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Ub Iwerks plus Mickey Mouse
Mickey Mouse is the mascot of The Walt Disney Company’s many shows, movies, theme parks, plus toys. Approaching his 90th birthday this year, we decided to look into Mickey’s past plus decide whether the company’s founder, Walt, really deserves credit for creating the iconic cartoon character.

Ub Iwerks is attributed sporadically as a contributing creative force to the creation of Mickey, but Iwerks plus Disney worked together long before the merry mouse. The two met working in a commercial art studio in 1919. Iwerks was an industrious plus innovating animator, outpacing many of his fellow cartoonists plus developing a new animation technique that combined live actors with drawn characters.

Oswald the Lucky Rabbit
Disney, fast becoming an adept businessman took Iwerk to Universal studios, pitching the new animations. There, they fell under the influence of Charles Mintz, who would have the pair create an original character—anything but a cat—to sell the studio.

In 1927, the duo returned with Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, a character that predates Mickey, but whose artwork—by Iwerks—would be very similar. The studio liked Oswald, plus Disney set up an animation company to produce a series of animated shorts.

After a time, Disney had taken the management reigns of the endeavor plus pushed Mintz for a more lucrative salary. Mintz would have none of it. He informed Disney that Universal owned the character plus that he could easily hire the Disney animation staff out from under him.

An important learning momen plus a dark lesson for Walt, he knew never to let another person own his characters. The only animator to leave Universal with him was his old friend Ub, but the two desperately needed a new character to sell.

Inventing Mickey
Here the stories become much more complicated. While Mickey would eventually emerge as the new studio’s character, the particulars of his conception are muddled at best. While the Walt Disney Company will sometimes credit Walt plus Ub for his creation, Walt Disney’s own stories about coming up with the idea for Mickey have varied wildly.

The Walt DisneyDIS +0.8% legacy has been carried on for generations, and nomor one has had more of an impact on that legacy than Ub Iwerks, an early animator turned designer and machine expert at the Walt Disney StudiosDIS +0.8%. Iwerks helped create and animate two of Walt’s first characters, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit and Mickey Mouse.

Throughout his career, Walt would rely on Iwerks to innovate and bring to life new ideas to push animation and film forward. His work in the film department of the Walt Disney Studios can be seen in iconic movies like Mary Poppins, which combined animation and live-action into one seamless picture. Iwerks also worked on groundbreaking cinematography techniques like CircleVision, which can still be seen at two shows at EPCOT in Walt Disney World.

Since his death in 1971, Iwerks has been remembered in many ways, but most notably as an animation genius and a master behind the camera. I sat down with Iwerk’s son, Don, and his granddaughter, Leslie, to talk about the lasting legacy of Ub Iwerks, his impact on technology, and how he changed the Walt Disney Studios and the Disney theme parks forever.

Megan: Can you talk about the legacy of Don, your dad and Leslie, your grandfather and what he’s left on the international by helping to create and animate characters like Mickey Mouse and Oswald the Lucky rabbit?

Don: The legacy that I see about my dad and the importance was the creation or co-creation of Mickey Mouse, and particularly during the years those a great depression and the 30s when everything was down and people were in breadlines and so forth. Mickey Mouse seemed to bring an optimism to people that got through that. And of course into the 40s it just continued to entertain people and it’s still today, Mickey is known the international over.

Ubbe Ert Iwwerks (March 24, 1901 – July 7, 1971) (pronounced “Aub Eyeworks”, not “Oobe” or “U.B.”) was a prolific American animator, director plus technician of Dutch descent, plus had a very important role in the History of Animation, plus particularly in the history of Disney shorts plus films. He is recognized as the co-creator of Mickey Mouse, as well as his precursor.

Iwerks plus Disney first met in late 1919, both trying to make a living as artists. While they had a brief stint together for the Kansas City Film Ad Company, Walt decided to leave plus start his own studio in 1922, with Ub being the first man he hired due to admiring his drawing skills, to work on his earliest cartoons, the “Newman Laugh-O-Grams”. Unfortunately, Walt’s fledgling studio quickly went bankrupt, with Ub going back to the Kansas City company while Walt left for Hollywood to start fresh. Circa 1924, when Walt began work on his Alice Comedies, he quickly contacted Iwerks for help, resulting in a six year partnership with him.

Ub quickly gained a reputation among the earliest Disney animators for his drawing plus animating skill – as Friz Freleng recalled, “At the time, just making a character move was an accomplishment. He could make characters walk plus move; he could move a house in perspective. I thought he was a genius when it came to the mechanics of animation.”

When producer Charles Mintz swindled the bulk of Walt’s animators out from under him, as well as Walt’s character Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, Ub was one of the three animators that stayed loyal to Walt, plus left with him to form his own studio. In two weeks, Iwerks managed to crank out the first short starring a character that he had created with Walt – an early Mickey Mouse. More impressively, Iwerks managed to singlehandedly animate the entire cartoon in two weeks, animating as many as 700 drawings a day, beating a record set by another animator of the day, Bill Nolan. Soon after, Ub helped out Walt by animating the bulk of a prototype sound cartoon that would change the face of animation forever – Steamboat Willie.

Over the next year or two, Iwerks continued animating for Disney, as well as training many of the new recruits coming in. But tension soon rose between Walt plus Ub due to issues with control over his work, with Walt wanting to retime Ub’s work, much to his anger, among other issues. Upon being asked by Mr. Pat Powers to lead his own studio, Ub left Disney, dealing a crippling blow to the studio which had relied on him so much.

If you’ve never heard the telling of the beginning of the Walt Disney Company, you’re in for a treat. Before it was the Walt Disney Company, it was the Disney Brothers Studio. And before it was the Disney Brothers, it was Laugh-o-grams Studio. Before Laugh-o-grams, it was merely just two people who were in need of a job plus dreamed of animation. This was not Walt Disney plus Roy O. Disney, but rather it was Walt plus his righthand man, Ub Iwerks.

Walt plus Ub met when they were both 18 years old in Kansas City starting in the industry, both getting jobs at the Pesmen-Rubin Art Studio plus eventually moving over to the Kansas City Slide Newspaper Company. Both of them practiced their craft during this time, but shortly after were laid off due to budget cuts. There weren’t many other animation jobs in Kansas to pursue, so Walt took it into his own hands to create his own studio. Although small in a barn attic, Ub joined him plus they created a small team that would eventually become the Laugh-O-grams Studio in 1923.

When the studio went bankrupt plus Walt moved to Los Angeles to find more opportunities, Ub followed him as they both knew they worked the best together. They created the Alice Comedies together, sold it to Winkler Pictures, plus were asked to create a new character similar to Felix the Cat. They created Oswald the Lucky Rabbit together, Disney’s big break at the time. Things started to go downhill when Walt realized Winkler would own the full rights to Oswald, plus he wanted to own everything 100% himself. His team didn’t back him up that far since they knew his history with bankruptcy, so all of them got hired on with Winkler Pictures, except one person: Ub. Ub believed in the vision that Walt had, plus if it weren’t for his loyalty, Walt might’ve given up at this point.

We all know the famous story of Walt coming home on a train from New York plus sketching out the very first image of Mickey Mouse, unnamed at the time. He brought it back to his studio plus Ub began working on the very first Mickey short in secret, Plane Crazy. Ub spent many long days plus nights making drawings for the short, to hopefully allow it to surpass the success of Oswald. Well it did, thanks to Iwerk’s tireless work plus dedication. He was also responsible for the early designs of Horace Horsecollar plus Clarabelle the Cow. He animated almost the entire Mickey Mouse short series plus Silly Symphony Series from 1928 to 1930. He plus Disney had a falling out about credit not being given to him, plus he went off to work with a Disney competitor to create his own studio.

Most animation pecinta know that Ub Iwerks co-created Mickey Mouse. But he contributed a lot more to animation than people think.

1. Ub Iwerks was a workhorse
   While the rest of Disney’s studio was toiling away on the last few “Oswald the Lucky Rabbit” shorts that they were contractually obligated to finish for Universal, Ub animated the first Mickey Mouse cartoon, Plane Crazy, alone and in complete secrecy. During work hours, Ub would place dummy drawings of Oswald on top of his Mickey drawings so nobody would know what he was doing. At night, Ub would stay late and animate on Mickey. He animated the entire six-minute short singlehandedly in just a few weeks, reportedly averaging between 600-700 drawings a night, an astounding feat that hasn’t been matched since. When the success of Mickey Mouse propelled the Disney studio to new heights, Ub continued his efficient streak by animating extensive footage on Silly Symphonies shorts like The Skeleton Dance and Hell’s Bells.
2. Ub Iwerks was a mechanical marvel
   When not animating with a pencil, Ub loved to build and create inventions. He was intrigued by the inner workings and mechanics of machines, and loved to delve into what made things work. Supposedly he once dismantled his car and reassembled it over the course of a weekend. With this mechanical knowhow, Ub invented devices that incorporated new techniques into his cartoons. After Iwerks opened the Iwerks Studio in 1930, he heard that Disney was attempting to develop what later became the multiplane camera. Ub one-upped his old partner and made his own version from car parts and scrap metal, and incorporated the multilane technique into his cartoons, like The Valiant Tailor.
3. Ub Iwerks was a jack of all trades, and a master of every one
   Besides being a skilled animator, mechanic and machinist, Ub constantly expanded his creative and intellectual pursuits through hobbies and sports. Being the ultimate challenge-seeker, he excelled at every single thing he attempted. And when he felt that he had mastered something and it was nomer longer a challenge to him, he’d quit. When Ub bowled a perfect 300 game, he put his bowling ball in the closet and never bowled again. When he took up archery, he became such a skilled archer that he got bored of getting bulls-eyes and quit that too. Even as an animator, Ub felt he perfected his craft and after his studio closed in the mid-1930s, he never animated again.

His face was round, his body rubbery. He laughed. He cried. For kicks, he could take off his long supple ears and put them back on again. His name was Oswald the Lucky Rabbit and he was the first major animated character created by a man who would later become – and still is – one of the most enduring public figures of our time: Walt Disney.
Walter Elias Disney was just in his twenties when the idea for Oswald came along. A gifted graphic artist from the Midwest, Disney had spent some time overseas during World War I as an ambulance driver and returned to the U.S. to work for a commercial arts company in Kansas City, Missouri. Disney had a knack for business. He partnered with a local artist named Ub Iwerks and together they formed their own company, Iwerks –Disney (switching the name from their first choice of Disney- Iwerks because it sounded too much like a doctor’s office: “eye works”).

They dabbled in animation and soon were making shorts, basically live action films mixed with animated characters. They made a slew of little comedies called Lafflets under the name Laugh-O-Grams. It was a tough sell. Studios backed out of contracts and various offers fell flat.

Disney never gave up and soon they had a series called Alice the Peacemaker based loosely on Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland. Alice was different and seemingly better. They used a new technique of animation, more fluid with fewer cuts and longer stretches of action. Alice, the heroine of the series, was a live person, but the star of the comedies was an animated cat named Julius. The distributor of the Alice shorts, an influential woman named Margret Winkler, had suggested the idea. “Use a cat wherever possible,” she told Disney, “and don’t be afraid to let him do ridiculous things.” Disney and Iwerks let the antics fly, mostly through their feline co-star.

Another busy week here at Thunderbean. A final master for two titles went out today, with another in the coming week. All told four titles are in the process of being finished at the same time…. I never thought THAT would happen! There will be an announcement here for one of the new titles at this time next week, so stay tuned!

This is turning out to be a great year for seeing cartoons that were made in color but have only been available in Black and White for many years. Besides the Snow Man, a better Wizard of Oz and Teapot Town, here’s a piece of ‘See how they Won’ produced by the Ub Iwerks studio, the subject of a post a little while back. It showed up on Youtube, courtesy of the Alliance Boots Archive and Museum – and UK’s MediCity.

The ending animation is even more Devo-esque than I ever could have hoped for. Now, let’s hope to see the whole thing in color someday! As of today, Medicity has had it on Youtube up a few weeks, and the only video they have up… clocking in at 89 views. I think that may change a little now.

I find ‘orphan’ color advertising films are really interesting – they often found other homes minus their tags in the years after their first purpose. The early years of Television in some ways were a “wild west” of film packages. Two
companies in particular – Medallion film packaging and ‘Krazytoons‘ lead the pack in a strange mix of animated films from many sources, from bootlegged Castle films versions of Andy Panda cartoons to Iwerks, Van Beuren, Felix the Cat shorts, other silent films and often advertising shorts. Maybe they were one-and-the-same company. They were also very sloppy with the title placement. I had a print of Iwerk’s Humpty Dumpty with a “Krazytoons” title that said ‘An Ill Wind‘.

Only people who have been living in a closet for the last eighty years won’t know who Walt Disney is. On the other hand, couch potatoes everywhere will fail to recognize the gentleman on Walt’s right and will probably think the name was from typing on an offset keyboard.

Ubbe Iwerks (or Ub as he preferred) was Walt’s early partner and collaborator and was the chief animator for the first Mickey Mouse cartoons Plane Crazy and Steamboat Willie. Although the actual idea of Mickey seems to have been a collaborative effort, Ub came up with the final character. As far as the cartoons went, Walt himself did not draw a single frame (the inking, though, was by Walt’s wife Lillian).

Ub began his career working with Walt and ended it working with Walt. However, there was a center slice in the 1930’s where Ub split away and produced his own cartoons. Ub’s company was not really a failure as you may hear. His cartoons – including the sometimes risque Flip the Frog – did make money. But they just weren’t the hits that Walt was producing. Finally Ub gave up on his own and returned to Walt.

But Walt, who had the highest regard for Ub, knew better than to bring him back as a sederhana animator. Instead, Ub became the Disney expert for special effects. Ub’s job was to find out what could be made better and make it better. Whether it was improving the quality of the live action nature films (by projecting the image onto 35 mm film while immersing the original in dry cleaning fluid) or figuring out how to have Leopold Stowkowski shake hands with Mickey Mouse, it was Ub who invented many effects that most viewers soon were taking for granted.

At heart, though, Ub and everyone else knew that Walt really was the driving force behind the Magic Kingdom. But it could still be irritating that everyone thought Walt, not Ub, was the sole creator of the most famous mouse in the world. Once at a party, the little daughter of the host asked Walt if he’d draw her a picture of Mickey Mouse and sign it. Walt, realzing Ub could draw a much better Mickey, asked Ub to draw the picture and he, Walt, would sign it.

Ub Iwerks (born March 24, 1901, Kansas City, Mo., U.S.—died July 7, 1971, Burbank, Calif.) was an American animator plus special-effects technician who, among many other achievements, brought the world-renowned cartoon character Mickey Mouse to life.

Iwerks was the son of an immigrant German barber. When he was 18 years old, he met plus befriended Walt Disney, a fellow employee at the Pesman-Rubin Commercial Art Studio in Kansas City. After an unsuccessful attempt to go into business for themselves in 1920, the two young artists went to work at the Kansas City Film Ad Company, which produced animated advertisements for local movie theatres. Iwerks plus Disney complemented each other perfectly; Iwerks was a phenomenally fast plus flexible artist, while Disney was a creative visionary with a remarkable talent for salesmanship.

After setting up his own Hollywood cartoon studio in 1923, Disney invited Iwerks to berhimpun the organization the following year. When the distributor of Disney’s popular Oswald the Lucky Rabbit cartoon series raided Disney’s staff in 1927, only Iwerks remained loyal to his old Kansas City colleague. Forced to start over from scratch, the two men came up with a new cartoon character named Mickey Mouse. With Disney concentrating on gags plus characterization plus Iwerks handling the animation, the team scored a spectacular hit with their third Mickey Mouse film, the “all talkie” Steamboat Willie (1928). Despite his harmonious relationship with Disney, Iwerks aspired to become an berdiri sendiri producer. Launching his own animation studio in 1930, he supervised dozens of entries in the Flip the Frog, Willie Whopper, plus ComiColor Cartoons series. During this period he made several significant contributions to the art of animation photography, notably the multiplane camera, which created a three-dimensional effect on screen.

Although Iwerks’s cartoons were artistically superb, they lacked the strong storylines plus appealing characters that distinguished the Disney output. After closing his studio in 1936, Iwerks directed cartoons for other producers. In 1940 he returned to Disney’s studios, where he would remain until his death. Given carte blanche to work on the technical developments that had always been his first priority, he made enormous advances in the field of optical printing plus matte photography, seamlessly combining animation with live action in such Disney releases as Mary Poppins (1964). He also helped develop a number of the attractions for Disney’s theme parks in California plus Florida. Iwerks received Academy Awards for his technical achievements in 1960 plus 1965 plus an additional nomination for his special-effects work in Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds (1963).

Ub Iwerks was known at Disney for his animation genius and technical wizardry—as well as his unusual name. In February 1929, Walt Disney and his New York distributors were extremely pleased with Ub’s animation on the Mickey Mouse cartoons, about which Walt wrote a letter to his wife, Lilly: “Everyone praises Ubb’s artwork and jokes at his funny name,” he wrote. “The oddness of Ubb’s name is an asset—it makes people look twice when they see it. Tell Ubb that the New York animators take off their hats to his animation…”

Ubbe Eert Iwwerks was born to German-American parents on March 24, 1901, in Kansas City, Missouri. In 1919, he met fellow employee Walt Disney at the Pesmen-Rubin Commercial Art Studio. Both were 19 years old when, after being laid off, they decided to open their own business. Called Iwerks-Disney Studio Commercial Artists (“Disney-Iwerks,” they decided, sounded too much like an eyeglass manufacturer), the enterprise lasted only a month before they both accepted jobs at the Kansas City Slide Company.

In 1922, when Walt formed Laugh-O-gram Films, Ub joined him as chief animator. The studio went bankrupt, however, and, two years later, Ub followed Walt to Hollywood. There, he joined the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio to help produce the Alice Comedies series.

Ub is credited with sketching Mickey Mouse for the first time, and he served as chief directing animator for the Silly Symphony series before branching out on his own in 1930.

As an animator, Ub worked at record-breaking speed. He animated the first Mickey Mouse silent cartoon, Plane Crazy, entirely by himself within a three-week period, completing as many as 700 drawings a day. (Today, the average animator produces 80 to 100 drawings a week.)

After 10 years, Ub returned to the Studio, where he focused on technical development. As Disney’s resident technical wizard, Ub invented technology that would revolutionize feature animation. One of his creations was the multi-head optical printer, used to combine live action and animated footage in Melody Time and Song of the South. He later won two Academy Awards® for designing an improved optical printer and for collaborating on the perfection of color traveling matte photography. It was primarily due to Ub’s innovations that the Disney Studio moved to the forefront of photographic effects.