It has become almost common knowledge amongst most hardcore Disney fans that before Walt Disney created Mickey Mouse he created Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. Walt would eventually lose the rights to Oswald to Universal and would create Mickey as his new mascot. However, not as many people know of the character he made before both the Mouse and the Rabbit. His name was Julius… Julius the Cat.



Before Walt created the company that we know today, he had a short-lived company called Laugh-O-Gram Studio, which lasted from June 1921 to October 1923. One of the last produced shorts was Alice’s Wonderland. This short became the basis for Disney’s Alice Comedies, a series of shorts featuring a live-action girl named Alice interacting with various cartoon characters. And one of the most recurring characters was Julius.



While he technically first appeared in the 1922 short Little Red Riding Hood, he became a prominent supporting character in the Alice Comedies, appearing in 49 of the 57 shorts. While he was called different names from short to short, he would officially adopt the name Julius in 1925’s Alice’s Eggplant.

The character was often seen as a bold and heroic character, often having to help or even rescue Alice from danger. In fact, the character of Pete, best known for being the enemy of Mickey Mouse, had one of his earliest interpretations in the Alice Comedies as an enemy to Julius. Though he was a bear instead of a cat.

The character was no stranger to controversy, however, largely due to his similarities with the character of Felix the Cat, who first appeared in 1919. Legend has it that Producer Margaret Winkler allegedly asked Walt to try to copy Felix, and he was reluctant to do so. Winkler had previously been a distributor of Felix, but after fights with Pat Sullivan, Felix was dropped, and Julius was pushed to fill the void.



Eventually, after the Alice Comedies weren’t making as much profit as they used to, Walt’s then-distributor wanted him to create an all-new character to try and sell to Universal, which is how Oswald came to be.

The character of Julius has since fallen into obscurity, with Disney barely recognizing his existence or early contributions to Walt’s legacy. Julius crawled so that Oswald could walk and Mickey could run. The only known references to Julius are the Julius Katz & Sons store in Disney’s California Adventure. 



It is a shame that such an early chapter of Disney’s history is seemingly forgotten. It is a missed opportunity to not have any form of merchandise or new material from the character. Perhaps, had there been an Epic Mickey 3, he could have appeared alongside his younger brothers. The character is technically public domain now, so anyone can make their own version.

julius and his baby brothers #disney #mickeymouse #oswaldtheluckyrabbit #juliusthecat pic.twitter.com/CVmRw7LmL2

— Jadey Arts (@jadeyarts) July 17, 2019

What do you think of Julius? Is he better left forgotten? Or should he be remembered as Disney’s first official mascot?