WALT DISNEY, who created Mickey Mouse, protested when he was recently in London that he did not know how the idea came to him. The trick of animating cartoons was not his invention. Disney had made his share of the cartoons, with no outstanding distinction, when in 1928 the motion picture industry was almost completely demoralised by the sudden introduction of sound and dialogue. Early in 1928 Disney conceived the notion of having a mouse as a character and in the late Spring came the idea which was to bring success. He decided to synchronise Mickey's actions with music.
Music therefore plays an all-important part in the production of the Mickey Mouse cartoons and Silly Symphonies. Indeed, from a standpoint of interpreting the music with actual movement, these cartoons are some of the most perfect things made. They are the result of the united efforts of cartoonist and musician. First the rough plot is worked out at a story conference at which some twenty-five or thirty of the Disney staff are present. Usually, but not always, Disney has the first germ of the idea which is to carry Mickey through another adventure. Then the humorist "gag-men" add the novel touches.
The musical score is created after the story has been finished, but prior to the drawing of any detailed pictures.
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