It’s unimaginable that a character as timeless as Mickey Mouse is over 90 years old because it is still adored by people around the world. Although now, Mickey finds himself being featured mostly on television, his debut was a much grander affair, released at the Colony Theater in New York City in an animated feature called Steamboat Willie.
Although this feature was only 8-minutes long and that too in black and white, it was a revolutionary achievement in the field of animation. Not only that, but it also highlighted how entertaining animation could be, which is why till date Disney, the company behind the creation of Mickey Mouse, still employs the character as its global ambassador.
The Birthday Bash
To celebrate Mickey Mouse’s 90th birthday in 2018, an art exhibition was organized by Disney over a vast area of around 16,000 square feet in the posh locality of Manhattan. In this exhibition, the company featured artwork, some of which have existed since the inception of the character, photo ops that bring the character to life, and, as always, merchandise that Disney sold to fans to commemorate the milestone. One other interesting feature is that the exhibition continued till 10th February 2019.
Other Celebrations
Of course, Mickey Mouse is a character loved by everyone and hence it wasn’t only Disney that celebrated this momentous occasion.
A Spectacular on ABC
In honor of Mickey turning 90, the channel ABC ran a 2-hour long feature at its primetime slot of 8 pm called Mickey’s 90th Spectacular. The feature was organized at the Shrine Auditorium located in Los Angeles and included musical performances by some of our favorite celebrities, emotional tributes, and also short films that had never been seen before.
The list of celebrities who graced the event with their presence included Skylar Astin from the film Pitch Perfect, Kelsea Ballerini who is a Grammy-nominated singer, Miles Brown from the hit TV show Black-ish, Anna Camp from Pitch Perfect, Josh Gad from the animated feature Frozen, and Wendi McLendon-Covey from The Goldbergs, to name a few. Musical performances by Tori Kelly as well as Luis Fonsi also added to the spectacle.
To give the event a more prestigious appeal, stars who voiced the characters in the original version of the Mickey Mouse Club, Bob Burgess as well as Sharon Baird, also gave a special appearance.
The Celebration by Google
As an add-on to its Google Home Mini, for his 90th Birthday, Google decided to honor Mickey with an adventure game specially designed for the Google Home platform. In addition to that, the company also offered fans accessories that they could use to make their Google Home device look like their favorite animated character. A Disney Trivia game was also introduced by the search-engine company.
That’s not all! The company also launched a new feature sometime in October called Read Along, which allowed users to narrate Mickey Mouse stories while the device would play background music to match the narrated scene.
Other Brands
When it comes to merchandise, Disney leaves no stone unturned. For such a commemorative occasion, the company partnered with some of our favorite brands to bring us some of the coolest Mickey Mouse merchandise to date.
A Mickey watch designed in collaboration with Damien Hirst and Swatch is the cutest thing in the world and comes with a price tag of only $125. Zappos also launched two distinct pairs of vans which cost $65 a pair.
A charm was designed by the company Pandora and sold at the Disney shop for only $75. A dress that is off-the-shoulder and has a print of some of Mickey’s most popular roles throughout history came with a price tag of $128. Mickey definitely had a memorable 90th birthday celebration.