Nevertheless...Ub Iwerks

 So, we all know Walt Disney. We all know that the Walt Disney Company owns ABC, which recently made the correct decision to put Jimmy Kimmel back on the air. What most people don’t know, and what the Walt Disney Company has a tendency to forget until he can come in handy (much like Walt himself had a tendency to do, actually), is that Ub Iwerks is really who we have to thank for what we think of as animated movies and cartoons. And if there were ever a time to use that Will Smith meme, where he is showing off Jada, that would be now, because when Ub Iwerks was born, there was no such thing as Tylenol, and if there is a person who exemplifies autistic traits in the Walt Disney Company’s long history, it’s Ub Iwerks. (Seriously, picture me gesturing like Will next to a picture of Ub while reminding everyone that vaccines and Tylenol don’t cause autism).

Ub was born Ubbe Ert Iwwerks on March 24, 1901, in Kansas City, Missouri. His father abandoned the family, which he had a history of doing, and left Ubbe to drop out of school and care for his mother (a woman who I could rant about for hours, but let me just say this woman was a piece of work). When he met Walt Disney, the latter came to work at the same advertising company as him in Kansas City. 

I would love to be able to write this without talking about Walt. But even if I were to write an article about Walt himself, I wouldn’t be able to do it without talking about Ub. You could not have had one without the other. As the two moved forward with their forays into animation and movies, there would have been no success without what they both brought to the table. Walt brought the imagination, the showmanship, and the charisma needed for a business setting. He really did come up with Mickey Mouse, even if he did want to give him the horrible name of Mortimer. But Ub was the more mechanically minded; he was the dry humor, the quiet driving force, and in a lot of ways, he was the better artist.

Iwerks’ son, Don, recalled that his father would develop a singular passion for things, mastering them and then losing interest. According to him, Ub at some point developed a love of bowling. He would constantly be at the lanes until the day he rolled a perfect game. After that, the challenge was gone and he moved on to the next thing. Pictures show that he developed a love of archery at some point as well. Ub’s devotion to his craft (or any craft) is what led him to develop his art style. When we see old cartoons with their “rubber hose” limbs, their stretchy bodies, and those big eyes with the pupils that usually have a divot? That’s all Ub. 

His greatest interest was technology, and while he would leave Disney for almost a decade, he was not nearly as successful on his own. His cartoons are good, but they aren’t as lighthearted as those done by Disney. In fact, if you watch the old Oswald cartoons, done before Mickey was created, you get a better sense of Ub’s humor. Quiet and unassuming with a dry sense of humor, he was well liked but lacked the charisma and the lightheartedness that Walt lent to the group. He eventually returned to the studio, but his time as an animator was mostly at an end.

Throughout his time working with Walt, it had become apparent that if there was something that needed to be built, you went to Ub. When the pair were working on a series called “The Alice Comedies," it was Ub who hooked a camera to a truck to make filming easier. Don Iwerks recalls when his father heard that Roy Disney, the older brother of Walt and the man in charge of the finances (more or less), was considering shutting down the animation studio at the company because production costs were too high. He went home and developed what became ‘cels’ for animation on a Xerox machine, saving the studio.

After leaving the studio in 1933, Ub developed something called the Multiplane Camera, using parts of an old Chevrolet. His design started as a horizontal camera, and Disney would later turn it vertically. This was used to film animation sequences, giving them the layers and dynamics we recognize today. 

When he returned to Disney, he worked in special effects, designing the famous "feed the birds" scene in Mary Poppins, as well as (outside the company) the infamous scenes from Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Birds.” He was integral in developing the theme park attractions and audio-animatronics, especially Madame Leota’s scenes in The Haunted Mansion. His final project was the Hall of Presidents.

Ub Iwerks exemplifies the single mindedness, the quiet perseverance, and the misunderstood aspects of autism. He was described by those who loved him as smart and humorous, although he was seen as aloof and dull by others who didn’t know him. He was his own man who was easily overshadowed by the bright, loud star of Walt Disney, and for the most part, he was okay with that. Keep the attention away from him. He shows us that there is nothing wrong with autism, because of course there isn’t. There is nothing wrong with being different or focused. Autism is not something to be cured, but accepted and understood. It’s only when we realize that, that we can all flourish. 

Works Cited

Iwerks, Don. Walt Disney’s Ultimate Inventor : The Genius of Ub Iwerks. Los Angeles, Disney Editions, 2019, www.goodreads.com/book/show/34523679-walt-disney-s-ultimate-inventor. Accessed 16 Feb. 2022.

Iwerks, Leslie, and John Kenworthy. The Hand behind the Mouse. Disney Editions, 23 Apr. 2001.

Martin, Mackenzie. “Remembering Ub Iwerks, the Father of Mickey Mouse.” NPR.org, 7 July 2021, www.npr.org/2021/07/07/1013645653/remembering-ub-iwerks-the-father-of-mickey-mouse.

Mullen, Chris. “Ub Iwerks: Master of Animation and Technology | the Walt Disney Family Museum.” Waltdisney.org, 24 Mar. 2017, www.waltdisney.org/blog/ub-iwerks-master-animation-and-technology.

Ryan, Jeff. A Mouse Divided. Post Hill Press, 3 July 2018.