Next year marks 100 since an ambitious young man from Kansas with big dreams for the then-little explored medium of animation and a manic obsession with movies started a Hollywood company with his brother Roy called The Disney Brothers Studio. Five years later, in 1928, using the newly introduced technique of sound, Walt Disney smashed his way into history and the popular imagination of generations with Steamboat Willie, the animated short that introduced the world to Mickey Mouse. Mickey set the studio on the road to becoming a multi-billion-dollar entertainment behemoth whose creations are recognised across the globe and whose merchandising and theme parks, designed by the company’s founding father as places “where the parent can enjoy himself with the children”, attract millions of shoppers and visitors every year. ..