Did Walt steal the idea of mickey

[John]

To say that Mickey Mouse looks like Oswald is irrelavent because Walt Disney created them both.

As far as Ub Iwerks. If he had stayed with Disney he would not have felt mistreated. He could go down as one of the biggest idiots of all time. He owned stock in the Disney Company and when he left the company it was worth about $250,000. If he had stayed at Disney it would have ended up being worth millions maybe more since he had a very large stock. I'd hate to be related to him.

I am not sure what year it was but Ub finally came back to work for Walt. Walt loved his freind dearly. Most of the early works....yes were created by UB. In the early Walt was the master mind and Ub brought his ideas to life. Walt always had a million things running through his head. Ub brought them to paper. After returning to the Walt Disney company Walt treated Ub like one of the family. I am not sure how in a monetary form he was treated but I suspect Walt remembered what his contribution was. What has bothered me is that Ub is nearly mentioned anywhere in the parks. Its possible without his early contributions the Disney company wouldnt be what it is today.


It all started with a mouse.....but it was Ub who originally drew the mouse.....and no Walt didnt steal Mickey....Ub worked for Walt and Walt owned the properties as did Uni when Walt worked for them. The concept of Mickey was Walts and the charecter that you see on paper was a creation of Ub's. Walt was a creative genious his time was cut short, he never had enough time in the day to do what he wanted to do. He was very demanding, also very critical of the people who worked for him. It was quality....quality! Thats why we as fans and guest of WDW are not wrong for demanding the very best from the Disney co. and WDW specifically.

 

[Sassagoula-Rvr]

Without Universal "stealing" Oswald...the disney company might never have become what it is today...it was after that point that Walt decided to do everything in house and really expand.

 

[Goofyernmost]

Just a thought here but since Universal used some pretty strong arm twisting tactics to get Oswald away from Walt, without any remorse or concern, wouldn't it seem logical that if they thought that Mickey was just a rip off of Oswald they would have taken legal action against him if what he did was illegal?

Besides that when you say...well, he looks exactly like Oswald except that he has small round ears, a more pointed nose, a thin tail instead of a bushy one, then aren't you saying he is the exact copy because he has a round head, two eyes and the same basic body design. Not really the same thing is it. Some things are basic design and I'd be willing to bet that at the time that was pretty standard for all cartoon characters.

 

[Tonka's Skipper]

creatively, Walt did not steal Mickey from anyone else as he created Oswald.....

Totally correct.

Seems a mouse is nothing like a rabbit or a cat!

As I remember Oswald was created by Walt and his small studio of the time. When Walt headed to New York to renew the cartoon contract with the theater owner in New York, he was told that he did not *own Oswald* and that the theater owner had hired most of Walt's cartoonist away.

On the train ride west.............Walt came up with Mortimer the Mouse and his wife Suggested Mickey.............thus was born....MICKEY MOUSE

 

[Alyssa hope]

You probably won't believe me but my great-grandfather invented Mickey. Only his creation was Mick-E. When my grandfather went to New York and met Walt. Torrence diets (my grandfather) was going to give Walt the character through the stock market and get paid by it but the stock market crashed and somehow or another Walt got the mouse. Then claimed it was his. If you don't believe me my uncle wrote a book about it called "the broken toy". Look it up if you want. My grandma (my great grandpas daughter) played with little bendable Mick-E's As a kid. She even gave me one

 

[CAPTAIN HOOK]

Rabbits are cute and furry little mammals. Mice are dirty little rodents. :wave:

Mickey is so much better than Oswald. Can you imagine if all the sayings were, "Remember, it all began with a rabbit." and we had statues of Walt with a rabbit?

What's up Doc ???

 

[Nick Wilde]

I agree. I really liked Walt. He was a great guy. However, he was not the super nice guy that the Disney PR machine puts forth. Walt was a movie producer and he engaged in a lot of cutthroat and dishonest tactics in his time. I don't fault him for this behavior. His studio would have failed if he didn't resort to unethical and illegal tactics on many occasions. Film production has always been a very tough business and only the strong survive.

The bottom line is very simple. Walt was under contract to create a cartoon for the distributor. The distributor owned all rights to the characters in the cartoon. Walt was young and didn't realize that he "sold" Oswald away. It was a youthful indiscretion. Walt learned a valuable lesson.

Indeed, it all turned out swell. It took a lot of dishonest and illegal practices to make it all turn out swell. The creation of Mickey was only the first step! :wave:

Have you been reading The Hollywood Dark Prince? Naughty, naughty!

 

[Nick Wilde]

I am not sure what year it was but Ub finally came back to work for Walt. Walt loved his freind dearly. Most of the early works....yes were created by UB. In the early Walt was the master mind and Ub brought his ideas to life. Walt always had a million things running through his head. Ub brought them to paper. After returning to the Walt Disney company Walt treated Ub like one of the family. I am not sure how in a monetary form he was treated but I suspect Walt remembered what his contribution was. What has bothered me is that Ub is nearly mentioned anywhere in the parks. Its possible without his early contributions the Disney company wouldnt be what it is today.


It all started with a mouse.....but it was Ub who originally drew the mouse.....and no Walt didnt steal Mickey....Ub worked for Walt and Walt owned the properties as did Uni when Walt worked for them. The concept of Mickey was Walts and the charecter that you see on paper was a creation of Ub's. Walt was a creative genious his time was cut short, he never had enough time in the day to do what he wanted to do. He was very demanding, also very critical of the people who worked for him. It was quality....quality! Thats why we as fans and guest of WDW are not wrong for demanding the very best from the Disney co. and WDW specifically.

No. Ub did not create Mickey and Walt said "Oh, that looks cool! Let's keep it and I'll take all the credit for it!" Walt created Mickey on a napkin while on a train ride. He brought it to Ub and Ub basically just made copies of it, and they made him into a cartoon character. Walt didn't rip-off Ub and take all the credit for it, as everyone may think. Has anyone here seen One Man's Dream?

 

[Nick Wilde]

Tex Avery, a director on Looney Tunes, once said that the look for Bugs Bunny was more-or-less stolen from Walt Disney's character Max Hare from the cartoon Tortoise and the Hare. He went on to say that people stole from Walt all the time, and that Walt was nice enough never to say anything about it.

I want to see where you read this. I believe you, I'm just curious.

 

[Magenta Panther]

I want to see where you read this. I believe you, I'm just curious.

It came from this book about Tex Avery, written by Joe Adamson:

http://www.parkablogs.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=492

The book is still available on Amazon, but it has a different cover.

 

[John]

No. Ub did not create Mickey and Walt said "Oh, that looks cool! Let's keep it and I'll take all the credit for it!" Walt created Mickey on a napkin while on a train ride. He brought it to Ub and Ub basically just made copies of it, and they made him into a cartoon character. Walt didn't rip-off Ub and take all the credit for it, as everyone may think. Has anyone here seen One Man's Dream?

Where did it mention in my post that I said Ub created Mickey? Not only have I been to "one Mans dream" many times I have read many biographies of Walt.....maybe you should too. I know the story of Mickey, Walt's wife named him. No where in my post did I mention Mickey. Again, Ub Iworks played a HUGE roll in the development of the Disney company.

 

[lazyboy97o]

No. Ub did not create Mickey and Walt said "Oh, that looks cool! Let's keep it and I'll take all the credit for it!" Walt created Mickey on a napkin while on a train ride. He brought it to Ub and Ub basically just made copies of it, and they made him into a cartoon character. Walt didn't rip-off Ub and take all the credit for it, as everyone may think. Has anyone here seen One Man's Dream?

Walt could barely draw Mickey and development may well have started before the train ride. That also means there was no surprise over not owning Oswald.

 

[Disneykid•]

Although Mickey can be said to look like Oswald, it does not nessacarily mean he "copied" Oswald. This could just be his drawing style, as he created Oswald. Either way he did not steal Mickey as it was an original idea and he created Oswald anyways.

 

[blana]

Honestly, I'd say it was probably someone who watched the Drunk History version of the Walt Disney/Ub Iwerks story.

 

[ClassicMickeyM]

Yes, he did steal the idea for Mickey Mouse from Universal Pictures to wit:

"A New York film distributor by the name of M.J. Winkler, bought Disney’s early cartoons, which were the original versions of “Alice in Wonderland”. When the demand waned for the Alice series, Walt created a new character, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. As Oswald’s popularity grew, Walt decided to negotiate a higher price for the contract. Unbeknownst to Walt, Charlie Mintz (M.J. Winkler’s husband) had recruited most of Walt’s staff by offering them more money and creative freedom. Walt also did not know that Charlie Mintz and Universal Pictures owned the legal rights to Oswald. Mintz demanded that Walt Disney give up his business and go to work for him, but Walt refused.

It was on this train ride back to Los Angeles from New York City that Walt Disney created Mickey Mouse. He knew he had to come up with a new character and created a mouse. (It is interesting to note that this mouse looked quite similar to Oswald the Rabbit. The main differences being Mickey Mouse had short round ears instead of long bunny ears, a longer nose, a long skinny mouse tail instead of a bunny tail, and skinnier legs and arms. The face, eyes, mouth and hairline were very similar.) Walt wanted to name the mouse character “Mortimer”, but his wife, Lilly, didn’t like that name and suggested “Mickey Mouse”."

As you can see, Walt simply changed "Oswald" into 'Mickey". He stole the character, pure and simple even though he knew he didn't own it any longer.

Similar design? Same artist... most his original characters share prominent characteristics. There is clear distinctions, mostly pertaining to the movement and character.

 

[jaklgreen]

Similar design? Same artist... most his original characters share prominent characteristics. There is clear distinctions, mostly pertaining to the movement and character.

Holy cow, the post you quoted was from 2006. LOL

 

[JoeCamel]

Holy cow, the post you quoted was from 2006. LOL

Lots of necromancers around here lately

 

[macefamily]

I'm spinning off of this very interesting thread, but I brought up the thought yesterday with my wife as we were watching some SyFy Twilight Zone episodes from the 60's. There were three episodes that I could parallel three Stephen King novels/movies directly to as far as the main story line. People call Stephen King a genius, I'm calling him out as a semi-phony; kind of like remixing an 80's or 90's music line into a new lyric mix. Is Salem's Lot really that original ?