Walter Elias Disney(1901-1966)
The life and ventures of Mickey Mouse have been closely bound up with my own personal and professional life. It is understandable that I should have sentimental attachment for the little personage who played so big a part in the course of Disney Productions and has been so happily accepted as an amusing friend wherever films are shown around the world. He still speaks for me and I still speak for him."-Walt Disney
"Cartoon animation offers a medium of storytelling and visual entertainment which can bring both pleasure and information to people of all ages around the world".
-Walt Disney
"I take great pride in the artistic development of cartoons. Our characters are made to go through emotions which a few short years ago would have seemed impossible to secure with a cartoon character."
-Walt Disney
"Mickey mouse, to me, is a symbol of independence. He was the means to an end. He popped out of my mind onto a drawing pad 20 years ago on a train ride from Manhattan to Hollywood at a time when business fortunes of my brother Roy and myself were at the lowest, and disaster seemed right around the corner. Born of necessity, this little fellow literally freed us of immediate worry. He provided the means for expanding our organization to its present dimensions and for extending the medium of cartoon animation towards new entertainment levels. He spelled production liberation for us."
-Walt Disney
"All we ever intended for him, or expected of him, was that he should continue to make people everywhere chuckle with him and at him. We didn't burden him with any social symbolism, we made him no mouth piece for frustrations or harsh satire. Mickey was simply a little personality assigned to the purposes of laughter."
-Walt Disney
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Summer 1997
