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Mickey Mouse (film series)

American animated short film series

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 11, 2026
Entity authorityQ3311864
Source-derived summary

Mickey Mouse (originally known as Mickey Mouse Cartoons) is a series of American animated comedy short films produced by Walt Disney Productions. The series started in 1928 with Steamboat Willie with 2013's Get a Horse! being the most recent short in the series to date, otherwise taking a hiatus from 1953 to 1983. The series is notable for its innovation with sound synchronization and character animation, and also introduced well-known characters such as the titular protagonist Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Pluto and Goofy.

The name "Mickey Mouse" was first used in the films' title sequences to refer specifically to the character, but was used from 1935 to 1953 to refer to the series itself, as in "Walt Disney presents a Mickey Mouse". In this sense "Mickey Mouse" was a shortened form of "a Mickey Mouse cartoon" which was used in the earliest films. Films from 1929 to 1935 which were re-released during this time also used this naming convention, but it was not used for the three shorts released between 1983 and 1995 (Mickey's Christmas Carol, The Prince and the Pauper, and Runaway Brain). Mickey's name was also used occasionally to market other films which were formally part of other series. Examples of this include several Silly Symphonies and Goofy and Wilbur (1939).

The shorts released before 1931 are currently in the public domain.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Mickey Mouse (film series)” is american animated short film series. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Mickey, Mouse and film, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA useful identification and reception guide that helps separate the work itself from editions, performances, ownership and later interpretation. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1928, 2013, 1953, 1983—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. For this dossier, Mickey, Mouse and film is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “american animated short film series” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 11, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3311864. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1928, 2013, 1953 and 1983.

Critical limits

Later fame can flatten the distinction between original context, subsequent adaptation and institutional collecting history. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for
  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Mickey Mouse (film series)”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Mickey Mouse (film series) primary sources, Mickey Mouse (film series) archive and Mickey research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Mickey Mouse (film series)”?
  2. How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
  3. Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
Subject index

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Mickey Mouse (film series)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.