Mickey Mouse - American Heroes

The StoryFirefighter Mickey, along with his faithful firedog, Pluto, races to the rescue from little red Fire House No. 1.The ArtworkDisneyland's resident illustrator, Peter Emerick, successor to the renowned Disney artist Charles Boyer, designed this cel and background artwork for Walt Disney Animation Art. The multi-talented Mickey Mouse he depicts here in "American Heroes" is inspired by Mickey's portrayal in classic cartoon shorts, most notably Mickey's Fire Brigade (1935), in which Mickey's design included the "button-eye" look used in this sericel. During Mickey's Golden Age in the 1930s, he showed a spunky versatility and "can-do" adaptability that was inspirational to audiences of the time. Mickey played everything from fireman to giant killer, cowboy to inventor, detective to plumber. Technically and artistically, Mickey Mouse cartoons were far superior to other contemporary cartoons and gave life to an entire family of animated characters. Their artistic success was honored with an Academy Award to Walt Disney in 1932 for having created Mickey Mouse.The Walt Disney Studios has created this character image using the fine art screen-printing process of color reproduction known as serigraphy. Disney artists, working from Mr. Emerick's original layout drawing specially created a hand-inked, hand-painted animation cel master which was used as a reference in the production of these sericels.