Walt Disney: Mickey Mouse: Disney's Mural of Memories

75th Anniversary Collection The Story

In this sericel edition, commemorating 75 years of Disney history, Mickey Mouse picks up the paintbrush to depict nearly 100 of his classic animated colleagues, including himself, his sweetheart, Minnie, Pluto, Donald, Pongo, Perdita and her pups, Cinderella, Snow White and the seven dwarfs, Belle and Beast.

The Artwork

This is a limited-edition, anniversary-themed sericel depicting Disney's greatest animated stars. The Walt Disney Studios has created this character image using the fine art screen-printing process of color reproduction known as serigraphy. Disney artists specially created a hand-inked, hand-painted animation cel which was used in the productionof these sericels. A total of 33 colors were used to recreate the color image, each of which has been exactingly screen-printed, one color at a time, onto the acetate cel. To compliment each piece, and to commemorate The Walt Disney Company's 75th anniversary, each mat bears a screen-printed remarque.

On October 16, 1923, Walter Elias Disney and Roy Oliver Disney founded a partnership, The Disney Brothers Studio, in Hollywood, California. Established to make animated cartoon shorts, the first Disney project was to produce a series of animated short subjects entitled "Alice Comedies". Featuring a live action girl in an animated world, 56 of the silent Alice cartoons were made between 1924 and 1927.

In 1927 the Studio began a series of all-animated shorts starring a new character, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. Disney produced 26 of the silent cartoons in 1927 and 1928. When Disney's distribution rights ended, the loss led to the creation of a new character - Mickey Mouse - in 1928. The rest is history......