Mickey Mouse
Created as a replacement for a prior Disney character, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, Mickey first appeared in the short "Plane Crazy", debuting publicly in the short film "Steamboat Willie" (1928), one of the first sound cartoons. He went on to appear in over 130 films, including "The Band Concert" (1935), "Brave Little Tailor" (1938), and "Fantasia" (1940). Mickey appeared primarily in short films, but also occasionally in feature-length films. Ten of Mickey's cartoons were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film, one of which, "Lend a Paw", won the award in 1942. In 1978, Mickey became the first cartoon character to have a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Mickey Mouse
About this time, story artists at Disney were finding it increasingly difficult to write material for Mickey. As he had developed into a role model for children, they were limited in the types of gags they could make. This led to Mickey taking more of a secondary role in some of his next films allowing for more emphasis on other characters. In "Orphan's Benefit" (August 11, 1934) Mickey first appeared with Donald Duck who had been introduced earlier that year in the "Silly Symphonies" series. The tempestuous duck would provide Disney with seemingly endless story ideas and would remain a recurring character in Mickey's cartoons.