This charming production drawing presents Mickey Mouse in his most celebrated role: the Sorcerer’s Apprentice from Walt Disney’s Fantasia (1940). Shown seated with his legs extended and his hands resting near his knees, Mickey wears the apprentice’s flowing robe, oversized brown shoes, and the unmistakable magical hat. The relaxed, almost contemplative pose contrasts nicely with the chaos that surrounds him in the film, capturing Mickey during a moment of quiet confidence before his attempt at magic turns disastrously out of control. The drawing also emphasizes the appealing proportions of the 1940 Mickey—large expressive eyes, a pear-shaped body, shortened nose, and more sophisticated anatomy than the earlier “pie-eyed” version.
Mickey Mouse as the Sorcerer’s Apprentice is considered by many to be his greatest role. Fantasia was the third full-length animated feature produced by Walt Disney and was released by Walt Disney Productions on November 13, 1940. Story direction was handled by Joe Grant and Dick Huemer, with production supervision by Ben Sharpsteen. The film consisted of eight animated segments, each set to classical music conducted by Leopold Stokowski. Seven selections were performed by the Philadelphia Orchestra, while The Sorcerer’s Apprentice utilized an ad hoc studio orchestra. Each segment was introduced by music critic and composer Deems Taylor, who served as the film’s Master of Ceremonies.
The idea for The Sorcerer’s Apprentice originally developed as a Silly Symphony intended to give Mickey Mouse a major comeback. By the late 1930s, Mickey’s popularity had begun to decline, and Walt Disney wanted to place him in a more sophisticated and visually spectacular story. As production costs grew beyond what the short could reasonably earn on its own, Disney made the decision to incorporate it into a feature-length presentation built around classical music. The result was Fantasia, with Mickey’s performance as the apprentice becoming the centerpiece most closely associated with the film.
The sequence itself is based upon Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s 1797 poem The Sorcerer’s Apprentice. In Disney’s version, the sorcerer is Yen Sid—“Disney” spelled backward—who leaves his apprentice to perform his chores. After Yen Sid departs, Mickey puts on the sorcerer’s enchanted hat and uses magic to bring a broom to life. He commands the broom to carry buckets of water to fill a cauldron, and, pleased with his accomplishment, settles into a chair and falls asleep. His dream becomes an extravagant vision of magical power, with Mickey imagining himself commanding the stars, planets, and waters from a mountain pinnacle. He is abruptly awakened when water splashes him, only to discover that the room is rapidly filling with water and the enchanted broom refuses to stop.
One of the most memorable moments follows at approximately the 6:20 mark of the sequence. Realizing the extent of the disaster, Mickey grabs an ax and, in dramatic fashion, chops the broom apart. Believing the problem has finally been solved, he leaves the room and shuts the door behind him, leaning against it in relief. The relief is short-lived, of course, as the pieces of the broom begin multiplying and carrying even more buckets of water. Mickey’s increasingly desperate attempts to regain control provide much of the comedy and drama of the sequence, culminating in the return of the stern Yen Sid.
The drawing is particularly interesting because it reflects the Mickey Mouse redesign associated with animator Fred Moore. In 1935, Moore gave Mickey his first major makeover. Earlier versions had relied heavily on simple circular forms, which could restrict the character’s movement and expression. Moore introduced a pear-shaped body, pupils, white gloves, and a shorter nose, producing a softer and more appealing character. Moore animated Mickey in the 1938 short The Brave Little Tailor, which was essentially the final major appearance of the earlier “pie-eyed” Mickey. By Fantasia in 1940, that earlier design had disappeared, and Moore’s transformed Mickey had become the foundation for the character’s enduring appearance.
The pose and costume in this drawing make it especially evocative of the Fantasia Mickey. His enormous shoes, flowing robe, magical hat, and expressive eyes immediately identify him as the young apprentice who has discovered that magic is considerably easier to start than to stop. Although Mickey never speaks a word during The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, his personality is communicated entirely through movement, expression, and acting. That makes drawings such as this particularly valuable for appreciating the artistry behind the character: a simple change in the position of Mickey’s eyes, hands, or body can communicate curiosity, confidence, worry, exhaustion, or relief.
The production of Fantasia itself was an extraordinary undertaking. More than 1,000 artists and technicians worked on the film, producing more than 500 animated characters. The film also pioneered new approaches to sound. Its multichannel soundtrack was reproduced using Fantasound, an innovative sound-reproduction system that made Fantasia the first commercial motion picture presented with stereophonic sound. Originally released as a theatrical roadshow in thirteen U.S. cities, the film was critically acclaimed but initially failed to turn a profit. World War II disrupted European distribution, while the enormous production costs and the expense of leasing theaters and installing Fantasound equipment further complicated its financial performance.
Over the decades, Fantasia was repeatedly reissued, with portions of its original footage and soundtrack altered, deleted, or restored in different releases. Its reputation, however, continued to grow. In 1990, the Library of Congress selected Fantasia for preservation in the National Film Registry as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.” The American Film Institute subsequently placed it among its selections of the greatest American films and ranked it fifth on its 10 Top 10 list of animated films. The enduring popularity of Mickey’s role was demonstrated again when The Sorcerer’s Apprentice was the only segment from the original 1940 film included in Fantasia 2000, which was co-produced by Roy E. Disney and released in 1999.
Original production drawings of Mickey from Fantasia are extremely rare and highly collected, making a full-figure image such as this particularly appealing. Rather than simply showing Mickey’s head or a close-up expression, this drawing captures the complete character design, from the pointed Sorcerer’s hat down to his oversized shoes. It conveys the elegant simplicity of Fred Moore’s Mickey while also preserving the personality that made the character so successful in The Sorcerer’s Apprentice. More than eighty years after the film’s release, the image remains instantly recognizable: Mickey sitting in his magical robes, seemingly enjoying a moment of peace before the consequences of his apprentice-level spellcasting once again catch up with him. A large, centered, and action packed production drawing of Mickey Mouse accomplished in red and graphite pencils would make a great addition to any vintage Walt Disney animation art collection!
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