Plane crazy premiered and didn't do hardly anything and Disney didn't find a distributor for it. So while you could use it as the birth date of Mickey Mouse it wasn't until Steamboat Willie that he was presented to an expansive audience.

ETA: Or what the Wikipedia page GD linked to says.

But wouldn't theoretically he had to have been born prior to the movie being released? One can't make AND release a movie the day they were born. Well, one could nowadays, but I doubt that is what happened with MM.

I would equate the design studio with a womb and the lens of the theater projector with the cervix. He was born when the image passed through the lens and onto the screen.

His birthday was 6 months ago, but, hey, better late than never!

Happy Belated Birthday Mickey Mouse!

It doesn't much matter if he didn't find an audience. The film was released and people saw it.


It's like saying The Beatles didn't exist till 1964. History is important. Pop history less so, but facts are facts ... and lies are lies.

I think of the early screening of Plane Crazy as the Ascot Racecourse and Steamboat Willie as the Embassy Ball.

Wow, Paper Moon. I hadn't thought about that movie in ages. Madeline Kahn was a genius. I've got to rent this and see it again soon.

I hate Mickey Mouse.

Didn't he die in December of 1966?

That scene is so very wonderful. Madeline Kahn was simply brilliant.
:)