Maleficent had no chance of beating Mickey in Fantasmic!, his power and imagination really has no limits. I'm reading the book "How to be like Walt", and in this particular chapter it talks about Mickey Mouse. Us Disney fans know the story of how Mickey was created, but they don't realize how his popularity spread so incredibly fast and far. Here are a few paragraphs from the book, explaining this powerful mouse:
"President Franklin D. Roosevelt admired the spirit and resourcefulness of Mickey Mouse, and ordered that the cartoons be shown at the White House. England's King George V demanded that Mickey Mouse cartoons accompany every film shown at Buckingham Palace. Mickey brought cheer and hope to a world falling under the shadow of the Great Depression. His relentless optimism, so much like Walt's, was good medicine for an ailing society.
Mickey's last black-and-white cartoon (Mickey's Kangaroo) and his first color cartoon (The Band Concert) premiered in 1935. That year, the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade featured a fifty-foot tall Mickey Mouse-and Walt received a special medal from the League of Nations, recognizing Mickey as "A symbol of universal good will." To top it off, 1935 was the year Adolf Hitler banned Mickey Mouse cartoons from German theaters.
Later, during World War II, Mickey Mouse encouraged Americans to support the war effort by purchasing War Bonds. During the London blitz, English children were issued gas masks with pictures of Mickey on them. The terror of the bombing raids was made more bearable because the Mouse was there. When Allied forces prepared to storm the beaches of Normandy on D-Day, June 6, 1944, soldiers were given a password by which all friendly forces would be recognized: 'Mickey Mouse'".
"Mickey Mouse to me is the symbol of independence. Born of necessity, the little fellow literally freed us of immediate worry." -Walt Disney
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