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Ub Iwerks Birthday Centennial Saturday, March 24, 2001

Ub Iwerks Birthday Centennial Saturday, March 24, 2001
Industry Celebrates 100th Birthday Anniversary of the Legendary Disney Animator Who Designed Mickey Mouse and Received Two Academy Awards ®, With a New Biography and Documentary Film

Saturday, March 24, 2001 marks the 100th birthday anniversary of legendary Disney artist and motion picture pioneer Ub Iwerks, who is best known for his original design and animation of the character Mickey Mouse for Walt Disney in 1927.

Born in Kansas City, Missouri on March 24, 1901, Ub Iwerks met the young Walt Disney when both were teenagers working in a Kansas City advertising company. The two soon became artistic collaborators and business partners, founding the short-lived Iwerks-Disney Company and creating advertising cartoons.

When Walt Disney relocated to California in 1923 and set up his own animation studio, he called on Ub Iwerks to join him, and Iwerks quickly became the studio's top animator. By 1927, after a business dispute with his distributor, Walt Disney was in need of a new character to launch his own series. Ub Iwerks drew the initial sketches and animations of the mouse that Disney would soon propel into worldwide fame.

In 1930, Iwerks left the Disney studio to form his own company, Ub Iwerks Studios, at which he produced cartoon series that were technically brilliant but only mildly successful, including Flip the Frog, Willie Whopper, and the Comicolor Series. In 1940 he returned to the Disney fold and soon took his place as the company's leading visual effects wizard. Optical printers, traveling matte systems, the wetgate printer and the 360 degree motion picture screen, as well as numerous special photographic systems, are but a few of the inventions that have laid the groundwork for much of the visual magic we see today in motion picture theaters, theme parks and entertainment centers. For his many contributions to the film industry, Ub Iwerks was honored with two Academy Awards ® for Scientific and Technical Achievement, plus a nomination for his special effects work on Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds."

Ub Iwerks' son, Don Iwerks, Chairman and Co-Founder of Iwerks Entertainment and a Disney veteran and industry pioneer in his own right, observed of his father, "His prolific achievements and vision have helped to inspire and build the animation and visual effects community as a whole. If he were alive today, even at the age of 100 he'd be excited by the advancements in the digital revolution. He'd probably be on his home computer designing and inventing new processes that would take the industry to even higher levels."

Ub Iwerks' own story will be told during this centennial anniversary of his birth, with a soon-to-be-released biography titled "The Hand Behind the Mouse -- An Intimate Biography of Ub Iwerks, the man Walt Disney called 'the greatest animator in the world,"' written by Iwerks' granddaughter, Leslie Iwerks, and author John Kenworthy. In addition, the award-winning feature "The Hand Behind the Mouse -- The Ub Iwerks Story" about Ub Iwerks, produced by Walt Disney Pictures and directed by Leslie Iwerks, will be released through Buena Vista Distribution.

Iwerks Entertainment Inc., founded in 1986, is the No. 1 provider of 8/70 Large Format Theatre systems worldwide and the industry leader in ride simulation. Iwerks' technologies include Giant Screen (Iwerks ® Extreme Screen(TM)), ride simulation (Iwerks ® TurboRide ®), turn-key 3D/4D theatres (Iwerks ® 3D/4D FX Theatre(TM)) and other specialty attractions. Iwerks has nearly 200 installations in 38 countries worldwide at entertainment centers, amusement parks, movie theatres, museums, science centers, shopping centers, casinos, resorts, nightclubs, restaurants, and more. Iwerks has received two Academy Awards ® for Scientific and Technical Achievement: in 1998, Don Iwerks received an Oscar ®, the coveted Gordon E. Sawyer Award; in 1999, L. Ron Schmidt received an Academy Award ® Plaque in recognition of the Iwerks patented Linear Loop ® Projection system. Visit www.iwerks.com.

Leslie Iwerks Productions is a multi-media production company based in Santa Monica, Calif., currently producing and developing documentary and feature films for television, theatrical and large format venues, as well as animation, books and a novelty gift line.

Related Links

• Preorder "The Hand Behind the Mouse" hardcover edition from Amazon.com

-- Posted March 23, 2001

Source: Iwerks Entertainment Inc. Press Release

 

 

 


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