First-magnitude international star and corporate icon Mickey Mouse remains one of the most popular and recognizable cartoon characters ever. A star of stage, screen, television, and comic strips, and the host of the Disney theme parks, Mickey is the example of a universal image if ever there was one. His likeness and his smiling image can be found on tee shirts, jewelry, posters, coffee mugs, sheets, and just about anything imaginable. He is not only the symbol of the ever-increasing Disney empire, Mickey has also become a symbol of American success and capitalism. Mickey has even become a part of the language. According to Webster's , the term " Mickey Mouse " is used to refer to a bland or corny dance-band music, and things or concepts that are oversimplified and unrelated to reality.

Mickey 's genesis in 1928 and rise to superstardom paralleled or perhaps led to Walt Disney 's transformation from struggling animator to entertainment colossus. The legends surrounding Mickey 's creation vary widely with the most prevalent story claiming that Mickey was created while Disney and his wife were returning from a business trip. Initially, Disney wanted to name his new character, which was to be based upon the field mice that frequently invaded his new studio, "Mortimer Mouse," but his wife, Lillian , vetoed that in favor of " Mickey ." Mickey made his screen debut in two short, silent animated features, Plane Crazy and Gallopin' Gaucho . He made film history later that year when Disney released Steamboat Willie , the first animated film to utilize synchronized sound. Disney himself provided Mickey 's voice in The Klondike Kid , the mouse's first "talkie." Disney would continue to voice Mickey until 1946 when he turned the job over to sound effects wizard James MacDonald ; in the early '80s, MacDonald passed the torch to his Mickey protégé, Wayne Allwine . By the 1930s, Mickey Mouse had become a bona fide star and the bulk of his more-than-135 theatrical short films were filmed during this decade. It was also at this time that Mickey Mouse merchandise began flooding the market. By 1940, when he made his feature-film debut in the Sorcerer's Apprentice segment of Fantasia , Mickey Mouse , with his amiable, nice-guy image, had become an institution.