Thursday, August 16, 2018

Mickey Mouse Development



Two images from different eras in the development of Mickey Mouse.
The first one is from Steamboat Willie, 1928. A gorgeous animation drawing by Ub Iwerks, who animated the whole short. There are still graphic issues here that needed to be addressed, like the characters' black hands. You can't really see how Pete's grip on Mickey is defined. That's why later on  Disney characters were given white gloves for clarity.
Boy, I just love the energy in this fantastic sketch.

Twelve years later Mickey appeared as The Sorcerer's Apprentice in Fantasia, 1940, looking like this.
A new eye unit with pupils, draughtsmanship that showed real volume and shoes borrowed from Snow White's Seven Dwarfs.
There is greatness in both versions. Steamboat Willie shows the beginning of true, involved personality animation, while Mickey Sorcerer showcases the immense possibilities of the animated medium.





5 comments:

  1. This is fascinating, I like this version of Meckey Mouse of Ub Iwerks drawings how the evolution is, but even we need this version to come back because it's ben years that we didn't see this Mickey Mouse in 1928, this is the most popular cutest part in history than the new one in the 90s to 2010s evolotion.

    ReplyDelete
  2. And then we got the current 2013 Mickey Mouse from Paul Rudish, which just looks like crap to me.

    I always loved the work that you did on Mickey in the 90's, Andreas.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I think it looks great and i love the new shorts as they are quite fun

      Delete
  3. Hi Andreas - just curious - do you know who drew that Sorcerer's Apprentice drawing ? Thanks :-)

    ReplyDelete