Disney beloved character couples have always been Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse, and Donald Duck and Daisy Duck. These character power couples have been through the longest courtship ever.
Mickey Mouse came from the original Mortimer Mouse and since the name doesn’t flow off your tongue, his name was changed to Mickey. Donald and Daisy came to Walt Disney (DIS) fans as another power couple later.
Daisy Duck and Minnie Mouse must be the most patient women in the world while waiting for their male counterparts, as these couples go through regular day to day couple activities but never progress in their onscreen relationships. These couples experience dates, arguments, and work through them. These are always set a calm tone for the young audiences paying attention and learn from.
While both couples have been on the screen for close to a century, these power couples are the mainstay of Disney’s iconic characters, but they weren’t the originals, as most people would think. Some people know that Mortimer Mouse was before Mickey, but there was actually two other characters pre-Mickey and Minnie, and they weren't mice.
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Disney Celebrates New Year with Old Rabbit
The beginning entertainment of what is now Disney to the world didn’t actually start with a mouse, like we all have believed. It started with a rabbit. What better time to bring the original Disney created rabbit out of retirement, than the Lunar New Year, Year of the Rabbit. Disney’s original character before Mickey or even Mortimer was Oswald. Oswald the Lucky Rabbit was first created by Walt Disney in 1927.
Walt Disney knew that when he would ultimately leave Universal, he would lose the rights to Oswald, so Walt went back to the drawing board, literally. Disney created Mortimer who then became Mickey. Mickey is technically Oswald’s half-brother, hence their similar looks despite being completely different animals.
Disney can’t get Oswald to come out of retirement without bringing his gal pal Ortensia, who is Oswald the Lucky Rabbit’s significant other. The Chinese Lunar year is the year of the rabbit so what better way to celebrate Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. The Vietnamese Lunar New Year is the Year of the Cat, so the celebration wouldn't be complete without Oswald's gal pal Ortensia the Cat.
Disney California Adventure will host both Oswald and Ortensia during the Lunar New Year Celebration at the Disneyland resort. The celebration of the Lunar New Year or Spring Festival is based on the cycles of the moon in the Chinese, Vietnamese and Korean cultures. The festivities will go until Feb 15. The celebration will include food and fun with the Disney created characters Oswald and Ortensia.
Disney Calls Old Friends Out of Retirement
Walt Disney lost the rights to both Oswald and Ortensia when he quit working at Universal Pictures as a cartoonist. He knew he had to create something new, but just as fun, catchy, and edgy as Oswald. Disney began his own creation that he would retain the rights to by starting out on his own, and that was the mouse that started it all. This was also the beginning of the competition between Disney and Universal, with Walt leaving Universal to create his own dream and business.
Disney has decided to bring back the original Disney character couples out of retirement, much like Walt Disney bringing longtime CEO Bob Iger out of retirement. Iger retired in 2020 and was brought back after a tumultuous time for Disney during the pandemic to help guide the global organization while a new CEO is found and vetted.
Interestingly enough, it was Iger who was able to regain control over Oswald the Lucky Rabbit in 2006. Without Iger working with Universal to get the rights back to Walt Disney’s original created character, the Oswald and Ortensia characters might be roaming the streets of Universal Studios theme parks.
Iger made an interesting trade, much like NFL teams do trades for players. Iger made a trade with Comcast's (CMCSA) Universal to bring the Disney creations to the Mouse House by giving Universal's sister network NBC the rights to NFL announcer Al Michaels, who wanted to leave Disney-owned ABC to broadcast Sunday Night Football.
