Mickey Mouse has been a symbol of joy and delight for 100 years now – with Disney celebrating its centennial this year.
However, few may know the bizarrely dark storylines in which the beloved cartoon mouse has been embroiled in over the years.
For instance, 93 years ago, American cartoonist Floyd Gottfredson pictured a whole week’s worth of daily comics in which the rodent tried to take his own life after being rejected by Minnie.
Thankfully Mickey’s attempts are all foiled by various quirky circumstances or silly gags – such as finding the water too cold to drown in, or being unable to configure how he can operate the shotgun. He eventually decides that he does want to live, and ditches his suicide plot.
According to some reports, the sombre arc was suggested by none other than Walt Disney himself, writes Comics Alliance.
Mickey Mouse (pictured in film stills in 1992) has been a symbol of joy and delight for 100 years now, as Disney this year celebrated its centennial
Game Informer says the founder even pushed the tale into production, and Mouse Planet recounts that it’s likely Harold Lloyd’s Haunted Spooks – where the protagonist comically tries to kill himself in a series of slapstick attempts – could have served as the inspiration.
The comic strips were initially launched in 1930, after being suggested in 1929, following the success of the Mickey Mouse animations.
It initially included art from Ub Iwerks – famous for being Walt’s business partner and an incredible animator – but he left the company, leading to Floyd Gottfredson’s taking over the comic strips.
They also included other harrowing storylines. In one – also from 1930 – Mickey created a home-made plane so he and Minnie can enjoy a flight.
Things however quickly go wrong as his girlfriend falls from the contraption and the mouse has to brave the stormy elements, only to end up on a desolate island where the inhabitants want to eat him.
Elsewhere, Mickey must face off two thugs who kidnap Minnie in order to track down a hidden gold mine belonging to her uncle.
In a Medium blogpost titled The Dark Side of Mickey, writer Jasmin James also revealed how, despite being a mouse, Mickey was often depicted joking and taking part in animal cruelty.
She references one comic in which he gets so irritated that a race horse he put a bet on didn’t deliver, he hits out that it’s ‘not even worth sending to the glue factory’.
Another blogger, The Journal of Cartoon Overanalyzations, pointed out that Mickey’s mistreatment of other creatures goes beyond the comic strips – which saw him twist up a wiener dog to act as a motor of a plane propeller.
The comic strips were initially launched in 1930, after being suggested in 1929, following the success of the Mickey Mouse animations. It initially included art from Ub Iwerks
The post recounts the notorious Steamboat Willie animation, where Mickey begins to use animals as musical instruments.
‘This goes beyond animal cruelty,’ the author writes. ‘Mickey swings a cat by its tail and throws it off the boat. He then finds several baby pigs suckling on their mama.
‘He picks up the mama pig and forcefully shakes off all but one of her babies. He then kicks the last baby off the mama pig and begins to squeeze her teats as if she were an accordion!’
The iconic Mickey had its origins in a cartoon called Hungry Hobos, which was made in 1928 and was only found in 2011.
The Disney cartoon featured a character who was the prototype for Mickey Mouse and was later discovered in a British film archive.
The black-and-white footage features Oswald the Lucky Rabbit and was drawn shortly before the character was abandoned and turned into Mickey Mouse that same year.
Mickey first debuted in the film ‘Steamboat Willie,’ premiered at what was then the Colony Theatre on Broadway on November 18, 1928.
One of the first cartoons to use synchronised sound and music, the film would make Mickey a star. He has appeared in more than 130 films next to his girlfriend Minnie Mouse, dog Pluto and friends Donald Duck and Goofy, among others.
It comes as today, Disney – the firm started by Walt Disney in the United States in 1923 – celebrates its 100th anniversary.
And a small village in Lincolnshire – which Walt visited in 1949 during a trip to the UK – is celebrating its historic link with the super firm.
While in the country to supervise the filming of Treasure Island 74 years ago, the founder made his way to Norton Disney to trace his distant ancestry.
Walt Disney is seen with his wife Lillian in the 1950s. The couple were married for more than 40 years
Accompanied by his wife and children, he found the family crest of his reputed ancestor Sir William d’Isney, on the 14th-century figure’s tomb in Norton Disney’s St Peter’s Church.
As a tribute to Walt’s discovery, those three lions have featured in the famous title sequence of every Disney film since 2006.
A flag bearing the crest is seen fluttering at the top of Sleeping Beauty’s castle in the short clip and has been reproduced at Disneyland parks across the world since 1965.
Speaking from St Peter’s Church, which dates back to the 11th century, historian and Disney expert Sebastien Durand told BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme: ‘This is the oldest place in England where you can find a trace of Disney, of Walt Disney’s history and his family tree and even his coat of arms.’
He added that there is a ’99 per cent’ possibility that Disney’s name originates with from the French family memorialised in St Peter’s Church.
Walt made his visit to Norton Disney with his wife Lillian and daughters Diane and Sharon on July 7, 1949.
At the time, his firm was already hugely popular for films including Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Fantasia, which starred the much loved Mickey Mouse.
Walt, who was aware that his great-grandfather was Irish, had heard that there was a village named after Disney and so wanted to explore further.
His visit was filmed with a cine camera. The footage shows him with his family outside the church and speaking with the vicar at the time, Reverend RK Roper. They also pose by Norton Disney road signs and walk down the main road.
Inside St Peter’s Church, Walt saw William d’Isney’s crest, which showed three lions facing left – the symbol of Normandy.
According to the BBC, their name then changed over the centuries, first to d’Isgny and then to D’Iseny, before finally becoming Disney in around the 13th or 14th centuries.
In 1965, Walt wanted to add a coat of arms to Sleeping Beauty’s castle to mark the 10th anniversary of Disneyland. He was asked if there was a Disney crest and recalled how he saw it in Norton Disney.
Pictures of it were taken so it could be reproduced in California and at Disney’s other parks.
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