Mickey's first appearence ?

[Olivier]

>>> What defines Mickey's first appearence ? "Plane Crazy" (shown privately)
>>> shown in May 1928, or "Steamboat Willie" (which was Mickey's first
>>> public appearence) shown in October/November 1928 ?

Just as was said regarding Uncle Scrooge, the first appearance is the date
the story was published or the movie was first released to an audience wide
enough-- if  it's too small or a test screening in one theater (as may have
been the case; I can't check), it's a bit like a private showing, or part of
the production process.

The first Mickey Mouse cartoon produced (thus, the one in which he made his
very first appearance) is "Plane Crazy", completed in May 1928; it was shown
at a local theater on May 15, with a piano accompaniment. This was the first
time an audience saw Mickey, so you may consider this as his first
appearance. However, it was just a test screening with a most limited
release, which might be considered as being still part of  the
post-production; even more so, as the fiished movie, which got a "wide"
release some months later, featured a soundtrack.

The first MM cartoon short to get a "wide" release turned out to be the
third one that was animated, but the first to get a soundtrack: "Steamboat
Willie"; the official premiere was on November 18, 1928, and is thus usually
considered as Mickey's first appearance.

As Don Rosa pointed out, your birthday is the date you were actually born,
not when you were conceived nine months earlier; the same goes for any
production. You can sometimes track down the date of  creation (though it
must be pretty rare to nail down the exact date the creator first had the
idea), but the Anniversary is that of  the public release of  the work
(whether a book, a piece of  music, a movie, ...).


Olivier