Editing Ub Iwerks (section)

==Career==
===Disney work (1919–1929)===
Iwerks spent most of his career with Disney. The two met in 1919 while working for the Pesmen-Rubin Art Studio in Kansas City,{{sfn |Gabler |2006 |p=46}} and eventually started their own commercial art business together.{{sfn |Gabler |2006 |pp=47–50}} Disney and Iwerks then found work as illustrators for the Kansas City Slide Newspaper Company{{sfn |Gabler |2006 |p=50}} (which was later named The Kansas City Film Ad Company).{{sfn |Gabler |2006 |p=56}} While working for the Kansas City Film Ad Company, Disney decided to take up work in animation,{{sfn |Gabler |2006 |p=58}} and Iwerks soon joined him. There he{{who|Disney or Iwerks?|date=April 2025}} attached a motor drive to the camera with a switch that resembled a telegraph key, reducing the number of people needed to animate from two to just one.{{how|reason=Both how and what here are opaque: what camera?  Who's animating?  What?  How?|date=April 2025}}<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Burnes |first1=Av Brian |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JEjSDvkp7OUC&dq=%22Ub+streamlined+the+process%22&pg=PA79 |title=Walt Disney's Missouri: The Roots of a Creative Genius |last2=Viets |first2=Dan |last3=Butler |first3=Robert W. |year=2002 |publisher=Kansas City Star Books |isbn=9780971708068 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref>

[[File:Trolley Troubles (1927) Title Card.jpg|thumb|The title card for ''[[Trolley Troubles]]'' (1927), animated by Iwerks]]

Iwerks was responsible for the distinctive style of the earliest Disney [[animated cartoon]]s, and was also responsible for designing Mickey Mouse.{{sfn |Maltin |1987 |p=189}} In 1922, when Disney began his [[Laugh-O-Gram Studio|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]].{{sfn |Apgar |2015 |pp=[https://archive.org/details/mickeymouseemble0000apga/page/34/mode/2up 34]–[https://archive.org/details/mickeymouseemble0000apga/page/36/mode/2up 37], [https://archive.org/details/mickeymouseemble0000apga/page/60/mode/2up 61]}} 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.{{sfn |Gabler |2006 |p=109}} 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]].{{sfn |Gabler |2006 |p=53}} 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]].{{sfn |Iwerks |Kenworthy |2001 |p=54}}{{sfn |Apgar |2015 |p=[https://archive.org/details/mickeymouseemble0000apga/page/76/mode/2up 76]}} 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.{{sfn |Apgar |2015 |pp=[https://archive.org/details/mickeymouseemble0000apga/page/80/mode/2up 80–81]}}

[[File:Excerpt from Steamboat Willie (1928), used as part of Walt Disney Animation Studios Logo.gif|thumb|right|Excerpt of ''[[Steamboat Willie]]'' (1928), one of the first few Mickey Mouse shorts, which was animated almost entirely by Iwerks]]

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 (1929 film)|The Haunted House]]''.{{sfn |Maltin |1987 |p=189}} However, as Iwerks began to animate more and more cartoons on a daily basis, he chafed under Disney's leadership.{{sfn |Gabler |2006 |p=143}} Iwerks also felt he was not getting the credit he deserved for drawing all of Disney's successful cartoons.{{sfn |Gabler |2006 |p=144}} Eventually, Iwerks and Disney had a falling out; their friendship and working partnership were severed in January 1930. According to an unconfirmed account, a child approached Disney and Iwerks at a party and asked for a picture of Mickey to be drawn on a napkin, to which Disney handed the pen and paper to Iwerks and stated, "Why don't you draw Mickey and I'll sign it." Iwerks became furious and threw the pen and paper, storming out.{{sfn |Iwerks |Kenworthy |2001 |pp=83-84}}<ref>{{Cite web |last=Not! |first=Ripley's Believe It or |title=Wonderfully Weird Facts You Want To Know About Walt Disney |url=https://lethbridgenewsnow.com/2020/08/18/wonderfully-weird-facts-you-want-to-know-about-walt-disney/ |access-date=May 7, 2023 |website=Lethbridge News Now |language=en}}</ref> Iwerks accepted a contract with Disney's former distributor, [[Pat Powers (businessman)|Pat Powers]], to leave Disney and start an animation studio under his own name.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Kaufman |first1=J.B. |title=Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse: The Ultimate History |last2=Gerstein |first2=David |date=2018 |publisher=Taschen |isbn=978-3-8365-5284-4 |location=Cologne |page=53}}</ref> His last Mickey Mouse cartoon was ''[[Wild Waves]]'' (1929) and final Disney film was the Silly Symphony ''[[Autumn (1930 film)|Autumn]]'' (1930).<ref>{{Cite book |last=Ryan, Jeff |title=A Mouse Divided: How Ub Iwerks Became Forgotten, and Walt Disney Became Uncle Walt |publisher=Post Hill Press |year=2018 |isbn=978-1-68261-628-4 |pages=181, 184}}</ref> (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 [[Lee de Forest|DeForest]] [[Phonofilm]] without credit—in early Disney cartoons.){{citation needed|date=December 2022}}

=== After Disney (1930–1940) ===
====Iwerks Studio====
{{main article|Iwerks Studio}}
The [[Iwerks Studio]] opened in 1930. Financial backers led by Pat Powers suspected that Iwerks was responsible for much of Disney's early success. However, while animation for a time suffered at Disney from Iwerks' departure, it soon rebounded as Disney brought in talented new young animators.{{cn|date=April 2025}}

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.{{sfn |Maltin |1987 |p=191}} The Flip and Willie cartoons were later distributed on the home-movie market{{clarification needed| date= March 2019}} by [[Official Films]] in the 1940s.

[[File:Sinbadthesailor01.jpg|thumb|upright|''[[Sinbad the Sailor (1935 film)|Sinbad the Sailor]]'', a 1935 ComiColor cartoon]]
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&nbsp;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.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Telotte |first=J. P. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LEy50gAEhpgC&dq=unreleased+film+Toy+Parade&pg=PA62 |title=The Mouse Machine: Disney and Technology |year=2008 |publisher=University of Illinois Press |isbn=9780252033278 |author-link=Jay Telotte |via=Google Books}}</ref> In 1936, backers withdrew financial support from the Iwerks Studio, and it folded soon after.

====Contract work====
In 1937, [[Warner Bros. Cartoons|Leon Schlesinger Productions]] contracted Iwerks to produce four ''[[Looney Tunes]]'' shorts starring [[Porky Pig]] and [[Gabby Goat]]. Iwerks directed the first two shorts, while former Schlesinger animator [[Robert Clampett]] was promoted to director and helmed the other two shorts before he and his unit returned to the main Schlesinger lot. Iwerks then did contract work for [[Screen Gems]] (then [[Columbia Pictures]]' cartoon division)  where he was the director of several of the ''[[Color Rhapsody]]'' shorts before returning to work for Disney in 1940.

=== Return to Disney (1940–1964) ===
After his return to the Disney studio, Iwerks mainly worked on developing [[special effects|special visual effects]]. He is credited as developing the processes for combining live-action and animation used in ''[[Song of the South]]'' (1946), as well as the [[Xerography|xerographic]] process adapted for cel animation, which was used in ''[[One Hundred and One Dalmatians|101 Dalmatians]]'' (1961).<ref name=korkis/> He also worked at WED Enterprises, now [[Walt Disney Imagineering]], helping to develop many Disney theme park attractions during the 1960s. Iwerks did special effects work outside the studio as well, including the birds for his [[Academy Awards|Academy Award]] nominated achievement for [[Alfred Hitchcock]]'s ''[[The Birds (film)|The Birds]]'' (1963).<ref name="Cinefantastique-Counts-Birds">{{Cite news |last1=Counts |first1=Kyle B. |last2=Rubin |first2=Steve |date=Fall 1980 |title=The Making of Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds |volume=10 |work=[[Cinefantastique]] |issue=2 |url=https://the.hitchcock.zone/wiki/Cinemafantastique_(1980)_-_The_Making_of_Alfred_Hitchcock's_The_Birds |url-status=live |access-date=March 7, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220307154006/https://the.hitchcock.zone/wiki/Cinemafantastique_%281980%29_-_The_Making_of_Alfred_Hitchcock%27s_The_Birds |archive-date=March 7, 2022}}</ref> Iwerks' last credit for Disney was for perfecting the travel matte system for the ''Mary Poppins'' sequence "Feed the Birds"<ref name=korkis/> Iwerks' most famous work,<ref name=korkis/> outside animating Mickey Mouse, was Flip the Frog from his own studio.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Marks |first=Scott |date=May 19, 2016 |title=Fiddlesticks Flips Flip in First Color Cartoon |url=https://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/2016/may/19/screen-fiddlesticks-flips-flip-first-color-cartoon/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220502182312/https://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/2016/may/19/screen-fiddlesticks-flips-flip-first-color-cartoon/ |archive-date=May 2, 2022 |access-date=May 2, 2022 |website=San Diego Reader}}</ref> While he was at Disney, he developed a variety of patents for applying [[Xerography]] for  [[Xerography#Uses in animation|use in animation]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=USPTO Search Results for Iwerks and Xerographic. |url=https://ppubs.uspto.gov/pubwebapp/static/pages/ppubsbasic.html}}</ref>