[…] The following essay is from the Overland Monthly, published October 1933, roughly five years after the birth of Mickey Mouse. Overland Monthly was a California-based magazine that began in the 1880s and featured contributors like Bret Harte, Mark Twain, Ambrose Bierce, Jack London and many other recognizable names. […]
The following essay is titled The Cartoon’s Contribution to Children but, almost immediately, Walt veers away from that topic to discuss Mickey Mouse almost exclusively. I am especially fond of articles by Walt from the early 1930s, because it is much more likely that the words are pretty much Walt without going through a professional Disney Studio writer or publicity person. These pieces also seem to reflect Walt’s stream-of-consciousness-style of speaking where he tosses words and ideas together as if they had just occurred to him.
When reading these articles from the past, it is important to keep them in the context of the time in which they were written. In this case, Americans were suffering through the Great Depression but were not yet preparing for another World War. Walt Disney, after years of struggle, had finally achieved recognition and financial success with Mickey Mouse and was still a year or two away from beginning Snow White and the Seven Dwaves. Walt is filled with boundless positive optimism and feels that the Mickey Mouse cartoons truly reflect this philosophy. […]
