Disney: Freedom and Courage

Mickey, Walt’s crucial assertion of courage, marks the initial revelation of Disney’s total freedom from traditional limits. In the Mouse, as in everything Walt Disney did, control and passion, down to earthiness and imagination were juggled: Mickey is heroic and, yet, according to Disney, only a little fellow doing the best he can. Mickey joins the extremes of power and fragility, nobility and prosaicness, excellence and neediness. Before personifying Walt Disney’s temperament, behavior, or even ideals, Mickey embodies Disney’s love of extremes. A talking mouse reveals inspiration from nature and from artifice.