Mickey Mouse (film series)
The name "Mickey Mouse" was first used in the films' title sequences to refer specifically to the character, but was used from 1935 to 1953 to refer to the series itself as in "Walt Disney presents a Mickey Mouse." In this sense "a Mickey Mouse" was a shortened form of "a Mickey Mouse sound cartoon" which was used in the earliest films. Films from 1929 to 1935 which were re-released during this time also used this naming convention, but it was not used for the three shorts released between 1983 and 1995 ("Mickey's Christmas Carol", "The Prince and the Pauper", and "Runaway Brain"). Mickey's name was also used occasionally to market other films which were formally part of other series. Examples of this include several "Silly Symphonies", "Don Donald" (1937), and "Goofy and Wilbur" (1939).
"Mickey Mouse" began production in April 1928 after the Disney studio lost the license to Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. The first two films, "Plane Crazy" and "The Gallopin' Gaucho", were previewed in theaters but failed to pick up a distributor. For the third film, Disney added synchronized sound, a technology that was still in its early stages at the time. "Steamboat Willie" debuted in New York in November 1928 and was an instant success. The revenues from the film provided the studio with much needed resources, and the studio quickly began to produce new cartoons as well as releasing sound versions of the first two.
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.