The Walt Disney Company
In 1928, to recover from the loss of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, Disney came up with the idea of a mouse character named Mortimer while on a train headed to California, drawing up a few simple drawings. The mouse was later renamed Mickey Mouse (Disney's wife, Lillian, disliked the sound of 'Mortimer Mouse') and starred in several Disney produced films. Ub Iwerks refined Disney's initial design of Mickey Mouse. Disney's first sound film "Steamboat Willie", a cartoon starring Mickey, was released on November 18, 1928 through Pat Powers' distribution company. It was the first Mickey Mouse sound cartoon released, but the third to be created, behind "Plane Crazy" and "The Gallopin' Gaucho". "Steamboat Willie" was an immediate smash hit, and its initial success was attributed not just to Mickey's appeal as a character, but to the fact that it was the first cartoon to feature synchronized sound. Disney used Pat Powers' Cinephone system, created by Powers using Lee de Forest's Phonofilm system. "Steamboat Willie" premiered at B. S. Moss's Colony Theater in New York City, now The Broadway Theatre. Disney's "Plane Crazy" and "The Gallopin' Gaucho" were then retrofitted with synchronized sound tracks and re-released successfully in 1929.
Mickey Mouse in Vietnam
Short Subject (commonly known as "Mickey Mouse in Vietnam") is a 16mm American underground animated short film. The director was Whitney Lee Savage (father of Adam Savage, of "MythBusters" fame); the producer and head designer was Milton Glaser. The short was produced under the auspices of a studio named Max Cats and Whittesey Sledge Studios. It features the Disney character Mickey Mouse being shipped to Vietnam during the war. Moments after arriving, he is shot dead. It was produced independently in 1969 and has a total running time of one minute. It received an award from the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen in 1970. The film was lost for many years until April 22, 2013 when a YouTube user uploaded the video. Five years later, on July 31, 2018, the full short was discovered and uploaded by another YouTube user; this version includes opening and closing titles, both of which were absent in the 2013 upload, as well the audio track, which until then it was assumed that it was completely lost. The music prominently used in the soundtrack is "The Gonk" by Herbert Chappell, which was popularized by George Romero's horror film Dawn of the Dead.