Welcome back to the Cartoon Research Card Catalog – your monthly check-in on present publications, periodicals, and peeks at important books from today and throughout the last century of animation!
As we continue to cruise towards Mickey Mouse’s centennial in just a handful of years, it’s difficult to think of a ton of other examples of a character/mascot/icon that has been around as long or has undergone more redesigns (Though the point absolutely stands for characters with particularly super abilities). In this month’s Card Catalog we take a look at a sampling of books that highlight the many, sometimes drastic, changes of Mickey Mouse.
Released in 2018 in a variety of sizes, including an oversized coffee table version (pictured), was Walt Disney’s Mickey Mouse: The Ultimate History, written by David Gerstein, J.B. Kaufman, and Daniel Kothenschelte. This is an absolute beast of a book, not just on the commentary and history written throughout, which leaves no stone unturned in transcribing the history of Walt’s modest mouse, but as alluded to before, is printed in an XXL size. If you’re familiar with some of the other releases by TASCHEN, this is similar, it measures almost 16 inches tall and a foot wide. That may seem excessive, but what that allowed the authors and publisher to do is replicate artwork in some cases 1:1 size and there is a lot of artwork in this almost 500 page book! There are smaller, more “normal” sizes available, but I’m of the mind that the large and rarely utilized print size is a feature, not a drawback.
Aside, if you’ve not picked up Gerstein, Kaufman, and Kothenschelte’s direct sequel, Walt Disney’s Donald Duck: The Ultimate History, you should look into doing so as the book has been nominated for two Eisner Awards – Best Publication Design and Best Comic-Related Book. Winners will be announced at Comic-Con this July! Good luck!!
Released in 2018 in conjunction with an exhibit curated by the author at The Walt Disney Family Museum, Mickey Mouse: From Walt to the World by Andreas Deja (https://andreasdeja.blogspot.com/) is a hardcover book that features an abundance of examples of Mickey. Between the immaculate photography of early sketches, cels, posters and merchandise along with Deja’s commentary, this is a tour that can’t be replicated.
Speaking of merchandise – Walt Disney’s Mickey Mouse Memorabilia: The Vintage Years, 1928-1938 was released in 1986 and features, predominantly, the collection of Bernard Shine. Additionally, Bevis Hillier, David R. Smith from the Disney Archives, and Ward Kimball all have contributions to this book. This unique book uses Shine’s collection as a gallery of different examples of various Mickey merch that was released in the earliest Disney years, but running with it is an ongoing commentary on how and why these toys were produced the way they were, or are difficult to find intact today.
The Disney Poster – The Animated Film Classics from Mickey Mouse to Aladdin compiles just under a century’s worth of Disney theatrical posters and displays in an oversized hardcover published originally in 1993 by the Disney Company. It’s interesting to see how many times these posters have been incorporated into other media, like VHS, DVD, Laserdisc or even other book covers. Or how the designs change over time and who they were featuring.
Covering material from every production during Walt’s life, The Walt Disney Film Archives: The Animated Movies 1921-1968 is edited by Daniel Kothenschulte and is really something to behold (literally, it’s eight pounds). It’s divided by every short and feature film overseen by Walt and features an extensive amount of beautiful artwork used for production and behind the scenes development. Additionally, it includes photography and history of the studio and a snapshot of some of the awards won.
Lastly, and the most recent example of Mickey’s design, is seen in The Art of Mickey Mouse Funhouse. This artbook was given to the cast and crew of the 2021-2025 CGI series and features many of the background and cast redesigns that was seen throughout the adventurous and world-hopping three-season show.
Orrin Scott is an animation researcher. His research focus has been on how society interacts with animation as a form of communication, commerce, art, and entertainment. He is the administrator of the 
The title of this post calls to mind “A Biological Homage to Mickey Mouse”, a famous essay by Stephen Jay Gould that originally appeared in Natural History magazine to mark Mickey’s 50th anniversary and was reprinted in a hardcover collection of Gould’s essays in 1980. Gould notes that the changes to Mickey’s design over the years have had the effect of making him appear more and more juvenile, paralleling a trend in human evolution called neoteny: his limbs grew shorter and thicker, his snout grew blunter, his eyes grew bigger, and his cranium grew rounder. This last was a bit of a trick to achieve, as Mickey’s head had been a perfect circle from the very beginning. So, as Gould points out, “Mickey’s ears moved back, increasing the distance between nose and ears, and giving him a rounded, rather than a sloping, forehead.” In other words, “getting Mickey’s ears lowered” in a very literal sense.
The characteristic large size of the Taschen books has always amused me, as Taschen is the German word for “pockets”, recalling the old Pocket paperbacks that were designed to be small enough to fit in one’s pocket. I wouldn’t call their size “excessive”, or even their price, for that matter; after all, you get what you pay for. When I saw the Taschen Mickey Mouse book in a bookstore last year, it was shrink-wrapped so I couldn’t skim through it; and as for the price tag, my own pockets were not nearly deep enough to cover the cost, especially with my wife watching.
I have every book mentioned here, with the exception of the last.
(And it will remain that way)
I would endorse every one of them.
(Look forward to JB Kaufman’s upcoming books on Goofy and Pluto !!! –
Unless he’s first collaborating with Jerry on Sam Singer: The Ultimate History)
Not to be overlooked is the Fantagraphics Mickey Mouse series by Floyd Gottfredson, particularly Volume 5, which includes the redesign of Mickey’s eyes, carried out very deftly and even cinematically in the daily comic strip. The book series, collecting the early decades of the comic strip in its adventure mode, provides an overview of Mickey’s career and the fluctuations of his supporting cast through the years. And the societal changes from the early 30’s through the mid-50s can also be glimpsed. It’s a great chronicle of an age, which I wish had gone on longer, because I for one would enjoy seeing the gag-a-day format into which the strip eventually evolved.
I was checking for descriptions of the Mickey book online. I see it includes some Floyd Gottfredson. That’s got me interested. If it also includes some of Casty, it’d sound even better.
If I were to write a book on animation, one chapter would be called “Fred Moore: the Man Who Destroyed Mickey Mouse.”
Why improve what’s already perfect? The rationale for redesigning Mickey was so he could express more complex emotions, but Mickey’s whole strength was his simplicity: literally as simple and perfect as a circle. The fixes required more fixes: in “Mr. Mouse Takes a Trip,” Mickey has the new face and body but is still wearing the red short pants. Suddenly he looks underdressed, like he’s running around in his underwear. Solution: put more clothes on him. Now he’s no longer a mouse but a little man wearing a mouse mask.
I sadly don’t have any of these books (and my Disney book collection is *extensive*), but the Gerstein–Kaufman–Kothenschelte one sounds like the best.
Hi Orin, thank you for this great article. And a very special thank you for recommending The Disney Poster – The Animated Film Classics from Mickey Mouse to Aladdin. I wrote that book. Thanks again!