How Walt Disney Rebuilt Mickey Mouse

By 1939, Mickey Mouse was the most famous cartoon character in the world, and he was losing ground. Donald Duck was beating him in the exhibitor polls, his own shorts had turned him into the straight man, and the safe move would have been to let him quietly fade. Walt Disney refused. This is the next chapter after How Disney Quietly Wrote Mickey Out of His Own Cartoons. Walt had already lost Oswald once, and he wasn't going to lose Mickey too. We follow how the studio rebuilt him from the inside out. First came Fred Moore's redesign. Then The Pointer became the first real test of the new Mickey, followed by the $125,000 gamble on The Sorcerer's Apprentice, a short that got too big to stay a short and became Fantasia (1940). After that came the bill: Fantasound, a war that cut off Europe, and a box office failure that still changed what Mickey meant for good. ▶ Previous chapter: How Disney Quietly Wrote Mickey Out of His Own Cartoons –    • How Disney Quietly Wrote Mickey Out of His...   00:00 - Mickey in Decline 01:17 - Mickey Was Walt's Alter Ego 01:58 - The Fred Moore Redesign 03:30 - The Pointer: First Test Run 04:30 - Greenlighting The Sorcerer's Apprentice 06:45 - Analyzing The Sorcerer's Apprentice 07:47 - The Axe Scene 09:24 - The Payoff with Stokowski 10:19 - Fantasia's Box Office Failure 11:26 - Mickey's Lasting Legacy Edited by ‪@Blugenesi‬ SOURCES: Books & Historical Studies Gabler, Neal. Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination (2006) Thomas, Frank & Johnston, Ollie. The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation (1981) Barrier, Michael. Hollywood Cartoons: American Animation in Its Golden Age (1999) Kaufman, J.B. Walt Disney's Fantasia (Taschen, 2020) Canemaker, John. Walt Disney's Nine Old Men and the Art of Animation (2001) Trade Journals & Contemporary Press Motion Picture Herald (1935–1940) Boxoffice Magazine (1937–1940) The Film Daily & Variety (November 1940) Primary Musical & Literary Works Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von. Der Zauberlehrling (1797) Dukas, Paul. L'Apprenti sorcier (1897) CARTOONS FEATURED: Plane Crazy (1928) The Golden Touch (1935) Brave Little Tailor (1938) The Standard Parade (1939) The Pointer (1939) Tugboat Mickey (1940) Fantasia (1940) Music: Paul Dukas, The Sorcerer's Apprentice (from Fantasia, 1940) Channel asset by: @MintBurrow Consider Subscribing to the channel and clicking the bell icon Facebook: Anthony's Animation Talk Instagram: anthonys_animation_talk Join this channel to get access to perks:    / @anthonysanimationtalk   Patreon: patreon.com/anthonysanimationtalk #MickeyMouse #WaltDisney #Fantasia #SorcerersApprentice #DisneyHistory #AnimationHistory #GoldenAgeAnimation #ClassicDisney #FredMoore #DisneyAnimation