“I only hope that we never lose sight of one thing—that it was all started by a mouse.” – Walt Disney
Welcome to Mickey Monday here at 23&Main!
Mickey Monday is dedicated to one of the most recognizable, enduring, and lovable icons ever to be created. We are talking about Mickey Mouse of course! Like Walt has said, without Mickey Mouse there wouldn’t be Disney as we know and love it. For over 90 years Mickey Mouse has made us smile, laugh and help us appreciate the things that really matter in our lives. It’s almost surreal to think that an animated mouse could make such an impact. So, we decided to celebrate the magic that is Mickey Mouse each Monday. It will be sure to be a swell journey, so come on along with us!
Sorcerer Mickey
To kick off our first official Mickey Monday we decided to focus on one of our favorite Mickey Mouse characters, Sorcerer Mickey! Not only is Sorcerer Mickey our favorite, he symbolizes Disney magic itself. I mean, a sorcerer does know magic right?
Humble Beginnings
Sorcerer Mickey had a rather humble start. Try and imagine Mickey Mouse falling out of favor with fans. That was the scenario back in the late 1930’s into 1940. Many Disney audiences were growing tired of Mickey always having good fortunes and likely started feeling he wasn’t relatable. Donald Duck and Goofy were rising in popularity often because of the many misfortunes they had. At the time, people could relate to some of the troubles Donald and Goofy experienced. Always looking forward, Walt Disney had a plan to make Mickey Mouse popular again. The plan centered around featuring him as the main character in the film Fantasia.
This wasn’t all that Walt had in mind to reconnect Mickey with audiences. Mickey’s animation was adjusted during this time frame too. His body went from a circular shape to a pear shape and his nose was made smaller. Many fans have said that Mickey became “cuter” with this redesign. In fact the Mickey Mouse most of us know and love still uses these features in the animation.
Fantasia – Introduction of Sorcerer Mickey
The 1940 animated film Fantasia was the first time audiences got to see Mickey Mouse in his most magical form – Sorcerer Mickey. Despite only being in one segment of the film, Sorcerer Mickey is synonymous with that film. That was by design and part of the plan to boost Mickey’s popularity.
The segment features Mickey Mouse as an apprentice sorcerer learning magic from a master named Yen Sid. They were both tired but chores still had to be done. Mickey had to tackle the chores as the apprentice. While his master took a nap Mickey stole his sorcerer hat and brought brooms to life to complete the work. Things go completely awry after Mickey ends up falling asleep too. Mickey tries to intervene and regain control but he doesn’t have the ability yet. His master has to step in and take over and clean things up. Mickey is sent to finish the chores he was originally supposed to do.
Sorcerer’s Apprentice – Fantasia
This is really the first time Disney audiences are shown that even Mickey Mouse has some faults and misfortune. America was just coming out of the Great Depression when this film was released and for characters to be relatable they had to have experienced some hardship. In addition, the underlying theme is that shortcuts don’t pay off. Hard work and dedication are values that Walt Disney embodied and passed on through this segment. The fact the Mickey tries to take the easy way out here and fails miserably really hit home during this time in America’s history and still resonates today.
Post Fantasia Features
Of course we all know that Mickey Mouse went on to be very successful after this film and was featured in countless other shorts, shows, movies and events. Sorcerer Mickey remained popular though and was featured on the Mickey Mouse Club every Wednesday for “Anything Can Happen Day”. In 2000, the film Fantasia 2000 was released and the sorcerers apprentice segment was added and it re-introduced Sorcerer Mickey to a whole new generation of fans. Sorcerer Mickey even makes a live appearance in the film to prompt Donald to start his segment.
Sorcerer Mickey has appeared in video games like Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep, Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance, Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two, and Disney INFINITY. There have been appearances in TV shows from the Disney Channel such as House of Mouse which ran from 2001-2003 and in a movie called Mickey’s House of Villains.
Disney Parks Attractions & Live Appearances
Like many other beloved Disney characters, one of the best ways to experience Sorcerer Mickey is through live experiences. Fortunately for us fans Sorcerer Mickey is one of the characters you can meet at Walt Disney World’s Hollywood Studio’s, Magic Kingdom & EPCOT. Sorcerer Mickey also has appeared at Disneyland and Tokyo Disney. Character meet & greets are changing to adapt to the current health situation but we are hopeful fans can still catch a glimpse of him from an appropriate distance.
©Disney
There are also several shows that either feature Sorcerer Mickey or have him make an appearance. The most prominent is of course Fantasmic! at Walt Disney World Hollywood Studios & Tokyo DisneySea. It’s a spectacular show that has many awesome characters but opens and closes with Sorcerer Mickey. Over at Disney California Adventure the World of Color nighttime water & light show does have Sorcerer Mickey in the finale. Lastly, the attraction Mickey’s Philharmagic features the iconic sorcerer hat throughout the animated short. It makes an appearance in several Disney films while Donald Duck tries to get it back before Mickey knows it’s gone. Mickey’s Philharmagic can be found at Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom or Tokyo Disneyland theme parks.
Disney Sorcerer Mickey Art
There are many ways to appreciate the Sorcerer Mickey character and all he represents. From Beach Towels to Summer Dresses and everything in-between. There are certainly no shortage of items to choose from. For us though, the collection of Sorcerer Mickey Art is our favorite way to show our appreciation for this adaptation of Mickey Mouse. These works bring the magic into our homes daily and help share the cool story behind this great character. Below are some of our favorites.
Sorcerer Mickey Mouse Giclée by Darren Wilson – Artist Darren Wilson has created this spellbinding image of Sorcerer Mickey. Inspired by the memorable segment of Disney’s 1940 groundbreaking Fantasia, it is available on canvas or paper and in a variety of frame styles.
***Note a Giclée is a technology for fine art or photograph reproduction using a high-quality inkjet printer to make individual copies.***
Mickey Mouse ”The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” Giclée by Jim Salvati Limited Edition of 195 – Framed: You’ll be swept away by this Fantasia Mickey Mouse ”The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” Giclée and artist Jim Salvati’s enchanting treatment of the classic scene where a magic broom fetches water from the well for Sorcerer Mickey.
‘‘Fantasia” Gallery Wrapped Canvas by Thomas Kinkade Studios: For this Thomas Kinkade Studios Gallery Wrapped Canvas inspired by Fantasia, sorcerer’s apprentice Mickey Mouse conducts visual elements of Walt Disney’s classic animated film in the inimitable Kinkade ”Painter of Light” style.
Honorable Mentions
With so many truly awesome Sorcerer Mickey items out there we’d be remiss to not mention a few of our other favorites that are not artwork in the traditional sense but are works of art to us.
Sorcerer Mickey Pins
We have a healthy Disney Pin collection and a subset of that collection is of course Sorcerer Mickey. There are two new 2020 pins that feature Sorcerer Mickey available now. To be honest, we were kind of reluctant to add any pin featuring 2020 to our collection since it’s been such a challenging year. However, when we thought back to when Walt Disney created this character and the challenges that the country and people faced then, it now seems almost fitting the Sorcerer Mickey is featured on them.
Sorcerer Mickey Mouse at Spaceship Earth Pin – Walt Disney World 2020: The Sorcerer’s Apprentice conjurs-up a gleaming pin-on-pin design for your 2020 collection as Mickey visits Epcot’s Spaceship Earth at Walt Disney World Resort.
Sorcerer Mickey Mouse at Matterhorn Bobsleds Pin – Disneyland 2020: The Sorcerer’s Apprentice conjures a dazzling pin-on-pin design for your 2020 collection as Mickey visits the mighty Matterhorn in Disneyland, The Happiest Place on Earth.
Magic Bands
Lastly, we have to share a required fashion accessory if visiting Walt Disney World. I’m talking about the ever stylish Magic Bands. You didn’t think we’d go walking through WDW without representing Sorcerer Mickey every once in awhile did you? Here is a look at one of our favorite wearables. We’ll be sure to be sporting this on Mickey Monday once the parks do open back up!
Sorcerer Mickey Mouse MagicBand 2 – Fantasia: Command all the magic of Walt Disney World Resort with our Sorcerer Mickey Mouse MagicBand 2, inspired by Walt Disney’s Fantasia. With a simple touch, redeem FastPass+, enter parks, charge purchases to your room, and more!
We hope you liked our first edition of Mickey Monday! It was certainly fun putting this together and sharing some of the magic with you. Putting together future editions of Mickey Monday will be sure to be just as fun. While we have some great things planned, we’d love to hear from you, our loyal fans on what Mickey character, attraction, story, film etc. you’d like to see featured. So go ahead and comment below on this edition and let us know what you’d like to see. Be sure to check out our other awesome posts here at 23&Main and don’t forget to follow us on our social media channels too!