It was on this day in 1932 that Mickey Mouse and his sweetheart Minnie were married—in his dreams. In the 44th Mickey Mouse cartoon and the first Disney film distributed by United Artists, our beloved mouse goes to sleep only to have Pluto lick his face, which causes Mickey to dream of kissing Minnie. The …
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In 1916, The color process for Technicolor was developed by Kalmus, Comstock & Westcott, Inc., but it wasn’t until 1932 that the fourth color process gave the ability to produce true and realistic colors in film. Dr. Herbert Kalmus was faced with the challenge of convincing the studios that Technicolor was a good idea. Knowing …
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The 1932 Mickey’s Revue animated short kicks off with Mickey Mouse conducting the overture and a bespectacled geezer of a human-type dog in the audience particularly enjoying the show. Throughout the variety show, his distinctive “a-hyuck, a-hyuck” laugh—voiced by Pinto Colvig—continues to annoy the other spectators. That character and that laugh were so appealing to …
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If you ask your average Disney fan who their favorite Disney character is, more than likely the answer will not be Bucky Bug. In late 1931, Walt Disney wanted to ramp up promotion for the Silly Symphonies cartoon series, but the series had no recurring characters, which bugged Walt since he needed an ad mascot. …
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The 1931 short The Moose Hunt has very little dialogue, although one spoken word in particular plays an important part in Disney history. After Mickey Mouse thinks he’s accidentally shot his canine companion, he cries out through his tears the name Pluto for the first time. Unaware that his pal Pluto is feigning death, Mickey …
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In 1965, when Walt Disney was looking for the lead in That Darn Cat, he happened to notice the actor who starred in the TV show that preceded Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color. The actor turned out to be Dean Jones, who was born on this day in 1931. Over the next decade and …
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In the earliest Mickey Mouse cartoons, you never knew in what role the main mouse would be cast. In 1930, he was a prisoner in The Chain Gang. While we can’t imagine what crime Mickey has done other than steal a scene, he is nonetheless locked up and tries to escape. During his flight, he …
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On this day in 1930, Minnie Mouse was washed to sea, and it was lifeguard Mickey to the rescue in the early Mickey Mouse cartoon short Wild Waves. Despite the fact that the first was released not quite a year and a half earlier, on November 18, 1928, this was the 15th Mickey short. This …
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In a truly virtuoso performance, Mickey, in the aptly named short Just Mickey, enthralls an audience with a solo tour de force performance on violin. Just Mickey is the first Mickey short that wasn’t drawn by Ub Iwerks, and it features a couple gags that would probably wow even today’s 3D-familiar audiences (for example, the …
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Composer Carl Stalling was originally brought in to score the early Mickey Mouse cartoon shorts, and it was he who suggested to Walt that there be a second cartoon series that would be based on musical themes, each with a different cast of characters. Thus, the Silly Symphony was born with the rib-tickling featurette The …
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