Walt Disney
Journal 5
1928
We have changed our minds. We thought that we should put Mickey Mouse in a separate cartoon than Silly Symphonies. The reason why we did that is because people need to get to know him. If we put him in Silly Symphonies instantly, everybody will wonder where Oswald is. Unfortunately, Oswald is now owned by Universal company and this is a disaster. I know that earlier I mentioned that we will directly create series and put Mickey Mouse in it but this is a better idea. We are going to produce a short movie starring Mickey. We will release it tomorrow and its name will be Plane Crazy. We will also put Clarabelle Cow to our comic so that there would be a character that is recognizable. I really did not like the short movie but Ub seemed to enjoy it very much. I do not think that it will be great success but if Ub liked it this much; it should be good. If it does not work we will just continue on with the B plan: Silly Symphonies.
Journal 6
1928
Plane Crazy was a big mistake. It was really unsuccessful and we should have totally not done it. We thought it would be nice introduction for Mickey Mouse but it was a huge failure. In the plot, Mickey and his friends try to build their own plane. After a disastrous flight, Mickey builds another plane and invites Minnie to fly over with him. By the way, Minnie is another character that we created and she is the love of Mickey Mouse. Anyway, after a long plane ride Mickey turns his attention to Minnie but she refuses his advances. When Mickey kisses her anyway, she slaps him and then gets out of the plane by using her parachutes. Ub and I thought that this was a good plot but the audience did not think so. We do not feel good about our new series. I regret that we did not fight enough for Oswald. He would have been a great hit and we would be famous enough to win Oscars by now.
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Journal 7
1929
We are now working on Silly Symphonies. Ub and I are very excited and happy. We are also a bit nervous because it has a chance of being a failure. We are going to combine music with action and use animation as choreography. The reason we are doing that is because the short cartoon we made for Mickey Mouse was unsuccessful. There wasn’t any sound so the audience was bored. We needed to make a new plan before we lost our mass of followers. We did not have proper sleep for a week now. Ub and I are drawing everything with our hands with effort. Our first cartoon will be creepy in order to surprise the crowd. Right now Ub is n the back room of the studio and I bet he is drawing fearful skeletons. We will give Mickey Mouse a break until the public knows us better. Then we can continue on to Minnie and Mickey’s romance. If we work hard enough, the cartoon can be finished in three days. Then we can release it and wait for the result of our ongoing hard work.