Ub is a 2 time Academy Award winner for his animations, cartoons, and special effects. He met Walt Disney in Kansas City when they both worked for the Pesman Art Studio.
Iwerks had a distinctive style which was prevalent in the early Disney Animated Cartoons. He sketched all the Alice Comedies while Disney directed them.
When the Alice Comedies started to die down, Disney asked Ub to develop a new character, this was when Oswald the Lucky Rabbit was born. Ub drew all of the two dozen Oswald shorts before the rights slipped through their fingers. Walt was devastated and again turned to Ub to create a new winning character. Ub tried everything including frogs, dogs, cats, cows and horses (the cow and horse later became Clarabelle Cow and Horace Horsecollar and were featured in many Mickey Mouse shorts) but none were good enough for Disney. Iwerks averaged an astounding rate of 700 drawings a day. He would do his day’s work, and then stay late to work on the new character for hours. Iwerks finally found inspiration in an old picture. His fellow animator, Harman, had drawn a few sketches of a mouse around a picture of Walt. Ub combined the sketches and a few features from Oswald and created Mickey Mouse.
Ub illustrated the first Mickey Mouse and Silly Symphony cartoons. He first created the short Plane Crazy in only three weeks. The short did not impress the producers and sent Ub back to the drawing board. He then illustrated Gallopin Gaucho, but again was shut down. Neither shorts contained sound, and times were changing. Ub started fresh one more time and drew Steamboat Willie which they then synchronized with music. The short was produced and was a huge hit, being the first animated short to ever be synchronized with music. Disney was taking off in his career. The company was growing immensely. Disney wanted more and more and continued to ask Ub to provide it. After a while, Ub grew tired of Walt’s demands and their friendship faded. Iwerks left Disney’s company and joined up with a big competitor who offered Ub his own company.
Ub animated his own shorts for a few years, but the business never took off quite like Disney’s. He animated for 10 years on his own before returned back to Disney. Iwerks was tired of animation and felt as he had mastered the art.
When he returned to Disney’s company, he was hired as head of special effects. Ub invented multiple things which all were huge factors in moving Disney’s company to the top. Ub was a huge benefactor in Disney’s company and deserves much more credit for it than he has.
http://disney.wikia.com/wiki/Ub_Iwerks#WikiaArticle
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