Historical and Contemporary Animation 1 - The Adaption of Mickey Mouse over the Years

Mickey Mouse has been the mascot of Disney Studios for 87 years, and over that many years a character can change a bit. The first way being character design. Although the ears and button shorts haven't been removed, Mickey has had several character redesigns over his life. The first one was before his debut in Steamboat Willie. The first few sketches of Mickey had an elongated nose along with separated eyes, but in his debut appearance his nose was shorter and pointed up rather than down, and his only his pupils were separated.

The second change happened in the animated short "The Karnival Kid" where he was given his iconic white gloves.

The third was when Mickey was in his first fully animated feature length film Fantasia.

In this, they added in full eyes rather than just pupils that moved around his head, as well as making his nose slightly more bulbous. Now he looks more like the Disney Classic Mickey everyone has seen.

During 1955 there was a redesign that was binned after an angry letter from a fan that said the modern art look of his appearance in a 55 Nash Car Commercial made Mickey look 'Communist'

So Mickeys design remained unchanging for over 50 years.

Then in 2013, a television produced by Paul Rudish redesigned Mickey into an echo of his 1930's era design. 

Back to sporting white skin and just pupils for eyes, Mickey's Renaissance came into being. Although he was still in colour, having yellow shoes and red shorts with gold buttons, Mickey was re-created into a fusion of his old and new self, with a few new things added in.

Mickey Mouse is one of the longest surviving cartoon characters existing today. I expect his character design to have little changes in the future, since he is a major mascot for a Studio Company.