TAKING THE MICKEY
Disney animator reveals Mickey Mouse’s secrets and ‘cheat’ used to draw him on cartoon legend’s 90th birthday
Veteran Disney animator Eric Goldberg reveals some of the secrets behind the world famous cartoon mouse
DISNEY director and animator Eric Goldberg has revealed his secrets to drawing Mickey Mouse as the much-loved cartoon character turns 90.
The fun-loving mouse first came to life in 1928 and has since gone on to appear in more than 130 films and is now a household favourite around the world.
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Now the veteran animator has opened up about a life-long obsession with Mickey.
He told : “I was just an animation sponge; I really wanted to learn everything about it from the age of eight.
“I started doing flip books and from that point no memo pad in the house was safe.
“Mickey Mouse was at the heart of a lot of that stuff because he was relatively simple to draw”.
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Goldberg, 63,has had an illustrious career with the Walt Disney Studios and won awards for his work which has included being a supervising animator of the Genie in Aladdin, co-directing Pocahontas and animating the satyr Phil, voiced by Danny DeVito in Hercules.
But it is Mickey who still appeals the most.
He said: “He's like us. Mickey is not perfect but he has attributes that many of us would like, he's very resourceful, he's very inventive and one of the things a lot of people don't tend to think about is that he's simply fun to watch.
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“There are all sorts of shadings to his personality that make him a very unique 'every mouse'.”
Goldberg revealed that while Mickey is instantly recognisable around the world he has not always stayed the same with his appearance changing, most notably in the 1940s with Fantasia’s the Sorcerer’s Apprentice.
He said: “During that sequence, Mickey looks up at the sorcerer and he has this little tiny smile, which then drops like 'I guess he's not buying that one' and by having that pliability in his face it gave him a lot more subtlety.”
Goldberg explained the biggest “cheat” used is drawing his ears saying that when he is drawn either in profile or head on, his ears remain “flat on”.
Happy Birthday Mickey Mouse - Disney celebrate 90 years of iconic character
How to draw Mickey Mouse
Most illustrators will start with the round nose, a simple circle coloured black, and then add a curve for the bridge of the nose.
Next comes the two large ovals for the eyes, and two small ovals for the pupils.
Below the nose comes the characteristic wide smile, a simple curved line, edged with two small brackets, to which you add a mouth and tongue.
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The top of the mouth can be coloured in black.
The lip can be added with a simple curved line below the mouth.
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Next, a point is marked between the top of both eyes. A curved line is drawn from the point down both sides of the eye, and ends just above the brackets.
Two cheeks are added that meet at the lip.
Now the top of Mickey's head is added, and two black circles are added for the ears.
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