Walt Disney's original collaborator and the animator who designed Mickey Mouse — one of the most technically gifted animators in Hollywood history, though overshadowed by Disney's business genius.
The unsung co-creator of Mickey Mouse: Iwerks drew the original Mickey Mouse design and animated Steamboat Willie (1928, the first synchronized sound cartoon) essentially alone — producing drawings at a rate other animators found impossible to match. His technical innovations (the multiplane camera, sodium vapor process for special effects) were central to Disney's competitive advantage. A study in the gap between creative genius and business genius: Iwerks had the former but not the latter, while Disney had both.
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