Introduction : "It's all me" -- "The pet in the family" : on the farm and in the city, 1901-1923 -- "A cute idea" : the self-taught filmmaker, 1923-1928 -- "You've got to really be Minnie" : building a better mouse, 1928-1933 -- "This character was a live person" : the leap to feature films, 1934-1938 -- "A drawing factory" : ambition's price, 1938-1941 -- "A queer, quick, delightful gink" : on a treadmill, 1941-1947 -- "Caprices and spurts of childishness" : escaping from animation, 1947-1953 -- "He was interested in something else" : escaping from film, 1953-1959 -- "This is where I am happy" : restless in the Magic Kingdom, 1959-1965 -- "He drove himself right up to the end" : dreaming of a nightmare city, 1965-1966 -- Afterword : "Let's never not be a silly company"