Ub Iwerks: The Forgotten Disney Founder

Mickey Mouse seems like he's been around since the beginning of time; even though

he and the gang haven't headlined a major film in several years, they're still ubiquitous characters in the world of North American filmmaking and animation. Everyone knows that Walt Disney created Mickey - but what's often left out of the story is that Walt had a partner, Ub Iwerks, who was one of animation's great unsung heroes.

In 1919, when Walt Disney and Iwerks were both eighteen years of age, they happened to meet. They quickly became friends and started a commercial illustration business together. When Disney created the Laugh-O-Gram studio in 1922, Iwerks joined on as chief animator. They went bankrupt in less than a year - the first of many Disney financial blunders - and the two men moved to Los Angeles to try their luck in Hollywood.

After working on a cartoon series called the 'Alice Comedies', Iwerks came up with a brand new character: Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. Universal studios agreed to distribute a series of short cartoons featuring the plucky animal in 1927, animated by Iwerks and a modest staff. It was Disney's first hit, and rivaled other popular cartoon characters like Felix the Cat. Unfortunately, Walt lost control of the character due to a disagreement with Universal, and most of his staff left to work for the larger studio. Adamant that they could make it independently, Iwerks and Disney were on their own on several occasions. Oswald had been successful, and the men began to toss around a concept for a replacement. After Iwerks tried sketches of different animals, none of which Walt liked, he came up with a mouse character - Mickey.

The first few Mickey cartoons were almost entirely animated by Iwerks solely. Disney's leadership style became strict, once the animations became popular with theater-goers and the studio began to make money; production turn-around times became shorter as well. Iwerks didn't get credit for drawing the cartoons that were making Walt Disney famous (which annoyed him) and his old friend's impossible demands become increasingly difficult to achieve. After the two had an argument, Iwerks accepted a contract with a competitor to start a his own studio.

Despite being an excellent cartoonist with a fantastic portfolio, Iwerks' studio was not a success; even with a distribution deal from MGM, the operation was forced to close in 1936. Before returning to the Disney studio in 1940, Iwerks worked around Hollywood for a few years; by that time, the legendary Nine Old Men (as they came to be known), were the life blood of the animation department, as they were just hired. Iwerks focused on developing special effects, including inventing the method to combine animation and live action in Song of the South and adapting the xerographic process to animation cels. Iwerks also did special effects for others, including his Oscar-nominated work on Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds in 1963. He died in 1965, and was named a Disney Legend in 1989.

by: Robert Nickel

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