DOTD For Tuesday, November 18, 2025

Raise A Glass To The World's Most Famous Mouse!

Today’s DOTD - Drink Of The Day - is a Florida Daiquiri inspired by the birthday of the best-known mouse in the world, Mickey Mouse, and one of the major places Mickey would eventually call home.

It was on this day in 1928 that Walt Disney released his first animated short film with synchronized sound, a cartoon called Steamboat Willie, featuring a character named Mickey Mouse, along with his girlfriend, Minnie Mouse.

Mickey Mouse wasn’t Walt’s first big hit character, but a replacement for another popular character, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. Walt & one of his favorite animators, Ub Iwerks, had created Oswald at their fledgling Walt Disney Studios, as part of a contract with Universal Studios. Through Oswald, Disney realized the money-making potential for character merchandising - but merchandise tie-ins were lucrative only to copyright holders, and Universal owned the copyright.

In early 1928, with Oswald on a roll, Disney felt confident enough to travel to New York from California, to request an increase in his contract from Universal. Disney would meet with Charles Mintz, the unscrupulous distributor that acted as the go-between for Universal. Iwerks warned Walt Disney, before he left California, that Mintz was signing Disney’s animators to new contracts, behind his back, with Mintz’ plan to replace Disney as their boss.

Disney didn’t believe Iwerks’ warning until he arrived in New York, where Mintz offered Disney $500 less per short film, plus only 50 percent of any profits. Disney, who thought of himself as Oswald’s owner, also learned during that meeting that Universal controlled the copyright to Oswald, and all profits from the character, regardless of who made the films. Feeling betrayed, Disney turned down Mintz’s offer to come work for him, and Walt vowed never again to relinquish control of any of his studio’s creations.

Back in Hollywood, while the rest of the staff finished the Oswald shorts for the Universal contract, Disney and Iwerks secretly created the first Mickey Mouse cartoon, Plane Crazy, with the Disney and Iwerks families inking at home after hours. Plane Crazy was drawn entirely by Iwerks at an astonishing rate of approximately 700 drawings per day - but it was initially a silent cartoon.

Disney & Iwerks actually produced two cartoons starring Mickey & Minnie, but both were silent, and neither was able to find a distributor. Their third short film starring Mickey & Minnie would be Disney’s first with synchronized sound, Steamboat Willie. As such, Steamboat Willie is considered the first major film to be released starring Mickey Mouse - and as such, today. is considered Mickey (& also Minnie’s) birthday!

Bizarrely, Mickey was very nearly not named “Mickey.” Walt Disney’s original design was for a character called Mortimer Mouse, until his wife Lillian talked him out of the name. (The actor Mickey Rooney, then a Disney child star, claims credit as Walt’s inspiration.) It’s also important to note that Oswald, long abandoned to the Universal company, was brought back to Disney in 2006, to join his rightful place among Disney’s characters.

It’s hard to imagine a world without Mickey or Minnie - and it’s hard to imagine a place more iconic than Disney World in Florida. So with that in mind, let’s raise a glass to Mickey & Minnie, with today’s Drink Of The Day, the Florida Daiquiri!

Ingredients

Here’s what you’re going to need for this drink: