used sound in all of his subsequent cartoons, and Cinephone also became the new distributor for Disney's early sound cartoons.[61] Mickey soon eclipsed Felix the Cat as the world's most popular cartoon character.[56] Mickey's popularity grew rapidly in the early 1930s.[56]
Silly Symphonies
Following in the footsteps of Mickey Mouse series, a series of musical shorts titled, Silly Symphonies, were released in 1929. The first, The Skeleton Dance, was entirely drawn and animated by Iwerks, who was also responsible for drawing the majority of cartoons released by Disney in 1928 and 1929. Although both series were successful, the Disney studio thought it was not receiving its rightful share of profits from Pat Powers.[62] In 1930 Disney signed a new distribution deal with Columbia Pictures. The original basis of the cartoons was their musical novelty, with the first Silly Symphony cartoons featuring scores by Carl Stalling.[63]
By 1932, although Mickey Mouse had become a relatively popular cinema character, Silly Symphonies was not as successful. The same year also saw competition increase as Max Fleischer's flapper cartoon character, Betty Boop, gained popularity among theater audiences.[64] Fleischer, considered Disney's main rival in the 1930s,[65] was also the father of Richard Fleischer, whom Disney would later hire to direct his 1954 film 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Meanwhile, on April 13, 1931, Columbia Pictures dropped the distribution of Disney cartoons to be replaced by United Artists.[66] In late 1932, Herbert Kalmus, who had just completed work on the first three-strip technicolor camera,[67] approached Walt and convinced him to reshoot the black and white Flowers and Trees in three-strip Technicolor.[68] Flowers and Trees would go on to be a phenomenal success and would also win the first Academy Award for Best Short Subject: Cartoons in 1932. After the release of Flowers and Trees, all subsequent Silly Symphony cartoons were in color. Disney was also able to negotiate a two-year deal with Technicolor, giving him the sole right to use their three-strip process,[69][70] a period eventually extended to five years.[63] Through Silly Symphonies, Disney also created his most successful cartoon short of all time, The Three Little Pigs (1933).[71] The cartoon ran in theaters for many months, featuring the hit song that became the anthem of the Great Depression, "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf".[72] One reason for why Three Little Pigs was so successful was the strength of its story, in that Disney had realized the success of animated films depended upon telling emotionally gripping stories that would grab the audience and not let go.[73][74] This realization led to another of his innovations: a "story department," separate from the animators, with storyboard artists who would be dedicated to working on a "story development" phase of the production pipeline.[75]
One of two stars dedicated to Walt Disney on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
First Academy Award and subsequent spin-offs
On November 18, 1932, Disney received a special Academy Award for the creation of "Mickey Mouse".[76] The series, which switched to color in 1935, soon launched spin-offs for supporting characters such as Donald Duck, Goofy, and Pluto. Of all Mickey's partners, Donald Duck, who first teamed up with Mickey in the 1934 cartoon, Orphan's Benefit, was arguably the most popular, going on to become Disney's second most successful cartoon character of all time.[77]
Fatherhood
The Disneys' first attempt at pregnancy ended in miscarriage. Lillian became pregnant again and gave birth to a daughter, Diane Marie Disney, on December 18, 1933.[78] Later, the Disneys adopted Sharon Mae Disney (December 31, 1936 – February 16, 1993).[79]
Diane married Ron Miller at the age of 20 and is known as Diane Disney Miller. The Millers established a winery called Silverado Vineyards in California.[80] Diane and Ron Miller had seven children: Christopher, Joanna, Tamara, Jennifer, Walter, Ronald and Patrick.[81] Years later, Diane went on to become the cofounder of The Walt Disney Family Museum, with the aid of her children. Diane died November 19, 2013, of complications from a fall at home.[82]
Sharon Mae Disney was born December 31, 1936, in Los Angeles, California and was later adopted by the Disneys due to Lillian's several birth complications.[79] Sharon married Robert Brown on May 10, 1959,[83] with whom she had one child.[84] They remained married until his death in 1967. Sharon married William Lund in 1969 and had two children with him, but six years later they divorced.[85] Sharon was a philanthropist and had contributed to charities such as the Marianne Frostig Center of Educational Therapy and the Curtis School foundation.[86] In 1993, Sharon died at the age of 56.[85] After Sharon's death, her estate donated $11 million to the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts), where she was a member of the board of trustees for almost two decades.[87] Sharon's donation was commemorated by renaming the School of Dance the Sharon D. Lund School of Dance.[88]