Monday, August 22, 2011

Mouse's Finest Era

Created specially for then Princess Elizabeth, now Queen, way back in 1935, this art of Mickey and friends, charming and cheerful as they spend time in London, appeared in The Princess Elizabeth Gift Book, In Aid of the Princess Elizabeth of York Hospital for Children.

Donald is still pretty primitive in appearance, Goofy is still Dippy Dawg, the Limeys are loopy—and this is definitely the mouse's finest era.

Note how Horace is demonstrating the royal backhand wave.

Mickey Mouse and His Retinue Arriving at the Party

The End of the Party: Mickey Mouse takes a Photograph

© Walt Disney Productions

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6 comments:

  1. AnnieAugust 23, 2011 at 5:39 AM

    The characters look really happy, and there is a cleverness in the scenarios. I love Minnie's outfit! That was my favorite "dress" during a window of time when I wore it at Disney World, a white petticoat under all of the polka dots, black leotards and regular princess patent leather shoes, instead of the oversized dress and shoes that came later. It was a fun costume to "animate."

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  2. Daniel [oeconomist.com]August 23, 2011 at 6:26 AM

    Yeah, this pie-eyed Mickey is the best!

    When I decided to acquire a Mickey Mouse pocket watch (to accessorize my better suits), I specifically sought one with a pie-eyed Mickey. More recently, when I've contributed decks of Mickey Mouse playing cards to the card deck collection of the Mock Turtle, I've looked for the classic pie-eyed Mickey.

    As a side-effect of acquiring things in lots, I've a few things with the redesigned Mickey, but I just try to sell them or to find them good homes; I don't want them.

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  3. BobAugust 23, 2011 at 7:49 AM

    This is the Golden Age for the Mouse.... what wonderful illustrations.

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  4. Daniel [oeconomist.com]August 23, 2011 at 12:11 PM

    BTW, Steven Jay Gould's very famous essay, “A Biological Homage to Mickey Mouse”, utterly omits data-points from the interval that includes this best Mickey Mouse. In other words, he fudged.

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  5. Thomas Haller BuchananAugust 23, 2011 at 12:18 PM

    Daniel, if somebody like Gould can fudge, I feel licensed to fudge as well.

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  6. Daniel [oeconomist.com]August 24, 2011 at 7:05 AM

    See? Now we have a domino effect, and pretty soon all of civilization collapses!

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