Mickey Mouse's Birthday

What Is Mickey Mouse's Birthday?

On November 18, 1928, the short cartoon "Steamboat Willie" premiered at the Colony Theatre in New York (today's Broadway Theatre). It is regarded as Mickey Mouse's debut, and it drew attention as a cartoon with sound closely synchronized to the picture, so November 18 has long been treated as Mickey's birthday. Some people now call it his "screen debut day" instead. In Japan, November 18 is widely known as the birthday of Mickey and Minnie.

From "Mortimer" to "Mickey"

Mickey was created by Walt Disney and animator Ub Iwerks. Universal held the rights to their earlier character, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, so Mickey was created as a replacement lead. Walt reportedly meant to call him "Mortimer," but his wife Lillian suggested "Mickey" instead. After "The Jazz Singer," the first feature-length talkie, came out in 1927, Walt reworked "Steamboat Willie," which had been made as a silent film, into a sound film. Finding a distributor was hard, but once it opened, its tight match of sound and picture won praise.

• Order of production: "Steamboat Willie" was the third Mickey cartoon made. Silent versions such as "Plane Crazy" came first, but this was the first one released
• First voice: in the original-language versions, Walt himself was the first voice of Mickey (1928-1947)
• A change of look: Mickey had been barefoot and bare-handed, but he wears shoes in this film
• First release in Japan: "Mickey's Opera Night" (Japanese title), shown at Shinjuku Musashinokan in 1929, is thought to have been the first
• First color cartoon: "The Band Concert," released in 1935

Mickey in Japan, and a Copyright Note

Mickey Mouse was registered as a trademark in Japan in 1931, and a Japanese original song, "Mickey Mouse's Wedding," appeared in 1934. In the Japanese dubs of Disney's home-video releases, Mickey has been voiced by Rokuro Naya (1989-1991), then Takashi Aoyagi (1991-2018), and since 2018 by Takaki Hoshino. Meanwhile, "Steamboat Willie" entered the public domain in the United States on January 1, 2024. You may also hear that Mickey was once called "Mikikuchi" in Japan, but Osamu Tezuka denied it, and the story is thought to be a hoax born from confusing "mouse" with "mouth."

Tips for Marking This Day

• Watch "Steamboat Willie" and notice how sound and movement were handled more than 90 years ago
• Share the "his first name was going to be Mortimer" story as a conversation starter
• Take another look at the Mickey items on your desk and use them to spark a chat
• Post a short Mickey memory in your company newsletter or on social media

The Starting Point of a Global Character

Mickey began in a black-and-white short and is still loved around the world. November 18 is a day to remember the one film where it all started. In 1978, a star bearing Mickey's name was placed on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, the first for a fictional character. In Japan, the Disney Channel began full broadcasting on November 18, 2003, to coincide with his birthday.