When Walt Disney and Ib Iwerks created Mickey Mouse, there's no way they could have known just what they had done. And now, almost 100 years later, Mickey has become an icon. He's gone through many changes in that time, but none was perhaps quite as radical as the one that led to the current series of Mickey Mouse cartoon shorts.
The Wonderful World of Mickey Mouse, the series of animated shorts that started to run 12 years ago was a pretty radical take on the classic Disney character considering the way Mickey had been portrayed in the decades prior. But it turns out there wasn’t a lot of pushback to the new take on the mouse, thanks to Disney CEO Bob Iger.
In many ways, the modern Mickey Mouse animated shorts have been a throwback to the earliest days of the character, but in others, like the animation style, the shorts are very different from what we had seen before when it came to Disney’s mascot. Ahead of the final Wonderful World of Mickey Mouse short, Steamboat Silly, debuting on Disney+ on July 28, I had a chance to speak with producer Paul Rudish who explained that he had wanted to do things with Mickey but didn’t really think that he would be given the chance until Disney CEO Bob Iger specifically asked for fresh takes on the Mouse. Rudish explained…
Of course, being a Mickey Mouse fan, I was like, really fun to make Mickey Mouse cartoons. But they're not gonna let you do that, that Mickey Mouse is so precious. I was like, Is there a way I can trick them?... and then with excellent timing, Bob Iger put an edict out to the company or a request to all the divisions of the company saying, ‘I want to see a new take on Mickey Mouse. What can you guys do?’
Bob Iger had apparently decided that because Mickey had become so precious, he’d also become stagnant, and so he wanted any and all ideas on how the character could be used. Rudish saw his opportunity to create a new series of Mickey Mouse shorts, that were a modern version of the character's earliest days.
And while there were connections between the Mickey of old and the one that Rudish envisioned, a lot had happened in the intervening decades. Mickey had become so popular so quickly that after only a few years Mickey's character had been softened, largely at the request of parents who wanted to see the mouse as a proper role model for kids.
Rudish’s Mickey would be much more like the mouse’s early days. He would be zany, he could get angry, and the animation style would focus a lot on physical comedy. With this Mickey being so different, Rudish admits that he was a little surprised that there wasn’t a great deal of pushback to his idea, which he chalks up to the fact that he was providing exactly what the boss asked for. He continued…
Surprisingly, no, I was surprised how receptive everyone was. I mean, it certainly helps when, when Bob Iger says ‘I want to see new Mickey Mouse.’ So, you know, there wasn't a lot of people on other rungs of the ladder to really get in the way. They're like, ‘Hey, Bob says show some stuff.’
Of course today, The Wonderful World of Mickey Mouse has become as iconic as anything the character has ever been a part of. It even inspired the first Disney Parks ride for Mickey Mouse, something no other version of the character had been able to accomplish.
The new cartoon short Steamboat Silly is being called the last of this long-running series, and as the name implies, it connects back to the character's very beginning, which is certainly a fitting way to go out. If Steamboat Silly really is the last of these Mickey Mouse shorts, it will be the end of an impressive era. The cartoons are all amazing, and they even helped Mickey get his first Disney theme park ride.
