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Ubbe Ert " Ub" Iwerks ( ; March 24, 1901 – July 7, 1971), was an American animator, cartoonist, character designer, inventor, and special effects technician. He was known for his early work with Walt Disney, especially for having worked on the creation of Mickey Mouse and Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, among other characters.
Iwerks and Disney met in 1919 while working at an art studio in Kansas City. After briefly working as illustrators for a local newspaper company, they ventured into animation together. Iwerks joined Disney as chief animator on the Laugh-O-Gram shorts series beginning in 1922, but a studio bankruptcy would cause Disney to relocate to Los Angeles in 1923. In the new studio, Iwerks continued to work with Disney on the Alice Comedies as well as the creation of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. Following the first Oswald short, both Universal Pictures and the Winkler Pictures production company insisted that the Oswald character be redesigned. At the insistence of Disney, Iwerks designed a number of new characters for the studio, including designs that would be used for Clarabelle Cow and Horace Horsecollar.
One of Iwerks's most long-lasting contributions to animation was a refined version of a sketch drawn by Disney that would later go on to become Mickey Mouse. Iwerks was responsible for much of the animation for the early Mickey Mouse and Silly Symphony cartoons, including Steamboat Willie, The Skeleton Dance and The Haunted House, before a falling out with Disney led to Iwerks's resignation from the studio in January 1930. Iwerks's final Mickey Mouse cartoon was 1930's The Cactus Kid. Following his separation with Disney, Iwerks, operating under Iwerks Studio, created the characters Flip the Frog and Willie Whopper along with the ComiColor Cartoons series as part of a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, but the new studio failed to rival its competitors. Iwerks later directed two Looney Tunes cartoon shorts for Leon Schlesinger Productions and several Color Rhapsody cartoons for Screen Gems from his studio as contract work before joining Disney again in 1940, after which he worked with special visual effects on productions such as 1946's Song of the South.
Iwerks had two children, Don Iwerks and David Lee Iwerks, with his wife Mildred Sarah Henderson. Iwerks died of a heart attack in Burbank, California, in 1971 at age 70. Iwerks was posthumously named a Disney Legend in 1989. His likeness has been featured in his granddaughter Leslie Iwerks's 1999 documentary The Hand Behind the Mouse: The Ub Iwerks Story as well as the 2014 feature film Walt Before Mickey, in which he is portrayed by Armando Gutierrez. Iwerks received three nominations at the Academy Awards, for which he won two. He also posthumously received the Winsor McCay Award at the 1978 Annie Awards and the Hall of Fame award at the 2017 Visual Effects Society Awards. Iwerks is considered one of the greatest animators of all time.
Iwerks was responsible for the distinctive style of the earliest Disney , and was also responsible for designing Mickey Mouse. In 1922, when Disney began his Laugh-O-Gram cartoon series, Iwerks joined him as chief animator. The studio went bankrupt, however, and in 1923 Iwerks followed Disney's move to Los Angeles to work on a new series of cartoons known as "the Alice Comedies" which had live-action mixed with animation. After the end of this series, Disney asked Iwerks to design a character that became Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. The first cartoon Oswald starred in was animated entirely by Iwerks. Following the first cartoon, Oswald was redesigned on the insistence of Oswald's owner and the distributor of the cartoons, Universal Pictures. The production company at the time, Winkler Pictures, gave additional input on the character's design.
In spring 1928, Disney was removed from the Oswald series, and much of his staff was hired away to Winkler Pictures. He promised to never again work with a character he did not own. Disney asked Iwerks, who stayed on, to start drawing up new character ideas. Iwerks tried sketches of frogs, dogs, and cats, but none of these appealed to Disney. A female cow and male horse were created at this time by Iwerks, but were also rejected. They later turned up as Clarabelle Cow and Horace Horsecollar. Ub Iwerks eventually got inspiration from an old drawing. In 1925, Hugh Harman drew some sketches of mice around a photograph of Walt Disney. Then, on a train ride back from a failed business meeting, Walt Disney came up with the original sketch for the character that was eventually called Mickey Mouse. Afterward, Disney took the sketch to Iwerks. In turn, he drew a more clean-cut and refined version of Mickey, but one that still followed the original sketch.
The first few Mickey Mouse and Silly Symphony cartoons were animated almost entirely by Iwerks, including Steamboat Willie, The Skeleton Dance and The Haunted House. However, as Iwerks began to animate more and more cartoons on a daily basis, he grew increasingly resentful of Disney's leadership and felt his contributions were underappreciated. Iwerks and Disney's partnership ultimately splintered in January 1930. At a party, a child requested that Disney draw Mickey Mouse on a napkin, and Disney handed the pen to Iwerks, saying, "Why don't you draw Mickey and I'll sign it." Iwerks was enraged and stormed off.
Iwerks accepted a contract with Disney's former distributor, Pat Powers, to leave Disney and start an animation studio under his own name. (2025). 9783836552844, Taschen. ISBN 9783836552844 His last Mickey Mouse cartoon was Wild Waves (1929) and final Disney film was the Silly Symphony Autumn (1930). (Powers and Disney had an earlier falling-out over Disney's use of the Powers Cinephone sound-on-film system—actually copied by Powers from DeForest Phonofilm without credit—in early Disney cartoons.) He also penciled the first strips of the Mickey Mouse comic strip. 90 Years Ago – Mickey Mouse Comic Strip Debuts
Despite a contract with MGM to distribute his cartoons, and the introduction of a new character named Flip the Frog and later Willie Whopper, the Iwerks Studio was never a major commercial success and failed to rival either Disney or Fleischer Studios. Newly hired animator Fred Kopietz recommended that Iwerks employ a friend from Chouinard Art School, Chuck Jones, who was hired and put to work as a cel washer. The Flip and Willie cartoons were later distributed on the home-movie market by Official Films in the 1940s.
From 1933 to 1936, he produced a series of shorts (independently distributed, not part of the MGM deal) in Cinecolor, named ComiColor Cartoons. The ComiColor series mostly focused on fairy tales with no continuing character or star. Later in the 1940s, this series received home-movie distribution by Castle Films. Cinecolor produced the 16 mm prints for Castle Films with red emulsion on one side and blue emulsion on the other. Later in the 1970s Blackhawk Films released these for home use, but this time using conventional Eastmancolor film stock. They are now in the public domain and are available on VHS and DVD. He also experimented with stop-motion animation in combination with the multiplane camera, and made a short called The Toy Parade, which was never released in public. In 1936, backers withdrew financial support from the Iwerks Studio, and it folded soon after.
Iwerks died in 1971 from a heart attack in Burbank, California, aged 70, and his ashes are interred in a niche in the Columbarium of Remembrance at Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Hollywood Hills Cemetery. The last project he worked on was the Hall of Presidents.
A rare self-portrait of Iwerks was found in a garbage bin at an animation studio in Burbank. The portrait was saved and is now part of the Animation Archives in Burbank, California.
After World War II, much of Iwerks's early animation style was imitated by legendary manga artists Osamu Tezuka and Shotaro Ishinomori.
In 1989, Iwerks was named a Disney legend.
In the 1996 The Simpsons episode "The Day the Violence Died", a relationship similar to Iwerks's early relationship with Walt Disney is used as the main plot.
A documentary film, The Hand Behind the Mouse: The Ub Iwerks Story, was released in 1999, followed by a book written by Iwerks's granddaughter Leslie Iwerks and John Kenworthy in 2001. The documentary, created by Leslie Iwerks, was released as part of (disc two of The Adventures of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit collection).
A feature film released in 2014, Walt Before Mickey, showed how Ub Iwerks, portrayed by Armando Gutierrez, and Walt Disney, portrayed by Thomas Ian Nicholas, co-created Mickey Mouse.
The sixth episode from the second season of Drunk History ("Hollywood") tells about Ub's work relationship with Disney, with stress on the creation of Mickey Mouse. Iwerks was portrayed in the episode by Tony Hale.
Influence and tributes
The Ub Iwerks Award for Technical Achievement, as part of the , is named in his honour.
Filmography
1922
Little Red Riding Hood July 29 Laugh-O-Grams The Four Musicians of Bremen August 1 Jack and the Beanstalk September 4 Jack the Giant Killer September 12 Goldie Locks and the Three Bears October 4 Puss in Boots November 3 Cinderella December 6
1923
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!Notes Alice's Wonderland October 16 Laugh-O-Grams
1924
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!Notes Alice's Day at Sea March 1 Walt Disney Productions Alice's Spooky Adventure April 1 Alice's Wild West Show May 1 Alice's Fishy Story June 1 Alice and the Dog Catcher July 1 Alice the Peacemaker August 1 Alice Gets in Dutch November 1 Alice Hunting in Africa November 15 Alice and the Three Bears December 1 Alice the Piper December 15
1925
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!Notes Alice Cans the Cannibals January 1 Walt Disney Productions Alice the Toreador January 15 Alice Gets Stung February 1 Alice Solves the Puzzle February 15 Alice's Egg Plant May 17 Alice Loses Out June 15 Alice Is Stage Struck June 23 Alice Wins the Derby July 12 Alice Picks the Champ July 30 Alice's Tin Pony August 15 Alice Chops the Suey August 30 Alice the Jail Bird September 15 Alice Plays Cupid October 15 Alice Rattled by Rats November 15 Alice in the Jungle December 15
1926
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!Notes Alice on the Farm January 1 Walt Disney Productions Alice's Balloon Race January 15 Alice's Orphan January 15 Alice's Little Parade February 1 Alice's Mysterious Mystery February 15 Alice Charms the Fish September 6 Alice's Monkey Business September 20 Alice in Slumberland September 29 Alice in the Wooly West October 4 Alice the Fire Fighter October 18 Alice Cuts the Ice November 1 Alice Helps the Romance November 15 Alice's Spanish Guitar November 29 Alice's Brown Derby December 13 Alice the Lumberjack December 27
1927
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!Notes Alice the Golf Bug January 10 Walt Disney Productions Alice Foils the Pirates January 24 Alice at the Carnival February 7 Alice at the Rodeo February 21 Alice the Collegiate March 7 Alice in the Alps March 21 Alice's Auto Race April 4 Alice's Circus Daze April 18 Alice's Knaughty Knights May 2 Alice's Three Bad Eggs May 15 Poor Papa May 15
Alice's Picnic May 30 Alice's Channel Swim June 13 Alice in the Klondike June 27 Alice's Medicine Show July 11 Alice the Whaler July 25 Alice the Beach Nut August 8 Trolley Troubles September 5 Oh Teacher September 19 The Mechanical Cow October 3 Great Guns! October 17 All Wet October 31 The Ocean Hop November 14 The Banker's Daughter November 28 Rickety Gin December 26
1928
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!Notes The Ol' Swimming Hole February 6 Walt Disney Productions Africa Before Dark February 20 Rival Romeos March 5 Bright Lights March 19 Sagebrush Sadie April 2 Ride 'Em Plowboy April 16 Ozzy of the Mounted April 30 Hungry Hobos May 14 Plane Crazy May 15
Oh What a Knight May 28 The Fox Chase June 25 Tall Timber July 9 Sleigh Bells July 23 High Up August 6 The Gallopin' Gaucho August 7 Hot Dogs August 20 Sky Scrapper September 23 Steamboat Willie November 18
1929
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!Notes The Barn Dance March 14 Walt Disney Productions The Opry House March 28 When the Cat's Away April 11 The Barnyard Battle April 25 The Karnival Kid May 23 Mickey's Choo-Choo June 20 Mickey's Follies June 26 The Plowboy June 28 The Jazz Fool July 5 Wild Waves August 15 The Skeleton Dance August 29
El Terrible Toreador September 26 Springtime October 24 Jungle Rhythm November 15 Hell's Bells November 21 The Haunted House December 2 The Merry Dwarfs December 19
1930
Fiddlesticks August 16 Flip the Frog
Little Orphan Willie October 18 Filmed in both two-strip Harriscolor, but only intact in B/W Flying Fists September 6 The Village Barber September 27 First non-woodland cartoon The Cuckoo Murder Case October 18
Puddle Pranks December
1931
The Village Smitty January 31 Flip the Frog First appearances of Flip's cat girlfriend and Orace The Soup Song January 31 Bandmaster Paul Whiteman is caricatured Laughing Gas March 14 Only appearance of the walrus Ragtime Romeo May 2
The New Car July 25
Movie Mad August 29 Caricatures include Laurel and Hardy and Charlie Chaplin The Village Specialist September 12 Only appearance of Mrs Pig Jail Birds September 26 First time Orace is Flip's horse Africa Squeaks October 17 No longer shown on American television due to offensive black stereotypes Spooks September 21 Second Halloween-themed cartoon
1932
The Milkman February 20 Flip the Frog
Fire! Fire! March 5 What a Life March 26 First time Flip interacts with humans Puppy Love April 30 First appearance of Flip's dog School Days May 14 First appearance of the spinster The Bully June 18 Final appearance of the orphan boy The Office Boy July 16
Room Runners August 13
Stormy Seas August 22
Circus August 27 Copyrighted on September 7, 1932 The Goal Rush October 3
The Phoney Express October 27 First "official" appearance of Flip's human girlfriend. She bears a strong resemblance to Fleischer Studios's Betty Boop. The original title for the cartoon was "The Pony Express", but later changed to "The Phoney Express" by Pat Powers The Music Lesson October 29 Only appearance of Flip's friends The Nurse Maid November 26 This cartoon has two racist scenes that do not appear on TV. There is an angry "Chinaman–Fu Man Chu" type with long fingernails trying to scratch the eyes out of Flip. Later, a cigar store Indian has gags with runaway animals. Funny Face December 24 In the public domain
1933
Coo Coo, the Magician January 21 Flip the Frog Cameo of the spinster at the beginning Flip's Lunchroom March 4 Only Flip the Frog cartoon to have Flip's name in the title Techno-Cracked May 8 Possibly filmed in two-strip Technicolor or cinecolor Bulloney May 30 A Chinaman's Chance June 24
Paleface August 12 Final appearances of Orace, Flip's girlfriend, and the spinster The Air Race n/a Willie Whopper The first Willie Whopper cartoon, though it was never released due to a plot hole. A remake, Spite Flight, was released. Play Ball September 16 The first official Willie Whopper cartoon Soda Squirt October 12 Flip the Frog
Spite Flight October 14 Willie Whopper A remake of the unreleased Willie Whopper cartoon, The Air Race Stratos Fear November 11 Jack and the Beanstalk December 23 Comicolor First Comicolor cartoon
1934
Davy Jones Locker January 13 Willie Whopper The first of two Willie Whopper cartoons to be filmed in Cinecolor The Little Red Hen February 16 Comicolor Hell's Fire February 17 Willie Whopper The only cartoon made by Ub Iwerks to have a curse word in the title. This is the last of the two Willie Whopper cartoons filmed in Cinecolor. Robin Hood, Jr. March 10 The Brave Tin Soldier April 7 Comicolor Insultin' the Sultan April 14 Willie Whopper Puss in Boots May 17 Comicolor Two other prints exist. Reducing Creme May 19 Willie Whopper Rasslin' Round June 1 Working title: Rasslin' Around The Queen of Hearts June 25 Comicolor Cave Man July 6 Willie Whopper Music composed by Bennie Moten and his orchestra Jungle Jitters July 24 No longer shown on American television due to offensive black stereotypes Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp August 10 ComiColor Good Scout September 1 Willie Whopper
Viva Willie September 20 Final Willie Whopper cartoon. After this cartoon, the rest are Comicolor cartoons. The Headless Horseman October 1 Comicolor The Valiant Tailor October 29 Don Quixote November 26 Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 1998 Jack Frost December 24
1935
All Comicolor shorts
Little Black Sambo February 6 No longer shown on American television due to offensive black stereotypes Brementown Musicians March 6 Old Mother Hubbard April 3 Mary's Little Lamb May 1 Summertime June 15 Sinbad the Sailor July 30 The Three Bears August 30 Balloon Land (aka The Pincushion Man) September 30 This is known as both Balloonland and The Pincushion Man Simple Simon November 15 Humpty Dumpty December 30
1936
All Comicolor shorts
Ali Baba January 30 Tom Thumb March 30 Dick Whittington's Cat May 30 Little Boy Blue (aka The Big Bad Wolf) July 30 This cartoon is variously known both as Little Boy Blue and The Big Bad Wolf. Happy Days September 30 Last of the Comicolor cartoons, based on the comic strip Reg'lar Fellers. The last cartoon made prior to reorganizing the studio.
1936-1940
Accolades
Academy Awards Technical Achievement Award For the design of an improved optical printer for special effects and matte shots. Best Effects, Special Visual Effects The Birds Academy Award of Merit For the conception and perfection of techniques for Color Traveling Matte Composite Cinematography. Petro Vlahos and Wadsworth E. Pohl Annie Awards Winsor McCay Award Visual Effects Society Awards Hall of Fame
See also
Notes
Sources
(2025). 9780786853205, Disney Editions. ISBN 9780786853205
Further reading
(2025). 9781484743379, Disney Editions. ISBN 9781484743379
External links
Categories: 1901 Births, 1971 Deaths, American Comic Strip Cartoonists, American People Of Frisian Descent, American Animated Film Directors, American Animated Film Producers, American Comedy Film Directors, Animators From Missouri, Burials At Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Disney Imagineers, Film Directors From Missouri, Walt Disney Animation Studios People, Artists From Kansas City, Missouri, American Special Effects People, Disney Comics Artists, Academy Award For Technical Achievement Winners, Laugh-o-gram Studio People, Disney Legends, American Character Designers
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