Ubbe Ert Iwerks, known as Ub Iwerks, was an American animator, cartoonist, character designer, inventor, and special effects technician, known for his work with Walt Disney Animation Studios in general, and for having worked on the development of the design of the character of Mickey Mouse, among others. Born in Kansas City, Missouri, Iwerks grew up with a contentious relationship with his father, who abandoned him as a child. Iwerks met fellow artist Walt Disney while working at a Kansas City art studio in 1919.
Iwerks animating his most famous co-creation, Mickey Mouse c. 1929
Title card for Trolley Troubles (1927), animated by Iwerks
Sinbad the Sailor, a 1935 ComiColor cartoon
Walt Disney Animation Studios
Walt Disney Animation Studios (WDAS), sometimes shortened to Disney Animation, is an American animation studio that creates animated features and short films for The Walt Disney Company. The studio's current production logo features a scene from its first synchronized sound cartoon, Steamboat Willie (1928). Founded on October 16, 1923, by brothers Walt Disney and Roy O. Disney, it is the oldest-running animation studio in the world. It is currently organized as a division of Walt Disney Studios and is headquartered at the Roy E. Disney Animation Building at the Walt Disney Studios lot in Burbank, California. Since its foundation, the studio has produced 62 feature films, from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) to Wish (2023), and hundreds of short films.
The studio's headquarters at the Roy E. Disney Animation Building in Burbank, pictured in 2007
The building on Kingswell Avenue in Los Feliz which was home to the studio from 1923 to 1926.
Mickey Mouse in Plane Crazy, the first short film produced with the character as protagonist.
Walt Disney introduces each of the Seven Dwarfs in a scene from the original 1937 Snow White theatrical trailer.