HAPPY BIRTHDAY, UB IWERKS!

Ubbe Erk Iwerks (or Iwwerks), the animator who helped create Mickey Mouse with Walt Disney, would have been 124 years old today.  Among his other characters, Iwerks co-created Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, and designed Clarabelle Cow and Horace Horsecollar.  Away from Disney (they fell out on 1930), Iwerks created Flip the Frog and  Willie Whopper, Iwerks returned to Disney in 1940 developing special visual effects.  He developed the processes used to combine live-action and animation in Song of the South, the xerographic process for cel animation used in 101 Dalmations, and helped develop many Disney theme park attractions.  His final work for Disney was to develop the travel matte system used in the Mary Poppins sequence "Feed the Birds."  He was nominated for an Academy Award for his special effects work on Hitchcock's The Birds.  

Here's Willie Whopper in "Hell's Fire" (1943):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlaUtX0YOug

Flip the Frog in "Soda Squirt" -- with many special guest stars (1933):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yn_mgSi_JXg

"Little Black Sambo" A ComiColor Short no longer available on american television due to racial stereotypes (1935):

https://archive.org/details/LoittleBlackSambo

"Summertime" Another ComiColor Short (1935):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70N57IEzwMA

"Mickey Mouse in "the Jazz Fool" (1929):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6__7F1xzbk

"The Brementown Musicians" A ComiColor Short (1935):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgAayE5xxE8

"The Skeleton Dance", with an annoying prolog (1929):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rn6F-L4OZlE

Flip the Frog in "The Village Specialist" (1931):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=En9Bebal9GQ

Willie Whopper in "Stratos Fear" (1933)"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rn6F-L4OZlE

And we cannot forget "Steamboat Willie" (1928):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBgghnQF6E4

Although "Steamboat Willie" was the first released, the first Mickey Mouse cartoon finished was "Plane Crazy" (1928):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJQMiUq1eKI

Rest easy, Ub Iwerks.  You made life just a little better for many of us.