Mickey was originally created as a replacement for Oswald
the Lucky Rabbit, an earlier star created by the Disney
studio. Oswald had been created by Walt Disney and Ub
Iwerks for Charles Mintz of Universal Studios. In fact,
Mickey closely resembled Oswald in his early appearances.
However, Disney received an unpleasant lesson when he
asked Mintz for a larger budget for his popular Oswald
series: in reply, Mintz fired Disney and Iwerks and hired
others to draw Oswald, to which Mintz and Universal owned
the rights. From that point on, Disney made sure that
he owned all rights to the characters produced by his
company. In order for Walt and his older brother and business
partner Roy to keep their company active, new characters
had to be created to star in their subsequent animated
shorts. One day, during a train ride, Walt desperately
wanted to come up with a money-making character to replace
the one he lost, Oswald, whom he loved dearly.
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