Brought to you by the Grosse Pointe Artist Association:

Be ready to celebrate the long career of Mickey Mouse, who sailed into our lives on Nov. 18, 1928, as Steamboat Willie in an animated black-and-white short that premiered at the Colony Theatre in New York City. 

John Monaghan, an adjunct instructor at Detroit’s College For Creative Studies, will walk us through a brief overview of early theatrical animation from Felix and Mickey to Popeye and Betty Boop, remembering some of the most wildly inventive cartoon shorts ever made.

Things changed in the mid-1930s when the Hollywood censors took over, but Monaghan will use film clips and revisit the techniques that gave us the characters that have lasted through the decades.