Andreas Deja and Disney Freedom

The presentation of "The Evolution of Mickey" at D23 was truly Disney: it had intensity, fun and seriousness. Andreas Deja was artistically acrobatic in drawing several stages of Mickey, as David Pacheco posed to him, with grace and flexibility and humor, in Mickey's attire (no Mouse's head, and shades in the place of Mickey's eyes). It was great how they fully explained Mickey's evolution paralleling the current trends in art, design, architecture and decoration throughout the decades. True to form, Deja gave us a glimpse of the Disney freedom, that inventiveness that makes its own rules even if it has to break with established ones: he revealed that the face of Mickey, when seen frontally, had to "cheat" the laws of perspective, so that the Mouse could still retain its witty expression. First, Deja drew Mickey obliging those laws and pointed to the audience the fact that the Mouse's snout would cover his eyes and make him look dummy. Everybody agreed. Then, to the relief of all, the animator drew the perspective-cheating Mickey and there was everybody's beloved, "cheating" for honesty, or for the sake of being fully himself, Mickey! Only Disney can inaugurate its own laws, and only a talent like Deja can beautifully play with them, showing that expertise does not need to rely on academic tradition!