Partners
Magic Kingdom
Lake Buena Vista FL
2017

This week in Disney history, back in 1995, the Partners Statue was unveiled at Magic Kingdom Park here at the Walt Disney World Resort. This statue of Walt Disney and Mickey Mouse, which is positioned in front of Cinderella Castle, was the second Partners Statue to ever be featured at a Disney Park. The first debuted at Disneyland park in 1993 in honor of Mickey Mouse’s birthday.

The Partners Statue was sculpted by Disney Legend Blaine Gibson. A former Disney animator and Imagineer, Blaine took one year to create the sculpture and based his depiction of Walt on a bust he originally created in the 1960s.

When considering having Mickey hold Walt’s hand, Blaine consulted footage from the film “Fantasia,” in which Mickey shakes the hand of orchestra conductor Leopold Stokowski.

One early sketch of the Partners Statue featured Mickey holding an ice cream cone in one hand.

When choosing an expression for Walt’s face, Blaine tried to reflect Walt’s goal of making people happy. The statue’s expression is Blaine’s interpretation of Walt watching happy people enjoy the park.

The initials on Walt’s tie are “STR,” and stand for “Smoke Tree Ranch,” an area in Palm Springs where Walt once owned a vacation home.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Partners_(statue)

Partners is a 1993 copper statue by Blaine Gibson depicting Walt Disney holding the hand of the most popular character he created, Mickey Mouse. The statue is 6 feet 5 inches (196 cm), 7 inches (18 cm) taller than Disney himself. It is the central point of attention as guests enter some of the Disney parks. Gibson took a year to create the piece. He used a 1960 bust of Disney as his model for Disney's half. To sculpt Disney and Mickey's joined hands, he consulted the 1940 film Fantasia, where Mickey shook hands with conductor Leopold Stokowski.

There has been speculation regarding Disney's stance in the sculpture. Many believed his outstretched hand indicated he was showing Mickey what had come of his (Disney's) dream. Gibson said, “I chose to depict Walt as he was in 1954. I think that was when [he] was in his prime. It was tough trying to match the media image of Walt Disney, the one the public knows, to the real Walt, the one we knew. I think Walt is admiring the park and saying to Mickey, ‘Look what we’ve accomplished together,’ because truly they were very much a team through it all. ‘Look at all the happy people who have come to visit us today.’”