Birth of Mickey Mouse the Cartoon and more 3

Mickey Mouse, Mickey Mouse wallpaper, Mickey Mouse poster

Design and voice

The character has gone through some major changes through his existence. The first one happened with The Pointer in 1939 and The Sorcerer's Apprentice section of Fantasia in 1940, where he was given pupils in his eyes, a Caucasian skin colored face, and a pear-shaped body. In the 40's, he changed once more in "The Little Whirlwind", where he used his trademark pants for the last time in decades, lost his tail, got more realistic ears that changed with perspective and a different body anatomy. But this change would only last for a short period of time before returning to the one in "The Pointer", with the exception of his pants. In his final theatrical cartoons in the 50's, he was given eyebrows, which were removed in the more recent cartoons.

Mickey Mouse, Mickey Mouse wallpaper, Mickey Mouse poster, Mickey Mouse classic

Mickey's top trademark is his ears, and they have also become a trademark of the Disney company in general. Basic design of Mickey's ears is two very round ears that are attached to a very round head. Other than the 1940s Mickey, he and Minnie's ears have had the unusual characteristic of always being viewable with the same symmetry despite which direction that their respective head is facing. In other words, the ears are always generally in the same position as they are in a frontal view of the character, and appear to be sideways on their head when facing left or right.

Mickey Mouse, Mickey Mouse wallpaper, Mickey Mouse poster, Mickey mouse standing, Mickey mouse with gift

A large part of Mickey's screen persona is his famously shy, falsetto voice. From his first speaking role in The Karnival Kid onward, Mickey was voiced by Walt Disney himself, a task in which Disney took great personal pride. (Carl Stalling and Clarence Nash allegedly did some uncredited ADR for Mickey in a few early shorts as well.) However, by 1946, Disney was becoming too busy with running the studio to do regular voice work which means he could not do Mickey's voice anymore (and as it is speculated his cigarette habit had damaged his voice over the years), and during the recording of the Mickey and the Beanstalk section of Fun and Fancy Free, Mickey's voice was handed over to veteran Disney musician and actor Jimmy MacDonald. (Both Disney's and MacDonald's voices can be heard on the final soundtrack.) MacDonald voiced Mickey in the remainder of the theatrical shorts, and for various television and publicity projects up until his retirement in the mid-1970s, although Walt voiced Mickey again for the introductions of the original 1954—1959 The Mickey Mouse Club TV series and the "Fourth Anniversary Show" episode of the Disneyland TV series aired on September 11, 1958. 1983's Mickey's Christmas Carol marked the theatrical debut of the late Wayne Allwine as Mickey Mouse, who was the voice of Mickey until his death in 2009.Allwine was, incidentally, married to Russi Taylor, the current voice of Minnie Mouse. Les Perkins did the voice of Mickey in the TV special Down and Out with Donald Duck released in 1987.

Bret Iwan, a former Hallmark greeting card artist, is the current voice of Mickey. His early recordings in 2009 included work for the Disney Cruise Line, Mickey toys, Theme Parks, and also the Disney on Ice: Celebrations! ice show.His first video game voiceover of Mickey Mouse can be found on Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep, a video game for PlayStation Portable. He has also voiced the character in the next games for the Kingdom Hearts series. Bret also does the vocal effects of Mickey in Epic Mickey.


Social impact

Use in politics

In the United States, protest votes are often made in order to indicate dissatisfaction with the slate of candidates presented on a particular ballot, or to highlight the inadequacies of a particular voting procedure. Since most states' electoral systems do not provide for blank balloting or a choice of "None of the Above", most protest votes take the form of a clearly non-serious candidate's name entered as a write-in vote[citation needed]. Cartoon characters are typically chosen for this purpose[citation needed]; as Mickey Mouse is the best-known and most-recognized character in America, his name is frequently selected for this purpose. (Other popular selections include Donald Duck and Bugs Bunny.) This phenomenon has the humorous effect of causing Mickey Mouse to be a minor but perennial contestant in nearly all U.S. presidential elections.[citation needed] A similar phenomenon occurs in the parliament elections in Finland and Sweden, although Finns and Swedes usually write Donald Duck or Donald Duck Party as a protest vote.

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Mickey Mouse's name has also been known to appear fraudulently on voter registration lists, most recently in the 2008 U.S. Presidential Election.