Keri Russell, Ryan Gosling, J.C. Chavez, JT, Xtina, and the former Mrs. Kevin Federline have been part of the Mickey Mouse Club, as well as Annette Funicello and all those people I don't remember. Anyway, what if it was the Oswald Club, not the Mickey Mouse Club? Or Mickey's Toontown would have been Oswald's Toontown in Disneyland. Why am I mentioning Oswald? Well he is one of the first characters Walt Disney personally created. In that time, Disney didn't have a lot of money so he produced the cartoons for Universal. The first Oswald cartoon (Poor Papa) did not pass Universal's standards but the second (Trolley Trouble) was. Once Oswald was popular, Walt wanted more budget but then Universal told him that most of his crew went to them and that he had to accept a budget cut.
Of course Disney was not going for that so he had to unfortuantely give up his character. He did the last cartoons he had to do under the contract and then moved on. Walt then created Mickey as he believed audiences and children loved small creatures like mice. Like Oswald, Mickey's first cartoon didn't get released until later (The Gallopin' Gaucho) and the now famous Steamboat Willie wasn't technically the first cartoon. And in that, Pete was his enemy, Pete was used before and was a villain to Oswald and later was in Goof Troop and the Goofy movie. More on Pete later.
Now in a clever move, Disney traded Al Michaels from ABC and ESPN to NBC and return NBC/Universal gave them Oswald. Now Disney plans to do projects with Oswald. Check out the Disney official profile of Oswald. I think Walt Disney really cared about Oswald. Under Universal, Oswald went through a lot of changes, becoming a fluffy white rabbit but I like the first design. More on Oswald on Wikipedia.
