Mickey and Minnie Costumes Through the Years

Here's how Mickey and Minnie costumes changed over the years in Disney Parks and Resorts and at various other related events and locations.
Image	Year 	Description
 	1930 	The earliest Mickey and Minnie costumes, used in vaudeville shows in 1930.
 	1931 	This Mickey costume, seen with Walt Disney, is similar to the one used at the premiere of Snow White.
 	November 1934 	The Mickey and Minnie costumes from the November 1934 issue of The Oakland Tribune.
 	December 21, 1937 	The Mickey and Minnie costumes from the premiere of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs at the Carthay Circle in Los Angeles. The way the costumes were set up (black leotards with shorts and gloves, fabric masks) resembled the Mickey and Minnie plush toys that were being made around that time.
 	1950–1955 	In 1950, Mickey and Minnie appeared in the "Walt's Toy Shop" segment of Ice Capades of 1950. Five years later, Disneyland opened. However, Walt did not have the characters as they are known today readily available, so he borrowed those from the Ice Capades. The heads of these costumes had large viewpoints (spots where the performer can see out of) all over the faces of Mickey and Minnie. These holes were necessary for the skaters' vision, but they made the costumes look rather awful.
 	1958-1959 	The Ice Capades Mickey and Minnie costumes were slightly modified with improved, more presentable heads, and a bow on Minnie. Otherwise, little about them was changed.
 	1959–1961 	For Disneyland's fourth anniversary, the Ice Capades head design of Mickey and Minnie were replaced by more cartoon-like heads. The leotards and shorts of the latter design remained, however. Mickey now has black normal shoes instead of his signature yellow cartoony ones.
 	1961–1962 	These John Hench-designed costumes, known as "Big Head" costumes, had even bigger heads and bodies to give the feeling of a smaller character, and as with many Big Head costumes, the performers saw out of their hats and could move their noses and ears. Mickey had his signature yellow shoes, while Minnie had green shoes and held a parasol with her left hand.
Although these designs looked more accurate to their animated counterparts than any of the costumes that preceded them, they both had inoperable faux arms. One of Walt's concerns with these versions was that as a result of this, the performer inside the costume couldn't use them to greet or interact with guests.
 	1962–1978 	Mickey and Minnie received major overhauls to their designs. Mickey wore an orange bowtie tuxedo and pants without buttons, Minnie wore a red bow, yellow dress and red lipstick. Both of them had five-fingered gloves instead of the more iconic four-fingered ones they would receive later.
Walt personally hand-picked a four-foot-six Ice Capades performer named Paul Castle to play Mickey, which set the standard of shorter performers playing these characters in the years since, giving them more appropriate height so as to interact better with kids, teens, and adults. These costumes were the earliest versions of the look of the characters that they evolved into in the years since.
These versions were designed by Bill Justice.
In Walt Disney World, alternative versions of these Mickey and Minnie costumes debuted in November 1971, just one month after the park's grand opening. These versions of the costumes featured pie eyes as pupils and the pie slice in them may vary in size. The alternative versions of the costumes would be used from late 1971 to 1978, due to the new versions of the costumes being set to debut.
In 1973, second alternative versions of these Mickey and Minnie costumes debuted in 1973, two years after its grand opening. These redesigns feature whiter eyes that were later reused for the 1978 costume.
150px	1978–1993 	While the heads remained the same, their heads and bodies were covered with black velvet to simulate fur and their eyes turned white. As for Mickey, he now has a yellow bow tuxedo and red pants with buttons and hips become rounder. And as for Minnie, she now has red and white-spotted attire and yellow shoes and several eyelashes. Their gloves are now thicker and four-fingered. These costumes were also used for live appearances (such as Educational Videos and Walt Disney's World on Ice).
They were seen from the late 1970s up until 1988 but retired at Tokyo Disneyland in 1992. This Mickey continued in Disney On Ice until 1993.
This Mickey costume also appeared on Ranger Charlie and Rosco Show, a syndicated KSTW Washington series from December 5th 1990. As well, this Mickey made its final appearance in the Peruvian show Almendra in the mid-'90s.
150px	1987–2019 	The unforgotten long-time Mickey and Minnie costumes. Their heads are rounder, and their eyes are smaller eliminating the thick outlines. Minnie now gets three eyelashes on each of her eyes.
They were first seen in September 20, 1987 at Walt Disney World starting with the Spirit of America Parade, but they were not used regularly until 1988. Even then, Disneyland did not officially use these costumes until late fall of 1988.
Tokyo Disneyland got them in 1989 during the Tokyo Disneyland Electrical Parade but were not used regularly until mid 1992 (at that time, they were used in tandem with the previous versions).
These heads were discontinued in Disneyland by September 5, 2016, Hong Kong and Paris by early 2017, Walt Disney World in Florida in May 12, 2018 and Disney On Ice in the mid-2018, and Tokyo Disney Resort in Japan on March 25, 2019 with the conclusion of the resort's 35th anniversary celebration.
The head was reused for the Mickey costume seen in a 2023 episode of The Wonder Years that was filmed at Disneyland, even though the series takes place in the late 1960's. This costume included remnants of that era's Mickey, including five-fingered gloves and a large yellow bowtie.
 	2006–present 	These articulated versions of Mickey and Minnie debuted at Disney Live's Mickey's Magic Show in 2006 and then in Dream Along With Mickey later that year.
This version of Mickey is still seen in Mickey and the Wondrous Book at Hong Kong Disneyland.
 	2013: 	This Mickey costume, which appeared in the film Saving Mr. Banks, is based on the 1962 design, as the scene is supposed to take place in 1961.
 	April 16, 2016–present	As part of Shanghai Disneyland's upcoming debut at the time, Mickey and Minnie's faces were given makeovers, now looking more like the versions we know from the cartoons. Their eyes become taller and pull a bit closer to one another, their bottom lips are rounder (non-articulated), and their gloves have thinner and longer slits for the first time since 1978. Mickey's outfit gets a slight makeover with a smaller yellow bow and his pants leaving out the black lines and having slightly oval buttons. Also, his shoes are made out of rubber and curved at the front.
Minnie no longer has make-up, and the white spots on her dress are now on her skirt and sleeves. She now has pumpy sleeves, and her iconic bow is extremely bigger and floppier. Her bodice on the dress now consists of two white buttons and a white flower-shaped collar. Her pumps now have larger holes and red bows.
They debuted at Disney Cruise Line on August 2016, and then Disneyland on September 6, 2016 after its Diamond Celebration ended.
Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom got them starting in Christmas 2016 for parades, some promotional material, and some meet-n-greets and 2017 for Epcot's 35th anniversary; and then Fantasmic! on March 14, 2018.
On May 13, 2018, a full roll out of this look was made throughout the Walt Disney World Resort.
They debuted in Hong Kong Disneyland in January of 2017, at Disneyland Paris in April of that year as part of its 25th anniversary (but were introduced earlier in the resort's commercial in November 2016), and Disney On Ice, starting with the second version of Dare to Dream in late September 2017.
The following year, some of the other on Ice shows got these masks and gloves, yet however, they have remained the same wardrobe.
The look was revealed at Tokyo Disney Resort on February 27, 2019 to prepare for the Easter season and was officially introduced on March 26, 2019 with the conclusion of Tokyo Disney Resort's 35th anniversary celebration.
 	June 16, 2016 	Mickey gets a new articulated head for the first time in Shanghai Disneyland during the opening night of the park.
 	June 17, 2016–present 	
Mickey and Minnie as they appear in Mickey's Royal Friendship Faire. This marks the debut of the "Shanghai Disneyland" Mickey and Minnie at Walt Disney World.
This Mickey then debuted in Mickey and the Magician at Disneyland Paris on July 2, 2016.
==Trivia==
*In Golden Fairytale Fanfare and Mickey's Royal Friendship Faire, Mickey and Minnie still have their gloves from the 1970s. Mickey still also has those gloves in Mickey and the Magician.
*Also, the 2016 Mickey and Minnie costumes still sported their 1978 outfits at Walt Disney World when making appearances until the full roll out at the resort in May 2018.
*The 1962-1978 Costumes Variants of Mickey and Minnie appear as plush toys as part of Walt Disney World's 50th Anniversary.
Category:Costume variants
Category:Mickey Mouse
Category:Characters in Disney parks