Is He the Most Loved Cartoon Character or Just a Corporate Symbol?
the time, Mickey was just as relevant at 50 as he was at any age prior or since. By the 1970s, though, most people might have accused Mickey of just being a benign emblem through the Disney Company and at Disneyland and Disney World. Nevertheless, all those years of him being a lovable, kind-hearted, non-judgmental host to the theme parks (and during promotional tours as he did during his 50th birthday) might have been taken for granted. Yes, now that we’re living in a much more troubled world, people who remember interacting with Mickey Mouse at the theme parks or elsewhere years ago are getting quite emotional when they meet up with him again. Had Mickey Mouse stayed the way he was exactly 80 years ago in his 1928 debut cartoon “Steamboat Willie”, that comforting feeling might have been something considerably different. But a rambunctious character as host of the theme parks wouldn’t have ever been allowed by Walt Disney, if undoubtedly entertaining for some. It seems that during the
