Answer: Neither Mickey Mouse nor the famed “Walt Disney” signature were actually ever drawn by Walt Disney himself. While Walt did sketch the original plans for the Mickey Mouse's character, the final design for Mickey we've all come to know and love was actually done by the famed Disney animator and Dutchman Ub Iwerks
Explanation: Kansas City takes a lot of pride in being the place where Walt Disney started his first animation studio and created his first cartoon characters.
But here's the thing: Walt Disney didn’t design Mickey Mouse. And the stories he told for years about how the iconic character came to be aren’t true.
To know the truth about Mickey Mouse and the secret to many of Walt Disney’s successes, you have to know the story of Disney's best friend: Kansas City animator Ub Iwerks. It was Iwerks, not Disney, who in 1928 designed Mickey Mouse and single-handedly animated the first Mickey cartoon in Hollywood.
The two originally met as teenagers, while working at the same Kansas City commercial art studio. Unlike Disney, Iwerks was born and raised in Kansas City. And from an early age, Iwerks was fascinated with the idea of bringing still images to life. It was his dad, a German immigrant, who first introduced him to film.
In addition to being a prolific animator, Iwerks was also the genius inventor behind Disney's greatest special effects. He is the one to thank for the iconic scenes in "Mary Poppins" and "Sleeping Beauty," in addition to Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds."
“He was the person who was doing most of the behind-the-scenes work. And when Walt was taking credit, Ub was the one who was denied credit,” says Jeff Ryan, author of “A Mouse Divided: How Ub Iwerks Became Forgotten, and Walt Disney Became Uncle Walt.”
It’s not like Walt Disney wasn’t integral to the success of Mickey Mouse. He certainly was. In addition to defining Mickey’s personality, he literally voiced the character for years. But that doesn’t erase the fact that for decades, the collaboration between Iwerks and Disney was mostly kept a secret.
"I think a lot of that has to do with the way that Disney over the years has controlled the Mickey Mouse narrative," Ryan says.
