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[Music]
as the face of the walt disney company
mickey mouse is one of the most
recognizable characters to every
generation alive today
mickey made his first debut in 1928 and
although his overall look and design has
changed over the years one proportionate
aspect of the design has pretty much
remained the exact same when mickey
mouse was first introduced he had more
of a pear-shaped head which then evolved
into a more round design but what makes
mickey so recognizable is the circular
design of his ears
no matter what medium you see him in his
ears are always perfectly round even if
we can't see his face this outline has
become the standard of identifying the
famous disney rodent our minds
immediately recognize the silhouette as
mickey mouse whether you're a disney fan
or not now mickey's silhouette can be
found in the form of hidden mickeys all
around the disney theme parks hotels and
water parks if you aren't familiar with
a hidden mickey it's when one large
circle and two smaller circles make up
the silhouette of mickey mouse
now the image and silhouette of mickey
mouse is used a lot around the theme
parks but not all of them are actually
hidden mickeys
a true hidden mickey isn't meant to be
seen immediately usually it blends in
with whatever it's designed into and
requires a little bit of extra searching
take for instance this mural in mickey's
philharmagic at magic kingdom among all
the musical instruments you'll find this
cluster of dots hidden within the
painting they're so tiny that you really
need to be up close to see that the
three dots actually form the silhouette
of mickey mouse
another example this time at disneyland
in california would be the statue of mr
toad in mr toad's wild ride if you take
a look at his eyes you'll see a red
highlight at the bottom if we go in even
closer you'll realize that this is the
silhouette of mickey mouse these are the
true hidden mickeys so something like a
gate or a sign from the sir mickey's
gift shop wouldn't be considered a
hidden mickey since it's too obvious
remember hidden is the key word in
hidden mickey
today there's literally hundreds of
hidden mickeys around the disney theme
parks they've become a huge part of
disney fan culture but you might be
wondering exactly how did the hidden
mickey start
well there was a time when guests
visiting the parks weren't even aware
that hidden mickeys were an actual thing
it's said that the concept didn't even
officially begin until the late 1970s
when epcot center was being designed
that's right so that means there were
really no official hidden mickeys
designed and placed into disneyland or
magic kingdom when both those parks
first opened
or maybe there was you can trace the
concept of a hidden mickey all the way
back to the beginning of disney's
animated feature films in the 1937
feature film snow white there's a scene
where dopey gets the hiccups and bubbles
appear three of these bubbles actually
form the outline of mickey mouse
did you see it
that's definitely a hidden mickey even
in the 1940 animated feature film
pinocchio the mickey mouse outline is
designed right into the chair in
geppetto's workshop
dumbo in 1941 also has a hidden mickey
in the bubbles when dumbo's taking a
bath
so this tribute to the big boss of the
walt disney company really started with
animators back in the 1930s although the
beginning of hidden mickeys in the theme
parks didn't officially begin until the
late 70s at walt disney world there's
been speculation that the first one
actually made its debut at disneyland in
1955
the rocket to the moon attraction which
later became flight to the moon was an
opening day tomorrowland attraction and
this scene of the rocket taken off
you'll notice three circular objects on
the ground which appear to form a very
familiar icon this hidden mickey has yet
to be confirmed by anyone at disney but
there's no denying that this is the
outline of mickey mouse
now we're going to fast forward to the
planning and design stages of epcot
center in the late 1970s
disney knew they wanted this park to
have a much different identity than
magic kingdom you could say it was a
theme park concept geared more towards
adults and disney knew they wanted to
sell alcohol at this park at the time
the disney brand and alcohol didn't mix
so this meant that there wasn't gonna be
any recognizable disney characters at
epcot center imagineers were immediately
faced with a challenge how could they
possibly design a disney theme park
without including beloved disney
characters like mickey mouse
well imagineers came up with a little
idea to subtly hide the mickey
silhouette in design elements at this
new theme park surely guests wouldn't
notice right well at first they didn't
and for many years the hidden mickeys at
epcot were actually an inside joke in
secret just between a select number of
imagineers no one else knew about them
now since october of 1982 a lot has
changed around epcot center i mean now
it's just called epcot so many of the
original hidden mickeys are no longer in
the park like the one that could be
found in the loading area of maelstrom
although it was added in 1988 it was
still a highly secretive tribute at the
time but one of the original world
showcase examples from 1982 can still be
found to this day
in the germany pavilion above the daz
kaufau store there's these three statues
king philip the first is the figure on
the far left and if you look up at the
center of his crown you'll see this
original epcot center hidden mickey
now world showcase boasts many more
hidden mickeys but a lot of them aren't
originals that opened with the park
one well-known example can be found in
the canada pavilion on the top of this
totem pole it was added in 1998 when
disney introduced the first wooden totem
pole to the pavilion the originals were
just fiberglass the italy pavilion has
been home to the neptune fountain since
1982 but during a refurb around 2003 the
rock work behind the statue was
re-sculpted a hidden mickey was subtly
added into the rocks and once you're
aware it's there it's the only thing you
can see
now sometime around the late 1980s a
walt disney imagineer let it slip to a
theme park cast member that they
actually designed hidden mickeys into
epcot well secrets are hard to keep
right so that one cast member ended up
telling another cast member then the
domino effect took place and now more
than just the imagineers were in on the
secret
once disney mgm studios opened in may of
1989 imagineers continued their inside
joke of placing hidden mickeys into this
theme park as well they actually took it
a step further though and designed the
largest hidden mickey right into the
layout of disney mgm studios so when
guests are walking past echo lake
they're actually walking past mickey's
right ear
now one person who got wind of the whole
secret hidden mickeys happened to be a
cast member by the name of arlen miller
in 1989 miller was the first person to
write an article about hidden mickeys at
the time he was a writer for the disney
world cast member newspaper called eyes
and ears the editors of the paper
confirmed his hidden mickey findings
with late walt disney imagineer marty
scalar the article was published on
november 30th 1989 and it was at this
moment that every walt disney world cast
member was now in on the secret
at the time disney news magazine had
been in circulation since 1965 and was a
quarterly magazine published by the walt
disney company the magazine was consumed
by audiences around the world and when
they got wind of miller's eyes and ears
article they reached out disney news
magazine then went on to connect with
walt disney imagineer david fisher in
the december 1991 issue of the magazine
david fisher wrote an article titled the
secrets of walt disney world mickey
mickey everywhere this was the first
time the concept of the hidden tribute
to mickey mouse was released publicly
and frankly it was the start of the
hidden mickey craze
when the internet became more mainstream
more and more people were able to share
their hidden mickey findings and were
now in on the secret so once the disney
community was buzzing with the idea of
hidden mickeys existing attractions
began to get hidden mickey's added take
for instance the ballroom scene in the
haunted mansion
both magic kingdom and disneyland's
ballroom scene have a hidden mickey
formed out of a dinner plate and two
side plates on the table disneyland
sounded mansion opened in 1969 and you
can see here from this promotional
footage in 1970 that the plates are
spaced much further apart and don't
really resemble the mickey's silhouette
since the items on the table are just
set dressings it's actually rumored that
the hidden mickey was created by a cast
member who just had access to that area
of the attraction it's unknown whether
this one appeared at magic kingdom or
disneyland first but today you can most
certainly find this hidden mickey in
both parks
disney themselves has never really
released an official list of all the
hidden mickeys but there's a lot of them
and some are easier to find than others
the hidden mickey that's worked into the
french horn in mickey's philharmagic is
much easier to spot than this hidden
mickey in ewok village that's part of
the cue for star tours at hollywood
studios it's hidden in one of the trees
but it's really small
this sideways hidden mickey on goofy sky
school at disney california adventure is
much easier to spot than this one at
animal kingdom the flamingo island on
kilimanjaro safaris actually makes up
the outline of mickey mouse
one little tip to easily spot a hidden
mickey is to always keep an eye out for
bubbles like you saw in the examples
from the disney animated films they're a
perfect way to hide a tribute to the
mouse the marquee sign for voyage of the
little mermaid at hollywood studios the
showtime board for finding nemo the
musical at animal kingdom and the carpet
at disney's art of animation resort in
walt disney world are just some examples
disney fans today have come to expect
hidden mickeys scattered all throughout
the theme parks and resorts but overall
walt disney world in florida has a lot
more hidden mickeys than the disneyland
resort in california it's sort of become
an obligation for disney imagineers to
include them in any new land or
attraction and although hidden mickeys
aren't as secretive as they once were in
the 1980s you never know where that next
one's gonna pop up
so what are some of your favorite hidden
mickeys around the disney theme parks
were any of the ones mentioned in this
video ones you hadn't heard of i'd love
to know leave a comment down below to
start a conversation and don't forget to
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