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Credit: Inside the MagicHaving recently entered the public domain, many fans are flocking to defend Mickey Mouse from some of the new less-than-magical adaptations for fear of besmirching Walt Disney’s good name. That might be true, but it’s grotesquely unfair to say that Mickey belongs to Walt alone.
Mickey was brought to life by such skilled hands as those of Ub Iwerks, Fred Moore, Ollie Johnson, Frank Thomas, and Eric Larson, just to name a few of the under-sung heroes of Disney’s animated empire. Each artist brought their own style and methods of magic to bring the mouse out of the inkwell and onto the screen.
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It might have all started with a mouse, but it was far from one man’s dream (despite what the Disney parks would have you believe). It was a collaborative effort that infused Walt’s ingenuity with artistry and imagination, and we had the opportunity to sit down and hear from one of the studio’s best.
Disney Legend Andreas Deja Talks Mickey Mouse and More
If you don’t know the name “Andreas Deja,” you might be more familiar with some of his work under Walt Disney Animation Studios. The mind and hand behind such characters as Gaston, Jafar, Scar, Hercules, Lilo, and so many more, Deja has a decades-long career stretching as far back as The Black Cauldron (1985).
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From an art student drawing lions and tigers at the zoo to one of the most gifted animators under the Disney studio for nearly 30 years, Deja has done more than enough to earn his stripes.
Along with a laundry list of credits on classic Disney films, Deja has spent more than a fair amount of time bringing the master mouse himself to life. Not only has the legendary animator animated Mickey for various shorts and appearances, but he is also well-versed in the history and development of the character as well.
I had the opportunity to sit down and speak to Andreas Deja about his experience with Mickey and the world of Disney animation, and he shared an absolute treasure trove of insight into the world behind the mouse.
Getting involved with Mickey
Animating Mickey Mouse for the Walt Disney Company has to be one of the highest honors any artist can achieve, and Deja was one of the chosen who not only got to bring him to life on the big screen, but got to explore his character as well.
Along with bringing various lead characters to life, Deja spent a great deal of time animating a whole host of other animated legends. When asked about his first time working with Mickey, the animator shared,
“After ‘The Black Cauldron, I was sent to London to work on ‘Roger Rabbit’ where I ended up not focusing just on one character but on a whole bunch of characters. I did Roger, as well as the Weasel’s leader Smart-Ass, and I also did a lot of the Disney cameos.”
“I think the very first Mickey scene I did had to be the one at the end of the movie where all the many toon characters come through that hole that was being pushed in by the characters at the end… It’s a scene where you see Bambi and Betty Boop and all the characters from all the studios including Mickey and Minnie coming towards the bottom of the screen. It was such a challenging scene, and I remember he was dragging Minnie by the arm and that was my first time.”
Deja later went on to share why working with Mickey was such an honor and a tremendous undertaking.
“I would say that [Mickey] was a very exciting task and responsibility. He’s a known character, I didn’t have to design him. Of course, I got to animate him years later for ‘The Prince and the Pauper’ and then ‘Runaway Brain’ after that. There’s so many great short films that have been done with Mickey and you just want to stay truthful to the graphic appearance, and then you have to decide what Mickey are we going to use, because he changed over the years.”
More than a Mouse
Along with maintaining Mickey’s classic image, Deja also helped bring the mouse into the modern era with his work on the aforementioned shorts. While things like Prince and the Pauper (1990) utilized Fred Moore’s Mickey design from the ’30s and ’40s (as pointed out by Deja), things took a sharp turn with Runaway Brain (1995).
Although Mickey’s definitive form was inspired heavily by Fred Moore, Deja greatly utilized his skill for villains like Jafar and Scar to transform the beloved icon into the film’s menacing monster, only temporarily of course.
On the subject of the more unorthodox Mickey, Deja shared how much the underrated short helped further shape Mickey’s versatility and identity.
“That’s my favorite Mickey project that I’ve worked on… It was supposed to be a satire of the Frankenstein movies so you have to have the normal Mickey, who was already there, and then what was the the monster Mickey going to look like? I remember there were several versions of how far [the artists] would go with that floating around. And I remember looking at these several versions thinking ‘How would Freddie Moore draw that?'”
“I softened him up a little, but kept the gnarly hands and the no neck, and his little hunch, and hairy ears… I created that final appearance but it was based on a few sketches.”
The Men Behind the Mouse
Andreas Deja has over 30 years experience with the Walt Disney Company, so it felt only natural to ask him what he thought about the changes in animation, technique, and the art form.
When asked about his thoughts on the character’s evolution, Deja replied,
“He was a lot naughtier in the old black and white shorts like ‘Steamboat Willie’ and ‘The Galloping Gaucho,’ and he was also more surreal… Maybe funnier? Because he could do all these crazy things that Disney characters wouldn’t do.”
As Mickey evolved from a rubber-hose-styled, black-and-white cartoon character, Deja explained how his demeanor and nature altered as he became more of a symbol for the Walt Disney Company.
“Over the years he became, and some of the animators who worked on the old shorts would even say, a little bland… a bit too much of a nice guy and a bit too precious. So, they avoided extreme and graphic gags with him because he represented the company… Because of Mickey’s niceness, it was hard to come up with a nice, juicy story.”
When asked about what the biggest benefit out of his time working on Mickey had been, Deja replied,
“To try and reach that standard of animation and the quality he was created with. Just looking at these classic shorts and analyzing them to prepare myself for my own animation. He was in very good hands from way back, from Ub Iwerks to Les Clark to Freddie Moore, Ward Kimball… You just look at the best of the best, and that’s a pretty high standard.”
Studying the original team of Disney animators is bound to influence any potential animator, and Deja was no different. When asked about who he thought helped shape Mickey the most, he shared,
“It really started with Ub Iwerks and Walt Disney… it’s a team thing, they’re both responsible for the early version of Mickey. Then, Les Clark came in and essentially worked on Minnie Mouse… And then everything changed when wunderkind Fred Moore came in right off the streets. He basically shelled with Disney and showed ways how to bring [Mickey] more to life by adding that unique squash-and-stretch… That was an important discovery that changed Disney Animation, even in their features.”
I later asked Deja which Mickey Mouse shorts and cartoons showed his best ablility as a character, to which he recommended the following.
“I would go back to ‘Brave Little Tailor’ as one of them… Frank Thomas did ‘The Pointer,’ where the bear is following Mickey. ‘Mickey’s Birthday Party’ by Ward Kimball and Ken Muse… During those golden years of Mickey animation, those shorts are great.”
Of course, as much as Deja had to say about Mickey and the rest of the characters he developed during his time at the Walt Disney Company, the legendary animator is currently involved in other projects apart from the Disney studio, as demonstrated by the trailer below.
From Mickey Mouse to MUSHKA
MUSHKA is Andreas Deja’s newest project, and it’s the story of a young girl who adopts a Siberian tiger cub in 1970’s Ukraine. Not only does the film utilize traditional-Disney-inspired animation, but it features original music by legendary Disney composer, Richard Sherman, as well.
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Although finished, the film is still in need of a platform before it can be fully viewed. When asked about how fans could watch and support the project, the animator shared the film’s status during its time on the festival circuit.
At this point, I would say stand-by… We have our trailer, we have our Instagram, and our website where we’re posting regularly. It looks like we’re going to start shopping the film around starting next month… We did pretty well at the film festivals and got quite a few kids’ choice awards… Kids really like it. It’s time to see if there’s any platform or any streaming company that wants to have it.”
While MUSHKA is still a ways out, it’s not the only thing Deja has up his sleeve. When asked if he had any other future projects, he replied,
“I’m in the middle of research and a test scene of my new film. It’ll be shorter, probably seven minutes, and it will be the opposite of ‘MUSHKA’. There won’t be a linear story, it’ll be a series of character studies, all dialogue. Completely different… and funny!”
Before ending the interview, I wanted to know how an artist like Andreas Deja recharges and unplugs after a day of animation. What happens when the pencils are down?
“In the past, I went back to Europe on vacation to connect with my family, that’s what usually happened. There was also always this perk at Disney where some of the supervising animators, after the movie was done, we were sent around the world to talk about our character, draw the characters for the journalist… Three countries in two days, and I of course enjoyed it, because you ended up all around the world… You can let your guard down, talk about what you did, kinda brag a little bit. But you also fed off of the journalists interests… there was a magic just drawing the characters… to see their reactions.”
While the times and mediums for the animation industry have changed, Andreas Deja’s incredible talents and dedication has not. Fans and supporters can learn more about his current projects on his blog, and this writer certainly can’t wait to see what he creates next.
Special thanks to Andreas Deja for his time and allowing us to conduct this wonderful interview.
Have you seen any of Deja’s work first hand? Let Inside the Magic know in the comments down below!